Wred Fright Novels Available At Roxy's Emporium

On the blog, the past couple of months have been devoted to the new album:  Old New Battered Blue (give it a listen if you haven't already; it's available pretty much wherever you can find digital music), but that doesn't mean there hasn't been other stuff going on, so I'm catching up on things now and the next couple of posts.  One fun thing was stocking my novels at Roxy's Emporium in Elyria, Ohio USA.  My old pals Ken and Suz let Deb, the proprietor, know that she needed to add an author to her cool local writers section:  me!  So I brought over some books.  Ken filmed a funny video they put up at the Roxy's Facebook page.  It is here, though they seem to have missed the "W" in "Wred" (Oh, well, it's silent anyway):  https://www.facebook.com/reel/1669968207532659 

There aren't too many places one can walk in and buy my books.  Mac's Backs in Cleveland Heights, Ohio USA has a few.  At one point, Skylight Books in Los Angeles, California USA had some copies of The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus.  Mainly, I sell my books by mail order/online, but it's nice to be able to walk into a bookstore and find some indie literature, so thanks to Roxy's for stocking my novels!

They were on the bottom shelf the day I dropped them off because Deb was planning on reorganizing the local writers section, so I hope no one spilled coffee on them or no kids get to them (they're for mature readers generally).  It's a really nice local writers section.  When I get out there again, I already know one novel I'll be picking up.  The little mall the bookstore is in also has some other cool shops including Voodoo Zombie Video, a fun horror movie store run by Ken and Suz, and a waffle place that looked fun but was still getting set to open the day I was there.

Check out my latest novel, The Front Yard War, which you can now find at Roxy's!  

Read An Ebook Week!

 

Hey, it's Read An Ebook Week!  For me, that's every week, but if for you, it's not, then this is your week to join the fun!  I love print, but ebooks are great also (and they weigh less to boot).  And some books don't have print editions available, so they're only available electronically.  Some times, the eversions of print books are cheaper than their print counterparts.  I also find it nice when I get caught somewhere without the print book I'm currently reading, which I tend to take most places, but don't bring into the grocery store, for example, so when I'm caught in line waiting there or a place like that, I bust out the ebook I'm reading on my cell phone and use the time to read.  Anyway, to celebrate all things ebook this week, Smashwords is having a sale, including on 3 of my novels:  Blog Love Omega Glee,  Frequently Asked Questions About Being Dead, and Edna's Employment Agency.  Grab 'em at a discount while you can and celebrate Read An Ebook Week with me!

The Coronavirus And The Plague By Albert Camus

So, unless you have been hibernating through the winter, you've probably heard about the Coronavirus disease 2019, otherwise known in short as COVID-19.  It apparently started in China and now has embarked on a world tour.  Its arrival in the United States has caused pretty much a freakout with schools and libraries closing, events canceled, travel bans, and other assorted disruptions to daily life.  The latest where I live is the closing of bars and restaurants.

The hope is to slow the spread of the virus so that hospitals and other healthcare resources don't get overwhelmed and have to make difficult choices about divvying up care.  Whatever the good intentions, the actions taken against the virus's spread will certainly have consequences, primarily economic.  So far, most of the criticism has come from the political right, which makes sense since they typically represent the moneyed interests of the country, but some independent voices have also questioned the wisdom of these political decisions.  But others such as Nassim Nicholas Taleb have noted that the earlier to panic in a situation like this, the better, so even an overreaction is much preferable to the alternative.  This video is probably the easiest way to get his point about the importance of stopping this thing early.  Comparisons with traffic deaths and flu deaths don't quite fit the exponential risk that COVID-19 brings.

So, it looks like we're basically living in The Plague by Albert Camus, which has always been one of my favorite books, but I never wanted to live in it (it could be worse; we could be living in The Stand by Stephen King).  If you're not familiar with The Plague, it details the spread of a disease in one city and how the people respond. It is a good illustration of Camus's take on existentialism as well as a good read.  It is often interpreted as an allegory, but it can be read as just a tale of quiet heroism against a disease.  So, if you have some free time now due to COVID-19 or just want to get away from the tv news, it is a good book to read given the circumstances.  And, if you finish it and need a laugh to get through this challenging time, then please feel free to check out my books, especially the latest one.

Working Stiff Is Out!

I got a treat in the mail, a copy of the new book Working Stiff:  The Anthology Of Professional Wrestling & Art.  It looks great!  I am excited to read it!  Editor Josh Olsen did a fantastic job putting this together.  It features many artists and writers sharing their work with professional wrestling as the subject.  I am happy to be among such a great group, including my zine pals Crazy Carl Robinson, Michael Grover, Leopold McGinnis (who includes me in the wrestlers his wrestler faces in his poem), and Pat King.  My contributions include a sonnet about WrestleMania, which has never before been published (I wrote it before Rowdy Roddy Piper died, so it's even more poignant for me now), and excerpts from Blog Love Omega Glee.  Reading this book will make a nice way to warm up January before the Royal Rumble!

R.I.P. Visible Voice Books

I am saddened by the imminent closing of Visible Voice Books in Cleveland, Ohio USA.  It is a cool store and not only because they stocked The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus for a time.  I live on the opposite side of town, but whenever I visited the Tremont neighborhood, I always stopped in.  They have a good selection of underground books (it probably was the only bookstore in town to sell The Dirty Poet) and magazines.  Plus, it is just a pleasant environment to be in.  Well, the doors are closing shortly.  The good news is that everything is 40% off.  The bad news is that, after September 27, 2014, another cool bookstore will be gone, as the digital revolution marches on, leaving more beloved casualties behind.

Hooray For Webster's!

Several years ago, I went on a book tour with Crazy Carl Robinson, and we stopped off in State College, Pennsylvania USA to visit a pal. The pal offered to stock a cool local bookstore with copies of our books on consignment. The bookstore was Webster's, and, indeed, it was and is still cool.  I'd like to thank Webster's and my contact there, Molly, for carrying The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus all these years!  In fact, Webster's was the last store to carry the novel on consignment (a few years back, I started collecting the remaining books left on consignment after I lost a few copies when bookstores closed suddenly during the Great Recession).  Now, I suspect that I am the only one selling new copies of this now old novel (if you've been waiting for Amazon to restock, that's likely not going to happen since the publisher has sold out and the rights reverted to me a few years ago).  The good news is that I still offer the books at 2006 prices, so, with inflation on your side, that probably makes the cost cheaper than when the book was first released.  I only have a few copies left though (28, that's a few, right?).  Once they go, I'll probably put out an ebook edition.  For now though, the Emus remain in print.       

Calling All Steampunks!

Every once in a while, I heave a book that I haven't written onto Amazon.Com.  This time, it's a science fiction anthology called Steampunk III:  Steampunk Revolution.  It has some familiar writers in it such as Lev Grossman, Nick Mamatas, Bruce Sterling, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Christopher Barzak, and Catherynne M. Valente.  I'm not as familiar with the other ones.  I bought the book secondhand, but it doesn't appear to have been read.  I haven't read it either.  Perhaps it is waiting for you.  Right now, I have the cheapest price on Amazon, but I suspect it's only a matter of seconds before the algorithms start cranking and the guy trying to sell it for $799.00 will figure out that no one will buy that copy when I'm offering one for $5.99 plus shipping (the $799.00 dude wants you to pay for shipping as well; one would think at that price that the shipping could be thrown in).  Someone will have to explain to me the insane pricing strategies of some of the people selling on Amazon.  Will some demented rich person only buy a book if it's priced in the hundreds of dollars?  If so, I'm missing out.

 

Rare Alan Moore Books

I've been on an Alan Moore reading kick lately, tracking down a few oddball titles I've never read.  I just finished Neonomicon, Seven Deadly Sins, and Outrageous Tales From The Old Testament, the last two of which I've just put up for sale on eBay (I don't hang on to many books these days--my packrat/hoarder era is in the past).  Seven Deadly Sins and Outrageous Tales From The Old Testament are anthologies with Moore only having a chapter in each (Neil Gaiman and some other comics notables also contribute to the anthologies, which were published by Knockabout in the late 1980s and are hard to find now, being a bit rare), but, as with most of Moore's work, they made for enjoyable reading.  Next up is The Forty-Niners!  In fact, I think I'll end this blog post early and get back to reading!  

Book Review: Zygote In My Fez

Zygote In My Fez Toledo August 6th, 2011 is a book that emerged from the Zygote In My Fez poetry reading and makes for a nice companion to the event, particularly the reminiscences by Leopold McGinnis, Pat Simonelli, and Paul Corman-Roberts.  The book also works as a nice sample of the American small press scene, particularly poetry. Having just read the latest issue of Poetry, the longrunning magazine about--what else?--poetry, the poetry in Zygote made for an interesting contrast. Poetry has some good poems in it, but it also has a number of awful, obtuse poems in it. While the highs may not be as elevated in Zygote, the quality of the poetry remains a bit more even throughout. There are some clunkers where the poets write poems about poetry, and some material is probably too injokey for outsiders to the scene to enjoy (the loyal audience for small press poetry is other poets, which is great in that a passionate audience exists, but if a poet writes for them too directly that pretty much guarantees that they will always be the only audience for that poet), but a number of poems were quite good, particularly work by JD Nelson, Michael Grover, John Dorsey, Dan Smith, Tim Murray, Erin Reardon, TJ Jude, Alex Nielsen, Bill Gainer, Leah Angstman, Josh Olsen, and Michele McDannold. And, yes, that's a lot of names, nearly everyone, but it's a good book. Honestly, this is the type of stuff The New Yorker should be publishing instead of whatever verse John Ashbery vomits up, but I suppose the neoBeat vibe (read, relevant to everyday life in America) might scare off their advertisers.

Of course, the book also features my short story "Thank Heavens For Fuckups" which I also enjoyed reading (after I write something long enough ago, I can enjoy it as a reader). Alas, two damn typos snuck in, and they're mainly my fault, I'm afraid. "Month's" should be "months" (ironic, considering my bellyaching about misused apostrophes lately) and "bumber" should be "bumper". How those things slipped in there is beyond me. At least there are only two which isn't bad for a long story, and it's a story about screwing up so they fit in thematically.  I'd also like to thank Shawn Misener and Pat Simonelli for the shoutouts to me in their selections; it helped ease my irritation over the typos.

All in all, Zygote is a good read. Unfortunately, I have no idea how you can get a copy, so I apologize for torturing you with this review. This is true samizdat underground press publishing. I haven't seen that in a long time. Jump on it if it ever pops up online, I suppose. It's short but it should give you a good literary buzz.  I don't make any money from the book (probably nobody does--welcome to the small press), nor am I sucking up to anyone (I like to work with publishers who actually want to sell books) so this review is fairly unbiased, aside from the writers in it being kindred spirits.

I Geek The Library

Earlier this year, I was caught reading books about professional wrestling in a public library.  The evidence is on video below.  By the way, the term "geek" originally meant a carnival performer who did disgusting things such as biting the heads off chickens.  I'm pretty sure the woman in the video who says that she geeks chickens doesn't do that.  I think she means that she likes chickens.  Along those lines, just for clarification, I do not bite the heads off professional wrestlers.

Zygote In My Fez Book

After the Zygote In My Fez shindig in Toledo, Ohio USA last year, Michele McDannold wanted to put together a zine commemorating the event.  It looks like the zine has morphed into a book.  I believe I sent her a short story called "Thank Heavens . . .", but I'm not even entirely sure.  I guess I'll find out when I read the book after it comes out later this summer.  It looks like it'll be a fun read!