We are neither totally book, nor righteous, but we are late to the game, massively self-absorbed, and endlessly appreciative. We are also Discursus. And Borges.

Here.

This Zine Will Change Your Life has been Beach Sloth'd. Let the wild rumpus begin!

Too freakishly excited we are? We think not. Big thanks to the Beach Sloth for this most excellent This Zine Will Change Your Life shout-out. Rock on Slothers. And drinks on us for sure when next we meet. Now, how about some excerpt? Cool.

"I think this zine did change my life. Located in America’s poetic capital, Chicago, it has been working tirelessly over the past three years to bring life-changing pieces of literature, YouTube videos, and blog posts to an internet near you. Some of these touched me in places I’ve never been touched before; parts of my soul I didn’t even know existed were made stronger. Knowing my life had been changed and for the better this time made me happy. Plus they include sweet songs into the posts from time to time. Music and literature should always go together."  

How about a crazy, freaking awesome, dude-laden, will quite possibly change your life Orange Alert reading at The Whistler this Sunday, April 18th?

Scott McClanahan. Sam Pink. Spencer Dew. Brandon Will. And TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer. Yeah.

McClanahan madness.

There is much McClanahan happening out there right now and while we totally promise to read Stories II and report back soon, in the interim we thought we would offer you a review and stuff at HTML GIANT from the Sam Pink and an interview by Jen Michalski at the JMWW blog. We should add here, that we honestly believe that this ought to suffice for the moment, but if you in any way disagree you know you can always take this up with management. We're good like that.

This (Chap) Book Will Change Your Life - The Sagging: Spirits & Skin by Jason Fisk.

TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Jason Fisk is the kind of dude who is not going to want us to tell you how stirring it is to read The Sagging: Spirits & Skin, much less blog about it, but to that we say too bad man, because these poems about missed connections, lost babies and violence, both seen and unseen, need to be consumed and we hope that by riffing on them today we will help spread the word. We would add, that this is now the second collection we have read that contains a piece originally published in This Zine Will Change Your Life. The first was Sam Pink's fantastic story Move in With Me, which was published in his collection I Am Going To Clone Myself The Kill The Clone and Eat It, and now we have Jason's terrific poem Terry. Good stuff.

Short Street by Timothy Gager and I Am Going To Clone Myself Then Kill The Clone And Eat It by Sam Pink.

Travel equals time equals reading. Today we traveled and today we finished two somewhat diametrically opposed story collections, Short Street by Timothy Gager and I Am Going To Clone Myself Then Kill The Clone And Eat It by Sam Pink. The former is a tight collection of short stories as snapshots centered on a variety of problem drinkers and people on the make and the latter a group of flash fiction explosions centered on body parts and bodily fluids, dead animals and Katie Couric. And yet, they have much in common as well, sexual compulsions, religion, stabs at magical realism, anger and pain, and ultimately, characters who just cannot figure how to connect, with the world, with others and even with themselves. On a side note, we would like to add, that Sam's collection is the first one we have read where there is a story in the collection that was first published in This Zine Will Change Your Life. In this case it is the excellent Move In With Me and we are quite humbled and thrilled by this all at the same time.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Eighteen - Lightning and Women starring Scott McClanahan.

The Scott McClanahan came to town. See above. He read. He rocked it, all funny and low-key. And it was good Stuff. We also had La Guth working her Morrissey thing, the Sam Pink, discharging every possible image to ever enter his brain and TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer's mom Judy. See below. And if all that wasn't enough, there was polka and podcasting as well. Wait, did someone say podcasting? Indeed they did, because we podcasted with the McClanahan on the train and in the rain and now you get to listen to it. Yes, right now, go ahead. Will it change your life? We think so. Enjoy.

Pink. Clone. New City. Preview. Reading. Friday. The Book Cellar.

We were quite geeked to see that the Sam Pink got quite a kind write-up for I Am Going To Clone Myself Then Kill The Clone and Eat It in New City this week as their preview for this Friday's reading at The Book Cellar, where Sam is reading with the lovely Amy Guth and TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer in support of Scott McClanahan and his killer short story collection Stories. Among other things, the reviewer had the following to say:

"Sam Pink’s oddball little book is filled with first-person passages and rants that begin with mundane reality and often finish in bizarro fantasy, usually with some element of violence, disgust or aching simplicity."

That's good stuff. See you on Friday.

Guth. Pink. McClanahan. Tanzer? This Reading Will Change Your Life, so please join us July 24th for some Book Cellar reading love won't you?

Yeah, so, we have unabashedly been hyping the Scott McClanahan and his new joint Stories, so imagine how geeked we are to have the chance to read in support of him at The Book Cellar on July 24th at 7:00pm? Now, what if we also had the chance to read with the very awesome Amy Guth, writer, blogger, runner and one time guest of This Podcast Will Change Your Life and, and, the Sam Pink, author of I AM GOING TO CLONE MYSELF AND THE KILL CLONE AND EAT IT and the first writer ever published in This Zine Will Change Your Life. Well we are and we do and we think this reading may very well change your life. Meanwhile, if that isn't enough McClanahan for you, you can also see him on July 26th as part of the ongoing and quite killer Orange Alert Reading Series. Pretty nice, yes? Quite.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Seventeen - Stories.

Bam! The new episode of This Podcast Will Change Your Life is here, like right now. It is titled Stories and it stars none other than the quite cool Barry Graham, author of TBWCYL, Inc favorite The National Virginity Pledge and grand master of Dogzplot, Paper Hero Press and the most excellent Achilles Chapbook Series. We are quite geeked to have connected with him before he bundles up the family and heads off to his new gig at Rutgers and we think you will be as well. Please note, that if you choose to access the podcast via the above link it will take you directly to our page on imeem. If you choose to listen below, imeem now limits these embedded recordings to 30-second previews and asks you to follow their link if you want hear the full recording. That link also takes you to our page and so given this you may be wondering why we have embedded the recording here at all. Frankly, we don't know why, but please enjoy our new joint anyway, because we feel fairly confident it will change your life.

Pink and Orange Graham? Yes, totally, its more writer on writer love. Plus some interview.

The highly entertaining and oddly coincidental stretch of recent TBWCYL, Inc. favorite writers talking to other favorite writers of ours continues with a killer interview on What to Wear During An Orange Alert between the possibly real Sam Pink, he of many excellent publications, including Move in With Me, the first ever piece published in This Zine Will Change Your Life and newish best friend ever Barry Graham publisher of Dogzplotz and author of The National Virginity Pledge. It is much fun, so much fun in fact, that the disctinct possibilty that reading it may also change your life seems almost secondary. Almost.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Nine - Gigantic and Massive.

All right, we have to ask, how many of you got to hang out at The Alley Cat coffee shop in Fort Collins this week and talk writing with the quite cool, quite engaging, and dare we say quite striking, J.A. Tyler, who has been published in so many wonderful places though maybe none more wonderful of course than our very own This Zine Will Change Your Life? We're guessing not too many of you, but it's okay, really, because we did, and we recorded the conversation and you can now listen to the resulting podcast - Gigantic and Massive. We would add, that during the trip we also had the chance to read J.A.'s novella The Girl in the Black Sweater from Trainwreck Press, and with its mix of pain, compulsion and borderline surrealism, we can't recommend it strongly enough.

How cool is this? TBWCYL, Inc. favorites Sam Pink and J.A. Tyler rock the Paper Hero Press.

So, how cool is this? Paper Hero Press is publishing not one, but two of TBWCYL, Inc.'s favorite writers. It's true, both Sam Pink and J.A. Tyler, whose work has appeared in the world-renowned This Zine Will Change Your Life have chapbooks coming out in the new Paper Hero Press chapbook collective SAMSARA, while Dr. Pink also has a solo chapbook coming out from said press under the ridiculously killer name I AM GOING TO CLONE MYSELF THEN KILL THE CLONE. Congratulations to both of you, this is quite cool and we are quite humbled to be able to soon say we knew you when.

CORRECTION: TBWCYL, Inc. Assistant Flunky Pete Anderson points out that the correct title of Dr. Pink's book is I AM GOING TO CLONE MYSELF THEN KILL THE CLONE AND EAT IT. Most sorry.