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Video recording of an online horror reading, part of Fright Fest 2022 at the Hampton Public Library. Readings by Adele Gardner, Angela Yuriko Smith, Christina Sng, me, John Mannone, and Mike Allen.

https://www.facebook.com/HamptonPublicLibraryVA/videos/839699643832344

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Excited to show you the cover of my forthcoming full-length collection of dark speculative poetry, Some Disassembly Required, featuring many previously unpublished poems.



Some Disassembly Required had me at “Bah Bah Black Goat”….Providing both tongue-in-fungoid-cheek and real scares, Kopaska-Merkel’s poetry just about covers it with his use of free verse and formalist verse (Great Old One haibun, uh-huh), funny and scary verse, Sfnal and fantastical verse.

When you read some of these poems, you’ll recognize places you’ve been...even if only in your dreams and nightmares. Kinda nice to have some validation for those night gaunt sightings, eh?

Only reality is scarier than some of these poems.

--Denise Dumars, author of Paranormal Romance: Poems Romancing the Paranormal.

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David Kopaska-Merkel... uses precise language and twisted speculation to forge a...nuanced world-view….His works here, from poems about post-apocalyptic mutations to pieces dealing with shapeshifters and space travelers, are filled with creatures who are not so much extremes, or bigger than life, but are instead totally accessible because of the ordinariness of their cruelties, the normality of their mistakes and desires, and the pettiness of their wide-spread destruction. These are the small beings who do huge damage, the powerful divinities who act out of their small-mindedness, greed, and ignorance. Then, mixed in among the fantastic and the alien, almost to the point where the reader can no longer tell one type of being from another, are humans. If we created gods and demons in our own image, to be worshiped, feared and reviled, David Kopaska-Merkel's sf-nal creations have likewise used humans in the same way. This book...is a dark, gritty, almost horrifically strange one. But, with some disassembly, the reader can start to see bright patches, sympathetic and approachable. Of course, those only serve to make...the horrors more relatable. --Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Editor, Spaceports & Spidersilk, author of Midnight Comes Early.

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I have recently recovered PDF copies of two of my books. The first is a collaborative poetry chapbook with Kendall Evans. Night Ship to Never was published in 2009 and is out of print. The other book is a full-length collection of flash fiction by me called The Simian Transcript, which was published in 2010. Order one or both of these by sending me $1 each via PayPal to jopnquog@gmail.com.

012622b

Sale to Silver Blade, two sales to Failed Haiku, sale to Star*line. I don't think I've mentioned those here before. I've been writing more the last couple of months, after three comparatively barren months before and after moving. DN 120 is ready to go to the printer, but I have to go in person. I'm about to send out the PDF copies to subscribers. In a couple of weeks my booster shot will have kicked in, and then I'll go. Still reading for #121 (May), and I'm nearly up to date in responding.

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I have 2 poems in Weirdbook. This one is all about zombies. I know 8 of the 10 other poets represented, and you probably know most of them too. Most of the volume consists of short stories. It's THICK, has a very cool cover by Fotolia, and I can't wait to read it. There are several interior illos by the ubiquitous Allen K.

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Proofs of DN 120 have been sent to the authors. The issue should be printed by the end of the month.

Contents:

Denny Marshall, Oval Universe Star Burst Galaxy
Rebecca Buchanan, Vastitas Borealis
David Gianatasio, This Is Just To Say
Ann K. Schwader, Aricebo No More
Allen K., Wave
Mary Soon Lee, How To Enlist In Andromeda
Denny Marshall, Back Two Back
Terry A. Garey, Stephen Hawking Says We Must
Deborah P Kolodji, "world tug"
Gloundan Smorpian, "shrill cries"
Terry A. Garey, I'm Wishing
Denny Marshall, Long Black Dress
Lauren McBride, "show me, I said"
Lauren McBride, How I Got Rich Selling Lipstick
Joshua St, Claire, "full moon flesh"
F. J. Bergmann, Horror Fantasy & Speculative Fiction
Shelly Jones, The Beekeeper's Grave
Marsheila Rockwell, A Spell For Winning Your Personal Injury Lawsuit
Jacqueline West, A Christening
LeRoy Gorman, signs of a coming winter
Allen K., From Beneath
Adele Gardner, Ariadne Threads the Labyrinth
Allen K., The Island
Wade German, The Stable Under The Sign Of Hydra
Ken Poyner, In-Flight Pairing

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I keep seeing her
post office
lamp posts
behind my door

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worms
nothing but worms
inside the walls
the fridge
squirming up through the carpet
out your girl's anus
under the skin of your arms
coughed up from your lungs
dropping from your nose
what's left of you?
reaching for the knife

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ultraviolet
come-hither look says
“I want to bear your young”
the fangs -- always a surprise

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I have been busy, not sick. DN 119 has been mailed to subscribers & contributors, and most of you should have received them by now. Issues 117-119 contain poetry eligible for the Rhysling and Dwarf Stars awards. PDFs are $1 each to jopnquog@gmail.com via PayPal. All back issues are available at the same price, except 1-20 are free for the asking. 120 is full; reading for 121, the May 2022 issue. Plenty of room still in that issue.

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horrific punctuation bare. your neck; my deer your antler's lovely. in the moonlight & I want to hole you. in my arms Thanks to John Reinhart for the first line.

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Dreams and Nightmares issues 8 through 16 I'd thought gone for good. Beliefs being what they are, I'm pleased to announce that all 8 issues have been found and scanned (one was a double). These were all published as printouts from a dot-matrix printer. PDFs of all are free for the asking (jopnquog@gmail.com). Don't expect much, but there are some very good 1980s vintage poems.

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Subscriber & contributor copies of DN 119 have been mailed. Print copies are $5 & PDFs are $1, paypal to jopnquog@gmail.com. And, I'll be moving soon, after 30 years at the same address. I'll post the new address when it's finalized. In publication since 1986.

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The latest episode of Into the Looking Glass, a speculative-poetry podcast hosted by Jasmine Arch, features an interview with me: https://anchor.fm/lookingglasspoets/episodes/4--Combining-the-Careers-of-Editor-and-Poet-with-David-Kopaska-Merkel-e1862pp

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Some Disassembly Required My next poetry collection Contents: Broken Bones In the Wabe Bah, Bah, Black Goat “a great eye blinks” “we burst forth” A Visitor from Yuggoth Wind Walker Innsmouth Girl Klarkash Ton and the Prophet of Doom Host A Deity Goes Too Far The Imperishable Awakens Quite An Impression The Higher Dimensions Matters of Scale Divine Intervention Lights Over the Midnight Desert Diplomatic Incident Woman Delivers Ex-Husband’s Illegitimate Babies Maybe It Was Just As Well Pumping Up the Local Economy “we use scales and all” “the Altairian’s fridge” “diplomatic party served” Space Opera We Are The Oysters Some Disassembly Required Absolute The Laws of Robotics With Benefits Instar My Girl’s Got Everything Future Fossils What Happened To Intelligent Design? Leviathan “left my late father’s” “Captain dead planetside” “coughing starts after” Mars Colony 1 Under Attack Neptune’s Journey “Emy’s doll” “first-gen hybrid” “guests admiring” A Virus Takes the Mike Something Wakes Content Adult Female, Deceased Réanimation Medicale Stirrings Korean Fuel Train Disaster of 2004 Subterranean Hungers Conversion Therapy Changeling “a full moon rising” “Beast never learned” “anniversary” “breaking through the lid” Ghost Coming Back False Economy The Young Teacher Gets Her Nails Done Dating Has Its Hazards An Ill Wind The Werewolf Explanation That’s Dr. Vampire To You The Mummy Needs Work Swamped Sling Shot I’m A Stranger Here Myself Person of Interest Flesh Eating Alien Vampire Sex On The Moon The Mind Eater Host Always “kept all his late wives” Pattern of Response “the late prince” Irreconcilable Differences The Bad Sister Smart Homes The Hungry Void Lacertilia Regina Amoeba Girl As Teen Boa Boy Sends His Regrets Corn Boy The Brown-Paper Princess Second Skin A Song For You, Ophidia Trip Trap The Successful Suitor Will… Medusa’s Tale Persephone Makes Her Move Beats the Alternative Marooned

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Dreams and Nightmares 119 has been sent to subscribers.Next issue, to be published in January, will be the 34th anniversary issue.

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DN 119 is at the printer and should be printed next week. PDF copies will be mailed to subscribers in the next 2 days, & are available now for $1 (paypal, jopnquog@gmail.com).

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Dreams and Nightmares 119 is complete and the proofs are with the contributors Dreams and Nightmares 119 September 2021 CONTENTS Morgan Kopaska-Merkel, Cover Robert Frazier, Galileo’s Voyage to the Moon Jennifer Crow, A Disclaimer from the Continuum Line Deborah Davitt, The Futures Lost Between Us Bob Borski, Fulgurite Quiz Sandra Lindow, What the Weed Whip Wanted Rich Magahiz, “shedding photons” Anna Cates, End of Days Jane Yolen, Bear Man Three Ways M. C. Childs, Three Monopoly Multiverse Cards Federica Santini, Personal Knossos Denny Marshall, A Cloud Follows You Gerri Leen, What of Me, Goose Girl John Thomas Allen, Visiting Hours Laurel Winter, The Werewolf Raises Sheep Laurel Winter, the tree’s secrets Denny Marshall, Bell Pods Miguel O. Mitchell, A Descendant’s Gift F. J. Bergmann, Venery Deborah Davitt, Days of Wine and Petrichor Rich Magahiz, Parable of the Glove Lawrence Harding, The Translation of Moebius Q. Peabody

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DN update. Starting layout of #119. Reading for 120 (Jan. issue). Still a few of 118 to mail (been ill). Lifetime print sub, which includes available back issues & pdf subscription, reduced from $90 to $75 through Aug. Paypal reactivated; pay to jopnquog at gmail dot com. Or check to me at 1300 Kicker, Tuscaloosa AL 35404.

070521

Working on getting the last contrib copies of Dreams and Nightmares 118 mailed. Only 4 weeks out from time to start the next one. That issue's full, but I need to put it together. The January issue is not full, & I'm reading for that one now. PDFs of any issue are normally $1 each, but I've had to stop using PayPal because of their inability to deal with fraud to my satisfaction. So, for now, you can get one free. Print copies, the last 10 issues or so are available, are $5 each & $25/6. Send a check made out to me, at 1300 Kicker Rd., Tuscaloosa AL 35404. 3 days now since I came home from the hospital, and I'm feeling pretty good. When I forget how many days again I'll breathe a sigh of relief. That shouldn't take too long at this rate.