MCCREESH GETS GREASY

The wonderful Hosho McCreesh, author of For All These Wretched, Beautiful, & Insignificant Things So Uselessly & Carelessly Destroyed... (sunnyoutside press, 2008) and co-author of Sunlight at Midnight, Darkness at Noon (Orange Alert Press, 2009) on my novella Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom:

"The core of the book's charm is David & Samantha. And most moving is their conversation. Like the wonderful Hepburn/Cary Grant/Jimmy Stewart movies of the 40's, what makes the book sing is two people COMMUNICATING, figuring it out, making the impossible possible, trying and failing and succeeding, making it happen. And the book is every bit as charming as those movies: Bringing Up Baby; The Philadelphia Story; His Girl Friday...there's a reason these films are so beloved, and [Grease Stains] does what these films do: it brings us to ourselves. We want to be there and be part of it; we've been there and were part of it; we loved and were loved; we tried and failed and succeeded; we made it happen."

...Grease Stains returns soon. Yes it does.

I'm gonna have me some fun

Yes. Yes I am.

AWP in Washington, D.C. February 2-5, 2011.

Matchbook Postcard Series

Ernest Williamson III landed in my mailbox. Thank you, Matchbook.

Grease Stains Returns This November

Garrett Socol, fiction writer and playwright, on Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom:
 
"What an amazing ride! It's riveting, entertaining, oddly suspenseful and surprising all at once."

And this November, despite a few speed bumps, Grease Stains returns with Brown Paper Publishing, the brainchild of author and publisher Pablo D'Stair. 

good things are sometimes right around the corner

Earlier this year I worked with Pablo on the Predicate author dialogues along with friends xTx and Caleb J. Ross.

Pablo is nothing if not driven. And passionate. And very tall, if I remember correctly. And his press is one of the most reader-friendly presses I can think of. It's a "literature-for-literature" press, which means Pablo is more concerned with getting great material out there than he is with stuffing his pockets. The titles are slick, wildly inexpensive, and readily available. Not many presses can operate this way, and I'm not even sure how Pablo can do it, but he's been doing it, and doing it, and doing it well for a long time.
 
Needless to say, I'm thrilled about this new turn of events.

Today it's Autumn

It really is. Get outside.

Nope. Not dead.

It's been a crazy day, folks, and I apologize for all the confusion.

Grease Stains may have been discontinued by Aqueous Books, but it's found new life elsewhere and should be available once more before too long. I'll keep everyone posted as the good news rolls in.

In the meantime, enjoy this piece of awesome by Roxane Gay.

And, of course, this:

Gone Too Soon

My novella Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom has been discontinued. It's true. It is no longer available for purchase. Due to certain conflicts I don't care to disclose here, my partnership with Aqueous Books has been dissolved.

I do want to wish the Aqueous authors all the best. I hope your experience will be better than mine.

That being said, I also want to thank everyone who supported this book. Your thoughts, words, and encouragement made it, and continue to make it, all worthwhile. Thank you. You know who you are.

For now I'll leave you with some awesome snippets from some awesome reviews by some fucking awesome people. And tremendous thanks to the gentlemen of Dark Sky Magazine for holding a Greasy giveaway today. To the winners, and to everyone who has a copy, sharing is a good thing.

Pass that Grease on.

“To call Grease Stains a love story is really to sell Bosworth short, and your own self (yeah I went there). Simple love is something for third graders, not even a 1987 sitcom presents love as simple. There needs to be lust, a bit of a mess, and a great divide.”

—Matt Debenedictis, author and proprietor of Safety Third Enterprises. Read Matt's entire review HERE. 

 “It’s the best single-sitting novel[la] I’ve read since Shane Jones’s Lightboxes.”

—Brian Allen Carr, author of Short Bus (forthcoming from Texas Review Press)


....Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom will return. It'll just be wearing a different jacket. 

 

Fall(ed)

Man. Sunday concludes with this:

"There’s not enough joy in literature and the joy that exists is poorly crafted and contrived. Mel Bosworth’s Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom is joyously crafted, joyous to read, joyous to remember what it was like to be in love in the way David & Samantha are in love."

—J. Bradley, author of Dodging Traffic (Ampersand Books, 2009) and The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You Is A Robot (Safety Third Enterprises, 2010)

Read Mr. Bradley's entire post HERE.

....man oh man. Thanks, Jesse.

More Fall(ing)

Will the goodness for Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom ever stop? Let's hope not...


"There are some books that slap you in the face. This is one of them."

—Sabrina Cognata, writer for Mad Atoms and 97.1 AMP


Read Sabrina's entire review HERE.

Wow.

Thank you, Sabrina.

Fall(ing)

Autumn begins Wednesday night, but great things are falling now. And I'm not just talking about the bright orange and yellow and red leaves. I'm also talking about this (click ben for love):

Ben Tanzer, author of the phenomenal 99 Problems (CCLaP, 2010) drops more love leaves than a maple tree.

Thank you, brotha.

...I know Ben has been greased, but have you?

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Rose Hunter, author of the forthcoming poetry collection To The River (ADP, 2010), recently reviewed my novella Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom. Here's a sampling:

"...it's a quirky book. In all the best ways. It's also an immensely entertaining read. There's an understatedness to the self-deprecating narrator/author, David, that's the perfect match for the chaos he's at work producing, yay metafiction! - and a delightful (hmm that may be the first time I've used that word on my blog but it seems apt here) sweetness - to him, and the book as a whole. His dream girl creation Samantha, is a force, exactly as the narrator wants her to be, except when she isn't...and the story becomes a wonderful commentary on the process of writing; the unpredictable nature of the creation of character, and falling in love with the characters you create."

Read Rose's entire post HERE. Huge thanks to Rose.

Heron 3

how to make a heron:

1. download
2. print
3. fold
4. eat

Summer Wanes but the Hot Flashes keep Coming

throw ya hands up

new PANK.

PANK also announced their nominees for the BEST OF THE NET. Big ups to all, but especially to my friendo xTx. She cool. And awesome.

And she's also in the new issue of WORD RIOT right HERE. BLAM!

New Collagist is out and about and painting the town.

And the fine folk of DECKFIGHT tear through my novella Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom and live to write about it:

"Like stomping on water balloons in a kiddie pool. This book explodes so quickly and then it’s done but we’re all the better for it."

Big thanks to Josh Spilker.

Now go be September.

Coming Soon, Submission Call, Amazon

Shome be rocking.

Shome Dasgupta's debut i am here And You Are Gone is coming soon from the homies at OWC. Brace yourself. This shit is gonna blow your socks off.

And there is a submission call for THE ENTIRE FULL OF CROW SUITE. Get busy.

And oh hey LOOK! My novella Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom is now available on Amazon.

Barnes and Noble? Kindle? Your asses are next.

SHIPPING

Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom now SHIPPING

“What a fun little fucker it is.”—says Jarrett Haley, Editor for BULL

...get your own fun little fucker HERE.

all at once, all for you

"Mel kind of scares the shit out of me..." is not something I often hear but when I do it makes me grin.

Huge thanks to Amber Sparks and Necessary Fiction for slowly revealing the artifacts of the ancient city. My bit came on the heels of an outstanding bit by Christy Crutchfield. Guh. Stay tuned for more. The project is mind-bogglingly amazing.

Country gentleman Sheldon Lee Compton's new literary venture A-Minor is playing some sweet music. Catch up, submit.

It smells like autumn today and I have The Crow on the brain but it's still summer, dammit, and Paul Corman-Roberts reminds us of that over at xTx's house with his awesome contribution(s) to Zombie Summer.

Eric Beeny's collection Snowing Fireflies is out and about, friends. And it is killer. Folded Word Press only produces 75 copies of the hand-made chapbook. You really need to get one.

Ben Tanzer is having no problems at all with 99 Problems. And why would he? Dude is incredible.

You need to submit to the Freight contest.

You need to buy Artifice Magazine Issue #2 (I need to too).

You need to check out the Rendezvous. Big ups to the Cinnamon Urns for a great show there last night.

Lots of links, I know. All at once, all for you, minus the 30 hours of pain.



Hang on to summer, homies. Hang on.

neko turns 40

happy birthday.

Hey Ladies!

you are nice

Are you a lady? Do you know a lady? Do you know a lady who likes to read fun things? Do you know a lady who writes? Are you that lady? Are you a man pretending to be that lady?

Because I am looking for a lady. A woman. Actually, women. I'm looking for a few awesome women willing to review my novella Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom (Aqueous Books, 2010).

Any interested parties can contact me at eddiesocko[at]gmail[dot]com and I will send a free copy to you. I'll even sign it, whether you want me to or not. Well, if you really don't want me to, I won't.

Note: Dudes welcome too. But you have to be a really enthusiastic dude.

Thank you.

Now, Beasties.


Beastie Boys - Hey Ladies mtv
Uploaded by BullShit_K. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

foundling touching august

Foundling Review Aug 2010. Issue 2

is it really september?

it must be, because decomP and elimae boast new issues. new awesome issues. new awesome september issues. WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH. And Emprise Review drops volume 16, yo!

the sox are toast

and Necessary Fiction's new Writer In Residence unveils the beginning. The beginning of what? The beginning of September. And creative explosions. Hello, Amber Sparks.

....there's a lot going on out there. the world is a busy place. we're in the midst of a heat wave here in western mass. it's not so bad. it'll all be over soon. then it'll all be over. and it's time for something new. it's always time for something new.



a man lying on his back on the grass in the shade.
do you want to stay here or come with me.
i'll come with you.
then let's go.