Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Oddball Magazine Publishes their final podcast of 2020: One I recorded with them in August

This fun podcast, recorded in August with Oddball Foundation's Jason Wright.was a great time and full of timeless references. Honored that this was saved for their final podcast of the year, 12/25/20. We go off the cuff, and off the rails often.

 

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Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Most Viewed Blog Posts 2020---Pandemically Viewed more

So here is the annual list (with links in red), with notes in purple about why people went there. It's not as good as the Top 10 Horror Films, but 2020 was indeed a horror. Of note, the Top 1 about Virtual Dire was second most viewed blog post EVER, going back to 2010. The #3 about my piece in Ink in Thirds, from 2018, made the list that year, and in 2019---and is now 8th most viewed all time because of Joe Pesci!

In this year's Top 10 there are

30% about actual published work of mine, 20% about Virtual Fridays Dire,  and 10% each on: a) a cancelled event that people are googling to see if it was cancelled, b) My sobriety,  c) stories in Wilderness House, d) a memorial post. and e) Joe Pesci saying, "Do I amuse you?" 

 On with the countdown

  • UPDATE 4/23 -Features will read 10-15 at either 7 PM or 8 PM, their preference. To see these events go to Virtual Fridays Dire Literary ...
  • NOTE: This got viewed because it's a good event and the schedule is on it! Virtual Dire made people have something to look forward to every Friday. 
  •          Ten--a big round number for my sobriety.     When my journey started, I didn’t think I could go a day, a week, a month and certai...
  • NOTE: I like that people like to read about my sobriety. I try hard to make this post meaningful, and I try hard so there will be another one of these the following year.
  • Here's an example of a great acceptance letter via Ink in Thirds, (their new issue out today):   Hi Timothy! Thank you for subm...
  • NOTE: Joe Pesci and movie quote by Joe Pesci
  •  I am happy to announce my poem, Kleptoparasitc was published in Boston Literary Magazine To hear the poem, look further down this post...
  • NOTE: Published piece that got momentum because it appear in BLM, a Robin Stratton of Big Table Production
  •      I'm grateful that my friends at Oddball published my story (click link >>>>), " Ambien Beatle , " but I want...
  • NOTE: Flash piece using Beatles lyrics. YEP. 
  • THE BOSTON NATIONAL POETRY MONTH FESTIVAL April 10 and 11th, 2010 CO-SPONSORS: Tapestry of Voices & Kaji Aso Studio in partnership w...
  • NOTE: This post from 2010 is about an annual event, which was cancelled in 2020. Please google tell me if it's going to not get cancelled by COVID-19 precautions. 
  •        Of all the posts and remembrances that people have posted about Nadine Darling, the one that most rang true was, "The last words...
  • NOTE: Will be missed and always loved by many
  •      Ah, the Wilderness..It's great to get away, with everything happening in the World.       I'm proud to show you fiction I selec...
  • NOTE: Such good fiction in this issue. Also, pandemically speaking the number of submissions here have been overwhelming. Isolations creates time to write, time to submit. 
  • UPDATE 5/4: I'm no longer accepting queries for being a feature.  Apologies in advance. Today there is an interview up about Virtual ...
  • NOTE: Good interview, and there was a lot of interest in Virtual Dire Literary Series, just starting in April. In this interview it is said, "Well, maybe I'll have features."
  •  I've decided to start submitting again, so I picked an old favorite Right Hand Pointing  who has gratefully published me ten times in ...
  • NOTE: A flash piece out this summer about a New Years Eve relationship in conversation. Perfect for an end of the year blog. 

  • Now, happy New Year all. It's 2021 soon.  Do the right thing and let's get some of our lives back this year.. 
  •  

    Sunday, December 27, 2020

    2020: My Year in Publishing, without anything else having to do with 2020

     So, hey Mr. Tally man, I'll tally you all my bananas, right here! We won't mention Election Fraud, (see ya' later, Donnie), Covid-19 (hope to never see you), or life's often challenging lifey-moments (see them somewhere in this blog) 


       

    Besides all of that in 2020 was, my tallies were 3 Flash Fictions, 7 Poems, 1 Essay and 3 Podcasts. Slow, consistent, and pandemic friendly. I acted as Fiction Editor for Wilderness House Literary Review for their four seasons of issues. 

         I also hosted 33 Virtual Friday Dire Literary Series events on Zoom. The line-ups are HERE  and from Sept. on the videos of the features can be viewed HERE




    Flash Fictions

    "The New Coach" , October 26, 2020 Boog City, #137, Baseball Issue

    "It's a New Year" , September 1, 2020 Right Hand Pointing, #140, scroll to the bottom

    '"Ambien Beatle" January 29, 2020 Oddball Magazine



    Poetry




    Non-Fiction/Essays

    June 2, 2020, WorkIt Health
    "Being Of Service in the Age of Corona"


    Podcasts

    December 25, 2020, Oddball Show with Jason Wright
    "The Oddball Podcast"

    July 10, 2020, Assiduous Dust with Joshua Corwin


    May 20, 2020, Poetry in the Bar, with Helen Bloom
    "Poetry In the Bar"


    Wednesday, December 23, 2020

    Autumn 2020: Featured at Virtual Fridays Dire Literary Series (and a few bonus videos)

     This blog starts in 5...4...3...2...1. 

    Okay. That is how I count out most of the beginnings of these videos. Virtual Fridays Dire Literary Series started in April, but I didn't start recording until July---enough to have all the Fall line-up to captured below. 

    Things had not been fool-proof production wise as Jessica Keener's reading was caught on video after she started, and I didn't have a decent microphone until October.  

    Also if you want to look ahead. Here is the Winter Schedule

    To see more videos of Dire features in the future, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel. The zoom recordings may look small, but the live stream on the Facebook platform gets 300 views, plus the YouTube videos get another few hundred. That's quite a crowd for a reading!

    9/11, Carly Israel 

    9/18, Daphne Kalotay

    9/25, Ryan Ridge

    10/2, Marge Piercy

    10/9, Kerry Beth Neville

    10/16, Yuyutsu Sharma

    10/23, Chris Joseph

    10/30, Elizabeth Gordon McKim

    11/6, Diana Spechler

    11/13, Jonathan Escoffrey


    11/20, Dewitt Henry

    11/27, Brian Sonia-Wallace

    12/4, Rebecca Fishow


    12/11, Marguerite Bouvard

    12/18, Pamela Painter



    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    Here are a few from the summer, when I first started recording these. 


    7/31, Kim Chinquee

    8/7, Jessica Keener

    8/21, Amy King




    Saturday, December 19, 2020

    2021 Winter Schedule for Virtual Fridays Dire Literary Series (Jan-April 2021)


         Features will read 10 minutes at either 7 PM or 8 PM, their preference. To see these events on live stream join Virtual Fridays Dire Literary Series Group on Facebook or message me for information. All feature segments get uploaded to YouTube, and you have the option to subscribe.  Our  features are followed or preceded by the best open mic in the world, so bring your best stuff. For previous features see HERE

    Note: I no longer accept queries for features. 

    Gate crash Prevention


    Because of pranks, perversion, and racism which will not be tolerated, here are some guidelines I will be using some of the following at various times.

    1) People will be Automatically muted when entering, only host can unmute you, at any time
    2) Eliminate Chat
    3) Eliminate screen share
    4) Lock Dire at 715 so even if you get booted out by mistake, you may not be able to re-enter--sorry.
    5) Block camera ability for any interlopers that are frustrated by all of the above.
    6) Not post the event on Twitter
    7) Not publicly post Dire link to zoom
    7) Immediately remove offending animal. 


    UPDATE 4/1/21. To see any of these readers, check out the videos HERE

    January 

    8 Rick Moody 

    15 Laurette Folk

    22 Mark Saba

    29 Sarah Anne Johnson

    February 

    5 Jennifer Haigh and Josh Barkan

    12 Keetje Kuipers

       19 January O'Neil

    26 Elle Nash


    March

    5 Danielle Zaccagnino

    12 Marty Beckerman

    19 Nathan Graziano

    26 Steven Cramer


    Sneak peek at April

    2 Easter Weekend- OFF

    9 The all-open mic One Year Anniversary Event

    16 Sandra Simonds

    23 George Wallace


    Tuesday, December 15, 2020

    It should always end in "I love you"

          


    Of all the posts and remembrances that people have posted about Nadine Darling, the one that most rang true was, "The last words we said to each other was 'I love you.' I'm glad for that." These were the last words she had said to me as well, but that was more than 18 months ago, way before moving to Medford, Oregon. I'm not glad for that--I don't do well keeping up with people. Yesterday, when I received a call from my friend Rusty informing me that she had passed from complications of liver failure, I had no words. I actually had no words, and I felt useless that I could not process the information or say or do anything for the person on the other end either.  I've now be able to process, with the help of others memories and grief. Here are some thoughts.

         I was always wowed by her writing, that pure talent, and use of metaphor. The human element in it. It seemed so natural.

         Nadine and I met at Scrawl, an on-line writing workshop, and whenever we participated in the Flash and Chat, (an exercise where you write for an hour and give a critique to everyone else who had written), it made me want to either be better, or quit writing. It was that good, and produced in an hour!  How was that possible? It was like magic. One thing I've often mentioned is when I am stuck with my own writing, I'll read one of her pieces, just to feel it---to live in its cadence, and explode out of it with something of my own. 

        Nadine and I shared a love of pop culture, and made often fun of it. When writing my novel, The Thursday Appointments of Bill Sloan, which is loaded with 70's satire, I used to run things by her to see if they rang true or were too obscure. Nothing was ever too obscure, as she knew them all, from the Brady Bunch to Musical Youth.  She was also kind enough to offer a blurb for my next book, which I know, is a very gracious gesture to do.

         Then there was the Dire Literary Series. Before Nadine took over an evening of Dire for her book launch she had attended earlier, and telling me how I was a cross between Chuck Barris and Gene Rayburn. Then she made me Gene Rayburn at the launch. It was probably the most fun and memorable live Dire Literary series in the 18 years I did it live. I let her plan everything. She wrote scripts to act out about Oxi-Clean that evening, and re-created the Match Game--with set, sound effects etc. Of course there was a reading from her book, She Came From Beyond, complete with a dog in her lap. Most of this evening was caught on video and I previously posted it HERE.

        When the series ended, or when I thought it had ended before the zoom pandemic version, Nadine was asked to feature with an All-Star lineup. "Of course, I'd be honored," she replied.

        These things, all of them combined, always made people feel that they were valued and important. It was one of her strengths. She also was a huge battler for women's rights, the toxic masculinity syndrome, the rights and treatment of those LGBTQ community. The energy and bluntness that she and her friends had regarding such social issues helped me redefine where I should be and how I should act---and for an old stubborn white man, reprogramming my learned behavior was.  

         I am shocked and saddened that she is gone, and my heart breaks for the love of her life, Ken, their three young children and her four step children. She was described as a wonderful mother and pet owner. One of her friends wrote"Nadine was so worried about how Christmas would be for these children. One of the last things she worked on was a Christmas list for them. We want to do our best to honor Nadine by giving her children a happy Christmas despite their profound loss." HERE

            One thing I've always said is to not waste life's time. I wish you all to remember that, remember her especially, to always end interactions with those whom you care about with "I love you."

    _________________________________________

    Some of my favorites 

    It's All True, from Smokelong Quarterly

    Puppy Wonderland from Eclectica

    Haircut from Pank

    Amazing Animal Facts from Alice blue Review

    Her review the movie Rudy  - boy did it piss off a lot of men.


    Below was taken from a reading in 2006, in Salem, Ma. The other parts of the reading were on separate links, not included, and what I was reading back then, I'm not necessarily proud of, but Nadine killed that day per usual.



    Friday, December 11, 2020

    New York Confession published in Live Nude Poems today. Here's the story behind it.

    Former site of Nightingale's
          Very happy to have "New York Confessions" published today in Live Nude Poems. (click link to read it, and continue reading others at the site).  I have Editors Heather Sullivan and Rusty Barnes to thank for that, and grateful for their support.

    Here's the story behind this story:

    Sometimes we confess things.Sometimes we confess years later. 

    Here's my confession. 

    Ted Koppel on Nightline 11:30 PM




    Pictured above is Manhattan, 2nd and Avenue C. Back in the late 80's I heard Ted Koppel on Nightline reporting about the "new" drug becoming an epidemic in New York City. "It was called crack cocaine," he said. "Easy to find on the streets of New York and was an inexpensive form of the powdered version of the drug cocaine."

     I recognized the street corner in the report on television  and the bar on 2nd and Avenue C, where a deal was going down, which at the time was called Nightingale's. That was all I needed to know. I jumped in my car from Massachusetts and and was on that street corner by 4 AM getting high. 

         The poem, "New York Confession," tell this story but it also tells of the way New York City used to be in in all it's gritty glory, which for good or for bad, has been replaced, ignored, or glossed over today.  



    Thursday, November 5, 2020

    On 11/06/10, my life started, and why I am grateful for 2020

     

          Ten--a big round number for my sobriety.  When my journey started, I didn’t think I could go a day, a week, a month and certainly not a year. Alcohol and drugs were all the life I knew. Now, I know life differently.  I can get through today, get to midnight, and do it again without the physical and mental dependence on a substance.

                Generally, 2020 was not an easy year for people in sobriety. It certainly wasn’t an easy year for me. In, July of 2019, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. One week later I celebrated my ninth anniversary of sobriety, she went for a cancer treatment, and fell upon entering her ride there. Unable to stand, she went to the ER instead of Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where they ran tests and admitted her to South Shore Hospital. She was moved to hospice care shortly after, and would never go home again. She died on Christmas night. Gratefully, I could wake up on December 26 still sober.     


                After her passing, my father’s condition decompensated at a quick rate. My mother and father were married for over sixty-five years. They relied on each other, and each picked up the slack in the skills the other lacked. Before being hospitalized, my mother had to care more and more for my father, as his short term memory had begun to falter a bit. My brother, sisters, and I knew he would not be able to live independently anymore. He decided to move to Maryland, into an assisted-living facility close to my brother, Fred, and his family.

    Then, the pandemic started. My dad left Massachusetts in late February, just before Covid-19 restrictions occurred. By March, when visitation at his new place was no longer allowed, my brother and his family generously took him into their home “temporarily” until restrictions were eased. As of November 2020, he was still living there, and his symptoms have worsened. My brilliant father, an engineering genius who worked on radar defense systems for the government, was losing much of his cognitive ability. To say that my family has lost my father as well as my mother in the past year is a fair and painful assessment. I miss both of them every day. Some days are fine, but as the seasons moved to autumn, they triggered emotions of this past year: memories of seeing my mom in hospice daily, and  spending that extra time with dad, the possibility of which I no longer have.  

    Lately, the days are difficult. I am sorry that my brother, sister-in-law, nieces, and nephews will have difficult memories of my father not being the man we knew.  Still, I find strength and faith through the work I’ve done in the last ten years not to have a drink over any of this.    

    In the world outside of mine, I didn’t drink over our divided country, especially in terms of the dishonesty we are shown and have come to expect as citizens. We have taken backwards steps regarding racial justice, women’s rights, and support for LBGTQIA+ community.  We have forgone a healthy and safe earth—and made Twitter feeds or conspiracies more important than science. From the top down, we are rotting as if we are in a vegetable drawer that is stuck closed.

                In 2020, loved ones got sick and died, and communities shut down for safety. Many jobs/businesses failed because of Covid-19. I began to work from home and left my house just a few times per week. I am still living without much human contact, but have been able to adapt because of  who I have become. I am lucky to have a special person in my life, and we try to see each other once per week. She has encouraged me to re-start my Dire Literary Series as a Zoom event, and to play guitar again. We even have band practice-all play, and no work. Being sober has allowed me to have all of this.

                As for virtual life, Zoom has been a wonderful tool. It allows me to attend meetings to maintain my sobriety, and to attend meetings for work. It allows me to run a literary series with an open mic-that gives others, as well as myself, something to look forward to every Friday. This year has been described as the worst by many, but I still have a lot of gratitude.

    GRATITUDE LIST FOR NOVEMBER 2019-2020

    1.      For my family, who mobilized as a team that has worked together for years, and for having the skills to work together through my mother’s death and my father’s illness. I cannot put into words the amount of gratitude I have for my family, especially for my brother and his family who daily take care of my father.

    2.      For my children, who turned out as well as any parent could hope. The decisions they have made are responsible and realistic. I have learned a lot about living life from being their father.

    3.      Spending the last six weeks of my mother’s life daily with her was something I’ll always be grateful for. I appreciate the people I work with, especially my supervisor, Eric S., and Area Director, Joan T., for allowing me time to do this without pressure to return. I am grateful that my good overall health, helped me be able to accumulate sick time. State policies for time-off in crisis situations proved essential.

    4.      For continued health in 2020, and for those who have done what they must to keep others safe. Without others’ sacrifices, I may have become sick, but as of now, I am healthy, and have avoided Covid-19.

    5.      A person who has had her own situations to walk through, yet continued to give me support and joy. (also for her influence in my discovery of Bon Iver).

    6.      I have gratitude for my writing groups and that I continue to write, and am grateful for those who still find what I write worthy of being published.

    7.      I am grateful for enough life experiences to produce this book.

    8.      For a home that I love. It makes staying home easier.

    9.      For a job I enjoy.

    10.  For food to eat.

    11.  For my pets.

    Lastly but most important--because, without this, I might not have nothing on this list:

    12.  I am forever grateful for the people who helped me to get sober ten years ago. Today, it’s the people who help me to stay sober and teach me through their experience, strength and hope who help me continue my journey. I have been shown a spiritual Higher Power which is no longer myself. I have people, MY people, whom I talk to every day.  I have learned to experience and live life today like I’ve never done before because of them.  They have taught me humility, when before I didn’t even know what that word meant. They have made me a better person. I love so many of them, very much. Each year is better than the last regarding my sense of true-self and my ability to love. I thank them for the last ten years.


    Monday, October 26, 2020

    Boog City Baseball Issue. Proud to have a flash piece in it about a "Recovery Coach"

     Very pleased my story, The New Coach is in the fiction department, in this month's baseball issue of Boog City-137.


    THEIR PRESS, see the story behind my story underneath.

    As the World Series winds down,
    go into extra innings with 


    Boog City 137

    The Baseball Issue


    featuring


    •Baseball Poetry from


    Helen R Broom, Patrick Dubuque, Jason Koo, Michael Lauchlan, Josh Lefkowitz, Marjorie Maddox, Jeremy Nathan Marks, E. Ethelbert Miller, Matthew Murrey, Jason O'Toole, Bill Rector, Laura Rosenthal, Steven Sher, Vivian Wagner, and Viola Weinberg


    •Baseball Prose from

    Elan Barnehama, Bill Cushing, Aaron Fischman, Andrew Forbes, Timothy Gager, Joe Gordon, Terry Kirts, Art Lasky, Brian Mihok, Frank C Modica, Frank Morelli, Richard Moriarty, Thomas O'Connell, Leslie Pietrzyk, Susan M. Schultz, Claire Taylor, Holly M. Wendt, and Jared Wyllys


    •Baseball Art from

    Todd Johnson, Graig Kreindler, Mark Mosley, Paul Plaine, S. Preston, Ann Privateer, Danny Rockett, Tim Souers, Jon Teegarden, and Aaron Williams


    •Plus a host of our usual swell content

    featured artist Brendan Lorber • fiction from Olena Jennings • political poetry just in time for the election from Toni Bee, CAConrad, Tongo Eisen-Martin, David Mills, Urayoán Noel, and Frank Sherlock • Stephen Paul Miller reviews Daniel Morris, Thomas Fink and Maya Mason, Lynn Crawford, and Fink • and Greg Fuchs' Unguided Tour


    And my hearty thanks to our team that made this possible: fiction editor Wanda Phipps, poetry editor John Mulrooney, printed matter editor Bill Considine, and our dynamic duo without whom this issue couldn't have happened, baseball editor Sandra Marchetti and production editor Patricia Patterson.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    MY PRESS, the story behind the story




         First things first. Boog Powell was a giant, big, lumbering-sixties prototype baseball player, built like other peers Harmon Killebrew and Frank Howard. They were a little like the |Gashouse Gorillas in the Bugs Bunny cartoon. Howard and Powell are pictured above, making the other All-Stars look a little dwarf-like. These slggers were American Leaguers before the Designated Hitter rule who hit and had to play the field. In all likelihood they were never in the field for their defense. I think it's really cool that I'm published in a NY paper called Boog City, where Boog Powell never played for the home team.  It's also very cool that they have an entire issue dedicated to baseball, something which the journal, Hobart does as well.

         I'm pleased that my story, The New Coach is in this issue. The story behind the story has to do with such folks as Josh Hamilton, and John Belushi. Both of them had sobriety coaches (babysitters, bodyguards)  to "stay in the game," some successfully, some not so much. In The New Coach my main character is asked to be this, but to preform extra coaching "duties." Please read this issue, my story and enjoy.  

    Wednesday, October 7, 2020

    Fall Issue of Wilderness House Literary Review is out. The link to full issue is in the blog

         Ah, the Wilderness..It's great to get away, with everything happening in the World. 

         I'm proud to show you fiction I selected for Fall 2020, which featured David Atkinson's title which is longer that some flash fictions. 

         Fiction often has to surprise an editor in order to stand out. When I saw the title of Susan Whiting Kemp's piece, "The Opposite of the Coronavirus" on the submission list, I immediately assumed that the story was going to be heavy on Coronavirus, and light on opposite. Boy was I pleasantly surprised, as it was such a wonderful, original work. Thanks to Steve Glines who is the Editor In Chief, who empowers his editors, including myself,  to do what they do.

    As always follow this link to go to the Wilderness House Literary Review page and read the poetry, essays, and non-fiction too. 

    WHLR 59th issue (Volume 15, no 3) - October 2020


    RULES AND EDIQUETTE: I get various feedback by the writers who didn't get into the issue, but it's not up for debate. Not cool. The other thing I'd like to see is writers withdrawing their work when it gets accepted elsewhere. There is nothing worse than taking the time to fall in love with a piece which is no longer available.  Submission Guidelines are guidelines for a reason. 

     Speaking of debate. I think we've had enough of those already, which is one. It is the opposite of wilderness. 



    By the time our next issue is out, the election will be two months in the rear view, and hopefully things will be much better, and less agitating. 

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Also while you're reading here's the list of accepted pieces while I was the acting Fiction Editor

    2008-2010

    and

    2016 to present

    Monday, October 5, 2020

    What happens when you've been nominated for 16 Pushcart Prizes (without winning)?

                                       

         You are extremely grateful when Muddy River Poetry Review nominates you for your 17th. The poem When You Have this Connection  (published April 2020) was given the honor by Editor Zvi Sesling. The great thing about Pushcart nominations is that there are no "do me a favor and vote on-line for me" moments.  The poem can be found HERE

         Fingers crossed, as one can never assume there will be an 18th. 

         Congratulations to the other poets for being Muddy River Poetry Review’s Pushcart Prize nominees. I hope you win:

         Eileen R. Tabios — Cigar Puffs

         Marge Piercy — How I Bury

         Taylor Graham — The Alpha Fire

         bg Thurston — Lineage

         Gloria Mindock — Deeply


          Oh, and,  by the way, besides 17 nominations, 17 is a pretty cool number. Look at all the 17 things  shown below...Thanks Google!


         



                      


    There have been 16 others, and I've posted about some of them.  

    Here's One

    Here's Another

    A Third post


    There are no posts or links about actually winning a Pushcart.