David David Katzman's Would You Rather

Bored with the same old fashioned author interviews you see all around the blogosphere? Well, TNBBC's newest series is a fun, new, literary spin on the ole Would You Rather game. Get to know the authors we love to read in ways no other interviewer has. I've asked them to pick sides against the same 20 odd bookish scenarios. And just to spice it up a bit, each author gets to ask their own Would You Rather question to the author who appears after them....

David David Katzman's 

Would You Rather

Would you rather write an entire book with your feet or with your tongue?

Definitely tongue because these feet were made for walkin'.

Would you rather have one giant bestseller or a long string of moderate sellers?

I'd like to have one giant bestseller that would require each buyer to build an extra wing on their home just to house it.

Would you rather be a well known author now or be considered a literary genius after you’re dead?

How do you know I'm not dead already?

Would you rather write a book without using conjunctions or have every sentence of your book begin with one?

I'd rather write a song about conjunctions that queries what the function of conjunctions is, and then before you can even answer that explains that it is for hooking up words and phrases and clauses.

Would you rather have every word of your favorite novel tattooed on your skin or always playing as an audio in the background for the rest of your life?

I'm a skinless deaf person so I find this question rude.

Would you rather write a book you truly believe in and have no one read it or write a crappy book that compromises everything you believe in and have it become an overnight success?

No one reads any more so the first option makes much more sense.

Would you rather write a plot twist you hated or write a character you hated?

I hate plot twists and characters so my answers is that I would enjoy both equally.

Would you rather use your skin as paper or your blood as ink?

Please see my response three questions previous. But to answer the spirit of your question, I have found that using people's skin as paper is very difficult as it requires significant drying and stretching otherwise it is too wrinkly. However, if you have a significant enough quantity of blood (such as, say, a whole body's worth), then an old fashioned feather pen can work wonders with it.

Would you rather become a character in your novel or have your characters escape the page and reenact the novel in real life?

My characters do frequently escape the page and reenact my novels in real life. Why can't anyone else see them like I do?

Would you rather write without using punctuation and capitalization or without using words that contained the letter E?

George Perec already wrote a book that doesn't contain the letter "e," and I do not like plagiarism. However, in this case, it would be much easier, so I'll go with that.

Would you rather have schools teach your book or ban your book?

Both simultaneously. I just need to get them to teach them because they have already banned them.

Would you rather be forced to listen to Ayn Rand bloviate for an hour or be hit on by an angry Dylan Thomas?

I would rather an angry Dylan Thomas hit Ayn Rand.

Would you rather be reduced to speaking only in haiku or be capable of only writing in haiku?

Speaking in Haiku

Gives voice to profound wisdom

Writing is stupid.

Would you rather be stuck on an island with only the 50 Shades Series or a series in language you can't read?

Depends on which burns better.

Would you rather critics rip your book apart publicly or never talk about it at all?

This one hits a little too close to home.

Would you rather have everything you think automatically appear on your Twitter feed or have a voice in your head narrate your every move?

The latter, obviously.

Would you rather give up your computer or pens and paper?

It won't be too long before we won't have computers anymore anyway.

Would you rather write an entire novel standing on your tippy-toes or laying down flat on your back?

I'm rather short so they are about the same.

Would you rather read naked in front of a packed room or have no one show up to your reading?

Oh, definitely naked. I have done several readings at nudist colonies, and I find the audience to be very receptive. And very naked.

Would you rather read a book that is written poorly but has an excellent story, or read one with weak content but is written well?

I'd rather read a poorly written book with weak content so that I can write an appropriately scathing review.

And here's David's response to Courtney Elizabeth Mauk's question from last week:

Would you rather never write another word or never read another word? 

I'll have to go with never write another word because if I could never read another word then I couldn't read what I had written anyway, which would mean I was writing without even knowing what I was writing. Wait, now that you mention it... 

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Check back next week to see what Mason Johnson would rather

and see his answer to David's question:

If you were a body builder, would you rather do curls with Infinite Jest or In Search of Lost Time.

  

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David David Katzman has published two novels, Death by Zamboni, an absurdist satire, and A Greater Monster, a multimedia psychedelic fairytale, which won a gold medal as “Outstanding Book of the Year” in the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards and was a Finalist in the Fantasy genre of the 2012 Indie Excellence Awards. In 2013, the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography published an illustrated collection of his letters entitled The Kickstarter Letters. He was published in Bridge Literary Magazine and Tailspins magazine. Katzman has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from The Ohio State University. He has performed as an actor and improviser throughout Chicago and has been interviewed by numerous bloggers.

Indie Book Buzz: Red Hen Press

We are knee deep in Indie Book Buzz here at TNBBC. Over the next few weeks, we will be inviting members of the small press publishing houses to share which of their upcoming releases they are most excited about!

This week's pick comes from Gabriela Morales, 

Publicity Assistant for Red Hen Press.

Title: Song for Chance

Author: John Van Kirk

Release date: August 1, 2013

Publisher: Red Hen Press

What it's about:
Keyboard man Jack Voss spends his evenings in the relative sanctuary of the clubs, playing jazz standards on the piano and occasionally singing some of the songs that made him famous. His 1974 rock opera, The Enchanted Pond, catapulted his band, Vossimilitude, into the stratosphere of rock superstardom. Later, solo albums earned him a reputation as a musician’s musician. Reverence for his genius led his shortcomings—as a husband, father, and friend—to be forgiven, or at least overlooked. But when his life of comparative comfort and solitude is rocked by a devastating personal loss, Voss is led back to The Enchanted Pond. The story of an ill-fated love triangle based on the tense relations between Voss, his childhood girlfriend Avery, and Vossimilitude’s dangerous and charismatic bassist, Hal Proteus, Voss’s masterpiece set him on a path to this day of reckoning. To endure, he must confront the tragic consequences of his self-absorption on the only firm ground left him: the piano.

Why you should [definitely] read it:

When I read it, I forgot for a while that Vossimilitude isn’t a real band. I found myself lamenting that I’d missed them open for the Moody Blues decades ago, that I'd never heard Jack Voss on the radio, that I have no vinyl of their 1975 release, Locked in the Garden. John Van Kirk has done a remarkable job bringing to life this fallen rock god. The bonus materials­—the complete Voss discography, liner notes, bonus tracks, the interview with Terry Gross, the appearances by Nick Cave and other familiar rock musicians—­help with that illusion, but it’s Van Kirk’s easy command that animates Voss, his era, and, most importantly, the reader. The music of Song for Chance will echo in your head long after you’ve put it down.

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Gabriela Morales became Red Hen's Publicity Associate in 2013 after assisting with the Press's 2012 annual fundraising gala. She studied Geography: Environmental Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and has traded Southern California's geographic landscape for its literary scene. You can reach her at gabriela@redhen.org. 

CCLaP: Long Live Us

It's Monday and you know what that means...

Another CCLaP book is born!

Today, Mark R Brand's speculative short story collection Long Live Us made its way out into the world. Be kind to it, world. Its very curious about you. Mark's stories reshape events and give them a strange and eerie bent. They grab you and shake you and some stick with you long after you've read them. 

A family tensely waits out a meningitis scare in a quarantined home during the Great Recession. Small-town farmers in pre-war America battle a tree the size of a skyscraper. In a day-after-tomorrow dystopia, the new naughty contraband among rebellious teenagers is starchy carbohydrates. And in a barely recognizable far future, enlightened humanoids debate the implications of a mother who has smothered her child. These are just some of the speculative visions collected in the new "Long Live Us" by Chicago writer Mark R. Brand, author of the previous CCLaP hit "Life After Sleep." Known primarily as a science-fiction author, this new collection will certainly not disappoint Brand's existing fans, with pieces set among lunar colonists and blue-collar astronauts among other fanciful situations; but this is also Brand expanding his scope and vision for the first time, treating us with more down-to-earth stories set among contemporary families and even offering up a Great Depression tall tale. 

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Reviews are coming in and everyone's got something sweet to say:

Angel from goodreads wasn't much of  short story fan until Long Live Us. He gave it 5 Stars!

Ninian "really enjoyed this quirky collection". 

Rebecca from Love at First Book wants to know which story is your favorite.

Dr. Lamb called it "an interesting, entertaining, and thought provoking read".

and Odd Engine compares Mark's writing to that of Roald Dahl, Joe Hill, and Chuck Palahniuk!

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I really fell hard for the stories in this collection. Mark has such an interesting way of looking at the world, and he's not afraid to twist it up for you. An alternative future where fatty foods are like drugs and only skinny kids get ahead, a family in lockdown sweat out a quarantine, and a young boy is picked on for believing his father is on a special mission on the moon...

You can now purchase a lovely, hand-made hard cover edition of Long Live Us on CCLaP's website. 

(or download a free pdf there, too)

Whether you fancy yourself a fan of short stories or not, this collection will make you one for sure!

The Audio Series: David Harris-Gershon

Our audio series "The Authors Read. We Listen." is an incredibly special one for us. Hatched in a NYC club during BEA week, this feature requires more work of the author than any of the ones that have come before. And that makes it all the more sweeter when you see, or rather, hear them read excerpts from their own novels, in their own voices, the way their stories were meant to be heard.


Today, David Harris-Gershon reads from  his recently released What Do You Buy for the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife. David is a blogger for Tikkun magazine, a freelance writer on Israeli and American politics, and a Jewish day school teacher in Pittsburgh. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and has published literary essays and poetry in numerous venues, including Colorado Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Passages North.

Click the soundcloud file below to experience What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife as read by the author:

The word on What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife:

David Harris-Gershon and his wife, Jamie, moved to Jerusalem full of hope. Then, in the midst of a historic cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, a bomb shrieked through Hebrew University’s cafeteria. Jamie was hurled across the room, her body burned and sliced with shrapnel; the friends sitting next to her were instantly killed. David was desperate for answers—why now? why here? why my wife? But when a doctor handed him some shrapnel removed from Jamie’s body, he refused to accept that this bit of metal made him "one of us”—another traumatized victim who would never be able to move on. Instead, he dug into Israeli government records to uncover what triggered the attack, then returned to East Jerusalem to meet the terrorist and his family.

Part memoir, part political thriller, part exposé of the conduct of the peace process, this fearless debut confronts the personal costs of the Middle East conflict—and reveals the human capacity for recovery and reconciliation, no matter the circumstance.
*lifted with love from goodreads

Bookstore Spotlight: Quimby's

As Marketing Director for CCLaP, I search the internet high and low for independent bookstores that our books would be a perfect match for. In the overwhelming sea of "noes", a handful of lovely shops agreed to stock our titles on consignment. This mini-series was designed to introduce you to the amazing bookstores that are carrying our books, and also, more-so, as a way to thank these wonderful book sellers for opening their doors to us and welcoming our babies onto their shelves. Go. Meet. Support. Shop!

Our inaugural bookstore: Quimby's, who not only carries our titles but also plays host to many of our CCLaP author readings! Here's Liz from Quimby's to tell you all about the store:

Quimby's is an independently owned bookstore that sells independently-published and small press books, comics, zines and ephemera. We favor the unusual, the aberrant, the saucy and the lowbrow.  It was founded on September 15th, 1991, Steven Svymbersky, the founder of Quimby's, opened the store in Chicago on 1328 N. Damen (at Evergreen) in Wicker Park, in a 1000 sq. ft. space. Since 1985 he had published over 50 zines with his friends, and had published Quimby Magazine for five years in Boston. 

Steven explained the philosophy of the store with these words: "I really want to carry every cool - bizarre - strange - dope - queer - surreal - weird publication ever written and published and in time Quimby's will. Because I know you're out there and you just want something else, something other, something you never even knew could exist." (And yes, that was a V.) In 1997 Steven sold the store to Eric Kirsammer, the owner of Chicago Comics. Steven moved to Amsterdam with his family shortly thereafter. Eric purchased the store from Steven in order to continue Steven's commitment to the First Amendment. After a few years, the rent became too expensive to keep Quimby's at the same spot in which Steven had opened it. Eric moved it to it's current locale, 1854 W. North Avenue, to provide it with a more permanent locale. He also still owns Chicago Comics. Quimby's and Chicago Comics have a reciprocal "sister store" relationship, where we transfer materials between each other and often collaborate on ordering, outreach and off-site events.

We sell more weirdo stuff to read than I could possibly ever get to reading, and that is continually mind blowing.

A majority of the things we sell are independently published and sold on consignment. Since we operate on a different business model then regular stores we are able to take chances on selling some of the fun stuff we do: scrappy punk rock zines, stapled mini-comics, artist booklets with sewn covers, and much more. Consignment means that we pay the publishers a cut of their retail price after their items sell instead of beforehand, so we don't have to do the hard sell because we never lose any money on the items. Our consignment agreement is on our website here.

Info about our events are here:

http://www.quimbys.com/blog/store-events/

I'm particularly looking forward to this event with comics artist Peter Bagge in October: http://www.quimbys.com/blog/comics/peter-bagge-2013/

More info at our FAQs here.

Book Review: Happyland

Read 8/23/13 - 9/1/13
4 stars - Highly recommended to fans of simple, straight forward stories without any of the funny stuff
Kindle ebook
Publisher: Open Road Media
Releases: October 2013

With J Robert Lennon's writing, past experience tells you to prepare for the unexpected. Having read both Castle and Familiar, I've become accustomed to his unusual twists and turns, and read HAPPYLAND fully anticipating more of the same. 

Will the dolls turn out to be demonic? Will Happy Masters end up slipping into doll-obsessed madness? Will the townsfolk all be turned into dolls?

Amazingly, and a little upsettingly, nothing of the sort happens. HAPPYLAND simply tells the story of a rich, egotistical toy mogul who has designs on the quiet little town of Equinox. Moving in and buying out everything and everyone she can, Happy quickly pisses off the townspeople as she razes their regular stomping grounds and begins to build her Happyland empire. 

Lennon's narrative attacks the story line from third person which allows us to see this hostile takeover from multiple perspectives - those who are infatuated with Happy and her toy company (Happy Girl Inc), those who prefer the town to be left alone, and even from Happy's deluded point of view.

As I made my way through the book, I started to see it as a cautionary tale about the dangerous and powerful combination of money, ego, and imagination. It's that I'll-run-you-over-so-you-better-get-out-the-way complex, that I'll-use-you-and-abuse-you-and-watch-you-crumble-and-fall mentality, that inexhaustible desire to use people as ... wait for it... puppets to get what you need, that fuels the fantastical within this novel. 

It also demonstrates the sad-but-true cut throat world we live in where the sneaky and the dishonest always seem to thrive while the honest and amiable fight to survive. Even at her worst, Happy made out a million times better than any of the townspeople ever did. Even when the all evil, manipulable things she did caught up with her, even then, she walked away unscathed - a little more worn, a little more wise, but completely and absolutely unscathed. 

Money, the things that drives us all mad. Mad with the desire to have it. Mad with depression and desperation when we can't get it or had it and lost it. Mad with power when we finally get it. 

And while I found this a perfectly enjoyable read, I wouldn't have blinked twice at a little demonic doll action...

Joshua Mohr Takes it to the Toilet

Oh yes! We are absolutely running a series on bathroom reading! So long as it's taking place behind the closed  (or open, if that's the way you swing) bathroom door, we want to know what it is. It can be a book, the back of the shampoo bottle, the newspaper, or Twitter on your cell phone - whatever helps you pass the time...

Today, author Joshua Mohr takes it to the toilet. Joshua is the author of some of my favorite fiction and he's no certainly no stranger to TNBBC. Go on and read his stuff if you haven't already: Some Things That Meant the World to Me, Termite Parade, Damascus, and Fight Song. And now, let's see what he's reading:

I don’t normally read in the bathroom.  I save my dawdling time to wander around the Mission District talking to myself.  Novelists do that, meander and chat with invisible friends or pets or intergalactic sycophants.  Some people call that schizophrenia, but me, that’s just what I do.

I made an exception to my typical bathroom-efficiency for Sean Doyle’s “The Day Walt Disney Died,” a funny little ‘zine about adolescence and accidentally smoking angel dust.  Sean has that inimitable tangle of voice and subject matter.  He’s lived hard and he’s not afraid to share these stories with the rest of us, and we’re all the better for them.

I’m waiting for someone to collect Sean’s essays and publish the whole glorious and madcap and smart and shameless shebang for us to devour in one collection.  It’s overdue.  In fact, if you don’t believe me, pick up “The Day Walt Disney Died” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.  Then stalk your favorite publisher and say, “Isn’t it high time the word got out about this cat Sean Doyle?”

So next time you’re looking for ways to kill some me-time on the throne, I highly recommend cracking this acerbic ditty.  Doyle has brazenness on the page, but more importantly, he’s got heart.  Put those two together and you can do anything you want.  

Courtney Elizabeth Mauk's Would You Rather

Bored with the same old fashioned author interviews you see all around the blogosphere? Well, TNBBC's newest series is a fun, new, literary spin on the ole Would You Rather game. Get to know the authors we love to read in ways no other interviewer has. I've asked them to pick sides against the same 20 odd bookish scenarios. And just to spice it up a bit, each author gets to ask their own Would You Rather question to the author who appears after them....

Courtney Elizabeth Mauk's 

Would You Rather

Would you rather write an entire book with your feet or with your tongue?

I’d write with my feet. Writing with your tongue sounds painful and unbearably slow. Unless you interpret “writing with your tongue” as dictating or using voice transcription software. Then I would do that.

Would you rather have one giant bestseller or a long string of moderate sellers?

A long string of moderate sellers. Ideally I’d like longevity and a steady or growing readership. What comes after the one giant bestseller? Vain attempts to publish another? Retirement? I’d prefer to be in it for the long haul.

Would you rather be a well known author now or be considered a literary genius after you’re dead?

A well known author now. Once you’re dead, you’re dead. You don’t get to share in the experience.

Would you rather write a book without using conjunctions or have every sentence of your book begin with one?

I’d be okay with not using conjunctions. The prose would be a little stilted but still readable and after a while you wouldn’t notice. Making every sentence begin with a conjunction would be annoying, for both the reader and me.

Would you rather have every word of your favorite novel tattooed on your skin or always playing as an audio in the background for the rest of your life?

I’d get the tattoo. That actually sounds pretty cool. I like the idea of having the words physically imprinted on me. I would prefer that over the audio, which would be distracting and become irritating after a while, lessening my love for the novel.

Would you rather write a book you truly believe in and have no one read it or write a crappy book that comprises everything you believe in and have it become an overnight success?

Write a book I truly believe in and have no one read it. Of course every writer wants readership, but the writing begins in my relationship with the story. I need to fall in love with my work. If I don’t have that, there really isn’t a point to doing it. If I compromised myself, I would feel incredible shame, even if I had “success.”

Would you rather write a plot twist you hated or write a character you hated?

Definitely a plot twist. My characters drive my writing, and I become deeply committed to them. Even when I don’t like what they’re doing, I still have a deep affection for who they are. It would be hard to live with a character I outright hated.

Would you rather use your skin as paper or your blood as ink?

I’ll say my blood as ink. There’s a gothic romance to it that appeals to me. I see candlelight, a blood filled inkwell, a quill pen.

Would you rather become a character in your novel or have your characters escape the page and reenact the novel in real life?

I’d have my characters escape the page and reenact the novel in real life. Even if I never met or saw them, it would be deeply satisfying to know they were out there, doing their thing. I like my own life too much to want to give it up to go live in my novel.

Would you rather write without using punctuation and capitalization or without using words that contained the letter E?

Giving up punctuation and capitalization would be less limiting, but I like the challenge of giving up E. For a short story, I’ll write without E. For a novel, I’ll forgo punctuation and capitalization.

Would you rather have schools teach your book or ban your book?

I’d rather schools teach my book. A banned book may push more boundaries, but a book read in school has more direct opportunity to make an impact.

Would you rather be forced to listen to Ayn Rand bloviate for an hour or be hit on by an angry Dylan Thomas?

Angry Dylan Thomas, I could endure. Ayn Rand would be pure torture.

Would you rather be reduced to speaking only in haiku or be capable of only writing in haiku?

If I have to be limited by form, I’d rather be limited in speech. Speaking in haiku sounds fun, a new artistic avenue. I’ve always been a shy speaker, so maybe the parameters of haiku would create a sort of freedom, a speaking identity.

Would you rather be stuck on an island with only the 50 Shades Series or a series in a language you couldn’t read?

50 Shades. At least it would provide some amusement.  

Would you rather critics rip your book apart publicly or never talk about it at all?

I’d rather be read and ripped than never read and never discussed. Criticism means your writing has had an effect. Whether good or bad, your words did something.

Would you rather have everything you think automatically appear on your Twitter feed or have a voice in your head narrate your every move?

Twitter. At times the tweets might be embarrassing, but people’s feeds get so crowded that much of that would be lost in the shuffle. I like to be alone with my thoughts, so having a voice narrate my every move would be oppressive.

Would you rather give up your computer or pens and paper?

Pens and paper. I do most of my writing on the computer.

Would you rather write an entire novel standing on your tippy-toes or laying down flat on your back?

Lying down. Standing on my tippy-toes for an entire novel would get painful and distract from the work.

Would you rather read naked in front of a packed room or have no one show up to your reading?

I’d prefer to read naked. I could turn it into performance art, and being seen naked isn’t a terrible thing. I mean, we’re all naked under our clothes, right? But facing an empty room—that’s depressing.

Would you rather read a book that is written poorly but has an excellent story, or read one with weak content but is written well? 

I go back and forth on this one, but I’ll say I’d rather read a book that’s poorly written but has an excellent story. Pretty sentences or interesting structure will only sustain you for so long, but a compelling story will keep the pages turning, even if the prose is unlovely.

And here's Courtney's answer to Corey Mesler's question from last week:

Would you rather lick clean a stranger’s car ashtray, or write a synopsis (or an essay about who the prospective audience is) of your novel for the publisher?

I'll go with writing a synopsis or essay about the prospective audience. As time-consuming and soul-sucking as those can be, they won't give you weird diseases. 

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 Check back next week to see what David David Katzman would rather

and see his answer to Courtney's question:

Would you rather never write another word or never read another word? 

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Courtney Elizabeth Mauk is the author of the novel Spark (Engine Books, 2012). Her work has appeared in The Literary Review, PANK, Wigleaf, and FiveChapters, among others. She is an assistant editor at Barrelhouse and teaches at Juilliard and The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Manhattan with her husband.

Where Writers Write: James King

Welcome to another installment of TNBBC's Where Writers Write!

Where Writers Write is a weekly series that will feature a different author every Wednesday as they showcase their writing spaces using short form essay, photos, and/or video. As a lover of books and all of the hard work that goes into creating them, I thought it would be fun to see where the authors roll up their sleeves and make the magic happen. 

This is James King.

James is the author of Bill Warrington’s Last Chance (Viking/Penguin), which won the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. He lives in Wilton, Connecticut, and is working on his next novel. http://www.jamesking-writer.com

Where James King Writes

I’m fortunate to write in the workspace of my dreams.

It took a while to get here, though. My first “official” writing desk was a door set atop two orange crates in a studio apartment in South Bend, Indiana. My second was a fourth-hand, wobbly dinette table set in a bay window overlooking California Street in San Francisco. Next was an equally wobbly table in a basement apartment in Stamford, Connecticut.

My current workspace is the former master bedroom (barely large enough for a queen-sized bed) of the modest (read “tiny”) ranch/cottage my wife and I moved into a month after we were married. When our second child was on the way, we expanded the house. The former master bedroom became the office where, after the coffee has brewed and I’ve completed my grueling commute from the kitchen, I start work each day between 5:30 and 6:00. That’s a.m.  Here ‘tis:

Name a writing technique. I’ve tried it. Here I experiment with a storyboard.

Here’s the view from one of the two office windows, taken earlier this summer. I spend entirely too much time staring out this window. And yes, I spread the mulch. Bambi still visits often.

My satellite work area, weather permitting: the back porch. This picture was taken last year, when my writing companion was still with us. When I’m out there and I look up from the computer, I still expect to see her there, protecting me from all the ferocious squirrels and chipmunks.

Indie Book Buzz: Central Avenue Publishing

We are knee deep in Indie Book Buzz here at TNBBC. Over the next few weeks, we will be inviting members of the small press publishing houses to share which of their upcoming releases they are most excited about!

This week's picks come from Michelle Halket,

 Creative Director at Central Avenue Publishing

I Wrote This For You: Just The Words by Iain S. Thomas and Jon Ellis 

Released September 1, 2013

Why I Love It: I first fell in love with the words of Iain Thomas long before I started in the publishing world. As a secret follower of his blog and a terribly romantic person, I felt the power of his words so deeply that I truly felt that someone had written them just for me. When we 'met' a few years later and we discussed the publication of the book based on his poetry, I jumped at the chance. I was shocked to find out that other publishing houses 'didn't know what to do with it.' Fast forward a few more years and I Wrote This For You continues to be an international success - touching fans all over the world. The combination of the haunting photography of Jon Ellis and Iain's words have created an experience that must be read. 

About The Book: This second book is a full compilation of almost all of Iain's poetry with select new photos. While the first book captures the blog's original experience, this book has several hundred poems all grouped into stages of life, love and death. 

Follow Iain at I Wrote This For You and @iwrotethisforu and http://iainsthomas.com

 

Persephone's Orchard by Molly Ringle

Released June 28, 2013

Why I Love It: Molly Ringle has got to be one of my favourite New Adult writers. She has a way of writing that is humorous, yet captivating. But my favourite aspects of her books are the characters she creates. For the most part, they are flawed, so realistically though that you would think you know them in real life. In Persephone's Orchard, she has retold the myth of Persephone and Hades - and created a story where they truly love each other - and not the one portrayed by Bernini in conjunction with the old stories. From the moment I started reading it, I was enthralled. The back and forth between present day and the retelling of the ancient myth was amazingly well done. The characters are believable and real. What I love is that her heroine is not a whiny, helpless girl, but a strong young woman who questions and reacts on her own accord. She's no Xena - she's real and that's one of the reasons that reviewers have reacted so strongly to story. It's the first book in the Chrysomelia Stories and the second book is due out in early 2014.

About the Book: The Greek gods never actually existed. Did they? Sophie Darrow finds she was wrong about that assumption when she's pulled into the spirit realm, complete with an Underworld, on her very first day at college. Adrian, the mysterious young man who brought her there, simply wants her to taste a pomegranate. Soon, though she returns to her regular life, her mind begins exploding with dreams and memories of ancient times--of a love between two Greeks named Persephone and Hades. But lethal danger has always surrounded the immortals, and now that she's tainted with the Underworld's magic, that danger is drawing closer to Sophie.

Check out the trailer, amazing goodreads reviews and Molly at @mollyringle

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Michelle is a lip balm-addicted, coffee-drinking biblio-technophile and the creator of Central Avenue Publishing, an almost five year old business which has grown and morphed with the quickly changing publishing industry. She seems to have social media accounts everywhere on the interwebz but spends most of her time at @CentAvePub

The Audio Series: Claudia Zuluaga

Our audio series "The Authors Read. We Listen." is an incredibly special one for us. Hatched in a NYC club during BEA week, this feature requires more work of the author than any of the ones that have come before. And that makes it all the more sweeter when you see, or rather, hear them read excerpts from their own novels, in their own voices, the way their stories were meant to be heard.


Today, Claudia Zuluaga reads to us from her novel Fort Starlight which drops on September 10th, with Engine Books. Claudia was born in White Plains, NY, grew up both there and Port St. Lucie, Florida, and now lives in New Jersey.  Her fiction has appeared in Narrative Magazine, JMWW, and Lost Magazine, and was included in Dzanc Books' Best of the Web series. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories. Claudia is a full time Lecturer in the English department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

Click the soundcloud file below to experience Fort Starlight as read by author Claudia Zuluaga:

The word on Fort Starlight:

Broke and stranded in a half-finished tract house in a swamp, Ida Overdorff discovers the strange community around her—a millionaire living in a tree house, two feral child thieves. Ida clings to her dream of returning to New York while weathering storms both meteorological and emotional, and comes to understand that nobody's luck—even hers—is all bad.
*lifted with love from goodreads

Book Giveaway: The Waiting Tide

Since July 2010, TNBBC has been bringing authors and readers together every month to get behind the book! This unique experience wouldn't be possible without the generous donations of the authors and publishers involved.

I'm excited to to bring you next month's 

Author/Reader Discussion book!

We will be reading and discussing The Waiting Tide

with author/poet Ryan W Bradley

In order to stimulate discussion, Ryan and his publisher,

Curbside Splendor  are giving away 8 paper copies to US residents only
and PDF's are available internationally! 

Here's the goodreads description to whet your appetite:

Coming fall of 2013, a book written as a tribute to Pablo Neruda's The Captain's Verses: The Waiting Tide by Ryan W. Bradley. Presented in both English and Spanish. Ryan is an American poet and artist hailing from the great state of Oregon.
"The Waiting Tide is a love letter paying homage to Neruda, to the flow of tides and language. Ryan W. Bradley’s sensual language washes over you in waves."

And here's my two cents:

Ryan W Bradley is second only to Rod McKuen when it comes to tickling my heart and lady-parts with his words. That's right, I said it. His poetry touches me in all the most inappropriate ways and I simply cannot get enough. This particular collection, an ode to Pablo Neruda's The Captain's Verses, contains some of the most passionate and love-drenched poetry I've read in a long, long time. Ryan, much like McKuen, has this incredible knack of taking a single, intimate moment and by turning it over and over again in his hands, stretches it into a lifetime into which he is born, lives and dies, and becomes born into again.

This giveaway will run through September 8th. 

Winners will be announced here and via email on September 9th.

Here's how to enter:

1 - Leave a comment stating why you'd like to receive a copy of the book. You MUST be a resident of the US to win a paper copy, so please state your preference and where you reside.

2 - State that you agree to participate in the group read book discussion that will run from October 15th through the end of the month. Ryan W Bradley has agreed to participate in the discussion and will be available to answer any questions you may have for him. 

 *If you are chosen as a winner, by accepting the copy you are agreeing to read the book and join the group discussion at TNBBC on Goodreads (the thread for the discussion will be emailed to you before the discussion begins). 

 3 - Your comment must have a way to contact you (email is preferred). 

GOOD LUCK!