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@ Goodreads.com, Ben Tanzer, author of Most Likely You'll Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine (Orange Alert Press) said this amazing bit about Charactered Pieces: While there is weirdness in these stories, not to mention biblical allegories and tales of suicide and the holocaust, what lingers is an underlying thread about the impact parents, fathers in particular, have on our lives whether through their presence or more often their absence. Ultimately, the stories are like a collective punch to the chest, though none more so than An Optimist is the Human Personification of Spring which caused me to lose my breath for a fleeting moment as I sat on the train and still haunts me even as I write this. @ Le Salon Annex, Kristin Fouquet (author of the story collection, Twenty Stories) gives Charactered Pieces a fantastic review. If her collection, which is next in my to-read stack,…

The Millions recently posted a list of 2010 books forthcoming from literary giants. I'm looking forward to quite a few on that list. But, I think we are due a list from literary midgets, too, right? So here they are (the ones I can think of right now, anyway. I reserve the right to add more): Sawako Nakayasu's Texture Notes and Travis Nichols's Iowa from Letter Machine Editions. I only recently heard about Letter Machine Editions, and, other than a few excerpts from the above titles, I have no reason to think these books are worth anticipating. But I like the press's simple webpage and their equally simple book design. I never said the lit midget list had to be supported by my knowledge of a press or its authors, did I? Noah Cicero's The Insurgent from BLATT Books. Lot's of people don't like his stuff. I do. Will I…

@Fictionaut, I've started a profile. I'm still not entirely sure what the site is all about. But it has the word "fiction" in the url, and I like fiction. @JMWW I'm interviewed. We talk about fatherhood, stories, and the reasons behind my lack of manliness. @everywhere, all installments of my AUTHOR NOTES series have been posted. Click here for a full list. The AUTHOR NOTES are a series of posts that contain specific extra information about each of the stories in Charactered Pieces. When I get a die-hard fan, this will please him. @Prospero's Books in Kansas City, Charactered Pieces is now for sale. If local, go there to support this fantastic bookstore. 1800 West 39th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64111 { Directions } phone: 816.531.WORD · email: info@prosperosbookstore.com

@ This Blog Will Change Your Life, kindness aficionado and author extraordinaire, Ben Tanzer notes his excitement about Charactered Pieces. I'm excited too for his book Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine, which should be in the mail right now. People have good things to say. And I believe people. @ Oxyfication.net, each Charactered Pieces story is being discussed. I plan to offer the printed and bound discussions in the future to use as a giveaway. Join the conversation here. @Present Magazine Pete Dulin offers a generous review of Charactered Pieces. @Goodreads the reviews for Charactered Pieces keep coming in and are equally as generous as Pete's above.

Tom Waits stands as one of the most innovative artists alive, mixing crooner piano tunes, industrial percussion, and all the styles between in a way that compliments, though dissonantly, his abrasive voice. Woven throughout his catalog, there's hip hop, too, from when hip hop was beat poetry. Take 1978's "Step Right Up" from his Small Change album: Step Right Up Then, as Waits fell in with (helped create?) the garbage clank-boom crowd, he upped the percussion, giving his hip hop styles more "edge:" Top of the Hill Dog Door But, during last night's Sonic Spectrum show with Roger Moore (a program I love, by the way), I heard a Tom Waits track that clearly marks the man's furthest stretch into hip hop: Though my initial reaction was one of disgust. Not because Waits had further adopted hip hop (I like hip hop) but because he had done so to such…

Everyone who preordered Charactered Pieces: You likely received a refund notice from PayPal. There was a problem with the ordering system, which is being addressed. Please know that Charactered Pieces is still going as promised. Please, though, if your money was refunded by PayPal, re-purchase using the button below. I know this is a hassle. Such is the life of a small operation.

Gordon Highland is not Drew Ballard. Though, to know the former after reading the latter, one might not recognize a distinction. Ballard, the protagonist of Highland’s first novel, Major Inversions, has much in common with his author: 80’s tribute band member, check; film scoring history, check; unending wit, check. Film set drug dealer…no. After reading Major Inversions, I sat with Gordon to ask him a bit about these parallels (as well as a couple especially interesting others). Check out the video interview, the first of what I hope to be a series of author interviews called Beer und Questions Asks. Buy a copy of Major Inversions online at Amazon.com. I recommend it. Further reading: My review of Major Inversions at Outsider Writers Collective Gordon Highland homepage

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