B.L. Bruce's Blog, page 14

“28 Days of Solitude” NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER

B.L.Bruce is a writer, graphic designer, and publisher from Santa Cruz, California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in literature and creative writing from UC Santa Cruz. Her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, magazines, and literary publications, including The Sun Magazine, Northwind Magazine, Soundings Review, and the Monterey Poetry Review. She was nominated for the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize in 2009 as a student of Santa Cruz’s first poet laureate, Gary Young, and in 2014 she was the recipient of the PushPen Press Pendant Prize for Poetry. 28 Days of Solitude is Bruce’s second book.

PRE-ORDER TODAY ON AMAZON

ISBN (trade paperback): 978-0-9914503-4-3

ISBN (eBook): 978-0-9914503-3-6

Black Swift Press

Publication date: August 1, 2015

104 pages

PRAISE FOR “NINE PASSES: FLY FISHING THROUGH THE PAST AND PRESENT OF THE HIGH SIERRA”

Nine Passes, Todd Bruce’s deeply personal account of his 300-mile backpacking expedition through the Sierra Nevada, is informed by the author’s vivid sense of history and enduring love of the land. Retracing the route of Charles McDermand, an outdoorsman and writer whose landmark 1946 travelogue The Waters of the Golden Trout Country sparked a national interest in the region, Bruce draws upon his fly fishing expertise and his keen familiarity with the land to illuminate the subtleties of the Sierra Nevada’s flora, fauna, and topography.

Bruce’s five-week trek took him along McDermand’s seventy-year-old route, where he hiked the back country, fished the lakes and streams, and climbed the high mountain passes of trailblazers past—one of whom was Bruce’s great grandfather, George R. Goldman.

The trout waters he explores are those of McDermand, of George Goldman, and of Bruce’s kin: Bruce’s mother, father, and siblings, as well as his own young self, who fished those same glinting pools in the previous decades. Nine Passes is a collation of more than six decades of change in the Sierra fisheries, the story of a family, their bonds, and their memories, the techniques and practices of the fly fishing artistry, and the shifting human attitudes that have sculpted these granite-laden mountains.

Todd Bruce combines a solid mastery of fly fishing, backpacking and love for his family and the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains to produce a book of true importance. . . . This solidly crafted book is highly recommended to fly fishermen and anyone who has gazed at a distant peak with wonder and curiosity.  – Allen Rizzi, Author of The Blackest of Canyons

Mr Bruce weaves an engaging account of his journey to walk in the steps of a famous fly fisherman as well as routes taken by four generations of his family. . . . The author balances technical fishing information, descriptions of mountain beauty and wry observations on backpacking culture in way that will interest anyone. – Susan Gilchrist, Artist

Todd recounts his solo 300-mile hike through the Sierra high country while reminiscing his childhood memories of family backpacking/fishing expeditions to some of the same locations. . . . Its a fairly brisk-reading travelogue that’s unlike any “fishing guides” or novels done in a fly-fishing setting. For readers its a vicarious adventure or stimulus to get out and do it.– Ford Kanzler, Writer for Santa Cruz Waves

Learn more at www.ninepasses.com

AVAILABLE in paperback at Amazon

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ALBUM RELEASE: JT Bruce’s “Vandal of Fortune”

     JUNE 1st, 2015: After a 7-year hiatus, American multi-instrumentalist and songwriter JT Bruce returns to classic heavy metal and prog rock foundations with the release of his 4th album – VANDAL OF FORTUNE.


     Whereas his previous release UNIVERSICA was an ethereal, synth-driven journey through the stars, VANDAL throws keyboards out the window in favor of a staight-ahead progressive metal experience. It’s louder and faster, but never loses its trademark melodic roots.


     An absence of vocals allows the music to throw off the chains of rigid verse/chorus structures and embrace a true progressive sensibility. From subtle jazz-like passages in “Under Sodium Bulb” to traces of thrash metal in “Stress Fracture” to the classic rock and funk inspired 11-minute epic “The Second Decade,” there is always something new happening in VANDAL OF FORTUNE. The result is a unique and cohesive full-album experience that has been neglected in the days of endless remixes and digital singles.


     VANDAL features the work of 6 guest musicians, hailing from metal outfits SoulCycle, Second Rate Angels, and Ruined Machines. Guests from the film soundtrack and jazz worlds further increases the album’s range.

     Since his first album in 2004, Bruce has lead the vanguard of the free music revolution, employing Creative Commons licenses from the beginning. In this tradition, VANDAL is available for everyone to share, stream, and download, for free, in its entirety, forever.

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Get it here:    BANDCAMP   |   JAMENDO   |   SOUNDCLOUD

FOREWORD MAGAZINE GIVES 5 STARS TO M. REED MCCALL’S “MOOSE TRACKS ON THE ROAD TO HEAVEN”

A woman discovers her rich relationships in this exquisite exploration into themes of time and connections, love and loss. . . .

Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven tells the story of protagonist Elena Elizabeth Wright Maguire, who reexamines her life and relationships after she is involved in a minor car accident.

M. Reed McCall skillfully transitions between different periods with segues that invite further exploration into memories triggered by a comment made in the present. For example, when Pa says he can hardly wait to put Christmas decorations around the house, the narrative flashes back thirty-two years to the Christmas Eve when Elena was almost seven years old. This movement in the narrative not only serves to keep the story flowing but also creates an intriguing and natural flow in the stream of connections that Elena makes as she unravels the journey she has made in her life.

McCall captures the unique voices of different personalities and their relationships with one another with evocative and heartfelt precision. This creates a vivid image, not only about Elena, but also about the people around her and the place she lives. This is clear in Pa’s letters to Elena, which offer wisdom, and in radio disc jockey Willard T. Bogg’s announcements on WGRR FM 103.9 about the events in Moose Junction. Elena’s transformation to a mature woman is contrasted with her past idealistic and youthful eighteen-year-old voice in a diary entry about her love, Jesse: “I can’t wait to give Jesse the card and giant Hershey’s chocolate bar I bought for him I’m SO in love!!!”

While the narrative itself is deeply moving, the black-and-white photographs scattered throughout further contribute to the story’s heartrending quality by lending a unique sense of reality to the story and giving it the feel of a personal history unfolding, adding to the book’s allure and effectiveness.

Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven forges a path straight to the heart.

Foreword Magazine Reviews, Summer Quarterly Issue

Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann

April 29, 2015 

Foreword Rating

Available at:

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

KOBO

iBOOKS

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For more, visit M. Reed McCall’s website

Like M. Reed McCall on Facebook!

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POETRY REVIEWERS WANTED!

FREE advanced copy of Richard Rensberry’s The Wolf Pack Moon: Poems (Quick Turtle Books, 2015) in exchange for an honest review!

The lion’s share of the poems contained in this book was written under the influence of the wolf pack moon during the months of January and February of 2015. This is the name of the winter moon as given by the Algonquin Indians that hunted and gathered the Great Lakes State of Michigan where the author spent his youth. The hard northern winters are a battle between optimism and pessimism and these poems are a reflection of that struggle. These are verses of the lands within and the lands without as written beneath the glow of the wolf pack moon.

RICHARD RENSBERRY grew up on a small farm in Northern Michigan accumulating spiritual riches only the heart of nature can distill. These riches weave themselves in and out of his poetry like the rhyme and rhythm of his words. He has the blood of a wolf and the heart of a gypsy. He is married to fellow author and muse, Mary Rensberry. They are the co-authors of the book It’s Black and White/A Turtle Quest for the Ages. Together, they founded QuickTurtle Books® in 2013.

To learn more, visit www.richardrensberry.com

IF INTERESTED IN REVIEWING, PLEASE SEND QUERY TO

bribruceproductions (at) gmail (dot) com

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Bri Bruce … naturally!

Originally posted on Routine Matters:

BRI BRUCE … NATURALLY! 

I’m writing the draft for this post while sitting in an old Corfiot olive grove close by to where I live. It is a glorious place which always fills me with joy and wonder.

I have with me a beautiful collection of poems I’m currently reading called The Weight of Snow by the award-winning poet Bri Bruce. I have to say that the quality and depth of her work has left me spellbound.

Bri Bruce

Bri Bruce’s h ome is in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California. She has lived in and around this area for most of her life and her work indeed reflects this amazing natural backdrop.

My regular readers will no doubt be well aware that my remit in these posts is to talk about the writing rituals & routines of the individuals I feature. I tend to shy away from discussing any…

View original 697 more words

BOOK REVIEWERS WANTED!

FREE copy of author and social visionary ABCrane’s Project Integrity International: Philosophy & Plan for a New Economy (Gungho Publishing, 2015) in exchange for an honest review.

Crime, epidemics, pollution, political corruption, violence, ignorance, and catastrophic environmental disasters threaten our species’ survival at a rapidly accelerating pace. Today more than ever, it is critical that international communities foster the growth of environmentally sustainable—and life-sustaining—social paradigms and technological innovations.

Yet “green” is simply not enough! While sustainable products and services are certainly critical to the survival of our people and the natural environment, they alone do not end wars, fight poverty, solve for unemployment, curb crime, or serve as magic bullets for any of our global epidemics.

Beyond providing green products or services, Project Integrity International strategically launches an international franchise of educational, spiritual, social, and eco/entrepreneurial opportunities that absorb people away from the destructive military-industrial establishments that dominate human societies across the globe. PII proposes a comprehensive solution to so many problems facing humankind in the twenty-first century while saturating her seven billion strong with a tidal wave of economic opportunities.

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ABCRANE is a social visionary who enjoys walking the tight rope between fantasy and reality, between the mundane and the surreal, and between truth and illusion. From early childhood, she has been one to question answers and answer questions. A Bachelor’s degree in Sociology helped Crane to better analyze the problems of the world while a double major in Creative Writing coached her how to imagine, innovate, invent—and write!—about solutions to those problems. Her  continued  self-education includes areas such as holistic nutrition, green business, progressive education, and social activism, as well as her successful completion of a course in business offered by a wonderful non-profit organization, Women’s Initiative. Residing in Sunnyvale, CA, Crane is preparing to launch an innovative internet cafe that will provide teens with an exciting real world after-school alternative and public meeting place to call their own.  Also in production, is her exciting musical stage play, Kangaroo Fu: The Little Red Poem.

Learn more at projectintegrity.biz  

IF INTERESTED IN REVIEWING, PLEASE SEND QUERY TO

bribruceproductions (at) gmail (dot) com

CUSTOM BOOK COVER DESIGN – Starting at $99

Custom eBook Covers $99

Custom Print Covers $135

When you supply your own image or graphic.

*Service includes 3 mockups and 2 changes.

SEE MY ONLINE PORTFOLIO

For a link to download my complete portfolio, please email: 

bribruceproductions (at) gmail (dot) com

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OTHER DESIGN & PUBLISHING SERVICES:

– Editing

– Book interior layout design & formatting for both traditional printers & print on demand providers

– Book Printing through CreateSpace or other traditional printers or print-on-demand platforms

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Interview with Poet Bri Bruce by Susan Salluce

While writing my second book, GriefINK, Tattoo as the Language of Grief, I searched for a poem about mourning. I stumbled across many that were familiar, but wanted that something special that will speak to the reader’s soul. A friend recommended that I contact a young female poet in Santa Cruz, California by the name Bri Bruce.

Her book of poems, The Weight of Snow, riveted me. The depth and cadence of her poetry set against the backdrop of nature solidified my choice of a poem for GriefINK. I wanted to know more about this young woman, and how her writing life has taken shape. Through the following interview, Bri shares not only her writing life, but also how her passions embody her work, creating poetry that whispers into the delicate corners of one’s heart.

Bri, thank you for letting me interview you for my blog. Share a bit about yourself.

I grew up in Felton and spent most of my life in and around the Santa Cruz area. I attended UC Santa Cruz to study literature and creative writing. I currently live in the Santa Cruz Mountains, so I haven’t ventured very far (my excuse always being that I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else!). Some of my hobbies include surfing, photography, and traveling. I’m an avid beachcomber and collect odds and ends, mostly old cameras and books, antique bottles, and the like. I enjoy spending time outdoors and with friends and family.

At what age did you begin writing poetry?

I started writing poetry when I was in junior high. It first became a way for me to express and process my emotions, and I had this consuming urge to create. I have been journaling since I was nine, and poetry seemed like a different, almost more abstract way of dealing with the trials and tribulations of adolescence. My early poetry, of course, while very personal was also disjointed, experimental, and convoluted.  It wasn’t until later that my work really shifted, then began to evolve into the kind of imagistic narrative it is today.

Tell us about the use of nature as your source of inspiration.

I’ve always been fond of the outdoors. I was the kid that, given the choice, would spend all day outside climbing trees, rolling in the grass, getting stuck in the mud up to my knees, and coming home with bugs in my pockets. My parents both had a huge part in raising me to be nature-minded. I grew up camping, fishing, backpacking, surfing, and diving. There really wasn’t any adventure sport or outdoor activity we didn’t do. It has instilled in me a passion to seek the out of doors and immerse myself in the natural. Even at a young age, my upbringing created this profound fondness and appreciation for the natural world that is impossible for me to shake. I’m in love with it, and this shows in my work.

Where do you write? Office or outdoors? Share your writing life.

I would prefer to be outdoors writing longhand rather than indoors on a computer. I still write everything by hand when I’m not using a typewriter (I know, I’m old school). Strangely enough, I also enjoy writing in loud, crowded places. I’m a regular at a few coffee houses around town where I like to hunker down in a corner for a while. I also enjoy writing when I travel and find that some of my best work comes from these instances. I usually keep a travel journal, but I often gather together lines of poetry that I later work into a cohesive whole. 

I guess I could say that all of the processes of nature inspire my writing. Writing is in itself a process, and I believe the two are very closely connected. I love observing the happenings of the natural world, and juxtaposing them against our own lives. I feel a greater truth can be revealed, if only simple and rather instinctual or straightforward. My poems always begin as observations or narratives and evolve from there. I keep a small notebook with me at all times and write down certain words or phrases I like the sound of, or the name of a bird or a place I want to write about. Later, a large part of my writing process is stringing these all together.

Give the reader a peek into your world. What is your idea of a perfect day?

My idea of a perfect day to inspire my writing would be some sort of adventure to somewhere I’ve never been. New experiences always stir something in me. I like to go on these “adventures,” so whenever I get the chance to do this, I am immeasurably happy. I find I enjoy them most alone, which is something that others often find interesting. I’m extremely independent and I like exercising that independence. I would rise at dawn, watch the sunrise, and spend the better part of the morning tromping around. I would, however, want to share my perfect day with friends and family at some point, perhaps after my adventure and over a good meal. At night, I would want to sit at a desk with my typewriter and a glass (or bottle) of wine and write and listen to music, staying up late until I’m too tired to think! Drifting off into a fitful sleep full of consuming dreams is always a great way to end the day.

Would you be willing to share a specific experience that inspired you to write?

Sure. Last summer I spent a month alone in a small cabin in the remote forests of Northern California to devote myself to writing my novel and to work on a few collections of poetry. It was both terrifying and exhilarating. I was visited by bears on a regular basis and surrounded by wildlife. The nearest town was a 45-minute drive, and the nearest neighbors were a quarter-mile away. Among many of my experiences, one particular event comes to mind. I had just returned one evening from town to find that the porch light had attracted thousands of flying termites. Needless to say, the small cabin was infested. There wasn’t much I could do but turn the light off, and one by one pick up the termites that had managed to make it inside the cabin and put them outside. I was struck by how, all at once it seemed, they shed their wings and crawled away. In a matter of minutes, I was left with hundreds of pairs of these papery, ash-colored wings. I sat down right then and wrote a poem about it. I think this is a good example of the connection between processes of nature and the processes of a writer, the first step in the process of writing being observation.

I find your poetry to be very deep…beautiful…open to interpretation and it allows for the projection of one’s own experience. At Henry Cowell State Park stood out for me, and I have chosen it for my book GriefINK. What is the back-story behind that poem?

This piece was based loosely on an experience I shared with my mother on a hike through the park. My parents took me there as a kid to feed the ducks on the millponds and watch the trains. After not visiting for a while, I decided to take my mom up on her offer to go with her one day.

What spurred the poem is the sobering acknowledgement of the passing of time. On that day, not only did I realize how much I had changed since I last visited (I was no longer the little girl crouching in the reeds, holding out handfuls of chicken feed to the mallards), but it was really one of the first times that I was completely taken aback by that sense of realizing that someone you love has aged. I suppose parents feel this when watching their children grow, but it was as if I hadn’t been paying attention all these years, so busy and wrapped up in my own life that seeing, actually seeing, my mother looking older to me was like waking up one morning to see your yard covered in snow.

This realization of a person’s aging, and the inevitability of death, was foundational to this poem. The emotions captured in the poem are very raw and human, relatable. It was almost as if I was yearning for the years I had missed, but it was too late. I was facing for the first time the reality of a pending grief I knew would follow in the wake of my mother’s future passing.

When did you know that you wanted to put your poems out to the world in the form of a book? Talk about the experience of writing The Weight of Snow.

The Weight of Snow started out as a collection under a different title that I compiled while finishing my degree at UC Santa Cruz. For my poetry concentration, as a sort of thesis project, I was required to write a chapbook of poems. Many of these original poems ended up in more refined stages in The Weight of Snow, including the poem from which my book gets its title. The original manuscript was titled Middlestate, the commonality between all the poems being that they all took place or centered around the middle part of the State of California, i.e., where I live in Santa Cruz and the surrounding areas.

While I had been published long before that (my poems were first published when I was still in middle school), the response I received from my peers and my instructors was overwhelmingly supportive, and I never looked at my writing the same after that. My instructors, namely Gary Young (Santa Cruz’s first poet laureate), played pivotal roles in supporting and encouraging me to pursue my writing further. 

I knew that I wanted to share my work and sending out my poems to be individually published by various journals and online publications wasn’t what I wanted. After working briefly for a small publisher in Santa Cruz where I learned a great deal more about the publishing industry, I officially started my own publishing company, building upon my graphic design and layout skills. It was through this publishing company (Black Swift Press) that I published The Weight of Snow. Since its release last February, it has garnered very positive reviews from a number of esteemed authors, including Gary Young, and is the 2014 International Book Awards Finalist in the Poetry Category, the 
2014 San Francisco Book Festival Honorable Mention Recipient in the Poetry Category, and is a 2014 USA Best Book Awards “Poetry” Category Finalist.

What are some of your current projects?

There are always projects in the works and ideas floating around! Aside from the plethora of notes I have lying around for novel ideas or lines for poems, I am currently working on transcribing a journal I kept on a typewriter during a residency I took last September. It’s kind of a look into the psyche of a writer, as well as an account of my experiences of and thoughts on the craft and my journey.

I’d like to take another residency to focus solely on my novel. If anyone ever has the opportunity to participate in one, I highly, highly suggest it. It’s such an enriching experience. Not only do you learn a lot about your craft, but you also get to know yourself as a writer much better.

My biggest goal right now is to publish five books before I turn thirty. I have four to go, but my second, third, and fourth are almost completely mapped out. I just have to find the time to edit, design, and publish (and hopefully promote beforehand). It’s that fifth book I’ve got my sights on. I have four years to write it!

What are some other aspirations that you have?

My biggest passion besides writing is helping other writers in realizing their dreams of publishing their work. I bring an author’s vision to fruition, whether through designing a book cover or actually helping them publish and print their book. There is nothing more gratifying than hearing an author’s elation at holding their book in their hands or seeing it listed on Amazon. I know this feeling well, and to be able to pass that on to others is very rewarding.

My biggest aspiration of all is to have not only my work but my words to have an impact, even if it’s small. I always hope others can feel through my poems and relate to them, even if it strikes a chord in them for an unrelated reason or makes them think about something else. I want my work to speak to my readers. If I’m able to achieve this, and feel satisfied with my own writing, then I’ve been successful. 

Thank you so much, Bri. I wish you much success, and am so inspired by your writing, passion, love of nature, and free spirit. 

The Weight of Snow is available through Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Weight-Snow-New-Selected-Poems-ebook/dp/B00I5VVBDQ/

If you are a writer who is looking for direction and/or assistance with publishing, you can reach Bri Bruce at:

http://www.bribruceproductions.squarespace.com or bribruceproductions@gmail.com

Learn more about Bri Bruce:

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/bri-bruce/79/9a6/110

“Forbearance” published in issue 30 of Damselfly Press

Below is an excerpt from my latest publication in Damselfly Press‘s issue 30

My poem titled “Forbearance” is set to appear in my next collection, The Starling’s Song (Black Swift Press, 2015)

FORBEARANCE

When the morning is darkest

we are roused by the birds

in the plum tree. I pull him

from the bed, beg him accompany

me to watch the egrets wake

in the cypress from the mist-veiled

cliff. I want to teach him forbearance,

point to the flowers that have appeared

along the path to the cove—

new irises have broken through

the soil, having burst from winter

hiding. I picture him leaning over

a shallow pool at ebb tide to touch

a slimed blade of kelp, his earlier

stubbornness dispelled. I imagine

I would not feel victory. I’d have

been impassioned by the way he

delicately gathered a fingerling

in his palm to show me forgiveness.

He sees things for what they are,

and nothing more. I’d have given

my hands that he might recognize

humility standing beside the sea,

the enormity of it before him.

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BRI BRUCE is an editor, graphic designer, and publisher from Santa Cruz, California. With a bachelor’s degree in writing from UC Santa Cruz, her work has previously appeared in The Sun Magazine, The Soundings Review, and The Monterey Poetry Review, among others. Bruce is the award-winning author of The Weight of Snow.