Matchbook, Catechism and the truth about The Pickle

I went to school with a great kid named Micheal "Pickle" McCarville. I remember sitting with him in Confirmation Class and enjoying lots of laughs. He may have been one of our class officers but my mind is a little foggy thinking back to high school. I know he was the student Editor of "The Searchlight" our school newspaper, a place I won my first writing award. The Faculty Adviser to the Searchlight was Mr. Kelly, one of my favorite teachers of all time. I wish I knew where he was so I could tell him that.

 To my delight, I found out on Facebook that some of Micheal's friends still call him by that nickname.

The truth, the whole truth and the entire truth of this story "Mental Notes from Catechism" is this: Pickle and I once got in trouble for laughing at a Brady Bunch episode which had a frog jumping into a pizza (see below and check at about the 20:00 mark) and the convenience store around the corner sold some fantastic "Big Buddy" bubble gum. (I loved the grape flavored one). Another true fact is that short stories need conflict. Where's the conflict in that?



Matchbook also asks for a critical thought from each of their writers. Here was mine: Truth

After 35 years, I became a sober individual and it has subtly affected my writing just as anything in my life subtly affects what I put to paper. The fellowship I'm involved in is based on spirituality, which causes me to reflect upon my own and what happened on my path. "Catechism" is 50% fiction and 50% non-fiction, and yes, Pickle was a real person.

Very grateful that Matchbook took my fiction. They publish great work over there....so have fun reading over here at this link,  Matchbook Literary Magazine.

The well known Thunder Sandwich is back! Do you love the Thunder?

Thunder Sandwich offers non-stop thunderous writing.

Jim Chandler  is the editor and publisher of Thunder Sandwich, an online magazine that features the works of select writers of prose and poetry. He has been doing this since 1983. 


He says,"Following a hiatus of several years, Thunder Sandwich  is back with plans to capture the following we had in the past by presenting the same high-quality content". 

The content is amazing. Along with two of my poems, "What is Missing" and "your luscious lips" there is fine work by a list way too long to type out but you can click HERE to find out. Some folks I am familiar with in this issue:  Rusty Barnes (Fried Chicken and Coffee)  Al Winans, Ronald Baatz, Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, Harry Calhoun, Alan Catlin, Glenn Cooper, Lyn Lifshin, William Doreski, RC Edrington, Aleathia Drehmer (In Between Altered States), Marlene Lennon, Rj Looney, Helen Losse (Dead Mule School of Southern Literature), Carter Monroe, Cheryl Townsend, Mark Hartenbach, Frank Reardon and Jack T. Marlowe. Fiction by DB Cox, Kristen Fouquet and Anita Garner.

Three flashes (one with audio) "Girl With A Gun", "What you Dream About" and "Continuum" published at Connotation Press

Ahhh, girls with guns



A few months ago, I wash speaking to a bad-ass female friend of mine who had been to a firing range. I thought that was really cool. Two other cool female friends had previously done so this year as part of a bucket list so my mind raced and concluded, that girls who fire guns are really awesome. So I wrote, "Girl With A Gun" taking a fictitious jump into the question, "What would it take for one of them to actual fire it in a real life situation?"

So the fine folks at Connotation Press (Meg Tuite and Ken Robidoux)  liked the story and published "Girl With A Gun", along with two others:  "What You Dream About" (in this case it's an induced dream) and the micro story "Continuum".   The stories scroll through like a PDF, so if you hit NEXT at the bottom you'll miss the last two.

The audio of their site may have disappeared, but here is where I pulled the mp3 off of---and watch out for nose hairs!




For the rest of the issue's fiction:

DJ Berndt blasts us with four of his DJ Berndt, Dj Berndt... micro-flash, “The Ocean,” “Accepting Seconds,” “Lenscrafters is the Most Magical Place on Earth,” and “Shitting and Eating and Fucking.” Not possible to forget these. And I hope you enjoy his interview as much as I did.

Kamala Puligandla throws out an interesting dilemma in her exceptional story, “Bunchlow.” What do you do when you are offered a gift by the bastard that wronged you?

Timothy Gager delivers three distinct and memorable pieces, “Girl With a Gun,” “What You Dream About,” and “Continuum.”

Harley May takes us back to the moments when love was wild, all-encompassing and new in her two flashback flash pieces, “Saturday Morning,” and  “A Contender Lost.”

Dennis Mahagin drowns us in his mesmerizing prose in “Serious as a Hot Flash in an Iowa City Minute.” The dialogue is Vonnegut on acid. DAMN!

Lisa Marie Basile uncoils her melodious prose poems, “With Marosa,” “My Rooftop Father,” and “The Spindle.”

There's also some great poetry in this issue here: http://connotationpress.com/index.php/poetry/1490-a-note-from-kaite-hillenbrand-poetry-editor

Nice write up about tonight Dire Literary BBQ in the Cambridge Day

Thanks to Cambridge Day writer Mark Levy

http://www.cambridgeday.com/2012/07/13/dire-literary-bbq-adds-crime-and-vaudeville-to-a-musical-meal/

Dire Literary BBQ adds crime and Vaudeville to a musical meal

By Marc Levy 
July 13, 2012

The Dire Reader literary series has a summer feel Friday. It’s been transformed for the day into the The Dire Literary BBQ, with food and music added to the usual readings by up and comers in the literary scene presented by short story writer and poet Timothy Gager.

The food’s at 6 p.m., with music joining in an hour later by John Cate, creator and host of the Americana Showcase at the original House of Blues in Harvard Square. Cate has released 10 albums and claims more than 1,000 songs, including some featured in film and television such as “American Idol,” “Num3ers,” “Dawson’s Creek,” “Touched by an Angel,” “All My Children” and “Touching the Game: The Story of the Cape Cod Baseball League.”

He also runs Billy Block’s Western Beat Entertainment, which includes showcases in Nashville, Tenn., and Los Angeles, with intermittent runs in Boston, New York and Austin, Texas.

Here’s Cate & the Van Gogh Brothers performing music from “Touching the Game” at Toad in Porter Square:

At 8 p.m., the readings begin. Scheduled are two writers with several similarities, starting with their shared publisher, Brooklyn’s Ig Publishing, and that their new novels were welcomed warmly by Kirkus Reviews and Publisher’s Weekly, which gave each a starred review:

Kirby Gann, a Louisville, Ky., professor at Spalding University and editor at Sarabande Books whose “Ghosting” is an Appalachian gothic described as“genre-subverting literary thriller.” In it:

Fleece Skaggs has disappeared along with Lawrence Gruel’s reefer harvest. Convinced that the best way to discover the fate of his older brother is to take his place as a drug runner for Greuel, James Cole plunges into a dark underworld of drugs, violence and long-hidden family secrets where discovering what happened to his brother could cost him his life.

Christopher Narozny’s “Jonah Man” — his first novel — is set in vaudeville and told from the perspectives of multiple characters, including a one-handed juggler who moonlights as a drug trafficker, a prodigious young talent who sees his father’s murder as an opportunity to break free of the small stage and an inspector with an overly mannered mode of investigation.

“A classic whodunit ripe with spare, snappy prose and riddled with period language, this is one show-stopper that deserves a standing ovation,” Publisher’s Weekly said.

The event is at the Out of the Blue Art Gallery, 106 Prospect St., between Central and Inman squares. Entry is $8.

Paragraph Line publishes "Hello Iceman"---back story

The back story of "Hello Iceman", based on honesty.

I had my last drink of alcohol on 11/6/10. I knew I couldn't drink anymore and for a a couple of months I didn't write either. When I finished "Hello Iceman", I knew I could write again, even if it came from a different place.

I've written stories and poems (HERE in Trnsfr, HERE in Midway Journal, HERE in Red Fez and bottom poem HERE in Dead Mule School of Southern Literature) about recovery after this one, but "Hello Iceman" was the first one I typed, December 2010.