Bud Smith's Blog: Bud Smith , page 4

Something To Do last night there was no hot water so I...

Something To Do

 

last night there was no hot water 

so I wore my winter coat 

into the shower

ear muffs too

today I filled up an orange juice jug 

with beautiful botanical gin 

my neighbor Bill gave me 

because it made his head 

swell up like a sad party balloon 

tomorrow I don’t know 

what will happen on the long drive 

to your mother’s house

it might be that we’re killed behind

the wheel, or it might be 

that we find the most obscure songs

on the radio 

and stay in love longer 

tomorrow night 

we will be somewhere 

tearing life apart 

to make new patches 

for your blood soaked 

jean jacket.

Motorcycles and Maya Angelou

Over the weekend I hopped in the car with my wife and escaped the NYC area. Here is an essay at Real Pants about running out of creative juice and headed off to party and experience in order to find more. 

This one is called Come Visit Often 

New short “Coral Reef” and an Interview at Moonsick

Today I have a story called Coral Reef at Moonsick Magazine. The story is about two peeps driving around their hometown on acid and contemplating cutting off the head of the town’s mascot, a plaster brontosaurus. It’s also about coming to terms with one of your exes fucking a police officer. “But you used to be so punk rock …”Read Coral Reef here

I also talked to the editor of Moonsick, Gwen Beatty about my writing, working heavy construction (how we get nicknames on the jobsite) how I edit my novels … It was a good conversation, Gwen is a great writer and editor. I really liked her book, Kill Us On The Way Home out from Passenger Side Books … Take a look at our conversation here 

Maybe this is all too much stuff for one post, but I also wanted to share a new essay for Real Pants called “On The Beach” about swimming, getting sunburnt, even the time that I was working at this fancy house on the ocean and the homeowners insisted on giving us chocolate cake and milk doing a heat wave. Here is the essay 

Thank you for reading this stuff. Drop me a line sometime. 

Bud 

One Year Anniversary of My Novel F250

[image error]

Beautiful day here in New Jersey. Sun is shining like crazy and I’m coasting my way towards Memorial Day weekend and the beach and beer and the start of a suntan. 

Today is also the one year anniversary of the release of my second novel F250, the story of a man named Lee Casey who is in a noise band called Ottermeat. 

To celebrate the anniversary of the novel, I am sending out free Kindle versions. Just email me at budsmithwrites@gmail.com or tweet me @bud_smith 

F250 is on Goodreads here 

I also did an interview at The Rumpus right around the time of F250’s release. Check that out here

And last but not least, I was also in The Other People podcast when the book came out to talk to Brad Listi about F250 and how it was written on my cellphone while I was at work at the oil refinery. Listen to that here

Two Readings 5/24 + 5/25

Oh my lawd!

Tonight in Brooklyn, Cool As Fuck reading series. 6:30 pm. I’ll be hosting and toasting with Bill Lessard at Pete’s Candy Shop. Readers will be Mark de Silva, Amanda McCormick, Stephen Thomas, Jamie Perez and Adam Robinson

Here’s some more info about the Cool As Fuck reading happening tonight, 5/24

“Kind of like if a kooky variety show went to the library” – NY Mag

———–

Tomorrow night, Wednesday. Molasses Books, 8pm, I’ll actually be reading. Other readers include Alex Molotkow, Lauren Hilger and Stephen Thomas … This is a release party for Stephen’s book The Jokes out from BookThug. Here’s some more info 

If you’d like to be a bookish individual come to these things

New Story “The Paralyzer” published at Third Point

Couple updates :Last night was a good night. I got a haircut so I don’t look like this anymore. It was a nice haircut because as soon as I waked in the place, they poured me a bourbon and handed it over with a smile. 

Around the corner from the barber shop is a bar that has classic arcade machines and beer. I sunk a couple dollars into The Simpsons game, and remembered when I was a kid and used to play that machine at the Seaside Boardwalk. 

Speaking of that, I’ve got a story called The Paralyzer all about the boardwalk, a water park, some kids having fun/getting distracted while their world gets further fucked up. 

The story just got published at Third Point Press, and the editor Tyler Goff Barton really did a nice job on the the edits. Thanks to him. And thanks to you. 

Check out The Paralyzer her

Troll Dolls and Scarecrows

For Real Pants I wrote about working at a farm market, dealing with a co-worker who wouldn’t shut up about D&D, cutting firewood, making Christmas wreaths, organizing troll dolls and beanie babies out there in the seasonal trailer, where hope goes to die.

Check it out here

Today I Made A Punch

Today I made a punch 

three bottles of red wine and your sister is having another emergency 

12 oz. of fresh lemon juice and it smells like rain even in this inner city 

750 ml of gin that used to be kept in the freezer for a rainy day yeah this is it 

1 oz bitters, one bottle of submarine strength rum

once I misplaced my wallet on Valentine’s Day but the car ahead of me at the drive thru had paid me forward go figure 

half a bottle of brandy or cognac or Cointreau, no one minds no one knows 

tonight we’ll drink this punch 

until we’re happy or oblivious 

and pass whatever cherries we can find still bobbing in the aftermath 

don’t leave the pits on my floor and don’t take them with you 

find a happy medium between death and dancing 

9 oranges but I ate one while juicing

and the peels wound up in the trash not the compost

you can fly yourself into the sun if you love the earth more than me 

I heard there is a better life in the wilderness

filled all the Tupperware with tap water, stuck it in the ice box 

the cubes melt too fast dot com says 

if you are hopeless sit down right here 

and I’ll talk you off the window ledge 

I’m supposed to find a way to make this last ditch effort last

until the morning or we run out of fried chicken  

you’ll also need two cups of sugar melted in holy water 

and six cups of unholy water boiled into a strong tea

as the street lights shake on 

dump this all in a glass jug 

if you are beautiful enough

someone will frost a cake for you

and someone else will feed it to you, slowly

if you’re not beautiful enough for cake

that’s fine, we have none 

just this punch and this music and this wobbly ceiling fan



one bottle of champagne and your father

is alright after all. 

Don’t Give Up, But Also Don’t Be A Shithead

Hi all y’all,

I grew up in a campground in New Jersey. Was fun. 

Blows my mind that people in England wonder what I’m thinking about things. 

Nick Black asked me some questions about writing and publishing for Bath Fiction 

Read the talking stuff here

#partytime 

New Things

Hello!

I have a short story in Funhouse Magazine (out of East London) and the story is called Franklin and it’d mean the world to me if you checked it out and let me know what you think of it. So, thank you if you can.

Also, I’ve been writing a weekly column for Real Pants called Work Safe Or Die Trying about the intersection between working heavy construction and creativity. Recently my wife and I moved out of NYC after ten years, and are back in NJ now, Jersey City, to be exact. Here is an essay called TL;DR … the link is to all my Real Pants essays – there’s been sixteen of them. The latest one is at the top of the list, but follow along with old posts and new posts alike by visiting that link whenever whenever.

I’m happy these days, and hope you are too. Been writing a lot and working a lot and listening to Paul Simon and Prince a lot. The usual shit.

yell at me on Twitter  it seems to be where I am doing most of my damage these days.

Thank you for reading and for making stuff. What you make fuels what I make. No joke about it.

Love,

Bud