Review: Shout: An Anthology of Resistance Poetry and Short Fiction

Posted on January 18, 2020 by kareneisenbreywriter

Shout+eBook+Cover+12_15_19.jpg?format=750w Shout: An Anthology of Resistance Poetry and Short Fiction (Not A Pipe Publishing, 2020)

Full disclosure: I was excited enough about this project to submit a story. It’s an honor to be included in a collection of such excellent and bracing work.

Each of the 25 works has its own take on the theme of resistance to fascism/authoritarianism/tyranny. Some are cautionary tales of the oppression future Americans may have to live under, some portray active resistance to injustice, and others provide the satisfaction of oppressors brought low by their own hubris.

It’s hard to pick favorites, but I will name a few. I couldn’t stop thinking about “Growth” by Janet Burroway, a grim and heartbreaking look at public utilities we take for granted. How self-sufficient would the average American be with all the comforts of modern life … except sewers and waste disposal? “Shout” by Benjamin Gorman is modeled on the Biblical account of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, but with a different wall and an unexpected Promised Land. “Last of Our Kind” by Heather S. Ransom is a harrowing thriller of smart, capable women on the run from active, deadly misogyny. “The Creamy Ichor Sauce over Lake Michigan” by TJ Berg is a darkly hilarious Lovecraft pastiche with a satisfying end to the corrupt powerful. “No Collision” by Jennifer Lee Rossman also provides comic relief, in the form of a deep space mission and some information the President doesn’t want found. “Dandelion” by K. A. Miltimore speaks of the value of books and kindness. The final piece, the poem “Anthem” by Bethany Lee, reminds us of what really matters and rhymes love with love.

Whether scary, dark, funny, or hopeful, each piece is encouragement to stand up for what’s right before it’s too late.

Release date: February 2, 2020. On pre-order now:

You can pre-order the paperback edition from Powell’s HERE.
You can pre-order the paperback edition from Barnes & Noble HERE.
You can pre-order the paperback edition from Amazon HERE.
You can pre-order the Kindle edition now, HERE.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-January 18, 2020

Posted on January 18, 2020 by kareneisenbreywriter

Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

We now return to our regularly scheduled Seattle January: 40 degrees and raining. I’m glad the snow mostly fizzled, though I didn’t say no to my one snow day. It’s good to know that events this week are unlikely to be cancelled, including shows by these well-named bands:

Evulse

I first encountered the word evulsion as a pre-teen, when my sister took first-aid training. I remember a morbid delight that there was a special word for a body part that had been forcibly removed. It never occurred to me until now that of course there would also be a verb for the violent act.

Hans Gruber and the Die Hards

Gotta respect a band that uses classic X and the Y structure to refer to a pop culture icon in a different medium. Yippee ki yay and Merry Christmas.

Little Hero

An always-welcome reminder that size matters not in the do-gooder business.

Shady Bug

Underhanded insect, crawly staying out of the sun, or perhaps a beetle large enough to serve as a parasol.

Teen Bop Hit Factory

If you take the tour, be sure to bring your dancing shoes in case they pass out samples.

Shameless Self-Promotion: Next Saturday, January 25, at 7:00 p.m., I will read from and sign my latest novel, the punk rock/superhero mashup Barbara and the Rage Brigade, at Third Place Books Ravenna. Details here. Until then, enjoy these 4 songs I wrote for the book:

One last thing before you go: I share highlights from this blog in my quarterly author newsletter, The Storypunk Report, as well as news of what I’m writing and reading, upcoming events, and other goodies, including “Wizard in the Mosh Pit,” an exclusive short story just for subscribers. Click the link to check out the first five issues and subscribe here for future issues. (Or just follow the blog for your weekly dose of band names.)

Square Pig in a Round Hole-January 11, 2020

Posted on January 11, 2020 by kareneisenbreywriter

Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Winter was shaping up to be an extended fall/early spring, and then somebody had to go and put snow in the forecast. Bah. My elbow is still recovering from last February. If it happens, I hope nobody has to cancel their show, especially any of these winners:

Bandaid Brigade

Childlike risk-takers, patching up boo-boos and marching onward. (With my latest novel Barbara and the Rage Brigade out in the world, it’s safe to say that for the foreseeable future, I will honor anyone with “brigade” in their name.)

Echo Relocation

When bats’ employers transfer them to a different cave, somebody has to help with the move.

Hellport

Change one letter and suddenly instead of a convenient point of egress from the urban core, you’ve got an opening to a nasty other dimension. Maybe the boss really is that evil.

The Out of Body Experience

The simple addition of the definite article transforms a mystical event into a groovy (and maybe still mystical) event.

Several Other Ghosts

Too late to visit Scrooge on Christmas Eve, they find themselves at loose ends, available for hauntings, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and children’s parties.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-January 4, 2020

Posted on January 4, 2020 by kareneisenbreywriter

Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Happy New Year & New Decade! Don’t give me any argument about the decade beginning next year–it’s the ’20s now, so let’s just shut up and learn to Charleston. It goes without saying that the celebration of band names will continue as long as the listings include treasures like these:

David’s Van

Shoutout to every garage band’s beloved if unreliable vehicle that makes touring or even just gigs possible.

Microtonic

All it needs is a little gin. Very little.

Motionless in White

Arty and opposite; how often is rock music still or clean? (The paper inadvertently ran the names of co-headliners together. The name I thought I was choosing was “Beartooth Motionless in White,” which takes the artiness up to eleven. These bands should consider merging and changing their name to this.)

XRAWRX

Sound effect and illustration in one.

Yeti Set Go

This displays the same kind of wordplay as Petty or Not from a couple of weeks back, but with a different kind of celebrity. Cryptid pun for the win.

One last thing before you go: I share highlights from this blog in my quarterly author newsletter, The Storypunk Report, as well as news of what I’m writing and reading, upcoming events, and other goodies, including “Wizard in the Mosh Pit,” an exclusive short story just for subscribers. Click the link to check out the first four issues and subscribe here for future issues. (Or just follow the blog for your weekly dose of band names.)

Square Pig in a Round Hole-December 28, 2019

Posted on December 28, 2019 by kareneisenbreywriter

Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

How are we feeling about heading into 2020, not just a new year but an election year? If it helps with the anxiety, please know I’ll be here every week with a new list of band names. Not a cure, but it helps and gives me hope. For now, enjoy this last selection for 2019. New Year’s week is heavy on the tribute bands, which account for 3 out of 5 of my picks. As I noted last week, part of the fun of starting a tribute band must be coming up with a clever name.

Electric Boots

Rather than playing on a song title or the name of the artist for which it is a tribute, this extracted lyric perfectly evokes the whole Elton John aesthetic in two words.

Fleetwood Snack

Sometimes all you need is a taste. (Seems to be not so much a tribute band as a tribute name, but I like it either way.)

Love Vigilantes

Sometimes a song title needs no adjustment at all to become a band name, it only needs someone to claim it, like DIY justice for lovers done wrong.

Waves Like Weapons

Sound is a wave and has been used offensively at least since Joshua and the walls of Jericho.

We Don’t Know

Truer words were never spoken. Appropriate for all occasions.

One last thing before you go: Through December 31, I am participating in an authors’ “newsletter hop.” Subscribe to newsletters and answer trivia questions for a chance to win prize bundles of multiple books and stories, including my fantasy novels Daughter of Magic and Wizard Girl. If you want to play, go to my Facebook page for details.

I share highlights from this blog in my quarterly author newsletter, The Storypunk Report, as well as news of what I’m writing and reading, upcoming events, and other goodies, including “Wizard in the Mosh Pit,” an exclusive short story just for subscribers. Click the link to check out the first four issues and subscribe here for future issues. (Or just follow the blog for your weekly dose of band names.)

Square Pig in a Round Hole-December 21, 2019

Posted on December 21, 2019 by kareneisenbreywriter

Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

This is the first weekend this month with no commitments on the calendar. In spite of thin listings, there are plenty of appealing shows we could go to, but staying in is the most appealing activity of all. And since I’ve managed to catch a cold for Christmas, that is what we’ll do. If you’re looking for ideas, those thin listings yielded these precious gifts:

East of Friday

From the moment I had a concept of calendar time, I have pictured weeks, months, and years as a kind of map or game board with a definite directional aspect. If you head east from Friday, do you arrive at Saturday or Thursday? I say Thursday.

Heck Yes

Emphatically positive and keepin’ it clean.

Jaws Was Real

Jaws traumatized me when I saw it in the theater at the tender age of 11. I didn’t see it again until my late 30s when I watched it on the small screen with my kid (probably also 11-ish). He was not scared and I laughed so hard at the obvious fakery.

Oh Nothing

As a response to the question “What are you thinking about?” “Oh, nothing” is as likely as not to be true.

Petty or Not

Part of the fun of starting a tribute band must be coming up with a clever name. This one is a two-fer, with both wordplay and a sly indication that this is a tribute to Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac.

I share highlights from this blog in my quarterly author newsletter, The Storypunk Report, as well as news of what I’m writing and reading, upcoming events, and other goodies, including an exclusive short story just for subscribers. Click the link to check out the first four issues and subscribe here for future issues. (Or just follow the blog for your weekly dose of band names.)

Review: SuperGuy 2: Electric Boogaloo

Posted on December 17, 2019 by kareneisenbreywriter

SuperGuy2 Electric Boogaloo SuperGuy 2: Electric Boogaloo (Not A Pipe Publishing, 2019) by Kurt Clopton

I have been looking forward to this sequel from the moment I finished book 1, my anticipation heightened when I learned the title, borrowed from a beloved ‘80s save-the-rec-center dance movie. Like SuperGuy before it, SuperGuy 2: Electric Boogaloo is a superpowered workplace comedy, complete with annoying coworkers, petty rivalries, and impenetrable bureaucracy. (Q: How hard could it be to add a cape to a uniform? A: Very.) Everything that was goofy in book 1 – SuperGuy’s immodest uniform, his nemesis Gray Matter’s overly complicated plots (and his crush on a diner waitress named Alice), the police chief’s maybe-real-maybe-not animosity – are all cranked up a few hilarious notches. Meanwhile, a former minion of Gray Matter is accidentally transformed into an energy monster and takes his villain name from an old VHS tape. He hates SuperGuy and Gray Matter in equal measure, allowing for spectacular battles and destruction. And there’s a well-dressed new villain in town whose identity is a mystery only to our heroes.

Recommended for fans of Ant Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, and any readers who like their action and comedy in equal measure.

Oliver Olson, generically-themed official city superhero of Milwaukee, has finally become more comfortable with his job, if not so much with his suit. After defeating the supervillain, Gray Matter, and thwarting his plan of world domination in his first few weeks on the job, Oliver is settling into the routine of protecting his city by catching small time crooks, protecting a larger part of the country by joining a regional supergroup, and protecting his job by keeping his trainee sidekick from destroying anything. But now there’s a giant blue monster who wants a word. All Oliver wants is a cape.

“A dash of superhero action, a pinch of lovelorn supervillain angst, and a splash of cape envy. Shake it all up and you get SuperGuy 2: Electric Boogaloo. Oliver and company are back in this irreverent sequel that wonders, Is the enemy of my enemy really my friend?”

–LeeAnn McLennan, author of The Supernormal Legacy trilogy

“This high-energy, laugh-out-loud action comedy will brighten the dark days ahead.”

–Karen Eisenbrey, author of Daughter of Magic, The Gospel According to St. Rage, Wizard Girl, and Barbara and the Rage Brigade