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10/19/2018 0 Comments

IN THE WAKE OF KAVANAUGH, FOUR THINGS YOU SHOULD BE DOING INSTEAD OF READING THIS

by Jacqueline Heinze
I write this post wrapped in irony. I agreed to write something about the Kavanaugh commotion two days before his confirmation, but after Senator Susan Collins spoke for 50-whatever minutes praising the Judge and chiding us from her distorted ethical platform, I concluded that words were no longer useful. After all, what more was there to say? None of Collins’ words—or McConnell’s or Graham’s or Flake’s (gaaaaawd!)—could erase what I had borne witness to. I watched Dr. Ford’s testimony, in which she was emotional, deferential, courteous, and careful. Then I watched Judge Kavanaugh, who was belligerent, disrespectful, misleading, and partisan. Neither Collins nor her GOP bros could explain away what I had seen and heard. Nor could they rewrite my own personal history with sexual harassment, emotional abuse, and silencing. They could not—cannot—argue me out of that which I know to be true. Dr. Ford still cannot return to her home because of violent threats against her and her family. Judge Kavanaugh sits on the Supreme Court. I get it. She lost. I lost. Women lost. We all lost. Again, what more is there to say? There are, however, things to do.
There are, however, things to do.
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1. Shriek. Shriek away, I say. Shriek until McConnell’s ears bleed. Shriek at elevators. Shriek in elevators. Shriek in grocery stores, at school pickup, in your unisex bathroom at work, while walking your dog. Dr. Ford spoke quietly and apologetically. Her tone and presentation made the GOP like her. To them, she seemed nice, a compelling lady. A nice, compelling lady who still cannot go home and whose truth they didn’t care about, not one iota. So, by all means, you lady, or friend of a lady, who is capable of being so much more than likable, shriek.

2. Read. Fortuitously timed with the Kavanaugh fracas, two new books hit the shelves: Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger, and Soraya Chemaly’s Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger. Both books place women’s rage in a historical context while also drawing on the discourse of the past two years. These women elucidate what you already know viscerally and through experience, but their voices will act as a salve for your pain. Traister and Chemaly remind us we are not alone or crazy. Our rage does not make us hysterical, irrational beings. In fact, our anger can be liberating and empower us.
3. Take care of yourself. Blah blah blah, but it’s important and something I’ve been ignoring. For months, I’ve been vacillating between grief and fury. I’ve been forgetting to eat, although I have not forgotten to drink. My neck and shoulders are as solid as bricks. I am ready to yell at anyone (read, white men) who dares cross my path. It is exhausting, so I’m working to change my agitated state. This past weekend I marched my kid and me into House of Intuition, a metaphysical shop to help people heal, and bought myself a crystal that I can program with my intention. I asked my crystal to keep me clear and calm through the midterms. Mostly, I carry my crystal (can one name their crystal?) in my front jeans pocket and rub it whenever I have the desire to set fire to whatever manifestation of the patriarchy I can get my hands on. I am also binge-watching The Good Place. Find out what your needs are and meet them.
4. Finally and most importantly, act. Again, there are going to be lots of words—so many words!--written and spoken in the next four weeks about which party handled the Kavanaugh debacle worse, which protestors are paid, how white boys need protection, how raving women don’t care about due process, and how an angry mob organized this entire hoax. There may be a moment at which any of us, pushed to the brink by this lunacy, succumbs to this gaslighting and engages in a regrettable, futile Facebook fight that wipes out an otherwise productive afternoon of rage internalization. It’s understandable. (And of course, in that fight, you were right. Not that that matters. It’s a Facebook fight but still…) We will all, inevitably, at some point, disappoint Michelle Obama. But at other points, at most of our points, we can act, as Michelle wants us to.
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My husband and I canvass, phone bank, and write postcards to get voters to the polls for the midterms. We also organize an activist group. Each week, I send an email to more than 100 everyday people—people who are between jobs, people who are overworked, who are moving, who are going through a divorce, who have infants or complicated dating lives, whose kids are struggling in school, whose parents are sick, who don’t have the time—and I list the ways they can volunteer for the midterms and encourage them to do so. Many of them write back and let me know, with everything else they have going on, what they are doing to help. It’s when I weigh too many words against the actions anyone can take to affect our democracy that I come down on the side of action. It’s time to focus on the work. 
I’m a writer. Of course words matter, but the noise in the fray is deafening. Much of it is also nonsensical and a great, big, gigantic lie, designed to make you go nuts (and, it is important to note, comes from a place of loserdom and fear.) Rather than react, find your focus. A good, solid primal scream could help, as could a book that validates what a woman warrior you are, or what an ally you are to a warrior woman. Get a massage if that’s what you need. Eat a bag of Pumpkin Spice Caramel Corn. See A Star is Born for the second time. Then, take action. “Walk the talk,” or “Make it work,” or  “Be the change,” or “Ride or die,” or whatever words you need to step away from your screen and get into the fight.

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Then, take action. “Walk the talk,” or “Make it work,” or  “Be the change,” or “Ride or die,” or whatever words you need to step away from your screen and get into the fight.
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Jackie Heinze is a writer and writing instructor living in Los Angeles. She conducts Write On Writing Workshops in her backyard. She can't wait for the mid-terms to be over so she can take a day before she continues the fight. For more, jacquelineheinze.com.
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10/10/2018 1 Comment

I would like to swipe right on your book: Trying to get in with Sad Laughter by Brian Alan Ellis

It's like the Dating Game, only way hotter. I'm Janie and I'm trying to date your new book. In this case, I'm trying to get in with Sad Laughter: A Totally Unessential and Demotivational Guide to Reading, Writing, and Publishing by Brian Alan Ellis and published by the always brilliant Civil Coping Mechanisms. According to Sad Laughter's Tinder bio, it's all about [how] "Writing is like trying to make sense of an inside joke you have with yourself but haha joke’s on you ’cause the joke is more sad than funny." 

Since I love a sense of humor coupled with a futile sense of despair, I'm basically already about this book (along with most of the author's other work). Let's Dating Game this motherfucker: 
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Q. If your book was trying to seduce someone in an underground blood orgy, what song would it put on the jukebox?

A. *googles “underground blood orgy music”* A YouTube video of the Dead Milkmen song “Theme from Blood Orgy of the Atomic Fern” came up. Sad Laughter is satisfied with that result.

* as representatives of Philadelphia, we're hyped on this answer 
Q.  If your book was one of the seven deadly sins, what Spice Girl would it kill?

A. ​Is that what the seven deadly sins do, they kill Spice Girls?? That’s horrible. Sad Laughter says, “♫ If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my chronic emotional emptiness ♫”

Q. What is the color of your book’s aura? Why? Get into this, it’s important. 

A. I am only interested in the color of my book’s Oreo, which is Double Stuff Halloween orange.

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Q.  If your book was a reality television show, what would its premise be?

A.  A writers retreat where instead of writing, the writers just sit around eating different flavors of Doritos while listlessly watching each other take turns trying to beat really hard NES games like Contra 2 and Kid Icarus.  


Q.  Speaking of reality television, what is your book’s Real Housewives tagline? 

A. The Real Housewives of a Constant and Pervading Existential Void.

Q.  What is the crux of your book’s intimacy issues?

A. Sad Laughter says, “How can you be upset that your short stories get rejected when you’re constantly rejecting love?”
How can you be upset that your short stories get rejected when you’re constantly rejecting love?
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Q.  If your book was to make a podcast, how badly was Bret “the Hitman” Hart cheated during the Montreal Screwjob?

A. ​Sad Laughter wholeheartedly agrees that the Hitman was legit wronged at the 1997 Survivor Series. Vince McMahon was a liar—Bret did not screw Bret! Hart Foundation 4 Life! 

Q.  What songs does your book sing when it’s drunk in the middle of the night on a Tuesday trying not to text its ex but does anyway? 

A. Tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone
The worst is over
You can have the best of me
We got older but we’re still young
We never grew out of this feeling that we won’t give up
 
—The Starting Line, “Best of Me”
Q.  If your book was an appetizer, which one would it be? 

A. Sad Laughter would be an Applebee’s Classic Combo Platter.

Q.  Sun sign? Moon sign? Rising sign? 

​A. Johnny Cage / Scorpion / Sub-Zero 

Q.  If your book was an Olympian what would it be for? Would it medal? 

​A. Like WWE legend Kurt Angle, Sad Laughter would win a gold medal with a “broken freakin’ neck!”
Q. What is your book’s state dog? 

A. Dog the Bounty Hunter.
 
Q. What is the last book that your book got really into? 

A. Sad Laughter
only pretends to read books by Haruki Murakami and Joan Didion so as to impress smart people.
 
Q. What drugs does your book do to unwind? 

​A. Whippets.
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Q. We love you, Sad Laughter, no question period the end. 

A. Sad Laughter loves you back. *wink*
Go support innovative and prose and poetry and pick up Sad Laughter. Go support our boy and by extension all bossin' indie lit making a difference in this big bad world. 
BRIAN ALAN ELLIS is the author of several books, including Sad Laughter (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2018) and Something to Do with Self-Hate (House of Vlad Productions/Talking Book, 2017). His writing has appeared at Juked, Hobart, Monkeybicycle, Fanzine, Electric Literature, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Funhouse, Heavy Feather Review, and Queen Mob’s Tea House, among other places. He lives in Florida, and tweets sad and clever things at both @brianalanellis and @HouseofVlad. 

​You can also find him living over at brianalanellis.tumblr.com



Civil Coping Mechanisms (CCM) is a DIY kind of press. We take the same level of angst as our colleagues in shunning those that would be in the immediate position of neglecting our efforts as artisans. We take the sentiment of doing it ourselves while stating to the tired publishing process, “To hell with it.” Why not do it our way? What only matters: Offering a space for the innovation so sorely shamed and disregarded as unmarketable by the major and indie presses too busy selling the next celebrity memoir, paper-thin creative nonfiction spine of lies, the wax-intellectual pursuits of yet-again the same vision wrapped in newer trim, or the same regurgitated genre-fiction and prose you’d expect would have become stale by now. Oh yes, we rant. This is our place. We’ll do as we damn well please.​

The above was taken from their home over at: http://copingmechanisms.net/ 
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BUY THESE JAWNS HERE:
Sad Laughter: A Totally Unessential and Demotivational Guide to Reading, Writing, and Publishing
House of Vlad catalogue 
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