Reveals. We have front. We have back. We will have an available book within 30 days.

 

We have front                                                 

          

We have back.

Sadness. Easy or Difficult to write?

     Early in the revision process I received the manuscript back for Almost Bluing for X-tra Whiteness from Big Table Publishing with the below note. It's not surprising. I've heard it before as it applies to my writing. Sad can be beautiful in writing, but, to many, not beautifully lived. I am very grateful for my publisher and notes like this. 

1) Sad. Oh, that's easy to write. 

 It's okay to be sad. We are often told to brush it   off, as if sadness is some sort of insect, some gigantic negative, that people don't ever want to see. Repeat. People don't like it because they don't want to see it. I'd say it's like walking up a sidewalk and seeing chunks of dogshit in your path. Please, brush it away.  Always keep in mind that the world is a difficult place, and emotions are a normal way to deal with that fact. 

  So, it's all okay. Sadness is okay. For me it's   being in a familiar place. According to official diagnosis, for me, it's in remission. Still, it's there---it's, if you can believe it, something which feels comfortable. It's something that I can hold, know it's there at times, and just go on with my life. For those who are on Team Brush It Away, things are good now. As a sober person, I get to walk through things. 

2) Sad. Oh, that's hard to write. 

  A funny thing happened after the announcement that my the novel,  The Shadows of the Seen (coming, 2025) was being accepted for publication. I've shared a lot about how his novel was draining and difficult to write. First of all, t has to do with gun deaths and shootings in this country, Second, what was more difficult was the  writing of one of the characters (Lucky) who is based on a challenging and difficult year I had experienced. Writing it, I was re-affected and exhausted after each reliving of my personal experiences. As a writer, as many of us know, often, there is nothing you can do about this except to go with it, and just keep writing. 

    So, what's the funny thing?  The Shadows of the Seen was accepted by Pierian Springs Press first, before Almost Bluing for X-Tra Whiteness. So, next up for me as a writer is the "What's next?" game.  I thought to look in my 'Poems' folder, thinking maybe there would be enough for maybe half a collection, and I could get to work on that. I was surprised to find there was enough for a full collection. Equally surprising I found the poems, written between 2022 and now, covered much of the same difficult times I had just finished writing within the novel. In a way these two books are companion pieces, covering a lot of the same people, places, and things.  

     I am very proud of both of these books, and very excited for the soon to be launch of Almost Bluing for X-tra Whiteness, and, later, in the future for The Shadows of the Seen, which, I feel, is a strong read, but more so, a very important book. 

Virtual Thursdays Dire Literary Series Schedule, Sep-Dec, 2024

 

September

6: VERY SPECIAL FRIDAY:            Jackie Corley

19: Dawn Tripp

  

October

3: Sara Letourneau

10: Kristin Bock

25. VERY SPECIAL FRIDAY Edward Belfar 

November

1: VERY SPECIAL FRIDAY JoeAnn Hart 

14. Gabby Gilliam

December   

5. Margaret Young 

19. Lee Varon

SCHEDULE FOR JANUARY - APRIL 2025

What I Learned About Vulnerability from Charles H. Gager

     When my father passed, two and a half years ago, I posted his obituary, edited into the bottom of a blog I'd written three days before he would die. That post was about how it sucked getting old and how bad the "system" treated elders.  Emotionally, posting the obituary was all I could get out. 

    Now, it is time. 

     My father was a brilliant man, a genius, who didn't have a wide skillset to display emotion. I learned to keep a lot of things inside, only allowing the extrovert in me to throw most everything out into the wind, especially humor. Dad was an engineer who worked on radar systems, the early ones, that could detect missiles, where upon detection, they could be intercepted. Layman's terms it was the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as the Star Wars Defense System. He is the inventor for a patent filed in 1959 for: 

COHERENT VlDEO INPUT-W REACTANCE TUBE UENCY MODULATOR CARRIEROSCILLATOR NORMAL VIDEO INPUT- AND LIMITER FREQUENCY DISCRIMINATOR DELAYED COHERENT VIDEO OUTPUT AMPLITUDE DETECTOR DELAYED NORMAL VIDEO OUTPUT 

          ---INVENTORS, CHARLES A. FOWLER CHARLES H. GAGER. (see,  Method and apparatus for multiplexing and delaying normal and coherent video on one delay line)

   Because of the classified nature of his job, I never knew exactly what he did for work when I was growing up. I learned, upon clearing out his condo I found the documentation, the completion of his security clearance with an inked signature from Donald Rumsfeld. From this, I learned that we don't always know what others do, what they are going through, and how some secrets need to be held because they can change lives.  

   Perhaps biggest thing I learned from my father was forgiveness. As an adult, I had to forgive my father. Some things are more difficult that others, and this was a big one, but he had proven to me that I could forgive him. It  was one of my biggest life lessons. Forgiveness and kindness need to be as important as food and oxygen for us to survive as the best people we can be. 

                                                                     * * * * * * * *

 Now, the kicker.

  

   I spoke to someone recently who had lost their father about at the same time, in the same way as I lost mine. It was the first time I'd really spoken about my father, and the loss. The funeral was about who he was but there wasn't any closure---and that's a word I don't agree with, but it had been two and a half years. Two and a half...stuffed into a locker, no key, no combination. 

  Here and Now: The blackhole reappearing, the locker flung open---after I so successfully closed it at the beginning of 2023. After a year of bad things happened. 

  After his death in 2022, things came out sideways. They say there is no correct way to grieve, but I know I didn't do a very good job. My behavior was erratic, unpredictable, from being disengaged to displaying irrationality and wrath around something as trivial as how to score a spare while bowling. I chased away important people in my life, people I loved. Other things happened, other loses and I went to a very dark place. Things got progressively better after, but the locker grew bigger.

     Since his death, I've not formed many meaningful relationships; not the ones I used to form. My ability to function in a non-work, non-creative environment disappoints me, to say the least. Often I say too much---words come out strangely in all kinds of ways: too many jokes...too much misunderstanding...saying way too much to people I don't know....too many folks who are going North to my South. I'm subtlety chasing people away I open up to. The blackhole kept pulling, and I was sad, wanting people, places, and things to make me feel better. They couldn't. 

   It popped into my fiction and poetry. There are poems about my father, and about 2022. But there is also my to be released novel, The Shadows of the Seen, where one of the characters loses their father, has a breakup, suffers the death of a friend, and the death of a pet....and things came out sideways. It was the hardest most difficult character I've ever written, myself, in all of my failing. It left me exhausted and vulnerable---after each session in my writing room, alone.  

  My outlook today is that I'm pretty lucky. Things did get better, although the bumps in the road still happen. I'm grateful I can identify what is going on, and throw it out in the universe. It's like the Star Wars Defense System, intercepting the bad things or trying to minimized the damage. Today I'm throwing it out in the universe, and I don't know in what form, but I know something will come back. 

Now. It is time. 

New Poem, "After You Go" appear in Ibbetson Street #55

 

     I was thrilled that my poem, After You Go, was selected by editor Harris Gardner, for issue #55. Also in this issue, is work from  Ted Kooser, Marge Piercy, Steve Ratiner, Hilary Sallick.

(You can buy it HERE)

What I love from an acceptance from Harris Gardner is that he lets you know what he liked about the submission. In this case:

"Although it is rather short, nevertheless it is poignant and compelling. It has a universal appeal for anyone who has suffered the loss of somebody close. (I must admit, it brought tears to my eyes.) The closing lines were espescially powerful. This is a well crafted creative effort."

This poem will also appear in the Blue section in my upcoming book of poetry, Almost Bluing for Xtra Whiteness from Big Table Publishing.

Book #20, The Shadows of the Seen, deal is sealed.

     

     Two days ago I announced that book #19 Almost Bluing for X-Tra Whiteness a book of poetry, was in production with Big Table Publishing, and that my novel The Shadows of the Seen was looking for a home. 

A lot has happened in two days, but as of today The Shadows of the Seen is under contract with Pierian Springs Press.  Is it coincidence? I don't think so. 

***

The Shadows of the Seen, is about the persistent issue of gun violence in our society, examined through the intertwining narratives of three central characters, a politician, a shooter, and a reluctant hero.

After the contract was sent back, Kurt Lovelace, Executive Editor at Pierian Springs said: 

We are very excited to be your publisher for your novel, “Shadows of the Seen”—and it is crucially timely. However, I fear gun violence in America isn’t going anywhere good anytime soon. Ergo, this topic will remain timely for a very long time.  

If only this topic could suddenly stop being timely, or at least some progress made to decrease this type of violence.  While writing this novel, I always felt the subject matter was of extreme importance. I still feel that way and I'm honored, and with boundless gratitude to be able to announce that it has a home. 

***

 

"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 upcoming book. "

--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 will demonstrate, 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

Two new books coming down the pike....#19 on the plate, #20 still in the kitchen

A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:       

Big Table Publishing will be putting out Almost Bluing for X-Tra Whiteness, my tenth book of poetry, sometime soon, looking at before the end of the year. The title covers the multiple themes held withing the page: aging, pop-culture, music, feeling blue.

The book will be divided into four sections:

1) Blue

2) X-Tra White

3) Re(a)d

4) Blu-ing

Here's are the ver first two blurbs from Jennifer Martelli and Gloria Mindock

********************************************************

I have blurbs for my next novel, Shadows of the Seen, but no publisher as of yet---I've sent it out to quite a few, now it's time to play the waiting game. My vision for a cover is below and please note, I am not a graphic artist. 

UPDATE: (7/15): The Shadows of the Seen now also under contract

As for the covers, I've done a mock-up to suggest a style, (just a suggestion), but what I'm looking for is a wink toward:

Appearance on "Meet the Author" hosted by Rob and Joan Carter

   Check out the show! It was pre-recorded so when I say, "We haven't hit our heatwave here," don't worry, it's 100 degrees here today.

   Also I am very amused after watching the book commercials at about the 20:00 and 40:00 marks. For example, "You will laugh, you will cry, and be in awe of the twists and turns."

    Rob and Joan Carter host Meet the Author a show on WLFE-DB, and rebroadcast on WDJY 99.1 FM in Georgia. 

    Rob and Joan, are themselves are published authors, book publicists and paranormal investigators with Tampa Bay Spirits. 

Free Grand Slams samples (not the food, the audio book)--

      If you liked the free clips, the audio book for Grand Slams is free if you have an audible account is free if you have an audible account or sign up for their free 3-month promotion (99 cents99 cents for Audible account).  Same goes for Joe the Salamander. 

So, back to the story:

      I have to admit, listening to this after being away from it for nearly ten years was pretty amusing. Legitimately, I was laughing at my own jokes (per usual).

The cast had a lot of fun recording and producing it:

Shannon Clare McDerrmot: Producer, Narrator, Multiple/Most Voices notably the main characters Woody Geyser, Maura and Kayak Kenny

Richard Mark Jordan - Scumming Manager Joe Keating

Emmanuel Chumaceiro - Bobby Maloney, Mike Homer, Dyed Haired Bob Boulet (also appeared as a character in Joe the Salamander), Marisimo, and Sayid Chris Notarile: Dino Tribuno, Blonde Bob, Jimmy Pudlow 

So here are two free clips from the  Audible version of Grand Slams: 

     

    Part II, Chapter 59: Keating's Interview: Joe Keating's bad behavior (being a sleazebag and cocaine monkey) has caused him a little trouble. Instead of being fired he has to complete and retake all the trainings at Grand Slams restaurant. Then, he must interview for his old job, as the narration takes us into his head during the questioning. 

     Part II, Chapter 68: Maloney Afternoon Show:  Four of the college-age employees at Grand Slams head out to Jack's on Mass Avenue in Cambridge for an afternoon show to see the bands Scruffy the Cat and the Sex Execs. Also written into this scene, which takes place in 1984, is my friend, the late, great, Billy Ruanne. 

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

The book was reviewed upon original paperback release by Mignon Ariel King:

     The first thing one notices in Timothy Gager's Grand Slam: A Coming of Eggs Story is the Holden Caulfield-like anti-hero protagonist Woody.  There is an ensemble of characters in the novel who make up the staff and management at a chain diner, Grand Slams, and Gager deftly weaves their backstories and inner lives into the fast-paced narrative.  Despite the often more bizarre and troubled manifestations of the other diner workers' lives, Woody is clearly the focal character.  Woody is a young almost-man who is emotionally distressed and unfocused.  He is in an emotional and social limbo a year post high school, and still living with his parents, yet he is focused enough to seek and find work over the summer break from college.  The two characters who are also Woody's age are working their part-time diner gigs around college schedules, would-be college schedules, and pre-career funks.  It is unclear at times whether the trio have any clear plans.  They do, however, have dreams and passions, the passions often misdirected.  Of the three, Woody is the most attuned to what is going on around him, very invested in how other people's lives are turning out, whereas Sugar and Bobby are just going through the motions, enduring their surroundings and coworkers.

Woody's mother (Mrs. Geyser) attempts to monitor and guide; his father, a political progressive who named his son after Woodrow Wilson, grumpily tunes out his family to focus on favorite television shows.  A comparison is drawn between Woody's father and his "work mother," Maura.  Maura is fifty-something and seems plunked in the diner with her crumply stockings and middle-aged wide middle; Woody's father is plunked in his living room in a Michelin man body.  It is no wonder that the Grand Slams "work family" is so dysfunctional with Maura as its matriarch.  She keeps things moving, but she emotionally detaches from everyone at work to go home to nobody after she picks up her check each week.  Maura left her daughter behind for a better life...perhaps, but really her life is only simpler, uncluttered by the needs of others.  She has no suitors, no girlfriends, just her job and subtle dreams of making more, having more, materialistically speaking. 

Most of the low-level workers in the diner are more invested than their superiors.  Keating, a nasty bastard of a boss, does as little as possible while screaming at his employees, most notably emotionally abusive toward Kayak Kenny, a developmentally challenged bus boy who fantasizes about buying a kayak.  Kenny believes girls will fall in love with him if he has a kayak, swept up in the romance of floating on the pond with him.  Keating floats on cocaine and a rather sleazy sex life.  He sweeps women off their feet with the lure of free drugs.  Sugar is the diner's beauty; she is lusted after by every man who comes within reach of her pretty, pony-tailed, short skirt- and cowboy-booted beauty.  More power to the male author who makes Sugar one of the most intelligent, focused, compassionate characters in the book.  Her flaw is pathologically bad taste in men.  She has a small life and thinks small, but she evolves and matures faster than her age-appropriate male interests.  Sugar's introspection leads her away from the sweaty, portly, mustard-stained tie and rumpled suit grasp of Keating.  Her next conquest is a socioeconomic upgrade, Sayid, an Egyptian man who is too sexually repressed (for religious reasons) to use Sugar as a sex object.  He courts her, and this is obviously something to which she is unaccustomed but which she grows to realize she deserves.  Meanwhile, Woody pines for her from afar, as he did in high school, while being her platonic friend.

There are standard types throughout the narrative. Marisimo, the half-blind ex-boxer with cauliflowered ears, is less than fluent in English and over invested in his dishwasher job.  Dyed-haired Bob, the transplanted new boss, could not care less about anyone who works for him; he re=trains the staff with an iron fist.  Woody resists the ridiculous, superficial changes in a hilarious sequence of passive-aggressive actions, such as hiding the clip-on bowties.  Even the chilly Maura begins to warm up to coworkers as her career waitressing is challenged by the new regime.  She at least is proud of her work and her 20-plus years' commitment as the company girl.  The last romantic hope she had divorced then paired up again without noticing Maura's romantic hopes for him.  Maura is a bridge between the detached elders, with their selfishness, rigor, and paternalistic actions only in the condescending sense, not in any way caring about role modeling for or promotion of the Grand Slams staff.   The three young characters are not slammed over the head of the reader, and Gager manages to use character typecasting without making the characters seem wooden, stiff props in the narrative.  In fact, the characters are so realistic, and subtly nuanced with uncharacteristic personality traits as well as those expected, that the reader is frustrated by wanting to hug or slap them.  Throughout the novel, the almost-adults keep the momentum going in the midst of the socially odd and borderline tragic, invested adults.  How will this trio grow up while surrounded by infantile, base, or simply lost adults?  The reader is invested by the third chapter in finding out.

REPLAY CENTRAL, Virtual Replay for Virtual Thursdays Dire, WINTER/SPRING 2024

 January

 Doug Crandell

Matthew Olzmann

February

Martin Ott 

MP Carver

March

Phil Temples

William Orem

Mag Gabbert

April

 Robert Fleming 

Danielle Legros George

May

Michael Keith

Mark Wish

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

The Rest of the Replay Centrals

Autumn 2023 (link to website)

Marianne Leone, Tiffany Davenport, Jennifer Friedman Lang, Ray Guidrox, Gary Grossman, Elizabeth McKim, Carla Panciera, Dr. Dannagal G. Young, Ellis Elliot, Enzo Silon Surin, Josh Barkan, Laura Zigman, Tom Laughlin

Spring/Summer 2023 (links to website)

Jane Roper, John Wesick, Jennifer Martelli, John Fulton, Tricia Barker Barton, Cynthia Atkins, Katie Moulton, Yael Goldstein Love, Julia Lisella

Winter 2023 (link to website)

Suzanne Frischkorn, Kim Addonizio, Thomas McNeely, Jenna Le, Sarah Bridgins, Lee Matthew Goldberg, Lise Hanes, Dr. Paula Perez, Michael Mark, Maya Williams, Hannah Sward, Caitlin Avery, Carla Swartz, Stacy TenHouton, Donna Spruijt-Metz, Morgan Baker

Autumn 2022 (link to website) 

Jonathan Papernick, A.K. Small, Aaron Tillman, David Rockland, Kimberly Ann Priest, Sain Griffiths, Harris Gardner, Lisa Taylor, Michael Keith, Jim Shepard, Zach VandeZande, Rusty Barnes, Daniel Nester. Kurk Lovelace (reading from Annemarie O'Connell's book), and Nina Shope

Spring/Summer 2022 (link to website) 

Sara Lippmann, Robin McLean, Gregory Orr, Rich Murphy, Diane Suess, Ron Tanner, Aleathea Drehmer, Christina Adams, Sharon Applegate Greenwald, Lucas Scheelk, 

Joseph Milosch, Barbara Legere, Ellene Glenn Moore, Vincent Cellucci and Chris Shipman

Winter 2022

Renuka Raghaven, Jessica Cuello, Jen Knox, Daniel Biegelson, Alison Stine, 

John Rosenthal, Peter Crowley, Maggie Doherty, Erin Khar, Elan Barnehama, 

Marguerite Guzman Bouvard

Autumn 2021

DeMisty Bellinger, Cheryl Pappas, Matt Bell, Michael Keith, Gloria Mindock, 

Molly Gaudry, CD Collins, Kevin Prufer, Beth Robinson/Chris Joseph, Alina Stefanuscu, Meg Smith, Gregory Wolos, Damian Dressic, Jason Wright, Blake Butler 

Summer 2021

Natalie Brobin Bonfig, John Domini, Anna VQ Ross, Rachel Yoder

Spring 2021

Sandra Simonds, George Wallace, Caroline Levitt, Charles Coe, Susan Henderson, 

Major Jackson, Kara Vernor, Meredith Goldstein, Kimberly Ann Priest, Joanna Rakoff

Winter 2021

Rick Moody , Laurette Folk, Mark Saba, Sarah Anne Johnson, 

Josh Barkan/ Jennifer Haigh, Keetje Kuipers, January O'Neil,  Elle Nash, 

Danielle Zaccagnino, Marty Beckerman, Nathan Graziano , Steven Cramer

Autumn 2020

Carly Israel, Daphne Kalotay, Ryan Ridge, Marge Piercy, Kerry Beth Neville, 

Yuyutsu Sharma, Chris Joseph, Elizabeth Gordon McKim, Diana Spechler, 

Jonathan Escoffrey, Dewitt Henry, Brian Sonia-Wallace, Rebecca Fishow,

 Marguerite Bouvard, Pamela Painter, Kim Chinquee, Jessica Keener, Amy King

Virtual Thursdays Dire Literary Series Schedule, Summer 2024

June

6:  Susan Zailkind

20: Jessica Blau

July

11: Gregory Wolos

26:  FRIDAY SPECIAL with Melissa Cundieff

August

8.    Ben Tanzer

22:  John Amen

Audio Book Version of Grand Slams released TODAY. Get it and/or get it free!

 Today is the release date for the audio book version of Grand Slams: A Coming of Eggs Story

You can get it for free with a free trial:

On Audible 

On Amazon

Click to read the previous blog entry about the voice actors and production crew

Want a free link? Message me on any social media I am on. Just ask, Audible gives me free promo links to give away!

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

Also same deal with Joe the Salamander, released February 2024

On Audible 

On Amazon

ANY DAY NOW: Next up in audiobooks: "Grand Slams: A Coming of Eggs Story"

 

The audiobook version of 2014's Grand Slams: A Coming of Eggs Story, due out any day, features an ensemble of talented voices. Spearheading the production of Grand Slams was Shannon Clare McDermott, who voiced the audiobook version of Joe the Salamander.

Shannon's other credits can be viewed on her BACKSTAGE PAGE

Upon finishing she posted on her Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shannon McDermott (@iamshannimal)

Also featured are the vocal talents of Emmanuel Mendes-Chumaceiro (he has a lot of credits too),

Richard Jordan an actor and established casting agent and Writer, Director, Filmaker Chris R. Notarile

The three do a bang up job as the voices of Bill Maloney, Joe Keating, Kayak Kenny---heck, most of the male characters.

Richard Jordan, Chris Notarile 
ad Emanuel Mendes-Chumaceiro

New Poem (Dependents) published in Oddball Magazine: End of life Themed

Art by Digby Beaumont

 

      It's no secret the way we treat our elderly in their end of life journeys. I saw it first hand, and it's heartbreaking. I've had conversations with my own children about it, and they think I'm joking, but I'm not.

So read all about it with the poem accompanied by a wonderful picture "Empty Chair" from Digby Beaumont  

read the poem Dependents