Thieves Jargon 202

Contrary to popular opinion, Thieves Jargon still lives. Dan Scannell and Joe Goosey have done a good job of pulling together another installment. I'm particularly fond of Anelise Chen's Life is So Many Olympic Exertions #2, KJ Hays' Birdfeeder, and Gretel My's Various Value-Added Products, Various By-Products, which has a Delphine-Lecompte like feeling to it.

Speaking of Delphine Lecompte, I was excited to sell a dozen copies of Kittens in the Boiler to Brown University, where the book will be taught to undergrads this fall. Thieves Jargon has gone Ivy League.

Still more Delphine, as she's resurfaced in a brief interview at The Damned Human Race:
Part 1
Part 2

Speaking of The Damned Human Race, they also have a three part series outlining the development of the cover for Kittens in the Boiler, as well as the cover artist's Belgian meeting with the author in question:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Speaking of Thieves Jargon Press, Mike Boyle has a new story published at Red Fez, an excerpt from his Dollhouse sequel.

Speaking of Red Fez, I said goddamn, there are a lot of Jargon alumni in their fall issue... Brent Poweres, Luis Rivas, Karl Koweski, Josh Olsen, Steve Wheeler. Might be worth checking out as you wait for 203.

Thieves Jargon 201

Any thoughts on Thieves Jargon 201? I'm personally trending toward Robert Kloss' The Loam (where the hell did that come from?) and Megan Roth's two poems, in specific, "The Airshells."

As always, I leave the rest of the discussion up to you.

Issue 200

Eric Jones has been with us since Isssue 1.

George Sparling has been with us since Issue 10

Joel Van Noord has been with us since Issue 81

Kenneth Mulvey has been with us since Issue 85

Randy Dalzell has been with us since Issue 104

Josh Olsen has been with us since Issue 124.

Thanks for reading all this time.

Thieves Jargon 199

I'm pretty sure I sent the singer in the band above a copy of "Kittens in the Boiler" when it came out. You can plainly see the influence in the scene.

Welcome to Thieves Jargon 199. Scannell brought together some interesting fiction that I really enjoyed. Stove Hands starts with a guy burning his hands on a stove and gets weirder from there. Danny Sadsack and Razor Wire give the the gift of the city. Matt Salesses has Epidemics stories popping up like funky rashes, and I like seeing one in TJ.

As for the poetry, a lot of sex, only nobody's having any fun. Miller Daniels dick poems always make me laugh, I kind of wish I knew about somebody paying homage to the female anatomy these days quite like Carl dedicates to the men.


In other news:
Joel Van Noord acts like a woman.

Mark Baumer is walking across the country.

Cats are pretending Natasha Henstridge's death had an important impact on their lives.

Headz the Novel by John Colagrande has sparked a bidding frenzy.

Enter Joe Goosey

"Hey Matt. Funks occur. Three hangovers in four days ain't bad. I had a massive one last week that set me back about a full business week. Katie had to come find me on the side of a main road eating an omelet with my hands."

Happy to announce Joseph Goosey is coming on as poetry editor for Thieves Jargon. I've been a big fan of his work for a while now (city-kid imagery mixed with self-awareness and longing), and I think he's only going to get better moving forward. If he can identify poetry that's somewhere in the same neighborhood of interesting as the poetry he writes, we should be in good shape.

Viva le Goose!

Million Writers Award

Million Writers Award is underway again, always one of the coolest times of the year for this tiny sector of the world. I'm happy to say that Andrew S. Taylor's vagina dream That Which Dreams Does Not Sleep picked up a notable story mention and will be representing Thieves Jargon. We'll find out in a month or so if it makes the cut to the top ten. In the meantime, there were a ton of other Friends of the Jargon who got nods as well, including:

Mel Bosworth
Kevin Wilson
Kevin Spaide
Fortunato Salazar
Crispin Best
Richard Grayson
Tai Dong Huai
Greg Ames
Matt Bell
Zdravka Evtimova
Mather Schneider

Congratulations everybody!

Thieves Jargon 198

First off, huge thanks to --Ed. Dan Scannell, who undertook the site redesign project. We've been talking about this since before he came on board, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Paramount for me was changing the font from that tiny Arial to something bigger and easier to read. Everything else was more or less his idea. I like the new organization of the authors and artists and links. The horizontal layout is a nice touch. We'll see if we get any traction on the ads. Like the new color scheme. Something for Dan to be proud of accomplishing.

But everybody knows that looks aren't everything, so I'm happy to know there's some substance underneath that pretty head of hair as well. Personal favorites from issue 198 include Renaldo's All-Night Shave, Having a Heart Attack, and Brown I. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time in a long time that we've had an issue made up entirely of first-timers.

And dig that innocently innapropriate cover art. Promise mommy you won't sit on Uncle BJ's lap.

Issue 200 is coming soon. Any special plans?