My Love Is Going To My Love is the title of a short story recently published with Johnny America. The story represents not exactly a sea change, but a slow evolution in my approach to writing – more Spartan and even less plot driven – in which meaning might rise more from staging and impressionism than conflict and closure. The piece is about a man travelling to see his lover. I think it’s entertaining, even funny at times, and I’d love to hear any feedback that someone might have for me.
Johnny America is the publication in which My Love Is Going To My Love appears. I love these guys. They manage to find some of the funniest, most entertaining fiction out there. The fact that I genuinely believe they have a brilliant eye for talent just makes me all the more flattered to have written a story deemed worthy of publication by their editorial staff.’
Johnny America is a large rabbit who lives in a bungalow on the Moon between two rivers of wine (one red, one white). He is the also namesake of this website of fiction, humor, and other miscellany and of the Johnny America print zine that’s published sporadically by the Moon Rabbit Drinking Club & Benevolence Society (ISSN 1553-9177).
Johnny America spends most of his days lounging against a low crater, fishing rod in paw. Some afternoons he helps plow the cheese fields — to earn extra money for carrots — but usually he’s in the valley cut by the Mercer and Mancini Rivers, idling. The fish on the Moon are constantly drunk and easy to catch. They look almost exactly like bass but taste of marmalade and cinnamon.
Review of Issue #9 by Pioneer Press:
Sometimes we come across a zine and we’re like, “This. This is why we run a distro.” Johnny America is put together by local Lawrence folks (and fellow Rocket Grant Recipients!) Emily Lawton, Patrick Giroux, and Jonathan Holley and it hit us like a well-stocked ‘fridge dropped from space. Bam. Splat. Since 2003, Lawton, Giroux, and Holley (aka the Moon Rabbit Drinking Club) have been turning the McSweeney’s vibes of their early stuff into a whole new beast that’s all their own. Funny, smart, brave, and not afraid to take big steps into The Weird, Johnny America might be the best literary zine in the country. With a great silkscreened/stitched cover and interior design by Giroux, issue 9 is hot-damn enough to give the Paris Review a run for their money (and we say this as loyal Paris Review subscribers). Seriously, smart people of the world who have a love for short stories, beautiful ideas, and nonbullshitty things: This zine is a keeper like that big fucking rainbow trout your dad’s got on his wall.
benleib 