Update on Alternate Lanes Anthology

The poets and writers who will be included in the new poeticdiversity anthology Alternate Lanes (copyright 2012 Sybaritic Press) are:

L.Ward Abel

E. Amato

Michelle Angelini (aka Rina Rose)
Craig Berry

Jim Bolt

Lynne Bronstein

Deborah Edler Brown

Gully Burns

Charles Claymore

J. de Salvo

Meg Elison

Jerry Garcia

Sandra Hunter

Alex S. Johnson

Scott Kaestner

Deborah P. Kolodji

Eric Lawson

Tess. Lotta

Gregory Longenecker

Tamara Madison

Matt McGee

Brenda Petrakos

Rick Lupert

Daniel McGinn

Scott Nichols-Collier

Apryl Skies

Julia Stein

Anthony Torchia

Mary Torregosa

D.L. Warner

Florence Weinberger

Hilda Weiss

I want to thank all the writers, poets, and artists who submitted work, especially for sharing your individual points of view on traveling through the City of Angels in anything other than a car. I especially want to thank Angel Uriel Perales for assisting me with making the final choices. The anthology is due to be released the week of July 2, 2012.

article and photos copyright 2012 marie lecrivain

Disturbing News in Overseas Ebook Sales

According to Good E Reader, Irish customers who shop through Amazon are being forced to purchase ebooks at American prices. That's NOT cool, for the following reasons:

1. Ebooks cut down on shipping/customs costs, are instantly accessible, and therefore, more widely disseminated.
2. Ebooks encourage more people to be literate. Ereader devices are affordable, and, frankly, it's much easier to carry around 200 titles in a 1-lb electronic device than 200 hardcover books in your messenger bag.
3. Ebooks sales often provide writers and poets a higher percentage of royalties. Jacking up the price outside of America will be detrimental in the long run, which means that acts of piracy will rise and poets/writers will suffer because no one wants to pay top shelf prices for a virtual book.

Note: the argument that artists have more freedom and control over their content is not always true, as per this article by a music industry aficionado. I own a Kindle Fire, and, I love Amazon, but, not what its doing to its European customer base. I'm left to wonder if this isn't some sort of plan to A) keep the printed book from an untimely demise , B) maximize profit in as short as time as possible as ebooks become the industry standard. And, in my opinion, why give the rest of the world another reason to think America sucks?

article and photo copyright 2012 marie lecrivain