A.S. Coomer's Blog, page 10

RIP 2021

I hope this New Year’s Eve finds you well. 2021 was a hell of a ride. Ups, downs, in-betweens, all-arounds. Whew.

Anyway, I did a few things this year.

Old Fort Sessions: My wife and I got a cabin on Black Mountain in the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. I set up a few mics and we recorded five new songs. The songs were mixed and mastered by Travis Geiman at Bigfoot Studios in Waterville, OH. You can stream Old Fort Sessions at all the usual places. You can buy the EP from my Bandcamp for $5.99. Here’s a link for all the streaming services spots. DIY Lamp Kit : my short story DIY Lamp Kit was published in FILTH. It tells the story of one woman’s struggles with addiction and healing. Read that here. Thanks to editor Alexandrine Ogundimu for believing in the story and putting it out.Audiobooks From Hell Podcast: Audiobook narrator Sean Duregger and I talked about writing and music and art. You can stream the episode at all the usual places: Spotify, Apple, , etc. Steve Harvey Just Didn’t See You Like I Saw You: My poem  Steve Harvey Just Didn’t See You Like I Saw You  was published in the Rye Whiskey Review. Read it here. Thanks to editors John Patrick Robbins & Scott Simmons. Rust Belt Blues #666 : My buddy Dan Denton is an amazing writer. We’ve had some crazy adventures together. We also wrote a poem together and it was published by The Dope Fiend Daily. It’s call  Rust Belt Blues #666 . You can read it here. Thanks to editor Scott Simmons.WAKT 106.1FM Appearance: WAKT 106.1FM is based out of Toledo, OH, a city that holds a special place in my heart. I called the city home for four years. The city is full of creativity including the work of WAKT. The station has a program called Homegrown Toledo Creatives hosted by Dr. David Harms and Miriam Wagoner. They asked me to contribute twenty minutes of material so I recorded two stories (The Flock Unseen & DIY Lamp Kit) and seven poems (I’m not sure how I feel about the sound, Flirting with Disaster, Running Sound Interference, Feeble, The Eavesdropper, For the City of Light, & A bit too obvious).You can stream the episode online right now or if you’re in the Toledo area you can catch it at 106.1FM tonight. The Flock Unseen was first published in The Merida Review. It was reprinted in my four-story collection  The Flock Unseen  published by Clare Songbirds Publishing House. DIY Lamp Kit  first appeared in FILTH. All seven of the poems I read on the program appear in my first full-length collection of poems  Flirting with Disaster  published by Alien Buddha Press. I’m not sure how I feel about the sound  won The Song Is.’s Thelma Prize as judged by Catfish McDaris. Flirting with Disaster first appeared in Thirteen Myna Birds. It was reprinted in The Song Is. Running Sound Interference  was published by Can We Have Our Ball Back? Feeble was published in The Rush. The Eavesdropper was published in Taxicab Magazine. For the City of Light  was published by Foliate Oak Literary Magazine. A bit too obvious  was published by Red Bird Chapbooks’ Weekly Read.This Is Poetry Volume IV: Poet of the South: First off Michele McDannold is an amazing poet. She’s also a great editor and activist for literature. Through Citizens for Decent Literature Press/Literary Underground she’s released four volumes of her anthology series This Is Poetry. The first volume was filled with wonderful poems from women of the small press. Volume II centered around poets of the Midwest. Volume III focused on poets of the West. For the fourth volume of the series Michele McDannold has collected poems from poets of the South. I’m lucky to have three poems included in this volume: Maybe the Burning Bush, I Wrote this Sober, and Flirting with Disaster. Maybe the Burning Bush  was originally published by Foliate Oak, I Wrote This Sober was originally published by Meow Meow Pow Pow as a broadside, and  Flirting with Disaster  was first published in Thirteen Myna Birds then reprinted by The Song Is. You can pick up a copy on Amazon (where the book has crept into the top 100 poetry anthologies). Interview and New Work in Ramingo : Catfish McDaris interviewed me. He asked me questions about my writing, books, music, art, magic lamps, and a slew of other things for  Ramingo . I got to talk about  Memorabilia  (11:11 Press),  Shining the Light  (Atlatl Press),  Rush’s Deal  (forthcoming from Alien Buddha Press), Misdeeds (forthcoming from Shotgun Honey Books),  Birth of a Monster  (forthcoming from Grindhouse Press), my ambient records Rural Eminence Volumes I & II, my new EP  Old Fort Sessions , & my band The Coomers. Catfish and the other editors were kind enough to publish a new piece of flash fiction titled  Lace , a new poem  The [Little] Big Sleep , and they reprinted my poem  Even a Little Shit Can Make a Big Stink  (originally pub’d in  The Rye Whiskey Review ). We also touched on some of my recently published works in The Collected Voices from the Expanded Field (11:11 Press), Cowboy Jamboree Magazine, Hobart, FILTH, C.V. Hunt’s HORRORAMA (Grindhouse Press), The Dope Fiend Daily, Back Patio Press, The Rye Whiskey Review, Michele McDannold’s This Is Poetry Volume IV: Poets of the South (Citizens of Decent Literature Press). You read all of it here. Thanks to all the Ramingo staff: Elena Bello, Mendes Biondo, John D Robinson, & Catfish McDaris.Review of Timmy Reynolds’ “Life, Loss, and the Pursuit of Happiness” in the Museum of Americana: I had the pleasure of reviewing Detroit musician Timmy Reynolds‘ record  Life, Loss, and the Pursuit of Happiness  for The Museum of Americana‘s twenty-third issue. It’s a great record and a great issue. You can read the review here.RUSH’S DEAL: My first novel, RUSH’S DEAL, saw a paperback release via Alien Buddha Press. There’s an except from the novel on Alien Buddha Press’ blog. You can buy all 275 pages of  Rush’s Deal  on Amazon for $14.07. The front and back covers of Rush Walters and Velutina were painted by tattooist Cole Dunn. BIRTH OF A MONSTER: My novel  BIRTH OF A MONSTER was published by Grindhouse Press. It’s a book about America’s worship of violence, especially violence against women. It’s a beast of a book — in fact, it’s Grindhouse Press’s longest title. Pick up a copy here. Signed copies available here. Big thanks to C.V. Hunt & Andersen Prunty for all their hard work on this project. Writing the Rapids Podcast Interview: Here’s a half-hour conversation I had with Joe Bielecki on his podcast Writing the Rapids. We talked about my new novel BIRTH OF A MONSTER, American violence, religious fanaticism, extreme horror, and some other things. Subscribe to the podcast and listen to Joe talk with all sorts of amazing, creative people. Listen here.SHINING THE LIGHT Audiobook: The tragic story of legendary musician Homer Antumbra is now on Audible. Sean Duregger (narrator of  The Fetishists ,  The Devil’s Gospel ,  Kill for Satan! ,  Gods of the Dark Web , and a ton of other titles) did a fantastic job with the narration. Check it out on Audible here. Paperback available via Atlatl Press. SHINING THE LIGHT turned three years old this year. MISDEEDS: My crime fiction collection MISDEEDS was published by Shotgun Honey Books this year. It contains the previously-unpublished novella, Dellie’s Ditch, as well as five short stories: The Goddamn Amazon Here, The Fixer, Trail Magic (Good Intentions), Buffalo Nickel Hat, and the Pushcart Nominated More Rust than Nickel. While these five short stories have appeared in print, in one form or another, this is the first time they’ve been included in a single collection. Dellie’s Ditch unleashes a vagabond Rasputin with ill intentions onto a quiet neighborhood in south Toledo, where he quickly begins inflicting his sinister control of the suburban children.The Goddamn Amazon Here lets the horror slip into the ordinary. The Fixer is the guy you don’t want to meet, the guy who collects debts and fixes problems. Chances are you’re not going to like the way he fixes things. More Rust than Nickel is a bleak look at the pale, seedy underbelly of America. Set in his hometown of Detroit, Cable is a man in limbo, no longer able to fully exist in the past but not willing to adapt to the present. Something’s gotta give and somebody’s gotta pay for Cable’s hard-luck life. Trail Magic (Good Intentions) is an epistolary from a monster that preyed upon hikers and wilderness lovers on the Appalachian Trail. A casino in Toledo, Ohio is the stage for an armed robbery that doesn’t go quite as expected in Buffalo Nickel Hat. Big thanks to the editors of the journals/magazines/sites where several of these short stories first appeared.  The Goddamn Amazon  was originally published by Literary Orphans.  The Fixer  was originally pub’d in Shotgun Honey.  More Rust than Nickel  was originally pub’d by Serving House Journal and was nominated for a Pushcart. Trail Magic (Good Intentions) was originally pub’d by Horror Sleaze Trash. Buffalo Nickel Hat was originally pub’d in Heater. Rural Eminence Volume III: I released my third collection of ambient instrumentals RURAL EMINENCE VOL. III. Cam Chaney made two videos for two of the tracks. Rural Eminence Volume III  is a collection of 17 instrumentals reflecting rural life.

My existentialist novel MEMORABILIA turned two. Lost, Long Gone, Forgotten Records: I worked on three LLGFR singles this year. In Which the Singer Becomes a Nurse by Marianne SzlykRed Glass Ceiling by Juliet CookAmerica is Ranch Dressing by Dan Denton

Happy New Year!

-A.S. Coomer

Ramingo Interviews – A. S. Coomer, Writer and Musician Talks About His Art

RAMINGO!

A.S. Coomer at the Hump Day Revue (ph. Michelle Elson)

Name?

A.S. Coomer. My friends call me Drew.

Age?

I’m in my thirties.

Location and occupation?

Western Kentucky. Writer and musician.

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Memorabilia Turns Two

My novel MEMORABILIA turns two today, y’all!

Big thanks to Andrew Wilt and the good folks at 11:11 Press for all their hard work in getting the book out there. You can pick up the super slick, limited edition, signed copies below.

Signed, Limited Edition Paperback Copy of MEMORABILIA

$15 includes US shipping. Limited print run of 100.

$15.00

Click here to purchase.

You can buy the paperback or ebook directly from 11:11 Press. They’re having a yearend sale you should take advantage of. Tons of great titles for cheap.

Read an interview about MEMORABILIA on 11:11 Press’s website here.

MEMORABILIA was reviewed and I was interviewed in the Blue Mountain Review. Read that here.

Here’re what a few people have said about the book:

“[MEMORABILIA] READS LIKE A POETIC AUTOPSY OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS” —  ANDERSEN PRUNTY, AUTHOR OF NEON DIES AT DAWN“A DEEPLY UNSETTLING MONOGRAPH OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCE” — JAMES NULICK, AUTHOR OF HAUNTED GIRLFRIEND AND VALENCIA“THE READER IS NOT ALLOWED TO GET COMFORTABLE” — CLIFFORD BROOKS, PULITZER NOMINATED POET & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE BLUE MOUNTAIN REVIEW 

“THE IMAGES OF MEMORABILIA LINGER LONG AFTER THE BOOK’S CONCLUSION.” — MIKE CORRAO, AUTHOR OF GUT TEXT I narrated the audiobook and it’s up for consumption on Audible.

If you’re looking for a new shirt and a new book, here’s a bundle deal for you.

MEMORABILIA Book/Shirt Bundle

$20 gets you a limited edition, signed paperback copy of MEMORABILIA and a MEMORABILIA t-shirt. Quantities and sizes are limited. Small – Large only. US shipping only.

$25.00

Click here to purchase.

Poet/musician/filmmaker Vincent James Perrone made this book trailer for MEMORABILIA.

Thanks to everybody who picked the book up and gave it a read. It means the world to me.

2-for-1 Birth of a Monster sale

There’s a monster sale on the loose!

Signed Paperback Copy of BIRTH OF A MONSTER Plus HORRORAMA/THE FETISHISTS/SHINING THE LIGHT

$25 gets you a signed paperback copy of BIRTH OF A MONSTER plus your choice of either C.V. Hunt’s HORRORAMA (which includes my novelette Stor-All Self-Storage), THE FETISHISTS, or SHINING THE LIGHT. I only have a few copies left.

$25.00

Click here to purchase.

$25 gets you a signed copy of BIRTH OF A MONSTER plus a copy of either C.V. Hunt’s HORRORAMA (which includes my novelette Stor-All Self-Storage), THE FETISHISTS, or SHINING THE LIGHT.

I only have a few copies of each.

Let me know which book you want when you place your order.

BIRTH OF A MONSTER

There’s a monster on the loose. All across the Ohio River Valley women are going missing. Jacob Hunter Goodman’s childhood is filled with trauma. When he reaches adulthood, God calls on Jacob and he answers with a fervor unlike anyone before him. Jacob is compelled to make strange religious sculptures but each piece has a sinister secret. In BIRTH OF A MONSTER, A.S. Coomer holds the mirror up to a sick culture of power and dominance worship and the kind of monsters it can create.

C.V. Hunt’s HORRORAMA

Ready for the book version of a horror movie marathon? Horrorama brings you three novelettes reminiscent of those popcorn fueled all-nighters.

Stor-All Self-Storage by A.S. Coomer

Richard Dennison has just landed a new job at the Stor-All Self-Storage as a night security officer. The owners are a bit strange but not as bizarre as the renters who visit their units at night. And the only instructions he’s been given are to call the police.

Primitive by Lucas Mangum

A group of old friends decide to spend the weekend camping on Moon Mountain only to have their vacation interrupted when a disheveled woman appears out of the woods. She tells them she’s looking for her son but the group find her story hard to believe. Will she find her son and will they all make it off the mountain alive?

The Vessel by Matt Harvey

A cult, Heralds of Celestial Ascendancy, is hellbent on reviving their dark god. All they need is a body for their Master to inhabit. When Elise Abbington wakes in the middle of the night to find herself feeling strange, little does she know, she’s on a crash course with the cult and a deprogrammer willing to do anything to stop the cult’s cause.

THE FETISHISTS

“A hell of a ride.” -Toledo City Paper

Jefferson Wellman is a lawyer and has everything—money. He also has a particular taste when it comes to pleasure. And what Jefferson doesn’t have he can purchase. His friend, Richard, visits him at his office one day with a contract and an invitation for a fetish auction by a new company. Bad Pain Entertainment guarantees to have what Jefferson is looking for . . . a ‘ponygirl’. But when Jefferson shows up for the auction located in a remote wooded area, things don’t go exactly as planned: Richard never arrives, Bad Pain’s personnel are a little peculiar, Jefferson wakes up missing a few fingers, and the rest of the attendees are dead. Jefferson believes he has the knowledge to keep his reputation from being ruined. But what he doesn’t know is he is now the focus of a new kind of fetish.

SHINING THE LIGHT

There is a light and there is a darkness. There is, also, a space in between. Homer Antumbra inhabited this no-man’s-land. In his flickering flame of a life, he shined the light and lived with the darkness. His life and work changed the craft of songwriting, both showing what a song could be and hinting at where it could go. His work redefined a genre before shattering any attempts at categorization. Shining the Light is the first in-depth look into the man, the myth, the music of Homer Antumbra, ensuring that the light still shines.

Rural Eminence Volume III

Happy Friday, y’all.

The third installment of my RURAL EMINENCE series is out on all the major streaming services now. Stream/download/purchase RURAL EMINENCE VOLUME III on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Bandcamp, Deezer, iHeartRadio, etc.

Rural Eminence Volume III is a collection of 17 instrumentals reflecting rural life. All songs were written, recorded, and performed by A.S. Coomer (except where noted).

Thanks for listening!

All the best,

A.S. Coomer

Shining the Light Turns Three

Three years ago Atlatl Press (RIP) published my fictional biography of Homer Antumbra: SHINING THE LIGHT. I had a great time researching (& writing) that story. The audiobook version of the novel came out this past May.

To celebrate the book’s toddlerhood I’m having a sale on signed paperbacks. $10 gets you a signed paperback of STL & includes shipping in the US.

Signed Paperback Copy of SHINING THE LIGHT

$10 gets you a signed paperback copy of SHINING THE LIGHT, including shipping in the US.

$10.00

Click here to purchase.

There is a light and there is a darkness. There is, also, a space in between. Homer Antumbra inhabited this no-man’s-land. In his flickering flame of a life, he shined the light and lived with the darkness. His life and work changed the craft of songwriting, both showing what a song could be and hinting at where it could go. His work redefined a genre before shattering any attempts at categorization. Shining the Light is the first in-depth look into the man, the myth, the music of Homer Antumbra, ensuring that the light still shines.

Thanks for reading!

All the best,

A.S. Coomer

Rural Eminence Volume III on Bandcamp

Rural Eminence Volume III is a 17-song collection of instrumental music reflecting the rural life. There’s a subtle majesty to the landscape that surrounds me. I tried to capture little bits of it with this new collection of Rural Eminence songs. Each track an audio-painting, a tableaux of the country. Every song the proverbial snowball, starting small but steadily moving downward, picking up layers along the way.

Stream/download/buy REVIII on Bandcamp now. Stream/download REVIII on Spotify, etc. later.

All the best,

A.S. Coomer

Tracklist:

1 – As Afternoon Slips into Evening

2 – Aubade #5 the Dissipating Steam

3 – Philpot Nocturne #32 Homopteran Chant 

4 – Aubade #4 a Spring Morning on the Back Porch Revisited

5 – Philpot Nocturne #27 Pockmark Starlight on Still Pond 

6 – Philpot Nocturne #33 Slow-Wave Slumber 

7 – Philpot Nocturne #31 Frost Floes on the Windows 

8 – Aubade #6 Second Cup of Coffee 

9 – Winter Solstice Setting Sun 

10 – Philpot Nocturne #28 Montage Dreaming / Light Sleep 

11 – Philpot Nocturne #29 Winter Wheat Music Box 

12 – Philpot Nocturne #30 Dance of the Wind Chimes

13 – Aubade #7 Barn Quilt in Morning Sun 

14 – Waters of Pisgah 

15 – In the Path of the Combine Harvester 

16 – Philpot Nocturne #26 Backfield Cycles feat. Cam Chaney 

17 – Philpot Nocturne #34 Water Rising Under a Roiling Green Sky 

Signed Copies of MISDEEDS

Signed copies of MISDEEDS are now available.

Signed Paperback Copy of A.S. Coomer’s MISDEEDS

$15 includes shipping in the US.

$15.00

Click here to purchase.

MISDEEDS is a collection of crime fiction from A.S. Coomer. It contains the previously-unpublished novella, Dellie’s Ditch, as well as five short stories: The Goddamn Amazon Here, The Fixer, Trail Magic (Good Intentions) , Buffalo Nickel Hat, and the Pushcart Nominated More Rust than Nickel. While these five short stories have appeared in print, in one form or another, this is the first time they’ve been included in a single collection.

Dellie’s Ditch unleashes a vagabond Rasputin with ill intentions onto a quiet neighborhood in south Toledo, where he quickly begins inflicting his sinister control of the suburban children.

The Goddamn Amazon Here lets the horror slip into the ordinary.

The Fixer is the guy you don’t want to meet, the guy who collects debts and fixes problems. Chances are you’re not going to like the way he fixes things.

More Rust than Nickel is a bleak look at the pale, seedy underbelly of America. Set in his hometown of Detroit, Cable is a man in limbo, no longer able to fully exist in the past but not willing to adapt to the present. Something’s gotta give and somebody’s gotta pay for Cable’s hard-luck life.

Trail Magic (Good Intentions) is an epistolary from a monster that preyed upon hikers and wilderness lovers on the Appalachian Trail.

A casino in Toledo, Ohio is the stage for an armed robbery that doesn’t go quite as expected in Buffalo Nickel Hat.

Praise for MISDEEDS:

“Coomer isn’t afraid to pull you in and out of a dark, murky jigsaw puzzle of challenged sensibilities, jagged perspectives, and innocence lost.” —Hector Duarte, Jr., author of Desperate Times Call

“Coomer’s characters span a continuum—adventurous adolescents, loving siblings, disaffected rednecks, and general ne’er-do-wells. But no matter the type, they end up in the same psychological hell the inevitable destination in the dark America he serves up.” —Chris McGinley, author of Coal Black

As Afternoon Slips into Evening w/ Philpot Nocturne #26 Backfield Cycles

Happy Friday, y’all.

I’ve been hard at work on the next collection of Rural Eminence songs. I released two of the tracks on my Bandcamp page yesterday: As Afternoon Slips into Evening & Philpot Nocturne #26 Backfield Cycles, which features Cam Chaney on guitar.

Cam Chaney made two trippy visuals for the tracks. Go check out the Flying Saucer Records Youtube page for more audio/visual magic.

Rural Eminence Volume Three is on the way. More to come soon. In the meantime, stream/download Rural Eminence Volumes One & Two on all the major platforms.

All the best,

A.S. Coomer

MISDEEDS Out Now

Happy Friday, y’all,

Today is publication day for my crime fiction collection MISDEEDS via Shotgun Honey Books.

Praise for Misdeeds

“Coomer isn’t afraid to pull you in and out of a dark, murky jigsaw puzzle of challenged sensibilities, jagged perspectives, and innocence lost.”

—Hector Duarte, Jr., author of Desperate Times Call

“Coomer’s characters span a continuum—adventurous adolescents, loving siblings, disaffected rednecks, and general ne’er-do-wells. But no matter the type, they end up in the same psychological hell the inevitable destination in the dark America he serves up.”

—Chris McGinley, author of Coal Black

You can buy the paperback and/or ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Target, Kobo, etc.

Misdeeds is a collection of crime fiction from A.S. Coomer. It contains the previously-unpublished novella, Dellie’s Ditch, as well as five short stories: The Goddamn Amazon Here, The Fixer, Trail Magic (Good Intentions), Buffalo Nickel Hat, and the Pushcart Nominated More Rust than Nickel. While these five short stories have appeared in print, in one form or another, this is the first time they’ve been included in a single collection.

Dellie’s Ditch unleashes a vagabond Rasputin with ill intentions onto a quiet neighborhood in south Toledo, where he quickly begins inflicting his sinister control of the suburban children.

The Goddamn Amazon Here lets the horror slip into the ordinary.

The Fixer is the guy you don’t want to meet, the guy who collects debts and fixes problems. Chances are you’re not going to like the way he fixes things.

More Rust than Nickel is a bleak look at the pale, seedy underbelly of America. Set in his hometown of Detroit, Cable is a man in limbo, no longer able to fully exist in the past but not willing to adapt to the present. Something’s gotta give and somebody’s gotta pay for Cable’s hard-luck life.

Trail Magic (Good Intentions) is an epistolary from a monster that preyed upon hikers and wilderness lovers on the Appalachian Trail.

A casino in Toledo, Ohio is the stage for an armed robbery that doesn’t go quite as expected in Buffalo Nickel Hat.

Big thanks to the editors of the journals/magazines/sites where several of these short stories first appeared. The Goddamn Amazon was originally published by Literary Orphans. The Fixer was originally pub’d in Shotgun Honey. More Rust than Nickel was originally pub’d by Serving House Journal and was nominated for a Pushcart. Trail Magic (Good Intentions) was originally pub’d by Horror Sleaze Trash. Buffalo Nickel Hat was originally pub’d in Heater.