Go Metric 22 Has An Excerpt of Blog Love Omega Glee

#22, the latest issue of Go Metric zine is out. As usual, editor Mike Faloon's done a nice job of collecting an assortment of popular cultural oddities for your reading pleasure. Read about Dick Cheney as a boy detective, why Iron Maiden rocks harder than emo and indie rockers, a dissection of The Wrestling Album, nutty cartoons, and a tasty hunk of literary fiction including the first five chapters of my Blog Love Omega Glee, marking the first time the novel has appeared publicly in printed form. About the only thing I didn't like about the issue was the analysis of Plastic Man and Mr. Fantastic, but that was only because I wanted to see The Elongated Man thrown into the discussion of stretchable superheroes as well!

Have A Cool Yule!

New Wred Fright Interview

My pals at Textnovel.com recently ran an interview with me at their blog. Learn how not to dispense a soft drink and more!

Operation Agent/Publisher

Last year I quit The Underground Literary Alliance because I wanted to devote more time to writing rather than getting sucked into another time-consuming albeit fun project such as organizing The F Independent Literary Festival (2006). The result has been Blog Love Omega Glee (the serialization of the second part, Love, commences tomorrow by the way, thanks for being patient during this brief intermission). Unfortunately, the publisher who collected my first novel was ULA Press, who obviously is devoted to publications by Underground Literary Alliance members, so since I'm not a member anymore, then you can probably do the math and arrive at the conclusion: I need to find a new publisher or agent who will find me a new publisher. I enjoy self-publishing (which is why I serialized The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus as a zine and I am currently serializing B.L.O.G. on this blog), but I enjoy writing more, so I like to self-publish in short doses (the serializations) and then find a publisher to collect the work and keep it in print afterward (and, of course, getting paid is nice too). So, if you are a publisher (no vanity presses please), whether you're part of the vast conglomerates, or think I'm the next Charles Bukowski and you're the next John Martin, and you're interested in collecting B.L.O.G. in book form, please get in touch (wredfright AT yahoo DOTT com) and let's talk. Or, if you're an agent (no fake literary agencies running scams please) looking for a new writer to take on and think you can get me a nice advance and yourself a nice commission from a publisher to publish B.L.O.G., then come on down! Consider this an open call for publisher/agent auditions! I'll be doing the more traditional author groveling in a query letter approach as well, but since this is the age of the brave new world Internet, I thought I'd post the announcement here too and let the magic of online social networking work. And, if you aren't yourself an agent or acquisitions editor, but know someone who is, then please feel free to pass this along to her or him. In print, B.L.O.G. will probably have to be a series of four novels because it's very long as one single novel (probably 250,000 words) and publishers love series. Fortunately it neatly divides into four parts (the recently completed Blog, Love, Omega, and Glee) of about 60,000-65,000 words each. And, of course, I don't plan to leave the blog serialization up forever. Once the novel is collected, then all the posts, except for maybe the first few which will work as a sampler, will be taken down, so enjoy it while you can, folks! As for the novel's marketability, I think works such as Good Omens and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy have proven that humorous fantasy and science fiction can be very popular. And, though B.L.O.G. is slightly more realistic than those works (not by much, how many vending machines after all are heads of state in the world, with "head" being very literal in this case?), it's in a vein that follows the fantastic whimsy of Tom Robbins and Robert Anton Wilson, also very popular with readers. Furthermore, the elements of the novel from professional wrestling to politics to conspiracy theories to comic books are all subjects popular with readers. The Harry Potter generation is coming of age and ready for sex, drugs, and rock and roll (oh, sorry that's my first novel Emus); well, anyway they like to blog and read so they would no doubt enjoy a story of two bloggers falling in love as the world falls apart. And, no I'm not going to make them vampires who eat bears instead just because Twilight is popular. I do insist on creative control. But the publisher can market the book as they want. A cover photo of someone blogging naked. Sure! A picture of Obama since Obama books are selling. Why not? Marketing it as a feel-good Oprah book club novel to women worried that 2012 means the end of the world? Go for it! Publishers are the experts at selling books, so I'll leave that up to them. And, if everybody decides B.L.O.G. isn't marketable? No worries, I understand. It's a brutal economic world out there. Good luck with that great new novel Paris Hilton is "writing"! I'm sure that will sell for generations to come. In any case, if anyone's interested in this novel, get in touch!

Emus Holiday Sale!

Want to read what Harriet was reading in the last chapter? To celebrate finishing posting the first quarter of Blog Love Omega Glee, I'm putting my first novel, The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus, about a garage rock band, on sale for the rest of 2008. I still have some copies left over from last year's reading tour, and I think they'd be happier stuffed into somebody's holiday stocking than sitting around in a box in the corner of my living room. That's right! Emus make great stocking stuffers! Well, the book, probably not the bird (the bird is pretty big so you'd need a very large stocking to stuff it into, plus it might kick you and you wouldn't want to ruin the holidays with a concussion from a large Australian flightless bird, would you?). So from here until the end of the year, copies of Emus are on sale for $10 each. I'll sign it and throw in a bonus zine too. To take advantage of this special deal, don't order them off the website (which has the standard pricing) but email me at wredfright (AT) yahoo.com with your address and the number of books you want and I'll figure out the shipping costs (typically for the U.S. I can send the books media mail, so one book would cost $2.23 to ship for example) and tax (but only if you have the honor of living in Ohio), then send you a bill with the total, which you can pay via PayPal, or check or money order. Once payment is received, then I'll ship out your book(s). The novel has a nice red cover so it's perfect for yuletide cheer too. Have a cool yule, and make it cooler by drinking eggnog with Emus!

Books And Beyond!

Books And Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia Of New American Reading includes an entry by me on zines. Read it at your local library (unless you have $400.00 to spare)!

Underground Literary Alliance Box Set!

The publisher of my novel The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus has included it along with seven other books in a box set, and they're having a sale! There's some other classics in there including Crazy Carl's Fat On The Vine, so that's a good deal for someone who's looking for a holiday gift or just a spot of reading for herself or himself over the winter. A set of ULA trading cards including one of me is thrown in to sweeten things even further. I imagine they make good bookmarks.