request for submissions

While the writing gremlins live within me, they are so often silent that it has come to this: To honor the gods, share beauty with others, and entertain myself, I am taking up with the craft of editing–specifically of creating a chapbook.

I hereby request your submissions. I will be accepting writing of all kinds, and artwork as well, to fill the pages of a small, soft-bound book, which I myself will produce. Your words will take residence in print; they will be concrete and lovely, although simple in style and decoration. I will consider story, poetry, ramblings, descriptions, letters–if it is yours, and it is written, I will accept it. The pieces that resonate most with me will find a home in “Penemue’s Daughter.” Those whose words fill the pages of this little book will be given two free copies of the publication; others will find “Penemue’s Daughter” for sale online and in Lincoln, Nebraska, for just enough pennies to cover the costs of supplies and shipping. Your reward, and mine, will be the gratification of contributing to the sea of the words of all the worlds.

If you have the gift of drawing, I am in search of a cover illustration. Create for me Penemue, his ash-tree lover, and/or their star-filled love-child. Your piece will quite likely find its way to the cover or pages of the chapbook. If you prefer to send a hard copy, e-mail me at the address below and I will give you my mailing address.

Please send your crafts of pen and ink to carlykatleson[at]gmail[dot]com. Submissions will be accepted through Saturday, the 25th of July, 2009.

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In the early days of men, the Grigori, sent from the heavens to guard over the children of Adam, left the ranks of the angels, choosing instead to join the people of earth. For they found the daughters of men to be beautiful creatures indeed, unlike any others the gods had made. They forsook their flight between stars, choosing to soar instead in passion with women made of flesh and bone. They abandoned their swords of flame, preferring to feel a woman’s silky hair in their hands. The Grigori planted their seed among the daughters of men and sowed offspring among them, inhabiting the cities on the earth with the Nephilim: the children of the lust between angels and women.

The angel Penemue left the flights of the heavens to taste the kiss of Askafroa, the ash-tree’s daughter. When he fell he scattered gifts of wisdom, and brought the art of ink and paper to the sons of men. He instructed them in the wildness that is writing, for men were not made to spread their passions in pen and ink, and its art has consumed many of the sons of men from eternity to eternity until now. Its fire consumed even Penemue, in the end.

But the amorous union between Penemue and Askafroa bestowed upon the earth a daughter, a product of the stars’ love affair with the trees. She took upon herself the care of saplings and words, for her blood ran glittering green, and she could do nothing else.