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Today, Charactered Pieces officially goes on sale after an absolutely amazing pre-sale period. I can't thank enough the many people who have traded their hard-earned cash for these bound words of mine. Due to such generosity, I have decided not to use the money to purchase a new Lay-Z-Boy for the PETA compound. They will get a used chair instead. The remaining money goes toward R&D for more painful ways to stub toes. It's a cause that is close to my heart. Charactered Pieces is available to purchase in two formats: 1) a perfect bound print version: $7.00 US 2) a .pdf eBook version: $2 US Either of which can be purchased by visiting the Outsider Writers Collective purchase page. Now starts the real struggle: getting as many eyes as possible on those pages. I'm truly, honestly, non-fakingly proud of every word in this collection. For that reason, I want…

Only five days left to preorder Charactered Pieces: stories and receive all of the following cash and prizes: Free shipping A (very) personal inscription. Note the specific name you would like the inscription made out to in the PayPal comments area. Also, note my use of the word “very;” I warn you: you may be disturbed by what I write. If you would rather a flat-signed, or “clean” copy, note that in the PayPal comments area as well. A picture of me signing the book (so there are no Antiques Roadshow conflicts 90 years from now) As part of the made up LUNGS FOR READERS program, each preorder will smell of delicious ACID cigars. Trust me, even if you don’t like cigars, you’d love the smell of ACIDs. Imagine if cinnamon and Italian food had a veal baby. My friends over at ArtJerk.net are going to help me stink up…

This afternoon, on vacation, sitting at the beach with a cigar in one hand and a notepad in the other, getting a head-start on inscriptions for Charactered Pieces preorders, I was struck with a sense of a realized dream, a dream I didn’t really know I had until that moment. I write fiction for fun. One day, I’d like to make some money doing so. But until then, taking time at the beach to scribble a few words to people who are wanting to read my book…that’s a damn fine dream to have. I’ve filled this blog (along with my Facebook account, MySpace page, and Twitter feed) with consistent salesy talk for the past few days (though historically I have always taken pride in offering a mix of the personal and the largely-pertinent). So for this post, I simply want to take a moment to thank those who have made…

First, and you'll get tired of me saying this, thank you to all who have preordered Charactered Pieces. As mentioned in the previous post, some of you may have been refunded by PayPal. Big whoops on that. I received a list of all the people whose orders were NOT affected by the pre-order fiasco. I sent an email or PM to all of those beautiful people letting them know that they were not affected at all by the mix up and that their orders will ship as originaly promised. So, everyone who ordered should have either received a PayPay refund or an email from me. If you received a refund, please re-order using the button at the following link (it is the same page as before, but the button has been updated). http://www.outsiderwriters.org/publications/caleb-j-rosss-charactered-pieces So, in summary, all is as it was before. Preorders will still contain all the goodies as…

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.

Note: I’m picking on poetry here because of all forms, it is the most elusive. But my following comments could be applied to art in general. Maybe because I was looking for a reason to give up on what had already proven to be an unfortunate read, but this section of The Book of Lazarus frothed all the ill-will I had toward (most) poetry: I have seen that there is no predetermined direction to the birth of a word, that words move across the page like beams of random light moving through immense voids of wandering flares. Poems are built like jewels. (pg 434) Really? Explaining what poetry is with poetic language is cyclical and confusing. I do appreciate the meta aspect of doing this (truly, I do. See here). But defining an elusive concept with further metaphor doesn’t help to define anything. Yes, the above example is from a…

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