interview with an intern interviewer
June 29, 2008 11:58 amNathan Singer | John Connolly | Muskego, WI
June 23, 2008 10:21 ampodcast now with 100% fewer guests…
June 19, 2008 11:35 pmBEA update 2
2:36 pm
Nathan Singer’s new novel In the Light of You received a nice review in the Baltimore Sun (it also ran in Newsday).
“…In the Light of You” keeps the brutally dark feel of his earlier work but finds a working balance of tone and narrative so that its points about the dangers of blind hatred and following orders come through more tangibly. Singer makes horrifyingly clear how easy it would be for a teenage boy like 16-year-old Mikal Fanon, with a middle-class background turned awry, to find comfort in the welcoming arms of a neo-Nazi skinhead group…”
Check out the whole review here.
Podcast Frenzy pt. 2
June 12, 2008 8:15 am
Part of the fun of going to Book Expo America is that you get to meet kindred spirits. Theoretically, everybody who is there loves books and words in some way, and there is always a huge feeling of camaraderie–authors high-fiving reviewers, printers and designers shaking hands, etc. But one of the other phenomena that happens annually for us is when we meet another publisher that has the same passion for quality fiction (even when it’s in another genre).
This year’s pleasant surprise was meeting Victoria Blake of Underland Press. They’re doing some really cool things including something I wish I’d thought up–a wovel. From their website:
A WOVEL is a web novel
It is the first of its kind. The author writes it. The readers vote on it. Here’s how it works:
Every week, the author posts an installment. Installment length hits the sweet-spot of online reading—long enough to get interested, short enough to read in the cubicle at work. At the end of every installment, the author writes in a plot branch point. Does the heroine kill her lover? Will the zombies catch the soldier? Is the box empty, or is it filled with bees?
THE READERS DECIDE.
On Monday, the post goes up. Voting is open through Thursday. The author writes Thursday and Friday. The editors edit Friday and Saturday. The post goes back up on Monday. Part literature, part exquisite corpse. The pace of print journalism, the imagination of fiction, the spark of reader participation.
Clearly, Victoria and her gang are onto some pretty cool stuff and we wish her well. To hear more about what’s going on with them, click here to listen to the podcast.
Podcast Frenzy~!
June 10, 2008 6:08 am
It’s PODCAST Week at Bleak House Books. We’re shooting for a full five days of shows featuring authors, publishers, agents, and other special guests.
Kicking things off on Monday is an interview with The American Dream, J.D. Rhoades.
In 2005, St. Martin’s/Minotaur published his first novel, The Devil’s Right Hand, which the Washington Post called “a fine example of redneck noir” and Booklist called a “supercharged crime-fiction debut”. The sequel, Good Day in Hell, was published March 21 2005. The third Jack Keller novel, Safe and Sound, was released July 2007 by St. Martin’s. Book #4, BREAKING COVER, is a standalone and should be out in July 2008. In his day job, he practices law in a small town in North Carolina. His family and friends call him Dusty.
Check it out right here!
Award Season part deux
June 3, 2008 11:10 amBEA recap pt. 1
June 2, 2008 8:53 pm
Book Expo America has once again come and gone. Those of you who have worked the show before know that it is great fun but also totally exhausting. This year was no different. Here’s a brief recap of our time at the show.
Wednesday:
Arrived in Los Angeles in the early afternoon. Later in the day we met up with our wonderful author Eric Stone and his agent, Janet Reid. After sitting around Eric’s place for a bit and enjoying the sunset we opted for dinner. Eric gave us a great tour of the illegal taco truck business and a good tour of Los Angeles nooks and crannies. Eric is a great tour guide who has an astounding command of the city’s history.
Thursday:
Set up our booth at the show. Alison gets free reign over all things spatial arrangement. After finishing up for the moment, Eric (patron saint of host causes) took us to Costco to get supplies for a party we hosted Thursday night at Metropolis Books. Hilarity ensued as we loaded the cart with all manners of drink and food. The party itself was wonderful, joined as we were by Eric, Janet, Donna Bagdasarian, our very own John Galligan, Evan Kilgore, Sorche Fairbank, and plenty of other friends and members of the extended Bleak House family.
Friday:
First day of the show. Traffic seemed lighter than the last few years. The ubercool Bill Cameron stopped by our booth. We’re publishing Bill’s next book, Chasing Smoke, this fall. It was the first time we’d ever met the guy in person. The party grew bigger when Big Earth Publishing’s President David Oskin Jr. stopped by our booth. And bigger still when Randall Peffer finally hit the scene. Towards the end of the show I had a chance to hangout with the fellas from Shelfari, and I was as impressed by them as I thought I’d be. By the end of the night we ended up in the heart of Hollywood, apparently just a little while after the cops had been in the neighborhood catching a suspected killer. Ah, Hollywood, are you ever not exciting?
