Tag: Book News

  • Banging the Berlin Wall

    Banging the Berlin Wall

    You probably don’t know this, because I rarely talk about it here on this blog, but my novella As a Machine and Parts has been re-released.  You probably also don’t know that bitches be crazy.

    Case in point: Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer loves the Berlin wall. And I don’t mean loves as in respects it because it represents Cold War oppression (which would be a weird thing to respect, I agree). I mean loves as in wants to fuck it because it represents Cold War oppression.

    Meet the Cold War kids, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Berlin Wall
    Meet the Cold War kids, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Berlin Wall

    To be fair, I don’t know if that’s why she loves the wall. Maybe she’s a WWII era East Germany sympathizer. Maybe she’s a synesthete who associates the rough texture of concrete with her father’s hug. But again, of course, let’s not rule out that she’s possibly an aforementioned bitch who be aforedescribed crazy.

    No matter what issues she has, the relationship between a person and a non-organic object is something I write about in my book As a Machine and Parts, and something I write about here, on my blog. I hope you’re a synesthete who associates my book with awesome. You should buy it. It’s funny.

    Ick! I’ve Bin Enside Her

    So this Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer has been married to the Berlin Wall for over 30 years, which means if you’re doing the math that Mrs. Berliner-Mauer was involved with the wall when it was torn down in 1989. If it’s not already obvious that her priorities are a tad misaligned, her reaction to the wall’s destruction should cement that observation. Rather than join the world in collective celebration, the widow-in-making declared instead “What they did was awful. They mutilated my husband,” marking the first time in the history of Schadenfreude that German husband mutilation resulted in legitimate, unqualified sadness.

    I now pronounce you man and disappointed in-laws.
    I now pronounce you man and disappointed in-laws.

    After the non-organic wall’s demolition Eija-Riitta turned to something truly crazy: smaller non-organic wall love. What! Gross, lady.

    Mrs. Berliner-Mauer keeps a model miniature depicting the former glory of her fallen husband. It’s the same way some women marry Hitler action figures except that in the case of the mini-Hitlers that never ever actually happened and would definitely be frowned upon by every person capable of frowning.

    Does this count as a dildo?
    Does this count as a dildo?

    This isn’t the first time the Berlin Wall has caught the eye of an under-medicated woman. Erika Eiffel, who later traded up to the Eiffel Tower, once dated the Berlin Wall. Her reason for their break-up: The Wall just couldn’t divide her East and her West like it used to. At least that’s what I imagine the reason being. In truth, it was probably just an extension Erika Eiffel’s crazy college years, experimenting with the female Eiffel Tower after having been disappointed by the male Berlin Wall.

    Stayed tuned to this blog for the next installment in this series of posts that I wanted to call “Humping the Berlin Wall and Other Primitive Techniques for a Hairless Vagina,” but I’m a man, so I don’t know much about vaginas. Rather, I forgo an official name for the series and instead just tell you to get my book, As a Machine and Parts. There’s isn’t any Hitler humping in the book, but I agree, there should be.

    As a Machine and parts
    Click to buy this book.

    AmazonBuy

  • Book marketing in a market uninterested in books

    Marketing a book in an increasingly visually driven society is a tough role. Not to mention the ever decreasing number of people who actually read (books that is, not this stupid blog). According to statistics from sources that sound legit* 80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year [2002]. I’m hoping this figure can be taken literally to mean that these families did not physically purchase the book as a single group, with each member holding an edge of the book and simultaneously placing it on the bookstore counter. I would have never thought any family to do such a thing, so really the 20% of families who do is pretty eye opening. Unfortunately, the literal interpretation is a ridiculous dream. The truth is, most people simply do not read books.

    But don’t fret my fellow 20%-ers. Veronis, Suhler & Associates investment banker** says that each day in the U.S., people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines. Why is this good? Because more and more authors are turning to just such TVs (or computer monitors; they’re both square and full of pixels) in order to push their wares.

    Here are a couple of my favorites:

    Douglas Coupland’s 3 spot campaign for his novel, Gum Thief (a YouTube page)

    Dennis Cass’s spot for his memoir, Head Case:

    [media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxschLOAr-s”]

    Oddly enough however, I don’t own either of the two advertised novels. The ads worked well for me aesthetically, but considering my current stack of 53 too-read books I’m just not in the market for more quite yet. So consider this post simple word-of-screen advertising.

    * Jenkins Group, inc; they have the word “group” in their name. Nothing more is needed to connote reputability.
    ** Why is an investment banker devoting time to these sort of statistics? I don’t care; they are associates! See above asterisk for the power of organizational tags.
    Here’s the for real page from which these statistics were pulled

  • ABNA: Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semi-Finalist

    UPDATE AGAIN: The semi-finalist pages have been taken down. The final 10 will be announced on March 3rd.

    UPDATE: I received notice that my excerpt of Torch has survived another round of cuts, this time down to 100. The next round, down to 10, happens in early March.

    A few months ago I submitted a 5,000 word excerpt from my novel Torch, on a whim, to the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel contest. I’ve been exposed to contests like these before, both in the form of warnings and depressing tales of stomped egos; never in the form of optimistic encouragement. Bookseller-sponsored writing contests have a certain stigma, not unwarranted, I’m sure.

    But, here’s hoping those warnings are just the foul remnants of those taken by less legitimate contests. I received notice today that Torch has survived the initial dwindling of 5,000 to less than 900.

    I’m happy. Despite the humility and caution that I should display, I instead embrace a smile. Nothing wrong with that, right?

    ABIA Torch Please, please, please head over to the Torch Amazon.com page, read the 16 page excerpt, and write a review. There are prizes on the behalf of Amazon.com for well written reviews; proof that I’m not being entirely selfish.EDIT: Some great people are leaving great comments already (most of which came through bribery, but praise is praise). Click here to go directly to the reviews. Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semi-Finalist