30 Days of The 5-2 Tour Schedule

All dates for the 30 Days of The 5-2 crime poetry blog tour have been booked:

Sunday, April 1 - Kevin Burton Smith, The Thrilling Detective Blog
Monday, April 2 - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Suspect Has a History" by Jack Bates
Tuesday, April 3 - Thomas Pluck, Pluck You, Too
Wednesday, April 4 - BV Lawson, In Reference to Murder
Thursday, April 5 - John Kenyon, Grift Magazine
Friday, April 6 - Jeff Shelby, Waves and Words
Saturday, April 7 - Peter Rozovsky, Detectives Beyond Borders
Sunday, April 8 - Anne Frasier
Monday, April 9 - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Too Easy by Far" by Stephen D. Rogers
Tuesday, April 10 - Jim Winter, Edged in Blue
Wednesday, April 11 - Kathleen A. Ryan, Women of Mystery
Thursday, April 12 - Steven Torres, The Crime Time Cafe
Thursday, April 12 - Ron Earl Phillips
Friday, April 13 - JT Ellison, Tao of JT
Saturday, April 14 - Charlie Stella, Temporary Knucksline
Sunday, April 15 - Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine
Monday, April 16 - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "The Hardest Thing" by Nancy Scott
Tuesday, April 17 - R. Thomas Brown
Wednesday, April 18 - Patricia Abbott, Pattinase
Thursday, April 19 - Bill Cameron, Thinking With My Skin
Friday, April 20 - Troy D. Smith, Tennessee Wordsmith
Saturday, April 21 - Chris F. Holm, _holm
Sunday, April 22 - Keith Rawson, Bloody Knuckles, Callused Fingertips
Monday, April 23 -5-2 Poem of the Week: "Confessional Poem" by Paul Hostovsky
Tuesday, April 24 - Elizabeth A. White
Wednesday, April 25 - Kathleen A. Ryan, From Cop to Mom & the Words in Between
Thursday, April 26 - Nigel Bird, Sea Minor
Friday, April 27 - Lou Boxer
Saturday, April 28 - Joan Leotta
Sunday, April 29 - Cullen Gallagher, Pulp Serenade
Monday, April 30 - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "The Escape" by Margaret Anderson


If you'd still like to join in, just e-mail g_so AT yahoo DOT com. I don't mind multiple tour stops on the same day.

#verseday College

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, March 29. My topic this week is college.

Write a poem about college by noon Friday, March 30.

THE LINEUP #3 Now on Kindle and Nook

In time for National Poetry Month (April), an ebook of THE LINEUP: POEMS ON CRIME 3 is available for Kindle and Nook, featuring seventeen of the original nineteen poets.

At The 5-2: "In a Flash of Light" by Brett Peruzzi

The 5-2 presents its first prose poem, in memory of William H. Welch. The only police officer ever killed in the line of duty in Framingham, Massachusetts, Welch's 1923 murder remains unsolved.

Back at Criminal Element

I have a follow-up post today at Criminal Element about the 30 Days of The 5-2 blog tour, featuring a preview of Thomas Pluck's tour post about Keith Rawson's poem "$25".

The schedule in the post is as of March 16. As of March 25, all but three dates have been filled: April 20, 21, and 22. All are welcome to join in or follow along. I'll continue to update the schedule here.

Two Trains of Thought

Yesterday, Patti Abbott blogged about how readers and writers see the relationship between the novel and the short story:

In the 2011 O'Henry Awards, A.M. Homes compares novels to short stories by using the metaphor of a train. "The novel is a cross-country trip; one boards leisurely in D.C. and watches the landscape unfold as the train passes through Maryland, Ohio, Illinois as one prepares to disembark in L.A.'s Union Station. The short story is like hopping on that same train already in motion in Chicago and riding it into Albuquerque with no time to waste."

Is this a good metaphor for you?

I commented:

Though short stories are short, I would argue that they should be read more slowly, more attentively than novels. Frenetic action is only one possible virtue of short stories. A better one is that each word, phrase, sentence in a short story is more powerful than any one word, phrase, or sentence in a novel.

I would argue that it's easier to get a head of steam reading a novel such that you don't notice every sentence or paragraph. This is why writers say novels are more forgiving than short stories. I sometimes feel sorry that novelists have to write entire books when, depending on a section's overall pace, readers may just breeze through it.

#verseday William Shatner

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, March 22. My topic this week is William Shatner.

Write a poem about William Shatner by noon Friday, March 23.

YOUNG JUSTICE: "Image"

Cartoon Network's YOUNG JUSTICE, wherein Robin, Kid Flash, and other teen heroes act as covert backup for the adult Justice League, usually skews young for me, but in the latest episode, the teen team investigates an odd accession that could shift the balance of power in the Middle East. The mission is sidetracked when the team spots Gar Logan (who would become Beast Boy) and his mother Marie caught in a wildebeest stampede.

YOUNG JUSTICE's take on the DC universe is set on the relatively untapped Earth-16, where Marie is a former child actress whose fad TV series, HELLO, MEGAN, inspired the human form and mannerisms adopted by Miss Martian (M'gann M'orzz). On a deeper level, M'gann is actually a white Martian, raised by the green Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz) after the white invaders all but killed off the green natives. M'gann takes on the appearance of a green Martian out of respect for J'onn, and her teammates believe she is J'onn's blood relative.

M'gann is starstruck to meet her TV idol, but Marie rebuffs her affection, saying her acting career is long behind her. In this telling, Gar receives his shape-shifting power after a blood transfusion from M'gann. The theme of appearance versus true identity had added resonance as "Image" was written by former child actress Nicole Dubuc, now an accomplished screenwriter. Also, former child actress Danica McKellar—who now holds an advanced math degree and has written two math books—voices M'gann.

At The 5-2: "Last Straw" by Susan Kelley

Enjoy.

I'm also pleased to announce The 5-2's first guest editor, Nancy Scott. I'll be accepting submissions for Nancy from April 1 to 29, from which she will choose the Poem of the Week for May 28-June 3.

I will be accepting normal submissions at the same time.

EXTENDED: NoirCon 2012 Poetry Contest Deadline May 31

NoirCon is held every two years at the Society Hill Playhouse in Philadelphia, PA. Organizer Lou Boxer is an enthusiastic supporter of noir poetry as well as fiction. NoirCon 2012 included a panel discussion of noir poetry, and this year, Lou is sponsoring a poetry contest with prizes of $250 and $150.

The deadline to enter the NoirCon 2012 Poetry Contest has been extended to May 31, 2012. In addition to the 1st- and 2nd-place cash prizes, the top ten poems, as judged by Robert Polito, will be published in the NoirCon 2012 program, which resembles a vintage paperback.

Every contest entry raises the profile of noir and crime poetry. Join me.

#verseday Superstition

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, March 15. My topic this week is superstition.

Write a poem about superstition by noon Friday, March 16.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: DOOM

My review of the latest DC Universe direct-to-video animated movie is now up at Crimepree Magazine's blog.

At The 5-2: "Off Ocean Parkway, Long Island" by Lola Koundakjian

Armenian poet Lola Koundakjian offers a look at the ongoing investigation of bodies dumped of the coast of Long Island.

March 15 is the deadline to join The 5-2's April blog tour and be included in the official schedule posting to Criminal Element.

March 15 is also the deadline to submit poetry to The 5-2 and be considered for publication in April, National Poetry Month.

#verseday Best Friends

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, March 8. My topic this week is best friends.

Write a poem about your best friend from anytime in your life by noon Friday, March 9.

PARTY DOLL by Steve Brewer

I've been a Brewer fan for eight years, since reading LONELY STREET, the 1994 debut of New Mexico P.I. Bubba Mabry. It's been six years since the last Bubba novel, MONKEY MAN, but his voice has stayed with me so that I jumped right into PARTY DOLL, a new ebook novella that has him on the trail of missing stripper Joy Forever.

Bubba's most endearing quality may be that he figures things out along with, not ahead of readers. He wants to hang on long enough for answers to all his questions, and so do we. All the while, Brewer pulls us deeper into a plot that has Bubba's investigative reporter wife licking her chops.


For a Q & A with Brewer, visit Chatterrific.

Sex, Context, and Subtext

Today on Murderati, Pari Noskin discusses writing a surprising sex scene, and goes on to ask, "Do you read sex scenes or go to movies for them? If so, what do you want out of them? Can sex scenes not be about sex...and still be called 'sex scenes'? Can they still satisfy?"

I commented:

In general, I want sex scenes to follow through on expectations set up by the rest of the movie or book. Some stories don't set sex up to be a climactic event or turning point. In other stories, sex is a climax even if it doesn't result in orgasm.

I think most readers accept sex with a positive aura in fiction because fiction is to some extent an escape from life; expectations are set up and met one way or the other, lines between good and evil are clearer, and maybe the sex is better.

Sex scenes don't necessarily have to be about the sex. They're still called sex scenes because they include sex, but arguably any scene that's part of a narrative (story) should be about more than what's taking place on the surface. Characters may be saying or doing one thing, but a subtext is moving forward at the same time.

Scenes satisfy me when they serve the larger story being told. If they don't serve the story, they should be reworked or cut.

At The 5-2: "Jenny Brown" by Peter Ivey

Enjoy.

And again I invite you to blog about your favorite 5-2 poem as part of the 30 Days of The 5-2 blog tour. Join by March 15, and you'll be included in the official tour schedule coming to Criminal Element.

Also, submit by March 15 and your poem may be part of the tour as one of five featured at The 5-2 in April.

#verseday War

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, March 1. My topic this week is war.

Write a poem about war by noon Friday, March 2.