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Photos from Austin's First Book Event for CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS

5/31/2018

PICTURES OF AUSTIN'S FIRST EVENT
FOR CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS

Austin Davis had his first event for his debut poetry collection, Cloudy Days, Still Nights. It was an unquestioned success - many books were sold. I want to take a moment to congratulate Austin on the event and wishes for much success in the future.

Get a Paperback copy of Cloudy Days, Still Nights by clicking the cover image or the button below.

GET A COPY OF CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS

If you'd like to support my small business, become a Patron of Moran Press by clicking the button below. You'll get a stack of books and my undying gratitude.

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A Book in the Mail - Love and Quarters

5/27/2018

BOOK IN THE MAIL
LOVE AND QUARTERS

A follow-up to the 2014 Kleft Jaw Press poetry collection Clouds of Hungry Dogs, Gabriel Ricard’s 2nd poetry book is about coming to terms with the good, the bad, and the reliably hideous. The world is a badly run 1890s-style asylum, but at least there’s a lot of good stuff on TV. Love and Quarters goes deep into love, depression, high adventures in the great outdoors, and whatever the hell else may happen while in transit. No, even these days, it’s still handy to have a few quarters on you.

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Moran Press Presents - Cloudy Days, Still Nights

5/27/2018

MORAN PRESS PRESENTS
CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS
POETRY BY AUSTIN DAVIS

I couldn't be prouder to present the paperback edition of Cloudy Days, Still Nights, the first full-length poetry collection by Austin Davis. This book was a year in the making and the team worked tirelessly to create an Arthouse Paperback that's as close to perfect as I know how to make.

Congratulations to Austin Davis - you're officially published!

Huge credit to Anne Segal for designing the beautiful cover. Check out her art page HERE.

The book description from AMAZON

Cloudy Days, Still Nights is a coming of age poetry collection that paints an earnest portrait of falling in love and finding out what this life is all about. At the heart of Cloudy Days, Still Nights is an exploration of youth and love and not overlooking the small beautiful moments in life. This is the first collection from Austin Davis.

The first review, by Tim Taranto, author of ARS BOTANICA

If you'd like a signed copy of Cloudy Days, Still Nights, click the link below.

GET A SIGNED COPY OF CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS

Visit the Amazon page by clicking HERE or by clicking the link below.

Purchase a Copy of Cloudy Days, Still Nights at Amazon

Moran Press Shirt and Book Combo

5/25/2018

MORAN PRESS SHIRT
AND BOOK COMBO

I created this shirt to wear at events where I was selling more than just my own books. Though I didn't intend on selling it to the followers of this page and my business, many have expressed a desire to purchase a shirt. I came up with 'Shirt and a Book' combo for those interested.

For $25, I'll ship you a shirt and book from Moran Press to a US Address (extra for international). Select the size desired in the store and I'll get the shirt out to you ASAP.

Thank you for supporting Moran Press. For those that wish to buy books to support my small business, consider becoming a Patron of Moran Press. $25 gets you a stack of books.

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Austin Davis Reads #Poetry - Saturday Morning Cartoons

5/25/2018

AUSTIN DAVIS READS
FROM
CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS
SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS

Saturday Morning Cartoons

We used to watch cartoons
on Saturday mornings
when the string of tin
cans rattling behind the rusty
cars outside was strangely
unironic. We would lie

with our bellies to the carpet,
pressing our faces closer
and closer to the screen
until Batman’s batarang
shocked the tip of our noses.
Maybe that’s why I always

thought the neighbor’s
hedges were green horses.
Imagination was only half
the equation. Now, 10
years later, it seems we’ve
become accustomed to
the dirt roads pulled tight
around our skin.

I, for one,
never questioned why
we got grinning masks
for our 18th
birthdays instead of
lottery tickets or cigars.

We were all adorned
with the same
disguise - always one size
too loose. I guess they wanted
our warm breath to suffocate
under their scrubbed skin, bleached
paler than the lovers
that used to live on the moon.

It’s only now, as I wait for you
on a morning stained by yellow
clouds, that my reflection
swirling in the black coffee
reminds me more of The Joker.

Saturday Morning Cartoons is an excerpt from Austin's first poetry collection, Cloudy Days, Still Nights coming this SUNDAY from Moran Press. Click here to get a copy now!!!!

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If you enjoy the posts, fiction, and poetry, consider becoming a Patron of Moran Press. You'll be helping a small business produce Arthouse Paperbacks and give voice to indie authors. You'll receive a stack of books and my undying gratitude for $25, shipping included to US Addresses (extra for International shipping).

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City Lights for Ghost Stories #Poetry by Gabriel Ricard

5/25/2018

City Lights For Ghost Stories
By Gabriel Ricard

This girl is crazy, man.

If you disappoint your parents,
guidance counselor,
and all your unassuming mentors
more than fifteen times this season,
then make sure number sixteen
doesn’t have a damn thing to do
with Melissa. Or Steph. Molly McPolly.

So I guess you’d be tempted
to admire the sorts of names
she gets away with using.

But trust me. Trust the guys
who are still in love,
but who are just barely enlightened enough
to understand that even though
it’s technically all her fault,
all the live long fucking day,
no should still mean no.

The deep bruises you wake up with,
every other time you go to sleep with her,
will have to mean whatever they end up meaning to you
in their own delightfully, needlessly complicated way.

Just don’t.
Don’t even imagine that she thinks
an actual phone call is actually charming
in this disgruntled, city-lights-for-ghost-stories era of ours.

Don’t hold open the door for her,
and then imagine that good manners
are going to save your parents from the burden
of not getting grandchildren to emotionally blackmail,
or worse.

This girl has a lawyer that she doesn’t pay,
but who nonetheless keeps more firearms
on hand than you would ever expect from a man
who isn’t anti-black, or anti-gay,
or anti-immigrant,
so much as he’s just super, super pro-white.

She isn’t.
That’s not the kind of crazy we’re talking about.

But she keeps him around.
She’s also buried her mother a half-dozen times.
That’s the kind of thing that we’re talking about.

It’s the kind of crazy that isn’t really fair,
if you think about it,
since the best of us aren’t really
a hell of a lot better.

I’m not,
and I’m holding your arm like this,
talking to you in the most straightforward
approach to mixed tongues I can manage like this,
because I don’t think you are either.

And,
brother,
or whatever the case may be,
I can’t recommend your plans
to anyone who isn’t morally superior
to an unrealistic impression of your secret hero.

Are you up for that kind of thing?
Are you honestly listening at all?

Thank you for taking time from your day to visit Moran Press. If you enjoyed the poem, check out Gabriel's new release, Love and Quarters.

PURCHASE LOVE AND QUARTERS

If you enjoy the posts and books published by Moran Press, consider becoming a Patron. You'll be helping a small publisher produce new fiction and poetry and you'll get a stack of books for an insanely low price of $25 (US Addresses, International extra shipping charges will apply).

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Gabriel Ricard Performs #Poetry LIVE

5/24/2018

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Moran Press News - Upcoming Events for our Authors

5/20/2018

UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS

L. M. Bryski - Live Reading
Book of Birds
May 26th 1-3pm
Artspace
Winnepeg

PURCHASE BOOK OF BIRDS

Austin Davis - Book Signing/Book
Release Event
May 27th - 12pm
Book Vault
Mesa Arizona

GET A SIGNED COPY OF CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS

Gabriel Ricard - Poetry Reading
The Muse Collective
May 22nd 8pm
Bay Shore, NY

PURCHASE BONDAGE NIGHT

Gabriel Ricard - Poetry Reading
Unlikely Stories
20th Anniversary
June 22-23rd
New Orleans

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The Trial - Excerpt from Origin of a Serial Killer

5/18/2018

THE TRIAL
EXCERPT FROM
ORIGIN OF A SERIAL KILLER

I stand at the podium, looking down on the stage and waiting for the crowd to finish piling in through the rear entrance that faces the worker apartments. The rapist stands to my lower left, immobile as a statue, with eyes scanning the crowd. What does he hope to find? I can never guess. I raise my hand and a hush falls over the room.
“Justice at Holden Farms is simple. All workers get a vote. The vote gets tallied, and I factor it into my decision. I’m the judge, jury, and I will pass the sentence,” I pause and look at the rapist. “And make no mistake. If a death sentence is given, I’ll slit your throat myself.”
The crowd bursts into applause, yet I see no reaction from him. Does he truly have no emotions? Is everything a fake layer? I’ve met a few of my kind, and I can’t see anything that forms a pattern that links us. I find this man to be nothing like me. The clapping fades, and I continue.
“John Smith. You are accused of rape, assault, and being a douchebag. How do you plead?”
“Guilty,” he says, still with no emotion. He will not break, and his eyes remain hard blue-gray steel.
“He pleads guilty.” I saw to the crowd. A mutiny of voices clamor at me, mostly calling for his beheading. “This isn’t Game of Thrones. I won’t be chopping off his head.”
Laughter and a mix of boos litter the air in response.
“Since you do not contest the charges, we will proceed with sentencing.”
The man gives me a simple nod as if agreeing to everything. He does not play the lamb and his eyes continue to bore into mine when I look his way.
“The crowd wants your head, and I might just give it to them,” I say, bringing another roar from the stands.
Execute him in my own personal town square like something out of a Hemingway novel…sexy. I shake the fantasy from my head and clear my throat. I grip the podium tighter and tighter until my knuckles crack.
“No matter the other charges against you, I believe you meant to kill me. Therefore, your life is forfeit.”
Silence falls over the room. I use this moment to pull the knife from a pocket and step from the podium. Five steps bring me to John’s side, and I place the blade against his neck. I must stretch my arm at an uncomfortable angle to reach him and I notice a small smile on his face. After all this, I amuse you? This man baffles me.
“Will anyone speak for his life?” I ask the crowd. This part sounds like useless formality as I can’t imagine anyone speaking for this man.
My question precedes silence. I tap my phone, setting the watch application to one minute. I start the clock and watch it tick and tick, casting an occasional glace at John. His face remains placid except his eyes, which send waves of hatred toward me. The timer reaches zero, and I face the crowd once more.
“I will speak for him.” Ray steps to the base of the stage between John and the crowd.
What? My husband wishes to speak. This must be a dream. I don’t know if I want to hear this or not. I could simply slice John’s throat. But I could always wait a moment.
“Go on,” I say as my head pounds from excitement and exhaustion.
“To be blunt, study him. He comes from the bad side, killing innocents without remorse or regard. Test him. Probe his DNA. Isolate what makes him different from…killers who know to limit the options to the guilty.”
He almost said you. I’m not sure I see how his line of thinking can sway me, but I motion for him to continue.
“We can afford to hire the best scientists to poke and prod and test until we discover the defective gene that causes this level of psychopathy. Perhaps, the future can be rid of his kind.”
If I kill him, only he dies. Perhaps I can kill anyone like him with something akin to a vaccine. Take this shot; stop being a psychopath. Would it work on me? Is that what Ray wants? To find a fucking cure for me? I’m seeing things out of him of late that concern me. We will have to talk.
“Crowd, what say you? Live or keep him as a lab rat science experiment?”
“Murderer! Kill him! Hang him!” the crowd seem to be of one mind, nearly in unison. A very few vote for science pet.
As much as I want to promote science, I can’t allow a killer of women to remain alive. Bending my knees, I launch myself up at him, driving the blade into his neck. Dragging the knife down his neck, I use my weight to sever his vocal cord, spraying a torrent of blood in the air.
Cheers erupt and I turn to the crowd with blood dripping down my face onto my dress. Folding the knife, I walk from the stage to the sound of applause.

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COVER REVEAL - CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS

5/18/2018

COVER REVEAL
CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS

After many revisions and a lot of work, the cover for Cloudy Days, Still nights is finally ready. The book will soon be available from the author, Austin Davis, Amazon, and MoranPress.com.

Much gratitude to Anne Segal, the artist that created this beautiful cover. She worked tirelessly to bring Austin's vision to life and I'm thrilled with the result. Check out her website HERE.

I am excited to share this poetry collection. In an age of negativity and bad news on the television, this book will serve as a blast of fresh cool air for readers. Filled with earnest love poems and wistful remembrances of youth, this collection will make your heart smile and brighten your day.

Pre-Order a Copy OF CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS

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