Monday, June 14, 2010

Wred Fright Reading On July 11th!

The last time I did a reading was on July 11th back in 2008, and the next time I'm doing a reading is on July 11th of this year. There's nothing special about that date, but maybe I should rename it Reading Day in light of the coincidence, and give a reading every year on that date (er, probably not . . . but it is a nifty idea--let me know what you think in the Comments section). In any case, Mike Faloon and James Jay are touring to promote their new books from Gorsky Press, and Ohio author Erika Meyers and I will join them at The Barking Spider Tavern (11310 Juniper Road in Cleveland, Ohio 44106 USA--behind The Coffee House At University Circle near Case Western Reserve University). The festivities should start at 6 p.m. unless they start at 5 p.m. instead (I'll try to get some clarification on that for you). It's free, so come on out for some bookish fun!

Friday, June 11, 2010

New Book By Crazy Carl!

Crazy Carl and I toured together in 2007 when our novels came out from the ULA Press, and I've always been a big fan of his work, so I'm quite excited to announce that he has a new book out. It's called Bloodreal and features material from Fat On The Vine, as well as excerpts from his subsequent novels (Dead In The Head and My Parents' Medicine, both of which I hope someone will publish in their entirety someday) and uncollected and newer work. It's sort of a greatest hits, a Crazy Carl reader. I get quoted inside it commenting on his work in general, but I haven't read all of this book yet. Let me tell you though, it's going to the top of my reading pile! And, by the way, the "Wred" in the book is quite fictional . . .

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Ode To Twitter

I have a poem called "Ode To Twitter" in this year's Inscape, which is finely produced by the fine folks at Ursuline College. The magazine is available for free on campus, but I'm not sure how off-campus folks could get a hold of a copy so I'll just include my poem (all 140 characters) in this post.

Ode To Twitter

Some people don't have much to say, but they will say it anyway, so thank you for restricting them to 140 characters so they don't go on and

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Three Question Challenge!

I worked up some courage, worked out, ate my vitamins, said my prayers, and went to bed early so I could take on King Wenclas's Three Question Challenge! Answers have to be kept to a hundred words or less so I made mine exactly a hundred words with the hundredth word "Hundred!" He's looking for more writers to take the challenge, so if you're a scribbler, slither on over to his blog.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Wred Fright Library

Bear And Snake Like To Read Books By Fright
Writing by Wred Fright!

Here's a bibliography of some of the writing I've done. Some of the links go straight to the writing; others will tell you how to get a hold of it (usually for the printed works). (This post has been updated here.)

Scholarship

Comic Books And The Cold War: Essays on Graphic Treatment Of Communism, The Code And Social Concerns includes an essay, "'I Can Pass Right Through Solid Matter': How The Flash Upheld American Values While Breaking The Speed Limit", that I wrote about Silver Age Flash comics (2012).

The Journal Of Popular Culture published a couple of book reviews by me (2009).

Books And Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia Of New American Reading includes an entry by me on zines. Read it at your local library (unless you have $400.00 to spare) (2008)!

"How Can 575 Comic Books Weigh Under An Ounce?: Comic Book Collecting In The Digital Age" is a paper I presented at the national Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association conference, which was later revised and published in The Journal Of Electronic Publishing (2008).

From Zines To Ezines: Electronic Publishing And The Literary Underground (623KB PDF) is the doctoral dissertation of my not so secret identity, reprinted on ZineBook.Com but you can also order a bound print copy from Proquest (2001).

"The Psychological Motivations Of The Zine Publisher" is adapted from my master's thesis (1996).

"The History And Characteristics Of Zines" is an excerpt from my master's thesis (1995).

Fiction

"What I Did On My Summer Vacation In Hell" is a short story about skunks, squirrels, and The Stench (2011 by way of 2001).

Blog Love Omega Glee is my latest novel, about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart (2008-2010). It is available now as an ebook for free (sort of, you can make a donation if you like it).

The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus is a humorous novel about life in a garage band that I first published as a serialized zine in 2002-2003. Then it was available as an ebook on the old WredFright.Com Website from 2003-2005. Now it is available as a book! (2006, ULA Press/Out Your Backdoor).

Underground Literary Adventures is a literary blog that Pat King and I once edited for the Underground Literary Alliance. You can find a few works by me there including the short story "Cancer" (a slightly revised version of "Cancer" was later published in the 2009 issue of Inscape, the Ursuline College fine arts magazine) (2005).

"Weekendless" is a short story starring my longtime character Harold Grumblebunny in which he passes a pleasant afternoon in the park contemplating the best way to drop out of the human race, published in the literary anthology The Bukowski Hangover Project by Poison Candy/Sisyphus Press (2003, out of print now but the link might have information on how to still obtain a copy).

"The New Kid Has An Old Bicycle", is a short story starring another of my longtime characters, Bill Falcon, in which he gets his first bicycle and tries to make some friends in his new neighborhood, published in the literary anthology Punch & Pie by Gorsky Press (2003, link has purchasing information). In Verbicide #9 Jackson Ellis wrote: "Wred Fright creates another highlight of Punch & Pie with the sad coming-of-age tale, 'The New Kid Has An Old Bicycle.' It'll definitely bring back some sketchy memories of anyone who was a shy social misfit as a child who did stupid things to impress the 'cool kids.'"

"A Sentence Of Grace" is a Harold Grumblebunny short story in which he finds religion and deals drugs with a preacher, published in The Slush Pile 2 by the Underground Literary Alliance (2002, link should have ordering information).

Comics

The Thirsty Bear & The Hungry Snake is a photographic comic strip I occasionally make starring a teddy bear and a snake sock puppet. Over the years, I've published cartoons with them in Gestalt & Pepper and as a minicomic for Genghis Con, among other places, and you can find one right here on the blog (2008-present).

"The Top Secret Origin Of Astronaut Urine Gorilla" (2002) can be found in Fightin' Fun Comics #2. AUG is one of my favorite superheroes, and you can find another story of his by me (albeit prose only), "The Return Of The Mullet Maguires", on Underground Literary Adventures (2004).

Poetry

"Ode To Twitter" is a poem published in the 2010 edition of Inscape, the Ursuline College fine arts magazine (2010).

"SanFran PanHand Sort-Of-Sonnet" is a poem published in the Homeless issue (#3) of San Francisco zine Xploited (2009).

"Weedwhacking Eden" appeared on the Underground Literary Alliance Poetry and Fiction Blog (2007).

"Ironic Occupations" is a poem published by Mark Sonnenfeld as part of his Marymark Press Give-Out Sheet Series (please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Mark at 45-08 Old Millstone Drive, East Windsor, NJ 08520 USA) (2007).

"What Is The Best Time Of Year To Die In?" is a poem published in the 2007 edition of Inscape, the Ursuline College fine arts magazine (2007).

"Kittendrowner" is a popular poem. It's been published by Red Fez and Underground Literary Adventures (2007).

"Return To E-Sender" was published in The Red Fez (2006).

"When We Were Terrorists" was published in the special 2006 issue of The Whirligig (2006).

Numerous other poems can be found on this very blog such as "2008 Third Party Presidential Candidates Sonnet".

Essays/Journalism/Nonfiction

Xerography Debt is a zine that reviews other zines. I wrote a column in #26 called "What Was the First Zine?" (2010).

Underground Literary Reviews was a blog that reviewed independent literature, run by the Underground Literary Alliance. I wrote a couple reviews for it:

"You Just Can't Find Good Help These Days: A Review of Bad Attitude by Leopold McGinnis" (2007).

"Ohio Is A Strange Place: A Review of Crossing Decembers: A Novel by John Booth" (2007).

"The Ten Commandments For Touring Literati" appeared as a guestblog for LDP Distro (2007).

"The Quest For The Great Canadian Novel: An Interview With Game Quest Author Leopold McGinnis" appeared in Go Metric 21 (2006).

"Home Therapy For Professional Wrestling Fans" appeared in Go Metric 20 (2005).

Numerous other essays and whatnot can be found on this very blog such as this popular post about whether or not Ernest Hemingway really wrote a six word short story.

Scribbles and Other Miscellany

Postcards from Pottersville: An Anthology of Art and Literature Volume 3 Adventures in the Underground edited by Jack Saunders has an interview with me in it, and contributions from Jack, Blaster Al Ackerman, Ron Androla, Michael Basinski, John Bennett, Bill Blackolive, Pat King, Steve Kostecke, Lyn Lifshin, Leopold McGinnis, Jeff Potter, and more (2007, Pottersville Press).

Monday, April 12, 2010

How Do You Say "Zine" In Portuguese?

I actually have no idea how one says "zine" in Portuguese, but I bet Douglas of UGRA, "a Brazilian non-profit project focused on producing, researching and promoting radical and alternative cultures", does since he's just translated a portion of my master's thesis, Personality On Parade: A Psychoanalytic Analysis Of The Zine Revolution into Portuguese here and here. For those of us who can't read Portuguese, you'll have to stick with this bit of the thesis from Zinebook.Com. And those of you who can't read either English or Portuguese I don't have to worry about because you won't be reading this.

About Wred

Wred Fright Tea Party
This post is outdated.  The update can be found here.

Wred Fright is the pen/stage name of one of the many thousands of blokes named "Fred Wright" wandering around our world today. This one primarily potters around Ohio and Pennsylvania in the USA but occasionally has been known to migrate farther afield. One of these migrations is cyberspace and this little blog which makes a nice outlet for himself and others to keep tabs on him and his writing, music, and whatnot.

Writingwise, Wred enjoys journalism (usually of the gonzo variety), fiction (usually of the humorous variety), and poetry (usually of the short variety). He's written for a plethora of publications (including some that actually pay such as Scene and some that are actually respectable such as The Journal For The Psychoanalysis Of Culture And Society), but he especially loves writing for blogs, comics, ezines, and zines such as Fightin' Fun Comics, Go Metric!, Zine World, and his own SMASH and drinkdrankdrunk. His novel The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus is a humorous look at the life of a hapless garage rock band, while his second novel, Blog Love Omega Glee, pokes fun at the notion that the world will end in 2012. More writing by Wred can be found in the Library.


Musically, Wred likes to sing and play guitar, with the occasional runs on bass, drums, accordion, theremin, and whatever else. The music is often described as rock and roll, punk, alternative, garage, and pop by listeners. In the past, he's played solo and in such bands as The Darrow Dregs, The Escaped Fetal Pigs, Satan Tortilla, The Flaming Toasters, Anal Spikemobile, The Lenin Spoonful, Yeast?, Ungoat, Rage Against Dabney Coleman, Shang Tsang, The Hot Glue Guns, The GoGoBots, The Joslyns, and Team Fright. Currently, he occasionally plays out solo or with a band under the Wred Fright name.

In terms of whatnot, as for why many pictures on the site feature Wred in a Mexican wrestling mask, Wred was much entertained by a picture from 1962 of The Destroyer in a wrestling mask eating a meal with his family, and got in touch with his inner Cindy Sherman with this series of photos by the Squire documenting Wred wrestling with domestic life. Other examples of such serious silliness by Wred and others can be found on this website.

If you're press, and you need a photo, feel free to use the one above, which is also available as a high resolution JPG 1.94 MB if you need to print it.

Here's some of what our friends in the press have said about Wred:

Cleveland Bachelor 2009

Textnovelblog 2008

The New Castle News 2007

Pittsburgh City Paper 2007

Lakewood Observer 2006

Cleveland Magazine 2006

Utter Trash 2004

Cincinnati CityBeat 2003

Book TV Canada (Video so it may take some time to load) 2003

But don't take their word for it! If you have any questions, please contact Wred yourself!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Pardon The Maintenance!

I am revamping the WredFright.Com Website, so please pardon the strange posts as I transfer pages over from the old Website to Blogger over the next couple of weeks. My novel The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus has gone out of print (don't worry, latecomers, plenty of copies are still available through me and a few other outlets) so I'm making a few changes. Blog Love Omega Glee will carry on shortly as we start to round third and head for home.