Two Poems and a Story

The one poem that's free to read:

     Is actually seasonal, too!

     Though technically, you can't read it. You can only listen to me read it.

     It's called "Hallowe'en Weather," and it's up now as part of the 2024 SFPA Halloween Poetry Reading. It's a little more than halfway down the page and has the picture you see here beside it. I put the image together from a couple public domain drawings I found on the internet.

     The poem that you have to pay to read is in issue #128 of the magazine Dreams & Nightmares. The ordering instructions, as near as I can tell, don't say how much it is for a single print copy of an issue, but it's $1 for a PDF. I haven't actually seen the issue yet, but a look at the table of contents makes me think the editor may have left my middle initial out of my byline. The poem's called "A Ballade of Intestinal Flora," and it's also kinda appropriate for the season, now that I think about it.

     The story, then, "It Takes a Village," started life as a piece of My Little Pony fanfiction, but I rewrote it to replace all the Pony references with stuff I made up myself. It's in vol.3 no.2 of Journ-E: The Journal of Imaginative Literature. The actual printed magazine is a trifle expensive what with it being more than 220 pages long, but folks can get a PDF copy for $5 by following the ordering instructions at the bottom of this page here.

     This is the third story I've had published in Journ-E. The others're in vol.2 no.2 and vol.3 no.1 in case anyone would like to order those as well. I reckon I'll keep sending the editor stuff till he goes out of business: that's the fate of most magazines these days, alas...

                                                  Mike

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Scent's Assent

Image
He saunters, not a hint of awkwardness About his movements, flowing sweet as fire. Dolores, trying not to stare, selects A protein bar, a heated argument Among her schoolmates raising ruffled fur And growls. The guy's a feline, after all. The student body's ninety-eight percent canine. The whole school's aware. He hears them, Casey does, their yips and all Alive with bitter scents of awkwardness. Remaining smooth, he doesn't look, the fur Beneath his shirt on edge, a tickling fire He knows. It follows matching arguments From other schools his science course selects. Universities should be more universal. "Should" is the key word. In class, Dolores carefully selects A seat in back of Casey, watching all The rest digress, off-topic arguments Concerning species, full of awkwardness. The room of canines almost seems on fire With ears and whiskers folded close to fur. Students of science should be— There's that "should" again. Stupid subjunc
Read more

Folks Letting Me Blather

Image
I've known Greta Boris :      For more then five years now but not as many as ten years, I think, ever since she joined the OC Fictionaires, the writing group that I've been a member of for something like twenty years. She writes mostly mystery novels, some of which are pretty funny, some of which are pretty suspenseful, and some of which are pretty much both at the same time. She and another author, Megan Haskell , also run a website called The Author Wheel where they do podcasts and offer writing courses and share their experiences with the wide world of publishing. As they put, "We've made the mistakes so you don't have to!"      As part of their podcast series, they wanted to talk about the value of critique groups, so Greta asked me if I'd be willing to make various noises on that topic. I agreed, and the episode they put together from our conversation, " Staying True to Your Creativity With Mike Payne ," is now available for your
Read more