Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Spread the Word: I'm hosting a podcast. THE 2 DEANS PODCAST: Online Dating, Dread and Disaster

 

GOT A STORY?   LET US KNOW

Each week, starting very soon (on Spotify and Apple), we will talk, and laugh about YOUR worst dating disasters, in a weekly 30-minute podcast. Contact US at thetwodeans@gmail.com if you can talk for 15 minutes about your bad date---the funnier or most outrageous the better. 

Dean and I met (before we started calling each other Dean) at a party at the University of Delaware. Then the next week at the Deer Park, I accidently burned her finger with a cigarette. From that point on we laughed at everything. 

Why do we call each other Dean, and why is the podcast called The 2 Deans? Tune in to Episode One and find out! 

Thanks to the Oddball Foundation for producing and partnering. 



Sunday, March 23, 2025

WARNING: Shadows of the Seen deals with relevant, very difficult issues

 

Just this second, I googled shooter opened fire and four mass shootings instantly (try it).  It's why the subject matter in my next novel is relevant and important.  Look for the pre-sale of Shadows of the Seen. 




"Timothy Gager weaves a narrative story that is entertaining and addresses the gun crisis in our country. Politicians, lobbyists, and our mental health system are shown to need a cleansing in Gager's most recent work. "

--Barbara Legere, Author of Keven’s Choice, and Talk to Me, I’m Grieving

 

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people." However, as Timothy Gager's nasty little parable demonstrates, the people who kill people are the very people who should not have access to firearms. In case you've been living under a rock and the national carnage has escaped your notice, it's just too easy for a lunatic to get a gun.

-Gregory Gibson, Author of Gone Boy and other books https://goneboy.com/

 

“Timothy Gager is a writer who has written about gun violence as it needs to be written. He goes past the quick “post” or “reel” that we see after each shooting that we hear about in the news. We get the sound, the smell, the feel of what gun violence leaves behind. Sometimes, it hurts to read his words, but then again, it hurts to be the victim of gun violence, so get over it and read on. We can’t imagine the pain, but Timothy can. “Big men, big guns, big egos to fill, they don’t even need a reason, got a license to kill…”  from my song “Standing Your Ground””.

-Kemp Harris, Songwriter, Actor and Storyteller

 


Thursday, March 20, 2025

I have a poem out today in the beautiful "Ink In Thirds" Magazine

 

ink in thirds is a beautiful publication, a glossy magazine of literature and photography. It is one of the most beautiful out there. The photography is often breathtaking, and appears next to nearly every piece. Some of the pictures below come from the free sample.


To preview the first 30 pages, of 125, you can follow the links below

Get it now! 
  • Print copies are $29.50 and include a free digital download. 
  • Digital-only copies are $3.33. 

    My poem, Losses, is not in the preview section, but I will post the page and the poem when my copy arrives in a few weeks. The story behind the story was a recent bonding over a shared loss, under a shared circumstance, but the sharing only brought us closer to grief rather than comfort. The second half of the piece is about an earlier loss in my life, and the non-bonding with a therapist during the aftermath. 




 

Monday, March 17, 2025

Briar Haus Writes, Becky Parker interviews me today

 
Briar House Writes is a group is dedicated to being a safe space for those who write stories and poems or who love a good tale! Members can share submission opportunities and your own successes.  Becky Parker runs it and she interviewed me a month or so ago, and it appears out in the world today!

At the 11:00 mark I talk about the new novel Shadows of the Seen and read from it. 

  And, no, I'm not howling at the moon. 

Monday, March 10, 2025

New Poem, "Where to Look for Deceased Parents" appears today in Literary Underground

 The story behind the narrative poem, Where to Look for Deceased Parents is pretty self-explanatory, but the bigger news is that I'm working on a new themed manuscript of poetry tentatively called, These New Orbs.  The theme is 'orbs' , any and all types---shapes, ghosts, ornaments, stars, eyeballs, spirits seen in photographs etc. 

  Also, I'm submitting more in 2025 because, well, just because. I've had five accepted pieces published this year, and four more accepted and not out in the world yet. 

  CLICK TO READ text in The Literary Underground. Grateful to Michele McDannold for looking at it. 





Sunday, March 2, 2025

The Bagels with the Bards Anthology is out, and I'm happy to have three poems in it.

       


        I have three new poems in the Bagels with the Bards, their 17th Edition and annual compilation, which commemorates and honors Krikor der Hohannesian (pictured on the cover). The Bagel Bards is a group of poets that meets every Saturday in Somerville, which now, I rarely go to, but in the past went to often. 

THE STORY BEHIND THE POEMS*

1) Sill-is a four line word-play on love.

2) The Ordinary-Is a salute to an ordinary day, a Sunday morning with the paper, and coffee. Since has been revised and called Extraordinary

3) The Uninvited Dance-Is about going to a wedding without a 'plus one'. The last few weddings of been to with my children and their partners we make fun of the MCs at weddings and their announcement of, "For the first time ever...Mr. and Mrs. _____," which we take to the level of announcing for ourselves, "For the first time ever, Chicken Cardon Blue!" or "For the first time ever, the table placards!"  You get the drift. Below is the complete Table of Contents, and click HERE if you are interested in purchasing. 




Wednesday, February 19, 2025

An Issue behind in 10-by-10, time to catch up.

 

I tend to be forgetful of late, but upon Zvi Sesling's announcement of the release of 10-by-10, Flash Fiction Stories #25 today I was excited to see who I was in there with. 

And I wasn't in there. 

Editors can be forgetful too.

But not in this case. 

Upon further review, On To The Next Thing had been published in late January in Issue #24. Also, in that issue: Matheiu Cailler * Eileen R.Tabios *  Vivian Clausing * Michael Gigandet Tony Press * Phil Temples * Niles Reddick * Cindy Rosmus * Paul Germano.

Keep scrolling if you want to read the story behind the story. 

=========================================================

     

    Now the story behind the story. (Trigger warning for video---the bridge falls down with cars on it.) My flash piece was written right after this event happened, so I placed my character working on The Tobin Bridge in Boston waiting for HIS ship to come in.  As cars pass, without falling in he hears on their radio lyrics from a Taylor Swift song.  To be honest, my thinking was that by the time this story was published, Taylor and Travis would no longer be an item. I was wrong. As of Feb., 19, 2025, they are still going strong. Also I poke fun at betting apps, as per the story.

 You can bet Kelcie will catch a pass in the first quarter. You can bet that Tay and Tra. are finished by the time it takes to read this. 

So, read up, and a warning---the time it takes is less than two minutes. 

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

The Perks of Being an Asshole

  

   Being an asshole is kind of a thing. It trickles down from the most powerful person in our country (name your favorite asshole who leads us), to the least. It is not influenced by class, race, religion---there is asshole potential everywhere. We vote for assholes because they are strong in their views, and citizens can live out their inner-asshole in supporting that. Assholes get ahead! They appear confident, driven, and get what they want. They will break you before you can break them. People who act in ways that aren't kind or empathetic may win certain battles, but they often end up alienating others or struggling in ways that aren't immediately visible. 




  A few years ago, I decided, because much of my pre-sobriety was pretty selfish and self-centered that I would be as kind as possible. I believe I've succeeded in that. I was available. I did things for people.  Unfortunately, the Universe still confuses kindness for weakness and I got pretty much trampled, especially of late---misunderstood intentions, broken plans, decisions to not be friends. Fuck, if I know what happened. Sure, I had a role in it, that maybe I was too kind to the wrong people, but the way I felt about myself has suffered. 


  

   At least when I was an asshole, I knew exactly where I stood with people. If they were still around, they really wanted to spend time with me, because, after all, I was an asshole. Also, people I ended up standing up to...didn't matter at all, if I were an asshole or not, as mutual dislike was already there. There was nothing to lose in bad behavior in these instances. 

     I like being kind, and I don't want to be a jerk but I'm missing all the perks of being an asshole. 



Saturday, January 25, 2025

Coming, May 14, 2025 and you can take a deep dive



 

 




USE QR CODE OR 

"GIVE IT A LISTEN'" LINK BELOW

WARNING: BOOK SPOILERS 


Coming, May 14, 2025 and you can take a deep dive!

 

        I'm looking forward to the release of my new novel. It's coming out in May, and review copies and ARCs will be out any time now. 

On the Pierian Springs site, there is a podcast which is a deep dive into the book-its characters and some of their motivations.

Give it a listen if you are interested, but for those who like to read and discover on their own, there are spoilers galore, so be dutifully warned.



Thursday, January 2, 2025

Virtual Thursdays Dire Literary Series, Jan-May, 2025

 January

16Eileen Pollack

30: George S. Peterson


February

13  Ellen Kombiyil

27:  M.K. Jackson

  

A mound of blow....I mean snow


March 

13: Chad Parenteau

27.  Kerry Beth Neville









April 

18: Lawrence Kessenich

24. Linda Carney-Goodrich 




May

8. Amy Alvarez

22. Kurt Baumeister


Sunday, December 29, 2024

My Year in Publishing, 2024

     My publishing year was great--the new book that came out from Big Table Publishing Company took up a lot of my time but the experience was wonderful and the final product looked great. Also my last two novels were made into audio-books in 2024. I appeared in three podcasts, and also had four individual pieces of work published. 


BOOKS

Almost Bluing for X-tra Whitening, September, 2024, Big Table Publishing







AUDIO BOOKS

Grand Slams: A Coming of Eggs Story, May 2024, Big Table Publishing








Joe the Salamander, February 2024, Golden Antelope Press










POETRY

Amends I Owed To You
October 1, 2024, Pour Me a Poem Anthology

After You Go
July 1, 2024, Ibbetson 55

Dependents

April 10, 2024 Oddball Magazine



CREATIVE NON-FICTION
"Mom and Pops", December 24, 2024 Oddball Magazine


PODCASTS





I ALSO HOSTED 26 INSTALLMENTS OF VIRTUAL DIRE LITERARY SERIES



==============================================================

Thursday, December 26, 2024

Here are my TOP 11 VIEWED BLOG posts from 2024 (and why I think you read them)

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Mom and Pops, on Oddball Magazine, sooooo, Merry Christmas

 

photo by Chad Parenteau

Read Mom and Pops


So, it's creative non-fiction which means there is no story behind the story---it's just the story. I could point out the "creative" parts of this, but I won't. All I want to say about this piece is that I am grateful to people I've already spoken to about similar loss I am grateful to other writers who walked through the same events and wrote about them, giving me courage to write pieces such as this. I've thanked them. They know who they are.

Some say holidays is when you miss the people that are no longer in your life, but I think about my parents every day. 

Peace and Love.