Shannon Hamann's 'Deathdoubledactyl' is available from Pavement Saw Press

Shannon Hamann's "Deathdoubledactyl" -- that's the cover above -- is now available from Pavement Saw Press. It's the press' eighth and final title for 2011, according to an email I received from them today.

The book has been printed in a limited edition of 1,031 copies. It's 88 pages long and costs $14. Click through the above link for more information and some sample poems, which include lines like the following:

Aground, a skeleton hand clutches a former cocktail.
A complimentary peppermint melts in a burning mouth.

I haven't read the book, so this post is neither a review nor an endorsement. I just like the cover. That said, I've read a handful of Pavement Saw books in the past and haven't been disappointed yet.

My short story "The Northwest Corner" is now available

My short story "The Northwest Corner" is now available for Amazon's Kindle as an ebook download for 99 cents. It's short and sweet, about 20 pages in the Kindle Previewer. Click here to check it out.

Here's the blurb describing the plot:

Ryan desperately needs a book about gargoyles for his history project, and the only thing standing in his way is Ms. Maple, the cranky old librarian. As Ryan finds out, help can come from the most unlikely, and terrifying, of places.

Like my book "The Barrens House," the story is targeted to the young-adult market but would be good scary fun for just about anyone. Also like my book, it includes a gargoyle and a library. I wrote them both around the same time a few years ago, so I must have been on a gargoyle/library kick at the time.

As always, I'd love to hear what you think. Send me an email at simon.a.thalmann [at] gmail.com with your thoughts.

My book "The Barrens House" is now available

My young-adult horror novella "The Barrens House" -- which first appeared free, chapter by chapter, in an early version on this blog -- is available for purchase as an ebook and in good old print format as well. I don't know about you, but personally I still prefer the latter for anything longer than an average news story.

Here's the back-cover blurb describing the plot:

Danny has reservations about moving the minute he finds out his dad took a job as caretaker of an old estate hours away, in the middle of nowhere. Yet his fears about starting out at a new school and having to make all new friends fade into the background as strange things begin happening in the guest room of his new home. Who is the mysterious young girl appearing in his dreams? And why does he get such frightening chills from the lifelike stone gargoyle that sits on the arch above the gates to the graveyard behind the house? As his family settles in at the ominously named Barrens House, Danny begins to realize not all is as it seems.

Ooo, spooky! It's a short -- something like 88 pages -- but fun read, equally inspired by R.L. Stine's beloved "Goosebumps" series and "Mr. Boogedy," the scariest horror movie for kids of all time. I saw it when I was so young I can't remember my first viewing, and I've never gotten over it.

I've gotten a lot of positive comments relating to the cover of the book, which I crafted from a photo available under a free-to-use license on morguefile.com. Click here to see the original, uploaded by morgueFile user driscoll.

Click here to purchase "The Barrens House" in print from Lulu.com for $7 or as an ebook for $1.50.

Click here to purchase the Kindle Edition of "The Barrens House" from Amazon.com for $2.99.

If you do check it out I'd love to hear what you think. Send me an email at simon.a.thalmann [at] gmail.com with your thoughts.

Newsweek's mediocre Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe article

God forbid an article about Michelle Williams taking on the role of Marilyn Monroe -- one of the greatest actresses of her time, who died of a drug overdose -- should mention the fact that Williams' former husband -- Heath Ledger, one of the greatest actors of his time -- also died of a drug overdose.

I'd blame the journalist who wrote the article, but as a journalist myself who knows the piece you submit to your editors isn't always the piece that sees print, I'll reserve my judgement.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Williams' people set Ledger's death as a no-no to cover as a condition to allowing Newsweek access to the actress for the piece, but as it seems to me the most interesting bit about the topic it's strange that a publication would agree to ignore it.

It is what it is, which is to say not much.

(The article, that is, not the movie. If anyone sees it and cares to chime in, let me know how it is in a comment.)

Conor Oberst and Occupy Wall Street: Where is the next Bob Dylan when his generation needs him most?

Where is the "next Bob Dylan" when his generation needs him most? Well, if you subscribe to the theory that Conor Oberst is the next Bob Dylan, the answer is he's in Australia.

Oberst is no stranger to taking on politics -- his anti George W. Bush ballad "When the President Talks to God," released in 2005, is still available free to download on iTunes -- and the Occupy Wall Street movement seems like it'd be right in line with his Peoples' Champion aesthetic -- in the past he's been an outspoken critic of media conglomerate Clear Channel, for instance, and a voice of support for independent artists.

Yet while the 99 percent are busy scuffling with police in Zuccotti Park -- where a judge ruled today that the city can keep them from bringing back their tents -- Oberst is currently out for the count.

Not that it's Oberst's job, necessarily, to give the movement a voice. But for a generation that could be defined by a movement currently on the brink of a long winter and possible collapse, right now Conor Oberst may be the best hope for a voice -- and after today, some much needed motivation -- that Occupy Wall Street has.

Police attack peaceful U.C. Berkeley protesters

A video uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday showing U.C. Berkeley police and Alameda County sheriff's deputies apparently attacking peaceful protesters on the college's campus Wednesday has gone viral on the Internet and has created questions over whether or not the police used excessive force in attempting to disperse the protesters.

In the video (see above), students are shown attempting to keep the police from disbanding a campus "Occupy" encampment when the police, in riot gear and carrying batons, begin beating the protesters with their batons.

The San Francisco Chronicle quotes U.C. police as saying the human fence the protesters tried to build around the encampment amounted to a violent stance against police, and quotes Capt. Margo Bennett as saying "The individuals who linked arms and actively resisted, that in itself is an act of violence. I understand that many students may not think that, but linking arms in a human chain when ordered to step aside is not a nonviolent protest."

Other authorities — including the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild — are raising questions over the officers' conduct.

The Chronicle reports that 39 people were arrested at the protests Wednesday, including 22 students and a professor.

Ruth Ishbel Munro's "Jacuzzi"

Few things are more thrilling than having a piece of your writing illustrated by a capable artist, and while the story I had published a few years back by Suspense Magazine -- "The Problem with Men" -- never got that treatment, I can think of few more appropriate images than the one above by UK illustrator Ruth Ishbel Munro.

Titled "Jacuzzi," I found the illustration while browsing at Laconic Oration, which never seems to disappoint.

Check out all three -- my story, Munro's art and Laconic Orations vast library of images -- through their respective links. It's certainly my hope that my story will entertain you, but I know for sure that the latter will.

MLive interview with poet Joshua Marie Wilkinson

For the first of what I hope will be many Q&A pieces with writers, artists, actors and musicians for mlive.com, I sent a handful of questions by e-mail last week to poet Joshua Marie Wilkinson (that's him above) to preview an upcoming reading in the Kalamazoo area.

Among his responses:

"I write about desire, death, the imagined world of children, wilderness, violence, loss and pleasure."

Awesome.

For more, see the full interview on mlive.com: "Poet and filmmaker Joshua Marie Wilkinson discusses his influences, writing and poets he loves."

"Demons in the Spring" Review Up at Verbicide

My review of Joe Meno's excellent story collection "Demons in the Spring" (Akashic, 2008) is up now at Verbicide. The collection is awesome, check it out. It's definitely one worth buying.

Recommendations, Skips and Hmm's

I started a new job recently and haven't had as much time as I'd like to read, let alone write, or blog about either one. That said, most of what I have read has been pretty good, as I haven't had the patience of late to stick with things that don't grab my attention right off. Even the skips here have sections that are commendable.

Recommendations:

1) "A Better Angel: Stories," by Chris Adrian (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008). One of the standout story collections of the past few years, Adrian's collection also has to be one of the most underrated artistic responses to the events of 9/11 currently in book form. It's interesting to note that the protagonists of these stories are nearly always observers, and that the emotional climax often comes late, when the protagonists finally decide to actually do something. I couldn't recommend this book more.

2) "No Doors, No Windows," a novel by Joe Schreiber (Del Rey, 2009). I interviewed Schrieber shortly before "No Doors" came out in advance of a local book signing. However, the interview focused on his other novel, released the same day as this one, which is a "Star Wars" horror novel titled "Death Troopers," (the bulk of the interview, incidentally, was published in the Fall 2009 issue of Weird Tales). My editor was primarily interested in hearing about the latter, and so Schreiber and I spoke about "No Doors" only in passing. It's a shame, as the book is fantastic. It's one of the few horror novels in the past few years that I've stuck with to the end.

3) "Ghost Machine," poems by Ben Mirov (Caketrain, 2010). Winner of Caketrain's 2009 Chapbook Competition, Mirov's collection is like an expanded version of his previous chapbook, "Collected Ghost," available free online from H_NGM_N and discussed at length in a previous post. "Machine" is worth checking out whether you've read the previous chapbook or not. The "petal in a glass of vodka" line always kills me.

4) "Stitches," a poem by Lucas Farrell (La Petite Zine). The poem first appeared in La Petite Zine, but it's been collected in Farrell's "Bird Any Damn Kind" (Caketrain, 2010), which was the runner-up to Mirov's collection in Caketrain's 2009 Chapbook Competition. The poem introduces the collection, which I'm only about 60 percent through reading but can't help feeling has gone downhill since the beginning. The collection will probably end up in a "Hmm's" section in the future, but the poem in question is too good not to check out. You can read the poem (the collected -- and much improved -- version actually starts at the line "The bird fell from the sky") through the link in the title.

Skips:

1) Star*Line 33.1 and Star*Line 33.2, by various writers (SFPA, 2010). Star*Line is the official journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and is distributed free to all members. A newly christened member myself, I received my first two issues a few weeks ago, the January/February and March/April editions, respectively. There are perhaps a couple of gems in these collections, but I have to say that nothing great has stayed with me enough to mention here.

2) "My Heart Said No, But the Camera Crew Said Yes," stories by Bradley Sands (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2010). I reviewed this collection recently for Verbicide and basically wrote that I felt these stories -- written in the "bizarro" genre -- would appeal to those familiar with the genre but would be less accessible to those not terribly interested in bizarro literature. I am among the latter.

Hmm's:

I haven't been on the fence about much of my reading lately -- I either dug it or wasn't too excited to keep reading. Recent lackluster issues of Wired and Esquire likely fall into this category, however, as well as a number of movies I've seen of late ("Iron Man 2," I'm looking at you).

Soon I hope to be fully settled into my new job and up for posting more regularly.

President Obama Speaks in Kalamazoo

President Obama gave a commencement speech to graduates of Kalamazoo Central High School last night, right here in my native Kalamazoo, Mich.

I caught the bulk of the speech, which I thought was a breath of fresh air relative to the talks Obama usually has to give, doing his best to put out fires everywhere. He seemed laid back and casual, though I suppose he seems that way a lot.

The photo above was taken at the event by Kalamazoo Gazette photographer Mark Bugnaski, who just happens to be stationed in the newsroom just down the hall from my cube. You can view the commencement speech here on the Kalamazoo Gazette's website.

Ben Mirov's "Taco Wolf"

Says poet and small-press darling Ben Mirov in a recent blog post, regarding the image above: "This is probably going to be the cover of my next book."

Incidentally, you can get a copy of Mirov's most recent book, "Ghost Machine" -- the winner of the latest Caketrain chapbook competition and the book I'm currently reading between bouts of chasing my seven-month-old away from the television cords -- here.

Dan Walsh's "Odds of Annoyance"

While doing research recently for a Genre Whore blog post on the existentialist genius that is the website Garfield Minus Garfield, I stumbled upon the blog of the site's creator, Dublin-based artist, musician and writer Dan Walsh.

Among other gems, the blog -- travors.com -- includes the following keen and wonderfully depressing observation, posted Feb. 22 and reprinted here with permission in its entirety. The post is titled, "The odds of annoyance."

"At the age of 34, with some good luck and modern medicine, you could say I'm less than half way through my life. Taking that as a given, let's make a few assumptions:

> I started interacting with other people, through speech and actions, around the age of four.

> That gives me 30 years of interaction with other humans.

> During that time I've met many people and been in many situations. Sometimes these people have been annoying, and annoying things have happened.

> Let's be optimistic and say I'll live to 100. That means I've had, roughly, a third of all the interactions with other humans, that I’ll ever have.

> If that is the case, and we take into account some basic laws of probability, then that means I probably haven't met the most annoying person I'll ever meet.

> In other words, the most annoying thing that will ever happen to me, probably hasn't happened yet.

This is pretty distressing.

I've met some huge assholes in my time. HUGE.

Casting my mind back on the scale of all the annoying things that have happened to me, inevitably leads me to this conclusion:

Sometime in my future, I'm going to be kicked in the balls by George Bush, while he sings 'I Gotta Feeling' by the Black Eyed Peas."

Puts things in perspective, no?

Bryan Charles to Release a Memoir in October

Former local and fellow Gull Lake High School alumni Bryan Charles announced on his Facebook page today that his forthcoming memoir, "There's a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From," will be released in October.

The book -- which Charles has described on his website as a memoir of his first few years in New York City (after leaving the area surrounding our native Kalamazoo, Michigan) -- follows his stellar novel "Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way" (Harper Perennial, 2006) and the recently released "Wowee Zowee" (Continuum, 2010), a contribution to the 33 1/3 series of books focused on classic music albums.

Charles was working in one of the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11 -- he wrote a great short story about it, published here -- and it will be interesting to see how he addresses that in the forthcoming book, if at all.

Swartwood Reloads "Hint Fiction" Contest

There's still a day left to enter Robert Swartwood's "Hint Fiction Contest Reloaded," commemorating the one-year anniversary of Swartwood's "hint fiction" concept of creating "a story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story."

The judge of the contest is the notorious James Frey, and the lucky winner he chooses will receive a plethora of literary goodies, including:

> $100

> A copy of "The Best of Every Day Fiction: Two"
> A copy of The Los Angeles Review
> A copy of Sententia
> A copy of Space and Time
> A copy of "[first year]: an mlp anthology"

> A copy of PANK
> A copy of Fox Force 5

In addition, the second-place winner will receive $50, the third-place winner will receive $25, and one of 10 copies of "Sudden Fiction Latino" will be awarded to each of the winners and finalists, as well as to some "random contestants."

To enter the contest, simply submit up to two entries in the comments section of the contest post. At the time of this writing there are 154 posts, many of which contain multiple entries. A personal early favorite is John Jodzio's "#2":

"Someone had written the word 'Shite' on our baby's forehead in permanent marker. Someone broke in, I said. No one broke in, my wife said."

The contest ends at midnight (EST) on April 30. Swartwood's "Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer" (that's the cover image above) is set for release from W.W. Norton & Company on Nov. 1.

Recommendations, Skips and Hmm's

I assume like most people, my time spent blogging is "extra" time, that fortuitous time that sometimes falls within the tiny spaces flanking the every day responsibilities of work and family and which more often than not is consumed with catching up on "Lost." That said, I have very little time for full-fledged reviews of books I'd recommend, recommend you skip or fall somewhere in between on. Thus the new, occasional Poetic Desperation abbreviated review feature, "Recommendations, Skips and Hmm's." Enjoy.

Recommendations:

1) "Dolls," prose poems by Tom Whalen (Caketrain Press, 2007). Whalen's "Dolls" is at once both infinitely creepy and saturated with a strange kind of sadness. The dolls that inhabit these prose poems terrify you at the same time they make you want to pick them up and hold them.

2) "Shutter Island," a novel by Dennis Lehane (William Morrow, 2003). The basis for a feature film of the same name released in February, I picked this one up as research for an interview I'm conducting in a week or so with Lehane in preview of a reading he's giving in my area. The book goes pretty much exactly where you think it's going to, but Lehane's great talent is in keeping you reading regardless. The dream sequences are fantastic.

Skips:

1) "during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present ," poems by Brandon Scott Gorrell (Muumuu House, 2009). There are some interesting lines here, but the only thing I really liked about this book was the lack of page numbers. Seriously: I tend to be slightly OCD when it comes to making sure the page numbers are truly consecutive every time I turn a page, and Gorrell's book at least took that out of the equation.

2) "Just Before the Black," a short story by actor James Franco (in the current issue of Esquire). This short is presumably from Franco's first story collection, "Palo Alto," which will be released in hardcover by Scribner in October. I like Franco as an actor. He's great. But if this story is any indication of his capacity for writing, I'll pass on his written work in the future.

I can forgive Franco, for instance, for calling the building the narrator is sitting outside "tan" in paragraph two, then calling it "beige" in paragraph six, but in graph six when he writes, "The building is beige, but the shadows make it shadow-color," he loses me altogether. "Shadow-color"? That's just lazy writing. Was the sky sky-color? Was the car car-color?

Actually, we find that out in the trainwreck that is paragraph five, where he describes the car using the phrases "Grandpa's old blue boat" and "Grandpa's blue machine" within a handful of words of each other. We get it: It's Grandpa's car and it's blue.

Then we have graph seven, where Franco writes, "Joe smokes. His window is all the way down, and he breathes his smoke out the black gaping gap." A "gaping gap"? Maybe it's just me, but I usually assume a gap is gaping without having to be told. The phrase reads like a Dr. Seuss lyric.

Hmm's:

1) "How to Take Yourself Apart / How to Make Yourself Anew," prose poems by Aaron Burch (PANK Press, 2010). I say prose poems, but they could be flash fiction. Whatever. Unfortunately, this collection had two strikes against it before I even started reading: 1) It's a perfect-bound square, a structure that for me is always aesthetically annoying and always makes me feel like I'm reading a "Mr. Men" book; and 2) Why does the title say "Anew"? Why not just "New"? I realize "Anew" hearkens back to the "Apart," but it sounds clunky. Anyway, I liked the middle section of the three, but the other two did nothing for me. I'm mixed on this one.

2) "Wolf Parts," short fictions by Matt Bell (Keyhole Press, 2010). I usually dig Bell's work (what I've read of it), but not this one. I pre-ordered it through Bell's site and received an instant audio download, which I couldn't even get halfway through listening to before canceling my order for the book. It's not the writing; the writing is fine. It's the subject matter. It's billed as a "dark, fragmentary retelling" of "Little Red Riding Hood," and it is that, but it also touches on what to me sounds like child sexual abuse, which I don't really want on my bookshelf. If you can get past said issues with the subject matter, however, it's probably a decent read.

1,000 Words from Laconic Oration

That egg is a puppy! Just another one of the who knows how many awesome images up at the image blog Laconic Oration. I just wish they'd post more often (says the pot calling the kettle black).

Read Zachary Schomburg

Do yourself a favor and read Zachary Schomburg's "The Man Suit" (Black Ocean, 2007). Preferably now. This second.

Then read Schomburg's "Scary, No Scary" (Black Ocean, 2009) or, like me, browse through it constantly while letting it sit unfinished on a shelf because you don't want to face the prospect of waking up tomorrow with no new Schomburg to read.

Black Ocean offers free shipping on all retail orders of the books through their Web site, and as an added bonus orders of $25 or more come with a free book.

"The Man Suit," incidentally, was No. 4 on Small Press Distribution's Best-Selling Poetry list for 2009 ("Scary" was No. 9), and was No. 27 for the decade.

"The elephant has a point"

Everyone concerned about the health care "debate" needs to read the March 9, 2009, opinion article from Joe Conason, writing for Salon.com on "The questions our health care debate ignores." I would argue that the questions -- Why does every developed nation except the U.S. have universal health care? Why do they pay half as much in medical costs? Why are their infant mortality and longevity statistics superior? -- are ignored because there is no debate, just a bunch of fear peddlers engaging in disgusting and misleading news conduct.

According to Conason:

"Among the OECD's 30 members -- which include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom -- there are only three lacking universal health coverage. The other two happen to be Mexico and Turkey, which have the excuse of being poorer than the rest (and until the onset of the world economic crisis, Mexico was on the way to providing health care to all of its citizens). The third, of course, is us."

This is pathetic. If Mike Cox, Michigan's attorney general, goes through with his plans to sue the federal government in response to the current health care bill -- which is way weaker than it should have been -- I'm afraid there's little hope for the future of my already unfortunate home state.

If you think it'll make a difference -- though really, what is there to lose? -- contact Cox's people through one of the numbers listed here and stand up for those in our government who are actually trying to do the right thing by supporting health care reform.

(The comic above is by the New Jersey Star-Ledger's Drew Sheneman, who gave it the headline, "The elephant has a point.")

i have thoughts and feelings about tao lin

And those thoughts and feelings are mixed.

Tao Lin is known as much for his eccentricities as he is for his writing, maybe more. He notoriously financed the writing of his forthcoming novel "Richard Yates" (Melville House, 2010) by selling $12,000 worth of shares to investors. Last year, he may or may not (see the comments) have sold his MySpace page to an investment banker for $8,100 on eBay.

I don't remember when I first ran across Lin's writing, but my personal experience with his perhaps more singular personality began last fall, when I ordered a complete set of his art prints (images above) in October during a special Halloween sale.

It took more than a month and a half for the prints to arrive, and when they finally came Lin had written, on a small, square piece of cardboard included in the package:

"I'm sorry for the very massive delay. To compensate I've included some 'bonus' items. I hope you find this satisfactory overall. Thank you for your order."

The "bonus" items included a blank, pocket-sized Moleskine notebook, two narrow bumper stickers that read "fuck america" and five random photographs: four taken of other pieces of Tao Lin artwork and one of a random white poodle standing on a grassy beach. Also included was a copy of Brandon Scott Gorrell's poetry collection, "during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present," published by Lin's small press, Muumuu House, in 2009.

An incredibly detailed account of the book's publication can be found here, in which Lin writes:

"I feel it may take ~1 to ~5+ years to sell ~1400 copies. I feel strongly that Brandon's book will become 'a kind of classic' (as I feel with Ellen's book), that it will be referred to by people in the future and remain 'known' for 10+ years or something, and that Brandon's second poetry book, blog, first novel, etc. will continue to generate interest in Brandon as he remains alive, and doing things, in the world; and so I felt secure, and other things, printing 2500 copies. I anticipate 2nd, 3rd, etc., printings of any book published by Muumuu House."

I read Gorrell's book rather quickly, and can see why Lin likes it, as it's basically like Tao Lin Lite. The book is rife with experiences of being an adolescent in the digital age: The only major player aside from extreme bouts of self-consciousness is the Internet. It's a book that -- and I mean no creative disrespect to Gorrell when I write this -- feels like it was written by someone inspired by and emulating Lin's poetry.

That in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, though it is, I think, why I've started becoming disillusioned with Lin's poetry. While I don't remember how I first came across Lin's work, I do know it was the originality of his poetry that first drew me in. I remember posting the link to "a poem written by a bear" on my Facebook page with a caption that read something like, "Sometimes you discover certain writers who make you feel bad for not being a genious. This is one of them."

And of course, there's the clever-upon-first-reading "i went fishing with my family when i was five," which I've heard he reads in its entirety at open mic nights (follow the link and you'll see why that's notable, if not necessarily necessary).

I still enjoy Lin's poetry to an extent -- this entire post began as a way to say that since the end of February Lin has had 12 poems up at The Lifted Brow, and for the most part I enjoy them immensely -- but the more I read work in the vein of he and Gorrell the more it feels unnaturally forced.

I appreciate the formation of what to me seems like a new school of poetic expression, fueled by those up-and-coming poets who may have grown up with current technological innovations as the norm, but I can only read so much poetry that seems like such a hybrid of high school vanity poetry ("i think," "i feel," etc.) and text and instant messaging.

That said, Lin has a knack for narrative poetry, which despite its possible flaws keeps me coming back for more. And with titles like "i feel weird, like my favorite book is a novelisation of 'metroid'" I'm afraid it's impossible for me not to keep reading, even when the opening line is "i feel like giving my penis papercuts."