Before I start working on a spec in between re-writing and notes, however, I figured I'd do a blog update really quick-like ...
There's gonna be a U.S. festival debut for CHOP very shortly, but the announcement isn't official, so you'll have to come back here in a few weeks to find out about that.
Thanks to Facebook, I found this picture of the box art for BONNIE & CLYDE VS. DRACULA. Enjoy!
The stories attached to this movie keep mentioning a THEATRICAL(!) release next month followed by DVD in April ... don't know exactly what this means, but it should be interesting.
Nothing else that I'm allowed to talk about, I guess. So instead of a short entry, I'll talk about my birthday present this year: the biggest-selling item Amazon has ever put out ... the Kindle.
Gotta admit, I wasn't sold on the Kindle. There's something about holding a book, right? Something about displaying your library so that visitors can gauge what kind of a person you are. I know that I'm always attracted to people's bookshelves when I visit their places ... now what am I gonna do? Hey, how you doing? Bring me your Kindle. I wanna know what kind of person I'm dealing with.
Look, I'm no old fogey. At least I'd like to think that I'm not. Netflix made it possible for me to get videos without leaving the house. Same with MP3 technology. I used to spend huge amounts of time at record and video stores ... Now I can't remember the last time I stepped into either. But I'm okay with that. It's the twenty-first century, right?
But ... book stores? Now with this Kindle I'll never have to step into a bookstore again? What the hell am I going to do? I'm not a big clothes shopper. I buy a new pair of shoes once a year. But I'd drop anything to go and browse at a bookstore. Seems that with this final piece of technology, I could easily sit in one chair in my office forever, never having to leave. There's something about all of these advances that makes me lament the loss of the social aspect of shopping.
Then I started to browse with the little gray chunk of plastic.
I've had the Kindle for exactly one month and have burned my way through 8 novels. Not unusual for me ... except for the fact that a huge number of them aren't even available in print editions!
Not only that, but at least 4 of the novels were set up directly by the author. That means that almost 100% of my money went to the right place: the author's pocket.
What the heck, right? I know that there are a lot of reactionaries to this new way of buying and reading novels. But maybe this is a new era where the author can take control of their work and profit from it more directly. I'd like to think that the advent of devices like the Kindle may usher in a new wave of independence for writers. Of course, like movies and digital technology, the market will surely be flooded with product that should never be published, electronically or otherwise. But I prefer to see the cup as half full ... In celebration of my Kindle gift, here's a quick breakdown/review of the books that I read in the last month:
LUCIFER'S LOTTERY by Edward Lee - I've been reading Lee since the beginning. Sure, his new stuff isn't quite as transgressive as some of his earlier work, but he's still a great author whose writing ability is underrated. This one is the latest in his MEPHISTOPOLIS series, which I'm not the hugest fan of (even though I've read em all). But guess what? You can't buy this book in its physical form anywhere! One point for Kindle.
GRAVEROBBERS WANTED (NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY)/SINGLE WHITE PSYCHOPATH SEEKS SAME/CASKET FOR SALE (ONLY USED ONCE)/BENJAMIN'S PARASITE by Jeff Strand - That's not one long title. It's four books written by a guy named Jeff Strand. I recently read his novels DWELLER and PRESSURE (both really great books), but was able to Kindle these four lesser-available titles and tore my way through them. Strand really has a way of combining humor with grotesque plots and he's kind of my new kick ... I tend to discover an author and then tear my way through their bibliography at lightening speed. Don't know much about this guy, as I've just discovered him, but every single book of his that I've read is worth recommending. If anyone reading this knows Jeff, tell him I said "thanks" for the entertainment ... I hardly ever do this, but here's a link to Jeff's site. Buy his books - he deserves your money:
Jeff Strand's Blog
SPORE by John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow - John Skipp is the man. His work with Craig Spector informed my youth. I've had the opportunity to meet him on several occasions and he's a great guy. Unfortunately, I can't really say I loved the book. Skipp's rock and roll staccato and attitude are evident here, but the story itself was kind of a massive, apocalyptic zombie book. Granted, the zombies are caused by a hive-minded sentient fungus, which is new ... but I gotta tell the truth and say that I'm just burned out on zombie apocalypse stuff (see my missive about THE WALKING DEAD in the last post). Nevertheless, I will always buy anything Mr. Skipp pens. Added bonus: once again, only available in its electronic form!
THE WENCH IS DEAD by Fredric Brown - HIS NAME WAS DEATH and THE SCREAMING MIMI are classics of noir. Brown was super-prolific and wrote extensively in the sci-fi and crime genres in the 1950s. A lot of this old, long-out-of-print pulp crime stuff is coming up on Kindle. This one's kind of short and as such disappointing (I read the whole thing in one sitting), but Brown is well worth reading and I don't even want to think about what I'd have to pay for an old paperback of this that would probably fall apart in my hands once I opened it.
FATAL ERROR by F. Paul Wilson - The fourteenth (and apparently penultimate) book in the REPAIRMAN JACK series. Just finished reading this today. These books are great summer reads - fast and relatively light. They're kind of a guilty pleasure for me. I love the character of Repairman Jack and recommend them, but I find that as the books get further into the series there's less of Jack doing "repairs" (my favorite parts of the books) and more about a massive world-ending apocalypse that Jack is a pawn in. Whatever you do, don't read this book before the others - it probably won't make a lick of sense to you. This book isn't rare or difficult to find, but thanks to Kindle, it cost me less than half the price of the hardcover.
Tonight I start Robert Devereaux's SLAUGHTERHOUSE HIGH, then on to Bryan Smith's THE DARK ONES (only available electronically) and then onto a re-read of Richard Laymon's FUNLAND ... then I have to either hit the bookstores or let my fingers do the browsing ...
Okay, enough. I've got to go pick up Max and (ironically enough after this post) take him to his school's book fair ... I will not only try to write more scripts this year, I also vow to come here and blog more frequently. So come on back every once in a while and leave me a comment if you so desire ...
-T
3 comments:
I feel ya, dude. I read a LOT...always have my nose in a book. When I run outta new stuff to read, it's off the the bookstore for me (I like the used bookstore...get to trade them out without spending cashola). But the wifey got me an Ipad for X-mas so I grabbed the Kindle app and gave it a shot. Got a couple of ebooks on it and found that I actually enjoyed reading off the screen way more than I thought I would. The wifey likes it too because now she doesn't have to attempt sleep while I have my bedside lamp on. Just got "Save The Cat" from the Kindle store after Matt Green suggested it and plan on starting it tonight (if I don't end up drunk and passed out). HOWEVER...I gotta say the one thing I no likey about Kindle so far is the inability to SHARE these ebooks. If you wanna read it and I got it, too bad...you gotta buy it yourself. Fuck that. Me and my homies borrow paperbacks from each other all the time (I've put a few peeps onto Ed Lee myself!), but I can't do that with these Kindle books. Unless there's some kinda hack for it. I should google that.
And YES...keep on writing, T. Excited to hear about anything you are working on, bro. Can't wait to hear some CHOP news, as well.
I think my Kindle is awesome since I tend to have more aberrant taste in literature!
Have you read any Ed Bryant, and if so, what do you think?
A lot of sites publish free reads, a great way to get turned on to new authors.
My favorite site is fictionwisedotcom. Once you buy a "multiformat" book you can download all of the formats available.
Online you can find the free Mobipocket reader, so you can have books on your PC/blackberry as well as your e-reader.
Trent, great post! As a poet with a single collection out there in the world, I'm always weary of the threat that Kindles and the such seem to pose to the hardcopy market.
I like that you brought to light some pros about authors making a much larger profit margin via electronic devices such as the Kindle. This seems like a little known fact, but very promising for authors publishing with small presses, or not at all.
The ability to acquire out-of-print and rare titles is also cool. I had not heard of this until reading your post.
Like the rest of your blog, your insight is always fresh, and in this case, a very inspiring one for a writer like myself.
Until later, stay cool brother. I'm excited to keep up with anything that you're putting out.
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