May is warming up, and the days are longer, which means more time for reading.
Thank you Alien Buddha Press and my copy editor, Cindy Hochman of “100 Proof” Copyediting Services, for believing in my Angel Fire’s value.
Angel Fire is a novel, inspired by personal experiences and nightmares, that delves into the lives of three women protagonists, Sarah Kahn, Kate Robbins, and Dana Chu, living and working in New York City during the ’90s through the post- 9/11 world and the Obama election. The book is comprised of over 57,000 words, broken down into twenty-one chapters and an epilogue. The narrative contains elements of magic realism/ urban fantasy, and beyond the wry humor, there are bizarre twists involving erotic dreams, curses, cats, and paranormal visitations from a precocious ten-year-old girl named Allie, turning this story into a psychological thriller.
Praise for Angel Fire . . .
From Peter Marra:
. . . In Angel Fire, her debut novel, Patricia Carragon expertly crafts a tale that captures the essence of what life was like in the beginning of the new millennium. What starts out as a drama soon morphs into a supernatural thriller—an emotional roller coaster populated with fantastic characters who will stay with you for a long time. Angel Fire will keep you riveted until the last page.
From Thaddeus Rutkowski:
. . . Through twists and turns, and the disaster of 9/11, the stakes rise for all of the heroines, and we follow their lives with growing apprehension as we discover their fates. Carragon gives us a sharp-edged picture of people we see every day, but whose inner demons are rarely revealed.
From Charles Rammelkamp:
. . . like nested Russian dolls, the stories are contained within other stories written by other writers, until, in a dazzling epilogue, we learn the final version of the puzzle that makes up these words. Or do we? The final sentence revives the delicious ambiguity. Patricia Carragon’s novel is an impressive construction of plot and character, particularly for those who love a gothic tale, and, more philosophically, reflections on the written word, its origins and influence.
Due to in-person venue cancellations, I will be posting the link to purchasing my debut novel, Angel Fire, on Amazon.Since these copies will be shipped from Amazon, they will not be signed.
If you want your signed copy from me, please send a personal message to pcarragon@gmail.com. Payment will be done on PayPal to pcarragon@gmail.com as a friend, not as a business. The cost will be $18, which includes shipping/handling. I do not charge for tax! If you don’t have PayPal, then I will accept a money order. Once the payment is done either through PayPal or money order, I will ship the book to you.Please don’t forget to give me your home address to ship the book.
Angel Fire, Carragon’s Debut Novel from Alien Buddha Press,
art by Su Polo
After years in the making, Angel Fire is now a reality. Thank you Alien Buddha Press and my copy editor, Cindy Hochman of “100 Proof” Copyediting Services, for believing in my debut novel’s value.
Angel Fire is a novel, inspired by personal experiences and nightmares, that delves into the lives of three women protagonists, Sarah Kahn, Kate Robbins, and Dana Chu, living and working in New York City during the ’90s through the post- 9/11 world and the Obama election. The book is comprised of over 57,000 words, broken down into twenty-one chapters and an epilogue. The narrative contains elements of magic realism/ urban fantasy, and beyond the wry humor, there are bizarre twists involving erotic dreams, curses, cats, and paranormal visitations from a precocious ten-year-old girl named Allie, turning this story into a psychological thriller.
Patricia Carragon. author of Urban Haiku and More, returns with more Haiku, this time inspired by her favorite muse, our sphinx-like companion, the CAT.
Aaron Fisher, author of Black Stars of Blood: The Weegee Poems (Main Street Rag Press), says,“Patricia Carragon has done something notable, writing and assembling some 30 pages of haiku about cats (hence, meowku) that are neither cute nor cloying. What they are is smart, funny, and satisfyingly complex — quite an accomplishment in seventeen syllables.”
David Dephy, a Georgian/American award-winning poet, novelist, and performer, sums it up: “These poems themselves are warm and mystical like kittens. They crawl from page to page with catlike grace as you caress them with your eyes and breath, as you stare them in the eye you become cautious like them and don’t want your silence to be disturbed by anyone while reading.”
Judy Kamilhor, author of Before the Big Bang and Cat Dreams, notes, “Enjoy a delightful romp of word play through a New York filled with mischievous cats and kittens. Accompanied by lovely photos, Patricia Carragon’s poems capture moments of city life with feline friends and sometimes foes. Who knew that this ancient Japanese forms fit modern New York life with cats so purrfectly?”
And lastly, Ayaz Daryl Nielsen, Editor of Bear Creek Haiku, says, “Patricia Carragon is known throughout our creative and feline worlds as “that Brooklyn girl.” The humor, noblesse, and yes, loveliness of her nationwide nurturing presence are aptly, beautifully encapsulated within these thirty-five pages of photos, haiku, and micro (yet mighty) poems. Meowku is nurturing “cattitude” we all need.
About Poets Wear Prada:
Publishing beautifully designed volumes of well-crafted poetry — and now fiction — you want to read, since October 2006 from Hoboken, New Jersey, birthplace of Frank Sinatra and professional baseball.
Some delicious stories about cupcakes that come to life:
cover by Roxanne Hoffman
From Alison Ross, publisher and editor of “Clockwise Cat:”It is a testament to her vivacious spirit that Patricia Carragon would think to personify cupcakes as a device to chronicle quotidian activities and as a mode to assuage the anxieties of her daily jaunts. Tasty diary entries mingle humor and contemplative musings in a way that not only tantalizes the tongue but stimulates all of the sensory receptors, as her imagery erupts from the page to entice one’s very soul.”
Linda Lerner, author of Yes, The Ducks Were Real, says, “What begins as a normal work day changes for Carragon when she sees “cupcakes — the size of hobbits — parading the halls” of her office. From that point on, humanoid confections take over her life — and ours — in this allegorical tale depicting the underlying madness of our ordinary lives. No reader will be able to forget holding a kitchen knife to a devil’s food cupcake topped with “pink buttercream clouds” and hearing a scream, or the sight of a “badly bitten banana nut” asking for spare change on the train.”
Maria Lisella, Queens Poet Laureate 2015-2018, writes, “A funny thing happened on activist/writer Patricia Carragon’s way to her favorite sweet shop: a swirling journey peopled with cupcake commuters who are wise and witty, inside a world that sometimes banishes humans in favor of those savvy cupcakes. Carragon writes with humor, deft language, and an energy that sweeps us into buttercream icing. Both participant and spectator, she’s sometimes pressed against glass looking in; other times, the cupcakes lean in and confide in her. Pay close attention to the wisdom her cupcakes impart: “We are her to look delicious and to please the sweet tooth of the human race.”: “Humans are better off as desserts.”
And Susan H. Maurer, author of Josephine Butler exclaims,”A collection of Poetry.Carragon’s cupcake capers? Read this and weep. It is a delight, and a double delight when you get to hear her read it. The fine playfulness of this book is worth three times the cover cost. Own it and get such sweetness, calorie free. “
About Poets Wear Prada:
Publishing beautifully designed volumes of well-crafted poetry — and now fiction — you want to read, since October 2006 from Hoboken, New Jersey, birthplace of Frank Sinatra and professional baseball.
Distinguished by subtle story-telling and a deft use of words and metaphor, the poems in PatriciaCarragon’s new collection, Innocence, speak to the heart and soul. Vivid backdrops include a Parisian café, the circus, a windswept city day, Coney Island, and a bar full of bird-like characters. Color and nature star in many of the poignant poems that draw on elusive love and the setback of time. The poems’ heroine rarely frets, but accepts conflict and missed connections with grace. Readers will delight in Patricia Carragon’s poems brimming with irony, imagination, and ordinary life gone amok.
–Amy Barone, Author and poet of “Kamikaze Dance”(Finishing Line Press)
With a palette full of confessional colors, and the urgency of Lady Macbeth wailing ‘Out, damned spot,’ Patricia Carragon speaks truth to childhood in a voice that is at once shocking and resonant. While the title of her book is Innocence, these lines are anything but benign. There is, however, a vital remnant of a happy fairytale that survives in Carragon’s poems: the M-A-G-I-C she sprinkles into each and every one of them, reminding us to hold fast to those treasures that give us permission to live happily ever after.
–Cindy Hochman, Editor-in-chief, First Literary Review-East
Patricia Carragon writes with acute sensibility, grace, and pith. She juggles scenes from her life and makes visible what the ‘wind has erased’. Made to feel unworthy and outcast as a child, her self-expression was admonished, and she was forced to keep within the lines. This is a beautiful book of poems about the power of imagination and a resilient spirit that has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of innocence to gift us all with her creative magic.
–Karen Neuberg, Author, “Myself Taking Stage“ (Finishing Line Press) and “Detailed Still” (Poets Wear Prada)
Angel Fire, Carragon’s Debut Novel from Alien Buddha Press,
After years in the making, Angel Fire is now a reality. Thank you Alien Buddha Press and my copy editor, Cindy Hochman of “100 Proof” Copyediting Services, for believing in my debut novel’s value.
Angel Fire is a novel, inspired by personal experiences and nightmares, that delves into the lives of three women protagonists, Sarah Kahn, Kate Robbins, and Dana Chu, living and working in New York City during the ’90s through the post- 9/11 world and the Obama election. The book is comprised of over 57,000 words, broken down into twenty-one chapters and an epilogue. The narrative contains elements of magic realism/ urban fantasy, and beyond the wry humor, there are bizarre twists involving erotic dreams, curses, cats, and paranormal visitations from a precocious ten-year-old girl named Allie, turning this story into a psychological thriller.
Patricia Carragon. author of Urban Haiku and More, returns with more Haiku, this time inspired by her favorite muse, our sphinx-like companion, the CAT.
Aaron Fisher, author of Black Stars of Blood: The Weegee Poems (Main Street Rag Press), says,“Patricia Carragon has done something notable, writing and assembling some 30 pages of haiku about cats (hence, meowku) that are neither cute nor cloying. What they are is smart, funny, and satisfyingly complex — quite an accomplishment in seventeen syllables.”
David Dephy, a Georgian/American award-winning poet, novelist, and performer, sums it up: “These poems themselves are warm and mystical like kittens. They crawl from page to page with catlike grace as you caress them with your eyes and breath, as you stare them in the eye you become cautious like them and don’t want your silence to be disturbed by anyone while reading.”
Judy Kamilhor, author of Before the Big Bang and Cat Dreams, notes, “Enjoy a delightful romp of word play through a New York filled with mischievous cats and kittens. Accompanied by lovely photos, Patricia Carragon’s poems capture moments of city life with feline friends and sometimes foes. Who knew that this ancient Japanese forms fit modern New York life with cats so purrfectly?”
And lastly, Ayaz Daryl Nielsen, Editor of Bear Creek Haiku, says, “Patricia Carragon is known throughout our creative and feline worlds as “that Brooklyn girl.” The humor, noblesse, and yes, loveliness of her nationwide nurturing presence are aptly, beautifully encapsulated within these thirty-five pages of photos, haiku, and micro (yet mighty) poems. Meowku is nurturing “cattitude” we all need.
About Poets Wear Prada:
Publishing beautifully designed volumes of well-crafted poetry — and now fiction — you want to read, since October 2006 from Hoboken, New Jersey, birthplace of Frank Sinatra and professional baseball.
Some delicious stories about cupcakes that come to life:
From Alison Ross, publisher and editor of “Clockwise Cat:”It is a testament to her vivacious spirit that Patricia Carragon would think to personify cupcakes as a device to chronicle quotidian activities and as a mode to assuage the anxieties of her daily jaunts. Tasty diary entries mingle humor and contemplative musings in a way that not only tantalizes the tongue but stimulates all of the sensory receptors, as her imagery erupts from the page to entice one’s very soul.”
Linda Lerner, author of Yes, The Ducks Were Real, says, “What begins as a normal work day changes for Carragon when she sees “cupcakes — the size of hobbits — parading the halls” of her office. From that point on, humanoid confections take over her life — and ours — in this allegorical tale depicting the underlying madness of our ordinary lives. No reader will be able to forget holding a kitchen knife to a devil’s food cupcake topped with “pink buttercream clouds” and hearing a scream, or the sight of a “badly bitten banana nut” asking for spare change on the train.”
Maria Lisella, Queens Poet Laureate 2015-2018, writes, “A funny thing happened on activist/writer Patricia Carragon’s way to her favorite sweet shop: a swirling journey peopled with cupcake commuters who are wise and witty, inside a world that sometimes banishes humans in favor of those savvy cupcakes. Carragon writes with humor, deft language, and an energy that sweeps us into buttercream icing. Both participant and spectator, she’s sometimes pressed against glass looking in; other times, the cupcakes lean in and confide in her. Pay close attention to the wisdom her cupcakes impart: “We are her to look delicious and to please the sweet tooth of the human race.”: “Humans are better off as desserts.”
And Susan H. Maurer, author of Josephine Butler exclaims,”A collection of Poetry.Carragon’s cupcake capers? Read this and weep. It is a delight, and a double delight when you get to hear her read it. The fine playfulness of this book is worth three times the cover cost. Own it and get such sweetness, calorie free. “
About Poets Wear Prada:
Publishing beautifully designed volumes of well-crafted poetry — and now fiction — you want to read, since October 2006 from Hoboken, New Jersey, birthplace of Frank Sinatra and professional baseball.
Poets Wear Prada will be at this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival
Sunday, September 16th
from 10 a.m to 6 p.m.
We’re right by Brooklyn Borough Hall (209 Joralemon St at Court St, Brooklyn, NY 11201). Walk into the park and you will find us at booth #627. Meet and greet the publisher and our authors! It’s a great day for book lovers and readers of all ages!
OMG! “Something went wrong with the oven thermostat. Instead of being set at the normal three hundred and fifty degrees, the thermostat was elevated beyond five hundred. Human error wasn’t to blame. The poor oven couldn’t control what was happening within its immense belly. It cried for help, but the bakers were on their coffee break . . . The text message “Help, the oven is overheated” flashed across its screen. But it was too late.”
Find out what happened by ordering your calorie-free copy of “The Cupcake Chronicles” at Amazon. com.
Enjoy a Baker’s Dozen of fun-filled, calorie-free cupcakes without the guilt served by the bakers at Poets Wear Prada.
“The Cupcake Chronicles,”nominated for a Pushcart Prize:
About Patricia Carragon:
Patricia Carragon is an executive editor for Home Planet News Online. She hosts the Brooklyn-based Brownstone Poets reading series and open mic and is Editor in Chief of its annual anthology. Her poems and stories have appeared in over one hundred publications, most recently Autonomedia, The Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poetry, Bear Creek Haiku, Clockwise Cat, Diaphanous, First Literary Review-East, Panoply, poeticdiversity, Sensations, Sensitive Skin and The Yellow Chair Review, among other literary journals and anthologies. She is the author of three collections of poetry, “Journey to the Center of My Mind” (Rogue Scholars Press, 2005), “Urban Haiku and More” (Fierce Grace Press, 2010), and “Innocence” (Finishing Line Press, 2017). “The Cupcake Chronicles” is her first book of fiction.
“It is a testament to her vivacious spirit that Patricia Carragon would think to personify cupcakes as a device to chronicle quotidian activities and as a mode to assuage the anxieties of her daily jaunts. Tasty diary entries mingle humor and contemplative musings in a way that not only tantalizes the tongue but stimulates all of the sensory receptors, as her imagery erupts from the page to entice one’s very soul.” — Alison Ross, publisher and editor of “Clockwise Cat”
Ms. Carragon has whipped up a batter of metaphor, mysticism. and whimsy, sprinkled with the right words, layered with meaning, baked to perfection and topped with a sweet frosting of fable.
— Peter V. Dugan, Nassau County Poet Laureate 2016- 2018
The Cupcake Chronicles is an imaginative fable that explores what would happen if your afternoon treat were to suddenly come to life.
— Francine Witte, author of Not All Fires Burn The Same
The fine playfulness of this book is worth three times the cover cost. Own it and get such sweetness, calorie free.
— Susan H. Maurer, author of Josephine Butler: A Collection of Poetry
What begins as a normal work day changes for Carragon when she sees “cupcakes — the size of hobbits — parading the halls” of her office. From that point on, humanoid confections take over her life — and — ours in this allegorical tale depicting the underlining madness of our ordinary lives.
— Linda Lerner, author of Yes, the Ducks Were Real”
Carragon writes with humor, deft language, and an energy that sweeps us into buttercream icing. . . Pay close attention to the wisdom her cupcakes impart: “We are here to look delicious and to please the sweet tooth of the human race” ; “Humans are better off as desserts.”
About Patricia Carragon: Patricia Carragon is an executive editor for Home Planet News Online. She hosts the Brooklyn-based Brownstone Poets reading series and open mic and is Editor in Chief of its annual anthology. Her poems and stories have appeared in over one hundred publications, most recently Autonomedia, The Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poetry, Bear Creek Haiku, Clockwise Cat, Diaphanous, First Literary Review-East, Panoply, poeticdiversity, Sensations, Sensitive Skin and The Yellow Chair Review, among other literary journals and anthologies. She is the author of three collections of poetry, “Journey to the Center of My Mind” (Rogue Scholars Press, 2005), “Urban Haiku and More” (Fierce Grace Press, 2010), and “Innocence” (Finishing Line Press, 2017). “The Cupcake Chronicles” is her first book of fiction.
“It is a testament to her vivacious spirit that Patricia Carragon would think to personify cupcakes as a device to chronicle quotidian activities and as a mode to assuage the anxieties of her daily jaunts. Tasty diary entries mingle humor and contemplative musings in a way that not only tantalizes the tongue but stimulates all of the sensory receptors, as her imagery erupts from the page to entice one’s very soul.” — Alison Ross, publisher and editor of “Clockwise Cat”
Ms. Carragon has whipped up a batter of metaphor, mysticism. and whimsy, sprinkled with the right words, layered with meaning, baked to perfection and topped with a sweet frosting of fable.
— Peter V. Dugan, Nassau County Poet Laureate 2016- 2018
The Cupcake Chronicles is an imaginative fable that explores what would happen if your afternoon treat were to suddenly come to life.
— Francine Witte, author of Not All Fires Burn The Same
The fine playfulness of this book is worth three times the cover cost. Own it and get such sweetness, calorie free.
— Susan H. Maurer, author of Josephine Butler: A Collection of Poetry
What begins as a normal work day changes for Carragon when she sees “cupcakes — the size of hobbits — parading the halls” of her office. From that point on, humanoid confections take over her life — and — ours in this allegorical tale depicting the underlining madness of our ordinary lives.
— Linda Lerner, author of Yes, the Ducks Were Real”
Carragon writes with humor, deft language, and an energy that sweeps us into buttercream icing. . . Pay close attention to the wisdom her cupcakes impart: “We are here to look delicious and to please the sweet tooth of the human race” ; “Humans are better off as desserts.”
Distinguished by subtle story-telling and a deft use of words and metaphor, the poems in Patricia Carragon’s new collection, Innocence, speak to the heart and soul. Vivid backdrops include a Parisian café, the circus, a windswept city day, Coney Island, and a bar full of bird-like characters. Color and nature star in many of the poignant poems that draw on elusive love and the setback of time. The poems’ heroine rarely frets, but accepts conflict and missed connections with grace. Readers will delight in Patricia Carragon’s poems brimming with irony, imagination, and ordinary life gone amok.
—Amy Barone,author and poet of Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press)
With a palette full of confessional colors, and the urgency of Lady Macbeth wailing ‘Out, damned spot,’ Patricia Carragon speaks truth to childhood in a voice that is at once shocking and resonant. While the title of her book is Innocence, these lines are anything but benign. There is, however, a vital remnant of a happy fairytale that survives in Carragon’s poems: the M-A-G-I-C she sprinkles into each and every one of them, reminding us to hold fast to those treasures that give us permission to live happily ever after.
—Cindy Hochman,Editor-in-chief, First Literary Review-East
Patricia Carragon writes with acute sensibility, grace, and pith. She juggles scenes from her life and makes visible what the ‘wind has erased’. Made to feel unworthy and outcast as a child, her self-expression was admonished, and she was forced to keep within the lines. This is a beautiful book of poems about the power of imagination and a resilient spirit that has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of innocence to gift us all with her creative magic.
––Karen Neuberg, Author, “Myself Taking Stage” (Finishing Line Press) and “Detailed Still” (Poets Wear Prada)
Brownstone Poets has been inspiring poetry in Brooklyn since 2005. We strive to be unique and diverse, and we welcome a multitude of styles and forms. We would like to thank this year’s sixty-four reader-contributors listed below, as well as our loyal attendees. Without their love for, and dedication to, our reading series, this anthology would not have been possible.
We are proud to have the Himalayan poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma as our poet in residence. We would also like to honor this year’s guest poet, Bruce Weber, and pay tribute to our fellow poets Bill Pyles and Frank Simone, who recently passed away.
This collection of poetry, infused with Brooklyn imagery, is our contribution to the vibrant creative spirit in the borough of Kings.
Brownstone Poets has been inspiring poetry in Brooklyn since 2005. We strive to be unique and diverse, and we welcome a multitude of styles and forms. We would like to thank this year’s fifty-two reader-contributors listed below, as well as our loyal attendees. Without their love for, and dedication to, our reading series, this anthology would not have been possible.
We would also like to honor this year’s guest poet, Evie Ivy, and pay tribute to our fellow poets, Cynthia Toronto and Michael Walsh, who passed away this past year.
This collection of poetry, infused with Brooklyn imagery, is our contribution to the vibrant creative spirit in the Borough of Kings.
Patricia Carragon's Blog: Words Give Me the Will to Write 