New novel in the works - The Grymwyre of Atlantean Spells

I had to give this story its own blog due to podcast requirements - but parts one and two are out there now in either text or mp3 audio. (The audio links are in the title lines.)

Once I finish the book of the first spell completely, it'll go up on lulu.com - I have the cover art and everything already in mind. It's just a matter of putting in the time to finish the writing.

If you know anyone that enjoys fantasy fiction, please don't hesitate to send this on.

*Note: This is the opening chapter, in part, of a full-length fiction novel I will be writing. The Grymwyre of Atlantean Spells will consist of a series of spells followed by a short story of its usage. This novel will set the stage for a series of fantasy novels set in various time periods. I will be blogging and podcasting teasers at http://grymwyre2.blogspot.com/
- with for-sale e-book, print book, and audio book versions available at lulu.com - I will sell each chapter as it is completed at a low cost and then the full novel once complete.*

The first spell is entitled The Blood Rose of Atlantis and features the prehistory of Vampires - in Atlantis, of course!

The podcast feed URL is http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheGrymwyreOfAtlanteanSpells

You should be able to search the podcast if you have iTunes or any podcast player software.


Hope all of you are doing great!!

Dan

Wordslingers Poetry On the Radio Sunday night 9/2/07 8-9pm 88.7 fm WLUW & streaming live www.wluw.org

Wordslingers Poetry On the Radio Sunday night 9/2/07 8-9pm 88.7 fm WLUW & streaming live www.wluw.org

M.C. Watson (wordshamanmcw@hotmail.com)

I’m jus’sayin…

It’s the Labor Day weekend. Which means what? Once you get past the smell of barbeque, or manage not get smash mangled during an alcohol juiced stock car road trip to ratsville or swallow copious amounts of aspirin and despair because your dream version of labor has little to do with what you actually do for a living, the September future resembles a long road of compromised hygiene and retrofitted reasons for self medication. Or writing angst poems.

Any way this Sunday night on Wordslingers 9/2//07 8pm-9 pm 88.7 fm WLUW and streaming live on www.wluw.org

Chicagoan and Columbia College graduate Lee Kitzis is described as a young poet that has done more than most poets have done in a lifetime.
He’s been performing his work in Chicago for over ten
years, featuring at many venues in Chicago, including venues
such as The Café, Pontiac Produce, The Oak Park Library, The
Skokie Public Library, The DVA Gallery, and Big Horse. He produced a
series of poet-band concerts at The Bop Shop and several suburban
locations. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications,
including: After Hours, Ink, U-Direct, and The Columbia Chronicle. He’s edited two editions of the "Anti-Mensch Anthology", and the short-lived magazine Big Pen. He has published two books with the Puddin'head Press "The Laundromat Girl" and "Eight Dollars An Hour".

Sandy Goldsmith has been writing poetry since college. In her poetry are experiences of handing down family traditions as granddaughter, daughter, mother, and grandmother. Her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and
anthologies, including Skylark, Rockford Review, The Lucid Stone,
Rambunctious Review, and Rhino. She has performed her work at all the major
poetry venues in the Chicago area. She has won prizes from Poets and
Patrons, Triton College, and The Pennsylvania Poetry Society and is a
recipient of the Joanne Hirshfield Memorial Prize for Poetry. She is a long
time member of The Poets' Club of Chicago. Sandy Goldsmith's new book is called "Imaging Center".

David Gecic is the editor in chief of The Puddin'head Press, one of
Chicago's longest running and most active presses. Puddin'head Press has been around since 1985 and has produced many books by
Chicago's favorite poets.

David Gecic has hosted poetry readings at many locations including The Oak Park Library, The Skokie Library, The Alsip Library, The Bartlett Library, The Worth Library, Estelles, The Gallery Cabaret, The Bop Shop, The Waukegan Yacht Club, The Chesterton IN Book Fair, The Printer's Row Book Fair, and the Harold Washington Library, His work has appeared in several magazines and journals including After Hours and Hammer Magazine. He’ currently a member of Neutral
Turf, a not-for-profit organization that promotes teen poetry. He is one of
the founding members of the Red Path Theater Company.

Wordslingers airs on the 1st and 3rd Sunday nights from 8pm to 9pm live from the campus of Loyola University on 88.7fm WLUW and streaming live on www.wluw.org Archives of past shows can be found in the Wordslingers' Vox Cafe.
Now approaching it's 8th year, Wordslingers is all about poetry; no hype, no hustle, just the word, the rhythm, the vibe and the vision of poetic perception in the pulse between the power and the page!

Open Mic - Green Leaf Coffee House

Hello music makers....

Here are the next few days...

Open Mic this Monday!.......reply back to sign up!

Times are as follows:

7:00, 7:10, 7:20, 7:30, 7:40, 7:50, 8:00, 8:10,8:20, Featured Artist plays 8:30-9:00, 9:00, 9:10, 9:20.

Featured Aritst this week: um.....I'll get back to you on that....

SATURDAY!

BATTLE OF THE BANDS - Round 2

Detroit Free Press

Consider Me Crazy

Your Atlantic Summer

The Obstacles

The Average Suspects

AKA Foxy

Cover: $6

Sunday...

Running Club at 8 am

Everyone is welcome!

**Details for the Newbies**:

We host a weekly open mic every Monday at Green Leaf Coffee House:

2400 South Eola Road, Suite G in Aurora.

Anyone is welcome to sign up for a 2-song slot between 7 and 8:30. Simply reply back to this email and let me know what time you would like to play.

Admission is $4 and includes a free drink token

ALSO...

I'll be putting in another Green Leaf Coffee House Tshirt order the beginning of September, so if you missed out last time it's not too late!

Offering Tshirts ($15pre-order) and Long-sleeved Tshirts ($18pre-order) and baseball shirts ($20pre-order).

Stop in to order one!

You can visit us at www.myspace.com/greenleafcoffee to see what's going on here at the shop, let me know your thoughts on Green Leaf, or connect with our other musicians and regulars!

Questions? Comments? Good jokes? Need directions?

Call me at 630-851-8410 or email at greenleafcoffee@sbcglobal.net

Jillmarie

Thank you for supporting big dreams and independent coffee houses.....

GREEN LEAF COFFEE HOUSE

Poetry Events Coming Up

Courtesy of Chicagpoetry.com:

UPCOMING CHICAGO AREA EVENTS

**Tue Aug 28: The Cafe, 5115 N. Lincoln Ave,
presents an open mic. with featured poet Mike
Menges, 8 PM sharp.

**Fri Aug 31 Mercury Cafe Poetry Open Mic, 1505 W.
Chicago Ave, hosted by Vito Carli, features Dave
Gecic and Larry Janowski, 7 to 9 PM sharp, free.

**Tue Sept 4: The Cafe, 5115 N. Lincoln Ave,
presents an open mic. with featured poet Joe
Roarty, 8 PM sharp.

**Fri Sept 7: DvA Gallery, 2568 N. Lincoln Ave,
presents a reading by The Poetry Club of Chicago,
featuring Nancy Carrigan, Maureen Flannery, Chris
Gallinari, Pat Gangas, Glenna Holloway, Larry
Janowski, Wayne Allen Jones, Carol Kanter, C. J.
Laity, William Marr, Robert Mills, Charlie Newman,
Donna Pucciani, Tom Roby, and Charlie Rossiter, 8
PM sharp, free.

**Mon Sept 10: Molly Malone's, , 7652 W. Madison
St., Forest Park, IL, presents an open mic. with
featured poet Ron Offen, 7 PM, $3 - $5.

**Mon Sept 10: The Red Lion Pub, 2446 N. Lincoln,
presents a fiction open mic, bring your stories to
read, 7:30 PM.

**Tue Sept 11: The Cafe, 5115 N. Lincoln Ave,
presents an open mic. with featured poet CJ Laity
reading from Disco Hypnotic, 8 PM sharp.

**Mon Sept 17: Waiting 4 the Bus at Jaks Tap, 901
W. Jackson, featuring an open mic. with featured
guest Nina Corwin, 7:30 PM, free.

**Thur Sept 20: Jesse Oaks Bar and Grill, 18490 W
Old Gages Lake Rd, Gages Lake, IL, presents a open
mic. and poetry slam featuring poetry and music by
Francis Mai-Ling, 7 PM, $5 to compete, winner
takes the pot.

**Fri Sept 21 Mercury Cafe Poetry Open Mic, 1505
W. Chicago Ave, hosted by Vito Carli, features
Bromin Shumway , 7 to 9 PM sharp, free.

**Mon Oct 1: Waiting 4 the Bus at Jaks Tap, 901 W.
Jackson, featuring an open mic. with featured
guest Omniphonic with Tom and Lem Roby, 7:30 PM,
free.

**Sat Oct 6: Heartland Cafe, 7000 North Glenwood,
presents a fund raiser for World Bicycle Relief,
featuring poetry by MARCH/Abrazo Authors, also
featuring films and photography, more details to
follow.

**Thur Oct 18: Jesse Oaks Bar and Grill, 18490 W
Old Gages Lake Rd, Gages Lake, IL, presents a open
mic. and poetry slam Capital K, 7 PM, $5 to
compete, winner takes the pot.

=========================

LOOKING FOR POETS

http://chicagohyperlocal.typepad.com/chicago6corners/

August at the Green Leaf...

It's been a quiet afternoon here, with the rain and grey outdoors cooler than the last several weeks, it seems the perfect day for a bit of introspection. None of the poets apparently were able to make it today, but that's OK - some days it's just like that and I don't mind going with the flow. Poetry will still be an option here at the Green Leaf Coffee House, the owners and I are all committed to making that possible for local poets.

It's on Poetry Days such as these that I turn to putting in more energy online into poetry. Writing, promoting, whatever I can do to connect to the spirit of what these three hours are for.

I gave Jillmarie of Green Leaf Coffee House and invitation to become a guest contributor to Word Whizzyrds - free reign to post notices of ALL the open mic events and music that Green Leaf does. They are really becoming a great asset to the local community and it's inspiring to see it.

So on that note, after reading several poets work online, I wrote this new one today that I'll leave you with. I'm looking forward to days when more of you can come out, but days limke this have their nice points too. I hope everything is going wonderfiully for all of you out there in the Western Chicago 'Burbs.

Dan

--------------------------------------

Who Will Fill This World?

I sit in the grey rainlight wondering,
Amidst clouds of pillowed steel,
Reading my peers and feeling,
I breathe in the angst like burned steel in this air,
Feeling a tentative green ghost waiting to be born,
A future we might yet bear to fruition,
A whiff of hope drifting up from my cup,
Of ginger-peach iced tea.

When you remember everything good in life,
Isn't it the moment someone you cherished cradled you,
Stroked your hair or hummed gently holding your hand?

What I know is that using anger like a tool burns you,
From the inside out it eats you alive,
It doesn't matter if you're an entire culture or a lonely heart,
It will make you its breakfast lunch and dinner,
As surely as this world spins 'round the sun -
I've seen it happen with my own two eyes.

We were great as a nation and as a people,
At those moments we were most filled with these things -
Dreams, hope, inspiration, compassion, vision.

What I know is that love fills you,
Feeds you and nourishes you and gently guides you,
And if you want to revere the past and those who went before,
Let their angers subside and yours as well,
Get closer to your ghosts in the memory of those moments that glow,
When they dreamed and loved and accomplished,
Give your ghosts a real future -
By dreaming and loving and accomplishing.

Tearing down takes moments,
Building up is always the real work.
What is it you birth?
Who will fill this world?

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 08/18/2007

Words are the mind's bridge - it's connection to all the universe.
Love is the heart's bridge - it's connection to all other souls.
Loving words can work miracles.

I've been meaning to get at this since LAST month...

July's PLP reading at Green Leaf Coffee House ( MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/greenleafcoffee ) had an outstanding turnout.

We had poets from Write Way Writers' Group of Joliet, Writers from Ottawa Writers Group, Windy City Romance Writers Group, Seneca, directly across the street, Plainfield, (Myself & Big Russ Pergram, of course) and more.

We also got some photos taken, so take a peek: