Blurbs:
"The jolt of this slim, intense collection is bracing. Barnes's narrative art is as masterful as his vision is profoundly honest and humane. His characters, like Robert Frost's, are mainly rural, poor, and farm-bound, and yet their agons are those of classical tragedy. Voicing these inarticulate characters with image, gesture, and narrative eloquence, Barnes opens the core of their imagined lives."
--DeWitt Henry, co-founder of Ploughshares and author of The Marriage of Anna Maye Potts
"The stories of Rusty Barnes are short, sharp, and shocking in their humanity. His characters are like sad love songs, sweet and full of hurt."
--Steve Almond, author of (not that you asked) and The Evil B.B. Chow and Other Stories
"Rusty Barnes is as comfortable writing from a child's point of view as an adult's or an old man's or a woman's, young or old. Behind all his characters, though, there's a quietly humane authorial presence interested in exploring our frail humanity in a way that reminds of the early work of Raymond Carver. Rusty Barnes is his own writer, though, and his flash fiction is terrific."
--Edward Falco, author of Wolf Point
Visit Sunnyoutside Press to pre-order Breaking it Down. Or you can wait for Amazon . The official release date is November 8th, 2007.
If you'd like a signed copy, send $14 via Paypal to [email protected] or via check by emailing me for the address. Thanks.
I am a co-founder and editor of Night Train .I've spent most of my professional life word-wrangling in one form or another, as writing teacher and editor and bookseller, though early on I worked as a housekeeper at a resort, a janitor, a short-order cook. Typical career track, I know. How about this? I also served for a brief time as manager of a bookstore that served as a front for a high-end "social club."I spend my time now homeschooling my kids, writing, overseeing Night Train, and reading. You can find links to my writing and other news on my irregular blog . Or you can simply check rustybarnes.com for the latest.
My recent publications and forthcoming publications look like this: 3 AM, 7th Quark, Aesthetica, Angler, Bonfire, Brevity and Echo, Buzzwords UK, Cadenza, Conversely, Dead Mule, elimae, Front Street Review, Gator Springs Gazette, GUD, Heat City Review, In Posse Review, Literary Potpourri, Memorious, N.O.L.A. Spleen, Opium, Outsider Ink, Pif, Pindeldyboz, Post Road, Red Rock Review, Right Hand Pointing, Salt Flats Annual, See You Next Tuesday, Small Spiral Notebook, SmokeLong Quarterly, Snow Monkey, Somerville News, Staccato, Story Garden, Thunder Sandwich, Thieves Jargon, VerbSap, Vestal Review, Ward 6 Review, Web Del Sol, Wild Strawberries, Word Riot, Xelas.