Loquacious Placemat Merchandise

In our never ending crusade to deliver the maximum multi-channel literary experience to the public at large, Loquacious Placemat has dived into the world of merchandising. The fact that merchandise sales may help fund the payment of authors and the expansion of print runs is just icing on the proverbial cake.

So check out our shop at http://www.cafepress.com/LoqPlacemat.

Think of it this way, if Loquacious Placemat becomes a cultural touchstone, you will have a priceless cultural artifact of a literary institution at its most nascent. If we burn out and/or fade away you will have an ironic piece of pop culture kitsch sure to make generations of hipsters smile.

It really is a win/win. So check out the shop and keep those submissions coming!

Manifesto Preview . . .

Issue 1 of Loquacious Placemat will feature our publication's manifesto. Fear not, we will not be too ostentatious about it and it will be the only editor produced content. It will run in the space where we hope to feature the manifestos and ravings of outside contributors on a monthly basis.

In response to some feedback received, we have decided to publish an excerpt from the LP Manifesto. It is our hope that this will address the concerns of some potential contributors out there while inspiring some of you to pen (and submit) manifestos of your own:

. . . We want to give literary fiction the power to ambush the public. We want our stories to be read by as broad a range of people as possible. If this means that it is read through a haze of cigarette smoke, gets splashed with coffee or stained with whiskey, then so much the better!

Our words can live long, healthy and quiet lives nestled away in the literary corners of the internet; they deserve to be lovingly bound in traditional journals and stored on the shelves of connoisseurs and academics. But, they need to get out every once in a while. We want to give the works published in Loquacious Placemat the opportunity to get tattered around the edges, folded in fourths and stuffed in someone's back pocket.

Loquacious Placemat is here to put strange words in front of those who would not otherwise seek them out. Online, we will be a concise and tidy journal. Out in the world, we will be something not so easily defined; something a little strange put out there with the hopes that our strangeness will rub off on the world. . . .

So there it is: a little taste of where our minds are at. Thoughts? Observations? Objections? Fears? Quandaries? Counter-Manifestos? Tell us all about it TwistedThistleProductions{at}gmail\dot/com.

Expanding our turf?

The buzz is growing! In addition to some great submissions (both local and international), we've been receiving inquiries about carrying Loquacious Placemat outside of our local region. As we seek to finance an expanded print run, we are looking to possibly distribute in NYC, Boston and Connecticut.

We'll you keep you posted.

In the meantime, feel free to submit or contact us.

Thanks!
Loquacious Placemat

Submission Guidelines

Loquacious Placemat is seeking material a little bit left of center. We are looking for the odd little stories that fall between the preciousness of traditional literary magazines and the raging avant garde tendencies of old school 'zines. Some of our favorite authors include Tom Robbins, Mark Leyner, Joyce Carol Oates, Franz Kafka, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, Joseph Heller and David Foster Wallace.

Because the 'Mat is utilizing the broadsheet format, space is limited. We are looking for material in the following categories and word limits:

Flash Fiction (approx. 1000 words)
Manifestos (spprox. 1000 words)

The one that may require som explanation is the call for Manifestos. The Art Manifesto has a storied history dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. It is an opportunity to put forth a set of ideals for your vision of the world (or at the very least art's place in the world). There can be manifestos for movements or for individuals, and Loquacious Placemat is open to either. So if you've got something to say (in approximately a thousand words or less), type it up and send it in. We are hoping to have one manifesto in each issue.

We also plan to serialize some longer works once the magazine has a few issues under its belt and has established a distinctive voice. If you have something in the 3000 word range that you think will fit the bill, that's great! Let us get to know you through a flash piece first and then we can discuss future possibilities.

Since we are a freely and publicly distributed publication, we will have to decline pieces with excessive profanity, graphic violence or sexual content. This may change in the future as we explore interest in a possible black-bordered edition for more exclusively adult venues; but, for now, we're going to be erring on the side of caution.

RIGHTS:
Loquacious Placemat requests First Non-Exclusive Worldwide Print and Electronic Rights to work appearing in the magazine.

PAYMENT:
Loquacious Placemat is currently a non-paying market. The plan is to change this in the very near future, but no one is going to get rich off of this particular endeavor.

SUBMITTING:
Submissions to Loquacious Placemat should be copy and pasted into the body of an email and sent to: TwistedThistleProductions{at}gmail\dot/com.

Feel free to include a brief biography in the email. While we will only be able to include a byline and (optional) URL in the actual .pdf/print edition, we will have a contributor's information section on the site with links and bios.

We look forward to reading your work and seek to honor a 2 week response time on all submissions.