Holiday Survival List

The holidays are here and whether you like it or not, most or all of us are going to have to spend time with the family. Here are a few things (mostly books from our contributors) to help you cope with those cold winter nights with your loved ones!

Please Don’t Be Upset
By Brandi Wells
$8.99 / Order it here
From the publisher: Please Don’t Be Upset is a collection of fifteen perfectly rendered stories–lists, instructions, yearnings, confessions, more–stories about imperfect mothers and daughters, women and men, strange stories about folded bodies and stalking deer, stories about the small, heartbreaking ways we fail each other, yet cling so tightly.

Brandi was featured in issue 4.2.

The Orange Suitcase
By Joseph Riippi
$14.95 / Order it here
From the publisher: In the thirty-four stories filling THE ORANGE SUITCASE, Joseph Riippi packs an intimate and powerful portrait of a young man’s life. From a childhood spent snipering neighbours with BB guns, to adulthood grasping at love and art in New York City, THE ORANGE SUITCASE shows us not only the way life is lived but, perhaps more importantly, how it is remembered.

Joseph was featured in issue 1.2 and 2.1.

Drinking
$1 – A lot of Money
A few of my holiday favorites include: Gin – you only have to add ice and it already tastes like Christmas (or pinecones, same thing), Becherovka – this can be a little difficult to find but it’s worth it because no one else will want to drink it with you (it’s very bitter), or if there is nothing else around:  mouth wash. But let’s face it, drinking helps, but it also hurts. If you are a really angry or sad person, this one probably isn’t for you.

Falcons on the Floor
by Justin Sirois
$12 / Order it here
Falcons on the Floor is the rare novel about war that re-humanizes everyone involved. Through excellent writing and a deep understanding of what occupation does, to civilians and soldiers alike, Sirois and Alshujairy take the reader on a deeply personal journey where we are shown how and why war should be avoided at all cost.
—Dahr Jamail, independent journalist and author of Beyond the Green Zone

Justin was featured in issue 4.1

Predatory
by Glenn Shaheen
$15.95 / Order it here
“Glenn Shaheen is claiming new ground for American poetry. His poems are about the nightmares of information overload, collapsing infrastructure, ubiquitous violence, and other ills of late empire. The subjects are not happy, but Shaheen’s clear vision and crisp—often witty—language offer the pleasures of surprise, discovery, and recognition.”
—Ed Ochester

Glenn has been an Editor of NANO Fiction since 2008.

Robbie and Bobby Comic Collection
by Jason Poland
$15 / Order it here
From Jason: This book contains Robbie and Bobby comics drawn between March and October of 2011, as well as previously unpublished bonus materials. Foreword by Ryan Hudson.

Jason was featured in issue 5.1.

Meditating / Yoga
$0 – Some amount of money that I would never pay
Meditation and Yoga can relieve a lot of stress. I am not one to sit in one spot for too long, but an hour or two of yoga with the heater on not only provides a good work out, but it usually makes you tired enough to not care what your parents or siblings are yapping about. On the other hand, if you are on good terms with your brother or sister, try out this pose then have some other family member take a picture.

If I Falter at the Gallows
by Edward Mullany
$12 / Order it here
The poems of Edward Mullany are both seeing things and “seeing things.” They are devices that help us help ourselves to all the mirages and illusions—and then some—that we know to be true.
-Graham Foust, author of A Mouth in California

Edward was featured in issue 3.1.

The Last Repatriate
by Matthew Salesses
$ Varies / Order it here
From the publisher: In 1953, after the end of the Korean War, 23 POWs refused to repatriate to America. The Last Repatriate tells the story of Theodore Dickerson, a prisoner who eventually returns to his home in Virginia in the midst of the McCarthy Era. He is welcomed back as a hero, though he has not returned unscathed. The lasting effects of the POW camp and troubles with his ex-fiancée complicate his new marriage as he struggles to readjust to the Virginia he holds dear.

Matthew was featured in issue 5.1.

Morocco
By Matthew Savoca and Kendra Grant Malone
$10 / Order it here
Here is a book, a low-slung bulb lighting a tall dark room, a book big enough to question and small enough to love. Written in treaty by Matthew Savoca and Kendra Grant Malone, here is a book of time and together and lonely and wanting. Knife-words edges out, lines bursting and splitting the table long, get to know Morocco. It already knows you. These poems are naked and bright, speaking from a tall dark room to all the spaces in between. A love poem, yes. A camera readied, yes. Pictures worth a thousand words ground down to dust, Morocco comes together now.

Matthew and Kendra were both featured in issue 2.2.

Prescription Medications
$5 – Whatever makes you happy
Make your Doctor’s appointments now and if you can’t get in to see someone legitimate, fake a car accident and run to the local emergency clinic, they give out 30 day scripts like candy.

If you are a contributor who would like to be listed here, shoot us an email at nanofictionmag@gmail.com.