Tuesday, June 21, 2011

#93 Revelation Awarded

Dear Reader,

Great news!  I submitted a finalized version of Revelation to Mutable Sound, and we're moving on.  It's out of my hands.  The book is done.  The release date is set for October 2011. 

I'll be back soon with a list of stores and sites that are selling the book, but in the mean time, if you're a bookstore, and are interested in selling the book, contact Gabriel Boyer at Mutable Sound.  Otherwise, come find me while on tour and place a pre-order.  Check the Tour Page for more details on tour dates and locations.  

So, the book is on its way.  And this morning I found out Revelation was awarded Honorable Mention in the Leapfrog Press Fiction Contest.  Check out the list there for other note-worthy books, and be sure to pick up the some-level-of-award-winning novel this October!  

Cool.

C

Monday, June 6, 2011

#92 "A blog is not a place to write without thinking. It is a place that requires the most thought." -my friend who runs a movie review blog about movies that were filmed in Denton, TX and Denton, TX only. There are twenty-three.

I'm excited for the upcoming tour.  It was fun reading in Austin a couple of weeks ago, Five Things is a great series, it seems, with quite a following.  It was nice meeting everyone, and finally getting a chance to meet the American Short Fiction folks.  I got a little drunk that night.  I learned what a Snoogle is and why people want them and why I don't want them, though I'm not placing any kind of value judgment on the Snoogle.  Textinction was a fun show to help coordinate.  It was good to see everyone again.  Thanks to Armadillo Aleworks, again.  I've been back and forth between Gainesville and Denton for the last few days.  Time in Gainesville has been productive, and very still.  Time in Denton has been a mix of heartbreaking and lazy, with some good times thrown in the mix.  I just finished Barhtelme's Paradise.  I just finished Amelia Gray's AM/PM.  I just finished Ben Clark's Reasons to Leave the Slaughter.  I like reading work by people I know.  Barthelme is so cool and casual in Paradise, I maybe don't want to write about the things he writes about, but I want to know that voice.  I want to close a book with a line like "It feels a bit like Saturday..." and have it feel that right.  I washed my wallet with the wash, but my dad put it on the small table by my bed, which made me think I'd been smart and put my wallet on the small table by my bed rather than washing it with the wash.  I opened it up and everything was all wet and stuck together.  Receipts erased.  I cannot return the things I was considering returning.  I tricked myself into committing to a series of impulsive purchases, like an extra Dongle for my macbook and a set of snow shoes from REI.  Amelia's book was a pleasure to read, especially in a quick go.  What I would steal: the confidence, the ability to fuse humor with sadness that goes, for the most part, unnoticed, until it's suddenly weighing on you like a big bag of candy you ate too much of...or something like that...I don't know.  The book made me sad without being itself  sad.  I keep listening to the song Honey Hi by Fleetwood Mac.  I keep playing it for people who don't say anything in response.  Maybe it's not one of their best songs, but it fits my mood and it drifts in and out and on repeat it seems to never end or really begin like Hold music.  Ben Clark's book is scary and familiar to me.  I feel like he grew up in Denton, but he did not grow up in Denton.  I've heard Ben read, and therefore read all of his poetry to myself in his voice.  His voice is the best voice to read his poetry in.  His delivery is the best way to meter the pauses, I think.  Or it's the only way I know.  Something I would steal: the ability to write in a voice that is pitch-perfect your own, or the talent to read the heart of a poem, to deliver it as you would an eye-witness account.  Something else I would steal: the steadfast devotion to one's own ideas of beauty.  Ben seems always to seek out what is most beautiful to him, he doesn't hesitate or hide.  Great for poems, not so great for Hide N Seek.  While we're on tour, I'm going to invent some kind of travel Capture the Flag type game.   

Friday, June 3, 2011

#91 Break Out Your Alice Blues

While you're waiting for more info on the midwest tour with Ben Clark, check out some of the pieces published in the newest issue of the Alice Blue Review.  I'm happy to be amongst such good company.  Along with my story about butterfly bombs, you can read some work by my buddy, the inexhaustible Jen Gann, and Eric Beeny, Joshua Ware, and many more!

ABR has such a nice look to it.  Such a good feel.  The work is great, but I also think the site is like the coziest bed and breakfast in the Buena Vista Park area of San Francisco.  Not the creepy kind of bed and breakfast, but the kind that has cold lemonade in a jar on a doily on a solid wood end table.  There are likely drugs in the lemonade, or some kind of mild poison, but maybe you drink it anyway.  You're on vacation.  You're in San Francisco for some reason.  You haven't seen the owners of this place.  Not once. Not even when you checked in.  You don't remember checking in.  Maybe you've had too much of the lemonade.  It would be nice to take a walk, nice to get a sunburn.  You roll up your sleeves.  Ants no longer seem threatening.  What a fine day it's about to be.  

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

#90 Reasons to Leave the Slaughter Book Tour

Hey, we're gearing up for the midwest tour.  Here are some dates:

Confirmed Tour Dates:

Reasons To Leave The Slaughter Book Tour Going-Away Show (with Colin Winnette)
July 15th, 6 p.m. (food), 8 p.m. (poems)
2937 N. Damen
Chicago, IL

Mental Graffiti Feature (with Colin Winnette)
August 15th, 7:30 p.m.
Butterfly Social Club
722 W. Grand
Chicago, IL

Reasons To Leave The Slaughter Book Tour Final Show (with special guests)
September 9th
112 S. Michigan
Chicago, IL

Check Back for Dates In:

Carbondale, IL

Madison, WI

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MI

Iowa City, IA
           
Des Moines, IA

Omaha, NE

Lincoln, NE

Aurora, NE
           
Hasting, NE

Manhattan, KS

Lawrence, KS
           
Kansas City, MO

St. Louis, MO

Indianapolis, IN

Columbus, OH

Detroit, MI

Ann Arbor, MI

For booking information, or simply to say hello, contact me at cwinnette@gmail.com