August 7, 2017

Paula Bonnell’s New Book of Poetry, Reviewed by Simran P. Gupta

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Book Reviews, News

Editor’s Note: Paula Bonnell enthralled us with her poetry two years ago here at the Café. Now Paula has written and published a new chapbook of her poetry entitled “Tales Retold,” which Simran, our poetry barista, reviews here. “Tales Retold” is Copyright (c) 2017 Paula Bonnell. Used by permission of the author. Paula Bonnell’s chapbook, “Tales Retold,” (Copyright (c) 2017 Paula Bonnell. Used by permission of the author) can be summed up as a masterpiece of words. Bonnell’s poetry demanded (and received) my full attention, with varying tone, emotion, and clever word choice. With each re-read, a new level of understanding was achieved and a new connection was made. This is not to make the poems in “Tales Retold” (Copyright (c) 2017 Paula Bonnell. Used by permission of the author) sets out to be puzzles…

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August 4, 2017

Podcast: A Rare Sherlock Holmes Story

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

Greetings, Podcast Fanatics! Here’s a Sherlock Holmes short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle you may have missed in your readings: “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist,” drawn from the book The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Published in 1903, this and other stories followed the fabled detective after he had purportedly been killed by the evil Professor Moriarty. It caught my attention because I’m an avid cyclist and wanted to see what the master [indeed, how often does one get English nobility for their writing?] dealt with the bicycle, which was a relatively new invention at the time he wrote. So here it is, and do let me know what you think of it! This is a LibriVox recording by Raynard. Please click on the arrows below to listen to “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”…

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August 3, 2017

“My Last Night in Paris,” a Short Story by Sandor Blum

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art

When I become incensed at prejudice, I tend to fight back with an edge of cynicism aimed at cutting through to someone’s stupidity. I am always hopeful that I can be an educator rather than a warrior against bigotry. George, a French Jew who had come to America, had told me of the growing anti-Semitism in France and the French collaboration in the deportation of his family from Lyons to the WW II concentration camps. He had grown up with French anti-Semitism, had witnessed the attack on Jo Goldenberg’s Jewish delicatessen, battled to defend Israel at the Sorbonne and finally—fed up and exhausted—convinced his family to move to the US. It was the late 1980s. I was scheduled to meet with the president of a French firm to discuss his acquisition of my client’s company….

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August 1, 2017

Light in August: This Month’s New Work

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in News

Please pardon us for snitching the title of William Faulkner’s momentous novel about race relations in the 1930s South, but it’s on our minds a lot as we continue to see ugly racism rampant in our country. Which, of course, begs the question posed in the gorgeous song, “Why Can’t We Live Together“, performed by Diana King and Kyle Eastwood. We hope you’ll find interesting and provocative aspects of what’s good about a diverse culture in our offerings this month. That’s about it, save for the more obvious metaphor of our contributors shedding some light into your own personal August with our bountiful creative offerings. Fiction. Sandor Blum has given us a short story about an American Jew who encounters latent – and perhaps blatant – discrimination in “My Last Night in Paris.” We also…

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July 28, 2017

The “Tiny Dreams” Podcasts, Part the Fourth

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

Here you are, listeners, the fourth installment and final episodes of “Tiny Dreams.” We hope you’ve enjoyed listening to these audio tidbits and will take a bit more of your time to sample the longer audio dramas from ZBS Media. As I mentioned at the outset, the stories of Jack Flanders and Ruby, The Galactic Gumshoe, were important landmarks in my appreciation for the audio storytelling media. A great deal of new content has been developed at ZBS since my early days of discovery in the 1970s. While you can buy and download individual shows at zbs.org, the serious listener [such as yours truly] will want to go to zbsmedia.com for streaming media. Here you have access to everything we’ve ever done, for $5 a month, or $55 a year. Once again, Fictional Cafe hats off to…

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July 25, 2017

Understanding Reading Biases and My Mission to Fix Them

Posted by Mike Rochester in Book Reviews, News

I still have all my summer reading lists from high school. The eternal optimist in me thought that someday I’d run down that list and read each one. Years later, I still haven’t read more than a few of those books, but that collection spawned a very important way of thinking for me. As a student, I treated these reading lists like they were the word of God – that to be a writer or English major in college, these were the texts I should be reading. Still, there was a quietly blasphemous part of me that questioned that belief and as I grew older, I realized that even these holy lists were imperfect. Fast forward to last year, when I was studying my Goodreads “to read” and “previously read” lists. I noticed biases reflected…

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July 23, 2017

Three New Poems by John Grey

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art

Editor’s Note: John Grey graced our ‘zine with his poetry last year. Here are three new poems from his pen, and in August we shall publish three more, so you can savor each one. THE WEDDING RING The rotten end to a wrecked season, footsteps bring no redemption no resurrection as wet grass on the feet merely adds to the machinery of bitterness until I come across the river whose undermining poverty is quieted by discovery of something illicit in the shore-weeds – a dead wedding ring glistening like bone – it’s been lost or tossed – why not? everything on earth finds itself in the same situation. * BRAIN MATTERS The question arises – do I really need all this? I can live in…

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July 21, 2017

The “Tiny Dreams” Podcasts, Part 3

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

Dear FC audio aficionados: Return with us now to those thrilling episodes of “Tiny Dreams” we’ve posted here the past two weeks and partake of nine [count ’em, 9!] more. In case you missed Part 1 and Part 2, click. “Tiny Dreams” were commissioned from ZBS Media as a series of short pieces for a group of radio stations, what they call “Triple A,” — commercial rock & roll radio! The challenge for the ZBS people was figuring out how to tell a story, take someone on a little adventure (or trip into dreamland), and bring them back again, and do it all in 90 seconds! The stories were inspired by the strange movies that are projected inside our brains while we’re asleep. They’re truly original in concept, and also good for a few smiles…

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July 20, 2017

Caitlin Jans: The Working Writer Interview

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Interviews

Caitlin Jans is the editor-owner of Authors Publish, a website and newsletter devoted to providing writers with sources – and resources – for publishing their work. Once a writer signs up, they receive periodic email messages with new leads for their literary aspirations. Caitlin was gracious in answering some questions from the Fictional Café editors about her work, as well as her own writing. FC: How would you describe Authors Publish? AP: We are a weekly eMagazine that publishes information for authors, including reviews of literary journals and manuscript publishers open to submissions from authors. Of course, we have changed a little over the years. We now publish eBooks and special issues that focus on just one topic, but we can still be mostly summed up in that first sentence. FC: What inspired you to…

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July 19, 2017

“Every Picture Tells A Story, Don’t It?” – Charlotte Penabel’s Collages

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Fine Art

Rod Stewart sang it best in song, and Charlotte Penabel’s Etsy collages take flight over Rod in image and words. Click on each image to enlarge it so you can read their titles. And for even more fun, listen to Rod sing the “Every Picture Tells A Story” as you enjoy Charlotte’s collages. ** Artist’s Statement I find a lot of visual appeal in pop culture, glamour, vintage Hollywood, femininity and anything glittery – but I don’t think I could create a feminine or aesthetically pleasing digital collage without emulating a subtle undertone of suffering and self loathing to the celebrity-crazed world we live in. I am fascinated, pained and enchanted by first-world culture and the effects, power and persuasion images can have on us as a mass consumed society. For every collage I create,…

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