I’m gonna be a real novelist! (finally)

Posted by Jeff on Jan 9th, 2022 in News | 0 comments

Happy new year and stuff.

The big news:
My novel Hate Story has been accepted by Dragonfly Publishing (a small press in Perth, Australia).
If things go as planned, my book should be available in paperback and e-book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones and other international online booksellers by the end of February.

Finally, the realization of a childhood dream. I’ve wanted to be a published novelist since I was about eight years old – it’s been a journey of forty years.
In a fair and just world, of course, I’d have accomplished this much sooner – say, fifteen or twenty years ago. I’m not supposed to be starting my novelist career now; I’m supposed to be a veteran with an impressive backlog of credibility behind me. But never mind about that now.

Mark March 19 on your calendar. Fun times will be had. More info to come.

In the meantime – I’m going to be one of six readers in the next Paper Teller Diorama anthology reading on January 22.
My experimental poem “How to Make Money in Poetry” appeared in this book, put out last August by Great Weather for Media in New York City. The press has been holding monthly Zoom events, including this one, featuring readings from contributors. I’ll be joined by fellow poets SaraEve Fermin, Erica Hoffmeister, Myles Taylor, Andres Vaamonde and Carl Watson.

You can join the Zoom for this event… or you can watch it on Facebook Live. Either works.
And you can buy Paper Teller Diorama at this link.

Since everybody’s sad about the (premature by three weeks) death of Betty White, here’s a great video of her in three live TV commercials from 1959 – preserved beautifully on colour videotape. I swear this looks as if it could have been taped in the ’90s, or even now:

Farewell, hello, farewell, hello.

Fire, dust, features, and a time for arriving

Posted by Jeff on Dec 4th, 2021 in News | 0 comments

Happy holidays and stuff.

With December comes not only Xmas and Hanukkah and the rest, but also three (3) (III) upcoming Zoom poetry gigs. When features come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.

1) Fire and Dust Digital (this Thursday)
Run by U.K. literary publication Here Comes Everyone, this is a monthly Zoom reading based in Coventry, England. There’s an open mic too, with the order determined by a random draw. To attend, register via the Eventbrite page.

2) The Word Is Write: Feature of the Features (December 18)
Marissa Prada’s Saturday night series is putting on a special holiday show that features… many of the features from the past year, including me.

3) Time to Arrive Open Mic (December 21)
Dane Ince runs a weekly Zoom series on Tuesday nights, with feature and open mic.

But that’s not all, folks.

I’m sure you know (assuming optimistically, of course, that anybody reads this website) that I’ve got a novel. Hate Story.
I was expecting to have the thing available on Amazon by now… and something’s come up. Might be a good thing, I don’t know. It might be a mirage in the desert. I have to be vague because I don’t want to jinx anything. Just rest assured that the book will be available sometime, somewhere.

For now, let’s look forward to the holidays. And let’s not exclude the Wookies.

See you in 2022.

First, we take Massachusetts, then we take Scotland. THEN Manhattan.

Posted by Jeff on Sep 26th, 2021 in News | 0 comments

Last month, I mentioned that I had a crazy whackload of online events coming up in October.
That has not changed. And I’ve started going to Zoom events again, but with hair grown on my head and face to cover the silly shingles blisters.

So the next Month of Jeff is going to go something like this:

1) First Friday Open Mic
I’m kicking off the month with a thirty-minute feature set at this series based in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

2) Like a Blot from the Blue
Only two days later, I get to be the headliner in this popular series based in Scotland, which attracts a lot of familiar faces in the international Zoom community.

3) Ad Lib’s Got Talent
Another one of these – a special Halloween edition.

4) Brownstone Poets
One of three featured readers at this long-running series in Brooklyn. This one requires pre-registration with a US$5 cover paid online.
(Fun fact – I’ve attended this series in real life… way back in 2011, I believe. I doubt they remember me.)

All of these events are also open mics, so bring something to share of your own. If you ain’t coming for me, come for your own exposure.

More, slightly bigger news coming later.
And now… ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Conway Twitty!

Happy Thanksoween.

What if Sean Connery were talking about a singles bar?

Posted by Jeff on Sep 5th, 2021 in News | 0 comments

The shingles isn’t healing as quickly as I’d hoped, so I’m still holed up at home and even limiting the Zoom events I’m attending these days. When I do attend, I keep the camera off. It still looks as if I have bad acne. It’s not worse than it was before, but it’s hard to tell if it’s getting better. The areas that were in extreme pain three weeks ago now get near-painfully itchy at times.

The worst part is that I’ve had to bow out of several IRL events with friends to which I’d been looking forward – just as life is slowly returning back to normal in Ontario.
I’m giving the shingles another two weeks to clear up, because I have three performance events scheduled by the end of September… and one of them is a live one:

1) Spoken Word in the Park
My first IRL gig in more than a year and a half, on the 21st. Apparently it’s in a park, way way out in the west end of Toronto. And there’s an open mic. Really, that’s all I know. Assuming it doesn’t rain, I’ll read and/or perform a set of all-new material, most of which has barely been heard by Canadian audiences, if at all.

2) Ad Lib’s Got Talent
Damon Lum’s informal monthly series is back on Zoom on the 24th.

3) Bill’s Back at the Globe
An international group of poets, including some I know via Zoom, will be reading from Act I of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus on the 25th. You can watch it on Facebook Live.

But wait, there’s more!

October is going to be another big month, because I have no less than three (3) international Zoom poetry gigs lined up. (Four, if you count another Ad Lib night.) When features come, they come not single spies, but in trios.

Details for all of the above on the right sidebar, with relevant links to be updated when available.

Here’s a song I hadn’t heard in well over thirty years and have become inexplicably obsessed with lately:

Happy Labour Day, Charlie Brown.

Anthology 2. Or, two anthologies

Posted by Jeff on Aug 22nd, 2021 in News | 0 comments

Hi. Remember a few months ago, when I said that I was being published in a handful of literary anthologies this year?
Well, I wasn’t lying. I wouldn’t lie to you, you know. (Assuming anybody reads this and there’s a “you” there.)

And now, two more of these anthologies are out and available for sale.

This Tuesday night is the online launch party for Sinew: 10 Years of Poetry in the Brew. It even has a poster and everything.
(The theme of the anthology is “bodies”. Hence all the… bodies in the poster.)

This new book includes my silly prose poem “Kirschner’s Groovy Style”, along with works from many writers from around the world… including some whom I’ve met and gotten to know, virtually, through Zoom poetry events.

Click here to order a copy of Sinew.
You can also get it at Barnes & Noble and other sources. Yes, something I wrote is going to be sold in Barnes & Noble. Isn’t that sweet?

Details about the online launch, including a link, on the right sidebar.
I’ll be reading my piece… but with the camera off, unfortunately, due to illness. (Shingles.)

If you happen to be in the Nashville area, there’s also a live launch party on Saturday, at Portland Brew East. I won’t be there, not just because of the shingles, but because the commute looks a bit tough.
(Though I do have a feature in Nashville next February – and I’m really hoping it’ll be a live gig and everything. If travel is back to relative normal by then.)

Also out this month: Paper Teller Diorama – the annual anthology by Great Weather for Media in New York, which features my experimental poem “How to Make Money in Poetry”.
The press is planning a series of online readings from the anthology over the next several months, and I assume I’m going to be performing in one of them… but have no idea when yet.

Click here to order a copy of Paper Teller Diorama.

Have a good one. Don’t take any wooden igloos.