Close-Up Books is proud to announce the release of poetry collection When Figs Fly by Jane Downing! The collection is available in both ebook and print editions (by clicking on the image) and you can sample several poems beneath the blurb: Australian poet Jane Downing‘s When Figs Fly reveals life in Australia and beyond […]
Hello! It’s been a little while since I posted here, and this one’s a fiction update actually – but there’s a poetry one right around the corner 😀
Today I wanted to mention that I have a deck of cards project based on some of my fiction and it’s out now, they’re based on my Book of Never-themed playing cards! You can actually grab one direct from the manufacturer already, the deck will contain:
I’m very happy about these being ready to share – it’s been nearly a year to the day since I first e-mailed Lin about creating the art, so it’s exciting for the project to come full circle now 🙂
I’ll have a few decks here with me soon but they’re more expensive for me to ship from Australia – though I’m still happy to do it, of course, if anyone would like me to. I had considered signing a few… but it’d be impossible without ruining the art. Maybe the box? I dunno – what would be better is if I could get the artists to sign, since they’ve done the real work here, but that could be tricky in terms of logistics.
In any event, if you are keen to order a set of cards they’re around $20 from the manufacturer (as per the link above) before shipping. (It’d be more like $30-50 w/shipping if you ordered from me, depending on how far away you are from Australia.)
If you do decide to order a set I hope you enjoy the art – there’s a fair few character images that I haven’t shared yet, but you can see the previously shared ones in this newsletter. Shawn T King who handled the design came up with going with silver and gold for the suit colours, to better contrast with the dark ‘regular’ card backgrounds, and I’m pretty thrilled with how everything looks! (Below is just an overview of the colour, the suits don’t mix silver and gold within themselves of course)
(On a bit of a side note, I’d love to know how fast the shipping tends to be if you get a deck, or what you thought about the art, so please feel free to send off a quick e-mail if you get the chance!)
Until later in the month!
Ashley
Close-Up Books is proud to announce the release of poetry collection When Figs Fly by Jane Downing!
The collection is available in both ebook and print editions (by clicking on the image) and you can sample several poems beneath the blurb:
Australian poet Jane Downing‘s When Figs Fly reveals life in Australia and beyond with a keen eye for poignant details that linger, deftly capturing the beauty of the natural world, the bittersweetness of childhood and memory and exploring the all-too familiar foibles of human nature.
Local Positioning System
This corner is where the gutter backs up and the road floods.
It is dry now and everyone will forget until it rains again.
Keep going, up past where kittens popped out of the drain once, summer
balls of fur and eyes, in front of the house where the piano teacher lived;
she said ‘you have the hands of a flautist,’ so my piano lessons didn’t go far.
This line of trees was lopped around when I was in high school,
see how the branches have been cut to make a canyon for the power lines
to pass through. It’s all built up now: No. 32 is on the spot of the Paddock of One Sheep.
They’ve put a second storey on No. 29 and the hedge around No. 26
used to seem like something from a fairytale; things are taller when you are littler.
Turn right at the corner with the apartments. There was a girl who learned the violin,
she lived in the one on the lower left. Mostly windows are blind eyes but at dusk
she’d put the light on, stage lighting her bowing. Exhibitionist. Maybe I was smarting
from my piano teacher’s words, but I see her ghost in the window every time I pass.
It’s a long straight road next. In summer it is the best way to town because of the plane trees
The temperature drops 10 degrees instantly. And in autumn it rains itchy fluff
with the cockatoos up there ravaging the seed balls. No, that’s not a cockatoo.
It’s a scrap of paper in the wind.
Trick Photography
They say these are the days
you’ll remember forever
But you take photos anyway
Then the face in the mirror of the memory
Is not the one in the frame
You are not the little girl
behind the heat haze of cake and candles
You are behind the garage mortified
at finding not one minty in the hunt
But you point the camera at your child anyway
determined to capture a trick of the light
She smiles behind her own singing candles
And you wonder where the memory hides
Detention Deficit Disorder
How do you write a poem about Manus and Nauru
We’ve seen the razor wire footage/ listened to the reports
succumbed to Attention Deficit Disorder – look a celebrity died
Will a well chosen image connect
Move someone to action (not me)
like poetry in the old days recited in the heat of revolution
Does this need a personal anecdote
to give it a punch above lecture/harangue
a poignant quote*
A crisis point to bring into focus the human face
that reveals the inhumanity of our country of the Fair Go
turning a willfully blind eye
and blaming the hypocrisy of smiling politicians
Will a reference to Hitler help any (no)
How could the Germans not have known?
It’s not as if we don’t
History will not be kind
An Apology will be too late
Having written a poem will not have been enough
* ‘Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.’ Robert Frost
Hi folks – here’s a quick note to let you know the ebook versions of my two new poetry collections are slowly filtering down to retailers – I see the Amazon territories and B&N are on it but other folks are lagging a bit.
Still, you can collect the slender teeth of the world for $2.99:
and small town lazarus is available for $3.99
if you’re more in the mood for free verse 🙂
Some links for print editions are back here from late last month – or you can sample some of the contents over at my Medium profile!
And once again, massive thanks to Vivid Covers (small town lazarus) and also Erik Ly (teeth of the world) for the covers!
I’m just popping in to share some news – I’ve got two collections up for pre-order right now, after a fairly long poetry hiatus I’ve suddenly been pretty busy, one is free-verse and the other is a mix of haiku & senryu – just in case anyone was looking to pick up a Christmas present approximately 7 months early 😀
Most retailers have the paperback now but the ebook is trailing – however Book Depository has free postage at least!
https://www.bookdepository.com/Teeth-World-Ashley-Capes/9780648395720
https://www.bookdepository.com/Small-Town-Lazarus-Ashley-Capes/9780648395775
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0648395774
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0648395723
You can grab a copy at any retailer via this link right here and the paperback edition is right around the corner too!
Over here you can learn a little more about David and his other work too, like his first collection Unearthly Fables.
Dig into the cold earth, pull away the damp leaves and burrow deep down to uncover true darkness…
Face the horror of war-torn Germany with Edmund as he fights to rescue his family. Confront the same overwhelming dread as Cody, in the midst of a futuristic prison, is haunted by his past and desperate for a chance at redemption. Discover true monsters aboard a slaver’s ship on the high seas and witness a more twisted side to Christmas.
Uncover these and other bleak mysteries in Beneath the Ferny…
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This is so wonderful!
pushing memories
along a dirt road
the wind
Ashley Capes
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