What a whirlwind weekend. Babel Con went well. I had at least 25 folks at each of my two presentations, and about the same for a horror fiction panel I sat on with two other writers, Whitney Lakin and M. F. Korn. From the reports I’ve heard, the presentations and panel were well received.
I sold some copies of my books, a lot more than last year. Scotty, a regular Babel Con attendee, bought copies of all the Taleran books Saturday afternoon and had already read 50+ pages of Swords of Talera by the time I saw him Sunday. He was liking it. Yeah!
Our late Sunday evening poetry panel was only sparsely attended, but it was exciting for me because we held the official unveiling of my very first poetry chapbook, entitled Wanting the Mouth of a Lover. I knew it was coming, but I never count my chickens before copies are in my hand. Now they are.
The publisher is Spec House of Poetry, founded by J. Bruce Fuller, a fine poet in his own right. J publishes chapbooks through Spec House, and also edits and publishes his own poetry/prose magazine called The Shantytown Anomaly, which you can also find at the Spec House site.
The chapbook comes in both a regular and deluxe edition. They feature the same cover image, but the deluxe is signed and has a silver see-through cover with the title etched at the top. The regular edition has an opaque silver cover and is printed in a smaller size. However, the regular edition also contains a short essay that I wrote on the genesis of the poetry in the collection.
The poetry consists of horror haiku with a vampire theme. Some were published in 1995 in Rouge et Noir, but there are never before seen “ku” as well. You can view the covers at the Spec House site. Copies will be available for sale at the site as soon as J gets back to his computer. I’ll also have signed copies of the regular edition for sale here in a day or two.
By the way, this chapbook is a family affair. Lana did the wonderful cover.
31 comments:
Rock on, man! Sounds fun and like a win-win all the way.
Congrats on the publication & the good attendance at your talks, baby. You rock.
Hello Charles,
Many Congrats!!!
(( hug ))
Yay! Good for you my friend! Congratulations!
I'm getting good news for friends all over the blogosphere today. :)
Charles:
Sounds like it all went very well.
Congrats on the publication of Wanting the Mouth of a Lover. It must have been a real treat to see them in time for the con.
I'll be checking out the Spec House site for more info.
best,
Don @ Lilliput
The chapbook sounds like a treasure.
Your perseverance will pay off, Charles. Congratulations. :)
Why is it as soon as I read the title of the post I thought of the Will Ferrel-Rachel Dratch bit from SNL?
grats all round, charles and lana!
Congrats on the talks and the chapbook, but where's a shot of the cover for us to ooh and ahh over?
"Wanting the Mouth of a Lover" could easily be a Butlik song title....I digress.
You know, I would never have thought of vampire/horror issues to be something that would inspire poetry. But now that you mentioned it, I guess it does.
Erik, I'd agree.
Lana, no you.
Anna-lys, thank you.
Anndi, I like when that happens :)
Issa's hut Don, thanks. I appreciate it. I had a blast.
Bernita, I'm enjoying holding it in my hand.
Bernardl, thanks. I appreciate it.
Wil, I'm thinking that says quite a lot about you. Yes, quite a lot. ;)
Laughingwolf, we're both exited.
Travis Erwin, I was too tired last night to get it up but I'll add one today. Lana has one at her blog already.
Heff, I'd think "wanting the ass of a lover" would be more of a Butlik tune.
All - Wanting the Mouth of a Lover is now available at the Spec House blog, along with cover photos. Sorry for the delay but me and Charles were partying in Baton Rouge and I just got home. --J
Congratulations!
I've looked at your book and noticed that the characters on the cover read "drunken pictures" (shu-eh). I like the idea; if you were to translate the title into Japanese -- koibito no kuchi o motomete -- I'm not sure it would sound as good. Whose idea was it to use those particular characters?
Fantastic news, Charles (and Lana)! And I'm glad to hear that your talks were well received.
Finally, a huge congratulations for winning Reader's Choice at Jason's contest! Well deserved honor.
Congratulations on the Readers' Choice Award!I loved your entry from the start,and yes did vote for it(and Sarah's as well) :)
J. I partied so much I seem to have blacked out on the memories of all the partying. ;) You guys definitely need to come to our place in Abita Springs sometime and we'll party on our deck.
Mary Witzl, Lana came up with the symbols from searching online, and then we checked 'em out with a friend of mine who speaks Japanese. We were mainly interested in the English translation of them.
Sarah Hina, thanks. I appreciate that. And congrats to you as well.
Sameera, thank you. I'm very glad you liked it.
Glad the con went well...it's always nice when they actually buy the books!
Congrats on all.
congrats on the release, Charles! i'm having some issues with paypal right now, but as soon as they're resolved i'm ordering my copy. great cover!
This is too cool! Can't wait to see the finished product. Congratulations!
Do you find a good con gets you all jazzed up to write more, or do you kind of bask in the glow for a few days after?
I usually come away feeling full of energy but not especially work-y...
Britta Coleman, yes, it's nice to come home with less than you took.
Greg, thanks. I appreciate that. We read a couple of your poems from Bits & Pieces at our panel. The folks got a kick out of 'em.
Michelle, thanks. The covers really shine when you have them in your hands.
Steve Malley, that's pretty much it, exactly for me. I'm energized, but in a way that doesn't make it easy for me to focus on a single project.
forgot: grats also on winning the readers' choice award at jason's... yeah, i was one who voted for you....
Sounds as if the conference was good for you and your attendees both.
I ordered my copy of your chapbook already.
Hey Charles, just wanted to congratulate you on your win in Jason's contest. I knew you'd win!
Glad to hear that the presentations went well. And I finally bought all three Talera books this weekend. They should be here at the end of the week.
I'm really looking forward to getting into them.
What serendipity! You have a great conference and come back to the release of a chapbook with cover art by the lovely Lana -- and I come back from retreat all hopped up on poetry! Can't wait until mine gets here :)
Laughingwolf, thanks for the vote my friend. I appreciate it.
Shauna, so you're one of the ones. J said he'd sold two copies already today. Thanks. Let me know what you think. It's pretty weird, but poetry often is eh?
Sheri, thank you. I appreciate it. It was a fun contest with lots of good entries.
Travis, thanks. I hope you enjoy. They were a lot of fun to write.
Lisa, cool. Thanks so much. Poetry is a whole different thing it seems.
What the heck is Babel con?
La zay lay bon rule ay
B. L., Babel con is a science fiction convention that they hold each year in Baton Rouge.
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