California Literary Review

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American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement (with Virgil Suarez)
Behind the Short Story: From First to Final Draft (with Todd James Pierce)
Breathe: 101 Contemporary Odes (with Chad Prevost)
Contemporary American Poetry: Behind the Scenes- W/CD
The Florida Letters
Ha Ha Tonka: A Book of Rune
Imagine the Dawn: The Civil War Sonnets
Landscape and Dream (with Virgil Suarez)
Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America (with Virgil Suarez)
The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears
Red, White, and Blues: Poets on the Promise of America (with Virgil Suarez)
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Articles written for the California Literary Review:

• Fables: The Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 by Bill Willingham
  Posted on 21 Jan 2010 in Fiction Reviews, Science Fiction and Fantasy
  

  But without a doubt, it’s the series that he began seven years ago, Fables, that has captured the imaginations of so many readers. The premise of this story is clear and simple—familiar characters from fairy tales and folklore escape after an army of creatures led by the mysterious Adversary has come to conquer their home worlds. Where do all these exiled creatures go? New York City, of course.

• The Ghost King: Transitions III by R. A. Salvatore
  Posted on 22 Dec 2009 in Fiction Reviews, Science Fiction and Fantasy
  

  A fast-paced, heartrending book, The Ghost King is a must-read for any fans of the Drizzt Do’Urden stories and a welcome read for general fantasy enthusiasts. While The Pirate King has a tighter plot and better action scenes, it’s this book that people will long remember.

• Flesh and Fire: Book One of the Vineart War by Laura Anne Gilman
  Posted on 03 Dec 2009 in Fiction Reviews, Science Fiction and Fantasy
  

  The first clue that Gilman is not going to zing this story along with Tom Clancy speed is that her Prelude has a pre-Prelude—never a good sign if you’re in the mood for a fast-read airplane book, which so many fantasies are. But the Vin World is rich with vattage and vine, mustus and maturation, such that even non-oenophiles cannot help but feel immersed in a unique world full of a strange richness and beauty.

• Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs by Jeni Stepanek
  Posted on 11 Nov 2009 in Biography, Disability, Non-Fiction Reviews
  

  He explains it in his journals as “Whatever it is that a person needs or wants, they understand why that matters, and that is the unfolding of their Heartsong . . . And as we learn in almost every religion or philosophy of goodness, it is in giving that we receive. In sharing our Heartsong with others, it goes out into the world, and somehow, circles back to us.”

• Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks by Ethan Gilsdorf
  Posted on 17 Sep 2009 in Non-Fiction Reviews, Science Fiction and Fantasy
  

  The Otherkin Resource Center (ORC) exists for people who don’t believe they are human. Elves, vampires, and unicorns are among the most popular non-human races that they claim to be.

• The Twelve by William Gladstone
  Posted on 14 Sep 2009 in Fiction Reviews, Religion, Science Fiction and Fantasy
  

  This novel follows the exploits of intellectual and spiritual wunderkind Max Doff who, even as an infant, clearly was set apart from the rest of humanity. He’s destined for greatness along the lines of the Buddha and other prophets. During a near-death experience from a severe case of the flu at age 15, Max has a vision in his euphoric delirium that he can’t quite make sense of yet, but it reveals to him the names of twelve people…

• The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff
  Posted on 01 Jul 2009 in Fiction Reviews, Science Fiction and Fantasy
  

  Readers who know Tanya Huff from her Blood, Smoke, and The Keeper’s Chronicles books (or even the Blood Ties show on Lifetime) will find this stand-alone modern urban fantasy right in line with what they’ve come to expect from her. For those of us not so familiar with Huff’s work, a warning: This is not your usual fantasy fare. Not in the least.

• Nobody Move by Denis Johnson
  Posted on 08 Jun 2009 in Crime Fiction, Fiction Reviews
  

  For people who liked Johnson’s recent National Book Award winner Tree of Smoke or his drug-laden 1992 short story collection Jesus’ Son, his latest, Nobody Move, is a real change of pace. Originally published as a four-part serial in Playboy in 2008, this hardboiled noir tale plays with the conventions of thrillers and crime stories, utilizing nearly every stereotype and trick from the arsenal of Dashiell Hammett, Quentin Tarantino, Elmore Leonard, and Raymond Chandler.

• Turn Coat: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
  Posted on 14 May 2009 in Fiction Reviews, Science Fiction and Fantasy
  

  Turn Coat is the 11th installment in the story of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Chicago’s first (and only) Wizard private investigator. Jim Butcher has often said he has enough ideas to take the series well into the twenties, though he’s smart enough to provide an “in” for every book such that new readers can join up at anytime without starting at the beginning (or watching the interesting but short-lived Sci-Fi Channel Series The Dresden Files).

• No Right to Remain Silent: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech by Lucinda Roy
  Posted on 11 May 2009 in Education, Non-Fiction Reviews, Psychology, True Crime
  

  After mailing a package of video files and documents to NBC, Cho left for Norris Hall at 9:45 a.m. and chained the entrances shut before opening fire in the halls and classrooms. For nine minutes he attacked faculty and students alike, finally committing suicide with a gunshot to his head.