Tag: Kickstarter

It’s Hot Out

John Winkelman

Books which arrived in the week of May 8, 2022

This past week the air temperature in Grand Rapids hit 90° Fahrenheit more than once. And it’s only just the middle of May. Given the patterns of recent years I expect we will hit triple digits more than once before autumn rolls in. One of the side effects of this sudden summer weather has been uncomfortably warm nights and therefore little in the way of quality sleep.

One new book arrived in the past week – the hardcover edition of the Girl Genius Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game, published by Steve Jackson Games of GURPS fame, and based on the Girl Genius comic created by Kaja and Phil Foglio. This came from a Kickstarter campaign I helped fund back in October 2021. So, given the past couple of years, the fact that the book came in on schedule is impressive. The thing itself is great; deftly written and chock-full of interesting and beautiful illustrations.

In reading news, as was reported last week, I am still working my way through back issues of Poetry Magazine, as well as Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities. And I am still enjoying both.

I haven’t done much writing in the past week, mostly due to my brain being completely fried. Maybe next week. Or the week after that.

A Little Warmth in the Air

John Winkelman

Arrivals for the week of May 1, 2022

There have been a couple of warm days recently, but in this upcoming week daytime temperatures are expected to be in the mid-80s every day, which is quite wonderful for the beginning of May, particularly when considering the exceptionally long and dreary April we just endured here in West Michigan.

The past week has been full of poetry-related events.

In the evening of this past Monday, May 2, I ventured to Douglas, Michigan to attend “Let’s Take Another Look at Poetry,” a workshop held by Jack Ridl, who I have not seen in person since early 2019, I think. He and his wife Julie have been friends of mine for many years, and I had the great good fortune of being invited to attend their regular Sunday morning open studio back in the Before Times. Jack and Julie’s advice was invaluable for me as we worked out the kinks of Caffeinated Press and The 3288 Review. And I loved hearing Jack read his own work, an opportunity I have not had since the launch of his most recent book Saint Peter and the Goldfinch, back in early 2019. So, three very long years.

Yesterday, May 7, I attended the “Schuler Mecca” interview for the Oral History of Poetry in Grand Rapids project organized by local poet Christine Stephens-Krieger. She interview included several former Schuler Books employees who were involved in the poetry scene (such as it was) in Grand Rapids in the 1980s and 1990s. We discussed the role of our local independent bookstore in promoting poetry to the West Michigan community, as well as the many national poets who held readings and signings at the store, and how being in that space in that time with that group of people had influenced our own poetry practice.

This was the second time I was interviewed for the project, the first being a month ago about my experience as a publisher of local poets and poetry as part of Caffeinated Press.

Three new books have arrived here at the Library of Winkelman Abbey.

First up is the May issue of Poetry Magazine. I am quickly catching up to present in my read-through of back issues, and will likely catch up to my subscription in the middle of summer. At that point I will need to consider if I want to keep my subscription. Right now I’m leaning toward “yes.”

Next is Dragon, the new graphic novel by Saladin Ahmed and Dave Acosta, from their successful Kickstarter. I have only skimmed it so far, but the writing and artwork is gorgeous, as would be expected from such talented people.

And on the right is the final, completed version of Illyrian Fugue, written over the past 16 years by my dear friend Scott Krieger. I had the honor of reading an earlier draft back in 2019, so I am eagerly looking forward to reading the final release.

In reading news, in addition to the issues of Poetry Magazine, I am reading Benedict Anderson‘s exemplary book Imagined Communities, an examination of the phenomenon of nationalism.

An Illusion of Normalcy

John Winkelman

Reading material from the week of March 6, 2022

Two years after the office closed, I am back to working downtown two or three days a week. Being able to spend extended hours out of the house has improved my state of mind substantially, though the office, and indeed much of downtown right now, feels comparatively deserted.

This week’s new reading material comes courtesy of two Kickstarter campaigns.

First up is the latest issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, which always delivers excellent short fiction.

Next is War of Gods by Dyrk Ashton, in the limited edition hardcover, next to the box which fits the complete hardcover trilogy. I have been a fan of Dyrk’s work since I first met him at ConFusion back in…2016? He had just published the first volume of his Paternus trilogy. The completion of the hard-cover boxed set feels like the end of an era, and I have heard rumors that Ashton is working on something new. Based simply on that rumor, I am already looking forward to reading it.

In reading news, I am still working my way through Seth Dickinson’s The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. I am enjoying it, but wow, is this a long book. I also got an early start in working my way through all of my back issues of Poetry Magazine, starting with issue 207.1, publishing in October 2015. I have 40 more issues after this one, not counting whatever shows up as I work my way through the stack.

In writing news, not a lot to report for this past week. I have been too distracted by the goings-on in Ukraine to be able to focus on creating new work. Like living in a global pandemic, adjusting to the reality of living in World War III will take time, but eventually I will be able to tell stories around a trash fire which will be the only source of light and warmth in the plague-ridden nuclear winter which will surely be our new normal in the coming decade.

February Barely Scary

John Winkelman

Books from the week of February 13, 2021

First up is issue 7 of Tales from the Magician’s Skull, from a Kickstarter I backed this past October. It looks great, and I am eager to dive into it.

Next is Classic Monsters Unleashed, from a Kickstarter run by editor James Aquilone. This was another of the Kickstarters for which the reward was delayed by *gestures at everything*.

I like the coincidence of a magazine of classic sword-and-sorcery style stories arrived the same week as a collection of new stories about classic monsters. I appreciate the connection of the classic with the current, the exploration of how the old influences the new.

In reading news, I finished Jesus and John Wayne and it left me in a foul mood. The book itself is excellent, well researched and well written, but the subject matter – the white evangelists who are deliberately working to turn the United States into a militant christian patriarchal ethnostate – well, let’s just say I don’t agree with their works, message, or goals. I have a small review written up in my monthly reading list which will post on the first day of March.

To cleanse my palate, reading-wise, I picked up Per Aage Brandt‘s beautiful poetry collection If I Were a Suicide Bomber, translated from the Danish by Thom Satterlee and published by Open Letter Books. I originally acquired this book through my subscription to Open Letter Books, which I let lapse a couple of years ago because I had not read any of the books they had shipped me in well over a year. Now I am slowly working through my backlog of almost three dozen.

I finished If I Were a Suicide Bomber the same day I started it, as I had taken a sick day from work and a few hours is plenty of time for a leisurely read through a poetry collection. I loved it! The poems are sharp, insightful, and full of humor. Taken individually, there are some echoes of Charles Reznikoff‘s Testimony (though lighter), and taken as a whole I noted an occasional similarity to Notes From A Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel by Evan S. Connell. Highly recommended.

Now I am reading The Same Night Awaits Us All by Hristo Karastoyanov, translated from the Bulgarian by Izidora Angel and also published by Open Letter Books. So far it is quite good, and would fit well on a shelf next to Andrei Bely‘s Petersburg,and perhaps a short distance from Umberto Eco‘s Foucault’s Pendulum, if only because they both involve small, quirky publishing houses.

In writing news, I didn’t accomplish much this past week due to the aforementioned sick day and the associated disruption to my schedule and routine. Perhaps next week will be a little more stable.

That’s it for now. Unless something extravagant happens in the next ten days, this may be the first month in a very long time where I read more books than I acquired. A few more decades of that and I might get to the point where have read every book I own.

2022 Books and Reading Material Acquisitions List

John Winkelman

This is the list of books and other reading material which I acquired in calendar year 2022. This is the eighth iteration of this list. The seven previous lists are available from the Index of Indexes.

This year I am slightly changing the format of this page to include the date each publication on this list was acquired.

January (17)

  1. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #15 [2022.01.02]
  2. Tucker, Phil – Bastion (self published) [2022.01.05]
  3. Greylock, TL and O’Connor, Bryce – Shadows of Ivory (self published) [2022.01.05]
  4. Poetry #219.4 [2022.01.18]
  5. Fateforge 4, Encyclopedia (Studio Agate) [2022.01.19]
  6. Bell, E.D.E. – The Banished Craft (Atthis Arts LLC, inscribed) [2022.01.20]
  7. Cieslak, Michael (editor) – Hidden Menagerie, vol. 1 (Dragon’s Roost Press, inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  8. Tomlinson, Patrick S. – Starship Repo (inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  9. Tomlinson, Patrick S. – In the Black (inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  10. Haeger, Jen – Moonlight Medicine: Onset (Dragon’s Roost Press, inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  11. Haeger, Jen – Whispers of a Killer (Scarsdale Publishing, inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  12. Hans, Sarah – An Ideal Vessel (Dragon’s Roost Press) [2022.01.21]
  13. Hans, Sarah – Dead Girls Don’t Love (Dragon’s Roost Press) [2022.01.21]
  14. Cancre, Anton – Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison (Dragon’s Roost Press) [2022.01.21]
  15. Lee, Yoon Ha – The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales [2022.01.22]
  16. Duffy, Damien, Jennings, John, and Butler, Octavia E. – Parable of the Sower [2022.01.22]
  17. Harrison, Jim – Complete Poems, limited edition boxed set (Copper Canyon Press) [2022.01.27]

February (4)

  1. Poetry #219.5 [2022.02.01]
  2. Tales from the Magician’s Skull #7 [2022.02.16]
  3. Aquilone, James (editor) – Classic Monsters Unleashed (Black Spot Books, Crystal Lake Publishing) [2022.02.19]
  4. James, Marlon – Moon Witch, Spider King [2022.02.27]

March (8)

  1. Poetry #219.6 [2022.03.04]
  2. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #16 [2022.03.08]
  3. Ashton, Dyrk – War of Gods (self published) [2022.03.11]
  4. Alexander, Connor – Coyote & Crow: Core Rulebook [2022.03.14]
  5. Coolidge, Sarah (editor) – This Is Us Losing Count (Two Lines Press) [2022.03.17]
  6. Barakat, Najwa (Leafgren, Luke, translator) – Mister N (And Other Stories) [2022.03.19]
  7. The Paris Review #239 [2022.03.23]
  8. Poetry #220.1 [2022.03.29]

April (12)

  1. Lawson, Len, Manick, Cynthia, and Jackson, Gary (editors) – The Future of Black (Blair) [2022.04.01]
  2. Ono, Masatsugu (Carpenter, Juliet Winters, translator) – At the Edge of the Woods (Two Lines Press) [2022.04.05]
  3. Hilbig, Wolfgang (Cole, Isabel Fargo, translator) – The Interim (Two Lines Press) [2002.04.05]
  4. Zerán, Alia Trabucco (Hughes, Sophie, translator) – When Women Kill (And Other Stories) [2022.04.06]
  5. Salvage #11 [2022.04.08]
  6. Alles, Colleen – After the 8-Ball (Cornerstone Press, inscribed) [2022.04.14]
  7. Peninsula Poets #79.1 (Spring 2022) [2022.04.22]
  8. Barrera, Jazmina (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – On Lighthouses (Two Lines Press) [2022.04.23]
  9. Barrera, Jazmina (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – Linea Nigra (Two Lines Press) [2022.04.23]
  10. Renee, Anna – Patina (self-published) [2022.04.26]
  11. Monae, Janelle – The Memory Librarian [2022.04.30]
  12. Gramsci, Antonio – The Antonio Gramsci Reader (New York University Press) [2022.04.30]

May (6)

  1. Poetry #220.2 (May 2022) [2022.05.03]
  2. Ahmed, Saladin and Acosta, Dave – Dragon (Copper Bottle) [2022.05.05]
  3. Girl Genius Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game (Steve Jackson Games) [2022.05.14]
  4. Hurley, Kameron – Future Artifacts: Stories (Apex Book Company) [2022.05.22]
  5. Boston Review #22 [2022.05.26]
  6. Greer, James – Bad Eminence (And Other Stories) [2022.05.28]

June (5)

  1. Voices 2022 [2022.06.04]
  2. Poetry #220.3, June 2022 [2022.06.06]
  3. Barrera, Jazmina (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – Linea Nigra (special edition chapbook) (Two Lines Press, printed at Impronta Casa Editora) [2022.06.21]
  4. The Paris Review #240 [2022.06.22]
  5. Poetry #220.4, July/August 2022 [2022.06.27]

Two More Weeks

John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of December 12, 2021

Brief update. Too tired and burned out to throw a lot of detail into this week’s post.

one book and one magazine arrived in the past week.

First up is Vital: The Future of Healthcare, an anthology of speculative stories about what health care might look like in the coming months, years and decades. This was another of the delayed Kickstarter rewards I have written about previously, and once again, no harm and no foul, here in the middle of an ongoing pandemic.

Next is issue 1 of Inque Magazine, from another Kickstarter campaign. Yes, that is a literary journal. And yes, it is that big.

In reading news, I read Jim Harrison’s collection of food writing The Raw and the Cooked. This was prompted by the release last week (and my receipt of) of Harrison’s Complete Poems. I am also making good progress with Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years and Dostoevsky’s The Eternal Husband and Other Stories. I feel confident that I will complete them this month, which will give me time to get caught up on my genre fiction in the run up to ConFusion 2022, assuming the upsurge in COVID doesn’t cause the con to be cancelled again.

In writing news, there is not a lot happening other than journaling, thanks to a general malaise. I have a lot of great ideas, but right now the though of writing them down exhausts me.

This Year Can’t End Soon Enough

John Winkelman

New reading material from the week of December 5, 2021

This past Wednesday I received my COVID booster shot at a local pharmacy and, like with the first and second shots in April, I felt an immediate sense of relief which was welcome but not altogether pleasant. It was something like a hangover, a post-stress reaction to getting a thing which is desired but not wanted, if you follow me. Since it was necessary, I was glad to get it, but I would much rather that it was not necessary. But this is the world in which we now live.

I just found out that an old friend has entered hospice, which, coming after another friend passed a couple of weeks ago, and two others in late winter and early summer of this year (none from COVID), really took the energy out of me. And all this in addition to Mom dying back at the beginning of September. Yeah, 2021 can go straight to hell, which at this point is kind of redundant.

On a more positive note, this was a most excellent week for the library at Winkelman Abbey, with many books and magazines arriving in this, the first full week of December.

First up is The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey by Shawn Speakman, newly arrived from a successful Kickstarter. This is another of the Kickstarters which was significantly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated fallout and supply chain disruption. I suspect this will not be the last Kickstarter reward which will suffer from the events of the past couple of years, and at this point it is probably fair to say that this will be the normal state of affairs for the foreseeable future. As Hofstadter’s Law states, “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.”

Next up is the latest issue of The Paris Review. I recently cancelled my subscription, or rather the automatic renewal of my subscription, as I have not read any of the previous six issues. However, the thought of no longer receiving The Paris Review causes me a sense of unease, so that cancellation may soon, well, be cancelled.

Next up are two(!) books from my subscription to the catalog of And Other Stories — Paulo Scott’s Phenotypes, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn, and Mona Arshi’s Somebody Loves You.

Next is issue 44 of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, a small magazine of great words published by Small Beer Press.

Next is Terminal Uprising by Jim Hines. This is my second copy of this book. Hines signed the first one at ConFusion 2020, and I gave it to some friends who live on the east side of the state. This copy, however, is MINE, and I hope to get it signed at ConFusion 2022, which is scheduled for the third weekend in January.

And finally, the boxed set of the Interdependency series (The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, and The Last Emperox) by John Scalzi, of which much to my surprise I did not own copies. This is also a purchase specifically meant for receiving one or more signatures, as Mr. Scalzi is a regular attendee at ConFusion.

Jim Harrison Collected Poems

As Zyra and I were leaving to pick up dinner last night I noticed a box tucked in a sheltered corner of our porch. When I opened it I found my copy of the single-volume edition of Harrison’s Complete Poems, which I was not expecting to arrive for several more weeks. This book is gorgeous; nearly 950 pages long, and it contains, as it says on the cover, all of Harrison’s poetry. This edition includes a beautiful introduction penned by Terry Tempest Williams, and cover art, as with so many of Harrison’s other books, by the late Russell Chatham.

Wednesday night after Tai Chi class, I watched the book launch event for Jim Harrison’s Complete Poems, hosted by his publisher Copper Canyon Press. It included stories about Harrison, as well as his friends reading some of his poems. I have been a fan of Jim Harrison since the early 1990s when, at the suggestion of one of my professors, I picked up Wolf. One book led to another, and I have never looked back nor regretted a single minute spent reading his words.

The event was recorded and is available for viewing here on YouTube.

In reading news, I am (still) working my way through the stories in Dostoevsky’s The Eternal Husband and Other Stories, as well as David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years. I am enjoying both immensely, but times being what they are I don’t have a lot of energy or focus, and these books each deserve both. So I am reading slowly and in small chunks.

In writing news I am noodling around with a short story and a few poems, trying to work up the energy to dive back into my partially-completed NaNoWriMo manuscript. I would have made better progress, but 2021 keeps finding way to kick my legs out from under me, metaphorically speaking. So maybe I will hit my writing goals for the year. All I can say about that is, this year was a hell of a lot better than last year, writerly-speaking, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was good.

Kickstarter, Covid, and Supply Chain Disruption

John Winkelman

New Books for the Week of October 3, 2021

This past week was one of little to nothing accomplished. A combination of terrible insomnia and stress, along with some kind of mild illness (not COVID, according to the test I took on Wednesday), left me as brain-dead as I have been in any week this past year.

Three new books arrived at the house this past week.

On the left is Empty Wardrobes by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Julie Costa and published by Two Lines Press.

In the middle is Jason Sanford’s new novel The Plague Birds, published by Apex Book Company.

On the right is Ekphrastic Beasts, a combination art book and RPG monster manual published by Janaka Stucky by way of his Kickstarter campaign. This book is the basis for the title of this post.

The past two years have been tough on everyone. The COVID pandemic has disrupted the interconnected systems of the world to a level usually not seen outside of world wars. Everyone is having a tough time. Everyone is stressed.

On April 28 of 2020 Janaka Stucky launched the Kickstarter campaign for his RPG monster manual Ekphrastic Beasts. The pandemic was well underway at that time, and quarantines had been going on for well over a month. There was no indication at that time of how long the lockdowns would last, or what the effect would be on the global workforce and supply chains. Simply put, the modern world had never experienced a disruption like this, ongoing, pervasive and unpredictable.

The original estimated delivery date was well over a year ago. Obviously, since the book just arrived here for my weekly update, that deadline has long passed.

In the comments for this Kickstarter are many, many messages of support, many more messages expressing concern and/or some level of dissatisfaction with the caveat of understanding that times are tough, and a few messages which basically say, “fuck your problems, ship the books.”

There are any number of reasons for a Kickstarter campaign to miss its deadline – shipping issues, production issues, workforce issues. Personal issues. This kind of thing happens. It is unfortunate that it happens, but it happens.

Over the last two years a great many deadlines have been missed for a great many reasons, almost all of them related either to COVID (and peoples’ responses to COVID) or the occasional cargo ship stuck sideways in the Suez Canal. This is just as frustrating for the people responsible for fulfillment as the people expecting to be fulfilled.

So coming in when a long-delayed Kickstarter is finally complete, and complaining about the wait, and about the perceived deficiencies in the product, without acknowledging the unique circumstances of the past two years is, frankly, a dick move, and people who feel such a gross sense of entitlement, no matter the amount of money they put down, deserve to be disappointed. It isn’t all about you. Pull your head out and take a look around at the world, and then choose to feel a little empathy rather than kick the one person who held it all together in order to complete the project, come hell or high water.

Here endeth the lesson.

The Failure Mode of Vacation is Ennui

John Winkelman

Reading Material acquired in the week of July 4, 2021

I mean, I had a vacation, technically, back in the last full week of May, but I was still recovering from 2020 at the time, so it was more like attempting to reel myself back to myself after a year of dissociating. And the five weeks of work which followed were fairly stress-free, as far as work goes.

But the first week of my two-week vacation was kind of…I can’t really call it a waste of time, but I spent most of it binge-watching TV and playing video games, and staring at all the things in my life which require my attention, and for every single one of those tasks, I considered the work carefully, then said fuck it and went back to playing Diablo II.

I’m doing my best to not kick myself for wasting a week in which I could have been reading and writing. I did manage to spend some time out of doors, which did me a world of good, but the whole point of having time off was to be productive, and that I most surely was not.

However, even in the midst of this psychological malaise, there are some bright spots; to wit: four new bundles of words arrived at the Library of Winkelman Abbey in the past week.

First up is the latest issue of Pulphouse Magazine, to which I will one day submit a story, if I ever complete a short story.

The next three are the latest publications from Zombies Need Brains, from their recently-completed Kickstarter campaign – Derelict, When Worlds Collide, and The Modern Deity’s Guide to Surviving Humanity. This is the third of ZNB’s Kickstarters I have backed, and the first to which I have not submitted a story. 2020 was kind of a lousy year in that way.

In reading news, I finished Dalva and moved on to Harrison’s follow-up novel The Road Home. I hadn’t intended to spend my vacation re-reading old favorites, but that is where my mind is right now, and my life seems to be improved thereby.

I also finished Francisco Verso’s Nexhuman (Apex Book Company), which was quite good, and one of the very few “salvagepunk” novels I have read. In fact, the only other ones I can think of at the moment are the Bas-Lag trilogy by China Mieville.

In writing news, not much has changed, though I am putting together a list of upcoming calls for submission to themed anthologies. Maybe one of these will break me out of my funk.

I’m In With the In(oculated) Crowd

John Winkelman

Books for the week of May 9, 2021

As of two days ago, I am two weeks past my second COVID shot, which means, according to the CDC, that I am fully inoculated, or at least as inoculated as one can get against things which continually evolve in response to our interactions with the world. We are well into the Anthropocene, and the scene is getting dangerous, what with the continual and inevitable responses to our actions upon the parts of the planet that are not us.

This was a good week for acquisitions here at the Library of Winkelman Abbey, thanks in large part to the arrival of rewards from a couple of recent Kickstarter campaigns.

First is the Spring 2021 issue of Peninsula Poets, the journal of the Poetry Society of Michigan, to which I had accidentally let my subscription lapse. Things are back in good order now, and just in time to serve as writing inspiration going into the summer.

Next is another Kickstarter reward, Whether Change: The Revolution Will Be Weird and Cooties Shot Required, both edited by Scott Gable and C. Dombrowski of Broken Eye Books, who publish very well-made anthologies full of good-to-great writing on a variety of topics.

On bottom left is the latest issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, which is consistently just a damn good read.

On the bottom right is Fantastic Lairs: Boss Battles and Climactic Encounters, from a recent Kickstarter. I have put money toward several games on Kickstarter in recent years. Though I haven’t played in a long time, the ideas in the rule books, the world building, tactics, and strategies therein make for good study and good writing prompts.

In reading news, I am just over a hundred pages into Arkady Martine‘s A Memory Called Empire. I haven’t completed enough of the book to form a solid opinion, but I am really enjoying it so far. For nonfiction I am slowly working through Darran Anderson’s Imaginary Cities. Though well over a hundred pages in, I am tempted to go back and start again, this time with a notebook nearby. I have not read anything like this book. It is a survey, a history, a meditation, a treatise, and it reads like poetry. At less that 20% through this book, I think it will be one of my favorite reads of the year. Highly recommended.

In writing news, not much has changed from last week. I still feel kind of brain-dead from the effects of the second vaccination shot as well as *gestures at the world*, though the effects of the shot have mostly worn off. The world, not so much. But warmer days means mornings on the porch will soon be viable, and when that happens I hope to hit the ground running with several hundred thousand words of prose by the end of the year.

Or maybe a couple of poems.

Or somewhere in the middle.