Keep the Flood of Books Coming…

Tags

Books, Brandon Ayre, Christmas, Film, Horror, Jólabókaflóð, John Goodrich, Karen Sanderson, Maura Spiegel, Poetry, Sidney Lumet

^{Interesting Book by Firael}

It is always a delight to recommend books written by one’s friends. And so, for fans of horror, whimsy, poetry, and film, I offer the following for your Jólabókaflóð consideration.

Horror:

Aside from the classics, I never considered myself much of a horror fan. Then I met John Goodrich and got a whole new appreciation for the genre. For the horror aficionado on your list check out:

Hag by John Goodrich

Aside from the classics, I never considered myself much of a horror fan. Then I met John Goodrich and got a whole new appreciation for the genre. Hag is a ghost story as human as it is spectral. It will reach out and grab you by throat and heart. And invade your dreams. John transforms the familiar tropes of the genre with the urgency of love, revenge, and survival, in this world and the next.

I Do Terrible Things by John Goodrich

Donna doesn’t know the old man with the sad face and yet there she is, beating him to death with a shovel. Is suppressed rage making her murder people in horrifying ways, or is she some sort of latent psychopath? She dreams of killing another man, and then another. The more people she kills, the more desperate she becomes to stop herself. Can she find the key and stop herself before she commits yet another gruesome murder? 

Dark Draughts by John Goodrich

Dark Draughts will burn your throat and disturb your sleep. Culled from nearly a decade of work, it is the first collection of John’s short fiction. From the dusty American West to the blood-soaked battlefields of WWI, from ancient Egypt to rural Vermont, John shines a ghastly light on our human insecurities and lizard-brain impulses. He has a flair for Lovecraftian horror worthy of the master himself, and mines the canon of terror tropes in original, witty, nightmarish ways. With tales sure to delight horror aficionados and novice fans alike, Dark Draughts will make you think twice before turning out the lights.

Little Britches by John Goodrich

Finally, on a somewhat lighter side, there is John’s latest. Little Britches is a tight, fantastical tale of cops, mobsters, and a two-year-old hitman packing two lethal .45s in his diaper.

---

Whimsy:

Edward’s Animals by Brandon Ayre

Brandon Ayre’s Edward’s Animals is a tender, charming, often funny novella of modern romance.

Edward is a pansexual Manhattanite who is so morbidly shy he cannot see people as people. He loves the males and females of all species, though the creatures he loves are so human they might not be imaginary at all.

If you have a taste for fine writing and gentle, thoughtful whimsy, Edward’s Animals is a delight.

---

Poetry:

No Boundaries by Karen R. Sanderson

Karen R. Sanderson’s No Boundaries is a long-arced portrait limned with warmth and humor. In blank verse and rhyme, limerick and haiku, Karen skips across emotional touchstones of family, friends, memory, nature, and the writer’s craft itself. This is a delightfully accessible collection, full of wry observations and little gems.

---

Film:

Sidney Lumet: A Life by Maura Spiegel

Sidney Lumet was a quintessential American director. His is the vision behind such classic films as 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, and The Verdict. Yet, one doesn’t have to be a Lumet fan to enjoy Maura’s trenchant biography. Her affection for her subject and his films, not to mention Sidney’s New York, is apparent as she explores his life and work, highs and lows. A testament to the theatre, film, and man, who reflected America through some of our most turbulent decades. An illuminating pleasure for anyone who loves films and a brilliant man who made some of the best.

All books are available through Amazon.

Guest Blog: No Boundaries – A Collection of Poetry by Karen R. Sanderson

Tags

Book launch, Books, Guest blog, Karen Sanderson, No Boundaries, Poetry, Poetry Collection

One of my great pleasures here at the Nest – right up there with Month of the Dragon – is helping to spread the word about books my wonderfully talented friends have written.

Today, by way of a guest blog, I am delighted to share Karen R. Sanderson’s debut volume of poetry, No Boundaries.

No Boundaries is a long-arced portrait limned with warmth and humor. In blank verse and rhyme, limerick and haiku, she skips across the emotional touchstones of family, friends, memory, nature, and the writer’s craft itself. This is a delightfully accessible collection, full of wry observations and little gems, including the following.

Enjoy. And be sure to order your copy in time for the holidays.

My ancestral home

I am wondering about my ancestors,
About the music they might have listened to.

 
I wonder what they felt when the harps
plucked at their hearts
while coal miners picked and
shoveled the coal.

 
I wonder about their choral voices raised in lament,
for the brothers and fathers they left behind
under the mountain.

 
I wonder why the mothers
did not sing for their sons,
but cried instead
among the southern valleys, among the coal.

 
I wonder what mountains could be moved.
I wonder.

 

 

Shawn’s Limerick

There’s this gal I like to call Kenzie

Her writing shows us dragons a-frenzy

Lives with cats and chinchillas

Feeds friendly woodsy fellas

I’m grateful we’re editors friendly.

 

***

Karen R. Sanderson was raised by a mother who wanted to be an English teacher and who worked for Merriam-Webster as a proofreader and an aunt who could complete the Sunday New York Times crossword in a day. Their favorite expression was, “Look it up!”

Karen is an editor and proofreader, blogger, poet, writer, and a fabulous grandma. She completed writing coursework through UCLA and the University of New Mexico. Her short stories have been featured in The Rose & Thorn Journal, Every Child is Entitled to Innocence anthology, Valley Living Magazine, BewilderingStories.com, and WritingRaw.com.

Karen is currently pursuing a degree at Minot State University and Lake Region State College in Interpreting and Sign Language Studies.

You can connect with Karen on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ and on her blog at www.karenrsanderson.wordpress.com.

Contact karenrsanderson@midco.net.

 

 

 

I’m published!

Tags

Book launch, Books, Karen Sanderson, Poetry, Poets

Always love sharing when friends get into print! Congrats, Karen.

A to Z Challenge #3: After the end…

Tags

A to Z, Poetry, Secret Keeper, Writing Challenge

I preface my offering for this week’s A – Z Challenge by saying that I am a rare and often indifferent poet. Why I thought to try verse is a puzzlement even to myself. Caveats done. No apologies, no excuses. (And no titles.)

Memory opener…

After the end of sorrow comes remembering
Before the first joy comes forgetting.
Caught between lightning and fireflies
Dancing across the skin
Every moment trembles.

Flashes of sweet damask rose
Greet then abandon like campaign
Handshakes at the country fair,
Insouciant visitors from a past when
Jacks clattered across the floor.
Kaddish sung in childhood games.

Language is lost, then found,
Manifestations of days and
Nights tumbling
One into another.

Pick up a
Quill dripping with Lethe’s ink,
Reclaiming before each papered stroke
Senses: tickled smell and taste,
Touch, sight, and sound;
Ubiquitous memories all, before they
Vanish and the
World is stripped clean to the bone.

Xebecs set their sails across forgotten
Yellow-dusted seas.

Zechariah’s temple does not grow.

A to Z Challenge #3

The brilliant Wendell Berry

Tags

Poetry, Poets, Wendell Berry

“Letters to a Young Poet” [Part VIII of XXIX]

Tags

Abbyss, Dragons, Inspiration, Letters to a Young Poet, Poetry, Rilke, Secret Keeper, Words, work, Writing

Dragons and Rilke! What could be better?

the secret keeper

“Letters to a Young Poet”

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Part VIII of XXIX

Post by Jennifer Kiley

Post Sunday 8th February 2015

(8th week)

“We have no reason
to mistrust our world,
for it is not
against us.
Has it terrors,
they are our terrors;
has it abysses,
those abysses belong to us;
are dangers at hand,
we must try
to love them…
How should we
be able to forget
those ancient myths
about dragons
that at the least moment
turn into princesses;
perhaps all the dragons
of our lives
are princesses
who are only waiting
to see us
once beautiful
and brave.”

 

One of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Homes

Dvorak, New World Symphony – 2nd Mvt Part 2,

Dublin Philharmonic, Conductor Derek Gleeson

* * * * * * *

View original post

Plum Tree Pick Of The Week

Tags

Alan Patrick Traynor, Anna Fonte, Erik the Great, Girl in the Hat, Kids, Michael Lai, On the Plum Tree, Photography, Poetry, Prose

Expanding our horizons…

Niamh Clune

Featuring: Erik The Great, Alan Patrick Traynor, Michael Lai, The Girl In The Hat (aka Anna Fonté).

As so many wonderful things are posted on the internet and a plethora of talent often goes unrecognised/undiscovered, I thought I would do a Pick-Of-The-Week feature on the plum tree. I asked Shawn MacKenzie and Jennifer Kiley to join me in this, and so they are adding their brilliant perceptions and discoveries. We hope to bring new voices to your attention from a wide field of talent through little snippets that whet your appetite.

For my first pick, I would like to bring you a book featured on This Kid Reviews Books. Erik is eleven years old, hugely talented himself, and a new, young, authorial voice in his own right. Erik also writes book reviews. Here is one of the books he has brought to our attention. I love the idea of a…

View original post 776 more words

The Wednesday Poetry Corner with Imen Benyoub

Tags

Imen Benyoub, Nathalie Handal, Plum Tree, Poetry, Power of Words

Imen Benyoub on Nathalie Handal and the international power of words. Something we can all take to heart in these precarious times. Brava!

Niamh Clune

Algerian, Imen Benyoub is a poet I have long admired. She writes with such feeling and movement. There is something veiled about her poems that entices you to want to dive into an underlying mystery. Thank you, Imen for visiting the us on the plum tree and sharing your passion for poetry with us.

A heart without borders…
My story with Nathalie Handal

By Imen Benyoub

When I write, I surrender

Surrender my senses to a delicious chaos – my soul to reach a deeper abyss and my heart to travel outside its borders.

It is the freedom that comes with writing  that made me live through my pen and left me endlessly caught between worlds and words.

It is the freedom that sent Nathalie Handal on a journey from New York to  Andalucia – full of colours, textures, and fragrant with history, to recreate the journey of her favourite…

View original post 283 more words

A Tribute To Seamus Heaney By Niamh Clune

Tags

Ireland, Nobel Laureate, Poetry, Poets, Seamus Heaney

A generous soul and monumental poetic force. Thank you, Niamh Clune, for your sharing memories of Seamus Heaney with us.

Niamh Clune

I think of Poet Laureate, Seamus Heaney, as a family friend. I was blessed to have known him just a little and to have visited his home in Dublin.

He was a gentle giant of a man, one of those rare people that you loved instantly. I suppose when you are in the presence of greatness, you feel it. You are not threatened by it, nor diminished by it; rather it is captivating, inclusive, gives recognition to the spark of what is great in everyone else within orbit. That kind of greatness is intrinsically imbued with love. Seamus Heaney was a soul-infused being, someone in whom the  the soul had taken possession, flooding and lighting his every gentle, yet challenging thought. Challenging, Yes! Always challenging, but in a way that allowed space for others to grow in thought, word and heart. 

In his home,  I felt welcomed as if…

View original post 480 more words

In The Sandbox With Dr. Koshy

Tags

Beckett, English, Heaney, Irish, Joyce, Language, Poetry

Niamh Clune

In this week’s, In The Sandbox, Ampat Koshy discusses a subject very close to my own heart ~ whether or not poetry is particularly national or not. I would like to add a slightly different note to the one made so well by Dr. Koshy, but one which adds another dimension to the discussion. Poet Laureate, Seamus Heaney, is a family friend, and I was lucky enough to attend a conference chaired by him on whether English is the language of colonialism.

We heard from poets and dissident writers from all over the world, some of whom had been imprisoned for speaking out against colonialistic or treacherous regimes. At the end of this wonderful event, Seamus Heaney summed up by saying he didn’t think English was a language of colonialism ~ oppression was not why, for example, the Irish learned to speak it so well and so uniquely. Soup kitchens…

View original post 846 more words