SPYDER - David Fingerman

Spyder

by David Fingerman

Meet Spyder—a street-wise antihero of inner city society. Experience his strange wisdom, and his twisted sense of humor.

Thirty-year-old Spyder doesn't waste time thinking how much lower he can sink. When he finds his girlfriend dead as the result of drugs he supplied, Spyder contemplates his life and decides it’s time to do what he's avoided most of his days—join mainstream society. All he needs to do is kick the drug habit, find a job, a place to live, and earn some money. Easy. He’s done it hundreds of times, but never all at once. As always, Fate steps in and knees him in the groin. All the dregs he's ever known want their say. George won't stop his pestering, Sal needs a huge favor, Coon is hunting for a certain arachnid, and Spyder's dealer doesn't want to lose one of his best customers. As things spiral out of control, Spyder tangles himself in a web so tight that even he might never be able to escape.

BIOGRAPHY
I was born in St. Paul, but once out of the hospital I've lived my entire life in Minneapolis. During the summer months when the sun is shining and birds singing, I'm perfectly content to sit in my office, with blinds drawn, typing away at my computer. My favorite day of the year is the first day I pull a flannel shirt out of the closet. After 24 years of working in the court system, I walked away to write full time. Edging past Reality is my first book of short stories. Spyder is my second novel and quite a switch from the first. While Silent Kill is a suspense/thriller, Spyder is more of an urban adventure.

WEBSITE
www.davidfingerman.com

BLOG
http://davidfingerman.blogspot.com

The Many Lives of Inez Wick - Aaron Wilson

The Many Lives of Inez Wick

by Aaron M. Wilson

The Many Lives of Inez Wick is a collection of seven linked fiction stories that focus on the sometimes eco-heroine, Inez Wick, as she treads the underbelly of domestic terrorism, occasionally blowing up resource exploiters and pouters.

The red LCD display quickly counts down. There is no time to waste. The polluting, resource-degrading plant is set to explode. Eco-heroine Inez Wick has only minutes to escape.

As she traverses the dark recesses of the dirty plant, she flashes back to a younger self, sixteen. Her father had just died in an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, and she had just broken up with her boyfriend. She remembers oily ocean water and flames, her footprints in the sand filling with black water. Flames were chasing her. They were jumping from one oily footprint to the next, up the beach after her. Snapping back to the present, she must get out of the plant. The exploits of Inez Wick could not end, just now. Too many others needed to pay.

"As our world continues its slow crumble, Wilson soldiers on, writing with a clear eye and strong voice. The Many Lives of Inez Wick entertains and, more importantly, gives cause for reflection." -- David Oppegaard, author of The Suicide Collectors & Wormwood, Nevada

"Aaron M. Wilson, with his easy to read prose, writes the kinds of dark short stories that get you caught up in the characters lives, and investing in outcomes. His stories are about now, about current topics crowding the headlines, and he's not afraid to investigate the issues of the day, darkness and all!" -- Alexandra Wolfe, editor, writer, creator of The Hive Mind

"Wilson's perfectly plotted stories engross their readers in a world where environmental concerns are paramount. His characters are unafraid to fight for their ideals, and yet they retain a humanity that allows readers to identify with them, which illustrates his penchant for carefully crafted fiction." -- Darci Schummer, author and poet

"Thoughtful, insightful, and intuitive: readers will share in a book that decodes the human condition." -- Hunter Liguore, author of The Forsakens & the editor of The Last Man Anthology

"A narrative that careens through space & time, The Many Lives of Inez Wick brings us serious environmental issues in a swirl of hard-bitten fragments—Edward Abbey meets Quentin Tarantino." -- John Hayes, author of The Spring Ghazals

"Wilson has a way of writing that lets him transparently share his passion for environmentalism while entertaining us with a vivid plot and this collection of shorts displays his talent marvelously." -- M. Chase Whittemore, editor of Evolve Journal

BIOGRAPHY
Aaron M. Wilson was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska and now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned his M.F.A. in Writing from Hamline University located in St.Paul, MN.

He writes about books, stories, movies, and his experiences as an adjunct instructor of English, Literature, and Environmental Science on his blog: Soulless Machine. He also regularly updates Twitter @SoullessMachine.

His fiction has appeared in eFiction Magazine: The Premier Internet Fiction Magazine, Evolve Journal, Pow Fast Flash Fiction, The Hive Mind, Eclectic Flash, Twin Cities: Cifiscape Vol. I, Girls with Guns Anthology, and The Last Man Anthology – also featuring stories from Barry N. Malzberg, C.J Cherryh, and Ray Bradbury.

WEBSITE
http://www.soullessmachine.com/p/many-lives-of-inez-wick.html

BLOG
http://www.soullessmachine.com

TWITTER
http://twitter.com/SoullessMachine

PUBLISHER
Everything Feeds Process Press
http://everythingfeedsprocess.com/

PURCHASE
Print - http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-many-lives-of-inez-wick/14959535
eBook - http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/the-many-lives-of-inez-wick/14959536

Echo & Lightning - Sheila Packa

Echo & Lightning

by Sheila Packa

Wildwood River Press announces the publication of Echo & Lightning (expanded edition) by Sheila Packa. It is both a love story and an exploration of bird migration and change. The cover painting is titled “Dawn” and is by visual artist Cecilia Ramon.

Kirsten Dierking, author of One Red Eye and Northern Oracle, writes: “So many poems in Echo & Lightning reveal what has to be given away in order to be filled with something greater--a more intense spiritual awareness, a fuller connection with the landscape, a more generous and all-encompassing love. Echo & Lighting transforms us into something freer, wilder, more given to loving, while reminding us that to fly is to risk leaving the old behind....”

Ellie Schoenfeld, author of The Dark Honey, writes: “These poems are the story of following one’s own instincts to, in one way or another, migrate. They bring us to the exact moment when we surrender to our truest selves, when we allow ourselves to be transported, transformed, resurrected.”

BIOGRAPHY
The granddaughter of Finnish immigrants, she grew up on Minnesota’s Iron Range. Her work, influenced by the Finnish language, explores the theme of migrations (of birds, grandmothers, and desire) and the natural world. Sheila has published poetry, short stories and essays in several literary magazines, including Ploughshares. Her poems have been in several anthologies, including Good Poems, American Places, edited by Garrison Keillor, (Viking Penguin, scheduled for publication April 2011), Finnish-North American Literature in English (Mellen Press, 2009) Beloved of the Earth: Poems of Grief and Gratitude (Holy Cow Press, 2008) and To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present (New Rivers Press, 2006). She has received a Loft Mentor Award in poetry, two Arrowhead Regional Arts Council fellowships for poetry, a Career Opportunity grant, and two Loft McKnight Awards (in both poetry and prose).

Previous books: Poetry Harbor published her first chapbook, Always Saying Good-bye. Her book of poems, The Mother Tongue (Calyx Press, 2007) received recognition at the Northeast Minnesota Book Awards.

WEBSITE
www.sheilapacka.com

BLOG
www.sheilapacka.blogspot.com

Sheila Packa is the Poet Laureate of Duluth, MN 2010-2012.

PUBLISHER
Wildwood River Press
www.wildwoodriver.com

UPCOMING EVENTS
April 19, 2011: Carol Connolly Reading Series, at the University Club on Summit Avenue, St. Paul: featured readers are Connie Wanek, Sheila Packa, Ellie Schoenfeld and Deb Cooper

April 26, 2011: Sheila Packa, Poet Laureate at the Empty Bowl-- Join Sheila Packa at this annual fundraising event at the Depot in Duluth for the Northern Food Bank. She will be presenting free placemats with a selection of poems from her upcoming anthology, Poems for Life Transitions.

June 2, 2011: Sheila Packa & Kathy McTavish, poetry / cello performance and Patchouli at 8 pm at Terrapin Station in Walker, MN

Check out the calendar on her website for other upcoming events

Gift With Purchase - Elizabeth Mirabel Sain

Gift With Purchase

By Elizabeth Mirabel Sain

Augie Zackheim likes to look on the bright side of life. Even though he hasn’t seen the sun in years, the lights in his home at the ruined Mall of America no longer work, the weather is always below freezing, and there’s a constant hush all over the world. Still, he has a roof over his head, food on his plate, a gorgeous nurse he has to share with only one other guy, and a plan for the future. Oh, sure, work is kind of a drag, what with the constant pressure every day to bring home scavenged car batteries, and all that competition from the clan living on the other side of the Mall. His friends can’t understand why he’s an optimist, what with the shape the world is in as it marches in the direction of zero. But when a strange girl saves his life, and becomes the love of his life, he knows for certain that everything’s going to turn out right and the sun will shine again.

"If it will acquaint me with the ingenious, unforgettable characters who inhabit Gift With Purchase, the apocalypse is not to be dreaded. Sain shows us that hope, love and humor will flourish where nothing else can grow. Maybe I should listen the next time my daughter tells me it's fun to hang out at the Mall."
--Jim Greenfield, author of Between The Lines

BIOGRAPHY
Elizabeth Mirabel Sain was born in 1984 on a Montana cattle ranch, where she still lives. Following high school, she apprenticed to a Los Angeles fashion photographer, until the deaths of her parents in a highway accident brought her back home. She’s completing a photographic study of the Missouri Breaks, the place on earth she loves the most, and intends to publish her images of this bizarre wilderness as a coffee table book. Gift With Purchase is her first novel.

WEBSITE
www.giftwithpurchasenovel.com

PURCHASE
Amazon.com

My Heart is a Mountain - Catherine Holm

My Heart Is a Mountain: Tales of Magic and the Land

by Catherine Holm

My Heart Is a Mountain is a collection of eleven fiction stories and one memoir piece. From northern Minnesota to Alaska, from the Dust bowl to Appalachia, from swamps to mountains to the afterlife, these tales blend the magic and the mundane as characters discover themselves, their limitations, and their greatness.

“Catherine Holm writes with great and winning assurance and with nuanced compassion. My Heart is a Mountain is a truly lovely book by a fine writer." Robert Olen Butler – Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

"Catherine Holm is a gifted storyteller. She explores the journeys we must all take through grief and healing, life and death; and she writes of the land with the passion of a lover. Her writing is both magical and of the earth; lyrical and accessible. I highly recommend her stories to anyone who listens for the heartbeat of the earth." Mary Casanova – Author of The Klipfish Code

"This fine debut collection of stories has great variety, and both reach and grasp of what it means to be fully human." Will Weaver – Author of The Last Hunter: An American Family Album

"America's mountains and forests take a special type of individual to call them home. My Heart is a Mountain: Tales of Magic and the Land is a collection of short stories along with some memoir from Catherine Holm as she speaks and reflects on mountain life and its special breed of challenge and the exhilaration that comes with it. A fascinating and insightful short fiction collection. My Heart is a Mountain is very highly recommended." -- John Burroughs, reviewer

BIOGRAPHY
Catherine Holm writes about people and how they are shaped by land and place. Holm lives in Minnesota with her husband on 10 acres in the boreal forest. Although the Minnesota north woods have been her home for the last 15 years, she spent the first 35 years of her life in large cities. Moving to the country was a huge life change and awakened a desire to write. The impact of moving from the city to a remote rural area continues to shape her writing; and magic and surrealism often show up in her stories. She loves living close to the land and experiencing wild landscapes everywhere.

Holm is currently working on a novel and a memoir, has written two fantasy novels, and enjoys writing essays on the powerful bond between humans and their companion animals. She gives workshops for writers and others who want more creativity in their lives (using the tools of yoga), works with writers one-on-one, is a freelance writer and editor, and teaches yoga. She loves reading, yoga, gardening, wilderness camping, music, cats, and being outside as much as possible.

WEBSITE
www.catherineholm.com

BLOG
www.catherineholm.com/blog

PUBLISHER
Holy Cow! Press
www.holycowpress.org

PURCHASE
http://www.catherineholm.com/pages/author.html#purchase

http://www.holycowpress.org/Myheartisamountain.htm

http://www.amazon.com/My-Heart-Mountain-Tales-Magic/dp/098235455X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297641140&sr=8-1

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/My-Heart-Is-a-Mountain/Catherine-Dybiec-Holm/e/9780982354551

Catherine’s book can be ordered in any bookstore and can also be found in:

Comet Theater, Cook, MN
Gilley’s Naturals, Cook, MN
Furniture Plus, Cook, MN
Woodward’s Books, Virginia, MN
Lyric Center for the Arts First Stage, Virginia, MN
Howard Street Booksellers, Hibbing, MN
Piragis 2nd Floor Bookstore, Ely, MN
Pebble Spa, Ely, MN
Evergreen Cottage, Ely, MN
The Village Bookstore, Grand Rapids, MN
Book World, Brainerd, MN
Book World, Bemidji, MN
The Bookstore at Fitger’s, Duluth, MN
Barnes and Noble, Duluth, MN

EVENTS

Saturday, March 26, workshop, reading, and signing

An Open Book

Wadena, MN

10-noon (workshop), and 2-3 p.m. (reading/signing).

Friday, June 10, reading and signing

Banfill-Locke Arts Center

Fridley, MN, 730 p.m.

Saturday, June 11, reading and signing

Valley BookSellers

Stillwater, MN, 2 p.m.