Indie Book Buzz: Atticus Books

It's the return of the Indie Book Buzz here at TNBBC. Over the next few weeks, we will be inviting members of the indie publishing houses to share which of their upcoming 2012 releases they are most excited about!

This week's picks come from Libby O'Neill, 

Assistant Editor of Atticus Books

Three Ways of the Saw by Matt Mullins 

(February 29, 2012)

Three Ways of the Saw is a gritty, blue-collar collection of stories that puts your face right up to the window of real life, with all its bitter humor and complexities, and doesn’t let you look away.  I usually lean towards a novel over a short story collection, but this is one unlike any other I’ve seen. The first section follows a self-destructive outcast and only son of a blue-collar Irish Catholic family, the second zeroes in on some dubious characters dwelling on the fringe of society, and the third plunges the depths of longing and loss. I can’t put it any better than Cathy Day (The Circus in Winter) when she said, “Three Ways of the Saw is a collection that delivers. One to the Gut. One to the Head. One to the Heart. This book knocked me out.”

Kino by Jurgen Fauth 

(April 17, 2012)

Mina Koblitz has never thought twice about her immigrant German grandfather or his brief career as a film director, which her family has shrouded in mystery. But when the reels of his first-ever silent film appear on her doorstep, she has to know more.  Leaving her feverish new husband in a hospital bed, Mina flies to Germany to discover the legacy of her grandfather’s filmmaking under the Nazi party and ends up on a mission to redeem his name and life’s work. At its heart, this book asks us what true art is, what it’s capable of and what is worth sacrificing for its sake. If you have an interest in history (especially the Weimar Republic), film, propaganda, or have ever wondered at how little you know those people you call your family, I can’t recommend this book strongly enough.

About:

Libby O’Neill is Assistant Editor at Atticus Books and the Managing Editor of their weekly online journal, Atticus Review.  Favorite authors range from Charles Dickens to Brady Udall and she can’t resist a good dose of sarcasm.  She’ll take strong coffee and big dogs over tea and cats any day of the week.

How do I love Atticus Books? Let me count the ways... Nah, I suppose I don't really need to when you look at the books they are putting out in 2012.. huh? Go on. You know you want 'em too!

So what do you think guys? See anything that catches your eye? Which of these books are you most excited to see release? Help TNBBC and Atticus Books spread the buzz about these books by sharing this post with others!

Review: How to Build the Ghost in Your Attic

Read 12/27/11 - 12/18/11
3.5 Stars - Strongly Recommended to fans of Indie literature & poetry
Pgs: 77
Publisher: Rose Metal Press

Oh my aching head. Who would have thought that a short novella-in-verse would have given my brain such a workout?! If you're anything like me, you'll want to open this book armed with an online dictionary and wikipedia at the ready.

I stumbled across Rose Metal Press awhile back, during an aimless perusal of some indie websites, and was impressed with their distinctive titles and cover art. Sniffing around their catalogue, I really liked the look and sound of Shippy's How to Build the Ghost in Your Attic, and was pleased when RMP agreed to ship it over for review.

The poem tells the story of Isaac Makepeace Watts, a loner who rents out the attic space above his landlady's house. We meet Isaac the moment a roof-grazing cow named Yazoo comes crashing through his ceiling, disrupting a ... ahem ... private moment he was sharing with one of his comic books. From there, the novella takes us through a maze of trippy flashbacks into Isaac's childhood and seemingly unrelated current events that eventually lead him to the hospital where his ailing father is being held.

Doesn't sound too bad, right? That's because it's not. It's actually quite good. It's got this futuristic sci-fi feel to it while, at the same time, appearing to take place in a modernized version of Thebes - the ancient greek city. It contains one of the most fantastical casts of minor characters I have ever read: talking gorillas that have the memories of Alzheimer's patients implanted in their brains, a landlord who buries singing christmas cards in the ground to confuse the moles, a mystical bar singer that Isaac confuses for a sphinx, and Oedipus, of all people, who seems to be on trial in the background throughout most of the book.

For me, reading this full length poem was like looking into a fractured mirror. And I think that's a pretty apt  description of Shippy's version of reality here too - fractured. Time seems to pass in its own way, edging Isaac along from moment to moment, buffeting him across the lines of past and present... which lends Isaac this sort of otherworldly feel. Perhaps this instigated the title of the book? Isaac, the ghost-man who lives in the attic, building a reality for himself out of his broken past and crooked, unclear present? Banging around upstairs, untethered to reality, until he's forced out into the world by a hungry cow...

While I immensely enjoyed the cheeky humor and somewhat stuffy (yes, I needed a dictionary) poetic language of this novella-in-verse, I am well aware that this book will not be for everyone. I suggest you test out some of Shippy's poetry, available online on his website, before jumping in feet first with this one. Though, once you do, I would love to hear your thoughts on it...

Review: Panic Attack, USA

Read 12/26/11 - 12/27/11
5 Stars - Highly Recommended / The Next Best Book
Pgs: 100
Publisher: Yes Yes Books

This is everything that poetry should be and never was until now. Honest and naked. Sensitive to the point of sappy but with a surprisingly hard core edge. Nate Slawson's words punch you in the gut with their beauty. They make you wish your boyfriend/husband/partner pined for you in such painfully raw and inspiring ways.

Wouldn't it be heaven if people actually spoke to one another like this -

"... is it wrong if I write your name on the soles of my tennis shoes.."
"I think we are becoming some kind of galaxy"
"... every morning I rasp for you..."
"Be invisible ink on the inside of my eyelids"
"I want a nuclear tongue so I can lick dirty words into the bottom of your feet"

This book touched me in places I shouldn't have enjoyed but did. I love its naughty, raunchy little heart. If Panic Attack, USA were a person, I would kidnap it and hold it hostage in my closet and make it whisper its dirty little poems to me every night.

Are you curious? Don't be all sly and shy, you know you are. Do you wanna hear what's got TNBBC all hot and bothered? Here's a little taste... Nate reading some selected poems from this collection:



It's slam. It's ragged. It's dirty and delicious. And you need to get yourself a copy of it now!

Review: Baby Geisha

Read 12/10/11 - 12/26/11
3 Stars - Recommended to established fans of Indie Short Stories / Not as an intro book to Two Dollar Radio
Pgs: 144
Publisher: Two Dollar Radio
Release Date: Jan 2012

As a fan of independent literature, I find myself interestingly torn when it comes to the indie short story collection. Not one to sway undecided on the boundary of love or hate, I tend to have extremely strong feelings one way or the other once I finish reading them.

Baby Geisha, of course, refused to be a love it or hate it collection. It merrily bounced me back and forth over the fence, enticing me one moment - "oh, I love this!" - and turning me off the next - "wtf was that?!". I had the impression that Trinie Dalton's story collection actually enjoyed twisting my emotions like that. What a tease!

When I think about the book as a whole, certain moments within the collection pop into my head. The turtle kicking incident that takes place in the opening story Wet Look. Or the trip a woman and her terminally ill dog take up to Rip Van Winkle's residence in Escape Mushroom Style. Or the algae infested waters of a river where the self titled Perverted Hobo decorates the trees and bushes with women's panties. But these moments are disembodied... seemingly unattached to the stories they belong to. They float somewhere above the collection, tethered to it loosely, as if those moments are trying to outrun the stories they live in... to leave the rest of their words behind. Or perhaps, those moments I recall most clearly are simply too big to remain within the stories in which they were born?

Many of the stories have this elusive, slippery quality to them. They seem to dance just out of reach. Their meanings sit right on the periphery of your vision, you can sense it... you catch sidelong glances of it... but if you attempt to look at it head-on, it escapes you. Like the bodies of water that find themselves in the background of many of Trinie's stories, there is a sort of ebb and flow that lives within her words.

While Baby Geisha may have failed to make me love it completely, there were moments of sheer beauty within its stories that will stick with me for a long time to come.

Indie Book Buzz: Mud Luscious Press

It's the return of the Indie Book Buzz here at TNBBC. Over the next few weeks, we will be inviting members of the indie publishing houses to share which of their upcoming 2012 releases they are most excited about!

This week's picks come from J.A. Tyler,

the founding editor of Mud Luscious Press.

Save 35% off the cover price by subscribing to the entire set of 2012 MLP titles in December! $40 nets you Gregory Sherl’s The Oregon Trail is the Oregon Trail, Matt Bell’s Cataclysm Baby, Ken Sparling’s Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall, and Robert Kloss’s The Alligators of Abraham, all delivered as soon as they are released across 2012 and with free shipping! Subscribe here: http://mudlusciouspress.com/books/subscribe/

The Oregon Trail is the Oregon Trail by Gregory Sherl

(January 2012)

The Oregon Trail is the Oregon Trail is the second full-length book from Gregory Sherl but the first to be thematically tied together as a complete narrative. The Oregon Trail is the Oregon Trailtakes its roots in the language of the Oregon Trail computer game, popularized during the rise of computers and still throbbing online at facebook today, creating this mélange of poetry devout to fever and spoke-breakage, child #1 and #2, bullets and bison and fording rivers. Sherl is this new kind of poet who opens his heart on each page, and we are convinced that The Oregon Trail is the Oregon Trailwill bleed as such for the duration of 2012.

Cataclysm Baby by Matt Bell

(April 2012)

Matt Bell is a meticulous writer and a charmingly careful promoter, which is the reason for the wide(ish) break between the release of his highly acclaimed story collection How They Were Found and his first novel(la) Cataclysm Baby. But the wait is so worth it, because now we are salivating for what Bell will bring, and what he brings in Cataclysm Baby is an apocalypse of failed parenting, failed children, failed births: the ripeness of violence gorgeously juxtaposed with the fragile and tender act of fathering, of mothering, of crafting a child who we hope will survive. Cataclysm Babyis going to floor readers.

Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall by Ken Sparling

 (August 2012)

Originally published by Knopf in 1996, Ken Sparling’s debut novel was ill-promoted and only modestly circulated during its release. Years later, Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall gained the underground momentum it deserved – readers hailing it as a cult classic – but by then, the book was out of print. Now, with a brilliant new introduction by Sparling, this re-release of Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall is our chance to delightfully and with great fervor place this book back into circulation, giving everyone a chance to re-visit the daringly candid and beautiful start of Ken Sparling’s ever-rising literary career.

The Alligators of Abraham by Robert Kloss

(November 2012)

Brought to the head of the pack with the 2011 release of How the Days of Love & Diphtheria, Robert Kloss fans are longing to read what this new writer can do in full form, and we guarantee that they will not be disappointed by one letter of The Alligators of Abraham. Framed by the death of Abraham Lincoln and the unrest of post-war, alligator hissing haunts the leather hills and death-fires of The Alligators of Abraham, a terse and dense novel(la) wrapped in cover and interior illustrations from Matt Kish, the artist behind the Oprah-praised Moby-Dick in Pictures from Tin House Books. Robert Kloss will gut readers with The Alligators of Abraham, and we welcome you to the flaying.

About J. A. Tyler:

J.A. Tyler is the author of four novels, including A Man of Glass & All the Ways We Have Failed from Fugue State Press. His work has appeared with Black Warrior Review, Caketrain, Diagram, New York Tyrant, and others. For more info, visit: www.chokeonthesewords.com.

Ok, No fair! The Alligators of Abraham sounds absolutely fantastic and I cannot believe it doesn't release until next November! And hello, if you are not already reading Mud Luscious books, now you can see what you have been missing! 

So what do you think guys? See anything that catches your eye? Which of these books are you most excited to see release? Help TNBBC and Mud Luscious Press spread the buzz about these books by sharing this post with others!

Audiobook Review: The Passage

Listened 11/15/11 - 12/21/11
2 Stars - Not recommended as an intro to the genre
Audiobook - 29 cd's / approx 36 hours

Readers, you have let me down. Ooh, how you have let me down. The buzz that surrounded this book at BEA10?? The rave reviews from people who claim to still be checking around corners and refusing to walk into darkened garages weeks after having put the book to bed?? What has happened to everyone's taste? Have books like Twilight and The Da Vinci Code left your brains mushy? Have I fallen down the rabbit hole? Am I too demanding of my literature??

Lord only knows how I made it through all 36 hours of this audiobook. I think part of it was the fact that I have an hour and a half roundtrip commute to work four days a week, and I was really sick of listening to morning radio. I think the other part me kept believing that somewhere, somehow, this thing had to get better.

For starters, where was the editor in all of this? In my opinion, Cronin had 3 or 4 books worth of material crammed together unnecessarily into this gigantic doorstopper, and the person who allowed it to see the light of day this way should be forced to edit chapbooks and flash fiction for the rest of their career - if only to prove just how much more powerful brevity can sometimes be.

The prologue itself should have been one book. Between the discovery of the initial virus; Jonas Leer and his obsession with the healing properties and seemingly ageless qualities of the virus; the government's attempt to secretly harness the virus for its own use by testing it on death row inmates; the kidnapping of little Amy from the convent; and the whole kit and caboodle going bad, you had a well rounded and thickly populated story that was also setting the stage for something bigger...bigger than bigger.. something epic. Something that the reader would have to wait for the next book in the series to read about.

Here's how I would have broken this sucker down: (If you haven't read the book, maybe you want to skip this next part until you have. I don't think I am spoiling anything so much as just talking a bunch of nonsense that you most likely won't understand)

Book I - The Amy, Lucy, Wolgast Years. Ending with a bang as Amy ran for the hills while Wolgast lay beneath the tree by the cabin, saying goodbye.....

Book II, to be released a year later, encompassing the Compound Years. The 80 year jump into the future, a world of new characters including Peter, Alicia, and Auntie, "all eyes" and "the sanctuary", and survival against the virals. Ending with the arrival of Amy,  and virals staging their first organized full out attack on the wall...

Book III, released the year after that, bringing with it the chaotic aftermath of the big viral attack and the New Long Ride. Leaving the safety of the Compound to return Amy to the place she came from, searching for an answer, and hoping to find the army. And ending with Lacey in the mountain....

Book IV, The New Thing... the ultimate weapon against the virals...

I get the impression that Cronin had his heart set on writing an epic novel. You know, a novel that successfully spanned 100+ years, that ripped you out of the world you know and spit you out into a world wholly unknown and unknowable, that bridged the gaps between generations of peoples (the time before and the time of the survivors) who never knew each other but were directly impacted by the decisions of one another.

Yet for all he attempted to accomplish, he just managed to frustrate and alienate me. I felt completely disconnected from his characters after the huge jump that took place at the end of the prologue. Here I spent the first 14 discs or so building relationships with Amy and Sister Lacey and Agent Wolgast, only to have them completely taken away from me as I was thrust 80 years into the future and surrounded by a batch of strange new people I wasn't quite prepared to meet yet. And this seemed to happen again and again, awkward transitions from one place and time to another... though none ever as jarring as that initial 80 year leap.

Perhaps Cronin (or his editor) were not fans of those old sci-fi/fantasy novels like The Death Gate Cycle, novels that redefined "epic fantasy" with their intense world-building, character families, and in depth storytelling? In reality, it was one gigantic doorstopper of a novel that was free to roam and grow and tell its story fully and intricately over time... as a series. I can't help but think that The Passage should have done the same. What freedom Cronin could have allowed himself, what time he could have had, to play a little longer within each phase of his destroyed new world. To really dig deeper into the details.

(And before you jump all over me, I do understand that The Passage is the first of a three book series. I'm just saying that he should have broken it out into more parts... because god only knows how much information he crammed into the two upcoming novels....)

As if this wasn't enough, there were parts within the novel itself that didn't translate well into audio. Moments where, had I been the reading the printed book, I could have easily skimmed or skipped all together - such as the part where Amy hears the virals asking one question over and over again in her head. Who Am I? Who am I? WHO am I? Who AM I? WHO AM I? This one question, at one point in the book, must have been repeated for three minutes straight, each time with a variance in the emphasis and tone. I wanted to scream. Truly, I did. Then, towards the end of the book, Amy answers this question by saying aloud each and every one of their names. And there are a lot. Minutes and minutes worth of names being recited. With no end in sight, literally, since I was listening to it and couldn't rightly tell how much longer that nonsense was going to go on. Ahhhhhh!!

And strangely, Justin seems to have a thing with three's. Many times, throughout the entire book, his characters were want to repeat an expression three times in succession.  "Who am I? Who AM ? WHO am I?" was one of them. Of course, now that I am trying to recall examples of what they were, I am drawing a blank (a friend and I were discussing this as one of the downfalls of audio vs. paper.. the inability to flip through an audio when in need of something to reference).

Oh, I could go on and on about all the things I disliked. I didn't really even touch on the narrator and the unattractive voices he gave his females. It was subtle but I detected an insistent whine and nag to them all that was not present in the male voices. Though I must say that whoever they used for the narration of Sarah's journal entries was perfect. I loved her voice. I could listen to her read forever....

Ahhh well, enough bitching and complaining for one post, yes? I'm still sore over the shitty ending.... perhaps it's best if I just let that part go???

A Place Indies Can Call Their Own

A little over a month ago, I happily stumbled across the debut of Consortium Books weekly Twitter hashtag chat - #indieview. For those of you who love independent publishing, this is the place you want to be every Wednesday morning at 10:30am EST. Trust me! Talk about a meeting of the minds....

Each Wednesday Indie publishers, authors, and book bloggers flock to #indieview in eager anticipation. Rachel Zugschwert, the woman behind the @consortiumbooks tweets and the hashtag's passionate host, chooses a new topic each week for us to discuss. Past topics ranged from what Independent publishers can do to increase their readership and reach, to defining what "Indie" means in today's publishing world, and most recently - how indie publishers and book bloggers can work together to support and nurture one another. 

The conversations are always enlightening. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome.  Rachel is open to participant requests when deciding on upcoming topics and she also posts a transcript of the entire chat each week for those who were unable to attend but wished to be able to see what took place. Though the weekly chats are scheduled for 30 minutes, on more than one occasion Rachel has encouraged the conversation to continue... because sometimes, once the collaborative juices get flowing,there is just no stopping it!!

I could go on and on about #indieview, but I thought you might like to hear more about it from its creator, so I asked Rachel if she would be interested in writing a bit about the hashtag for us. The following guest post explains where the idea for the weekly chat originated from, what she hopes it will accomplish and where she would like to see it go:

#Indieview started around a conference room table, something we thought might be the answer to the lack of an indie voice that we feel frequently troubles the publishing press. Certainly independent bookstores are lauded and supported – there’s #indiethursday and regular features in all the regular publications and e-newsletters. Bloggers link to Indiebound and Powells in addition to Amazon and B&N and that’s great. But what about the indie publisher? Who was speaking for – much less about – them?

Without an answer to those questions, we thought we could step forward to solve one of those problems. We certainly don’t claim to speak for indie publishers – they’re far too varied and unique for that. What we wanted to do was create a space where people could talk about the issues facing indie publishing, both good and bad. We knew that there were people out there who appreciate indie publishing, the same way there are people who claim indie music and indie film. We just had to find them.

So we started tweeting, Wednesday mornings at 9:30 central time. Just before the first chat I remember feeling very nervous – like I was about to go on stage for a one-woman show. Would anyone come? Would I be talking to myself or just my co-workers? Does anyone even care about indie publishing?

Of course they do.

A number of our publishers show up on a regular basis. Several dedicated bloggers (we love you!) show up week after week. We’ve had participants ranging from editors at major houses to authors and readers to indie publishers who we don’t represent – a major coup! Some really interesting debates have been sparked – are self-published authors “indie” the way that small press authors are “indie”? Who decides?

In short, #indieview has succeeded in ways that I don’t think we could have envisioned. We’re creating a space for discussion, which was our initial goal. But it’s turning out to be a force for change – something for bloggers and others to take it from Twitter into the real world with panel suggestions and BEA events – official or unofficial. The issues facing the publishing industry are scary, especially for indies: a single national chain bookstore, increasing homogeny among large publishers, Amazon’s price check app. We need to be able to talk about those issues as well as the fun ones, like social media and what we’ve read lately, in a public forum, and rally people to the cause of indie publishing. Who doesn’t want to be the one to have discovered the next big thing first? That’s where indie publishers and indie authors are – we’re what’s awesome before it gets big.

Rachel Zugschwert is the marketing manager for Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. She likes books of all kinds, and her goal in life is to discover the next big book - over and over and over again.

It's Good To Be FREE

Are you one of those horrible last-minute christmas shoppers? Been going crazy looking high and low for the perfect gift for that special bookish someone in your life? Well, look no further friends. Do I have the list for you!

Everything you see here is free, or as close to free as you're ever gonna get. It's ok. You can thank me later!!

1. M. Clifford put his incredibly timely novel THE BOOK on his website for free download; a decision he made after hearing about the forcible removal of "the people's library" at Occupy Wall Street. It's interesting to note the parallel there. A book, whose story is based on the fact that the government controls what everyone is reading, put up for free because of a library of books that was taken away from people protesting the government. Sure to appeal to the masses, THE BOOK covers taboo topics such as banning books, digitally altering texts, and underground black market libraries.

2. Rachel in the OC has put her book, A WALK IN THE SNARK, up on Amazon for free. If you like cheeky, sarcastic girl-humor, Rachel is your gal. I met this witty woman at the NYC Indie Book Event a few months back and love her to pieces, and I'm thrilled to see her book getting rave reviews. Everyone else is in love with her tell-it-like-it-is views on men and women, and now you can be too! Get it while the getting is free, will ya?!

3. Ugly Duckling Presse has put a large library of their chapbooks up for free. I just discovered this goodness last night via Twitter. If you are not familiar with chapbooks, they are low cost, pocket sized collections of flash fiction, prose, and/or poetry. It's a great way to sample authors and writing styles. Some are incredibly beautiful, while others are odd and make your brain hurt. Of course, if you like what you see, they have subscriptions to their 2012 releases available on the website. Happy reading!!

4. E-Fiction Magazine is another way to sample free, online short stories and flash fiction from a variety of authors. Doug Lance, the magazine's founder, prides himself in finding the freshest voices to give entertaining insights into human relationships. I've been known to download an issue here and there when I find time, and browse through the collection. Have you given it a try? You never know what you might find and fall in love with!

5. Indie Book Blowout's "12 Days of Christmas" Event is almost over. If you'll recall, we did a post on this right as it kicked off. All indie ebooks listed through them are marked down to the incredibly unreasonable price of .99 cents. How can you not want to download each and every one of those???

Give the (free) gift of a book this holiday season and discover your next best book or author while you do it!

Indie Spotlight: Michele Gorman

It's no secret that traditionally published authors sometimes take the plunge into self-publishing. For some, it's because they want to package and promote the book in a way that stays truer to their vision of the book. For others, it boils down to controlling the price of the book, the manner in which it will be sold, and reaping the benefits of every individual sale.

For Michele Gorman, the choice to self publish her novel Single in the City, which was originally published across the pond by Penguin UK, was a mixture of many things. I was extremely curious to hear all about it, since it seemed that the UK version of the book had done so well....

Here's her story:

Thanks so much Lori, for inviting me today to chat about self-publishing! It’s a completely different proposition than it was even 5 years ago, thanks to the rise of eBooks. And this is great news for both writers and book lovers.

Today there are lots of reasons for published writers to choose self-publishing. Maybe you’ve been with a big publisher and had a bad experience. Maybe you had a good experience but want complete control over the whole publication process. Or maybe you just have more faith in your book, and your audience, than big publishers do.

I was elated when Penguin UK offered to publish Single in the City. And I had a great experience with them. My editor was excellent, the sales team worked really hard and got my book into one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets and into every airport and train station book shop in the country. And my publicist was incredible. I definitely believe in the partnership between writers and great publishers but sometimes self-publishing is the right decision for a specific book in a specific market.

Penguin UK offered a global deal but my agent and I held back the US rights. This was because I wanted a US publisher for the book (Penguin UK and Penguin US are run independently each from their own territories). I wanted a US publisher to handle Single in the City on ‘home soil’ because Hannah, the main character, is American and her story about moving to London is seen through her rather baffled American eyes. I figured it would be a great fit.

Unfortunately the publishers we approached didn’t think that US chick lit fans would ‘get’ the culture-specific humour of a book set in London because many hadn’t been there. I reject this judgment. I have more faith in American women.

We don’t need to have experienced something in order to understand it. I doubt many women who’ve bought We Need To Talk About Kevin have a homicidal son, and no one who reads Jane Eyre today has lived in the 18^th Century. These books are read because women empathise with their characters’ feelings. Single in the City is about establishing a new life in an unfamiliar situation. Who hasn’t had the same cringeworthy feelings when moving to a new city, or country, starting college or a new job or trying to fit into a boyfriend’s family? And who doesn’t laugh when they hear about others who’ve been in the same boat? This is a universal theme, so I decided to publish the book myself.

It was a lot of work to get Single in the City ready for its American launch. I had to ‘translate’ it into American from British English, and while I was at it I figured I’d rewrite it too. I’m very lucky to have had a year of reviews from so many readers, which allowed me to see what they liked and didn’t like. For example several readers would have preferred less drinking … since that wasn’t an important feature of the story I toned it down (though we do like a tipple over here!). Hannah is also a bit more of a rounded character now, and I’ve deepened the scene settings to give a stronger sense of place – it’s a bit more descriptive. I also took out the footnotes that explained American/British differences (they were aimed at British readers to explain some of our more peculiar habits). Finally, and most fun, I got to design the new cover!

So it’s been a very busy few months, but rewarding, and I’m excited that Single in the City can now be read by an American audience. And I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks, so please don’t be shy. Get in touch! You can send me an email through my website (www.michelegorman.co.uk) or send me a facebook friend request (www.facebook.com/michele.gorman3) or follow me on Twitter (@expatdiaries) and I’ll follow you back. I love talking with readers, so much so that I’ve hatched a plan for the next book. I’m going to write it interactively! I’m posting book excerpts on my blog (michelegormanwriter.blogspot.com) and asking readers for their opinions on storylines and characters. This is SO exciting for me so I hope many many readers will want to take part!

Finally, another exciting development for eBooks is Kindlegraph. Do you know about this? It’s genius - I’m able to inscribe eBooks for you! If you go to www.kindlegraph.com, sign in, find Single in the City and request a kindlegraph. My signed inscription for your eBook gets sent straight to your Kindle.

And if you’d like to give Single in the City as an eBook to your friends for Christmas or Hanukkah, you can gift one through www.amazon.com. I’m more than happy to inscribe their book too. Just be sure to tell your friend in the email that goes with the gift to go to Kindlegraph and make the request. You may even want to add your inscription to that email and ask your friend to copy that and paste it into the request (Kindlegraph lets you do that). Imagine being able to give your friend an eBook inscribed to say Happy Christmas Nicole, Your best friend Amy has sent you this book because you’re fabulous. We both hope you love it! All the best in 2012. Michele Gorman xoxo

Michele Gorman was born and raised in the US but has lived in London since 1998, and in 2006 she became a card-carrying Brit. Now she knows the words to God Save The Queen but still chokes up at hearing the Star-Spangled Banner. She studied accounting at university but never got the hang of debits and credits, to the dismay of several managers. Fortunately she realized early on that while her fondness for storytelling didn't foster confidence in her colleagues, it did prepare her for a life writing fiction. She  is the best-selling author of Single in the City, her debut novel published by Penguin in the UK and abroad. In October 2011 she self-published the book in the US. She's blogging about the ups (and downs!) of this experience on www.michelegormanwriter.blogspot.com.

Indie Book Buzz: Two Dollar Radio

It's the return of the Indie Book Buzz here at TNBBC. Over the next few weeks, we will be inviting members of the indie publishing houses to share which of their upcoming 2012 releases they are most excited about!

This week's picks come from Eric Obenauf, 

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Two Dollar Radio.

Baby Geisha by Trinie Dalton

(January 2012)

Trinie Dalton is a writer of exceptional style and pizzazz that I'm absolutely enamored with. Publishers Weekly, reviewing Baby Geisha (January '12), compared her to Lydia Davis, Gary Lutz, and Ben Marcus, and I think that's apt. Baby Geisha is also exciting in that it represents a more grounded approach in the author's style. Bookforum dubbed this "an everyday fantastic." The stories range from the Coney Island ferris wheel, to the sloth-hugging parks of Costa Rica, to the Greek Isles, and are underlined by this author's wit and flashy voice.

Radio Iris by Anne-Marie Kinney

(May 2012)

Radio Iris (May '12) is just flat-out freaking awesome. This is a first novel by a writer named Anne-Marie Kinney that I believe folks will be talking about for years to come. The grace and authority for such a young writer is incredibly impressive. TC Boyle calls the book "a revelation, a whimsical, charming and beautifully observed novel about quotidian life." The story follows a socially awkward receptionist at a business whose function she doesn't understand (though she's overheard her boss refer to himself as "a businessman"). Her world goes topsy-turvy when her co-workers begin disappearing and a mysterious stranger appears to be living in the office suite next door. Steve Erickson called the book "a novel of unsettling humor and elusive terror, a piercing loneliness and the strangeness of the banal, and a hushed power that grows in volume before your ears."

About Eric:

Eric Obenauf is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Two Dollar Radio, an outfit he founded with his wife and brother. His writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, Modern Fix, and The Huffington Post. He lives in central Ohio with his wife and two kids, enjoying the occasional competitive game of basketball.

Ok, I think I have found one of my Must-Have's for 2012... Doesn't Eric make Radio Iris sound absolutely amazing?!!

So what do you think guys? See anything that catches your eye? Which of these books are you most excited to see release? Help TNBBC and Two Dollar Radio spread the buzz about these books by sharing this post with others!

Laura Ellen Scott on "Being Indie"

On "Being Indie" is a monthly feature that will be hosted here on TNBBC. We will meet a wide variety of independent authors, publishers, and booksellers as they discuss what being indie means to them.

Meet Laura Ellen Scott. I had the pleasure of hanging out with Laura during the Scranton Pages and Places event a few months ago. She was participating on a panel or two there, and stopped by a coffee shop to chat about her book.


Her novel Death Wishing, released through Ig Publishing, might just be on the shelves of your local independent bookseller. Curio is up there, in the sky. If you'd like to have some fun, visit The Wish Tank consider contributing a wish of your own. 

On Being Indie

Let me start by apologizing for the narcissistic, rambling column you are about to read, but I happen to be an indie gal who had a heck of an indie year in 2011, and I’m still on trying to make sense of my good fortune. In January Uncanny Valley Press offered my chapbook Curioas their debut publication and made it available online and as a free ebook. October saw the release of my first novel Death Wishing, by Brooklyn-based independent Ig Publishing, and over the past few months I’ve been zigzagging the country to support it by giving readings at independent books stores, festivals, galleries, and bars. To call the experience a dream come true is spot on.

Because we’re indie, we need to make noise the cheap way, so my novel was offered as a free Kindle download on Amazon for a limited time. People like free stuff, but it was still trippy to see my book hold the #1 spot in the Top 100 Free Bestsellers in Literary Fiction list for several days, with A Tale of Two Cities and A Scarlet Letter ranking 2^ndand 3^rd. In this context, the term “Literary” confuses me as much as “Bestseller.” My training is in literary writing, but my fiction is escapist: Curio is a collection of very short horror stories, and Death Wishing is a comic fantasy about dying wishes coming true in New Orleans. Sometimes it seems like the only thing standing between me and MASSIVE COMMERCIAL SUCCESS is my sticky, big L prose style, and if I was smart I’d learn how to write plain. Or, I could stay fancy-pantsed and strike it rich by writing soulful/painful books about kids. But neither of those things is going to happen, so it’s lucky for me that indie is an option--a legitimate one that seems to be picking up steam. Without indie culture, I’d be as doomed as the Flying Dutchman, unable to find harbor in commercial or literary ports.

There were a few objections to the Kindle promotion, mainly centered around the fear that such giveaways chipped away at the idea of the novel as a genuine commodity, but I was more moved by the people who contacted me to say they were grateful for a freebee that was new, non-vampire-oriented, and 100% free of Amish romance.* Which is not to say that during the giveaway, Death Wishing was like a big fish in a little pond, but it probably looked like a purple fish in a pond of orange ones. There may be a moment right now for artful fiction, especially that which doesn’t fit into easy market categories, to find readers. That has to be worth something.  

By March my novel will be six months old—well past its sell by date I’ve been told, but I’ll still be on the road, working it. At the 2012 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival I’ll be on a panel with three other novelists, each of whom is affiliated with major publishers: Ellen Baker (I Gave My Heart to Know This/Random House), Jessica Maria Tuccelli (Glow/Viking), and . . . Jesmyn Ward (Salvage the Bones/Bloomsbury USA). I probably don’t have to tell you that  Salvage the Bones won the 2011 National Book Award. No kidding, it’s the three of them and little indie me. The panel is titled “Women To Watch,” and I bet Jesmyn, Ellen, and Jessica will be watching me pretty closely, if only to make sure I don’t swipe the silverware. Perhaps I am merely reaping the natural rewards of a lifetime of writing and caring about writing, but I have to wonder how I scored my spot on that panel. I’m not complaining, mind you. Just wondering. Maybe, in this Wild West economy of letters, we are we all indie now.

*By the way, there should be a way to categorize books by what they don’t contain--because I know a lot more about what I don’t want than what I do want.

Book Giveaway: Taft 2012

I am really excited to bring you guys this next Author/Reader Discussion Giveaway!!

This one is a prize pack  - 

Jason Heller's upcoming debut novel Taft 2012,

along with a Taft 2012 campaign poster and pin!!

In order to stimulate discussion, 

Quirk Books has agreed to give away 5 copies to US residents

(sorry guys, no international this time!)

Curious about the book, aren't you? Here's the Goodreads description:

HE'S BACK. AND HE'S THE BIGGEST THING IN POLITICS.

He is the perfect presidential candidate. Conservatives love his hard-hitting Republican résumé. Liberals love his peaceful, progressive practicality. The media can’t get enough of his larger-than-life personality. And all the American people love that he’s an honest, hard-working man who tells it like it is.

There’s just one problem. He is William Howard Taft . . . and he was already president a hundred years ago. So what on earth is he doing alive and well and considering a running mate in 2012? 

A most extraordinary satire, Jason Heller’s debut novel follows the strange new life of a presidential Rip Van Winkle: a man who never even wanted the White House in the first place, yet finds himself hurtling toward it once more—this time, through the media-fueled madness of 21st-century America.

While you're deciding, check out the campaign video:

This contest will run through December 21st.

Winners will be announced here and via email on December 22nd.

Here's how to enter:

 1 - Comment here by telling us which of our past presidents you would vote back into office (dead or alive) and why. 

2 - Agree to participate in a group read book discussion that will run from January 15th - 29th over at TNBBC on Goodreads. Jason Heller 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 January 15th). 

 3 - You must leave me a way to contact you (email is preferred). 

Good luck!