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Looking for a personalized copy of Exit Pursued by a Bear?

"Exit Pursued by a Bear is original and delightful, a remarkable debut."

- Daisy Fried, author of My Brother is Getting Arrested Again

"A Dairy Queen converted into a funeral parlor, a famous stage direction from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, the sands of Afghanistan ... everything is grist for Ginny Beards' clever mill. Full of humor, learning, and dark insight, she wears her erudition lightly, as all the best poets do."

- Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down

Exit Pursued by a Bear available directly from Oermead Press. 

Choose from either: 

Limited Edition Hardcover Edition. Your copy will be signed and personalized by Virginia Beards. Limited to 100. 

Paperback copy. Your copy will be signed and personalized by Virginia Beards. 

Choices

Hardcover $22.00 USD Paperback $18.00 USD

Personalized To:

In the poems of Virginia Beards, insomnia is a 3-ring circus, a Dairy Queen mutates into a funeral parlor, an 18th century graffito enlivens a bedpost in a Venetian palazzo, a swim in the Nile both lulls and terrifies. What she sees both directly and via a sideways glance, the inanities of the overheard as well as of the zeitgeist, and the stresses of domestic relationships are some of her themes in 

Exit Pursued by a Bear. Whatever the focus, she is committed to the pleasures of language and to multum in parvo, much in a small space.

Virginia Beards draws from an archive of urban (New York, Philadelphia), suburban (Seattle), rural (Lancaster county, PA), and international experience (Denmark, France, North Africa) plus a considerable literary backlog acquired as a member of the Penn State English Department for twenty-three years. She has published criticism in The Journal of Modern Literature, Twentieth Century Views of Women Writers, and in Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction. Her poetry has appeared in Writing on the Edge (Univ. of California, Davis) and her short stories in Chester County Fiction. She holds a M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College.

Looking for a personalized copy of Shoplandia?

"A raucous novel... He writes with wit and a terrific eye for snappy revealing dialogue. Breslin is not mean-spirited; rather he is insightful in his remembrances of things past. This home shopping experience is powerful." - Carole Mallory, Huffington Post Books   

"Despite a smiley-face ending, this novel is worth its weight in all the gold, silver, and crystal jewelry now on clearance prices until midnight. Give me 10,000 copies. I'd gladly give it a go selling them on QVC myself." - Holly Love, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Breslin's choice to set the stories within the television shopping network corporation is one of the most refreshing and strategic narrative moves I have experienced in a long time." - Jillian Benedict, Turk's Head Review

"Compelling and poetic, Shoplandia's stories have all the insight and complexity of the best novels. Breslin gives us a thoughtful meditation on consumerism and the American Dream." - Terry Heyman, Greetings From Insanity 

"With a tone and style reminiscent of George Saunders and situations that would feel right at home in a Don DeLillo novel, the stories collected in Jim Breslin's Shoplandia offer an engaging and informed behind-the-scenes look at the home shopping industry." - Marc Schuster, Small Press Reviews

"Shoplandia reveals the absurd world of home shopping networks with rollicking humor and gusto." - James Esch, Turk’s Head Review

 “Compelling and poetic, Shoplandia’s stories have all the insight and complexity of the best novels. Breslin gives us a thoughtful meditation on consumerism and the American Dream.” - Terry Heyman, Greetings From Insanity

Shoplandia is available directly from Oermead Press for $18 which includes shipping and handling. USA only. If you'd like your copy personalized, please include the names in the text field.

Books

Shoplandia $18.00 USD Elephant $14.00 USD Both Books $30.00 USD

Personalized To:

Jake Meecham has been dropped down a rabbit hole. As a new production assistant at Shoplandia, he quickly realizes America’s third largest home shopping channel is much more than smiling show hosts, quantity counters and sparkling jewelry. Everyone visiting the live studio—reality TV stars, beloved country musicians, drunk baseball icons and A-Team actors—is striving to cash in on their own version of the American Dream. Meanwhile, a motivational guru inspires manager Warren to plot out a life-changing career strategy and fledgling show host Renee searches deep to find her “sales gene.” Marketing VP Johnny tracks down a troubled long lost show host while back in the studio, producers Dottie and Dylan struggle to keep the live show from imploding. A humorous novel told through stories, Shoplandia peels back the curtain to reveal the familial bonds that often form in our working lives.

Seeking Insomiknitac

Over the summer, friends in West Chester started seeing little knitted "yarnbombs" throughout our town. I decided to find out what the heck was going on. This short documentary is about the Summer of Insomiknitac. 

Seeking Insomiknitac - Yarn Bombing Documentary from Jim Breslin on Vimeo.

Elephant: Short Stories and Flash Fiction

Elephant: Short Stories & Flash Fiction is available in Paperback and for Kindle through Amazon.com. Also available for Nook though barnesandnoble.com.

Paperbacks available at Chester County Book and Music Company. 

A Celebration and Book Launch is being held at Bookplace in Oxford, PA on June 26th from 4 -7 Pm. 

You are invited! 

Interview with Twitter's @mammabennie

Terry - aka @mamabennie

One of the people I follow on Twitter is @mamabennie. Her real name is Terry and she is a stay at home mother of two young girls living in Archbald, PA. Terry is not your typical suburban mom, as you can see from the photo of her in pink hair. She blogs at randommommabrain where her background is a colorful splash of paint droplets mixed with skulls and crossbones. In her blog and her twitter feed, Terry is very forthright about the challenges of being a stay at home mom. She is dedicated to using cloth diapers and living frugally. One of her fascinating blog posts calculated the long term savings of using cloth diapers. On Mother’s Day she sent a series of tweets lamenting that her husband bought her a Mother’s day card while she sat in the car with the kids. In her bio, she writes she is “the little bit rock n’ roll half of the relationship.” She drives a truck, listens to rock and plays the saxophone. I wanted to learn more about Terry, and she agreed to an interview.

Interviewer: Can you tell me about why you started blogging and using Twitter and how it’s become a part of your life? 

Terry: Well, I started blogging because I needed an outlet for my busy brain.  There are always thoughts, ideas, stories, thinks I like and so many things always running through it.  Sometimes I actually loose my thoughts before I get to write them down.  It happens to the best of us, I just let it flow when I get the time.  As for Twitter, I started using it as a connection to the outside world.  Where I live, the babywearing/breastfeeding/cloth diaper-using parents are very rare.  They don't even sell cloth diapers where I live.  I needed to talk to people that understood me.  When I started Twitter, we didn't use cloth at the time.  Elsa (The first born) was just barely turning one, and we had been having a persistent horrible rash with blisters.  The doctor was in denial that it was a reaction to disposables of course.  I was at my wits end, and Twitter was my gateway to learning my options.  I found so so many wonderful cloth diaper moms and companies that helped me out.  The #clothdiapers chats on Twitter (Mondays at 9pm eastern), were the most helpful thing ever.  I have made a lot of new friends and connections through the blogging/Twitter community.

Interviewer: So did the cloth diapers help Elsa’s rash? 

Terry: O yes, it went away shortly after we switched.  It was the best decision we ever made. We also have saved a ton of money considering at one time we had two kids in cloth.  Dixie actually has the same allergy. We found that out when we went on a vacation without washer/dryer access.  It was rough.  I don't care what we have to do, we will never be using disposables again.

Interviewer: So you are the rock 'n roll side of the family. Would you name your favorite bands? Do your girls rock out with you now?

Terry: O boy, I have a ton of favorites. Rammstein, Green Day, Korn, Blink-182, Nirvana, Rob Zombie...the list really does go on. My girls do rock out with me, within reason of course. I try to keep the extreme potty language to a minimum.

Interviewer: Tell me about Archbald, PA. It sounds as though it's a pretty small town?

Terry: It is actually a fairly decent sized borough, but it is still considered suburban.  We are about 10 miles from the city of Scranton, so not too far from the hub of everything around here.  We moved to the outskirts for the lower crime rate and nicer people. It is better to raise children here.  My husband and I were born and raised in Scranton, and it has unfortunately gone downhill a lot.  Thankfully we lucked out and found a place to rent in such a nice area.  We moved here 3 days before our first daughter's due date. The day we moved in all of the neighbors came over and introduced themselves. We have actually become friends with quite a few of them. I guess it just seems like a small place because you don't find such nice communities anymore.

  Interviewer: I see you have a review disclosure on your blog. How did you start reviewing products and what do you review? 

Terry: Well, I started reviewing by just writing opinions about products that I already used.  I think it is beneficial to let others know your experiences with products, whether they are good or bad.  I do have some reviews that are not positive so I do not lie in my reviews. My first non-personal review, was before Halloween.  A costume company asked me to review a costume for them. So, I picked a Winnie the Pooh costume for Elsa and the rest is history. Every once in a while I have a company contact me through the e-mail address on my blog and ask me if I would like to review their products.  I have also gotten a few offers through Twitter.  On about 2 occasions I had contacted companies with things that I wanted to try out, but usually I just go with the flow.  I don't really have any specifics on what I review. It just has to be something interesting. I have reviewed cloth diapers, clothing items, headbands, computer apps, laundry detergent, lotion, food products and some other children's items. Anything that could appeal to family lifestyles are pretty much up my alley.

Interviewer: I’d like to ask about the Mother’s Day card rant. When I read the one tweet I thought it was funny, but then I read through the timeline and realized you were upset and I was really touched by the response of your Twitter friends. In your twitter profile, you posted you are “wife to an amazing man/mechanic/daddy,” and I think he just started a new job. Is your hubby on Twitter? And did he pick out a good card that day? 

Terry: Well, yea he did just start his new job.  He is back to being a mechanic now. I know he didn't mean to blow off Mother's Day, things have just been crazy around here. I was just feeling extremely underapreciated that day. He doesn't have "the Twitter"...he is stunted in the social media department. He knew I was hurt by the way I was acting, but he never saw what I said. If it weren't for my amazing Tweeps I would have been crying. As for the card he picked, it was a humorous card and he didn't even write a personal note in it. That was the first time EVER that had occurred. Hopefully our 5th Anniversary in July will be better. 

Follow Terry on Twitter at @mamabennie and check out her blog at http://randommamabrain.wordpress.com/. On Facebook, search Random Mama Brain and like it. 

Topsey Falls Silent - My experience with fiverr.com

What would you do for $5? 

What would you pay someone $5 for? 

I stumbled onto a website called fiverr.com which has kind of freaked me out. The concept is this: a person posts something they are willing to do for $5 (really$4 since fiverr takes a cut.) If someone is interested in the service, they pay through fiverr and the two people connect. People offer to draw pictures, provide voiceovers, create origami roses, tweet messages to their followers. 

One of the services being offered was by a young woman with a screen name of Topsey23. Topsey’s service being offered on the site is titled: 

I will call you and talk to you for ten minutes for $5. 

Now, this service struck me for being both funny and sad. The thought that people out in this world are so lonely they will pay for a ten minute conversation is both surreal and heartbreaking. Topsey23 had just joined the site a few days earlier. Her avatar on the site is an inverted photo of herself. In the photo she appears young, with dyed orange hair, fair skin and a black t-shirt. She’s not looking into the camera and the angle gives one the impression that she might be lying in a tanning bed.

Underneath the title she elaborates on exactly what the offer is: 

ill call you and talk to you about anything you want for five dollars or ill make a prank to your friends.. you let me know I’ll do ittt (:

Intrigued by this website, and Topsey’s service, I wanted to find out what her experience has been so far. I wanted to learn if she had received many calls and why had people called her. Before signing up, I messaged Topsey. 

Hello - 

I write a blog and would like to do this 10-minute conversation but want to take notes and use this for my blog post. Are you ok with that? I’ll link to you. Also - have you had many responses? 

Topsey replied: 

Yes, I’m okay with that. And no, I haven’t had many responses yet. 

So I signed up and paid five dollars. The money would be held by fiverr until the transaction was completed. A short time later, through the message service, we agreed Topsey would call me around noon the next day, Friday, and I sent her my cell number. I wrote out the following questions: 

Tell me what prompted you to offer to talk to a stranger for ten minutes? 

I know you just started this a few days ago. What’s the response been? 

What do people want to talk about? 

Has anyone asked you to pull a prank? 

What do you do when you aren’t talking to strangers thru fiverr? 

In your avatar, it looks like you are in a tanning bed. What is the photo? 

You have another post that says you will draw a picture for $5. Have you had responses to that? 

So I sat by the phone for fifty-five minutes waiting for the call. Okay, I was actually doing some writing and paying some bills. Nothing happened. No call. I used fiverr’s message service and let Topsey know I had to run out but if she would give me a specific time the next day we could try it. She never responded. I guess she got cold feet. 

So what is funnier and sadder than someone willing to pay for a conversation with a stranger? Someone who is willing to pay and is stood up! 

By Sunday morning, fiverr sent me a message that read: 

It seems the seller is late on delivery. You may now cancel your order. 

So I did. I do find this whole concept strange and am thinking I may try another service. There are several which received positive reviews. The most popular service is from Kevinfar - “I will create 3 videos about a topic of your choice for $5,” or maybe I’ll go with Woofy31’s service “I will interpret 5 of your dreams for $5.” So what’s $5 worth to you?