The TothWorld Podcast

The Colin Powell Tragedy: An Opera of Sorts

Inside the Vietnam-Iraq fevered mind of Colin Powell, from lion of war to disgraced national icon. A psycho-portrait of modern fallen man. No "why," only, "How?"

For CD requests, email with the subject line "Colin Powell CD."

A revamped TothWorld Podcast. Distorted sounds for disoriented minds.

It's Prozac Paxil Cymbalta Effexor Zoloft time. Take 'em while you got 'em and chill to the sounds of the empire falling.  It's all over now, blue babies.

This week, we check in with TothWorld favorite Jesse Loren.  Jesse is co-editor of Bombshells: War Stories and Poems by Women on the Homefront 2007 and is an MFA graduate of UNO.  She is also co-editor of Mourning Sickness which will be released in May and available at spdbooks.org or amazon.com.  Her poetry can be found in Octaves, Kingly Blue, The New Virginia Review, Yawp, and Ellipsis. Jesse writes an editorial column and doesn't kill spiders.

Toth's novel #3, Finale, is finally on schedule for publication in 2009.

This week's guest is Lina Ramona Vitkauskas.  She has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Wright State University, is co-editor of online literary/visual arts magazine, milk, and contributing editor to UniVerse: A United Nations of Poetry (Lithuania). She is the author of THE RANGE OF YOUR AMAZING NOTHING (Ravenna Press, 2008), Failed Star Spawns Planet/Star (dancing girl press, 2006), and Shooting Dead Films with Poets (Fractal Edge Press, 2004). She has been published in the 2008 Anthology of Younger Poets (Outside Voices, Ed. Jessica Smith), The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century (Cracked Slab Books, 2007); The Prague Literary Review, The Chicago Review, White Fungus (New Zealand), Aufgabe, Moria, MiPoesias, PFS Post, Seven Corners, LocusPoint, Van Gogh's Ear (Paris), Rampike (University of Windsor), Paper Tiger (Australia), In Posse Review Multi-Ethnic Anthology (Ilya Kaminsky, editor), The Mississippi Review, The Wisconsin Review, Lituanus (Lithuanian Quarterly Journal), and many others.

She won an Honorable Mention in the STORY Magazine's 1999 Carson McCullers Award contest and was a semi-finalist in the 2002 Cleveland State University Open Poetry Series. She has read at various venues all over Chicago and the Midwest including The School of the Art Institute (Chicago), The Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, Northwestern University, Around the Coyote Arts Festival, Quimby's, Woman Made Gallery, Myopic Books, Woodland Pattern Bookstore, Indiana University-Northwest, North Park University, Lewis University, and Santara-Sveisa Lithuanian Arts, Literature, and Political Conference. Upcoming work will be featured in Blossombones, Another Chicago Magazine, and Arabesques (Algeria). Click here to visit her website.

Guests: Dave and Lillian Brummet. Their websites include:

Main Website
Talk Radio Show
MySpace Site

Also, new music and the ressurrection of Additive Headlines.

I finally reveal my true identity: the Jesus Christ of anger. Also featured: the corpse of E.E. Cummings, plus music and other poems.

Goodbye to the U.S.A., plus dead author Robert Frost.

This week's guest is author Gabriel Ogrease, with a very interesting piece and equally interesting commentary. The show also features one diatribe, several turtle doves, and plenty of quasi-music.

A tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., with a special piece by Brian Douthit, author, editor, reviewer, and digital artist. He has written book reviews for ForeWord Magazine and writes music and book reviews independently. His contacts with both musicians and poets led him to produce audio pieces for The Public Radio Exchange (PRX), a nonprofit service for distribution, peer review, and licensing of radio pieces for public radio. Although he no longer broadcasts on his radio station, Brian continues to write reviews for audio pieces for PRX. Currently, Brian is creating video reviews for books in an innovative format he calls "Haiku Video Reviews" - an entire book review narrowed down to the seventeen syllables of a Haiku. He is also working on his own CD album of New Age music and is planning on releasing a new book in 2008.

Back with Steven Mayoff, only this time in the guise of his alter ego, Mojomatic.  The Mojomatic songs featured: Trance-Sylvania; God Is Alive; Highway 61 Revisited.

Also, more of the usual hijinks and jinxes.

The Confessions of Paul A. Toth, Part II (with only a pinch of madness).

 

Yes, we all have to learn our lessons and then...

Forget them
Relearn them
Forget them
Relearn them
Forget them
Relearn them
Forget them
Relearn them
Forget them
Relearn them
Forget them
Relearn them
Forget them
Relearn them
Forget them
Relearn them
Forget them
Relearn them

This week's show includes a fabulous audio presentation by Jesse Loren, an MFA graduate of UNO. She studies poetry, gardens, and teaches high school journalism.  Jesse is co-editor of Bombshells: War Stories and Poems by Women on the Homefront. Since 2005 she has had a deep relationship with an Infantry medic and purple heart vet who is the subject of one of her two pieces, You Will Be Measured. The other is entitled What Babies Really Do. Looking to please the king of TothWorld? Listen to these pieces.

Additionally, let it be known that I will soon resume phone recorded readings. First, I must have a tooth removed or, apparently, half my face sawed off. For those of you who responded to the Poets and Writers (home of the world's most pretentious bio photos) classified ad, and couldn't handle recording yourselves, I'll be getting back to you in the order in which I find your original emails.

Finally, cheer up: The world can't get any better.

This week's show is a tribute to "writer's writer" (read: unread) Stanley Elkin, the unsung John Coltrane of the novel. Also included: a collaboration between Scott Schroen of Ugly Radio Rebellion and myself.

This week's guest is author Greggory Moore, a lifelong SoCal resident who lives in Long Beach.

Also included is a special project from Scott Schroen of Ugly Radio Rebellion.

Plus, plenty more non-narcotic fun.

"Enjoy" the following works:

1. Cluster Spores
2. Paris, Florida
3. Sand Dollars
4. Time Bomb
5. Repetition I Like
6. Bring on the Culture War

And remember, we cannot "is." We're in flux, oscillating. And if that sounds pretentious, pretentious is just another word for nothing left to gain.

Yes, it's Toth on the loose in this special Rant Edition.

This week's guest is Frank Zappa tribute band Ugly Radio Rebellion, with more pyrotechnics than a mis-built meth lab.

Also included is more evidence of your host's rise, decline, decline, rise, rise, decline, decline, decline, rise, decline, rise, and --

Laurie Frankel of LauriesLoveLogic.com returns for part two and the conclusion of her saga. Meanwhile, your host continues -- whatever it is he does. Listen for yourself and "enjoy."

Part 1 of 2 from Laurie Frankel's serialized contribution.  Published book author, literary writer and humorist, Laurie knows pain is the root of all comedy and is thrilled her life is so damn funny! Her work has appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly and she was twice a finalist for Glimmer Train’s Very Short Fiction Award. Her book, It’s Not Me, It’s YOU! has been translated and is now in its third printing. This former east coast gal can be found saving the human race one love question at a time at LauriesLoveLogic.com.

This week's guest, Kerry Langan, is a short fiction author living in Oberlin, Ohio.  She has published more than three dozen short stories in literary  magazines published in the United States, Canada and Hong Kong.  Her work has appeared in American Literary Review, Story Quarterly, Cimarron Review, The Seattle Review, Phantasmagoria, Thema, Other Voices, and other publications.  Her non-fiction has appeared in Working Mother.  A selection of her published fiction appears at this site. Her short story, "Memphis, Tennessee," was originally published in Rosebud but was re-published in the online journal, Literary Mama.

You can also hear my poem, Lunar Mission, as well as these songs and in this order: Rearview Mirror; Mother is the Necessity of Invention; Watershed; and Take It All. And you who've taken it all know who you are.

This could be about the president, but it isn't. A TothWorld "Labor Day" (gee, thanks, that makes up for everything) Special.

Find out everything there is to know about my new home, Sanibel, Florida, on my newest show, The Sanibel Podcast, and go here to listen to the first show.

I Am a Tire and other surprises.

The robot returns.

Submissions sought. Authors with fiction or poetry published in online or print journals welcome. See this page for recording tips. Send a ten to fifteen minute recording as an .mp3 attachment to tothnews@aol.com with a bio as you would like to be introduced in the body of the message. Then, send a separate email with a photo (the larger and more square, the better) attached, or include a link to one. 

The TothWorld Robot is back as I wait for the Sopranos (Nationwide Moving -- do NOT hire no matter what the bid) to deliver my recording equipment.

The TothWorld Robot reads two poems and introduces a song in lieu of my equipment arriving here in Sanibel, Florida.

This week's guest is Michelle Miller is a writer, poet and academic currently living in small-town Ontario. Come August she will be moving to Vancouver, where she will be attending the prestigious Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at UBC. She has had poetry, fiction and non-fiction published in many local literary reviews, as well as The Danforth Review and Black Heart Magazine. One critic has praised Michelle as being "Like the London Anais Nin, only more crass, or Marguerite Duras with cuss words or a more literary version of mid-period Madonna without the bad electro background and udo kier cameos," which Michelle takes as a mighty set of compliments. Please feel free to creep her on the internet at this site.

Also featured are the songs I'm Okay, I'm Okay, Everyone's a Killer, The World Revolves Around Me, There's No Feeling for this Word, and the poem You've Got to Move, Child.

This week's show features several songs, a poem, and guest reader Leslie Wolter. Leslie is an English instructor and English Specialist at the East St. Louis campus of Southwestern Illinois College. Her work has appeared in a variety of online and print sources, including Eclectica, Great Works, River Walk Journal, Prose Toad, and Miranda Literary Journal. She can be emailed here.

Prepare your ears for some massive volume variation due to audio problems beyond my control or, more accurately, understanding. Keep that finger on the volume button.

This show includes my poem and accompanying song Air and Weight and One Day Old, the song Sheltering the Sky Beneath Me, a second poem entitled Dissonance Reduction, and, finally, the song I like Candlelit Beaches and Long Walks on the Dinner Table.

Heather Fowler received her M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University in May of 1997. She has published short stories in the following journals: See You Next Tuesday (2006), Frigg: A Magazine of Fiction and Poetry (Winter 2006), The Muse Apprentice Guild (October 2002), Artisan, a Journal of Craft (September 2002), Literary PotPourri (May 2002), Exquisite Corpse (Summer 2001), The Barcelona Review (May, 2001), Quercus Review (May, 2001), Penumbra (May 2001), B & A New Fiction (Jan. 2001), Barbaric Yawp (Dec. 2000), Zoetrope All-Story Extra ( June 2001, October and December 1999), Mindkites (December 1999, and June 2000). She worked as a Guest Editor for Zoetrope All-Story Extra in March and April of 2000. Her story "Slut" won third prize at the 2000 California Writer's Conference in Monterey.

Her poetry has been published in various venues including: the Map of Austin Poetry, The Coast Highway Review, The Driftwood Highway 1999 Anthology, Joe's Journal, Best of the Beach 1998, The Publication, and The Cityworks Literary Anthology, Volume 6. She is currently working on writing a second novel entitled Sex Angel, editing and compiling four books of short stories, and querying two screenplays and assorted other projects. Please feel free to email her. And check out her Myspace site here.

These week's guest is Jeff Markowitz, whose novels include Who is Killing Doah's Deer? and A Minor Case of Murder. See Jeff's blog here. Also, hear the story of my medical mystery, as well as the songs Sagital Cut, There Goes the Sun, the poem Mind Bowling, and, finally, the song If I Am What You Say I Am, Then... Download the show here.

And...we're back.

Look forward to the songs Clouds Moving Fast Over a Plain, Collateral Circulation and Unsent Letter to Bill Frisell, as well as my poem Personal Computer.

Also, don't forget to buy my novels, the profits of which will go towards purchasing several cells of an unspecified organ.

This week's guest, Libby Fischer Hellman, writes the award-winning suspense series featuring video producer and single mother Ellie Foreman, who gets by with a wry sense of humor, a circle of good friends, and an occasional bottle of wine. Originally from Washington, D.C., Libby has lived in Chicago for 30 years and finds the contrast between the beautiful and the profane in that city a crime writer's paradise. Next up is Chicago Blues,a dark crime fiction anthology she's editing, which will be released in October by Bleak House Books (also my current my publisher). She also will be releasing a stand-alone PI novel some time in 2008 called Easy Innocence. Visit her website here.

This week's show includes the songs Get Lost, Nothing Left to Do, and a cover of Gang of Four's 5:15. Also included is my poem Variations on a Conclusion in C Minor.

This week's guest is Ayn Amorelli, a published sexy-romance writer of four books (with another on the way) who also writes gothics using the pen name of Ayn Hunt. Ms. Amorelli can be found in Hunt's Corner, hosting a writing chat, every Sunday at 8:00 p.m. EST in AOL's Chapter One chat room.  Excerpts of all her books can be found at her Ayn Hunt site site and Ayn Amorelli site.

Podcast #91 features a tribute to Georges Bataille, the songs The Knowable Truth and Raindogs, and my poem So You Want to Be a God? Also, a very special and fizzy surprise.

This week's guest is Ursula Pflug, author of the novel, Green Music. (Tesseract Books,2002) Born in Tunis, she attended the Ontario College of Art and the University of Toronto after traveling widely. An internationally published, award winning short story writer, Pflug has published over fifty stories in journals and anthologies including Leviathan1 and 4, Album Zutique, The Nine Muses, On Spec, Now Magazine, Quarry, Herizons, The Best Of Strange Horizons, The Best of Leviathan and Album Zutique and many more. She writes about books regularly for The Peterborough Examiner, the New York Review of Science Fiction and other publications. Her experience in professional theatre includes several productions of her plays, either solo-authored or collectively written. Recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Works In Progress Award in 2005 to complete her new novel, Thin Wednesday, Pflug was short-listed for the KM Hunter Award the following year. She received a Canada Council grant in the current year for a novel length flash fiction project, in which each chapter will be precisely 500 words long. She teaches short fiction via the Continuing Education Program of Loyalist College. Her bibliography is posted on the ISFDB database.  See her Myspace site here.

This week includes the beginning of a blitzkrieg campaign to save my novel Fizz from undeserved obscurity. My other contribution is a tribute to my adolescent and adult psychiatrists, Talking Heads.

This week's guests are the band Foyl and Tamara Williams-Przyjazna. Williams-Przyjazna is an accomplished actress, classically-trained musician, poet, and mother of daughter Gwendolyn, also known as Nugget. Her piece is entitled Travelogue. Foyl is an acoustic-based rock band featuring Paul Michael Audi, Robert Fiets, Brandon Hoffman, and Bob Hull. Their production company is Pavlov's Cellar Productions. Feel free to email the band. The two songs Foyl plays are What Is and Should Never Be and Half-Life.

This week's guest, Wolf Larsen, is an adventurer, writer, and poet who traveled through 45 countries in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Wolf has lived in Chicago, Wisconsin, New York City, Honduras, Brazil, Peru, and India. He worked for nearly twelve years as a seasonal laborer in Alaska. Wolf has written five novels, six collections of poetry, a play, a screenplay, a monologue, a multimedia work, a collection of short stories, and a 70,000 word run-on sentence. He has been published in literary magazines around the world. After you hear his poem, I think you, like I did, will say, "Wow." Click here to visit his website.

The show also features my poem Gastronomy (since revised), plus the songs Junk is No Good Baby, Prodigal Son and Off the Coast of California.

My guest this week, Steven Mayoff, is a writer living on Prince Edward Island, Canada. His work has appeared in various Canadian magazines such as the the Windsor Review, Grain, Filling Station, Parchment, Pottersfield Portfolio, All Rights Reserved, Grimm Magazine, the Malahat Review and the Puritan, as well as Terrain.org (USA), the Dublin Quarterly (Ireland) and the Arabesques Review (Algeria). If I do say so myself, it appears good company shares good places. The piece Steven reads originally appeared in Pottersfield Portfolio (Nova Scotia) 2003. See his website here.

This show also includes the songs No One Receiving and Clocks, as well as a poem/song in the form of one of my monthly additive headline experiments, which may be read at The 2nd Hand.

This week's guest, Nathan Leslie, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and grew up in Ellicott City, Maryland.  Nathan Leslie’s five collections of short fiction include Believers (Pocol Press, 2006), Reverse Negative (Ravenna Press, 2006), and Drivers (Hamilton Stone Editions, 2005).  Leslie’s work has appeared in over 100 literary magazines including Boulevard, Shenandoah, South Carolina Review, North American Review, and Cimarron Review.  He is fiction editor for The Pedestal Magazine and of The Potomac, and his book reviews and articles have been published in newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Kansas City Star, and The Orlando Sentinel. His reading includes pieces from Reverse Negative and Drivers, as well as his story The Coloring Book. Visit his website here.

Also featured are the songs Leave Me Alone and I Am Drugs, along with the poem/song You Make Me Feel Like Chet Baker, the Later Years.

Now audible!

The file has been repaired. If you've already downloaded the original version, hit reload/refresh before saving the file.

This week's guest, Benjamin M. LeRoy, is the publisher of Bleak House Books.  Read his blog here.  I engage the guest in an interview of great interest to writers and readers alike, since Ben is both a publisher and writer.

This week's show also features the songs Ghetto Defendant and We're So Free, along with my poem Truck Bumper US-23.

After graduating with an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor, Dean Serravalle has published stories in The Dalhousie Review, Lichen Literary Arts Preview, The Arabesques Review, Zygote, The Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, Versal, Urban Graffiti, Sputnik, Dime, In Posse Review, and The Del Sol Review.  Most recently, one of his stories was nominated for the prestigious Journey Prize in Canada. At present, he is soliciting publishers for his first collection of short stories entitled After The Last Dance, a novella entitled E-pill, and a first novel entitled Reliving Charley. Dean teaches secondary school English in Niagara Falls.

This show also includes a bit from a blog, an Eno cover, and the song Peachy Keen.

An Easter Special of sorts, with guest Greg Santos, a Montreal native.  He has been published in print and online publications such as, McSweeney's, Matrix, Feathertale, The Gloaming, Sage of Consciousness, and Black Heart Magazine.  His poems were featured in a broadside published by ImPress and selected by Canada's Poet Laureate for "Poems of the Week". He studies at Columbia University and currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut where he is a co-editor of "Voce: Recorded Poems" for Palimpsest, Yale University's graduate arts and literary journal. Visit his blog Moondoggy’s Pad and his website.

Also featuring the Hitler: Five Impossibly Possible Love Stories infomercial, the songs Cancer is God's Way of Saying Good Luck in the Future and Dumbbell, and the poem Dead Porcupine.

Ronlyn Domingue's debut novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, was a finalist for the 2005 Borders Original Voices Award and has been acquired in 11 other countries. Her writing has appeared in New England Review, Clackamas Literary Review, New Delta Review, and The Independent (UK). Born and raised in South Louisiana, Ronlyn lives there still and is at work on her second book.  For more info, see her website here. Also featured are the songs She Says to Me, She Says, and Sunday News, along with a bit from the blog.

Author Jon Armstrong grew up outside Seattle, State College, PA., and Columbia, Maryland. His parents both have fine art and art education degrees and life was often like an extended art class. At an early age, Jon read and admired Buckminster Fuller and spent countless afternoons listening to his parents Jack Benny albums. Grey, his first published work, just came out from NightShade Books. Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay had this to say: "Grey is a legendary book waiting to happen. It's a mad, stylish, trippy, endlessly inventive romp through the biohazardouswastes of post-genre literature." Jon Armstrong is a genius, with an umlaut, to the fifth power. See his website here.

Also featuring Coolcumber, Music For Garbage Collectors, Authors of the Millenium, and In the Shadow of the Death Star, plus musings from the blog.

This week's guest reader is me.  I live in Michigan; I'm not sure why. My first novel Fizz and its successor Fishnet are available now. Short fiction credits include The Barcelona Review, Night Train and The Mississippi Review Online.  My work in multimedia has appeared on the Iowa Review Web, Drunken Boat and other sites. My latest project, Hitler: Five Impossibly Possible Love Stories, includes a book and CD featuring two films and interactive experiment.  Published in a signed and numbered run of fifty, it may be ordered here.  For more information about me, see www.netpt.tv.

This show also includes a surprise and several shocks.

Ed Hamilton, this week's reader, was born in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky.  He has a Masters Degree in philosophy from the University of Louisville.  His fiction has appeared in dozens of small magazines, including Modern Drunkard, Limestone Review, River Walk Journal, SoMa Literary Review, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Exquisite Corpse, and The Lumpen Times.  His short story, Nazi Cops,is included in the recently released anthology Class Dismissed: 75 Outrageous, Mind-Bending College Exploits. His short story, Movado,is currently being produced as a short film by the Washington, D.C. based independent film company, Ineffable Productions. He has lived at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City for 12 years, and writes for Living With Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog.  He also writes regularly for the Huffington Post, and for the print newspaper, Chelsea Now. Listen for a few surprises, too.

This week's guest reader is Vincent Louis Carrella, whose debut novel The Serpent Box is scheduled for release this summer by Harper-Collins/Perennial. His fiction and poetry have been published in Literal Latte, LinnaeanStreet.com, TalkingKitchen, Better Non-Sequitor, MicroFiction.net, and Boundoff.com. Also, enjoy the songs 60 Seconds and Six Hours and We Know How Big They Are.

Sylvia Petter's short stories have been published online at Eclectica, Gangway and others. Her webpublished stories are available in the blogbook Collected Web Stories. Another collection, Past Present, is also available. A story of hers was included in the anthology Valentine's Day: Stories of Revenge, which includes work by Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, Fay Weldon, Carol Shields, and Agatha Christie, among others

Sylvia's poems have appeared in print in Cadenza, Offshoots and Ex Tempore. She also writes erotica under the pen name, AstridL. Stories have been published online at Mind Caviar, Ophelia's Muse, Scarlet Letters and The Erotic Woman. Several anthologies are expected soon. Check for updates here.

Backburning is the title story of Sylvia's prizewinning collection of the same name, which will be published in Australia by Interactive Press in November 2007.  For more information about the book and prize, see this link, which includes an excerpt from the story.  

She is a final year PhD student in creative writing at the University of NSW in Sydney Australia and is now working on a novel.  See her blog and official site for more information about Sylvia Petter and her work.

This week's show also includes the songs Lights Out and Everybody is an Addict,  as well as my story Nice Kids Carry Guns from the anthology These Guns for Hire.

This week's guest is Gail Louise Siegel, whose work can be found in journals such as Post Road,  Pindeldyboz, Ink Pot, Zoetrope ASE, Brevity, Flashquake, Outsider Ink, The Salt River Review, Tattoo Highway, Night Train, FRiGG,  and anthologies like Consumed (So New Media) and Lost on Purpose (Seal Press.) Also featuring the songs The Man from T.O.T.H.W.O.R.L.D. and The Symbol Formally Known as a Representation, plus some media recommendations for surviving winter.

Photo: Gail and daughter.

Over an hour of entertainment, featuring D. Harlan Wilson, author of The Kafka Effekt, Stranger on the Loose, Pseudo-City, and an upcoming pulp science fiction novel, Dr. Identity, or, Farewell to Plaquedemia.  The novel will be published by Raw Dog Screaming Press in March 2007 and debut at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs convention in Atlanta.  His stories and essays have appeared in magazines, journals and anthologies across the world in several languages, and he is the editor-in-chief of The Dream People. See his website for more information.  Also featuring my online I-Ching reading and the songs The Starship Free Enterprise and Seizure.

Mark Yakich is the author of Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross (National Poetry Series, Penguin 2004) and The Making of Collateral Beauty (Snowbound Chapbook Award, Tupelo 2006). Mark's forthcoming collection is entitled September 12. Visit Mark Yakich's website here. Also featuring my poem Even the Authors Are Gentrified, the utter destruction of a classic pop song that deserves it, and a journey with Ernest Shackleton.

Ron Chepesiuk was interviewed on TothWorld #27 regarding his book Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel. This time, Ron reads from his new book, Gangsters of Harlem: The Gritty Underworld of New York City's Most Famous Neighborhood. Also featuring my poem The Bird is a Word, something else, and the song Ariel.

A recent graduate of USC, Evan Kilgore is a Washington transplant living in Los Angeles. He is currently at work on a variety of book, film, and television projects. His debut novel, Who is Shayla Hacker, a bizarre search for one girl, will be published in June of 2007. The show also includes a couple of other pieces and an appearance by dead soul star Barry White.  See Evan Kilgore's website here, his MySpace home here, and his Bleak House Books page here.

This week's reader, Kim Bannerman, has written two novels, The Tattooed Wolf and The Wolf of Gilsbury Cross.  Her career has spanned three continents, a handful of languages, and a Hugo nomination in 2006.  More information about Kim's publications can be found at her website.  The show also features a tragedy of sorts, the song Multipolar, and my story Sod.

This podcast is dedicated to the memory of my good friend Phil Hines.  Drummer for Dissonance, Phil's life spanned May 30, 1963 through December 25, 2006, and his influence spread far beyond his home town of Flint, Michigan. Also, farewell to James Brown. Adios, my friends.

For those who would like to post a tribute to Phil on the TothWorld Blog, send it in the body of an email message to this address.

Please send the link for this page to all friends of Phil: http://tothnews.libsyn.com/

This week's guest is Dexter Petley, an English novelist living off his wits in a trailer in France.  He's published 3 novels, Little Nineveh with Polygon, Scotland, and Joyride and White Lies with Fourth Estate, London, the latter nominated for the 2005 IMPAC DUBLIN. Short fiction has also appeared in Waterlog Magazine and London Magazine. His translation (with Laure Claesen) from the French of The Fishing Box by Maurice Genevoix was shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2006.  See his website here. Also featuring China Rocket, a 2007 resolution, and Tell Me.

Ryan Bird is often lowered by God onto a stage in order to untangle a plot-twist or to extricate a particularly loveable protagonist from a particularly sticky situation. Whether he was actually lowered by God or merely dropped on his head is entirely up for debate. His poems are in the current/upcoming issues of Carousel, dANDelion, filling Station, Misunderstandings, Zeugma and Ripe Magazine.  Visit his website here.  Also featuring Literature Is Dead and Chariot.

This week, TothWorld is visited by writer Magdalen Powers, whose credits include Paragraph, Pangolin Papers, Surgery of Modern Warfare, The Morning News, and 5_Trope. Kevin Sampsell’s Future Tense Books published her latest chapbook, The Heart Is Also a Furnace. Gary Lutz says “[her] crucial, compact prose miniatures provoke and disturb with a seductive wit and a sly, nervy exactitude all her own.â€?  Visit her website here.  Also featuring Denver, Creeping Fire and Achoo Baby.

This week, listen to Mark Coggins read an excerpt from his new novel Candy from Strangers.  Mark writes the August Riordan series, featuring jazz bass-playing PI Riordan. His books have been nominated for the Shamus and Barry awards and selected for four best of the year lists, including those put together by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Detroit Free Press. Of his new novel, Michael Connelly has said, "Ive been waiting a long time for someone to take a fresh look at the private eye novel. Mark Coggins has done it in Candy from Strangers." Take a look at Mark's work here.  Also featuring the songs Otto's Vacation and In Praise of Mr. Bennett (hint: not William Bennett).  For your amusement, I play bass on the former.  Finally, some special fireworks that mark anything but a celebration.

This week's guest author is Randall Brown, a teacher who lives outside of Philadelphia with his wife Meg, a cabaret singer, and their two children. He is a Pushcart nominee, a fiction editor with SmokeLong Quarterly, and on the editorial board of Philadelphia Stories. He holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Vermont College and a BA from Tufts University. His stories, poems, and essays have been published widely, with recent work appearing or forthcoming in Clackamas Literary Review, Del Sol Review, Cairn, The Saint Ann's Review, and Connecticut Review.  He is currently working on a short short collection, Mad To Live.  Check out Randall's blog here. Also, the songs Time to Crash, Headway, Having Said That, and Music for Listening to Music in Airports.

Take four minutes and say "thanks" with your host. Join hands, please.

The TothWorld Podcast welcomes Kevin Sampsell, author of many small books, including The Patricia Letters, A Common Pornography, Etiquette For Evil (illustrated by Ivan Brunetti), and Beautiful Blemish (2005 Word Riot Press). His next book, The Suitcase, will be a collection of non-fiction from Chiasmus Press in 2007. He's also the editor The Insomniac Reader (Manic D Press) and the publisher of Future Tense Books. Other Kevin Sampsell stories can be read at Nerve, Elimae, Failbetter*, and Powell's Blog entries. He lives in Portland, Oregon where his day job is working at Powell's Books. He also writes book-related articles for Associated Press and performs in a haiku group called Haiku Inferno. Episode #64 also features two songs, Holy Ghosts and 'Cause We Uh, plus my story Chet's Book of Sins. Finally, a special mystery appearance.

This week, the podcast showcases author Kim Chinquee, whose fiction has appeared in Noon, Denver Quarterly, Conjunctions, Fiction International, Notre Dame Review, The Pushcart Prize 31: Best of the Small Presses, and other journals. She teaches creative writing at Central Michigan University. Access Kim's blog here. Other segments include the song I Can Fly and one Toth story, My Eye.

Windsor, Ontario-based poet, novelist, photographer, and journalist Robert Earl Stewart reads a cycle of poems detailing his experiences during the extended illness and recent death of his mother.  Robert has been published by Monday Night, The Quarterly Staple (click on TQS #2), Nth Position, and Poetry Superhighway. Don't miss this poignant episode.

The day nears. Paralyze Bush. Take back his Congress and political capital. Not to be confused with the regular-edition podcast, to be published tonight or tomorrow morning and featuring TothWorld favorite Robert Earl Stewart.

Until then, remember: Anger is an energy. Use it.

This week, welcome guest author Myfanwy Collins.  Her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Cream City Review, AGNI, Swivel, Lilies and Cannonballs Review, and elsewhere in print and online. Visit her website here.  Podcast #61 also includes: The Baghdad Song; Moonfall; Get on My Cloud; and Lend Me Your Ears. Plus, a surprise, of sorts. Download the show here.

Austin's Claudia Smith reads fiction this week. Her stories have appeared in several online and print literary journals. Her piece, My Lawrence, will appear in W.W. Norton's The New Sudden Fiction, due in January 2007.  You can find more of her work at Claudia's website.  The story she performs, Possum, may be read online at Juked.

Also featuring plenty of potpourri: Better; Mirror; Additive Headlines Experiment #7; and Lunch Money.

Let's prepare ourselves for post-election disappointment now by saluting Travis Bickle, bearer of all our burdens.  Includes the story The Message is the Median. Also, these songs: Treason; I See; America; The Word; Malaria; and Mr. Scriabin. I'm not promoting what "happens" in the film, but, as Chris Rock would say, I understand.

This week's show will upgrade your brain to a major new patch. Improvements include Brainshower, In Seven Hours It Will Happen, The Accidental Flasher, and Madeline. The brief download was designed by Paul A. Toth and corrects numerous programming defects that either inadvertently evolved or were produced by the software's creator.  Also featured are two Additive Headlines experiments.

Special guests Dissonance, including an interview with member and vocalist Andy Turpen, followed by three songs from the band; plus my piece Bills. Order the Dissonance retrospective from Wyatt Earp Records by calling (810) 733-1031. See the Dissonance site here. Visit Wyatt Earp Records here.

This week, a special interview with dead author William Faulkner, plus the songs A New Approach, Streetcar and Bombay. That's him to your right, in better days.

This show features the songs Ohm, Crumple and Tropic of Cancer.  The guest reader of the week is Carol Novack with her story A Tourist in Siberia.  Carol "re-emerged" as a writer after waging battles (on behalf of artists and other criminals) in the legal arena for the worst part of two decades. She's the author of a chapbook of poems -- Living Alone without a Dictionary -- and the former recipient of an arts grant from the Australian government, awarded when she was a young "emerging" writer. Her prose, poetry and fusions can or will be found in The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets, American Letters & Commentary, Anemone Sidecar, Big Bridge, BlazeVOX, Del Sol Review, Diagram, First Intensity , 5_trope, LIT, Milk, Newtopia, Notre Dame Review, Salt Flats Annual, Segue, Word Riot, and other publications. Carol publishes the offbeat online journal, Mad Hatters' Review and curates a reading series; she's been nominated for inclusion in Best American Poetry 2007 and Best Non-Required Reading 2007. Carol is co-editing an anthology, Butterflies of Vertigo: Fresh Fiction for the New Century, and is teaching innovative fiction-writing at an arts center in NYC. Her blog is at http://carolnovack.blogspot.com.

Image: Siberia by Peter Schwartz

Author Jeff Parker reads his story The Briefcase of the Pregnant Spy Lady.  Jeff’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006, Ploughshares, Tin House, Hobart, and others. His novel Ovenman will be published by Tin House Books in 2007, and his story cycle The Back of the Line, in collaboration with artist William Powhida, will be published by DECODE Art Publishers in 2007. He teaches creative writing at Eastern Michigan University and is the Russia Program Director of Summer Literary Seminars.  For more information, see his entry on the Eastern Michigan University faculty site.  Also featuring two songs, Sparky and Dueling Clown Cars, as well as my story You're An American, Now.

This week's guest is Peter Toh, a genre-smashing 24-year-old artist/producer from Brooklyn, New York. You can access the tunes off Peter's EP Shoes of a Beast here.  For more info, see his MySpace site.  This week's show also features one quasi-poem, one quasi-recipe, and one quasi-quasi.  Plus two Toth songs, P.S. and Smear Campaign.

Featuring an excellent reading from guest Jerry Wennstrom, plus some odds and ends from your host.

Artist and author Jerry Wennstrom was born in New York on January 13, 1950. He attended Rockland Community College and the State University of New Paltz. After producing a large body of work, at age 29 he set out to discover the rock-bottom truth of his life. For years he questioned the limits of his creative life as a studio painter. After destroying all of his art and giving away everything he owned, Jerry began a life of unconditional trust, allowing life to provide all that was needed. He lived this way for fifteen years. In 1998 he moved to Washington State, where he eventually married Marilyn Strong and produced a large new body of art. Marilyn and Jerry�s charming Whidbey Island home is now filled with his unique interactive sculptures and paintings. Jerry also built a 40-foot meditation tower on his property, which is featured along with his story in a book by Laura Chester called Holy Personal. Jerry's story is told in his book, The Inspired Heart: An Artist�s Journey of Transformation (foreword by Thomas Moore) published by Sentient Publications and in the Parabola Magazinedocumentary film called In the Hands of Alchemy: The Art and Life of Jerry Wennstrom. There is also a Sentient Publications DVD with the same name, which includes a short new film called Studio Dialogue. Studio Dialogue is a presentation Jerry did before a live audience with music by Susan McKeown, sung by Marilyn Strong. Jerry travels internationally lecturing, teaching and presenting his film and work and he writes a monthly piece on the spirit of the times for a New York City consulting firm. Jerry Wennstrom has presented at the Birmingham Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the EMP (Experience Music Project,) Glen Arbor Art Association, the Old Firehouse Art Center, Other Side Arts, UCS-NAROPA (Wisdom University,) the Vancouver Public Library, Western New Mexico University, California Institute of the Arts and NYU. He has also done over 50 radio, TV and magazine interviews and art features. His web site is www.handsofalchemy.com or www.jerrywennstrom.com.

Chris Ringler reads a story, followed by the song Seizure and my story Penguins (the studio version).  

Visit Chris at MySpace. Check out his website. Click here to read his reviews. See the Creative Alliance website for information about the Flint-based organization.  Click here to e-mail Chris.

Featuring guest Elizabeth Ellen, whose collection of stories Before She Was a Pitbull will be published this December by Future Tense Press. Visit her website here. She will also serve as book editor for Hobart's new Short Flight/Long Drive Books division. The first release will be Michelle Orange's The Sicily Papers, due in October. Also, one blog entry, one odd song, and one still odder song by the TothWorld James Brown Robot, Model Number JB-X103.

The Best of TothWorld Music, Volume I

Shhh . . . that's enough talk: quiet, quiet. Featuring the amplified to the ambient, this show runs the gamut from "A" to "A," with nearly an hour of uninterrupted music, as chosen by your host. Turn up the subwoofer, take that Xanax. We're going in low for a landing.

This week's guest is Stefan Kiesbye, author of the novel Next Door Lived A Girl (Low Fidelity Press 2005). Also featuring Spirograph, Alphabet, and Lost in New York. A great reading from Stefan. Come along and twist those eardrums. For more info about Stefan Kiesbye, see this site.

Featuring Steven Gillis, author of the novels Walter Falls and The Weight of Nothing, along with the forthcoming short fiction collection Giraffes.  Also featuring my piece Last Night with Tom and the song Tonguehammer. 

Steve teaches writing at Eastern Michigan University and is the founder of 826 Michigan, a nonprofit mentoring and tutoring organization for public school students specializing in reading and writing and a chapter of Dave Eggers' 826 Valencia. All author proceeds from Steve's writing go to his 826 Michigan foundation.

Two tracks from the musical group Ear and their record Whole, followed by my songs Skeleton Clock and Vertigo.  Spoken word will return to TothWorld just as soon as I decide my vacation has ended. Other links mentioned on the show include the online journal Eye and Mad Hatters Review.

Featuring Johnny Cash in an essential public service announcement, plus The TothWorld Orchestra performing its epic Fourth of July Requiem.

Canadian author and photographer Robert Earl Stewart reads a series of his unforgettable poems. Afterwards, shut down your voltage with the musical piece Cold Switching.

Photo: Press Conference by Robert Earl Stewart. 
From his photo blog GLASSPOEME.

Daily Treated Spam by Rob Read; the song Spinner.

Links to Rob Read's websites and projects:

Daily Treated Spam: The site of your favorite meal in poetic form.

O Spam, Poams: Rob Read's new book of poems, which is a collection of the very best of the first two years of Daily Treated Spam, is available exclusively online from Apollinaire's Bookshoppe.

Atone Neither Overflowing Clause: Two novellas in the shape of a guillotine which is a collaboration with hypnotherapist AEM.

Some of Rob's non-spam poetry can be found in 18 Full English Breakfasts, published by Wood & Coal.

Rob's work has most recently been featured in the groundbreaking new anthology Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry.

Four pieces from author and musician Peter Schwartz from the CD recorded with Robert Luzzatto: Big Deal; Lady Radio; Preserves; and QED. Audio sneak peak of an animated film for my novel Fizz, to be included as part of a soon-to-be-released project. Finally, Narcotic Slumber.

Four poems from Rocco de Giacomo, traveler, author, and editor of Latchkey.net. Also includes the songs: The Dog Ate My Homework; Pan; and Georgy Boy, sung by an anonymous musical legend of our time.

Come On from Amient; The Message is the Median; Clara Net; Heiss; So It Is (If You Think So).  Amient's song is in the public domain and may be freely distributed.

The Spirit of Truth (author/performer unknown); Russ Krauch's musical piece Klaus Schulze Is Still Alive; from the blog, Paul's Book Club; A Feeling I Used to Like on Certain Days in L.A.; Song for Hipsters; sneak previews from the next two novels; and Mumble: An Exercise in Self-Analysis. Where else can you absorb this much media in less than 24 minutes?

Download here.

Interview with Dan Bessie, author of Reeling Through Hollywood: How I Spent 40 Fabulous Years in Film and Never Made a Nickel.  Also featuring the new song, Dance of the Cartographers, which, if you've ever seen cartographers dance, is damned funny.

Interview with Lynne Taetzsch, author of The Bipolar Dementia Art Chronicles, plus a new song entitled Captain.

Lynne's book is available now, so visit her website or online retailers like Amazon.

Lynne's work will be featured as part of a four-week group exhibit at the new Chelsea gallery Monkdogz Urban Art, 547 West 27th Street, the opening having occurred on Saturday, April 22.

Featuring Kenneth L. King's Carousel and much more. Photo: Kenneth L. King.

It's that time again.  Get ready: We're going on a Fantastic Voyage with Joseph Conrad as our copilot and a Muzac DJ under the infuence.

When I was 41; Motion Wellness; Animal Crackers; Ode to Memoirs; TothWorld James Brown Robot Model No. JB-X103 performs Sex Machine; and The Collision.  Call for submissions continues.

Featuring Craig Terlson. Mesomorph; Craig Terlson reading Well, It's Not the Damn Oil Light; Special Relativity Theory of Birthdays; and The Writer's Life.

Diatribe; "Yoga with Paul"; interview with Todd Heldt, followed by a reading from his novel "Before You Were a Prophet." For author links, click the link to my blog (left).

Go naked with your host this week as he writes a new chapter of the "TothWorld Book." It's no "Tale of Two Cities," but it's still full of the Dickens. There's a load of new material, including: "Everything's Coming Up Roses"; review of "Hitler, a Film from Germany"; "Yoga with Toth"; "Handi-incapable"; "The Corporate Way"; "Zoo Riot"; and the Tothworld James Brown Robot Model No. JB-X103 performing "Hit Me."

This week's guest is New York author Carol Novack, whose credits include a chapbook of poems, "Living Alone Without a Dictionary," "The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets," and many more. She is also the publisher and editor of the Web Del Sol hosted Mad Hatters' Review, and the co-editor with Kathyrn Rantala of a forthcoming anthology of intoxicating short fictions, "Butterflies of Vertigo." Following the interview, you'll enjoy new musical-literary hybrids and songs from your host. For links, click the link to my blog (left).

This week, I chat with guest Ron Chepesiuk, author of "Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel." Ron has published eighteen books and over 3,000 articles. His website is located at www.ronchepesiuk.com. Also, The TothWorld James Brown Robot Model No. JB-X103 performs "Hot Pants." Finally, a very special guest closes out the show.

"State of the Union Subliminal Remix (Speak of Deconstruction)"; interview with Military Families Speak Out member Laurie Manis; "Recreate Your Reality." Photo: Laurie Manis, with sons Charlie (below) and Geoff (above).

Now may be the perfect time to discuss the subject of integrity, which is Dennis AuBuchon's specialty, as revealed by his book "Integrity: Do You Have It? 2nd Edition." Plus, the musical ode to indecision, "Yes, No, Maybe."

Interview with Joyce Faulkner, author of "In the Shadow of Suribachi," a fictional yet highly-realistic account of the battle for Iwo Jima. Also, the new song "Pulse."

Jump into the Frey fray with guest Susan Henderson. Who draws the line between fiction and memoir, and what will the line mean for writers? Also featuring the introduction of the TothWorld James Brown Robot, Model No. JB-X103, and his first song, "Lickin' Stick." This episode is presented early due to travel. Look for the next episode on approximately February 11, 2006.

Back for part two of the interview with Stanley Richardson, author of "Growing Up in a Foxhole." Learn what it was like to come home from World War II and adjust to a brave new world. Also featuring comments regarding Werner Herzog's film "The White Diamond," plus my song entitled "Dirigible."

Take a journey back to World War II. Learn the day-to-day realities of a war that still affects our world in part one of a two-part interview with Stanley Richardson, author of "Growing Up in a Foxhole" (available from www.booklocker.com). Plus, "Friends of Ansel Adams." Photo (left to right): Stanley Richardson, Charles Crowe, Carl Cottrell. Both Crowe and Cottrell were killed later in Nuremburg on the same day.

"I'm Not Swearing" (song); interview with J. Boyer, playwriter, author of the Bob Rafelson biography "Hollywood Maverick," shortlisted candidate for the Raymond Carver Short Fiction Award, and much more; "Fire" (song). Boyer discusses the classic Rafelson film "Five Easy Pieces," how he writes dialogue, and the time management techniques that make his many credits possible.

"The TothWorld Non-National Anthem (The Mountain Song)"; part two of the interview with Dom Salemi, publisher of Brutarian Magazine; "Lily Pads."

"No, I Won't Dance With You"; interview with Brutarian publisher Dom Salemi (first of two parts); "H-Bomb." Learn about the trials and tribulations of Mr. Salemi, one of the most committed independent publishers around. Listen closely and learn what not to do to magazine publishers.

All your Christmas favorites and more. This show will definitely put the words "Jesus Christ" back into your holiday.

"Possible Money"; author/performer Nathan Singer live at the Wisconsin Book Festival; "Everything Is Political."

"Bonehead Hawkins"; interview with Benjamin LeRoy of Bleak House Books and Intrigue Press; "A Memo from Santa."

"Rock-Stop"; interview with author of the upcoming novel "Crystal Rain," Tobias Buckell; "The Rub."

"The Secret Life of Salvador Dali's Mustache"; interview with Yul Tolbert, creator of Whino the Whiny Cat; "Sagittarius." Image: Pixie, Paul's whiny cat.

"In Our Own Company"; interview with Carey Wallace, author of the novel "Choose." Interviewer: Andrew Medley. Photo: Carey Wallace and Andrew Medley.

"The Average Bear" plus part two of the Robert Earl Stewart interview.

Blog potpourri; interview with author Robert Earl Stewart (part one of two); forty-eight days until Christmas.

"A Prayer for the Uncool"; interview with VerbSap Editor Laurie Seidler; and "Biography of a Criminal."

The TothWorld Opera, featuring the stories "Tornadoes" and "No," plus a slew of new music. A must listen.

Interview with writer Matthew St. Amand; "The Good Heart of Fascism"; "Some Observations Regarding Indoor Human Flight and an Illustrative Anecdote of a Sexual Nature."

Special Double Narcissism Issue: Toth reads at the Wisconsin Book Festival ("The War is Over, Let's Go Shopping" & "Penguins"); Toth interviews Toth; "Frogs on the Good Foot."

A golden silence; "Bull Dyke"; interview with crime writer Tribe; famous physicist goes "crazy" on the cell phone.

Taps for Dr. Valium; "Monkeybars"; interview with Opium Magazine founder Todd Zuniga; Get Mad (again). SPECIAL NOTE: The Todd Zuniga interview will be rebroadcast soon in better audio quality, along with new TothWorld material.

"Think Like a Mountain"; interview with Todd Dills, editor-publisher of The Second Hand and author of the novel "Sons of the Rapture"; "The Great Hypnotism."

Bush karaoke; "FDR vs. RFD"; "The Kind of Girl You Read About in New Wave Magazines"; "Bombs, God, Beckham"; "Song of the Century."

Good enough to steal; goin' to Naropa; fiction; ten commandments of filmmaking; ennui; Get Mad.

Your entry to the world of Toth. PLEASE NOTE: If this is your first visit, I-Tunes brings up the files in order. Therefore, besides this first file, there are many more TothWorld Podcasts already available, and you can access them all from this site. Download the files to your desktop. Listen to them using any media player or drag them to your appropriate I-Tunes folder for Podcast listening. In short, these Podcasts are simply .mp3 files. Feel free to distribute. However, links to this site would be greatly appreciated, whether on your blog, e-zine or website. Every attempt is made to present new Podcasts weekly, usually Sundays or Mondays.