Books & Writing
Ben Carmean designed the cover…
Night Train, Cold Beer, short stories
This book has some pretty good stories in it. It won a thousand bucks and publication. How bad could it be? Prizes aren't everything but they're an indication somebody liked it. If you do buy it, leave a review on Amazon, good, bad, indifferent. That helps people who are undecided, and it gives me an idea if I'm connecting with anyone. I appreciate it. And if you have any questions or comments for me about writing or sculpture, (or anything) go to the "contact" page and let fly.
More writing coming. Thanks! GW
PS: I'm happy to say that, so far, this book has 5 star customer reviews.
A Ben Carmean cover design…
Ruined Days, novel
A Novel — Travis Meachem's old man fired the shot that killed JFK. And there's a film of him doing it that surpasses the Zapruder film in graphic detail. Reno Pete made sure the film was well taken care of for fifty some years so he could leave it to his son, along with instructions and details about how to convert it to big cash. Travis is undecided about the prospect until some people close to him are brutally murdered by those who want the evidence suppressed. The JFK crime is still rippling outward, still affecting anyone it touches.
Ruined Days is not a conspiracy novel, but the execution by Travis's father sets it in delayed motion. Travis and some others from the Marais Des Cygne Wildlife Refuge in southeast Kansas continue the violence that changed the world in 1963 with some twists of their own.
Along the way, Travis is joined by a stunning Creole girl, a streetwise rasta character and a Dallas police detective. A shadowy figure who Travis never sees seems to be an ally of the Deep Throat variety. Travis and his uncle take the fight to New Orleans where it all began, and sleeping dogs awaken; dogs no less vicious than those who silenced over 100 witnesses in the wake of the original sin in Dealey Plaza. Old dogs who are as motivated and dangerous now as they were then.
L.A. Hardscape, novel in progress
A young boxer defies his mob owners and refuses to lose an upcoming fight. He becomes a killer by default, a landscaper by capability, and a private eye by choice. Stranger things have happened. On second thought, no they haven't. Present day L.A. is the locale.
This book was being written until covidus interruptus. I couldn’t just put everyone in masks and carry on. Maybe I’ll figure out what to do with it. I hope so—it was going nicely. We’ll see.
The cover is a Carmean placeholder, but will undergo changes as the book nears completion. Or never, if it ends up in a drawer.
Ben Carmean design. Who else?
Resume Speed, short stories
This second collection of short stories goes from noir to light and back again, from a KC funeral home to a bridge connecting Oklahoma and Texas, from a Kansas wildlife refuge to a big rig heading to the high desert for Christmas.
Some grit, some humor, maybe a laugh or even a tear. The Lana Turner story made me tear up. She was a grand lady, the one who looked like her.
The flash fiction story about the old cowpuncher and the robot made me laugh, though it doesn't end well. I have no control over endings. The stories end, sometimes abruptly, sometimes interminably. Jeez, I think, will this ever end? One story, the Coffin/Carload one, is so weird--it's a faux memoir and a blurred genre thing that goes from one guy's POV to another, then a dark angel takes over, then he's deposed and a normal guy runs with it. It's all over the map, but I love the Campbell Sisters--they are mischievous, and hot for over 300 years old. One of them spends thousands on extensions. Their "handler," Mr. Splitfoot, thinks that's nuts.
It was released June, 2016 and is available on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, The Black Opal Books site, and more.
An interesting review/interview can be seen here at Big Thrill Magazine, by Derek Gunn, Irish author.
Another Ben Carmean design…
Hot Rods from Hell, short stories in progress
All across this Great American Dreamscape, this once-fierce golden republic, waves of kids grew up lusting for speed, self-esteem and power. The awful, freaky war was over. A window of restless quiet was shattered by hell breaking loose.
"Hot Rods" is being written story by story, and one titled "Sad Car, Happy Car" was just published in Black Dandy (NZ).
Ben Carmean designed the cover…
Scattered Cranes, poetry
This book has some pretty good reviews, two of which are here and here. Published by Pski's Porch, many of the poems have appeared in some thirty literary reviews like Jazz Cigarette, Oxford Magazine, Exterminating Angel and Gambling the Aisle. Scattered Cranes was a finalist in the 2017 American BookFest Awards and the 2017 Book Excellence Awards.
Between Scattered Cranes and Horses See Ghosts, the two books share five Pushcart nominations. And I’m proud to be among Notable Kansas Poets listing, with some pretty great company. See www.kansaspoets.com
And yet another Ben Carmean design--he even set the type this time. He's a genius
Horses See Ghosts, poetry
The cover designer, Ben Carmean, decided to set the type in Horses See Ghosts, my second collection of poetry, and it’s as jewel-like as the cover. Some of the poems have appeared in TXTOBJX, Sinking City Review, Anti Heroin Chic, The American Journal of Poetry, Ramingo's Porch Journal, No Tokens Journal, Outlaw Poetry Network, Softblow Journal, Malevolent Soap (AU), Midwestern Gothic, Harbinger Asylum, Angry Old Man Experimental Art & Poetry, Third Wednesday Magazine, Vagabond City, Ariel Chart, The Nassau Review, Prolific Press (Poetry Quarterly), Southern Humanities Review, Allegro Poetry Magazine, Figroot Press, Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, Shot Glass Journal, Main Street Rag and Rattle, and about ten more I haven't had a chance to add. Horses See Ghosts was released in April, 2018 and is available at Amazon and Pski’s Porch Publishing.
And, just for the record, horses do see ghosts. I've watched them at it.
A Jessica Bell design—awesome in my opinion, just awesome.
Chickens One Day, Feathers The Next, essays
A book of nonfiction, essays, my first. Some subjects I feel strongly about, some I don’t. One or two are just plain silly (Publishers Never Call) and some have been published in various literary journals, or picked up by anthologies. The title story is not a happy one, but others are light to nutty.
Some acknowledgments:
Writing Women, How I Do It appeared in Fiction Southeast, Chickens One Day, Feathers The Next appeared in Guttural Magazine, The Horse Worrier appeared in Roll, an anthology, Rejections: Bugs on the Windshield appeared in Bird's Thumb, Write Here Write Now, The Mangled Emmy (originally An Emmy is an Emmy is an Emmy) was a post for a Stage 32 Film Blog, They're Still Stealing Van Goghs appeared in the anthology Resurrection of a Sunflower, Racism by Default appeared in Good Men Project, Why I Write appeared in 1888 Literary Center, The Unnaturalist and Knucklehead appeared in Stymie Magazine, A Journal of Sport and Literature, A Tulsa Kind of Day appeared in Wild Word Magazine (Berlin), Visualizing; Not a Woo Woo Science appeared in Eclectica Magazine, Ioway Plates appeared in Sisyphus (Hip Pocket Press),
Ernest Seton Thompson, Malcolm X and Me appeared in Sunspot Literary Journal, Truckers, Earn While You Learn appeared in Potato Soup Journal, Welterweights appeared in Wilderness House Literary Review, Just For The Love Of It appeared in Blue Mountain Review, Ski. If you can. All you can. appeared in Ski Journal, I Always Wanted A Junkyard appeared in Sandy River Review, To Live and Die in L.A. appeared in Eclectica, my second appearance in this magazine.
One of the essays that appeared in Big City Lit, What I did with $100, about off-track betting, just got a Best of the Net nomination. Buy on Amazon
I Was In The Vicinity, poetry
Another Ben Carmean design, but this time we used a chalk study for the oil painting “Kansas Blacktop” by Mark English, a study I own. I dug the oil painting and when I asked Mark how much it was, he, ever the artist/businessman, didn’t cut a break or blink an eye when he said “fifteen thousand.” Even if he had cut me a bargain price, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. He noted my dejection, and informed me the study for it was only $2,400. I bought it in payments of $400, had it framed and it’s been on the walls at Wise Acres for forty years or more. I have several English works that he has given me over the years and which I treasure, one being a bucking bronc with rider half off the horse—it’s a stone litho, one of a kind pulled at Tamarind Institute in New Mexico, and it hangs below “Kansas Blacktop.”
Many of the poems in Vicinity have been published in literary journals and anthologies; one was Editor’s Choice in a Rattle Ekphrastic competition, and one was shortlisted by Billy Collins for an Irish prize.
Buy on Amazon
The Taste of Red-Orange, poetry
“The Taste of Red-Orange” is my latest (5th) book of poetry, eighth book overall, and it was released January 2024. I designed the cover and back for this one, shot the art, and Sara Pence provided the finished art from that and the layouts I sent. I’ve already started another book titled “IRREGULAR,” which will be stuff I learned at my mother’s knee and other joints on the way to 100; thoughts, rants, observations, poems, essays, sanity tips, all bite-sized and in the form of a daily reader. It’ll be my ninth book if I can find a publisher. It’ll also contain cartoons, photos and art. It’s a labor of love and bad craziness, the latter being what David Ludwigs, a great photographer, called fun. We had some of that.
The red-orange stained popsicle sticks say “The Taste of Red-Orange” on the top one, and “Poems by Guinotte Wise” on the bottom one. I ate both popsicles in which these sticks were embedded. Some of the poems have appeared in quite fine reviews and journals including Rattle, Bond Street Review and Third Wednesday.