the broken & the damned

Received today my copy of the broken & the damned by Jason "Juice" Hardung, which I edited for epic rites press. Buy a copy here at the bookstore, or coming soon in meat world bookstores thanks to SPD, or in SPD's own bookstore. Coming in a couple of months from epic rites are books by me, Karl Koweski, and Wolfgang Carstens.

Jason's book is proof that all us old junkie slobs can be pretty decent fuckers under it all. It's written from the seamy and raw side of life, but with an exquisite literary talent and a wealth of human emotivity that keeps the poetry from being as seedy as some of its subject matter. It's definitely destined to be an instant classic, so buy it.

Twisted Tongue

Four things by me coming in Twisted Tongue, these four pieces being works that are at least a little bit twisted themselves. It's a great zine and it's here. They will be coming in December, conveniently for the birthday of Jesus, of whom I do not wholly approve. Were there a god, there would have to be a Satan for me to worship. In fact, I don't like Jesus at all, The Passion of the Christ didn't even give me a hard-on, much as I like sadism. The expression "the virgin Mary" was an advertizing theme at her brothel, she apparently sucked so good she never needed to use her pussy.

Black Listed

Delighted another one, night is a coal, is up at the excellent Black Listed magazine.

Puffin Circus 2

The line up for Puffin Circus 2 is here, it can be ordered here, and contains work by me in it.

Gutter Eloquence

I have, as stated earlier, really cut down on subs to zines now, it seems so unnecessary when you mean to focus on books, and as I am doing books exclusively with Epic Rites now too. One zine that is a real modern underground calssic is Jack T. Marlowe's Gutter Eloquence, so he's an editor you have to submit to, and a poem by me will be in issue seven in January.

the broken and the damned

It was a great pleasure to edit the broken and the damned by Jason Hardung. The book is full of energy anger, nostlagia and, if I may say so, a genuine grasp of the inside and the downsides of love and life. It is an essential purchase, since it is proof that it is possible to write about the tough and less pretty side of life and psychogenesis, enumerating the scars over the thin but well-lived-in skin, without surrendering a grasp of the beauty and dynamism of language. I can't recommend it too highly.

Buiy it at epic rites bookstore, It's available now, just back from the printers.

Mung Being

Happy to say that three poems by me, the scars on waiting flesh, they cross a field, and expecting heaven we get pills and razors and pizzas, are to appear in issue 20 of Mung Being. It's a marvelous zine, of course, and it's great to be there again.

thin edge of staring

The thin edge of staring is working again and open to submissions, I suppose the outstanding accpetances will be published soon enough. Anyway, a poem by me has been posted there I find. This is one from the upcoming book laughing at funerals which will be out in January next year, probably, or round then. This will be on sale at Epic Rites bookstore where you can still buy hellbound.

Don't know how many books after funerals, still hoping for cancer and doing everything I can to die of some dreadful disease, but I am cursed with a steel liver and boyish kidneys and so forth. Damn this resilient life and supple body. If the good really do die young I may even be immortal.

Just finished off the final details of the new book in fact and now preparing to get to work on the drama of the flesh, the upcoming book by Wolfgang Carstens

SALiT Magazine

Delighted to say that vol 2 issue 3 of Salit Magazine is up with two poems by me in it, free pdf here.

Puffin Circus #2

Pleased to say that the second issue of Puffin Circus is out, not received my contributor's copy yet, but I'm sure it's excellent.

Here is the print purchase link and the download purchase link. Check it out.

Glasgow Review

music smoking by me is up at Glasgow Review, in their new issue. Lots of great work there, including Gillian Prew

Bicycle Review

There is work by me in the current issue of The Bicycle Review, do check it out, also pieces by Melanie Brown and many others.

SALiT Magazine

Happy to hear that two poems by me will be coming in about a week's time in the excellent SALiT Magazine. They are well worth reading and always a first rate read.

Four Branches Press

A couple of poems also forthcoming in Spring issue of Four Branches Press, but let's not think of spring now sweet, sweet winter is coming.

Forge Journal

As promised a while back, there is one up by me in The Forge Journal. It's called the dark flowers best. Check this zine out too, it's a good one.

Dead Paper

Again delighted to have three poems coming in the fall issue of deadpaper.org. Great place for them to be, check it out.

Danse Macabre Online

Pleased to say that some poems by me will be in The Oct or Nov issue of Danse Macabre Online, where you will also find a plethora of poems in their excellent back issues. Check them out now, and when the ones by me come.

I have been having huge fun compiling and recompiling my kernel and putting in new disks and so on, so I have been very lazy. Today I didn't even write five poems, I only wrote four, and those very much as an afterthought while the computer was doing something else.

Hugely good book coming soon from Epic Rites, edited by Wolfgang and me - or "Woflgang and I" as an american would say, being innocent of elementary grammar, as well as influenced by DOOL - it's by Juice Hardung and called the broken and the damned. You can advance order it now, and you should.

Dark Gothic Resurrected

Delighted to have some work in the new issue (Fall 2009) of Dark Gothic Ressurected Magazine. You can buy a print or electronic copy of the zine at the link. There's amazingly good work in this zine by some very gifted people, a feature on the great Christopher Lee, beautiful art work, and even two sick poems by me, what more can you ask for?

Hellbound

After a mere six weeks in the post a brave team of huskies got a package of hellbounds through to me, so I can sell those signed from here.

They are on sale for thirteen dollars including post from Sweden to us/uk. Buy by sending thirteen bucks to regnruta @ gmail.com via paypal, or, if without paypal, mail me at that address and I can send an invoice.

If you also want a pushing lemmings I can throw in one of the last of those I have really cheap (118 pp, recommended price £6.95) so you get both for $25 dollars.

Of course if you just want the book and don't care about the signature you can buy hellbound cheaper at epic rites bookstore or in Canadian headshops.

Media Virus Magazine

Happy to say that a poem is coming soon in an excellent new zine called Media Virus Magazine. I've become picky about submitting recently, and do it far less, but this zine seems really cool and a great place to be. Check it out.

EDIT, up now here.

In The Gallows

Pretty soon there will be a new print zine around called In The Gallows, edited by Erek Smith. Three poems by me will be in 1st issue, looking forward to it, details will be in Erek's blog I assume. I shall also post ordering details when it comes.

Fragile Arts Quarterly

The Fall issue of Fragile Arts Quarterly is out now, it's here and can be viewed online or downloaded as free .pdf. It includes five poems by me, I'm pleased to say. Great zine.

Hellbound Reviewed

Pleased to have received the following review of Hellbound from Puma Perl


Review: Hellbound, by David McLean

David McLean’s new collection opens with the line we are Pinhead’s pure children today and closes on the following three words: don’t mind bleeding. Purity and blood, good and evil, childhood and death – do any of these concepts really exist or are they like Pinhead, once human, now a Cenobite; not even the Gates of Hell will open to him. If there is such a place as Hell.

It is not strictly necessary to familiarize oneself with Clive Barker’s Hellraiser series, which features the character of Pinhead, but it makes the reading of McLean’s fine poems even richer; the mixture of true nihilism, dry humor, and the writer’s distinctive command of form and language exemplifies the Cenobites’ predilections for pain and pleasure.

McLean is a favorite poet of mine because of his stubborn individuality as well as his genius; he is amazingly prolific without compromising quality. Hellbound can be read as a continuing story, or as 39 pieces that stand up on their own. In any case, we take a journey to a Hell that we create for ourselves, and, like Pinhead (he almost cares*), we are:

loving the sufferings
we share, our brutal bodies
here
if Pinhead’s hooks and chains

In Hellbound, murder and orgasm, angels and sexuality meet in cruel heaven:

standing there under the erect cross
where we are all dead already

all the cruel angels are happy.
closing lines of the cruelest sexualities

We question “reality”:

fingers tearing open life’s thin skin
in a world where such red truth

is not welcome, is seldom allowed in
and the children whimper

We look through the eyes of McLean’s Pinhead:

what Pinhead says is “let go”
so Hell’s sweet order is chaos
erased.
Pinhead speaks

I have a running conversation with whoever will listen to me about the difficulty of finding, thinking, creating, in any form, something that has not been done before. This is another reason I like McLean so much; his concepts and his words are instantly recognizable to all who know his work as his and his alone, or as the writer puts it:

mine the only ever Hell
you truly know
is you,

the only one you need to

Puma Perl, author, Belinda and Her Friends


I have no copies left just now, order from epic rites bookstore.

Black Listed Magzine

Black Listed Magazine just posted another by me here, thanks for that. It's a great zine with some phenomenal work up there.

And, on another note, don't forget, people, to buy Hellbound and other chapbooks and books at Epic Rites Bookstore. You can also still order Hellbound and/or pushing lemmings from me, new copies of Hellbound are arriving soon.

an update

Above is a link to my virtual office at Epic Rites. At present ER is putting together poems for laughing at funerals which, as things are looking now, will be coming mid 2010 in some form. Before then ER will be releasing, in October, the excellent the broken and the damned by Jason Hardung; in December blood and greasepaint, a hilarious and weird 250 page anthology of short stories by Karl Koweski that I also edited/co-edited; and, before funerals, the fantastic crunked by Jack Henry, also edited by yours insincerely. Details of upcoming books are here at Epic Rites.

I am still editing lines written w/ a razor but we are not accepting submissions, invitation only. I will post the stuff already accepted as soon as I can and then get some new work by looking for it.

Gutter Eloquence 5

Excellent zine GEM online now, fifth issue; one by me here.

Target Audience Summer 2009 pdf

Lots of great stuff in Target Audience Magazine's 5th issue, Summer 2009, where I am featured poet. Three poems and some terrible pictures of the disaster that is my face, and a little bit about me. The pdf is free but consider donating a little at the link to help them produce the issues.

Eviscerator Heaven

Really cool that AJ Kaufmann is back in the driver's seat at Eviscerator Heaven. Incredibly fast to accept and post these three poems. Two inspired by songs by Roky Erikson. Also posted there some actual rare poems by Roky Erikson himself. Kick ass!

hellbound etc

Just to remind that hellbound is now only $7.50 at epic rites press bookstore. there you can also by Mark Walton's fantastic frostbitten for the same price, coming soon for $15 the broken and the damned, an excellent collection of ca 100 pages by Jason Hardung, and there is still the awesome collection a bellyful of anarchy by Rob Plath to buy.

For only $25 dollars I can send a copy of both hellbound and my second erbacce full-length pushing lemmings to you signed, fuck buttons, just send 25 to regnruta@gmail.com, or if you don't have PayPal mail me at that address and I can mail an e-invoice from PayPal. More Hellbounds arriving soon, that only costs $13 on its own, including shipping & handling. Still $25 for both.

EDIT: Since I have become hugely disillusioned by reading about auras and elements and souls and other bad poems among submissions there, the netzines thin edge of staring and lines written w/ a razor have changed a little; Wolfgang Carstens now edits thin edge again, and I continue to edit lines written w/ a razor but the latter is by invitaiton only, do not submit to lines.

Momoware 2

A poem by me bird on the roof, inspired loosely by satta massa gana by The Abyssinians, is coming up in issue 2 of Momoware by Grey Book Press. For now there's work by me in their issue one too. Second issue should be printed and available this September. The 1st issue was really excellent so snap the new one up too.

Forge Journal

Happy that a poem by me called the dark flowers best will be in the forthcoming October issue of Forge Journal. Obviously an excellent place to be.

The Recusant

Pleased to say that when words shut up by me is up online at The Recusant. Great zine, many excellent poems there already.

Gutter Eloquence Print

Delighted to say that Gutter Eloquence will be featuring twinkle, twinkle, little dead man by me in first print issue. Thanks Jack T. Marlowe for taking it. Their current issue is here. GE is one of the best zines out there.

Calliope Nerve Interview

Pleased that Matt aka Nobius at Calliope Nerve saw fit to interview me here. Note that not everything said is totally false.

Whistling Shade

Delighted to receive my copy of print verison of Whistling Shade. It includes a poem by me, it's a free zine and is available, also free obviously, online here. Includes a delightful article by Dylan Garcia-Wahl on the author of a crappy translation of Rilke, I forget his name. You can find it in the zine so order your copy now. Details for obtaining at site.

Yellow Mama

Delighted to say that the new issue of the superb zine Yellow Mama is up, and a poem by me is in it here.

The Red Ceilings

I just noticed some excellent poems by Andrew Taylor in a new blogzine called The Red Ceilings, submitted, and was happy to recieve a quick acceptance, one posted by me there called fragments.

Since I submit very little, relatively to how I used to, nowadays, such a swift response is particularly welcome. Kudos to Red Ceilings, check them out

Poetic Diversity

Pleased to announce that the new Poetic Diversity is up, I'm featured with two poems by me here. Great work by Marie Lecrivain as usual.

I'm submitting much much less nowadays, but will continue to send things to a few places like this and also occasional submissions to new zines both online and print. I want to focus on books and chapbooks, and not produce too many of them. It's too easy to produce too much work nowadays.

Whistling Shade Summer 2009

Pleased to say that Whistling Shade Summer 2009 is up, one by me there, copies can be obtained by contacting them, but it's free online too, and it's here.

fuck poetry - chop a line, now!

Delighted to say that seven poems by me will be in August's "fuck poetry" volume from Crisis Chronicles, details here. It is coming in August.

At their website they have an excellent and interesting blog as well as an online library of classics. It will take several hours to check this out, so stock up on wine first, or at least brew a pot of coffee, or chop a line, you know, whatever floats your boat.