The 26th issue of Black Scat Review is now available! I contributed an alphabet, “Partners in Crime,” and my translation of “Upside-Down Stories: Mineral Waters,” by Charles Cros and Émile Goudeau (from my edition of those stories). The other contributors are a fine bunch: Tim Newton Anderson, Tom Barrett,  Margot Block, Robert James Cross, Farewell Debut,  Debra Di Blasi, Fernando Fidanza, Larry Fondation, Peter Gambaccini, Eckhard Gerdes, Rhys Hughes, Harold Jaffe, Amy Kurman, Michael Leigh, Martha McCollough, Jim McMenamin, Michael Pollentine, Frank Pulaski, Paul Rosheim, Saira Viola, and Tom Whalen.

And you can find it on Amazon.

Three songs with words by Edna St. Vincent Millay: “Song of Shattering,” “Spring,” and “The True Encounter.” Here’s the beginning of “Song of Shattering.”

An alphabet for an upcoming issue of the Black Scat Review, devoted to “Crime Wave.”

PARTNERS IN CRIME

When the Arsonist torched the house the Burglar was rifling, the Counterfeiter in the cellar fled with a sack of phonies, which was swiped by a Drifter desperate to pay off an Extortionist, whose last mark, a notoriously crooked Fixer, had hired a Gunsel to rub him out, but that little weasel had another Hitman on his trail, bankrolled by an unscrupulous Impersonator replacing a corrupt Judge held captive by an underworld Kingpin, whose son, a Lowlife in cahoots with the Murderer who had fingered a powerful Number-baron and a few associated Outlaws, was blackmailing a Pedophile caught diddling a much-reviled Quisling’s daughter, herself already an expert Rustler who had fleeced a Stoolie who had squealed on another small-time Tipster, himself in debt to a vicious Usurer, whose two feeble-minded kids, a Vagrant and a Whore, performed small demeaning tasks for the criminal mastermind known only as Mr. X, who had just sent a Yegg to ransack the safe of a stinking rich Zoophile whom he hoped to shake down for every penny he had. 

My novel Nominata is now available from Black Scat Books! You can get it on Amazon! I’ve been working on it for years: it’s not long, but it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do with it. Here’s the blurb from Black Scat Books:

Nominata has gone missing, and her old friend Antonima is looking for her. Can the seven regulars in the Taproom help? Why are there strange lights and noises in the abandoned observatory? And what does the number 5040 have to do with all this?

Doug Skinner describes his novel as “an interactive verbal toy,” and Black Scat Books urges caution in handling. On the surface, the text is playful, comic, and wayward. Further immersion, however, reveals elaborate constraints, cross references, and parallels, all creating an artificial world in which everything is a reflection of everything else, including itself. All that and slapstick too! And a dashing cover design by Norman Conquest!   

And there’s a contest, for you competitive types:

A duet for two monochords, based on dividing the strings by Sophie Germain and safe primes. (A Sophie Germain prime is any prime for which 2p + 1 is another prime, and that second prime is the safe prime. So, 5 is a Sophie Germain prime, and the safe prime is 11.)

This story, in which genial King Merrimack and his garrulous physician Celso have to contend with the surly Prince Zebu, can be found in Black Scat Review 25. Here’s how it begins:

KING MERRIMACK

   King Merrimack threw back his quilt, and sat up to look out the window. It was a cold November morning, the castle grounds swirling with mist beneath a leaden sky. He arose and changed into his regal robes. No sooner had he pulled on his second slipper than the court physician, Celso, hobbled into his bedchamber.

   “Good morning, Your Majesty,” said Celso, with a stiff but gracious bow.

   “Good morning, Celso,” replied King Merrimack. “What day is it, anyway? I lose track this time of year.”

   Celso fingered his long white beard and thought for a moment.

   “It’s Tuesday,” he said, “and you lose track of the days because they’re so much alike in November. Yesterday was a damp and chilly day like this, as was the day before.”

   “Not the best day to dedicate a hospital,” the king remarked, carefully centering his coronet on his bald spot.

   “I suppose not,” admitted Celso.  

   “Why is it called Tuesday, anyway?” asked the king.

   “It’s the second day of the week,” explained Celso.

   “That makes sense,” said the king.

   “The days of the week were originally Onesday, Twosday, Threesday, and Foursday,” continued Celso, “but during the Great Vowel Shift of the 15th century, they became Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. And so they remain today.”

…

Two monochords play a duet, using segments of the string that are divisible by eleven.

A piece for two melody instruments and keyboard.

My translation of The Art of Noises is now available from Black Scat Books!

Luigi Russolo’s treatise on enriching music with noises was published in Milan in 1916. It contains his 1913 Futurist manifesto on noises, as well as his accounts of building noise instruments, his riotous concerts, his notation, and analyses of the noises of nature and technology. My translation sticks closely to Russolo’s ebullient style, and adds notes and an introduction on contemporary receptions and on Russolo’s later work. All of Russolo’s scores and instruments are lost, but his ideas have inspired generations of experimental musicians.

This marks the tenth anniversary of Black Scat Books, and editor Derek Pell (aka Norman Conquest) designed a beautiful edition for the occasion. You can find it on Amazon.

For those keeping track, this is my first Italian translation since 2002, when I translated Giovanni Battista Nazari’s alchemical dream vision Three Dreams for Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks in Glasgow. My, how time flies.

A brooding piece for bass recorder and piano.