Features/Fiction

So Close

Posted on by Kim

My Flash Fiction submissions keep placing

The results are in for round two of the 2018 NYC Midnight Flash Fiction competition. I needed to be in the top five for my group of 30. I was the sixth. 🙁 I scored 19 cumulative points for my first two stories. My nearest competitor scored 20.

I’m proud of that. for a competition with 3000 competing in the second round alone, I feel proud to have done that well.

Look for “Apocalypse” in a journal soon

The story is called “Apocalypse,” and it’s about a young boxer. The good news is that I’m now free to submit it to other publications. I’ll let you know when it finds a home.

Publishing/Web Design

Web Design and Book Publishing
by Kim Davis

Posted on by Kim

Web design was a natural skill to develop when I started to promote my first book, and that is exactly what I did. Today, I am a web designer as well as a writer and most recently, a publisher. It started when my cousin asked me to write search engine optimized copy for his websites to earn some extra cash, but I discovered that I wanted to go beyond just copywriting. I wanted to create entire websites. It was the early 2000’s, and the field was wide open for web designers. I hung my virtual shingle, and Sublime Design Studio was born.

Sublime Design Studio

I have been designing websites for small businesses, individuals and nonprofits since 2001. Yes, I am also a writer and editor, but I love to mix it up with a bit of design. I keep my credentials up to date with online courses so that I know what the current web design trends are and how to duplicate them. Of course, authors are some of my favorite clients, but they are not my only clients. I work most with WordPress, but I am familiar with all the common content management systems on the market today. In addition to WordPress, these include Squarespace, Joomla!, and Drupal. My daughter, Jacqueline Davis, has joined my web design business, Sublime Design Studio, and her skills as a photographer and film editor really enhance our offerings. HERE is our portfolio of web design projects. And here is a PowerPoint presentation that showcases some of our favorites.

Madville Publishing

Madville Publishing logoFrom 2012-2015, I went back to University to get an MFA in creative writing, editing, and publishing. I wanted credentials, and I wanted validation as an author. My business skills and my knowledge of the software associated with digital design landed me with a job at Texas Review Press, where I spent a couple of years running things between managing directors from 2016-2018. Now, I’ve started a nonprofit indie press, Madville Publishing. With my daughter, Jacqueline’s help, we have produced seven books and our editorial calendar is booked out through 2020, with a book a month scheduled. I am the managing director, which means I select what we publish, write the contracts, do a large portion of the editing, and sometimes I do layout design, typesetting, cover design and ebook conversions. I call upon a network of talented editors and designers I know to help.

Features/Fiction/Showcase

I Placed–NYCMidnight Flash Fiction Challenge

Posted on by Kim
placement NYC Flash Fiction Challenge

I write flash fiction for fun. A few times a year, I write flash fiction very fast to address a crazy mixed-up prompt. That’s what I call fun, but it is even more fun when someone else likes the result. My story for round one of this year’s NYCMidnight Flash Fiction Challenge is titled “A Weakness for Pearls.” It’s about a spy at a charity fundraiser. Somehow an air conditioner had to come into play, and it all was required to happen within 1000 words.

The NYCMidnight Flash Fiction Challenge is a massive competition with a hefty entrance fee, but I really enjoy it. For several years now, these competitions have made me produce not one, but three short stories I am proud of. Whether I win this competition or not, I’m writing. I have something to revise and edit until it shines, and each year, I’ve been proud to have at least a couple of those stories place respectably in the NYCMidnight competition.

So, the news today is that my first round story for this year, “A Weakness for Pearls” has done well! According to the NYCMidnight website there were over 3000 entries this time. On the results page alone, there are 1500 entrants listed, and this only shows the stories that placed in the top 15 for each of 100 categories. It’s massive, so I’m very pleased with 6th place in my category!

placement NYC Flash Fiction Challenge

Features/Kim's Field of Knowledge/Personal Essays/Research Based Articles/Showcase

The History of the Madisonville Sidewalk Cattlemen’s Association

Posted on by Kim
Kim Davis wrote this history of the Madisonville Sidewalk Cattlemen's Association

My History with Madisonville Sidewalk Cattlemen’s Association

I wrote this piece for the Madisonville Sidewalk Cattlemen’s Association many years ago. As you will read, I have a personal interest in the history of this organization. I also designed and have been looking after their website for quite a few years.

 

You can read the full article here: sidewalkcattlemens.com/history.htm

Features/Fiction/Showcase

The Meek Inherit to appear in FLAR

Posted on by Kim
Kimberly Davis' story, "The Meek Inherit," In Flar: Fredericksburg Literary & Art Review magazine

The Spring/Summer 2018 issue of FLAR is out! My story, “The Meek Inherit” is on page 205.

It’s about a boy and his chicken. Chickens make such great subjects, don’t you think? Let me know how you like it!

Here is the link to the full issue:

About FLAR

Here is the link to FLAR’s website: http://fredericksburgwriters.com/

Features/Reviews/Showcase

Book Review of Hoenig’s Garden Variety

Posted on by Kim
Kimberly Parish Davis' review of Garden Variety

A new book review for JASAT.

I just received word from Sean Ferrier-Watson, JASAT Book Review Editor, that the review I wrote of Garden Variety has been accepted for publication in the 2018 edition of JASAT, The Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas. It was a fascinating read about much more than just the history of the tomato!

Hoenig, John. Garden Variety. New York: Columbia UP, 2017. 288 pages. $35.00 paper. ISBN 9780231179089.

Features/Kim's Field of Knowledge/Showcase

Jan Cole’s Poetry

Posted on by Kim
Jan Cole, Adelina Moya, Linda Pease, Ralph Pease, Molly Campbell, Kim Davis, and Jacqui Davis

Sisypha Larvata Prodeat
(Sisypha Wearing a Mask Advances)

Sisypha Larvata Prodeat (Sisypha Wearing a Mask Advances), one of my inaugural projects with Madville Publishing LLC, is a poetry book by my dear friend and mentor, Jan Cole. I tried to turn this project down, because it is complicated by Adelina Moya’s beautiful full-color paintings illustrating English and French poems translated into Chinese by editor Lorrie Lo and translator Angela Liu. I was simply too busy at Texas Review Press to take on a project this complex.

However, Jan Cole is persistent. She insisted that I publish this book for her. At the end of the day, the projected waited until I had time for it. Now the Huntsville Arts Commission has given us a grant to promote the book locally, and Dr. Ralph Pease (professor Emeritus from the SHSU Department of English) has written an Afterword. Several of us met on Saturday in honor of our artist, Adelina Moya, being in town.

Reviews

Little Big Steps by Arash Bayatmakou

Posted on by Kim
Little Big Steps by Arash Bayatmakou

Davis, Kimberly Parish. Review: Little Big Steps by Arash Bayatmakou. Self-published, 2017.

Little Big Steps by Arash Bayatmakou tells the story of a one determined man’s refusal to allow a spinal cord injury with its attendant negative diagnosis to dampen his enthusiasm for life, or his desire to walk again. Arash, with eloquent, yet accessible language takes readers chronologically through three years of his life, beginning with the day, an ordinary day like any other, when he fell three stories and broke his neck. He doesn’t sugarcoat the deep depression or anger that followed his injury, but more than anything, he takes issue with the lack of care he received from the medical profession and the failure of his insurance company to support him when he needed it. In a situation that has consigned many others before him to life in a wheelchair, Arash holds fast to the belief that he will regain the use of his legs one day. With the unfailing support of a devoted and loving family, Arash found his way to healers and techniques that defy the negative prognosis routinely doled out by traditional doctors. As daunting as that part of the task was, he also found creative ways to fund his therapy while helping others at the same time.

I have followed Arash’s blog, https://arashrecovery.com/, for several years, so I’d read some of the stories he told in this book, but the book went deeper. It told me about personal things Arash never shared on the blog. It answered questions I dared not ask, but really wanted to know, like: “How can he afford all these fancy therapies?” and “Who takes care of him?” I was touched to learn about Arash’s close relationship with his parents and to get to know his fiancé Britta, the blond beauty he had mentioned in the blog.

I always knew that Arash was a talented writer, and this book bears that out. He has a gift for language, and an intelligence that shines forth in his ability to analyze situations and describe the complicated emotions he has had to negotiate. I recommend this book for everyone as it offers a powerful example of the power of faith, not in any specific deity, but in the innate intuition that we each possess, but few of us know how to listen to.

Features/Kim's Field of Knowledge/Showcase

Madville Publishing

Posted on by Kim

I’ll be honest, I’ve been on the academic job market for a while now. As Paul Ruffin’s assistant, then “acting” director of Texas Review Press since his death, I have known for a couple of years that I needed to be looking for a new job. What I’ve found is that there are not a lot of job openings in publishing for people with my experience.

I have had the very good fortune of connecting with a group of editors I know and respect, and I have signed on with them at Goliad Review & Press as Production Manager.

Still, that doesn’t satisfy all the requests I have from writers and editors. These are two groups of people I have come to know, and they sometimes overlap. The writers want help getting their work to press, and the editors want work to edit. So, I’m starting a small publishing business that will publish a few titles per year as well as offering a variety of author services. I’m excited about the launch of Madville Publishing, and I hope you will take a look at all we have to offer there.

Features/Kim's Field of Knowledge/Showcase

AWP 2018

Posted on by Kim

I’m heading to AWP 2018. I’m really looking forward to this conference, and I hope to see many of my writing friends there. You will find me in one of two places for most of the conference: The Texas Review Press Booth #751 or the Goliad Review & Press table, #T320.

Here is my schedule:

Thursday 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Author signing–Curt Eriksen, A Place of Timeless Harmony, TRP booth #751. (I’ll have to leave at 4:15, but Curt will be there till 5:00)

Thursday 4:30-5:45 PM
I will be moderator for “The Places America Forgot,” Room 11, Tampa Convention Center, First Floor (My friends Michael Gills and Joseph D. Haske will be reading from their fiction.)

Friday 1:00-3:00 PM
Author signing–Theodora Bishop, On the Rocks, TRP booth #751

 

 

Friday 3:00 PM-5:00 PM
Author signing–Michael Gills, The House Across from the Deaf School and “The Death of Bonnie and Clyde” and Other Stories, TRP booth #751
(last year there was whiskey)

Saturday 11:30-1:30 PM
Author signing–Lindsay Illich, “Rile & Heave,” TRP booth #751