We’ve posted a draft of the first three chapters of Duane’s new dystopian novel-in-progress, entitled Sweetland. He is now finishing up the second draft, and will soon be sending it out to selected readers for feedback. We hope you enjoy it.

The Eye of the Moon, a new memoir by South African native, Shelley Davidow, is scheduled for release in July by The Habit of Rainy Nights Press. Davidow is the author of several children’s books dealing with Africa and African identity. Ms. Davidow is a former resident of Oregon, and is one of the poets included in our first book, Raising Our Voices: An Anthology of Oregon Poets Against the War.

This is a preliminary news release for our subscribers.

We are to be the featured guests for the Multnomah County Library Verse in Person (VIP) series in October.

VERSE IN PERSON
Wednesday, October 25
Multnomah County Library NW Branch,
23rd and NW Thurman, 7-8 PM.
Duane Poncy and Patricia McLean.

Duane Poncy and Patricia McLean are poets, activists, performers, and co-founders and publishers of The Habit of Rainy Nights Press, whose first offering was Raising our Voices– An Anthology of Oregon Poets Against the War.

Duane, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is working on a novel about his ancestors and the history of colonialism in the Americas. With Patricia he is a member of Roadside Bomb, a pro-peace, anti-war performance poetry group.

In addition to poetry, Patricia McLean writes fiction and essays. She is involved in anti-poverty work, and her poetry is heavily influenced by this experience. She and Duane recently collaborated on a mystery novel, Bartlett House.

We are ready for a change. Sometime in the next several months, Patty and I may be moving out of P-town to the wilderness of Eugene. We love this town we have called home for the last dozen years (and off and on since the seventies), but the patina of our favorite small big-city is beginning to dull from the corrosion of time. Maybe it’s my age, and a loss of tolerance for the ever-changing youth culture that dominates the city’s consciousness, but what once felt like a fresh and vital force for change seems to have given way to a cynical and complacent hipsterism. And that leaves me too often with a sense of irrelevance. So, a change of scenery is in order.

In Eugene I am applying for admission to the University of Oregon M.F.A. program in creative writing. PattyJo and I will continue on our path to becoming serious, full-time writers. Our blogs and online projects will continue as we have time. We are fully committed to developing The Germaine Truth as an ongoing experiment in fiction. We also will continue our work building The Habit of Rainy Nights Press as a vehicle to publish emerging literary talent addressing socially progressive themes.

We are very receptive to any leads regarding employment or housing in the university/downtown area of Eugene (or anywhere where we can easily commute by mass transit). –Duane

This story has been cross-posted on our blog, elohi gadugi journal.

We have several new posts up on our blogs.

The Germaine Truth now has all of the new posts aggregated in one introductory blog. If you have a newsreader or want to syndicate all of the exciting new developments in the fictional town of Germaine, Oregon, be sure to subscribe to the consolidated rss feed.

Also check out Elohi Gadugi Journal where we throw around our opinions free of charge, and also some poetry, essays, etc. on topics of the day.

Jay Thiemeyer’s new chapbook, Marginal Notes will be released soon by The Habit of Rainy Nights Press.

Roadside Bomb, our poetry performance group just aired a pilot program on KBOO FM radio. It was very well received, but don’t know yet if it has been selected. You can download the podcast at Elohi Gadugi Internet Radio. You can also listen to or download some of my songs there.