Stay Tuned to This Channel by Vernon Frazer

"I have had two good short story collections cross my desk in the last few weeks. The first of these is Vernon Frazer's Stay Tuned to this Channel. Vernon is like Bartheleme or Chris Mazza, with a strong sense of fun, of what to do with text. His works have appeared in places like Kaspahraster and Magic Realism. He is more gentle and more laid back than the two writers I have compared him to, strongly mapping on the jazz riff as a way of putting a story together. Uncle Don gives it a thumbs up.You may know Vernon from his books of poems or his recordings that mix poetry and jazz. The best of what Beat might have become is becoming now through Vernon Frazer.
—Don Webb, author of The Double and Essential Salts

"In the title story of his collection, Stay Tuned to This Channel, East Hartford writer Vernon Frazer hits the proverbial nail on the head for anyone who has ever tried to make it as a freelance writer in America. His witty tale imagines the Poe-like torment of someone who has spent thirty years trying to get his work published in magazines. 'Whenever my mail slot flapped, though, my mind raced with desperate anticipation,' Frazer writes, 'If Banshee accepted the last poem I'd sent out, I'd get the boost I needed to keep writing. But Banshee sent its usual form rejection.' Ah, but here's the rub: the narrator's work suddenly, miraculously begins to find outlets, then it hits the bestseller list and the Oprah Show. Bu there's one catch: It is being under someone else's byline. The narrator can neither prove the work is his nor stop it from making someone else famous. This and twelve other cautionary tales of 'daily life in America's commodity-driven culture' make for a witty, if bittersweet collection.
—Alan Bisbort, Hartford Advocate