Indie Ink Runs Deep: Anne Michaud

Every now and then I manage to talk a small press author into showing us a little skin... tattooed skin, that is. I know there are websites and books out there that have been-there-done-that already, but I hadn't seen one with a specific focus on the authors and publishers of the small press community. Whether it's the influence for their book, influenced by their book, or completely unrelated to the book, we get to hear the story behind their indie ink....


Today's ink story comes from Anne Michaud, she who likes dark things never grew up. She never stopped listening to gothic, industrial and alternative bands like when she was fifteen. She always loved to read horror and dystopia and fantasy, where doom and gloom drip from the pages. She who was supposed to make films, decided to write short stories, novelettes and novels instead. She, who’s had her films listed on festival programs, has been printed in a dozen anthologies and magazines since. Now, novels bearing her name are seeing the world, one title after the other.

She who likes dark things prefers night to day, rain to sun, and reading to anything else. She blogs http://annecmichaud.com ; She tweets @annecmichaud ; She Facebooks https://www.facebook.com/annecmichaud

Sad Ghost

I love tattoos, I always crave more – then again, don’t we all? My first (The Crow in dark shadow, low back) was done almost 20 years ago, because it took me that long to find exactly what I wanted... and it came my way over social media, of all places.

My friend posted this on Facebook, and that was it, I was in love: macabre and creepy, the black shadow begged to be inked on my skin. I knew that once it would be etched on the outside of my forearm, my sad ghost would leave one clear message to anyone who saw it: night is filled with shadows.

So I went to get it done and it hurt, burned, itched and scaled. It took me a few months to get acquainted with my new tat; not only was the sad ghost quite a piece to take in, but whenever I looked in the mirror, it seemed to move by itself, as if the ink settled after a while. And by the time the black sunk in, it was too late, I was in love.

It didn’t end there, this obsession with my sad ghost. When it was time to come up with ideas to promote the entire set of my paranormal books, I urged the artist Gina Casey to use my tattoo as a starter point… and much like the cover of my book Hunter’s Trap, she didn’t disappoint with the bookmark, either.

And now that I wear the sad ghost on my arm, I can only hope to do it justice and fill the night with shadows, just like him.

Book Review: A Red Woman Was Crying

Read 9/3/14 - 9/11/14
3 Stars - Recommended to fans of interconnected stories / stories that take place in a foreign setting, told from a foreign perspective
Pages: 266
Publisher: Saddle Road Press
Released: 2013


An American eco-anthropologist relocates himself to the Bougainville Island in the 1960's with the intent of studying the group of native Nagovisi there. Instead, he finds himself becoming an active member of their tribe, viewed as student and fellow clan-member, and the subject of the Nagovisi's own curiosities.

Based on the real life research of author Don Mitchell, these fictional narrations closely mirror the interactions and experiences Don had with the Nagovisi people. But there's a twist. The narratives are written from the Nagovisi point of view. Natural born story tellers and teachers, the tribe members each get an opportunity to share their thoughts and conversations with Elliott - our fictional anthropologist protagonist - as well as dishing up the dirt on some of their local legends. It's a clever spin on the short story with each story containing a vivid, colorful peek into their fears, uncertainties, and willingness, though not without wariness, in accepting a white man into their lives. And through these stories, the reader is then able to piece together just who this Elliott character is.

This collection of "Stories from Nagovisi", unlike anything I've read before and not likely to match anything I'll read going forward, is both sensitive and emotionally jarring. The writing is simple and beautific, perfectly complimenting what life in the bush must have been like back then. Clan members sit in their "cookhouses" and chew betel to pass the time. They teach Elliott their ways and immerse him in their daily chores. But this collection is also harsh, direct, and unpredictable, as is the culture of those who are narrating. Dogs are trained to dislike different races and are killed without a second thought when they misbehave. Each clan operates under its own rules and laws. Trust is hard to come by and when the clan feels threatened, it's leader, Mesiamo, will lay false blame to control the threat, which results in fighting and unchecked murder, all of which is forgiven once each side "becomes even".

Sparse and extremely straight forward, A Red Woman Was Crying breaks down the barriers and allows its readers to get directly into the heads of the Nagovisi; no holds barred, no punches pulled. The subtle beauty of a foreign way of life shines through in Don's capable hands.



*This book will be featured in an upcoming TNBBC Author/Reader Discussion: the giveaway will be held during the first week of December, with the week-long discussion taking place in mid-January. Details will be released as we get closer to the giveaway date.

*My review is in no way colored by the fact that we've selected this title for the discussion series. 

Indie Spotlight: Emily Verona and Inkshares

Emily reached out to me a few weeks ago to introduce me to her upcoming Conversations: A Collection of Short Stories, which she's planning to publish through Inkshares, a crowdfunding website.  

As Emily was explaining the thought process behind her book and the path she was taking to get it published, I thought the idea of crowdfunding publisher was interesting; I felt there was a guest post buried in there. And so I asked her to share her story with you....

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

I write stories. Crack open the core of me and words would undoubtedly pour out. It has always been this way, for as long as I can remember.

At the age of eight I was scribbling stories in notebooks, fascinated by the ways in which people interact with one another and try so very hard to understand themselves. I wrote before I could spell or had anything close to legible penmanship. I wrote before I knew what it was to grow or to live. I wrote even before I knew what it meant to be a writer. 

As the years passed I developed an equally passionate interest in film, and it has been the blending of literature and cinema that has had the greatest impact on me. From dialogue-fueled films and reflective, quiet novels I have shaped my style. I began telling people that I wanted to be the literary love child of Jane Austen and FIGHT CLUB (the film, not the book). The comparison is surely strange and seemingly nonsensical, but I've remained committed to it all the same. 

Currently I am promoting my latest work, CONVERSATIONS: A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES through Inkshares publishing. This contemporary work of fiction is composed of conversations, each of which stands as a separate story. These conversations take many forms, and often lead to very different results, but all of them explore the distinguishing marks of human nature.

This idea of "real-time" fiction is something I wanted to explore while earning my Bachelors degree. I was fascinated by films like Alfred Hitchcock's ROPE (1948), where dialogs serves primarily as action and the characters are forced to interact in a single setting.

It is not easy to put out a fiction collection. On top of an already competitive market, most publishers aren't looking for a short story collection unless it is tied to an already established author. Knowing this, I decided to opt for a slightly more unconventional publishing route.

Inkshares is a new publishing model based on the idea of reader-promoted content. Through crowd funding,  authors raise support for their work. Those interested in purchasing the book may do so via a donation, though they are free to make non-purchased based donations in any amount. If the funding goal is reached, contributors receive their copy of the book. If the goal is not reached, then all donations are refunded.

When that designated goal is reached Inkshares steps in as the publisher, backing the book by editing, designing, producing, and distributing the work locally and around the country. The idea behind this is that readers, not companies, decide what they want their books to be.

My aim is to publish a collection of fiction that means something and that upon reading these stories people are able to explore the bruised and battered nature of humanity.

For more on the project, feel free to visit: https://www.inkshares.com/projects/conversations-a-collection-of-short-stories

BIO

Emily Ruth Verona received her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and Cinema Studies from The State University of New York at Purchase.  She is the recipient of the 2014 Pinch Literary Award in Fiction and a 2014 Jane Austen Short Story Award Finalist. Previous publication credits include work featured in Read. Learn. Write., Fifty Word Stories, The Toast, Popmatters, Bibliosmiles, and Enstars. She lives in New Jersey with a rather small dog.

For more, visit www.emilyruthverona.com

The Amado Women Blog Tour

Always flattered to be a part of the Grab the Lapels blog tours because Melanie Page is doing such wonderful things to get women writers the exposure and attention they deserve. In today's blog tour post, Desiree shares an excerpt from her novel The Amado Women, then breaks down the excerpt, sharing some insights. 

Today is the second stop of Désirée Zamorano’s virtual book tour celebrating her new novel. Mercy Amado has raised three girls, protecting them from their cheating father by leaving him. But Mercy’s love can only reach so far when her children are adults, as Sylvia, Celeste, and Nataly must make their own choices to fight or succumb, leave or return, to love or pay penance. When tragedy strikes in Sylvia’s life, Mercy, Celeste, and Nataly gather support her, but their familial love may not be enough for them to remain close as the secrets in their histories surface. Forgiveness may not be accepted. Fiercely independent, intelligent, they are The Amado Women.

EXCERPT FROM THE AMADO WOMEN:

[1] Nataly inspected the chintz teapot, the silver tea strainer, the black lapsang souchong that the server poured. The server did a deft job of it too, not a drip or a trickle down the teacup or teapot to disturb or distract from the floral pattern. Nataly dissolved a misshapen lump of brownish sugar into her cup with a heavy silverplate teaspoon and sipped. The table, the settings, the people around her, her sisters, her mother, dissolved into amber. Even Celeste. The tea was warm, smoky and sweet. She inhaled the amber and felt herself about to dissolve as well until she heard Celeste talking to their mother about another bill she had gotten in their father’s name. “Just send it to me, I’ll take care of it.” Celeste said. [2]

And she would too. She did everything she said she’d do. People like that, like Celeste, were fierce and frightening. But not to Nataly. She knew Celeste had constructed and surrounded herself in a plaster artifice. It was difficult to look at this Celeste. She wasn’t real.

Nataly watched her mother unwrap Celeste’s gift: a necklace with a glass pendant. The glass glowed with a light Nataly had not seen before. It swirled green and blue, streaked with gold. It was luminous. Nataly’s frame was crude and artless in comparison.

“I saw it in Venice and thought of you,” Celeste said. [3]

Nataly set her teacup down noisily. They turned towards her. “Really? Oh, come off it.” Celeste looked at Nataly as if not understanding the language. Then she turned back to their mother. Nataly stabbed a scone with a small butter knife, spread the clotted cream thickly over it, added raspberry jam, swallowed without tasting and choked on her mouthful. It was Sylvia who patted her back, pressed a glass of ice water on her and ultimately walked her towards the ladies’ lounge where Nataly could clean her sheer blouse of the spray of half eaten food. [4]

“So you’re against me too,” Nataly said, wiping her shirt with a wash cloth. The wet cloth left white fibers and an unattractive smear of water behind.

“For a baby sister, you sure got the baby role down. Look, nobody’s against you. Be a big girl and put on a pretty face. While you can,” Sylvia winked at her. [5]

“Don’t you see what Celeste’s doing?” If Sylvia asked Nataly what she thought Celeste was doing, Nataly wouldn’t know how to explain it. It was just a humiliating feeling that Celeste was, was—what? Winning. Celeste was winning and Nataly had lost. But lost what? [6]

“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this,” Sylvia said. “I am Switzerland. I’m not going to say a bad thing about Celeste to you, and I’m not going to say a bad thing about you to Celeste.”

“I’ll bet that news will go over well with her.”

Sylvia held Nataly’s hands and said. “Nataly, I already have two children. You need to grow up.”

“What about Celeste? She needs to grow up.”

“I’m talking to you.”

Mercy looked around the table at her daughters: Celeste with her spiky brown hair and serious eyes. Sylvia, the curvy mama who had given her grandchildren, Nataly, the artist, the minx. Their windowside table was filled with a view of the terrace. The marine layer obscured the beach and the sea beyond. It didn’t matter to Mercy. Where your heart lies, there lies your treasure also. Her treasure was seated at this table.

“Where would I be without you three? You are my life.” [7]

INSIGHTS FROM DÉSIRÉE ZAMORANO:

[1]. The setting is the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Beach, California. Mercy, although perhaps not the most sophisticated, is all about glamor, and she chose this spot, far for all of them to get there, to celebrate her 60th. I thought this setting embodied her aspirations. The scene of the four women interacting moved in and out of the drafts--but ultimately it seemed a wonderful way of displaying their interactions and tensions early in the book.

[2]. Nataly, as a waitress, has a keen eye for good and poor service. Although not specifically named in the book, Nataly also has synesthesia; in other words, her senses work differently from most of us. Kind of like reading auras, she sees the colors of the energy or emotions around people and objects. The sugar, the setting, have lulled her into an almost calm moment, shattered by Celeste’s benign comment.

[3]. Here I wanted to display Celeste’s sophistication. The object is beautiful, and the reader knows that Celeste is a world traveler.

[4]. Nataly takes everything Celeste does personally--and has been wounded by what she now perceives as the inadequacy of her own birthday gift to her mother. I thought this was quite a universal feeling, the sense of not measuring up, and honed it for Nataly, who, in the manner of the immature, just continues to self-sabotage.

[5]. Sylvia, as the middle child, is trying to lighten the moment. Nataly, so offended by Celeste, lets Sylvia’s words roll right off of her. And Nataly is never ever offended by Sylvia, because she has never felt wounded by Sylvia.

[6]. How can one daughter be winning and another lose? Nataly is in a competition with Celeste, a competition that Celeste is unaware of, and one in which Nataly is keeping score. This really is about Nataly’s sense of abandonment.

[7]. Here I wanted to help the reader see how Mercy perceives her daughters, and how much she is oblivious to the undercurrents, and yet passionately loves them all. The scripture quotation hints at the subtle religious elements in the novel.

Follow along with the blog tour! Tomorrow, stop by [PANK] blog to read an interview with Désirée about The Amado Women. Also, check out yesterday’s stop at the blog PhD in Creative Writing.

Désirée Zamorano is Pushcart prize nominee, and award-winning short story author, Désirée has wrestled with culture, identity, and the invisibility of Latinas from early on, and addressed that in her commentaries, which have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Latino USA. She delights in the exploration of contemporary issues of injustice and inequity, via her mystery series featuring private investigator, Inez Leon (Lucky Bat Books). Human Cargo was Latinidad's mystery pick of the year.

The Amado Women has been listed among 5 Must-Read Books for Summer 2014 by Remezcla, and has been named among Eleven Moving Beach Reads That'll Have You Weeping in Your Pina Colada by Bustle. It was selected as the August 2014 Book of the Month for the Los Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club.

Eric Shonkwiler'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. 

Eric Shonkwiler's 

Would You Rather

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

Tongue. Do I not have hands, I guess? This cuts down productivity no matter what. I have to pause to drink coffee.

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

I’ll take the money, Regis. I can fade into obscurity without regret.

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

As above, I’ll take the immediate gratification. Give it now, while I can enjoy it.

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

Writing without conjunctions seems like a smaller restriction than beginning every sentence with one.

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?

Tattooed, I think. But put my favorite passages where I can read them easily. (It’s McCarthy’s Suttree, by the way. I don’t know that I have the real estate for this tattoo. I’m not a terribly big dude.)

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?

I’d like to think that I’ll write a lot of books, in my career. I wouldn’t be so ashamed of one book that puts me on all the lists if it meant my other books get widely read. Writing is my joy, but at the end of the day, I want that joy to be shared.

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

I think this depends on how we’re defining hate. Do I hate the character because he or she objectively is poorly written? Or is it because s/he’s bad? I can live with writing a character I hate. Strong emotion one way or the other is good, I think, when reacting to characters in that way. My protagonists are rarely objectively good people, and I’ve certainly written people that were pieces of shit, before.

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

Blood as ink. Again, limited real estate when it comes to skin.

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

I think I’d sooner become a character. Reenacting the novel in reality means the world falls to pieces. I’d sooner save people that (though I think that fall is likely coming down the pike).

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

No punctuation or capitalization. I could see some folks saying this is a natural progression for my style.

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

Ban it! Let’s see some revolt up in here.

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

I’d much sooner be hit on by Dylan Thomas. We could have a few whiskeys and get in a fistfight.

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

Speaking. I think eventually you’d get good at it, and it would become rather neat.

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

I’ll try to decipher the cuneiform, thank you.

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

Rip it apart. Publicity’s publicity, and I have to eat somehow.

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

Love me or hate me, I’d end up with a lot of followers.

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

Pens and paper. Ultimately, my real writing has to occur on the computer. I only take notes on pen and paper some of the time.

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

I don’t think I have tippy-toes. I’ve tried to do that ballet move where you stand right on the tips of your toes, and no-can-do. I would, however, prefer trying it to lying on my back the whole time.

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

Naked. I’ve been working out. “David searched for his beach ball. He asked the lady nearby. Have you seen a beach ball around here, ma’am? Looks, like, this? And he flexed his arms downward. I think it might be over...there? He pointed with his arm curled.” And of course I act all this out on stage.

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? 

Probably the latter. I think I’m more quickly infuriated by a poorly-crafted sentence than one in which nothing much happens. Suttree’s my favorite book, as I said, and it’s mostly about a really smart dude who wanders around getting drunk and fishing. Love the hell out of it.

Eric Shonkwiler has had writing appear in Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Fiddleblack, [PANK] Magazine, Midwestern Gothic, and elsewhere. He received his MFA in Fiction from University of California-Riverside, where he was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellowship Award, and is the author of the novel, Above All Men, a 2014 Midwest Connections Pick published by MG Press. He was born and raised in Ohio and has lived and worked in every contiguous U.S. time zone. You can find him at ericshonkwiler.com and @eshonkwiler.

Book Review: Palo Alto

Read 8/31/14 - 9/2/14
3 Stars - Recommended to people who just can't pass up celebrity lit and read it knowing not to expect too much
Pages: 224
Publisher: Scribner
Released: 2009


I have a confession to make. I am oddly drawn to the things James Franco does. I don't know why I am drawn to them because I don't particularly care for him (I don't know about you but I find him to be a little... sleazy) and 99.999% of the time, I am guaranteed to be underwhelmed. But if there is a James Franco movie added to Netflix, I will usually end up watching it. If there is an article on him floating around Twitter, I will usually end up reading it. If there is a book written by him, and the price is right, I'll probably end up buying it.

And in this case, that's exactly what happened. Palo Alto was on sale for $2.99 over at Amazon and I figured "well, we've got a 50 / 50 shot of this book being something amazing or something incredibly god-awful, and I'm ok with paying a few bucks to find out".

A total newb to all things literary by Franco, having so far only been exposed to him as actor and cologne model - and of course, Gary Shteyngart's boyfriend in that one book trailer - I really wasn't sure what to expect, so I went in with extremely low, and I mean LOW, expectations. I've read Steve Martin (loved everything he's written with the exception of An Object of Beauty) and Ethan Hawke (for the longest time his The Hottest State was a go-to read for me - keep in mind I was just leaving my teens and getting into my first really serious relationship and that book spoke volumes to me!) and I know my own tastes so I like to think I know how to pick 'em...

...so it's strange for me to admit that I neither loved nor hated this collection of interwoven stories. For starters, I got the strong impression that Franco's style wasn't really HIS style, almost as if he was trying to write like someone else. I know he idolizes Hemingway, but I haven't read enough Hemingway to know whether he's copycatting. He used a lot of analogies yet his writing seemed to be intentionally simplistic at the same time. Which is kind of contradictory, right? And he was incredibly repetitive throughout the entire collection. I can't tell you how many times I was re-introduced to the same group of characters by their nationalities or reminded of what their parents did for a living. Ugh. It'd be like the equivalent of going with your spouse to their work parties, and having to go through formal introductions with them every. single. time. you. went. I get it! Ok! Ed's father is a white mathematics professor and his mother is korean, so that makes him half korean half white, god, shuddup already! I think I'm starting to develop a twitch.

Another thing that made me twitchy - all of his stories are written in first person, which normally wouldn't bother me, except Franco kept switching narrators with each story and didn't introduce us to who it was until later on. So there was this extreme feeling of disconnect and confusion during those first few opening paragraphs when you asked yourself "ok, wait, is this written from a GIRL'S perspective? A guy wouldn't think like that, so there's no way this is still Teddy narrating, right?" And because the stories were all about this one particular group of teen aged kids, there was this unsettling feeling of familiarity as Franco bounced us back and forth in time and place from story to story. I knew the group, and was getting used to them as individuals but now I wasn't certain of the timeframe. "Oh, hang on, one of them is behind the wheel? Then this must be in High School, not Junior High. But in the last story they were all getting shit faced, and weren't they like, what, thirteen in that one? Shit. I'm so confused right now." There really seemed to be no sequence or reasoning behind how the stories were lined up within the collection. The result? I had all the pieces to the puzzle, I just couldn't figure out how they all fit together linearly. It was like trying to sort out a deck of cards, except all the cards had only the suits on them and no numbers.

His characters were always up to something - drugs, drinking, drunk driving, partying, sex, oh my god all of the sex these little kids were having, one on one, two and three on one, there were even vegetables at one point! They were portrayed as mostly shallow and devil-may-care, but then there were these moments where the kids would start waxing poetic and get all deep on each other. Those were some major eye-roll moments for me. Franco was pushing all of my buttons. I couldn't help it.

But for all of that, the stories, as individual stories, weren't all that bad. As a collection, they didn't stand up well together at all. But individually, there were pretty ok. Some of the shenanigans his characters got up to brought back memories of my own (granted, they were much tamer) - sneaking out of the bedroom window, or sneaking boys IN the window, while the parents were sleeping; hanging out under the pier at night, chugging SoCo and OJ around a campfire with a bunch of friends; driving around the main stretches with the windows down and the music up, looking for places to stir up some trouble...

Surprisingly not as bad as I had been prepared for, Palo Alto made for an interesting two day read. Definitely worth the few clams I dropped to sate my curiosity but also a pretty strong deterrent for any future curiosities I might start to develop.

Book Review: Isolation

Read 8/26/14 - 8/28/14
4 Stars - Strongly Recommended to fans of all things Zombieeeeee
Kindle Ebook
Publisher: Infected Books (self published)
Released: August 2014


Man, has it been awhile since I've had an opportunity to sink my teeth into some David Moody zombie lit! And I suppose I couldn't have timed it any better since I hear this collection may be the final-curtain-call-of-all-things-zombie for him. Sad news for the genre, but super exciting news for whichever genre of fiction David lays his hands to next.

In Isolation, the title novella in this collection, we meet Keith. Before the infection that turned the whole world into bumbling, stumbling, oozing walking dead, he was a nobody pencil pusher pulling a nine-to-five in the office, and a five-to-nine at home as his drunken dad's ass-wiper and spoon-feeder. Initially surviving the zombie apocalypse made him realize just how uncomfortable he is with death, but it sure as hell broke him free from his boring ole routine. After a nearly fatal trip out to the local grocery store, he meets up with Anna, a young but incredibly confident chick who doesn't bat an eye as she busts up some zombie skull. She's hunkering down in the middle of the city park, in a caretaker's shed, and Keith follows her there like a little lost puppy, promising to do all of the cooking if she does all of the killing.

As the days crawl by, we watch a change come over the reluctant roomies, and once Keith is forced to kill his first zombie, there's no going back to the way things were.

True to form, Isolation's zombies never gnaw down on the living. But that doesn't make the world David's created any less terrifying. As I read the story, I kept thinking "shit, if the zombie apocalypse ever came, I'd die for sure. I'd die die die die." I'm blind without my contacts, and in the apocalypse I'd be forced to wear my glasses, cause who'd have time to store them and clean them and put them in and take them out, and in the fight to save my life, if I'm wearing my glasses, I guarantee they'd end up broken. Without them, I'd probably mistake a zombie for a tree and wander in too close and end up eaten. Or, because I'm certain I've got tinnitus, with all that crazy ringing in my ears, I'm sure I'd never hear those dead fuckers shuffling up behind me and one would be chewing through my neck before I knew what was happening. Or, because I'm no girl scout, I'm sure I'd eat some poison berries IF (and that's a big ass mother fucking IF) I managed to live long enough with my poor vision and horrible hearing to outlast whatever canned food I could scrounge up. But I'd never make it on my own. I'm just not cut out to survive a zombie take-over. My best bet would be to hole up with a bunch of badass strangers and hide like a little shit-scared kid while they hack and saw their way through the dead bodies....

So yeah, while all of this is going through my head, Isolation comes to an end, and I get started on the five short stories that make up the rest of the collection. Each one offers a unique peek into the world of the zombie apocalypse.

Who We Used to Be is written from the perspective of cognizant zombies; zombies who are aware of the fact they've just died, and are now awakening into a strange and confusing hell where all they wish they could do is escape their ever-decaying bodies.

Tightropes follows a member of the "clean up crew", a group of government (?) survivors who blitz infected areas. This particular guy apparently can't keep it in his pants, EVEN in the middle of a zombie take-over, and dude gets in over his head cheating on his wife. All that he works to clean up eventually comes back to bite him in the end. (see what I did there. Bite him. It's a zombie story. Huh. Huhuhuh.)

In Muriel, the sole survivor is trucking along, doing his thing, until he sees a woman he knew from his childhood, and suddenly, he's knocked off his game.

And in the final story, Wish I Was Here, we read about a zombie chick was appears to be aimlessly wandering around a neighborhood, trying to remember who she is and where she's from. Though she struggles to recall, her feet seem to know exactly where they are taking her.

Kudos to David Moody for taking what could easily become a tired ole genre in less capable hands and bringing it to life, time and time again, in new and fascinating ways.

I will always make time to read a Moody.

Book Review: The Poor Man's Guide to an Affordable, Painless Suicide

Read 8/22/14 - 8/24/14
4 Stars - Strongly Recommended for fans of short stories that read like novels and beg for you to hold them and hug them and tell them everything will be ok
Pages: 135
Publisher: Alternating Current Press
Released: July 2014


(Goodreads states that it took me two days to read this book. But you should know that I read the better part of its 135 pages in one sitting. Because once I got started, it was just so hard to put down.)

Damn. I should have started writing the review for this book the moment I finished reading it. I feel as though, flipping through it now, nothing I say at this point will be able to properly capture the spell I was under as I was reading it. That magical grip is gone now... a memory I wish I could call back... sigh.

This is Schuler Benson's debut - a collection of twelve stories that take place in what feels like an intimate southern town where everybody knows everyone else and strangers are never welcome. A place where your past will always haunt you. And a place you just can't seem to escape. It's a place that reeks of hopelessness and suffering. The kind that seeps into your pores and burrows deep inside you.

It's a place Schuler created with pen and paper and yet it lives and breathes on the pages... Location is just as much a character in these stories as his characters are.

The collection is broken out into three parts - The Heart, The Head, The Hands.

The characters in the stories that are filed away under The Heart hold their struggles close to their chest; theirs is a sick love. In Pet Wife, a clouded perception is pulled sharply into focus when an unhappy wife stumbles across an abandoned lawn mower in a field. In the title story, a funeral parlor employee watches a mother grieve strangely over the loss of her little child as he deals with his own strange reaction to the inevitable death of his step-father.

Those stories that are contained with The Head appear to deal with mental illness and broken minds. A beaten woman evolves into something inhuman under the hurtful hands of her husband in Ole Hazel. In Ace Damage, we see the effects of a cult following on a young woman and her adopted brother.

Within The Hands, the pains these people suffer appear to be at their own hand or the hands of others. Queen Anne Black Din outlines the fear and ultimate release of a woman and the group of children she rescues from a shelter during a severe tornado storm. Cleaner Miranda tells the story of a super efficient bulimic woman. And then there's the chair that is set to burning out in the middle of nowhere in Grace.

Through these stories, we are introduced to simple people who wake to find themselves in strange circumstances. And through his soothing, sentimental prose, the pain and prolonged suffering of Benson's characters awakens something inside of us. A tickle of fear, a pinprick of curiosity, an uncomfortable hitch in our chests.

This won't be the last you see of Schuler Benson.

Book Giveaway: The Last Good Halloween

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

It's the first of the month and you know what that means.

It's time to bring you October's Author/Reader Discussion book!

We will be reading and discussing The Last Good Halloween

with author Giano Cromley

Giano and his publisher have made a total of 20 copies available for us in a variety of formats!

10 print copies (for US residents only)

and

10 digital copies (in your choice of PDF, mobi, or Epub)

Here's the goodreads description to whet your appetite:

Like most teenagers, Kirby Russo doesn't want much: a calm home life, a couple close friends, a sense of direction and purpose. And a chance to relax with a cocktail now and then. And maybe some privacy whenever fantasy and hormones get the better of him. But his world's upended when he comes home from computer camp to find his stepfather gone and his mom sleeping with their neighbor. In short order, he has to plan an epic road trip to save his family. Never mind the fact that he's at that age where you take yourself seriously, but no one else does. Never mind the fact that he doesn't have a car--it's really more like borrowing when it's a friend's parent's car and they won't know it's gone. And never mind the fact that he doesn't know as much about life as he thinks he does.

This giveaway will run through September 8th. 

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

Here's how to enter:

1 - Leave a comment here or in the giveaway thread over at TNBBC on goodreads, stating why you'd like to receive a copy of the book, what format you prefer (choose one option from above), and where you reside. Remember, only US residents can win a paper copy!. 

ONLY COMMENT ONCE. MULTIPLE COMMENTS DO NOT GAIN YOU ADDITIONAL CHANCES TO WIN.

2 - State that you agree to participate in the group read book discussion that will run from October 20th through September 26st. Giano Cromley has agreed to participate in the discussion and will be available to answer any questions you may have for him. 

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

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

GOOD LUCK!!!!

Indie Spotlight: Chris Dietzel

Chris Dietzel has a new book coming out.

And as is our habit here at TNBBC, we love to help our previous posters celebrate!

Be sure to check out The Hauntings of Playing God! But first, check out this guest essay, where Chris shares some poignant "lessons" he's learned along the way.

Lessons Learned

The first guest blog I ever wrote was a piece for this very website about how publishing novels is more difficult than fighting mixed martial arts (MMA) in a cage. Almost two years have passed since that blog post and I’ve learned a heck of a lot about the world of indie publishing.

- When writers start out, they have a vision that some massively popular national book critic will review their novel and propel it to bestseller status. I know because I had that same fantasy. But that book critic doesn’t give a damn about your indie book or mine or anyone else’s. The indie book revolution was propelled by people who were willing to feature and review indie books, and those same people are the driving force behind each indie authors success. It’s places like Thenextbestbookblog that are critical for indie authors, not some renowned critic.

- I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a good book discussion come to a screeching halt after an indie author jumped in to talk about his or her own book. I know why they do it—the desperate need to let people know about the book they’ve worked so hard on can certainly be enticing—but what I’ve found is that a good book, with a good cover, is what’s really important. Readers like to read good books.  That’s obvious. But readers also like to tell their friends about the good books they’ve read. It might take a while, but if your book is too good to put down, someone will read it and tell their friends to do the same. It’s a lot less likely that a reader will give your book a chance, though, if all you ever do is talk about yourself and your novels.

- Write the stories you want to write. Whether it’s kid magicians or zombies, there will always be a hot genre in books. But rather than trying to get in on the trend, write to what you actually care about. Readers are smart people; they can tell if you care about your characters and your story. Even if you’re writing about elderly werewolves while everyone else is writing about teenage vampires, if you’re passionate about what you’re writing, readers will pick up on it. I’m so glad I stuck with telling the types of stories I would like to read myself. My books aren’t for everyone, but if I wrote a story to make everyone else happy, I’d be pretty miserable myself.

The past two years have been incredible. And while I’m sure I’ll have even more lessons learned in another two years, I wouldn’t change a single thing. And thank you to Thenextbestbookblog for giving me a chance to share my thoughts.

Happy reading, everyone.

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

Chris graduated from Western Maryland College (McDaniel College).  He currently lives outside Washington D.C.  His dream is to write the same kind of stories that have inspired him over the years. His short stories have appeared in Temenos, Foliate Oak, and Down in the Dirt. His first two books, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END and A DIFFERENT ALCHEMY, both became Amazon bestsellers. His third book, THE HAUNTINGS OF PLAYING GOD, comes out August 28^th.

More information about the author and his books, go to: http://www.watchtheworldend.com, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7048334.Chris_Dietzel, 

http://www.amazon.com/Chris-Dietzel/e/B00CC1GU54/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1 and https://www.facebook.com/TheHauntingsOfPlayingGod

Janina Matthewson's Guide to Books & Booze

We here at TNBBC love participating in blog tours. We especially dig being the ones to kick them off! And so, we introduce you to Janina Mathewson and her novel OF THINGS GONE ASTRAY. 

Releasing in hardback and EB today, Of Things Gone Astray sees Mrs Featherby waking up to discover the entire front wall of her house is missing; Delia goes to the park to sit under her favourite oak tree, to find that it is no longer there; Robert goes to work one morning to find that his building and all traces of his colleagues have vanished whilst Marcus, a pianist, opens his piano to find all of the keys have disappeared.

And in the meantime, Jake, who lost his mother a year or so beforehand and continues to struggle with life after her departure, well, he doesn’t seem to have really lost anything at all but he does start discovering things - and so the lives of these characters cast in this world begin to interweave splendidly.  

To help get this blog tour going, Janina has decided to participate in our Books & Booze series. Let's take a look at her characters' go-to drinks, shall we? 

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

We all know it’s important to keep hydrated, and that remains important even when you’re fictional. And after what happens to them, the characters in Of Things Gone Astray could all use a stiff drink. Here’s a list of the go to drinks for my six central characters, and a couple of recommendations for you.

Of Things Gone Astray is a book for curling up with, and there’s no point in curling up if you’re not doing it with, at the very least a cup of tea. A trip to the kitchen, your favourite armchair, curl up. Curl up tight.

Mrs Featherby

Mrs Featherby looks like the kind of woman who’d have a nice sherry on Sundays or a single gin and tonic every once in a while. But, like much about her, Mrs Featherby’s favourite drink is a long and scrupulously kept secret. She drinks a whisky soda with a twist of lime, in very specific ratio. In her younger, wilder days, she was known to vault the bar and make it herself if the barman failed to make it perfectly. Now she only drinks them after dark, with the curtains closed, when all her neighbours are sleeping.

Robert

Robert likes cider. He likes sweet cider. He likes fruity cider made from raspberries and strawberries, and berries in general. As you can imagine, he’s been teased about this quite a lot so, when he was young and more sexually active, so he used to drink normal beer on dates. And since he hadn’t drunk enough normal beer to know which was nice, he suffered a lot.

Cassie

Cassie is young, so very young. She’s only been legally drinking for a couple of years so, although she’s graduated beyond the worst of the alcopops, she’s yet to find an actual decent drink. She drinks a lot of cava but she doesn’t really know what it is.

Jake

Jake is a child. He drinks chocolate milk, if he can get it.

Delia

It’s be a long time since Delia’s been out for drinks with people. She used to drink a lot of red wine in winter and mint juleps in summer. She defaults back to them nowadays but either her tastes have changed or she remembers it wrong. What she’s looking for, although she hasn’t found it yet, is an old fashioned.

Marcus

Whisky. Neat.

To Drink While Reading

In hot weather, fill a glass with ice and berries. Pour in a dollop or two of good gin. Add elderflower presse. Cool off. Relax.

When it’s cold outside, put a healthy teaspoon of honey into a glass with equal parts whisky and ginger wine. Add a slice of lemon and enough hot water to fill the glass. Curl up with a rug.

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

Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Janina Matthewson moved to London following the earthquake, an event which features as a pivotal part of her novel.

A trained actress, Janina has also written for the stage and screen. Her first play, Human and If was performed at The Tea House Theatre in London, directed by Sue Curnow. Her short film, The Other Side, was shown as part of the Rialto Channel’s 48 Hours project in New Zealand.