Cutting down on Facebook political postings…

Here's the deal. On Facebook, I've pretty much weeded out those friends who don't resonate with my progressive point of view. So I suspect that my current FB friends already have their way of finding this information. While I love singing to the choir, it does take time. I'll make an exception, however, about issues having to do with gender and LGBT politics. Even so, light goes the text I'll typically add.

Posted in U.S. politics | Leave a comment

Interviewed by Jason Bovberg, December 2014

Just published on Jason Bovberg's website, a comprehensive overview of my writing and publishing history thus far.

I had fun answering these questions.

May you find pleasure in reading them!

 

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A letter from Saint Nick…

[From: Santa et al., North Pole, December 2013]

My darling children, and the thoroughly compromised grown-ups you seem inevitably fated to become:

For close to twenty years, some joker named Robert Devereaux has been chronicling my life. There were things he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.

Lately, he’s gone into my attempt to fix the horrendously flawed human psyche. Did that attempt succeed? I won’t spoil your fun by telling you.

I asked Robert (I always think of the once adorable little tyke, one of the damnably nice boys, as Bobby) to say a few words about his most recent attempt. Here’s Bobby’s reply to his readers:

“Lately, I’ve been trying to save the world through my novels. So far I have failed. I expect to continue failing. On that score I harbor very few illusions. Still, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a world changer. Abraham Lincoln is reported to have greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe with: ‘So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.’ And Huckleberry Finn, in which Huck conceals runaway slave Jim while fully expecting to go to hell for it, remains an inspiration. Then there’s Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, which brought reform to Chicago’s meat-packing industry.

“Fifteen months ago, my wife died of ovarian cancer at the age of sixty-one. In her two and a half year decline, I heard her say more than once that if cancer finally took her life, at least she wouldn’t have to live through the disasters the human race seems unable to prevent, such power have we given those who put boundless greed over our and the planet’s survival.

“Do I sound bitter? Bitter I be. And bitter shouldst thou be. So kindly shrug into your leaden cloak of bitterness, yoke it across your shoulders, and join the parade of the damned.

“Twain, quite the curmudgeon in later years, wrote this: ‘Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.’

“And so, via Mark Twain’s bitterness and a world whose inertia is tending toward irreversible ruin, we arrive at Santa Claus Saves the World, part three of my Santa Claus Chronicles. Saint Nick is given the chance to reengineer the human psyche, to fix God’s botched job before it’s too late, hoping to outrace a critical tipping point.

“This being fiction, there are, of course, opposing forces, not the least of which is God Himself. Also active are the Tooth Fairy, her imps Quint and Gronk, the harrumphing elf Gregor, and Venga, a fallen golden robotic handmaiden of the Greek god Hephaestus.

“As I researched this book, I began making lists of human flaws. Let me tell you, those lists are unending. I have been kind to my readers. I have not tried to include every last flaw in my novel. We all know what they are. And it would have been so hard on the trees.

“No, let the token few I name suffice.

“On a happier note . . . hmmm, what could have I been thinking when I began this sentence? There is no happier note.”

Yes, sweet kiddies. I caught the author in a foul mood. But moods come and go, as you well know. He’s a jovial sort usually, and that joviality is as genuine as his despair.

That’s about it. Must get back to supervising our toy production and the planned delivery on Christmas Eve.

Don’t forget the milk and cookies, if you’re so moved. These days, I’m into almond milk and gluten-free cookies. But carrots are still fine for my reindeer. And any little note you care to leave. I love your notes—and you—to death!

The jolliest of ho-ho-ho’s to you and yours,

Santa Claus

 

Santa Steps Out

http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Steps-Out-Robert-Devereaux/dp/1621050130/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Santa Claus Conquers the Homophobes

http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Conquers-Homophobes-Robert-Devereaux/dp/1621050149/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386613815&sr=1-3

Santa Claus Saves the World

http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Claus-Saves-The-World/dp/1621051307/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1386339195&sr=8-3&keywords=santa+claus+Devereaux

 

 

Posted in ePublishing, My writing and works | 2 Comments

Santa Claus Saves the World is available

Yes, yes, I know, I so rarely post anything here.

If I vowed to change my ways, I'd have a hard time believing it, and so should you.

That said, I'm mightily pleased to let you know that Deadite Press has brought out the third of my Santa Claus novels, Santa Claus Saves the World. Not content with having conquered homophobia (which frustratingly seems not to be sticking), Santa contrives permission from God Almighty to re-engineer the badly botched human psyche. The Tooth Fairy and her minions are, as usual, on the wrong side of this effort.

Available as trade paperback, kindle, and (soon?) nook.

Now let's see if I can remember how to do a link on TypePad.

Santa Claus Saves the World

 

 

 

 

Posted in Containing more multitudes, My writing and works | 3 Comments

Defying death, perhaps…

Three days ago, I wrote the following piece for the Writing Through Loss group at Pathways Hospice, primarily led by friend and poet Veronica Patterson. The Herakles reference is to Euripides' Alcestis, in which Herakles (better known by his Roman name, Hercules) brings Queen Alcestis back to her husband Admetos, defying death.

=====

Come on, Vicki. You've played this game far too long.

I know you're not dead. You've just been centering yourself, sunning yourself, lazing about on that balmy beach you always wanted to ecape to. Being the mermaid you always knew you were.

Come back, please come back, even for a short time. But let's make it a long time, shall we? Thirty or forty years will do. No need to return to work. I've closed the books, cancelled your professional subscriptions, filed your final tax return, replenished the bottomless well of tears too many times to count.

We'll live together again, circumnavigate the globe, visit all those places you wanted to visit, which was every last damnmed place ever touched upon by newspaper or glimpsed in documentary. I want to go there, you'd say.  I know you do, I'd say. Someday, someday.

Or if you are truly dead, I'll summon Herakles, be straight with him, send him down, no, I'll go down with him, wrest you from the arms of Hades, bring you back into your perfect body, restore your health, and be the best damned husband that has ever been known, in tune with you, sensing your moods with the skill of one who can feel the bob and weave of each breeze deep in his bones, honoring them, reading your mind and your heart and soul in ways I never could before.

Simply turn toward me as the bloom turns toward the sun. I'll do the rest.

                    — Robert Devereaux, February 25, 2013

=====

Posted in Bereavement | 1 Comment

Santa sleighs back into print!

I'm pleased to announce that Deadite Press has just brought out a new trade paperback edition of SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE HOMOPHOBES.

This is a stand-alone sequel to SANTA STEPS OUT, which has likewise been republished, with the original Alan M. Clark illustrations from the Dark Highway Press limited edition, Pat LoBrutto's intro restored (Leisure Books dropped it), and a second afterword by yours truly, catching you up on the fortunes of this novel since its first publication fourteen years ago.

Enjoy!

Robert

Posted in My writing and works | 6 Comments

A few musings on the occasion of WALKING WOUNDED’s reissue

Eraserhead Press maintains an active website for bizarro related thoughts of all kinds.

On the occasion of a new edition of WALKING WOUNDED from Deadite Press, an imprint of Eraserhead, I've posted a few thoughts here:

Enjoy!

 

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WALKING WOUNDED back in print from Deadite Press

My second novel from Dell Abyss, WALKING WOUNDED (1996), long out of print, is now once more among the living.

Trade paperback from Deadite Press, with an Alan Clark cover.

A few blurbs:

“At the heart of all Devereaux’s writing are the twin embryos of love and pain. In *Walking Wounded* he has explored their perverse dependency with an expert’s tender touch. This book is both a challenge and a rare treat!”  —Poppy Z. Brite

 “In *Walking Wounded*, Robert Devereaux delivers, with a super-heated mix of murder, dark eroticism, and enough online sex to send computer-wise readers sprinting to access their Chat Rooms.”  —Lucy Taylor

 “Walking Wounded is the graphic equivalent—and moral and spiritual antithesis—of Devereaux’s already classic Deadweight. Appalling, tender, and lyrical, it is an applaudable sophomore effort from a fascinating writer.”  —Jason Bovberg, Dark Highway Press

 “Walking Wounded is an original and dramatic thriller. Devereaux’s characters emerge as real and complex people, men and woman confronting life and death dilemmas. It’s a story of healing and suffering, and when a sadistic serial killer shatters the peace, it’s a story of immense courage and resolve. . . . Walking Wounded bristles with energy and suspense.”  —Mark La Framboise, Politics & Prose Bookstore

 

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Kindle price for SANTA novels reduced to $2.99 until Christmas

[UPDATE: I've reverted the prices to $4.99 as of October 10th. Still a bargain!]

This coming November and December, Eraserhead Press will bring out SANTA STEPS OUT and SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE HOMOPHOBES in new trade editions, along with the as-yet-untitled third Santa Claus novel.

From now until then, I have lowered the Kindle price of each book to $2.99.

As I understand it, Eraserhead will issue its own eBook versions (Kindle, Nook, etc.), at which time I'll withdraw these current Kindle editions from publication. So now's your chance to get them at $2.99. Eraserhead will control the pricing after that point.

Cheers!

Posted in My writing and works | 1 Comment

Baby’s First Book of Seriously Fucked-Up Shit is out!

Deadite Press has just brought out a new story collection in trade paperback, with a cover to die for and their usual care for the graphic design throughout.

Here's the Amazon link:

Baby's First Book

And the table of contents:

"Showdown at Stinking Springs"
"Clap If You Believe"
"Ridi Bobo"
"Li'l Miss Ultrasound"
"Bucky Goes to Church"
"Fructus in Eden"
"One Flesh: A Cautionary Tale"
"The Slobbering Tongue That Ate the Frightfully Huge Woman"
"Holy Fast, Holy Feast"

Enjoy it immensely,

Robert

 

Posted in My writing and works | 4 Comments