James Dorr's Blog, page 10

Paper Boxing on WFHB Radio; Fallen Arrives in Mailbox

But anyway, not too long after that, I sent another from way, way back in NEW MYSTERY MAGAZINE, in summer 1997 (and subsequently an “Anthony” award nominee for short story that year), titled “Paperboxing Art.” And this one fared better. On June 18 Robert Shull emailed back: We would like to record and air Paperboxing Art. The next step is to sign a permission slip to air the story. Then we put you on the calendar for 8/10/24. . .

The quote (for which, see July 3) has to do with local Bloomington radio station WFHB looking for stories (or essays, or excerpts, memoirs, etc.) of around 3000 words for on-the-air reading. The program, SPEAKING OF STORIES, is on Saturday mornings, at 7 a.m. or some such time when writers would be unlikely to be awake, but thus recorded can be replayed via the internet. That is to say, at a more decent time. And so. . . .

So that August 10 date was hardly set in concrete, but as time progressed the permissions and other details were accomplished. And in yesterday’s email, Sunday August 18th, came (under subject line THE DORR PROGRAM ON WFHB): I hope you are as pleased with the Paperboxing Art program as we are. Then, You can listen to it at (followed by an e-address for finding recent broadcasts). And signed Robert Shull and the Speaking of Stories production team.

So Sunday was also the Bloomington Writers Guild’s annual picnic, and I was north of town most of the day at a public park shelter gorging salads and cold cuts and other such goodies with other members, all followed by readings by most who were present, And Sunday night, just to keep things interesting, a bat somehow got itself trapped in my house, flying every which way (and to no ends thrilling the Goth cat Triana who I first had to catch and lock in the bedroom), before I could chase it out. What fun!

But anyway, so it’s today, Monday, that I’ve finally had the “leisure” to put on earphones in the library downtown and use their computer to hear it for myself. Which you can do too by pressing here.

And in other news: Well, actually not in the mailbox proper, but on the front porch. And on a Sunday — Amazon delivers swiftly sometimes. So this, my third post in a row on FALLEN (as well as my poem in it, “Scientific Method”), is simply to say it’s a beautiful book, with 160+ pages of poetry under several subheadings. More can be found in my entry below with, at the end, a link that can be used to buy your own copy.

And . . . It’s Here, Fallen Up for Amazon Order

It’s amazing how many books are titled “FALLEN”! Just look for it on Amazon. But if you search for “Fallen, Broccoli” then you’ll find it, as quick as its release was announced Thursday via Facebook.

Or to check out the back cover blurb: I strongly believe some of the best poetry – ever – has been written in recent years; to include many amazing poems being written now, in 2024.

FALLEN is a celebration of these literary accomplishments. Inside its page are imaginative environments and emotions – from beautiful, to loving, to raw, to the unexpected, and to the devastatingly tragic.

FALLEN is an intense and captivating adventure through a brilliant and mystifying poetic landscape not easily forgotten.

Welcome to FALLEN – a collection of some of the absolute best work being written today.

Poet, Jimmy Broccoli

You’ve read about it already below (cf. August 5 — my poem in the pack being, incidentally, a jolly Christmastide saga . . . but with a difference, “Scientific Method”). Or better, to see the above blurb for yourself, or perchance to order, press here.

Fallen Poetry “Official” Cover, Release for Aug. 15

This was actually a mock cover released when the anthology was first proposed, but they liked it so much that Editor Jimmy Broccoli has now made it the official design. So there. Also it’s for the “Fallen Angel” version (cf. June 10), set for publication next Thursday, August 15, in both electronic and print formats.

My hound in the hunt is a dark-humored “Little Willie” poem, in the sardonic style of mostly four-line accounts of a naughty boy and his exaggerated comeuppance — combined with the utter indifference of the poem’s narrator — that were popular in the early part of the twentieth century. Titled “Scientific Method” and with a Christmas theme, plus chemistry sets and hard-headed grandfathers, it had originally been accepted for the now-defunct 2024 Poetry Issue of THE RYDER, and has now been re-homed in the almost-here poetry anthology FALLEN.

More to be here as it becomes known.

July 3rd Sunday Write Appears Aug. 1st Friday

So I never claimed I wasn’t often late with these things, although this time I may be approaching a record. Put it down to Olympic fever, maybe? The occasion: the Bloomington Writers Guild “Third Sunday Write” (see June 21, May 24, et al.), with coordinator Shana Ritter offering three prompts this time out, of which I chose the first:

High Summer

Yes, the summer was high,
perhaps it was from legalized marijuana —
or smokes more exotic for those that had the taste —
but the vapor, of whatever sort, rose up to the heavens
mellowing harp music,
making the angels there kick their heels
and light up their halos.
The soft, warm glow could be seen
even from Earth, below,
momentarily halting wars, crises,
enemies shaking hands. . .
It was high time.

Yeah, one might hope, eh? But the exercises are fun, still, and the prompts generally good ones — in fact I think a few more members have recently joined, so check it out on Facebook at “3rdsundaywrite” and see what/if others may have added.

Last Sun. Poetry Salutes Columbus OH, Summer

Thunderstorm threats on the Weather Channel nearly kept me away from this month’s Bloomington Writers Guild “Last Sunday Poetry,” but a more benign radar map plus actual sunshine at 6 p.m. brought me out anyway for the July 28, 7-8:30 p.m. festivities at Morgenstern’s Books. Both featured poets were from out of town this time, from Columbus Ohio, beginning with veteran reader at Midwestern festivals, museums, and punk shows, multi-published “queer Italian-American poet” Caidyn Bearfield, who opened on a somewhat somber note with an appreciation of a friend who had passed away. Other poems, too, contained musings on death and its meaning to we who continue on, with an often more stately than sad quality, morphing into still personal, but more outwardly aimed reflections on world and current events.

She was followed by Columbus State Community College Assistant Professor Su Flatt, with interests in Composition and Rhetoric, British Literature, Shakespeare, Creative Writing, and Theory, with a barrage of shorter, more direct works, many in the first person with short words and phrases at times adding to a staccato effect, on their own personal views — including a triad on the mass shootings at Florida’s Pulse nightclub several years back — with a fiery, often angry flavor. These were to an audience of about twenty people, some fourteen of whom also read single poems at the following “Open Mic” session, at which I came ninth with a seasonal effort, “Summer Cancellations,” on hot-weather deaths with a special nod to those caused by overgrown plant life gone wild.

In all it was an exciting event, with its varying styles, and still only cloudy outside at worst when it was time to go home.

Great Man Chosen for A. Buddha’s Hse of Horrors

Is it a contest? Or a submission?

Or maybe a bit of both?

Hard choices, these — or maybe not so hard. Call it a bit of both anyway with a prize, if the former, well worth one’s attention.

Or citing the call, Submissions Open: The Alien Buddha’s House of Horrors #7 & the 2024 Horror Showdown
Call for short horror stories, 3,666-word max.
Deadline: September 21
Prize: $400 USD
Submit: abuddhapress (Word doc attachment)
Winner announced for Halloween.
Published work by past winners: Jonathan Gensler, NJ Gallegos, Kelsey Bryan Zwick.
If previously published, mention when and where in a footnote.
Include 3rd person bio & social media link.
By submitting, agree to potential publication in House of Horrors #7.
Finalists chosen by Alien Buddha Press in October, then opened to a vote.

Got that? And the prize, a whopping $400, to which add that (after all, the chances of winning are slim, and no mention of pay if just published in the book) reprints are okay. So sure, there’s a good bit of time to go before the deadline, but perhaps do it now before one forgets. . . .

So with a bit of searching, I chose a story, “The Great Man” (cf. May 30, April 25 2023; December 5 2018, et al.), a saga of post-revolutionary France, and guillotines, with a steampunky flavor — and oh, what an ending! — originally published in Spring-Summer 1999 in THE STRAND MAGAZINE. One slow starting, a “story within a story” as told to a visiting Englishman (thus opening to a lot of information that a straight narrative wouldn’t allow) by a now-aging French ex-soldier. But building, building, to a hoped for win. Or at least maybe making the finals — but first to get it accepted at all.

Today came the answer, at least to that last: Thank you for your submission.­

I am happy to include your story in the anthology, and the contest.­

There will be more info to come at the end of summer.

Two New (Short) Poems Selected for Stormwash 2

To quote from below, July 11: ­ The book: STORMWASH: ENVIRONMENTAL POEMS, edited by the Writers Guild’s own Hiromi Yoshida (see April 19, March 11, et al.), sprung from a project sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington and the Writers Guild. Or to quote from the original call: As global warming continues to trigger severe climatic patterns, consider how we can manage the harm that results from the continuous release of carbon emissions, and enable the survival of future generations. Nature today is neither simply pretty nor merely furious. Instead, it is something that requires judicious management and legislation, while it begs for consecration through the arts.

So guess what (or, the reception of STORMWASH has been so good that)? From “Publishing Opportunities” in this month’s Bloomington Writers Guild UPCOMING EVENTS & NEWS, Hiromi Yoshida writes: I invite you to submit to STORMWASH: ENVIRONMENTAL POEMS, VOL. 2. So far, works by these poets were selected for dance performance: Riley Anspaugh, M. J. Arcangelini, Arizona (K Sea), Jonathan S Baker, Zilia Balkansky-Sellés, Tony Brewer, Marlena Chertock, Marjie Giffen, Peter Kaczmarczyk, Walter Biskupski, April Ridge, Thomas Tokarski, and Ray Zdonek.

­So, if you’d like to see your poems performed as interpretative dance, you might wish to consider submitting works that you think might be particularly appealing for that purpose (i.e. “danceable” pieces). That means, relatively short, accessible, incorporating striking imagery, and devices like anaphora. Otherwise, your best, sincerest works are most welcome for STORMWASH vol. 2.

While probably not so danceable themselves, I sent Editor Yoshida four poems, all combined still notably shorter than the New Orleanian/Hurricane Katrina-themed “The Drowned City,” my Volume 1 entry. And not much after that Hiromi’s reply: ­I’m happy to inform you that “Acid Death” and “Santa Regrets. . .” have been accepted for publication in STORMWASH 2. Congratulations!

Aimée Goes to England, Contract Signed/Sent Back

Ah, the Casket Girls, those irrepressible immigrants of a sort that ex-President Trump would probably disapprove, have come back in the news. To quote myself from a previous post, [t]hese are the ladies sent [to New Orleans] from France in 1728, by orders of King Louis XV, to marry the colony’s most influential — and richest — men, to induce them to settle down and raise families. But who had brought with them the one named Aimée who had special dietary preferences, which the rest of them now shared too. And so they continue to this day, their original story, “Casket Girls,” first published on April 10 2014 in DAILY SCIENCE FICTION.

Today’s news concerns that very tale (cf. January 31, 25 2023, et al., for the original, specific story; many, many more for “Casket Suite” and other tellings of varying titles starring the ladies). To wit, in today’s email via the UK’s West Avenue Publishing: Thank you for submitting your work to us for consideration. We’re delighted to let you know that your work has been selected for inclusion in A BROOD OF VAMPIRES.

Please sign and return the attached contract along with a photo and an author bio. Please aim to have this completed by the end of the month.

Thus they get around, Aimée and her fellow filles à les caissettes, or “Casket Girls,” so named for the small sea chests they had brought with them for their possessions. World travelers, they, originally based on a New Orleanian urban legend, and now off to England to take a bow in their latest anthology presentation. As has the contract sent with them, signed and sent back this afternoon with the other materials requested.

With one final note: The anthology is due to be published on the 1st of October.

“Green” Poems Celebrated at 2nd Thursday Spoken Word

Tonight brought July’s “Bloomington Writers Guild Second Thursday Spoken Word” (cf. June 13, et al.) at Bloomington’s downtown Backspace Gallery, with a special book launch the subject du jour. The book: STORMWASH: ENVIRONMENTAL POEMS, edited by the Writers Guild’s own Hiromi Yoshida (see April 19, March 11, et al.), sprung from a project sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington and the Writers Guild. Or to quote from the original call: As global warming continues to trigger severe climatic patterns, consider how we can manage the harm that results from the continuous release of carbon emissions, and enable the survival of future generations. Nature today is neither simply pretty nor merely furious. Instead, it is something that requires judicious management and legislation, while it begs for consecration through the arts.

So tonight sixteen poets — with a seventeenth listed but unable to make it — helped celebrate by reading their work, of which I was fifth with a longish poem originally published in THE MAGAZINE OF SPECULATIVE POETRY for Spring 2006, “The Drowned City,” a reflection on the devastation of New Orleans by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Following an introduction by MC Tony brewer, plus “foreword” by Editor Yoshida, these were presented in two sections of eight each, with a musical interlude by “The Uke Tones,” a local ukulele and singing quartet who also opened and closed the event. Also available were copies of STORMWASH for those who didn’t already have one, with the bulk of poems read from the text as well, albeit with one or two short pieces possibly added plus an impromptu one-person “open mic” at the close.

Also it was noted that copies of STORMWASH sold there would have proceeds donated to the Writers Guild itself, in that a major grant which the Guild had received for the past three years was, for reasons unstated, denied this year, resulting in new sources needing to be found in order to continue regular monthly programs. Along those lines, for those willing, donations can also be received through the Bloomington Writers Guild’s website as well, by pressing here.

And This a Much Faster, Super Short Post —

So early this evening, another news flash. As Facebook viewers will already know, THEY’RE CONSPIRING AGAINST THE ALIEN BUDDHA TOO, including my story “Chocolat” (see July 1, June 13), is now listed on Amazon. For more information on which, or to order, check here.