Mary Hamilton. We Know What We Are. Rose Metal Press. Nice.

The quite sublime Mary Hamilton, who is known for among other thing as co-host of the QUICKIES! Chicago, contributor to This Zine Will Change Your Life, This Podcast Will Change Your Life podcastee and star of the award winning and viral sensation Fire Sale video, has a new joint, We know what we are, coming soon from the quite stellar Rose Metal Press. We will most definitely riff on We know what we are here at the This Blog Will Change Your Life shortly. There will also be an interview between Mary and TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer at the Orange Alert. But, in the interim, please do pay a visit to Rose Metal Press because it is sure to change your life.

Tim Jones-Yelvington. Orange Alert. Enjoy.

There are many exciting writers both young and old busting out in Chicago these days and we were geeked to read an interview at the Orange Alert with one of the former, Tim Jones-Yelvington, who is up to many cool things, including as you may recall, what we can only assume was the highlight of his year thus far, appearing in our award-winning Fire Sale video. Narcissistic hype aside, we do hope you will take a look at the interview which we have quite generously excerpted below.



OA: What are your thoughts on the Chicago literary scene right now?

TJ: My experience at AWP in Denver really reinforced for me how awesome our community is -- how many great writers and small press publishers and literary magazines and reading series we've got -- but also how much we support one another and how much fun we have (ask around about Featherproof's lactilicious presentation at Another Chicago Magazine and Make Magazine's "Make me Another After Party.") Folks who have been around Chicago's "scene" longer than me tell me it's really flourished in the last year or two. I'm excited about Another Chicago Magazine's forthcoming all-Chicago issue, which I think has the potential to really document this amazing cultural moment in our city. I think one thing we need to remain conscious of moving forward, in addition to promoting Chicago's total domination over everything ever, is making sure Chicago's lit community remains broad-based and accessible. I think this is something Orange Alert has always prioritized -- it seems to me you use a wide range of writers for your readings, which I really respect. I feel like the particular small press/indie lit community I'm a part of in Chicago is fairly collegial and inviting, but also very young and very white and not at all representative of our city's demographics. We absolutely cannot say strong writers of color do not live and write in Chicago, and there are great projects, organizations and reading series like Proyecto Latina and Guild Complex that regularly highlight literature by writers of color. I think we can begin to think about how we interface with some of these folks.

Writer on Writer love. Wow, that doesn't sound right. How about Interview madness, Take Two, starring the William Walsh and Michael Fitzgerald?

We are quite excited to let you know about a simultaneous interview thing we did as part of the Writer on Writer series at Orange Alert with quite cool writers Michael Fitzgerald, whose book Radiant Days we recently riffed on here at the blog, and William Walsh, whose book Questionstruck we plan to riff on soon, and whose work we recently ran with at This Zine Will Change Your Life. We had a lot of fun going all fan boy with this and we hope you dig it.

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.

Bam! We have an Orange Alert. We also have Day Four of This Book Tour Will Change Your Life, an interview and more Repetition Patterns love.

Yo, the Repetition Patterns journey continues and we are now on Day Four of This Book Tour Will Change Your Life and making a stop at none other than the Orange Alert where we are doing an interview with the Pete Anderson as part of Orange Alert's new Writer on Writer feature. Many thanks to both for their time, support and hospitality. Please visit the CCLaP for any additional insights you think may be lurking out there. And we hope to see you tomorrow as we invade Does this font make me look fat?, home of good friend and rock star novelist Tim Hall.

So, the devil, a circus and Repetitions Patterns walk into a bar. Or, Day Three of This Book Tour Will Change Your Life.

It is Day Three of This Book Tour Will Change Your Life and we have wandered outside the safe confines of Chicagoland and all the way to Pittsburgh, home of the lushly bearded and sweet writing Jason Jordan and So the Devil and a Circus Walk into a Bar, todays stop in our ongoing efforts to achieve Repetition Patterns world domination. As always you may also follow our exploits at CCLaP and we hope you will also join us for tomorrow's stop at Orange Alert where they are launching a new feature, writers interviewing writers, in this case TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson and Repetition Patterns author Ben Tanzer being interviewed by the Pete Anderson. Yes, that Pete Anderson. Nice, right? Way.

Orange Alert and Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine get some love from the HTML Giant.

We are quite proud here at TBWCYL, Inc. headquarters to see the most excellent shout-out for Orange Alert and Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine from the quite cool HTML GIANT. Many thanks GIANT people, we are much geeked and most appreciative.

Orange Alert has a new home and if we may be so bold its quite lovely. What's also lovely is this recent interview with Mary Hamilton.

It's true, so totally true, Orange Alert has a new home, which you should so check-out. It will have all of the old Orange Alert awesomeness of course, but also a consignment shop, face painting and all sorts of crazy awesome new stuff. And speaking of the old Orange Alert awesomeness, we were quite pleased to see a recent interview on the site with TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Mary Hamilton, co-doyenne of the QUICKIES! reading series, who has not only podcasted with us (along with QUICKES! co-host Lindsay Hunter), but who also penned our quite rocking inaugeration day joint over at This Zine Will Change Your Life. Nice, huh? Way.

And now let us take a moment to soak-up a little Sunday love for the The Hall and The Mesler.

Two of TBWCYL, Inc.'s favorite writers are Chicago's own Tim Hall and Corey Mesler out of Memphis, both of whom we have been lucky enough to publish in This Zine Will Change Your Life. In a most cool confluence of events, both not only have new pieces out, Tim at the Outsider Writers Collective and Corey at The Battered Suitcase, but both have new interviews out as well, Tim with the Texas Pan-American, the transcript of which is on his excellent blog Does This Font Make Me Look Fat? and Corey with our good friends at What To Wear During An Orange Alert. Both Tim and Corey are really fascinating dudes, who have led really interesting lives; both are great writers and both are maybe a little too far off of the reading public's radar as far as we are concerned. So, all this is to say, that we hope you will take a look at their writing and their words, because we're pretty sure that doing so will change your life, at least a little, which last we checked isn't bad for an otherwise slow Sunday, right? Right.

Pete Anderson - believe the hype.

Seriously believe it. Great writer. Kick-ass blogger. Cool dude. And apparently not above a little arm twisting. Check out Pete's most excellent new interview at What To Wear During An Orange Alert and as the Ostdick says, please tell him I sent you.

We take this moment to give thanks and big shout-out to poet Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal.

We were so very thrilled last night at TBWCYL, Inc. headquarters to receive a message from the wonderful poet Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal letting us know that he had enjoyed reading Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine. That kind of thing never gets old, especially when a fellow writer gives us a shout, and so we wanted to take a moment to give Luis a big thank you, implore you to check out his work and direct those of you who are so inclined to a great interview he did with our good friends at What to Wear During An Orange Alert. It is quite interesting and we hope you will check it, who knows, it just might change your life.

How cool is this? Jason Orange rocks the Gapers Block.

As you well know there is little we prefer more than seeking to celebrate our awesomeness, but that doesn't mean we don't enjoy celebrating the awesomeness of our friends as well. And so we want to take a moment to give our boy Jason Behrends of Orange Alert blog fame a big shout out for the publication of his first feature story on the very cool Gapers Block. We also hope you will take a look and then drop Jason a note to let him know just how very cool he is. Nice work dude.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is spun, tweaked, jiggered and impossibly live.

Yes, its true, the new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is spun, tweaked, jiggered and impossibly live and man we could not be more psyched. We have a sweet piece called "Further notes on the impossibility of everything" by the most righteous Tim Hall, a photo by in-house photographer and bon vivant Adam Lawrence, music selection by the quite orange Jason Behrends, and really good karma for all, even Sharon Stone. So please check it out, let us know what you think, link to us, submit and all that good stuff. You know, it may just change your life. And who wouldn't want that?

Check it out. The next phase in the possibly off-the-radar roll-out and hype for Orange Alert Press and Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine.

We are so very excited to share with you the next phase of the roll-out and soon to be endless hype for Orange Alert Press and Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine - an actual Orange Alert Press blog dedicated to the process of developing this imprint and the launching and marketing of the book, which anecdotal research shows may very well change your life all over again. Nice, right? We think so. We also hope though that you will endlessly visit the blog, share your thoughts and then if so inclined buy many copies of the book for yourself, friends, relatives and as needed strangers on the street.

The Lucky Man/This Zine Will Change Your Life Cult Pop interview goes YouTube and we in turn go web 2.0 crazy. Check it out.

Our good friends Jim and Jerry at Cult Pop have made their interview with TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer available to us as an audio file and so in true and utterly compulsive web 2.0 fashion we have not only uploaded the two parts to YouTube, but are now making them available to you right here, right now, in this post. Nice, right?

Crazy awesome Orange Pulp madness.

We wanted to be sure to draw your attention to the first ever What To Wear During An Orange Alert mix tape. It is titled Orange Pulp and it is a fantastic compilation of Orange Alert's favorite writers and musicians. While we are thrilled to have been involved in this project, we are especially excited to see so many writers on this CD that we so absolutely love and admire - Jill Summers, Nick Ostdick, and Spencer Dew just to name a few. Orange Alert will be passing these out in Chicago and New York City throughout the summer, but if you cannot wait, or cannot get to these fine cities, please visit the link above and let them know that you need a copy now, right now, and we have no doubt that they will be happy to take care of you.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. Incredibly live.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. Incredibly live. We have a great new piece called "An introduction to my open mike poetry set" from the inestimable S. Craig Renfroe, Jr., music from Oh Astro, selected as always by in-house rock god Jason Behrends, a photo from TBWCYL, Inc. Vice President of the Funk Adam Lawrence and sticker love from c-damage. It's pretty nice, so please check it out, link to us and submit, we would love to have you join the family.