The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus is a comedic novel about a garage rock band in a college town, told from the point of view of the four band members--keyboardist Alexander Depot, bassist George Jah, guitarist Theodorable, and drummer Funnybear--and other characters. Unlike most other rock and roll novels which usually tell the story of a band rising to stardom, the Emus tells the story of the local band who never will "make it big" but rock on nonetheless. Previously published as a zine and online, The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus is now available in book form from the Underground Literary Alliance imprint of Out Your Backdoor Press. The book is a handsome 6" by 8" paperback and 228 pages long. It may also have the silliest author photo ever (Would you read a book by that author? I sure would!). The book has received press coverage in The Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs, Cleveland Scene Magazine, Cool Cleveland, Dig This Real, Metro, The Neus Subjex, The New Castle News, Philadelphia City Paper, Philadelphia Weekly, Pittsburgh City Paper, Verbicide, and Xerography Debt, and readers and reviewers have said, "[it] will have you flipping pages like mad" (Peter Chakerian of Cool Cleveland), "the prose absolutely sparkles" (Jack Cheiky of Syndicated Zine Reviews and Zine World), "I highly recommend this novel in every way possible" (Shawn Abnoxious of Neus Subjex), and "[it's] infinitely preferable to the eye-glazing 'literary fiction' shoveled out by the bigger publishers" (Daniel Green of The Reading Experience), and "opus from bloom county walks the mean streets of youngstown and emerges unscathed" (Crazy Carl of Scared Stiff Reviews), and called it "the ultimate comedic rock 'n' roll novel" (Christopher Robin of The Guild of Outsider Writers), "a complete joy to read" (Todd Taylor of Razorcake), "raw and highly comical" (Brian Rademaekers in The North Star), "a great book" (novelist Leopold McGinnis of Outsider Writer's Blog), "a comic triumph" (novelist Lawrence Richette), "fast paced wacky fun" (Tom Hendricks of Musea), "a very entertaining novel" (Indy Ana Jones a.k.a. Owen Thomas of ZineThug), and "[r]ighteous, spirited silliness" (Bret McCabe of Baltimore City Paper). Novelist Eddie Willson wrote, "I really enjoyed your novel. It made me a laugh a lot and I was genuinely sorry to finish it and part with the characters. I don't remember reading a better evocation of what it's like to be in a band going nowhere. Thought the structure works really well too--you managed to keep the voices of the different narrators distinct, which I know is no mean feat . . . I can't wait to read the next one!" Poet Bruce Hodder declared Emus "funny," "inventive," and "terrifically well-written". All-around genius Mickey Hess has noted that "This volume presents today's best thinking." Ah, shucks.
To promote the book, I toured with with Crazy Carl, on the Underground Literary America reading tour, where we gave readings with special guests in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Lakewood/Cleveland, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. Our pal Pat King wrote a nice post about our Baltimore reading and the ULA has some photos from the tour up.
Originally, the novel was serialized in zine form in seven issues on a quarterly schedule in 2002-2003 to rant and rave reviews. Xerography Debt wrote, "It's like the Monkees with more sex and booze. It's like . . . Extreme Monkees! Oh man, if I was a TV producer I'd buy the rights to the Emus from Wred and shop them around to the networks as the Monkees of the new millennium and . . . oh man, we'd have such a hit on our hands." Blank Generation wrote, "This zine is one of the best I read." ZineThug noted, "I'm getting impatient for the next one." Zine World said, "I found myself laughing out loud a number of times, and that's a rare occurrence." Literary Fan Magazine opined, "We sometimes forget the first requirement of fiction is to entertain--to get people to read it in the first place. And yes, the Flabbergasted Saga is often hilarious." Thoughtworm declared, "Highly recommended!" Low Hug pronounced, "Better than average fiction, much more engaging than I've read in a mass-marketed book in a while." Justin Chatwin in Zine Nation exclaimed, "What can I say, by now you have probabally heard it all before. In fact this zine is proving so popular, that Wred may have to start web postings pronto or risk getting a hernia from spending so much time bent over his printer." Razorcake testified, "I've been following the Emus since the first issue, and I'm hooked. I get excited when a new issue comes in the mail. I usually stop what I'm doing and sit down and read it right away." Zine Guide called it "Fun" and made it one of their zines of the week. Chumpire remarked, "well-written." Roctober commented, "I really like how the book reads musically like a good Nuggets tune." Neufutur liked an issue so much that James McQuiston wrote "Here's to hoping that . . . we hear more from Wred in the near future". In Breakfast #4, Vincent declared Emus "a fun read"!
When I toured on the Perpetual Motion Roadshow through Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York City, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Chicago in September 2003, the readings I did from the novel attracted attention from BookTV Canada, Cincinnati CityBeat, McGill Daily, Montreal Mirror, New York Post, Ottawa Sun, and Ottawa Xpress, among others, which was pretty impressive for a scruffy little zine.
After the zine run, the novel was available as an ebook on this very site for some time. Now it is available as a book (10 digit ISBN is 1892590476 and the 13 digit ISBN is 978-1892590473), and again as an ebook from the publisher! If you like a good story, you will likely enjoy reading Emus. If you like to laugh, you will likely enjoy reading Emus. If you like rock and roll, you will likely enjoy reading Emus. And, if you've ever played in a band, you will definitely enjoy reading Emus!
If you'd like to read a sample of the book, excerpts from the novel are available a few places, including Issuu; Scribd; the 2008 issue of INSCAPE, the Ursuline College Fine Arts Annual 2008; the ULA website; and on the blog on the Wred Fright MySpace page. You can also hear me read the first chapter currently on the Audio page.
If you're press and need a high resolution image of the book's cover, you can download a 3.2 JPG here. If you want to use a low resolution photo online for your blog or whatnot, please just copy the one at the top of the page. The cover photograph is by me, and yes, there really was a bathroom with a drumset in it.
I have some signed copies of the book for sale. They are $15 postpaid in the USA ($14 plus $1 for shipping--I will ship it media mail in the USA; if you want it shipped faster, that's a possibility, please just contact me at wredfright AT yahoo.com so we can determine the cost of the faster shipping) or $20 postpaid internationally ($14 plus $6 for shipping--typically first class airmail). Please also indicate how you want your book signed (e.g., "To Claudine, Wred Fright") (there should be a "Notes/Dedication" field above the button for notes if you order via PayPal--otherwise just send me an email or note via mail), and I'll sign it that way within reason (e.g., if you want it made out "To Gertrude, Remember that passionate night we spent together on the banks of the Potomac, Wred Fright," it might show up just signed "To Gertrude, Wred Fright," but you never know . . .). To order, please choose the appropriate PayPal button below (the first is for US orders, the second for international orders; if you need to send a check or money order for $15 in U.S. funds per book domestically or $20 per book internationally payable to "Fred Wright", please contact me for the current mailing address). Unless I'm out on tour or something, I'll try to get it mailed out as soon as I can, but since most of these are sent either media mail domestically please be patient. For questions about your order, please email me or call 216-227-9493.
