The wonderful Oxyfication.net has chosen my chapbook, Charactered Pieces, as the book club discussion pick. Past books include Kristopher Young's Click, Don DeLillo's Underworld, Gordon Highland’s Major Inversions, and Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men. Please, if you have any thoughts or questions on the book, head over to the forum and offer a few words. I’ll be poking in all month to answer questions. Don't be shy. Books will die unless we talk about them.
Tune up your virtual groupie van. I'm hitting the wwwD.O.T for a blog tour to promote Charactered Pieces: stories. Blog Orgy Tour oh9-ohohoh10 promises to be a beautiful bastardization of legitimate blog posts and self-serving salesy talk, the likes of which will leave you itchy and raw. What is a blog tour? It's a way for authors with no actual-tour budget to use the term "tour" when describing their marketing plans. Why a blog tour? The concept seems fun. I'm going to make stops at various personal and writing-related blogs, offering posts about Charactered Pieces, about me, and about writing in general, that will both promote my chapbook and honor the integrity of each blog I visit. These aren't gimmicky advertisements. They are cleverly disguised advertisements. Where are the tour stops? Great question, hypothetical reader. See the poster below, or visit the dedicated Blog Orgy Tour page for all the…
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…
The Blank und Questions series is now two-interviews strong; though, incestuous they may be [1.) I interview Gordon Highland, 2.) He interviews me]. I’m looking to spread the influence. I’ve got a few more lined up, and I hope to add many conversations to the series at next year’s AWP Conference in Denver, CO. Will you be there? Gordon, author of Major Inversions, was kind enough to sit down with me and wax the ol’ ego at my favorite Kansas City dive-bar, The Newsroom. This visit, I met a woman named Julie who brought in fresh catfish and was nice enough to share. Julie, if you are reading this, it was absolutely perfect. Gordon and I sat down in the back room of the bar, a cozy, couch & chair lined seclusitorium that is normally used for live music (one of which was setting up around us during the interview).…
As part of the Charactered Pieces: stories preorder, I promised to fill every copy with the delicious smell of ACID cigars, as part of the completely made up Lungs for Readers program. The experiment semi-failed, as most of the books instead acquired the nasty smell of burnt paper and stale smoke. Lesson learned. Though still, the books are special, containing, in addition to the 'dive-bar' flavor, VERY personal inscriptions, limited numbering, and random bits of trash I've been meaning to toss. You're welcome, readers. Take in the shenanigans above, set to the sweet sounds of Cecada and helped by my friends at ArtJerk.net. Thanks to everyone! You can buy Charactered Pieces: stories at Amazon.com or direct from the publisher.
If any of you caught The Colbert Report last night, you definitely did not see an interview with me about my chapbook, Charactered Pieces: stories. I had been sweating the non-interview for weeks, well-aware of how Stephen Colbert treats his guests (victims?). Claiming fairness and balance, his questions instead aim to further weave his delusional and increasingly erratic conservative narrative. For this reason, I felt an appearance, though in my head entirely, would serve his ego well. I brought it, sir, if I do say so myself. Below is an unofficial Official Colbert Report Transcript from our interview. Stephen Colbert: Let me get right to it. Though I disagree with your incorrect political views, I commend you for this praise of consumerism that is Charactered Pieces. People love sex, and the first story, the title story, is all about selling sex. Plus, you’ve incorporated a strangely phallic deformity. It’s like…
I try to keep this site strictly about writing-related matters, but today warrants a break from that mode. Today is Prematurity Awareness day. When my wife first told me it was Prematurity Awareness day, I thought she was trying to drop a non-so-subtle hint. “But honey, it’s because you’re so attractive,” I was going to say. But then she saved me by elaborating. Here’s what the March of Dimes site has to say: Prematurity has been escalating steadily and alarmingly over the past two decades. One out of eight babies is born prematurely in the United States. Preterm delivery can happen to any pregnant woman. My wife and I had a preterm baby in January. Born 5 weeks early, our guy had some initial troubles but has since developed into an entirely normal child. As normal as a child of my seed could be, anyway. So, how can I spread…