What Lies In Wait, a New Review, and Other Updates!

I have so many new writing updates that I'll present them to you in lightning-round format. Ready? Let's go!

1. What Lies In Wait will be the title of my upcoming collection of short stories, and I'm aiming for a mid-2015 release. I'm extremely happy that all fifteen stories are now finished, or finished enough for beta readers to finally give them a look. There's still tweaking and proofing to do, but the final lineup is set and it feels like a relief. All fifteen tales share elements of apprehension, fear, and a challenge to face, whether it's something out there in the dark or something within that must be put down. Half are straight-up horror, while others blend mystery, noir, and survival tropes into tales that fall between literary and genre-driven stories. I'm looking forward to feedback, and I'm always open to new test readers! 

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"When the Time is Right" now in Red Fez, Issue 72

My poem "When the Time is Right" now appears in Red Fez, Issue 72. I always liked this one, which speaks to the drudgery of work, life, and social expectations and how one day there may be a spiritual—and perhaps violent—revolt. I'm really happy this one found a home with Red Fez, an amazing collective of poetry, fiction, reviews, comics, and art, and this issue includes the likes of Bill Gainer, Heather M Browne, Mike Meraz, Cassandra Dallett, John Swain, Gabriel Ricard, Leopold McGinnis, and a review of Bud Smith's upcoming novel by Ted Jackins. Take a look and consider submitting your own work. The Fezzers are a lot of fun! 

New Poetry in the Fall/Winter Issue of The Aurorean

My poem “Ties” is slated to appear in the Fall/Winter issue of The Aurorean, due out in just a couple of weeks, but you can pre-order a copy for just $11 at their website right now. The Aurorean is an excellent literary journal out of New England and I’ve had the pleasure of appearing in a few of their other issues, as well as in their Favorites from the First Fifteen Years anthology, which was a finalist in the 2013 Maine Literary Awards. Pick up a copy of the upcoming issue if you have the chance and be sure to look for my poem "Ties." Many thanks to editors Cynthia Brackett-Vincent and Devin McGuire for including my work!

Memories and Mischief from October Country

Like many nostalgics, autumn is by far my favorite time of year. The county fair season of late summer and Labor Day is coming to an end and the afternoon sun’s ferocity burns less and less each day until you hear the skitter of the first dried up brown leaf skipping across the sidewalk and you’re wearing your fall jacket (finally!) and wondering where you can curl up with a mug of hot cider by a window somewhere to take in the kaleidoscope of colors in the treeline horizon. I swear I’ve seen everything from yellow to purple in those trees, and with the anticipatory thrill of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and eventually Christmas whirling around inside, I can’t think of a better time of year than right here and now.

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The Cards We Keep, Others Now in Everett Library

The gorgeous Everett Mansion of Southern Vermont College (library wing is on the left).

The gorgeous Everett Mansion of Southern Vermont College (library wing is on the left).

Last month I dropped off four of my books at my alma mater, Southern Vermont College, for inclusion in the Everett Mansion Library. The mansion houses the classrooms, admin offices, theater, and library for the SVC campus, and I'm really excited about having my work placed there. The library is a beautiful corner of the mansion with brightly lit reading rooms, a large fireplace, and now four of my own books, including:

  • The Cards We Keep (2013, short fiction)
  • Dealing with the Devil in the Middle of the Road (2012, poetry)
  • Lantern Lit, Vol. 1 - The Darkest Bomb (2014, poetry)
  • Maybe a Bird Will Sing (2009, poetry)

If you happen to be in southern Vermont - Bennington specifically - feel free to drop int! The campus has amazing views of Bennington and the surrounding area. It's worth checking out!

A Few Words on the Recent Rash of Literary Misogyny

The last several weeks have not been pretty, to say the least. It seems every other day a new scandal breaks about some bastard in the creative world who is verbally, emotionally, sexually and/or physically abusing women (some of them very young women, i.e., children)—be it out in the open, behind closed doors, or while hiding behind twitter handles or anonymous screen names. I could list them all here and link them and on and on but my god there are just so many all of the sudden, so I’ll let you Google names like Kirk Nesset, Stephen Tulley Dierks, Ed Champion, and self-described “horrible person” Tao Lin, and any other piece of “alt-lit” trash who is exposed by the time I finish writing this sentence. My two cents are as follows…

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Too Much? I Say Not Enough!

My copy of Too Much: Tales of Excess finally arrived, and it’s gorgeous! This collection of poems, short stories, and confessionals explore the various tales of excess by such writers as Puma Perl, Jeremiah Walton, John Saunders, Meg Tuite, Ryder Collins, Ron Kolm, and a couple dozen others. The collection (published by Unknown Press and edited by Chuck Howe) also includes my own semi-autobiographical short story, “The Rube,” about a drunken misadventure in a third-world nation. You can find copies at Amazon.com.

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Top 10 Favorite Books From My Childhood

A while back a bunch of people started posting lists on Facebook about the top books that stayed with them — everything from children’s classics to modern literary juggernauts. It got me thinking about the books that I loved as a kid, the ones that really meant something to me. So here are the Top 10 books that shaped my childhood and early reading habits, in no particular order. Although there are plenty of others, these are the books I get most nostalgic about when I think of my elementary and middle-school libraries.  

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Writing on the Rails: Survival Tips for Traveling Authors

I write on trains. A lot. It's not always pretty (shabby interiors, crying kids, cell-phone talkers) but when you get a quiet car, a seat to yourself, and a gorgeous view, you can have a lot of fun. I discuss my tips for making the most of your railway adventures while still trying to work on that novel of yours over at the Writer's Digest website. Take a look, and good luck writing the next time you hop trains cross-country! 

Dear Editor, Dear Writer, Please Stop!

The bad apples are out there in every field and occupation, and the publishing world has plenty of those wormy, half-trodden, utility apples lying about the orchard. The vast majority of editors and writers have amazing, productive, inspiring relationships, or at least working acquaintanceships, or at the VERY least they don’t hate one another, but sometimes those wormy bad apples come calling from both sides of the publishing lines.

I don’t intend for this to be a gripe session, not at all, but I do want to hold up some apples to the light and examine them with the hope that it makes the writing world a happier place to be. And it’s important to remember that these are cautionary tales, not the norm—so with that in mind, here are some things that bad-apple editors and writers should both stop doing immediately to make this publishing life a little easier on the rest of us.

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Readings Past and Yet to Come

I don’t read my work in public often (never got comfortable with it) and I recently tried to rectify that by reading at a cool little open mic where author Bud Smith revealed an excerpt from his upcoming novel, F-250. The reading took place at a bar in the Bronx called An Beal Bocht (Gaelic for “The Poor Mouth”) and it was the first time I read in front of a crowd in, what…two, three years? Something like that, so it was a fun personal challenge to shake off the rust and get up there. I was more nervous than I’d like to admit, and like every other reading I’ve ever done, I needed 6-7 beers in order to not shake like a set of wind-up chattering teeth up in front of the mic. I read two older pieces from around 2009; one, “Norway,” is about strippers named after European nations and how swimming naked in the moonlight is often the best way to put them in the past; and the second, “Darkness Within the Dark,” comes from one of my many bouts with Taoism, an on-again/off-again passion of mine. Both poems are also found in my collection Dealing With the Devil in the Middle of the Road. Thankfully it went well and I got some encouraging feedback. I'm grateful for host Erin Lynn for putting the open mic together each month, and I definitely plan to attend again. If you’re in the NYC area on August 13 around 7:30, you should swing by An Beal Bocht and listen in.

I’m also doing a reading on Saturday, October 4 at Jimmy’s No. 23 (in the back room, plenty of seating) where I’ll be featured along with a number of other authors from the Too Much anthology, which is due out this summer. The cover here looks amazing, doesn’t it? I’ll have more details about that reading soon, but I’ll probably read from my piece in the anthology, which is full of stories of alcoholic, sexual, and narcotic excess. Pretty apt topic considering I'll likely need a double dose of liquid courage to read in front of a crowd that large. Anyway, I hope you can make it!

*** Update: I may be doing a reading in the southern New Jersey / Philadelphia area in December as well to promote a new book of mine. Details TBA. ***

Work to a Calm #7 - Two Poems

Two of my poems, "Flood" and "Nothing and You," now appear in Issue 7 of Work to a Calm, a striking little literary journal that is carving a nice home for itself online. If you haven't heard of it, please do check it out; it will be worth your while. Editor Nastia Lenkova has a keen eye for quality work, and I'm not just saying that because I've had a few of my own pieces in there over the years. If you like what you see there, consider my New & Selected collection of poetry, Dealing With the Devil in the Middle of the Road. The poems of mine that now appear in Work to a Calm were written during the same period as this book, and I still have signed copies available. You can also find links to purchase the book online in the Books section above. Thanks to Nastia for selecting my work, and thanks to you for reading!   

My Summer Reading List, 2014

The start of summer officially came and went, long after summer weather actually arrived, and this means I’m well overdue for an evaluation of what I plan to read during the upcoming months of blazing sunlight, a lazy half-attempt to go to the beach, short breaks in the shade during kayaking trips, and lots of walking around looking for the Mr. Softee truck in Manhattan. This list is far from definitive, but these are the ones waiting at the top of the stack. So here you go, my summer reading list for 2014. What are your suggestions?

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New Poetry in Riverbabble #25

My poem "Burning in the Freeze" now appears in Riverbabble #25. The poem was written during my final month in Beacon, NY, about a walk home from the local pub during the still of a chilly winter night. There are a number of other poets and writers worth checking out in this issue, including Bill Gainer, John Swain, Felice Aull, John Oliver Simon, and others. Thanks for taking a look! 

San Antonio Spurs, 2014 NBA Champs - Why #5 Matters

Even though the San Antonio Spurs are the 2014 NBA champions, it is impossible to talk about this year’s run without first discussing last year’s heartbreaking loss. I live in New York, so I usually watch Spurs games alone adrift a sea of Knicks fans. When San Antonio came so close in Game 6 last year only to lose it in the last 25 seconds, and then to drop a Game 7 that felt like an inevitable loss—painful doesn’t begin to describe it. Sitting there alone, it was devastating. And for some very personal reasons…

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Too Much: An Anthology of Excess

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I am pleased to announce that my short story, "The Rube," is scheduled to appear in the upcoming Too Much: An Anthology About Excess from Unknown Press. The book is due in late July and is overflowing with poems, short stories, essays, and interviews about the pleasures and pitfalls of excess, be it alcoholic, sexual, mind-altering, or what have you. A big thank you goes out to editors Chuck Howe and Bud Smith.

My story, "The Rube," is a brief and humorous look at alcoholic excess experienced during a point in my life when I was ... well, to be honest, a bit of a barfly, working as a freelance writer, surviving on meager poetry sales and the kindness of friends, and how a destination wedding invitation turned into an alcohol-infused brush with death in a third-world country. Part memoir, part fiction, and definitely excessive.

I'm also excited that a poem of mine, "Burning in the Freeze," will soon appear in riverbabble #25. I just need to return the publishing agreement on Monday morning. I haven't sent out many poetry submissions recently, so this is a real treat. I'm excited to be in riverbabble once again. Many thanks to the editors for selecting my poem.

I'll post more details when each of these pieces become available. Thanks!   

The Cards We Keep - Signed Copies Available

Signed copies of my short story collection The Cards We Keep will soon be available again! The book includes ten stories of down-and-out private detectives, bounty hunters on the run, disgraced celebrities, crumbling marriages, and boxcar hobos heading for the end of the line in search of love, redemption, and maybe just a little peace in this crazy world. Author Bud Smith recently said the books contains "wonderfully written short stories that take on a wide variety of genres, purposefully, and carries them through to succession with some sharp writing, interesting characters, and non-formulaic plotting." (See the full review at the link.) There are also a growing number of great reviews over at Goodreads. If there are any presses or magazines that would like to review the book, I have free PDFs and e-reader files I can send along. Just shoot me an email at jhdwriting@hotmail.com for details. Thanks for all of your support!  

Composing a Novel: Create a Soundtrack to Help You Re-live the Story You Have Yet to Write

Whether or not you outline your entire novel before you begin or leave plenty of room for surprises along the way, many writers will reach a point where they struggle with a story. Maybe you wrote yourself into a corner. Maybe you’re having trouble bridging main plot points with smaller scenes of character development. Maybe the characters feel flat. Maybe you want to add an unforeseen subplot but nothing fits just right. Whatever it may be, story speed-bumps are out there waiting for you, but I’ve found a little “game” I like to play that can help flesh out a story idea and possibly turn a handful of outlined scenes into an expansive epic full of action, drama, and tension.

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The Club Dumas: A Review

** Warning: May Contain Some Plot Spoilers **

Like many readers, I saw the Polanski/Depp film The Ninth Gate before I read Arturo Pérez-Reverte’sThe Club Dumas, and despite what I felt was a let-down ending in the film (we’re taken all the way to the final gate, and then...), I enjoyed it enough to pick up the book years later, hoping for a fleshed out story and an improved finale.

But for those wanting to dance with the devil after an eerie, mysterious, occult-infused plot, the movie may have come closer to a satisfactory ending than I first realized.

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My Alma Mater is Making Me Jealous: Southern Vermont College & The Shire Press Series

I recently discovered that my alma mater, Southern Vermont College in Bennington, VT, has cooked up a new angle to their creative writing program, one that I’m really excited about even though I haven’t stepped foot in a classroom at SVC in over ten years. (Wait, am I really that old?!) SVC has teamed up with Northshire Bookstore to create The Shire Press Series (see the press release below with my quote included). This is an opportunity for SVC students to learn how a real indie book press works, and not only get their hands dirty with submissions, editing, production, and marketing, but each student comes out of the process with their own published book to sell in the bookstore or elsewhere. Cool, right?

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