Hullo folks...long time no blog! It's my New Year's Resolution to start blogging again, and this is my first official entry keeping that resolution. It's the year of the tiger - my year.

To start off, I have a flash fiction story up at Freezine for Fantasy and Science Fiction called "Mau Bast," which hasn't been previously published, though it did take second place in one of the many WHC flash fiction contests (Ellen Datlow was a judge that year, I recall). Here is the direct link to Mau Bast, but make sure you check out the other stuff up. Johnny Strike (of CRIME fame) has a story there too.

Gearing up for the Edwardian Ball tomorrow; unsure if apocalyptic weather will keep me from attending the World's Faire too. If you're going, be sure to say hello. The dress may seem intimidating, but I assure you, I am not. (At least not today...)

I've been a busy bee since going full-time. Events, readings, family visiting, and generally enjoying the new digs. Daniele Serra was here, and we executed a successful Gallery opening that was a lot of fun, with an Incubus/Succubus theme. It went so well, that we decided to do a new book together called WHISPERWOOD: The Secret Lives of Doors. It will have full color art from Dani, and poetry to go with each piece. Definitely different, and something I think you'll all enjoy looking at as much as reading.

My step mother came to visit for a week, and she'd never been to San Francisco - being Italian (maiden name Guido - no, I'm not joking), we did a lot of deli time in North Beach and I found those delicious canolis I remembered from The Small Apartment Dinner Party so many years ago, when a friend brought them. I have one left out of the four I bought.

I went to LA for the Stokers and had a blast - it was great seeing everyone there. I'm especially proud of Miss Blue who ran her first marathon and won, and is now taking the next Bowling for Boobies to new levels, with an auction to bowl with Jane Wiedlin of the GoGos. Have a look <a href="http://tiny.cc/BFB921">at the auction here.</a> Help fight Breast Cancer, and make a bid!

Here are the upcoming readings, signings, etc... I'll be up to. If you are in San Francisco or Las Vegas - I hope to see you there!

9/14/2009 - San Francisco, CA. <a href="http://vettedword.com/7MinutesinHeaven.aspx">"Seven Minutes in Heaven," Hosted by VettedWord</a> at SHINE Nightclub, 965 Mission St (Btwn 5th & 6th Ave) Room 514. See the link for timing.

9/17-20, 2009 - Las Vegas, NV. <a href="http://www.killercon.org">KillerCon</a>!
     <u>FRIDAY:</u> Reading, 8:30pm

     <u>SATURDAY:</u> 2:00PM: Eros and Thanatos: Erotic Horror vs. Paranormal Romance vs. Pornography. What's the difference? Moderator Sèphera Girón. Panelists Angela James, Rain Graves, Meghan Knierim, Heather Graham, Lori Perkins

               5:00-7:00PM Mass Signing

               7:00PM Male or Female? The game show that challenges the audience to guess the gender of the author of a passage of classic or current horror. Can you tell the difference? Moderator Matt Schwartz. Panelists Allen K, Maurice Broaddus, Rain Graves, L.L. Soares

               8:00PM Seven Deadly Sins of Writing Erotic Fiction: Moderator: Gabrielle Faust. Panelists: Sèphera Girón, Rain Graves, Hal Bodner, L.A. Banks, Jeannie Eddy

               9:00PM Open Mic Poetry Reading hosted by Rain Graves

     <u>SUNDAY:</U> 11:00AM Seven Deadly Sins of Plot Development: Why storytelling is more than just having a good plot. Moderator Rain Graves. Panelists: Joe Lansdale, Lisa Mannetti, Edward Lee, F. Paul Wilson, Rhodi Hawk, Brian Keene

My long-time friend Ian McDowell has posted an auction to help out with some difficulties on eBay, which is a rare find, indeed. Many years ago he slaved as a writer for a company that did the childrens primers "Write What Happens Next." He saved one such book and sent it around to me, Poppy Z. Brite, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Neil Gaiman, Phil Nutman, Kelly Link, and many others to...well...put a "dark" spin on "what happens next." Mostly, it was humorous. All of it is handwritten by us.You can view the contents and bid here. You can read about WHY he's putting this up for auction on his mcdolemite LJ page.

In other news...Daniele Serra and I will be hosting a gallery showing of his Incubus/Succubus work, plus Deadland art, plus new poetry from me on his theme of the evening. Plus, Kristine Katalyst will be featured in the Lower Gallery, and DJ Netik will be spinning. It all starts at 7pm. Beer and Wine for purchase; light nibbles for free. Here is a link to the flier.

Dani will be signing copies of ILLUSIONS and we both will be signing copies of BARFODDER.

Lastly, I leave for Texas on the 17th...I plan to hit up the Abney Park show on the 18th with Muppet and my Sister. Yay, Steampunk!

Today I travel to LA; drinks with Seanie. Then we head over for th 7pm pre-stoker part and Dark Delicacies book signing for authors attending the event.

This is a quick post to let you know that if you miss tonight, I'll be reading at 3pm tomorrow (Friday) - so check your program books. Lucy Snyder and I are presenting the award for poetry Saturday evening at the Bram Stoker Awards.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

I'll be a guest on the 90 minute blog talk radio show, The Funky Werepig on Sunday night at 9pm EST and 6pm PDT. Good weird fun!

Lots to tell you folks…

1. Progress on Deadland and Four Elements + Dani’s Art Book

2. Upcoming Events

3. The dreaded move.

4. The Great Houdini


PROGRESS.

So far so good on bringing to life DEADLAND, a comic project that I wrote and Daniele Serra is illustrating. We're working up five complete pages plus a cover to start shopping to publishers. Based on initial reactions from WIP readers, this shouldn't be a hard sell. Meanwhile, I did my final edits to my section of FOUR ELEMENTS, which is a group effort in poetry written by Linda Addison, Charlee Jacob, Marge Simon, and me. We each took an element of nature and wrote about it. Bet you can't guess which element was mine...tee hee. Dani also has a new book of his artwork out, for $12.95. You can order it via the website - it's called Illusions.

EVENTS.

Right. So even though BARFODDER was released a gazillion months ago (ok, not really - but it was mid-January), the belated Happy-Happy Joy-Joy release party will take place a week from today on May 18th, during happy hour (4-8pm) at the Bigfoot Lodge in San Francisco. Books will be available for purchase, though you should really just come for the Poe (a delicious black vodka concoction drafted by Lauren for the occasion). There will be nibbles from Nob Hill Grille, and of course...happy hour booze prices.

On May 31st, I will be the featured poet at the VettedWord monthly Slam, hosted by Olga Rosales. Contact her if you'd like to sign up for the open mic. The place was jam packed last event - so come early for a seat. The cover is $7 and includes delicious appetizers.

Here is a reading I did at the first event they did:



You can't tell, but I tripped over the microphone cord (small space!) and forgot the words to my own poem...but you wouldn't know unless you had your copy of BARFODDER handy, and were following along.

Moving on into June, I'll be presenting this year's Bram Stoker Award for Poetry with Lucy Snyder at the Stoker Awards Weekend in Burbank - preceded by a signing at Dark Delicacies. Hope to see my LA peeps out there.

MOVING SUCKS.

I am now undergoing the dreaded boxing of 6 years worth of accumulated junk at my current apartment, along with a big purge of said junk. Ok, it's not junk - but it's A LOT OF STUFF. Stuff and things. I'm getting rid of the loveseat, George's Chair (for those of you who don't already know, that's my ghost), table, Queen Anne chairs...you name it. If you ever ogled something in my apartment and wished it was yours - now is the time to speak up. Everything must go!

Except, of course, the books.

HOUDINI, THE GREAT.

Houdi is growing into quite the character. Just this weekend, he learned that there is a whole other world that needs exploring on the countertops in the kitchen. He explored his way through 2 Waterford glasses, and a few plates, which we found scattered about the floor when we got home from furniture shopping. Luckily he was not hurt...but we now can't leave glasses to dry on the counter, for sure. Or anything, for that matter.

As you may remember, I taught Houdi to say the word "Ma-ma," and he routinely wakes me up in the morning yelling it into my ear. I have since taught him to say "Hello," and more recently, "I love you." He's only said "I love you" twice, but I'm confident he'll be chattering that phrase soon, too. I caught him sitting in the window one day, nattering on at the birds. "Mama...Mom...Mom-ma! Momma! Mom....Helloooooooooooo! Helloooooooo...hell-OOOOOOO!" I have yet to get this on video, but I'm working on it. He doesn't say the words on que.

Lastly...come follow me on Twitter. It does a body good.

Lots to update on, but very little time to do it in.

Lets see.

Miss Mia’s 40—er…I mean 30th birthday party was a blast. The Muppet and I enjoyed ourselves immensely, and got to see several old friends in the process. Red, who I took my very first trip to Argentina with was there, which was especially nice. The VettedWord Poetry Slam at Nob Hill Grille was awesome. Lots of good folks came out for that, and I had fun meeting everyone. I didn’t think that many people could fit, but they squeezed them in somehow. The food was excellent, as was the wine. Mot, Lily_Dove, xTine, and Midnight also came out for the event. I am told it will now be a monthly slam, so be sure to check out VettedWord for updates and info, and to sign up for the next open mic.

I have been contemplating setting up a Writer's Retreat at the Haunted Mansion I did my community service at for quite some time - and a conversation came about on Twitter between myself and Brian Keene about whether or not there would be interest. Apparently there is. Space is limited, however to about 20-30 writers. The idea is to spend 3-4 days in the haunted mansion, experiencing the place, hiking, and doing what writers do best: Writing about it. We'll probably do some workshops, but not many. We'll definitely do a ghost hunt. Possibly spring or fall of next year...to be included on the updates or to participate in the retreat, drop me an email and I'll send you the details.

My Poetry Workshop for Elyseum is coming up next week in SF. We'll be focusing on how to perform your poetry as "spoken word," or...the dreaded "performance" reading. You can do it, and without boring everyone to tears in a monotone. I promise!

May looks to be a relatively quite month, sneaking up on me fast. What happened to the beginning of my year? Gone. Murdered, probably, in its sleep.

Oh, and amacker's birthday is this Friday. Big party, much whiskey...everybody happy!

Heading to Houston on Friday. Lots to do before hand...

The toll-free poetry hotline (877-DRK-POEM) has been updated:

Thalassodromius Sethi
Unemployed Writer
Needle Point

Remember, you can leave shout-outs by pressing #4. I will post interesting ones on twitter.

Meeting up with Sean, a writer for Fangoria Magazine, and Scott G. Browne today to talk zombies (and passing the torch to sgbrowne for the Annual WHC Gross Out Contest this year).

Busy, busy, busy!

1) St. Supery
2) Upcoming Dates
3) Borderlands Books Best Seller Lists

ST. SUPERY

Once again...so much going on, so little time to explain it all. I think that's what makes twitter so appealing. You might not be able to say *a lot* in 140 characters, but you can say enough. Another really cool thing that has made me a "follower," or fan - whatever you want to call it - is the community. Where else can you post a tiny note about your favorite "every-day" wine (meaning as a good value, one you could open at any time without fear of dollar bills falling out of it as you pour--not meaning mediocrity), and have the winery respond back?

We were treated to a VIP tasting, a nice little gift, and my name was on the announcement/welcome marquee just inside the lobby. I took a photo of it, and facebook/myspace users can see it as my user photo (server is still an issue right now, so I can't post it otherwise at the moment). I twittered a play-by play of the wines, which was fun, and we came home with another case of our favorite Merlot (2000 vintage this time), and a Magnum of the 1999 Meritage (what the Elu was called before). My thanks again to Lesley for setting up such a nice afternoon for us, and to Joe for always taking good care of us in general.

Afterwards we headed over to Rubicon Estate so I could get some writing done, which was fruitful (no pun intended). Four poems in two hours was not a bad turn out. Apparently we'd just missed Francis Ford Coppola by 10 minutes...but we've seen him there before, enjoying a cigar and a glass of wine in his usual corner. They have a new hummingbird nesting right above the upper left are of the Café doors in a break in the wall stones. My thanks to David for taking care of us there.


UPCOMING DATES

Well, kiddies - it appears I'll miss the St. Patrick's day parade in SF. I'm Houston bound this Friday, through the weekend. Next week, however, you are all invited to Bonny Doon Vineyard's Cellar Door in Santa Cruz to enjoy their Albarino release and some decadent oysters, while I get up from time to time to read some poetry inspired by them. The event is from 5-7pm, and should be a lot of fun. It also gives me an excuse to surf down there, provided the weather cooperates. We're back up North on the 21st, just in time for a Pirate house-boat warming party. It was supposed to have happened already, but alas...our fearless Captain has been waylaid by travel.

That's about it for March (thank goodness).

BORDERLANDS BOOKS

I'm pleased to note that when I read the March Newsletter for Borderlands Books, that BARFODDER is a bestseller in Trade Paperbacks, at #2. It's the little things in life that make me happy.

This just in from Brian Freeman at Cemetery Dance - you too can post a review of Barfodder:

"We're trying to do some things to encourage our customers to write reviews
on our site for books they've recently purchased from us.

If you want to let your readers know about our customer reviews feature,
they can write a review no matter where they bought the book. There's a
link at the bottom of your page for people add a review. They just need an
account with our online store to actually submit it."

In other news...my new Samsung NC-10 travel laptop has arrived. It's tiny, black, and very shiny. It fits in my handbag, and will make writing on the road (and locally) much more accessible than carrying around my notebooks and journals and cocktail napkins. (Though I suspect it would look awfully pretentious to cock and load the thing at a bar or restaurant).

And...I remind you to listen in on The Stir tomorrow if you are in/around NY at around 5:30pm EST/2:30 PDT. You can stream it 24/7 via the link on the AM WCSS 1490 website. You can also call-in and ask me odd and/or embarrassing questions.

Thanks to everyone who came out for LitPunk last Saturday and packed the house. It was incredibly fun, and I had a blast. Not sure who walked off with the copy of Barfodder that I was reading from - but the way I figure it, you must have really liked it to want it that badly. John Shirley tells me there will be more of these, and I think that's a great idea. My favorite performance of the night was Rudy Rucker's cyberpunk zombie story. Really great group of writers reading really great stuff.

I stopped off at Borderlands Books on my way to Scott G. Browne's release party for Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, which is a most excellent zombie tale, and will eventually be a Fox Searchlight Film. Great party, and congrats Scott!

You might remember his reading from a piece of that story for last year's World Horror Convention's Annual Gross Out Contest. Since I can't make it to Canada this year, I've asked Scott to host this year's contest in Winnepeg in my place. Rest assured, it will be awesome.

(And back to my pit stop at Borderlands)...

Daniele Serra's art has finally arrived from Italy for my graphic novel, DEADLAND - book one, which he is illustrating. OMFG, this stuff is beautiful. It's very, very special for several reasons:

1) There are three different very high-quality large art prints with a tagline from the book on each, numbered and signed by us both, 3 each.

2) There are three matching canvas prints, numbered and signed by us both, 1 each (except for the one of the Alligator God and Oscar, which there were two made, and I have 1 of the 2).

3) We have not shopped this yet to a publisher (as Dani has more artwork to do), so these are going to be collectors items some day (we hope), aside from them just being amazingly cool pieces of art right now. Given that Dani's in Italy - it's a rare chance to own something cool. And when it finally goes into print you can tell all your friends you had it first - and are therefore way cooler than they are.

4) The signed prints are $50 a piece, and the signed canvas ones are $150. They are available exclusively at Borderlands Books, and at present they don't have a way to hang them without damaging them - so you'll need to ask for them by name. They will ship if you are not local.

5) Finally, to see the artwork check out Dani's "News" blog. Since my server is down I haven't found a way to post them yet. The post is titled "Art for Sale in San Francisco." The scans don't do the prints justice.

6) If you are purchasing a copy of Barfodder at Borderlands, I have left some beautiful bookmarks Dani did of the original Frontis Piece artwork, that did not make it into the Trade Paperback edition. They are giving a bookmark only to those who purchase Barfodder.

If you do stop in to see the artwork, drop me a line and tell me what you think.

THE BACKSTORY:

Last Saturday, after my signing at Borderlands Books, we headed over to the Variety Reading Room in the Hobart Building to see debg and Michael Boatman do a reading that benefited the Variety Children's Charity of Northern California sponsored by SF in SF, an excellent organization promoting Science Fiction in the Bay Area.

They gave away tickets to see an advance screening of The Watchmen, which has comic book geeks all over creaming in their pants with anticipation of how good or bad this represents the books we all know and love. (Variety Magazine, to paraphrase, called it watered down and 'safe.') Since amacker was there when I was lucky enough to get a winning lottery number, I asked her if she wanted to go. (Incidentally, I will note how you too can see this film at the advance screening in a footnote of this post, and help the charity [for a small fee]).

Rina over at SF in SF set us up with our names on the will call list, but she was given precious little else information-wise, so we just assumed we'd show up and find whatever table we needed, and then 1) insert popcorn, 2) lather at previews, 3) rinse at movie, 4) repeat when it actually comes out. Thank you, drive through.

THE PLOT DETAIL:

I had a slip of paper that gave the basic information on the event, and Amacker met me at the Metreon, which seemed suspiciously devoid of people. I had conflicting information from various employees of Loews stating that no, there was no screening today (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and yes, there was (insert blank stare here) but we have no information. The trouble with screenings is, they don't want anyone to know what they are screening, so they don't like to say the name of the movie. In fact, I am fairly certain they encourage people to lie a lot about it on principal.

After much wandering, we managed to find a guest services person who told us that there was a screening and that we should line up against the wall and wait for the organizers to arrive. We had noticed a mish-mosh of people behind a suspicious looking belted-off area over by concessions, so we headed that way. These were not what I would call Watchmen fans...and absolutely none of them looked like the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons. We shrugged, got in line, and then took turns getting foodstuffs, and then Amacker made a run for some Coraline 3D glasses, purely for amusement purposes.

When the time came to file in, we told the Keeper of the Line that our names and tickets were at Will Call, and he let us pass. When we got to the Black Laminated Gate o' Cinema Guy, we told him the same, and he told us to go to Theater 11. When we arrived at Theater 11, again, we were waved on through. The seating was easy to find, and we settled right down in the middle, where the movie viewing "sweet spot" is.

The movie started shortly after, with what we thought was a preview...there was absolutely no announcement of any kind. I didn't see Rina or any other SF in SF type folks, nore did I see funny colored hair, an over abundance of pasty white flesh rimmed with glasses, or a lot of black t-shirts with funny etchings on them--not even skeptical this-won't-be-like-the-comic-so-I'm-just-going-to-preselect-my-mode-for-auto-hatred looks.

THE PLOT THICKENS:

The "preview" was awfully long, but hysterically funny...and fairly soon, we started wondering if we'd gone into the wrong movie, or if maybe there was a 2-for-1, or something. After about 15 minutes, we forgot entirely about the Watchmen, and were fully engrossed in a different movie, because apparently it WAS a Thursday, and it WAS a screening, but it WAS NOT the Watchment. In fact, it was a movie called I Love You, Man.

Neither amacker, nor I can tell you how incredibly cool and funny this movie is. Some of the best quotes will come from it, and while I know Paramount is going to market it badly--you should go to see it anyway, because we said so. It has a wry sense of satirical humor that keeps you laughing through the whole thing. So much so, that we wondered afterword if the Watchmen could top it (despite the comparison being apples and oranges). We laughed our asses off. And then we put them back on, and laughed them off again.

I mean, seriously--the gratuitous placing of Lou Ferrigno and Incredible Hulk references alone was worth the time it took to watch it. Please don't let the movie's description mislead you into thinking this is a "chick-flick." It's definitely a dude flick disguised as a chick flick. It's even an I heart RUSH flick.

Srsly.

I haven't had that much fun watching a "romantic comedy" since Heathers and Chasing Amy (and all the subsequent tie-in movies after).

We *did* wonder what happened to our Watchmen screening, however, and after looking over the little slip (perilously trapped in the evil vortex of the bag I left at home because it wouldn't fit a full bottle of wine in it to smuggle in at the time) that had the date on it, I noted that the Watchmen screening is in fact NEXT week. Not this one.

With that, however...I give you these links to help you win a private screening of I Love You, Man in your hometown:

ILYM on Facebook and of course, the ILYM official Website.

Hey amacker - I LOVE you, man!

...And here's how you can see the Watchmen before anyone else in SF [for a small fee that goes to a great charity].

Ok – lots to tell you.

1. Long Live LitPunk! The San Francisco Chronicle agrees so far…
2. Interim site up
3. Super Secret Way Cool Project
4. Twits and Tweets


LITPUNK. Yup. That’s right. Get angry, wild, and vomitous. Only do it with us… Tim Sullivan gave us a great write-up in the San Francisco Chronicle for LitPunk, and why you should go this Saturday.

RAINGRAVES.com is getting a face-lift while on hiatus. I've set up a temporary site for you to bookmark and refer to on tour dates and such, until we fix the old site and migrate to a different host. (In case you were wondering, we were hosted by the same folks that WHC09 was, and they are no longer doing hosting since their massive server crash). Miss Blue is setting up a forwarding URL that will point raingraves.com to the current fix.

SUPER SECRET but WAY COOL project is under full swing, and has to do with the date listed as March 19th at a fantastic winery near Santa Cruz, CA. You *really* won't want to miss this. Good food, good wine, and good poetry. Trust me. When I get the green light to "officially" announce the details, I will.

For all the TWITS who TWEET out there - yep, I have finally joined Twitter, though I can't say its very punk rock of me. Gods save you all.

You'll be sorry you missed it if you don't show...

John Shirley presents LitPunk- a punk rock alternative to LitQuake.

Performances from:

John Shirley
Charlie Anders
Charles Gatewood
Blag Dahlia of the Dwarves
Rain Graves
+ others

7:30pm @
The Make-Out Room
3225 22nd Street
San Francisco, CA
415-647-2888

Be there!

Rainy

I am swamped. More swampy, even, than a Louisiana bog near the Myrtles in the heat of summer. But not nearly as swampy as New Orleans was post Katrina.

First and foremost, I would really like to thank Alan, Jude, Cary, and all the hairless cats for hosting a wonderful event for my signing last Saturday at Borderlands Books in San Francisco. I'm really looking forward to the opening of the café this summer.

Second, to my loyal readers, fans, and friends. It warms my gummy little black heart that you all came out on a grey, stay-inside-and-eat-good-soup day. Many of you had other obligations as well, and it was actually quite cool that we had about three different waves of people. I didn't expect to read as much as I did, and was recovering from a nasty cold--but foggy though my head may have been, I think I managed it all just fine, and I made sure everyone got to listen to something. A lot of credit goes to two things:

Diane's fabulous homemade cookies (and a very nice wine she brought as well), and Baine (aka Hunter)'s assistance throughout the day. Thank you to you both.

I was doubly glad to see so many friends, and even a handful of surf buds from our Bay Area group came by. There were even two wonderful 8 year old children...which seems to be a running theme in my life at the moment, in writing DEADLAND (the fate of the world rests in an 8 year old's hands). We also got a person or two from the Squid List - w00t. Others I recognized were Midnight's sister and brother-in-law, Serena Toxicat, Robert, lily_dove, Mot, Thumbelina, Val, Scott G. Browne, [afore mentioned Diane and Bob, Hunter, Surf Buds + guests] and others I am drawing a blank on right now (please don't be upset if I haven't mentioned your name). To those of you who are new faces and or fans, thanks so much for coming, too. This event was mostly about you.

Dani's art did not arrive in time from Italy, but hopefully some of you picked up the flyers left, and Borderlands will let me know when it *does* arrive, so you can stop in to see it.

Post event, Hunter and I drove back to my place and fed the fee-lions, ate a quick Caesar salad, and then headed over to debg and Michael Boatman's event at the Variety Reading Room, which was most Excellent. We were joined by the lovely (and very pinkish fuchsia haired) Amacker, who had just participated in a really cool Grilled Cheese Cook-off event.

There was a drawing for two tickets to see the Watchman pre-screening this week; I won one of them. Double w00t.

We decompressed at the Cigar Bar afterwards with Lily_Dove and Mot, and that was also lovely.

On the flip side of all this, I have been working on a secret project for an event in Santa Cruz right around the 3rd week in March, which will be HUGE. I could tell you about it, but I'd have to kill you...and I'm just not in the mood for murder at the moment. I'm far too perky today.

Next cool thing I'm doing that you should come to is this Saturday at LitPunk, hosted by John Shirley. If you don't know about this event by know, I have not been pounding it into your head hard enough.

Last but not least--the 877-DRK-POEM hotline has been updated. Provided everything is working correctly, you should be able to hear these:

Heart Wolf Hunter
Unemployed Writer
A Prayer for DKG

To all the PantheaCon goers who were at the private reading I gave at That Cliff’s Absinthe party on Friday night in San Jose, thanks very much for listening – I enjoyed meeting all of you.

1) THIS SATURDAY, 2/21/09, 3pm at Borderlands Books. in San Francisco. Signing-thing, Reading-maybe, and Q+A for BARFODDER: Poetry Written in Dark Bars and Questionable Cafes. All ages welcome, and there will be books available for purchase (er…that’s kinda the point). Cover price for the book is $20. There will also be art in *very* limited quantities for sale by the cover artist, Daniele Serra, for our joint work-in-progress (of which, book one is finished being written) DEADLAND. Afterwards, I plan to head over to check out Deb Grabien’s reading at 7pm, at The Variety Preview Room, Hobart Building, 582 Market Street in SF. *cash bar opens at 6pm.
2) NEXT Saturday, 2/28/09, 7:30pm at The Make-out Room in San Francisco. LitPunk! – a punk rock alternative to LitQuake. 21 and over , please. No books available for purchase. Performance reading, along with John Shirley, Charlie Anders, Charles Gatewood, Blag Dahlia of the Dwarves, myself, and others.
3) Friday, March 6th, 2009, 2:30pm PDT/6:30pm EST– I’ll be a guest on the radio show, The Stir – hosted by Chanin, Rebecca, and Carrie. WCSS 1490 AM in Amsterdam, NY. Those of you on the east coast can tune in on your evening commute home…
4) Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 – Poetry Workshop Host for Elyseum: A Paradise for Heroes and Writers in San Francisco (Not in Harbin…). Contact Scott G. Browne or Russell Gonzaga for more info on that if you are a member…we haven’t firmed up the details yet.
5) June 11th, 2009, 7pm at Dark Delicacies in Burbank. Mass-signing in conjunction with the HWA’s Annual Bram Stoker Awards, which brings me to #6…
6) June 12th-14th, 2009 at the 2009 Bram Stoker Awards Weekend, Burbank, CA.

A pending #7 would be April 30th-May 3rd, 2009 WHC 2009 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (and hosting the annual Gross Out Contest)…but that’s pending some things in the mix over the next few weeks.

Other pesky details:

Yes, the website is still down. I’m looking into another hosting service, but it will also need a re-vamp. Stay tuned.

No, the audio readings on 877-DRK-POEM have not yet been updated, due to the Holiday yesterday. They will be updated on the regular Monday schedule next week.

Whole lotta cool stuff is going on.

First, another review has come in for BARFODDER - this time it's a review by Alan Cranis over at Bookgasm. If people keep saying such nice things about the book, it's going to ruin my reputation. Tee hee.


Second, the readings have been updated on the 877-DRK-POEM hotline:

22 and Hennessey With Lime Sometimes
Luda's New Shoes
Cthulhu Haiku

Third, the line-up has been updated for LitPunk on 2/28 at the Make-Out Room, 7:30pm. This is John Shirley's gig, which I'll be reading at - described as a punk-rock alternative to LitQuake, and it includes the man himself, Johnny Strike from Crime, photographer/writer Charles Gatewood, Blag Dahlia from the Dwarves, Charlie Girl from Other Magazine and hostess of Writers With Drinks, myself and others. "Punk-inflected writers, punk rock songwriters, backroom novelists, articulate felons and other misfits will Howl in a forbidden tonality that would've made Allen Ginsberg wince with embarrassment!"

You might see a few of these (un)usual suspects at the signing on 2/21. Unofficially, that is. Heh.

As I type, three different pieces of artwork in the shape of prints, possibly even canvas, are en route from Daniele Serra in Italy to Borderlands Books in San Francisco. Dani gave Deadland a read, and decided he liked it so much, he wanted to illustrate it (no, really - I didn't have to beg).

If you know his work, you know that his prints are not easy to find wherever it is that you are.

I will be signing each print from the three amazing pieces of artwork Dani has done of Book One of Deadland, and they will be sold at my signing on February 21st. There are only three prints per each piece of art (and I think only one canvas). They are gorgeous. And they won't last. I suggest you show up early for those.

And bring me something from your garden if you have one. I just love stuff from other peoples gardens. Especially Lemoranges. (But definitely not ragweed).

Mark Justice informs me that Barfodder makes an appearance on the Pod of Horror #51. The show is available here : Pod of Horror #51.

Updates have been made to the readings on the 877-DRK-POEM Hotline:
Calling Sekhmet
Gypsy Teller
Frustration de Tango

...I have seen preliminary poster drawings for DEADLAND from Dani, which are gorgeous. He’s going to send some artwork for my signing at Borderlands Books on 2/21. See you all at 3pm…w00t.

Despite the book information submitted to Amazon by my publisher well in advance of its release (December), Amazon did not list the book. After it was released, Cemetery Dance had to manually list the book...but because Amazon is not "currently carrying" the title, it lists the book as out of print.

There is also no image for the book - and even as I tried to add one, it doesn't pop up. It only shows as "Customer Image."

There are no reviews. No descriptions. Nothing. (not to mention, it shows up as having the cover artist as co-author). As much as I adore Daniele - he did not, in fact, write the book. I do want him to have credit as cover artist - but not co-author.

That I could live with...but the Out of Print thing pisses me off.

WTF.

Just because they don't have a copy to sell, or the book isn't being carried through Amazon for whatever reason, does not mean it should be automatically listed as !@#$ing Out of Print.

I assure you, it is not. Am I disgruntled much? Yes.