Jeff Vande Zande

You'll Want to Put This One in Your Favorites

2009-06-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.360mainstreet.com/

Check it out . . . cool stuff.

Also, just who the hell hasn't been nominated for a Pushcart? Huge difference, I think, between being nominated and actually winning one.

Necessary Fiction

2009-06-26T12:14:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine, Matt Bell, had an interesting piece of fiction accepted by the online magazine, Necessary Fiction. Check out Matt's story here:

http://necessaryfiction.com/2009/06/matt-bell-how-i-started-going-to.html

I'm glad he did because I'd been looking for a home for my latest flash piece called "Inside Job". I thought, "what the heck" sent it to NF, and sure enough it was accepted. The editor there, Steve Himmer, gave me some insightful comments to improve the piece, and it should be up on their site within the next couple weeks.

Interestingly enough, Necessary Fiction is affiliated with So New Publishing. And, So New published Jackie Corley's book The Suburban Swindle, which I read this spring and liked. I found out about The Suburban Swindle because Jackie had accepted a flash piece of mine called "A Raven, Then a Cross" for Word Riot.

I liked her book so much that I mentioned it on a blog post below...and even referred people to my friend Josh Maday's review of Jackie's book on New Pages.

New Pages is under the stewardship of Casey and Denise Hill. I'm a colleague of Denise's at Delta College.

The connections here are almost endless. I think Kevin Bacon is involved somewhere in all of this.

Weird

2009-06-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know exactly how it happened, but a story of mine that was published in Existere ended up on a high school competency exam in Quebec. As I understand it, hundreds of students had to read my story and then write about its themes. Apparently, someone in the Ministry of Education chose the story, and now it sounds like I'm going to be paid some royalties.

This is true.

Friggin' bizarre.

I love Canada!

When it rains, it pours.

2009-06-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

Must be something to do with my birthday . . . or the way I say "aboot" when I mean "about". In any case, Canada's Matrix magazine accepted my short story "Self Defense" for publication in their upcoming issue themed around terror.

Check them out here: http://www.matrixmagazine.org/

Two stories in Existere, a flash piece in echolocation . . . hell, maybe it's time to expatriate myself to Canada. Editors up there certainly seem to like my fiction.

Various Things . . . New and Old

2009-06-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

Okay . . . it's been awhile. I've been doing some reading, some writing, and I have a little event coming up.

First, I read Jackie Corley's Suburban Swindle. Great book. Seriously. Lately, I've been reading badass short fiction collections by badass women -- first Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage and now Corley's book.

For a good review, read Josh Maday's review of Suburban Swindle at NewPages:
http://www.newpages.com/bookreviews/2009_04/april2009_book_reviews.htm#Suburban

I also finished reading The Lord of the Flies to my son. Great book. It's too bad it gets this rap as a "high school" book . . . because it isn't at all. Powerful sociological study with a great plot and great characters.

Also, I just learned today that Third Wednesday is going to publish two of my poems. Thanks to Larry Thomas and the editorial team at TW.

And, finally, this coming Thursday, June 11th, Ken Meisel and I will be reading at the United Church of Christ in Midland (4100 Chestnut Hill Dr.) at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. Think about attending . . . or at least helping spread the word.

American Salvage and More

2009-05-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Bonnie Jo Campbell's collection of short stories, American Salvage (Wayne State Press). I don't have the energy or time to write a really polished review, so I hope you're swayed by straightforward honesty rather than a review that would be working hard to make me look good at the same time it makes the book look good.

Here's the straight poop, as they say: American Salvage is a really great read. I could just end it there, but that doesn't feel like enough. Okay, Campbell's characters are really intriguing, and she puts them in strange and sometimes bizarre situations that get at some pretty big human truths. The truths . . . no matter who we are we are prone to addiction, wanting safety, and wanting to love and be loved. We are afraid and we are brave. We get ourselves behind hopeless plans, and sometimes find they are the only plans for us . . . and sometimes we make them work. All of these truths are truths we already know, but in the hands of a story teller like Campbell . . . well, she just takes the reader on a really cool trip. I'm just fascinated by the situation in her "Storm Warning" when the main character, nearly crippled from a boating accident, can't believe that his girlfriend of six months saved his life, rescued him from drowning. So pig-headed and afraid is he that when he returns from the hospital, he drives her away. He finds himself alone in a hospital bed in his house, watching as a horrendous storm blows in, knocking out power around the lake. Helpless, unable to even get a glass of water, he swallows his Vicodin with saliva. He's so utterly alone . . . and he's put himself there. I mean, you have to buy the book just to see how that one turns out. You should buy the book, too, because Bonnie Jo is a Michigan writer. I know most of the visitors that come to my blog are from Michigan. You can begin to support the floundering arts in our state by buying this book. Seriously, you won't be disappointed. Campbell is simply a great writer worth reading.

While you're at amazon buying this book, think about getting my novel, Landscape with Fragmented Figures. I'm hearing good things from people that have read it. Want a deal on it and want it signed? Drop me an email, and we'll work something out: jcvandez@delta.edu.

Better yet, if you're in the tri-cities, come buy the book from me. I'll be giving a reading from it on Thursday, June 11 at 7 p.m. at the United Church of Christ in Midland (4100 Chestnut Hill Dr). I'll be reading with Dearborn poet, Ken Meisel. If you've never heard Ken read, you have to come out to this event. He's really something.

Seriously, hope to see you there!

Advance Warning

2009-05-11T20:46:00.001-07:00

If anyone keeps a calendar or a planner, please note the following (if it interests you).

Ken Meisel (a helluva poet) and I will be reading on Thursday, June 11th at the United Church of Christ in Midland at 7 p.m.

Please feel free to spread the word.

Good Books

2009-05-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading two good books by two friends. First, it was a pleasure to read Beyond Rust, a novella, essays, and short stories by Larry Smith, my editor and publisher at Bottom Dog Press. Beyond Rust has a big heart and gives voice to the down-and-outers, the getting-byers, and the got-it-tougher-than-mosters. This is not fiction of the sad-sacks and the woe-is-meers, however. Smith shows too that there are tender moments in these lives, beautiful moments that even the characters can rise above their misery to recognize. Smith's love of Ohio and especially the Ohio River Valley comes through loud and clear. A book worth checking out. Buy it directly from Smith if you can: http://smithdocs.net/LarrySmithHomepage.htm

Also, I enjoyed reading Matt Bell's The Collectors. It fictionalizes the final days of the Collyer brothers . . . two men who barricaded themselves into their family mansion and filled it with what amounted to rotting junk -- so much so that tunnels had to be made through the junk. Bell did his research and really brings the Collyer mansion to life. The reader feels, especially for Homer Collyer, the would-be hero of the collection. I've been fortunate to watch Matt's fiction get nothing but better over the years and, I'll tell you, this is some tight, crafted fiction.

While Langley Collyer lay wounded somewhere in the mansion, the blind, nearly useless Homer Collyer searches for him: "Homer crawls on his hands and knees, searching for signs of his brother, whose voice is like crickets, always out of reach, coming from every direction at once."

Like crickets!! I mean, that is the perfect choice to describe that moment . . . and there are many, many sentences of that caliber in this thin, but full volume. Check it out . . . if you can still get your hands on one: www.mdbell.com

Way to go, Matt!

Words from Ken . . .

2009-05-05T19:30:00.001-07:00

Ken Meisel wanted to share with the world these words about my novel, but lacked the technological tools to do it. I told him I'd take care of it.

So, from Ken . . .

"I want to heartily endorse Jeff's novel, Landscape with Fragmented Figures. I read it over the weekend and I found it to be rich in its humanity, its wisdom, and in its compassionate understanding of the difficulties people face, no matter what, when they fall out of truth with themselves. The novel carries an honest and sometimes gritty hearted pathos in it, as well as a tough candor in its overall import. It doesn't ever ignore the hard consequences we carry and hold inside of ourselves when we refuse to face what we want, don't want, and can no longer bear. The novel is, inevitably, a wondrous study about the pain and joy that we carry with us in our walks and in our journeys, no matter what we believe in or come to believe in."

One More Time

2009-05-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

This coming Wednesday, May 6, Bonnie Jo Campbell and I will read from our new books at Schuler Books in Okemos at 7 p.m.

Schuler Books & Music
1982 Grand River Ave
Okemos, MI 48864

Hope to see you there!

If You Ain't Supporting It, You Should Be

2009-04-22T20:38:00.001-07:00

Small Press Distribution . . . dedicated to the Indie Press.

http://www.spdbooks.org/pages/about/default.aspx

Two Unrelated Announcements

2009-04-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

First, I finally sold 500 copies of my novel, Into the Desperate Country. It was released on June 16th, 2006, so it only took me about two years and ten months. What's next? 501, I suppose.

As a total non sequitor, I also want to put out there that I'm teaching a Screenwriting course at Delta College this summer. It's number is ENG 258W. It starts on 07/08/09 and ends on 08/12/09. Ever wanted to try your hand at writing a movie? Well, sign up!

Things

2009-04-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Spent last Thursday and Friday in Ohio with Larry Smith and Josh Maday. What a great time. I got caught up with Josh, and the both of us had an excellent time in the company of Larry. He showed us Oberlin and a few different places in Cleveland (including the house where they filmed A Christmas Story . . . Josh and I got our picture taken in front of it. True tourists.) I did a reading at Mac's Backs bookstore to promote Landscape with Fragmented Figures, and then we went out for a very filling Chinese meal.

This isn't the last you'll hear of it, but Josh and I are co-editing an anthology for Bottom Dog Press. Check out the call for submissions (and feel free to share the link): http://ontheclockanthology.blogspot.com/

I finished reading The Scribner's Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction . . . 648 pages of very good short stories. There's something for everyone. Honestly, I didn't care for every story in the book but, if you think about it, I probably shouldn't. If it's truly well put together, it's not going to please everyone.

Upcoming events: On Saturday, May 2, I'll be at the Adequate Symbol Writer's Conference:
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20090419/NEWS06/904190371/1023

On Wednesday, May 6th, I'll be at Schuler Books in Okemos with Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of the new short story collection American Salvage. (Schuler Books is 1982 W. Grand River Ave, Okemos, MI 48864 (517) 349-7326

Poem in Bad Light

2009-04-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

I need to send a thank you out to Nick Bernard at Bad Light magazine (http://badlightzine.blogspot.com/). He was good enough to accept my poem "Thank God It's Friday" for their next issue. It's one of my favorite poems to read at readings, but it's very long. Long poems are pretty hard to get published, so I'm going to tip my hat one more time to Nick.

Thanks, Nick.

Various Things and Such

2009-04-08T19:18:00.001-07:00

Okay, first, some kind words said about Landscape with Fragmented Figures . . .

http://viciousladybug.livejournal.com/142606.html

Also, some events coming up.

Next Wednesday, I will be reading poetry with JodiAnn Stevenson in Room N008 at Delta College at 12:00 noon. N008 is located off of the Red Bricks commons/cafeteria. This is a series of readings JodiAnn put together in honor of National Poetry Month. Skip Renker and Larry Levy read today at noon, and it was just great. Look for readings every Wednesday at noon in Room N008 during the entire month of April.

Also, I don't know how many Cleveland visitors I get at the site, but I will be reading and then signing books at Mac's Backs bookstore on Friday, April 17 at 6:00 p.m. I'll be joined by Ohio poet and fiction writer, Jeanne Bryner.

Canada's Been Good to Me

2009-04-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I had a story picked up by Existere . . . my second acceptance from that fine magazine.

Then, just today I learned officially that Toronto's Echolocation (http://www.echolocation.ca/) is going to publish my prose poem/flash piece "What Just Happened". I think that's such a great name for a magazine, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Go Canada!

Not Too Late

2009-03-29T20:30:00.001-07:00

It's not too late for people to take advantage of the Rally of Writers conference in Lansing. It's an inexpensive conference with a lot of opportunities to grow.

Find out more here: http://arallyofwriters.home.att.net/news.html

Also, if you get the chance, I'll be at the Creative Spirit Center (http://www.creativespiritcenter.org/) this Wednesday, April 1 from 6:30 until 8 p.m. I'll be reading a selection from Landscape with Fragmented Figures . . . and hopefully selling a few copies of the bugger.

In the meantime, I've also been working on a quote: "Writers should not change the truth, but instead present the world truthfully, in the hope that others might be inspired to change the ugliness of some of our truths."

I know, kind of stinky . . . but I know what I mean.

A Great Time

2009-03-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Ken Meisel and I had a great time reading at Kirtland Community College yesterday. As always, it was excellent to hear Ken breathe life into his poems. Carol Finke has a good thing going in the Controlled Burn Visiting Writers series. They lay out a nice spread of food before the reading, which yesterday included fried chicken legs, meatballs, crackers, cheese, and assorted fruit . . . not to mention a bottomless bowl of lemonade.

Ken and I ended up going back to my house to have a little red wine and do what all writers do . . . play Guitar Hero. If you're wondering, yes, we rocked.

Not much else happening for me. Still plowing my way through that 650-page collection of short stories. Still plowing my way through student work.

Next Wednesday, April 1, I'll be at the Creative Spirit Center in Midland reading from my new novel, Landscape with Fragmented Figures. The event runs from 6:30 until 8. Hope to see a few people there.

A New Review

2009-03-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

A review of my new novel, Landscape with Fragmented Figures, is up at Word Riot.

http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1858

Books and Such

2009-03-12T07:39:00.001-07:00

I finished reading one new, hot-off-the-small-press book. I won't say anything because of that saying that mothers like to say about if you don't have anything nice to say.

I am in the process of reading The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, edited by Michael Martone and Lex Williford. I'm only halfway through it (it's 600-some pages), but I can't praise this book enough. I feel like it's really bringing me up to speed on many powerful short stories that I've somehow missed. In fact, of the 50 stories therein, I've only read three of them before. The book has restored my faith in the power of the short story.

Also, if you're interested, a few of my newer stories are available on line.

First, a story of mine that has really grown on me, called "NUFOINFO" can be read here:

http://burningriver.info/?cat=30

"NUFOINFO" is on the site as a sample of what appears in Burning River Publication's literary journal, Noun vs. Verb. Man oh man, the editor, the dedicated Chris Bowen, would probably do a little handstand if you actually ordered a copy of the journal.

Also, if you download the free pdf file of issue #7 of Space Squid, you can read my flash piece entitled, "God's Bodyguard Talks to a Reporter": http://www.spacesquid.com/free_sci_fi.htm

The story was inspired by my son who, one morning on the way to school, piped up from the back seat and said, "I want to write a story and call it The Death of God's Bodyguard."

I wish I had a six year old's imagination.

Upcoming Events

2009-03-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

On Monday, March 23rd, I'll be reading with Ken Meisel at Kirtland Community College at 5 p.m.

On Wednesday, April 1, Creative Spirit Center (1517 Bayliss St., Midland, MI): I'll be reading from and signing copies of my latest novel, Landscape with Fragmented Figures.

On Saturday, April 4, I'll be presenting two workshops (screenwriting and fiction) at the Rally of Writers in Lansing. Details here (a reasonably priced conference worth checking out)
http://arallyofwriters.home.att.net/

On Thursday, April 16th I'll be reading at Firelands College in Huron, OH as part of the promotion tour for the new novel.

On Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2, I'll be a part of the Adequate Symbol Writing Festival (Reading/Workshop)Auburn Hills, MI. trishlet@gmail.com for more information. (Sounds like it will be a good experience)

On Wednesday, May 6, I'll be reading in the evening with Bonnie Jo Campbell at Schuler Books in Lansing. Bonnie's new collection of short stories is American Salvage (Wayne State Press)

Hope to see you at one of these events. Or (it would be quite a feat) at all of them.

"Sleepwalker" on IndyMogul

2009-02-26T11:16:00.000-08:00

Last year, I adapted my short story "Sleepwalker" into a short screenplay called . . . well, "Sleepwalker". Michael Randolph directed the screenplay into a short film. It played at Hell's Half Mile Film Festival in Bay City.

Pretty much, after the film festival, Mike and I thought the film had lived its life.

Turns out, some folks at Indymogul.com found it and decided to include clips from it in their weekly show, "Best Short Films in the World".

Check it out: http://www.indymogul.com/

Kind Words from a Good Man

2009-02-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

John Guzlowski, author of Lightning and Ashes (a powerful book of poems that recount his parents' lives as slave laborers in Nazi Germany)has posted some good words about my first novel, Into the Desperate Country.

Check it out: http://everythings-jake.blogspot.com/

Thanks, John.

A New Review from Top Amazon Reviewer, Grady Harp

2009-02-21T16:30:00.000-08:00

Jeff Vande Zande writes novels that creep up on the reader like a hint of a gloaming breeze on a stagnant summer evening. He understands the arid plain on which we walk, looking for some meaning or reason to keep living while refusing to remove our blinders. And just when his carefully constructed characters begin to resemble so closely those people around us to the point of wondering where the story is going, he has the gift to turn each of his Midwest 'tropes' into people of pulsating flesh and blood who just happen to lead each other, at times without knowledge of purpose, into levels of growth that drive them indelibly into our psyches.

LANDSCAPE WITH FRAGMENTED FIGURES (the thoughtful title is not fully appreciated until the closing pages of this beautifully constructed, sensitive novel) deals with the terrain of Michigan and Ohio and those folks who live too far from the seas that connect this country to the world to see too far beyond their own disappointing lives. Ray Casper differed from his abusive father and was jolted by the death by cancer mother enough to move away from home and its factory existence atmosphere to pursue a career as an artist: and from this point the story could be interpreted as a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Failure. Ray has a brother Sammy whose life seemed predestined to copy his father's image of drunken ignorance of hope in the future. Ray has been following a line of failed relationships and even worse, failed inspirations as a painter and has just been deserted by Diane, the fellow artist lover who can no longer tolerate his inability to cope with his self absorption and loss of a sense of being alive, when Sammy calls and tearfully informs him of his estranged father's death. The two brothers, polar opposites in many ways, reunite and out of obligation, Ray invites Sammy to move into his Michigan home in hopes of repairing his alcoholic aimless brother. The differences between the minds of the two brothers drive both in directions of ever more sad situations, until through a series of events which include the return of pregnant Diane to the fold and a line of tragedies ultimately bring Ray back into the realm of seeing the world with the gifted eye of a painter.

That is the brief outline of where this complex novel travels. What makes Vande Zande's writing so rich is his ability to explore the psyches of his characters while simultaneously educating the reader about art and about filial and life partner love and forgiveness. Phrases that color the pages follow: 'The sky is a giant canvas, the fireworks just a kind of temporary paint. Fugitive colors'; 'I haven't had a vision in a long time. I had a gimmick for awhile, which pretended to be a vision....But I'm starting to feel that's not enough...My art is vapid.'; 'You can't adopt somebody else's subconscious or their way to the subconscious. When it works, it's big. But it seldom works.'; 'Art cannot come from that which is not in the world.'; 'Mix visual with emotion and end up with art.'; 'You capture the truth about individuals you're painting, but then in that truth there is also universal truth...'. But even these brief quotations from Vande Zande's writing focus on only one aspect of this multilayered novel.

In the end each reader will find personal paths to better understanding not only of the bland world to which they have sadly become accustomed, but will identify with a well crafted cast of characters whose time on this planet will give that reassurance that the future can be better. Jeff Vande Zande writes about common people with familiar problems, people who go unrecognized on the street perhaps, but who in his probing novels stand for more universal truths than any reader can expect. He has a clue as to why we are here in the first place and offers fascinating maps for where we can go. He has the gift and continues to share even more with each new novel. Grady Harp, February 09

One More Time

2009-02-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009 from 2-4 p.m.
The Scarab Club
217 E. Farnsworth at John R
(313) 831-1250

All readings are free and open to the public.
The February 22nd reading features:

Eddie Bell (Woodstock, NY Poet)Diamond Dancer & Friends (Detroit Performance Poet)Maria Costantini (MDW Master Level Workshop Poet & Author) Jeff Vande Zande (Michigan novelist, poet/author of new novel