Review: Bradley Sands’s PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT ME IN THE FACE

January 20, 2012
By
Review: Bradley Sands’s PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT ME IN THE FACE

Having first come to Bradley Sands work by a chance collision with a slim book titled Sorry I Ruined Your Orgy, (a disjointed collection of prose and other things which almost resemble poems) I had essentially no expectations when it came to Please Do Not Shoot Me in the Face. Sands defies even the term “non sequitor” because for one that is too fancy of a word and two implies that there is some reasonable way of categorizing what he does. With this is in mind, I had a hard time figuring out how Sands would construct a novel.

The answer is yes.

The novel moves in the  jerky movements of Sands’s shorter prose yet bewilderingly maintains a linear structure throughout. Characters’ homes explode or fly into a McDonald’s franchise competing in a city-wide demolition derby and most of them make it out alive. A man falls out of a 300 story building and survives by having his fall broken by a pile of pigeon leavings. A boy detective is sawed in half by his divorcing parents only to become an even better detective. An overweight ninja has few combat skills other than his “silent but extremely deadly” flatulence. In between all of these outlandish plot progressions the boy detective repeatedly breaks the fourth wall in conversations with Bradley Sands hoping to detect the theme of his novel while insisting this is actually a collection of novellas; the latter vehemently disagrees. Miraculously I was able to read the book in one very comfortable sitting and was actually convinced I had read something that makes sense.

In the midst of all this are not so subtle critiques made about life in general. Think Stephen Colbert style satire meets Jim Carey pre-Eternal Sunshine. In the novel’s middle and …

Read more »

Three Poems by Eric Anderson

January 9, 2012
By
Three Poems by Eric Anderson

Eric Anderson is an adjunct teacher living near Cleveland, Ohio. His first book of poetry, The Parable of the Room Spinning, is forthcoming from Kattywompus Press. He has also published a novella, Isn’t That Just Like You?, and a chapbook, Confederate Season. On weekends, he plays guitar for The Black Valentines.The following poems are from his upcoming book of poetry.

Read more »

NEW YEAR, HOT CONTEST

January 3, 2012
By
NEW YEAR, HOT CONTEST

From our good friends at Vouched Books:

“After xTx’s He Is Talking To The Fat Lady and Frank Hinton’s I Don’t Respect Female Expression sold out in less than 48 hours, eager readers have begged for a repress.

But Atlanta-based Safety Third Enterprises only does one run of each release… until now.

To celebrate the second and final print of the two chapbooks, Vouched Books  and Safety Third Enterprises are inviting you to submit your own Single Sentence Reviews of Frank Hinton or xTx’s work (the author’s work overall, not just the chapbooks) to contest (at) VouchedBooks.com. We just...

Read more »

Review of Thomas P. Balázs’ Omicron Ceti III

December 21, 2011
By
Review of Thomas P. Balázs’ Omicron Ceti III

ARC review by Mel Bosworth

Omicron Ceti III
Thomas P. Balázs. Aqueous Books, $14 trade paper (260p) ISBN 978-0-9847399-0-5

Don’t let the sci-fi tinged title fool you, the rich stories in Balázs’ debut collection are earthbound and invariably human. Billed as a triptych, the book is carved into three sections of three thus giving us nine stories in all. It opens slowly with Niddah—a tale of a schoolgirl who must face family, classmates, and herself as she deals with her changing, menstruating body—but quickly builds with My Secret War and the title story Omicron Ceti III, the latter of which...

Read more »

Pablo D’Stair says he can write a better story than you

December 20, 2011
By
Pablo D’Stair says he can write a better story than you

I might as well start calling this website Outsider Pablo Collective, because he’s had more screen space on this site than anyone else. But, that’s what happens when you constantly come up with amazing ideas.

This latest, a contest, in which Pablo has put up over $200 of his own money (which I assume is some sort of emergency cash loan, Pablo), places the man firmly in the love-him-or-hate-him realm of writers. I, personally, love him. I sure as hell wouldn’t take him up on this bet.

Here’s some details, pulled from the contest’s dedicated site, Out...

Read more »

Get Lucky, by Tony Hinds

December 17, 2011
By

Get Lucky    by Tony Hinds

 

I was told to expect an old man. That was all the information I had. I asked to know more but the program director told me there were reasons that I was being kept in the dark.

“I don’t want to sound cryptic, but this is a sort of- need to know basis… type thing.”

His oldness would have to be enough information for now.

Through some local AA program, a project emerged about eight months ago. The goal was to find affordable housing for recovering addicts, creating a situation where the roommates who are each...

Read more »

Rampart and Toulouse Selected

December 16, 2011
By
Rampart and Toulouse Selected

Kristin Fouquet’s book, Rampart and Toulouse, has been selected by A.J. Hayes as one of 2011′s novels you really should read.  Mr. Hayes said that these books were the first five that poured into his head and also included Apostle Rising by Richard Godwin, All TheYoung Warriors by Anthony Neil Smith, Beautiful Naked And Dead/Out There Bad by Josh Stallings, and Convictions by Julie Morrigan.

You can read his full article today at Guilty Conscience.…

Read more »

“The Program” over at Sunday Observer

December 10, 2011
By
“The Program” over at Sunday Observer

A piece went live over at Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka’s English Newspaper with the largest circulation, they say) called “The Program” which has a deeply cynical, nihilistic feel that a lot of people around these OWC parts might grab onto. Though, with the right spin, we could call this an optimistic piece. I suppose that’s the magic of writing about death; do it well enough and the words may actually comfort.

I wonder. Why don’t we let each other die? Really, how long has this been going on? Who was the first person to die? Imagine the scratching heads,...

Read more »

Persona Nihil: Pablo D’Stair’s brief dialogues with poets series is live with our very own David Blaine

December 4, 2011
By
Persona Nihil: Pablo D’Stair’s brief dialogues with poets series is live with our very own David Blaine

Pablo D’Stair is a monster of the independent publishing world. He’s always got a new project or nine popping up, with little to no notice. And just as quickly, he’s got something new to follow close behind.

This week’s project is called Persona Nihil: brief dialogues with poets. And who’s the first to be granted page-space but OWC’s own David Blaine. Head over the the Persona Nihil page at the BlankVerseDead site to download the full dialogues for free, along with a selection of poems from David Blaine.…

Read more »