Menacing Hedge Spring 2013 Issue LIVE!!

Woo hoo!! The Spring Issue just went up.

Six short stories hand-picked by yours truly, plus awesome poems selected by Kelly Boyker. AND artwork by my awesome friend Ryan Case, that MH was nice enough to allow me to interview.

Click over for brand new fiction by:

Kate Velguth

Court Merrigan

Liz Young

Mia Avramut

Matthew Burnside

Gisella Faggi

Menacing Hedge Spring 2013

Bird of Pray by Ryan Case

Chuck Palahniuk Anthology ‘Burnt Tongues’ Will Include…ME!!

a few years ago i joined a workshop. i was getting long in the tooth and decided it was about time people KNEW i wrote stories all the time, as opposed to just scribbling them down then hiding them in notebooks, folders, envelopes, folding them up and shoving them in books as markers, and what have you. maybe at some point i wanted actual humans to see them. so, other people working to become better writers seemed a good place to start.

fast forward a few years, and it’s very difficult for me to keep ANY of my fiction to myself. and one of those stories – “The Line Forms on the Right” – that i oh-so-fearfully handed over to be judged, praised and shredded in the writing workshop ends up here:

Chuck Palahniuk news release:

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/news/the-cult-anthology-burnt-tongues-has-a-publisher?fb_action_ids=137646729749885&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22137646729749885%22%3A503271313067906%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22137646729749885%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Medallion Press news release:

http://www.prnewschannel.com/2013/04/03/fight-club-author-chuck-palahniuk-to-release-new-book/

Burnt Tongues! Coming Summer 2014!!

 

the wasp

The Ides of March: ‘Cipher Sister’ Table of Contents Floats to the Surface….

 

Cipher Sister

Table of Contents

Darcy and Lucy among the Flowers by Alexander Davis

 Lucky by DB Cox

 The Cipher Sisters and Kid Nosferatu Dance the Bally-Kooch by Edward Morris

 Mickey Slim by Chris Deal

 A Witch in West Kansas by W.P. Johnson

 Mercy by Rebecca Brown

 1951 by Matt McGee

There’s no Business Like BLANK by Xander Stronach

That’s Showbiz by Jason Lee

1971 by Ken Goudey

Real Lookers by Audrey Hare

Dance, Darling by Richard Thomas

Regular Earharts by Andrew McElrath

You & Me by Adam Autin

Saga Sideshow by Tone Baker

 Chance Meeting at the Back of the Apollo Theatre, Harlem, NYC by Sek Han Foo

Asymmetry by Amanda Gowin

 Sister is the Sister by Edward J Rathke 

Pincushion Queen

i’ve been storing all my brain droppings and subconscious organizations on Pinterest. i just realized that looking at the boards, they’re pretty cohesive and i can spot exactly what piece of my brain i’m storing each picture for – and anyway, they’re pretty. when i’m too tired to write or read and it’s almost bedtime i spend a lot of fifteen minute spurts going “ooooh,” click, “ooooh,” click…

anyway. here’s a link to the page itself and to a few of the boards. they’re purty.

Main Page: http://pinterest.com/mandajunemiller/

Cipher Sister: http://pinterest.com/mandajunemiller/cipher-sister-a-collection-2013-thunderdome-press/

Brain: http://pinterest.com/mandajunemiller/brain/

Beauty in People : http://pinterest.com/mandajunemiller/beauty-in-people/

Ghosts : http://pinterest.com/mandajunemiller/ghosts/

Nefarious :http://pinterest.com/mandajunemiller/nefarious/

Hi, Menacing Hedge

so, Kelly Boyker and Craig Wallwork are having me over to play…. hi, anyone from MH who clicked over to see what qualifications i might possibly have to sift through your work for the Spring Issue.

proper capitalization is obviously not one of them. BUT! i’m confident i can persuade you to send me your loveliest, most beautiful things to read, and i will handle and read them delicately, like scrolls of parchment. i shall light candles about the room in the dead of night and shuffle to my old table with arms full. i’ll unroll them carefully one by one, and believe you me i shall mouth the words while following every single line with the tip of my index finger.

 

Qualifications:

1. In the 2nd grade i did very well in 5th grade reading comprehension, so i have a lot of experience grasping a story. this wasn’t through any sort of school program, there was just a really big 5th grade girl that rode my bus and ‘persuaded’ my friend and i to do her reading homework every day on the way home from school.

2. i read ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘Gone With the Wind’ when i was ten years old. this just illustrates that i read feverishly and compulsively. i wasn’t supposed to read those books, so i hid them and devoured them in delicious secret moments.

3. my first novel was completed at age fifteen – it was shit and i’ll never show it to anyone even though i worked on it for a year. i know how much time it takes to do this! i know you work really hard on whatever you send, and you worked really hard for years before that to get to a place that you wrote things you felt were worthwhile to show the world.

4. i was almost thirty before i ever showed even one written word of my own to anyone in the outside world. it takes serious balls to cut out a little piece of yourself and send it to strangers, only to have them tell you objectively what a part of your insides is worth. this act of courage will never be taken for granted.

5.  i don’t give a shit about your bio. seriously don’t. won’t read it until after the story. if you have seven published novels, an MFA and teach a creative writing class, i won’t know you weren’t a seventeen year old who scribbled her story out in biology class instead of taking notes. because everyone makes magic sometimes, and i don’t need to know where you’ve been to feel it.

6. Craig and Kelly trust me. and i don’t take it lightly. i’ll do my very best, and i’m very excited.

SO SEND ME SOMETHING!

 

here is a photo of me just after my head transplant, so you can be assured i’m using the very best brains available:

http://menacinghedge.com/

Well Hello There, Cipher…

ooooh, things are getting fun. Mike and i compiled the final list of stories for the collection (and no one even threw a punch! negotiations on the list went really smooooth) and the acceptances/rejections have been sent. i feel really good about all of it. weird to get so many stories – not to mention so many COOL stories – from such a specific prompt. so we’re on our way!

next is artwork, contracts, proofreading….

but still, pretty early in the New Year.

i feel super-important. like i need a special hat that says “EDITOR” on the brim, and i should keep a clip-on tie nearby at all times so when i read/discuss/work on anything involving the Cipher Sister stuff i can grab my hat and tie and immediately look professional and efficient. the hat would cover my hair-horns and the tie would cover  (or at least neutralize) the stick-on tattoo i currently have on my neck.

here’s a quick synopsis of what the collection will be like, pulled from Thunderdome:

CIPHER SISTER follows a simple premise inspired by a true story:

“The sheriff’s department in El Dorado County broke protocol this week and released the names of two deceased residents without notifying their relatives.

The problem is they can’t find any relatives of the twin sisters who were found dead inside their South Lake Tahoe home last week.

The bodies were discovered on Feb. 27, according to the sheriff’s department. Authorities say they most likely died within a short time of one another of natural causes.

The sheriffs haven’t been able to locate the next of kin of the women. Apparently throughout their lives, they always listed each other on all official forms.”

Their names are Lucy and Darcy.

We’re putting their lives back together in imperfect fragments.

 A collected history based purely on hearsay and conjecture. We know when they were born. We know when and where and how they died. What happened in between?

or, if you’re more into a visual representation of the tone, here’s the pinterest page i cobbled together:

http://pinterest.com/mandajunemiller/cipher-sister-a-collection-2013-thunderdome-press/

it’s essentially a bunch of stories about the lives of two very, very mysterious ladies. no Black Dahlia, no true crime – just peeking through eighteen different keyholes at eighteen imaginary moments….

The Woman in Black

All In the Family: 9 Family Values in House of 1,000 Corpses (in ManArchy Magazine)

I’ve been waiting YEARS for an excuse to have this conversation outside my own head, so click on over!!

http://manarchymag.com/core/2012/10/fireflys/author-amandagowin

 

 

At Curiouser and Curiouser, the Time Flies….

impossible to believe all the lovely people who’ve allowed me to interrogate them. also impossible to believe how long i go between organizing the links in handy dandy posts….

here’s where we are since the last update:

end of July:

July 30th – Gordon Highland

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/gordon-highland/

August

August 7th- Monica Drake

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/monica-drake/

August 14th – Adam Skorupskas

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/adam-skorupskas/

August 21st - Sean Ferguson

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/sean-ferguson/

August 28th – J. David Osborne

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/j-david-osborne/

September

September 4th – Trent Zelazny

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/trent-zelazny/

September 18th – Michael J. Seidlinger

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/michael-j-seidlinger/

September 25th – Nik Korpon

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/nik-korpon/

Octoberso far…

October 2nd – Kealan Patrick Burke

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/kealan-patrick-burke/

October 9th – Richard Thomas

http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/richard-thomas/

AND don’t forget – October still has THREE interviews on their way: Bob Pastorella, John Everson and David JamesKeaton!

link to all interviews before the ones mentioned in this post:

http://lookatmissohio.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/and-daddy-tomato-stomps-him-and-says-ketch-up/

Six Years

Six years ago tonight, it was the night before my wedding and I was very close to passing out. A few days earlier I’d broken out in hives and taken allergy medicine for it, which had exacerbated the hives and resulted in three solid days AWAKE. So the night before my wedding I got a shot in my ass to counteract the allergy medicine, and unlike every other bride in the history of the world I slept a solid twelve hours the night before my wedding day….

Less than two years later a beautiful monster appeared in our lives and made everything even better…

We’re all monsters. We’re wild things. We’re pirates.

Six years after my Night of Big Sleep, on the eve of my Wedding Anniversary, I’m sitting on the couch in my little house in the country with my husband and son, two horses and a baby mule outside, two big dogs, an evil cat, while the newest addition (a guinea pig named Pete) cautiously watches the goings on in this monkeyhouse. My son is gluing chopped up pieces of construction paper together to make an Autumn tree.

 

Life is good. Insanity is good. Happy is good.

Love is good.

 

 

Happy Anniversary, Eric.

New Favorite Things

new favorite song:

El Camino by Elizabeth Cook

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKZkM437TiY

 

 

 

 

 

new favorite site:

http://fuckyeahtomhardy.tumblr.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

new favorite news:

LADY GAGA IN MACHETE KILLS!!

And Daddy Tomato Stomps Him and Says “Ketch Up”

how long since i updated here? How long is a piece of string? Too Damn Long. yeah, i’m full of movie quotes this morning, but i’m also full of  UPDATES. first, let’s do a little Curiouser and Curiouser Recap. below are the links to ALL of this spring/summer’s interviews so far:

May:

Stephen Graham Jones – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/stephen-graham-jones/

Craig Wallwork – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/craig-wallwork/

Michael Paul Gonzalez -  http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/michael-paul-gonzalez/

Pela Via – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/pela-via/

Edward J. Rathke – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/edward-j-rathke/

June:

Craig Clevenger – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/craig-clevenger/

Mlaz Corbier – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/mlaz-corbier-2/

Grigori Black – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/grigori-black/

Vincent Louis Carrella – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/vincent-louis-carrella/

July:

Camille Alexa – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/camille-alexa/

Dan Donche/Janden Hale – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/dan-donche-janden-daniel-hale/

Nikki Guerlain – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/nikki-guerlain/

Charles Dodd White – http://curiousinterviews.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/charles-dodd-white/

And stay tuned!! i’ll be closing out July with Gordon Highland and opening August with Monica Drake! 

that’s a lot of bold lettering. but you know what? you’re too hungry. worry not, my lovelies, the interviews just keep on coming. and i just met you and and i love you.

too much quote plagiarism? groaning, yeah. it’s all right. just click the links.

 

P.S. Dark Knight Rises was awesome.

Words I Like To Say Out Loud

1. matryoshka

2. wunderkammer

3. forsythia

4. hydrangea

5. parlour

And you?

Bucket List: Justin Townes Earle