Attended the 52/250 reading last night at the KGB bar

There was a great turnout there, and love the ambiance of the room adorned with Russian paintings, pictures, etc. I met the lovely Cynthia Litz, a great writer and member of Zoetrope, and saw some regulars there, such as the flash gurus Robert Vaughn and Susan Tepper. I read two of my Cat People pieces. Hosted by Michelle Elvy. I spent the rest of the night like a black cat stalking the streets of Manhattan that I've come to love, and dancing until 4:00 a.m. (Yes, Martha, even at this age), then, drifting towards home in the wee hours of the morning . Reminded me of earlier times. Should be some interesting videos of the night's readings. A great collection of artists from all over the world, some really amazing writers.

My new collection of prose & poetry has been published

My new collection of prose & poetry titled Void & Sky has been published by Outskirts Press in both paperback and as an ebook. Please buy it because you should. http://outskirtspress.com/void_and_sky/

In Those Days We....

IN THOSE DAYS WE is a collection edited by Jennifer L. Tomaloff that looks at our past, and forges new lives from old photographs. Featuring written works by some of the best writers this side of the web: Len Kuntz, Robert Kloss, Norman Lock, Molly Gaudry, J. A. Tyler, Kathryn Rantala, Ben Tanzer, Ryan W. Bradley, Andrew Borgstrom, Meg Tuite,  Parker Tettleton, Marcus Speh, Chad Redden, Robert Vaughan, J. Bradley, and David Tomaloff

And moi.

Incredibly delicious photos of a bygone era that never truly went away.


http://issuu.com/bendinglightintoverse/docs/inthosedaywe/1

Meg Tuite Interviews Me at Connotation Press

Meg Tuite interviws me at Connotation Press, Dec. issue. A great zine and check out these other writers/artists.

Two pieces up at The Prose-Poem Project

A great issue for the fall, with many amazing writers. I love this zine! Check it out!

Iggy Pop. An Amazing Career.

I have to admit. I've been a life long Iggy Pop fan. I remember the first time I heard The Stooges on WFMU when I was a kid. Their first album had just come out. I thought at first it was a raw, more primitive version of The Rolling Stones. And I always loved Ron Asheton's guitar work. Thought it fitted perfecty the style of music The Stooges were making.

Their first three albums didn't sell very well. I remember having all three, including what many consider to be their proto-punk masterpiece--Raw Power, where James Williamson took over lead guitar. I remember watching Iggy on TV circa 1970, jumping before a crowd and smearing his chest with peanut butter. Behind him, The Stooges played "TV Eye." Wow. How time flies. Was it that long ago?

And there was the now legendary confrontations between The Stooges and the Motorcycle gang members in an audience in the Michegan Thearter, in Detroit, around 1974, shortly before The Stooges broke up. On the live album, "Metallic K.O." you supposedly can hear beer bottles being thrown on stage, whizzing and bouncing off of guitar strings. And then, Iggy challening, taunting members of the motorcycle gang, warning them to stop heckling the band (he's only around 5'7"), or he's going to jump offstage and kick their ass. They dared him. Iggy got beaten up pretty bad. The gang members told him that if he ever plays there again, they would kill him. After getting out of the emergency room, Iggy and The Stooges played there the next night.

 

Eunoia Review...

has accepted a short story of mine--Giddy for Life, due for publication next year. After so many rejections, it feels good to get published.

Visceral Uterus

...has accepted my poem "Mark Down." My kind of zine, dark & edgy.

Fat City Review

Got a prose poetry piece up at Fat City Review, "Walk with Me." Some excellent art work, as well as beautiful writing.

The Prose-Poem Project

The Prose-Poem Project has accepted some poems of mine for their next issue. Since prose poetry is a big part of what I do, this makes me happy.

Up at Misfits Miscellany

Up at Misfits Miscellany with a new poem, Invisible Monkeys #16. Check it out, some familiar names, in great company here. http://misfitsmiscellany.wordpress.com/poets-page/

My collection of both old and new work--City of Kats

Perpetual Motion Machine Press has agreed to publish my collection of new and old prose and poetry pieces called City of Kats. Some of the pieces have appeared in Cat People, but the collection includes new stuff and pieces that were  never included in the Cat People chapbook. Should be out by early next year (2013). http://perpetualpublishing.com/authors/kyle-hemmings/

Acceptance by Mikrokosmos Journal

Mikrokosmos Journal accepted a poem of mine titled "Tina Fey Lives Two Doors Down." It is affiliated with Witchata State University, and is a print publication.  

Nominated for Best of Net

The editor of Rose Red Review has nominated two of my Manga Girl Pieces for Best of the Net. And Drunken Monkeys has nominated one of my City of Love poems. That really makes my day. Will they win? Do they have a chance? I don't care. Being nominated is an award in itself.

Me reading some Manga Girl Pieces in East Village

I was invited by the new lit zine, Newer York, to read some pieces, along with other contributors. They really put on a great show, lots of performance art and a cool mime. It was held in a backroom of the Vig Bar in the East Village. My friend was there in attendence to lend support. Thank you, Lester! A true gentleman and scholar. Lots of talent in that room. Outside the streets were buzzing with so many people, many, I'm sure, who were there to catch the San Genero Festival. Later on, I got buzzed. Very buzzed.

Since my blog got hacked into

and I lost some of my saved stories on the pages--I will be posting work on the home page of this blog.

Shades of Blue



From Fiction Brigade, a great zine.

 

 



Shades of Blue

If you wish to turn something into blue,


think shady groves, the apple blossoms your grandmother spoke about with her eyes closed, calling you by a boy’s name. You never got to say Good-Bye. The door was already closed.

If you wish to turn something into sky blue, save up your old X-rays, showing the great transpositions of your organs, how your heart barely hung by wisteria vines, how the memory of cardiac shadows caused your three marriages to white out.

If you wish to turn something into deep blue, forget the swell and volume of your closets, rooms you’ve walked through, but never lived in, the pretty boys you slept with and then let go of in the morning, as if each other’s too expensive bird.

If you wish to turn something into black and blue, think of all the men who sleep alone, dreaming of the skeletons of their nannies, executed for seventeen variations of murder and sixteen aberrations of love.

Connotation Press accepts some micros of mine

Very happy that the immensely talented Meg Tuite accepted some micros of mine for Connotation Press. And by the way, the above pic is not a portrait of Meg. It's just a ...pic. And on a different note...

Last night, I went strolling in the East Village to check out the location of the Vig Bar, which is where I and others will be reading next Saturday for Newer York, a really cool new zine which happens to have print editions. A small place on the corner of Elizabeth St. (I think), nestled between Bowery and Lafyette, inside, some college aged East Village types (whatever that means, yes, very stereotyped) and some Suits. Anyway, I'm glad I found it. Lots of crazy pulsing life going on in the city last night (Thurs.)-- women dressed to kill,  the thump and grind of music spilling onto the street, the humid air carrying laughter and the scents of rosewater and orchard, young girls walking arm in arm, claiming sidewalk space, and on every corner another variety of small dog, big dog, exotic dog. I'll be dogged! I walked from midtown to East Village (Bowery) and back. Not a bad exercise for an old man who needs exercise. And wearing an old pair of sneakers that should have been thrown out long ago.  I stopped at McDonald's at 3:30 in the morning. New York City has a kind of eerie, surreal feel to it at that hour, almost like a ghost town. Needless to say, I spent the greater part of the day recooperating from a bad hangover. Was there a rock group with that name--Bad Hangover? Seems like there should be. Oh well.

Extracts...

Extracts is a great new zine that features pieces from an author's book, collection, chapbook, novella, whatever. Check out their video reading series. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/extracts/in-place-literary-video-series-season-2

Check Out Grim Series: Poems by Kristine Ong Muslim

Love this new collection of horror poems with Kristine's usual depth and twist.  Available at Amazon.com and for kindle also. You might get insomnia from reading it.

Heard the recently released Black Beauty and ...

the whole Reel to Real album (1975), which was the last Love album with the Love Monniker. It might be the hardest Love album to find to date. Not sure if it was ever transferred to DVD. My take: I liked both, although neither reaches the heights of Da Capo (at least the first side) or Forever Changes. Black Beauty seems to pick up where Vindicator (1972) left off. Very heavy, Hendrix-like guitar riffs. Many have stated that Lee would have been better off naming his post-Forever Changes albums as Arthur Lee and keep the Love name out, as many associate and expect the Forever Changes psychedelic music with spaced-out lyrics. Reel-to-Real was pretty damn good, although I did not like the redoing of "Singing Cowboy" from the great Love Four Sail album. It's pretty blues and soul all the way, with the same back up band from Black Beauty and  Lee does a great job. I really dug his tongue and cheek version of William Devaughn's "Be Thankful for What You Got." This is one underrated album.

I understand that the album sold so poorly that two years later, Lee had to take a job painting houses with his father-in-law. Such is life.

New Flash up at Bong Is Bard

"They Never Heard of You South of the Sahara." Some amazing photography from a 16 year-old award winner, Eleanor Leonne Bennett.
http://bardisbong.blogspot.com/2012/08/they-never-heard-of-you-south-of-sahara.html 

Feathered Fish

Although performed by Sons of Adam in '68, (with Randy Holden of later Blue Cheer fame), Arthur Lee wrote this song. Later did his own version of it. Check it out. Also, check out the previously unreleased bootleg Black Beauty from 1973. Has some great stuff, interesting Hendrix like guitar licks.
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Dead Beats

Dead Beats, a British Journal, picked up two old pieces of mine that were written around the time of my Cat People.

A new Miss Thing up at Circa

A cool new zine that tries to publish more than the best "one percent". Circa Review. My piece--"Miss Thing." http://circareview.com/?page_id=269

Thanks to Annie Evett

Thanks to Annie Evett for including that video of my reading at the KGB bar last June 23 and for mentioning some of my chapbooks on the New Sun Rising blog. Great to have been included in the Stories for Japan collection.
http://storiesforjapan.blogspot.com/2012/08/success-spotlight-kyle-hemmings.html

Up Again at Otioliths

Some great contributors in Issue 26. http://the-otolith.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/kyle-hemmings-manga-girls-need-love.html

An Old Poem (Well, not that old...)

Matter Press, A Journal of Compressed Creative Arts

 Matter press has accepted a micro fiction of mine, titled, "Break Dancing." To be published in November. The journal is edited by the Maestro of Flash Fiction--Randall Brown, not only a brilliant writer but a great reviewer and teacher as well. There are some great contributors there. So check it out.

Up at Philedelphia Review of Books

Part of a longer piece that started in Lisa Cihlar's poetry office from a prompt. The Teacher:http://philadelphiareviewofbooks.com/2012/07/19/the-teacher/

Up at ShortStory.Me

A flash fiction up at ShortStory.Me written under the pen name of Jessie Woods. The Square Headed Man. http://www.short-story.me/flash-fiction/448-the-square-headed-man.html

My Reading at the KGB Bar June, 23, 2012

From the KGB Bar reading hosted by Susan Tepper and Robert Vaughn. Lucinda Kempe also read as well as Tania Hershman. I am the second reader in this segment. I'm reading a piece from my Tokyo Girls in Science Fiction chapbook.
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My prose collection now a paperback on Amazon

The Truth about Onions is now a paperback on Amazon. If anyone wants a copy to review, let me know.

New Stuff up at Literary Orphans, Issue One

Two flashes up at Issue One of Liteary Orphans: http://www.literaryorphans.org/?wpb_portfolio=my-left-handed-cousin-and-as-if-it-never-happened-by-kyle-hemmings

A You Tube Video promoting You Never Die in Wholes

Good Story Press was kind enough to make a you tube video promoting my ebook--You Never Die in Wholes.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/4qeS_ZxrDng

Bank Heavy Press Accepts a City of Love piece

Bank Heavy Press takes a City of Love poem and a piece titled Mystic Fish.  And Drunk Monkeys took another. Who loves ya, Baby!

Pale House: Future Eyes

My flash: Manga Girls Need Love!{The Aftermath of Future Wars in Tokyo G} will be in the new anthology of life in the future.

My new chapbook based on Anime: Anime Junkie. Cool font for the titles. http://scars.tv/

Up at Belly Fat

A cartoon up at Belly Fat. Robotrix. http://bellyfatmagazine.wordpress.com/

New Poem up at SouthTownsville Micropoetry Journal

A piece called "In the Junkyards." With interview. Cool editor, really liked him. http://thesouthtownsvillemicropoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2012/04/kyle-hemmings.html

Up at This Zine Will Change Your Life

My Flash, Rinko, up at This Zine Will Change Your Life.http://thiszinewillchangeyourlife.blogspot.com/"

Kyle Wins the Valentine's Prompt at Press 53!

www.facebook.com/megpokrass/posts/235923796499305

My new collection of stories/flash fictions: You Never Die in Wholes

My new collection of flash fictions/stories written over the last five or so years. You Never Die in Wholes, published by GoodStoryPress for Kindle. Might branch out into other media depending on sales. Please buy a copy for this coffee-addicted writer. www.amazon.com/Never-Wholes-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B0079MNYSW/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329347696&sr=1-3

Some artwork up at Circus of the Damned

A new zine. http://damnedpublishing.blogspot.com/

Down Moon Girl

Down Moon Girl, Vol. 1. The publisher decided to sell this in two installments for 99 cents, rather than one big one for $2.99, since the work was "experimental." I'm not sure how you get this if you don't have kindle, but I think there is a way. <a href ="http://www.amazon.com/Down-Moon-Girl-1-ebook/dp/B0070BUJUI%3FSubscriptionId%3D0SBFH8FHMR8PSPMHY202%26tag%3Dfictionaut-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB0070BUJUI">click here</a>

Buy One, Get One Free-Week of Jan.14-22-Trestle Press

My interview on blog radio over my new collection

My interview with Giovanni Gelati over my new collection titled Down Moon Girl. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gelatisscoop/2012/01/10/kyle-hemmings-drops-in-to-discuss-his-work

A competition you shouldn't miss out on

Fiona Johnson will be giving away three books if anyone can come up with the best title for her third Kick It novel. Check it out:

http://imeanttoreadthat.blogspot.com/2012/01/competition-time.html

New Poem up at Blast Furnace

Women Out of Love. Originally part of a triad. Check it out, along with other great writers: http://www.blastfurnacepress.com/2011/12/blast-furnace-volume-1-issue-4-autumn.html

The cover for my new book: Down Moon Girl

From Trestle Press. Very excited about this collection based on Manga art.

Nostrovia-Check This Out This New Zine

My poem made Poem of the week--Robo G6. Some excellent poets here. I recognize Valentina Cano. Check this zine out, very cool. http://www.nostroviatowriting.com/robo-g6.html