Here are a few new indie publications you might enjoy:

A Voice Above the Din by Steven Holbrook Hill

Steven Holbrook Hill's first novel A Voice Above the Din kicks off like a buddies-travelling-together story, a sort of male Thelma-and-Louise. As in many roadgoing tales, the two main characters have complementary rather than similar personalities. John is the crazed, fast-moving one, and narrator Spencer supplies the caution and introspection John lacks. Anybody who knows On The Road will recognize the setup, but Hill's book is heavier on plot and lighter on tone than Kerouac's. One of the characters is dealing with a serious disease, along with legal problems and attitude problems, and the story takes twists you won't see coming. Hill has created a blog to promote this book ... he also contributes occasional excellent articles to LitKicks as Stevadore. Check his stuff out.

The Evil Queen: A Pornolexicology by Benjamin L. Perez

Satanic porn has never been my cup of tea, and I'm not really sure what context to place The Evil Queen in. The introduction is apparently written by Mephistopheles. Beelzebub drops in later. They and many other playful forest creatures all seem to be buzzing around some kind of supreme female porno-satanic diety (the Queen of the title) like busy worker bees. I never understand books like this, but I did my best. It's got some funny parts, and a few poetic lines: "Her hair is bible-black. Her skin is skeleton-white."

Burning Babies by Noah Cicero

Noah Cicero is a passionate young writer from Youngstown, Ohio who seems intent on tearing his way through the zine/indie press scene like a comet. I really like his rambunctious style, which at times finds that elusive mixture of poignant innocence and deadpan depravity that characterizes Charles Bukowski. Other times, he's just freakin' weird. Anyway, I really like his blog, Get Published or Die Tryin' and I hope he keeps updating it regularly. Here are some verses from his new book, Burning Babies, published by Jersey City upstart publisher Undie Press:

2. If you feel like you are in a movie but aren't even the star and sometimes not even an extra, it is because the people around you are play-acting and you aren't.

9. There is no reason to care what other people think about you. Because seeing how this world is, it is obvious humans are not good thinkers.

10. If you don't have health insurance, are in insane debt, have warrants out on you, a mullet, several children, a shitty car, and a girlfriend missing three teeth you can remain alive. You will not die from these things.

The Iceberg Sampler by Black Rose

Black Rose is a singer and spoken word poet whose first CD contains many strong tracks. It starts with Poor Little M.C.'s, an angry reggae-toned hiphop track. In the second track, Iceberg, she switches gears to an evocative sonic mindscape with long sustained vocal notes that recall Sinead O'Connor. The website for this CD is currently down, but Black Rose is a mobile poet and you can sometimes catch her at local poetry readings.

ChristianSilva

We don't usually review music here, but Christian Silver was one of the poets represented by the LitKicks Action Poetry book, and now his eponymous band ChristianSilva is tearing up the UK and getting great reviews. Check out their MP3's here. More evidence that LitKicks writers are plotting to slowly take over the world.