Of Time &Its Fruits: Reflections on Kelly Cherry’s TEMPORIUM: FICTIONS

Tags

#readwomen, hybrid prose, Kelly Cherry, Press53, small press reviews, Temporium, Women writers

 

Kelly Cherry is a prolific writer, one who defies categorization and has so highly tuned her craft that her work manages to exist in perfect beauty wherever it lands, and especially– in this case–the twilight zone of hybrid prose. Her latest collection Temporium: Fictions (Press 53) shines in such a place. Not-quite prose poetry, mini-essays or fiction, Cherry describes “the book as a museum… curat[ed], harbor[ed] or displaying…bits and pieces– moments of time…arranged… more or less chronologically”.

Cleverly stitching together the previously published with new work, she delights us with characters as diverse as first century martyrs, assorted colonists, Einstein, Kafka, a literally vanishing office worker, a Ming Dynasty feminist, undead communists, aliens, and various incarnations of God. We peer in on them at all points along the cosmic ripple from pre-Big Bang darkness to post-Apocalypse reset, and we are at every junction, thoroughly entertained.

At times, I felt like the octopus from one of her six-word stories who is divested of his arm, only to be gifted two legs. The whole experience was fascinating, scary-pleasant and rocket-propelled. Like a magic trick, like a clever sleight of hand, Cherry brought out personal and universal cosmic truth without all of the inflated, academic language. Did I mention I love basically everything she writes?

I am obsessed with “Derek,” an over-loved bat and the woman who just can’t bring herself to let go of him. I am haunted by “Thomas Leigh” and a future where the last humans leave the space ark only to find themselves absorbed into the collective conscientiousness of an indigenous ‘alien’ race.

Ever the professor, the real cherry on top might be the mini-lecture/short “How to Write a Story,” a piece that manages to boil down all human conflict to the fraught interaction of one man and woman.

From any perspective, this book, maybe more so than her others, proves that Cherry is not limited by anything as mundane as region or genre or time. In one fell swoop, she unites continents, makes us believe in 3D printed souls, transcendent love, and life after the universe eats its tail like a snake.

This is a definite must-read. Scoop it up!

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ICYMI: My chapbook interview is up at SPEAKING OF MARVELS

Tags

chapbook interviews, Men&Beasts, Speaking of Marvels, William Woolfitt

If you follow me on twitter, you’ve already seen this, but for those who are email subscribers, you might have missed my chapbook interview over on William Woolfitt‘s fantabulous Speaking of Marvels blog. Check it out!

Sunday Sentence 7/9/17

Tags

#readwomen, Ashley Shelby, David Abrams, Picador, South Pole Station, Sunday Sentence, women novelists

 

My weekly contribution to David Abrams’ “Sunday Sentence” project in which participants share the best sentence read during the past week “out of context and without commentary.”

My father’s a frustrated explorer, so I’m on a first-name basis with a lot of dead men.

 
SOURCE: South Pole Station (Picador, 2017), a novel by Ashley Shelby

 

 

 

Fall Surprise!!!!

Tags

craft talks, writers on writing, writing advice, youtube channel

Yes, BoneSparkblog has been sadly neglected this summer, but I have something yummy for all you fiction writers out there…………….

A BRAND NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL

featuring a Craft Talks (Writers on Writing) playlist that will blow your socks off.

But don’t let the genre labels fool you, scribblers, these videos have juicy advice that is applicable across categories.

So dig in!! And look for its poetry cousin in the very near future.

Review of CHEROKEE ICE by John T. Biggs

Tags

book review, Cherokee Ice, John T Biggs, Liffey Press, magical realism, Native American lore, new books, oklahoma author, Oklahoma Book Award, Pen-L Publishing, Sacred Alarm Clocks

ISBN: 978-1-942428-34-3 (272 pgs) from PEN-L Publishing

What do a dwarf, a holy man and a ghost horse all have in common? –Danny Riley, a mixed-up NDN on the wrong nation’s rez, who may or may not be a witch.

Riley is at the center of writer John T. Biggs’s latest magical realist novel CHEROKEE ICE, which I am excited to learn is a fiction finalist for the 2016 Oklahoma Book Award.

On its surface, the novel is about the rise and fall of a designer drug in several Southwestern states, but at its core it is a family saga that is as much about what we would do for family as what family does to us.

With this book, Biggs proves again that he understands how to ground the magical in the real, be it a young man’s first, awkward sexual encounters or his fraught mother-son relationship.

Biggs also understands the beauty of a well-written prologue. In the taut, three-page scene that opens the book, he manages to create sympathy for an otherwise unsympathetic character, thereby steeping us literally (in-utero) in the main character’s same conflicted emotions. Emotions that are later mirrored in other characters, both major and minor.

One such example is supposed tough-guy Tommy Bracken, a drug dealer whose own addiction to the emotional vulnerability of a sexually sadistic relationship (with Danny’s grandmother, no less) and acute fear of spiders is often at odds with the extreme macho-ism needed to maintain his territory.

In this sea of emotion and drama, characters, over time, begin to merge into each other. Whether it be morphs between fathers and sons, brothers and husbands, drug lackeys or cops, the unpredictable shape-shifting heightens the vision-like quality of the storyline.

One of my favorite vision-like scenes comes in the last quarter of the book, when Lil Bits, the aforementioned dwarf, tries to kill Danny for the second time, this time with the help of silver bullets and a few hired goons.  Pardon the long passage (readers and publisher), but the space is needed to see how Danny works his special kind of mojo:

Green goo covers the African American dwarf’s eyes, spoiling his aim as he fires a silver bullet into the wasp nest on Danny Riley’s pickup truck.

Danny feels the burn of the wasp toxin for the time it takes his heart to shift into overdrive. The nausea clears. Poison tumbles through his  drug factory enzymes and winds up in his brain, where it’s a lot different than it started out.  Danny Riley suddenly understands that bullets aren’t nearly as dangerous as wasps.

His wasp-sisters’ poison doesn’t turn into visions inside Little Bits’ hired killers. They have their pistols out, squeezing shots off this way and that, filling the air with projectiles than fly off to lodge in buildings and automobiles and maybe an innocent bystander or two.

Clouds of nitrate-flavored smoke don’t hinder Danny or  his wasp-sisters at all. Gunpowder residue tastes as sweet as nectar on his lips. It doesn’t burn his eyes or dull his vision. Everything is crystal clear, broken into a thousand pieces Washed in rainbows, as if Danny is gazing at the world through a cut diamond lens.

Danny Riley knows he is not a wasp, as much as he knows anything, but he is moving too fast to think about it clearly. Faster than thoughts, faster than all the reasons a man can’t move this fast. Faster than Little Bits can take aim through the haze of smoke and vomit and superstition.

The African American dwarf empties his revolver of silver bullets, tries to make one land on Danny, who is moving around him the way a swam of hornets attacks a marauding bear.

Danny snatches the pistol out of Little Bits’ hand. Throws it at one of the Italian killers. Hits him square in the face. Knocks him out as he fires his pistol one last time and shoots his partner in the knee.

Little Bits takes off running down the center of the street, screaming for one of his two silver Jesuses to save him from witches and wasps.

The situation only gets more complicated after that, and what a wild ride to get to the conclusion!

That said, I felt that the ending, which was satisfying in its own way, needed to go just one step farther with Danny by letting his newfound courage bring him back into his own identity.

All in all, though, another great book from Biggs, who also has a new short story collection out from Liffey Press, called appropriately, SACRED ALARM CLOCKS. The collection made the best selling Oklahoma Writers list in February.

For more news on his writing, check out johnbiggsoklahomawriter.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Poem on the Passing of My Father

MULTI-STEP EQUATIONS
by C.A. LaRue
                            —for Red Fox Man, beloved father

everything tastes of smoke
though the house has had 27 days
to bear your absence

i scrape your tools along cracked
walls that have waited 9.25 years
to mend Katrina scars

mama starts your truck 1x per day,
goes 0 miles: x equals the
qty of gas burned

dry mouths swallow Mound bars
from the stash you thought you hid in
your desk drawer: 240 calories per
serving

son #1 digs the drain you
laid out for the backyard: 3ft deep,
1 ft wide

son #2 googles that your
remains weigh 6.3lbs, peeks
inside the urn

we sit them beside your birthday cards
(which you missed by days)

no one can move towards home or
dare to take a final sum

 

Sunday Sentence #24

Tags

David Abrams, Getty Iris Magazine, My Lifelong Quest for Color, Sunday Sentence, The Brilliant History of Color in Art, Victoria Finlay, women essayists

 

My weekly contribution to David Abrams’ “Sunday Sentence” project in which participants share the best sentence read during the past week “out of context and without commentary.”

The stories of colors burst with improbable details.

 
SOURCE: “My Lifelong Quest for Color” essay by Victoria Finlay, author of The Brilliant History of Color in Art (Getty Museum, 2014).

 

 

 

The Witching Hour Finds You in Bed…

Tags

31 Days of Halloween, Abyss&Apex, Ada Hoffman, Alex Carrigan, All My Love to the Monster Devouring Me, Amazing Stories, At That Age When We Girls Become Fairies, Betwixt, Brooke Wonders, Carol Holland March, Carolee Sherwood, Clarkesworld, creepy poetry, David Kopaska Merkel, Day of the Dead, Devilfish Review, E. Kirstin Anderson, Edgar A. Poe, Eleonara, Erik Amundsen, Fish Boy Hits the Teen Years, Ghostweight, Goblin Fruit, Gorgon Girls, Graveyard Rock, halloween, Hand Me Down Halloween, Harvey's Dream, Headmistress Press, Helen Kitson, Henry Wouk Is Still Alive, Here Be Toothsome Wolves, Hilary Joubert, Inkscrawl, Judith Barrington, Kelly Link, Lilla Ashley, Liz Henry, Liz Kay, Luna Station Quarterly, Made of Lines blog, Maria Dahvana Headley, Menacing Hedge, Michael J. DeLuca, Mother Frankenstein, Natalie Diaz, NightBlade, Nightmare Magazine, Pat Cadigan, Poetry Society of America, Quail Bell Magazine, Real Witches Don't Wear Hats, Rose Red Review, Sabotage Reviews, Saira Ali, Samhain, Sestina at the Maldron Hotel Ireland, Shannon Hozinac, Small Beer Press, Soul Harvest, Stephen King, Stone Telling, Taxidermist in the Underworld, The Axe-Eaters, The Faery Handbag, The Gingerbread Dress, The Girl Who Couldn't Fly, The Golden Key, The Mermaid at SeaWorld, The Stone Horse of Flores, The Witch Has a Purpose, Unfair Exchange, Wake Up Poetry, When the Wife Brings Love Back From the Dead, Witch's Primer, Women Destroy Horror, Yoon Ha Lee

Or perhaps you are atop a broomstick or pumpkin.  Wherever you find yourself this Halloween, don’t let the hour arrive without first indulging in some of these SPOOKTACULAR finds:

 

STORIES

D. Long’s (Lushly illustrated)

version of E.A. Poe’s Eleonara—from Amazing Stories

 

Here Be Toothsome Wolves
Brooke Wonders—at Rose Red Review

 

Henry Wouk Is Still Alive
Stephen King—at The Atlantic

 

Harvey’s Dream
Stephen King—at The New Yorker

 

The Faery Handbag
Kelly Link–at Small Beer Press

 

Ghostweight

Yoon Ha Lee–at Clarkesworld

 

Taxidermist in the Underworld
Maria Dahvana Headley–at Clarkeworld

 

The Stone Horse of Flores by Michael J. DeLuca–at Betwixt

 

Unfair Exchange by Pat Cadigan–at Nightmare Magazine: Women Destroy Horror! Special Issue

 

The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly by Carol Holland March–at Luna Station Quarterly

 

POEMS

Gorgon Girls by Saira Ali–at Strange Horizons

Mother Frankenstein by Liz Henry–at Stone Telling

The Gingerbread Dress by

Lilla Ashley–at Rose Red Review

Sestina at the Maldron Hotel, Ireland
Judith Barrington–at Rose Red Review

When the Wife Brings Love Back From the Dead, She Creates a Monster by

Carolee Sherwood–at Goblin Fruit

The Mermaid at SeaWorld by Ada Hoffman–at NightBlade

The Axe-Eaters by Shannon Hozinac–at Menacing Hedge

Soul Harvest by

Hillary Joubert–at The Golden Key

Hunger—The Witch has a Purpose

by Liz Kay–at The Golden Key

Day of the Dead by Helen Kitson–at Sabotage Reviews

Samhain by John Montague–at Wake Up Poetry

At That Age When We Girls Become Fairies by E. Kristin Anderson--at Abyss&Apex

Witch’s Primer, Lesson 4 Erik Amundsen –at Inkscrawl

Fish Boy Hits the Teen Years

by David Kopaska-Merkel–at Devilfish Review

All My Love to the Monster Devouring Me by Alex Carrigan–at Quail Bell Magazine

Hand-Me-Down Halloween by Natalie Diaz–at Poetry Society of America

 

ART

31 Monsters of Halloween at Made of Lines blog

Real Witches Don’t Wear Hats

 

FUN

Pulp Mine!!!!

Tags

CL Moore, comics, Digital Archives Hub, io9, Mammoth Mystery, Mars Attack Trading Cards, megan burns, New Pulp publishers, penny dreadfuls, pulp art, Pulp Character Grid, Pulp Era, pulp fiction, pulp stories, PulpOMizer, space babes in danger, space opera, Startling Stories, The Black Mask, The Golden Age of SciFi, The Pulp Project, Thrilling Tales, Weird Tales

If you have a sweet spot for the old pulp mags, poke your head in at The Pulp Project  for a whole slew of free reading material, including full-color downloads or browse-able issues of Mammoth Mystery, Weird Tales, Startling Stories & the Black Mask, to name just a few.

You’ll also find a tidy listing of pulp links in its vast Digital Archives Hub, with everything from scholarship to RPG’s to radio adaptations to forums thoroughly covered.  You’ll even find a few more sources of free downloads (some penny dreadfuls and comics sprinkled in).

And in case you want a more user friendly roundup of “New Pulp”publishers, (i.e. stories by modern writers that recreate the feel of the old style pubs), click on the Pulp.net link above. There’s a bit of a revival going on in the genre, as you will see.

While you’re out there browsing, hop on over to the very cool PULP-O-MIZER at the Thriling Tales website, which lets you create a customizable vintage style cover.

Also worth a read is this trio of articles up at io9.com titled,  Badass Women of the Pulp Era, The Weird Life of Pioneering Female Pulp Fiction Writer C.L. Moore & Space Babes in Danger: The Space Opera Pin-up Art of Megan Burns [Burns mini-gallery below]

 

You might enjoy these fun 60’s style Mars Attacks trading cards too, but expect to tweek before printing.  Sample image below:

 

And for the brave wanting to put pen to paper after all that fine reading, whip out this fillable Pulp Character Grid first.

~Until next time, a million thrills, subscribey-wibeys!!!! We’ve got more good stuff coming up, including Halloween reads & interviews with three Louisiana small presses.  STAY TUNED.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merlinated: Arthurian Legend Beyond the BBC

Tags

Angel Coulby, arthurian legends, Arthurian romance, bbc merlin, bernard cromwell, Bradley James, California Polytechnic, Colin Morgan, Cromwell's Warlord series, Debora B. Schwartz, Emilia Fox, Guinevere, Katie McGrath, King Arthur and His Noble Knights, Knights of the Roundtable, M.K. Hume, Mary Stewart, medieval bestiary, medieval literature, merlin, Merlin Trilogy, Mists of Avalon, Modern Arthurian Legend, Monty Python's Holy Grail, Pendragon Cycle, Steinbeck, Steve Lawhead, the camelot project, the Gawain Poet, The Idylls of the King, The Once and Future King, The Sword in the Stone, Tolkien

Young Merlin (Colin Morgan) with Prince Arthur (Bradley James)

If Fall TV has disappointed, cast your gaze upon the BBC’s Merlin, available now at Hulu.com, free for the full five seasons.  Great scripts, gorgeous actors and all the beauty that the BBC brings in recreating the period, plus some very kicka$$ medieval chicks!

Katie McGrath as Morgana

Angel Coulby as Guinevere

Emilia Fox as Morgana’s Half-sister, Morgause

 

 

But don’t spend all of your time in front of the screen when there are more Modern Arthurian Legends to explore.  Dr. Debora B. Schwartz,

Associate Professor English Department, College of Liberal Arts · California Polytechnic State University recommends these texts:

• Lacy, Ashe and Mancoff, The Arthurian Handbook, 2nd ed. (Garland)
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Idylls of the King (Penguin Classics)
• T. H. White, The Once and Future King (Ace)
• John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (Noonday)
• Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon (Del Rey)

The full reading schedule is available on her very detailed course page.  You’ll notice she’s sprinkled in viewings of several films, including The Sword in the Stone and Monty Python’s Holy Grail. 

 

And if you are dying for something more authentic, consider working through her

Medieval Arthurian Legends syllabus, which looks at the older texts such as Chrétien de Troyes’ Arthurian Romances, or the Medieval Literature course, which adds in the writings of the Gawain-Poet (try the Tolkien version) and other classics.  There are extensive links to background resources at both sites.

 

If you visit none of the others, do click through:

The Camelot Project

and

The Medieval Bestiary

 

And do not close the door on all things Arthurian until you’ve read all of Bernard Cromwell’s thrilling Warlord series.

 

 

====> BUT WAIT!  If it’s more Merlin you want, try these enchanted reads:

Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy
M.K. Hume’s Merlin series
Steve Lawhead’s Merlin (Part of the Pendragon Cycle)
T.A. Barron’s Lost Years of Merlin Series (YA)
Priya Ardis’ My Merlin series (YA)
Jane Yolen’s Young Merlin series (YA)