Seven Cries of Delight (Recital Publishing, 170 pages) is not like most collections of literary short stories. As legions of MFA students busily workshop their childhood drama into market-friendly “realistic” fiction, Tom Newton has clearly been following a different muse. These stories (two dozen of them!) range widely in setting and imagery and allusion, but all are hung on a solid spine: a lively curiosity about the deeper, invisible nature of what we call reality. This curiosity is expressed as speculative imaginings and unharnessed mental rovings, with an articulate, wryly humorous voice that obviously springs from a well-traveled and well-read intellect. At every turn are enjoyable discoveries of unlikely connections, unpredictable logic, and unanswerable questions.
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Ponckhockie Union, by Brent Robison
New Book Announcement
My first novel just emerged into the world after too many years in gestation. It has a strong Hudson Valley NY presence but also ventures to Utah deserts and further foreign hotspots. In addition to the blurbs on the website, I like John Burdick’s take on it in the Almanac Weekly: “Ponckhockie Union is a mad fireworks display of global conspiracy and paranoia, haunted synchronicities, shadow-world manipulations of history, tricksters and false guides and the sudden and irreparable rupture of everything normal and stable in one man’s life. It also posits a model of what a sturdy self might look like after such a rupture, after acute exposure to the things going on underground and overhead. And it takes place down by the Rondout.” That’s a reference to the creek adjoining the Ponckhockie neighborhood of Kingston, NY, where the British landed in 1777 to burn down New York’s first capital. But historical fiction this is not. There are shadowy assassins, but it’s not a “whodunit;” perhaps a “who-am-I” is more accurate. With a pinch of metafiction thrown in. Available online and by order at bookstores.
Magic Even You Can Do: by Blast, by Charles Holdefer
New Book Announcement
by Charles Holdefer, illustrations by Royce M. Becker
From Genii Magazine:
This wee tome is very attractive. Royce M. Becker’s design and colorful illustrations are beautiful.
Mr. Holdefer is an abundantly gifted, witty writer. His creation, his delightful doppelganger Blast, is a funny, goofy, erudite, Baron Munchausen of magic… Highly Recommended.
Such Is the Scent of Our Sweet Opalescence by U.R. Bowie
The reader of a good book can hear the narrator speaking, can even envision the narrator’s gestures and facial expressions. Dactyl Review contributing editor, U. R. Bowie consistently produces fiction that animates itself in the reader’s mind. And now this, an audiobook of Bowie’s short story collection, Such Is the Scent of Our Sweet Opalescence (Ogee Zakamora, 148 pages), read by the author. (Paperback also available.) The narrator of title story is Uretherer V. Lamb, a character reminiscent of one of Kurt Vonnegut’s memorable creations. The story opens when U.V. is struck by lighting in the midst of taking a leak roadside. He meets death, in the form of grinning Delmas W. Pruitt, but somehow U.V. cheats Delmas and goes on to live his life as a “backslider” without a soul, it seems.
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Reviewers: Do you have a book announcement?
Beginning immediately, authors who have reviewed on this site in the past year are encouraged to send in news and announcements about their own books. Let us know if you have a new book out, or your old book just got another good review, or any noteworthy anecdote about your novel or short story collection. Keep it brief. About 500 words.
Also Dactyl Review continues to offer you the opportunity to post your available review copies here.
We might as Well Light Something on Fire by Ron Maclean
Three Dialogs about Ron Maclean’s Three-Part Short Story Collection, We Might as Well Light Something on Fire (Braddock Avenue Books, 179 pages):
I. goats, rabbits, etc.
We’re going to talk about we might as well light something on fire .
Right. You know the writer?
Yes.
Is he brave?
I was never in combat with him. Why do you ask?
Guy writes a really far out book called we might as well light something on fire, some smartass will say, right, let’s start with this book.
That would be an incendiary insult to one of the most original collections I have ever read. How do you want to proceed?
Section by section, one of the three sections for each meeting, and concentrate on one story. Continue reading
Thoughts on Publishing and the Plight of the Writer of Literary Fiction
Lot of good ideas by V.N. Alexander, in her recent post on publishing; co-op publishing may be the future. For me the great innovation in book publishing is POD. V.N. Alexander’s article makes it crystal clear why pre-printing an entire run of books–I have, largely, literary fiction in mind–makes absolutely no sense anymore.
“Other roles of the traditional publisher have been effectively eliminated by technology.” Right. Then again, the author, through social media, is now expected to do all, or practically all, publicizing of the book. Who needs a publisher, then?
“The two most valuable services that traditional publishers provide are editing and proofreading,” but, as V.N. asserts, finding competent people to proofread or copy edit books is not that difficult.
Actually, there is one big thing that traditional publishers can do for a writer of literary fiction. They can get the writer IN with the literary establishment. This, ultimately, is the only thing that really counts. Once you are IN, your books get reviewed by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and Booklist. If you never get IN nobody ever knows you exist. And the huge majority of all writers who publish literary fiction will remain, egregiously, OUT. Continue reading
