Friday, May 31, 2024

You're invited to the book launch for We Were the Bullfighters by Marianne K. Miller

Hi, Brian.

Everyone’s invited to my book launch on June 12th at Massey College. Ben McNally Books will be selling We Were The Bullfighters at the launch, but you can also pre-order  from them (here) and they will deliver your book to the launch.

Please let me know if you plan to come. There will be wine and hors d'oevres and a slightly nervous author.

Marianne

https://www.mariannemiller.ca
https:/wewerethebullfighters.com

P.S. Besides the book launch on June 12, this Saturday, June 1, there’s a book signing at the Indigo at the Cataraqui Centre in Kingston, 12–3 p.m. 

But if you can’t make the launch, you can order your copy from Ben McNally Books in Toronto here or from Chapters/Indigo here.

See more new books by your fellow authors – and invites to their book launches – here (and scroll down).

We Were the Bullfighters
by Marianne K. Miller

Sent to cover bank robber Red Ryan’s daring prison break, a young Ernest Hemingway becomes fascinated with the convict.

In 1923, Ernest Hemingway, struggling with the responsibilities of marriage and unexpected fatherhood, has just made a big mistake. He decided that for the baby’s first year he would interrupt his fledgling writing career in Paris and move his family to North America. No longer a freelancer, he now has a gruelling job with a difficult boss, as a staff reporter for the Toronto Daily Star. On his first day, already feeling hemmed in by circumstances, he's sent to cover a prison break at Kingston Pen.

The escaped convicts, led by notorious bank robber Norman “Red” Ryan, are on the run, making their way from the bush north of Kingston, to the streets of Toronto, and then through towns and cities across the United States. Their crimes become more brazen, their lifestyle increasingly glamorous. Growing more and more preoccupied with Ryan and his willingness to risk everything to be free, Hemingway ponders duty, freedom, and what stops a man from pursuing his dreams.

What People Are Saying...

Marianne

Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife: 

“In her debut novel, Marianne K. Miller renders a little-explored time in Hemingway’s life with the accurate eye of the Hemingway scholar she happens to be, but also with boldness and keen imagination. I turned every page of We Were the Bullfighters with great pleasure and admiration.”

 Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, author of Wait Softly Brother:

“Intriguing. Hardboiled. Cinematic. We Were the Bullfighters is a truly fine romp of a novel!”

 Lee Gowan, author of The Beautiful Place:

“A window into Canada's role in the making of Ernest Hemingway in clear, clean prose.”        

Kim Echlin, author of Speak, Silence:

“In this wonderful story, the young Ernest Hemingway is a Toronto Daily Star reporter who feels a strange connection to legendary bank robber, Red Ryan. Miller’s expertise on Hemingway and her penetrating observations about our responsibilities to our talents makes this a must-read historical fiction in which “artists are like convicts” and people choose what they will sacrifice for freedom.”

J.R. McConvey, author of Different Beasts:            

“Marianne Miller brings a deceptively light touch to this evocative and finely researched story of a colourful moment in the life of a burgeoning literary giant. With efficient language that Hemingway would have liked, she gives us a rollicking tale of escaped convicts on the run from Kingston Pen, and the young Toronto crime reporter in pursuit of a story and a literary path. We Were the Bullfighters wonderfully captures the character of Hemingway and the atmosphere of Toronto in the 1920s.” 

Barbara Fradkin, author of the Inspector Green and Amanda Doucette mysteries:

“Skillfully capturing the wild, rum-running 1920s, Marianne Miller creates a fascinating, fictionalized tale of two men fighting to break free; one a young Hemingway dreaming of his first great novel and the other, a daring bank robber on the run from Kingston Penitentiary.”

Note: For information about submitting to Dundurn Press (Marianne’s publisher), see here.

See our upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day writing retreats here

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Death and Darkness and other cheerful place to send your short prose and poetry (Some of them pay)

Note: You can now get new postings on Quick Brown Fox delivered straight to your Inbox as I publish them. Subscribe to the new Quick Brown Fox page on Substack here:  https://brian999.substack.com/


The Dark is an online magazine that publishes dark fantasy and horror.

“Don’t be afraid to experiment or to deviate from the ordinary; be different – try us with fiction that may fall out of ‘regular’ categories. However, it is also important to understand that despite the name, The Dark is not a market for graphic, violent horror."

Length: 2,000 – 6,000 words.

Pays 5 cents/word US for original fiction up to 6,000 words on publication for first world rights; and 1 cent/word for reprint fiction up to 6,000 words on publication for nonexclusive reprint rights.

Full submission guidelines here.

Pure Slush is looking for submissions to Death, the final volume in its 12-volume Lifespan anthology series.

Your Death submission must be:

  • original, so previously unpublished online or in print (so that includes authors’ websites and blogs)
  • 150-word minimum limit for fiction and nonfiction, stories and essays / maximum 1,000 words. (That’s for each story / essay: maximum number of prose pieces you can submit is 3.)
  • 80-word minimum limit for poetry / maximum 1,000 words. (That’s for each poem: maximum number of poems you can submit is 5.)
  • must include something about death and dying.

You must be minimum 18 years of age to submit.

Deadline: June 20, 2024. Full submission guidelines here.


DarkWinter Press and Literary Magazine

“Whether you're emerging or established, we want your weird, your traditional with a twist, your humour, your dark thoughts, or your elation. We’re open to anything – just make it interesting. Make us think.”

DarkWinter Literary Magazine is an independent online publication which focuses on short fiction and poetry. Prose submissions should be a maximum of 2,000 words; poetry a maximum of 500 words. Full submission guidelines here.

DarkWinter Press is an independent press from Ontario, Canada, looking to publish outstanding novellas, novels, short story collections, and poetry collections in both paperback and e-book form. Unfortunately, submissions to the press are currently closed. Guidelines here.

 

Peasant Magazine is a literary journal featuring fantasy and historical fiction stories. It’s run by volunteers, so has no set timeline for when it will release new issues. 

Stories should be 1,000 – 10,000 words. They also welcome comic strips, and nonfiction on topics related to fantasy story-telling or historical nonfiction, 500 – 7,500 words. But query first.

They are focussed on pre-industrial settings (pre-1750).

See full submission guidelines here.

 

Quick Brown Fox welcomes your short stories, poems, and essays about reading, writing, favourite books, and libraries. Read a few pieces on the blog to get a taste of what other writers have done. See here and scroll down.

Quick Brown Fox also welcomes book reviews and reviews of any kind and of anything, anywhere or anybody. If you want to review your favourite coffee shops or libraries, babysitters or lovers (no real names please), go for it. See examples of book reviews here {and scroll down).

Submit to: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Include a short bio at the end of your piece and attach a photo of yourself.

 See information about all our upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.

For information about other places to send your short works, see here (and scroll down).

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Kudos to Helen, Sharon, Denisha, Bill, and Evena!

If you’ve had a story (or a book!) published, if you’ve won or placed in a writing contest, if you’ve gotten yourself an agent, or if you have any other news, send me an email so I can share your success. As writers, we’re all in this together, and your good news gives us all a boost. 

Also, be sure to let know if you're looking for a writers' group or beta readers; a notice in Quick Brown Fox, will help you find them. 

Email me at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

 

Hi, Brian.

Just wanted to let you know that I have had a story included in the Coven of Witches anthology from West Avenue Publishing (“A Cure for a Broken Heart”) and a story published in the spring issue of Peasant magazine (A Loyal Man).  Both of these benefited from feedback provided by members of the Intensive Creative Writing, so thank you all.

I’m looking forward to our retreat in Algonquin Park – coming up fast!

Helen Patterson

Note: Our June retreat in Algonquin is full, but there is still space in the September retreat at Arowhon Pines Resort in Algonquin (here) and in the October retreat at The Briars Resort on Lake Simcoe (here).

Also, we still have room in our classes scheduled for this summer (see here).

For information about submitting to Peasant magazine (and a few other places to send you short pieces) see here.

 

Hi, Brian.

My story “Who You Gonna Call” is up now on DarkWinter Press here.

Please feel free to share – much appreciated! 

Also, I just took 2nd place in the Canadian Authors Association, Toronto’s short story contest with “Amphibians.”  

Sharon Frayne

Note: For information about submitting to DarkWinter literary magazine  (and a few other places to send you short pieces) see here.

 

Hi, Brian.

I wrote this piece, “Riding the Wave” in a rush for a contest, so I didn’t workshop it with anyone. It did not win but I did manage to get it published in Braided Way.

I credit the development of my writing to your workshop classes.

Denisha Naidoo

Read Denisha’s story here.

Note: For information about submitting to Braided Way (and a few other places, see  here

 

Hi, Brian.

I wanted to let you know that my novel, Thirty Feet Under, has been included on the shortlist for the Crime Writers of Canada Best Unpublished Crime Novel (commonly referred to as the Unhung Arthur award). Thanks to you and the group for all your help and guidance.

Bill Wodhams

 

Hi, Brian!

Just wanted to share with you that Prairie Fire accepted the piece “Sweet Scent of Baby Powder” AKA “Lorena“ for publication in their 50 over 50 anthology. It was critiqued in the Wednesday afternoon class.

Feeling inspired!

Evena Gottschalk

Yay, Evena! I know that a few Quick Brown Fox readers are getting published in this upcoming issue of Prairie Fire which will feature 50 writers over 50 years old. It’s now too late to submit for that issue, but Prairie Fire is always open to submissions – and doesn’t usually have an age requirement. For information on submitting to Prairie Fire (and a few other places), see here.

Note: See where else you fellow writers are getting published here (and scroll down).

See all my upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day  retreats here.

Note: You can now get new postings on Quick Brown Fox delivered straight to your Inbox as I publish them. Subscribe to the new Quick Brown Fox page on Substack here:  https://brian999.substack.com/

Monday, May 27, 2024

"The UN admits its casualty counts for Gaza have been nonsense" by Brian Henry


So will the media now stop pretending that Hamas tells the truth? Nope. Not even though the United Nations has tacitly admitted that their casualty figures for Gaza – figures which come from Hamas and which the media has broadcast to the world – have been utter nonsense.

How many women and children have died as a result of Hamas’s current war against Israel? We have an exact count for Israelis. For Palestinians, we can only make an educated guess. We do know that a few days ago, the UN quietly cut the numbers it had previously been reporting of woman and child deaths by about half.

The UN’s numbers came from the terrorist group Hamas. …. Read the rest here.

Read more of my essays here (and scroll down).

If politics doesn’t interest you, check out what I’d rather be writing if only Israel weren’t at war and antisemitism wasn’t on the rise. See my round-ups of Jewish-interest Canadian books for children here, herehereand here.  Or try my introduction to Judaism here. ~Brian