back, middle, to the front, don't front

Before We Go, Ho Ho

Bask.

Bask in the light of Prick of the Spindle Vol. 3.4

Bask in the joy.

Bask in the quarterly amazement.

It's large. And very much in charge.

Explore. Then explore some more.
...and be sure to read the righteous Razz review(thanks, CR!) and the glorious fiction of Teresa Houle....



Barrels of gratitude to Cynthia Reeser & the PotS posse. Fantastic way to close out 2009. We'll see you next year. And we'll thank you again. We'll never grow tired of thanking you.

Recent Razz Buzz

Click on these fine images to find fine people saying fine things about things that are fine.



Big thanks to Matt DeBenedictis, Dorothee Lang, Edward Mullany, Ben Tanzer & Deckfight.

Also, don't miss my top 10 of 2009 over at the house of Big Other. Thanks again to John Madera & crew for letting me run my mouth.


(yes, I'm having too much fun perhaps with the whole screen shot thing)

Some News

Windmills. Australian for chapbook.

I have a story in the new edition of Windmills, a lovely chapbook produced by the fine people of Deakin University in Australia. That's right, y'all. I can now say I've rocked the spot down under.

Click on the picture for more information about ordering the chapbook, and for submission guidelines for the next issue, deadline January 1st. Chop chop.

The Windmills crew be good people.

Next on the menu is some very fun mail I've received recently.

Fashion for Collapse and Blink Ink are two offshoots of the larger entity Full of Crow. Both boast poetry, fiction, and image. On paper. And online. The paper is mailed to you. And the first issue of Blink Ink is mailed to you for FREE. Find your clicking comfort zone and learn more about submitting, subscribing, and enjoying.

Get yourself some good mail, some real mail.I know you want to.

Nothing but email will ruin you. It's been scientifically proven. Somewhere.







Lastly, for now, Caleb J Ross is out there this week being the creative juggernaut he was meant to be. Be sure to hop on board his Blog Orgy Tour as he draws back the curtain (and rolls off the stockings) on his phenomenal short story collection, Charactered Pieces.

He's soiled me this week already. Click on the image to find out where else he's been, and where he'll be next.



But before you go, check out the videos for the winners of the 3 Cheers award put out by Folded Word Press (Yay, xTx!), and peruse the year end issues of PANK, The Collagist, and The Northville Review.

See you in 2010.

Give An Author a Damn Chance

This is a guest post from Caleb J Ross, author of the chapbook Charactered Pieces: stories, as part of his ridiculously named Blog Orgy Tour. Visit his website for a full list of blog stops. Charactered Pieces: stories is currently available from OW Press (or Amazon.com). Visit him at http://www.calebjross.com.

All it takes is one story to seed an obsession. Brian Evenson’s “The Eye” did me in. Jorge Luis Borges’s “The Garden of Forking Paths,” too. Steve Aylett’s “Gigantic.” Amy Hempel’s “The Harvest.” Stephen Graham Jones’s “Halloween.” Of course, the kind Mel Bosworth’s “Leave Me as I Lessen.” And on the list grows, almost daily.

The bait is not always the first experienced story. What is amazing about this phenomenon is that should the bait be a second, third, or twentieth story, often once the reader is hooked, the previous stories suddenly seem relevant, as though the reader has befriended the author in a way that allows understanding and appreciation. My first Tom Waits listen was the Rain Dogs album (which is definitely story in terms of arc, voice, and character). I didn’t “get” it. Years later, with his Real Gone album, I fell in love. Now, Rain Dogs is practically the air in my house. And of course with someone like Tom Waits, the persona often enhances the work’s appeal.

Strange the way artist becomes art and art becomes artist. I blame (credit?) behind-the-scenes DVD extras. We have come to expect the making-ofs and not-fit-for-final-reel moments that make up the end product. With that in mind, I give you “Author Note on Story #2 (My Family’s Rule) In Hopes That You’ll Learn About Me Intellectually and Donate to My Pocket:”

My Family’s Rule is a story about a family unit built around destruction, but collectively oblivious that they themselves are falling apart. The origin of the story lies with my childhood spent destroying things. My friend’s father did construction, and often as a trade-off for getting to stay the night at his house we were charged with working at the sites. Small stuff mostly: picking up nails, sweeping debris. But those laborious hours forged a stronger relationship, not just with my friends but with their father. I, never having had a father, am interested in father/son relationships from an intellectual perspective, likely more-so than would be someone with a father. My Family’s Rule is an extension of that.

Your homework: ponder the following, then comment below. 1) What initially repulsive stories did you eventually love due to further exploration of the author’s work? 2) Why are an artist and his work so often inseparable?

Double Tweeter for KG

Two of my tweets were published today at PicFic. Finished and Every Day, Always are dedicated to a birthday boy 3,000 miles away.

I hope you had a good one.

Best, Mel

Paul Corman-Roberts is a Very Nice Man

Paul Corman-Roberts, poet/pundit/pulpist, knows how to get down. Check out his recent review of Shudder Pageant, the collaborative monster-piece by myself and xTx (click on image to enter Crow Reviews).

PCR is, among other things, the poetry editor for the long running e-zine Cherry Bleeds, and a regular contributor to Full of Crow.

Big ups to all.

A Review: Charactered Pieces by Caleb J Ross

Caleb J Ross’s short story collection Charactered Pieces (OW Press, 2009) is a celebration. It’s a celebration of characters who are cursed. With life.

Whether destructive, apathetic, misshapen or addicted, the characters in this collection continue to chug forward like damaged locomotives that refuse to derail. Their power, it seems, is in their imperfections, and Ross shows us, without a doubt, he is a master of tragedy made gorgeous.

In My Family’s Rule, a father and his two sons look on as a hospital is demolished:

“Sutures, like soft spots on infant skulls, break away, letting the exterior collapse into these floors and stairs that once carried so many sick, dying, and healing.”

Stark, vivid, and yes, often unsettling, Charactered Pieces grips you and won’t let go, pulling your eyes through the dark smudges of humanity’s rifts with a terrifying, skillful grace.

Beneath the rubble of their lives, the characters in Charactered Pieces know who they are, and Ross challenges us to forsake them. But we cannot, for they are us.

“Sometimes, we have to learn how to smile.”—from The Camp

Don’t miss this.

Visit Caleb HERE. Purchase Charactered Pieces HERE.

Friday December Things

Frank Hinton's Metazen has cool pictures. Frank wants you to do something NICE for once.

Eric Beeny has good news.

Ben Tanzer continues to change lives.

Negative Suck says Hello.

Fashion For Collapse wants your mad genius.

MBRT wants to read to you.

Sheldon Lee Compton knows right from Wrong Tree.

>kill author wants you to live.

decomP closes 2009 strong.

Buy something awesome this holiday season:

• Aaron Burch's winning PANK chapbook
• Jessie Carty's The Wait of Atom
• Charactered Pieces by Caleb J Ross
  
• Light and Trials of Light by Cynthia Reeser
• [First Year] an mlp anthology
  
• Museum of Fucked by David Peak
• A Sony Voice Recorder
• Good Socks

Be safe out there.

Rohan Rocks

The talented, lovely, thoughtful, and ever so gracious Ethel Rohan offers up some very kind words for my chapbook, When the Cats Razzed the Chickens & Other Stories.

Thank you, Ethel.


(click image to visit ethel's world)