Mercury Blobs, By Sylvia Petter just published.

Mercury Blobs, a collection of short stories by contributor and editor to the New Sun Rising Anthology, has been recently published by Raging Aardvark.

This is a collection of flash fiction which will challenge and delight readers.

 “The brilliant stories in Sylvia Petter’s Mercury Blobs are sometimes very funny and sometimes very moving, and often they are both at once, which is one of the best tests of a truly serious writer. Moreover, she is a master of the very short fictional forms that have become a crucial expressive medium of the 21st-century sensibility. This is a splendid collection from a gifted writer."

–Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain.

We are delighted to congratulate and celebrate this new publication by Sylvia and wish her the best on her future writing journey.

Mercury Blobs is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle formats.

Raindrops just published by Vaishali Shroff

Vaishali Shroff has just published a wonderful picture book called 'Raindrops'. It was published by Tulika Publishers.

Here is an excerpt

It is pouring rain. From her window, little Anju sees familiar scenes of a rainy day - cloudy skies, umbrellas, puddles...But her curious eyes pick up other surprises too, while her imagination plays with the raindrops sliding down her window pane. Soft water colours drench the pages with the mood of a wet, wet day. 

You can buy this book from Tulikabooks

Shipping is free at the moment...

Success Spotlight on Brigita Orel

Brigita Orel is one of New Sun Rising's contributors who has enjoyed a momentum of successes this year.

Her short story 'Her Only Fruit' has just been published by Eunoia Review. She wrote the story as part of her final project for her master's study in writing at Swinburne. 

Another flash fiction piece  by her will be included in the second volume of the Machine of Death anthology. The editors descibed it as 'A quiet story of a loving relationship.' The first volume of stories about people who know how they will die was published in 2010 and became the best selling book on Amazon on the day of its publication. For more information on the second volume, visit the book's website.

'Afterthought' was published in Foliate Oak Literary Journal  and received honorable mention at the Arkansas College Media Association 2012 Conference. 

For other recent publications, visit Brigita's blog.

Interview with Bard Fox Dunham

Bard Fox Dunham is one of our amazing contributors and has graciously agreed to answer a few questions about his work in progress and successes in the past few months.

Bard Fox, you are always so busy with your writing, what have you been up to lately?

It’s been a good few weeks. I’ve had to retire from my writing for a short time to deal with a nasty heart issue that is proving serious. I’ve constantly labored at my scribbling, and I’ve had accepted over 150 pieces in the last 18 months. It is growing steadily. My first novella will be released soon as part of the New World Series, and I hope to finish my second for Hazardous Press as soon as I regain my strength. This is just the beginning. I spent the last 5 days in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania, enjoying the fresh air, the fishing, and seeking the spirits of the land and lake. You can see photos on my facebook page:

What sort of inspiration did you come away with after this break?

I’ve come home with a cauldron teeming with story sundries. I sucked in the milieu, the people, and it has nourished my thinning spirit. I will return to work anon even with this invasive treatment in which my cardiologists wish to engage. It is my life support.

Also published is my story, Love Always Comes for You. This another of my hard-boiled pieces, and it is a sequel to my story, Reflexes. Both pieces are published by Pulp Metal Press, an online journal. I’ll enclose links to both:

Reflexes:

http://pulpmetalmagazine.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/reflexes-by-t-fox-dunham/

Love Always Comes for You: http://pulpmetalmagazine.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/love-always-comes-for-you-by-t-fox-dunham/

Your stories are always inspirational. What would you like to say to newcomers and fans of your work?

I hope all of you are doing well, and please let me know what’s going on in your lives. It is for all of you that I remain in this world. I keep writing for you.

And so many stories being published. I’ll try to keep you all updated. I have an international and growing fan base, and together, we are pushing a movement. Soon, the serious work will begin. I’m preparing for battle. I’m going to war.

Please drop me some notes after my stories, on my Facebook page or follow me at twitter:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TFoxDunham or @TFoxDunham

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tfoxdunham

Author’s Blog: http://tfoxdunham.blogspot.com/

Success Spotlight - Catherine Edmunds

Serpentine is the new novel by writer and artist Catherine Edmunds, published by Circaidy Gregory Press. We are delighted to share her success and encourage our readers to support her along her journey.

Art is the proper task of life (Friedrich Nietzsche)

Painting isn’t a job – it’s the reason for Victoria’s very existence – so how is she to bridge the gap between her art and her private life? José gives her the intensity she craves, but has no interest in her as an artist. Simon offers a mature and loving relationship, but his gentleness and inability to understand her compulsions drive her to distraction. And then there’s John – a man who understands exactly who she is, but unnerves her with his perspicacity and potentially violent nature. Victoria’s friend Emma has bruises on her face and Victoria thinks she knows who put them there. 

Throughout it all she paints: tying down memories in cadmium yellow, burning canvases that reveal too much, hoping to find a way to pay the bills.  

The novel poses many questions. Why do contemporary artists do what they do? Why are they so seemingly hell-bent on self destruction? And above all, what does all that stuff in Tate Modern really mean? 

The story is set in London and the North East of England. The author knows these locations intimately. She has visited the London galleries and seen the work that has moved Victoria to tears; she’s walked on the beach at Alnmouth as the haar rolls in; and she’s been drawn back time and time again to the glory that is Durham Cathedral. Most importantly, she’s sat shivering with her easel next to the cold grey North Sea and understands the compulsion that drives Victoria: the absolute need to paint.

Serpentine is available now as an e-book in all standard formats, with the paperback version to follow in October 2012. Visit the publisher’s website for ordering information. 
http://www.circaidygregory.co.uk/serpentine.htm.

Reviews and further details can be found on the author’s website. http://www.freewebs.com/catherineedmunds/

A story with impact. Vivid, important and highly readable.  Mandy Pannett

I’m no artist, but while reading this book I felt like one. It’s a riveting journey. Angela Bodine.

Oonah V Joslin Interview

Oonah found time in her busy schedual to answer a few questions about her invovlement with New Sun Rising and on the projects she is working on now.

Title of piece contributed to New Sun Rising

Rite of Spring.

What was the inspiration behind your piece?

Journalist Jon Snow’s reports from Japan in the week after the Tsunami were both poignant and detailed and I decided that if there was anything I could do to help rebuild lives there, I would.

What sorts of works/genres/ materials do you normally produce?

I write poetry and flash fiction. Nearly all of my work is under 1000 words and that is by choice. I am not one of those who sees flash fiction as a way of practising writing skills. To me Flash is an end unto itself. I love micro-fiction and have three times won at www.microhorror.com

What attracted you to this? 

It was ideal. I have only the wealth of words at my disposal.

Who are your models or those you draw inspiration from?

I always wanted to write like Isaac Asimov. I draw inspiration from everywhere but I frequently start in the forums at Writewords. In fact this story started there too.

What are you working on right now?

Lots! As well as this publication, I am promoting the recently published Writewords PANGEA Anthology which also contains one of my stories and I am doing Blog Interviews with other writers for that in September. Later this season I will promoting Every Day Poets’ Anthology TWO. I am Managing Editor. I have been invited once again this year to help judge the Microhorror Hallowe’en Contest, always a great pleasure to work with Nathan Rosen. Writing-wise I am putting together a Kindle Book of my flash fiction both old and new works. Hopefully be available early next year. Also I am working on a sequel to my novella, A Genie in a Jam, published in Bewildering Stories and poetry is on-going. I try to at least start a poem every week and of course, I am forever revising.

 For more information on Oonah and her incredible collections, please check out the links below.

PANGEA

Writewords 

A Genie in a Jam 

Microhorror 

Yamato Nadeshiko

This beautiful poem was donated to our blog, not only to highlight its creators talent - but to bring attention to an important 'rematch'. On Thursday, the US women will be playing the Japanese in the Olympic final, a rematch of the 2011 final that inspired the poem. Thank you to Uche Ogbuji for gifting this piece.

Yamato Nadeshiko

Women's World Cup Final, 2011

Nippon, land and lore

Invokes such fascination,

All to be admired…

No! Not all to be admired…

Such bold type of shy contrasts.

This heavy year brought

You uncompromising suffering;

What heart did not feel

Those twin spread sensations

Collapsed into one keen touch.

Now, these few months on

Your Blue Samurai ladies

Infect us with will;

We too taste the blood red disc

In it's white, inductive field,

White of that banner,

Its plain, stark humility

Shading coiled up strength.

Those black, roman letters seem

To draw us in your circle.

Do we still have doubts,

Seek signs of outbound contempt?

It's best we don't hedge;

When grace gives unwavering voice

Mustn't we take her at her word?

The pink bloom unveiled:

"To our friends around the world

Thanks for your support."

And what openings shall follow

Come what may these more-than-games?

published with permission from the author - Uche Ogbuji

Success Spotlight - Mark Kerstetter

Mark Kerstetter, author of the three haibun included in the Anthology New Sun Rising ( 'This Space', 'Write What You Know' and 'As Leaves Fall') has had some poems published recently. 

The first poem, entitled 'Wilhelm Reich in Lewisburg', was published by Evergreen Review.

The second publication is an interview and three poems at Connotation Press. One of the poems is entitled 'The Buffing Wheel' which is inspired by the life and work of the Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi.

Please join the rest of our community in congratulating him on these successes.

Interview with Simon Paul Wilson

We were lucky enough to catch up with Simon Paul Wilson and ask a few questions about his work and his submission, "Kibou" to New Sun Rising.

What was the inspiration behind your piece? The inspiration behind Kibou was hope. Even in the darkest of times, there is always hope.   Why did you decide to donate this to charity? I have been lucky enough to travel to many parts of Asia and find that part of the world both beautiful and magical. The news of the tsunami in Japan was truly shocking. After seeing the scale of devastation on the news, I looked for some way that I could help. So when I was approached to contribute a peice of work to the New Sun Rising project, I leapt at the chance. To be published for the first time is an amazing feeling. To help a country I have a deep love for is an honour.  What sorts of works/genres/ materials do you normally produce? Kibou is a good example of what I usually write. More often than not, my stories feature a kooky Japanese girl in some sort of surreal situation. I also like to sneak in a dash of horror and a pinch of comedy, just for good measure.  What attracted you to this style? I grew up reading horror novels, so have always been interested in that genre. The liking for the surreal came as my reading tastes developed. Personally, I like to read stories that draw from multiple genres as I feel it keeps the reader interested and on their toes! Who are your models or those you draw inspiration from? A lot of my inspiration comes from Asian cinema and literature. Park Chan-Wook is an amazing director and I consider his films as works of genius. As for writers, Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto are huge influences. I also admire the work of Yoko Ogawa and Xiaolu Guo. What are you working on right now? I have a novella called 'See You When The World Ends' which is nearing completion and am also working on two full length novels entitled 'GhostCityGirl' and 'Indigo'. My first novel, 'Yuko Zen Is Somewhere Else', is currently being submitted to anyone who may be interested! Thanks for chatting to us and for donating your wonderful piece to the Anthology.

Success Spotlight - Kyle Hemmings

We are delighted to share the milestones Kyle Hemming has reached this year.  He has a free chapbook up at Scars Publications titled Anime Junkie. It's a collection of prose poems and flash fictions based on Manga. He also did a reading at the KGB bar on June 23, 2012.

.

Kyle's latest ebook for kindle is You Never Die in Wholes that features a wide range of both early and latter stories.. His latest collection of prose poems is The Truth about Onions.

Kyle has upcoming work in Unlikely Stories and in Corvus.  You can find out more about Kyle from his website.

NEWS FROM NORA NADJARIAN

Another of our talented poets, Nora Nadjarian has some great news on her work.

She is delighted to announce that her poem "The Name" was the winner of the unFold 2012 Poetry Garden Show.

Her ultra-short story "Tell Me Words" is one of the honorees in the Ninth Annual International Ultra-Short Competition sponsored by The Binnacle at The University of Maine at Machias. They received over 825 submissions from twenty-five countries and six continents. Nora says that she was  very happy that her story was selected! 

If you are interested in seeing more of her work -  look out for her mini book "The Girl and the Rain" just out from Turtleneck Press.

In others news, she has just found out (yesterday) that her poem "Wanderlust" will be included in the Limerick Writers’ Centre themed Love anthology, due to be published in the early Spring of 2013 in Ireland.

Congratulations Nora - all well deserved honurs.

Success Spotlight : Jonathan Greenhause

Jonathan contributed two pieces to New Sun Rising: “Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall” and “Ueno Park”.

He speaks to us about his work below.

What was the inspiration behind your pieces?

I was traveling through Japan and, in the case of the first poem, was awestruck by the sight of what had once been the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall.  Only a skeletal shell of it remains to serve as a reminder of what was unleashed that day.  Along with the horror, there was also an eerie beauty about the scene, how nature reclaims these places of destruction.  The second poem arose from a visit to Ueno Park, which is akin to New York City’s Central Park: An enormous oasis of designed nature in the heart of a metropolis.  

Why did you decide to donate this to charity?

Like most people, the tsunami left me feeling powerless.  Being so far-removed physically and thus unable to remove debris and search for survivors by hand, I came across New Sun Rising and found a form in which I could offer my small modicum of assistance. 

What sorts of works/genres/ materials do you normally produce?

I’m primarily a poet.  In the past, I dabbled in novels and short stories, but not much came of that.  I’ve simply gravitated towards poetry over time and am very happy I have.

What attracted you to this? 

Upon hearing about New Sun Rising, I thought it very serendipitous:  Here was someone searching for contributors to help in the wake of the tsunami, and I had written a fairly large group of poems about Japan a few years earlier.  I couldn’t think of a better place for these poems to appear in. 

Who are your models or those you draw inspiration from?

Everyday people.  Family members.  My wife.  A lot of my inspiration also comes from nature and from simple daily observation.  And of course, other poets have been a huge inspiration for me, but to name all of them would take up several pages at the least.

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on a series of poems exploring the relationship between time and space, though they tend to range freely across all subject matters.

Where can I find some of your other works?

Sebastian's Reality can be seen here.

Interviews with our Contributors

The contributors featured in New Sun Rising are drawn from a wide spectrum within the creative industries.

Brush painters, graphic artists, songwriters, oil painters, photographers, poets, flash fiction writers, haiku and tanka.

They were all drawn into the project with a similar mindset - to make a difference to the plight of the people in Japan through their donation of their work.

Whilst its been over a year since the disaster, the people in Japan still need our assistance and continued thoughts. New Sun Rising has been available on Kindle for a short time now, with plans well underway for the print version to be published before the end of the year.

Over the next two months, we will be celebrating our contributors continued successes within their chosen fields, by hosting a spotlight on their achievements, awards and work in progress.

Please visit our site often to learn more about what inspires our contributors and what their future plans hold.

And Acupuncture Is Not Voodoo

By silent lotus

published with permission and loaded as per contributors instructions.

Spring Fever

by Marianne Betterly

As spring flashes its magenta blooms,

a petal storm floating

over daffodils and tulips,

covering them in a sea of pink,

I want to scream.

Finches cluster and chirp

in nearby redwoods

swoop like pterodactyls;

insects buzz in the living room,

fly around my head.

I feel itchy,

perhaps from lying in the grass,

hope it isn’t ticks.

The sun is brighter, hotter --

each day more light

is crowding out

the cozy blackness of night.

I’m sleepy,

don’t want to get up.

On the street glimpses of navels,

naked toes and shoulders

make me shiver, sneeze

in the wall to wall sea of smiles

love is floating like hay fever,

I don’t want to catch it

but would rather go back to bed,

cover my head and wake up

when the cold San Francisco summer

drains the pastels of spring

down storm gutters

until all that is left

is gray mist rising,

spreading across the city,

pushing thoughts of spring

off the Golden Gate bridge

with the bass bellow

of a foghorn.

rabbits run

by Marianne Betterly

They multiply in the shadows

hop on every  stitch of lawn

until soft fur and balls of white

cover shaven grass,

turning plots of green to

rivers of gray.

A rabbit rave repeats each night

in a jumble of silent leaps,

a frenzied ballet of cottontails

jumping to beats

only they can hear

until the moon rises and

the coyotes who watch

the lapidarian dance

join in,

changing the music to

tango abrazo

close embrace

Silver Lining Flower

by Ida Černe 

Ida's story "Silver Lining" is included within the Anthology. She shares the photo that provided the inspiration as its an origami flower made out of a silver lining.

But the work of a moment

by D.R.D. BRUTON

Elizabetta wanted Jonathan to write something. Like it was a trick he could do, like there might be a coin in his pocket that he could make disappear and reappear again. She gave him a brief. She wanted something quick. The work of a moment. Nothing more than that. And not too many words.

So Jonathan sat at his desk, pen poised, not quite touching the paper, not yet. And he waited. Held his breath. Expecting something to happen. Like maybe it could be a trick and something appear suddenly at the end of his pen and spilling onto the page.

There was a woman. Her name was Elise. Jonathan did not know where that had come from, for there was no one he knew by that name. She was not young, this Elise. Nor was she yet so on in years that people thought her old. She was a writer, too. She was sitting at her desk, a carved oakwood writing desk, sitting just as he was, only she was writing. The words fell easily onto the page in front of her. She was remembering something. A moment from her own life. But whereas moments in the real world are fleeting and fast, in the writing of them Elise lingered over the details, stretching the time of a moment across several minutes of work.

She was not aware of where she was, not in the moment of writing, not aware that the light was thinner and the air more chill. The fine hairs on her bare arms stood on end. The curtains at her window lifted a little in the draft. And dropped paper on the floor – the discarded early drafts of the moment she was recording – shifted a little. Elise was bent over her work, not quite seeing everything clear. The sound of her pen was a scratch-scratch against the paper and the words she wrote did not quite sit on the feint blue lines of the page. She breathed in at the start of every line, held her breath and exhaled only when she reached the end, each exhalation something like a sigh of pleasure. She did not stop to read over what she had written. It was a moment of inspiration and she was not sure where it was going, had to let it run to its end.

A miscreant curl of hair slipped free of a plain silver clasp, fell in a twist across one cheek. Elise brushed it back behind one ear, a delicate movement of her index finger, something practised and unconscious and so simple. She bit her bottom lip and the small furrow of her brow deepened a little. She adjusted her position in the chair, the sound of her dress shushing to quiet the sound of the wood complaining.

Then suddenly, when Jonathan least expected it, Elise laid down her pen and it was done. Jonathan laid down his pen, too.

He did not think it was quite what was wanted. There was no story and maybe that was what Elizabetta hoped for, a story. 'The work of a moment,' he would tell her. 'Something quick and not too many words.' That was the brief. What was Elise writing, what was she remembering, that is what Elizabetta would ask. Jonathan would shrug. ‘Elise is not real,’ he would tell her. ‘That is the trick. I made her appear and then disappear. The rest is a mystery even to me.’

We Widows

by Marianne Betterly

we widows

walk the world

hidden in the crowd

some wear white,

others black

golden band on finger

turned like a prayer wheel

spinning memories of his voice;

a ghost hand presses fingers

like a flower under glass,

mementos sealed in Snow White’s tomb

Indian widows burn

their gold and red saris

sometimes they leap in,

swimming in flames,

red vermillion gone

from the world drained of color

all that remains:

my wedding vows,

a musky sport coat,

a box of yellowed papers,

cards hidden in sock drawer

I will always love you

wedding kimono folded like a paper doll,

white album stuffed with faded smiles,

a dried red rose

we widows

walk the world

hidden in the crowd

some wear black,

others white,

alone

(formerly published in The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal)

ELEMENTAL

By Elizabeth Schultz

Forewarned, 

he put his family on the roof.

An alchemist rhapsodized over

Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

He knew that after the earth

quaked, the water would flow,

but could not configure gold,

or an Elixir for Life Everlasting. 

He watched it coming,  

whirling, cascading over walls.

Scientists went further, 

creating The Periodic Table,

pushing through forests,

and the fires erupting,

naming, sorting 109 elements

from Hydrogen to Meitnerium.

When the waters subsided,

he took his family to a school.

They were organized by

atomic number, atomic weight, 

electron configuration, density, 

including two cats, his son’s gecko, 

melting point, boiling point, 

abundance, and ionization energy. 

Snow fell on the remains

and on the mourners at graves,

but no one could discover 

when Earth, Air, Fire, and Water

might explode into chaos,

how to express enough compassion,

how to express enough consolation, 

which might explode into creation

of their own contrivance.

Published with permission. 

Poem from Elizabeth's recently published Anthology "Coming from Japan"