Really, the image below says it all:

Seeing as it’s three days past April 30th, submissions are now forever and ever and ever closed (for issue number three). 

So, yeah, if you submitted something prior to the 30th — good for you! You’re awesome. If you didn’t submit something and wanted to — bad for you! I hope you’re ashamed of yourself. Although, in all honesty, you could probably send me something in the next few days and I’d still consider it if it were an exquisite piece of literature. BIG IF.

Questions? Comments? Other things that are neither questions nor comments, somehow? Drop us a line in the Disqus below.

-BAM

Tomorrow, Thursday, April 26th, is Poem in Your Pocket Day.

Last year I had a lot of fun with this idea. I made tons of photocopies of poems on brightly colored paper and then I rolled them up like scrolls and tied them up with ribbon. I was subbing at a high school that day and so I passed them out to students and staff. It created quite a bit of buzz. People didn’t necessarily know what it was or why it was being passed out, but they wanted one!

At the end of the school day I still had a bunch left over. I started handing them out on the subway and leaving some on seats for people to discover. Then, when I got out of the train I stood on the corner and asked people passing by if they wanted a poem. It was hilarious: some people eagerly said yes and, of course, others told me, with words or with their eyes, to fuck off. The highlight of my experience was when one person said, “NO!” and then walked on about 10 feet, stopped, turned around, walked back and said, “Wait. A poem? Yeah. Can I have one please.” 

I’m going to copy up some poems and run around like a lunatic tomorrow passing them out.  Maybe you could get in on this and leave some poems around your school or workplace! You can leave them, secret admirer style, on desks, in bathroom stalls, in inter-office mail envelopes, or you could just hand them out to people and see what happens!

The ten poems I’m going to pass out, because I like them and I think a non-poetry-reading-person might also enjoy them, are: The Taxi by Amy Lowell, Thanks by W.S. Merwin, Famous by Naomi Shihab Nye, My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke, Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins, Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa, “Hope” is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson, What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Harlem and Mother to Sonby Langston Hughes.

Of course, if you think these suck, use other poems. I’m curious to know which, if any, you distribute and how people react. So, let me know!

-EDR

Hello from unseasonably warm New York!

It’s been a crazy few weeks for all of us in the VP-verse, from Free Radio to work stuff to our own novels. But at least for me, one thing that never goes away is the appetite for reading. And so, I make time. On super busy days, I mostly read on the subway. I think I’ve said on this blog before that I’m a master of the one-armed book-hold-page-turn maneuver (the other hand is obviously gripping a pole so I don’t fall down as the train jerks to a stop). 

This week, my train reading is Rae Carson’s THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS. I kept hearing about this book, Carson’s debut novel, on Twitter, and so I finally spent some of my Christmas B&N gift card money on it! 

I’m about halfway through, and if you like YA fantasy, it definitely lives up to the hype! 

But that’s not the only new book on my “to-read” list. I’ve got my eye on Lauren Oliver’s PANDEMONIUM, Cassandra Clare’s THE CLOCKWORK PRINCE, John Corey Whaley’s WHERE THINGS COME BACK, and many, many others that I never remember until I start browsing the at book store. 

What’s on your “to-read” list? What should I add to mine? Want to trade? :)

Seriously—inquiring minds want to know. Share the best YA you’ve read recently in the comments, so we can all benefit!

Happy spring, and happy reading! 

~Kathryn

Not only is it a beautiful day outside and a holiday for many, but I have absolutely nowhere to be and no reason to put on pants!

After the hectic few months that I’ve had it is a real treat to have a whole day to lounge around my apartment and operate on my own timetable. Sure, I have a stack of mid-term exams to grade that is higher than my knee and a pile of dirty laundry that, should an avalanche occur, might bury me forever, but who cares?! I’m in charge of me today. 

And, while I drink my coffee, eat my Eggo waffles, and listen to the Leonard Lopate Gospel Hour, I find I finally have the time and emotional space to reflect on many of the things that have kept me so busy.

It really has been a busy week here at Verbal Pyrotechnics!  The VP crew has been spending quite a bit of time at the CUE Art Foundation, interacting with the Free Radio exhibit.  To explore the idea of broadcasting we had a scavenger hunt, a balloon release, a manuscript critique, an improv workshop, and Ben and I tried our hand at hosting a radio show (which we will release as a podcast on this site super soon).

The improv workshop, led by author and actor Jen Nails, was super fun and, surprisingly, comfortable. As a former student of Experimental Theatre and acting teacher, I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that improv games are a recipe for disaster- there is so much room to embarrass yourself or to have to watch other people embarrass themselves. (I mean, I also don’t watch award shows for similar reasons, they make me anxious…actors without scripts, yikes!) So, I was apprehensive about participating and inviting people I love to do so too. Jen was an awesome facilitator though. I felt safe and encouraged to participate, and, since she seemed to be relaxed and enjoying herself, I could too.

Two ideas from the improv workshop really resonated. The first is that I should JUST SAY YES! There is so much possibility in the word “yes”. As a writer, fear often turns inspired ideas into obstacles. In order to let the story unfold I have to be willing to say yes to whatever direction it happens to be going, even if it differs from what I had intended.

Another notion that I was able to hear is that I am enough! I don’t have to work on finding a story or creating a voice that is somehow outside of myself; everything I need is already there…or here, inside of me. And yours is inside of you, of course. I’m not hoarding all the good stories. I’ve got mine and you’ve got yours. And they’re enough. And there is room for all of them to be told. Sure, I still have to sit down and write and edit and accept feedback and revise and all that stuff that makes writing a skilled craft and not just some sort of self-help, emotional purgation. (Not that I don’t write that sort of stuff from time to time. I’m sure you do too. So, if that’s why and how you write, well just keep on keepin’ on, but maybe don’t ask me to read it….) The idea being, that a true voice and an authentic story are the foundation. The hard work comes after that. I shouldn’t sit around and wait for inspiration- the inspiration has already hit me; I’ve been collecting it for years. I just need to start typing…

-EDR

I’ll let the image do the talking:

That would be April 30th of this year, ladies and gentlemen. 2012.

Please direct your email submissions to:

• FICTION AT VERBALPYROTECHNICS DOT COM
• POETRY AT VERBALPYROTECHNICS DOT COM
• NONFICTION AT VERBALPYROTECHNICS DOT COM
• COMICS AT VERBALPYROTECHNICS DOT COM

I bought The Hunger Games nearly three years ago, read the first few pages, and was all like, “Ehhrhr.” Not that the first few pages were bad or anything, they just didn’t, uh, take hold of my literary soul and what have you. I kept telling myself that I would go back and read the thing (for realsies this time), but three years came and went like nothing and I had yet to read a single additional page. I know, I know — shame upon my person, etc.

Then, about a week or two ago, I was watching Revenge on Hulu Plus and the trailer came on the screen. It’s a pretty good trailer. Not mind-blowing, mind you, but enough to intrigue me. Suddenly, I had this intense urge to finish the book — at least by March 23rd, which is when the film will be released.

But then I tried to read the first few pages again and — once again — it refused to take hold of my literary soul, man! I don’t know how to explain it, or why my literary soul was left wanting, but the fact is, that first chapter just bores me beyond words.

The next day, my girlfriend started reading it, and she basically couldn’t put it down. She read the book in less than a day. She loved it, told me I had to read it, told me how much I’d love it if I did. I felt this really intense and competitive urge to finish it. 

Finally, I took up The Hunger Games again, this time skipping most of the first ten pages, and that’s when the book pretty much took hold of my literary soul. Third time’s the charm, I suppose. Much like my girlfriend, I read it in under a day — unless we’re doing a running total, in which case it was three years or more.

Briefly, my impressions: I liked it quite a bit. It’s very entertaining, very addictive. Katniss’ propensity for lying was both awesome and enjoyable. I only had a few problems with it.

1. The reason the Hunger Games — the actual games within the book known as The Hunger Games — exist is because the Capitol wants to discourage rebellion amongst its citizens. That makes no sense. I would be 100% okay with the games existing solely as punishment for the previous rebellion, or just because Panem’s dictator is a sick, cruel son of a bitch. Either of those reasons are reason enough for me. But creating an annual series of games where the government steals its citizens’ children and forces them to kill each other for televised sport as a deterrent for future rebellion is dumb as the dickens and totally nonsensical.
2. (SPOILER ALERT) The Muttations. Those stupid freaking muttations. FYI, I don’t have a problem with all the Muttations — the Mockingjay, for example, is cool, and the other minor muttations (like the tracker-jackets) serve a purpose and are interesting. I’m talking exclusively about the wolf-human-tribute muttations that pop up out of nowhere at the end of the book and essentially kill the antagonist of the novel, Cato, for Katniss. This absolves Katniss of any and all guilt she would have to feel, any and all culpability. The book is, in many ways, about survival. Katniss is good at the games because she has lived in squalor and learned how to survive under the most dire circumstances. The perfect capper would’ve been Katniss VS. Cato. Having to brutally kill that gigantic bastard because it was the only way for her and Peeta to survive. It actually reminds me a lot of the movie The Patriot Games (and not just because of the ‘Games’ in the title), where Harrison Ford and Sean Bean are fisticuffing on a boat and Bean accidentally falls onto a harpoon of his own clumsy accord. Problem solved!

My girlfriend and I had grand debates about the book after I read it. She agreed with me on some things, disagreed with me on others. Like I said, I liked the book a lot, and despite my problems with it, it’s obviously interesting as hell if it inspires this sort of debate and discussion. Furthermore, I plan to read the next one as soon as I can get my hands on it. It was a battle three-plus years in the making, but you won, Suzanne Collins. You’ve won.

Thoughts?

BAM

Happy Friday!

It’s…raining. So, while you’re stuck indoors—my captive audience!—I thought I’d toss out a few gentle reminders from the Verbal Pyrotechnics team. 

One: 

Submissions for Issue #3 are STILL OPEN—until March 20! That means you’ve got just under a month to polish up your best short story, short essay, poem or comic for our editors to read. We’re seriously excited about this issue, and we know that YOUR WORK will make it that much better! 

Two: 

Verbal Pyrotechnics is currently partnering with Free Radio Project, in collaboration with a group of other amazing arts organizations. And Free Radio Project needs your help to get this project off the ground. Go HERE to learn more about the project, and to contribute to the Kickstarter, which ends March 11. Help Verbal Pyrotechnics and Free Radio Project knock your socks off this spring! 

* * *

And on a completely unrelated note, Hunger Games movie tickets are officially on sale. Have you bought yours yet? Do you plan to go to the midnight showing, or wait until the dust settles a little? (Who am I kidding—the dust isn’t going to settle on this thing for weeks, and I certainly can’t wait that long!) 

Here’s a BIG poster to get you as excited as I am! 

~Kathryn