Good haiku deals

Anyone in the market for a haiku book to add to their collection or give as a gift should check out these deals:

A copy of Haiku Moment: An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku can be purchased on eBay for just $4.30 (free shipping).  The copy is used, in "acceptable" condition, but the price is a far cry from the $17.91 price for a new copy from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble.  This auction ends in just a couple of hours, but there's another auction for a "good" copy of the same book that ends in 3 days, and that copy is going for $4.99 (also with free shipping).

A used "good" copy of Basho's On Love and Barley is for sale on eBay for $1.00 plus $3.99 shipping.  This sale ends in about 4 days.  If you haven't read this book, it's a great collection, well-translated.

Amazon currently has several used copies of Inch by Inch, a collection of 45 of Issa's haiku translated by Nanao Sakaki.  This is a good book for a collector, and all of the poems in the book are handwritten.  The copies vary in price, but a "good" copy sells for $3.99 and is eligible for free shipping, and a "very good"  copy is listed at $0.01, plus $3.99 shipping.

end of the year

I hope everyone had a good holiday and is ready to ring in the new year in style. This year has been an interesting one, but it's almost over. I'm going to take down the "Holiday Deals" section shortly, but in the meantime, Barnes & Noble is having an After Holiday Sale (50% off on a bunch of stuff) and HP is having their annual Red Tag Sale. If you need a new computer, now is the time to get one. And at Amazon, Baseball Haiku has dropped even lower -- the hardcover book is only $4.20 now.

Even though Necrology is a dead magazine, editor John Ferguson is trying to keep its spirit alive with Necrology Shorts, an online short fiction venue. Necrology Shorts is open to submissions -- there is currently no payment for contributors, but Mr. Ferguson hopes to change that soon.

For mystery writers, Gumshoe is now accepting fiction submissions. The magazine pays five cents per word for unpublished short stories (to a maximum of $50).

I recently was honored to find out that one of my haiku (which appeared in Mayfly earlier this year) was selected for inclusion in the 2010 Red Moon Press anthology. As soon as the anthology is available for sale, I'll post a link here.

Speaking of haiku, Acorn will be opening to submissions in just a few days. And for some good haiku in the meantime, here are two: one by Alison from her Miso Soup blog and one by Jordi Clement from tinywords a year and a half ago.

some random news

Everyone probably already knows, but the winner of Don Wentworth's 2nd Annual Basho Haiku Challenge has been announced, and it is... William Appel! Check out his winning poem at Issa's Untidy Hut, and while you're there, read the runners up too.

Speaking of Don Wentworth, his list of Near Perfect Books of Poetry is now up to 233. Check it out -- see if you agree or disagree with any of them, or if you have any books to add.

Nothing to Dread, this year's Niteblade anthology, is now on sale. The paperback copy (with a great cover by Marge Simon) is $12.95, but you can also download a PDF copy for $3.75. I haven't been able to sit down with my copy yet, but it's got a great lineup.

Haiku readers have plenty of new material to choose from. New issues of Shamrock Haiku Journal, Roadrunner, and The Heron's Nest are all online now. And there is also Australian Haiku, a blog of haiku and haiga that's pretty darn good. I don't remember how I came across this site, but Emma Dalloway's haiku are definitely worth checking out.

As far as holiday deals are concerned, Baseball Haiku has dropped to $4.97 at Amazon, if you still haven't gotten your copy. And for a more speculative selection, the Apex Book Store is running a special deal for professional writers: SFWA and HWA members can get 20% off of their order through the end of the year. Just use the code SFWA20 or HWA20. (If you're not sure which code applies to which group, go stand in the corner of a round room.)

In market news, here's an digital journal that may not be new to some but was new to me. Short-Story.Me! publishes "hard genre fiction," 200-5000 words, and pays 1 cent per word (maximum of $10 per story). You could sell them a story and use the money to buy Baseball Haiku, Nothing to Dread, or a book from Apex.

Baseball Haiku

I'm not sure what's going on over at Amazon -- maybe it's a glitch in the system -- but right now Baseball Haiku is on sale for only $5.15. (That's 74% off the regular price.) If you've ever thought about buying a copy, now is definitely the time.

Baseball Haiku is a 256-page hardcover book (the Kindle version is also $5.15) with great poems by Cor van den Heuvel, Ed Markowski, and George Swede, among many others. I'm not sure why Amazon has it marked down so much, but haiku fans should definitely snatch this one up.

Amazon offers free shipping on most orders over $25, so if you're looking to reach that $25 mark, here are some other books on sale:

- The Haiku Handbook, by William J. Higginson with Penny Harter - $10.08
- Essential Haiku, edited by Robert Hass - $12.48
- The Haiku Anthology, edited by Cor van den Heuvel - $11.53
- Japanese Death Poems, compiled by Yoel Hoffman - $11.53

P.S. My review of Modern Haiku is currently the featured article over at Helium.com. If you've never read Modern Haiku, it's a great magazine, filled to the brim with good poems.

Paper Crow, a couple of holiday deals

If you've never heard of Paper Crow, that's probably because the first issue just shipped out recently. Paper Crow is a new speculative poetry journal that came out with a bang. The debut issue includes work from many well-known poets -- Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Marge Simon, Joshua Gage, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, J.E. Stanley, and Karen L. Newman are only some of the names you will recognize when you read through the table of contents. The issue includes plenty of good poetry, especially a short visual poem by Ken Goodman.

Paper Crow is also a good market to submit to -- payment is 25 cents per line (minimum of $5) plus two contributor copies. The editors are reading submissions through the end of January. (Scroll down the Paper Crow page for guidelines.)

With the holidays approaching, it's time to start thinking about presents. If you're anything like me, you'll want to get as much online as you can so you don't have to set foot in a crowded store. Here are a couple of sales going on right now:

Amazon's Sci-Fi Extravaganza ends Monday the 23rd. Get science fiction movies and TV box sets at deep discounts (some DVDs are over 60% off). V for Vendetta (a great movie) is only $6.49.

If you're looking for books, AbeBooks currently has a 10% off promotional code you can use (visit the page to get it) now through November 30th.

Once you've found your holiday gifts, you'll need to wrap them... ThinkGeek.com has some unusual choices in wrapping paper, including zombies and "ChristmasBots."

For everyone's convenience and to make the headache of shopping a little easier, I'm going to start a list of haiku, horror, or writing-related deals and sales over on the sidebar, right under "Market News" and "Current Contests." I'll try to keep it updated as often as I can.