Tag Archives: poetry

Four “Bus Poems” published by 5-7-5 Haiku Journal.

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Thank you very much to Atlantean Publishing for reprinting/publishing several of my “Bus Poems,” in their 5-7-5 Haiku Journal.

I wrote a bunch of these short pieces back when I worked as a paratransit driver. I would see something that I thought was notable or I’d have a thought or someone would say something about how they “didn’t like dead people much” or … well, you get the idea.

During the next stop, when it was safe and convenient, I’d scribble my idea in a little notebook I kept inside the bus.

This is the first time any of these Bus Poems (and I’ve written a lot of them) have appeared online. Some of them were published in print back in 2019 in Organic Ink Volume 2 by Dragonsoul Press, though that paperback is currently out of print.

For those of you who have been waiting for the paperback version of The Lost Librarian’s Grave anthology, it became available on Amazon as of November 29th.

My mighty tome of “depravity, misjudgment, and misadventure” is also available as an e-book and can be read for free with Kindle Unlimited.*

* “Mighty” in the sense that the paperback is 437 pages, and “my” in the sense that I edited the thing and didn’t succumb to the bewitching, siren’s call to include some of my own fiction, though I almost did!

Cthulhu Pie and update on Organic Ink

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My husband has been on a pie making kick lately for his vegan/plant-based weight loss Youtube Channel.  I’ve been (not surprisingly as a confirmed omnivore) enjoying the fruits of his labors.  He sent me this jewel, which though he didn’t make it he said he sure wish he had.  I’m sure most of you reading this can see why and I’m sure glad he sent me this picture.  It’s Cthulhuicious:)

“In his pie at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu dreams for whipped cream.”

I had more than I wanted to share, but as it turns out I burned most of my time today working on my Wattpad writing and composing a little promotional doggerel to put in a section of the chapbook I’ve spent most of October and some of November working on:  Thirty-One Days of Darkness with the idea of having one offering for each day of October.

Someone suggested that I ought to shoehorn in a small advertisement for Organic Ink Volume Two so I did.  Actually I forgot but then was reminded when I was reading someone’s poetry collection in Wattpad and ran across an advertisement for their print chapbook.

So I typed up the usual sort of promotional stuff about pre-ordering it on Amazon, the release date being December 30th and so on, but thought that was kind of boring.  I kicked around a few ideas and then settled upon beginning with the lines:

I am one of the authors featured in this anthology

it’s far more interesting than a text on gnathology.

and goes from there for another nine or ten lines.  If you’re interested you can read the rest of it in my aptly titled, Organic Ink: Shameless Self Promotion, which I’ve sandwiched between some micro fiction concerning a superheroine’s first night alone on the job and a haiku involving tentacle fingers.

Click image for Amazon’s pre-order page for the Kindle version.

Finally, I did a little more work on poor, long-suffering poxwalker #17.  Alas, I don’t have time to take and post any pictures of my worthy zombie, but that will give me something for next time, hopefully before the weekend.  All I will say is that need to redo its violet belly tentacles because they came out too pretty by half.  Slaanesh will be making my poor poxwalker into an honorary daemonette if I’m not careful.  Oh, the pain, the pain!

Nurgle Blood Bowl Icon 125

Poetry and Painting Helper

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This has proven a busy (in a good way) past few days.  I heard back from Dragon Soul Press yesterday.  I sent them some of my poetry for their upcoming anthology, Organic Ink, Volume 2, which is currently due to come out around the end of 2019.*  

I’m pleased to say that my work is going to appear in the anthology, and they sent me this graphic.  The book, I’m told, is going to be available in both electronic and physical formats, as the picture below suggests.

I’m particularly pleased the editors decided to use the longish poem that I wrote as a retelling of the Pandora’s Box myth, The War of the Jar. The idea came, in part, from reminding myself of Hesiod’s five ages of humanity from Works and Days.  My poem was set in his third age where (as Hesiod reports), Zeus created a “race, sprung from ash trees; and it was in no way equal to the silver age, but it was terrible and strong.”

So I am thinking that I might extend things and do some other poetry for Hesiod’s other four ages too.  Although I was never a particular fan of the Pandora myth, since I first heard it as a wee one in the late 1960’s, I am a fan of Hesiod’s Five Ages, which evokes for me vibrations of Conan and the Drums of Tombalku, mixed with a little H.P. Lovecraft, various romantics, and a dash of Blake and maybe Milton.

Probably a faster painter than I am, even without thumbs!

I haven’t sallied forth onto the painting front for quite awhile, but I decided to brave the Plateau of Unpainted Models (possibly near Leng?) and pick away at a poxwalker I got about half done and then left to its own devices a few months ago.

I stepped away for a few minutes and when I came back I found I had a painting helper, who had no intention of moving from her spot.  (Maybe the plateau is in fact nearer Ulther than Leng?)

In any case, between the two of us we made some good progress on our poxwalker and hope to finish #17 this weekend.  I went to see the new Rambo movie this weekend with my husband, and afterwards bought some Plaguebearer Flesh contrast paint to experiment with on old #17.**

*  As a reader, I’m planning on checking out DSP’s story anthology, Coffins & Dragons, which as I understand features stories that have both vampires and dragons in the same tale.  At a mighty 620 pages, it is quite a hefty tome and will keep me busy for awhile, I’m sure.

**  I think poxwalkers like it when you experiment on them; at least I think they try and get into the spirit of the thing.  Still, I think it is fast approaching the time we should bring the experiment to a happy conclusion.  After all, I have been working on the wretched mob since the Dark Imperium boxed set first arrived, over two years ago now!