Introducing: Maverick Duck Press

Somehow I totally missed an email from Maverick Duck publisher Kendall A. Bell in the madness before the new feed was installed. (Thanks for the friendly reminder!) Let me make it up to you all by telling you about this press, which has now been added to the sidebar.

The most recent release is Chariots of Flame by J. Michael Wahlgren.

J. Michael Wahlgren's Chariots of Flame is like a ripe berry: there's a lot of juice packed into such a small package. The variety of poems in the chapbook is astonishing. Wahlgren is equally adept at the short poem, as in "Notes," and the longer lines of "Arms." Read in one sitting the collection ebbs and flows smoothly, but you could be forgiven for stopping and chewing some of the meatier poems. "Is it safe to say I lost my way" begins one of those, entitled "August Deluge." But Wahlgren doesn't lose his way. His small collection moves like a speed-drunk road trip. And when he reaches the end with the powerful "Contradiction" you understand that the journey has been a spiritual quest, like all speed-drunk trips. "I write/as a way to behave," Wahlgren says, and I can't remember a more succinct reason for the quest.

--Corey Mesler, author of Some Identity Problems

Also coming soon...Lauren Reynolds' Worshipfully and other poems (March 2008), and an as-yet untitled chap by Caitlin Crowley (April 2008).

Bell also edits the companion online journal Chantarelle's Notebook.

I'm puzzling over an odd vein of DIY at the sparkly new WordPress version of looktouchblog, where you pay $6/year to read "protected" posts. Jessica Smith on her new policy:

This price was arrived at by considering the blog as a piece of writing similar to a chapbook. Chapbooks cost around $5. Etsy, WordPress and Paypal all charge administrative fees, so there is cost for “materials” (although the materials are, in this case, immaterial) as well as the (more typical) cost of reading a body of work– in this case a very large body of work.

Oh, I'm puzzling.

In terms of an electronic text functioning in place of a physical one, I can see "selling" one's blog, a living e-book of sorts, a new do-it-yourself option for the doers themselves. But, really, a blog for sale? And, more so, the sale of personal posts in addition to creative ones?

I guess I'm curious what other bloggers & poets & DIYers are thinking about this, because I know you're thinking about it too.

There's a New Bigbridge online and I love Bigbridge.




There's a New Octopus out and I love Octopus.



There's also a Cultural Society Update

Free online barcode generator for DIYers

Why pay a service to generate your ISBN barcodes when Judah Milgram's online generator will help you out for free?

Not only is the price right, but there's no wait. You get the eps file instantly.

I've used it a few times now and it works perfectly.

Link

NB: You'll still have to apply for ISBN batches first, if you don't use a printing/distro service that sells you individual ones.

A link has also been added to the resources in the sidebar.