Jessica Anya Blau'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....

Jessica Anya Blau

Would You Rather...

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

Definitely my feet. I’d want my tongue to talk, eat, kiss—in between pages, of course.

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

Ompf, hmmmm, oy, this is a hard one. I want a long string of giant bestsellers. I want to be able to write no matter what.  And either of those scenarios would allow me that, so it’s a tie.

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

Now. Dead is dead. When I’m dead there will be no me to care about any of this!

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

Obviously, you didn’t grow up in Southern California where we never parsed sentences or learned the parts of speech! I rather have a book where every sentence starts with a conjunction.

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?

Audio in the background. I write with kids, a dog, husband, people, the phone, and friends constantly interrupting me. I’m used to background noise.

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?

One I truly believe in. I always feel like I’m on the verge of death, so I have a hard time writing things I don’t really want to write or don’t believe in.

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

Character. A hated character could be interesting.  A hated plot twist would be tedious to work around.

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

Blood as ink.  It would be less scarring.  I’m vain that way. I don’t want to be skinned.

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

It seems that both have already happened in some sense since I use so much of my real life in my fiction.

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

without using punctuation and capitalization it would probably be easier for people to read, don’t you think

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

 Hmmmm, that’s funny. Teach my book. No, wait, banned.  No, taught. No, banned.

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

I definitely rather get hit on by Dylan Thomas. It would be a fun story to tell my friends and family. He looked a little like Don Knotts, didn’t he?

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

Ugh, oy, how awful

That would be but I would choose

Writing just because.

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

Definitely the series in the language I couldn't read.  I'd spend my lonely, isolated island time teaching myself the new language.  It would probably save my sanity--keep me from falling in love with a coconut or a monkey. 

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

These are brutal questions!  I guess not talk about it.

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 voice in my head already narrates my every move and that’s fine by me, I just typed, while thinking that I’m typing, and typing what I’m thinking, and thinking what I’m typing . . . .

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

Is there anyone who is going to give up their computer? Show me that person! Of course I’d give up pens and paper. I believe I already have.

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

Absolutely tippy-toes! Tippy-toes has energy, life-force, power.  Back is so . . . Bucket family, Christy Brown, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.  

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

Well, I’ve read to a room of naked people. But I’ve never read to others while I was naked. I rather have no one show up at a reading. In fact I rather have no one show up at a reading than read in a bathing suit to a packed room.

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? 

This week I’d have to say an excellent story because I’m running around so much that if the story is weak, I’ll instantly fall asleep.  If I were more rested, or even it it were the weekend, I might prefer the well-written one.

Last week, Ryan W Bradley asked Jessica:

Would you rather write a bad book that ends up with a great cover, or a great book that ends up with a bad cover?

Great book with a bad cover.  I'd be in good company (I don't like most of the Hemingway or Fitzgerald covers).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check back next week to see what Sara Habein would rather

and see her answer to Jessica's question:

Would you rather write a bestseller anonymously, or a moderate-seller under your name. 

(And no one can ever find out that you wrote the bestseller!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jessica AnyaBlau’s newest novel, The Wonder BreadSummer was picked as one of Five Thrilling Summer Reads by NPR’s All Things Considered. In Believer magazine, Nick Hornby said The Wonder Bread Summer was, ”. . .  picaresque, properly funny, unpredictable, and altogether irrepressible . . . it made me so happy that after I'd read it, in two days flat, I bought everything I could find by the same author.” Jessica is also the author of the critically acclaimed Drinking Closer toHome, and the bestselling The Summerof Naked Swim Parties.

Indie Book Buzz: Coach House 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 small press publishing houses to share which of their upcoming releases they are most excited about!

This week's picks comes from Evan Munday,

Publicist for Coach House Books.

Cosmo by Spencer Gordon
(Available now)

What it's about
If reading most short story collections is like canoeing gently down a tranquil and picturesque river, then reading Spencer Gordon's Cosmo is like jet skiing over Niagara Falls while Leonard Cohen whispers in your ear. In the short stories of Cosmo, an admirer of Miley Cyrus performs a three-thousand word sentence in defence of his passion. Actor Matthew McConaughey descends into a surreal, stupefying desert of the soul. An aging porn star dons a grotesque dinosaur costume to film the sex scene of his life. Such are the speakers and stars of a collection of stories that explode the conventions of short fiction.

Why you should read it
At first, it seems like merely a novelty to read celebrity-saturated short stories about Matthew McConaughey driving naked through the Painted Desert, about Leonard Cohen's correspondence with Subway, about a Miss America contestant on a humanitarian mission. (I can't believe you're still reading this -- I'd have already bought the book at this point.) But once you enter these stories, you realize Spencer Gordon is no one-trick-pony. And this is no gimmick. This is honest-to-goodness art that just happens to feature figures of pop culture as some of its more memorable characters. Cosmo reads like US Weekly and Barthelme's 60 Stories were thrown in a blender, mixed with a packet of Fun Dip and set to 'whip.' And this is not to say it's only popular culture the author engages with. Everyday parents, employees and bus riders are just as enthralling as the marquee names. The stories will alternately make you wallow in existential dread, laugh in absurdiy, slice your heart down the middle with incredible sadness and dazzle you with klaxons of writerly style. (I'm not really sure what klaxons are, but I think they're British and I think they dazzle.)

Bio
Evan Munday is the illustrator of the novel Stripmalling by Jon Paul Fiorentino and the poetry collection DOOM: Love Poems for Supervillains by Natalie Zina Walschots. He's also the author of the Silver-Birch-nominated book series for young readers, The Dead Kid Detective Agency. But mostly he's the publicist for Toronto-based literary press Coach House Books.

Madeleine Reviews: Broken Piano for President

3 stars -- Recommended to fans of bizarro in all its incarnations
372 pages
Read from 5 July to 11 July 2013
Publisher: Lazy Fascist Press
Released: 1 March 2012

By guest reviewer Madeleine Maccar

Hunker down, friends and goobers, and let us explore this tale of hero-worship, espionage, and warring fast-food franchises built on the sturdy foundation that is good ol' American greed and gluttony.

If you only know of Patrick Wensink's Broken Piano for President for its legal kerfuffle with Jack Daniel's (which the internet universally reports as involving the nicest cease-and-desist letter ever -- and you know how hard it is for anyone on the internet to agree on anything), then you are doing yourself a great disservice and ought to remedy such an unfortunate truth by getting lost in this light-bizarro joy ride. If nothing else, you may find that your problems pale in comparison to those faced by some of these characters.

Like any satisfying slab of bizarro-flavored fare, Broken Piano for President features an antihero who would be an unlikable loser if he weren't such a sympathetic everyman whose dilemmas -- the guilt of unexorcized childhood demons, an unsuccessful love life, a job that he thoroughly despises -- are relatable to anyone old enough to know that a blackout-drunk dependency on alcohol is the only way to deal with such staggering hopelessness. That is, until you wake up in a strange but totally awesome car one morning with no recollection of how you got there, whose car you've purloined, or who the corpselike lady in the passenger seat with the gaping head wound is and whether or not you're responsible for such a gory morning greeting.

Such is the life of and our introduction to Deshler Dean (presumably named for the author's town of origin). And things don't necessarily get any better for our self-brutalized protagonist, nor does he acquire any immediate clarity regarding either this or any of his multitudinous memory lapses brought on by drunken stupors. What he does gain, however, is an avalanche of opportunity for flexing his liar muscles by way of his alcoholic's amnesia and his improvised double- (and triple-) agent status for two fast-food giants (Winters Olde-Tyme Hamburgers and the subtly named Bust-a-Gut Hamburgers) who are locked in a game of perpetual one-upmanship with absolutely no conscience about offing the competition's (or their own) employees and clogging their consumers' arteries in pursuit of the almighty dollar. While Deshler stumbles through his jobs as an inebriated wunderkind of sorts who dreams up shamefully, sadistically delicious foodstuffs for his employers' menus that he never remembers once the hammer of sobriety thwacks him between the eyes, it is that same dollar-beer haze that allows him to write word-salad songs and serve as a frontman for his true love: his Butthole Surfers-inspired, art-house nightmare of a band, Lothario Speedwagon.

It is satire that deserves its comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and Christopher Moore, for sure. The dirty underbelly of the two fictitious hamburger heavy-hitters grows worryingly less and less outlandish as the violence escalates and the calorie counts of Deshler's brainchildren reach meteoric heights. It takes no mental gymnastics to imagine real-life corporations planting spies in the corporate offices of their biggest competitors to ensure that they come out on top for just one fiscal quarter, as it's also no surprise that one of the chain's founders has been iconified and deified at the hands of the American public. The dangers of greed, blind consumerism, scare-tactic TV news, and sacrificing job satisfaction for job security are all on parade as the story catapults to its frenzied climax.

While bizarro is definitely not for everyone, this is hovering more on the Regular Guy Thrown into Extraordinary Circumstances with Some Violence on the Side spectrum of the genre rather than its Batshit! Insanity! at Every! Corner! counterpoint, which might make it a little more palatable for someone looking to introduce themselves to what can be a scary little literary niche that often requires a more willing suspension of disbelief that some readers may be comfortable extending. Broken Piano does, however, weigh in at a veritable novel-sized length, making it the first non-novella bizarro I've had the pleasure of reading. And it does, for the most part, successfully carry a plot (aided by dozens of subplots, lists, asides, montages and lessons in fictional histories) for its substantial duration. There are a few lags where characters wax a little too self-indulgent, where the story seems to meander, where the violence seems a little gratuitous in its detail but, hey, sometimes life errs on that side, too. Besides, I've seen examples of the genre commit far more literarily heinous crimes.

Bizarro is at its most successful when there's something significant to be found for those who are willing to dig below the violent, exaggerated-for-shock-factor surface that gives it its charm. Broken Piano is fueled by enough cautionary tales (never sacrifice corporate comfort for the art one was meant to create, even if it means being a valet for a little longer), life lessons (how the best-laid plans can be blown asunder by life's pesky unpredictabilities, like falling in love) and allegories (there are far more options than the two public favorites -- which I couldn't help but compare to the stranglehold of America's two-party system, even though there was nary a cue pointing me in that direction within these pages) to lend thematic support to its off-the-wall goings-on. It is an entertaining romp through some sick shit for those who just want to be told a story and a modern-day morality play of sorts for those who aren't satisfied with simply taking a novel at face value.


Madeleine Maccar is a journalist-turned-proofreader who maintains a newly hatched blog (ilikereadingandeating.blogspot.com/), the URL of which pretty much exemplifies her two favorite things that aren't puppies.

Jayme K's Guide to Books & Booze

Time to grab a book and get tipsy!

Books & Booze is a new mini-series of sorts here on TNBBC that will post every Friday in October. The participating authors were challenged to make up their own drinks, name and all, or create a drink list for their characters and/or readers using drinks that already exist. 

Today, author Jayme K give us a lesson:

I like the concept of ‘adapting’ a book into an alcoholic beverage. Disorderly, I’d imagine, would be some sort of fucked up cocktail. The kind of drink that gives you alcohol poisoning if had more than once in a single sitting. So for the sake of the people, I’m going to tone it down to something enjoyable, that won’t cause you to shit out your liver the next morning.

First we’re going to add just a bit of Blue Curacao—because why not? It’s delicious. How much is ‘just a bit’, you ask? Well, it depends on how much citrus you like in your drink. I’d say at least 3 ounces.

Next, you’re going to want to add some Grey Goose vodka because it is, easily, the best inexpensive vodka on the market and if you disagree with me, just know that you’re wrong. Add 1.5 ounces of that to your drink.

And at that point you’re going to want to add Margaritaville Mango Margarita mix to fill the rest of your cup.

What you’ll have is a green tinted drink that should taste exactly like Mountain Dew. If it doesn’t, then you fucked up somewhere along the line—don’t blame me.

How is Disorderlylike Mountain Dew? Well, it may make you feel a little gross.  

Jayme K. is the author of the novel Disorderly, as well as numerous short stories, essays, and poems. His work has been published by UnHollywood, Before Sunrise Press, Underground Books, Miracle E-zine, Nostrovia! Poetry, Your Daily Subvert, Moon Project, and Flash Fiction 365. He lives in Boston.

Ryan W Bradley'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....

I hope you have as much fun reading their responses as I did!! First up:

Ryan W Bradley,

Would You Rather...

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

My tongue, and it being me I’m not sure I need to elaborate.

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

I tend toward the “go out in a blaze of glory” attitude, so I think I’d rather have one giant bestseller.

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

This is hard for my ego to decide between. On the one hand I’d very much like to be considered a literary genius, though I find this unlikely. And if I’m dead I couldn’t really enjoy it anyway, so I’ll take the well known author now option, I want to soak that in before I die.

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

Not using conjunctions would change the tone of my writing quite a bit, I think, so I’ll go with beginning every sentence with one. I’m pretty sure I could make that work with some practice.

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?

It’s a good thing my favorite novel is short. I’d totally have it tattooed on me, small text though, and then as I got old it would just be a block of black ink.

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?

There are days when I think I would happily sell out, but honestly, I’ve tried to write “commercially” and it just doesn’t work for me. I write what I write because it’s what I’m compelled to write, so I guess that has to be my choice here, though I’d like to pick money over integrity.

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

I hate a lot of my plot twists and characters. I try to write things that make me uncomfortable. If I could only do one I guess I’d pick a character I hated, because my stories hinge on the people and their interpersonal relationships.

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

Well, I am partial to being tattooed, so using my skin as paper doesn’t sound so bad. On the other hand I’m not much fond of bleeding, so having to tap into my blood to write with is not such a fun idea.

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

I’ve been a character in my novel. Not sure I need to do that again. Could be entertaining to see them come to life as long as they keep me out of their dysfunction.

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

Too many words use the letter e. The lack of punctuation and capitalization (at least in my fiction) would bother my obsessive compulsive nature, but seems, in the long run easier to deal with.

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

Well, having my books banned seems incredibly plausible. Though I’ve heard tell of Code for Failure being talked about in college classes, I even visited a class to talk about it a year ago. Both options are flattering in their own right.

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

Don’t think I could be in the same room with Rand, and being hit on is great for my ego. This one’s a no brainer!

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

I don’t mind being quiet, so I’d probably do all right speaking only in haiku. Most people wouldn’t notice anyway, right?

Would you rather be stuck on an island with only the 50 Shades Series or only the BLANK series?

Well, if I’m seriously stuck on an island and all I have with me is a book series, I’m probably going to get more use out of 50 Shades...

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

No press is bad press, right? I go into everything I do expecting people to dislike it, so I feel pretty prepared for bad reviews. On the other hand, getting no attention whatsoever is bad for my ego.

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

No one would talk to me if all my thoughts got tweeted. And I have a pretty solid inner narrative going all the time anyway, so I’m pretty used to that.

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

Pens and paper. No hesitation. I could go without writing by hand pretty easily I think. You know, aside from my signature, of course.

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

Lying flat? That’d be tricky. Tippy-toes would be tough but more manageable I think. Until I’m crippled by arthritis or something.

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

Sometimes reading in front of a crowd feels like reading naked. And not having any audience is bad for the ego. So...

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? 

Written well, hands down. Bad writing annoys me, and sets me into “editor” mode. When I’m reading for pleasure I want to read something I can get engrossed in and there’s way less chance of that happening with something that is poorly written.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check back next week to see what Jessica Anya Blau would rather...

and see her answer to Ryan W Bradley's bonus question:

 Would you rather write a bad book that ends up with a great cover, 

or a great book that ends up with a bad cover?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryan W. Bradley has fronted a punk band, done construction in the Arctic Circle, managed an independent children's bookstore, and now designs book covers. He is the author of a story collection, PRIZE WINNERS (Artistically Declined Press, 2011) and a poetry collection, MILE ZERO (ADP, 2013). His novel, CODE FOR FAILURE was recently re-released by Civil Coping Mechanisms. In September, 2013 Concepcion Books will publish THE WAITING TIDE, a poetry collection homage to Pablo Neruda. He received his MFA from Pacific University and lives in Oregon with his wife and two sons. 

Indie Book Buzz: Soho Teen

It's the return of the 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 comes from Meredith Barnes,

Senior Publicity Manager at Soho Teen.

1      

RELIC by Heather Terrell

      (the first in the Books of Eva series, October 29^th)

     

      Ah, Relic! My favorite book we’re publishing this Fall, featuring a medieval society familiar to epic fantasy readers—but this society actually exists in our future. After a catastrophic flood destroyed most of the population and subsequently froze, the Aerie chose to reorganize at our North Pole as a medieval society, believing that technology is what brought their ancestors to grief. And so they’ve remained for more than 400 years. This is a fantastic mix of the intrigue and high stakes that people love about Game of Thrones and the pulse-pounding thrills from dystopians like Divergent—I especially like that comparison because like Tris, Eva doesn’t start out a hardened warrior—she has to step up and make it happen in order to survive.

About the book: When Eva’s twin brother, Eamon, falls to his death just a few months before he is due to participate in The Testing, no one expects Eva to take his place. She’s a Maiden, slated for embroidery classes, curtseys, and soon a prestigious marriage befitting the daughter of an Aerie ruler. But Eva insists on honoring her brother by becoming a Testor. After all, she wouldn’t be the first Maiden to Test, just the first in 150 years. Eva knows the Testing is no dance class. Gallant Testors train for their entire lives to search icy wastelands for Relics: artifacts of the early 21^st century, when The Healing drowned the world. Out in the Boundary Lands, Eva must rely on every moment of the lightning-quick training she received from Lukas—her servant, a Boundary native, and her closest friend now that Eamon is gone. But there are threats in The Testing beyond what Lukas could have prepared her for. And no one could have imagined the danger Eva unleashes when she discovers a Relic that shakes the Aerie to its core.

Bloggers can join the blog tour here!

2    

DANCER DAUGHTER TRAITOR SPY by Elizabeth Kiem

      (debut novel, August 13^th)

      This is a lyrical, lushly written historical set in the punk-tastic early ’80s in NYC, a new breed of spy novel for lovers of the TV show The Americans, Bolshoi intrigue, and elements of the paranormal.

Marina has trained her whole life at the Bolshoi to debut as the Soviet Union's prima ballerina: an international star handpicked by the regime. But her mother, afflicted with a mysterious second sight, becomes obsessed with exposing a horrific state secret and is arrested as a political enemy, forcing Marina and her father to defect to Brooklyn, NY where Marina must navigate punk music, the burgeoning Russian mob presence in Brooklyn, Juilliard, and terrifying visions of her own.

Elizabeth is an absolute delight and perhaps the coolest human I’ve ever met. I hang out in Williamsburg. I know hip. But she puts me to shame. Originally from Virginia, she now lives in Brooklyn (where she belongs). She settled there after a stint in Moscow just after the collapse of the USSR, studying ballet at the Bolshoi. So the details in both the US-set and the Russian portions of the book are just spot on. Also, secret note? The cover model is one of our former editorial assistants—we just bought her some pointe shoes, sent her out to Brooklyn with Elizabeth and they had a blast.

Bloggers can join Elizabeth’s blog tour here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meredith Barnes is Senior Publicity Manager at Soho Teen, an imprint of the proudly independent publisher  Soho Press, as well as a habitual defector (ex-Texan, ex-lit agent). Always a bit of a nomad, her reading tastes range from literary fiction to science fiction to pizza cookbooks—and she’s helped sell all of these at one point or another.

Soho Press is an independent book publisher based in New York City since 1986, publishing literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and international crime fiction.

Book Review: League of Somebodies

Read 5/26/13 - 6/26/13
3 Stars - Recommended to fans of the underdog, superheros, and villainous nonsense
Pgs: 400
Publisher: Dark Coast Press
Released: April 2013

Good god it took me for-evvv-eerrrr to read this bad boy. And while there were many contributing factors to the tortoise-like speed at which I raced through this novel, two stand out more than the rest: my usual aversion to all things superhero-y and the cumbersome writing style of the author.

Disclaimer: this is me trying to branch out and read things that I normally wouldn't because awesomeness is almost always uncovered in the unknown. Right? Well, how the heck would you ever know that if you didn't broaden your reading horizons and give it a go?! So a-go I gave.

Or something like that.

Anywhoo..

What I held in my hands, I was pleased to discover, was the genre-defying story of how a real life superhero is born. League of Somebodies bends and bleeds science fiction, begging the reader to suspend all reality, but its power (and sometimes its downfall - more on this later) lies in the author's use of language to sell the story. This is not your typical POW BAM BANG story - there is very little action and quite a lot of set up and storytelling. It's literary at heart, and it has heart in spades.

Imagine this: You're an unpopular, grossly deformed pre-teen, Jewish boy - huge upper body; stunted, small, and practically useless legs - and you're informed by your father that you have been spoon fed small amounts of plutonium in the hopes that you will become the world's first real superhero. And that now, you must complete a series of multiple, life-endangering tests to prepare yourself to fight against THEY - a villainous entity that is coming after your family to steal The Manaton - a sacred, secret rulebook of manhood. Oh, and that grossly deformed body, no worries, alright, cause those tests will bring out all the wonders that the plutonium has been building up inside you. You'll look awesome in no time, kid!

That's basically what happened to poor little Lenard. Reluctant and pissed off (who wouldn't be?), he finds himself at the mercy of his trickster father time and time again, as he is shaped and molded into the man his father needs him to be, all the while falling deeply and madly in love with Laura, a family friend who is being groomed to become his wife.

Fast forward 20 years: Laura and Lenard have a son, Nemo, and begin putting him through the same rigmarole when he comes of age - only now, THEY are in hot pursuit and nothing short of snagging that Manaton, and killing anything and anyone who gets in their way, will stop them.

League of Somebodies is many things all at once. It's a tongue-in-cheek look at masculinity in all its superiority; it's a close study of fatherdom and the unending love, no matter how fucked up that father is, a son will always have towards him; and it's a tale of good vs. evil and just how difficult it is to sometimes tell who is on the side of good and who is on the side of bad.

It captivates with its less-than-perfect characters, wildy absurd man-isms, and sheer quirkiness.

Wordiness is this novel's true enemy. The story moved along so slowly at times that I actually lost the plot and had to go back and reread a page or two to regain momentum (you know how that goes, when you're reading along and suddenly you can't remember what you were just reading because it was going on and on and your mind started to wander and you lost the gist of where the author was going with it all?). Word economy can be your friend. That's all I'm saying.

Clocking in at an overwhelming 400 pages, it also required a final read-through from its editor. There were grammatical and structural issues within sentences that, while not taking away from the story exactly, were mildly distracting and sometimes frustrating, especially when they popped up all over the place. Hell, I'm no professional, so when I catch things like missing words and conjunctions, and double half-sentences, I tend to get a little ragey towards the end.

Dark Coast Press is a new-to-me press, so having never read them before, I don't know if this is a common issue of theirs, and it's certainly not one I blame entirely on the author. I'd happily be the final set of eyes to scrutinize their books before they hit the printers to help avoid this kind of faux pas in the future. (wink wink, cough cough, Dark Coast, are you listening?) Poor editing is not only damaging to the press, sadly, it's damaging to the author, too.

So, my ultimate ruling is that, while awesomeness does exist in the unknown, it sometimes comes with rough edges that still need a little smoothing out. Check it out if you can overcome the stubborn grammatical boo-boo's and excessive wordiness to read a truly unique tale about the reluctant coming of age of a superhero.

Book Review: The Great Lenore

Read 7/4/13 - 7/6/13
4 Stars - Highly recommended to fans of modern gothic literature and fuckeduppery
Pgs: 204
Publisher: Atticus Book

I cracked open The Great Lenore two days ago (which I've been holding on to ever since I met its author JM Tohline at AWP in March) in anticipation of its upcoming Author/Reader discussion in August, and despite my usual dislike of gothic, faux memoir-ish, tragic literature, I found myself instantly intrigued by Tohline's teasing narrative. He pulls you in, he pushes you away, he hints at things and cleverly sidesteps them time and time again until he's ready to reveal it all. And all the while, he's got you tied to the end of a set of marionette strings, helpless in his hands, following the tugs and tickles of his fingers, eyes dancing across the pages, unable to stop until you reach The End.

I admit that, initially, this was a difficult book for me to read. The timing was uncanny. Very early in, I found myself closing the book and walking away from it, unsure if I wanted to continue. Because I was pretty sure that, up to this point in my life, I'd had just about all the infidelity I could handle...

If you don't know anything about this book, you should know this: Infidelity plays a large role in this tale of love, loss, and deep, dark secrets. Not that infidelity in and of itself is by any means a new plot concept. But I'm sick of how accepted and common it is, in all aspects of media - listen to the lyrics of a song and you're bound to hear about how the singer has cheated or was cheated on; watch any movie, good god, any HBO or Showtime series, even if it's not the driving force of the show, and you're almost guaranteed to see characters cheat on one another, sometimes with one another. And it's not just media, is it? It's all around us. How many of us have cheated on our spouses, boyfriends or girlfriends, discovered that we've been cheated on, or know someone close to us who has? And how many of us just sit by and let it all happen, know about it and never say anything, hide it and feel guilty about it? Jesus, it's everywhere you turn; and once you're aware of it, you can't seem to escape it. And I was pretty sure that I didn't want to immerse myself in literature that hinged so heavily on it right now.

But as I mentioned, Tohline hooks you, and once hooked, it's pointless to struggle, impossible to walk away. It just keeps pulling you back in.

So I gave in, and gave up, and gave my mind over to our narrator Richard, who is telling the tale of how he ended up so severely entwined in the ridiculously destructive love quadrangle between Montana brothers Chas and Maxwell, Jez - a close friend of the family, Chas's wife Lenore, and Chas's girlfriend-on-the-side Lily.

Much like those horribly dated TV soap operas that I refuse to burn brain cells on, and reminiscent of the dark and dreary classic Victorian Gothic novels that I somehow managed to eye-roll myself through, we are drenched in this family's who-is-fucking-who and who-fucked-them-first and how-can-anyone-not-know-who-is-plotting-what-with-who fucked-uppery. And oh yeah, there's Lenore's death, that is actually a non-death (and no, I'm not spoiling anything for you, because this is the hook that the author sinks into your skin upon reading the very first line!) that causes all of the family's secrets to come rushing to the surface like an overflowing toilet...

Lenore; she who all men are helpless against, the spider who weaves her web around each and every one of their hearts, the muse, the innocent angel, the devious devil, the true marionette master... Lenore.

Go on and give it a read. If for no other reason than to join in on our discussion with the author this coming August - cause there is a whole lot that's worthy of discussion here; if for no other reason than to see why I can review it so wearily and yet still give such a wonderful rating. It's a novel that's bound to toy with you. And you will like it. I guarantee it.

Placing Literature - Mapping Your Favorite Books

A few weeks ago, I received an email from Andrew Bardin Williams, co-founder of PlacingLiterature, introducing me to this new bookish website that maps literary scenes.

Initially, I thought "Small demons has already claimed that corner of the bookish playground" but the more I messed around with the site, and the more I questioned Andrew about its purpose, the more I began to see its differences. For starters, the data is crowdsourced, meaning, if you can log in to Google, you can add scenes from YOUR favorite titles to the map. And although the information doesn't exactly allow you to see anything - it just sort of sits there, as a pinpoint on a map - it does allow you to click on each location and virtually "check-in" to the destination.

While I'm not really interested in virtually visiting a scene from the book I'm reading, I can certainly see the 'cool factor' when travelling the states... if your idea of vacationing includes hitting up any and all literary locations!

Now, I know word has gotten out there by now, so I'm probably not introducing you to anything new at this point, but I did want to give Andrew a chance to tell you a bit more about the site.. like, why it was born, and what he hopes to accomplish with it, and I'm curious to know what you guys think of it. Have you used the site yet? Have you added any of your favorite scenes or are you just perusing the ones that are already there? Do you think this is a site you will be returning to, time and time again?

Keeping that in mind, here's Andrew:

Placing Literature maps literary scenes in the real world

Like many authors and readers of fiction, I’ve always thought that the relationship between literature and real, physical places helps enhance the reading experience and develop a sense of community where these scenes take place. This relationship has always stuck in the back of my mind, so I recently teamed up with a geographer and a software engineer to found a new web application called PlacingLiterature.com that maps places from novels that take place in real locations. Our goal is to help connect readers to the places where their favorite novels take place.

Using the website, detective novel fans can see where Sam Spade of the Maltese Falcon lived and worked in San Francisco. Book lovers in Duluth, Minnesota, can track the literary scenes that take place around the shore of Lake Superior. Or Amy Tan fans can track the Woo, Hsu, Jong and St. Claire families through their journeys from China to the Bay Area.

The data is crowdsourced, so anyone with a Google login can add a scene to the database by clicking on the map. Since launching on June 19 at the Arts and Ideas Festival in New Haven, Conn., users have logged more than 500 places in the database from Castle Kronborg in Hamlet to Forks High School in the Twilight series.

We’ve also been getting a lot of attention, being mentioned in the New Yorker and the Paris Review as well as a slew of book blogs and technology websites. But ultimately, the success of this project falls to you, the crowd. I invite you to explore the website, find literary places that take place around your communities and map those scenes.

Andrew Bardin Williams is a co-founder of PlacingLiterature.com, a website that maps literary places that take place in real locations. He is also the author of Learning to Haight, a 2012 Indie Reader Discovery Award finalist in literary fiction. Like Placing Literature on Facebook at Facebook.com/placingliterature.

Where Writers Write: Jess Riley

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 Jess Riley. She is the author of three novels --Driving Sideways, All the Lonely People, and Mandatory Release (July 2013)—as well as a novella, Closer Than They Appear.

She lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin with her husband and a nutty Cairn Terrier that despises public radio. She blogs at www.jessriley.com; follow her on Twitter (@jessrileywrites) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/JessRileyAuthor).

Where Jess Riley Writes

I’m fascinated by where writers write. I love, for example, hearing that Sara Gruen basically wrote Water for Elephants in a tiny closet. I’m not in the closet, but I did write all of my novels at this sensible, particleboard desk that my husband and I somehow assembled years ago. I’ve got my PC, he’s got his Mac, and we share the same screen. All of my reference books are handy in two cozy little bookshelves: Stephen King’s On Writing, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, Save the Cat, Roget’s Super Thesaurus, several dictionaries and style guides, and 35,000 Baby Names because those characters don’t name themselves.

If I get writer’s block, I can spin around and play guitar. Well, I can look longingly at this wall and dream of a day when I might know how to play guitar.

If I’m feeling uninspired, I can turn to my right and stare out the window, listen to the birds singing and take in the vista: lush maples, a stately old white pine we’ve nicknamed Harold, my neighbor’s disintegrating rooftop. This is perhaps the most inspiring thing to look at, because it says to me, “If you don’t finish that novel, you will always live in this neighborhood and look out this window at your drug-dealing, degenerate neighbor’s crumbling shingles and clogged gutters.”

Every so often I wistfully cruise the Pottery Barn office collection, but there’s no direct link between a better desk and a better novel. And I honestly don’t want to be the smug jerk who writes a novel at the standardized, overpriced, bourgeois Pottery Barn desk. I want to inherit the desk in my father’s office, because it was handmade by inmates in a carpentry program. I want to find a desk at an old estate sale that’s made of reclaimed barn planks, that bears four generations of ink stains and scuffmarks and cheerful graffiti from three-year-olds.

Until then, I’ve got my utilitarian, pragmatic MDF cockpit--coffee-stained, watermarked, lumpy veneer and all. Close the door, turn on some tunes, write 2,000 words a day. Works for me. 

Indie Book Buzz: Quirk 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 small press publishing houses to share which of their upcoming releases they are most excited about!

This week's picks comes from Eric Smith,

Social Media & Marketing Coordinator at Quirk Books.

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher
(July 2, 2013)

When this proposal was brought into acquisitions, I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. I may have gasped. It was love at first sight. I wanted us to have this book so badly, and I’m thrilled that we’re publishing it.
The summary? It’s Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, retold in iambic pentameter, the way the Bard would have done it. Loaded with references to the Shakespearian canon, it’s a hilarious, smart read.
I still question how Ian was able to do this. He’s really a master of his art, and I can’t wait for this book to come out. Fun fact, when I met Ian for the first time, instead of shaking his hand like a professional, I high fived him in my office.

We’ve been posting images from the book and just released the book trailer. So for updates, go ahead and like the Facebook fan page for the book. You can also learn more about the book on Quirk’s website.

Countdown City: The Last Policeman Book II by Ben H. Winters
(July 16, 2013)

I still remember the acquisitions meeting when Quirk’s publisher Jason Rekulak brought up The Last Policeman, a series proposal from New York Times bestselling author Ben H. Winters.

When he explained it was a post apocalyptic police procedural (try saying that three times fast, I dare you) that would take place at the end of the world, months before a giant asteroid is set to hit Earth and eliminate life as we know it... well, needless to say, I was really excited.

The first book introduces readers to Hank Palace, a detective who refuses to quit doing his job. His experience navigating the crumbling landscape of a world on the brink of destruction made for one hell of a riveting read, and I loved getting the word out about the book.

Fast-forward a year. The Last Policeman went on to win an Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and has been translated into six languages. And the sequel, Countdown City, is set to hit stores July 16^th. Without dishing out any major spoilers, the second book picks up where the first left off, and the stakes for Hank are even higher.

If you want a sneak peek of Countdown City, you can check out an excerpt on Quirk’s website here. And if you’re not familiar with the series, read the beginning of the first one on Quirk’s site here.
And be sure to follow Ben H. Winters on Twitter (he’s a great guy), and like the fan page for The Last Policeman on Facebook.

Nick & Tesla’s High Voltage Danger Lab by Steve Hockensmith and Science Bob Pflugfelder
(November 5, 2013)

Quirk’s been venturing into new territory over the past two years, and one of those new places is the world of middle grade books. We started with Tales From Lovecraft Middle School, and now we’re publishing a new series, Nick & Tesla.

The series focuses on two incredibly bright kids, Nick and Tesla, and their adventures living with their zany, mad-scientist-ish uncle while their parents are away. They solve mysteries using the gadgets they build in their lab… and the kicker is the instructions for those projects come with the book! Kids can actually build along with Nick and Tesla (with parental supervision, of course).

Now, one of the great things about working in publishing is every once and a while you get to work with an author you’re already a fan of. Such is the case with the co-author of the book, New York Times bestseller Steve Hockensmith.

Before I came to Quirk, I had read his bestseller Dawn of the Dreadfuls (the prequel to Pride & Prejudice & Zombies), and his Edgar nominated Holmes on the Range books he published with Minotaur Books (check out the series list on Goodreads). He’s a talented writer and a hilarious guy, and I’m really thrilled to be swapping emails and tweets with him all day.

And chances are, you’ve seen Science Bob. Ever watch Jimmy Kimmel? He’s the scientist that pops up and does experiments on the show. Check out this video of him doing science with Kimmel. Cool stuff, right?

Combine Steve and Bob, and you’ve got the perfect team for this series. I can’t wait for it to come out, and for kids to be thrilled by the projects inside.

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Eric Smith is the Social Media & Marketing Manager at Quirk Books, and the author of The Geek's Guide to Dating (Dec 2013). He's hopelessly addicted to good books, bad movies, writing, and video games. You can follow him on Twitter at @ericsmithrocks and Quirk at @quirkbooks.