Two New Books

Electric Boy Scout:: Guerrilla Typewriter is a largely non-fiction book dealing with the pressures on Control and the possibility of using art and literature as methods of social resistance. Part essays, part interview, part stories, and part something else, this book takes you on a trip to the future and beyond.

Get a copy of the book from Amazon here or email lachlan.mcdougall@gmail.com to order direct from the publisher

File Folders: Painting in Ephemera is a brand new book of art featuring stunning paintings from a personal collection made during 2022. A great way to bring home a thrilling series, you can get copies of the book from Amazon here or email lachlan.mcdougall@gmail.com to order a copy direct from the publisher.

Submissions Open for D.O.R Issue 3

It’s that time again! The LJMcD Communications magazine of experimental art and literature is getting ready for a third issue and we’re looking for your work!

We can’t pay anything for your submissions, but we do offer contributors a print copy of the magazine at reduced cost (just covering printing and shipping)

All submissions should be in word doc format and sent to lachlan.mcdougall@gmail.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Please include a short third person bio in the body of your email to accompany your piece.

Poetry: please send up to five poems not more than a million lines. Any subject, any style, but the weirder and more experimental the better

Prose: short stories, text experiments, essays and whatever else you got up to 5000 words.

Art: send up to 5 high def images. Please include titles and any accompanying information you would like printed alongside your images (medium, process, etc.) It’s also fine if you want your if you want your images to stand alone without extra information.

Anything Else: we are open to new ideas and anything else you’ve got. If you’ve got something that you think would fit within an issue of D.O.R, please don’t hesitate to send it through or send a query and see if it would work.

And, if this is your first time, don’t forget to read the past two issues of D.O.R which can be read or purchased here

Chainsaw Gender Reveal by Keith Higginbotham

The fabulous Chainsaw Gender Reveal by the wonderfully talented Keith Higginbotham is out now from LJMcD Communications.

This book of excellent modern poetry will twist your brain and bring you to a sudden and shining realisation about the state of poetry and your life. Get a copy from Amazon here or email lachlan.mcdougall@gmail.com to order direct from the publisher.

Free Pamphlets for May 2023

Hi all,

This month we’ve got two brand new pamphlets to love and enjoy.

First up, we have Questions I Didn’t Know I’d Asked by the incomparable Mona Mehas. This chapbook of poetry inspired by Tarot and Oracle will knock your socks off with its intimate magic. Download a copy of the pamphlet below.

Questions I Didn’t Know I’d Asked [PDF for Website]Download

Secondly, we have The Poets Have the Floor, a thrilling extended prose poem told across three columns to whet your appetite for the fare of Lachlan J McDougall. Download a copy of the pamphlet below and see what you think!

The Poets Have the Floor (PDF for Website)Download

The next round of free pamphlets goes out in July, so keep an eye on things and make sure you don’t miss these great publications.

Shimmied Christmas Jimmy, the Rat Fink of the Chimney free pdf

My latest chapbool, a long form surreal poem, is now available as part of the C22 open editions series. You can download a pdf of the poem below, or if you’d prefer a print copy, you can purchase from Amazon here or email lachlan.mcdougall@gmail.com to purchase direct from LJMcD Communications.

Have a read and enjoy!

Shimmied Christmas Jimmy, The Rat Fink of the Chimney (C22 Open Editions)Download

Submissions Open for D.O.R issue 2

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED

Hi all,

I’m happy to announce that the LJMcD Communications literature and arts magazine, D.O.R, is opening up for a fabulous second issue.

I’m looking for poetry, prose, and art on the edge of sanity. Bold new experiments in text and form. Anything that pushes the boundaries of what we can do with language and symbol. Full details below.

POETRY: Send up to five poems as a single word document. No restriction on form or subject matter, just make it interesting. You’ll find I’m more interested in experimental poetry than I am in traditional sonnets and the like, but I’m open to anything. Up to a million lines, but make them count!

PROSE: Up to 5,000 words in a word document. Short stories, prose poems, essays on contemporary magick, whatever ya got, just make sure you’re doing something new with your words. I want my head to spin with the modern world.

ART: Send up to five high def images in a single email along with any additional information you want published like titles and media.

Send all submissions to lachlan.mcdougall@gmail.com. Please include a brief third person bio in the body of your email to accompany your piece if it is accepted.

Unfortunately, I cannot offer payment for accepted pieces, but all contributors will get the option of a print copy of the magazine at printing/shipping cost.

You can check out the first issue of the magazine in pdf or print copy here

Now, go forth and send me your best and weirdest work!

Electric Boy Scout:: Guerrilla Typewriter pre-order and proof copies

Hi all,

The largely non-fiction book from Lachlan J McDougall, Electric Boy Scout:: Guerrilla Typewriter, is comin out in June and pre-orders for the print book are now open.

The book deals with language and symbol and how we can manipulate these to bring about a social artistic revolution and end the influence of Control in our day to day lives. Let’s see what the Amazon blurb has to say.

The future is now and there’s nothing left but the recordings.
This book is a program for taking on the world at large. A step by step guide to bringing about the revolution from within. You may try to fight the change, but when the Scouts come calling, there’s nothing else you can do.

A deconstruction of the role of language and a prescient dissection of the modern Control virus, Electric Boy Scout is full of helpful and practical tips for circumventing the Control narrative and substituting your own. Learn to take control of your life. Learn the limits of what you are doing and how to push them ever further. Learn a few tricks from the master at work.

You can pre-order the book by emailing lachlan.mcdougall@gmail.com with your order details and a print copy will be sent to you soon after release date in June. Or, to get the book sooner (as well as getting a limited collector’s edition), reach out and see if any of the limited proof copies are still available. In addition to your proof copy, LJMcD Communications will send you a free pdf of the book so you can get reading straight away.

So, get in touch and order your proof copy, or pre-order a print copy today!

Review: ‘Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems’ by Allen Ginsberg

The wild beat hullabaloo where it all began in resounding howl over rooftops and tenements. Vision through the skies and over land, unflinching language to settle the scores. I love Ginsberg, and this is a fabulous collection of some of the best of his writing. “I am old father fisheye” writes the maestro and we see him there.

There isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said. ‘Howl’ is ecstatic, wild, a bop kabbalah for the ages. The rest of the poems follow suit. Each link in the chain is a drawing back of energy waiting to be unleashed into the universe. Every bit as powerful as it was back in the late fifties.

I highly recommend this book. If you need poetry in your life—this is it.

Review: ‘Dark Days’ by James Baldwin

A collection of three essays on the condition of black people in America, this book is steeped with a gentle melancholy and a slowly boiling rage. Baldwin feels the plight of his brothers and sisters and doesn’t shy away from cold, hard facts. There is nothing reserved and no punches pulled when it comes to the pervading system of white supremacy and this is not an easy book to digest.

Part of the digestion issue, I must confess, stems from a l sense of overwriting at points which can confuse the issues. This is a rare occurrence, but one which made me prick up my ears more than once. It detracts, in my opinion, from the hard realities when Baldwin traces back through too much poetry.

On the whole, however, this is a relatively straightforward read and a real eye opener for white readers which, I’m sure, is the intended audience of at least two of the three essays. Baldwin knows he has something to say to the white man (although he claims he can’t have conversations with them) and by hell is he going to say it.

It’s a good book and it doesn’t make you feel good about it. It is a languid call to action and a bitter indictment. Reading it will pulverise your outlook, but it might just make you a better person.

LJMcD Communications call for Ephemera

As you may know, LJMcD Communications publishes free zines and pamphlets from time to time. To date these have been the work of press founder and main contributor, Lachlan J McDougall, but now the call is open to have your work published as part of this wonderful free mail out network.

What we’re looking for: set your word document to A5 paper size and put together material up to 52 A5 pages in length. Please, no more than that as the zines become unwieldy, but anything up to that length is workable.

We’re looking for experiments here. We’re looking for something that’s been on your mind and you just need to get it out. You might want to check out the free pamphlets that have already been distributed here.

What’s in it for you: well, it’s a free mail out service, so there’s no monetary recompense, but it’s a great way to get your work out to a wide audience and it will put you in a good position if you ever want to submit a book for consideration with LJMcD Communications. There’ll be the option to limit the number of print copies if you’re into rarity, but otherwise your pamphlet will be distributed to the mailing network and included with orders of books and other mail outs and go on the ‘Catalogue of Ephemera’ for collectors of LJMcD Communications work.

Your pamphlet will also be put aside for inclusion in an anthology volume collecting all the LJMcD Communications ephemera in the future.

You will hold complete copyright over your work and can withdraw the zine at any time or use it for your own purposes, whatever you like!

There is also an option to put the pamphlet out as a full book after a period of time to set it in stone as part of the LJMcD Communications catalogue.

How do I submit: start by familiarising yourself with the zines the press has already put out, then put together your own zine manuscript and email it to lachlan.mcdougall@gmail.com for consideration. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible and let you know how to proceed from there.