Lee Hall gives a new review of Faulkner-Wisdom Prize finalist novella, Love’s Ragged Claws.
“For a short read, Gary Gautier packs in so much … I’m definitely urged to go back a few times and read it just to capture everything.”
See the full review at Lee Hall’s Book Reviews.
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I advise you to download this 50-page Faulkner-Wisdom Prize finalist NOW (and share the link widely) while it’s free, and add your Amazon rating later.
Free Kindle download: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RSNTR2B/
Digital Book Today listings: http://digitalbooktoday.com/free-kindle-books-amazon/
Author site: http://www.garygautier.com/
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Books getting out to new stores — signed copies in stock now! This week’s features are New Orleans stores. Buy local if you can!
SCHEMATICS AND ASSEMBLIES OF THE COSMIC HEART at
Blue Cypress
More Fun Comics
LOVE’S RAGGED CLAWS at
Frenchmen Art and Books
HIPPIES at
The Mushroom Records and Smoke Shop
And for you unfortunates who can’t chop local, find all through my website.
BONUS: Join me for a book club Zoom chat on my novel, Goodbye, Maggie, this Thursday, Feb. 24, 7 pm US central time. All are welcome. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84153455299
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My short novella, Love’s Ragged Claws, is free for instant Kindle download this week (Amazon US, still cheap on Amazon international 🙂 )
Pass it on.
#1 Bestseller on Amazon’s 90-minute reads (free) list.
Shortlisted for the Faulkner-Wisdom Prize
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RSNTR2B/
NOW FREE
Gabriel enters confession for the first time in 50 years and tells the priest he has only three sins, all sins of the flesh. The confession doesn’t end as the priest might wish, but it opens up the byways of human identity and human connection as it weaves the tale of of the three relationships that ended up defining Gabriel’s life. Adult language.
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Shortlisted for the Faulkner-Wisdom Prize https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RSNTR2B/
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Friends, lovers, vagabond spirits!
Below is last week’s interview for Love’s Ragged Claws and my other novels on Eartheart Radio (Oregon Community Radio). Derek, Eartheart host and a good brother to all, has interviewed all manner of characters from Wavy Gravy and Squeaky Fromme to Bhagavan Das (Baba Ram Dass’s first guide in India, as chronicled in Be Here Now). You might want to follow Derek’s weekly Eartheart shows on KSKQ Oregon. Or at least show some love in clicks and comments below the YouTube post of the program.
For what it’s worth, I was paired for my segment with one of the principal deities in the Hindu pantheon, Lord Brahma.
Interview at 1:45-19:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0UnCCmsJNA
(The audio connection wasn’t perfect, but the chat was full and friendly.)
Click HERE for Eartheart’s YouTube home.
Click the cover below to link to Love’s Ragged Claws (a 55-page novella).
Click through to original to see full interview.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RSNTR2B/
Author website: http://www.garygautier.com/
Looks like Love’s Ragged Claws (Faulkner-Wisdom finalist) has a FREE cycle this week. Download free at this link: http:amzn.to/3cwDBaj.
Just be nice if you take a freebie and post an honest Amazon review of at least one sentence. These really help authors.
In this short novella, Gabriel enters confession for the first time in 50 years and tells the priest he has only three sins to confess, all sins of the flesh, and the confession opens up the byways of human identity and human relationships as it weaves the tale of the three sins.
“A stop at the confessional becomes a life story . . . three sins of the flesh, all of them unique, touching, funny, and remarkably real” (John Allen Stevenson, Professor of English and author of History of the British Novel: Defoe to Austen)
Here’s a sample page if you want to preview the style.
Thanks!
Gary
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Love’s Ragged Claws (55 pages) now out. Faulkner-Wisdom Prize finalist. Get it. Share it. Write reviews. ($7.12 Pap., $3.91 Kindle)
Link: http:amzn.to/3cwDBaj
Gabriel enters confession for the first time in 50 years and tells the priest he has only three sins to confess, all sins of the flesh, and the confession opens up the byways of human identity and human relationships as it weaves the tale of the three sins. This short novella moves back and forth between Gabriel’s hippie life with the three women in the 1970s and their continued contact in old age, as they reflect back and pull out the little epiphanies that would become reference points of meaning for the rest of their lives.
“A stop at the confessional becomes a life story . . . three sins of the flesh, all of them unique, touching, funny, and remarkably real” (John Allen Stevenson, Professor of English and author of History of the British Novel: Defoe to Austen)
“The flow and style carry you along, beginning to end” (Michael T. Tusa, Author of Chasing Charles Bukowski and A Second Chance at Dancing)
“A brilliantly woven narrative spanning five decades and three enduring yet elusive relationships” (Robert Okaji, Author of From Every Moment a Second and I Have a Bird to Whistle)
Love’s Ragged Claws is brand new, it’s cheap, and it’s a short read, so let’s get some honest reviews up on Amazon! Email me, too, and let me know what you think!
Gary (drggautier@gmail.com)
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Goodbye, Maggie (160 pages), which was short-listed in the William Faulkner — Wisdom Competition, is scheduled for January 2020 release. If anyone would consider giving an honest advance review, query drggautier@gmail.com and I’ll send typeset pdf (and notify you when a Kindle copy is listed for free after release).
Summary: In a culture of health food stores, gurus, quacks and seekers, a young man’s stagnant life goes topsy-turvy when his charismatic brother shows up with the news that he has murdered someone and asks for sanctuary.
For the opening page, click here.
For an excerpt from late in the novel (“Phil’s next surprise”), see below …
Phil is shaky, fresh from the bed and weak. Gus supports him. The priest walks away, past the cracked headstones toward the moss-laden oaks and cypress trees at the perimeter of the cemetery. Perhaps his concern for all souls has brought him here but his better judgment has him scurrying away before anything pagan breaks out.
The voodoo priestess stands and speaks.
“Close your eyes and feel, feel this city of the dead come to life to help our sister cross over. The city of the dead is come to life and we are but its shadows.”
Gus whispers to Phil: “This is definitely not like my aunt’s funeral in New York. The cities of the dead here feel like they might really come to life.”
A raspy, middle-aged woman’s voice hammers down from behind.
“What you mean, ‘might come to life’? You must be blind as a bat. Look around you and what do you see? Flesh and blood and spirit mixing and churning.”
They turn and see Madame Peychaud.
“Damn fools,” she adds.
“Madame Peychaud?!” Phil exclaims.
“Where the hell did you come from?” asks Gus.
“Got a letter from poor little Maggie. She told me when and where to come. Always directing things, even from the city of the dead. She said y’all had the essential oils business all ready.”
Gus and Phil look at each other confused. The conversation continues as they walk out of the cemetery.
“Yeah,” Phil says. “Yeah, sure, we’re ready. I just, we don’t actually have the, have the oils.”
Phil hears his own voice echo off the cemetery’s iron gate. He is speaking to Madame Peychaud, looking at her. Perhaps he’d never seen her in a dress, never seen her exposed to the shoulder. And the echo – and what he sees – captivates him. For a second, he ponders in sheer curiosity, trying to remember where he had seen it before. He is still speaking to Madame Peychaud but he doesn’t know what he is saying. Where had he seen it before? And suddenly he knows. His mouth dries out. He knows where he saw it. The tiny image against the caramel skin of Madame Peychaud’s shoulder. But he is too frail from his ordeal. He drops.
Someone is being carried. Someone is carrying. A white man being carried. A black man carrying. Other characters populate the scene. They are going down a street. Phil feels that he is somewhere in the scene but he doesn’t know where. Is he the white man being carried? The black man doing the carrying? One or all of the others? Or is he the trees, the sun, the stucco facades, the atmosphere itself. He floats into the atmosphere. Up, up he floats, surveying the scene below – a black man carrying a white man with a huddle of people moving along with them down the street. He is on top of a cathedral. The mime is there, on top of the cathedral. The bells ring.
“Wake up, baby.” The voice is Madame Peychaud’s.
Phil is back in the fairy queen’s bedroom.
“Where are we?” Phil ventures. “Why are we …”
“Hush, baby. We don’t have to be out of this room just yet.”
Phil is still groggy. Everything seems symbolic.
We don’t have to be out of this room just yet.
He starts to dream again. He is back in the hollow, at the pond with Maggie. She is young and beautiful.
“Do you know about my parents?” she is saying.
Phil doesn’t answer. He is lying in the grass, feeling the sun, watching the leaves waver overhead, hearing the occasional “plip … plip” of a fish jumping in the pond.
“Once upon a time, I thought that he too betrayed a loved one.”
Strange, Phil thinks. This conversation. Viewing our lives with such calm. Feeling the truth of things, but from a distance. Detachment. Compassion. They only work together. That’s where he got it wrong. That’s where people get it wrong. They think detachment and compassion are opposites. No, they are brothers, sisters, twins, always together. They only work together. Unconditional love means never missing anyone. If you miss them, your love is tainted by attachment, interest, possessiveness. As long as you’re capable of missing someone your love is conditional. It’s like a veil was lifted for Phil. He is getting excited. And his excitement breaks the spell. He looks at Maggie but the scene is fading, dissolving. Someone is standing across the room. Someone with her back to Phil. She is rinsing out a small towel in the sink. He hears Madame Peychaud’s voice.
“This wild goose chase you been on the last few weeks, hunting around like that. It isn’t really about Hermia, is it?”
“No ma’am. It’s about Magnus.”
Did he really say that? No ma’am? Is he a child again? No, he is just disoriented. He gathers his thoughts.
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(Click image for links)
shakemyheadhollow 