A Tri-City Gem (and me) -- [and Gina Myers] Brackets...oh my, I must be cutting edge!

A Tri-City Gem I haven't mentioned before is Review magazine out of Saginaw. It's easy to find because it's distributed free all over the tri-cities. I got mine at the Northwood Gallery in downtwon Midland today (another tri-city gem!)

Review magazine has a long history of covering music, art, and literature in the tri-cities. If you have a local business or event, you should consider advertising in the mag!

Here's a link: http://review-mag.com/archive/680-689/687/jeff_vande_zande.htm

Okay, okay . . . the link will bring you to an interview that Review (via Gina Myers...another tri-city gem) did with me about my new novel, Landscape with Fragmented Figures. They even excerpted chapter 3 from the novel!

Tri-City Gem and More

Jenny and I headed over to the Saginaw Children's Zoo yesterday . . . only to find it closed. Well, Jenny remembered hearing about the Mid-Michigan Children's Museum, so we tracked it down. Truthfully, it was pretty cool. Lots of fun for kids and adults alike . . . and something well worth supporting, especially in the tri-cities (and extra-especially in Saginaw). It's perfect for kids from about three to about ten. Got kids? Bring them. Got grandkids visiting this summer? Bring them.

It cost us $7.00 per person but, hell, we paid more than that to go see G-Force, and that movie was rotten. The Mid-Michigan Children's Museum is guaranteed fun (with no previews to sit through).

Check it out: http://www.midmicm.org/

On a separate note, I recently had another story entitled "Shortstopping" accepted by Burning River Publications for their annual magazine Noun vs. Verb.

Check them out, too: http://burningriver.info/

The Summer Deal

As anyone can imagine, book sales are slow . . . not only in the summer, but also in this economy.

So, I'm offering this deal . . . signed copies of both of my novels -- Into the Desperate Country and Landscape with Fragmented Figures -- for $23.00. This price includes shipping.

If you're at all interested in my work, this is a pretty good deal. By cover price, both books would normally cost $31.00 (plus there would be shipping costs).

So, yeah, try it . . . $23.00 for both novels. Send me an email if you're interested:

jcvandez@delta.edu

Want to Fight the Good Fight? (or a good fight?)

Well, then, support some small presses by buying some books directly from them. I'm listing a few links herein. Of course, I have my biases.

Small presses, though, are doing the work of capturing our literary heritage. Most of the big houses want money--and so pass up books of literary merit. Small presses, though always in need of money, are driven by passion and the desire to publish work of literary merit -- works that the bigger houses often won't touch because of "marketing" issues.

Feel free to comment on this and tell me about some small presses that you like and why.

Here are a few that I admire . . .

Bottom Dog Press: http://smithdocs.net/
Whistling Shade Press: http://www.whistlingshade.com/press.html
Key Hole Press: http://www.keyholemagazine.com/books
So New Publishing: http://sonewpublishing.com/catalog

Look around the sites, find something that makes you curious . . . buy it.

I wish I was doing more this summer to support small presses. Instead, I'm slogging my way through You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe. I think it should be retitled . . . You Can't Read Another Book Again Because You'll Never Finish This One

A Thing

Sorry . . . been too busy to blog. (and I don't have much to blog about).

Here's a link to a local publishing company. Cary Black is making a go of things and is having a pretty great run with a book of beer-can chicken recipes.

The forthcoming Katrina book looks and (sounds) really interesting.

Check out the site. They have music, too. And a beer-can chicken cooker for sale! How many presses can say they have that?

Red Owl Publications: http://www.redowlpublications.com/

Spread the Word

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