To the Man Passing London Zoo’s Blackburn Pavilion Clock at 12:30 p.m.

Like a hummingbird

pinned to a fencepost, freed

of its Whirling Dervish world… <<read more>>

~ Every Day Poets

Note: London Zoo’s Blackburn Pavilion houses hundreds of bird species and includes the largest collection of hummingbirds in the U.K. The clock at its entrance springs into mechanical life, complete with chirping birds, every half hour.

London Zoo’s press team thought the poem was “fantastic” and tweeted about it on their Twitter page: https://twitter.com/#!/zsllondonzoo.

If you visit Every Day Poets, please vote – the star you click gives the poem a 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-star rating.

Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer

W. W. Norton and Company

Paperback: $11.13 

Kindle Edition: $8.99

Love Notes: A Collection of Romantic Poetry

Vagabondage Press

Paperback: $14.95

Kindle Edition: $3.82

Frightmares: A Fistful of Flash Fiction Horror

Dark Moon Books

Paperback: $14.95

Silent Embrace: Perspectives on Birth and Adoption

Catalyst Book Press

Paperback: $12.48

The Battered Suitcase

Vagabondage Press

Kindle Edition: $2.99

Finding Things in the Sheets

and

As I Am

–in Love Notes, A Collection of Romantic Poetry

“Love shared, love in secret, celebrated, exploded…Love Notes has it all…”   ~ Vagabondage Press

P.S. – As you inspire me in so many other things, you are the inspiration for these. I like you lots–not as in parking lots or casting lots, but as in lots and lots, as in bunches. Happy Valentine’s Day, luv. (Everyone else - As you probably guessed, P.S. does not stand for postscript here, and you can barf now.)   ~ N

Borrowed Gas Can, Hwy 99

out in Six Minute Magazine, Winter 2012 edition

This one was inspired by a guy and his dog near some Oregon dunes, as was “View from a ’77 Chevy Scottsdale” (in Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, W. W. Norton and Company).

Six Minute Magazine is ”a print and electronic magazine…[containing] quality fiction that can be read in under six minutes.”

 Say it will be so…

Despite slashes to arts funding and a rapidly changing publishing industry, an email this morning relit my hope for fiction writers. According to American Short Fiction:

Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:13:19 -0500
To: me
From: them
Subject: Writers are the next rock gods

…Maybe you’re OK with a world where there’s a widening disconnection from art and people feel powerless to stop that. We’re not. We don’t want to talk about whether fiction is dying, we want to show you how deeply it’s thriving…

Sincerely,
The Editors

I believe! And, I want to shout it to the world, as you can see. I promise to work on the outfit before I hit a stage anywhere though. Until then, pay American Short Fiction a visit. They really are pretty awesome.

Three cheers for the future rock gods–writers!
~ N

A snippet from the interview–

“I…have probably saved a ridiculous amount on therapy because I write. It’s very freeing—I can floor it the wrong way on the freeway, say good riddance to people I’d like to, or cut a finger off, and it’s all harmless. As well, though, I have found compassion for others I might not have understood if I hadn’t examined a character as deeply as you must to be able to slip into their skin.”

~ N on the Vagabondage Press Blog

Read “Nineteen Degrees,” a story about what it was like to have held a hummingbird.

“…I close the towel around her, cupping her in my hands. She is so light, like a penny, and each time she stirs it is so faint, like moth wings…”

~ published in the August 2011 Issue of The Battered Suitcase from Vagabondage Press  and an honoree in the eChook Digital Publishing 2011 ‘Tis the Season Competition

Watch for two poems in Love Notes from Vagabondage Press, out just in time for Valentine’s Day.

has gone live with Safety Pin Review

See it attached to the back of  a Harvard student who wears it everywhere he goes for a week.

Genesis

In the beginning, The Arachnid spun its web from the void, in the deep darkness that was upon the face of the heavens, and the winds moved upon its web.

And the winds brought forth the first fly to The Arachnid’s web, causing the fly to become ensnared.

And The Arachnid felt the fly’s movement upon the face of its web and was drawn to the fly.

And The Arachnid crept along its web, descended upon the fly and called what it found there Life…   <<read more>>

~ Frightmares: A Fistful of Flash Fiction Horror, Dark Moon Books,

available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other retailers