An Offering of Ink & Feathers— A Poetry Chapbook

It's my pleasure to announce the publication of my poetry collection, "An Offering of Ink & Feathers." The print version is available now on Createspace and the Kindle version through Amazon. Most of the poems have never been published in print or online.

An Offering of Ink & Feathers is a chapbook of twenty-four poems. It begins with the flight of a moth and the sacrifice of its fragile body. This incident sparks a series of events— physical and spiritual— that takes our author and readers on a journey through love, marriage, fatherhood, divorce, and ultimately to the very brink of death.

I'd like to thank author/artist, Gabrielle Faust, for providing me permission to use her gorgeous artwork for the cover.

And thanks to my fellow writers and readers who have encouraged me along the way. I hope my words will find a place in all your hearts.

Hypothermic Writer Seeks Shelter

As most writers know, the majority of small press and independent publishing markets don’t pay a writer anything. No money at all. Many publishers are unable to or won’t provide a contributor copy as token payment either. This is known as submitting work to a “for-the-love market.” Payment is exposure only. I know ‘exposure’ is supposed to represent the writer’s work appearing in some form of mass media for the benefit of a reader’s eyes. But ‘exposure’— per the Merriam-Webster dictionary— can also mean “the condition of being unprotected, especially from severe weather.” This doesn’t sound anything like ‘love’ to me.

According to the National Homeless Organization.org, “’Between 1999 and 2002, hypothermia-related deaths, totaling 4,607 in number, occurred in all 50 states in the United States (CDC 2006).’ (Note that this does not appear to be specific to homeless; it would include folks lost in the woods, etc.).”

I don’t know about you, but wandering around lost in the woods totally sucks. I don’t want to be homeless or freeze to death. I’d also like to stop shivering.

I guess I’ve just been feeling a bit cold lately and I’m tired of exposing myself. I think it’s time to go back inside the house and sit in front of the fireplace for a while. Yeah, that’s better. I’m feeling a lot warmer already. And oh my, is that an old typewriter…