The Noveltown Review literary magazine premieres at Mixer and LA Times Festival of Books - By N.L. Belardes

This was after the mixer event. Matt Munoz of Bakotopia enjoyed the free drinks.

We just started shipping the Noveltown Review (TNR) around the country and to the U.K. Meanwhile, spoken word poet, Rich Ferguson sent some photos from having attended the LA Times Festival of Books. He said there were "lots of people, lots of books, and lots of good times had by all."


Cal State Students with TNR at UCLA


LA Poets, Marie Lecrivaim and Rafael Alvarado


Jen Joseph, from Manic D Press

I asked Cindy Wathen about her time at the book festival. She said:

As the largest literary event in the nation, it's a mecca for writers and book lovers. My favorite speaker was Walter Mosley. He's amazing. I love everything about the festival. I wish more cities hosted festivals like this one.

The literary world is always in need of community-building efforts. That’s a big part of what our new magazine is all about.

One aspect I’ve learned since jumping into publishing both online and in print is there’s a spirit among literary writers, a camaraderie that is really healthy and inviting. Writers need marketing tools, outlets, and support. That’s the Noveltown Review's impact--to help writer's get the word out...

HOW TO ORDER: You can order the 32-page premiere issue of the Noveltown Review online for only $5.95. That includes shipping in the U.S. (Click here to order)

Here are samples from some of the Noveltown Review's entries followed by some photos from our recent mixer event at Benjamin’s Restaurant in downtown Bakersfield, and guest readers...

Fiction:

Susan Henderson: Ladybug - I was barred from school for the day because I’d been biting again. Whenever I bit, everyone would stop what they were doing, and my teacher would call, “Tillie, Tillie,” but I would keep pressing my teeth into the skin because I liked to see the mark...

Brad Listi: Christmas Day - MY FATHER’S FAMILY LIVED in an old petroleum town called Morgan City, an hour away from Plaquemine. We drove there every year on Christmas Day. Our route took us through the bayous and cypress trees, past field and plantation, over bridges, and along a levee. In its own way, a scenic drive. I never minded it much. I liked swamps. I spent the hour staring out the window, looking for alligators. I never saw any. Mostly I saw dead rodents on the side of the road, or an occasional crushed house pet. Sometimes I’d see pelicans or cranes perched on cypress stumps. They were bright white against the murk of the swamp. I wondered how they stayed so clean...

Conrad Romo: Clown Make-up - After the shaking stopped, we stepped out from under the safety of doorways. We climbed out of our beds and felt our way through the dark until we were outside. Power throughout the city had been knocked out. From my front yard I could barely see my neighbors, clustered together on porches, in driveways, in yards and on sidewalks. They were in various states of undress...

N. Frank Daniels: Taking the Hollows - New York loves people like us, was made for our satisfaction, the steaming guts of the world. When you were wandering the streets in a Lou Reed billowy haze, 15 dollar bags of blow that lasted through 20 tunnel visions and almost as many near-death experiences...

Articles:

Cindy Wathen: "Market Street: Navigating the Madness and Mayhem of Where to Submit Your Work" - Face it. All of us at one time or another have dreamed of writing literary fiction. We momentarily forget that genre fiction is more lucrative or that the slow, quiet novel is gradually dying and we dream the dream. We see visions of PEN awards or our pensive black-and-white photo appearing on a Poets & Writers cover. Then we remember how hard it is. We think about the difficulty, poverty and rejection potentially involved...

Robin Slick: "Psychotic Reaction: Blog Trips for the Worldly Writer" - All is not right with my world.For those who care enough to wonder why —okay, here it is. I apparently need a twelve-step program for blog addiction. Writing used to be the one thing in my life over which I exercised discipline. I woke up every morning at 5:00 a.m., a good two hours before the rest of the family, just to work on a novel in progress or a short story. The days were few and far between that I would ever stray from that routine...

Lauren Baratz-Logsted: "The Working Writer: What Kind Of Writer Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?" - When Nick first asked me to write something for Noveltown, it took me a while to realize what I now think he wants: writing tips, but not writing tips as in “How to Construct a Plot” or “How to Inject Humor into Your Serial-Killer Thriller” so much as writing tips on simply being a writer—going after that goal and hopefully having that career, or enjoying that career to the fullest if you’ve already got one. Toward that end I’m going to devote this space over the course of my columns to the entire arc of a career: getting started, juggling frustration and jealousy and success, dealing with agents and editors, networking, coping with success and failure…little stuff like that. Having spent eight years trying to get a book published, having had seven books published in the last four years, having survived six agents, having worked with four different editors in a single calendar year, and on and on… Well, let’s just say I feel as though I’m equal to the task...

N. Frank Daniels: "2006: The Year of the Lit Scandal" - The latest chapter in the ongoing O.J. debacle has been put to bed and now (temporarily anyway) sleeps with the fishes. Any serious writer must pause for at least a moment, in the wake of this latest lit-world catastrophe, and consider a few things. 2006 is, without compare, the year that Big Publishing took a fall. Never have so many scandals rocked the literary scene...

The Noveltown Mixer photos:


Cortnie and Gerhard Enns from the Dalloways give TNR thumbs up. Gary runs Met Lit Journal...


Rickey Bird of Hectic Films
and Aaron Novak of the Silence Club


Jason Sanders of Hectic films interviewed by Bako journalist


Brooklyn talks shop with The Ska King


Notice how Hectic Films is in every pic?? Seen here about to eat a Twinkie


Author duo of the book, Morning Coffee hang out with, oh, those guys again...


Famous Hollywood author at the event? Check out the book, Eve.


Too bad you didn't show up for free drinks... heh.




Chris Taylor took many of the photographs for TNR. Thanks Chris!




Polka dot Jen


Polka dot Cortnie


Oh yeah, there was one more reader recently of TNR: The Colonel.

You can pick up a free copy in Bakersfield at Russo's Books at the Marketplace, Metro Art Galleries, or order online (cost for online orders).
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You can read about Twinkie's experience at the event here...

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Monday, April 30, 2007. You can leave your response.