http://www.deadmule.com/content Southern Fiction, Poetry, and more... Brain Fertilizer Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:24:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en     A quick update — We’re reading all the submissions received for the Summer Issue of the Dead Mule (out around July 15th) and ya’ll should be receiving emails soon. If you submit after June 7th — it’s just fine — but ya’ll are in the next batch of readings and ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2007/06/07/july-mule-issue-submission-update/ by Laurie O’Hare "Hello?" "Bea, it’s me, Lucille." "Well, hey girl. How ya doin?" "Oh you know, same ole, same ole. What’s up with you?" "I’m jus makin cookies for the bake sale tomorrow. Oh, wait, hang on a minute. CASEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT THERE? WELL STOP IT, AND GIT DOWN ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2006/06/01/gossip/ by Amanda Vernor Adeleine pours a whiskey barrel’sjuice into her cup. Plastic, asmall hole in the bottom, it drains slowly,and she sips, which is wasteful, until bees greet theunderside. The color of honeydraws them. Or was it the scentof a seemingly sweet nectar? My nude body, I mention,is not a temple but a portion of this very earth.She ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2006/05/22/southern-discomfort/ the story’s here… but first, the rest of Mr. Laird’s Southern Legitimacy Statement: And God said, "Take these words and treat them gently.  Prepare them and mix them as you would a savory gumbo.  Give them fire and give them sweetness.  Give them character and give them color.  Use these words ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2006/02/15/the-goat-man-prophecy/ by Regina Williams My day was a total disaster. I’d had to stand with my nose in a circle on the blackboard an hour for slapping Misty Collier. She started it by calling me a doody head. Things went downhill from there. Walking home, I had almost reached our driveway. It was ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2005/10/01/delilah/ by G. C. Smith -I’m Bill Don Huckins and I’m a stock car race fan. From February to November every year I spend my Sunday’s all over the United States at the Winston Cup races. Listenin’ to the roar of motors from forty three racecars crankin’ out eight hundred horsepower a ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2005/10/01/dale-aint-dead-and-elvis-aint-either/ by William Lady I used to dwell on the differences among people until I understood what Jonathan Russell, a Honduran radio commentator back in the 1960s, meant by coyotes from the same hill. Annoyed by the endless mutual accusations between the local political parties, he would cry out, “nationalists, ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2005/10/01/coyotes-from-the-same-hill/ by Julie Walczesky She tries to remember to move the porcelain owl, around the house and grounds, so the spirit of her father, who lives in the owl, can have a change of scenery. Kitchen window view, always especially pleasing- watching birds eating, brown squirrels thieving, azalea leaves drinking in the blood red sap of summer. October ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2005/10/01/her-little-glass-bird/ I Bill ignores the center racks, where the books change weekly and make him dizzy, and heads to the classics section. He picks up a book and begins to read. He reads the same book every day, almost the same three pages, moving forward a word or two each ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2005/10/01/wade-ogletree/ by Terry Lowenstein The Land of Cotton Carolina weeps, her king has lost his crown. Marion no longer spins yarn into gold. Dixie floats on a breeze. Old times remembered. Villages are different now. Mills silent, train depots deserted. Futures sold out with signatures on paper. Cheap labor a world away unraveled the fabric of lives. Prosperity abandoned her children. Live and die in ... http://www.deadmule.com/content/2005/10/01/the-land-of-cotton-life-beyond-the-pages-of-grimm-armageddon-and-my-aunt-agnes/