The inaugural issue of CSHS (Clipper Ship Hauling Stories or Can She Hack Sonnets?) is out, and I’m honored to have three of my poems featured alongside the work of several other fine poets in this issue. Thanks Joseph & Tessa for including my poems “The Rope Swing,” “Here Comes a Twister,” and “Flags of Convenience.”
Today I am “officially” relaunching my 2003 novel A Place Without a Postcard. It was first published through iUniverse and while the experience was a positive one, I wanted to re-publish it under my own Coyote Mercury Press.
The 2014 paperback version features a new cover, trim size, and layout but the story is the same. I corrected the typos that snuck into the original, cut a few unnecessary adverbs, and restructured some sentences for clarity. I’ve learned a lot about writing in the 11 years since Postcard was first published, and I wanted to apply some of that to the new version, which is more a remaster than a true 2nd edition.
I approached the work with a light hand, though, because I didn’t want to change the story or the characters in any way and so the post I put up nearly a year ago about the upcoming Kindle edition (which has now finally come up) still stands. After all these years, I am still happy with this book, and I hope others will be too.
One of the nice things about publishing through my own company is that I can control the price and so for today, I’ve got the paperback version on sale for $10.99 (usually $13.99) and the Kindle edition for $1.99 (usually $3.99) both through Amazon. Additionally, the Kindle version is free through Amazon’s Match Book program so if you ever bought the old paperback (thank you!) or if you buy the new one you should be able to download the Kindle version for free.
If you bought the book back in 2003 (or later), thank you again, and I hope you’ll let your friends know about the new edition, and if you haven’t read it, I hope you’ll check it out. Thank you.
My erasure poem “Driftwood” (from a page in Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher”) is up at Right Hand Pointing. It’s an honor to have my poem included in this fine issue celebrating found poetry. It was originally posted here along with a photo of the page I worked from including my marks and highlights. Thanks, Dale & Howie for publishing this one!
I don’t know what it is about long-legged waders that inspires me to write odd haibun, but here’s “The Cattle Egret” appearing in the ‘Animals in the City’ issue of qarrtsiluni.
Even cooler is sharing the day with Deb Scott and her beautiful work, and be sure to check out this one by Joseph Harker. Hell, just read the whole issue.
If you like egret haibun thing, I had another one published in qarrtsiluni back in 2011 and there’s one here too.
A year ago, while trying to stay awake so as not to drop my newborn son while on shift rocking him through the wee hours of the night, I jotted some of my thoughts down on my iphone between games of Words with Friends and reading blogs. I tried cobbling them into a poem but when I saw qarrtsiluni‘s call for submissions for the fragments issue, I sent the notes and looking at them a year later, found I liked them as they were. So apparently did the issue editors, since they selected the piece and published it yesterday as “Notes Made on an iPhone while Rocking My Son to Sleep, July 2011”. Thanks Olivia Dresher and Catherine Ednie for including it!
It’s funny looking at this a year later. A little over a month ago, the baby disappeared and there was a wonderful, curious, active toddler in his place.
I’m thrilled to announce that my first poetry collection Birds Nobody Loves: A Book of Vultures & Grackles is now live.
Here’s where you can go to get a copy:
Paperback edition at my CreateSpace store
Or if you have one of them new-fangled e-reader contraptions, it’s available in both Kindle and EPUB format (it looks startlingly nice on the iPad I borrowed on which to test it):
EPUB edition (for iPad, iPhone and most other readers) at Lulu
It’s also available in the iBookstore.
These birds will continue to fly around the internet and automatically take up roost in many other online booksellers over the next few weeks.
I hope you’ll consider ordering a copy. Thanks also to all of you who’ve read and commented on these poems as they’ve appeared on this blog and in various other venues over the past three years.
Almost three years ago, I started writing poems about vultures and grackles because, well, someone had to do it. I imagined eventually putting them together into a short collection and now that collection is about finished. Birds Nobody Loves: A Book of Vultures & Grackles is in its final proof stage and will (barring unforeseen complications) become available for order/download next week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday. More details and links to follow.
It’s been an interesting road to this point, writing these poems and trying to decide what to do with them beyond sharing them here. I’ve learned a lot about two of the most common and least-liked birds around here (the turkey and black vultures, the great-tailed and common grackles) and even more about crafting poems. Readers of this blog will have read earlier drafts of most of these poems here or at one of the online journals kind enough to publish them*, so they’re available around these parts, though many of them have undergone revision.
Not long ago, I came to the conclusion that the thing that made the most sense to me was to go ahead and publish this myself. In large part because I just love the fact that I live in a world where I can. That thrills me. I registered Coyote Mercury Press at the county clerk’s office, bought some ISBN numbers (I have a few other projects up my sleeve), and set the title up using Createspace. It will be available in multiple formats: paperback, .epub (for iPad, Nook and Sony), .mobi (for Kindle) and likely .pdf as well.
I’ll write some more about this between now and next week, and I plan to give away 5 paperback copies to anyone with a blog who might like to write a review or do an interview or whatever else. If you’re interested or would just like to receive an email when it’s available with links for ordering/downloading, let me know using the contact form above.
Update: The 5 review copies are now spoken for.
—
*Bolts of Silk, Thirteen Myna Birds, a handful of stones, Four and Twenty, tinywords, Houston Literary Review, Pay Attention: A River of Stones Anthology, Nothing. No One. Nowhere., qarrtsiluni, and Curio Poetry
I’m honored to have two poems, “Winter Solstice” and “In the Time of the Automobile” (both from my upcoming collection Birds Nobody Loves–More to come stay tuned) in the inaugural issue of Curio Poetry alongside the work of several other fine poets. Thanks to editors Joseph Harker and Tessa Racht for starting this journal and including some of my work. Now, go check it out.
My videopoem “While Sitting in Church” was featured yesterday over at qarrtsiluni as part of the Worship issue. The poem is from my Birds Nobody Loves series, which will hopefully soon become a short collection when I can find the time to finish it off. Anyway, check it out, and thanks to issue editors Kaspa and Fiona who accepted it within hours of my submission. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten an acceptance so fast. It’s a great issue they’ve put together so spend a while checking things out, especially Sherry Chandler’s “Doxology.”
My poem “Sentences and Corrections” is up over at qarrtsiluni as part of the Imprisonment issue. It’s a powerful issue and well worth following. As always, it’s an honor to have something in qarrtsiluni.