Reading from "Kiss Shot"

You can hear me read "I Got A Name" from my eBook short story collection, Kiss Shot, as part of The Next Best Book Blog's Audio Series. Here's the link.

If you've purchased Kiss Shot, please consider leaving a review at Amazon or at Goodreads. Every review helps new readers discover the eBook.

From Oct. 5-7, Kiss Shot will be free for everyone to download to their computer, e-readers or smartphones from Amazon. This is a special promotion to help bring more readers not only to the eBook, but to The Venus Trilogy as well. If you haven't purchased a copy yet, you'll surely want to download a free copy that weekend. If you don't want to wait, Kiss Shot is only 99 cents in the Kindle Store.

Self-portrait at 43

Weekend head cold blues

I have my first cold of the fall/winter season. Since I've been burning the candle at both ends for the last couple of weeks, I'm not surprised that I'm sick. I've spent the weekend on the couch reading poetry (Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks - sent to me by Marie Lecrivain) and having a Meryl Streep-a-thon with Heartburn and Defending Your Life. And soup... lots of soup.

Before I got too sick, I was able to finish the second edit on the galley of Render. Bryan Borland at Sibling Rivalry Press has been incredibly understanding as I strive to make the poems in this collection the best they can be. Render is shaping up to be about 75 pages and all but four or five have been previously published. I got an acceptance last week from Floating Bridge Review so that's one more to add to the acknowledgment page. 

I also neglected to mention that the wonderful Australian poet Rosemary Nissen-Wade selected one of my poems from Better To Travel to feature on the Poets United blog. "60 Seconds in Zaire" is still as topical as it was when I wrote it nearly 20 years ago. You can read it at this link. And I don't think I've mentioned that Better To Travel is now available in eBook format for just $3.99 at Amazon. I still can't believe it's been almost 10 years since that collection was published.

If you missed episode two of the new Internet radio show People You Should Know, you can listen at this link. The Friday edition featured Karen Head, Dustin Brookshire and Rena Mason – all writers worth getting to know. 

Wednesday Bits

Many thanks to Indie Author Anonymous for featuring Kiss Shot as it's Spotlight Book this week. You can read more about it this link!

Yesterday, I taped an episode of the local TV show Writers In Focus hosted by James Taylor. We talked about The Venus Trilogy, Kiss Shot and I read a poem from Render. Not sure what the air date will be locally, but I'll post it and then it will go up on YouTube for the masses.

Have you heard about the 18-year-old who signed a six-figure deal with HarperCollins for her book called The Dark Heroine: Dinner With A Vampire? Obviously I should turn Martin and Irene into vampires in the final Venus book. How many vampire books do we need? How can you keep making that subject fresh? Bram Stoker has surely spun even his bones into dust over this.

And don't even get me started on "new adult fiction." This is a publisher-created genre where characters transform from teens into adults in the course of the story. Isn't this just fiction? I mean... really?

"Kiss Shot" trailer and more

I decided to put together a short trailer for Kiss Shot, which you can watch above. There's plenty of debate over whether book trailers actually sell books, but I think they are important as part of a larger marketing strategy. And they're just fun to make. Let me know what you think.

Many thanks to Midtown Patch here in Atlanta for featuring Kiss Shot on their homepage today. You can read the article at this link.

You can also listen to the new online radio show People You Should Know, which had it's debut this afternoon. I was a guest along with Kimberly Faye Greenberg, Jennifer Lavoie and Shandra McDonald Bradford. The show is hosted by David-Matthew Barnes and Frankie Hernandez. You can listen to the entire show at this link. I'm on about 45 minutes in and talk about my writing and read a little piece of "Clover Grill" from Kiss Shot.

Bestsellers & book festivals

Thanks to everyone who has already purchased a copy of my ebook of short stories, Kiss Shot, from Amazon. The book has – so far – peaked at #39 on the short story collection bestseller list. I am answering questions all day today on Facebook about the creation of Kiss Shot, ebook formatting and any other questions you might have, so stop by and check it out. If you haven't purchased your copy of Kiss Shot, it's only 99 cents in the Kindle Store (or 77 pence in the UK Kindle Store).

This past weekend was the Decatur Book Festival. I went to hear new US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey read from her collection Thrall on Friday night at the Schwartz Center at Emory University. Thrall is an interesting juxtaposition of confessional and ekphrastic poetry based on Casta paintings. On Saturday morning, I read with Michael Montlack, Jericho Brown, Jim Elledge, Cleo Creech and Dustin Brookshire from the Divining Divas anthology on the City Hall Stage. We had a surprisingly large crowd since we were scheduled opposite the Best American Poetry anthology reading. I also hosted an hour of poets on the Java Monkey stage and took part in an offsite reading from Divining Divas at Bound to Be Read Books that evening.

Judson Mitcham reads at Java Monkey

On Sunday, I introduced a reading and discussion on hybrid poetry by Laura Mullen and Megan Volpert, then attended the tribute to Lucille Clifton, a brilliant reading by Patricia Smith and Travis Denton and closed out the festival at Java Monkey for a reading by new Georgia Poet Laureate Judson Mitcham. He was amazing! Georgia is in good hands.

I have a second galley of my poetry collection Render to tackle today, so I'm about to grab my red pen and get to it. I hope everyone has a great Labor Day!

"Kiss Shot" now availabe at Amazon

Kiss Shot, my eBook collection of short stories, is now available exclusively in the Amazon Kindle Store for just 99 cents at this link. The book went live last night and this morning it cracked the Top 50 bestseller list for short story collections! The eBook is also available in other Amazon territories including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. If you don't have a Kindle e-reader, you can also read the book on your smartphone or download it to your computer. Amazon Prime members can borrow the book for free!

This collection contains four short stories set in the fictional town of Cottonwood, Georgia. Here's a synopsis: A devoted maid recalls the hijinks surrounding her employer's death from a brain tumor in "How Fanny Got Her House," while a teenage boy comes to terms with his sexuality during an unexpected game of pool in the title story, "Kiss Shot." A woman escaping an abusive relationship arrives in New Orleans during a rain storm and wanders into the famed "Clover Grill" on Bourbon Street, and "I Got A Name" follows the trials and tribulations of an overweight woman looking for love at a community theater company.

The stories in Kiss Shot are a taste of a much larger work to come exploring the lives of the inhabitants of this small southern town. The stories were written over a period of almost 20 years and owe much to the tradition of great storytellers like Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Ferrol Sams and Fannie Flagg.

If you enjoy Kiss Shot, please tell your friends. I appreciate your support!