New Book! Circus Dancer by Beate Sigriddaughter

 

From Circus Dancer: "Tentative, contemplative. If she were a candle, she would want to burn, not merely stand tall and unlit in graceful uselessness, decorative, devotional, and always a promise. She is not a candle. Still, she believes it is time to burst into flame instead of just skimming the edges of importance."

From Beate Sigriddaughter: “Words are my passion and, with many wise folk before me, I believe that they are a significant tool for building a world of sanity, honor, and peace. I am especially passionate about having women’s voices heard, read, and validated in our off-kilter world.”

Beate Sigriddaughter is the author of several novels, collections of poetry and other writings. Her most recent poetry collections are Wild Flowers (2022), Kaleidoscope (2021), Emily (2020) and Dancing in Santa Fe (2019).

Click here to purchase Circus Dancer on-line ($6)

New Book! In the Eyes of by Duane Anderson

In the Eyes of Morning

I get up every day,

while others

still lie asleep.

They roll over in bed,

mumbling under their breath,

“You joker,

go back to bed.”

In this new book of poetry, Duane writes through the eyes of 120 different items, people, and creatures. You'll learn how a dog, a can of pork and beans, a pair of shoes, a tomato plant, a doorknob, and 114 others. Laugh, cry, and howl with glee as you read this poetry!

Duane Anderson is the author of The Life of an Ordinary Man (2025), Family Portraits (2024), Conquer the Mountains (2022), On the Corner of Walk and Don’t Walk (2021),and The Blood Drives: One Pint Down (2021).

Click here to purchase "In the Eyes of" on-line ($6)

 

New Book! ECT In Crayon by John Sierpinski

Halfway House

(Angelic Mansion)

The young lady

with the ornery tattoo

brings me bread,

and tells me,

My husband

is in prison.

Then she asks,

I don’t even know

why you’re here?

I look at her serious

toughened face

before I shrug

my shoulders

and say,

Sometimes I

don’t either.

- - - -

John Sierpinski is a master storyteller. I think about Goldilocks and the Three Bears when I consider how he uses color and images; landscapes and incidents – not too much or too little, but just right. Just enough. If he’s ever had an impulse to show off his mastery of language (which I seriously doubt), he’s had the sound artistic judgment and humility to restrain it. He intends to connect and to banish loneliness through doing so and succeeds. - Sue Blaustein, poet

John Sierpinski is also the author of two previous books of poetry published by Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library available on Amazon: Sucker Hole (2018), and Vacancy/No Vacancy (2022).

Click here to order your copy of ECT In Crayon (2024) $6.00

 

New Book! HOWL's Legacy edited by Greg Gilbert

 

edited by Greg Gilbert

in association with Mojave Sage Writers

Cover & inner art by L. I. Henley

Additional inner art by Chloe Allred

Literary contributions by:

Nathan McClain

J.J. Starr

Greg Gilbert

L.I. Henley

Jenna Baillargeon

Michael Green

Michael G. Vail

Kent Wilson

Renee Gurley

Brenda Littleton

Wendy Costello

& lalo kikiriki

Click here to purchase full color edition ($14.15)

Click here to purchase black & white edition ($5.50)

New Book! Commune Of The Golden Sun by Miriam Sagan

 

"The Commune of the Golden Sun had been founded in the last century as part of the back-to-land hippie movement. The founders were idealists, egalitarians. Dozens of communes had sprung up in the counterculture seemingly overnight, like mushrooms. And then died off just as quickly. But Golden has survived for almost a hundred years. . ."

"No one can see the future. Sometimes I think I can’t even really see the past."

- - - - - - -

Miriam Sagan is the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction, and memoir. Her most recent include Border Crossing (Cholla Needles, 2022), Start Again (Red Mountain, 2022), and Star Gazing (Cholla Needles, 2020). Her haiku mentor was Elizabeth Searle Lamb and Miriam edited Elizabeth’s collected work, Across The Wind Harp (La Alameda Press, 1999).

Miriam has been a writer in residence in four national parks, Yaddo, MacDowell, Gullkistan in Iceland, Kura Studio in Japan, and other interesting places. She founded and directed the creative writing program at Santa Fe Community College.

Click here to purchase this fascinating novella on-line ($6.00)

New Book! Butchy's Rainbow by Gregory Wallace Gilbert

 

In these pages, you’ll spend a night with a condemned prisoner, ride after Pancho Villa, watch death arrive on black wings, see a man fight for the lives of people as they are consumed by fire and acid. You’ll read about young love in the 1940’s, the loss of children, and the raw political intrigue and Gatsby scale partying that was the 1950’s. Experience the war years in Washington DC and VE Day in Long Beach.

Come with me and meet Tom and the Eddies as the world emerges from the shadows of a candlelit mystery into the naked glare of modernity.

-- Butchy

Click to purchase this 500 page true-to-life novel
online - complete with photos from

Butchy's memory. ($15)

New Book! The Love Song by D. Marie Fitzgerald

 

This is the room, yes,
where our love grows,
where we fantasize about the forest outside
and the one star we behold between tree tops,
where angels are fixed on the ceiling,
and a Japanese parasol suspended in the air
forbids tears from overflowing—
- D. Marie Fitzgerald

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Click here to purchase The Love Song online ($5.50)

D. Marie Fitzgerald is the author of 
Reruns,
A Perfect World,
I Have Pictured Myself for Years,
and F&G.

She is a retired English and creative writing teacher
and currently hosts a monthly authors series
and a poetry critique group.
She lives in Palm Springs, California.

New Book! Laying Stone by Bonnie Bostrom

 

Lay stones mindfully,
mosaic them into mandalas;
circles reflecting stories of heaven.

Laying Stone is a beautiful collection of full color art and poetry by Bonnie Bostrom. The large format of this book allows you to see the brushstrokes of the paint along the details of the images within her words and world. Bonnie Bostrom is the author of nine other books, The Way Showers, Women Facing Retirement: A Time For Self-Reflection, Quicksilver Dreams, Buddha Nature of The Southwest and Image and Word: A Dialectic, as well as Born Crazy, Love, Always Love, Duet and Uncommon Constants. She relishes time to paint and write as she lives happily in the Land of Enchantment with her husband, Jim. See more at bonniebostrom.com

Click here to purchase Laying Stone, 

a full color art/poetry book 

on-line ($12.00)

New Book! SharkHeads by Peter Nash

 

This is the story of my 9 year music business career. It includes my memories of these vinyl heroes and mentors who colored my world while I grew up inside the business:

Henry Stone, Music Biz Legend and boss
Milt Oshins: Boss and teacher of how to get it done
Jerry Wexler: Atlantic Records producer
Joe Galkin: Manager of Otis Redding
and ButterBall: Hero DJ and adviser

I also share stories of some of the stars I met along the way, including

Elvis Presley
BB King
James Brown
Led Zeppelin
Rod Stewart & the Faces
Aretha Franklin
Allman Brothers
Dr John the Night Tripper
Sam & Dave
Ike & Tina Turner
James Taylor
Van Morrison
President LBJ
Bill Cosby

Plus a few names that I was down front or backstage with…
The Doors at Dinner Key (No, he didn’t pull his winky out)
Otis Redding
Hendrix at Monterey Pop
Ike & Tina Turner
Diana Ross

And special thanks to Sir Rich and Cholla Needles. He’s a music cat and gets it done.

Visit my work:
peternashportraits.com

- Peter Nash

Click here to buy the book on-line ($8.00)

Also by Peter Nash & Cholla Needles:

WHAT LIES BELOW (Photo Essay)

New to the desert floor I feared rattlers and scorpions and thorns and tripping over the uncertainty under foot. Instead of taking in eye-level views I perceived mystery and danger hidden in the shadows. I came from the east, the land of paved paths below and wires above.

In the desert deep shadows hid the unknown. And then I heard the piercing rattle of death and that did it. My eyes guided my feet. I saw beauty not danger and never looked up till I recorded the darkness and light. The hidden world under foot in the desert. I still don’t look up, not from fear but the wonder of what lies below.

"My work is about love and endearment, without which none of my portraits would succeed. My gift is to capture what already exists without intrusion.” 

- Peter Nash

 

New Book! We're Also Wounded by Ron Riekki

 

In This Poem, I Explain God

except God hates
explanations. God likes

it when you just let stuff
happen.

- - - - -

Ron Riekki’s other books include

Invisible Orchestras, with Joy Gaines Friedler

Posttraumatic

and

My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting in Extinction

Click here to order We're Also Wounded on-line ($6.50)

New Book! Invisible Orchestras by Joy Gaines-Friedler & Ron Riekki

 

Joy Gaines-Friedler 

For 20 years Joy Gaines-Friedler made her living as a photographer. She is the author of 5 books of poetry, her most recent is Capture Theory. Joy teaches Memoir & Poetry for non-profits & communities at risk in S.E Michigan.

Ron Riekki 

Ron Riekki’s books include Posttraumatic, and My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting in Extinction.

Click here to order your copy of Invisible Orchestras on-line ($6.50)

New Book! On The Way by James Marvelle

 

On The Way is the new collection of 210 poems from an American master. His work looks deep into nature (birds in a field), individuals (a girl with her dogs), music (finding the right tune), art (clear clean palette),  humanity (finding oneself), spirit (the language of God, soul searching, returning to peace), as well as the craftmanship of humans (jewel boxes, coloring books, tackle boxes, playgrounds, speedbumps, etc). Marvelle is a poet you savor, as he makes us slow down, appreciate his carefully chosen words, and feel fully a part of the world he creates on each page. 

Click here to purchase a copy ($10)

other books you will enjoy by James Marvelle (click on the individual book covers for more information on each):

  

 

New Book! Proving Grounds by Jean-Paul L. Garnier

Approximately 2624 nuclear bombs have been detonated since 1945. The vast majority of these bombs were dropped on the countries who made them, or on their colonies, as “tests”. Nukes have been detonated on land, in the sky, in the ocean, in space, and underground - last but not least on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – killing tens of thousands of people and injuring tens of thousands more. The nuclear arsenal is large enough to destroy every city on Earth thousands of times over. Only those profiting by the manufacture of these weapons of mass destruction see the logic in the overwhelming destructive power of such “deterrents”. And profited they have.

Since the Cold War allegedly ended in 1991 the discussion of nuclear weapons has largely disappeared, yet these arsenals are still in existence, aging and in need of maintenance, posing even more of a threat then they did in the past. So why then have they ceased to be in the forefront of our minds? This book is intended as an ugly reminder of one of the greatest threats humanity has ever encountered, one which we have bestowed upon ourselves and which is still present until we have agreed upon and reached the necessary and urgent total disarmament of all nuclear weapons.

Despite the dark nature of the poems contained in this book, I hope that you find within its pages the possibility of hope. I hope that you see that much of the damage we have done can be stopped in its tracks. We can achieve total nuclear disarmament, it is possible.

Proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

Jean-Paul L. Garnier

+ + +

Jean-Paul L. Garnier lives and writes in Joshua Tree, CA where he is the owner of Space Cowboy Books, a science fiction bookstore, independent publisher, and producer of Simultaneous Times podcast. In 2020 his first novella Garbage In, Gospel Out was released, and in 2018 Traveling Shoes Press released Echo of Creation, a collection of his science fiction short stories. He has also released several collections of poetry: Future Anthropology (2018), Odes to Scientists (2019), Betelgeuse Dimming (2020), Utopian Problems (2021), and Time’s Arrow (2022). He is a five-time Elgin Nominee and has also appeared in the 2020 Dwarf Stars anthology, Dark Matter Magazine, Utopia Magazine, and more. He is a regular contributor to DreamFoundry.org's blog and is the current editor of Star*Line Magazine.

+ + +

Signed copies available at Space Cowboy Books
61871 Twentynine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree, CA 92252

Open Sat & Sun 11-5pm – hours may vary

Unsigned copies available on-line.
Click here for more info ($5) 

New Book! Odd Arcana by Toti O'Brien

You like looking at the moon in the face
sustaining the ambiguity of her gaze.
You think you understand her.
After all, you can be elusive as well.
Are the two of you related? Once
you must have been.
-Toti O'Brien

Full Color Art & Poetry

Toti O’Brien is the Italian Accordionist 

with the Irish Last Name. 

Born in Rome, living in Los Angeles, 

she is a poet, artist, musician and dancer. 

She is the author of:

Other Maidens (BlazeVOX, 2020)
An Alphabet of Birds (Moonrise Press, 2020)
In Her Terms (Cholla Needles, 2021)
Pages of a Broken Diary (Pski's Porch, 2022)
The Past, Ineffable (Cholla Needles, 2023)

Click here to order Odd Arcana ($12)

New Book! The Past, Ineffable by Toti O'Brien

LEXICON

As he slowly deciphered

the old script,  he took

pleasure in every word.

How they formed

in his mouth, the

nouns, the adjectives.

He rolled blue butterfly

on his tongue and a taste

of aniseed lingered

while a window

of cobalt burst

within forest green.

When he said volcanoes

the universe flipped

upside down. He heard

barking of dogs trapped

underground. Moonlight

glare seeped in.

 

-Toti O'Brien

Toti O’Brien is the Italian Accordionist 

with the Irish Last Name. 

Born in Rome, living in Los Angeles, 

she is a poet, artist, musician and dancer. 

She is the author of:

Other Maidens (BlazeVOX, 2020)
An Alphabet of Birds (Moonrise Press, 2020)
In Her Terms (Cholla Needles, 2021)
Pages of a Broken Diary (Pski's Porch, 2022)
Odd Arcana (Cholla Needles, 2023)

Click here to order The Past, Ineffable ($5)

 

New Book! The Flying Desert by David Chorlton

 

This beautiful collection of over 20 full color paintings 

and accompanying poems by David Chorlton 

is a true treasure for your art/poetry collection. 

A perfect companion to David's 2021 

art/poetry collection The Inner Mountain. 

Click here to order on-line ($12)

Link to review in International Times

David Chorlton was born in Austria and grew up in Manchester, England. In 1971 he moved from the rainy industrial city to the cultural city of Vienna and stayed seven years before moving to Phoenix, where he began to invest more time in his writing. Arizona’s landscape and wildlife gradually infiltrated his work, where he can show his affection for them even while acknowledging that he remains, quite contentedly, unassimilated. That is a circumstance to which he owes much of his poetry.

David has been actively involved in the small press scene since the 1970's and has had over 30 books and chapbooks published by various presses through the years. The most recent are:

2023 Life Goes On (Kelsey Books)

2022 Poetry Mountain (Cholla Needles)
2021 The Inner Mountain (Cholla Needles)
2020 Speech Scroll (Cholla Needles)
2019 Gilded Snow: the poems of Raissa Parnok (Cholla Needles)
2018 Reading T. S. Eliot to a Bird (Hoot ‘n Waddle)
2017 Bird on a Wire (Presa Press)
2015 A Field Guide to Fire (FutureCycle Press)
2014 Selected Poems (FutureCycle Press)
2012 The Devil’s Sonata (FutureCycle Press)
2011 The Taste of Fog (Rain Mountain Press)
2007 The Porous Desert (FutureCycle Press)
2006 Waiting for the Quetzal (March Street Press)
2004 Return to Waking Life (Main Street Rag Publishing Company)
2003 A Normal Day Amazes Us (Kings Estate Press)

2nd Edition! After The War, The Women Spoke by Katia Hage

After the war, the women spoke highlights the power of quiet and silent witnessing of the suffering of generations of women, which allows to break the chains of trauma and prepare the way for healing. These poems are a look into the opening of the soul and an invitation to stop inheriting the pain of the women who came before us, so as to allow a new dawn to dispel the shackles of the past. It is a look into the wounded trampled feminine by women who have forgotten what is to surrender to a higher power and how to bring community together. The book itself has been designed to allow the simmering of thought and feelings, for the reader to become one with the poet and allow one’s own voice to mingle with hers with the help of paintings and empty spaces. This need for connections and understanding, collaborating and supporting, is a mark of the feminine which never fails but always pulls worlds from dismemberment to wholeness.

- - -

Born in Cameroon, raised in Lebanon during the civil war of 1975, Katia Aoun Hage moved to the United States where she resides with her husband and three children. Graduated from the University of Redlands with a Masters in Music Education, Katia is not a stranger in the Inland Empire’s art scene of Southern California. She has collaborated with choreographer Sofia Carrera at Riverside Community College, performed poetry and music at California State University San Bernardino, displayed her artwork at Art for Heaven’s Sake and performed music in local venues. Katia Aoun Hage listens deeply to the voices inside, of her own people and hers, becoming a bridge between past and present, east and west, through her poetry, translations and artwork.

Click here to purchase this beautiful, full color book on-line ($10)

 

New Book! Our Gray City's Face by Fred Rosenblum

 

"Once again, and owing this time, to the inevitably eroding cognitive state we all face as we near the end of our days, my episodic recall has suffered a modicum of disorder, finding in what follows, a few chronological discrepancies as they relate to the time my wife and I spent raising a family in the seventies, eighties, & nineties in Anchorage, AK.

If you’ve read any of my previous (re)collections, you’re probably aware that my writing is almost entirely auto-biographical and I’ve remained true to that genre, in this, my fifth body of work, setting-out on the island of Maui in the uniquely lush and beautiful state of Hawaii (in 1973} and winding down 25 years later (in 1998), leaving Anchorage for the inconvenient distance it posed in attending to the needs of our aging parents at that time.

I wanted this body of work to be charged by my off-color sense of humor while concurrently bearing a factual quality—I remain hopeful the deafening peal won’t diminish what I initially set out to convey.

- Fred Rosenblum"

Click here to purchase on-line ($6)

New Book! Border Line by Miriam Sagan

border checkpoint
my grandmother tenses up
inside me

-  -  -  -  -  -

Miriam Sagan is the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction, and memoir. Her most recent include Start Again (Red Mountain, 2022), and Star Gazing (Cholla Needles, 2020). Her haiku mentor was Elizabeth Searle Lamb and Miriam edited Elizabeth’s collected work, Across The Wind Harp (La Alameda Press, 1999).

Miriam has been a writer in residence in four national parks, Yaddo, MacDowell, Gullkistan in Iceland, Kura Studio in Japan, and other interesting places. She founded and directed the creative writing program at Santa Fe Community College.

Click here to purchase Inquire Within on-line ($6)

 

New Book! Inquire Within by Dave Maresh

Inquire Within is the fascinating new book of poetry by Dave Maresh. This is his third collection in six years and as readers we are always greatly thrilled by the fact that Dave continues to dig up new themes and images with his special blend of satirical humor. There's not many poets whose goal is to make you laugh with the world, and it's good for all of us that Dave has that unique ability.

Dave has written fifteen novels, four short stories, three children's stories, and is writing poetry nowadays. He likes open styles, free verse, mysteries and adaptations from real life. He has always been a writer.

Dave and his wife, Michelle, have travelled extensively through Europe, and have four beautiful grandchildren. He is also a private pilot, so now you know who is making all the noise over your head. His two previous books of poetry, a book that turned up one day (2018), and The Future Is Out To Get You (2020), along with five novels Garage Band, Jaegger In The Underworld, Penguins and Nazarenes, The National Argument, and Fixer Upper are all published by Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library in Joshua Tree, California.

Click here to purchase Inquire Within on-line ($6)