Introduction by Jamie Iredell
As an editor for this site, as a writer, and perhaps most of all, as a reader, I try to be a good member of my literary community. I buy a lot of books—and actually read them—I read literary magazines and literary blogs, I share the things I read that energize me on Facebook and Twitter, and I try to help promote my friends’ work when it deserves it. But some people sleep even less than I do and the first person like that who comes to mind is Michael J. Seidlinger. He does all of the above as well as the editing, designing, and publishing for Civil Coping Mechanisms, a small press that in a little over two years has become a premier publishing venture for many a contemporary literateur, including Nick Antosca, Gabby Bess, Jordan Castro, Anna Carette, and Gabriel Blackwell. And—full disclosure here—I myself have a book forthcoming from Civil Coping Mechanisms in 2015. But I didn’t want to feature Michael J. Seidlinger because he’s my publisher. Seidlinger himself is a tireless writer. In a little over three years he’s published eight books. Eight fucking books. I admit, I’ve only read two of those (one of which, The Laughter of Strangers, is excerpted here in this special feature at Atticus Review), but if they are any indication of what all of his writing is like, it is lasting, full of great imagery and interesting characters, it is dark, dirty, and rushing. The man knows how to handle a plot. And, since Seidlinger spends so much of his time publishing, promoting, sharing, and generally giving props to the work of other writers, I wanted to give him a space. I wanted to promote Michael J. Seidlinger. But look at this guy: he’s so selfless, cares so much for the work of others, that he was more interested in sharing excerpts from the forthcoming Civil Coping Mechanisms books for 2014 than he was about publishing his own writing. So while we did get a few excerpts of Michael’s own writing for you to savor, you also gain a glimpse at Civil Coping Mechanisms’ 2014 catalog. And a great catalog it proves to be. If you’re at all like me, and you at all care about your place in your literary community, you’ll be thinking about the money you’ll need to save in advance so that you can afford all these great books soon to come.
Introduction by Michael J. Seidlinger
When Jamie Iredell approached me with the opportunity of being a featured author at Atticus Review, I asked him if I could share more than merely my own writing. I wanted to showcase some of the amazing writing that Civil Coping Mechanisms is publishing throughout 2014. Thankfully, the answer I got was, “Absolutely.” So what you’ll be seeing over the course of the feature will be a few from me, but a whole lot from everybody else. You’ll get a firsthand glimpse at Paul Curran’s dark, delicate, and disturbing Left Hand; the prologue from Ryan W Bradley’s arctic noir, Winterswim; a sample from Nick Ripatrazone’s hyper-precise and wonderfully bold, We Will Listen for You; the opening few pages from Edward J Rathke’s one-of-a-kind Noir: A Love Story; a few of my favorite poems from Robert Vaughan’s top notch Addicts & Basements; the “blue” chapter from Kyle Muntz’s long-awaited surrealistic fantasy, Green Lights; fan favorite story, “The Other Kind of Magic,” from Juliet Escoria’s Black Cloud; a taste from Bunny Rogers’s debut, My Apologies Accepted; and a candid look at Andrew Duncan Worthington’s debut novel, Walls. From my end of things, you’ll be able to check out the first chapter from my latest book, The Laughter of Strangers; a chapter from a new piece titled “Messes of Men”; and an exclusive excerpt from my next novel, The Fun We’ve Had (May 2014 from Lazy Fascist Press). Whew—that was a mouthful. I’m out of breath and looking to quench my thirst with a drink. Toast to Jamie and the rest of the Atticus team for hosting me. Toast to good words and a good time. I hope that whenever we meet in person there’ll be an equal amount of both.
Photo By: Gavin Rudge
