Ryan W. Bradley

Remember that time

2012-01-16T12:09:00.000-08:00

when a Facebook ad was taken out the day before the Golden Globes to advertise a show's Golden Globe win, which they didn't end up winning?

Yup, that was a good time.

Submission Submission

2012-01-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

I started off the new year sending out a big batch of submissions. About half of the stories from the Alaska collection have been published or accepted, but that leaves a good chunk of unpublished ones. Between the 31st and the 1st I sent out 18 submissions. There are still a few places I want to send stories, but whose submission managers haven't been turned on yet. And as of the 4th, two of these have garnered rejections.

The submission process is a form of optimism, I think. In 2011 an incredibly large number of my submissions went unanswered in any way. I don't know if other people had the same problem or not, but when you don't even get a rejection the process gets even more disenchanting. By the fall I was submitting less and less because I felt like no one was responding anyway. Submissions were sitting in the digital ether for hundreds of days, still are.

But, if there is any time for renewed optimism it is the new year, right? So, out go the stories, crossed go the fingers.

In other news, if you'd like to listen to me read the two poems of mine that were published in the recent issue of Stoked, you can do so HERE!

Also, I've recorded myself reading the first two chapters of Code for Failure and you can listen to them at the book's Facebook page! DO IT!

Hopes. Dreams. 2012.

2012-01-01T15:01:00.001-08:00

Here we are: 2012. A date that once seemed so futuristic, so Jetsons, is here. No flying cars, nothing. As for 2011? Well, it wasn't the best year, but it was better than 2010. I'm no longer working the most soul-sucking job of all time. That's a major plus. 2011 brought Prize Winners, my first story collection. And Mile Zero, my second chapbook of poetry. 2011 also brought a lot of writing pain, as every year does for every writer. Rejections ranged from referring to the Alaska collection as "masterful" to one for my love/lust poetry collection that simply read "you can't be serious." And though it felt like I fell behind and wasn't publishing much, I suppose the links in the sidebar to everything that was published this year beg to differ.

There's no way to sum up everything about an entire year. The writers I talk to on a regular basis know what their existence means to me. And I hope anyone who reads this blog or anything else I do know they, too are deeply appreciated. Writing and having any group of peers matched with any sort of audience is like having an amazing secondary family.

As for my real family, my boys turned 3 and 13 in 2011. Not the easiest of ages, but they (along with my beautiful wife) are what keep me waking up in the morning and going to work. And they are what I look forward to coming home to all day long. There's nothing better than walking in the door at the end of the day and having a 3 year old come running through the house screaming "dad!"

And 2012. 2012 will see the publication of Code for Failure, my first novel! I'm excited to see this book finally reach the world.

But dare I speak of hopes and dreams? Dare I speak of the new novel, sitting in the hands (or more likely a pile on a desk) of my agent? Dare I speak of the full length poetry manuscripts that are beginning to pile up on the ol' hard drive? Dare I speak of my baby, the Alaska collection? My hopes and dreams are no different than those of other writers. One day, may the stars align. For us all.

Until then, I will strive to do more. Of all of it. The hoping, dreaming, and working.

My 3 year old became aware the other night that I stay up after everyone else goes to bed and he asked why. I told him to write. He asked why. "Because Dada wants to write books," I told him. "Oh," he said. "That's long work."

And Some Design News

2011-12-30T15:05:00.000-08:00

In my haste to post yesterday, I forgot to mention that my Old Man and the Sea print was chosen to be included in Society6's official store, which is awesome. It means hopefully a little more exposure for some of my design work. With this renewed interest in the print I also designed phone skins and laptop skins from the print. I think the phone skin is particularly cool:

And though it had been a while since I'd designed any new prints the good news inspired me to work on something, and came up with this:

It's called "Reflection" playing on the elephant's memory, with the cycle of retrospection. It's available as a print, t-shirt, and phone skins at the Aesthetically Declined Design store at S6. CHECK IT OUT!

So Much News

2011-12-29T15:59:00.001-08:00

ADP is finally stepping into the present with ereader editions of books. While Ayiti is still being processed with Amazon, the Kindle edition of Prize Winners is up! And it includes two additional stories! AND it's just $5! So, if you're the e-reading type, GO FORTH!

You Can Make Him Like You is also up! (Just went live as I started writing this post!) It can be downloaded for Kindle for just $6! GET IT!

Also, ADP's latest free .pdf is up! It's a poem cycle by Tyler Gobble called, Stale Champagne. GO GET IT!

Lastly, through the weekend, Black Coffee Press is offering a sweet 3 for 2 deal. Order my Code for Failure with Caleb J. Ross' I Didn't Mean to be Kevin and get JA Tyler's A Shiny, Unused Heart for free! YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!

Code for Excitement

2011-12-25T23:06:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend, and has been making the best of any extra time you've had off from work. I'm enjoying the beginning of my vacation, and hoping the rest of it goes by less quickly than usual weekends! Some news-ish stuff:

Last week I reviewed Robert Arellano's new novel, Curse the Names over at The Nervous Breakdown. It's a hell of a book. CHECK OUT THE REVIEW!

Also, my debut novel Code for Failure (due March 27) is now available for pre-order and has its own official website! The book will come in two editions, a limited edition version with a cover illustrated by the amazing John Dermot Woods and designed by me (seen on the website and the CfF page on this here blog), and a general trade edition. The limited edition version will be available through the pre-order and at AWP 2012. CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE. Or go directly to the PRE-ORDER.

It's weird to have CfF's release date drawing so near. It's been a long time in the making. I finished the first draft in the fall of 2008. I began sending it out that winter. Three and a half years later it will be a physical object I can hold. Amazing. Soon I'll do a more comprehensive post about the book. And I'll apologize in advance if you get sick of me talking about it in the coming months as I promote it. I'll try not to overdo it, but if I fail know it's simply out of excitement. There's already a Goodreads page and a Facebook page and I have some other fun ideas for promoting it, but I'll try to keep it mellow.

Can't Stop. Won't Stop.

2011-12-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

A new story, and homage to the fiction of Ben Tanzer, "Running a 5k in the Suburbs" is now online at Metazen. CHECK IT OUT!

Roxane Gay's Ayiti got much deserved praise from the National Book Critics Circle, making it on their list of Small Press Highlights for 2011! AWESOME!

Mutts debut album, Pray for Rain is now out! You can buy the CD for a mere $5 or download it for free! GET ON IT!

Poem Ghosts

2011-12-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to have two more recent poems in the new issue of Stoked! The first poem, "November" was written during November of last year (creative title, huh?), the second was written this past summer around my birthday. It's called "The Book of the Dead Man (Age)" and is patterned after Marvin Bell's "Dead Man" poems, a style he created where every line is a complete sentence and each poem is broken into two sections. Bell teaches in the MFA program I graduated from, and I'd always wanted to write an homage to his dead man poems, but hadn't had the right inspiration until I was thinking about aging as my birthday neared this year. Both these poems are part of a chapbook manuscript titled Crushing On A Ghost, as well as the full-length manuscript, The Memory of Planets. GO READ STOKED III!

Also, ADP has some awesome December deals!

And if you're looking for more ideas for the book lover on your list, Nouns of Assemblage assembles nearly every small press writer ever including yours truly into one anthology. GOOD STUFF.

Beer Design

2011-11-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

Threadless is holding a design challenge to create a beer can. I entered and could use your votes! My design is called "Two Is Better Than One." VOTE HERE!

And here's a peek at the design:

Also, check out my page for CODE FOR FAILURE, where I've revealed the blurbs for the book, which features incredibly kind words from Paul Di Filippo, Gary Amdahl, Kyle Minor, and Ben Tanzer. Each of these writers makes me feel ridiculous with their kind words. Here's a little banner I made with snippets of their blurbs:

And continue to keep an eye on the Code for Failure page as it will continue to evolve as we get closer to March!

Troubles are all the Same & Other News

2011-11-16T18:50:00.001-08:00

Haven't read Prize Winners yet? One of my personal favorites from the collection is now online. The story is up at Titular, under the "Cheers" moniker. In the book it is called "Troubles are all the Same." I wrote the story as a present for my wife a year and a half ago-ish. We have watched the entire Cheers series together multiple times, and I thought it would be fun to write a story playing off the characters and inter-personal dynamics of the show. So, what are you waiting for? GO FORTH AND READ!

Also, just in is the news that Prize Winners has been included on a year end top 10 list! Many thanks to Book Page and Lori Hettler for all the love! CHECK OUT THE LIST!

And if either of those tidbits strike your fancy, maybe check out Prize Winners!

Earlier this week, I posted some thoughts about Ben Tanzer's latest book, My Father's House over at Big Other. CHECK IT OUT!

In other books, I recently stumbled on Keely Hyslop's Things I Say to Pirates on Nights When I Miss You and really loved it. A brilliant and unexpected poetry collection. Learn more about the book HERE

In music, you should check out Mr. Dream. They are very Pixies-esque. Their album Trash Hit is a blast. CHECK OUT THE SONG "CRIME."

Also, the band of a good friend, Mutts is getting ready to release their debut full-length album. I've heard a handful of tracks and this album is going to blow people away. And right now you can pre-order the album for only $5! GO FORTH!

When Vague Wins

2011-11-03T18:11:00.000-07:00

Remember how I gushed a lot about how much I love xTx's Normally Special? Yeah, I'm still doing that HERE.

Vouched Books gave a lovely single sentence review to Roxane Gay's Ayiti, which has been killing it. Read the review HERE.

I've been mostly absent with things to say here. I'm awaiting the next step of the new novel. Either my agent will like it or not, things will progress from there. I've finished another full-length poetry manuscript. It's called The Memory of Planets. I've started work on the next poetry manuscript. It has a name too, I think. And I'm working on an essay/memoir/poetry thing. More about that soon maybe. I'm so vague.

2011-10-02T20:29:00.001-07:00

Does anyone know who Rod McKuen is anymore? If not go ahead and google him. A couple years ago my uncle and aunt gave me copies of a few of his books as a joke. I, of course, responded by writing a five poem cycle called Love & Rod McKuen, which is now available as a Mondo Bummer mini chap. Mondo makes very DIY-style printings of short works, for very little money. L&RM will cost you $2. You can even barter. The MB website says they publish short works in a disappointing manner, which I think is fitting of this poem cycle. If you're up for some fun GO FORTH!

Also, as of yesterday I finished a full draft of my new novel, tentatively titled A Hard Place to Die. I'm pretty stoked, even though there is still plenty of work to be done. Here's a very small screen shot of a very small part of the book:

More on this soon, when my brain is not mush.

Wolves

2011-10-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Good buddy and Housefire chief, Riley Michael Parker's debut novel is now available from Lazy Fascist Press. It's called A Plague of Wolves and Women. I had the good fortune to read it recently, and provide a little blurb. Check out this book trailer:

A PLAGUE OF WOLVES AND WOMEN from Riley Michael Parker on Vimeo.

Also, here's my full blurb:

"The perfect soundtrack to Riley Michael Parker's A PLAGUE OF WOLVES AND WOMEN is the natural silence of three a.m. torn asunder by the reckless howling of wild animals just blocks from your suburban home. If you are so lucky to experience Parker's reversal of THE CRUCIBLE with such a backdrop, as I happened to be, what you will experience is something more cinematic than any film. More visceral and real than a reading experience ought to be. Parker writes with violence and disregard toward his characters and the mental health of his readers. By the end of this book you might just be worshiping anthropomorphic mythologies and locking your doors for safety."

GET YOURS!

Mile Markers

2011-09-28T18:47:00.000-07:00

My new chapbook, Mile Zero, a portion of a full-length manuscript of the same name is now available for order from Maverick Duck Press. It's put together almost as a biographical timeline, from growing up in Alaska, to working in the Arctic, through my MFA (where ironically I studied fiction). I'm excited this one will soon be out in the world! GO GET YOURS HERE!

And since the full cover wrap is up over there, I'll show it here, too (I had a lot of fun doing that MDP logo):

Also, it came to my attention yesterday that my mildly notorious Tinkerbell story, "Every Time A Fairy Gets Laid" has been read over 900 times at Fictionaut, which is pretty astounding to me. This story is, of course, also in Prize Winners, which is still on SALE for $6 through Saturday!

Banned Books

2011-09-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

It is Banned Books Week. If you've read just about anything I have written you know that I believe in writing about what makes some people uncomfortable, the things people don't want to talk about. The fact that a Banned Books Week is necessary is astounding, but it is a great event that calls attention not only to some amazing books, but also to our perceptions and judgments as a society.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BANNED BOOKS WEEK!

During Banned Books Week, my story collection, Prize Winners is on sale for $6 at ADP. GO GET YOURS!

Things I Should Have Told You

2011-09-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

I have a poem called "For the Birds" in Big Lucks 4. It is an awesome issue. I'm stoked to have this poem in there. I wrote it for Joseph Millar, one of my favorite poets. GO GET A COPY!

I have a story in Nouns of Assemblage, the Housefire anthology that includes everyone ever (including my imaginary best friendsies, xTx and Ben Tanzer). It's good stuff. GO GET YOU SOME!

Speaking of Housefire, one of the most brutal things I've ever written, "Bark Until Your Voice is Raw" is up today over there. READ IT!

And for some true RWB overload, Meg Tuite and the kind folks at Connotation Press have a review of Prize Winners, an interview with yours truly, and the title story from the collection. GO GIVE YOURSELF A RWB ANEURYSM!

And if that last bit gets you hot and bothered don't forget you can buy your very own copy of Prize Winners HERE. Or even HERE.

phew... now take a deep breath.

ADP Evolution

2011-09-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

2 years ago this month is when the seed of Artistically Declined Press first started to germinate. What started as a simple musing of some distant future possibility became a reality with the support, guidance, and simple “let’s go for it” nudge of my friend Paula Bomer. Since that time, ADP has grown and released four books (with a fifth on the way next month) and three issues of Sententia. All of these releases have been individually, and as a group, some of the proudest moments of my life.

But what is life without change? As ADP continues to grow and define its vision and niche in the small press world it has come time for change. As such Paula Bomer has moved in her own unique direction with the creation of Sententia Books (http://sententiabooks.com/). Sententia, the journal will move, too, and become a lynchpin of Bomer’s new adventure, where she will also be publishing books including titles by Keith Nathan Brown and Scott Wrobel, two of my own favorite voices in the world of modern literature, both small press and beyond.

For its part, ADP will continue publishing quality books devoted to great writing and design, with many exciting projects for the next couple years already in the works. While the closing of chapters can be sad, they are also exciting for the possibilities the future holds. And ADP wishes Sententia Books and Bomer nothing but success on this new venture.

Sincerely,
RWB

(While Sententia, the journal and its future issues will follow Bomer and be a product of Sententia Books, ADP will proudly continue to offer issues 1-3 in our store).

FOR MORE, VISIT ARTISTICALLY DECLINED PRESS

Briefly...

2011-08-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I had a short essay up at HeartOnSleeve Review. It's called "The Chicken and the Egg Disorder" and details some of the compulsive behaviors I have attached to reading and caring for books. If you're interested in learning a little about my crazy GO READ!

Fashion Forward

2011-08-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

The t-shirt I designed for Fix It Broken's "Fashionable Fiction" and Heather Fowler's story, "Ex-Boyfriend's Head" is available for order, and from what I hear, going fast (in fact only a few sizes are left)! Make sure you get yours, 'cause it's super sexy and stuff:

A Little Bit of Brain

2011-08-16T20:31:00.001-07:00

Last week, in fact a week exactly, I hit my head at work. I was working on receiving four pallets of textbooks (136 boxes, weighing over 7,000 pounds combined) and dropped a book underneath the large wooden table where I lay out whatever I'm receiving. I got down on the cement to grab the book, ducking my head under an old office chair. In the process I slammed my head into the metal rod used to adjust the height of the chair (the rod was missing the customary plastic paddle on the end). I thought I yelped, but a co-worker said I didn't make a noise until thirty seconds later when I stood and rubbed my head, saying "ow." I didn't think much of it, but within ten or fifteen minutes I was feeling dizzy and nauseous.

I've had concussions before, a couple while on various jobs (one that I write about in Code for Failure). I started thinking, "crap, I hope I didn't give myself a concussion" but I passed the thought off, figuring I'd probably hit my head harder in the past. But then I started noticing other things... or not noticing. Over the next few hours of work I found myself constantly forgetting what I was doing, forgetting co-worker's names, not being able to count past 14. The next morning I misspelled "Ryan" as "Riab."

While my brain is getting back up to speed I'm still having a lot of head pain, sharp shooting pains through my skull, my jaw bone, in my ear canal. I still feel more "out of it" than normal. I've had a hard time writing, though I have written a few new poems, including one that I think has given birth to the title for my next full-length poetry manuscript (which I didn't realize how many poems I had sitting around for).

Anyway, more than anything this post is to say that if I haven't posted much, or if I owe you an email or something, this is why you haven't heard from me. I'm working on it!

(Also, I created a new "Unpublished Works" page. It features the titles, tiny synopsis, and in most cases a place or two to see or hear excerpts from completed yet unpublished manuscripts. CHECK IT OUT!)

A Small Thing

2011-08-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

A small story from the Alaska collection went up at TNBBC yesterday as part of their "Tell Me A Story" feature. It's called "Trench Swimmer" and is set at the pump station I worked at and based on thoughts I had while we tried to drain a trench that was flooding with groundwater. GIVE IT A READ!

And DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR FREE POETRY!

Waiting But Not Waiting

2011-07-31T13:47:00.000-07:00

A while ago, my blog buddy, Allison Renner hosted a giveaway for a company called UPrinting, it was for 50 free 8.5 x 11 brochures. I won the giveaway and wanted to do something fun that I could in turn give away.

I've mentioned the poetry collection I'm working on, The Waiting Tide, a response to Neruda's The Captain's Verses. There are a number of pieces in the collection simply titled "The Waiting Tide" so, I gathered seven of these and created a little pamphlet of them. It's in three panels so it unfolds to reveal the poems, like a mini chapbook or something, and I have to say it looks lovely.

So, I have fifty of these things. I'm going to give away 30. The others will go to family, friends, and maybe be held onto for something down the line. If you would like one of them, or if you would like a few to giveaway on your own website or to a friend or whatever (they are love poems, so maybe hold onto it for Valentine's Day or something) email me at aestheticallydeclined [at] gmail [dot] com.

This is a first come first serve deal. I will do my best to update here if they run out.

Lookie Lookie

2011-07-30T02:08:00.001-07:00

The new issue of Fix It Broken is live with some personal favorites including xTx and Ben Tanzer and many others. I designed the "cover" of the issue, which you can see when you go to read it all HERE!

I also designed a t-shirt for FIB's "fashionable fiction" winner, Heather Fowler's story "Ex-Boyfriend's Head." This is what the design looks like:

In a couple weeks you will be able to order this beauty. I am so stoked. One of my favorite t-shirt designs I've done. I'll definitely be pimping this like crazy when they start taking orders!

Also, Mendicant Bookworks is a new project from some cool people presenting single story ebooks for just 99cents! I've been designing covers for them. You can check the first 5 covers out over at my FLICKR!

Guest Post: Caleb Ross

2011-07-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

The humble writer: rad or affliction

This is a guest post by Caleb J Ross as part of his Stranger Will Tour for Strange blog tour. He will be guest-posting beginning with the release of his novel Stranger Will in March 2011 to the release of his second novel, I Didn’t Mean to Be Kevin and novella, As a Machine and Parts, in November 2011. If you have connections to a lit blog of any type, professional journal or personal site, please contact him. To be a groupie and follow this tour, subscribe to the Caleb J Ross blog RSS feed. Follow him on Twitter: @calebjross.com. Friend him on Facebook: Facebook.com/rosscaleb
  
 How much should an author praise his own work? When is self-congratulation too much? Conversely, when does humility become annoying? Though this entire self-serving blog tour may imply otherwise, I generally try to keep self-promotion to a minimum. But why shouldn’t I, and all authors, take/create opportunities to talk up our work?  Years ago I made a conscious decision to avoid whatever spotlight I happen to fall in front of (even the forever low-wattage bulb that would be used). I don’t know when it happened, but at some point in my life I must have been traumatized by a particularly abrasive braggart. Maybe as a child I got molested by a guido. I don’t know. But what came of this mysterious trauma was an aversion to anything that smelled at all pretentious. Coffee: yes. Soy Latte Frappuccino extra whip double Splenda: no.  But I learned something recently. I am not so much humble as I am self-depreciating (exhibit A: the above parenthetical statement). These two modes are not necessarily the same. Humble requires averting positive attention entirely, or at least diverting the attention to other people. Self-deprecation, by definition, requires that I embrace attention. My goal with this, I think, is two-fold: 1) appear more approachable to everyone, and 2) downplay faith in my own writing in order to dodge the need to defend it. This second item is the scary one.  I think many writers romanticize the idea of producing, producing, producing, and leaving the critics to sort out the genius. I’m no different. I’d love to be burdened with nothing more than content production. But that’s an escape, and I know it. It’s an easy way out.  I have, on occasion, talked at length about my work. Most recently, with Pablo D’Stair as part of the March 2010 edition of his Predicate series. This conversation came easy because it wasn’t motivated by marketing and promotion. Perhaps that’s the line. When commerce is involved, I recede into my shell.

  So what’s the point of this blog post? To talk about myself, I guess. I’M CURED!!!  

Note: the image above gave me the idea for this post. In no way am I implying that Ryan W. Bradley should alter how he projects his opinions of his own work. Talk is popularity, and his rating got me talking. Well played, Mr. Bradley.

Oh Internet, So Much Has Happened Since Last We Spoke

2011-07-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

I'm 28 now. Saturday was my birthday. It was a nice day. Books and records for presents, a chocolate cake with peanut butter filling, made by my lovely wife. I don't care much for age and mentally I don't feel 28, but Sunday morning I woke up feeling nihilistic. Coincidence or was it subconsciously to do with the birthday thing?

The Alaska collection took another blow. The only press that had shown interest so far finally passed on it after a year. I'll admit, it's the most strongly I've considered walking away from writing. I don't mean that in some sort of self-pittying way. I imagine all writers feel this way at least once, if not more frequently.

Around the same time that was happening, my friend Allison Renner posted THIS, which was bolstering, to say the least.

Also bolstering was the Goodreads giveaway of Prize Winners, which ended with 966 entries! Way more than I expected.

On the new novel front, though the writing has been intermittent at best, I've gotten far enough that I felt comfortable telling my agent about its existence. I'm maybe halfway there. I think if I had a month to devote to it I could get it finished, but realistically speaking I'd be happy if I could have a finished draft by the end of the year.

As for design stuff, a couple more chapbooks I designed are making their way into the world. Both for Thunderclap. One is available now, the other will be soon. Go HERE to keep tabs and buy your copies! Here are the covers:

And soon the t-shirt I designed for the new issue of Fix It Broken will be revealed! I'm excited about it!

Also, I finished a little project last night that I'm going to give away. There will only be a small number of copies but I think it's going to be pretty awesome.

Spotlight + Giveaway

2011-07-10T20:27:00.001-07:00

Lori Hettler of The Next Best Book Club has turned the spotlight on me. And even amid a brief discussion of manuscripts no one seems to want, it is quite an honor and a pleasure to be featured at TNBBC who not so long ago gave a glowing review to Prize Winners! On that note TNBBC and I are giving away a personalized copy of PW to someone who comments on the spotlight post. So, what are you waiting for? GO READ AND COMMENT!

(By the way, with over 400 entries in the Goodreads giveaway, the TNBBC one gives you decidedly better odds, I would imagine)

Also, thought I would share the cover for my chapbook, Mile Zero due in September from Maverick Duck Press.

The old photo of the pipeline is courtesy of Dennis Remick. "Mile Zero" is the nickname for the beginning of the pipeline, where a handful of the chapbook's poems are set from my time working there.

All In A Day... Or Two

2011-07-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

That is 96 boxes. I started my workday yesterday by moving those (roughly 2300 pounds). Then I "received" them all, basically unpacking, price checking merchandise, etc.

On Monday ADP introduced a pre-order for Roxane Gay's Ayiti! Trust me when I say this is THE must-read book of the fall. GO PRE-ORDER!

Also, there is now a Goodreads giveaway of my book, Prize Winners! It ends on my birthday. GO ENTER!

Speaking of Prize Winners, Ben Tanzer had some very nice things to say about the book. My favorite part was this:

sex as a means for expressing everything, running from everything and maybe even being the only highlight of the day, which if you think about it is immensely sad, but certainly beats the alternative.

That sums up the book pretty well. GO READ THE WHOLE THING!

I've also been somewhat less of a flunky over at Big Other recently. I posted THIS on Friday and then I interviewed Lavinia Ludlow!

2011-06-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today is my son, Lincoln's 3rd birthday. To every non-parent it's a major cliche to say that the time goes by so quickly, that suddenly your baby is a toddler, then a teenager, etc. But every parent knows how true such statements are. It seems like yesterday I watched him arrive in the world, that he squeezed my finger as nurses dried him off and cleaned him up.

Don't worry, I won't get too sappy.

Perhaps the most important factor that he has played in my life, at least in relation to this blog, is how he has changed me as a writer. Those who knew me, followed my blog or writing, before I became a father, or before that a step-father, knows how different I am now. If there is still anyone left out there who was around before I was married know the changes since that era are even more drastic. There is absolutely no way I could write the way I write now without those changes in my life. Becoming a husband and father forever changed my compassion regarding characters, my maturity with plot lines, and solidified the themes I found recurring in my work.

Every time I write I think about these things, because I know I simply couldn't be writing the stories I write without his existence. Especially my Alaska collection, which as any readers of this blog know, is practically like another baby to me.

I'm Only Hurting Myself

2011-06-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I chipped four teeth biting down on a fork.

I've also clearly suffered a pinched nerve in my wrist. The last time this happened was when I was working in the arctic. It happened three days into my stint up there and I didn't tell anyone, just worked the next eleven weeks with a bum wrist and a hand that fell asleep constantly. It doesn't seem to be as bad this time around, it likely happened due to all the lifting at the new job. At least I'm only injuring myself.

I've been making some good progress on the new novel, last night I passed 19,000 words. There are a couple of chapters that are pretty well done, whereas others are really rough still. I'm just kind of going with the flow of what I'm feeling at the moment as far as what parts I work on. There are even a couple of standalone possibilities and I was going to send out an excerpt from it yesterday, but the journal I wanted to send it to was closed. I always forget that for some reason no one reads submissions in the summer.

A few cool things:

Prize Winners was a recommended read on Friday!

and...

For the second time someone I know was reviewed in Entertainment Weekly! Last year it was Brady Udall getting coverage for his amazing novel, The Lonely Polygamist. I worked with Udall during my MFA. This time it's another of my MFA mentors, the fantastic Bonnie Jo Campbell, whose new novel, Once Upon a River was given an "A" from EW. I have been impatiently awaiting my pre-order of it and I already know it's going to be stellar. I can feel it in my bones. If you haven't read Bonnie Jo's work by this point, you're missing out on one of the best modern voices in fiction. GO READ THE EW REVIEW!

Stuff Keeps Happening

2011-06-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

Another story from the Alaska collection has gone online. This time at Glasschord. The story is called "Hockey Mom." GO READ!

Over the weekend another review of Prize Winners popped up. This one courtesy of my buddy Lavinia Ludlow at Plumb. It's not a negative review, but I got the impression that the dirtiness of the collection may have worn out its welcome by the end. GO READ!

Last, but not least, TNBBC did a spotlight feature on ADP! And there's a giveaway of a copy of Rose Hunter's To The River. GO ON!

Also, major congrats to my buddy Paula Bomer who recently found a home for her novel, Nine Months with Soho Press! I will be impatiently awaiting its arrival in the fall of next year!

Get On Board

2011-06-18T01:46:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed THIS ARTICLE about one of my favorite bands, BOAT. There's a discussion about not being rock stars and having real jobs in addition to the band, about the value of real jobs, that I found relates well to writing. I sometimes feel like writers shy away from talking about their real jobs and I don't understand why. I can understand wanting to escape from a job in your downtime, but all the same for most of us a job is a place where we spend a large amount of our time, which makes it a large part of our lives and who we are (whether we want to accept that or not). I also really liked this quote from frontman, D. Crane:

"I think sometimes bands act like, 'Woe is me, I'm in a band, I'm an artist, support me.' And it's kind of like, maybe you gotta grow up and get a job so you get insurance so you can make music. I don't think it has to be mutually exclusive. I don't think you need to be wearing skinny jeans and playing music all the time."

I think this can relate to writers as well. Often writers have to have a real job so they can have the luxury of writing. And there's not anything wrong with that. There are a lot of writers who take writing and/or themselves too seriously. I did for way too long. I think I'd be dead by now if I hadn't learned to relax a bit when it comes to that sort of stuff. Anyway, you should read the article and you should most definitely listen to BOAT.

Anyway, that's all well and good. Here's another cover of a book cover I finished recently. This time for Raymond Carver's collection, Cathedral.

(as always, you can find the whole collection HERE)

One Day I Will Be All Caught Up

2011-06-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

Phew. What a week. I started my new job at their busiest time of year, so I was thrown right into the fire. My feet are remembering what it's like to stand for 8 hours a day. But it feels good to do something real again, too. Until the dream job becomes a reality, real will have to be what it is.

It's hard to keep up with everything else, another adjustment. But there was an awesome review of Prize Winners over at The Next Best Book Club a few days ago. 5 Stars and the label of "next best book." Not too shabby. GO READ THE REVIEW!

Also a story went up at Metazen. It's called "X Marks the Spot" and is an homage to the one and only xTx. It's also one of the stories in Prize Winners! GO FORTH AND READ!

Speaking of Prize Winners, have you PRE-ORDERED your copy yet? We started shipping copies on Thursday!

And a while back I designed a cover for a contest. The results came out and I didn't win, but it was a cool contest with a lot of awesome entries. The contest was to design a cover of your favorite book in the style of vintage Polish book covers. I did The Old Man and the Sea (yes, it's seriously my favorite book of all time), which turned out to be one of the most popular titles people chose to design for. CHECK OUT THE CONTEST PAGE.

Here's the design I did:

I've added an English version of this design to my "Cover Covers" set at Flickr.

Starting Anew

2011-06-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

Today I start a new job. I've been un- or under-employed since January. Now I have a full-time job as a shipping and receiving coordinator for a university bookstore. Amazingly it'll be my first union job. Stoked to be back to something consistent and reliable. Another adventure, another chapter, another adjustment to a new schedule. Here are some cool things: I can listen to music in my "office," I can wear t-shirts and shorts. These things are major bonuses in life. Trust me. There will be more as this newness unfolds.

Speaking of new, over the weekend a new review of Prize Winners went up over at Outsider Writers, courtesy of Mel Bosworth (who I am currently calling Boz Awesome). Many thanks to OWC and Mel, who calls the collection a "sexy grab bag." READ THE REVIEW!

DON'T FORGET TO PREORDER! The book will start shipping at the end of the week, which means I need to get on signing those buggers!

Bits of This and That

2011-06-03T11:43:00.001-07:00

Before I went to bed last night I read Sarah Rose Etter's Tongue Party from Caketrain. It was very good. The title story and "Men Under Glass" alone were worth the purchase. You should totally go buy the book and join the party. DO IT!

There's a new poem from xTx & Helen Vitoria HERE

I really love the new Animals In Midlife Crises.

I also really love THIS a poster for an experimental documentary that looks absolutely gorgeous.

A few days ago I got one of the nicest rejections of the Alaska collection. I knew the press was a stretch, but I also knew the editor was into Alaska stuff. While it is sometimes brutal to hear really nice things about your work in the midst of a rejection, it's simultaneously bolstering to know that the hard work and care you put into something isn't completely off target. So, still we wait for a home.

And here's this, just 'cause:

Dynamite!

2011-06-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

The first review of Prize Winners is online today! It's at Literary Chicago. Lauryn Allison Lewis writes:

"Yes, sex is a sticky thread winding itself through every story here: awkward sex, hate sex, scared sex, underage sex, even Tom Selleck sex. But do not be fooled, gentle reader, there’s much more to this collection than meets the loins."

Read the whole thing HERE

And that's all well and good, but more importantly, my oft-mentioned writing idol, Jack Driscoll has a new story online over at AGNI. It's called "The Good Father" and I HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU GO READ IT.

Revealing the Surprise

2011-05-31T02:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been teasing the surprise long enough:

That's right. A 112 page collection of my non-Alaska stories. Mostly flash pieces, including the mildly infamous, "Every Time A Fairy Gets Laid" and a personal fav, "Goodbye Ruby"

A few statistics about the collection: 18 stories, 10 of which were published online, 5 of which were published in print journals, 2 unpublished (including another personal fav, the title story), and 1 written for the sole purpose of ending this collection. All in all, that likely makes 8 stories you've never read before. The collection is also full of homages, and dedications. There are stories dedicated to Lauren Becker and Paula Bomer, homages to xTx, Lindsay Hunter, and Ken Sparling, and one story written specifically for my wife as a Valentine's Day gift two years ago.

I should also state that this collection is, well, a bit raunchy. The tagline is "Stories not for the faint of heart... or loins." If you've read much of my work you're starting to get a solid idea of what stories this book might contain. Since part of the process behind the ADP "pop-up release" idea kept us from getting blurbs for the book I can't give you too neutral of an idea (though a few reviews will start popping up here and there), but my wife recently read the collection and had this to say:

"I'm simultaneously thrilled and horrified to be married to this man"

I'm thinking that's a pretty solid endorsement.

I'm using myself as a guinea pig for ADP's hopeful continuation of the "pop-up release" of books. Bringing fun and surprise to publishing. It's a project I'm really hoping works out because ideally it will allow us to publish a few more books a year. Which would be awesome. So, yeah, GO FORTH AND PRE-ORDER! All pre-orders will be signed. And I'll probably write something funny or dirty to you, because, well, I can. (If you specifically don't want a personal note, however, I will abstain or draw a cartoon of myself.)

A Clue. Kind of.

2011-05-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Secret Project Details?

2011-05-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

For the last month I've been mentioning here and there that I was working on a secret project. Well, over at the ADP site we announced (sort of) the details on said project. The rest of the details will come to light over the next week plus, and the book will be released on June 14. As I state over on the ADP site, it's an experiment and a way to bring some fun into the publishing process, I hope others will enjoy it as well. One thing I can say for sure is if you have liked the ADP products so far, that the book will appeal to you. GO CHECK IT OUT!

New Story!

2011-05-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

I have a small (and hopefully somewhat humorous) story in the new issue of Awosting Alchemy. It's called "Spank." I wrote it late one night a couple years ago at one of my MFA residencies. I've carried a torch for it ever since, so I'm excited it finally has a nice home. GO READ IT!

And many thanks to the always fantastic, Lauren Tamraz for inviting me to be a part of Aw/Al!

(I was originally going to title this post "The Hand That Rocks The Booty" but decided that might be taking the theme too far).

In Case You Missed It

2011-05-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

ADP revealed the cover for Roxane Gay's Ayiti a couple days ago:

That beautiful photograph was taken by Roxane's mother, Nicole Gay. I am unspeakably excited to be a small part of this book. An official site + preorder will launch in July and the book will drop October 11! It's gonna be huge.

Also, yesterday xTx had a great and hilarious essay online. Very Steve Almond-esque. GO READ IT!

Catching Up Is Hard To Do

2011-05-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a while.

ADP released it's latest free ebook, Counterbalanced Motives by Felino A. Soriano. Here's the cover:

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD!

ADP also has a surprise in store for readers, but we're currently having a problem listing new products in our store. As soon as that's resolved we'll start teasing you with details. It's going to be awesome. Trust me.

I finished another small poetry chapbook manuscript recently. It's called Crushing On A Ghost. As usual I am at a loss with what to do with it. Chapbooks have to be the hardest thing to find places to submit. "Tinder," the poem that ran at Thunderclap for National Poetry Month is one of the poems from this manuscript.

The other day I came to a place of resignation about the Alaska collection. The project is my baby in a lot of ways. I spent about three years writing and putting it together. And no one will ever convince the feeling in my gut that it's not "the" book. But, placing it is becoming harder and harder, it seems. I subbed it to a handful more presses the other day, and continue to send out the stories individually in waves. However, I'm coming to a weird, zen-like peace with it. Albeit a melancholic peace at times. I think any writer can relate to this, but it seems like it goes mostly untalked about.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T01:06:00.000-07:00

My mom introduced me to Langston Hughes. He is still my favorite poet. At thirteen she gave me a copy of Howl. Needless to say she was integral to my reading, and as such to my writing. I don't write much these days that could be considered mom-friendly (my mom, that is), but there's a good chance I wouldn't be writing at all if it weren't for the inherent education my mother gave me.

Happy mother's day to all you moms out there. You make the world go 'round.

State of the Manuscript Address

2011-05-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I did one of these. I think they're healthy, as they force me to take stock of what's going on with my writing. I'll keep this one a bit shorter than some have been in the past.

I currently have 38 stories under submission. I am, however, going to retire several of these. For instance, one has now been out for 1,014 days. I think it's safe to call that one a rejection.

Since nothing's been happening with Glaciers, the Alaska collection, I've added some stories to it. I've decided to close that chapter now, though. No more adding stories, time to move onto to other projects. So, there are 23 or 24 stories (I'm still deciding on whether I should include one) in the manuscript. It's still out a few places. I'm hopeful, because, well, I don't know where else to send it at this point.

There are the full-length poetry collections Mile Zero and furr. I continue to send them out occasionally when I find a place I think would be a good fit. I'm also about half-finished with a new full-length collection which is an homage to Neruda's The Captain's Verses. It's called The Waiting Tide. There's also a new chapbook manuscript called Crushing on a Ghost. So, that now makes four poetry chapbook manuscripts I have sitting around. I haven't really been sending them out. It's hard to find places that do chapbooks.

I've stalled slightly on the new novel, which is sitting at 15k words. I am starting to plot in my head a new story collection, too. And I have a manuscript of non-Alaska stories called Prize Winners, which features mostly flash stuff. It's either a long chapbook or a short book. Don't really know what to do with it.

Phew. That's too much stuff. And there's more, but the mentioned stuff is the important stuff.

Here's some design news:

Have you heard of Fix It Broken? It's an online journal that with each issue picks a featured story and has a designer do a tshirt design inspired by the story. Well, I'm stoked to be the designer for their next issue. I'm going to make a hella awesome shirt, so submit your hella awesome stories HERE.

Also, I recently designed a cover for an ebook being put out by NAP. Here's the cover:

As always, check out my design site or my flickr for more!

How My Monday Started

2011-05-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

I've been working part-time for a small weekly newspaper (while continuing to look for full-time work) in a rural area about 30 miles from where I live. This morning I went to another small town between where I live and where the paper is located to pick up a packet for the town's city council meeting. I passed City Hall and pulled into a driveway to turn around. I let a big jacked-up pick-up pass me then I pulled back out and headed back in the direction of City Hall.

In my rearview I saw the pick-up turn around, but thought nothing of it. I parked at City Hall, went inside, picked up the packet, had 30 seconds of chit-chat and went back to my car. The pick-up was waiting at a stop sign just above City Hall. I got back in my car and pulled out of the parking lot. The pick-up began driving ahead of me. About a block down the road he pulled off on the shoulder and let me pass. As I did the man, probably in his 50's or 60's stuck his head out his window and glared at me as I passed.

After I passed he pulled back onto the road and got right up on my bumper. Couldn't have been more than six inches from touching my car. I drive a little two-door deal, his grill was practically in my back windshield. He followed me like this down one road, across an intersection, onto another road and all the way out of town until I took the on-ramp onto the interstate.

I didn't think to get a license plate, and the small town has no police force. All I could think was "wow, I'm being run out of town." It felt like a film version of small town prejudice in the 50's or like the Wild West. Now, I have no clue how I angered this guy. My tattoos were covered, and really he'd only seen me in my car. But there's the rub. I have an Obama sticker on my bumper. (I have a Wilco one, too, but I can't imagine he hates Wilco that much, or even knows who Wilco is).

It was a weird event. To be honest, I've always been conscious of my liberal-leaning bumper stickers when I'm in not so liberal areas. But after what happened last night, bin Laden's death, it felt so weird to possibly be harassed for my support of the current administration.

At the paper I overheard plenty of reaction to bin Laden's death. No one there believes it was really him, or are at the very least incredibly doubtful. For all the joy and jubilation around the country last night it made me sad to be reminded that there is still a large cross-section of the country who will never accept anything done by the current administration. It makes me sad that in 2011, after finally accomplishing what everyone has wanted our government to accomplish for nearly 10 years, that prejudices (whether racial or strictly political) can taint the way they view such a momentous occasion. Because no one, I highly doubt even the liberal community, would have thought to doubt such a thing if it had been accomplished by the Bush administration.

Now there's a good chance that being driven out of the small town this morning had nothing to do with anything but a guy in a big truck in a bad mood. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me. It's a small enough town that me and my car would be recognized as a non-resident and from what I've heard a good portion of the town is pretty unfriendly to outsiders/and outside points of view.

Of course, the connection wasn't a stretch either. Today I planned on writing about Raymond Carver, but after last night I decided I would wait a day or two, then this morning's strange event happened and it felt like it needed to be written down, explored.

Tribute

2011-04-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

I recently designed this Alfred Hitchcock tribute. I've been a big fan of Hitchcock for years, and now that my new novel is loosely influenced by his films, it was fitting that I started working on this piece. The piece was also inspired by a chapbook cover I designed recently that I'm excited to show when the writer and press start promoting it. In the meantime:

This design is available at Society6 as art prints, phone skins and t-shirts!

Also, there's a poem from a new chapbook manuscript up at Thunderclap's website for National Poetry Month. It's called "Tinder." READ IT!

Fun With Statistics

2011-04-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

Monday. Code for Failure tweet day. follow @rwrkb

Little tidbits:

The most visited link to one of my stories or poems is "Like Swimming" one of the Alaska stories, up at Atticus Books. This is consistently my most visited story, even months after it was originally posted. I don't know why, but I'm taking it as a good sign.

Second most is the excerpt from Code for Failure that ran at decomP. Also, a good sign, I think.

Tied for the most visited links overall are to my design site and Thunderclap's page for my chapbook, Aquarium.

Most visited link to something I didn't write is THIS blog post by xTx which I liked a lot.

18.4% of visitors spend over an hour on my blog. Weird.

7.5% spend between 30 seconds and 5 minutes.

Six countries tie with .2% of my readership. Indonesia, Australia, Italy, Denmark, India, and South Africa.

34.6% of visitors use Firefox.

16% use an Apple OS (Computer, iPad, or iPhone). This number was less than I would have guessed. Maybe I'm biased, being a mac user.

-----

All that said, I'm always curious about readership, sometimes I think probably no one reads this. Other days I am proved incredibly wrong when I look at the "statistics." Being a sports nut I've always liked stats, and I can get very analytical about them. I don't know what any of the above stats mean, but I find them intriguing.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

A Few Small Things

2011-04-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

My eyes are dilated right now. Soon I will tell you things I've been doing. For now:

I review Kat Dixon's chapbook, Don't Go Fish at Cow Heavy.

The new Wigleaf playlist is up. The theme is un/happiness. I picked a song for it.

New interview with xTx.

More More-ness

2011-04-18T01:12:00.001-07:00

First off: Don't forget today is Monday, which means I am tweeting a line from Code for Failure today. Follow @rwrkb

As you've no doubt noticed many of my posts lately have just been links. I feel like I have very little to say currently. I do my best not to use this space to gripe or whine. So when I feel like I have to reach for positive things to say links come in handy. They allow me to share things that have brought a little bit of positivity. Soon I'll do one of my "state of the manuscripts" posts, and I'm sure things will start popping up that give me something more to say, in the meantime I hope you'll enjoy the links I post here.

So, without further ado:

The latest installment of John Dermot Woods' Animals In Midlife Crisis is up!

A great conversation with Ben Tanzer about You Can Make Him Like You, which continues to rock socks all over the place.

And there's a plethora of xTx going on. I know a lot of my links have been xTx stuff and, well that's her fault for getting so much stuff published. She's one of those writers I just want to read everything from, that I can't get enough of. Which I guess makes it a good thing she gets so much damn stuff published (and rightfully so)! So, here's some links: DOGZPLOT, Wonderfort, and also a roundup of two poems and two stories I somehow missed at The Legendary. And, as a bonus, at 10 Everywhere interview!

Ulcer Week

2011-04-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a stressful week. I interviewed for a job last week and have been waiting and waiting and waiting. 3 months of being unemployed, 250 jobs applied for, 2 interviews. I feel insanely burnt out and mentally broken. The rejections that come with being a writer could never make me feel as much of a failure as this real life stuff does. But I continue to try and keep the ol' chin up. So, here's some positive things:

I have completed about half of my Pablo Neruda The Captain's Verses rip-off/homage. It will be called The Waiting Tide. Hopefully by the time it's complete someone will have picked up one of the other two full-length poetry manuscripts I've got sitting around.

Scott McClanahan's Stories V! came and I read it immediately. It's the closest his books have come to matching his style of performing live. Really something to behold.

I posted a small reading list for National Poetry Month over at Big Other.

Chelsea Laine Wells kills it at PANK.

More xTx = more awesome.

Novel & Neurosis

2011-04-12T02:40:00.000-07:00

I got the third blurb for Code for Failure yesterday. I've never been through this process before. Closest thing was getting feedback from the writers I worked with in my MFA. It's a nerve wracking affair. To be honest, when I came up with the list of people I wanted to ask it was sort of a gamble. I picked writers I had at least had some contact with before, sure, but also whose writing really blows me away. And I was pretty certain none of them would like the book. Not because I doubt the book, but more that I like their writing so much that I felt like that old Woody Allen quip about not wanting to be a part of a club that would have me as a member. Yes, I'm that sort of neurotic.

Anyway, three blurbs have come in and they've been amazing. They far surpass me and my expectations. It's humbling, and a bit nauseating at the same time. There's a year before the book comes out and it's hard to keep the blurbs to myself, but I don't see the point in revealing them yet. I haven't even sent them to the publisher yet. Right now they are a little secret I'll look at now and then to re-read the words of my idols and peers, to keep myself bolstered in this adventure of writing.

Other than that:

I review Paul Maliszewski's collection, Prayer and Parable at The Nervous Breakdown

Here's the latest installment of John Dermot Woods' ANIMALS IN MIDLIFE CRISIS!

And here's a most awesome clip of The White Stripes being quoted on the Congressional floor:

A Little Reminder

2011-04-10T11:57:00.001-07:00

Don't forget tomorrow is Monday, which means I'll be tweeting a line from Code for Failure! Follow @rwrkb!

Also, so this post isn't totally shallow, check out this awesome interview I stumbled on yesterday. It's with one of my mentors/writing idols, Jack Driscoll (whose new collection is due this year and I can't wait!). CHECK IT OUT!

Stuff I Forgot About

2011-04-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

The second installment of John Dermot Woods' Animals In Midlife Crisis is up!

There is a great article about Ben Tanzer and a couple other Chicago writers, which proves Tanzer is quickly becoming a celebrity.

There is new Roxane Gay at Monkeybicycle.

I noticed yesterday that my chapbook, Aquarium is on sale at Powell's for National Poetry Month. And all their copies are signed from my reading there in January.

The debut issue of Sententia is now marked down to $6! With free shipping!

A Little Grab Bag

2011-04-08T01:07:00.000-07:00

Another great video from the Poetry Everywhere series. This time the always amazing Dorianne Laux:

Watch the full episode. See more Poetry Everywhere.

Annalemma is one of my favorite literary journals because it's the whole package, great writing and great design. And Christopher Heavener, the brains behind Annalemma is the type of guy I wish I lived in the same city as so we could hang out. Right now Annalemma needs help to continue, and they DESERVE to continue. We NEED them to continue. Not just because I am determined to make it in one of the print issues eventually, but because the world of literary journals needs people who love writing and design and the folks at Annalemma do. GO HELP!

In other news, a couple friends in Portland have a band called Magic Punches and they just found out one of their songs is on Hollister's "Early Summer Playlist" which means the song gets played, in rotation, every hour and a half in all Hollister stores currently. Pretty huge for an indie band. CHECK 'EM OUT!

A Little Bit of Something

2011-04-06T00:59:00.000-07:00

The story that leads off the Alaska collection is up now at Wigleaf. It is called "The Pit Bull's Tooth." READ IT! It is an incredible thrill to be included at Wigleaf, one of the best online journals around. Many thanks to Scott Garson for liking the story enough to run it. If you check out the story make sure to give a look see to my Dear Wigleaf postcard! A lot of people seemed to be reading this sucker yesterday, so I hope this at least finds a few of you who haven't yet.

I wish there were more to tell you. If you read the story I hope you like it. I'm still holding out hope for the collection even though things have been quiet.

Preparations

2011-04-04T02:12:00.001-07:00

A year from this month my novel, Code for Failure will be released. It's still a long way off, but it's halfway from when I first found out. I don't always know the best or hip-est ways to promote this sort of thing, but I've been thinking for a while that it might be fun to use Twitter to "tweet" lines from the book leading up to the release. I kept telling myself it was a silly idea, but every writer I ran it by seemed to think it sounded fun. Or at least they didn't say I was being stupid. So, I joined Twitter (after some friendly pestering) and starting today I will tweet a line from the book every Monday (hopefully) until it is released next year. Follow @rwrkb to get in on the fun. I'm also using the hashtag, #codeforfailure2012 to make it easy to catch up or re-read the lines as this experiment progresses.

Things Happen On Saturdays

2011-04-02T11:03:00.001-07:00

Important things, like a new story from xTx. And it is killer. Not that this is surprising in the least. xTx doesn't know how to write a disappointing story, only how to go for the jugular. GO READ "THE SMALLEST SUPERMAN."

You should also check this out, one of my favorite poets and people reading one of his many awesome poems.

Watch the full episode. See more Poetry Everywhere.

If you watched that you now know you should pick up Joe's books. Seriously.

Also, yesterday I forgot to mention that during the month of April, in honor of National Poetry Month, Artistically Declined Press is offering 25% off Rose Hunter's collection, To The River. What with the free shipping already included that's just $6.75 for 90+ pages of killer poetry, in what is one of the most beautiful books you'll ever pick up. If I do say so myself. And I do. Click the image below to go get yours!

Everywhere and Everything

2011-04-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

If you liked that cover design for Thunderclap! 5 it is now available as an art print, t-shirt, and phone skin from my Society6 store. CHECK IT OUT!

The awesome BL Pawelek, who curates the 10 Everywhere interview series is on the move. That is, 10E is moving to a new home at Monkeybicycle! I had the great pleasure of re-designing the 10E logo for the move:

Also, the force of badassery behind Thunderclap Press, Amanda Deo is the featured poet at Negative Suck right now. GO READ!

It's now national poetry month. People are doing a "NANOPOWRIMO" where they write a poem a day all month. I'd participate, but I already write a poem a day. For April I'd like to at least get to a halfway point on the new novel. That would be nice.

Newly Tackled

2011-03-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I did a cover of a book cover so recently I took my designing to another existing book, this time xTx's most awesome Normally Special. Definitely a more hardcore direction than the actual cover used, but this to me matched the intensity and brutality of x's words. Here's my take:

As always, you can see the rest of my Book Cover Covers at my Flickr!

Also, Thunderclap! 5 is now available! GO GET YOU SOME!

The Goods

2011-03-28T17:51:00.001-07:00

If you want a big awesome list of good stuff to read CHECK THIS OUT. It includes my favorite story of the year, "The Mill Pond" by xTx, which I will probably not stop mentioning. Ever.

One of my favorite people (not to mention one of my favorite illustrators), John Dermot Woods is now doing a comic strip at The Rumpus. Its called Animals in Mid-Life Crisis. Check out the first installment HERE!

Also, I have a new story up at Housefire today. It's called "The Ghost on the Wall." READ IT!

More Things I Like That You Should Read

2011-03-24T17:59:00.001-07:00

MFA buddy Alissa Nielsen is killing it lately. I remember reading this one in her thesis. It's at Prick of the Spindle. READ IT!

I have used all the adjectives for xTx. She is awesome. Everyone ought know that by now. I really dug this little piece she put up on her blog. GO READ IT!

And Amanda Deo, poetic tour de force and gal behind Thunderclap Press where I act as design life partner posted this little poem that I have been digging. YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!

A Quick Design Aside

2011-03-21T15:47:00.001-07:00

Thunderclap is back with their latest chapbook, Closer Walks by Kenneth Pobo. Over there on the left is the cover I designed for it. Thanks as always to Amanda Deo and Thunderclap for letting me be a part of it.

BUY CLOSER WALKS

Also, I just finished the cover design for Thunderclap! #5 and it's badass. I'll show you soon.

Not Much, But Enough

2011-03-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

The staying disciplined thing with the new novel is still working out relatively well. It's probably the most disciplined I've ever been about my writing. Hopefully that will pan out into something good. I have the house to myself the next two and a half days and I'm hoping to do some serious writing damage.

Other than that I have very little to say, I suppose. Here are some cool things:

Roxane Gay had a new story up over the weekend! READ IT!

Ben Tanzer is killing it! HERE'S a post he did for the Page 69 Test. (& don't forget to pre-order YOU CAN MAKE HIM LIKE YOU!)

Also, don't forget to NAME OUR BIRD

As you were...

Other Chances to Win Free Books

2011-03-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

xTx offers you a chance to win a lot of good writing (including x's own Normally Special which you know I love) if you purchase Hard to Say by Ethel Rohan. Ethel rocks, as does xTx. GET IN ON IT.

Also, you can be entered to win a copy of Lavinia Ludlow's alt.punk by commenting on her awesome post at Lit Drift. DO IT!

And, yes, I know I just mentioned this, but don't forget to NAME THE BIRD.

Name the ADP Bird!

2011-03-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patty's

2011-03-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

"I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer."

--Brendan Behan

p.s. There's a great interview with Roxane Gay at Used Furniture Review. READ IT!

A Couple Things While I'm Thinking About Them

2011-03-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Friend of many mentions lately, Lavinia Ludlow was kind enough to interview me over at the new lit blog, Plumb. CHECK IT OUT.

Good friend of mine/MFA buddy, Alissa Nielsen has a story up HERE. Read it.

Novel-ing

2011-03-11T10:52:00.001-08:00

I mentioned recently that I have decided to stop letting all these novel beginnings rule over me. I took charge, picked the one that I desired most and have pushed and pulled and molded and it is slowly picking up steam. It has a working title and the structure has revealed itself. There is an exclamation point in the text and I have never used one in my writing before. There is a good chance it will go away.

It is incredibly early (just over 5k words), but I'm feeling enthusiasm.

And this one is a different experience from writing Code for Failure. The style is different, even the inspirations are different. Code for Failure came out of a few things, the experience of getting kicked out of college and going to work pumping gas. My love of music. It is about drugs and sex and booze. It is Bukowski and Kerouac. The new one isn't so much about any of these things. It is informed less by music than Alfred Hitchcock. Less by Bukowski and Kerouac than my mentors, Jack Driscoll, Pete Fromm, Brady Udall, and Bonnie Jo Campbell (in some ways Code for Failure was a reaction against the work I was doing in my MFA, I didn't tell anyone in the program about it, didn't show it to any of the faculty I worked with. I wrote it as an escape from the stories I was working on). And, oddly this one's also the tiniest bit inspired by Sherlock Holmes stories. It is less inspired by dysfunction and more by survival. It is still informed by work, but not pumping gas, rather by my time doing construction in the Arctic.

Sometimes I start to get superstitious about writing progress. With something like a novel, when it's such a long haul of a project I feel an urge to not talk about it at all, because it feels so fragile. I'm trying to buck this neuroticism. I have enough neurotic tendencies in life. I want to talk about the process of all this, just like I want to talk about things like real jobs. It's these things that make writing writing. I don't see the reason to shy away from it.

I'm trying to write at least a thousand words a day on the new novel. It's not a huge goal, but it's not an easy goal either. It's one that can be shattered some days when I get on a roll, but also can be a struggle some days if I don't get a chance to write because of real life things, or even just because I get sucked into a book and use up all my late night time reading.

I was less conscious last time around with Code for Failure as to what I was doing or why I was doing it or what it would be. This time is going to be a different kind of adventure.

It's the Little Things

2011-03-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

THIS is the most important article you will read today, written by the always amazing Roxane Gay

For wholly different reasons, and of utmost literary importance, there is also THIS ARTICLE. Written by Kat Dixon, another favorite.

There's a fantastic interview with the ever-awesome Paula Bomer up at JMWW. CHECK IT OUT.

New xTx (the ineffable) can be found HERE. You know you want it.

I talk about an interesting new anthology over at BIG OTHER. Yes, I still post over there. When I stop slacking.

Don't forget to pre-order your copy of Ben Tanzer's You Can Make Him Like You from ADP! DO IT! And for those of you who are so inclined, there's the deluxe edition, which is extremely limited. It includes a supplementary chapbook called Party Pit featuring archival material, essays, fiction, and a conversation between Ben and myself about the book and writing in general. GO DELUXE!

Over at Society6 they are having free shipping on all "mini" and "small" art prints. Now's a good chance to pick up a print of one of my designs! DO IT!

Of all the novel beginnings I had going I finally decided I had to stop waiting for one of them to grab me by the collar, and have picked one to wrangle into shape. I'll no doubt be talking about this more as I slog through the adventure of novel-ing.

Oh Hey!

2011-03-07T18:07:00.000-08:00

Lavinia Ludlow's review of Aquarium from Goodreads is now up at Small Press Reviews! A wonderful surprise! CHECK IT OUT!

Nice Things

2011-03-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

Last night I got an email that a chapbook of mine has been accepted. So, this September my second poetry chapbook will appear from Maverick Duck Press. It's called Mile Zero and is mostly Alaska-themed poems. It is also the final section in my full-length manuscript of the same name (of which Aquarium is the middle section). More about this as it comes together!

And, speaking of Aquarium, Lavinia Ludlow (who you will remember from my TNB REVIEW of her debut novel, alt.punk) said some incredibly nice things about it over at Goodreads. And because those things were so nice I'm going to quote the whole thing here so I can read them in two places!

Ryan Bradley has a way about him, and more than a Billy Joel song can describe. His poetry touches on the facets of family, creating a family, being a part of a family. In Aquarium, he’s managed to convey complex emotions in just a few short lines. Example, in his poem “Dinner with the Family,” he writes, “We sit, feral beats/ tearing apart the days,/ basking in unheard mutterings/ of mother and father/ whose breath is laced/ with the stink of disappointment./ We are artists, all of us,/ whipping into creation/ the silence of dementia/”

He maintains a contemporary feel to his writing, titling his pieces things such as “After Reading, I want to get Drunk” and “Have You had a Sex Dream about me?” but still harbors eloquent realism to his lines. In “Strippers Don’t Dance to the Beatles,” he writes, “Strippers don’t dance to the Beatles,/ they save their jar-faces and swollen hearts/ for the mirrors tucked in their purses,/ only letting loose the hidden purity/ of their public bodies for sleep, dreams/”

Bradley’s become an SME in the world of poetry. Aquarium, to me, is his poetic introduction to the world, and I look forward to many more years of his releases.

And, since we're on the topic, Powell's still has (according to their site) 8 signed copies of Aquarium in stock from my reading there back in January. PICK UP YOURS!

Speaking Code

2011-03-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

Sure, it's over a year until my novel Code for Failure will release to the world, but there is fun starting to pick up on my end. Not fun that can experienced by the world necessarily. Fun like editing. Nerve-wracking fun, like asking writers I admire to read and potentially blurb the book. Fun like having one of my favorite artists/illustrators agree to do a cover illustration. Before getting the book out to potential blurbers, I cut out the epilogue. I'd been on the fence about it since the first draft. It was clear that it needed to go. It's dangerous to be this excited with everything still being so far away.

In the non-writing universe I have applied for about 120 jobs now. This area is a pit of unemployment. I remain hopeful. After all, I'm 27 which means I can't be unemployed forever. Knock on wood. I'm applying for a teaching job at a community college about an hour and a half away. It'd be a drag of a commute, but I'd be stoked to be teaching. I think that's really something that I could love doing. Or doing design work. I think a lot about that. Most designers charge a lot of money. Being really cheap, if I could drum up 20 jobs a month at a $100 I could survive on that. Or 10 jobs at $200. I'm going to start sending my design portfolio to presses. But if you know anyone who needs design work done, or are a publisher and want your books to look awesome, drop me a line: aestheticallydeclined[at]gmail[dot]com

...And The Letter X

2011-03-03T17:52:00.000-08:00

Remember when I talked about xTx's book Normally Special? And the story "The Mill Pond" and how awesome it was, how it was one of my favorite short stories in recent memory? Well, if you're insane and haven't bought Normally Special yet, you can read "The Mill Pond" HERE. If after that you still don't buy Normally Special, well, then you clearly can't be saved.

Brought To You By The Letter L

2011-03-02T12:45:00.001-08:00

I reviewed Lavinia Ludlow's debut novel, alt.punk at The Nervous Breakdown. It's a wonderful book and its official release was just yesterday! READ THE REVIEW! BUY THE BOOK!

I might have finished a new story last night. And got a first draft of another. Rejections have started pouring in again. I've applied for over a hundred jobs now. The truck keeps trucking.

Year of the Rabbit, etc.

2011-02-24T15:34:00.000-08:00

This is a "year of the rabbit" design I did, inspired by a bunch of year of the rabbit interpretations other designers have been posting at Society6. This is available as art prints, phone skins, laptop skins, and tshirts and hoodies. The tshirt looks like this:

CHECK OUT "YEAR OF THE RABBIT" I had a lot of fun with this one. I'm considering doing a whole series of the Chinese Zodiac. I've already got a rooster one that I'll post in a day or two.

Also,

There's a fantastic interview with xTx HERE

And,

There's a great wrap-up/introspective on the whole gender inequality in publishing thing HERE

Plus,

Got a personal rejection from a pretty big small publisher for the Alaska collection. They'd held on to it for a long time, my hopes were slowly being lifted. They liked it, so that's something I guess. I also put the finishing touches on a new story last night that will likely be added into the collection. The new one is called "The Last Frontier," which, when writing stories about Alaska seems like a title that had to pop up at some point.

More About Alaska

2011-02-23T01:49:00.000-08:00

Interest in Alaska is booming. There are a number of reality shows already taking place in Alaska (Alaska State Troopers, Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, Flying Wild Alaska, Goldrush: Alaska, Tougher In Alaska, The Toughest Race On Earth: The Iditarod, and Out Of The Wild: The Alaska Experiment). And I heard recently that it's estimated by next year there could be around 20 such shows in production. "Manly Men," the producer of Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Catch said, "They all want to be Alaskans, they just don't want to get their toes frostbitten." Or hypothermia, I would add, because that's not so much of the fun either.

The senior VP of programming and development at the History channel said of these shows (and History's plans to introduce another show to the fold), "The fact that they're based in Alaska is an enhancement."

And of this trend, a columnist from Variety says, "There is somebody in an office right now pitching somebody a show, somewhere, that has something to do with Alaska."

The most thorough and best article I've read about the phenomenon is HERE.

I've seen this trend picking up steam. The interest in Alaska building. For years. Even before the one who will not be named was thrust unwittingly into the national spotlight. And while none of this was impetus for my writing about my home state, whether the Alaska story collection or the novels I've been slowly working on, I've always thought it might be a situation of me finally being in the right time and place for something. I still hold out hope.

Bookshelves

2011-02-22T14:39:00.000-08:00

2011-02-19T10:50:00.001-08:00

Moving day! Away from computer for a few days.

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A Lot of Goings On

2011-02-17T13:10:00.001-08:00

First and foremost, ADP's new title, You Can Make Him Like You by Ben Tanzer is now available for pre-order and has its own official website. CHECK IT OUT!

Also, I read Normally Special by xTx on my flight back from AWP. It is so damn good. "The Mill Pond" is one of the best stories I've read in the last few years. The book is up there with the best story collections I've read in the last few years. In fact it fits right in with Paula Bomer's Baby & Other Stories, Lindsay Hunter's Daddy's, Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage and Mary Miller's Big World. Easily the top 5 collections I've read in the last three years. So, as much as is going on with the inequality between genders in the world of publication the women have been bringing it. And hard.

Learn more about Normally Special HERE.

As for me, still not much happening publication-wise. But I'll keep my nihilism to myself. Mostly focused on the move right now. It goes down this weekend. And I'm sick, so hoping that sorts itself out right quick. I've applied for about 80 jobs now. The machine chugs on.

I've done some recent design stuff, though. So make sure to check out my Society6 and Flickr pages!

Let's Love

2011-02-13T16:20:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day to get your name on the list for the Valentine's Day poem and receive this year's! GO HERE and sign up. Or use this LINK. If you've received the poem in the past you should receive it again this year, though instead of coming from a personal email address it will come from rwbvalentine[at]gmail.com. There are enough people doing it now that I'm going to use an email newsletter format. I finished the poem last night and am really happy with it. Looking forward to pressing send.

In anticipation I was reading more Neruda last night. It's probably dangerous for me to read Neruda so much, but I can't get enough. I really love the last stanza of "Ode to the Book (I)"

I have learned about life
from life,
love I learned from a single kiss,
and I couldn't teach anyone anything
except what I have lived,
whatever I had in common with other men,
whatever I struggled for with them:
whatever I expressed of them all in my song.

Makes me remember how far I have to go.

2011-02-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

Gargoyle Magazine is awesome. Not just because they published a piece of mine a while back. But also because they have been around rocking the lit scene for longer than most presses and journals can even dream of. Richard Peabody, the genius behind Gargoyle is featured in a great article by the Washington Post today. READ IT.

Also, let me remind you to take part in my annual Valentine's Day Poem Project. GO HERE FOR MORE INFO.

I have a ton of partially finished stories sitting around my hard drive. I finished one recently, and finished a draft of another. There have been poems here and there lately, too. I've applied for 50+ jobs at this point. And the move is creeping up rather quickly. Adventures everywhere.

Here's a new design, based on the design I did for Aquarium:

As always, check out my Society6 Page!

And More...

2011-02-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

Finally posted a small AWP wrap-up on the ADP site. CHECK IT.

Mary Miller was interviewed at Rumpus. Mary is a hell of a writer, and after getting to meet her at AWP I feel I can say she's also a hell of a reader/person/awesome force of nature. Seriously. READ IT.

I've also been working on some Lincoln-themed designs. The first is up at Society6:

The tshirt version looks like this:

There's also this little guy, who has nothing to do with Lincoln at all:

CHECK 'EM ALL OUT

A Few More DC Tidbits

2011-02-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

A couple things I found perplexing while in DC:

-Either Counting Crows are still big in DC or they are just big at the hotel where I stayed. I heard no fewer than ten Counting Crows songs while in my hotel, and I wasn't there very often.

-Wearing sunglasses indoors seems to be big in DC as well.

Also, while I was gone I had a new story up at Housefire, the new project from Metazen and Riley Michael Parker. The story was part of their first prompt project, the prompt being "The First Time." READ IT!

Riley has been making up great bios for everyone. Here's the one he gave me:

"RYAN W. BRADLEY is a haunted house. In October it always happens, every year, that teenagers dare each other to spend a night inside him, and though many attempt the feat, no one is brave enough to stay through until dawn. The horror begins at midnight. First there is the moaning, and then the rattling of chains, and then the shadows of missing children, and finally a wave of blood that starts at the top of the stairs and ends up in the basement. And that’s all by 2am. Stay out of Ryan W. Bradley. Stay the fuck out."

Things I Learned In DC

2011-02-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

AWP has come and gone once again. What a whirlwind. There was very little sleep. Very little eating. There was a plethora of good people, so much so that you can never hang out with everybody you want to, which I guess is why this is an annual thing.

DC is daunting. But, I had a great time, even carved out a bit of time to go see the Lincoln Memorial, Saturday morning. That was awesome. I geeked out majorly. Had goosebumps and everything. Let me be clear, I've had a weird obsessive connection to Abe Lincoln since I was a little kid. Like 5 or 6. When I was fifteen I had an eerie premonition that I would have a son named Lincoln. When my wife told me she was pregnant I knew. I said "We're going to have a boy and his name is going to be Lincoln." So, yeah, add on the minor in American History and it was a very nerdy morning for me.

There's no way for me to reflect linearly about the experience. My brain is mush full of little snippets that come and go and make me think "that was awesome I need to write about that" and then ten seconds later its replaced by another.

ADP put on a reading Thursday night with Dogzplot, JMWW, and Wigleaf. That went really well, though it was full of chaos. Since Dogzplot couldn't make it and had organized much of the event I ended up trying to take the reigns as much as possible, then we got there and our MC didn't show. Which meant I introduced everyone off of a little printout of bios. I sounded like an idiot, but people seemed okay with that, which is good. The reading was packed and the readers were great. So stoked to be a part of it.

The reading I was to take part in was also fantastic, though because of a mix-up with the venue ended up getting cut short. So, I didn't get to end up reading, but it was still a fun evening and a great chance to meet some people I'd been wanting to meet. Afterward I took part in a roundtable discussion for a podcast. I felt out of place, but the others picked up the slack nicely. I'll post a link when that goes up.

I had some chaos Sunday morning. My alarm didn't go off and I woke up to the shuttle driver calling me asking if I was on my way down to the hotel lobby. I wasn't. He gave me five minutes and I somehow managed to make it. What a way to start the trip home. Plus, AWP ended with me receiving a couple rejections. One for one of the Alaska stories, and another for the Alaska collection. That means the Alaska collection is down to three presses. All of whom were at the top of my list from the beginning. One of whom I've had contact with and am keeping my fingers crossed. We'll see.

So. AWP. DC. I met a billion people and all of them awesome. I got to have dinners and drinks with writers who blow my mind. I missed out on others, but that's why we do these things annually, I guess. I got to feel utterly inadequate as a writer, which I believe is healthy. I got to take a few pictures, so enjoy:

Ben mugging for the camera while signing books.

Scott Garson, of Wigleaf taking a break on the floor to text.

A good time all around. Too short and blurry. Can we AWP for a living? I'm going to write another roundup for the ADP site, and will link when I do. Maybe my brain will clear up a bit, too, and provide some better stories.

Preparation AWP

2011-01-31T16:20:00.001-08:00

I'm getting ready for AWP. Actually making a list of stuff I don't want to forget to bring with. I don't make a whole lot of lists. Usually I make mental lists and then forget half the stuff on them.

Which reminds me, if you're going to be at AWP I'm reading at Atticus Books Happy Hour Reading @ Bourbon, Friday the 4th. It starts at 5. It's gonna be good.

I've applied for about 35 jobs so far. In almost 2 weeks? Last time I think I was over a hundred in that time frame. But now it's applying in a more localized area, as we are moving back to southern Oregon. It makes the most sense for a lot of reasons, especially since our house there never sold. We're moving in the middle of February, so there are those preparations, too.

I've also been trying to use what time I can to follow the pursuit of writing and design stuff. I've made a few changes to the Aesthetically Declined Design site. And I've been working on a bunch of design projects. Including a small series of collage style prints. Here's the latest one I've finished:

I think this one looks especially cool as a hoodie:

Check out more HERE. And stay tuned for a few small posts from DC!

On Pressure

2011-01-28T16:39:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get superstitious about talking about what I'm trying to work on writing-wise. Especially since kickstarting a new novel has been proving difficult. I think I've mentioned I have a bunch of novels started, but none of them are aching at me to be written, and I don't believe in forcing the issue. At the same time, I feel a pressure to write another novel. Sure, the first one's not even out yet, but at this rate there would be nothing on the horizon after the first one if I don't get in gear. And since the story collection isn't being snapped up, I feel like it's more responsible for me to work on a new novel.

However, I've started yet another novel. This one's speaking to me a bit more, and it's still early going so I'm weary of jinxing it, but we'll see. It also has no working title at this point which is weird for me. Usually I know what something's going to be called, or at least have some idea. The impetus for this one started with a single event. Something that happened in real life a little more than four years ago. In the early goings of my relationship with my now wife. We'll see how this sucker turns out. For the moment I'm just happy to be working on something that doesn't feel like dragging sandbags across a beach.

For some visual stimulation I'll show you this recently completed piece:

I put this up on Society6, too, but not as a Tshirt, not sure it would work as a shirt. If you dig it, though there are art prints and laptop skins. I also created a page on this site under "goods" that will link to my S6 account.

Alaska-ness & More

2011-01-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

The wonderful Potomac Review is running one of my Alaska stories on their website right now as a part of their new "Hot Opener" series. The story is called "All Things Infinite." READ IT HERE.

"All Things Infinite" is dedicated to Jack Driscoll, one of my mentors, who I've written about here before. The title came from the end of his novel How Like An Angel, and when I read that it was one of those moments where a whole story just unfolded in my brain.

On a different note, remember when I designed a T-shirt and submitted it to that place that didn't end up taking it? Well, I've hooked up with a site called Society 6 where artists and designers can upload their work and offer art prints, tshirts, etc. So, as my first uploaded design I did the "Release!" one I'd shown here previously, in a slightly new version. CHECK IT OUT!

I will be uploading new stuff periodically, so if you dig my stuff this is a cool way to support it, or the other amazing artists over there. Also, if there's been something I've posted that you dug and would like to see on a T-shirt or a print or something let me know.

Here's the new version of "Release!":

Gatsby

2011-01-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

The great design site, The Fox Is Black is holding a contest to re-imagine the cover of The Great Gatsby. This was right in line with my ongoing Cover Covers project, so I took a crack at it. Here's what I came up with:

You can see the rest of the entries HERE. I was a little disappointed they only used the full wrap image, but what ya gonna do? More than anything I was just stoked for an excuse to experiment with my skills a bit. Part of this was originally comp-ed up for another project that didn't pan out, but I think it works really well here.

Revelations & Beasts

2011-01-23T16:28:00.000-08:00

ADP released it's latest ebook, Book of Revelations by Adam Moorad. It got some Orange Alert love! You can DOWNLOAD IT and ADD IT ON GOODREADS! Here's the cover:

Paula Bomer and I had our reading at Powell's, which went fantastic. So much fun to meet Paula and to read at hallowed grounds like that. Powell's now has a plethora of signed copies of my chapbook, Aquarium as well as some signed copies of Paula's Baby & Other Stories.

And, because I was I goofing around with this little Beast character I created I made this:

It's a crappy cell phone pic, but it worked well for putting that guy on my shoulder. I don't know what I'm going to do with Beastie, but I'm fond of him.

So, That Happened

2011-01-21T00:47:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday I interviewed for a promotion at work. This was the second time I'd interviewed for this promotion, the first time being a few months ago. I was passed up that time and though I didn't agree with their reasoning, I worked hard at everything they wanted me to work on and put myself in a surefire position to be promoted when the time came again. Or so I thought. I was turned down for the promotion, and felt insulted by the process as a whole. Being told things like "Your communication skills are lacking" and "We feel you're just here for a job" are too ridiculous for words. There was no way I could stay at the job after that. So, I parted ways with my employment.

For those of you keeping track this is my second bout of unemployment in less than a year. To be honest, I worked my tail off and performed for the company at a high level. I was lauded many times for my "statistics" and was made to believe there was little question that I would move up at a speedy rate.

But if I'm being even more honest it wasn't the best situation for me anyway. The job and I didn't agree for many reasons, but most importantly it had grown, I think, unhealthy for me to remain there. When I'd get home from work my two year old would ask "Dada have bad work?" If a two year old can see it not much more needs to be said. Yesterday after arriving home early he asked me that question for the billionth time. It felt good to tell him "Dada won't have that bad work anymore."

Sure, there are a lot of unknowns again, and I'll be back to hustling my tail off for a new job (and maybe along the way I can find a way to hustle some small design jobs to bring in a little money). But life is short, and there's no point in subjecting yourself to torture, especially when you have a family involved.

I'm reading Sunlight at Midnight, Darkness at Noon: the Cunningham/McCreesh Letters right now, and it seems a perfect companion to this moment in my life. There is a point in one of McCreesh's letters where he writes, "There are more things I CAN'T DO than things I CAN, & I just happen to be able to lay down words in a fashion I FIND APPEALING..." which is how I feel about writing and about design work. Writing as a practice might not make much sense, but writing as an action is, along with love, the only things that might ever make sense. I look forward to my brain clearing from assault they received over the last 8-plus months, and allowing it to settle back on better pursuits.

TONIGHT!

2011-01-17T12:49:00.001-08:00

Designs

2011-01-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

First off, I've been a long time fan of Threadless t-shirts, which I was introduced to by my wife. I've played around with the idea of submitting a design for a long time, but finally sacked up and did it. Now, this could be huge, not just because they pay, but for the design exposure. My design, called "Release!" is now up for voting for the next 7 days, and whether it gets picked or not has to do with the amount of votes and overall score it gets. Obviously. This is my design:

And if you're feeling like helping a guy out, GO VOTE! If you're feeling even froggier, please share it with your friends, on your blog, or social media site. I can use all the help I can get, I don't have the kind of following other designers do, but this could be a huge step!

***UPDATE*** No more voting. The design was taken down early after receiving low scores.

Also, another of my "cover covers." This time for Gary Amdahl's I Am Death, a collection of two novellas. Amdahl is a wonderful person, and a fantastic writer. If you haven't read his work do it. Now. Here's my version of the cover:

Wrong Tree!

2011-01-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Wrong Tree Review is back! Issue 2 is live with all sorts of goodness. Including writerly friends, Meg Pokrass, Greg Gerke, Jason Jordan, Heather Fowler, Len Kuntz, Adam Moorad, and an interview with one of my favorite short story writers, Chris Offutt. It also contains my story, "Everything Returned" from the Alaska collection. It's also one of (if not the only) story I've written from experiences I had at the bookstore. READ IT HERE!

The End of 2010

2011-01-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

I posted the last part and a half of my look back at 2010 over at Big Other today. Check out PART 3a, and PART 4.

There's still mostly radio silence in terms of my submissions that are out in the world. It's getting to the point with some of them that I sometimes get paranoid that no one gets emails from me.

But there was some break in the silence today. It was rejection day in my inbox! My love/lust collection of poems furr has now been rejected by its second press. I'm trying to find presses that that seem like they'd take the chance on it. Seems obvious enough, right? They seem to be hard to find. Also had a chapbook rejected. So far 2011 seems too much like the last 9 months 2010.

Lots O' Good

2011-01-03T15:14:00.001-08:00

First up, lots of ADP news. We've got a new logo:

We've got a new WEBSITE, thanks to my brother Josh Bradley, and his company ShopDragon.

And we unveiled the cover of our next book:

Also, I started my look back at 2010 over at Big Other. Check out PART 1, PART 2, & PART 3. And, yes, there's more to come.

Onward

2010-12-31T20:15:00.000-08:00

2010 was a frighteningly full year. I'll be doing some recapping soon of my favorite things of the year over at Big Other. I will, of course, post links when those go up.

There was the hard/exhausting/etc: getting laid off, being unemployed, applying for 400 jobs, moving. Having numerous health problems, including a tumor the size of a baseball out of nowhere (which thankfully turned out to be benign). Dealing with migraines on a near-daily basis.

There was the awesome: finding a new job (albeit a soul-sucking one). releasing ADP's first book in January and going on to do 2 issues of Sententia, and a second book with the press. Designing a few books, having a few things published. Getting my novel accepted for publication, while at AWP no less. Having my first chapbook come out.

I've always been a daydreamer, but it's balanced out by my pessimism and realism. But I'm looking forward to 2011. 2010 was too hard, I have to believe 2011 will be a little easier. Here's to the end of a year that saw a theme park amount of ups and downs. Here's to a new year on which to pin hopes.

I'll be kicking off the new year in a few weeks by reading at Powell's with Paula Bomer:

I'm choosing to believe that starting the new year in this fashion will be a harbinger of goodness for the rest of the year. For all of us.

Newness

2010-12-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

I went AWOL for the Holidays! Yay!

I'm breaking that to spread news of a new story up today at Metazen. The story is called "Pubes." I wrote it after reading Lindsay Hunter's Daddy's. My goal was to write a story that would date one of hers. An homage if you will. READ IT!

Last Minute Gift Ideas

2010-12-18T21:27:00.000-08:00

The good people over at Metazen asked me and a slew of other writers to come up with some last minute literary gift ideas. I took the opportunity to rep some recent favorites, including Paula Bomer's Baby & Other Stories, Shya Scanlon's Forecast, and chapbooks by Hosho McCreesh and Kat Dixon. READ IT HERE!

Speaking of Paula Bomer's Baby & Other Stories, the flood of praise and press continues with Poets & Writers including it in their segment titled, Page One: Where New & Noteworthy Books Begin. CHECK IT OUT!

In Memoriam

2010-12-17T14:02:00.001-08:00

On Sunday, my faithful laptop of 3 1/2 years died. It was a sad day. I bought the laptop after working in the Arctic. Some of you may remember over a year ago when the hard drive died just days before my MFA thesis presentation. In that tragedy I lost hundreds of poems and stories and photographs and more. This time I lost a writing companion. Since the tragedy of '09 I had at least learned to faithfully back up my computer.

When Laptop died his hard drive was named Rubber Soul III. II had been the hard drive that died in '09 and the original Rubber Soul was my desktop computer. Laptop and I wrote many things together, designed many things, and spent countless hours on the internet together. Before my wife and I married and we lived 5 hours away from one another I used Laptop to talk to her.

This is what Laptop looked like at the end:

Because so much of what I do relies on having a computer I replaced Laptop Sunday night. Because I don't have $, new Laptop went on a credit card. New Laptop is purty and shiny, but old Laptop will be missed. When old Laptop's lining cracked it exposed its innards, resulting in me receiving small electrical shocks when I'd hold him incorrectly. New laptop does not electrocute me. Hoping for better luck with new Laptop I have named his hard drive, Polythene Pam. Yes, I'm that much of a Beatles nerd.

So, here's to old Laptop, 3 1/2 years as my writing buddy wasn't enough. You died before your time.

The Manuscript Graveyard or Where Do We Go From Here?

2010-12-14T01:53:00.000-08:00

So, what happens when we run out of places to send our manuscripts?

The only way I know to write about my writing is to try and relate my apparent neuroses. With my Alaska-based story collection out to only a few presses anymore I'm faced with a reality that this may not be happening. I've faced this before. We all have. I guess I just don't know what other writers do at this point? I have multiple manuscripts that just sit on my hard drive collecting virtual dust. The difference with this one? Well, I'm pretty convinced it's the best thing I've done. And that I may not be able to top it. At least not any time soon. It's received some nice comments along the way from editors, but in some regard that's kind of like asking a girl out and having her tell you that she likes you but doesn't "like" like you.

I'm not talking just to talk, I'm wondering what to do at this point in a so-called writing career. To be honest my writing time has shrunk quite a bit in the last seven or eight months. Even when I start something now I don't have that feeling of "this can and will be finished" that I used to get when starting a project.

I think I've mentioned before that for this collection I didn't pull any punches. I took the longshot of querying agents, and when that predictably turned up no interest, I submitted to about 25 presses. There are 4 left that I've yet to hear from. At least one of which I think is at least a decent possibility, but I tend to be a pretty bad predictor of that sort of thing.

And then what?

There are the writerly platitudes, the "keep writing" variety, the "write for yourself" variety. Both of which I subscribe to. To a certain degree. Nothing's going to stop me from writing. Even now with less time I've still been writing, it's just been poetry and snippets of stories. And I don't think about publication when writing, or about readers. I think about pleasing my own aesthetic, about creating something meaningful to the best of my ability. But there's also a point where writers have to admit that when the writing's done publication is the next thing to think about. If you are a writer and not just someone with a hobby, you need that interest. Not just to fulfill an ego, but to fill out the portrait, to complete the cycle of what you are doing in the first place.