Thursday, December 27, 2012

My Top Ten Viewed Blog Posts of 2012

David Letterman does a nightly Top Ten List. Here's one of the most fun. It didn't suck. 






Year end Top Ten lists are kind of silly, so what the hell, why shouldn't I join in the "fun"? Without any further verbiage, here are the most viewed posts from  2012, in reverse order with a quick comment about why it made the list.


10. Microw 6 is out! Pleased to be in it-- taking on insomnia and "The Little Prince"


Reason: People love the little prince and if you have insomnia you were up at all hours reading this post. 


Reason: People love to google themselves. This post lists a huge number of the contributors, editors, etc. Lummox also came back after hiatus and there was some interest in that.


Reason: People love the Chiller hand video! 


Reason: People search for Neco Case a lot. 


Reason: People have fond memories of the It's a Small World Ride at Disney. I remember hearing a story about someone stuck inside that ride when it malfunctioned. They were directed to wade out of the scuzzy water after a few hours. I bet they read this blog!

Reason: What do you get when a viral facebook post from a fake gazillion dollar lottery winner meets a great publisher in Right Hand Pointing, meets massive reposts by great supportive people? That's right, the number five most popular blog posting! 


Reason: People love a good screw up. The irony is that this post only redirects to the story of the screw up I named in the New Graffiti blog. 


Reason: People were damn curious about my sobriety. Was the story about that? No, but the story has many satiric references about a fellowship I know and love . 


Reason: People are interested or people are stalkers. Pick one. 

And the number One most viewed blog post of 2012

1. In Between Altered States publishes, "No Sex Since Last Spring"


Reason: Sex sells. 




Thursday, December 20, 2012

Year in Review, 2012. Everything published in the past 11 months, 20 days.


Just so I don't fall behind on the list for making lists in 2012, here is my full list of writing credits for the year.

Numbers wise, it was pretty good (46 widgets)--not my best year, but quality wise I feel very good about the year I had. Lord knows, I love numbers.




19 works of fiction went out in the world this year (3 in print, 16 online) and 27 poems (14 in print, 13 online). The full list is below, with links to most of them. 




SHORT, FLASH, AND MICRO FICTION

"Happy Holidays", December 17, 2012 Meg Tuite’s Exquisite Quartet at Used Furniture
(written with Meg Tuite, Dena Rash Guzman and Robin Stratton)


"The Lottery Winner" , December 1, 2012 Right Hand Pointing #58

"Sometimes There Are Things Which Come Out of the Darkness" , November 14, 2012 Oddball Magazine

"Some Things You Might Not Have Realized" , October 27, 2012 Unshod Quills

"No Sex Since Last Spring" , September 1, 2012 In Between Altered States, #28

"Mental Notes From Catechism" , July 30, 2012 Matchbook

"Girl With A Gun" , July 15, 2012 Connotation Press audio "Girl With a Gun" included
"What You Dream About"
"Continuum"

"Hello Iceman" , July 2, 2012 Paragraph Line

"This Tornado Loves You" , June 25, 2012 JMWW, Summer, 2012

"Loveville" , June 19, 2012 Fried Chicken and Coffee

"How Do You Love A Capitalist?" , June 8, 2012 Paragraph Line

"Their Own Planet" , April 9, 2012 Paragraph Line

"Chiller" , April 2, 2012 In Between Altered States #2


 "Coffee Maker" , March 20, 2012 trnsfr magazine V

"Six Facts about Influencing Baseball in Heaven" , February 2, 2012 Final Fenway Fiction:
More Stories from Red Sox Nation


"If We Don't Think, We Will Sleep" , February 1, 2012 Microw 6

"A Circus Story" , January 1, 2012 Right Hand Pointing




POETRY

"Far Away in Iowa"
November 19, 2012,Ibbetson street 32, Print

"My Heart in San Francisco"
"Quintessential Awkward Male Moment"
November 17, 2012,Fuck Poems, Print

"June"
November 16, 2012,Spoonful

"You knew me before"
November 5, 2012,Gutter Eloquence

"No one really knows when it Happens"
"Ironing Under an Old Dusty Picture of a Wheat Field"
"Love Affair"
October 24, 2012,Zig Zag Folios, Print

"Walking Out of the Woods"
October 21, 2012,Lummox Magazine, Print

"What is Missing"
"your luscious lips"
July 18, 2012 Thunder Sandwich

"We Were Once Friends"
May 21, 2012 Bagels with the Bards 7

"Suffolk Downs"
April 26, 2012 Poiesis 5

"When It is Still Winter"
April 11, 2012 The Somerville News

"reply to someone who said, u owe me a poem, boy "
April 10, 2012 Extract(s)

"reply to the grumpy cashier at the fast food restaurant"
"Exclamation for a Separation which happened long Ago"
April 4, 2012 Fried Chicken and Coffee

"All The Days And Nights "
March 13, 2012 Red Fez

“My Girlfriend’s car is officially dead”
“reply to someone who said there’s a lot of not-happy going around”
“This IS Bitchin’”
“Wait-You Can’t Hide It.”
"Missteps"
March 2, 2012, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature

"After Smoking Dope""
"Sam Jesus in the Tub"
“Why We Listen to the Universe”
"To Care About Life"
February 26, 2012, Hip Poetry 2012
 







Monday, December 17, 2012

Does not play well with others except Tuite, Guzman and Stratton

Doing things around the holidays with groups of people becomes a Christmas party. Sometimes you can't dress up or take Bob Dylan anywhere


Here's "Happy Holidays" by myself, Robin Stratton, Dena Rash Guzman and Meg Tuite.

In the past I've written and published works of fiction with Elizabeth Rawlins (1, 2 and 3), Renee Angers with one recent and yet unpublished story co-written with Teisha Twomey. The process of each of these have involved writing back and forth to and at each other.

Meg Tuite (she seems to be everywhere) oversaw an equisite corpse holiday story today in Used Furnature.  It had a few attempts that I was not up to snuff with. In the first attempt, I transformed a sex trade story into Cinderella. That didn't work. The second attempt I was supposed to end the story and I turned the character I was working with, Sally, and disguised her as Santa Claus for the party. Again it didn't work. I concluded I work much better when I do my own set-up, arc and ending. (I don't play well with others!)

Meg stuck with me and I was able to add a few lines of dialog and a paragraph or so--and I was able to be  included with this fine crew.

  The story came out today and like opening a surprise package I was thrilled to find out that I had written with Dena Rash Guzman and Robin Stratton.


Other holiday collaborations aren't as good as ours! Take this one made with "103% love" Ho ho ho!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

It's not a hoax! Right Hand Pointing publishes "The Lottery Winner"

I have a new story, "The Lottery Winner" up today at Right Hand Pointing #58. It's a winner. It is unlike  fake winner Nolan Daniels who put up on facebook that he won the Powerball Jackpot. It baffles me (actually it doesn't) that people believe things at face value. It baffles me further that people like Daniels goal in life it seems to be "to make something go viral". He should start screwing without a rubber then.



It is also unlike, Shirley Jackson. Here she is reading her famous iconic piece,"The Lottery" in two videos, Parts 1 and 2. She, unlike Daniels, is not a douchebag








As for my story own story, here's the rub: Any portrayal of douchebags real or imagined are purely coincidental. A lottery winner deserves to dance, right T?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also in this great issue:

In This Issue

Monday, November 19, 2012

Ibbetson 32 with a great cast and a poem of mine, "Far Away in Iowa"

 Ibbetson Street has been around in print for 16 years. It is a press run by Doug Holder, which produces a bi-annual magazine and many books of poetry. My poem "Far Away in Iowa" was originally written in a series intended to represent a cross-country drive. I was planning 48 poems for each state in the connected United States. It was a project I never finished, but there were a few which saw the light of day. "Howdy in Ohio" appeared in These Poems Are Not Pink Clouds published by Propaganda Press. "When I'm Drunk, I Think About Phoenix" appeared in the Endicott Review, "Sweet Cold Chicago" was published in Bagels With the Bards Anthology III and "Boston to Providence" was originally in Gutter Eloquence..

For the record I only poetically drove to four states but I versed my way from Boston to Arizona. 



New Ibbetson Street 32 with poems by

Afaa Michael Weaver, Daniel Langton, Ellaraine Lockie, Philip E. Burnham, Miriam Levine, Sandy McCord, Robert K. Johnson, Ben Mazer, Dennis Daly, Bert Stern, Bob Brooks, Irene Koronas, Amelia Wilbur Riggs, Simon Perchik, Wendell Smith, Ruth O'Callaghan, Jonaae DeSimone Reynolds, Joan Kimball, Helen Marie Casey, Tom Yuill, John P. Kristofco, Charles Sabukewicz
, Lyn Lifshin, Judith Skillman, Adria Holmes, Diana Der-Hovanessian, Geeta Tewari, Elizabeth Eliz Hanson, Joyce Meyers, Carol Hamilton, Lainie Senechal, Lawrence Kessenich, Mark Pawlak, Teisha Dawn Twomey, Jesse Mavro Diamond, X.J. Kennedy, Linda M. Fisher, Nina Rubinstein Alonso, Sheryl White, Cynthia Duda, Marty Walsh, Jean Monahan, Deborah Finkelstein, Emily Pineau, Christine Kennedy, Chris Warner, Timothy Gager, Elizabeth Doran, Ed Gaitling, Peter Fulton, Harris Gardner and David R. DiSarro



As far as this video goes, Dar Williams was noted in the acknowledgement in my book Short Street, as I was listening to a lot of her  music while I was writing some very dark stuff. Iowa was on that playlist.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Stone Soup's Spoonful Journal releases some issues.

Credit Chad Parenteau, proprietor of Stone Soup Poetry in Cambridge for the release of Spoonful Journal, the on-line magazine for the Stone Soup poets. Stone Soup is one of the longest running weekly poetry series in the entire world, originally was run by the late Jack Powers (blogged about here) and then Chad successfully took the reins, when Jack became ill.

My poem "June" appears in Issue Five.  Spoonful also released  Issue Six today, A Tribute to Jack Powers.

Here's some poetry from Chad Parenteau






and here's Spoonful's  Press Release:


Issue Five Featuring:

A TRIBUTE SECTION TO BROTHER BLUE.

COLLABORATIONS BY

Valerie Loveland, Samantha Milowsky, Michael F. Gill and Chad Parenteau,

OTHER POEMS BY:

Beatriz Alba del Rio, Mike Amado, Maggie Cleveland, Nate Connors, Ry Frazier, Timothy Gager, Michael F. Gill, Marc D. Goldfinger, Paul Haypenny, Coleen T. Houlihan, Laurel Lambert, Valerie Loveland, Samantha Milowsky, Bridget Murphy, Joanna Nealon, Chad Parenteau, April Penn, Jack Powers, Dan Provost, Zvi A. Sesling, Patrick S., Luis Lazaro Tijerina, and Rafael Woolf.

ARTWORK BY:

James Conant, (The) Marshall, David Marshall Janice Raynor, and Su Red.

And of course there's...

ISSUE #6

THE JACK POWERS TRIBUTE ISSUE

POEMS BY:

C.C. Arshagra, Christine Casner, Susie Davidson, Raffael De Gruttola, Edward S. Gault, Marc D. Goldfinger, Carolyn Gregory, Yuri (Riq) Hospodar, Doug Holder, Walter Howard, Lawrence Kessenich, Gordan Marshall, Felipe Victor Martinez, Ryk McIntyre, Bridget Murphy, Joanna Nealon, Chad Parenteau, Bill Perrault, Su Red, Ryan "Rat" Travis, Jame Van Looy, Carol Weston and Jack Powers.





Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Today at New Graffiti I discussed screw ups and their implications.

When journals slightly screw up...appeared in the New Graffiti Blog, but I've re-posted it below
       
The Lummox Journal is 235 pages of lummox goodness. I’m always happy to appear in print, even though it is often less exposure than appearing on-line. Though happy, as stated, I’ve got a bitch about something.
When you do nothing to indicate a title, the way it appears below and in the journal,
walking out of the woods
there’s a condom and ten suboxone
in the inside jacket pocket
but I won’t use
instead of this, (title in bold)
walking out of the woods
there’s a condom and ten suboxone
in the inside jacket pocket
but I won’t use

or this, (title in quotes)

“walking out of the woods”
there’s a condom and ten suboxone
in the inside jacket pocket
but I won’t use
it ruins the clever tie-in of the title to the first line. The poem currently looks like it has no title and that the title is my first line. In the rest of the journal, the titles are in bold letters. Using “walking out of the woods” as the  opening line, it creates a rather weak entrance, where I felt what I had intended was rather strong. It also doesn’t help that there is a space after that line followed by a single word line “either” followed by another space.
What can be done about it? Nothing. Zilch. Zero. A proof PDF in advance would have solved this problem.  Unfortunately, it was not and since it’s my work it is overly magnified in my head and my head is a dangerous place to be.


To read the rest of my poem, plus the boldly titled poems from others whom you can find on THIS LIST ,  please purchase, Lummox Number One.  Besides my personal little bitch, the journal is  pretty awesome.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Gutter Eloquence Magazine publishes "You knew me before"

I've been in the gutter before. Not so eloquent. I've been in Gutter Eloquence Magazine four times before. I guess I'm still in the Gutter and this poem, You knew me before,  is about where I've come from.

A former girlfriend of mine (Maria McCarthy) and co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review, once pointed out that I held a knife and fork like a caveman. I never understood the subtleties of personal embarrassment, nor did I care back where I'd come from spiritually and emotionally. I found out it that it was important that people view you a certain way if you're using a steak knife the same way you cut a small branch of a tree.

For those that need help



Other contributors in this issue I've read are Misti Rainwater-Lites, Michaael D. Smith and Karl Koweski. Here's their full Table of Contents.
You knew me before by Timothy Gagertwo poems by Misti Rainwater-Lites
Where Dreams Go by Michael Frias-May
two poems by Kathy Burkett
The Red Balloon by Michael D. Smith
 
 

two poems by M.P. PowersMemorandum by Mark J. Andrews
two poems by Karl Koweski
driving by Anthony Liccione
two poems by Alexis R. Fancher

two poems by Jason L. HuskeyIn the Garret... by Steven Gulvezan
Adagio at Midnight by Brenton Booth
Socks by Michael Estabrook
Box Street Blues by James H. Duncan
two poems by James Babbs
 
 

Woman on the Edge by Darla McBrydeBiology Lab by Al Ortolani
When Buzz Took... by Michael Ashley
two poems by J.J. Campbell
Dad's Weekend... by J. Pharaoh Doss
War Veteran's Wife by Randy K. RalstonWhen Your Ex... by Zach N. Lopiccolo
Blade Song by Valentina Cano
To Remind Him... by Andrew Rihn
Fire by Paul Tristram

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Three Print Anthologies.Zig Zag Folios, Fuck Poems and Lummox Journal



 1. Zig Zag Folios 2 just released



The only Table of Contents I can find is in the jpeg. Great work by editors Scott Jacobs and Clay Ventre

Includes three of my poems:
 "No one really knows when it Happens"
""Ironing Under an Old Dusty Picture of a Wheat Field""
"Love Affair"

You want names? Here are some you can friend on Facebook  Timothy MasonTimothy GagerJac-Lynn StarkAnnMarie CatabiaChad ParenteauDanielle Jones-PruettRobin BeaudoinBridget JourgensenNick A. Zaino IIIEmily RudofskyJ.D. ScrimgeourAura Valdes,Blaine HebbelRichard Kraus and Elizabeth Gordon Mckim.


2. Fuck Poems-soon to be released 

 Includes two of my poems
"My Heart in San Francisco"
"Quintessential Awkward Male Moment"





Find buying info here http://www.lavenderink.org/content/link-titles/131



Fuck Poems informs the carnal and vulgate with the poetic and creative agency they were born from, insisting that the art is as vital as procreation.  In the tradition of Sappho and Catullus, Henry Miller and Anais Nin, yet relentlessly contemporary, this collection will titillate and infuriate, arouse and denounce, appropriating the inappropriate until the normal dissipates.

Instead of being limited to representations of previously published work, this anthology presents original work and ends with an epic collaborative fuck poem (orgy poem?)—insisting that the emphasis remain on the creative act and not the individual contributor.  Fuck Poems, through the lens of its titular topic, addresses, subtly or overtly, the overarching issues of our day: technology and capitalism, academia and writing, the body and the text.

This exceptional poetry anthology boasts 50+ contributors, living legends among them, hailing from all over the globe.  Lavender Ink dares commit this anthology to paper and e-devices, but do you dare own it?


Featuring poems by:
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram • J. Bradley • DeWitt Brinson • Peyton Burgess • Megan Burns • Peter Burzynksi • Doritt Carroll •Ruxandra Cesereanu • Benjamin Marion Cockfield • Rich Cooper• Mel Coyle • Koraly Dimitriadis • Beth Ann Fennelly • Skip Fox •Timothy Gager • Geoffrey Gatza • Frank Giampietro • Lara Glenum • Robert Gray • Sammy Greenspan • Brock Guthrie •John David Harding • Clarinda Harriss • Matt Hart • Sara Henning• Michael Hoerman • Anna Hurst • Benjamin Lowenkron • Victoria Mansberger • Leslie Anne Mcilroy • Virginia McLure • Laura Mullen • Jenn Marie Nunes • Maria R. Palacios • David Parker Jr.• Kristin Sanders • Christopher Shipman • Layth Sihan •Chancelier “Xero” Skidmore • Dustin Smith • Susan Kirby-Smith• Jordan Soyka • Mark Spitzer • Alex Stein • Chris Tonelli •Megan Volpert • Anne Waldman • Kik Williams • Chris Wise •Phillip Zimmerle


3. Lummox Journal-Out last month

 Includes my poem, 
"Walking Out of the Woods"


I already blogged about it 

2) THERE and