This issue of Beat the Dust celebrates the first birthday of its online bookshop, which brings together in one place, the very best underground literature from small and mid-sized indie publishers worldwide. Beat the Dust Bookshop aims to make inventive, thought-provoking writing more accessible to readers, providing shelf-space to titles most mainstream booksellers daren’t stock or have overlooked. For the September 09 issue, then, we asked a selection of writers with books on our online shelves, to submit some of their latest work. The next edition open to all writers is in NOVEMBER. No theme so let rip…
Matthew is the author of The Red Men. Here’s his Top 8 book/shopping-related playlist:
B: The Past Is A Grotesque Animal – Of Montreal (Electro-epic stream of intellectual consciousness: “I fell in love with the first cute girl that I met. Who could appreciate Georges Bataille. Standing at a Swedish Festival, discussing Story Of The Eye.”) O: Manhattan Research Inc – Raymond Scott (The new plastic sounds and electronic abstractions of Raymond Scott were the sound of the future for advertising in the 1960s. It is his promotional recording for Bendix lauding their futurist division, The Tomorrow People, that Jay Dee aka .J.Dilla sampled for Lightworks from his Donuts album.) O: Moonbeam Levels – Prince (“Yesterday I tried to write a novel but I didn’t know where to begin so I lay down in the grass to feel the world turn.” Unreleased Prince song reveals his aborted foray into fiction.) K: Ulysses – Franz Ferdinand (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation. Everyone should remix Ulysses once in their life.) S: Alice – Tom Waits (Exploring Charles Dodgson’s dangerous love for Alice. “I skate over the ice of your name,” sings Tom, alerting us to Alice’s treacherous second syllable.) H: Paperback Believer – Go Home Productions (A mash-up of The Beatles’ Paperback Writer with The Monkees’ I’m A Believer that I consider to be an expression of faith in the future of the novel.) O: Shadows of Tomorrow – Madvillain featuring Quasimoto (The poetry of Sun Ra inspires multiverse-spanning rap.) P: We Live So Fast – Heaven 17 (The band that critiqued the emptiness of 1980s sex and shopping materialism from a literary perspective, being named after a fictional band in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.)
Submission Date:
05 Sep 2009
Category:
Novel extract
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
frank bulmer’s day off work
Excerpt:
Cameron drove The Baby at a hunting clip, his demeanor privately amused, his aim true. Driving was an expression of his athleticism and his ideology. He regarded the etiquette of the lanes, the democracy of traffic, as a contemptible order devised by the mediocre for their own protection. Their weakness and hesitancy deserved no mercy from him. Dispassionately, he violated these superstitions of lesser men...
Tim Wells is the author of Boys' Night Out in the Afternoon. His latest collection is Rougher Yet. Here’s Tim’s Top 8 book/shopping-related choons:
B: You Can't Judge a Book By the Cover - Bo Diddley O: Dracula, Prince of Darkness - King Horror O: S.Y.S.L.J.F.M. (the Letter Song) - Joe Tex K: The Book of Right-On - Joanna Newsom S: Ramble On - Led Zeppelin H: Jah Golden Pen - Sylford Walker O: Paperback Writer - The Beatles P: Sympathy For the Devil - Rolling Stones
Submission Date:
05 Sep 2009
Category:
Poetry
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
baby workout
Excerpt:
How he got here doesn’t really matter: the raw talent, hours of practice, the racism, the mob that’ll get you breaks but never let you rest, the girls, the hits, the hangers on …
Niven is one of the writers featured in the 3:AM: London, New York, Paris anthology. Here’s his Top 8 trax to enhance the changing room experience:
B: Tranny Chaser - RuPaul O: Get Sexy - Sugababes O: Lose My Breath - Destiny's Child K: Love Game (remix) - Lady Gaga S: Celebration - Madonna H: Oochie Coochie - Baby Ford O: Better Off As Two - Frankmuzik P: Ready for the Weekend - Calvin Harris
Submission Date:
05 Sep 2009
Category:
Short story
In Chap-book
Title:
urgent memo to all residents, happy house retirement community
Excerpt:
Dear Residents,
Following a further spate of unfortunate incidents on-site (i), I am regrettably writing to inform you of an addition to the rules of residence at Happy House Retirement Community, effective immediately...
David is the author of VS. Here’s his Top 8 shopping/book-related playlist:
B: The Book I Read - Talking Heads O: Paperback Writer - The Beatles O: Walt Whitman's Niece - Billy Bragg & Wilco K: Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits S: Books About UFOs - Husker Du H: Bookmark - Paul Westerberg O: My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors - Moxy Fruvous P: Album of the Year - The Good Life (this one actually mentions Dan Fante)
Submission Date:
05 Sep 2009
Category:
Poetry
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
be far better off than i
Excerpt:
I bought three donuts and plonked in the park. I caressed the look of them, mud chocolate and vital-organ pink. Massacring one, I detested the rest; a lard-carpet on my tongue...
Paul is the author of London Pub Reviews. Here’s his Top 8 book/shopping related playlist (including a few New Zealand bands. Go check ‘em out cos they’re Xmas, apparently):
B: The Man In The Iron Mask - Billy Bragg O: Fear & Loathing - Loves Ugly Children O: Snow White Chook - Able Tasmans K: Hey Seuss - 3D's S: Burroughs Don't Play Guitar - Islamic Diggers H: Counterpoint - Darren Price O: Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush P: O Superman - Laurie Anderson
Submission Date:
05 Sep 2009
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
glass
Excerpt:
After a long day at his ridiculous job, Wayne arrived at a Clerkenwell pub to kick back.
Much of the bar area was crowded with small groups of men and women, many holding drinks out in front of themselves like microphones, commentating on news, sports and the arts. A loose collection of people were making their way upstairs, so Wayne decided to follow these people, spilling ale on the stairs as he went, even though it was his first drink...
B: Same Old Scene – Roxy Music O: Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think) – The Specials O: Lullaby – The Cure K: Ernold Same – Blur S: Everything Counts – Depeche Mode H: The Diary of Horace Wimp – E.L.O O: The King of Wishful Thinking – Go West P: Cunts Are Still Running The World – Jarvis Cocker
Submission Date:
05 Sep 2009
Category:
Flash fiction
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
the stranger
Excerpt:
I can’t remember much of the evening. I’d only gone there to meet a date, but ended up sitting at the bar like a mug for the best part of an hour before finally accepting she wasn’t showing.
I downed the dregs of my last pint and was about to leave when a voice beside me said: “Here, let me buy you another.”
Before I knew it, a fresh pint was put in front of me and this guy sat down. At first I thought he was trying to pick me up, but something in his eyes said otherwise...
Justin is the author of Down Where the Hummingbird Goes To Die. No playlist as yet for Justin so here’s the editor of BTD’s Top 8 Beat the Dust Bookshop-related toons:
B: Rebel Rebel – David Bowie O: Hummingbird – Eddi Reader O: Ring My Bell – Anita Ward K: One Man Guy – Loudon Wainwright III S: The Boys Are Back in Town – Thin Lizzy H: I Shot the Sheriff – Bob Marley O: Everyday – Buddy Holly P: Olivia – Edie Brickell
Submission Date:
05 Sep 2009
Category:
Poetry
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
rich and sheila
Excerpt:
too goddamned long in the face for saturday night, rich said and massaged my trapezius and bought me a kamikaze...
Steve Aylett is the author of Lint. Here’s his Top 8 non-book/shopping-related playlist:
B: Slow - My Bloody Valentine O: Theme to Slaying Beauty - Bambi Molesters O: D - Codeine K: Deathwhisker - The Naysayer S: Poptones - PIL H: Gen - Cardiacs O: Destroy Everything You Touch - Ladytron P: Carbon Monoxide - Regina Spektor
Submission Date:
05 Sep 2009
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
evernemesi
Excerpt:
Jeff Lint was told he wrote as if Moby Dick had never been published, to which he responded that most people lived as if it hadn’t. Did Melville think trouble was scarce? Captain Ahab went out of his way to find a whale to cope with, but the one time I met a whale it made itself easily available on the beach and we had trouble dealing with its requests – we’d expected it to ask for water or money, but all it said was it wanted to listen to the radio because that was part of its normal routine at this time of day...
B: For Those About To Rock, We Salute You – AC/DC (Yay, high culture meets hard rock!) O: Every Day I Write The Book – Elvis Costello O: The Book I Read – Talking Heads K: Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush S: 1984 – David Bowie H: Parklife – Blur (only good thing to come out of a Martin Amis novel as far as I’m concerned) O: Brave New World – Iron Maiden P: Fairytale of New York – The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl (nearly as good as finding the AC/DC tie in!)
Submission Date:
05 Sep 2009
Category:
Short story
In Chap-book
Title:
eire
Excerpt:
She gazes from her green corner. This isn’t the right place for her, and she knows it. Personification is a tricky business: take the harp. She’s leaning on it, it’s meant to be integral to the embodiment of Ireland, but it’s more like a prop for a tired arm: a washerwoman drooping over the tub, that’s what she looks like...
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