Indie Book Buzz: Exterminating Angel Press

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

This week's pick comes from Tod Davies, 

Editor and Publisher of Exterminating Angel Press

Divas, Dames & Daredevils by Mike Madrid
(Releases September 22, 2013--just in time for the Brooklyn Book Festival, where I'll be with the book!)

What the book is about and why EAP is publishing it:

As EAP's fabulous publicist, Molly Mikolowski puts it:

"Wonder Woman, Mary Marvel, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle ruled the pages of comic books in the 1940s, but many other heroines of the WWII era have been forgotten. Through twenty-eight full reproductions of vintage Golden Age comics, Divas, Dames & Daredevils reintroduces their ingenious abilities to mete out justice to Nazis, aliens, and evildoers of all kinds.

Each spine-tingling chapter opens with Mike Madrid’s insightful commentary about heroines at the dawn of the comic book industry and reveals a universe populated by extraordinary women—superheroes, reporters, galactic warriors, daring detectives, and ace fighter pilots—who protected America and the world with wit and guile.

In these pages, fans will also meet heroines with striking similarities to more modern superheroes, including The Spider Queen, who deployed web shooters twenty years before Spider Man, and Marga the Panther Woman, whose feral instincts and sharp claws tore up the bad guys long before Wolverine. These women may have been overlooked in the annals of history, but their influence on popular culture, and the heroes we’re passionate about today, is unmistakable."

She's not fooling--the above is exactly why Divas, Dames & Daredevils is an Exterminating Angel Press book. Mike's work is always about overlooked stories in popular culture, stories that suggest other ways of being than the default settings we are getting so tired of. Why, for example, don't we have any post-menopausal superheroines like Mother Hubbard, who is one of the stories in this collection? Why don't we have a superheroine who makes herself ugly to fight crime? These are interesting questions to me. And beyond that, the stories in here are amazingly great fun.

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While you're here, why not also check out their indiegogo campaign
"Give Us Your F***ing Money Please"...

and click here to read more about it and donate!

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Tod Davies, editor and publisher of indie Exterminating Angel Press, is also the author of Snotty Saves the Day and Lily the Silent, both from The History of Arcadia series, and the cooking memoirs Jam Today: A Diary of Cooking With What You've Got and Jam Today Too: The Revolution Will Not Be Catered (June 2014). Unsurprisingly, her attitude toward publishing is the same as her attitude toward literature, cooking, and, come to think of it, life in general: it's all about working with the best of what you have to find new ways of looking and new ways of being, and, in doing so, to rediscover the best of our humanity. Davies now lives with her husband, Alex, and their two dogs, in the alpine valley of Colestin, Oregon, and at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in Boulder, Colorado.

The Audio Series: Kim Henderson

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


Today, Kim Henderson reads from The Kind of Girl, which won the Seventh Annual Rose Metal Press Short Short Chapbook Contest.  Her stories have appeared in Tin House, H_NGM_N, Cutbank, River Styx, Chamber Four, The Southeast Review, New South, and elsewhere.  She lives with her husband on a mountain in Southern California, where she chairs the Creative Writing program at Idyllwild Arts Academy.

Click on the soundcloud link below to experience The Kind of Girl as read by the author:

The word on The Kind of Girl:

Thirteen-year-old girls sunbathe in a public park, watching boys they realize they will never have. Three young friends’ admiration for their P.E. teacher leads to unexpected consequences. A woman reflects on the brother who went missing when she was twelve, while another longs for a father just out of reach. One girl gives up on being bad while another wearies of being good. Kim Henderson’s collection The Kind of Girl ponders the ways girls and women find themselves defined—whether by their own hand or others’, their fantasies, or their unyielding environments. Here girls learn the complexity of adulthood and sexuality in stories of no more than 1,000 words each that are by turns absurd, realistic, and startlingly simple. Each story offers a fleeting but unflinching gaze into the mysteries, tragedies, and wonders of growing up.
*lifted with love from goodreads

Madeleine Reviews: The Man Who Watched The World End

3.5 stars -- Highly recommended to those who can stare down the apocalypse without flinching
259 pages
Read from 31 August to 5 September 2013
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Released: 15 April 2013

By guest reviewer Madeleine Maccar

If you're looking for a breezy, feel-good tale, The Man Who Watched the World End is probably not for you, nor will it be your kind of novel if you prefer endings that are neatly packaged with bright, optimistic bows that herald the joys awaiting a story's characters beyond the last page; however, if you like your fiction to be character-driven and insightful even as it teeters on the brink of society's obsolescence, then Chris Dietzel has written the book for you.

The novel begins as humanity's reign is ending. The children comprising mankind's final generation are alive only in the biological sense. They grow older but are human marionettes: silent, immobile, helpless to care for themselves, kept alive by the loving kin or kindhearted strangers upon whom they are wholly dependent. Decades later, these Blocks (so named "because it was as if their condition obstructed them from the world") and their siblings are the last proof of man's existence, reduced to pockets of senior citizens cohabiting in group settlements (though, if our narrator is indicative of the outliers, a handful are watching their and society's clocks run down in the familiar imprisonment of crumbling homes in derelict neighborhoods) as nature reclaims all that the elderly remnants of a once thriving species no longer have the youthful vigor to defend.

We see very little of this, as the reader's glimpse into the quieting world is a three-month period captured within one lonely old man's lovingly, diligently maintained diary. It is through the eyes of this man -- who, along with his Block brother, is the last human occupant of the otherwise abandoned and symbolically named neighborhood of Camelot -- that the audience bears witness to the conclusion of our earthly chapter. Since the world is ending not with a bang, not even with a whimper but a slow exhalation, there really isn't a whole lot to see other than one man's daily ritual of tending to the brother for whom his love becomes increasingly unyielding, hoping for a southward ride from a passing convoy on its way to one of the communal-living sites, and watching the local flora and fauna take back what man has only temporarily claimed. But this is not a story of man vs. nature, man vs. self or even man vs. improbable odds: It is, simply, an account of one man's life that turns flashbacks into a supporting cast and exposition into thoughtful narration.

The elderly gentleman tasked with narrating the end of society as he witnesses it carries the story almost entirely on his own: his brother is in a waking coma, his last remaining neighbors fled right before the novel's beginning, and the animals surrounding his house are more interested in his future carcass than his breathing companionship -- including the wild dogs and feral cats born of domestic pets so many litters ago. All he has are his memories, which are equally parts familiar and tinged with a foreign sorrow, as he was among the last wave of normally functioning children and grew up knowing that most babies born after him, like his brother, would never be shaken from their unresponsive silences.

As he reveals more of his past self and present worries, he paints a picture of a bygone era that is just recognizable enough to be eerie: His memories are just like any of ours, composites of his internal and external memories with a few of his parents' own that have stuck with him over the years, but interspersed with the sense that doors previously unknown to mankind were suddenly slamming shut forever as he and the rapidly diminishing number of "normal" children became the last to tackle the once-joyous milestones of growing up.

It is in showcasing such memories that Dietzel's attention to detail may shine the brightest, as the far-reaching impact of a species poignantly aware that it has no future was something he obviously (and successfully) considered from all sides. From baby items suddenly becoming a defunct business to the government finally summoning the foresight to ensure the last hiccup of humanity will at least be provided for in what should have been its grandchild-rich golden years, the international ripple effect of newborns lacking discernible brain functions is terrifying in both its implications and the ways in which Dietzel summarily dismantled familiar infrastructure. The secondhand glimpses of a world that has seen the last Hollywood film, the final World Series, the disbanding of governments, the emotional ramifications of tracking the youngest "normal" person, and the annihilation of the hope that keeps us moving forward are hard to watch even as past events, but Dietzel writes so matter-of-factly and compellingly that each memory becomes the ultimate example of how our very human curiosity forces us to ogle unfolding tragedy.

There are a few weak spots in what is an otherwise impressive debut novel. The greengrocer's apostrophe -- my sworn enemy -- popped in to say hullo a few times ("Dalmatians and Rottweiler's united"; "if the Johnson's just now decided...") and there were a few homophone issues, like "feint breaths," "slightly older then myself" and "faired better," that drove me a little batty. Less frequent were simple editing issues, such as "the last four decades years" and "He couldn't help but be letdown." Aside from a comparatively few lapses in mechanics, the biggest problem I had with the story itself was the government's Survival Bill, which "provided the last generation of functioning adults with resources to take care of themselves and their Block relatives." As a reader, it sometimes seemed like an easy way to sidestep the survival issues a vulnerable society would face in a more brutally overt end-world scenario; as a writer, though, I understood that tacking on the additional responsibility of a people left to fend for themselves without food, electricity and a reliable internet connection in increasingly hostile terrain would only detract from story Dietzel wanted to tell.

But for every one pitfall, The Man Who Watched the World End had a dozen more successes. It shows an incredible awareness of the human condition, of how loneliness and constant reminders of our fading presence in a world we once lorded over can affect everything from a single man to an entire desperate, dying species. The metaphors were resoundingly spot-on: I couldn't help but read the Block phenomenon as a cautionary tale foretelling the long-term dangers of what happens when children of Helicopter Parents grow up without any idea of how to function outside their protective bubbles, and having the narrator reside in Camelot -- a name nearly synonymous with so much promise and so much lost -- was a subtle yet effective touch. 

The Man Who Watched the World End is a tribute to humanity's prodigious knack for optimistic denial and its inability to believe that its end is not only possible but also inevitable. It is fraught with hopefulness and helplessness, a celebration of how the past and present can be powerful motivators in the absence of a future, and a touching example of how the strength of family in all its incarnations can often be enough to keep an individual going against the harshest of odds.

When she's not immersed in the high-octane world of financial proofreading, Madeleine Maccar alternately maintains and neglects her book-review blog, which can be found at ilikereadingandeating.blogspot.com.

Where Writers Write: JM Forrest

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 J M Forrest, author of humorous fantasy novel Orders From Above, published by Cosmic Egg Books, and a self-published collection of poetry, Reflections.

Jane achieved an Honours degree in English when she was 40, and followed that with an MA in Creative Writing ten years later. Her main interest is anything to do with the paranormal.

She lives in a small Wiltshire village with her Greek husband, George, and crossbreed dog, Darcy. You can find out more about her on her website, www.jmforrest.com

Where JM Forrest Writes

I have scribbled stories and poems practically since I learned to write, so over the years I have sat on many chairs at many desks and tables. When I was younger I wrote, of course, with pencils and pens, and then, having learned to type when I started work, I progressed through manual and electric typewriters to word processors, desktops and laptop computers. Still though, I craft poems using pen and paper before putting them onto computer, crossing out and re-working as I go, until I end up with writing all over the page in different directions. Stories and novels are typed start to finish, as I feel a real connection from brain to fingers to keyboard when working on prose, and I can type just about as fast as I can think.

I've lived in my current home for nearly 6 years, a place bought as a DIY project. As we were transforming it I was too busy to write much, but when I did, it was usually at the dining table. This meant having to clear everything away so we could have our evening meal there, and putting it all back out again the next day.

Producing Reflections in 2011 meant taking over my husband's office as well as the dining table, as that's where our printer is, and formatting is so much easier on the bigger screen of his PC.

Fed up with me totally usurping his space, George offered to build me a studio in the garden. Well, I could hardly say no, now could I? And here it is, complete with beamed ceiling to match the house:

My own attempts at art hang on the walls, my favourite books and CD's are in the bookcase, and special gifts from special friends are on display. I absolutely love it. To the left as you look in, there are cupboards on the wall, and a long worktop where I can spread out my papers if I'm writing, or work on my creative hobbies of making greetings cards and stained glass Christmas tree decorations.

The writing desk started out against the back wall (not good, according to Feng Shui, as I had my back to the doors), then it was against the side wall. I recently moved it to how it is here, facing the double doors, and hence the lovely view to our garden and beyond.

This is my place. I still sometimes use the office and the dining room, but no-one is allowed into my studio without invitation. Oh, except for the dog. He's welcome everywhere!

It can take me ages to settle down to a writing session, as I am excellent at finding displacement activities: moving furniture around /defrosting the fridge /tidying my wardrobes / playing Spider Patience. But when I do get started, I'll work for many hours at a time, with just a few brief breaks to make tea, coffee, or something to eat. I get right inside the story, to the point where I think it is more real than anything else around me.

When I need to get away from the laptop to think about my characters and plotlines, I take Darcy across the beautiful fields nearby and let Nature help me to focus. I talk out loud, acting out the dialogues to ensure they sound authentic. At first, this alarmed quite a few fellow dog walkers, but I think now they are used to seeing this crazy woman strolling along, gesticulating and chattering away to herself!

David David Katzman's Would You Rather

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

David David Katzman's 

Would You Rather

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

Definitely tongue because these feet were made for walkin'.

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

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

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

How do you know I'm not dead already?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I would rather an angry Dylan Thomas hit Ayn Rand.

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

Speaking in Haiku

Gives voice to profound wisdom

Writing is stupid.

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

Depends on which burns better.

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

This one hits a little too close to home.

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

The latter, obviously.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Check back next week to see what Mason Johnson would rather

and see his answer to David's question:

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

  

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

Indie Book Buzz: Red Hen Press

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

This week's pick comes from Gabriela Morales, 

Publicity Assistant for Red Hen Press.

Title: Song for Chance

Author: John Van Kirk

Release date: August 1, 2013

Publisher: Red Hen Press

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

Why you should [definitely] read it:

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

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

CCLaP: Long Live Us

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

Another CCLaP book is born!

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

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

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

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

Ninian "really enjoyed this quirky collection". 

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

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

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

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

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

(or download a free pdf there, too)

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

The Audio Series: David Harris-Gershon

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


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

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

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

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

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

Bookstore Spotlight: Quimby's

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

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

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

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

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

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

Info about our events are here:

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

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

More info at our FAQs here.

Book Review: Happyland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Joshua Mohr Takes it to the Toilet

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

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

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

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

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

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

Courtney Elizabeth Mauk's Would You Rather

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

Courtney Elizabeth Mauk's 

Would You Rather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

50 Shades. At least it would provide some amusement.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and see his answer to Courtney's question:

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

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