Happy Commencement of the Holiday Season!

I shared this poem last year. Just sharing it again. I wrote it years ago when I lived in San Francisco. I used to love shopping downtown San Francisco during the holiday season. If the link on the picture doesn't work then go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFAGEew-oSg

T- 41 and Counting! Get ready or not, here it comes!

Cross posted from Blogetary: http://puttputtproductions.com/blogetary/2010/11/14/t-41-and-counting-time-to-get-ready/

I know you don’t want to hear it – don’t want to touch it – don’t even want to think about it – but only 41 days until Christmas. That’s a month and ten days, or a little over 5 weeks, with a holiday weekend in the middle to get ready for on top of that.

Yeah, I know. You don’t want to face it. You want to enjoy your autumn. You have things to do. Dinners to prepare. Kids to pick up from school. Work to hustle through. This Christmas thing is just going to end up being a drag in the middle of an already busy season.

So, you know what you need is a little break from it all. What you need is a short little holiday romance to help take you away from the demands of your life for a little while. And for the price of less than a latte you can download The Holly and the Ivan from Drollerie Press or Amazon and spend an hour on a nice little holiday retreat. All for yourself. And while you’re on Drollerie Press’s website, take a look at some of the other novels and novellas they have available for download. Cuz you deserve a break.



Or, if you don’t have the cash now and still need a bit of holiday fun, then check out these links on my website, where if you scroll to near the bottom you can read some stories and poetry for free online, or hear me mumble through it on YouTube:http://www.puttputtproductions.com/fiction_and_poetry
And for anyone who’s interested, stay tuned for more publications in the future. Below is a time table:

* This month, check out SciFaiKuest, where I have a poem published in November’s issue.
* In December, there will be a poem out on Eternal Haunted Summer for Winter Solstice. But you can also read a poem of mine published in the Autumn Equinox issue.
* Later on, though I’m not sure when, there will be a short story, “The Oracle of Themazuri,” published online at MindFlights.com. I’ll let you know when it comes out. In the meantime, check out the short holiday story, “Santa is My Homeboy,” published by them a couple of years ago.
* In March, rumor has it another novella of mine, “Needs Must When the Devil Drives,” will be coming out through Drollerie Press. Again, check back later for more details.
* In July, there will be a short story of mine, “Gramma and the Giant Tomato Worm,” published in Beyond Centauri. Again, check back later for more details. Or better yet, subscribe now at Genre Mall, so you’re sure to get it then.

A Little Light Reading

Cross posted from Blogetary: http://puttputtproductions.com/blogetary/2010/11/03/a-little-light-reading/

I never thought of myself as someone who read short stories or poetry except for assignments in class, until I became one of those readers who needs something for the commute to and from work as well as ten minute breaks and 30 minute lunches. Then, short stories and poetry became a whole lot more appealing. I didn’t feel like I was losing out at the end of my commute or break because I had just consumed a nice small bite of literature – large enough to keep me buoyed up and small enough to read in a small chunk of time. This is one of the things the “Small Press” is good at – providing small books with bite-sized pieces of literature – almost like those mini-candy bars you see at the drugstore that you pick up cuz you just want a little chocolate at a time, not the whole bar.

However, the thing with publications from the “Small Press” is that they aren’t necessarily easily found on your bookshelf at Barnes & Noble or Borders, nor are they the first to pop up on an Amazon search. You kind of have to know where to find them, and where to search. Sometimes you find them through friends, search engines, or in small independent bookstores. But when you do, you fall in love. It’s not the grand love of your favorite epic novels or series, it’s more like the love of a favorite postcard, photograph or drawing. Something you can read that will pull you away from the world for a little while, so you can return five minutes later refreshed and ready to go, or at least more aware of the world around you.

These days, small lit press is not just a hard copy zine with a stable binding, carefully Xeroxed by one of the editors late at night at work so they don’t have to pay for the paper and ink. These days they come with fantastic art work, perfect bound, POD publications only printed out when you ordered them, or solely online on a website or in PDF or some other ePub format easily downloadable for free or cheap. And you can find them everywhere.

Duotrope Digest and Writers Market are two places to start. Or just type what you’re looking for – say Fairy story magazines – into your favorite search engine and see what comes up. They’re all over the place and they really do range anywhere from free to really cheap. Some of the really cheap ones even offer free work online to give you a taste of what’s in the rest of the hard copy should you order an issue or a subscription.

And don’t think that just because someone is in a small press zine or anthology that they’re lowly beginners or that the literature is just so-so. That could be the case sometimes, but there are a lot of pros out there who are prolific and just want their work read wherever it will get accepted. And while they’re waiting to hear back on the novel they just sent to their agent, they’re typing away at all the short stories that stirred in their soul, struggling to get out while they were working on their grand epic.

So, go out there and take a look. If you a want a good place to start, then might I suggest (beware of plug here) you take a look at some of the publications where I have had short stories and poems published, such as Electric Velocipede, Aoife’s Kiss, Beyond Centauri, Bewildering Stories, MindFlights.com and Drollerie Press, plus many more. You can find links to all of them right here: http://www.puttputtproductions.com/fiction_and_poetry