​​The Whole Mad Swirl
 
I was out of control, spinning
on the whirligig of youth,
giddy to be caught
in what Kerouac called
"the whole mad swirl
of everything to come."
I didn't know what to expect.
I was ready for nothing
though I had spent years
in solitary confinement
 
with books, exams and degrees.
You would think I'd have learned
something about life as it is,
not as I wished it to be.
I went out on the street
to look for work
and was surprised to discover
no one spoke Old English
like Beowulf or Middle English
like the Wife of Bath.
 
An old professor told me
I talked the way
e.e. cummings wrote
and no one would hire me.
A few years later I married
a woman with several degrees.
She thought I was normal.
We had five kids in six years
and drove landlords bonkers.
"The Lord will provide,"
 
we said, and He did.
Fifty years later, the five kids
have rucksacks of their own
packed with jobs, marriages,
children and good lives
measured against
the standard of most.
Their mother is dead,
and like everyone else
on this strange planet
 
I am in the process
of dying in the jaws
of what Kerouac called
"the whole mad swirl
of everything to come."
I have seen almost all
of "everything to come"
except for the best part
and that, I am told,
will take my breath away.
 
 
Donal Mahoney

​A Relocation Problem
 
We’ve moved
my wife and I from home
to the last place
 
we’ll ever live and she
wants to know why
I’m sitting around
 
not helping to unpack.
So I tell her the problem
which is her problem too
 
but she keeps unpacking.
I’m not at home, I tell her,
but I’m not here either.
 
Not to worry, I say.
I’ll let both of us in
when we arrive.
 
 
Donal Mahoney

​Old Quilter, Old Poet
 
She’s been making quilts
for half a century and he’s been
making poems that long as well
and every now and then he brings
a chocolate shake to her place
so they can take a break and talk.
 
He always finds her at the frame,
peering through thick lenses. 
"I’m still house bound, Walt,"
she laughs and likes to say.
 
Once she told him quilts are poems.
She works with scraps of cloth
and he with scraps of words and quilts
and poems are never done until all
the scraps are where they have to be.
 
Now she's working on a Double Wedding Ring,
a quilt not unlike a sonnet in that both follow
patterns of their own but she likes crazy quilts
because she can improvise with scraps
she finds on floors around the house.
Her job's to make something beautiful
from scraps others might throw away.
 
He has no problem understanding that.
He saves scraps of words and marries them
in ways some folk find odd or useless.
Finishing her shake she says maybe
they play jazz and just don’t know it.
 
She likes Miles Davis and puts his album on 
when a crazy quilt won't go her way
but she would never listen to Miles while
she’s at work on a Double Wedding Ring.
Yo-Yo Ma, she says, is the man for that.
The old poet says he would never disagree.
 
 
Donal Mahoney

Fiction Book Review for “Bugs in the System,” published by Dreaming Big Publications; reviewed by Amy O
 
Bugs in the System
By Connor MacDonald, Kelly Caldwell, Roderick Mitchell Jr., Joel Morgan, Allen Huffmeier,
B. Jaymes Condon, and Nicholas C. Speer
Published Dreaming Big Publications
Reviewed by Amy O.
 
ABOUT THE BOOK
 
"It's a tough universe out there with death-by-giant insect waiting around every corner."

Immerse yourself in these short stories based on the role-playing game, We Hunt Bugs, and experience the tales of shaky alliances, backstabbing comrades, and terrifying monsters.

"It's what we do. We hunt Bugs."
 
Genre: Short Stories / Sci-Fi and Fantasy
68 pages
 
MY REVIEW
 
3 out of 5 stars
The concept for this role-playing game and subsequent collection of stories is fun and unique. I really enjoyed the mash-up of spaceships and giant, attacking bugs; it made for classic sci-fi entertainment. It was easy to immerse myself in this world and understand the plot of each story, even though I’ve never played the We Hunt Bugs game. Occasionally the stories ended a bit abruptly or lacked character development, but overall I would recommend this collection to anyone who loves sci-fi, whether they’ve played the game or not.
 
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Dreaming Big Publications is a publishing company on a mission to reach more people on a global level by publishing books that educate and advocate for mental health and social justice issues. Our main focus is nonfiction—self-help, memoirs, and books written for professional mental health providers—but we publish fiction as well and enjoy anything that is a good, fun read, including fantasy and sci-fi.
DISCLAIMER
 
I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for writing a review. I was not obligated to give a positive review, and all thoughts are my own.
 
https://www.amazon.com/We-Hunt-Bugs-Pat-McNary-ebook/dp/B06XFDHTCX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488924714&sr=8-1&keywords=we+hunt+bugs
 
 
 

​Undocumented Zombies
 
The nice thing about being dead
is you no longer care if the doctor
mucked up your diagnosis and the 
 
pharmacist gave you the wrong pills.
You're cozy now in a comfy casket
six feet below all the carnage 
 
in the world, without a worry, when
a mastodon tsunami rolls over your
peaceful cemetery and uproots
 
thousands of caskets, tossing them
high in the sky and forcing you
and all the other zombies to float.
 
You discover no port will take
undocumented zombies.
You have no papers, after all;
 
you can't prove who you were or are
so you and the other zombies float
for God knows how long since
 
God may not believe in zombies.
This is a rupture not a rapture.
And while you float, your lawyer
 
meets with your relatives who 
no longer weep about your passing.
They smile as he reads your will.
 
They plan on taking a family cruise
with the proceeds from your estate.
They'll dine on lobster and steak,
 
lay waste continuous buffets while
you and the other zombies float
further out, unable to find a port
 
where citizens will bury the likes of you.
Property values will drop, they shout.
They can't drop their signs and let you in.
 
 
Donal Mahoney

Poetry and Ponderings by Diamante Lavendar

Reviewed by Alison Dalafave
 
ABOUT THE BOOK
 
In this rare collection of nonfiction Christian poetry and prose based on real life experiences, Diamante Lavendar, a victim of abuse, shows the reader the raw emotions of pain, hate, and denial that occur before a victim of abuse can find a way to heal from the pains of assault. Knowing herself the very difficult journey of being a victim, Diamante was abused as a child, and turned to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain. Many years later, she started to heal under God’s watchful eyes and was able to find love in her life again. She shares these truly inspiring, religious poems in the hopes that it may help other victims heal their hurts, as she did while writing the poetry collection.
 
122 Pages
 
MY REVIEW
3 out of 5 stars
 
Through a mixture of encouraging interludes and heart-tugging poetry, Lavendar spins a beautiful progression from pain and heartbreak to joy and appreciation. She begins her book with a set of poems and affirmations that express her devotion and gratitude towards God. While these poems are certainly a genuine declaration of faith, their tone conflicts with the more personal poetry that appears later in the book. Lavendar hits her stride with these latter compositions. Her exploration of the anguish which resulted from her childhood abuse is both heart wrenching and raw. These poems seems to provide a cathartic release for Lavendar. She constructs poems of anger and loss before slowly moving her journey towards self-forgiveness and acceptance. Ultimately, Lavendar ends her composition with a message of love and hope for a better future.
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
 
Diamante Lavendar has been in love with reading since she was a child. She spent many hours listening to her mother read to her when she was young. As she grew older, she enjoyed reading novels of all genres. Diamante believes that everyone should try to leave their own positive mark on the world, and to make it a better place for all. Writing is her way of leaving her mark—one story at a time. She began writing in college and has published poetry in anthologies over the years. Once her kids were grown, she wrote as a form of self-expression and decided she wanted to share her stories with others. Most of her writing is very personal and stems from her own experiences, and those of her family and friends. She writes to encourage hope and possibility to those who read her stories. To learn more about Diamante Lavendra and her books, please visit her website at: www.diamantelavendar.com.
 
DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for writing a review. I was not obligated to give a positive review, and all thoughts are my own.
 

NEW AUDIOBOOK AVAILABLE!

In October, 2016, we announced the new release of Service Goat by Piers Anthony in paperback and ebook format. Now the audiobook version is available, and we are happy to share this news with you! Narrated by voice actor Corrie Legge, the book is available through Audible and Itunes.

All three versions of the book can be found for purchase here: 
https://www.amazon.com/Service-Goat-Piers-Anthony/dp/1539167984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490594912&sr=8-1&keywords=service+goat

About the Book:  

Orphaned and blind seven-year-old Callie has a service animal – a goat with extraordinary powers.

Ben Hemoth is a down-on-his luck news reporter facing prison. Needing to save his job and his reputation, he teams up with Venus, a young seductress caught up with a teenage drug gang.

When a mysterious letter arrives detailing a top-secret investigative operation, Ben and Venus think they’ve found their chance for redemption. The mission? Investigate a goat.

In exchange for an extravagant paycheck, Ben and Venus must piece together the wild rumors swirling around Callie, her supernatural goat, and a possible UFO visit. 
Piers Anthony’s Service Goat is an extraordinary tale rich with adventure, extraterrestrial visitors, secrecy, dangerous governmental operations, and the classic hints of mischief that readers have come to expect and love from the New York Times bestselling author of the Xanth series.

About the Author:

 Piers Anthony is one of the world's most prolific authors, and a New York Times Best Seller twenty-one times over. He lives with his wife in Inverness, Florida.

​Hilda's Family Reunion
 
Paddy didn't want to go to his wife's family reunion. He told her that in the same nice way he had told her in years past so as to avoid other reunions over the many years they had been married. Hilda had always given him a pass, telling her relatives his job required that he stay home. After he retired she'd tell them he wasn't up to the trip--a case of the flu or something. No one ever believed her but many were happy not to have Paddy there. It wasn't that he caused a problem. He just stuck out among the Ottos and Hanses. He would forever be an Irish interloper at a German family reunion. But this time Hilda was adamant about Paddy going with her.
 
"Everyone's getting older," Hilda said, "and we should see them before someone else dies."
 
Hilda was right, of course, Paddy had to admit, as she usually was. He was part of the family whether they liked him or not.
 
"I grew up with those people, Paddy, and I may be seeing some of them for the last time. They may be boring to you but they're my family."
 
Unlike Hilda's relatives, Paddy's relatives, the ones already dead and the ones still alive, didn't hold family reunions, confining contact to cards at Christmas with signatures only, free of any personal messages unless someone had died, and that was just as well, Paddy thought.
 
At any gathering of his people, the angry ones, and most of them had been angry since birth, would, after a few drinks, start picking scabs off old problems and fresh blood would flow. Hilda's folks did the same thing but with more discretion. You'd be bleeding and didn't know why.
 
There was a real din the last time Paddy's family had a reunion and that was 30 years ago.
 
"It was a catastrophe lost in cacophony," Paddy told Hilda as he tried to recapture the ambience. Nevertheless, Paddy still saw his relatives at wakes. And the wakes were more frequent in recent years.
 
"Hilda, the odd thing is the angriest ones look the most peaceful in a casket with or without a boutonniere or corsage."
 
A few in his family, however, still hoped there would be one more family reunion despite the debacle at the last one. They hoped that Paddy's cousin, Margaret Mary O'Mara, who'd been going to Mass every day since puberty, and was once a contemplative nun, would hold a final family reunion.
 
"Everybody likes her corned beef and cabbage," Paddy told Hilda, who was wondering why anyone in Paddy's family would want another reunion after the last fracas 30 years ago.
 
"Hilda, the problem at the last one was Timmy served tankards of Guinness before, after and during the meal and the Guinness prompted inevitable arguments about the past. Liquor and grudges are a bad mix. One of my cousins knocked another one out with one punch. We were lucky another cousin didn't count him out. He was once a boxing referee."
 
Hilda's people, however, weren't like his loud Irish relatives. Paddy had to grant them that. They were somber Germans who drank as much as Paddy's people did but they were steady drinkers, not given to jokes and laughter. They were quiet even when drunk, so Paddy couldn't tell which one of them would rip the first scab off the past and that was always a problem.
 
He knew from the start Hilda's family didn't want her to marry him, an Irish Catholic from the wrong side of the theological tracks. He never fit in well with their German Lutheran culture beyond liking some of the food. They were serious, pious people not given to the frivolous, everything Paddy's family was not. In the beginning Paddy had tried to fit in but he had enough trouble keeping up with his own faith, never mind trying to understand everything Lutheran.
 
This time, however, Paddy silently decided he would go to his wife's reunion unless one of her kin died beforehand and everyone would go to the wake instead. It had happened before and could happen again but it's not the kind of thing Paddy would pray for. That would be bad form. Besides Germans take death seriously. None of the uproar and laughter that can occur at an Irish wake, especially if there were a tavern next door to the funeral home, which in Paddy's experience there always seemed to be.
 
Truth be told, both families were moving closer and closer to the end of their life span and the lines on both sides were getting shorter. Every year it seemed someone else would drop out.
 
"All right, Hilda, I'll go," Paddy announced. "But I'll never go to another one even if all your people die first."
 
Hilda thought something didn't sound right about that. Why would there be another family reunion if all of her relatives died first? But as long as Paddy was willing to go to this one, she thought she'd be wise to say nothing and leave well enough alone.
 
"How about a nice dish of pickled pigs feet for supper, Paddy," she said with a smile. "I remember that was one of the few things you liked when you went with me to the other family reunion. And you said the bratwurst and kraut weren't that bad, either.”
 
Donal Mahoney

​A Matter of Preference
 
Fred prefers a mouse
connected by a wire
to his keyboard.
Walt prefers a mouse
 
that’s portable, able
to roam over the desk
in Walt’s big hand.
For Walt the danger is
 
the mouse may slip
and fall off the desk,
hit the floor and break.
That's happened twice.
 
Fred prefers a wife, one
he’s had for 30 years.
Walt prefers a fiancé,
a new one every year.
 
 
Donal Mahoney