ECLECTIC PROJECTS BLOG

So last week I put out Black Dog: A Biography, which is not a new story in the Brain Jar Press Short Fiction Lab, but a reprint of a somewhat experimental older story that I’m using as a free sample of the kind of short fiction I write. It contains fiction. It contains biography. It contains large, girlfriend-eating dogs that may or may not be an imaginary friend.  And your sample: The first time the Black Dog showed up I was five. We were living in Miriwinni and it lurked behind the low, chain link fence that marked out our backyard, hunkered down in the long grass filling the space between the fence line and the train tracks. No-one else could see it, not even my parents. It was good at hiding when other people looked. I don’t remember much about our house back then. My parents were teachers, so we moved a lot. I was five, and that means I’m working with hazy images here: I remember the house was on stilts, thick hardwood pylons that would keep the snakes out and keep us dry if the river flooded. I remember off-white weatherboards and a corrugated iron roof. We lived across the road from an endless expanse of north Queensland cane fields. They burned blood red and spat ash into the air during the harvest months. The town was just a school, a pub and a corner store that sold fizzy drinks and cordial; maybe a couple of dozen

Apocalypse Ink Productions–the fine folks who published the Flotsam series–will be shifting their focus in 2019. They recently made the public announcement on their google group: Apocalypse Ink Productions will be changing focus in 2019. We will no longer be publishing books by other authors, instead we will focus on books written by Jennifer Brozek and her collaborations. Our current publications will be available until March of 2019, so you still have time to pick up copies of your favorite series. But after March, all titles will be released back to the authors. News over at Apocalypse Ink Announcements As a writer who knows a whole bunch of writers, I’ve occasionally been privy to those conversations where we gather around and talk about our experiences with small presses. Most of us love the small presses we work with, but there’s always the little hiccups that irritate the hell out of us–by virtue of being a small press, there’s usually a small team of one or two people working part-time (at best) and only so many hours to get everything done. Inevitably, some of the things you’re hoping will to pass fall by the wayside. Often–and most irritatingly–the things that suffer most are communication (small press editors are overworked and doing a dozen things with little help) and updates about how things are going after the initial month or two of a new release is past. Apocalypse Ink were frequently my favourite press to work with in this regard, because they

I released The Birdcage Heart and Other Strange Tales on November 30th last year, which makes this the official first birthday of Brain Jar Press. Over the last twelve months I’ve put out two short story collections, one essay collection, and a pair of short stories in the new Short Fiction Lab series. For those who would like to catch up on everything we’ve done real fast, I’ve put together a discounted mega-volume of everything Brain Jar released over the last twelve months: The Brain Jar Press Year One Box Set (Amazon US | Amazon Australia | Amazon UK).  It’s an Amazon-only release for the moment, courtesy of the fact that some of the content is enrolled in Kindle Unlimited and can’t be uploaded elsewhere until the exclusivity period is done. I’d overlooked that while putting it together, and I’m kicking myself a little. Still, one year in, and it’s the first really irritating mis-step in my process, which isn’t bad. This first year was all about the learning curve, getting used to the tools and techniques I’ll be using as we roll into year two. I achieved about 80% of what I’d hoped for, largely because I’m bringing the print editions online a little later than intended and one book I intended to get out didn’t make it. That’s still a pretty good hit rate, given some of the distractions that hit throughout the year.  This week has seen me bear down on the redraft of Warhol Sleeping, and I’m now