34 ORCHARD ISSUE 7 HAS BURST ONTO THE SCENE!
IT’S RELEASE DAY!! I’m thrilled to announce that 34 Orchard ISSUE 7 is here! Heralding the coming of spring and the concept of the fresh start, Issue 7 has another winner from Nigeria’s Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí (Issue 1’s “Christmas Chicken,” about which we STILL get mail!) and a few other 34O alums, as well as work by others familiar and brand-new.
Plunging into the visceral rip tides of lost love, medieval history, personal agency, folklore, witchcraft, grief, motherhood, and so much more—and rendered in everything from magical realism to soft science fiction, horror, and literary—there’s something for every taste!
Get your free copy here: https://34orchard.com/issue-7/
Once again, our ToC:
Cover Art: Optic Nerve – Page Sonnet Sullivan
An Old Romantic – Mark Towse
Little Monster – Elin Olausson
The Doe – Brandon McQuade
Wildfire – Alexandra Provins
The Flute – Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí
The Perimeter of Others – Marie-Andrée Auclair
Simulacrum Vehemens – Remo Macartney
Twenty Birthdays with You – Karen Cline-Tardiff
Penelope Learns to Weave a Double Helix – Shelly Jones
The Squealing – McLeod Logue
Where’s Lucy? – W.T. Paterson
The Procedure – Jeff Adams
poisoned earth – Corey Niles
There Is No Tomorrow – David H. West
The Triple G – Gregory Jeffers
I Once Worked There – Christian Hanz Lozada
The Last Day – Elaine Pascale
The Choice – Jenna Moquin
With the Turbulent Flow … – Angi Shearstone
The Shrine of Saint Amandus – Rex Burrows
How to Make a Vase – Kieran Thompson
A look at MoMA’s CRAFTING DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO exhibit
I’ve been so overwhelmed and deep into projects I’ve barely had time to breathe—but even though there’s light at the end of the tunnel, the burnout is real.
My friend Kristina and I, along with our friend Brigid, had planned a trip into New York City to see the Crafting del Toro’s Pinocchio exhibit this past Saturday, and it turned out to be Read the rest of this entry
HAPPY EASTER!
From our house to yours, we hope that whatever holiday you’re celebrating today–or even just the coming of spring–is wonderful and magical!
Kristi, Charles, Nathan, and Mikey the Cat
Announcing the ToC for 34 ORCHARD ISSUE 7, SPRING 2023 – Coming April 25!
I’m thrilled to announce the Table of Contents for 34 Orchard Issue 7, Spring 2023! Heralding the coming of spring and the concept of the fresh start, Issue 7 has another winner from Nigeria’s Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí (Issue 1’s “Christmas Chicken,” about which we STILL get mail!) and a few other 34O alums, as well as work by others familiar and brand-new.
Plunging into the visceral rip tides of lost love, medieval history, personal agency, folklore, witchcraft, grief, motherhood, Read the rest of this entry
Enjoy 34 ORCHARD Issue 4’s cover? Take a gander at the artist’s other work!
If you enjoyed Issue 4 (Autumn 2021)’s cover art—Walter H. Von Egidy’s The Ghosts of the Fair—then you’ll enjoy this post, where you’ll get to see some of his other work.
His 34 Orchard bio:
Walter H. Von Egidy (Cover Art/The Ghost of the Fair) is an American artist, painter and film maker known for his Super 8 photoplays and enamel/oil paintings.
He has had his work exhibited at Gallery 13, The Burnham Library, Housatonic Art League and the White Silo. He has seven finished portrait commissions and private and public collections including a portrait of composer Franz Waxman at Byrd Library, Syracuse University. His work has won first place at various film festivals including the United States Super 8 Film Festival at Rutgers University. He is the owner of New Milford Sign Shop and Von’s Studio. Most recently, his painting “Saturday Night in the Caverns” was chosen as the cover for writer Bob Deakin’s collection, Unruly Mix (Tales of Music, Artists, Posers and Misfits. You can see more of Walter’s work and contact him at www.walterhvonegidy.com.
Every March, Von Egidy holds an exhibit of his works—many of them new—at the Burnham Library in Bridgewater, Connecticut. It’s always a stellar event, with many people we know from town as well as a chance to enjoy Walter’s work up close. One thing about his art—it’s Dali-esque, it’s colorful, and there’s always a good bet you’ll find a piece that speaks to you.
My 8-minute flash fiction “It Can’t Rain All the Time” free on SUDDEN FICTIONS PODCAST!
Hello, all! Been a while because I’ve been buried (as usual).
So…what happens when your fortune cookie only gives you bad news? Find out in my flash fiction, “It Can’t Rain All the Time,” now available on the Sudden Fictions Podcast. It’s beautifully read by Richard B. Wood, and it’s an eight-minute listen. Here’s the direct link:
Sudden Fictions Podcast is also available on Apple, Spotify, and other podcasts, and if you like quick fictions, Wood publishes a lot of cool stuff. Here’s his schedule for the month of March, the theme of which is PROPHECY:
3 MAR: Episode 9 – Eden Bailey “Life in the Air”
10 MAR: Episode 10 – Kristi Petersen Schoonover “It Can’t Rain All the Time”
17 MAR: Episode 11 – ****SPECIAL GUEST****
24 MAR: Episode 12 – Jason McIntyre “Train Car Six”
31 MAR: Episode 13 – Andrew Butters “The Prophecy”
I have enjoyed ALL of the stories on this ‘cast so far. To listen to all of these and the archive all the way back to January, visit R.B. Wood’s site here: https://rbwood.com/dir/category/podcasts/sf-podcast/
I DO have a few more announcements—progress on the Candlewood: Jerusalem screenplay is being made, and TWO other short stories were just published…but I’ll get to those, so watch this space! Right now, I’m still playing catch-up, as we’re putting the finishing touches on the Wicked Sick anthology and Issue 7 of 34 Orchard.
I got a special bird for my birthday! Check him out!
WOW! I got a SPECIAL BIRTHDAY BIRD at the feeders this morning (it’s my birthday today)! This is a male house finch, but he is orange. Why is this special? Well, first of all, I’ve been a Disney Orange Bird freak since I was teeny, BUT…according to All About Birds, “When a bird is molting, its diet will determine the colors of its new feathers. If a diet lacks certain pigments, then a House Finch may end up orange or yellow instead of its usual red.” This makes him rare and special indeed. What a lovely gift! He’s hard to see against the ground so I put hearts around him so he’s easier to spot.
We’re still making decisions — and announcing our SPRING 2023 Cover!
We haven’t made our final selections for the Spring 2023 issue of 34 Orchard yet–we’re finishing those up in the next few weeks. HOWEVER, I’M THRILLED TO SHOWCASE OUR COVER, featuring Optic Nerve by Page Sullivan. We’re only three months away from release!
I wanted to take a moment, also, to thank all of our supporters–writers who send in work, those who donate, our reading volunteers, those who have jumped in to save my ass whenever I’ve needed it, and our incredibly loyal readers. When I founded this publication back in 2019, I was going to be happy if I just had a little magazine that ten of my friends read. Never would I have dreamt that so many people would read and enjoy it. It has completely blown past all of my expectations, and we plan to continue to deliver quality experiences for many issues to come.
Join me for Edgar Allan Poe’s Birthday Bash Online next Thursday, January 19!
So thrilled to announce it’s almost time to grab your amontillado and join me and a host of other Poe-enamored writers as we read “The Raven” and “The Bells” in celebration of Poe’s birthday Thursday, January 19, at 7 pm on Zoom!
The event is free. If you’d like the Zoom link, PM me, email me, text me or however you get in touch with me, and I’ll get it right to you. You can also reach out to me through my contact page.
Co-sponsored by the Untitled Open Mic at Lowell Poetry Wheel and hosted by writer Meg Smith, we’ll each be reading Read the rest of this entry
Pushing the Reset Button
When I was a kid, my parents had people over on New Year’s Eve. Usually, those couples brought their kids, and it was an evening of unsupervised fun in one of the downstairs rooms in our house. We got to eat things like Fritos and Port Wine cheese balls and could stay up as late as we wanted, playing Atari or watching movies.
But my parents looked at New Year’s as little more than the less exciting, not very meaningful finish to the holiday season, and I have to admit I did too, up until I got into my late 20s. Once I moved in with my housemate Charles and started to embark on my writing career and my own life in earnest, we began to mark both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as something to be celebrated, something special. Over the years, it’s gotten to the point at which, after Christmas Day, I start taking down the decorations and switch those in my home over to “winter,” and New Year’s Eve and Day have a spirit, feel, and magic all their own—it’s a party with friends (virtual for the past few) followed by a full day of rest on the couch, eating fun food and taking in Syfy’s annual The Twilight Zone marathon (and I own them on DVD, so if that ever goes away, I can happily continue that tradition).
Over the past five years, the two days have also taken on a spiritual bent for me. Not only a holiday, but a chance to begin completely anew. I’m not one for “resolutions” and never have been, but I always look at the start of a new year as the chance to reflect on the past year, take stock of things, and set new goals with the idea of “working on it” and not necessarily “completing it” to be successful.
I’ve seen writers socially sharing what they achieved in the past year, and I thought it was a neat idea, because I don’t do that. Not in the sense of a “tally” anyway. Last year’s New Year’s Eve cracker wish for me was SUCCESS, and holy crow, I wasn’t prepared for what that actually meant.
The year was a whirlwind. There are probably some things I forgot—honestly, that’s how awesome this year was—but here we go:
7 polished new short stories
3 new works in progress
29 new story ideas (nothing written yet, no. They go in a file for later).
5 acceptances
2 invitations to submit (successful)
12 story publications
Guest Speaker at 2 College Creative Writing Classes
6 interviews (podcast and print)
9 positive reviews of my stories or projects
2 successful 34 Orchard issue releases
4 panel events
LOL – a tiny photo of me in the New York Times and an interview in the Washington Post
Featured Author for Sirens Call eZine’s Winter 2022 issue
Final selections for anthology I’m co-curating; editing underway now
1 incredible new opportunity I can’t talk about yet
…and 1 film credit! Thanks to my husband Nathan, I got to be an extra on the set of the upcoming horror movie Candlewood. My first time on a movie set, I was nervous as shit, but I had a wonderful time! Whether anyone actually sees anything more of me than my arm or something kinda isn’t the point. That was the experience of a lifetime, and I’m looking forward to this summer’s release.
I also opened my 2022 “Wishes & Intentions.” I didn’t necessarily Read the rest of this entry
