Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 65

"Real and often hilarious." Four Fathers. Small Press Reviews. Yes.

Quite yes. And so endlessly appreciated. Excerpt? Word.

"Tanzer’s flash pieces each hit on a single element of fatherhood, which is an effective way to approach the experience and give the little things, both funny and serious, their due. This series of stories reminded me a little bit of Abbott Awaits by Chris Bachelder, a novel about fatherhood in flash-style vignettes. The stylistic similarities are easy to see, but the mix of wit, humor, and sensitivity to the sometimes paradoxical nature of fatherhood is what makes Tanzer’s work stand up there with Bachelder’s."

Shameless, albeit much appreciated, Jared Rypkema Lost in Space Tweet hype. And big thanks to the Jared Rypkema for that.

Just ordered my copy of @BenTanzer's "Lost in Space: A Father's Journey There and Back Again" | http://t.co/z1bjS1lf5v #excited
— Jared Rypkema (@Jrypkema) June 3, 2014

Lost in Space is The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review Book Club. And most geeked we are. Appreciative too.

So big thanks to the Eckleburg Review for that and please do come and talk Lost in Space with us now, thank you, you rock. 

Housley. Williams. Pawelek. Tanzer. Rejoice. Buy. Read. Hype. Share. Storm the gates. For Four Fathers release day it is. And far and wide at that.

Release it is indeed. So do hit it, it just might change your life.

"Every parent or parent to be should read this one." Lost in Space. Amazon. Appreciations. Many. And endlessly so.

Quite so really. Excerpt? Word.

"It's certain to give you a better idea of the range of reality when it comes to having a kid than any parenting manual ever will."

5Q4Q we are. Not to mention Ben Vereen, NAS, and River Phoenix.

And big thanks to the Quiddity and Jim Warner for that. Excerpt? Word.

According to our friends at the DSM V: The onset of insomnia includes a complaint of dissatisfaction with sleep quantity or quality, associated with one (or more) of the following symptoms:Difficulty initiating sleep. (In children, this may manifest as difficulty initiating sleep without caregiver intervention.)Difficulty maintaining sleep, characterized by frequent awakenings or problems returning to sleep after awakenings. (In children, this may manifest as difficulty returning to sleep without caregiver intervention.)Early-morning awakening with inability to return to sleep.With that in mind, who would comprise your father/son insomniac crime fighting duo for a network pilot on the CW?It’s nearly impossible for me to think of sleep, fathers and sons, or any permutations related to the above without thinking about the movie Running on Empty, and the scene where the character played by River Phoenix comes home late one night to find his father played by Judd Hirsch sitting on the couch reading, just as my dad always was. It is a quiet, beautiful, and ultimately heartbreaking moment that signals both a beginning and an end to their relationship as they have known it, and it seems impossible to me that we could create a better father/son insomniac crime fighting duo than that. Well, outside of Ben Vereen and NAS mind you.

5Q4Q we are.

And big thanks to the Quiddity and Jim Warner for that. Excerpt? Word.

According to our friends at the DSM V: The onset of insomnia includes a complaint of dissatisfaction with sleep quantity or quality, associated with one (or more) of the following symptoms:Difficulty initiating sleep. (In children, this may manifest as difficulty initiating sleep without caregiver intervention.)Difficulty maintaining sleep, characterized by frequent awakenings or problems returning to sleep after awakenings. (In children, this may manifest as difficulty returning to sleep without caregiver intervention.)Early-morning awakening with inability to return to sleep.With that in mind, who would comprise your father/son insomniac crime fighting duo for a network pilot on the CW?It’s nearly impossible for me to think of sleep, fathers and sons, or any permutations related to the above without thinking about the movie Running on Empty, and the scene where the character played by River Phoenix comes home late one night to find his father played by Judd Hirsch sitting on the couch reading, just as my dad always was. It is a quiet, beautiful, and ultimately heartbreaking moment that signals both a beginning and an end to their relationship as they have known it, and it seems impossible to me that we could create a better father/son insomniac crime fighting duo than that. Well, outside of Ben Vereen and NAS mind you.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Eighty-Five - Left on Mallory, starring the Jared Rypkema.

And so Left on Mallory we are. We are also wander though, podcast, Jacksonville, bridges and the Bridge Eight Literary Magazine, crowdsourcing, the Jared Rypkema, and building books, community, and lit cities. So do hit it, it just might change your life.

"I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life." Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

This Book Will Change Your Life - Nagging Wives, Foolish Husbands by the Nathaniel Tower.

More travel, more read, and Nagging Wives, Foolish Husbands by the Nathaniel Tower. Now speaking of the Nagging Wives, is it true that we are biased towards dad writers? We are. Or small press releases? Totally. What about collections that include stories we ran at This Zine Will Change Your Life as we did with the piece The Arrival. Most definitely, yes. What about stories that explore relationships, possibly of the marital type? Quite possibly very yes. And yet, with so much bias afoot, are we also biased towards story that veers towards the bizarro or surreal, embracing squids that live under the bed of our children, spurned plant life lovers turned murderous, serially killing wives, missing testicles, and men falling in love with Victoria Secret mannequins? Not so much no, and not normally at all. But that's the thing with the Nagging Wives, Tower does so much we don't normally seek out, but is fucking spot-on with the dynamics that play out in relationships when the work to stay together overwhelms the desires that brought you together in the first place. How do we stay attracted to one another? How do we create space when there are children in the mix? And what happens when our outside interests become at least somewhat more appealing than our inside ones? Further, how do we manage to separate our fantasy life from our real life when our real life becomes too much to bear? Which for the record, it wasn't until we read the Nagging Wives, that it hit us just how much the realm of bizarro fiction borrows so much from the fantasies and delusions that allow us to get through the day, tough times, confusion, and how fractured shit can become. And so knowing that, which may not be such a profound discovery, but it was to us, are we now biased towards bizarro fiction as well? Maybe, possibly, though regardless, the Nagging Wives, not to mention the Foolish Husbands, changed our lives, just as it will yours.