Tag Archives: POETRY

Laughing is Forever Virtual Book Tour

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Laughing is Forever cover

Poetry

Date Published: March 22, 2024

Publisher: MindStir Media

 

 

Laughing is Forever is my second book. And while it’s gritty, rhythmic,
dark and dangerous it’s also fun, quirky, and inquisitive. Topics range from
growing up in the Deep South to questioning the mainstream narrative of how
it all . . . came to be. I want people who don’t read much and who hate
poetry (the largest demographic) to give this collection a chance and fall
in love with books by reading something that they can relate to and/or be
awed by. Laughing is Forever is a standalone book, a brand-new beast, but
follows in the footsteps of Blameforest in the sense that it’s reinventing
what poetry can be. And hopefully inspiring folks to take risks with their
own work and stand out from the maddening crowd.

 

Reviews for Laughing is Forever

 

“These are the kind of tattered, beautiful poems I often search for and
rarely find-the ones that explain, ‘Just be happy with a beer after work.
You know, quit all the complaining. It won’t change a single thing. It just
prolongs the suffering.’ “

-Sean Thomas Dougherty, author of Death Prefers the Minor Keys

 

“Stocks’s writing has a powerful immediacy, and his poems are packed with
both profanity and pop-culture references . . .”

-Kirkus Reviews

 

“This collection is brave, unflinching and hits you like a punch in the
jaw. It is at times brutal and vicious but also tender and intelligent. I
was reminded of early Eminem in the poignant anger of some of the
poems.”

-Sam Szanto, author of If No One Speaks

Laughing is Forever tablet

EXCERPT

 I can only hope 

  and pray, that my armpits are dry 

  and smell nice for such an occasion.

       —from “My Father’s Ghost”

 

About the Author

Jason Stocks is a writer and teacher living in south Florida. Before
becoming a teacher, he worked in a chicken house, washed dishes, bagged
groceries, waited tables, and sold cars. His first full-length poetry
collection–Blameforest–was published in 2021 and was recently named a
finalist in the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards for contemporary poetry.
When not writing, he enjoys reading vintage YA horror, riding his Haro
cruiser, and spending time with the family.

 

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Laughing is Forever Blitz

Laughing is Forever cover

Poetry

Date Published: March 22, 2024

Publisher: MindStir Media

 

 

Laughing is Forever is my second book. And while it’s gritty, rhythmic,
dark and dangerous it’s also fun, quirky, and inquisitive. Topics range from
growing up in the Deep South to questioning the mainstream narrative of how
it all . . . came to be. I want people who don’t read much and who hate
poetry (the largest demographic) to give this collection a chance and fall
in love with books by reading something that they can relate to and/or be
awed by. Laughing is Forever is a standalone book, a brand-new beast, but
follows in the footsteps of Blameforest in the sense that it’s reinventing
what poetry can be. And hopefully inspiring folks to take risks with their
own work and stand out from the maddening crowd.

 

Reviews for Laughing is Forever

 

“These are the kind of tattered, beautiful poems I often search for and
rarely find-the ones that explain, ‘Just be happy with a beer after work.
You know, quit all the complaining. It won’t change a single thing. It just
prolongs the suffering.’ “

-Sean Thomas Dougherty, author of Death Prefers the Minor Keys

 

“Stocks’s writing has a powerful immediacy, and his poems are packed with
both profanity and pop-culture references . . .”

-Kirkus Reviews

 

“This collection is brave, unflinching and hits you like a punch in the
jaw. It is at times brutal and vicious but also tender and intelligent. I
was reminded of early Eminem in the poignant anger of some of the
poems.”

-Sam Szanto, author of If No One Speaks

About the Author

Jason Stocks is a writer and teacher living in south Florida. Before
becoming a teacher, he worked in a chicken house, washed dishes, bagged
groceries, waited tables, and sold cars. His first full-length poetry
collection–Blameforest–was published in 2021 and was recently named a
finalist in the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards for contemporary poetry.
When not writing, he enjoys reading vintage YA horror, riding his Haro
cruiser, and spending time with the family.

 

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Instagram

 

Purchase Links

Amazon

B&N

Walmart

RABT Book Tours & PR

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Soul Ink Teaser Tuesday

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Poetry

Date to be Published: June 23, 2024

 

 

Poetry; a unique and beautiful way to express feelings and ideas. Weaving
words into perfect poetic prose, these authors remind you of your childhood,
bring comfort from the hardships of life, fiercely spur emotions, and tell
tales of old. All lovers of poetry will find a favorite here!

Featuring poems by Rhiannon Bird, Luke Dylan Ramsey, Ron Perovich, M. Kelly
Peach, John Grey, Michael J. Corrigan, K.J. Watson, Jonathan Reddoch,
Vanessa Bane, Stephen Schwei, Daniel Anaya, Dana Trick, Cara Hartley,
Douglas Allen Gohl, Samuel Samba, Monica Kakkar, Rizwan Akhtar, Emma
Laurent, Ebuka Stephen, and J.E. Feldman.

Soul Ink standing book

Excerpts

 

A Brief Ode to an Unseen Eclipse

Though we were not in the path of totality

Partial eclipse sighting was possibility

Overcast as it was, it was not meant to be.

Clouds thick and heavy

Obscuring the sun.

 

Butterfly

many sing your praise

while your numbers grow smaller

precious butterfly

 

Charcoal

I inflame your fire

giving you warmth you desire

fundamental fuel

 

Dear Author

Dear Author,

Thank you for the submission of your story for our anthology.

Your story has good bones.

For us to consider publishing the piece, you must make it more innovative
by changing the characters to amorphous blobs with no discernible age,
ethnicity, nationality, sex, or size.

Within the confines of ten thousand words, we also insist on more
descriptive descriptions of the futuristic setting while not getting lost in
describing the futuristic setting but rather concentrating on compelling
character development between the amorphous blobs.

Further, we insist upon inclusion of an enemies to lovers trope.

Yours truly,

The Publisher

 

a wintry shower

dusting of snow on the trees

as spring awakens

 

Elm

I sit in my house listening to house music at 6:23 AM.

The skies are gray and the birds have not yet started stirring

In the ugly Siberian elm outside my window.

My father hated these trees with their rough bark and leaves.

He despised their haggard appearance,

Lamenting the downfall of their handsomer cousins, the American elm.

I remember seeing technicians cutting off branches of trees

Spraying them with paint, sometimes felling the whole thing

In order to stop the spread of Dutch elm disease.

I hope my father would be pleased to know

About the efforts made to save the trees he loved

So future generations can appreciate them

As he always did.

Outside my window, an ugly Siberian elm is a dwelling place for beautiful
birds.

 

For my father

31 May 1936 – 28 November 2010

 

Ornery Owl logo

Ornery Owl is a wise old bird who seeks the truth behind the lies. She uses
her observations to heal the wounded soul. In essence, she is the spirit of
an odd little bird whose wings were clipped at a young age. She is at once a
whimsical manifestation of poetic expression and a fierce protector of those
targeted for derision by an angry and unsympathetic world. Depending on how
you perceive her, she can be either a goddamned delight or your worst
nightmare.

 

Follow Ornery Owl (AKA Cara Hartley)

Cara H and Ornery Owl Amazon Author Page

C. L. Hart Newsletter

(C. L. Hart is my fantasy, horror, and sweet romance author pen
name.)

Naughty Netherworld Press Start Page

 

Purchase Today

 

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The Dove That Didn’t Return Virtual Book Tour

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The Dove That Didn't Return cover

Poetry

Date Published: May 21, 2024

Publisher: Holy Cow! Press

 

 

A poet and female commander in the Israeli Defense Forces creates an
original perspective from the war-torn front lines of the Middle East
conflict.

The Dove That Didn’t Return tackles the canon of war poetry, an
almost exclusively male-penned body of poems. In the book, biblical stories,
verses, and fragments are rewritten through the eyes of a female lieutenant
in the Israeli Army. It is a contemporary poetics on the revelations of war
from an Israeli perspective never before told—a woman, and a soldier
at that.

This debut full-length collection follows upon the publication of her
critically acclaimed chapbook, Between Sanctity and Sand, from Finishing
Line Press.

 

The Dove That Didn't Return tablet

EXCERPT 

BETWEEN SANCTITY AND SAND

 

The first time I shot an M-16

it was the heat of summer in the Negev.

Gas-operated with a rotating bolt, five-point-fifty-

six caliber, with nineteen bullets a box. 

I could shoot like an angel.

 I could hit a running target 

at six-hundred-fifty meters. 

I hummed to myself as I shot, 

I was eighteen. 

The retama flower of my hair-bun drawn back tight 

blooming, sprouting open with every green round.

 

 

About the Author

Yael S. Hacohen

Yael S. Hacohen earned a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. She has received
research/teaching fellowships from Tel Aviv University and Bar Ilan
University. She has an MFA in Poetry from New York University, where she was
an
NYU Veterans Workshop Fellow, International Editor at Washington Square
Literary
Review, and Editor-in-Chief at Nine Lines Literary Review. Her work has
been featured or is forthcoming in The Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The
Missouri Review, Bellevue Literary Review, LIT, Prairie Schooner, New York
Quarterly Magazine, Colorado Review, and many more.
Hacohen published her chapbook Between Sanctity and Sand with Finishing
Line Press in 2021. Hacohen served as a lieutenant in the 162nd Armored
Division of the Israeli Defense Forces. She lives with her family in Tel
Aviv, Israel.

 

Purchase Link

Amazon

 

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The Dove That Didn’t Return Blitz

The Dove That Didn't Return banner

The Dove That Didn't Return cover

Poetry

Date Published: May 21, 2024

Publisher: Holy Cow! Press

 

 

A poet and female commander in the Israeli Defense Forces creates an
original perspective from the war-torn front lines of the Middle East
conflict.

The Dove That Didn’t Return tackles the canon of war poetry, an
almost exclusively male-penned body of poems. In the book, biblical stories,
verses, and fragments are rewritten through the eyes of a female lieutenant
in the Israeli Army. It is a contemporary poetics on the revelations of war
from an Israeli perspective never before told—a woman, and a soldier
at that.

This debut full-length collection follows upon the publication of her
critically acclaimed chapbook, Between Sanctity and Sand, from Finishing
Line Press.

 

About the Author

Yael S. Hacohen

Yael S. Hacohen earned a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. She has received
research/teaching fellowships from Tel Aviv University and Bar Ilan
University. She has an MFA in Poetry from New York University, where she was
an
NYU Veterans Workshop Fellow, International Editor at Washington Square
Literary
Review, and Editor-in-Chief at Nine Lines Literary Review. Her work has
been featured or is forthcoming in The Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The
Missouri Review, Bellevue Literary Review, LIT, Prairie Schooner, New York
Quarterly Magazine, Colorado Review, and many more.
Hacohen published her chapbook Between Sanctity and Sand with Finishing
Line Press in 2021. Hacohen served as a lieutenant in the 162nd Armored
Division of the Israeli Defense Forces. She lives with her family in Tel
Aviv, Israel.

 

Purchase Link

Amazon

 

RABT Book Tours & PR

1 Comment

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