Holiday sale on new delightful books! Who doesn’t like free fancifulness? Each of my books released this year comes with a magic feather for a bookmark and a handwritten inscription, if you order from me. Plus, free shipping in the continental US throughout December!
MY BONES ARE LOVE GIFTS is my debut book of poetry and drawings, out from Shanti Arts Publishing, with cover art by Irene Hardwicke Olivieri. It’s $20.
NOW, THAT’S A TRICK is my debut flash fiction chapbook, out from Finishing Line Press, with cover art by Alexandra Eldridge. It’s $15.
Reach out with a DM for info about how to place your order! ❤️
🔥❤️
Wishing you all kinds of good stories,
Dawn
Vallie Lynn Watson recently wrote an evocative review of my flash fiction chapbook, Now, That’s a Trick (Finishing Line Press, 2022). Read it now in The Paper.
Pick up a copy of Now, That’s a Trick from the publisher or your favorite bookseller. It’s a perfect holiday gift for all the eclectic, weird-fiction readers dear to your heart.
❤️
-Dawn Sperber
After a very long wait, it’s out! My first full-length book, MY BONES ARE LOVE GIFTS, containing my poetry and drawings, is now available from Shanti Arts Publishing.
This book has a lot of magic in it. I feel like the world is at a low-energy place right now and we’re all shaken in our foundations and searching for ways to feel like life is meaningful and still beautiful. That’s what MY BONES ARE LOVE GIFTS is tapped into. It’s a channel into the intimacy of being connected with life, no matter what’s going on, and the power and beauty that can be found by claiming your own moment.
Even though I am currently dealing with many challenges, this book is full of a lot of the shiniest bits of me, with poems and drawings that span decades. It contains that inspiring light that spoke through me and guided me, that voice that’s mine but not mine, which I’ve been so grateful for throughout all the years that I wrote these poems and drew these pictures. Many of these poems are like old friends who have taught me a lot, and I’m happy to introduce them to you too.
I feel like I am fulfilling a goal of my lineage by being a woman publishing my soul truths and art in a world that has really tried to squash that and over-edit and silence me, like it did to so many women in my bloodline before me. But as you must know, there’s a lot of power that can come from listening to your soul and claiming your own multidimensional moment and sense of self. My hope is that this book is a touchstone that reminds you of your own private magic.
You can learn more about it here at the Shanti Arts website, where you can also pick up a copy, or you can order it at your favorite bookseller.
Book cover art by Irene Hardwicke Olivieri.
Wishing you a lovely new moon and Thanksgiving weekend,
Dawn
I have a couple offerings for you today, two stories: a video and a podcast. They’re both magical and odd, and they’re from my debut flash fiction chapbook, NOW, THAT’S A TRICK, which is currently available for preorder from Finishing Line Press. (!!)
First, the video. Hello! 🖖🏼 This is the title story, ”Now, That’s a Trick,” from my chapbook. It was first published in Zizzle Literary last year. (In this video, you may also notice evidence of the indoor mosquito that was haunting me. (Summertime.))
Now, the podcast. Maybe you could use a 15-minute break to listen to a story about love and river men. Yes? These have been awful days in the news. Claim some downtime and listen to a story. The newest podcast mini-episode from Plume: A Writer’s Podcast (my amazing crew! 💜) features my story, ”If the River Men Take You” (first published in Annalemma).
Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts:
(You can learn more about what we’re all doing with the writing community at Plume: A Writer’s Companion, here.)
I hope you enjoy these story offerings, and if you’re inspired to buy my chapbook, I’d just love it. My advance sales period (which determines my royalties rate) ends on July 1, so it would be awesome if you ordered your copy of NOW, THAT’S A TRICK by then, though preorders will still be available after that date. Chapbooks are scheduled to ship August 26.
I hope your days are full of good stories, and your goals are supported! ❤️⚡️
~ Dawn
The moon’s casting some spells tonight.
All the iris wands stretch up to hear.
Moon song seeps into their furled buds.
They listen to the songs of transformation,
leaning into the miracle, getting ready.
Just now, my story “Ravenous Mermaids” arrived in Bourbon Penn, Issue 17. (!!) You can find the whole story here.
“Ravenous mermaids have migrated from the deep sea and into the local ponds and waterways where the local children play,” says the issue’s intro.
Ultimately, it’s a story about healing, in its own way — by way of ravenous, lovely mermaids with shark teeth; and wild wolves; and the mythology of our lives.
Bourbon Penn 17 looks like a wonderful issue. I’m psyched to be in it, and I’m looking forward to reading all the great stories there. Looking for a journey? Dive into my “Ravenous Mermaids,” if you dare.
Watch yourself, mind.
This morning I discovered my backyard had become a crystal wonderland, and then I passed a crow in a tree meowing at the moon. A couple hours later, he was still at it, sharing his wintry secrets.
Just a tilt can do it. Some of my favorite times are the glimpsed patchwork memories that overlay a moment and suddenly have me living in two places at once.
Yesterday, as we drove through a rush hour intersection and I glanced up at the hanging green streetlight, was it the raised slope of my gaze that fired distinct synapses? Because then I found myself concurrently in a live memory of sitting by a lake house window almost three decades ago, gazing at the creamy sunlight shining past the green trees. Flash! I was there, drinking in the land and quiet. Just as I was when I was fourteen, there I was in Virginia again. And I’ve always been the same me whether fourteen or forty-two.
We drove on through the Albuquerque intersection, and was it that as soon as my gaze lowered the live memory was gone? Or did it escape along with my awareness of where my relaxation and visions were originating. In any case, I was more fulfilled for the memory, as we drove on past the drivers and orange construction cones, that I can go so many other places, and that I’ll always be me.
Our brains seem like such electrical operations, with currents and tiny connections that produce 3D miracles, and respond, just like a faulty radio, to a little tilting or even a good shake.
This life, huh? Who even knows about it, but we continue on anyway because it’s mealtime and someone has to cook. We strive toward ideals and then have to learn the skills to accept what actually happens. Society lauds lofty goals and impressive treasures, and then we each deal privately with the real necessities in life—fortitude, forgiveness, adaptation, love. Those are the ingredients that make or break a life. How do we keep going and make a good time of it. Part of creating a successful, valuable life involves looking past the highlighted targets and aiming at those subtle bulls’-eyes that would create the most difference, despite what others say, whether or not anyone else can see them. I don’t understand why there are these two realities so contrasting—the public view of life and the private. But so it is.
(This is what my left hand had to say today. It’s fruitful to give it the pen sometimes.)
Dawn Sperber 
