it’s early in the morning ... and i’m heading to work!

8:14 in the AM

Went out jogging this morning, albeit
just around a couple of blocks,
but you know
it's better than having a beer
for breakfast

and then
i took a shower
and made myself
some very thick coffee.

1:16 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

bad poem for you!

An Ode

To the Camembert:
unctuous creamy heaven
with a slight note
of sourness;
And to Marie Harel,
creator or not,
she is
the appointed saint,
goddess
of fresh
whole
milk
curdled and deposited
in little wooden boxes.

Un
pasteurized
elasticity
from the farm
and rolling
green hills
of the Pays d'Auge.

The udders
of grazing cows,
silent
female mastodon saints
of olden
forgotten
silent times
carrying their heavy bags
silently waiting
to be freed
of their milk
mas
ticating away.

Whole
milk steaming,
never heated
over 37
degrees Celsius,
left to coa
gulate
in a Norman Bowl
with some help
from our little friend
the Enzyme Rennet
and like William the Conqueror
he fights
and transforms
and reshapes
and reinvents the milk
for 1.5 hours exactly
until the curds
have formed
and it can be ladled gently
in its molds.

2:20 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

here’s a bad poem i wrote tday, the first day of my yearly one week vacation.

The Nombriliste

1

Laying in bed all day on Sunday
the first Sunday of my one week
vacation.

Nothing much of nothing much
of nothing much of anything else.

Watched a boring movie:
The Pornographer.

I kept hopping for more felacio.

2

My navel, i love you.
Navel, navel, navel
why art thou so beautiful?

I am interested only
in my navel
and its encumbrances.

3

Impedes and is burden
some.

Image: Navels stacked on top of each other.
Image: Navel in a little metal box, buried in the garden.

4

There is a stick in my navel
sticking out like a chopstick
struck solid in a dead chicken.

I'm a navel-gazer,
a navel-grazer
who's navel could i graze
other than mine own?

5

Navel, a noun.

: depression in the middle of the ab
domen
that marks the point of for
mer
attachment of the um
bilical cord

: the central point
the middle.

Navel-gazing, also a noun.

: useless or ex
cessive self
con
templa
tion.

sayz the online machinery of dicos
and word encumbrances.

6

I'm a navel-galvanizer.
Traveler of Navels!
Galvanizering-Navelizer
electrifying me, baby
with your navel
by ex-umbilical attachment
not an orifice
but holder of truths and dust
and sometimes
a little dirt and fungus.

7

I am the electrifier!
Tongue in cheek
Tongue in navel
garnering a collection of sticks
and particles
unknown to me
stuck there
after years and years and years
of bumbling around
navel-gazing.

7:42 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

New Belleville Press August Newsletter

Hello everybody!

We recently had a very successful release party for NEUROTICA, by Elva Maxine Beach. NEUROTICA is our second book, and we're so very proud! It's now available both in soft and hard-cover editions.

Go visit Maxine's website, http://elvamaxinebeach.com, where you may now check out one of her Cafe Caffeine performances, read her blog, or just say hello. You may also watch her performances on YouTube.

Search "Neurotikat" or go to:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=maxine+beach&search_type=&aq=f

______________________________________________________________________
ATTENTION
Austin, Texas, residents: NEUROTICA is now at Book People! Yeah! It's in the General Fiction Section. BEER SONGS FOR THE LONELY is in the Poetry section. So, please purty please, go to Book People, go to the Help Desk, bug the employees, write a customer review, ask several employees about our books, keep mentioning NEUROTICA as if in a trance ... you get the picture: MAKE NOISE, and connect it to our books.

If you're shy, then you can shyly and secretly visit our web-store:

http://www.newbellevillepress.com/store.html

_______________________________________________________________________
Soon, our books will be available in independent bookstores all over North America and beyond. We're working really hard on it.

What's your favorite independent bookstore? Tell that particular bookstore how awesome we are, and send us the store's contact information. Give them our contact information as well: our URL and my email:

pointeau@newbellevillepress.com

This is my proposition to you: If you get our books on the shelves of an independent bookstore or another type of retail / customer service related shop ANYWHERE, you get a free t-shirt.

Deborah and I need your help, because there are so many cool stores throughout the known Universe, we want to reach as many as possible, and that means that WE NEED YOU.

You see, the way I see it, YOU know your neighborhoods much better than we do. What are the cool spots? I live in the West Campus neighborhood of Austin, Texas. What do I know about all the other great neighborhoods all across America? Not much, for the most part.

What are the cool coffee shops, alternative lifestyle shops, head-shops, juice-bars, independent cinemas, and all the other bad-ass independent shops across America where you believe our books would be perfect? Let us know. Let them know. Put us and them in contact. Give us their contact information, who we should talk to, and we will send them a press package. And when they accept our books, you get a free t-shirt.

Heck, maybe you or your cousin owns one of those cool stores? A hair-salon, a barber shop?

______________________________________________________________________
ALSO IN THE NEWS

Robin Blackburn! You all know her as the editor of Maxine's NEUROTICA, as an award winning journalist, among so many other accomplishments!! And now, to top it all, she is joining NBP as its third author. Her collection of poetry, so far un-titled, will be our next book, and we are looking at a release party either at the end of 2008, or the beginning of 2009.

We're so freaking excited! Robin has been an important member of the Central Texas poetry scene for more than 10 years. She kicks ass!

Go say hello to Robin here:

http://robin.blackburn.googlepages.com/

_______________________________________________________________________
Matter fact, we have several writers currently working on potential publications for 2009 and 2010. Which means that we need money to grow. We are going forward fast, and we need investors. Please contact me for more information at:

pointeau@newbellevillepress.com

_______________________________________________________________________
For early 2009, I am looking for a Science Fiction Novel. Please, don't find yourself limited by this classification. I consider William S. Burroughs to be SF much of the time, and you'll find his work in General Fiction. I'm looking for a stand-alone novel. Nothing that ends in a cliffhanger. The style and genre are up to the author. However, just so you know, I enjoy fast-paced stories. Punk, post-punk, highly speculative, funny, sarcastic, satirical, Armageddon is coming type of prophesizing stuff that invents the future before we get there, and where all hell is breaking lose. Sex is cool. Harlequin romance is not. Great ideas & idealism or the lack thereof are great. Tales banging me over the head with so called morality are not.

DO NOT SEND ME A MANUSCRIPT without first contacting me via a query letter. I prefer to work with local authors, because I like the face to face sit down several times a month, however biased I am, if you rock the world, then I am open to listen to you where-ever you are.

Please SNAIL MAIL me the query letter. Thanks!

New Belleville Press
C.O. Francois Pointeau
P.O. Box 301119
Austin, Texas, 78703
USA

_______________________________________________________________________
And last but not least, INDEPENDENCE BREWING CO. holds open doors at their brewery every first Saturday of the month. Thank you Amy & Rob.

Go here for mre information:

http://www.independencebrewing.com/

I will not be there in September because I'm having a birthday, and I will be messing around in the Llano river at my friends' place drinking lots of beer--you guessed which one--and trying to catch some catfish for a big catfish fry on Sunday!

However, NBP will be there for the first weekend of October. Hope you will too.



THANKS!

Deborah & Francois @ New Belleville Press

2:48 AM - 0 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

June Newsletter -- New Belleville Press

It's getting closer and closer and closer. That's right! Just a few more days and it's the Release Party Date of the century! NEUROTICA is going to be out and about and rocking your world!

Saturday, June 28


4014 Clawson

Austin, TX 78704

from 7 - 10 pm

There will be beer and music.
Adults only, please.

You DO NOT want to miss this. Maxine, the author, will be present, and she will read stuff NEVER READ BEFORE in public. And since she's moving to St. Louis the week following the release party, this is possibly YOUR LAST CHANCE to see her live, in concert, in her backyard, totally casual and accessible for you to talk to her and ask her questions, and even buy her a drink ...

You can still purchase the hard-cover edition at the pre-release price with free shipping anywhere North America ... through the 28th of June:

BUY HERE



Book reviewer & blogger extraordinaire, Bibliolatrist, offers us the first review of NEUROTICA:

"Elva Maxine Beach's Neurotica isn't like anything I've ever read before. True, it features male-female dynamics as well as a thoughtful exploration of issues like power and control, but Beach explores these themes differently than most other authors do."

To read the entire review, please click the link:

BOOKWORSHIP.blogspot

After that, well, let me just say this. Maxine's book, NEUROTICA, is going to rock the world, and you'll be lucky if you can get up close and personal with Maxine again.

Oprah, are you listening?!?!

What does this all mean? Whatever you might be doing on Saturday June 28 that does not involve drinking beer and listening to cool-ass stories from Elva Maxine Beach's new book NEUROTICA, then you should drop it, and from 7 till 10pm, come on down to South Austin and hang out with us.

Okay ... if you cannot make it, we'll forgive you, we're not nasty & mean like some folks. We just want you to know that if there's a slight chance that you can be in South Austin on the night of June 28th, then you should be hanging out with us, buying books, listening to cool stories, cool music, and having a good ol' Texas Time!

Buy here:

BUY HERE

And!!! As in all of our events, to the best of our ability, we will be serving Austin's own, Austin's locally-brewed Independence Beer. The best Texas beer! And Texas is a big place, so that's a big statement.


And while we're on the subject of Independence beer:

On June 7th, we again dropped in at Independence Brewing Co.'s headquarters for their monthly open-doors. Thank you Amy, Rob & Otis for letting us set up a booth. We met quite a few wonderful peeps. Sold some koozies, a few books, and a couple of t-shirts. Deborah, marketing guru at New Belleville Press, took a day out of her very busy life to come pick me up at home, as I currently do not have a car, and we had a great afternoon.

Every first Saturday of every month, Amy & Rob hold an open house at their brewing company. They make great beer and it's free on the first Saturday of every month! It's a family & doggy friendly event. There's usually some music, always food. We suggest you bring bottled water and a large brimmed hat. (The event takes place on a parking lot. And it's hot hot hot weather these days if you haven't noticed :-)

We'll be there again, and so should you! Check them out here:

INDEPENDENCE BREWING CO

(FYI: Deborah had never tasted their Pale Ale before, and she says that from now on, that's the only Pale Ale she's buying ... to give you one more reason, as if free beer and free music wasn't enough, to go say hello to Independence Brewing Co.)

3:33 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

myspace poetic babble

instant posting
is addictive
and bad
like much that is addictive
the addiction
of addictive activities
instant posting
is not so good
for good writing
because it elicits instantaneous
postings
as in
right away
you write it
you post it
you don't edit it
much if at all
which makes for bad
or rather not so good
or rather mediocre
or rather less than mediocre
or rather just plain bad
writing
though in a way it isn't
so bad
as it brings forth
the thought process
to think on its feet
right away
or usually
as is usually the case
in most instances
it brings about
meaningless babble
for lack of anything
to say
for lack of any thought process
actually happening
meaningless babble
mediocre thoughts
rehashing of mediocre
rehashment of
disbursement of
disgurgitation of
a sort of meaningless
pissing in the wind
without wind
and without a pot
to piss in
pissing on your own toes
for lack of anything
else
better to do;

a dribble of urine.

3:49 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

morning, blablabla

Another morning
Another week
Another Friday
Another weekend

A wet dog
in my bed

Baby carrots
in my fridge

Soy milk
for breakfast

and a banana
and raw chocolate
and little tiny
dried red fruits
supposedly good
for my liver
or my kidneys
or my colon
or something
i forget.

7:04 AM - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

New Belleville Press Newsletter June

[A Note From Elva Maxine Beach, author of Neurotica]

I'm throwing a shindig:

Saying Goodbye to Bat City
While Saying Hello to NEUROTICA

Saturday, June 28
4014 Clawson
Austin, TX 78704
from 7 - 10 pm

mapquest it!


Goodbye Bat City BBQ and Potluck!
3-7 p.m.

All Austin peeps welcome! Bring something to throw on the grill and a potluck dish if you wish. BYOB. (Sorry, but moving is expensive.) Oh, and you may want to bring lawn chairs, too. I've given away most of my furniture. It's a shoestring goodbye bash! Austin done near broke my bank.


Neurotica Release Party!
7-10 p.m.

Adults only, please.

Book signing and reading, featuring me, the writer, Elva Maxine Beach Yes, the books will be here in print, ready to be sold, signed, and read!

Live music, cool peeps, and cold beer!

St. Louis has snatched me away from the greenbelt gorgeousness of Austin and I'm reluctant to say "So long." Pragmatism dictates, and a good job awaits me at the community college in St. Louis. Missouri is my home state, and I'm lucky to be returning to life-long friends and family. But, of course, I'm sad to leave Austin. It's been a lovely nine years in Bat City and though I've suffered many downs here, there have been more ups!

One of the best things about my stay in Austin is all the wonderful people whom I've met and grown to love. Without these supportive, kind folks, I doubt I could have written Neurotica. My ATX friends, colleagues and students have embraced my naughty little stories throughout this long process. And New Belleville Press has been generous and supportive and a true rock. Had I never come to the ATX, I may have never realized my dreams like I did. So, thanks Bat City! Now, let's party!



[Francois Pointeau, publisher @ New Belleville Press]

We're going to miss you, Maxine.

You all need to come on down and say good buy to her. You also need to buy one or more copies of her book. If anything, you need to come on down, have some fun, listen to Maxine read, drink a beer, and hang out

BOOK STORE

And, as it happens, you also need to congratulate Maxine. She has just recently won the NISOD Excellence in Teaching Award (NISOD = National Institute for Staff and Organization Development). The award was presented at the International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence in Aust, Texas May 28, 2008.


Neal Pollack, bestselling author of Alternadad, says this about NEUROTICA:

"Hot slacker sex stories written with a poet's attention to detail."

People ... Neal is a BEST-SELLING author, he knows what he's talking about! DonCha Think?


If you're still not convinced that NEUROTICA is a must-have on your bookshelf and on your nightstand, you can read CAN I GET A HALLELUJAH, one of the stories featured in NEUROTICA, published at Nerve.com.

The book will be available at the pre-sale price, shipping included anywhere in North America, up until June 28th, by going here:

BOOK STORE

(After June 28th, the price will go up, and shipping will no longer be included in the price)

Please forward this newsletter to as many people as you can. Sign up your friends! Thanks!


Thanks so much to everybody for all your support!

4:28 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

New Belleville Press Newsletter

Hello Everyone!

[Newsletter from François Pointeau @ New Belleville Press]

Wow, it's the month of May! Time is flying along. Everybody will be happy to know that two nights ago, I sat with Chaz at his kitchen table over a couple glasses of bourbon while he fixed up the manuscript to Elva Maxine Beach's book NEUROTICA (Chaz is the very talented graphic designer who's been doing a knock-out job on the cover and the lay-out). We should be sending the file to the printer in a few days, and going to press in six to eight weeks! NEUROTICA will be New Belleville Press' second book, following BEER SONGS FOR THE LONELY published in November 2006. It's been a long time coming, and I'm really excited about it!

Thanks to all of you who pre-bought Maxine's book. There's still time to jump in on the action before we release NEUROTICA to the world. I'm selling the special hard-back edition at a mere 25 bucks, shipping included to anywhere USA, Canada, & Mexico. Sorry, but shipping is not included outside of North America ... and if the shopping-cart doesn't work for your country of destination, please send me an email—pointeau@newbellevillepress.com—and I'll fix it. NEUROTICA will come to your door signed and numbered by the author herself. Once we release the book officially, the price will have to go up, and shipping will no longer be included anywhere.

Let me just say this ... Maxine and her book will be all over the USA—Oprah, are you listening?—by this time next year, so now is your time to pre-buy her book, and get the special edition.

What a sales pitch! Right?


__________________________________________________________


Here's a taste of Maxine's book:

A QUOTE FROM THE STORY "CAN I GET A HALLELUJAH?"

A strange sensation surged throughout my body. My impulse to pee vanished. My awareness that I was sitting between Mom and Pop in the middle of Sunday evening service vanished. I heard nothing, felt nothing, knew nothing except for this one moment. My entire body convulsed. And then, I was back, I was shivering, awake, aware. Confused. Satisfied. Happy. Anointed.

AND HERE IS WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING, PEOPLE LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE READ NEUROTICA:

Beach has written a book that will have readers wanting to take their clothes off one minute, squirming with discomfort the next, then being struck by the sadness of humanity. Then wanting to strip again. She covers the many shades of sex, not just the obvious.

-- Teresa Bergen, author of "Killing the President"

Neurotica delivers the uneasy kick of a one night stand or the off-balance excitement of an amateur porno, yet Beach's descriptive passages radiate such warmth and detail that they seem to cry out in the vernacular of one's own memory. The humanity of this writing eats most writers for breakfast and compares Beach favorably to Bukowski and Anais Nin.

-- Rex Rose, author of "Toast"

In the imaginary erotic trilogy of Anais Nins' Delta of Venus and Diane di Prima's Autobiography of a Beatnik, Neurotica is the shuddering climax. This writer-protagonist, however, is not just some plastic humper boning for another gasm-flash, she is damn real, with a history and experience all readers can identify with such that, beneath all the throbbing fantasies and sucking pumping flesh-sessions pounding out the rhythm of this book, we become pulsing body parts in a masterful portrait of ourselves secreting terrible twisted truths in Ecstasy! Extreme, serious, humorous, f*cked up and off the hook!

-- Mark Spitzer, author of "Riding the Unit" and "Chum"

Go HERE @ New Belleville Press DOT com to purchase NEUROTICA


__________________________________________________________

We at New Belleville Press are always looking for venues to hold parties, readings, et cetera. We are currently looking for people who might be interested in hosting a party at their house, or a lunch / diner at their restaurant & bar. We bring the author, which would be either Maxine and her total awesome presence, or F.K. Needles and his beer-filled songs, or both. You bring all your peeps. The authors read and are their awesome selves. Your peeps buy the books. We all bring beer and wine. We all have a great time. Sounds like fun? Send me and email at pointeau@newbellevillepress.com. We are open to out of town trips if worth it.

__________________________________________________________

On the fifth of April, we were at Independence Brewing Co. Every first Saturday of every month, Amy & Rob Cartwright—owners and operators of said brewing company—hold an Open House with free beer, music, and plenty of family-friendly and doggy-friendly picnicking type of fun. Thanks to my family and to Michelle who helped me operate my little booth while we all enjoyed Independence's incredible brew! We'll be there again, and so should you. Check them out here: Independence Brewing Co.. Thank you Amy & Rob!


__________________________________________________________

F.K. Needles was featured on EXSE Spoken Word Showcase on Austin Cable Access. There is an encore of the performance on Thursday, May 1st at 10am on Channel 16. Needles' performance is towards the end of the several hours long show. As soon as it is available, we will feature his bit on YouTube. You can watch a previous performance at:

HERE

__________________________________________________________


Please forward this newsletter to as many people as you can. Sign up your friends! Forward!

Go on my website : New Belleville Press to sign up.



Thanks so much to everybody for all your support,

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22:40 -- bad & pathetic journal entry

I am a total addict
it's 22.40 at night
went to bed around 20.00
can't sleep
though i am very tired
and i feel like shit
so i am currently in my car
in my pajamas
and my old sweat shirt
in front of the chamber of commerce
the car revving
because that's the only hot-spot
in taylor, texas.

(i turned my internet at home
off
thinking i'd be moved back
to austin this week
but here i am still
the apartment fell through
i have no internet
to help me sleep with
my protective blanket)

kills me
and i just HAD to check my emails.

sad sad pathetic man i am.

and i should be out
having fun
with a friend of mine tonight
and here i am in this dark night
in my car
listening to sad sad jazz
desperately checking my emails
instead.

i must be a fool.

8:51 PM - 4 Comments - 7 Kudos - Add Comment