Marketing & Promotion Archives » Page 8 of 27

Someone hates me. Who is responsible for #FCJR ?

August 6, 2012

I recently learned of a book called FCJR which seems to be an expose of sorts. While I don’t know for sure what FCJR stands for (Finally, Cancer Just Rebelled, Faulty Car Jams Roadway, Flatus Causes Jocular Resentment), I can only assume it’s something bad. Based on the reviews of this book, I’m starting to think that I’m a pretty shitty guy. The book, written by someone who calls himself Anonymous (I think it’s Greek) was brought to my attention recently during an episode of Booked Podcast. Starting with minute 47:30, episode 99, you can hear the hosts, Robb Olson and Livius Nedin, describe the book as an expose that elicits some pretty hostile reactions. I haven’t yet read the book. I’m not sure I want to. But, for no logical reason, I’m including a bunch of links below to help you find out more about it. Booked Episode 99,…

Interviewed at the Books and Booze podcast. I think I validate 50 Shades of Grey as culturally relevant…

August 4, 2012

A couple of nights ago I was invited to be the interviewee on an episode of the burgeoning and fun Books and Booze podcast. This, episode 4, has me chatting books with Renee Pickup and Dakota Taylor, sans books or booze in my hands, unfortunately. We talk a lot about my books, of course, but we get larger issues such as the implied cultural relevance of books that we (Renee, Dakota, and myself) don’t necessarily assume are good (ahem…50 Shades of Grey…) but must strike a unique chord if they are selling so well. We don’t always have to agree with cultural shifts, I suppose. But we’re all interested, it would seem, in the idea that mass consumption of a product must mean that product has some relevance beyond the aesthetic (but if now, doesn’t wide aesthetic appeal still say something about a culture). Anyway, it was tremendous fun. Thanks…

Stranger Will to see a new life with a new publisher

July 23, 2012

Many people have been asking me if Stranger Will is to be reprinted following the news of it's current/previous publisher closing down. The short answer is yes, Stranger Will is to see a new life. The longer answer--to the assumed question of "when?"--is that I'm not 100% sure. I do know who the publisher will be, and I do have a pretty good idea of when it will be published, but I'm a bit of a superstitious geek when it comes to revealing good news. Suffice it to say that the novel should come back even better and bigger than every before, toting extra materials not seen in any of the previous printings.

Blog Tour Stop: Laura Szumowski, illustrator of New York Stories by Ben Tanzer. You’ll love her cartoonish style.

July 3, 2012

Frequent readers will know that I’m a bit of a Ben Tanzer fan. He simply doesn’t disappoint. So when I was asked to make this World’s First Author Blog a stop on his recent blog tour for his New York Stories collection from CCLaP, I jumped at the chance. Equally, I’m jumping at the chance to host a stop for New York Stories illustrator Laura Szumowski. Laura has a style that pairs perfectly with the domestic, somewhat detached characters of Ben Tanzer’s work. Smooth lines, intense borders, unabashedly cartoonish, Laura’s work elicits a simple nostalgia, the type of times-remembered that Tanzer’s characters seem to always be chasing. New York Stories isn’t the first book illustrated by Szumowski. She’s the author/illustrator of a lot of cool looking books, my favorite of which is Cycling: A Guide to Menstruation. Though I haven’t read it, I can’t imagine it disappointing. Head over to…

Vertigo Unbalanced is now available to read FOR FREE in the new Nova Parade anthology from Solarcide Magazine

July 2, 2012

The guys at Solarcide do wonderful work. One could argue that I say this only because they've been kind enough to interview me about, among other things, my penchant for domestic grotesque fiction. That One doing the arguing would be wrong, however, as Solarcide has been a refuge for great literary content for long before I tainted them with my talk of familial morbidity. Solarcide extends their great work into the world of anthologies with the publication of Nova Parade, a FREE .pdf download collection of stories from some fantastic writers, many of whom I shared space with in the Warmed and Bound anthology, in addition to Nova Parade (my story "Vertigo Unbalanced" appears in Nova Parade). Here's a table of contents for you. Click over to Solarcide to download the free collection. Richard Thomas – On A Bent Nail Head Martin Garrity - Walking On Water Bryan Howie –…

Booked Podcast invites me to talk about Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters: Remix

June 23, 2012

The fine fellows at Booked Podcast, Robb Olson and Livius Nedin invited me over to discuss the reissue of Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters. Here's a bit from the episode description: Booked reviews Invisible Monsters REMIX by Chuck Palahniuk, with special guest host Caleb J. Ross. It’s more of a book discussion than a review this episode, since this is not technically a new-new book, and there’s a good chance that lots of people listening will have already read it. So we talked a bit about the book, Palahniuk, and (of course) felching. As you do when you talk about Invisible Monsters. Click here to listen to the latest Booked Podcast episode, featuring Caleb J. Ross.

Wordless Book Reviews – Mark Dunn, Adam Johnson, Steven Levy, Richard Grossman (Video Blog Ep 015)

June 21, 2012

First off, please forgive the video quality here. I was trying a new recording method, which obviously didn't work that well. Here is another Wordless Book Reviews episode. Here I review four books using only sound effects and facial expressions. The books: Ella Minnow Pea: a Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn, Emporium: Stories by Adam Johnson, In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy, and The Book of Lazarus by Richard Grossman.