My first poetry collection RUNAWAYS published by Alien Buddha Press

I sent my poetry manuscript Runaways to Alien Buddha Press because I loved what they had been doing for a long time. I had a small hope that they would like it, and they did. That email saying it had been accepted was a great one. I read it once, twice, three or four more times before responding with an eager agreement to get into some revision work.

Here is the finished product of that work, the poetry collection Runaways. Please go buy a copy. I really think you'll enjoy it.

To have a collection of poetry out there in the world is a great feeling. I've been told by at least one infuriated detractor the following "Please, though, no more occasional tries at modernist stanzas, you gumpy trinity of names, or Jean Toomer’s coffin will bench press you." I don't care who you are, that right there is hilarious. I won't say who this was, but his essay trying to destroy me was so well written, to be honest. I'm almost tempted to link to it, but I'm not going to.

I won't lie, the first time I read the essay, it hurt my feelings. I laughed, but it hurt some. So I did what I do and kept writing poetry even harder than before. After a bit I had this bunch of prose poems (no modernist stanzas, detractor!) I thought were good enough to collect and submit. 

Like I said, I couldn't believe Alien Buddha Press liked it and has now published the book. It's a nice, 87-page collection of all my poetry to date, which is pretty cool because it comes in the same week that my publisher Cowboy Jamboree Press put out my Collected Stories, a 630-page book of a every short story I've ever had published for the past decade. 

All my stuff in just a couple books. It's pretty amazing.