The final volume? Nah…

It’s been a hell of the last two years here at Dumpste Fire Press…

We’ve published over 65 books, including 12 volumes of VOICES FROM THE FIRE of which you have the final volume from the first phase of DFP UNBOUND…

So what’s next for DFP?

That’s a good question…while I’ve been the solo editor for the last two years wanting to slit my wrists and laying most the artwork in the anthologies as my art director for some reason doesn’t have the proper tech…there’s going to be a few changes.

Additional editors such as a poetry editor and an associate editor. Announcements will sporadically come through as I gradually tweak the site to reflect that.

We’re still still sticking with several thematic anthologies a year. VOICES FROM THE FIRE will return. There will be more of an offering of pulp titles and graphic novels down the line.

OUR OFFICIAL TAGLINE IS TRIGGER & IMPLODE…we are a counter culture movement.

Hoping to expand locally with nomadic pop-up open MICs on a monthly or even weekly basis called TRIGGER & IMPLODE along with maybe some other media ventures but enough of that…

I have a novel to co-write along with a collaborative poetry collection with LADY CHAOS PUBLISHING a joint venture with DFP.

But most importantly if it wasn’t for our contributors and audiences there wouldn’t be this flaming pile of wasteland accomplishment (can we actually call it that?). From the poets, writers, artists and readers…YOU ARE ALL DUMPSTER FIRE PRESS!

It’s been surreal…

AlSO THIS IS A SPECIAL VOLUME OF VOICES not only paving the way for PHASE 2 in the evolution of Dumpster Fire Press but featuring some of our more prolific contributors…

Stephen Whitter one of the most charming and personable writer’s I’ve met who really doesn’t give a fuck about awards and writes whatever the hell he wanted profound philosophical pieces in an understated manner.

A genuinely unique voice…

I salute you sir and  allthat you you’ve contributed to Dumpster Fire Press.

Sleep

I don’t sleep much these days, because I can’t do things because
of my health that makes tired,
Well fatigue, yes but that’s not the same as an endorphin flooded
runner’s high which only ten years ago I used to enjoy.
No fatigue makes you feel like how a fractious over tired toddler I imagine feels and then if you came across a fractious toddler, you could easily twist off it’s ear ears.
And so I go to bed drugged right up , Diazepam or if you’re British and my age Valium.
You remember the old Scaffold song we’ll drink we’ll drink to Lily the Pink the savior of the human race, for they invented ‘medicinal compounds’ most efficacious in everyway “.
Well you might not remember the song but look it up, wastes ten minutes.
So Benzodiazepines, wonder drugs, yes I’d agree with that if they weren’t horribly addictive and almost impossible to come off, now the even more hilarious part is when I was treated for Alcoholism I was prescribed Librium a Benzodiazepine ,’yes what you need to get you off Alcohol is a highly addictive drug’.
And when I went on in my career up the addiction ladder and down the life drain I came off Heroin after the many happy years we had together .
But I shouldn’t have worried because I was put on Methadone, stops you getting ‘sick’ and of course Valium , so ” Yes what you need son to get you off an addictive drug like ‘The old Brown’ or Diamorphine  or to be blunt Heroin, Smack, Skag, Gear,  is two  even more highly addictive drugs “
Sounds crazy, but trust me…..
So, now I’m approaching sixty years old and to put it mildly I’m pretty fucked up .
Valium and all its benzodiazepine mates must be long gone, surely ?
I mean you wouldn’t be able to get away with legally selling a highly damaging drug would you?
No, course not.
So what yo do is change it’s name, yeah that’s all there is to it ,no this isn’t Valium that highly addictive drug that has fucked up countless lives, no this is Diazepam and we have got rid of all the others too, Mogadon, that awful sleeping pill is now Temazepam, Ativan, is now Lorazepam.
Trouble is that every Benzodiazepine they have called …..Pam  something ending in Pam.
So, no more middle of the night calls from ‘associates’ in Pharmacies,  (must be those 24hr jobs I’m guessing) saying
‘I’ve lost me list, Mogadon worth having’?
If it ends in Pam pinch it ffs.
Yes, it’s been a funny old life, I remember being fifteen years old and spending all day trying to score a grotty bit of Moroccan Hash, now you get bombarded by the stuff even get prescription weed.
But one man’s needs vary as much as weeds grow one is now ok, one still class A.     

       Shane Allison…a writer and an artist. Visions and voices. An unstoppable force that I hope never gives up his craft. An unflinching eye searing your optic nerves for the bizarre truth one shelters themselves from in a world not fully done away but buckling under the pressure of non-being…love this man.

Poetically speaking…Michael Lee Johnson is the craft at its finest.

December Holidays

December 24th

 I find footprints

 in this snow,

yours frozen,

with our

broken dreams.

Same with James Maj…words dull the statement of his work. Much love to this man for not only his selfless contributions but deeply caring words of wisdom dispensed whether sought or not.

Nor can we forget our fearless art director Punky Dillinger who kept my head on screwed straight when I needed and arted like never before…don’t worry this marvelous team-up won’t be letting up…as always we’ve got things in the works