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Soleil Noir has reviewed Needles and Bones in its entirety. For those of you who might be interested in purchasing the anthology, it's available here. Here's what she has to say about my story, "Answer Me":

“Carl has saved enough money, made contact with the right man, and if he can’t be the man he dreamed he would be, at least he can own a tiny part of Egypt. But Egypt isn’t the right place for average men with average dreams, and though he loves it, it may not love him.”

Ohoho, this description was deceptively simple. This story is so much more. Carl’s passion is Egyptiana, more specifically illegal artifacts. Just as he comes into possession of his own little slice of Eqypt, he meets a man who has no intention of letting Carl keep them. Seeing as Drollerie did not give the twist away in the description, I don’t think I should. I’ll just say: this isn’t for the narrow of mind. I think this one could be classified as Urban Fantasy…and as such, a very entertaining read. :D

Thanks, Soleil, for a cracking review! It's true, I don't let people off easy.

( Here are 3 photos of me reading at the Hadley Rille event. )

In the photos, I'm reading from this book.

There were six of us in all, including adele_cb, purplecthulhu, and rob_haines. We'd all had stories in various Hadley Rille Books anthologies, although we weren't restricted to reading just those. I read "In Every Place That I Am," from Ruins Terra, and then supplemented it with "Journeying," which was in Mythic Delirium #20 back in May.

There was an audience of twenty-odd people who were incredibly attentive; the questions they asked us afterwards were thoughtful and engaging. I got to sign a couple copies of Ruins Terra, and I bought a copy of Footprints and had purplecthulhu sign it. I read it on the train rides home, and whoa. That anthology is full of some astonishing fiction!

In other news, my in-laws left yesterday morning. Also, after that entire tedious four-step interview process, I didn't get the job. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't upset.

We've spent the day running around London: Tower, British Museum, et al. Our Eurostar train leaves bright and early for Brussels tomorrow morning. This will be my third time in Bruges.

In other news, "Fugitives," "Inner Compass," and "Blue Stars" will be published in November by the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. This is quite possibly the best name for a poetry magazine ever.

* John Siddique and Denise Duhamel

* Poetry from lots of other writers (including me)

Click here to purchase the issue. Alternatively, you can access it free under the CURRENT ISSUE portion of the site, but I'm going to push purchasing because the hard-copy is just incredibly gorgeous!

In other news, say hello to my new MacBook, Eli. S/he is nothing fancy and was got at a very great discount indeed, but s/he is super efficient and will probably rip your head off if you try and mess with me. S/he has gender issues, hence the name.

I mean, there's the job-interview-visit-thing tomorrow. I hope that goes well, and if I get the job, I hope that my two weeks of hardcore training don't have to start till after my in-laws visit. James's parents and aunt will be staying with us from 2-11 July.

Sadly, I won't be able to see them off on the 11th, as I will be on a train early that morning, on my way to take part in the Hadley Rille Books UK signing for Ruins Terra down in Wirral. This is the anthology containing my short story, "In Every Place That I Am," that came out back in late 2007. If you're in the area, please drop by!

In other writing news, I've seen the proofs of Ouroboros Review Issue 3, which comes out on 1 July. All three of my poems perch neatly on one page, which is pleasing. There are some very talented people in this issue, and some amazing features.

My new computer has not arrived yet. The postman is taking his time.

ETA: Also, I am going to continue pushing the Needles & Bones anthology as if my life depended on it. Seriously, folks - this is my longest published short story to date (7000 words), and if you've liked my other Egypt-centric writing, you'll probably enjoy this one a lot. And the rest of the writing in the anthology is just stunning, too.

Seriously, I've been spoiled from day one: lomaiwe came into my life when we were both in junior high, and for a young writer and a young artist to collide over a mutual obsession is just...yes. And once you've experienced that kind of bond, I think, there's no turning back. In years to come, I'd find the likes of twilightgardens, azureflight, and linnpuzzle.

That is to say, I'm very grateful for all of these extraordinary women, who are also dear friends. Two of them will be involved in illustrating a couple of my forthcoming poetry publications.

(More on that soon!)

"Queen of May" has sold to Not One of Us.

It will be appearing in either October's Issue 42 or one of next year's annuals. I was hoping this one would find a home!

As many of you know, Drollerie Press specializes in publishing novels and anthologies in e-book format. Whether a title goes to print or not depends entirely on how well it sells...and I was astonished to learn in Thursday night's chat that the anthologies generally don't sell as well as the novels. This is disheartening, especially given that these anthologies contain writing from incredible talents. Just go have a look at any of the tables of contents! I guarantee you'll recognize a lot of names.

Therefore, I'm going to urge you to pick up a copy of not only Needles & Bones, which contains my new short story, "Answer Me," but also StereoOpticon, which I have on my hard drive and plan to devour next week (assuming Pearl is fixed).

(Seriously, though - not only do these anthologies contain gorgeous writing, but they also have beautiful cover designs. I admit that's part of the reason I'd so love to see them sell well enough to go to hard copy. I will send a free PDF copy of Needles & Bones to anyone who promises to review it on their blog. And as for the rest of you, it's priced at a reasonable $8.46 - the cover art is stunning; let's push this beauty and its contents to print!)

ETA: The free copy has been claimed by wordweaverlynn.

Seriously, even the titles are fun to read!

(This will be released in July. Once again, I'm in absolutely brilliant company. Just look at all those excellent poets.)

There's a Drollerie Press chat tonight at 10 PM EST upon the subject of Needles & Bones, the anthology in which my short story, "Answer Me," will be appearing very soon now. As I understand it, if you show up to the chat, you have a chance at winning a free copy (or a free sample story - I may need to double-check that).

So, if you're free, come along and have a word with my highly caffeinated self and a bunch of other awesome readers and writers!

* I've been following the situation in Iran with fascination.

* A Neanderthal fossil was found in the North Sea.

* I have a writerly fan-page on Facebook now.

"Cry Wolf" has been accepted by Cabinet des Fées.

A chapbook-length collection of some of my newer poems, Devil's Road Down, will be published by Maverick Duck Press in September.

(Not to be confused with my book-length collection, Lost Books, which will be out from Flipped Eye Press in Winter 2010.)

Some of you were wondering what the difference between a chapbook and a collection is; essentially, a chapbook is only about a third to half as long as a book - i.e. Devil's Road Down is somewhere around 20 pages, whereas Lost Books will be in the range of 50.

I've placed a 140-character story with Thaumatrope, one of a few Twitter-zines to hit my radar (another cool one is Outshine). The stories are too tight to include the title, but my piece does, in fact, have one ("Paris, After"). It'll be appearing on 29 November 2009.

*

I have a theoretical question to pose, as it's come to my attention that there are several writers out there currently doing this and it's a rather cool concept. Either via email or snail-mail, for a fee that seems to fall anywhere between $10 and $20, they write a short story per month for a year and it gets sent exclusively to all subscribers. As far as I can tell, there aren't any poets doing this - and, frankly, I produce better work than usual when I know my readers are counting on output. I'd probably lean towards snail-mail; some days, I feel as if I can't remember the last time I actually set a poem on paper. My mind moves so quickly that typing is the optimal method of composition. Also, my handwriting sucks.

If I were to do something like this, how many of you would be interested in subscribing?

"Three Nightmares" has sold to Illumen.

It'll be appearing in the Spring 2010 issue.

(I've finished today's session in the BL's Manuscripts Reading Room; I think I've obtained all of the dialectal data that I need from Egerton 2658. I also discovered a feature that made me squeak; still, it'll take some cross-checking before I know if it's something cool.)

I'd never been to the Southbank Centre before, but suffice it to say that it's an amazing complex of theaters and performance-spaces. F8 was held in the Spirit Level's Blue Room, which was well suited to a poetry reading. It wasn't just a poetry reading, though: there was music before the event started, during the book-auction interval, and afterward - all provided by the newly unveiled l'8 Quintet (how many publishers do you know that have an in-house musical ensemble, I ask you? AWESOME). The evening differed from most events of this type I've attended in that, rather than featuring only three or four poets, each of whom get to read a few pieces, F8 featured a line-up of nearly all of the writers it's published to date (not a huge number, but substantial - it's been around for eight years as of today, hence the celebration), and each got to read one signature piece. The result was a delightful kaleidoscope of diverse voices that cut through my misery quite effectively: in spite of the raging headache, I loved every minute of it. The South American wines available at the interval impressed me; I'm usually a hard sell on New-World fare, but both the red and the white were nice. I tottered out around 10 PM, a bit irritated at myself for not having brought sufficient painkillers to cope with my wayward body.

I'm so pleased to have met the other poets and artists whose ranks I'll be joining when Lost Books arrives. I'm very proud to be numbered amongst the Flipped Eye writers!

My head started to hurt inexplicably toward the end of the Flipped Eye Press 8th-anniversary gala evening at Southbank Centre; I'm amazed I was able to navigate the tube and find my way back here (Generator Hostel, which is not so bad, and fairly cheap). Maybe it was those three hours in the BL with MS Harley 6041 earlier today. Tomorrow's a five-hour stint at least with Egerton 2658.

One of my two academic supervisors has suffered a shocking family tragedy this week. I just got the news. This could change things as far as supervisions for...well, I don't know. The foreseeable short-term future. And so, I muck about with old books and pray.

It's rather surreal, but the short story that I wrote the night we moved into this house, "Answer Me," is finally going to press - insofar as a digital book can. So, a year and four months on from the night of the move, the night of northern England's unexpected earthquake, the Needles and Bones anthology from Drollerie Press has finally arrived. It should be available for sale on the website later this week; I'll make an update with relevant links when it's live. We got the page-proofs from drollerie this morning, and the layout is gorgeous.

In musical news, Tori Amos's new album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, is surprisingly good. It definitely outclasses American Doll Posse, and I'd also say it's on the whole better than The Beekeeper. For me, at least so far, the highlight tracks are "Welcome to England," "Strong Black Vine," "Not Dying Today," "Curtain Call," and "Starling." That's more tracks than I ended up loving on ADP, although I do admire its particular ambitiousness.

The real highlight, though, is a little discovery I've made by way of a friend - an album called Two Suns by Bat for Lashes. Seriously: run, don't walk, to get your hands on this! The opening track, "Glass," shatters and leaves you in a thousand pieces (personally, I can't help but attach it to Elizabeth Bear's Ink and Steel / Heaven and Earth dualogy). There are only one or two tracks that I don't find mind-bendingly enchanting!

"Interment" has been accepted by Fear and Trembling.

(I slept for 13 hours straight. Must've needed it.)

In other news, I've awakened to another lovely review of Mythic Delirium #20. Several other reviews are linked in the post, and another handful (with some obvious overlaps) are here. This is my first time in a magazine or collection that has received such wide press, although it's not the first time I've seen a review wherein my work got some kind of mention: "In Every Place That I Am" got singled out as the strongest flash piece in Ruins Terra. That's only one opinion, of course! If anyone knows of any other RT reviews, do let me know.

ETA: Aha! It would appear that my poem in Sybil's Garage #5, "River Girl," got specific mention in this review of the issue. I have to admit, the description makes me smile: the memory of that strange, perfect stone is vivid, but muddled - and so must be its transformation into personal mythology. This poem has two follow-ups, one of which is also published and one of which is not. They never quite made a sequence.