Curio, reviewed by Ethel Rohan

Early this week Ethel Rohan posted a beautiful review of Curio on her blog. I am very grateful for her kind words and careful read, but also for her honesty concerning her reluctance to read the collection. She was worried that the stories included wouldn't be "storied" enough, an anxiety I share about many contemporary collections. It's definitely true that along with a few conventional narratives, Curio includes some pieces that as stand alone might seem fragmentary or even slight, but that's why I was so eager to get the collection out there. The pieces were written with dependency and accumulation in mind.

As a result of Ethel's kind attention, it looks like a new batch of folks have visited Curio.I hope they enjoy it.

Curio Reviewed (at last!)

Well, mini-reviewed, but damned sweet. David Barker was an early supporter of the project, and now he's the first reviewer. But the best part? (And here Robert Swartwood needs to listen up.) I don't know this person. We're not even FB friends. I don't think--hafta check.

Also? A CANADAIAN OPINION. C'mon US, what're you scared of?

Curio the ebook has arrived

Woweee, respect the tweet. Last night Curio was set free in ebook format, and we're using pay with a tweet or FB update, which has been pretty successful, especially after the support of some heavy taste-makers.

I've been getting a couple of questions about the "free" status. It's not that I don't value my work. My thing is out there the way I want it, Dean taught himself how to do e-pubs, Mike will teach himself e-pubs, and the privilege of being the first representative of Uncanny Valley's vision is an honor and a thrill. Right now that's the pay-off. Money, or the work of collecting it, would mess with the energy of what we're doing. That said, I can totally imagine throwing Curio up for a 99 cent sale on amazon at a later point closer to the release of my novel next fall. If I do that, I'll probable create a modified edition with added stories--turns out I'm still writing itty bitty creepy stories.

"Stickers" is my autobiography

The last story in Curio. It's my favorite.

Crimson

Story 20 is a wee thing that reflects my fear of turnpike rest stops. It's also a vague tribute to the spirit of Shane Jones' Light Boxes. "Crimson" almost didn't make the collection, but now I'm glad it did, because 1) on its own it would have perished, and 2) the folks who have indicated they like it are an odd, unexpected bunch.

Last Week of Curio: "I Want to Kiss!"

Story 19 was originally published Corium Magazine's debut issue, but in context of the collection, you finally get to see why Bun likes to carry a dead chicken around with him.

In other news, I've gotten a glimpse at the possible cover art for my novel, Death Wishing, due our in October from Ig Publishing. It's completely crazy and I LOVE it. My main worry about the new title was that it seemed too grim, but the art takes care of that problem. I think I have finished the requested edits, but I'm going to sit on it for the week in case I think of anything else.

In other, other news, Tim Jones-Yelvington picks up on a suggestion I made on Facebook in his Big Other post, "What's Your Stuff"

"First Anniversary," Story 18

"First Anniversary" went live today. It's based on our real life adventure of having found a guy out in the snow with a broken leg. I'd say almost all of it is true except the end, the car models, and the fact that Dean and I are not quite as old as Linda and Red.

Only one more week of these to go. Also, I think I figured out/fixed most of the large edits for the novel--there were about 25 pages of scenes that needed pov shifts and re-ordering, plus a sex scene that needed better integration. I feel good about how I've solved these problems, but I know I need to do the finesse work now and that means I have to be damned good to myself to reclaim my frame of mind.

"Inking"

Brining The Chronicler and The Courier together in this one. The final story in Curio, "Stickers," depends somewhat heavily on this one.

I like reading "Inking" out loud so I can shout the final 5 lines.

"Seckle"--Sweet Sixteen

"Seckle" appeared in Double Shiny, but then vaporized. Guess they don't archive, which is a drag.The story is an extract from a humongous story I've been writing all my life called "The Temple of Love and Hate." It's about being a kid, then being a grown-up. It sucks, but the title is good and there are five little possum skulls in it. Apparently you can purchase a possum skull for $69 from a vendor called Skulls Unlimited.

aspiration, ohio

Remember Simon & Garfunkel's "My Little Town"? Story 15 from Curio is my version of that song. "A Closed Throat"

Two Thirds

"Last Seen Leaving" is the 14th story from Curio. It was originally published in last Summer's Smokelong Quarterly, something I never thought would happen. I have a virtual pile of SLQ rejections, so many that for a long time I refused to "like" SLQ on facebook because it seemed S&M to do so. In fact, I had given up on SLQ, but last February I did a reading at The Big Bear Cafe as part of the Cheryl's Gone series, and when I saw that Art Taylor and Tara Laskowski had braved the icy mounded remnants of snowpocalypse to attend, I did a quick change up, setting the artsy fartsy stuff aside for something more fun and creepy--LSL. At that point Tara was a helper-reader for SLQ, having completed the Fish Fellowship. I don't think she was even on the masthead, but she encouraged me to submit the story. I was shocked when it was accepted, even more shocked to hear that it was a unanimous yes.

I guess that's a boring story.

Dean's working on the ebook version of Curio, btw.

Witch!!!

This was fun to write.

AWP de-brief coming soon.

. . . and the hump story is "Moon walk"

The 11th story in the 21 story collection is a streamlined version of "Moon Walk," which originally appeared in the Paycock Press anthology Gravity Dancers: Even more Fiction by Washington Area Women. "Moon Walk" is a straight up ghost story, the longest in Curio. Tomorrow I hit AWP hard, and I'll be armed with postcards to pimp the collection.

Tomorrow night, I'm part of the dogzplot/wigleaf/jmww/sententia offsite reading at the Wonderland Ballroom. Uh huh.

illegible undecipherable

is Curio story number 10. It suggests the essence of horror for me, but I'm not sure it will strike anyone else the same way. I mean, it's not even a story. Wednesday will be a real story, regular length, too.

Tomorrow, if class isn't canceled by the ice storm, we discuss chapter one of Steve Himmer's The Bee-Loud Glade, which is available for preorder now.

I feel really privileged to have been a bit on the inside as Steve was writing this book and seeking a publisher, and it seems like I've been teaching aspects of TBLG for a couple of semesters now. Because we’re tight, internet-style, I probably won’t do an official review of the novel (not my ethics, Steve’s, okay?). But I can write about it here and probably goodreads if I ever remember to go there. TBLG is a dreamy yet unnerving pastoral with the focused energy and attention of a novella, and it hits about 16 points on my "Write me this" wishlist.

A Fish Story

"Spoon and Blade"

it's getting too real with the novel. looks like I'm reading with Ig Publishing stable-mate Mark Yakich at City Lights next November. Dean just keeps blinking at me like I grew a new arm.

Bun Fun

Bun likes to watch.

Meet the Grandson of The Ax Man of New Orleans

Here. The Ax Man was real.

Drownded Demonds

The fifth story from Curio is live. "Drownded Demonds" comes from two thoughts I couldn't shake--the fact that Dean kept finding broken knives in the woods, and my friend's mother talking about how they would use a chicken to get a septic tank started. This is one of three or four stories featuring Bun, a mountain man psychopath who has found his level.

Recently James Robison did one of those Fictionaut Five questionnaires, offering an elegant answer to the question, How do you come up with ideas for stories?
He said, "A story must have three ingredients, like, oral surgery, Puccini’s Turandot, and divorce. Or. Hurricane science, a niece, and physics. If I have three large thoughts, intuitions or detections about three varied things, I’ll launch a story."

"Christmas Eve" in Curio

Up today is "Christmas Eve," the first of several West Virginia inspired stories.

Curio Week One, Three Stories Up/Down

Today Uncanny Valley Press posted "TheBrewsters," originally published in Moon Milk Review # 9, October 2010. The image here is Mike Meginnis' hilarious/ appalling interpretation of the Brewster children--I hope you love it as much as I do. Wednesday's post was "Bog Redaction," from last January's Wigleaf, and the first post on Monday was "The Second Prettiest of the Daughters," a new story. For the next two weeks plus, the stories will all be previously unpublished in any form. Seeing as the postings will continue through the beginning of March, I'm not sure how I will avoid seeming spammy with my updates, especially since the novel situation is developing very quickly: Death Wishing is slated for an October 2011 release by Ig Publishing, and right now I'm doing some final but substantial edits, gathering blurbers (you won't believe who I got), and eating lots of celebratory dinners with my friends.

Somehow I'm supposed to put my syllabus together for my first class on the 25th, but I think I'm going to mess up my blog first. I know, I know. I should get a Big Girl's blog soon, along with a douchey author site and a douchey author pic. (The word "douchey" is brought to you by my 15 yr old nephew. I think it's hilarious, seeing as he probably knows as much about douches as he does merkins).