Blogagaard's First Screenplay

So, with the help of a cool production software called Celtx, we here at Blogagaard have begun writing our first full-length movie screenplay. After nine novels, the zippy ease of a screenplay format is pretty damn exhilarating. There's an art to a good screenplay, just like anything else, but with software like this around I'm not surprised that so many people can just churn them out and head off to Hollywood. Nothing will probably come of this screenplay, but it's fun to write and stretch the old brain cells. Also, I'm totally stealing everything from my own life, jumbling it up, and seeing what happens.

Can you say vanity project, Blogagaard?

The Rumpus is Upon Us

There's a brand spanking new review of Wormwood, Nevada on The Rumpus.net, a fun site in its own right.

Also, here's a few pics from the publication reading!

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Wormwood, Nevada publication reading tonight and/or sent their well wishes!

Also, a nice review of the book came out this very evening on Book Reporter.

New Interview, Amid the Snow

Dang, that was a serious first snowstorm of the season yesterday, here in MN. A harbinger of doom for Wormwood, Nevada? Let's hope not. Or maybe a harbinger of doom is a good thing in Wormwood's case....

A fun new interview has gone up on The Little Professor Book Center's website. I finally tackle the issue of what sandwich really drives me!

Also, here's a flashback to a post I made in 2007 when I went on the road to research Wormwood, Nevada.

Publication Day

Today's the publication date of Wormwood, Nevada! In honor of it, I'll be chatting with people in the Barnes and Noble Sci-fi book club room for the rest of the week. I've also been invited to write an essay for The Nevada Review about the process of researching the novel, which will be published next spring alongside a review of Wormwood. If you're looking to pick up a copy locally, your best bet to find it would be Uncle Hugo's, Once Upon a Crime, and Common Good Books. B & N might have it as well; Borders won't.

Thank you to my agent, Jonathan Lyons, my editor Michael Homler, and everyone else who helped bring this book to press!

Remember: Kurt Vonnegut is Funny

I have this big red hardcover book I inherited from my mother with the words KURT VONNEGUT written on the cover and on the spine in big gold letters. It's a collection of six of his novels, including Slaughterhouse-Five. I cracked it open recently and read Cat's Cradle. Read the link to learn more about the book, but suffice it to say it's a pretty cool and off-the-wall apocalyptic novel (among other things). What struck me is how funny Vonnegut was:

"I smiled at one of the guards. He did not smile back. There was nothing funny about national security, nothing at all."

"My reading of the life of Bokonon was interrupted by H. Lowe Crosby's wife, Hazel. She was standing in the aisle next to me. 'You'll never believe it,' she said, 'but I just found two more Hoosiers on this airplane.'
'I'll be damned.'
'They weren't born Hoosiers, but they live there now. They live in Indianapolis.'
'Very interesting.'
'You want to meet them?'
'You think I should?'
The question baffled her. 'They're your fellow Hoosiers.'"

There are a lot more funny quotes from the book I'm too lazy to find. Vonnegut was always a smart ass, even when he was being serious. He was, basically, science fiction's answer to George Carlin. Always thinking, always questioning, always railing against the status quo that allowed stupid rich people to rule the world's economic and political landscapes. Good man, that Kurt.

The Hungry Beast That is Publicity

Right now, in case you haven't been reading this damn blog, I'm in full-on publicity mode as Wormwood, Nevada is about to be released upon a mostly unsuspecting populace next Tuesday. Review copies have been sent out across the web and the "real" world, the publication reading's been announced on Facebook, and I've started doing interviews and such with my fellow book loving bloggers. I've also been individually emailing every single indie bookstore in America (that has a website) and so far I've spread the word to about 450 stores. I wish I would have thought of this email campaign sooner, for The Suicide Collectors, but I suppose the release of that book has given me more cred and shop owners are less likely to think I'm spam (now they think I'm glorified spam!). But at least you can email indie bookstores; the big chains get told by corporate what to order, at least mostly, and I couldn't even convince my own local mega chains to stock more than one copy of The Suicide Collectors last year.

By the way, book shop owners, it'd be nice if you named the resident book buyer on your website so I didn't have to address my email to the entire Yea Olde Shoppe. But thanks for your support!