Tag: Published

Getting Published, Holidays, Mental Health, Mutants, Playlists, Poetry

Your Mutants Pre-Orders Are Here!

fivesixer

Yo yo!! I’ve been waiting for this day for like, forever, because what else is there to do when pretty much everything’s shut down and you’re sittin’ on promises of books to people? I’m happy to announce that the pre-orders for Mutants are finally here!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAqYbwkB4Qa/

I would’ve had them a bit sooner, but they were delivered on Saturday; when packages that are too big to fit in my mailbox, they sit in the mail room and our building’s office staff (bless them…they’re wonderful ladies) puts a little note in your mailbox. But the office is closed on weekends, and with Monday being a holiday, I had to wait til today. But whatevs y’all…they’re here! A big lotta new book smell in the apartment right now!

I know I know…”So when am I getting my book?” That’s what I’m here to tell you. I know I said mid-May, but I didn’t anticipate shipping to take as long as it did (self-pubbed books aren’t eligible for Amazon Prime shipping if they’re sold to the author). Give me a few days to annotate them all; unfortunately I’m a kinda busy guy right now with physical therapy for my shoulder 2x a week, and tomorrow is another follow-up with my doc (things are going kickass, if you’re wondering…glad I had the work done and there’s no pain; now I’m in the stretch run, which is the strengthening part…grueling at times, but the results are there and it’s worth it). I’m hoping to mail them out by June 3rd or 4th, but please don’t be pissed at me if it takes me a few more days to get them out…believe me, I wanna be done with this and get this book in your hot little hands ASAP!!

Since these are quarantine/lockdown times, I don’t have much else to say. Let’s drop a shipping playlist and get on with our day. Sound good? I can almost hear y’all nodding your heads from here.

  • La Dispute, “A Letter”
  • Blink-182, “Here’s Your Letter”
  • The Tea Party, “The Messenger”
  • Atmosphere, “Postal Lady”
  • Joe Cocker, “The Letter”
  • American Football, “Letters And Packages”
  • Macy Gray, “The Letter”
  • Modest Mouse, “From Point A To Point B (∞)”
  • Cake, “Open Book”
  • Radiohead, “The Daily Mail”
  • Hail Mary Mallon, “Mailbox Baseball”
  • The Get Up Kids, “Red Letter Day”
  • The Postal Service, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight”

Alright friends, enemies, lovers, and haters…that’s all I got for y’all today. Two weeks ago it was snowing with zero visibility; today it’s 88° and my 12″ oscillating fan has decided to die on me, so please have mercy on my soul if I sweat to death after making dinner and attempting a nap in this swamp-ass-inducing change in the world’s atmosphere. Stay strong friends; we’ll be able to get together soon, I hope. Peace, wear a mask and wash your hands, and know that I love you.

Getting Published, Mental Health, Mutants, Playlists, Poetry, support your locals

It’s ALIVE!! (And so am I.)

fivesixer

Hey friends!! I know I know, it’s been too long, but listen: I have good reasons and good news. Hear me out.

When we last left off way way too many months ago, Mutants had been pulled from Amazon because there were a lot of layout issues and one big copyright (or lack thereof) concern. It was being worked on and then I had to add content to make it big enough to be printable I guess; I don’t know how that works even though I’ve learned a lot in the last few months. I sent in what I thought was my final draft…and waited.

At the end of 2019, my publisher went ass-up and closed shop, leaving me and other authors in limbo. Not really a cool time to do it, but then again there’s never a good time for something like that I guess. I’ll forever be grateful to Sarah Fader and Eliezer Tristan Publishing for taking a chance on my poetry and other associated writings for sites like Stigma Fighters and The Good Man Project, but honestly I didn’t take the news very well and kinda hoped there’d be another solution to saving everything and helping out everyone who was in the middle of the publication process, like me. And there was not, unfortunately.

So I was on my own as far as what to do with not only Mutants, but 100, because they were eventually gonna get taken off Amazon and IngramSpark. I wasn’t ready for this at all, and it seemed very daunting to do it all myself…it took me baby steps to piece together what I was doing.

What complicated matters even more was having shoulder surgery in February…a torn rotator cuff. I’m still recovering and rehabbing it (and will be for a few more months), but I’m out of my sling for good. Needless to say, for a few weeks I didn’t wanna do a damn thing. I didn’t even wanna think about books or writing or blogs or what have you. Throw in this COVID-19 stuff, and holy hell it’s amazing how depressing everything’s become…you can’t even turn on the TV with every company under the sun blasting you with commercials about how it’s affecting them, and not you. Just one little slice of the bizarre times we’re living in these days.

But the good news is I finally started chipping away at Mutants, editing the bejeezus outta it, and figuring out self-publishing. My man Aaron J. Smith put up with me way too much trying to get the cover wrap dimensions right after the page count kept fluctuating with each little tweak and turn and I had to do to get the copy down to the right size (and throw in a font change as well; my bad!), but we got it fixed up proper and I’m hella grateful for that.

So, the best news is this: Mutants is now back up and ready for you!! In both Kindle (updated, with the new material) and in paperback!! I know…it’s about damn time!!

Here’s the deal: Everyone who pre-ordered it back in September or October or whatever, your annotated copies will be going out in the first week or two of May, depending on how long it takes me to get them and scrawl on the first bunch of pages. I haven’t forgotten about you and I’m mad sorry I haven’t kept you all up in the loop as much as I should’ve. Please forgive me; I promise, this book is worth the wait.

I’ll also be opening a new round of pre-orders very soon in my Shop here associated with this very blog. I’m gonna hafta fix a few things, and the price is gonna be a little higher because there’s more content and it’s a bigger book than originally planned, unfortunately. I don’t make the rules, y’all. KDP wants a certain amount of pages, so I try to do what works.

Sooooo….YAY!!! I’m officially a second-time author again!! Next on the docket is getting 100 back in circulation, but that’s gonna take some time I think; the manuscript has been fixed to take care of a couple layout issues I missed in editing, and I’ll need another cover for it (still mulling my options). Then getting set up on IngramSpark so I can reach libraries and the big (or pretty much only) bookstore again. From there on, who knows? This whole COVID-19 lockdown has everything in flux. My first wish is that you’re all safe and healthy. My second wish is that a tiny portion of your stimulus money goes toward purchasing my book!

Speaking of the Coronavirus, how about we end this celebration with a little quarantined playlist? Hold it now…hit it!

  • REM, “You’re In The Air”
  • Mudhoney, “Touch Me I’m Sick”
  • Deftones, “Dai The Flu”
  • Pearl Jam, “Wash”
  • Anti-Pop Consortium, “Dystopian Disco Force”
  • The Verve, “Drugs Don’t Work”
  • Pink Floyd, “Breathe”
  • Mudhoney, “Here Comes Sickness”
  • Anti-Pop Consortium, “We Kill Soap Scum”
  • Atmosphere, “Breathing”
  • Modest Mouse, “Bury Me With It”
  • Soul Coughing, “So Far I Have Not Found The Science”

Alright friends, ex-lovers, best friends with lovers, and so on and so forth…I have other things to do now while the nation figures out this whole pandemic situation. Time to get on with my bad self and start spreading the word about this new book thing I just birthed out into the universe. Peace y’all…stay well and stay safe!

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_EZ3aIj168/

100 WIP, Getting Published, Playlists

#ItsHere …and what it means to me.

fivesixer

This is friggin’ amazing, y’all.

Got some copies of my book, which you can get here from Amazon on your Kindle or in print. Now the struggle has a name!

Poetry has kept me sane the last six years, if not the last 25 or so. It’s given me a voice against my mental health, coworkers, companies, and crazy situations I’ve found myself in…even if it wasn’t heard. It’s my art; putting words on a page like a painter uses paint. This is my skill, and this is how I document my reality. I’ve got notebooks full of poems that have been a crucial release point in terms of dealing with myself. Some are good, and some are trash…but the point is to always keep writing, and keep everything you write.

But I often struggle when asked what poetry means to me. Different writers have different answers and comparing one to another is ridiculous. We all write for different reasons, and in the long run this isn’t a competition…we need to support each other no matter what. And I don’t write for solutions necessarily…it’s just my way of dealing with the world that doesn’t always take kindly to strangers in it.

Can I share with you a short sample? Will Eliezer Tristan Publishing mind?

This is how I feel safe and how I feel like I’m contributing to society. It’s how I view the world and make it less awful for me in a corrosive era of our existence. Maybe I didn’t want to be on a team but they threw me a uniform and I had no choice but to be the best I can be, which turned into reaching the pinnacle of the conquest. Maybe this is what I was meant for all along, and my posturing of “good life” was just for show (like so many of you). All I wanted was to get in where I could fit in, and I’ve been able to do that often enough that I don’t hafta worry about who my friends are, even if I’m a shitty friend at times. My body is full of pain, but my heart knows no boundaries. And if that’s who I was born to be and have been lucky enough to survive and spit words, I’ll take it.

Let’s bang out to a published playlist, shall we? Let’s appreciate and support one another!

  • The Tragically Hip, “World Container”
  • Moneen, “The Passing Of America”
  • Faith No More, “Sweet Emotion”
  • Modest Mouse, “Sleepwalkin'”
  • Public Enemy, “He Got Game”
  • Beastie Boys, “Egg Raid On Mojo”
  • Dana Fuchs, “Don’t Let Me Down”
  • Street Sweeper Social Club, “Mama Said Knock You Out”
  • Reggie & The Full Effect, “Your Girlfriends Hate Me”
  • Temple Of The Dog, “Times Of Trouble”

Ok you guys…I’m waiting on a tech support call so I can get my website feeling right and the way I want it…I can only scratch that scab for so long til it becomes infected. Anyway, today’s been awesome and thank you all for joining in on the ride!