Peter Adam Salomon Keyboard & Camera:

Because, really, this isn’t depressing at all…sometimes even I think these poems are, perhaps, a touch too cynical…

The Singing

the static died today
in a blast of orange-mushroom smoke
a light as though the savior came
entered into me and brought me home

words turned to ashes
overflowing that which we call earth
memories flooded my defenses
mental walls melting in the heat…
all the petty worries, loves, and losses
seemed, suddenly, to mean so little
among the remnants of forgotten slights…

I watched my life, reviewed it
criticized myself for caring if this is where we are
and then remembered
as the light entered into me
my lungs breathing orange air
as vision ended sight began
that not to care would have been far worse
for when the static died
I could hear quite loudly
the singing of the damned
praying to me…

As I work on the next book, a ghost story set in Savannah, GA scheduled for publication in Fall 2014, there will be a brief hiatus on the whole ‘keeping up with the blog’ thing. I’ll continue to post sporadically for the next few months (especially the Monday poems) but other than that I’ll be working on the book. Thanks!

Meanwhile, another random poem from my college years…it should have some question marks but I’ve never been a big fan of the look of them in my poems so didn’t include them. Silly reason, I know, but, hey, it’s my poem and I can do what I want. No?

Wicked

wicked line shoot the night
falling stars in paradise
I used to think thoughts…

burning behind pupils
blackness descends-
roses bleed
did you know that roses bleed

wicked children-
telling mama lies
playing secret games in the darkness of the lonely night
insanity descends-
God punishes those who know
little drummer boy
following the falling star
to find a pot of gold
or is it all an empty crock

understand
you think you understand
really now-
understand…

wicked

Touch The Glass

I heard the sibilant whisper
across the crowded night
a paradox hid within hypocrisy
wrapped itself in silken bows
and danced alone with subtlety

I could hear
the terrible beauty
and the heavy heavy sighs
waiting for irony
within a twisted mind

a touch, a thought
an evil word
alone together you and I
wrapped in silence
and prison walls

I touched the glass
a bite into flesh
incensed to anger
a sigh in time
that has no name

I heard the sibilant whisper
alone together
hypocrisy and paradox
stir in irony
to touch the subtlety

if it ends…

could the poets have been lying
to put the petty feelings into pretty words
and then they say
that all ends well-
if it ends at all
it is almost as though
for all the valiant attempts at poetry
no poet
can truly know or really care
and when the time might come
then the time is wrong
and the pretty words tell pretty lies
when they speak at all…

can the truth be such a lie
to see within the petty emotions
and I want to say
that nothing ends at all
if it ends well
and when the words are read
the petty words of poetry
all it says
is that we can not know or ever care
the time is never right
and the poem ends upon the shattered page
as all the words of all the poets
speak no words of truth-
for ‘love’ is just a lie

I will have to confess to having a pretty serious book-crush on THE RULES by Stacey Kade. I’ve been anxiously awaiting this release for a very long time and I’m thrilled that it’s finally here and I can get my grubby little paws on it…

Stacey was gracious enough to stop by for a few questions:

PAS: What did you want to be when you grew up? Are you there yet?

SK: When I was young, I don’t think I understood where books came from, that real people were actually writing them. (I’m not sure where I thought they came from. Robots? I don’t know!) So I told my parents I wanted to be a librarian so I could be close to all the books and get first dibs on the new ones when they came in. Am I there yet? Well, I’m not a librarian unfortunately (librarians rock!) but in terms of proximity to books, I think I can call it mission accomplished.

PAS: If you could talk to the 15-year-old Stacey for five minutes, what would you tell yourself?

SK: Oh, so many things! I know high school kind of sucks right now because you feel like you don’t fit in anywhere, but a) that will one day be useful to you and b) college is just a few years away and it’s going to be awesome. You will find other people who are also a little bit strange, and they’re cool with it, which will help YOU be cool with it. (No, I’m not going to tell you which college. You have to fight that battle with Dad on your own…just like I did.) Also? That boy, the one you’ve been daydreaming about for years, doesn’t feel the same way, and that’s okay. Trust me. And cut back on the hairspray. You’re killing the ozone layer.

PAS: What can you share with us about the origins of Ariane and the rules she must follow and what’s still to come in the Project Paper Doll universe?

SK: I’m a huge fan of earth-based science fiction. Anything that takes place here on Earth during the present time instead of in ships in outer space in a distant future. (Actually, I love those books too; I just can’t write them!) So, I love the old shows like “X-Files” and “Roswell.” Ariane, I think, was born from the desire to tell one of those stories. Plus, you just *know* that if aliens crashed here in 1947, then someone, somewhere, would be trying to figure out how to mess with their DNA to give us some kind of advantage. More directly, though, Ariane is actually based on my own high school experience. This horrible fear that I felt all the time that if I did or said the wrong thing I would be exposed as a dork (which is ridiculous because, believe me, it was NOT a secret). I wanted to take that pervasive fear, which I think a lot of people feel in high school for a variety of reasons, and give it shape and substance. Ariane *does* have a big secret to hide and the rules she follows (much like the rules I made for myself about what to wear or not wear, to say and not say) are actually keeping her safe. But Ariane is much braver than I ever was and sees the rules for what they are–a different type of imprisonment.

I’ve just turned in a draft of Book Two, so I can’t say much about it yet. But if all goes as expected, we may be meeting some others who are like Ariane…sort of.

For more on Stacey Kade, visit her website or find her on Goodreads and Twitter. THE RULES can be found at Amazon and other retailers.

In the acknowledgments of HENRY FRANKS, I spoke of my grandfather (who I also posted about back when I first announced the sale of the book) and shared a couple of lines from the poem that I wrote for him and read at his funeral. Now that I’m in the middle of writing my second book (due out late next year) I figured I’d share the whole poem:

Harmony

There was magic in his words
and music in his voice
He was composer and conductor
finding symphonies and poetry
where others heard only silence
He was gentle and wise
seeking friendship and knowledge
where others turned away
He taught me how to listen
and shared with me his words
It has been my greatest honor
to have learned from him
it is my only wish
that he is proud of me

Well, isn’t this an evil little poem…

Easter

They found the body
strapped to a cross of wood
the thorns rose red with blood

They found the bodies
frozen in the dark
the teeth identified the remains

They taught me forgiveness
absolution of my sins
because He died for me

They spoke of guilt or innocence
still willing to believe
they had the right to judge

They told me to confess-
I told them I had been absolved
because He died for me

To cleanse the sins
I confessed my crimes
those precious thorns rose red with blood

They found the bodies
but never found the truth
I am innocent because He died for me

It never occurred to them that when I killed
I froze the body on that precious cross
the thorns darkened so very red…

Because He died for me
I am cleansed, forgiven, and therefore innocent…

They had no right to judge
yet judged me anyway
for I had been absolved

Three years ago today, April 13, 2010 I began this blog with this post:

Come along as the submission process gets underway! My wonderful agent at the Erin Murphy Literary Agency has, after months of my editing, decided that The Memory of Henry Franks (working title) is ready to submit.
With that decision, as of last week, please keep your fingers crossed and send prayers my way as we begin the wait.
And the wait shall be blogged!

Since then, HENRY FRANKS (final official title, after losing the half-hearted argument to keep ‘The Memory Of’ in the title), debuted in September 2012. Over the seven months since the book has been on the market, I’ve had a number of signings and school visits which have been absolutely wonderful. In Feb. 2013 the book hit a number of Amazon bestseller rankings:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65 Paid in Kindle Store
Amazon Author Ranking: #13 in Books > Teens

#1 in Books > Teens > Horror
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teens > Horror
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teens > Mysteries & Thrillers
#2 in Books > Teens > Mysteries
#4 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teens > Science Fiction
#6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy
#8 in Books > Teens
#9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teens

As for the future: My next book, a ghost story set in Savannah, will be coming out in time for Halloween 2014 and I have a short story, The Questioner’s Apprentice, coming out in an anthology for Halloween 2013 (details to come as I get them).

As for the past: this blog has, over the past 3 years has had an amazing 564,749 hits on 675 posts! It currently averages around 900-1000 hits a day, which is just incredible (at least, I think so).

It’s been an incredible journey and I’m so grateful for all of the people out there who take the time out of their busy lives to read my books and my blog. Thank you.

While I write YA horror, I still love reading (and would love to try writing) science-fiction (Yes, I know, technically HENRY FRANKS is sci-fi as well as horror…). So it’s always a great pleasure and joy to be introduced to new sci-fi authors!

Leah Petersen’s new series, THE PHYSICS OF FALLING, which includes FIGHTING GRAVITY and the just released CASCADE EFFECT, definitely deserve to be introduced to a much wider audience:

When Jacob Dawes is selected for the Imperial Intellectual Complex as a child, he’s catapulted from the poverty-stricken slums of his birth into a world where his status as an unclass is something no one can forget, or forgive. His growing scientific renown draws the attention of the emperor, a young man Jacob’s own age, and they find themselves drawn to each other in an unlikely and ill-advised relationship.

Jacob may have won the emperor’s heart, but it’s no protection when he’s accused of treason. And fighting his own execution would mean betraying the man he loves.

To celebrate the release of CASCADE EFFECT, Leah was kind enough to stop in for some questions AND to offer a free ecopy of Book 1 (FIGHTING GRAVITY) to one luck winner, details at the end of the post:

PAS: What did you want to be when you grew up? Are you there yet?

LP: I wanted to be a princess. After that I wanted to be a lawyer. I am neither of those things, and I’m not sorry a bit. I never planned to be a writer, it was my dirty little secret. The things I imagined for myself were too weird, no one else would like them.

Turns out I’m not the only weird person in the world.

PAS: If you could talk to the 15-year-old Leah for five minutes, what would you tell yourself?

LP: Gah! That’s a harder question than you know, because fifteen was an insane year for me. Not only because I was fifteen, and by definition insane, but because just about every crisis of my young life happened in that year.

If I could talk to her, I’d tell that Leah that she can’t control what other people do, and that their decisions are never her fault.

PAS: What is your favorite word?

That’s like asking which one is my favorite child! I couldn’t possibly choose. I’ve always been fascinated with words and language. I collect words the way an old granny collects snow globes. Every one has its own unique features, just below the swirling chaos of smashing them together into sentences and context.

PAS: Finally, I have to ask, what’s next for Jake (and Pete, great name, by the way…)?

LP: I am tentatively planning a sequel that gives Jake and Pete a breather for a few years before I rain down trials and tragedy on them again. And that’s all I’m going to say without spoiling either Cascade Effect or the final book.

For more on Leah, check out her website or Facebook or Twitter or Goodreads.

For more on her sci-fi series, THE PHYSICS OF FALLING (FIGHTING GRAVITY and CASCADE EFFECT): Amazon, Dragon Moon Press, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble.

Finally, be sure to enter the contest to win a free ecopy of FIGHTING GRAVITY!!!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE CONTEST!