POETS outside the academy, barbarians at the gate, Philistines, ner-do-wells, poseurs, stumble bums, nattering nabobs of negativism.. .
everything you won't find in cafe society..... .
Friday December 4, marks the 105th installment of the Dire Literary Series and it should be a great one. Sherrie Flick, Molly Gaudry and Paul Schneider will be the features after an always pleasing open mic (4, 15 minute slots available first come, first served). It all takes places at The Out of the Blue Art Gallery, 106 Prospect Street, Cambridge, Ma. There will be plenty of books, beer, wine and shenanigans.
I was stunned when I heard he'd had a heart attack. Also, I was disappointed, for by my own count not enough people had heard of him. I felt I had done my part, loaning my copy of Big Bad Love to more than twenty people. When I looked for it last week, I didn’t have a copy left for myself.
Brown wrote about topics that most of us wouldn't touch or ever experience. When asked about this he told people that "he writes fiction and that he enjoys life, unlike his characters." Reading Brown in college not only fueled my own motivation to write, but also gave me confidence that success in writing could be attained, the same way Brown was able to succeed.
In an interview with Southern Scribe he listed the following advice to aspiring writers trying to make it:
1. Rejection
2. Trial and error.
3. Make lots of stupid mistakes.
4. There are no shortcuts.
5. You have to learn to write fiction that grabs the reader by the throat and doesn't let him go until you're through with him.
6. The only way to do that is to sit down and spend years writing and failing and writing again. If you quit, nobody's ever going to hear from you.
Brown’s writing career gives optimism to many of us still struggling with the craft, trying to get work accepted in various places in the literary world. The story of Larry Brown’s success would seem like a fairy tale to many of us trying to be noticed in the arts. Edward Wyatt of the New York Times wrote about it Brown’s obituary:
Before graduating from high school in 1969, he failed senior English and had to attend summer school, he told an interviewer in 2000. Soon after, he enlisted in the Marines, serving for two years in non-combat positions.
After his discharge Mr. Brown returned to Mississippi, where he worked a variety of odd jobs - over the years they included lumberjack, house painter, hay hauler and fence builder - before joining the Oxford Fire Department in 1973.
He remained a firefighter for 16 years, during which he began to teach himself how to write, reading obsessively the work of Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, Cormac McCarthy and, of course, Faulkner. For years afterward he would be referred to as "the fireman-writer," enough so that he tired of that designation and discouraged its use.
Though he took one writing course at the University of Mississippi, he honed his craft by writing scores of stories, many of which were rejected before he got one published in 1982 in, of all places, Easyriders, a bikers' magazine.
Five years later another story, "Facing the Music," published in the Mississippi Review, a literary journal, caught the attention of Shannon Ravenel, a founder of Algonquin Books. "I called him and asked if he had other stories," Ms. Ravenel recalled. "He said he had a lot."
In the fall of 2003, Larry Brown was being looked at as a potential feature for The Somerville News Writers Festival II. The first festival hadn’t even happened yet. I worked with his publicist at Simon and Schuster and she wanted it to happen as much as I did. After a few e-mails back and forth between Simon and Schuster and myself, I was told that he regretfully had turned down our offer, but to “Give him a call. You may be able to talk him into it.” Larry was in Portland, Oregon, touring his book, Rabbit Factory. I called the bookstore where he was reading and was told to call back. When I called back he was gone. The next day, I called Seattle. When Mr. Brown got on the phone he was very polite and gracious. In his deep southern accent he informed me that he was just too tired to do any more engagements. I tried to tell him that the event was more than a year away, but he said he was looking forward to finishing his tour and being home in Mississippi for a bit. I got the impression that he was uncomfortable being on the road. He did manage to send me a signed single chapter (literally a chapter book-bound with a staple) of Billy Ray's Farm, something I treasured and still do.
-->familiar with: Laurel Bastian, Patrick Allen Carberry, P. Edward Cunningham, Michele daSilva, Matthew J. Goering, Alexandra Isacson, Tim Jones-Yelvington, Christina Large, Kristin Lueke, Mark Neely, Dylan Nice, Jal Nicholl, Ryan Ridge, Paul Sacksteder, Peter Schwartz, Doug Tanoury, Mahdi Tavajohi, and Andrew S. Taylor. Additionally, there is also a review of Molly Gaudry's We Take Me Apart.
I was hoping you’d consider nominating my work you published for The Pushcart Prize. My thoughts are that if you haven't nominated yet, you’ve already found the poem/story worthy of placement of your fine journal, why not? Here’s the webpage for nominations. Thanks for your consideration..
Best
Timothy Gager
and receiving this:
3 Pushcart Nominations.
To further the study you can do this:
send the following to
Pushcart Press
P.O. Box 380
Wainscott
New York 11975.
Dear Pushcart Editor
My name is _________ and I am a _________. Please consider (by using your superb editing skills) Timothy Gager's work. I would purchase your next anthology if Timothy Gager is included.
The first review is up from one of the leaders and champions of the Small Press, Mr. Doug Holder
(and it's fantastic!).
To order pay $15 through Paypal: ctgager37@yahoo.com
or e-mail me through that address and I'll tell you where to send a check.
Treating A Sick Animal: Flash and Micro Fictions. Timothy Gager. (Cervena Barva Press PO BOX 44035 W. Somerville, Mass. 02144) $15. http://www.cervenabarvapress.com
The noted author Steve Almond once stated that Timothy Gager was one of his favorite local writers. I can see why. Gager shares Almond’s sense of irony, razor sharp wit, he deftly explores the ying and yang of relationships and this capricious thing we call “Love.”
This book titled, “Treating a Sick Animal: Flash and Micro Fictions” published by Somerville’s Cervena Barva Press, is a collection of flash fiction; very short pieces, where like poetry every word counts. Gager is an accomplished poet and this serves him well in this genre. In his piece “Why couples have pets,” a cat provides a mirror to a relationship that has lost its flame:
“Today she’s late for work. Late too, with other things. Damn cat can’t be found. It’s nine o’clock and she has decided to get rid of it. That decision upsets me, but mistakes happen—that time we made love under a blanket at Ocean City, plush towel in her mouth so the beach couldn’t hear.
Now she is late and she runs for the cat.”
And in his lead story “How to Care for a Sick Animal” Gager uses the conceit of a man treated like a dog (literally) by his girlfriend and a rather clueless veterinarian. Here, the girlfriend wishes the hapless man a fond farewell before he is put to sleep; their relationship relegated to its final resting place…or it was great fun, but hey, it was just one of those things, just one of those fabulous flings:
“After Dr. Jones left, Gracie approaches the table. “So how are you doing boy? I’m sorry that it has to end this way. There’s nothing I can do for you. Awwww…don’t look at me with those sad eyes. It’ll be ok. I just want you to know that I'm not going to go out and get a new dog anytime soon,ok? Oh, Todd you were my best friend and I loved you, but can’t you see I need to do this?” Helen entered the room with various snout sized Halothane masks and Gracie gave Todd a hug goodbye.”
Don't expect Gager to get sentimental on you--he is too much of a realist for that. But behind the dark Bukowski bombast there is still a glimmer-- that light of the hopeful romantic.
Maybe it was the beer I had at 4:30,
the day before my appointment,
leading to…more beer,
bourbon with hot lemon and honey
(for my cold) then scotch
on the rocks, a favorite
nightcap for the drive home,
take it slow buddy….take it slow.
8 AM at the Office of Deeds
I’ll say anything to go home,
I’m a liberal with a wrongful arrest record,
I’m a social worker and I’m needed,
I know the victim today,
which case?
All of them.
I’m guilty.
They’ll all guilt today…
or innocent,
whichever comes quickest.
MY DEAR IN HEADLIGHTS
Her entire life flashes in front of my car,
in the dusty parking lot of the VFW,
when my Alva’s pocketbook spills out.
I edge my foot slightly off the break,
tempted to move it onto the gas,
like the stooped over the wheel
geriatric, today on Main Street,
who misplaced his pedals,
possibly for a hat,
rammed his Oldsmobile
into a coffee shop, in the middle
of a sun blinded afternoon.
But Alva, smoky, sloppy and boozy,
is not like the surprised customers,
whose mugs and saucers flew shattering
against the hard tiled floor, the sounds combined
with the screaming, and the screaming…yet,
no one died or will die today but it was close.
Alva cackles, “hold your horses, Timothy”
not once, but twice and I feel myself getting older
each and every second.
A Little Slice Of is a story I'm proud of and Rusty Barnes who published it in Night Train e-mailed me the following:
"That piece you gave me to post is one of the best short-shorts I've ever read."
Well, he's read a lot of great work so it's very generous praise, but my jaw certainly dropped.
Perhaps, the female protagonist, pictured to the left..
Then in Suss: Another Literary Journal, "Somewhere on the Edge", appeared. This was a flash that revolved around a woman, drug and alcohol rehab and a monkey named Pluto. (No the monkey wasn't in rehab)
The last line "I didn't want to leave." had four meanings with her not wanting to leave 1) the rehab, 2) him 3) the restaurant 4) her relationship with drinking.
Timothy Gager's stories came at us like a brisk punch to the heart. His characters are profane and tender, dazed and confused, out of work and short on options. And yet they remain stubbornly vibrant, these damaged children of Bukowski, illuminated by their desires and inflamed by unreasonable hopes.
-Steve Almond
author of THE EVIL B.B. CHOW, CANDY FREAK, and NOT THAT YOU ASKED
Timothy Gager is a compelling and unforgettable writer. These bold and witty little stories limn the peculiarities, and sometimes alarming behavior, of our human species.
-John Sheppard
author of SMALL TOWN PUNK
As good an orator you'll find, Timothy Gager flashes a gleam in the eyes while carrying a slouch in the shoulders. His fiction connects to the giggling man as well as it does to the sad man.
-Matt DiGangi
editor, publisher and founder of THIEVES JARGON
This book is a trip-- or actually it is 40-plus quick and vivid trips into Timothy Gager's untamed fictional terrain. Sometimes surreal, sometimes all-too-real, these Flash Fictions always surprise. Fasten your readerly seatbelt, choose your own adventure and enjoy the wild rides.
-Elizabeth Searle
author of CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE and TONYA & NANCY: THE ROCK OPERA
Timothy Gager’s flash fictions are full of flashes of insight into the great human predicament.
-Michael Kimball,
author of DEAR EVERYBODY
Some of the Stories and where they appeared:
-->
The Big Toe Review: “How to Care for a Sick Animal,”
Right Hand Pointing:“In and Out”
Thieves Jargon: “The Best Interest of the
Child,” “Daddy,” “All because they had enough children,” “Coach,”
“Punchless Jimmy Collins,” “FuTuReTube”
Long Short Story: “Hidden Hoboken”
Twelve Stories: “Your Vasectomy Journal”
Trailer Park Quarterly: “What’s An Atheist Doing Behind
the Wheel”
Not Just Air: “Jealousy,” “Someone
will come upon a savior”
Tuesday Shorts: “Cheers to Sylvia Plath,” “Why Couples Have Pets,”
Mourning Silence: “Paying For It”
Zygote in my Coffee:
“The Top of Grace’s Upper Lip,” “The things you do Remember,” “Canvas”
Poor Mojo’s Almanac:
“Mother and Daughter,” “The Flounderer”
