Steve Vernon's Blog, page 5

Reusable Bags...

I live on a three-cornered lot - a thin peninsula of weeds and hope where three streets meet. It's a wonderful view with two shopping mall parking lots and a set of traffic lights that makes irritating beep-boop sounds when the light changes -Beep-boop, beep-boop, beep-boop.

As a result of those two shopping malls my lot is caught in the wind-funnelled path of every bit of litter that is dropped or blows across the twin plains of those parking lots. The detritus of consumerism - paper coffee cups, daily newspapers, cough drop wrappers, Coke cup lids, MacDonalds paper bags, tattered bus transfers and lately reusable shopping bags.

I remember when stores began to supply consumers with reusable shopping bags. In fact, I still carry a big old canvas Sobeys bag with me when I go to the gym. It's great for picking up milk.

These days the reusable bags are made out of some kind of space-age plastic - (space age? Shoot, I am showing my age) - which is neither durable nor useful. They wear out all too quickly, I find.

And lately I have begun to find these wonderful reusable shopping bags - the bag that was supposed to save the environment and put an end to those eerie trees full of plastic shopping bags blowing eerily in the wind - on my lawn and trapped in my rose bushes.

In the past two weeks I've found three of them. I expect to see more.

Beep-boop, beep-boop, beep-boop.

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

Sinking Deeper - contests and news...

Sinking Deeper: Or My Questionable (Possibly Heroic) Decision to Invent a Sea Monster by Steve Vernon




This is my very first YA novel and I am way more than just a little excited about its upcoming release this April.



Let me start with a link to its very first review from the good folks at the Canadian Materials review site.



http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol17/no27/si...


So what is the book about?



Let me just steal a snippet from the back copy. I don't think the author will mind. I know the guy. He's very understanding, even though his feet smell funny.



The tiny fishing community of Deeper Harbour is in deep trouble—and so is fourteen-year-old Roland MacTavish. Roland’s mom wants to move with him to Ottawa, away from his father, his weird friend Dulsie, and his even weirder grandfather, Angus. So Roland does what any sane teenager would do: He invents a sea monster. Unfortunately, the scheme quickly spins out of Roland’s control, and he has to go to greater and greater lengths to keep up the illusion. And then Roland must deal with a situation far more terrifying than any sea monster. As moving as it is irresistibly funny, Steve Vernon’s portrait of Roland and Deeper Harbour is perfect for anyone who’s ever been stuck badly enough to do something awesomely, brilliantly, heroically stupid.



For further info be sure to "like" my Facebook Sinking Deeper page. There will be giveaways & contests over the next few weeks - and a chance to win some free books.



https://www.facebook.com/stevevernon0...



Yours in storytelling,



Steve Vernon



View all my reviews

Ten Things I've done that you might not have...

I've seen a few entries listing "ten things I've done that you might not have", and "ten things I've done that you probably have done", so let me fling myself into the anthills of conformity and scuttle about with the rest of the herd.

TEN THINGS I'VE DONE THAT YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE

1. Hitchhiked across Canada, in both directions, (but not simultaneously).

2. Ridden a camel and an elephant.

3. Fired a machine gun, a submachine gun, a pistol, and chucked hand grenades.

4. Jumped from a second floor ladies residence, (breaking a very good pair of glasses in the process).

5. Stood nose to nose with a skunk, a porcupine, a black bear, a herd of mule deer, several buffalo and et' them afterwards, and stood close enough to a male grizzly to estimate the lenght of his whang-dang-doodle.

6. Dragged a dead black bear from the woods, (you don't know what dead weight really means until you've tried this stunt).

7. Worked as a nude life model for ten years.

8. Made a living as a fortune teller.

9. Picked in a forest of fiddleheads for a three day harvest - during which I chopped firewood for my breakfast - following which I rode home in the back end of a truck singing work songs with a family of migrant Nigerian field hands - they sang Nigerian work songs. Everytime they would run out of song one of them would lean over towards me and say "Sing", and I would roll into a Willy Nelson tune..

10. Hopped a freight.

We've reached the bottom of the list and I'm running out of adlib recollections - so let's pull the pin shall we?

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

First YA review...

My very first YA novel, SINKING DEEPER, has just recieved its very first review - and it glows like a bed of ready-for-marshmallow coals.

Check it out.

http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol17/no27...

yours in storytelling,


Steve Vernon

Long Horn, Big Shaggy - now available as an e-book

My long out-of-print novella - LONG HORN, BIG SHAGGY - is now available as an e-book in various formats, thanks to the good folks at Crossroads Press.

Check it out.
http://store.crossroadpress.com/index...

Steve Vernon

A new review...

There is a brand new review of my direct-to-digital e-book DEVIL TREE over on the review pages of Horror World.

Check it out.

http://horrorworld.org/hw/2011/03/dev...

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

Devil Tree - now in e-Book format...

My dark horror/historical novel DEVIL TREE is now available in various e-book formats from the good folks at Crossroad Press for a paltry $3.99.

http://store.crossroadpress.com/index...

yours in storytelling,


Steve Vernon

A Rhysling Nomination

My epic five page poem "Barren: A Chronicle in Futility" (winner of Chi-Zine's 2010 Rannu Award) has been nominated for the SFPA's 2011 Rhysling Award, long poem category.

I am pretty excited about this news.

For those of you who want to read the poem it is still available for viewing online at the Chi-Zine site.

http://www.chizine.com/barren.htm

Or, in the words of the bard - "Hot diggedy doodaw day!"

Yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

Nothing To Lose...now in e-book format!

The one thing that sometimes irks me about the small press genre business is accessibility.

A lot of people just can't get hold of my work. Or if they can it costs too damn much. A hardcover limited can reach anywhere from the $40.00 to the $100.00 mark, depending on circumstances. That is a hell of a lot to pay for a book.

Then, if you live in Canada, you also have to take shipping into account. And the customs that they may charge you getting across the border.

So I am very happy to announce that I have stepped into the e-book arena - thanks to the good folks at Crossroad Press.

I have several upcoming releases planned with them. Two of the books are very hard to find it regular format. One is published in Toronto, and mostly merchandised in the Southern Ontario. Another is out of print. I have seen copies priced in the $200.00 neighbourhood - too damn much to pay for any book.

So let me announce that my hard-to-find chapbook NOTHING TO LOSE is now available as an e-book. This book is available in MOBI (Kindle) EPUB (Sony / Nook / Ipad / Kobo) PDF (Adobe) and PRC (Mobipocket) formats.

Check it out.
http://store.crossroadpress.com/produ...

The book is priced at a measly $2.99.

So if you're interested why not order a copy?


Go ahead.

You've got nothing to lose.


yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

Update...

Okay, so I have fallen behind in keeping up this blog.

Bad blogger.

Baaaaaaad blogger.

Let me tell you what I have been up to.

I am really looking forward to seeing my first YA novel, SINKING DEEPER, out in print this spring.

My ghost collection fans might be happy to know that I will have a follow-up to HAUNTED HARBOURS coming out in the fall.

I've just sold a second poem to ChiZine, due out in April.

And there's a big juicy review of my fiction collection, DO-OVERS AND DETOURS, at this link.

http://www.bookgasm.com/reviews/horro...

Yours in storytelling,
Steve Vernon