matthew simmons
has a small book called Creation Stories that is not out yet.
I read it and liked it.
That is my blurb for the book. That is how I blurb.
Matthew Simmons used to edit Monkeybicycle's online part and now he edits Hobart's interviews. He has published many things in places. His blog was nominated for the 2006 bloggies as a 'best-kept secret weblog.' Matthew treated me badly when I stayed at his apartment. Matthew has his own Facebook group. I'm not sure what Matthew is going to do with his book. I think he may publish it himself. It says "Happy Cobra Books" in the PDF. (Matthew says email happy.cobra [AT] earthlink.net for information.) I think he got that from our band name. Me and him are in a band. Someone should paypal Matthew $30,000 to start a press. Here is a story named "Dear Scope" from Matthew's book.
I read it and liked it.
That is my blurb for the book. That is how I blurb.
Matthew Simmons used to edit Monkeybicycle's online part and now he edits Hobart's interviews. He has published many things in places. His blog was nominated for the 2006 bloggies as a 'best-kept secret weblog.' Matthew treated me badly when I stayed at his apartment. Matthew has his own Facebook group. I'm not sure what Matthew is going to do with his book. I think he may publish it himself. It says "Happy Cobra Books" in the PDF. (Matthew says email happy.cobra [AT] earthlink.net for information.) I think he got that from our band name. Me and him are in a band. Someone should paypal Matthew $30,000 to start a press. Here is a story named "Dear Scope" from Matthew's book.
Dear Scope,
It’s me, Matthew.
Scope, you burn the mouth. You hurt so many people. And you do it because you think that by hurting them, you are making them better. You think you are helping. This seems arrogant. But then, in a way, you do. You make it easier for people to stand near to each other. This is a sort of help.
In this way (this hurting-people-to-make-them-better way) you are, simplistically speaking, like organized religion and public education. And orthodontics.
Scope, even though you hurt so many people—however briefly, and I admit that it is always briefly—I still like you. You are named for things that are used to look more closely at other things. I think that this means you want me to look at you.
I like your name, Scope, though I like it better when I don’t capitalize the “s”, so that is what I will do for the rest of this missive. I like how your name looks like a bunch of balloons tied together and held by a string: scope. All your letters are round. Your “s” looks like a string used to knot balloons together. One grabs hold of the long tail of the “p” and walks around the zoo with you.
That’s why I forgive you, scope. You remind me of myself when I was younger, even though I never would’ve been self-conscious enough to use you when I was.
Signing off,
Matthew
14 Comments:
I will publish this in the next month or so as a chapbook. I'm working on the cover right now.
There will be a few previously published stories and posts from the blog. There will also be new stories. The new stories are the "value added."
Happy Cobra Books has a logo, too. I will watch for the $30,000.
i like matthew simmons
i do too.
can i ask everyone a question that will probably sound silly but is sincere? if you post a poem or story on your blog, is it no longer qualified to be published in an online or print journal? i never thought that was the case, but today i heard someone say that it was and now i am confused.
i figure if anyone would know it would be tao lin and his cohorts.
there are no univ. rules. and that is a editor by editor decision. most don't consider blogs as published, also online critical workshops. personally, when I was an editor for siren, I liked previously published material. I openly welcomed previous-published work, even if it was easily found elsewhere: My thoughts only. Other journals may dislike taking previously published material. But poetry/writing at its best can, and does, effectively lead to an extreme and psychologically enriching awareness of the craft's medium, process, and product, both of the minute parts and the larger whole, and it shouldn't live and die in one book or in one journal. Why let it die in a journal read by 500 people. Put it in another and let it be read by 510. I love when I discover a new piece of writing and I sit and I stare and I ask myself how in the world was that "done" with mere words--then I just have to share it. I was happy to reprint poems that hit me just right if it offers a poem just one more opportunity to be read by just one more person. Spread good art like a disease.
I like you, too, Blake.
And thank you, Kathy. That's a nice crown. You should read "King of Pain" by Dave Shaw. It's in an anthology by Small Beer Press called Trampoline.
It as a Burger King crown. And a monkey.
I'm just psyched that there are two Ryans blogging at the same time.
kathy,
i think it depends
from a moral perspective, if pain and suffering is bad, i think it's better to think only in concrete specifics which means first serial rights don't exist unless money is involved
i don't know, i think if you ask the editors they will tell you
i like what ryan typed
I KNOW WHAT U DID LAST SUMMER
i edited my novel and worked on my bear parade story-collection
not u
ahem.
MATTHEW SIMMONS,
I KNOW WHAT U DID LAST SUMMER.
Do tell, Patrick.
thank you ryan and tao.
and matthew thank you for the recommendation. i will read trampoline. burger king crowns are my only prerequisite for literature.
i am also going to link to your blog. i like it.
i am a third ryan who reads and sometimes posts
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