SmokeLong Quarterly

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Top Ten Page Views for May 2009

Once again, very late posting this, due to insane work schedules. Total traffic for the month was 86,341, which convinces me that, yes, I need to find time to pimp the site again. Samuel Lee's piece is yet another testament to the power of StumbleUpon, as his story garnered over 5,000 page views from Stumblers alone. One reviewer there commented, "Thanks for the braingasm."

1. (6) I Use Commas like Ninja Stars by Samuel Lee (3/18/09)
2. (4) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (3) Barista by Sarah Black (3/18/09)
4. (5) Night Vision by Edmond Caldwell (3/18/09)
5. (2) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
6. (7) Star Man by Bill Cook (3/18/09)
7. (NR) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
8. (8) One Night at Crobar by Shane Goth (3/18/09)
9. (NR) Disease Relics by Blake Butler (6/15/08)
10. (9) Bluegills by Thomas Cooper (3/18/09)

Labels: Bill Cook, Blake Butler, Edmond Caldwell, John Leary, Matt Bell, s, Samuel Lee, Sarah Black, Shane Goth, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Thomas Cooper, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 4:33 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Top Ten Page Views for January 2009

Another month of big activity from StumbleUpon. The pieces by Pendarvis, Kinsella, Maltezos, Hunt, Leary, Chopan, Bundy, and Cooper all had higher referral rates from there than from any other site. Huai's hits came from her inteview, which in turn got its traffic from China Adopt Talk. AichenbaUm, Chopan, Bundy, and Cooper got most of their hits from the front page of SmokeLong (which makes me wonder if it's unfair to some authors to list the contents on the front page alphabetically... hmmm). Leary's hits are largely from people googling for very short stories.

1. (2) Taco Foot by Jack Pendarvis (12/15/07)
2. (NR) Phoenix by W.P. Kinsella (12/15/08)
3. (3) Beautiful by Antonios Maltezos (10/2/08)
4. (NR) Thirteen by Tai Dong Huai (12/15/08)
5. (5) Ants by David Aichenbaum (12/15/08)
6. (1) How 9) Strange by Laird Hunt (12/15/07)
7. (NR) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
8. (NR) The World Before This One by Jon Chopan (12/15/08)
9. (10) Earthrise by Christopher Bundy (12/15/08)
10. (NR) Ghost Bike by Thomas Cooper (12/15/08)

In total, it was another good month, with 107,988 page views.

Edit: By the way, our total page views for last year (I just checked) was 1,108,463. How cool is that?!

Labels: Antonios Maltezos, Christopher Bundy, David Aichenbaum, Jack Pendarvis, John Leary, Jon Chopan, Laird Hunt, SmokeLong Quarterly, Tai Dong Huai, Thomas Cooper, Top Ten, W.P. Kinsella

posted by Dave Clapper at 5:34 PM 0 comments

Monday, January 05, 2009
Top Ten Page Views for December 2008

Well, that's a really interesting shakeup, huh? In looking at specific referrals, a ton of the traffic that propelled several of these into the top ten in page views was from StumbleUpon. Most of those were added to Stumble when we announced our Pushcart Prize nominees. One was an experiment on how to use StumbleUpon when I first set up the ShareThis links on stories. The pieces just outside the top ten had enough traffic than in any other month, they'd have fairly easily made the top ten. They're still getting the same page views, but pages that are Stumbled are getting that much more. In fact, without StumbleUpon, the top ten would have been largely comprised of stories from the December issue (which is what usually happens when a new issue is released).

All of which is to say: authors, if you want to vastly increase your number of readers, join StumbleUpon and start Stumbling your stories (and if you're published here, it's even easier—you can find a link at the end of your story that opens up abilities to share your story on several different sites). And readers, if you absolutely love a story, whether it's here or anywhere else, help spread the word about its greatness to tons of folks you've never met. The more this kind of technology evolves, the more readers will be able to control which authors are gaining the most notice (and, eventually, publishing deals). It's an exciting new world.

1. (NR) How 9) Strange by Laird Hunt (12/15/07)
2. (NR) Taco Foot by Jack Pendarvis (12/15/07)
3. (NR) Beautiful by Antonios Maltezos (10/2/08)
4. (6) Tenderoni by Kathy Fish (10/2/08)
5. (NR) Ants by David Aichenbaum (12/15/08)
6. (NR) Fatback by Jeff Landon (10/2/08)
7. (NR) Trestle by Matt Briggs (3/15/08)
8. (8) Asian Girl by W.P. Kinsella (10/2/08)
9. (3) Innocence, Briefly by Jenny Arnold (10/2/08)
10. (NR) Earthrise by Christopher Bundy (12/15/08)

All told, our page views for the month were 121,084, our highest ever, breaking the previous high of 111,740, set in October.

Labels: Antonios Maltezos, Christopher Bundy, David Aichenbaum, Jack Pendarvis, Jeff Landon, Jenny Arnold, Kathy Fish, Laird Hunt, Matt Briggs, SmokeLong Quarterly, StumbleUpon, Top Ten, W.P. Kinsella

posted by Dave Clapper at 12:53 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 16, 2008
stats for issue 22

Because issue 22 was posted about two weeks later than it should have been, I'm going to break out the stats a couple different ways. One is based on the idea of it having come out on September 15 as it should have; the other is based on the dates it was actually live.

Issue Twenty-Two (live from 10/2/08-12/14/08)

10/2-12/14: 268,923 page views

9/15-12/14: 329,308 page views

So... for the actual times that issues 21 and 22 were live, issue 22 is down 14.80%. However, if issue 22 had gone live when I was supposed to get it live (and a lot of people showed up on the 15th to check it out, under the assumption that it would), traffic was up by 18.79%. One thing I'll say after having checked out the stats for the top ten the last few months: issue 21 was the first issue of SmokeLong that generated over 100,000 page views in every month that it was live. And, based on the stats for this month so far, we're well on pace to shatter that again.

Labels: Issue 22, issue stats, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 3:13 PM 0 comments

Issue 23 is live!

New issue went live yesterday, and it's a beauty. Please come and explore!

Issue Twenty-Three (December 15, 2008): Ants by David Aichenbaum «» Earthrise by Christopher Bundy «» The World Before This One by Jon Chopan «» Ghost Bike by Thomas Cooper «» The Sway of Trains by Lydia Copeland «» Impressionists by Debra A. Daniel «» Danseuses Nues by David Harris Ebenbach «» The Head Fields by Terry Ehret «» Shadows by Sherrie Flick «» Heroin Girl by Larry Fondation «» She Doesn't Ask Where He Goes by Stefanie Freele «» Caved In by Barry Graham «» Chicago World's Fair, 1893 by Kyle Hemmings «» Coat and Shoes by Tania Hershman «» Thirteen by Tai Dong Huai «» Phoenix by W.P. Kinsella «» Nearly Free by Dorianne Laux «» Alien Lunch by Liane LeMaster «» The Society for the Preservation of Everything by Kuzhali Manickavel «» 216 East Boalt by Jeannie Vanasco «» Potatoes by Spencer Wise «» Interviews: David Aichenbaum «» Christopher Bundy «» Jon Chopan «» Thomas Cooper «» Lydia Copeland «» Debra A. Daniel «» David Harris Ebenbach «» Terry Ehret «» Sherrie Flick «» Larry Fondation «» Stefanie Freele «» Barry Graham «» Kyle Hemmings «» Tania Hershman «» Tai Dong Huai «» Dorianne Laux «» Liane LeMaster «» Kuzhali Manickavel «» Spencer Wise «» Cover Art "morpheus" by Marty D. Ison «» Letter From the Editor

Labels: Issue 23, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 1:12 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 03, 2008
SmokeLong and Social Networking

While compiling the top ten list for November, I got curious about where some of the page views were coming from, particularly for older pieces that cracked the top ten again after a long absence. One thing jumped out at me: a lot of hits for Holly Selph's The Color of Moths were coming from StumbleUpon. Well, that was the second time I'd seen an older story gain a lot of new audience from StumbleUpon, so I figured it was finally time to do a little research on it. And perhaps to take a look at other social networking sites that drive traffic, like Digg, Delcious, etc.

While looking around, I found a very cool application called ShareThis. It gathers together links to a ton of different social networking sites and makes it easy to click through and recommend the page a reader is on. Since our copyright notice is in one file that's linked on every story page, it was easy to add the code there and instantly have ShareThis on every story's page.

The results are phenomenal. I quickly Stumbled each of our six Pushcart Prize nominees. Today alone, each of them has generated about 40% of the total page views that the top flash usually gets in a month! What an incredible tool to promote the incredible writers we're publishing.

So... if you read a story and you just absolutely love it, click on the little green icon and recommend the story using whatever service you might already be using. Our writers will thank you for the additional readers exposed to their work.

Also, if you want to keep abreast of the latest news, you can either subscribe to our RSS Feed and/or join our Facebook group (in which you can find over 80 of the writers previously published here).

Welcome to the 21st century, eh?

Labels: Facebook, Pushcart Prize, SmokeLong Quarterly, StumbleUpon

posted by Dave Clapper at 3:29 PM 2 comments

Monday, December 01, 2008
Top Ten Page Views for November 2008

Sarah Hilary retains her top spot, and Almond almost falls out of the top ten altogether. Interesting to see two from March '07 jump back onto the list.

1. (1) Two Minute Silence by Sarah Hilary (10/2/08)
2. (3) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
3. (4) Innocence, Briefly by Jenny Arnold (10/2/08)
4. (NR) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
5. (5) How Anything Got Done by Paul Elwork (10/2/08)
6. (8) Tenderoni by Kathy Fish (10/2/08)
7. (NR) The Color of Moths by Holly Selph (3/15/07)
8. (6) Asian Girl by W.P. Kinsella (10/2/08)
9. (7) Tapioca O's by Natalie DeClerck (10/2/08)
10. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)

Last month, I wondered whether the monthly page views would stay above 100,000 in months without new issues. Sure enough! 101,408. Woo!

Labels: Holly Selph, Jenny Arnold, John Leary, Kathy Fish, Matt Bell, Natalie DeClerck, Paul Elwork, Sarah Hilary, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Top Ten, W.P. Kinsella

posted by Dave Clapper at 9:32 AM 0 comments

SmokeLong Quarterly Pushcart Nominations

SmokeLong Quarterly is thrilled to announce its six nominations for the Pushcart Prize:

"How 9) Strange" by Laird Hunt SLQ #19, December 2007
"Taco Foot" by Jack Pendarvis SLQ #19, December 2007
"Trestle" by Matt Briggs SLQ #20, March 2008
"The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines" by Matt Bell SLQ #21, June 2008
"Fatback" by Jeff Landon SLQ #22, October 2008
"Tenderoni" by Kathy Fish SLQ #22, October 2008

Labels: Jack Pendarvis, Jeff Landon, Kathy Fish, Laird Hunt, Matt Bell, Matt Briggs, Pushcart Prize, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Randall Brown at 6:16 AM 1 comments

Thursday, November 20, 2008
2009 Fish Fellowship applications now being accepted

Applications for the 2009 Kathy Fish Fellowship ($500) are now being accepted. For more details, please see the announcement.

Labels: Beth Thomas, Fish Fellowship, Kathy Fish, SmokeLong Quarterly, Stefanie Freele

posted by Dave Clapper at 4:10 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Top Ten Page Views for October 2008

October's Top Ten was absolutely dominated by content from the new issue. Almond and Bell were the only repeats from last month. And, if we look beyond the top ten, the next eight in page views were all from the October issue as well. Talk about a strong issue.

1. (NR) Two Minute Silence by Sarah Hilary (10/2/08)
2. (3) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (1) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
4. (NR) Innocence, Briefly by Jenny Arnold (10/2/08)
5. (NR) How Anything Got Done by Paul Elwork (10/2/08)
6. (NR) Asian Girl by W.P. Kinsella (10/2/08)
7. (NR) Tapioca O's by Natalie DeClerck (10/2/08)
8. (NR) Tenderoni by Kathy Fish (10/2/08)
9. (NR) Breathing Oysters by Stefanie Freele (10/2/08)
10. (NR) Campfire by Donna D. Vitucci (10/2/08)

Total page views for the month was... get this... 111,740! I'll be interested to see if the page views stay over 100,000 in months without a new issue going live. Here's hoping.

Labels: Donna D. Vitucci, Jenny Arnold, Matt Bell, Natalie DeClerck, Paul Elwork, Sarah Hilary, SmokeLong Quarterly, Stefanie Freele, Steve Almond, Top Ten, W.P. Kinsella

posted by Dave Clapper at 3:00 PM 0 comments

Monday, November 03, 2008
Submissions temporarily down

To anyone who has tried to submit since October 30, you've probably noticed that you've gotten an error message. Our server was having issues on October 31 that took the whole site down, but got it fixed that same day. However, in getting the site back online, something went awry in the permissions on the database that houses submissions. We have a support ticket in with our hosting service, and have put in a payment to upgrade our hosting plan to include SQL Server, rather than just Microsoft Access, so that we can have a more robust submissions system in the future.

Thanks for your patience. We hope to have this fixed ASAMFP.

Edit: The permissions on the folder were set inccorectly when the servers were brought back online. Support has fixed this now and y'all can submit again!!! Thanks for your patience!

Labels: SmokeLong Quarterly, submissions

posted by Dave Clapper at 11:56 AM 0 comments

Friday, October 03, 2008
stats for issue 21

I'm going to break out the stats for issue twenty-one two different ways since issue twenty-two was so late going live. I'll post one set of stats for what things would've looked like if 22 had come out on time and another set for when 22 actually went live.

Issue Twenty-One (live from 6/15/08-10/1/08)

6/15-6/30: 54343 page views
7/1-7/31: 87560 page views
8/1-8/31: 96892 page views
9/1-9/14: 38416 page views

9/15-10/1: 60385 page views
Total Issue 21 (through 9/14): 277211 page views
Total Issue 21 (through 10/1): 315627 page views

Even without the extra couple weeks, our birthday issue was clearly a monster: just through the 14th (when it should have finished its run), it broke the previous record for page views by 13.5%. And it seems clear that people were ready for that new issue to hit on the 15th, as the numbers at the end of the month were much higher than at the beginning of the month. I hope my inexcusable tardiness in getting 22 posted didn't cause us to lose readers. To all the writers in this issue, my deepest apologies. I'll do everything I can to make sure you're getting the kind of readership you deserve.

Labels: Issue 21, issue stats, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 5:14 PM 0 comments

Top Ten Page Views for September 2008

Well, Matt Bell owned the month of September, not only capturing the top spot with his most recent flash in SLQ, but also checking in at #8 for a flash published two years ago. You go, Matt!

1. (2) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
2. (5) This Is What You Left Behind by Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
3. (9) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
4. (8) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
5. (NR) Feeling Sad by Darby Larson (6/15/08)
6. (4) Paper Mouse by Bob Arter (6/15/08)
7. (3) We Decided to Make Porn by Brian Allen Carr (6/15/08)
8. (NR) How the Broken Lead the Blind Until They Both Become Something Else Entirely by Matt Bell (6/15/06)
9. (10) The Bone Orchard by Randall Brown (6/15/08)
10. (NR) Handful of Dirt by Jim Ruland (6/15/08)

Total page views for the month? 96,057, another huge month. Woo!

Labels: Bob Arter, Brian Allen Carr, Darby Larson, Jim Ruland, Matt Bell, Randall Brown, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Tod Goldberg, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 4:29 PM 0 comments

Issue 22 is live

Well, it's incredibly late (which is entirely my fault), but issue 21 is finally live! Check it out:

Issue Twenty-Two (October 2, 2008): Innocence, Briefly by Jenny Arnold «» Tapioca O's by Natalie DeClerck «» How Anything Got Done by Paul Elwork «» Tenderoni by Kathy Fish «» Breathing Oysters by Stefanie Freele «» The Mime's Dog by Steven Douglas Gullion «» Two Minute Silence by Sarah Hilary «» Constructing Birds by Jo Horsman «» Crazy Sun by Lauren Huckstadt «» One Night Out by Ashley Kaufman «» Asian Girl by W.P. Kinsella «» Fatback by Jeff Landon «» Bounty by Tricia Louvar «» Beautiful by Antonios Maltezos «» Private Room by M.E. Parker «» True Identity by Kevin Sampsell «» Campfire by Donna D. Vitucci «» Interviews: Jenny Arnold «» Paul Elwork «» Kathy Fish «» Stefanie Freele «» Steven Douglas Gullion «» Sarah Hilary «» Jo Horsman «» Ashley Kaufman «» Jeff Landon «» Tricia Louvar «» Antonios Maltezos «» M.E. Parker «» Kevin Sampsell «» Donna D. Vitucci «» Cover Art "November Leaves" by Marty D. Ison «» Letter From the Editor

Labels: Issue 22, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 1:51 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Top Ten Page Views for August 2008

August's top ten is a great example of why I'm such a huge fan of publishing online versus print publishing. Alexandra Fox's story was the most viewed piece of the month, with over 1000 page views last month. And it was published three years ago. And how did this come to pass? Apparently, somewhere along the way, it got tagged on StumbleUpon, and so users of that service wound up being directed to this work quite often. Lots of new readers for a story from 2005. When's the last time you saw print do that?

1. (NR) A Deep Desire for Blue by Alexandra Fox (6/15/05)
2. (3) The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell (6/15/08)
3. (1) We Decided to Make Porn by Brian Allen Carr (6/15/08)
4. (2) Paper Mouse by Bob Arter (6/15/08)
5. (NR) This Is What You Left Behind by Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
6. (8) The Cougar by Dave Clapper (6/15/08)
7. (6) Disease Relics by Blake Butler (6/15/08)
8. (4) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
9. (7) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
10. (5) The Bone Orchard by Randall Brown (6/15/08)

One other quick note: for the month, we had 96,892 page views, shattering our previous monthly record. Holy cow.

Labels: Alexandra Fox, Blake Butler, Bob Arter, Brian Allen Carr, Dave Clapper, John Leary, Matt Bell, Randall Brown, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Tod Goldberg, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 5:41 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 16, 2008
stats for issue 20

Here are the stats for issue twenty:

Issue Twenty (live from 3/15/08-6/14/08)

3/15-3/31: 45649 page views
4/1-4/30: 78549 page views
5/1-5/31: 83898 page views
6/1-6/14: 36151 page views
Total Issue 20: 244247 page views

Wow. That's crazy how level that is. (Issue 19 had 244134 page views.) A whopping 0.05% increase in page views over the last issue. I'll be fascinated to see what the numbers look like come September—I'd normally expect a double issue like this to generate a lot more traffic, but our numbers have traditionally taken a dip during the summer, so... it'll be interesting.

Labels: issue 20, issue stats, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 10:07 AM 0 comments

Sunday, June 15, 2008
Happy birthday to us!

Today, we celebrate our 5th birthday with a special double issue. Included in this issue:

Issue Twenty-One (June 15, 2008): Paper Mouse by Bob Arter «» The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell «» The Bone Orchard by Randall Brown «» Disease Relics by Blake Butler «» We Decided to Make Porn by Brian Allen Carr «» The Baby Drop-Off by Natascia Casey-Dean «» The Cougar by Dave Clapper «» Anointed by Myfanwy Collins «» Sister Earth by John Colvin «» Soap by Katrina Denza «» The Interpretation of Light by Murray Dunlap «» The Hole by Ashley Farmer «» Repair Man by Kathy Fish «» In the Kitchen She Wakes by Stefanie Freele «» American Gothic by Scott Garson «» Lobster Girl by Alicia Gifford «» Pen and Notebook by Natalie Goldberg «» Memento Mori by Rosanne Griffeth «» BiC by Steven Gullion «» Parting by Evelyn Hampton «» Tuesday by Lindsay Hunter «» Waiting on Lombard Street by W.P. Kinsella «» Johnny by Nance Knauer «» Like Swimming by Jeff Landon «» Feeling Sad by Darby Larson «» Alone With Cooper by Ellen Meister «» The Angel's Visitation by Corey Mesler «» South Dakota by Mary Miller «» California Fruit by Meg Pokrass «» Home Made by Bruce Holland Rogers «» Handful of Dirt by Jim Ruland «» Steam City Girl by Paul Silverman «» Sugar by Claudia Smith «» The 13th Toast by Amy Sparks «» Gathering by Kelly Spitzer «» Tiny Shadows by Maryanne Stahl «» Double-Exposure by Thomas White «» Epistemology by Joseph Young «» Why This Isn't a Good Story to Tell by Shellie Zacharia «» Liquid by Michelle Zellers «» Real Estate by Bonnie ZoBell «» Interviews: Bob Arter «» Matt Bell «» Randall Brown «» Blake Butler «» Brian Allen Carr «» Natascia Casey-Dean «» Dave Clapper «» Myfanwy Collins «» John Colvin «» Katrina Denza «» Murray Dunlap «» Ashley Farmer «» Kathy Fish «» Stefanie Freele «» Scott Garson «» Alicia Gifford «» Rosanne Griffeth «» Steven Gullion «» Evelyn Hampton «» Lindsay Hunter «» Nance Knauer «» Jeff Landon «» Darby Larson «» Ellen Meister «» Corey Mesler «» Mary Miller «» Meg Pokrass «» Bruce Holland Rogers «» Jim Ruland «» Paul Silverman «» Claudia Smith «» Amy Sparks «» Kelly Spitzer «» Maryanne Stahl «» Thomas White «» Joseph Young «» Shellie Zacharia «» Michelle Zellers «» Bonnie ZoBell «» Cover Art "Five Years of SmokeLong" compiled from art by Marty D. Ison, Robert Dornberg, Malina, and Rebecca Gullickson «» Letter From the Editor

Labels: Issue 21, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 9:55 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 02, 2008
Top Ten Page Views for May 2008

Well, Almond's "Pornography" is back on top again. I think I always sort of knew that at least part of its page views were coming from folks who weren't necessarily looking for a good story to read. Now that we have our referrers being tracked, it's become a little clearer that that's the case. In looking at the top referrers for "Pornography," seven of the top ten referrers are searches for "Porno" on various different Microsoft search enginges. Ah, well. I hope that a few of them get over their disappointment at not finding pud-pulling material long enough to give it a read. It's a hell of a story.

1. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (1) The Cockroach by David Barringer (3/15/08)
3. (5) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
4. (4) Trestle by Matt Briggs (3/15/08)
5. (6) Scrape by Utahna Faith (3/15/08)
6. (3) Worried & Wondering by Aaron Burch (3/15/08)
7. (7) We by Patricia Parkinson (3/15/08)
8. (8) Dead Dog Rising by Kate Hill Cantrill (3/15/08)
9. (NR) The Last Stop by Jenny Halper (3/15/08)
10. (9) Last Fall by Katherine Grosjean (3/15/08)

Expect a shake-up next month, as our birthday issue goes live in a hair under two weeks, so there'll be lots of new content to read.

Labels: Aaron Burch, David Barringer, Jenny Halper, John Leary, Kate Hill Cantrill, Katherine Grosjean, Matt Briggs, Patricia Parkinson, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Top Ten, Utahna Faith

posted by Dave Clapper at 11:47 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Microsoft for Perverts

While getting our stats working again, I requested something that's never worked that I felt we should have: referrer information. So we have that now, almost a week's worth of data. People searching on Google seem to find what they're looking for:

Google

Phrase	Visits
smokelong quarterly	29
smokelong	14
very short story	8
very short stories	5
Ethnic Girls	3
ellen parker	3
greg ames	3
smoke long quarterly	3
Claudia Smith	2
pasha malla	2

People searching on Microsoft? Not so much:

Microsoft Network

Phrase	Visits
porno	17
panties	4
fotos porno	2
pornography	1
no panties	1
NO bras	1
PUNCK ART	1
euclid	1
magritte fish	1
bra + panties	1

To all the Microsoft searchers seeking bras, panties, no bras, no panties, and each combination of said undergarments, I deeply apologize for exposing you to literature.

Labels: search engines, SmokeLong Quarterly, stats

posted by Dave Clapper at 11:17 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Top Ten Page Views for April 2008 (stats are back!)

Woohoo! Stats are working again! I'd like to apologize for the downtime we had with the site for a couple days over the weekend and hope it didn't panic anyone too much. On the plus side, having to talk to our web host prompted me to mention that we'd really like to have our stats working again. And now they are! I've gone through and backfilled the missing top tens. If you click here, you should be able to see all of them that were missing (and, at some point, I'll go back and put tags on all of the top tens ever, so they'll all be viewable on one page). April saw another new #1, David Barringer's cockroach micro.

1. (3) The Cockroach by David Barringer (3/15/08)
2. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (6) Worried & Wondering by Aaron Burch (3/15/08)
4. (5) Trestle by Matt Briggs (3/15/08)
5. (1) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
6. (NR) Scrape by Utahna Faith (3/15/08)
7. (NR) We by Patricia Parkinson (3/15/08)
8. (8) Dead Dog Rising by Kate Hill Cantrill (3/15/08)
9. (NR) Last Fall by Katherine Grosjean (3/15/08)
10. (NR) Raymond Carver by Dan Chaon (9/15/07)

SO glad to have stats working again. I'll be compiling the stats for the last two issues in a bit, and will be posting them as well.

Labels: Aaron Burch, Dan Chaon, David Barringer, John Leary, Kate Hill Cantrill, Katherine Grosjean, Matt Briggs, Patricia Parkinson, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Top Ten, Utahna Faith

posted by Dave Clapper at 12:38 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Top Ten Page Views for March 2008

John Leary jumps back into the top spot again, with a challenge from an old powerhouse. And a bunch of stories from the latest issue start getting much-deserved attention.

1. (3) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
2. (8) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (NR) The Cockroach by David Barringer (3/15/08)
4. (2) The Off-Season by Jami Attenberg (12/15/07)
5. (NR) Trestle by Matt Briggs (3/15/08)
6. (NR) Worried & Wondering by Aaron Burch (3/15/08)
7. (6) Holiday Inn by Kim Chinquee (12/15/07)
8. (NR) Dead Dog Rising by Kate Hill Cantrill (3/15/08)
9. (1) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
10. (NR) The Last Stop by Jenny Halper (3/15/08)

Labels: Aaron Burch, David Barringer, Elizabeth Ellen, Jami Attenberg, Jenny Halper, John Leary, Kate Hill Cantrill, Kim Chinquee, Matt Briggs, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 12:28 PM 0 comments

Saturday, March 15, 2008
Stats for Issue 19

Here are the stats for issue nineteen:

Issue Nineteen (live from 12/15/07-3/14/08)

12/15-12/30: 49709 page views
1/1-1/31: 83313 page views
2/1-2/29: 68714 page views
12/1-12/14: 42398 page views
Total Issue 19: 244134 page views

And we see a jump of 28.89%. That's more like it!

Labels: Issue 19, issue stats, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 1:06 PM 0 comments

Saturday, March 01, 2008
Top Ten Page Views for February 2008

Not a lot of change this month. In fact, I had to check after writing up the first three to make sure I'd changed my stats view, since there's no change in the top three at all. Also, it's really cool to see Heidi Durrow's piece making an appearance here again.

1. (1) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
2. (2) The Off-Season by Jami Attenberg (12/15/07)
3. (3) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
4. (8) A Company Function by Grant Bailie (12/15/07)
5. (NR) Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears by Heidi W. Durrow (9/15/07)
6. (7) Holiday Inn by Kim Chinquee (12/15/07)
7. (10) What Happened to My Purple Flip-Flops by Arwen Dewey (12/15/07)
8. (NR) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
9. (9) Killer Pair by Trinie Dalton (12/15/07)
10. (NR) Food Spectrum of the Rainbow Family by Melissa Bell (12/15/07)

Labels: Arwen Dewey, Elizabeth Ellen, Grant Bailie, Heidi W. Durrow, Jami Attenberg, John Leary, Kim Chinquee, Melissa Bell, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Top Ten, Trinie Dalton

posted by Dave Clapper at 12:21 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Pecha Kucha recap

I'd hoped to have a picture or two to go with this post, but haven't received any yet. If and when I get some, I'll add them in. So... I couldn't stay for the entire event last night, so I missed about half the presenters. To be fair to all the presenters, then, I won't be giving an account of the other presentations. Rather, I'll be focusing more on what I presented. The them of the night was "Love," and while I kept that in mind while selecting stories to read, our authors aren't typically writing the kind of stuff you'd see in Valentine's Day cards. So my first criterion in selecting pieces was how strongly they opened. Since the format provides for only 20 seconds of reading of each piece, I wanted to ensure that every piece I read had some sort of hook to pull the reader (or in this case, the listener) in pretty quickly. I selected one piece from each of our first 18 issues. I also made the list without repeating any authors. Because we haven't done artwork to wallpaper size (or even for every single piece in the early issues), I enlisted Ellen Parker's help in creating artwork for each of these. For writers interested in studying strong openers or for attendees of last night's event who'd like to read the pieces in their entirety, here's the list (in the order they were read, from issue 1 through 18):

1: Neighborhood Watch, Nance Knauer
2: Must Sign for Delivery, Jade Walker
3: Metallic, Ellen Parker
4: Remembering Elizabeth, Bob Arter
5: Gilda, Patricia Parkinson
6: 201 Feet, Andrew Tibbetts
7: All Over Again, Tom Jackson
8: He Wrote Sixteen Pencils Empty, Daphne Buter
9: Irvin Hammers a Cat House, Mike Young
10: Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub, Jeff Landon
11: A Blind Dog Named Killer and a Colony of Bees, Mary Miller
12: Ally's First Step, Paul Silverman
13: Daffodil, Kathy Fish
14: Vandals, Jennifer A. Howard
15: Copenhagen, Fred Spears
16: Heaven by the Highwayside, Mike Amato
17: My First Two-Headed Boy, Veronica Thorn
18: Display, Davin Malasarn

I had a great time once again, this time presenting first, rather than last. This meant that the audience was much larger, but also considerably more sober. For more information on Pecha Kucha, check out the official website. Special thanks to Ellen especially for her artwork, Ana Pinto da Silva for organizing the whole shebang, and Jamie Drzayich for picking up the flying pages. Can't wait to do it all again some time.

Labels: Dave Clapper, Pecha Kucha, Seattle, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 3:30 PM 1 comments

Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Pecha Kucha Seattle v.05

I need to get caught up on posting about a LOT of publications that have new issues out, and will try to do that in the next few days. Right now, though, my focus is on getting ready for the next Pecha Kucha, coming up on February 12. I'll be reading 20 seconds each of one story per issue from our first 18 issues (since last time, I did all of issue 19). Because of the format, I've looked much harder at how quickly a story catches my eye. The amount of text that can be read aloud in 20 seconds isn't much, so it really requires that the author grab attention as quickly as possible. It's making me appreciate that much more those authors who have great strength in openings. Once I've decided which stories I'll be reading from, I'll post links to them all here, both because I think it's valuable for writers to look at strong openers, and so that folks who hear the pieces read at Pecha Kucha can quickly find links to read the rest of the stories that may have piqued their interest.

There will be ten presenters this time, and it looks like an incredible lineup. If you happen to be in Seattle next week, it's a great event to add to your calendar. The image here is a link to the poster (which is gorgeous—kudos to Ana Pinto da Silva).

Here're the details:

Tuesday, February 12th
6:00 PM
See Sound Lounge
115 Blanchard St, Seattle, WA
Theme: LOVE

Presenters:
Linda Carlin, Senior Design Analyst, Frog Design
David Harrell, Fellow, Royal Institute of Public Health
John Grade, Artist, Seeps of Winter/Suyama Space
Allan Packer, Artist, Davidson Contemporary
Jon Taylor, Architect/Artist, Callison
Alex Maxim, Knowledge Manager, NBBJ
Dave Clapper, Editor, Smokelong Quarterly
David Ho, Architect, Gensler
Ryan Matthew Smith, Photographer
Shannon Wells & Jed Dunkerley, Slideluck Potshow

Labels: Dave Clapper, Pecha Kucha, Seattle, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 10:17 AM 1 comments

Friday, February 01, 2008
Top Ten Page Views for January 2008

And Elizabeth Ellen takes the top spot back from John Leary, in what otherwise is a list dominated by recent stories.

1. (2) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
2. (4) The Off-Season by Jami Attenberg (12/15/07)
3. (1) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
4. (7) How 9) Strange by Laird Hunt (12/15/07)
5. (9) Taco Foot by Jack Pendarvis (12/15/07)
6. (NR) Truth (ii) by Ben Ehrenreich (12/15/07)
7. (6) Holiday Inn by Kim Chinquee (12/15/07)
8. (10) A Company Function by Grant Bailie (12/15/07)
9. (NR) Killer Pair by Trinie Dalton (12/15/07)
10. (NR) What Happened to My Purple Flip-Flops by Arwen Dewey (12/15/07)

Labels: Arwen Dewey, Ben Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Ellen, Grant Bailie, Jack Pendarvis, Jami Attenberg, John Leary, Kim Chinquee, Laird Hunt, SmokeLong Quarterly, Top Ten, Trinie Dalton

posted by Dave Clapper at 12:14 PM 0 comments

Saturday, January 19, 2008
Some things we've never published

I've just spent a fair amount of time reading (and, alas, rejecting) submissions, and a few of them brought to mind things we've never published. Or, if we have, I can't recall them. I'm not saying we'd never publish flashes with these things in them, but it's probably pretty telling that we haven't before now. Maybe seeing these things in a list will be of benefit to submitting writers. Maybe not. But here are a few:

1) Guns. Chekhov talked about the fact that if a gun was seen onstage in Act I, it would have to be used in Act III (or something to that effect). Flash almost never has three acts. To set up the use of a gun in less than a thousand words isn't impossible (Pearl Jam does it very well in the song "Jeremy"), but it ain't easy. The writer has to overcome a lot to make a gun's presence work in a flash.

2) Dead babies. I'm cheating on this, because I know we've published at least one dead baby story. But most dead baby stories rely too much on the sympathy/empathy of the reader. Most dead baby stories, I'd argue, aren't all that honest, either. They sit heavy on the grief, without ever touching other emotions, more negative emotions that we may honestly feel, but are too ashamed to acknowledge. It's the stuff we don't want to acknowledge that's interesting. Grief happens, yes, of course, but... can we see something else? (And for anyone who reads the next issue of Per Contra, I know I'll probably get called out for this item. The story of mine they'll be publishing was written specifically in response to one of my favorite writer/editors challenging me to write one, since she knows how I feel about them.)

3) Dead grandmothers. See #2. Actually, take a look at all dead relatives. Interestingly, dead fathers occupy a different place. These tend to be the stories where the anger spills out, and the fathers are reduced to archetypes. Yawn.

4) Abuse. See the bit about fathers in #3. I keep a general rule in my head when reading abuse stories: can the genders of the characters be reversed without it becoming offensive? Very, very few stories pass this test.

5) Full names. Really, does knowing a character's last name in a flash do anything other than waste a word? In a lot of cases, when we see full names, they're used as an attempt to paint the class/race/social station of a character. It's cheap. Often, the full name appears as the first two words of the story. When I see this, my eyes roll out of the back of my head.

6) Digital clocks at night. Seriously, can the writer think of no other way to set the time? Think of this: have you lived in more than one place? Did 3:00 am feel different in those two places? I know the regular sounds of the El passing by my apartment in Evanston were entirely different from the sounds of the alley below my studio on Capitol Hill. And if I woke up in the middle of the night, it wasn't the clock that awoke me, and it wasn't the clock that wedged me back into reality from dreams. Get rid of the clocks, okay?

7) Anthropomorphic animals. Really, do I need to say more than that?

And, to give representation to the other side very briefly, one item that seems to appear in more stories we've published than one would expect:

1) Fish. I'm not sure I could say why, but we do seem to have been predisposed to liking stories with fish in them. All kinds of different fish, too. For whatever reason, several writers have used an array of fish to help set stories in ways that really resonated with us. Go figure. Maybe it's because we love Kath so much?

Labels: SmokeLong Quarterly, submissions

posted by Dave Clapper at 9:44 PM 4 comments

Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Top Ten Page Views for December 2007

Another new number one in December! John Leary and Elizabeth Ellen trade places at 1 and 2. Lots of stuff from the latest issue here, too.

1. (2) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
2. (1) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
3. (7) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
4. (NR) The Off-Season by Jami Attenberg (12/15/07)
5. (3) When the Toasts Stopped Being Funny by Steve Almond (9/15/07)
6. (NR) Holiday Inn by Kim Chinquee (12/15/07)
7. (NR) How 9) Strange by Laird Hunt (12/15/07)
8. (4) Raymond Carver by Dan Chaon (9/15/07)
9. (NR) Taco Foot by Jack Pendarvis (12/15/07)
10. (NR) A Company Function by Grant Bailie (12/15/07)

Labels: Dan Chaon, Elizabeth Ellen, Grant Bailie, Jack Pendarvis, Jami Attenberg, John Leary, Kim Chinquee, Laird Hunt, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 12:03 PM 0 comments

Friday, December 21, 2007
"The Attraction of Asphalt" Named for Best of the Web

Stefani Nellen's The Attraction of Asphalt, which appeared in issue 17 (June 15, 2007), has been selected for inclusion in Best of the Web 2007 (Dzanc Books). The series is edited by Nathan Leslie (The Arrival, issue 10) and the 2007 issue is guest edited by Steve Almond (The Evening of the Dock, issue 4; Pornography, issue 9; When the Toasts Stopped Being Funny, issue 18).

Congratulations to Stefani, and huge kudos to Nathan and Dzanc for making the Best of the Web series a reality, and Steve, for the massive hours he put in selecting work for this edition.

Labels: Best of the Web, Dzanc Books, Nathan Leslie, SmokeLong Quarterly, Stefani Nellen, Steve Almond

posted by Dave Clapper at 11:32 AM 3 comments

Saturday, December 15, 2007
SmokeLong Quarterly Issue 19

SmokeLong Quarterly Issue 19, guest edited by Jim Ruland, is now live:

Issue Nineteen (December 15, 2007): The Off-Season by Jami Attenberg «» A Company Function by Grant Bailie «» Food Spectrum of the Rainbow Family by Melissa Bell «» Holiday Inn by Kim Chinquee «» Killer Pair by Trinie Dalton «» What Happened to My Purple Flip-Flops by Arwen Dewey «» Truth (ii) by Ben Ehrenreich «» How 9) Strange by Laird Hunt «» The Mess You Made in Us by C. Robin Madigan «» Red Brick by Darlin' Neal «» A Boy Not Born Yet by Tori Malcangio «» Taco Foot by Jack Pendarvis «» Boyandaquarter by Ben Stein «» Teec Nos Pos (Circle of Cottonwoods) by Beth Thomas «» Music from 1975 by Benjamin Weissman «» Interviews: Jami Attenberg «» Grant Bailie «» Melissa Bell «» Kim Chinquee «» Trinie Dalton «» Arwen Dewey «» Ben Ehrenreich «» Laird Hunt «» C. Robin Madigan «» Tori Malacangio «» Darlin' Neal «» Jack Pendarvis «» Jim Ruland «» Ben Stein «» Beth Thomas «» Benjamin Weissman «» Cover Art "Desire" by Marty D. Ison «» Letter From the Editor

Labels: Issue 19, Jim Ruland, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 4:46 PM 2 comments

Stats for Issue 18

Here are the stats for issue eighteen:

Issue Eighteen (live from 9/15/07-12/14/07)

9/15-9/30: 31525 page views
10/1-10/31: 54815 page views
11/1-11/30: 69617 page views
12/1-12/14: 33455 page views
Total Issue 18: 189412 page views

That's a drop of 2.95% versus the June issue. Hmm. I'm kind of surprised by this, as our fall issues have traditionally seen a rise in page views from our summer issues.

Labels: Issue 18, issue stats, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 12:57 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Pecha Kucha Seattle recap

So I did the Pecha Kucha thing last night. I didn't know entirely what to expect, having never been to one before. I have to give huge props to Ana Pinto da Silva, who heads up the organization team for Pecha Kucha Seattle. My impression from visiting the official international site is that most volumes of Pecha Kucha in the world (currently in 80 cities, and growing) focus a whole lot on architecture and design. Ana and her team managed to put together a wildly diverse roster:

Matthew Landkammer - Painter
Lulu Smith - Jewelry Designer
Myra Ganong-Varadi - Animal Rights Activist
Sage K. Saskill - Architect with S.A.G.E. Designs NW on sustainability (the bus depicted here once served as his home)
Aaron Briggs - Architectural Designer, on his trip to India
Gummi Brynjarsson - Photographer from Iceland
Sheila Siden - Fundraiser for Artist Trust
Ingrid Harten - Pathologist, researcher of Progeria Syndrome
Dave Clapper - that'd be me

For those unfamiliar with the format of Pecha Kucha (as I was), each presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds each and may verbalize in any way they wish during that time. Most of the presenters last night (but for a very few) spoke extemporaneously about the images in their slides and how they related to their larger theme. In my case, the first two slides were off-the-cuff discussions about SmokeLong in general, and about the upcoming issue specifically. And then I let folks know that my nose would be buried in text and that they should holler when the slides changed. For the next 18 slides, I read as much as I could of each of the 15 stories in our upcoming issue, as well as the first 20 seconds each of Nadine Darling's Aquarium, Melanie Rae Thon's Translation, and my own Spike. Resonance. (which, of course, has never been in SmokeLong, but I had the microphone, right?).

It was a blast. I went last and a lot of the crowd had cleared out by then, so the audience was fairly small, but they were really enthusiastic, for which I'm very thankful. They hollered as requested, and each time they whooped, I tossed aside the page I'd been reading from (often mid-sentence) and moved on to the next. The effect was often humorous, as the tone from piece to piece varied wildly, and where many of the presentations had a certain calm to them, my presentation was more frenetic. At the end of the twenty seconds of the twentieth slide, someone yelled out, "Keep reading!" Thank you, kind person, whoever you are. You were far too kind. But it would've been unbalanced to have given Benjamin Weissman more time than the other authors, so I thanked everyone and urged them to read the full issue when it comes out on Saturday.

Lots and lots and lots of fun. Ana has invited me to present again at the next edition, which will take place in February. The theme of that night will be love (it's happening a few days before Valentine's Day). For last night's, since we have an issue coming out so soon, the timing seemed perfect to do a sneak preview. For the next, we'll still be about a month away from our publication date, so our lineup won't be completely set. So...

What SmokeLong stories make you think of the theme love? I have some ideas, but I want to hear yours.

Labels: Aaron Briggs, Dave Clapper, Gummi Brynjarsson, Ingrid Harten, Lulu Smith, Matthew Landkammer, Myra Ganong-Varadi, Pecha Kucha, Sage K. Saskill, Seattle, Sheila Siden, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 3:28 PM 1 comments

Monday, December 10, 2007
Joseph Young joins SmokeLong Quarterly

Joseph Young, whom we've often published (The Suspect, In the Dust, Ice, The Work Week, Randomization, Photographers), and who guest edited Issue Ten, has agreed to join SmokeLong as a Submissions Editor. We are ecstatic that Joe will be joining us. This is great news for all friends of SmokeLong, readers, writers, and editors alike.

About Joe: Joseph Young lives in Baltimore where he writes and works as a freelance editor. His art writing can be found at BaltimoreInterview.com and his microfiction at verysmalldogs.blogspot.com. His work has also appeared in such journals as SmokeLong Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Exquisite Corpse, and elsewhere. He has a great interest in the visual arts and is busy collaborating with several artists, joining his words with their images.

Labels: Joseph Young, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 10:53 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Seattle Pecha Kucha Vol.04

As one of the presenters at Pecha Kucha, I'll be offering a sneak preview of our December 15 issue. If you're in Seattle, come by for drinks and fun and say hello, won't ya?

Labels: Dave Clapper, Pecha Kucha, Seattle, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 10:52 AM 2 comments

Monday, December 03, 2007
Guest Editors for Issues 20 and 22, Special Issue 21

SmokeLong is very proud to announce our guest editors and plans for our next three issues.

	Issue 20 (March 15, 2008) Claudia Smith's stories have been anthologized in W.W. Norton's The New Sudden Fiction and So New Media's Consumed: Women on Excess. Her chapbook, The Sky Is a Well and Other Shorts is available from Rose Metal Press. Her work may be found at www.claudiaweb.net.
	Issue Twenty-one (June 15, 2008) SmokeLong Quarterly celebrates its fifth birthday with a special double issue. Expect the mix of familiar and new-to-you voices we've always had, with an additional helping of stories from folks to whom we'll always be indebted. Stay tuned!
	Issue 22 (September 15, 2008) Tony Romano is the author of the novel, When the World Was Young (HarperCollins) and the story collection, If You Eat, You Never Die (forthcoming from HarperCollins). He is also the coauthor of Psychology and You 3E (McGraw-Hill), a bestselling textbook, and Expository Composition: Discovering Your Voice (EMCP). He was awarded The Whetstone Prize, and his work has been supported in part by several grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. He is a two-time winner of a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project award. Both stories were produced on National Public Radio's "The Sound of Writing" series and syndicated to newspapers nationwide. One of the stories was selected as one of the Project's ten best stories. His fiction has appeared in The Chicago Tribune Magazine, VIA: Voices in Italian Americana (Purdue University), Whetstone, Sou'wester, and Bluff City. Two of his stories were nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is the producer of several spoken word CDs, Writers Week, featuring memoirist Mary Karr, poet laureate Billy Collins, Pulitzer-Prize-winning columnist Rick Bragg, poetry slam originator Marc Smith, NPR commentator Daniel Ferri, poet Naomi Shihab Nye, and many others. He gives readings of his work in the Chicago area, where he lives with his wife and three daughters.

Labels: anniversary issue, Claudia Smith, SmokeLong Quarterly, Tony Romano

posted by Dave Clapper at 1:10 PM 5 comments

Top Ten Page Views for November

Well, well, well. For the second month in a row, "Pornography" ain't numero uno. Maybe its stranglehold has finally loosened. The number one, however, has an image of a breast. I guess we know what readers want, huh?

1. (NR) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
2. (4) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
3. (1) When the Toasts Stopped Being Funny by Steve Almond (9/15/07)
4. (3) Raymond Carver by Dan Chaon (9/15/07)
5. (7) Nailed by Robert J. Bradley (9/15/07)
6. (6) Mole Man by Stuart Dybek (9/15/07)
7. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
8. (5) Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears by Heidi W. Durrow (9/15/07)
9. (8) Party by Emily Fridlund (9/15/07)
10. (9) The Sound of Success by Terry DeHart (9/15/07)

Total page views for the month was 66,704, which is right in line with the monthly average for the year of 66,141.18. The total for the year so far is 727,553, so a good December should push us over 800,000 page views for the year! I wanna break a million in '08.

Labels: Dan Chaon, Elizabeth Ellen, Emily Fridlund, Heidi W. Durrow, John Leary, Robert J. Bradley, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Stuart Dybek, Terry DeHart, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 11:10 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Pecha Kucha Seattle

I'm going to be presenting a sneak preview of the next issue on December 11 at an event in Seattle called Pecha Kucha. The organizer of the event just told me that two presenters had to bow out and she's looking for folks to jump in. Pecha Kucha started as a format in which architects could present their designs quickly to an inebriated audience. It's expanded substantially from its original discipline, and the Seattle Pecha Kucha is especially focused on a broad range of arts.

Each presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds each, during which (s)he can offer whatever commentary, performance, music, etc. (s)he deems appropriate. For more about Pecha Kucha, check out pecha-kucha.org.

If anyone might be interested in appearing at a very presentational (and fun--with drinks!) event, or if anyone knows of someone who might be interested in this, shoot me an email at dclapper@smokelong.com and I'll email back with more details on how it all works.

Thanks!

(I'll post a full line-up, location, time, and other details as more info is finalized.)

Labels: Dave Clapper, Pecha Kucha, Seattle, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 3:03 PM 1 comments

Saturday, November 24, 2007
SmokeLong Quarterly on Facebook

SmokeLong is now on Facebook. Membership in this group is open to all, and may be just the place to "meet" one of your favorite writers from SLQ issues past.

Labels: Facebook, SmokeLong Quarterly

posted by Dave Clapper at 4:08 PM 0 comments

Thursday, November 01, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for October

Except for the juggernaut of "Pornography" and another strong showing by John Leary, the top ten is comprised entirely of flashes from the September 15 issue. And for the second month in a row, the five fat men are gone, but Landon retains a spot with "Starfish."

1. (2) When the Toasts Stopped Being Funny by Steve Almond (9/15/07)
2. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (3) Raymond Carver by Dan Chaon (9/15/07)
4. (7) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
5. (8) Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears by Heidi W. Durrow (9/15/07)
6. (5) Mole Man by Stuart Dybek (9/15/07)
7. (6) Nailed by Robert J. Bradley (9/15/07)
8. (NR) Party by Emily Fridlund (9/15/07)
9. (9) The Sound of Success by Terry DeHart (9/15/07)
10. (10) Starfish by Jeff Landon (9/15/07)

The News page, incidentally, seems to be quite popular thus far, notching nearly 800 page views in less than a week.

Labels: Dan Chaon, Emily Fridlund, Heidi W. Durrow, Jeff Landon, John Leary, Robert J. Bradley, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Stuart Dybek, Terry DeHart, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 9:57 AM 0 comments

Thursday, October 11, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for September

And, once again, I'm incredibly late in posting stats for last month. Almond moves not only back into the top spot, but into the #2 spot as well. The man's a powerhouse. And if y'all haven't checked out his latest yet, (Not That You Asked) is worth the cover price for the piece on Vonnegut alone.

1. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (NR) When the Toasts Stopped Being Funny by Steve Almond (9/15/07)
3. (NR) Raymond Carver by Dan Chaon (9/15/07)
4. (1) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
5. (NR) Mole Man by Stuart Dybek (9/15/07)
6. (NR) Nailed by Robert J. Bradley (9/15/07)
7. (NR) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
8. (NR) Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears by Heidi W. Durrow (9/15/07)
9. (NR) The Sound of Success by Terry DeHart (9/15/07)
10. (NR) Starfish by Jeff Landon (9/15/07)

On a personal note, my tardiness is largely due to having been hitting the bricks to find a new gig after my contract at Microsoft ended. And I'm really excited to have accepted a position at the largest architectural firm in Seattle. Very, very cool place, and I can't wait to get to work there.

Labels: Dan Chaon, Elizabeth Ellen, Heidi W. Durrow, Jeff Landon, John Leary, Robert J. Bradley, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Stuart Dybek, Terry DeHart, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 1:11 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for August

Posting this REALLY late this time around, and only doing stories this time, because I've been (and continue to be) absolutely slammed at work. Only one story not rated in July cracked the top ten this time around, but boy did the top ten move itself around a lot. Welcome, Elizabeth Ellen, to numero uno.

1. (4) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
2. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (6) Oblivious by Gary Cadwallader (6/15/07)
4. (2) Heaven by the Highwayside by Mike Amato (3/15/07)
5. (8) First Night by Ric Jahna (6/15/07)
6. (7) One Purple Finch by Kathy Fish (6/15/07)
7. (9) The Wedge in Between by Debbie Ann Eis (6/15/07)
8. (5) Renoir Responds to Aline Charigot's Charges of Painting Her Ugly by Daniel Bailey (6/15/07)
9. (NR) Cymothoa Exigua by Christopher Battle (6/15/07)
10. (3) Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (9/15/05)

Labels: Christopher Battle, Debbie Ann Eis, Elizabeth Ellen, Gary Cadwallader, Jeff Landon, Kathy Fish, Mike Amato, Ric Jahna, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 3:53 PM 0 comments

Thursday, August 02, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for July

Not a ton of shakin' up this time. The powerhouses of Almond, Amato, and Landon keep it up.

Stories
1. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (2) Heaven by the Highwayside by Mike Amato (3/15/07)
3. (6) Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (9/15/05)
4. (NR) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
5. (NR) Renoir Responds to Aline Charigot's Charges of Painting Her Ugly by Daniel Bailey (6/15/07)
6. (7) Oblivious by Gary Cadwallader (6/15/07)
7. (8) One Purple Finch by Kathy Fish (6/15/07)
8. (10) First Night by Ric Jahna (6/15/07)
9. (9) The Wedge in Between by Debbie Ann Eis (6/15/07)
10. (5) The Attraction of Asphalt by Stefani Nellen (6/15/07)

Interviews
1. (1) Mike Amato (3/15/07)
2. (8) Stuart Dybek (6/15/05)
3. (2) Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
4. (6) Ric Jahna (6/15/07)
5. (NR) Brian Reynolds (8/15/04)
6. (NR) Steve Almond (6/15/05)
7. (NR) Stephanie Johnson (6/15/07)
8. (4) Maggie Shearon (6/15/05)
9. (NR) Tavia Stewart (6/15/07)
10. (NR) Sarah Leavitt (3/15/06)

Labels: Daniel Bailey, Debbie Ann Eis, Elizabeth Ellen, Gary Cadwallader, Jeff Landon, Kathy Fish, Mike Amato, Ric Jahna, SmokeLong Quarterly, Stefani Nellen, Steve Almond, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 2:41 PM 0 comments

Monday, July 09, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for June

Just realized that I'm incredibly late with this. Almond's back on top again, probably because linkage to Amato from the front page went away on the 15th when the new issue went live. Speaking of Almond, I'm reading the galley of his next book right now, and there's an essay in there about Vonnegut that's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Stories
1. (2) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (1) Heaven by the Highwayside by Mike Amato (3/15/07)
3. (4) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
4. (5) This Is What You Left Behind by Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
5. (NR) The Attraction of Asphalt by Stefani Nellen (6/15/07)
6. (6) Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (9/15/05)
7. (NR) Oblivious by Gary Cadwallader (6/15/07)
8. (NR) One Purple Finch by Kathy Fish (6/15/07)
9. (NR) The Wedge in Between by Debbie Ann Eis (6/15/07)
10. (NR) First Night by Ric Jahna (6/15/07)

Interviews
1. (1) Mike Amato (3/15/07)
2. (2) Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
3. (7) Myfanwy Collins (3/15/07)
4. (NR) Maggie Shearon (6/15/05)
5. (NR) Nancy Zafris (3/15/07)
6. (NR) Ric Jahna (6/15/07)
7. (NR) J.M. Patrick (6/15/07)
8. (NR) Stuart Dybek (6/15/05)
9. (NR) Kathy Fish (6/15/07)
10. (6) Jeff Landon 6/15/06)

Labels: Debbie Ann Eis, Gary Cadwallader, Jeff Landon, John Leary, Kathy Fish, Mike Amato, Ric Jahna, SmokeLong Quarterly, Stefani Nellen, Steve Almond, Tod Goldberg, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 3:43 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 04, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for May

The king is dead, long live the king! Almond actually fell to #2 last month as Mike Amato took over the top spot. It'll be interesting to see how long Mike can maintain that place, especially since there'll be a new issue going in live on the 15th.

Stories
1. (2) Heaven by the Highwayside by Mike Amato (3/15/07)
2. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
3. (3) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
4. (5) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
5. (6) This Is What You Left Behind by Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
6. (4) Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (9/15/05)
7. (7) There Swells and Jets a Heart by Rusty Barnes (3/15/07)
8. (8) Miss Hempstead's Brother by Myfanwy Collins (3/15/07)
9. (NR) Seven in the Morning by Max Ruback (3/15/07)
10. (9) Baby in a Jar by Tom Saunders (3/15/07)

Interviews
1. (6) Mike Amato (3/15/07)
2. (1) Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
3. (NR) Thomas Kearnes (12/15/06)
4. (2) Holly Selph (3/15/07)
5. (9) Stefani Nellen (3/15/07)
6. (10) Jeff Landon (6/15/06)
7. (NR) Myfanwy Collins (3/15/07)
8. (3) Rusty Barnes (3/15/07)
9. (NR) Spencer Dew (10/15/04)
10. (NR) Ann Walters (3/15/07)

Labels: Elizabeth Ellen, Jeff Landon, John Leary, Max Ruback, Mike Amato, Myfanwy Collins, Rusty Barnes, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Tod Goldberg, Tom Saunders, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 11:44 AM 0 comments

Friday, May 04, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for April

Almond is still #1, but he was seriously challenged last month by Mike Amato, whose story had only 75 less page views than Steve's. Since I'm late posting this time around, I took a little time to delve a little more deeply. 54 stories last month had 100 or more page views. Pretty cool. Also, after the top ten page views of stories, I'm including the top ten page views for interviews.

Stories
1. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (5) Heaven by the Highwayside by Mike Amato (3/15/07)
3. (NR) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
4. (2) Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (9/15/05)
5. (6) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
6. (4) This Is What You Left Behind by Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
7. (8) There Swells and Jets a Heart by Rusty Barnes (3/15/07)
8. (7) Miss Hempstead's Brother by Myfanwy Collins (3/15/07)
9. (NR) Baby in a Jar by Tom Saunders (3/15/07)
10. (9) The Color of Moths by Holly Selph (3/15/07)

Interviews
1. Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
2. Holly Selph (3/15/07)
3. Rusty Barnes (3/15/07)
4. Robert Travieso (3/15/07)
5. John Leary (3/15/07)
6. Mike Amato (3/15/07)
7. Jeff Vande Zende (3/15/07)
8. Max Ruback (3/15/07)
9. Stefani Nellen (3/15/07)
10. Jeff Landon (6/15/06)

Labels: Elizabeth Ellen, Holly Selph, Jeff Landon, John Leary, Mike Amato, Myfanwy Collins, Rusty Barnes, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Tod Goldberg, Tom Saunders, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 3:19 PM 0 comments

Monday, April 02, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for March

Almond's at the top, as usual, although his page views dipped below a thousand for the first time in ages. I wouldn't be too surprised to see his usual place usurped in the months to come. Except for the top three, all of the top ten are stories published in the middle of last month.

1. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (3) Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (9/15/05)
3. (2) A Deep Desire for Blue by Alexandra Fox (6/15/05)
4. (NR) This Is What You Left Behind by Tod Goldberg (3/15/07)
5. (NR) Heaven by the Highwayside by Mike Amato (3/15/07)
6. (NR) Ten Very Short Stories by John Leary (3/15/07)
7. (NR) Miss Hempstead's Brother by Myfanwy Collins (3/15/07)
8. (NR) There Swells and Jets a Heart by Rusty Barnes (3/15/07)
9. (NR) The Color of Moths by Holly Selph (3/15/07)
10. (NR) Seven in the Morning by Max Ruback (3/15/07)

Labels: Alexandra Fox, Holly Selph, Jeff Landon, John Leary, Max Ruback, Mike Amato, Myfanwy Collins, Rusty Barnes, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Tod Goldberg, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 12:52 PM 0 comments

Thursday, March 01, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for February

Almond's still at the top, although the distance closed a bit.

1. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (NR) A Deep Desire for Blue by Alexandra Fox (6/15/05)
3. (7) Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (9/15/05)
4. (4) Moth by Joanne Comito (12/15/06)
5. (6) Aquarium by Nadine Darling (12/15/06)
6. (3) Untitled (Gum) by Aaron Burch (12/15/06)
7. (5) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
8. (8) On the Way to Work by Stephen Elliott (12/15/06)
9. (NR) Prey by Myfanwy Collins (3/15/06)
10. (10) I Am Waiting for My Dogs to Die by Davin Malasarn (12/15/06)

Labels: Aaron Burch, Alexandra Fox, Davin Malasarn, Elizabeth Ellen, Jeff Landon, Joanne Comito, Myfanwy Collins, Nadine Darling, SmokeLong Quarterly, Stephen Elliott, Steve Almond, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 2:14 PM 0 comments

Thursday, February 01, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for January

Lotsa shakin' up in the top ten after issue 15's first full month online. Eight out of the ten are from the latest issue, which reflects just how amazing I think this issue is. Only stalwarts Almond and Landon remained here from previous issues. (Almond continues to post insane numbers: just under 6,000 page views in January.)

1. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (NR) Photographers by Joseph Young (12/15/06)
3. (5) Untitled (Gum) by Aaron Burch (12/15/06)
4. (NR) Moth by Joanne Comito (12/15/06)
5. (7) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
6. (8) Aquarium by Nadine Darling (12/15/06)
7. (2) Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (9/15/05)
8. (NR) On the Way to Work by Stephen Elliott (12/15/06)
9. (NR) Disgusting by Pam Mosher (12/15/06)
10. (NR) I Am Waiting for My Dogs to Die by Davin Malasarn (12/15/06)

Labels: Aaron Burch, Davin Malasarn, Elizabeth Ellen, Jeff Landon, Joanne Comito, Joseph Young, Nadine Darling, Pam Mosher, SmokeLong Quarterly, Stephen Elliott, Steve Almond, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 2:17 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Top Ten Page Views for December

Steve Almond continues to be Steve Almond: over 6,000 page views for "Pornography" again in December. Three stories from the latest issue crack the top ten (and if you haven't read Issue 15 yet, what are you waiting for?) in the half-month it was live. Also, an oldie from Chad Simpson makes the list. The rest are the stories that have been here a lot. Happy reading!

1. (1) Pornography by Steve Almond (6/15/05)
2. (2) Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (9/15/05)
3. (7) Irvin Hammers a Cat House by Mike Young (6/15/05)
4. (4) Prey by Myfanwy Collins (3/15/06)
5. (NR) Untitled (Gum) by Aaron Burch (12/15/06)
6. (3) Axl Rose Is My Dog by Scott Ford (12/15/04)
7. (NR) 8x10 by Elizabeth Ellen (12/15/06)
8. (NR) Aquarium by Nadine Darling (12/15/06)
9. (NR) Miracle by Chad Simpson (6/15/06)
10. (10) Brisket by Stuart Dybek (6/15/05)

Labels: Aaron Burch, Chad Simpson, Elizabeth Ellen, Jeff Landon, Mike Young, Myfanwy Collins, Nadine Darling, Scott Ford, SmokeLong Quarterly, Steve Almond, Stuart Dybek, Top Ten

posted by Dave Clapper at 2:19 PM 0 comments

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