Keeping the AWP dream alive we are. We are also podcast and so Ruland, not to mention Vermin on the Mount, ink, Big Lonesome, Razorcake, Forest of Fortune, punk, casinos, Reader's Digest, and much, much more. So do hit it, it just might change your life.
It is so Short Story Month and that is a wonderful thing indeed. It also comes with a modicum of pain and dread, and this too is a wonderful thing. All of which is to say it got us thinking about short stories that have punched us in the gut, which us got us thinking about the stories "An Optimist is the Human Personification of Spring" and "Brains for Bengo" by Caleb J. Ross and Jim Ruland respectively, which also led us to penning a joint for the Matt Bell led Short Story Month lovefest on his website, which we hope you will take a look at, though if we had to choose what you might look at with your limited time, we encourage you to take a look at these stories in particular, because they are sure to change your life, if only briefly at that.
We have been trying to think about how best to describe not just our great love for Hush Up and Listen Stinky Poo Butt by Ken Sparling, but the emotional impact it had on us as we read it. At first we thought about other things we read this year that crushed us, for example, the short stories Brains for Bengo from Jim Ruland's collection Big Lonesome or An Optimist is the Human Personification of spring from Caleb J. Ross' collection Charactered Pieces, but we realized there was a significant difference in our reactions. These stories struck a nerve because they spoke to unspeakable and irrational fears, pain inflicted on children and a parent's inability to get things right, but Hush Up struck a nerve because of its ability to speak not to our irrational fears, but to what we know, the day to day experience of parenting, the joys, frustrations, anger and pain, and the emotions that come with seeing yourself on the page and knowing the experience itself is so profoundly fraught with emotions at all times you would just as soon not read about it to give yourself a break. Of course, we have to read, and we have to feel things, and because of this, Hush Up is all the more powerful and certain to change your life.
We have been on the road and we have been reading. And while we are juggling several books at this time, today we are most happy to let you know about Big Lonesome by Jim Ruland. On the one hand you have a wildly imaginative and wide-ranging collection of stories that touch base on everything from war to stalking, and everyone one from Popeye to Dick Tracy. On the other hand though, you've got a series of stories that bring both the humor - something we would argue is way to underutilized these days - in pieces like Still Beautiful and Kessler Has No Lucky Pants, and the pain, especially in the fantastic Night Soil Man and Brains For Bengo, the latter of which absolutely crushed us, and which as a side note we happened to be reading on the train coming in from the airport last night so was oddly reminiscent of the last story that affected us this profoundly, An Optimist is the Human Personification of Spring from the quite fine Charactered Pieces by Caleb J. Ross, which we also happened to be reading on the train. It may be a train thing, but either way please take a moment to hit the Big Lonesome because it really just might change your life.
It is so Short Story Month and that is a wonderful thing indeed. It also comes with a modicum of pain and dread, and this too is a wonderful thing. All of which is to say it got us thinking about short stories that have punched us in the gut, which us got us thinking about the stories "An Optimist is the Human Personification of Spring" and "Brains for Bengo" by Caleb J. Ross and Jim Ruland respectively, which also led us to penning a joint for the Matt Bell led Short Story Month lovefest on his website, which we hope you will take a look at, though if we had to choose what you might look at with your limited time, we encourage you to take a look at these stories in particular, because they are sure to change your life, if only briefly at that. 
We have been trying to think about how best to describe not just our great love for Hush Up and Listen Stinky Poo Butt by Ken Sparling, but the emotional impact it had on us as we read it. At first we thought about other things we read this year that crushed us, for example, the short stories Brains for Bengo from Jim Ruland's collection Big Lonesome or An Optimist is the Human Personification of spring from Caleb J. Ross' collection Charactered Pieces, but we realized there was a significant difference in our reactions. These stories struck a nerve because they spoke to unspeakable and irrational fears, pain inflicted on children and a parent's inability to get things right, but Hush Up struck a nerve because of its ability to speak not to our irrational fears, but to what we know, the day to day experience of parenting, the joys, frustrations, anger and pain, and the emotions that come with seeing yourself on the page and knowing the experience itself is so profoundly fraught with emotions at all times you would just as soon not read about it to give yourself a break. Of course, we have to read, and we have to feel things, and because of this, Hush Up is all the more powerful and certain to change your life.
We have been on the road and we have been reading. And while we are juggling several books at this time, today we are most happy to let you know about Big Lonesome by Jim Ruland. On the one hand you have a wildly imaginative and wide-ranging collection of stories that touch base on everything from war to stalking, and everyone one from Popeye to Dick Tracy. On the other hand though, you've got a series of stories that bring both the humor - something we would argue is way to underutilized these days - in pieces like Still Beautiful and Kessler Has No Lucky Pants, and the pain, especially in the fantastic Night Soil Man and Brains For Bengo, the latter of which absolutely crushed us, and which as a side note we happened to be reading on the train coming in from the airport last night so was oddly reminiscent of the last story that affected us this profoundly, An Optimist is the Human Personification of Spring from the quite fine Charactered Pieces by Caleb J. Ross, which we also happened to be reading on the train. It may be a train thing, but either way please take a moment to hit the Big Lonesome because it really just might change your life.
