Double Tweeter for KG

Two of my tweets were published today at PicFic. Finished and Every Day, Always are dedicated to a birthday boy 3,000 miles away.

I hope you had a good one.

Best, Mel

Paul Corman-Roberts is a Very Nice Man

Paul Corman-Roberts, poet/pundit/pulpist, knows how to get down. Check out his recent review of Shudder Pageant, the collaborative monster-piece by myself and xTx (click on image to enter Crow Reviews).

PCR is, among other things, the poetry editor for the long running e-zine Cherry Bleeds, and a regular contributor to Full of Crow.

Big ups to all.

A Review: Charactered Pieces by Caleb J Ross

Caleb J Ross’s short story collection Charactered Pieces (OW Press, 2009) is a celebration. It’s a celebration of characters who are cursed. With life.

Whether destructive, apathetic, misshapen or addicted, the characters in this collection continue to chug forward like damaged locomotives that refuse to derail. Their power, it seems, is in their imperfections, and Ross shows us, without a doubt, he is a master of tragedy made gorgeous.

In My Family’s Rule, a father and his two sons look on as a hospital is demolished:

“Sutures, like soft spots on infant skulls, break away, letting the exterior collapse into these floors and stairs that once carried so many sick, dying, and healing.”

Stark, vivid, and yes, often unsettling, Charactered Pieces grips you and won’t let go, pulling your eyes through the dark smudges of humanity’s rifts with a terrifying, skillful grace.

Beneath the rubble of their lives, the characters in Charactered Pieces know who they are, and Ross challenges us to forsake them. But we cannot, for they are us.

“Sometimes, we have to learn how to smile.”—from The Camp

Don’t miss this.

Visit Caleb HERE. Purchase Charactered Pieces HERE.

Friday December Things

Frank Hinton's Metazen has cool pictures. Frank wants you to do something NICE for once.

Eric Beeny has good news.

Ben Tanzer continues to change lives.

Negative Suck says Hello.

Fashion For Collapse wants your mad genius.

MBRT wants to read to you.

Sheldon Lee Compton knows right from Wrong Tree.

>kill author wants you to live.

decomP closes 2009 strong.

Buy something awesome this holiday season:

• Aaron Burch's winning PANK chapbook
• Jessie Carty's The Wait of Atom
• Charactered Pieces by Caleb J Ross
  
• Light and Trials of Light by Cynthia Reeser
• [First Year] an mlp anthology
  
• Museum of Fucked by David Peak
• A Sony Voice Recorder
• Good Socks

Be safe out there.

Rohan Rocks

The talented, lovely, thoughtful, and ever so gracious Ethel Rohan offers up some very kind words for my chapbook, When the Cats Razzed the Chickens & Other Stories.

Thank you, Ethel.


(click image to visit ethel's world)

Cooper Renner's Last Stand (not really)

december

elimae

the last issue of 2009 and the last issue edited solely by the great & mystical cooper renner. welcome to kim chinquee. can't wait to see 2010. but before then, check out this farewell (of sorts) lineup:

eric burke, david peak, nathan moore & dana guthrie martin, nora nadjarian, adam moorad, perry orbsim, leora silverman fridman, ben segal, adam siegal, kendra malone, kevin o'cuinn, michelle reale, nicolle elizabeth, joy wood, tirumal mundargi, meakin armstrong, zakeeyah kahn, tagert ellis, phillip brooks, lindsay marianna walker, howie good, j. michael wahlgren, adam marston, david erlewine, kimberly ruth, jessie tangen-mills, edmund sandoval, jal nicholl, mel bosworth, kristian radford, sean patrick hill

see you next year

Super Thanks to Super People

(click to enlarge)

This morning I woke up to some awesomeness. First I saw blue sky. Then I saw Caleb J Ross's review of When the Cats Razzed the Chickens & Other Stories at Outsider Writers Collective. Check out Caleb's words HERE.

So this morning I'm all about thanks. Thanks to everyone who's supported Razzed in one way or another. You cats are superheros. I'm talking to you, Caleb J Ross, Ben Tanzer, Cynthia Reeser, Ethel Rohan, Dorothee Lang, Matt DeBenedictis, Teresa Houle, Tia Prouhet, Jason Jordan, Eric Beeny, Lynn Alexander, Jessie Carty, Greg Santos, Roxane Gay, Audri Sousa, Jason Behrends, Cooper Renner, xTx, J.S. Graustein, friends & family & many many others. I owe you all a beer. Maybe I'll just buy a keg. I'll even spring for the good stuff. No swill for you cats.