Valerie Nieman v. 3.0

I stopped by Cliff Garstang's blog to leave a guest post - you can read about the experience of having a long out-of-print novel come back to life here.

That's how Permuted Press thinks of it... The folks who want us to "Enjoy the Apocalypse" are bringing back classic post-apocalyptic novels of the '70s and '80s, including my 1988 debut novel, Neena Gathering . It will appear May 28 as an e-book, and as an Audible book voiced by the wonderful Cassandra Morris. To celebrate its new life after 25 years out of print, I'm doing a Goodreads giveaway - two signed copies of that original Pageant paperback with cover art by Keith Parkinson. Go here to enter! And visit Amazon to pre-order the Audible book.

It's always great to have a good friend come to visit. Joseph Bathanti, award-winning poet, professor and advocate for literacy - and a dear friend and fellow Press 53 author - will visit North Carolina A&T State University for workshops and a reading on Wednesday, April 3. Bathanti was named North Carolina’s Poet Laureate in 2012 by then-Gov. Bev Perdue, who noted his “robust commitment to social causes.” He first came to North Carolina to work in the VISTA program and has taught writing workshops in prisons for 35 years. North Carolina’s seventh poet laureate, Bathanti is a professor of creative writing at Appalachian State University where he is also Director of Writing in the Field and Writer-in-Residence in the University's Watauga Global Community. He is the author of several books of poetry, including This Metal   (St. Andrews College Press, 1996 and Press 53, 2012), two novels, Coventry (Novello Festival Press, 2006) and East Liberty (Banks Channel ...

Today the old year has begun its slow climb back toward the light. The Sun stood still, but despite the doomsayers, returned as expected to bring light and renewal to the earth. We still light candles and fires to brighten our holidays, barely giving a nod to a long, long history of solstice celebrations, when the invocation of a New Sun was a matter of life and death - when people in the cold dark were not at all certain that the Sun would relent and return. Whatever our view of divinity and spirit, we are drawn to these midwinter celebrations of light - Hanukkah, Diwali, Chrismas. We stand in the dark and sing back the light. David Halperin had a lovely reflection on the nature of Christmas, a view from an outsider who is also an insider to the story. Be sure to visit David's blog again next month, when he'll give us a look at his new novel. Those who've read Journal of a UFO Investigator will be delighted to re-encounter Daniel.  

I had the pleasure of being selected to participate in a blog hop called My Next Big Thing . I was tagged by Nancy Hinchcliff, writer, editor, educator, musician, and innkeeper from Louisville, Ky. I was asked to respond to  the following ten questions concerning my most recent project. 1.  What is the working title of your book or project? Backwater 2.  Where did the idea come from for the book or project? There never seems to be just one idea, but two or three or four that come together, becoming more than the sum of the parts. I had made notes toward a novel several years ago, when I found my high school yearbook in the course of packing for a move. Among the comments and mottos written by friends was an inscription from the “popular girl,” to the effect that she hoped we could put all that behind us and be friends. I could not remember that small spat, but the minor mystery haunted me. I also read several comments referring to my “adventures at Pine...

I'm sitting in a McDonald's in Southport, NC, using the free wi-fi on my sadly dated but very faithful Asus netbook. It's been an eventful 2012. I expected to be winding down and staying home after a year on the road for Blood Clay that finished up with the Blue Ridge Bookfest in May. But life throws you a curve now and again. I've been staying with my parents, partaking in the "salt diet" of tears, sweat, and the sea as I move into a new phase of life. How that will end I do not know. But one thing I have promised myself, as a writer: Do not let the work suffer. Some 15 years ago, I was engaged in a complex historical fantasy as my marriage hit a hidden rock and broke up. I was a newspaper editor and "hill farmer" in addition to being a writer. One job too many, perhaps, but I think it was more a loss of faith. I lost faith in myself. Lost faith in my writing. Six hundred pages of manuscript in the box, and I could not see the way through. The c...

I was feeling a bit out of sorts on Sunday, which was Mother's Day. I'm not a mother - well, a stepmother, but that's a step removed from the mothers who are showered with flowers and cards on Their Day. We were eating lunch when I checked my messages and learned that Blood Clay , had won the General Fiction prize in the Eric Hoffer Awards. I felt like Mother's Day had arrived for me - my child had been recognized! The Eric Hoffer Award has been around for a few years, and includes a competition for short prose as well as for books published by small or "indie" publishers. I'm happy to place the Hoffer seal on my page because the self-taught longshoreman/philosopher speaks to my heritage. Born to an English/German working class family like my own, he grew up in the Depression and struggled to learn. “When my father (a cabinetmaker) died, I realized that I would have to fend for myself," he wrote. "I knew several things: One, that I ...