"Road from Nowhere" Takes Flight

It's done.  It's out there.  It's almost perfect and I can't do better than almost.  So go get it.  Enjoy it, please, or don't and tell me what you think.  I'm going on vacation.  You know that a piece of writing is finished when you just don't want to see it anymore.

Then I'm getting to work on the David Priest Project.

"Cathartes Aura on the Road from Nowhere" at Smashwords.

All Ready for Flight, but...

"Cathartes Aura on the Road from Nowhere" is ready to go.  I've re-read it numerous times this weekend.  I counted all 10,000 syllables and found not nearly as many 9 or 11 syllable lines as I did in "Apocalypse Zoo".  The elevens are much easier to fix.  The cover art is the way I'd like and I've written a blurb to describe it.

But, I won't let this thing fly before I get the opinion of one more person.  Or Thursday, whichever comes first.

The Liver Punch

"Cathartes Aura on the Road from Nowhere" will be done this weekend and available at Smashwords.com barring any setbacks.  I've stopped giving preview stanzas, so I feel I need to drop some sort of teaser.  Here it is.  It sounds like a non sequitur, but if you read the whole thing, it will make sense.  Until then, read "Cathartes Aura and the Apocalypse Zoo" and study your liver punches.

Wikipedia about the Liver Punch

Bas Rutten's How To

"Cathartes Aura on the Road from Nowhere" Sneak Peek: Chapter Ten

For nine weeks I've been picking and choosing stanzas from the second episode of the Cathartes Aura series.  I've selected stanzas that can stand on their own as an interesting piece of writing, introduce characters from the story, make the reader curious about the book and can achieve all of this without giving away the climax of the story.

There will be no Chapter Ten Sneak Peek.  I can't do it without spoiling the whole thing.  I worked hard to build drama, tension, and surprise for the end of "Road from Nowhere" and I won't blow it all by leaking chapter ten.

I'm proud of it.  At least I will be in a couple of weeks when it's published.  I rewrote some of it today, but I'll get it just right by the end of August like I promised.

Until then, read "Cathartes Aura and the Apocalypse Zoo".  Won't take you more than two hours.  It's still free at Smashwords.com.  If you've already read it, please write an honest review.

You did come here for poetry, and I thank you, so here's a little something:

          Apples for Sale

“What lovely apples you have.”  His face bugs

In their candy-fender gloss, all forehead

And cheekbones.  “Says here: ‘Poisoned’.  Is that French?

Some new hybrid?”  She swivels in her chair,

Re-crosses her pulled-sugar legs, replies

Like honey stirred in tea: “I poisoned them.”

She swishes through the curtain of beads, slow

As a pendulum submerged.  “Pesticide?”

She shakes her head, tents her fingers, and squints

Sideways and green.  “Paralytic toxin.”

He wrinkles his forehead, lifts an apple,

Studies his reflection and looks beyond

To her posture and aura.  “Already

I’m paralyzed.  What will you do with me?”

Her eyes widen.  She answers: “You’re my slave.”

He’s frozen to the ground.  “What is my toil?”

“Your folly,” she responds, “if it serves me.”

“For how long am I indentured, My Queen?”

She spreads her hands, shrugs, walks back through the beads.

“The paralysis is voluntary.”

The sun descends, blushing into the hills.

A breeze builds to a gale, blowing wrappers,

And newspapers throughout the carnival.

One drop sideways in the dirt.  Two then three

Then buckets of rain.  He remains mortared.

She re-emerges from the beads, one word

On her tongue-moistened lips: “Voluntary.”

He shakes his head.  “A kiss for antidote.”

The wind whips her hair.  Rain runs down her cheeks.

She grabs him by the collar and cures him.

First Friday Details

All you need to know about the First Friday event, this Friday, downtown Spokane.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=251896488173309&notif_t=event_invite

First Friday in Spokane

Thanks to painter and poet Jill Skeie for letting me borrow one photon of her spotlight.  Her work is being featured at Second Space Gallery, downtown Spokane, and she is being kind enough to let me read there.

I'll read from both "Apocalypse Zoo" and "Road from Nowhere".  A little at least and a lot if I get a crowd.  So come down if you can.  Come down if you can't.  This is big for me.

Friday, August 5th, from 5-8PM.  Second Space Gallery
610 West 2nd Ave., Spokane, WA
Corner of 2nd and Howard, very close to the Davenport.