Last month while I was walking through the metroplex on my way to see Cabin in the Woods, I passed a poster for American Reunion. I stopped, smiled wanly, and said to myself, “Damn, has it really been thirteen years since Jason Biggs fucked that pie?”
It got me thinking about all the people who had passed through JDP’s own hallowed halls over the past thirty issues. “Where, oh, where are they now?” I wondered to myself. And then I said, “Wait, I bet this would make a great mid-month filler post in-between issues.”
Through the miracle of that DARPA-spawned entity known as the Internet, we did a little searching and found what some of our favorite contributors have been up to. So grab your yearbook, try to forget about that ill-advised hookup at the prom after-party, and settle in for some reminiscing.
First up is Craig Wallwork, who first appeared in Issue Seven with “Sigourney Weaver Stole My Shadow” and followed that up with with “Morning Birdsong and the Hell Demons” in our First All-Star Issue. More recently, Craig’s had his first short story collection, Quintessence of Dust, published and his first novel, To Die Upon A Kiss, is forthcoming from Snubnose Press this summer. Cheers, Craig.
Craig’s far from alone on the book front. Graham Tugwell, who we told you all about on St. Patrick’s Day, also has his first collection, All Gone to Body Wrong, due out from Anobium later this summer. And, you might have also heard one or two people on the indie lit scene talking about Chloe Caldwell’s Legs Get Led Astray. It came out in April, is fourteen flavors of good, and if you buy it from her website, she’ll send you a personal essay. Really. The book includes “That Was Called Love,” one of the favorite things we’ve ever published on JDP. Seriously, why haven’t you bought two copies already?
Rolling along, Carol Deminski, who graced our pages with “The Fortune Teller” back in Issue Seventeen, has had a bunch of flash published recently, including a dark piece, “The Price of Luxury,” in PANK and an excellent short, “The Paperboy,” in the new issue of Bartleby Snopes. She also runs a great blog.
Elif Alp made her JDP debut in February, with a lovely little thing called “Red and Blue Makes Purple.” She had another lovely thing, “Cereal and Cigarettes” in the February Issue of Curbside Splendor. You should read it, like now.
But what about those whacky JDP staff members? Sam Snoek-Brown, who makes each issue look oh-so-pretty as Production Editor, pretty much powned Issue Four of Unshod Quills with a series of five fantastic pieces. (Warning: contains coffee and David Lynch.)
Meanwhile, our founder and publisher, Eirik Gumeny, published a free e-novelette called “The Devil Went Down to Jersey” and, hey, let’s talk about that one for a second.
Did you enjoy Kevin Smith’s Dogma or were you one of the people who protested outside the multiplexes where it was playing? If you were the latter, you might want to skip it, but if you don’t mind a double-helping of silliness with your quasi-blasphemous prose, then you’ll probably enjoy it. I can tell you, though, having read both the reviews and the novelette, there is absolutely nothing in Eirik’s story that should make you want to shove sand paper up anyone’s ass. (And if they ever publish a hard copy of the book, I hope that last sentence makes the back cover.)
And that’s it. We’re probably missing tons of stuff and people with this post, so drop us a line if you’ve got something brewin’ you want us to try to mention the next time we’re feeling nostalgic. Oh, and follow us on Twitter. Seriously, we get way too excited when we gain another follower.
So, you’ve seen The Avengers more than once, why not read the special issue we put together in its honor one more time? Don’t be afraid to force your friends and loved ones to read it while you’re at it. They’ll thank you.