Video Games are Real

Tag: newsletter

  • Brian Evenson’s names

    I thought I’d do something different this time around. I recently read Jeremy Robert Johnson’s story collection “Angeldust Apocalypse” (which is absolutely amazing); with it JRJ does something unique. At the end of the collection he as a section called Author’s Notes, which are a series of anecdotal behind-the-scenes snippets on each story. Here’s hoping it catches on.

    So, with my newest publication I figure I would do the same. Present Magazine has just posted my story “Dry Dot.” Here’s the thoughts:

    At every rain I wonder—though the drop patterns are likely random—if there is a single spot somewhere within the downpour where no drop falls; where the concrete remains dry. Give water’s tendency to pool together, could there be an untouched dot? Further, how would we explain it? Science? Maybe, but wouldn’t that argument just be destroyed by politics? Global warming, anyone? It seems even the earth is subject to abiding by the party with the most supporters.

    Also, the strangeness of the name Durzenkya, I think satisfies both the parable-like nature of the story and my Evensonian obsession with crazy character names.

    Click here to read the story. Please enjoy.

    Present Magazine

    Present Magazine is a Kansas City area arts publication focused on bringing the area’s best creative talents to the forefront. Also, they bring people like me to the forefront.

  • Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson

    When a man in a suit made of cockroaches meets a man in a suit made of Twinkies — well, that’s about as easy as subtraction gets.

    From Jeremy Robert Johnson’s Extinction Journals

    About a year ago I came across this novella, fell in love, then promptly forgot it in favor of my ever-increasing to-read stack. Shame, really. Recently (today, actually) I revisited the story, coming away from the experience with all the enthusiasm I had after the original read.Extinction Journals cover

    Extinction Journals manages the high-concept, visceral storytelling consistent with Bizarro literature, but delivers in addition, literary quality unfortunately uncommon with a lot of work in the same genre. The literal tale is of a man, the sole survivor of a nuclear cataclysm, searching the country for survivors in a suit made of cockroaches. The deeper tale explores survivor’s will, collective consciousness, and how the two working together can be an apt gateway to the primal instincts forgotten in a world that would destroy itself with it’s own creations (while also managing to touch on snark-less political commentary).

    Buy, read, enjoy.

  • …out of WordRiot

    Via the work of Stephen Graham Jones, author of tomes and short stories alike, I came upon Word Riot, an online literary magazine showcasing some of the best short fiction around. Diving further I came upon former fiction co-editor of Word Riot, David Barringer’s story collection “We Were Ugly So We Made Beautiful Things.” This brief work (68 pages) absolutely below me away. I knew, after reading that collection, that I had to be a part of whatever Barringer had his hands in.

     

    Luckily, Word Riot considered my words suitable. Appearing now is my short fiction piece, “Our Guy.” Skim it, then immediately buy “We Were Ugly…” (if not for the stories, do it for purposes of understanding what the title of this post means).

     

    Word Riot Banner

    Word Riot is a Monthly online literary magazine with a notable book catalog under the Word Riot Press imprint.
  • those of a life remembered

    those of a life remembered

    The interview is a rare opportunity to experience the inner workings of a person. Unless that person likes to call himself a writer, then the interview is just old news to those who’ve read his stories. Fiction can be the ultimate autobiography, though a structured and controlled autobiography it is. Fiction is makeup.So what’s a writer to do when he wants to wash away the mascara? He answers some questions in an attempt to categorize his life, similar to the desires of the protagonist in Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea:

    I wanted the moments of my life to follow and order themselves like those of a life remembered.

    And like this protagonist the writer understands that “You might as well try and catch time by the tail.”
    Oxyfication LinkJason Kane and Justin Holt, both writers themselves, were kind enough to pretend I had interesting things to say, to pretend I had a some thoughts worth organizing. I won’t try claim that this interview forced impromptu responses (I had plenty of time to think), but it is a bit further from fiction than I am used to.

     

    Click the Oxy icon to read interview