523 posts by Jack B. Rochester

November 25, 2018

An Important Announcement from Your Fictional Cafe Baristas

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art

An Important Announcement Regarding Submissions Beginning today, November 25, 2018, Fictional Cafe won’t be accepting any new submissions until February 1, 2019. Your Baristas simply need time to catch up on reading the submissions that are currently on our desks, or are still in our queue. New work will continue to be published. If you have submitted work between June 11, 2018 and November 23, 2018, your work is being read, and you will be notified of a decision soon. Thank you for your patience and your continued support of the Fictional Cafe. ***

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November 15, 2018

David Morton Meyers Returns to FC With A New Exhibition

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Fine Art

Hey, Coffee Clubbers! Steve Sangapore, your Fine Arts Barista, here. I’ve been following several artists who have exhibited at the Fictional Café in the past and chose David Morton Meyers for a new show. Dave is currently living in Iowa, and has been working on a whole new experimental body of work that I thought would be really cool to share, to show you a familiar face with new work and creative direction. -Steve ** Artist’s Statement Currently I have an exhibition on view at the University of Iowa’s Visual Arts Building where I am completing the final year of my Master of Fine Arts in painting with a secondary emphasis in sculpture. This exhibition is entitled “Free Beer (Part One)” and is the sketch for my final MFA show that will occur this coming…

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November 7, 2018

Daniel Lev Shkolnik, Typewriter Poet

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Writing

Photo Credit: Tori Merkle Photography We met Daniel in Harvard Square, where he stood at the corner of Mass Ave and Brattle, typewriter poised to write a poem for a dollar. We asked him to write a poem for our dog, and what he pounded out on the old manual keyboard was sublime. We asked for more, and a correspondence ensued – Boston, New Orleans, Florida – and produced the following excerpts from his impressive body of work. Here’s how he describes his writing: As for the story of how I came to write poetry in Harvard Square: it has everything to do with my love affair with New Orleans, which started three years ago when I hitchhiked from New York to the Big Easy. New Orleans is a place where there’s an established legacy…

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October 30, 2018

Tonight: ZBS Presents All Hallow’s Eve!

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts

All right, then, you radio zombies! Halloween has arrived and with it the last six episodes of ZBS Media’s “90-Second Cellphone Chillin’ Theater.” If you enjoyed Nights One and Two, Monday and Tuesday, you’re sure to enjoy night three. But if you haven’t heard Night One or Night Two and are just arriving here tonight, you can still click back and listen to a dozen more episodes from last night and the night before! Isn’t technology wonderful? “Ghouls Galore” “Betty Big Boobs Meets Vinnie The Vampire” “(Diva #1) Divas Of The Dark” “Sad Regrets Of Cowgirl Clem” “Shameful Wanda & Her Wicked Wereass” “The Secret Smile of the Moaning Lisa” “The Box” We at the Fictional Café, along with the gang at ZBS Media, hope you’ve enjoyed our Halloween celebration. Many…

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October 29, 2018

Another Night of Halloween PodioFun

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Audio Arts, Podcasts

Following last night’s premier podcast, here are eight more Halloween treats from ZBS Media’s “90-Second Cellphone Chillin’ Theater.” You podcast lovers might recall “Saratoga Noir,” which we re-podcasted here a few months ago. Tomorrow night, Halloween, we’ll present the final eight episodes, for a total of 24. Do we deliver great content or what? “Zombie Al’s Big Night Out” “Dixie Doodle, Girl Geek, in ‘Totally Flat Busted’” “When the Wolfling Learns to Whistle” “Eating Crackers in a Crypt” “Dixie Doodle, Girl Geek, in ‘My Boyfriend’s Back’” “Drooling Doreen” “Revenge of the Tooth Fairy” “Loathsome Sally Under the Texas Moon” That’s all, folks! We hope you enjoyed and if you did, check in tomorrow night for the final eight episodes of “90-second Cellphone Chillin’ Theater.”

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October 28, 2018

Trick or Treat? Three Nights of Halloween Goodies for You

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Audio Arts, Podcasts

Thanks to our friends at ZBS Media, we present three nights of Halloween audio fun: “The 90-Second Cellphone Chillin’ Theater!” These are ghoulishly fun little podio stories created to get you in the mood for Halloween. Tonight we offer you the first eight, plus eight more tomorrow night, and eight again the Halloween night. We hope you enjoy them, and if you do, please write a Comment for us the share with ZBS. If you love audio stories, we encourage you to visit the ZBS Media website. It’s an audio treasure trove! “The Okie Dokie Swamp Thingie” “Hotel Catatonia” “Don’t Eat on Twilight Street” “The Monkey”s Magic Eyeball” “Don’t Eat at Igor’s” “The Sweet Scent of a Succubus” “Frankenstein’s Finger” “The X-Filings Dental Case”

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October 21, 2018

“The Radio’s On,” a Short Story by Kevin White

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art, Writing

He said he was going into the den to pay some bills. He took his beer with him and kissed his girlfriend on the head and said he would back in time to go to bed. She did not say anything but she probably smiled. He went into his den and shut the door and went to his desk. It included pencils, paper clips, an old transistor radio he never used, tissues, a phone book. He sat for a while, sorting out all the paperwork, when his cellphone rang. It was her again. He had to answer. “Hello?” “Hey, Kevin.” “Hey.” “I’m…surprised you picked up. I’ve been trying to get you.” “I’ve just been busy.” “Doing what?” “Just…things. Nothing, really.” They were treading worlds of the past and they were doing it too lightly to…

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October 17, 2018

Ghostographs: An Album by Maria Romasco Moore

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Book Reviews, Writing

NOTE: Ghostographs is a chapbook of short fictions inspired by old photographs by Maria Romasco Moore. It will be published November 1 by Rose Metal Press. The following review was written by Simran P. Gupta, Fictional Café’s Poetry Barista. Ghostographs: An Album by Maria Romasco Moore The Perfect Book to Welcome Fall Reviewed by Simran P. Gupta The sun is setting earlier and earlier, the temperature is dropping steadily, and it’s time to pull out our long sleeves and warm socks. If you’re like me, you’ll switch from your favorite sweet iced coffee at Starbucks to all the drinks that symbolize fall and its accompanying chill: hot apple cider, cocoa, herbal teas, all things pumpkin. And of course the return of hot coffee! I’ve always been fond of dedicating October to books that make…

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October 15, 2018

The Jane Friedman Interview: Writing Because You Can’t Imagine Doing Anything Else

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Interviews

Jane Friedman is quite possibly the most influential voice for the writer today. Her career spans over 20 years as a writer, editor, consultant, professor and speaker. “I sit at the intersection of several communities, which gives me a 360-degree view of the changes now shaping writing and publishing,” she says. “People working inside the industry see me as as an expert in digital and self-publishing, while independent authors see me as a traditional publishing figure. The university and MFA community see me as very commercially minded, while the business people see me as literary and academic. I would have it no other way; I prefer to serve as a bridge.” Jane granted Fictional Cafe the following interview, focusing primarily on how a committed individual can build a career as a writer by taking a businesslike…

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October 8, 2018

“Rearguard,” A Short Story by Robert Perron

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art, Writing

Jana backed off from Barry’s fart. No odor but a blast, a massive rip that blossomed the seat of his Royal Robbins convoy shorts before undulating out a leg hole. Okay, maybe she imagined the blossoming and undulating, but not the acoustics. Barry, a meter ahead, uphill, his left boot perched on a stone set in the trail for that purpose, twisted his body and said, “Sorry.” A wide tan hat protected his balding pate and shadowed the mien of sincerity on his salt and pepper face. “Quite all right,” said Jana. “Some things can’t be helped. I suppose.” Barry turned, applied hiking poles to path, and lifted his right foot. Jana let him gain several steps, and several steps later he ripped another, his head making a half turn and his shoulders shrugging. Oh,…

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