Tagged: Chris Kent
“Exceptions & Deceptions” is coming soon
This weekend, I completed final edits on my latest book, a collection of short stories titled Exceptions & Deceptions.
The title is derived from a quote by Francis Picabia: “The unknown is an exception, the known a deception”.
The collection features 19 stories, including a novella titled “Second Sight”, which is previously unpublished. It’s my first book of stories since The Reality Machine (1997) and, needless to say, I’m ecstatic to see these tales finally in print.
I’ve settled on a cover but I’ll keep it under my hat until our mate, Chris Kent, designs a mockup for us to post.
This is going to be a bee-you-tiful book.
Projected publication date of mid-June.
Stay tuned.
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By now you’ve probably heard the rotten news regarding the health of one of the literary greats, Iain Banks.
Fifty-nine years old.
…and suddenly all the little foibles and annoyances in my own life seem pretty feeble.
If you haven’t already, make sure you seek out and read one of his fine books. The Wasp Factory, maybe the best debut novel I’ve read, and two truly magnificent science fiction offerings, Consider Phlebas and Excession.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: it’s an honor sharing a universe with the likes of Iain Banks.
His work is a tribute to the power of imagination, that very human capacity to envision and describe impossible worlds…and make the faraway and exotic come to life.
Thank you, Mr. Banks. For every word you’ve committed to paper, the dreams you’ve willingly shared.
* * * * *
A wonderful surprise in my virtual mailbox this past week. Yury Sabinin, an industrious chap now residing on Canada’s west coast, has taken it upon himself to translate some of my better known works into Russian. It initially started as an exercise for a non-English speaking friend overseas but now Yury has completed a couple of translations, “Apocalypse Beach” and “Invisible Boy”, which I offer for free reading/download.
My gratitude to Yury for granting his permission to reproduce those translations here.
Just click on the links below:
Next up…STROMATA: PROSE WORKS (Publication date September 20th, 2012)
I’ve already leaked some of this over at my RedRoom page but (rubbing his hands together eagerly) here’s the cover of the companion volume to the New & Selected Poems.
Stromata: Prose Works (1992-2011) includes the creme de la creme of my short prose pieces (some folks call them prose poems). These are brief (usually under 500 words) narrative works, often quite surreal, twisted, satirical and, frankly, vicious. These bits are perfect for performing at readings and frequently provoke gasps and, seconds later, gales of laughter. Some of my favorites are in Stromata: “Cranes”, “A.I.”…material that hasn’t been in print and available to readers for many, many moons. And some new pieces that, I think, show a progression in terms of themes and my approach to the subject matter.
I’ve said it before but here it is again: I love these two thin volumes. While books like The Last Hunt and Of the Night reflect my skills as a storyteller, the collected poems and prose poems prove that I can “dangle” artistically with the best of them.
Dangle? Sorry, that’s a term that might only be familiar to hockey fans. If a player can really fly on the ice, skate fast and stickhandle you right out of your jock, we say, “man, look at that guy dangle”. It’s like a whistle of appreciation.
I hemmed and hawed about it but there will be an e-book and Kindle version of Stromata (unlike the poems). Frankly, the books are so beautiful, who would want to settle for electronic copies? Why not get the real thing and have two lovely tomes that you can treasure forever?
Chris Kent did both covers and, I’m telling you, his book designs just keep getting better and better. He seems to understand intuitively what I’m looking for, the “less is more” mentality I apply to every aspect of my life. Chris is a delight to work with—no huge ego, just a desire to execute covers that are artful and eye-grabbing and irresistible.
Both the Selected Poems and Stromata retail at $12.00 (U.S.A. & Canada) and they each clock in at around 116 pages. Slim…but there’s a lot of power packed into those little gems.
New & Selected Poems is available now, today, this very instant…the release date for Stromata is September 20th.
More info to come…
(Click on covers to see larger versions)
“New & Selected Poems” (cover teaser)
Ho ho, what’s this?
Why, it’s the cover art for the next release from Black Dog Press, my New & Selected Poems. Our pal Chris Kent concocted it in a fit of creativity that would’ve made Chip Kidd swoon. I was quite vague in my directions to Chris this time around. I wanted a minimalist cover, two blocks of color, no blurbs, no jacket copy beyond the title and author’s name. The colors couldn’t be garish but nothing neutral either (that must have been a head-scratcher). I supplied him with a photo taken in one of my jaunts and asked if it could somehow be incorporated.
Chris managed to decipher my thoroughly unhelpful suggestions and produce a cover that is dignified, restrained and gorgeous.
Another winner from the big man. Did he do a killer job or what?
I’ll have the interior (text) files off to my pal Daniel at Scribe Freelance in the next twenty-four hours…so I think it’s safe to say that New & Selected Poems will make its appearance somewhere around mid-July.
I have decided that, at least for the time being, my poetry collection will be offered in print form only. You heard right: no Kindle or e-book. To me, my book is an artifact, a throwback to another time when, to paraphrase Samuel Johnson, “the chief glory of every people arose from its authors”, an epoch when the printed word wasn’t used as a sanitary napkin by the likes of E.L. James and Stephenie Meyer.
If authors are no longer held in high esteem, then poets have fallen even farther. A great art form reduced to doggerel, greeting card sentiments and self-indulgent incontinence. Poetry used to be the conscience of civilization; now it is nothing more than tuneless Muzak.
My poetry comes from a special place and demands a lot from me, taking a personal toll while pushing me to my limits as a writer, insisting on exactly the right word, a certain, precise cadence. There’s no room for error in verse, each and every beat must be accounted for and a tin ear is quickly exposed. Courage is mandatory, a willingness to work without a net. It has a special status in my heart and soul and deserves special treatment.
There are something like 100 poems in this volume—that’s drawn from over 25 years of work. My selection process has been ruthless and, as a result, I think New & Selected Poems features my very best work, a roster of poems that are personal, shrapnel sharp and utterly merciless.
Make sure you browse the sample on my Scribd page…and if you like what you see, you’ll be able to order your personal copy next month. Watch for updates.
It will be available through this site (if you’re looking for signed copies), Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s…all the usual suspects.
Coming soon…and I’m as excited as an expectant father can be. Pacing ruts in the carpet, eying the clock, constantly patting my breast pocket, making sure the cigars are still there…
“The Last Hunt”–cover art
And here it is, as promised, an early peek at the cover art for my western novel The Last Hunt, due out in mid-March.
Click on image to enlarge
Special thanks to Bobby Rockwell and the Rockwell Museum of Western Art for allowing me to use William Robinson Leigh’s original painting and to Chris Kent for a superlative job on the design.
The Last Hunt.
Coming soon…
Coming Soon to Your Bookshelves…
The Last Hunt is in the can.
Finis.
Now we’ve moved on to the production phase. Our pal Chris Kent has taken the cover art and executed a brilliant book design which I’ll be posting in the days to come. There will also be, as usual, a sizable excerpt from the book that will be available for free reading and downloading. Daniel Middleton over at Scribe Freelance is handling the formatting of the interior (text) files; he also performed similar duties with Of the Night and my novelette “Eyes in the Sky” and did uncommonly well. He’s patient, considerate and professional. A true pleasure to work with.
I’m still getting queries from folks asking what the heck I was thinking of, spending a year working on a western novel when I could be, you know, developing another project in my “Ilium” cycle, concocting a grand adventure involving our favorite sleuths Cassandra Zinnea and Evgeny Nightstalk. To which all I can say is “I know, I know…”
My muse simply refuses to concede to logic and reason. 2011 was going to be the year of my gunfighter book and that was that. Never mind the enormous research required, including a trip down to Yellowstone Park to eyeball the terrain and scout locations for various scenes in my book. The revisions were murderous, my nerves shot by the time I was done.
The good news is The Last Hunt is a superb novel. Not just superb western novel, a superb novel period. Even readers who aren’t fans of the genre are going to find it a really fun and entertaining read. Frank Seaver makes an attractive central character and the story roars along like a runaway freight train.
Still anticipating a release date of the end of March and, no, please (folks are already asking), no pre-orders, it gets really darn confusing. Wait until the official announcement and then you’ll be able to grab the book, e-book or Kindle version. Patience, my children, patience…
In the meantime, I’m in recovery mode after getting a giant molar extracted yesterday. I went in expecting to get a crown but the tooth in question was more damaged than I realized, split right to the root and infected. So now I’m on antibiotics and pain-killers…and I’m looking at either a bridge or implant, both highly expensive options. Thank God for a dental plan that will help offset the cost, at least to some extent.
Sorry for the delay in posting. I’ve been meaning to provide an update but it’s been pretty hectic now that we’re officially in production. More announcements and teasers in the days to come. I’m really chuffed, happy as an expectant father can be.
Stay tuned.
(Photo: Wyatt Earp around the time of the infamous shootout at the O.K. Corral)
“The Last Hunt”–Coming Soon!
Well, gang, I can’t keep it secret any more. My next book is coming along nicely and I’m anticipating a late October release. Right around my birthday. I’m working hard to make that happen.
But here’s the thing: The Last Hunt is a western.
You heard me. I’m talking about hard-bitten gunslingers, tall, wide vistas, ornery horses, evil black hats, the whole bit.
Oh, sure, you say, but it’ll be like some kinda weird Cormac McCarthy hybrid, right? A whacked out, modernistic take on the Wild West, standing the entire genre on its head.
Nope, nope and…nope.
Y’see, I happen to love westerns. I don’t look down on the genre, relegate it to second-class status. I grew up watching Clint Eastwood and John Wayne movies. I enjoy reading the novels of Elmer Kelton and Richard S. Wheeler. They’re superb writers, regardless of categories and classifications.
I’m saddened by the cinematic decline of the western—the last truly great cowboy flick I saw was “The Long Riders”, made back in 1980. “The Unforgiven” (1992) was a decent movie but far too earnest and over-long. “The Long Riders” was the shit.
And since then there’ve been remakes and abominations like “Young Guns”—westerns by people who’ve never been near a horse in their lives and whose knowledge of the Old West is, put kindly, superficial. Hollywood has tried to update westerns, reinvent them with big name stars and budgets that would make even Michael Cimino swoon…but they’ve lost the spirit. Sam Peckinpah and John Ford had a real grasp of those who pioneered the land west of the Mississippi, their contrary natures, the sort of valor and resolution Alan LeMay refers to in a quote that precedes his classic novel, The Searchers:
“These people had the kind of courage that may be the finest gift of man: the courage of those who simply keep on, and on, doing the next thing, far beyond all reasonable endurance, seldom thinking of themselves as martyred, and never thinking of themselves as brave.”
In the course of writing The Last Hunt, by pure chance I happened across a reproduction of a William R. Leigh painting called “The Warning Shadow”. It was another one of those too-amazing-to-be-a-coincidence moments (and I should know, I’d had a few of them). The image was perfect for my book—but I had a dickens of a time tracking down who owned the rights. Finally, I was put in touch with the Rockwell Museum of Western Art (in Corning, New York) and Bobby Rockwell helped me secure permission to use the painting. Mr. Leigh’s artworks are highly prized, very collectible and I’m honored to have “The Warning Shadow” on my cover.
The cover accompanying this post is, I hasten to say, a mere mockup…but it gives you a fair idea of what to expect. Once our designer, Chris Kent, has a crack at it, the cover will look even better.
As for plot details, er, I think I’ll keep that to myself for now. When it gets closer to publication date I’ll be more forthcoming. Hoping the novel will be popular with fans of the western genre as well as people who just love a fast, entertaining read. Like my last two novels, I think The Last Hunt has a lot of cross-over appeal, the potential to draw a wide variety of readers.
I’ve spent the past three weeks going through the second draft and I like what I’m seeing. It’s a short novel, around 50,000 words, and it moves along at an exciting clip. Good, solid protagonist and memorable supporting players. By the time this book is released in the late fall, it’s gonna hum.
So stay tuned, check in every once in awhile for updates and further developments. Maybe even an excerpt or two, just to whet your appetite.
Yeah, I know, a western. But, trust me, it’s a helluva tale…
“Of the Night” (Cover art & design)
Well, here it is, unveiled for the first time.
The cover of the next novel in the Ilium “cycle”, Of the Night. Coming soon to a bookstore near you (we hope)…
Our pal Chris Kent completed work on the cover this weekend and I have to say he’s come up with another beauty (Chris also executed the cover for my previous book, So Dark the Night). Australian visual artist Adrian Donoghue created the original image and Chris, as designer, supplied the fonts and conceived the “look” of my book without damaging Adrian’s wonderful work.
(Click on the cover if you want to see a larger version)
Final edits on the text will be complete this week and both the text and cover files will be sent to our printer, Lightning Source, by the weekend. Then we get a proof copy, check it out and if everything looks A-okay, Of the Night will be available for sale. I’m anticipating an official release date somewhere around October 20th. Keep checking back for the latest updates and news.
My deepest thanks to Chris, Adrian, and my wife, Sherron, for combining their talents and visual acuity to give me the loveliest cover an author could ask for. Folks, you’re the best!
Coming Soon…
Another long interval between posts and, again, all I can do is mutter, “sorry, busy” and then get on to the matter at hand.
First of all, the cover and text files of my novel So Dark the Night have been uploaded to Lightning Source and we have been told to expect a bound proof of the book in the next week or so.
The process of prepping the book, getting the files formatted properly, meeting Lightning Source’s very complicated and detailed specifications, took some doing. Honestly, the folks at Lightning Source are great, helpful and quick to respond to questions. Full marks to them for that. But their process is so amazingly convoluted it would scare the living bejesus out of anyone with little or no tech savvy. Fortunately, my wife Sherron is fearless and possesses endless reservoirs of patience. She needed every last drop. She worked for hours on consecutive nights, trying to make sense out of the printed guide supplied by Lightning Source and then, God help her, doing her best to master Adobe Pro 9, which we needed to complete the process. She was a trooper, I tell you, plowing her way through while her husband (that’s me) had to take frequent “time outs” to maintain his composure and rein in his well-known impatience and incendiary temper.
And let me also single out our cover designer/graphic artist Chris Kent for praise, salute him for assistance and tolerance above and beyond the call of duty. When Sherron finally had to throw up her hands, he graciously agreed to meet with her and help her get those &$#@ing files sorted out. Chris, you da man!
So now it’s wait for the proof and see if there are any glitches that need correcting. This is computers we’re talking about, after all, semi-sentient creatures showing the first stirrings of consciousness. God knows what that proof will look like. Lightning Source has a promotional offer on right now–for the next month they’re waiving their set-up fee of $75. So I guess I should consider this, my initial shot, a freebie. Nothing to lose, right?
But if all goes well, we’ll get the proof, it’ll look fantastic and production can begin immediately. I’ll put in an order for 100 books and we’ll arrange a launch, peddle the books to Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton. Send fliers to the indie bookstores still out there (damn few of them) and prevail on friends in far-flung places like Vancouver, Toronto and Los Angeles to flog the sample copies I send them.
What else can I do? Newspapers have slashed their book review pages–and, even so, indie/self-published work constantly had a hard time getting any kind of acceptance from the mainstream media. No one in Canada reviewed Righteous Blood, despite the review copies publisher Peter Crowther supplied at my insistence (sorry, Peter!). Should I try my luck with their on-line counterparts? BookNinja and Bookslut, places like that? What think you, Readers? Where do you go to get your reviews, information on interesting new releases? Let me know…
I’ve checked into shipping and, hoo boy, have prices ever skyrocketed in the past few years. Mailing out copies of So Dark the Night is going to be a pretty costly proposition. Tentatively, here are the numbers we’re looking at:
So Dark the Night—$17.95 per copy (U.S. & Canada); £13 (U.K.); €14.75 Euros (Europe)
E-Book: $9.95 (U.S. & Canada); £6.50 (U.K.); €7.50 Euros (Europe)
Shipping:
$12.00 (Canada)
$8.00 Surface (USA) $9.50 Airmail (USA)
$16.50 (Air) Overseas
I’ll be making half the book available as a free PDF and I’ll also be recording the entire book, which you’ll be able to hear (free) as an MP3 download or podcast.
And there you have it; you’re now completely up to date.
Besides getting the book ready, I’ve had to register Black Dog Press as a business ($110.00) and check on my PST and GST status (thankfully, neither applies to a micro press like mine). To keep myself sane, I’ve been creating more music, which I hope to post in the next few weeks. For those of you who liked my “Soundtrack For A Science Fiction Movie Never Made” (thanks for the kind words, by the way). Anyone who hasn’t popped over to my Audio page for a whole buncha free stuff to listen to and download should check it out.
I’ll drop a line or two when the proof arrives, maybe even include a few pictures. We’re on pins and needles around here. Nervous as expectant parents. Counting the hours and hoping for the very, very best…
“So Dark the Night”–cover art!
Yes, my friends, this is the new look for the front and back cover, courtesy our pal Chris Kent. Ado Ceric’s gorgeous cover art is still predominant, but Chris has given us a different font and overall design. My only instruction to him was “make it look like a fun read because that’s what it is”. And Chris came through for us—hoo, boy, did he ever!
You can click on the individual pictures to view them full-sized.
We’ll soon be loading these illos on to Lightning Source’s templates, along with the complete text of So Dark the Night and awaaayyyy it goes. But this is our first crack at this here new-fangled print-on-demand process so there are bound to be complications and glitches. Thank God I’ll have Sherron to do all the dirty work while I pace back and forth behind her, cursing a blue streak.
But even with the foul-ups—the folks at Lightning Source have been very patient with my questions thus far—we should still have a proof within two weeks and the book ready for publication by the end of April (as previously announced). Cover price $17.95. You will also be able to download half the book (.pdf) here at Beautiful Desolation (or over at Scribd) and read that excerpt for free, download the complete e-book for $10…or (at some point) listen to an MP3 of me reading the book for nuthin’. Your choice.
The book has been polished since the earlier version I posted, tightened and pared down. I’ll be purging that previous draft in the coming days/weeks (it has served its purpose and can now be deleted).
Don’t have much else to add—let me know what you think of the cover and please spread the word near and far that So Dark the Night is on its way…and there’s some great spring/summer reading ahead.
Beautiful Desolation 