Caravans Awry

We’re at it again…Planet X publications and I, that is. We’ve embarked on another book-length project that developed from a casual discussion, as the Test Patterns books have. I’ve just about finished the editing and proofing of the Creature Features volume and dove right into heading up Caravans Awry, a series of teals and poems about traveling circuses on Rt 66 in the mid-sixties, the heyday of those marvelous carnivals.

As per usual, we’re doing pre-orders via GoFundMe, and we have a Facebook page. Ebooks are 2.00. TPBs are 15.00, and an ebook is included. HCs are 25.00.

Caravans Awry . Fourteen tales and poems of carnival knowledge in the 1960s
from the folks who bring you Test Patterns — and — Creature Features , Planet X Publications .

Contributors:

Michael Adams, Adam Bolivar, Scott Couturier, Ashley Dioses,
Sam L Edwards, John Paul Fitch, Maxwell Gold, John Linwood Grant,
Jill Hand, Ted Morgan, KA Opperman, Duane Pesice, Peter Rawlik,
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, Russell Smeaton, William Tea, Sarah Walker, and Can Wiggins are creating content.

JB Lee and Derek Pegritz are creating art.

Coming Hallowe’en 2018.

Thanks for your time and attention! Happy reading!

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Full Circle?

The last post on this blog was about opening my Patreon. As I write, I’m considering killing it. Perhaps I should have built an audience first.

*rimshot*

Eh. Was worth a try. I haven’t killed it yet, but it’s a lot of effort to maintain. I’d rather put  most of the stuff here. And there’s gonna be stuff.

Forgive me, reader, for it has been eight months since my last blogfession. Mea maximum culpa, five godfaddahs, ten lords a’leaping, and a beer. Praise cheeses.

For blessed are the cheesemakers, as the Python wags would have it.

I’ve been busy. In that span, I’ve self-published two books and a chapbook duo, and edited what promises to be one of the best weird fiction anthologies on the market, a thing called Test Patterns.

Art by Nick Gucker, cover design by publisher Michael Adams. If you click on the pic it takes you to the GoFundMe, where you can secure a copy in a variety of formats.

It has these in it:

We’re doing the final proofs this week. I am all tingly. I could piddle. Santa is breathless.

And this is still out there:

Just the perfect stocking-stuffers in any of their forms, I assure you.

If you go here, you can get a copy of the fabled Test Patterns Teaser, where three of the stories and three of the poems from the anthology smolder and glower. The chapbook will be retired when Test Patterns is published.

 

Any of these are available in ebook form to reviewers.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon with somethings for your ears.

False Idylls

I wrote this a good many years ago, but I think it still applies, especially right now, with all the unrest in the US, so I’m posting it up.

with apologies to the late Gil Scott-Heron

the revolution will be televised
the revelations will be disseminated by covert action
read between the lines
disinformation will be commonplace
this information will be available for public display
in keeping with the signs of the times
the revolution will be available at your local video store
its evolution will be in conversation and hidden passions
you will be told where to go for more information
disinclination will be no excuse
this inclination will be made available to the local networks for instant replay
Tonight!

Marching, charging, surging, curving
bearing truths, and so unswerving
largely barging, herding burdens
speaking in tongues, and so, unnerving
the revolution will not march on little cat feet
though its aims may seem a trifle foggy to the uninitiated

The revolution will not be colorized
The disputation won’t be quashed by network sanctions
dissatisfaction won’t be bastardized
this satisfaction won’t be gained at the expense of our children’s days
but by the sweat of our brows
a restitution will be undergone
exasperation will be rededicated by inverse flexion
come just as you are
disapprobation will be frowned upon
this approbation will be intentionally overplayed
all night long

Grunting, jumping, lunging, sponging
crime rate’s up, retention’s plunging
skimpy pimping stinking thinking
booted up, the network’s linking
the revolution will not turn on a dime
though donations will be gratefully accepted

the revolution will overthrow the status quo
the corporations will be deregulated by negative cashflow
we’ll be good to go
inarticulation will be commonplace
this articulation will be ubiquitous and prominently displayed
why not make a stand
the disenfranchised will be mobilized
the misbegotten will be unforgotten and unafraid
great yet still unwashed outside
and in canyons of steel and glass, the herd will march on the head of a pin
and air their dirty laundry again and again
until that discoloration will seem commonplace
and the hues will be red white blue and gray
and indeed all the sixteen million tints of the rainbow
for the world is not black and white, nor gray, but a technicolor show
the revolution will be brought to you in wide-screen surround
damn near lifelike, a theater in the round

Never complain, never explain
Do what you must, excuse our dust
Never apologize
Notwithstanding understanding
Beg to differ with the gipper
Win one for us
The revolution won’t be fought with swords
Slurping, chirping, lurking, jerking
Winging, slinging, pinging, singing
ambiguous and unrelenting
spreading pending gender bending
roles reversing and revolving
the evolution of the revolution beginning

The revolution is electric
eclectic
respect it, reflect it
respective directives:
inflected invective
querulous, perilous
garrulous, careless and hairy
the revolution is intention
emotion
commotion, explosion
intoning baloney can only be phony and fixed
watch the parking meters for signs of the apocalypse
by the light of the setting sun