Blowing my tiny trumpet

Okay, okay, I know I've gone MIA once again after pledging on my blog not to do that- umm, when was the last time I posted here? Bad, bad me! By the way, is it technically possible to go missing in action when no one's missing me? If I was a character on stage the only lines I would get to speak would be soliloquys, and that would be right after the audience had left.

So anyway, I don't remember when I last posted here and I haven't checked, but it has to be a while because I finished reading  Hosseini's 'The Kite-Runner' (finally), Arthur Golden's 'Memoirs of a Geisha', Jane Smiley's 'A Thousand Acres', Murakami's 'Kafka on the Shore' and 'After Dark'  in that time, and have also finished 'Asura-the tale of the Vanquished' by Anand Neelkantan. I've also come across this fascinating series called 'The Song of the Titans' by Patrick Adkins which is up next on my reading list, along with a lot more of Murakami, Hosseini as well as some Marquez. I also need to get back to Faye Kellerman's 'The Quality of Mercy' which I started reading and had to stop midway because life happened and so on and so forth. In other words, I'm a greedy bookworm and books are the only things that distract me from this insane heatwave we're having- my friends at Leeds, Kiel, Baltimore and Boston who cribbed about the weather throughout winter and spring are welcome to trade places with me. It did rain today, but it was mostly sound and fury. The clouds and the thunder promised so much, but vanished too soon. Sort of like my half-a-dozen incomplete stories with reasonably good beginnings.

On that cheerful note, it's time for the trumpet:
1. My poem 'The Rider' has been included in the 14th edition of 'The Art of Being Human' poetry anthology, which is up for preview and sale on here.
2. I had my piece titled 'Blood' published in the April edition of Flash Frontier. Please do read and share.
3. Finally, my poem 'The Land of Dreams' which was published by the now out of circulation First Edition magazine and the 'Shambelurking and other Stories' anthology has been reprinted by the kind and lovely people at 'Cats with Thumbs' and they've also included a short bio of mine with a headshot. You can download it for free at this link. Please do read and share. That's all for today, folks.

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