It’s nearing the end of the 20 Year Reunion, and they are partying in Fredericksburg, Virginia, right now, without me! The Great Nate Wade just posted that he is at Merriman’s!! Not only am I getting old, I am failing to keep pace with my contemporaries.
This is the Stone Temple Pilots’ “Plush.” It was extremely popular 20 years ago, when I was cool enough to keep up.
… because that word is just so damned fun to say.
Just a quick note to say “Happy Birthday” to a outstanding literary community across the pond — Dagda Publishing celebrates its first anniversary today.
Dagda is a terrific independent publisher in the United Kingdom, and it extends wonderful opportunities to new and emerging writers. Its staff and editorial board are a pleasure to engage with, and it’s great fun being able to join the lively community of readers and writers connected with it.
Check out its website here: www.dagdapublishing.co.uk
Thanks for all of the fun, inspiration and opportunities you’ve shared over the past year with so many people, Dagda!
For more information about “The Dogs Don’t Bark In Brooklyn Any More,” which is free over the next several days for Kindle users, check out my January 14 interview with blogger Kelly Smith.
That’s right — for free. Over the next several days, right here: http://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Dont-Bark-Brooklyn-More-ebook/dp/B00GR4FUU8
As part if its first birthday celebration, Dagda Publishing is offering its fiction titles for free for the next several days! From Dagda Publishing:
“Happy birthday to us! We made ourselves a cake (disclaimer: the cake is a lie). As a little celebration, and giving something back to everyone that has supported us in our endeavours over the last year, we have decided to offer our fiction titles for free for the next few days on Kindle. So, follow the links below to pick up some fantastic new fiction for your virtual bookshelf. Have a glorious weekend, everyone!
http://www.amazon.com/Touch-The-Sun-Laura-Enright-ebook/dp/B00IMSSFDG
http://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Dont-Bark-Brooklyn-More-ebook/dp/B00GR4FUU8
http://www.amazon.com/All-Hail-Flesh-Various-Authors-ebook/dp/B00I12PZH2
www.amazon.com/Tuned-Dead-Channel-R-Davey-ebook/dp/B00FARIMP8
“And, if you have enjoyed our books, please leave a review on Amazon – it all helps future sales and getting these authors the recognition they deserve. Bye for now! 🙂 “
Here is Dagda’s summary for my novel:
“There was a time, Rebecca’s father had told her, when wolves could not speak. She wished for that time.”
Rebecca O’Conner is the daughter of a hero, a veteran soldier of The Wolf War. Now, she herself is a Captain in the Special Animal Warfare Service (SAWS), fighting,as her father did against the armies of super-intelligent wolves that have taken over most of the continental United States.
The Dogs Don’t Bark In Brooklyn Any More spans two periods of Rebecca’s life: the tumultuous Brooklyn childhood that shapes her future, preparing her for the soldier she must become, and her struggle to keep herself and her squad alive as she prepares to meet her destiny. Her empirical mind rebels against the chaotic dreams that haunt her, suggesting a greater path than she can yet comprehend as she seeks to find an end to the war.
The enemy is smart, strong and fearless; the odds are stacked against the human race. Is there hope for us in the war with the wolves? Will humanity prevail and reclaim its place as the dominant species on Earth? Or will the great demonic wolf that stalks Rebecca in her dreams close its jaws over the world and drive us to extinction?
Themes of loyalty and friendship run strongly throughout a compelling tale of hardship and struggle in a war unlike any other. However, even in a world where the enemy is of another species, The Dogs Don’t Bark In Brooklyn Any More shows how resentment, distrust, and man’s inhumanity to man can persist at a time when putting our differences aside is crucial to the survival of mankind. Above all, the men and women of SAWS and the US Army strive to demonstrate the indomitable spirit of humanity, and re-establish our place at the top of the food chain.
In honor of the Mary Washington College Class of 1994 Reunion, which I am regrettably unable to attend, I am sharing this photo of a … slightly younger me. As you can see (far left), I was sublimely well adjusted at the age of 20, despite the fact that apparently 40 percent of my body weight resulted from my ears and hair.
The happy gang pictured is actually The Tunnel Crowd — yes, they graduated before 94, but I currently don’t have any other MWC pics scanned in. Pictured beside me, from left to right, are Chris Orange, Dave Whitaker, Steve Miller in his Lennontastic shades, Paul Dilick, and another affable young man whose name escapes me now.
And pictured here is actually a key educational moment, because this may have been the party where I was first really introduced to The Beatles’ “White Album.”
“You say you want a revolution? Well, you know … we all want to change the world.”
Much love, guys. Thanks for long ago friendships, and great memories that the decades have failed to fade.
They eat the same breakfast as I do, and it is so damn easy to make.
Pictured below is the morning table of Wisconsin’s Jessi Schweiger, who I like to think of as Lady Hemingway. She is the author of the truly terrific poem, “California Kingdom,” which we featured a while back on this blog. (Check it out under the “Related” tab below this entry.)
A writer’s breakfast is as sublimely pragmatic as it is enjoyable — you’ve got each of the four food groups represented: caffeine, nicotine, donut and inspiration.
In addition to being a talented scribe, Jessi is the bartender at The Dawg House in Waubeka, WI, and she lives by a river where she raises chickens and ducks during the day. I’m not sure one can get much cooler than that if one lives outside New York City.
Keep pennin’, Jess.
“I was clinging to logic like a life buoy. Now,in the flick of an eye I’m trying to follow intuition. I see a reflection of a samurai in the glass of a painting and I come to Japan reason is discarded and I’m just going where the voices of the moment seem to send me. I’m the barbarian stalking the temples of Kyoto for long departed wisdom; I wallow in the aesthetics hooping that they will purify the beholder.”
— from “Sabine’s Notebooks,” by Nick Bantock
“A Guilt-Free Solution to the Economic Crisis.
“Feed the Soul, not the Soulless!
“Kill The Pustoy!”
***
Phillipe Blenkiron’s “The Pustoy,” the dystopian science fiction poetry collection released today by Dagda Publishing, sounds amazing. I can’t wait to read it.
From Dagda Publsihing: [Well, it’s here. The Pustoy has been released on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Follow the links below to purchase this highly original (and a little bit topical) collection of poetry by Philippe Blenkiron. We are very, very pleased to present this to you.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Pustoy-Philippe-Blenkiron/dp/1499238665
http://www.amazon.com/Pustoy-Philippe-Blenkiron-ebook/dp/B00KO44EGI
(Also find it on your local Amazon store)
Also, add it to your Goodreads shelf here, suggest it for group reads, share this status, and help us get the word out about this very, very special collection of poetry.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22353105-the-pustoy
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 