SmokeLong News

The Death of Christmas Cards, or, Tara's Big Fat Holiday Rant

2010-12-14T06:18:00.000-08:00

I'm probably going to piss off half my friends by writing this. However, this morning Hallmark pushed me over the edge. Their commercial—of a family of four fighting over which Christmas photo looks best—has sent me into a rant. Mostly because of the end of the commercial, where the mom finally picks her favorite photo, hits one button on the keyboard, and viola—her Christmas cards are done.

Oh, that's because Hallmark will now print and mail your cards for you! That's right—no more pesky pens, no more personalized messages or wishes, no more addressing envelopes, licking them, finding pretty Christmas stamps. As the voice over on the commercial says, "You can have more time to spend with your family."

Sweet, isn't it?

Oh right: except for the fact that the point of holiday cards is to keep in touch with family and friends and let them know you're thinking of them even if you can't see them every day. According to Hallmark, that's the equivalent of exporting your Excel spreadsheet to them so they can print one generic message and ship it off lovingly to all your Google contacts.

Holiday cards just aren't written on or personally signed anymore. Most of the cards sent these days are photo cards with printed generic messages or simply just big photos of friends' children (some of whom you've never actually met) with no message or no indication that the photo is even a holiday card.

Now granted, I know people are busy. I'm not expecting long poetic letters expressing the deep meaning of our relationships. I certainly don't need a typewritten "year in review" detailing all the teeth lost, vacations taken and promotions granted—I'm hoping if someone thinks enough to send me a card I might already know these things have happened.

Writing cards is not my favorite activity, even as a writer. Even so, I always dash off a few lines to let the person/people know I'm actually thinking of them when I'm writing their card. It's nothing deep, and it's not intended to be. But I do hope that it cuts above the noise with the understanding that it's not just another address on the list. These are people I care about. If I have nothing to say to them, then I probably shouldn't be sending them a card.

I don't hate babies. I don't hate your children or your dog or your cat. I love photos. Anyone who's friends with me on Facebook knows that. I just hate the idea that once again, technology has made us so lazy that an act that was once meant to be personalized and heartfelt—on a holiday that's supposed to be about connecting with loved ones, spreading cheer—is now just a mass-produced assembly line for another to-do we can easily check off the list.

I fear what's next: packets of thank-you cards "personalized" with the bride and groom's photo and a generic "thank you for your gift at our wedding" message printed in script font on the side. (Actually, maybe I shouldn't give Hallmark this idea. Actually, maybe it's already been done.)

I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I know that in all the hectic frenzy of the holidays, with all the present buying and decorating and traveling and cooking and eating and entertaining and keeping warm, writing out cards is just another time-consuming task that people dread. I dread it, too. But it's also something that I think can be enjoyable if you think of it as something you want to do as opposed to a chore that has to be done. Shorten your list. Watch a movie while you're writing. Hell, have a drink or two. And for christsakes, just SIGN the card yourself. Add a "have a great holiday!" or a "really loved spending time with you this year!" or a "Go Eagles!" to it, too, while you're at it. I swear it doesn't take that much longer.

Welcome Our New Staff Editors!

2010-09-13T05:59:00.000-07:00

Please welcome our three new staff editors at SmokeLong Quarterly! Nancy, Gay and Brandon will be guest editing for SLQ for the next three weeks, so treat them kindly. They will also be helping with submission selection, writing feature articles, promotion and quarterly story interviews. So you'll be seeing them around.

They are all amazing writers and editors (and they've each appeared in SLQ in the past year or two), and we hope they are as excited to be a part of our staff as we are to have them. Here is some more information about them, as well as a calendar of upcoming guest editors.

Nancy Stebbins is in her last semester at the Pacific University MFA program. Her stories have been or will soon be published in Cezanne’s Carrot, decomP, St. Ann’s Review, and The Los Angeles Review. She lives in College Station, Texas, with her husband and their many (four) teenage children. She is a psychiatrist.

Read Nancy's story "A Fistful of Buttercups" (Issue 28).

Gay Degani has published in journals and anthologies including two The Best of Every Day Fiction editions and her own collection, Pomegranate Stories. Her stories online can be read at Smokelong Quarterly, The Battered Suitcase, Night Train, 10 Flash, Short Story America, Emprise Review, as well as other publications. Nominated for a Pushcart, she has been a finalist or short listed at Glimmer Train and The Fish Anthology and won a first place at Women on Writing's Quarterly Flash Fiction contest. She edits EDF's Flash Fiction Chronicles and blogs at Words in Place.

Read Gay's story "Complicit" (Issue 28).

Brandon Wicks is a freelance writer and illustrator based in Atlanta, Georgia. His fiction has appeared in such journals as Sou’wester and South Carolina Review; his poetry in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume II: Mississippi.

Read Brandon's story "Northern Migration" (Issue 25)

Upcoming Guest Editors

September

13-19 Nancy Stebbins
20-26 Gay Degani
27-Oct. 3 Brandon Wicks

October

4-10 Molly Gaudry
18-24 Andrew Wingfield
25-31 Neil Smith

November

8-14 Art Taylor

December

6-12 Jason Jordan

SmokeLong Dog Collars?

2010-09-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

I signed in to check our editors email account this morning and found this treasure in our inbox. The dog collar photos he sent were actually pretty fashionable. I like the slightly dominatrix-y leather one here with the diamond heart. Would look good on a pug!

Dear Sir/Ms,

Good day!

I have visit your website and learn you are selling lots of fashional designs of dog and cat collars, leashes,metal accessories , I really think that is an opportunity for us to cooperate. I beg you some munites for my points.

We are a hardware and leather products manufacturer in China-----Kungming hardware and leather factory, for the leather dog and cat collars ,leashes , we both have these products in our products range , but you know, we can make it with much lower cost in China, and we always make high quality things ,you will have impression if we work together , then you will get more profits ,don't you think it is a good thing for both of us ?

We also make metal accessories ,such as collar buckles ,hooks ,collar rivets ,dog tags and pendants and slide charms, we have more than one thousands designs. I have seen you are using slider letters ,we do have more than fifty designs for your choice ,for collar rivets ,I really think you can use them on your collars then your collars will look much personalizing , how do you think ?

Please kindly visit our website (Deleted) , you will see our catalog on the page ,and if you want higher resolution pictures or you are interest in any of our items ,please let me know I will send you more details .

I am sure this will be a good thing for both of us , please take it under serious consideration , I am looking forward to hearing from you soon ,thank you.

Best Regards!

sCORe PotS & Smoke!

2010-08-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Steve Almond, author of Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life and other awesomeness, will be the featured reader at sCORe PotS and SMOKE!

Here's the most recent list of readers:

Steve Almond

J. Bradley

Randall Brown

Michael Czyzniejewski

Nicolle Elizabeth

Heather Fowler

Scott Garson

Barry Graham

Joseph A. W. Quintela

Donna Vitucci

RSVP on our Facebook event page!

And the awesome award of the day goes to Beth Thomas, who designed this kick-ass poster for our AWP off-site reading:

Job Openings at SLQ!

2010-08-12T06:54:00.001-07:00

Want to work for all glory, but no pay? Have we got something for you!

SmokeLong Quarterly is looking to expand its staff. We are looking for a Staff Editor/Blogger and one or more Staff Readers to help us better contribute to the online indie publishing community and keep on top of the hundreds of submissions we receive each month.

Staff Editor/Blogger
We are looking for a Staff Editor/Blogger to write for our blog and web site (general news, occasional reviews, interviews, etc.) and read and comment on submissions for SmokeLong Quarterly. Unfortunately, we cannot pay, but the blogger/editor will be a full member of our editorial staff, be adored and loved by us, and have access to other writers, publishers and other good people.

Staff Reader
We are also looking for Staff Reader(s) to read and comment on submissions under consideration for our quarterly issues. Bonus: the time commitment here is less! We call on our readers occasionally to help us vote and decide on our favorite stories and hopefully give a different voice/viewpoint to our editorial process.

If you are interested in either of these, email us at editors@smokelong.com and tell us a little about yourself and why you are interested in working with us. (If you want to be our blogger, also please tell us a little about what you'd like to write about.) Also send us a list of three stories that you really enjoyed in SLQ in the past year or so and why you liked them (this does not have to be extensive, just a little tidbit so we can get a sense of what types of stories appeal to you).

We'll be accepting applications, gifts, and goodwill until Sept. 1.

The Stats Game

2010-06-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

So I was trolling around our fancy web site stats page this afternoon. I will admit that I am fascinated by these things. It's kind of fun to generate all kinds of reports and figure out who's reading our site, how often they're reading it, and where they're coming from.

For example, though our readers our by far mostly from the United States, we have had more that 8,000 views from France so far this year. (Merci!) This is followed up by China and the United Kingdom, with our Canadian neighbors coming in at a disappointing #8.

But by far the most entertaining items to look at on our stats page are the phrases people type into search engines that lead them to our page. Here are some of my favorite phrases people searched for and then used to stumble upon a SmokeLong web page:

"the girl and the snake" (23 visits)
"how long to smoke" (9 visits)
"green monster weed" (12 visits)
"best flash fiction" (20 visits)
"smokelong aquarium" (23 visits)
"steve almond pornography" (13 visits)
"kay sexton glamour model" (4 visits)
"no bras no panties" (4 visits)
"men in hot tubs" (4)
"hot fat mom tub" (4)
"fat guys in a tub" (4)
"taco foot" (3)
"ellen parker clothes" (2)
"sweater nipples" (2)

I'm guessing that some of these people did not really find what they were looking for, but I guess you never know. :-)

New Leadership at SmokeLong... and Other News

2010-06-11T15:48:00.001-07:00

There are changes a-brewin' at SmokeLong, and we thought we'd fill you in on them.

EDITORIAL STAFF

While Dave Clapper is still founder, publisher and downright genius, he has decided to step down from the day-to-day editorial decisions at SmokeLong.

That leaves us — Tara Laskowski and Beth Thomas — taking over as senior editors. We are handling the scheduling of our guest editors for SmokeLong Weekly (more on that in a minute), publication of SmokeLong Quarterly, general communication, and working directly with our contributors. We will also populate this blog more often with news, interviews and other features.

Meg Pokrass, our solicitations editor, is handling special collaborations with authors, as well as features, interviews and multi-media presentations sure to dazzle and amaze. And we are blessed with wonderful staff editor and copy editor in Davin Malasarn.

Find out more than you needed to know about all of us here: http://www.smokelong.com/staff_bios.asp.

SMOKELONG WEEKLY

We are now publishing stories weekly as well as quarterly. SmokeLong Weekly started earlier this year, with the intention of diversifying our publishing voice while spicing up our publication calendar.

For SmokeLong Weekly, we bring in a new guest editor every few weeks to read our submissions and choose one story from their week for publication. This has been a great way to get different voices and more variety in SLQ, as each guest editor brings their own unique aesthetic and style to the table.

As the year goes on, we will feature guest editors each month as well as SLQ "Staff Picks." We have posted a schedule of our upcoming editorial calendar below and will update it as we go so you can know who is reading when and target your submission accordingly. You can always check our web site for a photo and bio of the current week's reader.

SMOKELONG QUARTERLY

We are also still publishing our regular quarterly issues and hope to have the latest quarterly at the end of this month. The quarterlies will include all weekly stories from that quarter plus additional stories and interviews.

We are very excited about the changes at SLQ, and we are pleased to be part of a journal that consistently publishes some of the finest very short fiction out there.

Questions, concerns, compliments and free stuff can be emailed to us at editors@smokelong.com.

Thanks!

With love,
Tara and Beth

SmokeLong Weekly Guest Editor Schedule

June 14: Erin Fitzgerald

June 21: Kelly Spitzer

June 28: Dave Clapper

July 5: SmokeLong Quarterly Staff Pick

July 12: Tara Masih

July 19: Tara Laskowski

"Leaving Hope Ranch" by Meg Pokrass... Returns!

2009-09-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

Storyglossia republishes Leaving Hope Ranch by Meg Pokrass. Leaving Hope Ranch, which made the Wigleaf Top 50 2009 List, had been published in 971 Menu, which disappeared recently leaving no archive (and no access to the story).

Storyglossia gave it a shiny new home!!

"Feeding Strays" Short Stories by SmokeLong Submission Editor Stefanie Freele Released

2009-09-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

Back Cover:A woman hides from her husband in a fish tank and another absently bakes sponges inside her tarts. Appliances drop from the sky, men grapple with chainsaws, women struggle with hormonal violence, and abandoned boys beg on doorsteps. Enter into the territory of broken people and the folks that love them.

Sensitive and unruly, sincere and absurd, Stefanie Freele's "Feeding Strays" is a collection of fifty short stories, both slipstream and modern, about children, family, relationships, and oysters.

"These expert, graceful mini-portraits of the life-jostled, the uncallused, and all the others who struggle with familyhood, are moving, sensitive, funny, and true. Stefanie Freele is a writer with a grip on the human spirit."

-- Deb Olin Unferth, author of Vacation

To Order:

http://www.stefaniefreele.com/id25.html

or
http://www.losthorsepress.org/books/feedingstrays.html

Top Ten Page Views for May 2009

2009-06-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

Once again, very late posting this, due to insane work schedules. Total traffic for the month was 86,341, which convinces me that, yes, I need to find time to pimp the site again. Samuel Lee's piece is yet another testament to the power of StumbleUpon, as his story garnered over 5,000 page views from Stumblers alone. One reviewer there commented, "Thanks for the braingasm."

1. (6) I Use Commas like Ninja Stars by Samuel Lee (3/18/09)
2. (4) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (3) Barista by Sarah Black (3/18/09)
4. (5) Night Vision by Edmond Caldwell (3/18/09)
5. (2) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
6. (7) Star Man by Bill Cook (3/18/09)
7. (NR) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
8. (8) One Night at Crobar by Shane Goth (3/18/09)
9. (NR) Disease Relics by Blake Butler (6/15/08)
10. (9) Bluegills by Thomas Cooper (3/18/09)

Smoking With...Mary Yukari Waters

2009-05-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

Davin Malasarn interviews Mary Yukari Waters (The Favorites) in the SLQ "Smoking With" Feature. Click here.

Top Ten Page Views for April 2009

2009-05-01T16:13:00.001-07:00

Updating this at the same time as March's stats, which shows just how far behind I got. 86,978 page views for the month. Hmmm. Might be time for me to figure out a way to get less busy at work and much busier pimping content.

1. (NR) Tenderoni by Kathy Fish (10/2/08)
2. (NR) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
3. (7) Barista by Sarah Black (3/18/09)
4. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
5. (6) Night Vision by Edmond Caldwell (3/18/09)
6. (1) I Use Commas like Ninja Stars by Samuel Lee (3/18/09)
7. (10) Star Man by Bill Cook (3/18/09)
8. (NR) One Night at Crobar by Shane Goth (3/18/09)
9. (NR) Bluegills by Thomas Cooper (3/18/09)
10. (3) Toes by Darby Larson (3/18/09)

Top Ten Page Views for March 2009

2009-05-01T15:56:00.000-07:00

The last month at work has been crazy, so I'm way late posting these, and don't have much commentary. Lots of stuff from the newest issue. 99,091 total page views for the month, so we fell a bit behind the 100k pace we'd been setting.

1. (NR) I Use Commas like Ninja Stars by Samuel Lee (3/18/09)
2. (4) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (NR) Toes by Darby Larson (3/18/09)
4. (NR) Seattle Gymnopédie by Scott Garson (3/18/09)
5. (NR) Dirtclouds by Charles Lennox (3/18/09)
6. (NR) Night Vision by Edmond Caldwell (3/18/09)
7. (NR) Barista by Sarah Black (3/18/09)
8. (NR) The Hamster by Tara Laskowski (3/18/09)
9. (3) Ants by David Aichenbaum (12/15/08)
10. (NR) Star Man by Bill Cook (3/18/09)

Smoking With...Dan Wickett

2009-04-16T19:30:00.000-07:00

Meg Pokrass interviews Dan Wickett (Emerging Writers Network, Dzanc Books, All Around Great Guy) in the SLQ "Smoking With" Feature. Click here.

Smoking with our Kathy Fish Fellow

2009-03-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

Find out all you'd want to know (and more!) about our new Kathy Fish Fellow, Tara Laskowski. Click here.

Issue 24 is live!

2009-03-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

Issue Twenty-Four (March 18, 2009): Barista by Sarah Black «» Night Vision by Edmond Caldwell «» Star Man by Bill Cook «» Bluegills by Thomas Cooper «» Seattle Gymnopédie by Scott Garson «» One Night at Crobar by Shane Goth «» Scrapple by Tiff Holland «» What If The Dungeon Closes by Tim Jones-Yelvington «» Toes by Darby Larson «» The Hamster by Tara Laskowski «» I Use Commas like Ninja Stars by Samuel Lee «» Dirtclouds by Charles Lennox «» Moat by Ravi Mangla «» A Witnessing at the K&W Cafeteria by Heather McDonald «» Roots by Jen Michalski «» Turtle Creek by Gregory Napp «» Prey by Susannah Pabot «» By Saturday, We'd Be Singing by John Riley «» At the Foot of the Mountain by Ania Vesenny «» Interviews: Sarah Black «» Edmond Caldwell «» Bill Cook «» Thomas Cooper «» Scott Garson «» Shane Goth «» Tiff Holland «» Tim Jones-Yelvington «» Darby Larson «» Tara Laskowski «» Samuel Lee «» Charles Lennox «» Ravi Mangla «» Heather McDonald «» Jen Michalski «» Gregory Napp «» Susannah Pabot «» John Riley «» Ania Vesenny «» Cover Art "No. 41 - 2007" by Marty D. Ison «» Letter From the Editor

stats for issue 23

2009-03-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

Issue Twenty-Three (live from 12/15/08-3/17/09)
12/15/2008-12/31/2008: 63272 page views
1/1/2009-1/31/2009: 107988 page views
2/1/2009-2/28/2009: 93384 page views
3/1/2009-3/17/2009: 46868 page views
TOTAL Page Views: 311,512 page views

That's pretty comparable to where we've been recently, and assuming page views only held steady from that for the year ahead rather than increasing (as I think they will), we'd end the year at over 1.2 million page views, about 20% higher than we saw in 2008.

Top Ten Page Views for February 2009

2009-03-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

I waited a while to post stats, both because this has been a very busy month, but more because I wanted Bob's Howl to stay atop the page as long as possible. With a new issue coming out today, though, it's time to catch up a bit. February was another big month of StumbleUpon hits, as several people there really liked Kinsella's latest offering and sent a lot of traffic our way.

1. (2) Phoenix by W.P. Kinsella (12/15/08)
2. (7) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
3. (5) Ants by David Aichenbaum (12/15/08)
4. (NR) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
5. (8) The World Before This One by Jon Chopan (12/15/08)
6. (NR) Potatoes by Spencer Wise (12/15/08)
7. (9) Earthrise by Christopher Bundy (12/15/08)
8. (NR) She Doesn't Ask Where He Goes by Stefanie Freele (12/15/08)
9. (10) Ghost Bike by Thomas Cooper (12/15/08)
10. (NR) Shadows by Sherrie Flick (12/15/08)

Howl for Bob Arter

2009-03-10T10:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I learned that the world lost one of its most beautiful people over the weekend. Bob Arter was, for me, a bit of a mentor, probably without his even realizing it. He was the guest editor of the 17th issue of SmokeLong. As a quadriplegic (due to a surfing accident in 1973), he had to write or type using an instrument held in his mouth. Despite that, he offered line by line edits on hundreds of the submissions that came in for that issue, making us see beauty in pieces we might have more easily passed over. I don't think the writers who submitted for that issue realize how much love Bob put into reading their submissions.

He also NEVER talked about his condition. He wasn't embarrassed by it, but he just wasn't interested in calling attention to it. He was gregarious and met several folks from the Zoetrope community in person. It was only through those meetings that others of us ever learned of how he lived his life day to day.

Tonight, around the world, dozens of writers who loved Bob will be reading pieces of his outdoors, howling at the moon, drinking toasts to him. Maryanne Stahl came up with the idea, and folks immediately jumped on board. Won't you all join us in reading, howling, and drinking to Bob tonight? I'd like to think he'll hear us.

If you have your own favorite piece of Bob's, have at it. If not, here are links to several of his stories:

And the Sun Soared from the Sea, Oh Me! (Painted Moon Review)
Back Home (SmokeLong)
The Big Texan (FRiGG)
Chitlins (SmokeLong)
Dancing with Anthony (Pindeldyboz)
Grace (LitPot)
The Gown (Opium)
Holiday (Mississippi Review)
How I Came to Love the Godless Eskimo (Opium)
I Went to Barnes, I Went to Noble (LitPot)
Jenny Craig Confronts Lady Higgs-Boson (The God Particle)
L'Amour (Juked)
Mating (FRiGG)
My Mom's Prom (Pindeldyboz)
Nice Easy (Mad Hatters Review)
The Old Folks (Juked)
Paper Mouse (SmokeLong)
Pictures of You (FRiGG)
Psyche Asea (Gator Springs Gazette)
Remembering Elizabeth (SmokeLong)
Riley's Shoes (Gator Springs Gazette)
Sinker in the Hole (Hobart)
The Spaceman (Night Train)
The Star (Hobart)
Survivor's Assistance (Zoetrope All-Story Extra)
That Gladrag Razzmatazz (Absinthe Literary Review)
The Trouble with Fishing (Quintessence... you can't see the text unless you highlight it all, as this is an archived page that has lost its original dark background)
The Wind (Juked)

We love you, Bob. May you rest in peace, finally free of pain.

It's Almost Spring Prompt

2009-02-25T23:35:00.001-08:00

See if you can wind around a difficult situation w/ your main character using these words to escape some emotional danger. Whatever that means to you. Write fast - 10 minutes - time yourself.

Include a list in the piece - like a short shopping list if possible. -Meg Pokrass

linoleum
ass
elementary
brush
hold
sister
salt
"hey"
"nice"
tip
beard
wags
yoga
garbage disposal
Wal-Mart
plug
driving
towel
smooth
dim

Smoking With...Jürgen Fauth

2009-02-24T08:57:00.000-08:00

Editor Meg Pokrass and Editor-in-Chief Dave Clapper interview Jürgen Fauth, writer & film critic & editor & co-founder of the literary community Fictionaut. Read it here.

SLQ Contributor News - Barry Graham's The National Virginity Pledge

2009-02-16T11:28:00.001-08:00

Now available: The National Virginity Pledge—Short Stories and Other Lies by Barry Graham

http://www.anothersky.org/in-print/the-national-virginity-pledge-barry-graham/

Praise for The National Virginity Pledge!

"Barry Graham's heroes want to love, yet bigger than their love for people and things is their capacity to destroy the objects of their affection. He doesn't scorn them, though; he treats them with care and a loving tenderness. He turns grief, betrayal, and violence into something close to poetry, and finds beauty in places we should never wish to visit." Stefan Kiesbye, Next Door Lived a Girl (Low Fidelity Press)

"...with its clipped, achingly real dialogue, and its effortless and vivid description, it achieves a relentless undercurrent of: 'Look closer: there is more.'" Mary Lynn Reed, 5 Star Literary Stories

"Barry Graham's stories are little cries for help from way in the corners and deep in the cracks of contemporary fiction." Jeff Parker, Ovenman (Tin House)

"Barry Graham's writing hits hard because it is raw and honest. He will suck you in with equal parts everydayness and voyeurism." Aaron Burch, Hobart: Another Literary Journal

"...it remains a funny, reckless, fast paced, and edgy voice from beginning to end." Dan Wickett, Emerging Writers Network

Mid-winter blues prompt w/ jagged rhythm.

2009-02-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

Here are some prompt words. Try this. Use as many of them as possible. Vary line lengths regularly. Create a rhythm, a heartbeat. Write the piece about something that involves breath: fear, smoking, blowing a kid's balloon, swimming...

Enjoy! -Meg Pokrass

Zoetrope Bloggers
Powered By Ringsurf

above
avoid
branches
push
roosting
climb
miles
skirt
stood
crow
friend
bite
washing machine
clammy
coffee
message
tuna
raw
teeth
radio

Top Ten Page Views for January 2009

2009-02-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

Another month of big activity from StumbleUpon. The pieces by Pendarvis, Kinsella, Maltezos, Hunt, Leary, Chopan, Bundy, and Cooper all had higher referral rates from there than from any other site. Huai's hits came from her inteview, which in turn got its traffic from China Adopt Talk. AichenbaUm, Chopan, Bundy, and Cooper got most of their hits from the front page of SmokeLong (which makes me wonder if it's unfair to some authors to list the contents on the front page alphabetically... hmmm). Leary's hits are largely from people googling for very short stories.

1. (2) Taco Foot by Jack Pendarvis (12/15/07)
2. (NR) Phoenix by W.P. Kinsella (12/15/08)
3. (3) Beautiful by Antonios Maltezos (10/2/08)
4. (NR) Thirteen by Tai Dong Huai (12/15/08)
5. (5) Ants by David Aichenbaum (12/15/08)
6. (1) How 9) Strange by Laird Hunt (12/15/07)
7. (NR) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
8. (NR) The World Before This One by Jon Chopan (12/15/08)
9. (10) Earthrise by Christopher Bundy (12/15/08)
10. (NR) Ghost Bike by Thomas Cooper (12/15/08)

In total, it was another good month, with 107,988 page views.

Edit: By the way, our total page views for last year (I just checked) was 1,108,463. How cool is that?!

Tara Laskowski Is 2009 Fish Fellow

2009-01-20T15:16:00.001-08:00

This year, we received and read 97 applications for the Kathy Fish Fellowship. After long hours reading and discussing the merits of the applicants, we're hugely excited to announce that Tara Laskowski is our 2009 Fish Fellow. We'd also like to recognize the outstanding work of the other writers on our shortlist. As we did last year, I'll post their #'s here as well, as that's how we knew the applicants during the reading process (all names were stripped from the materials before staff members could read them).

Winner
55: Tara Laskowski

Shortlist
3: Sara Levine
16: Megan Mayhew Bergman
23: Douglas Bruton
29: Foust

Many other applications were excellent as well. The five above represented those who completely blew us away.

We can't wait to begin working with Tara. Here's a little more information about her:

Tara Laskowski earned an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University and recently completed a manuscript of her first novel, set in her hometown in Pennsylvania. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in several places, most recently The Rambler and Phoebe: A Journal of Literature and Art. Her short story "They" was published in Pindledyboz and was a storySouth Million Writers Award notable online story in 2004. Another story, "Hole to China," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Tara lives and works in a suburb of Washington, D.C., and is learning how to play the piano.

Tara is the third Fish Fellow, following Beth Thomas in 2007 and Stefanie Freele in 2008.

Tina May Hall wins Caketrain chapbook contest

2009-01-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

Caketrain has announced the winner of their 2008 chapbook contest, as judged by Brian Evenson. Due to the quality of the finalists, they will be publishing both the winner and the runner up this summer. Here are the results:

Winner: All the Day's Sad Stories, by Tina May Hall
Runner-up: The Collectors, by Matt Bell
Also Notable: A State of Unbelief and Hawthorn BlossomsM, by Andrew Borgstrom; Personas, by J.C. Miller; Springtime and Important Things to Remember, by Ben Stein

Congratulations to all!

Meg's Prompt: disturbed character w/ insect

2009-01-10T23:13:00.001-08:00

Here are some words. Try and incorporate them.

Consider: A seemingly normal though disturbed main character. An insect buzzing, or crawling. The main character is very interested or terribly disgusted in the insect.

dentist
squint
mirror
grin
wrists
hiss
slam
falsetto
stiff
audible
furrow
emission
gesture
climate
squirt

Have fun! Always! -Meg Pokrass

"Less Shiny" by Mary Miller

2009-01-07T10:17:00.001-08:00

The print run on this is very short (75 copies), so it may already be too late to plug it, but... Mike Young's Magic Helicopter Press has released its first chapbook, Less Shiny by Mary Miller. Among the stories in the collection is A Blind Dog Named Killer and a Colony of Bees, first published here. Great reviews out there from Emerging Writers Network, Colin Bassett, and Matt Bell. Check it out, and buy a copy (if you still can).

Keyhole Press announces fiction chapbook finalists

2009-01-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

Another incredible group. Looking forward to hearing who the winner is, as judged by Michael Martone. Here are the finalists:

Jason Stout - Out Into Nothing
Thomas Cooper - Phantasmagoria
Randall Brown - Future Perfect Tense
Chauna Craig - Children, Gamblers, Drunks, and Saints
Adam Peterson - The Flasher
Stefanie Freele - Breathing Oysters
Matt Bell - The Collectors
Aaron Burch - How to Predict the Weather
Laura Loomis - Lost In Translation
Kathy Fish - It's Possible I'm Not Even Here

Congratulations to all. Keyhole's official announcement is here. Also, check out Keyhole's latest issue, their special handwritten issue. One of the coolest issues of a lit mag I've ever seen.

Sean Lovelace wins Rose Metal Press Chapbook contest

2009-01-05T14:43:00.001-08:00

This is an impressive list, to be sure. Many congratulations to the winner, Sean Lovelace, and all those short-listed, as chosen by judge Sherrie Flick.

Winner
Sean Lovelace for How Some People Like Their Eggs

Finalists
Aaron Burch for Birthmarks
Stefanie Freele for Breathing Oysters
Molly Gaudry for Come See the Monkey & Other Stories
Jac Jemc for This Stranger She'd Invited In
Erika Mikkalo for 26 Letters

Semi-Finalists
Lisa Buchanan for Artifacts from the American Century
Dawn Corrigan for Under the Power Lines
Roseanne Griffeth for Getting There Eventually
Tiff Holland for Straight Out of the Can
Kate McCorkle for The Last Parakeet and Other Stories

Full story, as announced by Rose Metal Press, is here. Again, congratulations to all of these excellent writers.

Top Ten Page Views for December 2008

2009-01-05T12:53:00.000-08:00

Well, that's a really interesting shakeup, huh? In looking at specific referrals, a ton of the traffic that propelled several of these into the top ten in page views was from StumbleUpon. Most of those were added to Stumble when we announced our Pushcart Prize nominees. One was an experiment on how to use StumbleUpon when I first set up the ShareThis links on stories. The pieces just outside the top ten had enough traffic than in any other month, they'd have fairly easily made the top ten. They're still getting the same page views, but pages that are Stumbled are getting that much more. In fact, without StumbleUpon, the top ten would have been largely comprised of stories from the December issue (which is what usually happens when a new issue is released).

All of which is to say: authors, if you want to vastly increase your number of readers, join StumbleUpon and start Stumbling your stories (and if you're published here, it's even easier—you can find a link at the end of your story that opens up abilities to share your story on several different sites). And readers, if you absolutely love a story, whether it's here or anywhere else, help spread the word about its greatness to tons of folks you've never met. The more this kind of technology evolves, the more readers will be able to control which authors are gaining the most notice (and, eventually, publishing deals). It's an exciting new world.

1. (NR) How 9) Strange by Laird Hunt (12/15/07)
2. (NR) Taco Foot by Jack Pendarvis (12/15/07)
3. (NR) Beautiful by Antonios Maltezos (10/2/08)
4. (6) Tenderoni by Kathy Fish (10/2/08)
5. (NR) Ants by David Aichenbaum (12/15/08)
6. (NR) Fatback by Jeff Landon (10/2/08)
7. (NR) Trestle by Matt Briggs (3/15/08)
8. (8) Asian Girl by W.P. Kinsella (10/2/08)
9. (3) Innocence, Briefly by Jenny Arnold (10/2/08)
10. (NR) Earthrise by Christopher Bundy (12/15/08)

All told, our page views for the month were 121,084, our highest ever, breaking the previous high of 111,740, set in October.

The annoying family Christmas letter prompt

2008-12-22T00:14:00.000-08:00

Imagine one of those annoying family Xmas letters you get too many of. Where everything seems incredible, unless you read between the colorful lines. Write your main character as a family members who feels cheated by the way it's worded about her/her. Maybe the mom writes the letter in a way that subtly puts her husband down (I'm just saying). Your narrator will be that person, the one who gets put down. Or your narrator can be someone observing this chronic seasonal abuse!

Here's some prompt words to get you going:

wide
Ann Landers
crazy
waving
renter
patch
baggy
fidgety
curb
growl
squeeze
numb
brows
big deal

-Meg Pokrass

Randall Brown - Mad To Live - Review

2008-12-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

Read the review of Mad To Live: A Collection of Very Short Fiction by (Lead Editor of SmokeLong Quarterly) Randall Brown.

Smoking with...Kim Chinquee

2008-12-17T04:02:00.000-08:00

SLQ's Meg Pokrass slides next to the always-busy Kim Chinquee and puts her under the microscope. Check it out here.

stats for issue 22

2008-12-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

Because issue 22 was posted about two weeks later than it should have been, I'm going to break out the stats a couple different ways. One is based on the idea of it having come out on September 15 as it should have; the other is based on the dates it was actually live.

Issue Twenty-Two (live from 10/2/08-12/14/08)

10/2-12/14: 268,923 page views

9/15-12/14: 329,308 page views

So... for the actual times that issues 21 and 22 were live, issue 22 is down 14.80%. However, if issue 22 had gone live when I was supposed to get it live (and a lot of people showed up on the 15th to check it out, under the assumption that it would), traffic was up by 18.79%. One thing I'll say after having checked out the stats for the top ten the last few months: issue 21 was the first issue of SmokeLong that generated over 100,000 page views in every month that it was live. And, based on the stats for this month so far, we're well on pace to shatter that again.

Issue 23 is live!

2008-12-16T13:12:00.001-08:00

New issue went live yesterday, and it's a beauty. Please come and explore!

Issue Twenty-Three (December 15, 2008): Ants by David Aichenbaum «» Earthrise by Christopher Bundy «» The World Before This One by Jon Chopan «» Ghost Bike by Thomas Cooper «» The Sway of Trains by Lydia Copeland «» Impressionists by Debra A. Daniel «» Danseuses Nues by David Harris Ebenbach «» The Head Fields by Terry Ehret «» Shadows by Sherrie Flick «» Heroin Girl by Larry Fondation «» She Doesn't Ask Where He Goes by Stefanie Freele «» Caved In by Barry Graham «» Chicago World's Fair, 1893 by Kyle Hemmings «» Coat and Shoes by Tania Hershman «» Thirteen by Tai Dong Huai «» Phoenix by W.P. Kinsella «» Nearly Free by Dorianne Laux «» Alien Lunch by Liane LeMaster «» The Society for the Preservation of Everything by Kuzhali Manickavel «» 216 East Boalt by Jeannie Vanasco «» Potatoes by Spencer Wise «» Interviews: David Aichenbaum «» Christopher Bundy «» Jon Chopan «» Thomas Cooper «» Lydia Copeland «» Debra A. Daniel «» David Harris Ebenbach «» Terry Ehret «» Sherrie Flick «» Larry Fondation «» Stefanie Freele «» Barry Graham «» Kyle Hemmings «» Tania Hershman «» Tai Dong Huai «» Dorianne Laux «» Liane LeMaster «» Kuzhali Manickavel «» Spencer Wise «» Cover Art "morpheus" by Marty D. Ison «» Letter From the Editor

Prompt #2

2008-12-10T11:57:00.002-08:00

Words to get going with: use as many as you can!

roof, screen, swollen, primitive, rise, traffic, sulfur
yard, shuffling, signage, Frank Sinatra, Spanish moon, business
vacant, rosy, elbow, silvery, appraise, joking, ribbing, enlarged
noise, naughty, gargoyle, feminine, one-handed, monotone, cop-like
plodding, poodle, sincere, sidesplitting, commercial, okay, drive
skirt, crap, foot, on-line, card, buffet, luck, Fuddruckers
snorts, fixed, narrow, touch, stiff, sleeve, laugh, pocket

Scene setting: something celebratory that doesn't feel that way. like a wedding that you don't want to be at (just an example).

Line length: vary them. alot. One word lines. 50 word lines. Repetitions. The main character has a problem repeating negative behaviors.

Enjoy! -Meg Pokrass

Smoking Prompts -- a new feature of writing prompts at SmokeLong Quarterly

2008-12-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

Potluck Prompt.

stupid
threat
mirror
whip
passenger-side
hell
suit
steady
grandparents
pacing
plastic
bracing
tearing
Frisbee
persimmon
stained
blabbering
cruise
spray painting
gobble
stable
horn-rims
beans

write a piece that takes place around a holiday.

try to scatter as many prompt words in the mix like chocolate chips in batter. see where they take you.

Happy writing! -Meg Pokrass

Whidbey Writers' Workshop Student Choice Contest

2008-12-04T17:40:00.000-08:00

Whidbey Writers' Workshop Student Choice Contest:

Send Us Your Best Shorty
Anybody else feeling unsettled after this autumn's roller coaster ride? The election, Wall Street's meltdown, and now the holidays - who has time or attention to write long? Lucky for us, the short short provides a perfect antidote for days like these. You can practically write them in your head.

But you will want to put your short piece, whether fiction, fact, or poetry, into your computer. That way you can send it to the December Whidbey Student Choice judge for a chance to find $50 under your tree and a publication on your resume. Remember to keep the word count under 1000 because our judge has been roller coastering, too.
For more information, to find the submission mailbox, and to read a sampling of past winners, go to http://www.whidbeystudents.com/.

Absinthe Literary Review Could Use Your Help

2008-12-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

Hat tip to Dennis Mahagin for passing this along:

Allo all.

I just received a message, from Charles Allen Wyman.

Please help him fight some creepy cyber pirates who have
hijacked his kick-ass website. Here's the skinny, from CAW:

* Due to aggressive spam filters on a new email server, our original decade-owned URL, absinthe-literary-review.com, lapsed during our hiatus and was snatched up by cybersquatters, Maxory LLC, an off-shore St-Kitts / Nevis-based LLC that deals exclusively in this kind of questionable business. They are now trying to sell books online using our trademark, but be assured: ALR is no longer associated with our former URL nor with this shady ghost corporation. They are also attempting to auction the site, which has moved them into the legal definition of bad faith in cybersquatting under the ACPA. We're asking for your help in this situation.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

1. While we proceed with expensive and lengthy litigation, please help us diminish the tarnishing and dilution of ALR's reputation by linking to our new URL absintheliteraryreview.com and informing current link owners across the web about the now spurious nature of our former URL. Also, do not visit our former URL as traffic is what they most desire.

2. Anyone able to uncover the names and addresses of any officers or employees of Maxory LLC so that we can pursue them directly (hopefully in US courts) will be doing us a great favor we won't soon forget.

3. Any longtime readers wishing to contribute to our legal fund, please contact us at staff@absintheliteraryreview.com for details.

I'm a big fan of ALR, so I'm passing this along in hopes it'll help. And I'll be heading to our links page shortly to ensure we have the proper linkage set up.

SmokeLong and Social Networking

2008-12-03T15:29:00.000-08:00

While compiling the top ten list for November, I got curious about where some of the page views were coming from, particularly for older pieces that cracked the top ten again after a long absence. One thing jumped out at me: a lot of hits for Holly Selph's The Color of Moths were coming from StumbleUpon. Well, that was the second time I'd seen an older story gain a lot of new audience from StumbleUpon, so I figured it was finally time to do a little research on it. And perhaps to take a look at other social networking sites that drive traffic, like Digg, Delcious, etc.

While looking around, I found a very cool application called ShareThis. It gathers together links to a ton of different social networking sites and makes it easy to click through and recommend the page a reader is on. Since our copyright notice is in one file that's linked on every story page, it was easy to add the code there and instantly have ShareThis on every story's page.

The results are phenomenal. I quickly Stumbled each of our six Pushcart Prize nominees. Today alone, each of them has generated about 40% of the total page views that the top flash usually gets in a month! What an incredible tool to promote the incredible writers we're publishing.

So... if you read a story and you just absolutely love it, click on the little green icon and recommend the story using whatever service you might already be using. Our writers will thank you for the additional readers exposed to their work.

Also, if you want to keep abreast of the latest news, you can either subscribe to our RSS Feed and/or join our Facebook group (in which you can find over 80 of the writers previously published here).

Welcome to the 21st century, eh?

Top Ten Page Views for November 2008

2008-12-01T09:32:00.000-08:00

Sarah Hilary retains her top spot, and Almond almost falls out of the top ten altogether. Interesting to see two from March '07 jump back onto the list.

1. (1) Two Minute Silence by Sarah Hilary (10/2/08)
2. (3) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
3. (4) Innocence, Briefly by Jenny Arnold (10/2/08)
4. (NR) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
5. (5) How Anything Got Done by Paul Elwork (10/2/08)
6. (8) Tenderoni by Kathy Fish (10/2/08)
7. (NR) The Color of Moths by Holly Selph (3/15/07)
8. (6) Asian Girl by W.P. Kinsella (10/2/08)
9. (7) Tapioca O's by Natalie DeClerck (10/2/08)
10. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)

Last month, I wondered whether the monthly page views would stay above 100,000 in months without new issues. Sure enough! 101,408. Woo!

SmokeLong Quarterly Pushcart Nominations

2008-12-01T06:16:00.001-08:00

SmokeLong Quarterly is thrilled to announce its six nominations for the Pushcart Prize:

"How 9) Strange" by Laird Hunt SLQ #19, December 2007
"Taco Foot" by Jack Pendarvis SLQ #19, December 2007
"Trestle" by Matt Briggs SLQ #20, March 2008
"The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines" by Matt Bell SLQ #21, June 2008
"Fatback" by Jeff Landon SLQ #22, October 2008
"Tenderoni" by Kathy Fish SLQ #22, October 2008

2009 Fish Fellowship applications now being accepted

2008-11-20T16:10:00.000-08:00

Applications for the 2009 Kathy Fish Fellowship ($500) are now being accepted. For more details, please see the announcement.

Smoking With...Brant Goble

2008-11-15T07:53:00.000-08:00

Check out Stefanie Freele's interview with Brant Goble, ardent short fiction fan and founder of Loosey Goosey Press LLC (publisher of Gander Press Review).

Top Ten Page Views for October 2008

2008-11-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

October's Top Ten was absolutely dominated by content from the new issue. Almond and Bell were the only repeats from last month. And, if we look beyond the top ten, the next eight in page views were all from the October issue as well. Talk about a strong issue.

1. (NR) Two Minute Silence by Sarah Hilary (10/2/08)
2. (3) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (1) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
4. (NR) Innocence, Briefly by Jenny Arnold (10/2/08)
5. (NR) How Anything Got Done by Paul Elwork (10/2/08)
6. (NR) Asian Girl by W.P. Kinsella (10/2/08)
7. (NR) Tapioca O's by Natalie DeClerck (10/2/08)
8. (NR) Tenderoni by Kathy Fish (10/2/08)
9. (NR) Breathing Oysters by Stefanie Freele (10/2/08)
10. (NR) Campfire by Donna D. Vitucci (10/2/08)

Total page views for the month was... get this... 111,740! I'll be interested to see if the page views stay over 100,000 in months without a new issue going live. Here's hoping.

Submissions temporarily down

2008-11-03T11:56:00.000-08:00

To anyone who has tried to submit since October 30, you've probably noticed that you've gotten an error message. Our server was having issues on October 31 that took the whole site down, but got it fixed that same day. However, in getting the site back online, something went awry in the permissions on the database that houses submissions. We have a support ticket in with our hosting service, and have put in a payment to upgrade our hosting plan to include SQL Server, rather than just Microsoft Access, so that we can have a more robust submissions system in the future.

Thanks for your patience. We hope to have this fixed ASAMFP.

Edit: The permissions on the folder were set inccorectly when the servers were brought back online. Support has fixed this now and y'all can submit again!!! Thanks for your patience!

October Feature

2008-10-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

A discussion of the fear and self-loathing that stops writers from writing--and (maybe) some ways to overcome it. All this comes to you here, at To Write or Not To Write?.

stats for issue 21

2008-10-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

I'm going to break out the stats for issue twenty-one two different ways since issue twenty-two was so late going live. I'll post one set of stats for what things would've looked like if 22 had come out on time and another set for when 22 actually went live.

Issue Twenty-One (live from 6/15/08-10/1/08)

6/15-6/30: 54343 page views
7/1-7/31: 87560 page views
8/1-8/31: 96892 page views
9/1-9/14: 38416 page views

9/15-10/1: 60385 page views
Total Issue 21 (through 9/14): 277211 page views
Total Issue 21 (through 10/1): 315627 page views

Even without the extra couple weeks, our birthday issue was clearly a monster: just through the 14th (when it should have finished its run), it broke the previous record for page views by 13.5%. And it seems clear that people were ready for that new issue to hit on the 15th, as the numbers at the end of the month were much higher than at the beginning of the month. I hope my inexcusable tardiness in getting 22 posted didn't cause us to lose readers. To all the writers in this issue, my deepest apologies. I'll do everything I can to make sure you're getting the kind of readership you deserve.

Top Ten Page Views for September 2008

2008-10-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well, Matt Bell owned the month of September, not only capturing the top spot with his most recent flash in SLQ, but also checking in at #8 for a flash published two years ago. You go, Matt!

1. (2) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
2. (5) This Is What You Left Behind by Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
3. (9) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
4. (8) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
5. (NR) Feeling Sad by Darby Larson (6/15/08)
6. (4) Paper Mouse by Bob Arter (6/15/08)
7. (3) We Decided to Make Porn by Brian Allen Carr (6/15/08)
8. (NR) How the Broken Lead the Blind Until They Both Become Something Else Entirely by Matt Bell (6/15/06)
9. (10) The Bone Orchard by Randall Brown (6/15/08)
10. (NR) Handful of Dirt by Jim Ruland (6/15/08)

Total page views for the month? 96,057, another huge month. Woo!

Issue 22 is live

2008-10-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it's incredibly late (which is entirely my fault), but issue 21 is finally live! Check it out:

Issue Twenty-Two (October 2, 2008): Innocence, Briefly by Jenny Arnold «» Tapioca O's by Natalie DeClerck «» How Anything Got Done by Paul Elwork «» Tenderoni by Kathy Fish «» Breathing Oysters by Stefanie Freele «» The Mime's Dog by Steven Douglas Gullion «» Two Minute Silence by Sarah Hilary «» Constructing Birds by Jo Horsman «» Crazy Sun by Lauren Huckstadt «» One Night Out by Ashley Kaufman «» Asian Girl by W.P. Kinsella «» Fatback by Jeff Landon «» Bounty by Tricia Louvar «» Beautiful by Antonios Maltezos «» Private Room by M.E. Parker «» True Identity by Kevin Sampsell «» Campfire by Donna D. Vitucci «» Interviews: Jenny Arnold «» Paul Elwork «» Kathy Fish «» Stefanie Freele «» Steven Douglas Gullion «» Sarah Hilary «» Jo Horsman «» Ashley Kaufman «» Jeff Landon «» Tricia Louvar «» Antonios Maltezos «» M.E. Parker «» Kevin Sampsell «» Donna D. Vitucci «» Cover Art "November Leaves" by Marty D. Ison «» Letter From the Editor

Smoking with..the newest SLQ staff members

2008-09-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

Click here to meet and greet the newest additions to the SmokeLong Quarterly staff: "Smoking with...the Best Flash-itical Team on the Net".

Top Ten Page Views for August 2008

2008-09-03T17:41:00.000-07:00

August's top ten is a great example of why I'm such a huge fan of publishing online versus print publishing. Alexandra Fox's story was the most viewed piece of the month, with over 1000 page views last month. And it was published three years ago. And how did this come to pass? Apparently, somewhere along the way, it got tagged on StumbleUpon, and so users of that service wound up being directed to this work quite often. Lots of new readers for a story from 2005. When's the last time you saw print do that?

1. (NR) A Deep Desire for Blue by Alexandra Fox (6/15/05)
2. (3) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
3. (1) We Decided to Make Porn by Brian Allen Carr (6/15/08)
4. (2) Paper Mouse by Bob Arter (6/15/08)
5. (NR) This Is What You Left Behind by Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
6. (8) The Cougar by Dave Clapper (6/15/08)
7. (6) Disease Relics by Blake Butler (6/15/08)
8. (4) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
9. (7) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
10. (5) The Bone Orchard by Randall Brown (6/15/08)

One other quick note: for the month, we had 96,892 page views, shattering our previous monthly record. Holy cow.

Smoking with...Chad Simpson

2008-08-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

Join SLQ as we chat with flash writer, reader, teacher, and editor Chad Simpson about all his insights into [very] short fiction after serving as the Selecting Editor for the wigleaf top 50, introducing contemporary flash fiction into his college classes (gasp!), and just being an all-around flash kind of guy. It's time for Smoking with...Chad Simpson.

best of the web guest blogger

2008-08-20T09:56:00.001-07:00

I am excited to be the Best of the Web Guest Blogger today on the awesome lit blog: The Mumpsimus. Please check it out if you've got some time to spare. Thanks!

Narrative Magazine relaunch

2008-08-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Narrative Magazine has relaunched with a smashing new web site and news of an upcoming contest: 2008 Fall Fiction Contest:

First Prize is $3,000, Second Prize is $1,500, and Third Prize is $750. The prize winners will be announced in Narrative and will be eligible for publication. Additionally, ten finalists will receive $100 each. We’ll announce finalists in the magazine as well. All entries will be considered for publication.

Top Ten Page Views for July 2008

2008-08-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Last month was a huge month for the latest issue: nine of the top ten were from Issue 21. And total page views for the month was a big number again: 87,560. Looks like this year we aren't have the usual summer slump in visitors to the site. Woo!

1. (7) We Decided to Make Porn by Brian Allen Carr (6/15/08)
2. (5) Paper Mouse by Bob Arter (6/15/08)
3. (3) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
4. (2) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
5. (6) The Bone Orchard by Randall Brown (6/15/08)
6. (4) Disease Relics by Blake Butler (6/15/08)
7. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
8. (NR) The Cougar by Dave Clapper (6/15/08)
9. (NR) Real Estate by Bonnie ZoBell (6/15/08)
10. (NR) Pen and Notebook by Natalie Goldberg (6/15/08)

The Smart One, by Ellen Meister -- order your copy today!

2008-08-07T05:14:00.000-07:00

Ellen Meister (a SmokeLong alum) is a friend of mine. I love her dearly, but I also love her books. Her newest release, The Smart One, (available now!) is no exception. I read this book in draft and loved it, but have yet to read the final version.

My copy should be arriving today or tomorrow and I will dig in immediately. Until then, I want to wish Ellen hearty congratulations on bringing another great read to the world! Keep 'em coming, Ellen!

A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness -- review at Quick Fiction

2008-08-03T14:40:00.003-07:00

I'm delighted to direct your attention to my review of A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks of Short Short Fiction by Four Women over at Quick Fiction.

I loved the book and so will you. So please do order yourself a copy. I promise you will be captivated.

Congratulations to Matt Bell

2008-07-21T04:11:00.000-07:00

for winning the Million Writers Award this year with his AMAZING story "Alex Trebeck Never Eats Fried Chicken." A well deserved honor for a fabulous story.

Smoking With...Jennifer Pieroni

2008-07-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

Catch the interview with writer and editor extraordinaire Jennifer Pieroni in this month's Smokelong Features, Smoking With...

A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness Winner Announced

2008-07-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

Kathy Fish has chosen the winner of the A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness contest. Congratulations to Steven, who wrote:

"At 3 a.m., my molars stretch their tiny legs, strain to free themselves of my gums, whisper their plans to leave me and join my traitorous hair in some sunnier clime, some faraway paradise for the bits and pieces of slowly dismemembered heads, and all I can do is wish them well, wish I and my empty skull could go there too."

A Review and CONTEST for A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks by Four Women

2008-07-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks by Four Women
Published by Rose Metal Press

A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks by Four Women is a triumph for flash fiction. This is not your typical anthology, with one story per author. While those are good too, A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness provides a richer experience. Each author--Amy Clark, Elizabeth Ellen, Kathy Fish, and Claudia Smith--explode onto the page with an entire album of flashes. And as with any album, you'll discover a favorite "song," you'll learn the versatility of the artist--their range. You'll play the album again and again and learn the order of the songs, memorize the lyrics.

Each artist in A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness has a different voice, a distinct style. The book starts out with Kathy Fish's chapbook "Laughter, Applause, Laughter, Music, Applause." It's a wise choice for the lead. Kathy's flash is concise, surprising, and she has a gift for using words that will amaze you. Amy Clark's chapbook, "Waiting," follows. Amy takes more time with her work--her flashes tend to be longer, the timeframe more drawn out. Speaking of time, Amy likes to play with the concept. Many of her stories switch between the past, present, and future tense, which makes for an interesting read. Next up is Elizabeth Ellen with "Sixteen Miles Outside of Phoenix." Elizabeth's work is intimate. She gets right in there and gives you what she's got. Many of her stories focus on relationships and that tumultuous concept called love. Claudia Smith, the winner of Rose Metal Press' first annual chapbook contest, anchors the team with "The Sky is a Well." Claudia has a knack for nailing titles, and her writing is exceptionally eloquent. Like Kathy Fish, childhood is a common theme in her work, and often, her stories illustrate how the world can be a dangerous place for girls.

If you're a fan of flash fiction, A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness is a must-have. But if you're a fan, you already know this. You already know what it feels like to hold such a precious item in your hands. And you know that opening the cover for the first time is akin to that flutter you get during a hot kiss. If you're new to flash, this collection is a great introduction to the form. The stories within are engaging, thought-provoking, strong. They will force you to pay attention, to look closely, and deeply, at the subtleties of life. Like music with metaphor, the stories will demand you listen.

Interested? You can order A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness here, or, you can try and win a copy by entering the "My Own Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness Contest." Details are as follows...

WIN A COPY OF A PECULIAR FEELING OF RESTLESSNESS

In the comments section of this post, share your own "Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness." Be creative. You can write fiction, non-fiction, poetry, lyrics, etc., and interpret the theme widely. The ONE RULE is your entry must not be longer than ONE LINE. And please don't be clever and write three pages without any punctuation. One line, with a reasonable word count.

Deadline: Friday, July 11th
Judge: Kathy Fish
Winner Announced: Monday, July 14th

Top Ten Page Views for June 2008

2008-07-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

Almond moves back on top again, and I'm sure that's due at least in part to Microsoft's pervy search engine results, but whatever. Lots of stuff from the anniversary issue appears here as well, and it was a huge traffic month: over 90,000 page views, our highest-traffic month ever. Can't complain about that!

1. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (5) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
3. (NR) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
4. (NR) Disease Relics by Blake Butler (6/15/08)
5. (NR) Paper Mouse by Bob Arter (6/15/08)
6. (NR) The Bone Orchard by Randall Brown (6/15/08)
7. (NR) We Decided to Make Porn by Brian Allen Carr (6/15/08)
8. (NR) Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears by Heidi W. Durrow (9/15/07)
9. (1) The Cockroach by David Barringer (3/15/08)
10. (NR) Memento Mori by Rosanne Grifeth (6/15/08)

One thing I really notice about the top ten is that a number of these pieces were highlighted in various blogs recently: Matt Bell's piece was featured by Dan Wickett here, Dogzplot here, and in Matt's own blog here (along with links to every other story in the issue); Matt and Blake Butler were featured by Josh Maday here; Blake is also featured by Keyhole Magazine here (as are Rosanne Griffeth and Shellie Zacharia), and in his own blog here; Randall Brown's piece appears on his blog here; and Rosanne, in addition to the Keyhole feature, is featured by The Angler here, Carolina On My Mind (the blog of the artist who illustrated the story) here, Dew on the Kudzu here, and in her own blog here.

In Profile: Thomas White

2008-06-25T09:00:00.001-07:00

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing SmokeLong's own Thomas White for the Writer Profile Project. Read what he has to say about the journal, his latest passion, his taste in books, his bed and breakfast, and more. Plus, find out who the cute pup is in this picture. Click here.

stats for issue 20

2008-06-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here are the stats for issue twenty:

Issue Twenty (live from 3/15/08-6/14/08)

3/15-3/31: 45649 page views
4/1-4/30: 78549 page views
5/1-5/31: 83898 page views
6/1-6/14: 36151 page views
Total Issue 20: 244247 page views

Wow. That's crazy how level that is. (Issue 19 had 244134 page views.) A whopping 0.05% increase in page views over the last issue. I'll be fascinated to see what the numbers look like come September—I'd normally expect a double issue like this to generate a lot more traffic, but our numbers have traditionally taken a dip during the summer, so... it'll be interesting.

Happy birthday to us!

2008-06-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

Today, we celebrate our 5th birthday with a special double issue. Included in this issue:

Issue Twenty-One (June 15, 2008): Paper Mouse by Bob Arter «» The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell «» The Bone Orchard by Randall Brown «» Disease Relics by Blake Butler «» We Decided to Make Porn by Brian Allen Carr «» The Baby Drop-Off by Natascia Casey-Dean «» The Cougar by Dave Clapper «» Anointed by Myfanwy Collins «» Sister Earth by John Colvin «» Soap by Katrina Denza «» The Interpretation of Light by Murray Dunlap «» The Hole by Ashley Farmer «» Repair Man by Kathy Fish «» In the Kitchen She Wakes by Stefanie Freele «» American Gothic by Scott Garson «» Lobster Girl by Alicia Gifford «» Pen and Notebook by Natalie Goldberg «» Memento Mori by Rosanne Griffeth «» BiC by Steven Gullion «» Parting by Evelyn Hampton «» Tuesday by Lindsay Hunter «» Waiting on Lombard Street by W.P. Kinsella «» Johnny by Nance Knauer «» Like Swimming by Jeff Landon «» Feeling Sad by Darby Larson «» Alone With Cooper by Ellen Meister «» The Angel's Visitation by Corey Mesler «» South Dakota by Mary Miller «» California Fruit by Meg Pokrass «» Home Made by Bruce Holland Rogers «» Handful of Dirt by Jim Ruland «» Steam City Girl by Paul Silverman «» Sugar by Claudia Smith «» The 13th Toast by Amy Sparks «» Gathering by Kelly Spitzer «» Tiny Shadows by Maryanne Stahl «» Double-Exposure by Thomas White «» Epistemology by Joseph Young «» Why This Isn't a Good Story to Tell by Shellie Zacharia «» Liquid by Michelle Zellers «» Real Estate by Bonnie ZoBell «» Interviews: Bob Arter «» Matt Bell «» Randall Brown «» Blake Butler «» Brian Allen Carr «» Natascia Casey-Dean «» Dave Clapper «» Myfanwy Collins «» John Colvin «» Katrina Denza «» Murray Dunlap «» Ashley Farmer «» Kathy Fish «» Stefanie Freele «» Scott Garson «» Alicia Gifford «» Rosanne Griffeth «» Steven Gullion «» Evelyn Hampton «» Lindsay Hunter «» Nance Knauer «» Jeff Landon «» Darby Larson «» Ellen Meister «» Corey Mesler «» Mary Miller «» Meg Pokrass «» Bruce Holland Rogers «» Jim Ruland «» Paul Silverman «» Claudia Smith «» Amy Sparks «» Kelly Spitzer «» Maryanne Stahl «» Thomas White «» Joseph Young «» Shellie Zacharia «» Michelle Zellers «» Bonnie ZoBell «» Cover Art "Five Years of SmokeLong" compiled from art by Marty D. Ison, Robert Dornberg, Malina, and Rebecca Gullickson «» Letter From the Editor

news and such

2008-06-04T06:16:00.001-07:00

Huge congratulations to Mary Miller for her forthcoming collection Big World. I can't wait to read it.

This week on Five-Star Literary Stories Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's story Half A Yellow Sun is reviewed. This beautiful story originally appeared in Beverly Jackson's Ink Pot (where I was once an editor) and then later in Zoetrope.

Top Ten Page Views for May 2008

2008-06-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Well, Almond's "Pornography" is back on top again. I think I always sort of knew that at least part of its page views were coming from folks who weren't necessarily looking for a good story to read. Now that we have our referrers being tracked, it's become a little clearer that that's the case. In looking at the top referrers for "Pornography," seven of the top ten referrers are searches for "Porno" on various different Microsoft search enginges. Ah, well. I hope that a few of them get over their disappointment at not finding pud-pulling material long enough to give it a read. It's a hell of a story.

1. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (1) The Cockroach by David Barringer (3/15/08)
3. (5) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
4. (4) Trestle by Matt Briggs (3/15/08)
5. (6) Scrape by Utahna Faith (3/15/08)
6. (3) Worried & Wondering by Aaron Burch (3/15/08)
7. (7) We by Patricia Parkinson (3/15/08)
8. (8) Dead Dog Rising by Kate Hill Cantrill (3/15/08)
9. (NR) The Last Stop by Jenny Halper (3/15/08)
10. (9) Last Fall by Katherine Grosjean (3/15/08)

Expect a shake-up next month, as our birthday issue goes live in a hair under two weeks, so there'll be lots of new content to read.

two new literary ventures

2008-05-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

Here are two new ventures you might find interesting:

1) Author Matthew M. Quick has set up a new blog about writing and publishing. It’s an interactive experience called Questioning Q. Please visit http://questioningq.blogspot.com and feel free to ask a question.

2) http://www.bearcreekfeed.com/ is a journal for full-length stories online. The first issue features the very fine work of Kim Chinquee, Happy Birthday To Me.

Microsoft for Perverts

2008-05-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

While getting our stats working again, I requested something that's never worked that I felt we should have: referrer information. So we have that now, almost a week's worth of data. People searching on Google seem to find what they're looking for:

Google

Phrase	Visits
smokelong quarterly	29
smokelong	14
very short story	8
very short stories	5
Ethnic Girls	3
ellen parker	3
greg ames	3
smoke long quarterly	3
Claudia Smith	2
pasha malla	2

People searching on Microsoft? Not so much:

Microsoft Network

Phrase	Visits
porno	17
panties	4
fotos porno	2
pornography	1
no panties	1
NO bras	1
PUNCK ART	1
euclid	1
magritte fish	1
bra + panties	1

To all the Microsoft searchers seeking bras, panties, no bras, no panties, and each combination of said undergarments, I deeply apologize for exposing you to literature.

new venue: Freight Stories

2008-05-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

Got an email about this new ezine:

Freight Stories seeks to publish a range of fiction. As our first issue shows, we're comfortable with the very short story -- not uncommon for an online journal, as you well know -- and with longer works (such as Debra Spark's novella), and everything in between.

Finding My Dad - Dead Hero WWII - 2008, by Beverly Jackson

2008-05-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

If you read nothing else today, please do give yourself a hearty portion of time to sit down and indulge in this poignant, heartbreaking, and uplifting photo essay by Beverly Jackson: Finding My Dad - Dead Hero WWII - 2008

The Definitive Flash

2008-05-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

The Definitive Flash is now LIVE on the Smokelong Quarterly Features section. As you'll see, there's plenty of space for the input of flash writers and readers. I look forward to seeing what everyone has to say.

Top Ten Page Views for April 2008 (stats are back!)

2008-05-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! Stats are working again! I'd like to apologize for the downtime we had with the site for a couple days over the weekend and hope it didn't panic anyone too much. On the plus side, having to talk to our web host prompted me to mention that we'd really like to have our stats working again. And now they are! I've gone through and backfilled the missing top tens. If you click here, you should be able to see all of them that were missing (and, at some point, I'll go back and put tags on all of the top tens ever, so they'll all be viewable on one page). April saw another new #1, David Barringer's cockroach micro.

1. (3) The Cockroach by David Barringer (3/15/08)
2. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (6) Worried & Wondering by Aaron Burch (3/15/08)
4. (5) Trestle by Matt Briggs (3/15/08)
5. (1) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
6. (NR) Scrape by Utahna Faith (3/15/08)
7. (NR) We by Patricia Parkinson (3/15/08)
8. (8) Dead Dog Rising by Kate Hill Cantrill (3/15/08)
9. (NR) Last Fall by Katherine Grosjean (3/15/08)
10. (NR) Raymond Carver by Dan Chaon (9/15/07)

SO glad to have stats working again. I'll be compiling the stats for the last two issues in a bit, and will be posting them as well.

wigleaf top 50 and other news

2008-05-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

The excellent folks at wigleaf have announced their top 50 online stories. Nice foreword and introduction from the series and selecting editors.

The Kenyon Review announced KROnline described by David Lynn as:

"a lively and innovative bridge between the world of the very best print literature and the emerging potential of the electronic universe."

A new issue of Narrative Magazine is live. Go on and read it.

Last, but definitely not least, check out this Quick Fiction Interview with Kim Chinquee

In Profile: Writer Michelle Tandoc-Pichereau

2008-05-16T09:32:00.001-07:00

Michelle was a finalist in the 2008 Kathy Fish Fellowship award. Read her story "Blank" in issue 20. Read more about her at Writers in Profile.

Five-Star Literary Stories

2008-05-03T05:18:00.002-07:00

Check out this cool new site--Five-Star Literary Stories:

Five Star Literary Stories combines three integral facets of the writing life: publisher, story, and reviewer. Each story is editor nominated and considered one of the best the mag has published.

Narrative Magazine Contest Announcements

2008-05-03T05:18:00.001-07:00

Catching up on news from this week:

NARRATIVE MAGAZINE CONGRATULATES THE WINNERS AND FINALISTS IN THE 2008 LOVE STORY CONTEST

First Place ($2,500) Elizabeth Stuckey-French Interview with a Moron
Second Place ($1,500) Maud Newton Conversations You Have at Twenty
Third Place ($750) Janet Burroway Blackout

Ten Finalists ($100 each)
Heather Brittain Bergstrom Shallow Sea
Mermer Blakeslee Digger’s God
William Borden The Real Thing
Beth O’Gara Connor Accommodations
Masha Hamilton It Always Does
Christian Lewis It’s a Joy to Serve You
Ron Tanner Renovation
Sarah Towers On the Universal Tendency Toward Debasement in the Sphere of Love
Lesley C. Weston I Believe
Yuvi Zalkow Blue

The Narrative First-Person Story Contest with $7,000 in prizes opens May 1,
for entries of fiction and nonfiction. Entry deadline: July 31.

Ron Currie, Jr. wins Young Lions Award

2008-04-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

As reported in The Sun this morning, Ron Currie, Jr. (The Captain, issue 13) was awarded the Young Lions Award at the New York Public Library Monday night for his incredible book, God Is Dead. Winners from previous years include Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation; Monique Truong, Book of Salt; Anthony Doerr, The Shell Collector; Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated; Colson Whitehead, John Henry Days; and Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves.

Other finalists this year were Ellen Litman, The Last Chicken in America; Peter Nathaniel Malae, Teach the Free Man; Dinaw Mengestu, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears; and Emily Mitchell, The Last Summer of the World.

Congratulations, Ron!

FRiGG is five years old!

2008-04-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

They're not making much (any) ado about it, but the latest issue of FRiGG Magazine is number 20. And they're quarterly. Do the math...

Happy fifth birthday, FRiGG!

As always, it's a dynamite issue, featuring short fiction by Daphne Buter, Scott Garson, Michael Leone, Mark McLaren, and Gabriel Orgrease; and poetry by Terri Brown-Davidson, Cheryl Chambers, Thylias Moss, Kristine Ong Muslim, and Joseph R. Trombatore.

Go! Read!

handwritten

2008-04-27T06:09:00.001-07:00

If you are a storyteller with terrific penmanship, you might consider submitting to Keyhole's intriguing By Hand issue. Here's the info:

We're looking for hand-written poetry, fiction, or anything else literary.
If you have the ability to scan documents, feel free--send to submissions@keyholepublications.com (also include a separate .doc file with text).
If you can't scan yourself, mail to:

Keyhole
1307-B 15th Avenue South,
Nashville, TN 37212.

Keep the size in mind. The journal is 6x9 inches. Write on any paper size but keep text within a 6x9 area. May use multiple pages if necessary. Write it out on any surface that can be scanned. Illustrations are welcome too.

If we get a good response we want to put out an extra, completely hand-written issue.

In Profile: Writer J.M. Patrick

2008-04-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

SmokeLong contributor J.M. Patrick is profiled at the Writer Profile Project. Her story "Portrait of a Mother Beforehand" appeared in issue 17. Click here to read about the school where she learned to juggle and ride a unicycle, how her family has reacted to the dysfunctional families in her fiction, her definition of success, and more.

examiner.com

2008-04-21T12:15:00.001-07:00

I've just started covering the Seattle literary scene for examiner.com. Check it out. And if you have Seattle lit news you'd like shared, let me know!

Elizabeth Ellen at 3:AM Magzine

2008-04-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Smokelong Contributor Elizabeth Ellen has three new flashes at 3:AM, titled "Broken," "Borrowed Time," and "Some Women Like to Travel." "Broken" is my favorite of the bunch, and includes this especially witty exchange:

"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war," you said and I thought about how I'd already read that on the bumper of your car.
"I'm not preparing for war," I said, "I'm preparing for defeat."
"Either way," you shrugged.
I uncrossed my arms; let them fall limply at my sides. I wanted you to put back on the porkpie hat. Without it you looked too much like every other man I knew. I was no longer sure you were capable of overseeing the atrocities I wished you to inflict upon me.

As usual, Elizabeth's got killer dialogue and sharp narration to spare. Also, a gentle reminder: Her new chapbook, Sixteen Miles Outside of Phoenix, is now available as part of the collection A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness, along with chapbooks by Amy Clark, Kathy Fish, and Claudia Smith.

Katrina Denza in wigleaf and Storyglossia

2008-04-18T06:36:00.001-07:00

What a treat! Here is an excellent flash by the darling and dear Katrina Denza at wigleaf--soap--and a wonderful (generous) interview with her at Storyglossia.

Word Riot

2008-04-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

The April issue of Word Riot is live:

Prose by Thomas Boulan, Mary Bowers, Jean-Gérald Charbonneau, Jon
Chopan, Gabe Durham, Brian Foley, James Francis, Jack Harris, Melissa
Ruby and James Terry

Poetry by R. A. Allen, Joe Balaz, Jak Cardini, Richard Donnelly, Scott
Drinkall, Kenneth Gurney, Lara Konesky, Janice Krasselt Tatter, Chris
Major and Kirk Pinho

Reviews of SALUD: Selected Writings by Curt Johnson; BLUE RIBBONS: At
the County Fair by Ellaraine Lockie; Cervena Barva Press; No Way Out
But In by Don Winter

An interview with David F. Hoenigman by Kenji Siratori

WR Fiction Editor Timmy Waldron offers his best short story bets for the month

Randall Brown Wins Flume Press 2007-2008 Fiction Chapbook Contest

2008-04-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

SmokeLong is hugely proud of Randall Brown, whose flash fiction chapbook, Mad to Live, has won Flume Press's 2007-2008 Fiction Chapbook Contest. Previous winners of this contest include Sherrie Flick, whose I Call This Flirting Randall cites as "a big influence on my writing short shorts."

Congratulations, Randall!

We'll post more here about details of purchasing the book as soon as it's been released.

Dunbar Village

2008-04-11T07:46:00.001-07:00

I read this post on galleycat this morning. The story of the attack is horrific, to say the least--I'm outraged as a human being and brought to my knees as a mother.

Here is a link to the ebay auction where you can vote on such items as story and novel critiques from well-known authors and collections of books.

My Review of Kim Chinquee's Oh Baby

2008-04-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

My review of Kim Chinquee's Oh Baby, a collection of flash fictions and prose poems, can be read at my website. Kim previously appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly with her stories Attic (Issue Five) and Holiday Inn (Issue Nineteen, and one of my favorite of her stories).

Night Train Firebox Fiction

2008-04-08T16:33:00.001-07:00

It's easy to forget to let folks know about the great flash fiction that's being published regularly at Night Train, under the label "Firebox Fiction." They don't post it all in one issue that comes out monthly or quarterly. Rather, they post a new flash almost every week. Yesterday, a new piece by Scott Doyle was posted. In March, flashes by Merle Drown, Michael Jauchen, Antonios Maltezos, and Michael P. McManus were published, along with an interview with Jai Clare, AND their full issue 8.1. If you've not yet read Night Train, I strongly urge you to go check it out. Rusty Barnes, Alicia Gifford, Cami Park, and company put out an amazing publication chock-full of great writing.

Quick Fiction 13

2008-04-07T14:16:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure if I've spoken here of my absolute love for Quick Fiction, but if I haven't, I should have. The content is phenomenal, the issues are adorable, and the subscriptions are cheap. They have their latest issue out now, and it features Jack Anderson, Ryan Blacketter, Aaron Burch, Kim Chinquee, Myfanwy Collins, Avital Gad-Cykman, James Grinwis, Yuka Igarashi, Toshiya Kamei, Jeff Landon, Michael K. Meyers, Mary Miller, Christopher Orlet, Aimee Pokwatka, Scott Provence, Matthew Salesses, David Schuman, Claudia Smith, Ben Stein, Terese Svoboda, and Mark Yakich.

How much do I love Quick Fiction? The number of flashes I now write in a year can typically be counted on one hand. Assuming one of those fingers is good enough for me to want to see it in print, it's going to be submitted to Quick Fiction. Seriously: if you don't already have a subscription, get one.

insolent rudder

2008-04-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

New issue of insolent rudder is live. Includes flash fiction by Ginnetta Correli, Stephen Leonard, Elizabeth Striebel, Anne Meredith Vannatta, and Bonnie ZoBell, with Maryanne Stahl in the Author Spotlight.

Online Writing: The Best of the First Ten Years

2008-04-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Snow*vigate is publishing an anthology of online writing, edited by Doug Martin and Kim Chinquee. We just learned that Jeff Landon's Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub and Chad Simpson's Miracle are among the stories to be included. Doug Martin is periodically updating the list of authors on Snow*vigate's MySpace page. As of today, the list includes:

Brian Evenson, Michael Martone, Susan Henderson, Kim Chinquee, Noah Eli Gordon, Peter Conners, Mark Yakich, Jeff Landon, Norman Lock, Robyn Art, Mark Tursi, Joanna Howard, Lily Hoang, Brian Beatty, Bruce Covey, Brian Clements, Steve Davenport, Sheila Murphy, Kevin Sampsell, H. Tavel, Claudia Smith, George Looney, Corey Zeller, Jaya Savige, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Chad Simpson, Arielle Greenberg, Matt Hart, Max Winter, Daniel Grandbois, Anthony Tognazzini, Jamey Dunham, Pamela Miller, Megan R. Anderson Ham, Jessica Dyer, Christine Boyka Kluge, Christy Effinger, Matthew Brennan, David Baratier, Derek White, Carol Novack, Peter Markus, Sara Long, Rebecca Eggleston, Robert Lopez, John Bradley, Joshua Corey, Barbara Jacksha, Nicola Mason, Alexander Long, Sandra Beasley, Richard S. King, Cooper Esteban, Christopher Barnes, Kathy Fish, Ted Pelton, Theodore Worozbyt, Darla Crist, Girija Tropp, Jennifer Chapis, Gail Siegel, Liesl Jobson, Darby Larson, Erin Pringle, Davis Schneiderman, Victor Gischler, Jessica Newman, Jon Bonomo, and several more to select.

the short review Issue 6

2008-04-02T13:33:00.000-07:00

The latest edition of the short review is up, with reviews of collections by Susan DiPlacido, Patrick Chapman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Sylvia Petter, Ray Bradbury, Heather Beck, Karen Russell, S. Yizhar, and anthologies edited by Susie Bright and John Klima. Also, interviews with Sylvia Petter, Patrick Chapman, Heather Beck, and Susan DiPlacido.

Hobart Annual Baseball Issue

2008-04-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite lit mag journals of the year just went live. Here's what editor Aaron Burch has to say:

Because the MLB jumped the gun and started a little early, we missed Opening Day, but here we are with our annual baseball issue.

Perhaps our most popular issue of the year, we've super-sized this year, with a full roster of nine! The update includes stories and essays by Andrew Bomback, Andrew Ervin, Roy Kesey, David Kramer, Nick Mainieri, Daniel McArdle, Jim Ruland, Grant Stoye, and an interview with C.J. Hribal. We also have a new special feature: a whole bullpen's worth of haikus! Check out the issue now and get excited about baseball all over again! http://www.hobartpulp.com/website

And check out our last five years' worth here:
http://hobartpulp.com/website/baseball.html

Top Ten Page Views for March 2008

2008-04-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

John Leary jumps back into the top spot again, with a challenge from an old powerhouse. And a bunch of stories from the latest issue start getting much-deserved attention.

1. (3) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
2. (8) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (NR) The Cockroach by David Barringer (3/15/08)
4. (2) The Off-Season by Jami Attenberg (12/15/07)
5. (NR) Trestle by Matt Briggs (3/15/08)
6. (NR) Worried & Wondering by Aaron Burch (3/15/08)
7. (6) Holiday Inn by Kim Chinquee (12/15/07)
8. (NR) Dead Dog Rising by Kate Hill Cantrill (3/15/08)
9. (1) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
10. (NR) The Last Stop by Jenny Halper (3/15/08)

Vestal Review Issue 33

2008-04-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

Vestal Review Web issue 33 is up, featuring previously unpublished stories by Robert Olen Butler, David M. Valin, Molly McCaffrey, Audrey Colombe, Gordon Grice and William Reese Hamilton.

Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter

2008-04-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

A note from Pamelyn Casto:

I have a major project in the works and I'd like to get as many new subscribers as I can. I want to use the newsletter to announce the publication of an upcoming project (a project that will be of help and interest to all writers of flash fiction). Please ask all interested writers to subscribe by sending a blank email message to FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Thanks for your help on getting more subscribers.

Even without the project Pamelyn alludes to, I highly encourage writers of flash fiction to subscribe to her newsletter. It's emailed monthly and contains a ton of useful information on markets for flash.

"Wake" a New York Times Bestseller

2008-03-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

Lisa McMann's "Wake" is the #9 best-selling Children's Chapter Book on the New York Times April 6 Bestsellers List!