Make every day a beautiful day.
Eye on Life Magazine is a Lifestyle and Literary Magazine. Enjoy articles on gardening, kitchen cooking, poetry, vintage decor, and more.
Scott Thomas Outlar spends the hours flowing and fluxing with the tide of the Tao River while laughing at and/or weeping over the existential nature of life. His words have appeared recently in venues such as Venus in Scorpio, Mad Swirl, Dead Snakes, Dissident Voice and Section 8. His debut chapbook will be released in April through Dink Press.
Read Scott's poetry:
More of Scott's work can be seen at 17numa.wordpress.com
Ron Riekki's books include "U.P.: a novel", "The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works" (chosen by the Library of Michigan as a 2014 Michigan Notable Book), and "Here: Women Writing on Michigan's Upper Peninsula" (May 2015, Michigan State University Press), an anthology that includes writing by Sally Brunk, April Lindala, Saara Myrene Raappana, Catie Rosemurgy, Andrea Scarpino, and many other writers.
Read Ron's poetry:
Danny P. Barbare attended Greenville Technical College where his poetry won The Jim Gitting's Award. He has been writing poetry on and off for 33 years. His work has been published locally, nationally, and abroad, in The Santa Clara Review, Doxa, Assisi Online Journal, Dewpoint, Blood and Thunder, Huizache, Watershed, The Round, and Clare Literary Journal. Several of his books can be found on amazon.com: Gathered Poems and Nature Poems. Some of his poems can be googled under his name.
Read Danny's poetry:
Short fiction by Donal Mahoney
Forty years ago, David Germaine had been an editor with a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in a large city. After that, he had worked at many smaller papers in smaller cities because if one wanted to work for a newspaper, one had to go where the work was. And David loved newspapers.
As computers took over the newspaper business, reporters still wrote but often it was some new software that “edited” their copy, checking for spelling and grammatical mistakes but not always with accuracy. At some papers not yet fully transitioned to computers, human editors were still needed. More and more, however, as the software continued to improve, editors in cities, towns and villages grew fewer in number. And mistakes in newspapers became greater in number.
David is now retired and living on a small farm, "far from the madding crowd," as the title of a novel by Thomas Hardy once put it. He was surprised, then, when he received an email from a publisher whose books he had arranged reviews for over the years at different papers. Once again, the publisher was seeking publicity for a new book. This time, he wanted to know if David could get in touch with some of his old friends at that Pulitzer Prize-winning paper to see if someone would review his book and generate some potentially profitable publicity. As with newspapers, book publishers, those still in the business, exist to make a profit.
David thought about how long ago he had worked at that paper and he wondered about the people he knew there. He hadn’t heard from any of them in years. So he turned to the Internet to see if he could find some of them. What he found made his response to the book publisher easy to write in some respects but not so easy in others.
“Mark, I’m afraid the book editor I worked with at that paper has been dead for years. In fact, an Internet search indicates the movie critic, television critic, features editor and Sunday magazine editor are dead as well.
"The editor-in-chief, however, is still alive. I made a few phone calls and found that he is on a respirator in a nursing home in New York and will move into hospice soon. He always hired the best young people he could find and then worked them to death until they left for a better or lesser position. He was a brilliant editor but a miserable human being. Still, I’m sorry to see him go.
“I thought maybe the paper’s gossip columnist could help but he’s passed away too. He was hit by a truck while crossing an intersection. It’s true he ruined many a reputation and was mourned by few. There was no funeral according to the news item I found. His wife had him cremated. But he’s still thought of by many as the best gossip columnist ever to work that vile beat.
"Everyone else on that paper, I suspect, is dead as well or at best retired. Except for me out here in the country and the editor-in-chief on the respirator, I don’t know of another survivor from that staff. It’s still amazing how many Pulitzers they won.
"For some reason, I’m still in pretty good health, free of stents and joint replacements, perhaps because I quit drinking and smoking in 1959. That was the day I married a woman who bore five children in a little more than six years. She’s dead now too. She had a stroke in the kitchen making waffles two days into her retirement. She never got up. I saw her arm move on the floor but she was dead by the time the paramedics arrived. It’s just me in this big farmhouse now but I’m pretty good with a microwave. How did we live without microwaves in the old days, another miracle of technology?
“Although I’d love to help with the book, you can see I’m not currently in the swim of things at any paper. And as you know, it’s not a good time for newspapers. Many of them have died and others are on a respirator. People get their news on the Internet now or on television although some folks buy a paper just to read the funnies, obits and sports scores.
“If anyone I worked with back then is still in that newsroom, I’m afraid it’s because co-workers haven’t caught the stench yet or found the dust.
"I wish you the best with the book. In the attachment you sent, I can see that it underscores the role euthanasia now plays in end-of-life care. In the newspaper industry, there’s no need for euthanasia. Papers are dying regularly as a result of technology while the lives of people are sometimes saved by it. Even though I subscribe to the one newspaper still published in our area, I go online first thing in the morning to check the obituaries and sports scores. But I never did read the funnies.”
Carol Hamilton has recent and upcoming publications in LOUISIANA REVIEW, BOSTON LITERARY REVIEW, HUBBUB, BLUE UNICORN, BROAD RIVER REVIEW, CAVEAT LECTOR, NEW DELTA REVIEW, NARROW FELLOW, BLUESTEM, SOW'S EAR POETRY, TAR RIVER REVIEW, FLINT HILLS REVIEW, MAIN STREET RAG, I-70 REVIEW, U.S.1 WORKSHEET, REED, POEM, COLD MOUNTAIN REVIEW, ALBATROSS, HASH, and others; she has published 17 books: children's novels, legends and poetry, most recently, "SUCH DEATHS"; and Carol is a former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma and nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize.
Previously her work has appeared in in ATLANTA REVIEW, LILLIPUT, STORM CELLAR, BLUESTEM, NEW LAUREL REVIEW, POET LORE, U.S.1 WORKSHEET, CHAFFIN JOURNAL, TAR RIVER REVIEW, THE PENMEN REVIEW, TURTLE ISLAND QUARTERLY, BIRMINGHAM ARTS JOURNAL, COLERE, MAIN STREET RAG, LYRIC, CONNECTICUT RIVER REVIEW, TRIBECA POETRY REVIEW, TAR RIVER REVIEW, U.S. NEWSLETTER, POEM, IBBETSON STREET, FLINT HILLS REVIEW, MERIDIAN ANTHOLOGY, MAIN STREET RAG, WILLOW REVIEW, BRYANT LITERARY REVIEW, RE:AL, POETRYBAY, HUMBER PIE, ELLIPSIS, THE AUROREAN, MILLER'S POND, SOUTH CAROLINA REVIEW, COLD MOUNTAIN REVIEW, TULANE REVIEW, SLIPSTREAM, TEXAS POETRY CALENDAR, SOUTHWESTERN AMERICAN LITERATURE, ABBEY, LISTENING EYE, WISCONSIN REVIEW, RIVER OAK REVIEW, SAN PEDRO RIVER REVIEW and others.
Previously published books include "MASTER OF THEATER: PETER THE GREAT", "LEGERDEMAIN", "LEXICOGRAPHY" and “UMBERTO ECO LOST HIS GUN”.
Read Carol’s poetry:
Christopher Hivner writes from a small town in Pennsylvania surrounded by books and the echoes of music. He has recently been published in Black Mirror Magazine and Illumen. A chapbook of poems, “Adrift on the Cosmic Sea”, was published by Kind of a Hurricane Press.
Website: www.chrishivner.com
Read Christopher Hivner's Poetry here at Eye On Life:
Lana Bella has a diverse work of poetry and flash fiction published and forthcoming with Anak Sastra, Atlas Poetica, Bewildering Stories, Beyond Imagination, Buck-Off Magazine, Calliope Magazine, Eunoia Review, Eye On Life Magazine, Cecil's Writers' Magazine, Deltona Howl, Earl of Plaid Lit, Family Travel Haiku, First Literary Review-East, Five Willows Literary Review, Foliate Oak Literary, Garbanzo Literary Journal, Global Poetry, Ken*Again, Kind Of A Hurricane Press, Marco Polo Arts Literary, Nature Writing, New Plains Review, Poetry Pacific, The Camel Saloon, The Commonline Journal, The Higgs Weldon, The Voices Project, Thought Notebook, War Anthology: We Go On, Undertow Tanka Review, Wordpool Press, Wilderness House Literary Review; Featured Artist with Quail Bell Magazine.
She resides on some distant isle with her novelist husband and two frolicsome imps.
Read Lana's Poetry:
Samuel Vargo worked most of his adult life as a newspaper reporter. He holds a BA in Political Science and an MA in English from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, OH.
Read More
Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois has had over six hundred of his poems and fictions appear in literary magazines in the U.S. and abroad, including Eye On LIfe. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize for work published in 2012, 2013, and 2014. His novel, "Two-Headed Dog," based on his work as a clinical psychologist in a state hospital, is available for Kindle and Nook, or as a print edition. He lives in Denver.
Read Mitchell's poetry:
Robert Demaree is the author of three book-length collections of poems, including Mileposts (2009) and After Labor Day (2014), both published by Beech River Books. In 2013 his poems received first place in competitions sponsored by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and the Burlington Writers Club. A retired school administrator with ties to North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, he has had over 700 poems published or accepted by 150 periodicals, including Cold Mountain Review, Red Wheelbarrow, Homestead Review and Paris/Atlantic, and in four anthologies including the 2008 and 2010 editions of Poet’s Guide to New Hampshire and Celebrating Poets over 70. He lives in Burlington, N.C. and Wolfeboro, N.H.
Read Robert's Poetry:
