First Great Success! Anti-Manchild Project #1 finished!

You see this? You see whose name is on it? Well, my first project is now completed. I have a very real and very beautiful chapbook published, all thanks to the very lovely Jessi Graustein and the rest of Folded Word Press. They have decided to put out one of my collections: Common Symptoms of an Enduring Chill Explained. It is an exploration on the relationship between a physical and spiritual breakdown and the effect of both on one's language. See, sometimes dreams do come true. Cue the Disney music. Anyway, the important stuff to check out:

Here is the link to buy it.

Here is a link for updates on Folded Word's blog.

Here are some cool pictures that show the chapbook's making.

There will be further updates about the chapbook later. It's interesting to see me name on the cover. I know that is not the total goal of writing, or the only reason to do it (it's really all about the chicks, man). It's still nice though and seeing a work published makes me feel like Zeus after his headache and seeing Athena emerge. Or something like that. I guess this means I am really published and everything. The next step, of course, is to get a book through, either one of poetry, short stories, or even a novel. Ideally, all three. But for now, one of my major artistic aims has been met and I can cross off one of the many goals I have set up for me to achieve. How many Manchildren can say they've been published?

Anti-Manchild Project #1: Publishing a Chapbook

Okay, so I am going to start relatively small. My first goal will not immediately bring me renown or independence when fulfilled, but it is important to me nonetheless. It is means more to me as a part of my personal development and has less to do with reaching one of the usual benchmarks of adulthood. However, it is a vital step in raising my profile as a poet and will help me develop a name for myself in that regard.

Although I have been published throughout the web, world, and in print, I do not have any books to my name. I have appeared in a few anthologies here and there, ensuring that my name is somewhere in the Library of Congress. For a while my goal was just to be published in journals and magazines, and I did this. First I wanted to appear anywhere that took submissions. Once that was done, I moved onto appearing in a paper publication. Then I desired to have a story printed, and this I accomplished as well. One of my last goals was to send a poem in somewhere using snail mail and have it published. Thanks to the Marco Polo Quarterly, this has happened as well.

Now I am ready to move onto the next stage, which in today's poetry world is to put out a chapbook. What exactly is a chapbook? It is a smaller publication, usually 8 to 30 pages in length, and is published in a limited run. Nowadays they can appear both in electronic and print formats and more often than not are produced with care so that the chapbook itself is meant to be a work of art. Yes, I know there are plenty of competitions and presses that will publish me for a fee, but I am not interested in either of those options now. First, I am not interested in winning any prizes, I am fine with a chapbook and nothing else. If my submission is declined, then no hard feelings, no money lost, and I move on. I also do not want to pay a press because, well, I would like to have a partner in my endeavor who will care about the product as much as me and will promote it.

Also, I am unemployed.

To this end I have begun sending out submissions for consideration. Here is a list of chapbooks that are ready to send out, some under consideration elsewhere right now. These are only themed collections. It is possible for me to assembled a chapbook of poems I've published as well. Let me know if you are interested in any of them:

1968: A long poem between two lovers that takes place over the course of the year 1968. It is made of news reports and song lyrics cut up and woven together.

Three Dollar Opera: An epic adventure about a man trying to buy a treat with three dollars in loose change on a summer night.

The Common Symptoms of an Enduring Chill Explained: A series of poems about health issues.

QuikClot: Similar but uses the conceit of wounds (though is there anything less conceited than a wound?)

Special Guest Voice: Reuben St. Awesome: The rise of pop star sensation Reuben St. Awesome, a mix of Lady Gaga and Bob Dylan, told in his own words.

Battle Hymns of the Republic of New York: A youthful enterprise about my early days in Manhattan

Saved by Science: A series developed in response to a series of photos I saw about the items stored in the recesses of the Smithsonian.