Hi, all,
First published as "Holy Fast, Holy Feast" in John Skipp's seminal anthology MONDO ZOMBIE, my 18k-word metafictional novella has been renamed "Zombie Mashup" in its Kindle incarnation, cost, 99 cents.
Details at this link.
Said Nickolas Cook, "Robert Devereaux's 'Holy Fast, Holy Feast' is the best literary take on the concept of infinite possibilities I've ever had the pleasure to read. His skill in weaving and bobbing multiple parallel stories is stunning."
Enjoy!
Robert
Until US Tax Day (April 18th), I've lowered the price of the Kindle edition of A Flight of Storks and Angels to $2.99.
Enjoy!
I finally found what I needed to make TOC work in a single html file.
Once I propagate this to my kindle books, the Table of Contents button will no longer be grayed out!
The essence:
<!– TABLE OF CONTENTS –>
<mbp:pagebreak />
<guide>
<reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="#toc"></reference>
</guide>
<a name="toc"/><h2>Contents</h2>
<blockquote><a href="#chap1">1. Beginnings</a></blockquote>
<blockquote><a href="#chap2">2. Zombie Mashup</a></blockquote>
and so on…
<!– CHAP ONE STARTS HERE –>
<mbp:pagebreak />
<a name="chap1"/><h2>1. Beginnings</h2>
and so on…
Enjoy, live long, and prosper,
Robert
Found a very interesting blog entry called "MARKETING YOUR LITERARY NOVEL THROUGH INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING" by Christopher Meeks.
I spend more time on Facebook than I do on my own blog.
Today, I'll see if I can share blog postings with my account on Facebook.
If a success, expect more substantive content here soon!
Robert
My fantasy novel A Flight of Storks and Angels will, in a few weeks, be available in a Kindle edition. I'm pretty sure it's still available as a trade paperback from Five Star.
Meanwhile, I recently found what its editor, John Helfers, had to say about it on a YA editor panel last spring, hosted by Nancy Holder, as part of his response to the question, "Would you mind naming 10 seminal works of fantasy that an aspiring YA fantasy author should read?".
Here's what John had to say about Flight:
"A Flight of Storks and Angels by Robert Devereaux: One of the first fantasy novels I acquired during my time overseeing the Five Star SF/Fantasy line, and the one acquisition I am the most proud of in that line. Devereaux writes rural fantasy unlike anyone else, with incisive character portraits of both adults and children, keen insight into human nature, and a plot that gradually unfolds until the reader is swept away by it. A work worthy of being reprinted by a major publisher."
Lovely, eh? :^)
I'm pleased to announce that the novel once known variously as Ice Ghoul Daze and Deadolescence (as in Dead plus Adolescence) has at last found its perfect publisher in Portland's Eraserhead Press and is now called Slaughterhouse High: A Tale of Love and Sacrifice.
The gist: "It's prom night in the Demented States of America. A place where schools
are built with secret passageways, rebellious teens get zippers
installed in their mouths and genitals, and once a year, on that special
night, one couple is slaughtered and bits of their bodies are kept
as souvenirs. But something's gone terribly wrong at Corundum High,
where the secret killer is claiming a far higher body count than usual .
. . Slaughterhouse High is Robert Devereaux's slicing satire of sex, death, and public education."
At last, the truth about high school is revealed.
You know you want it, so go get it!
Robert
It is a given of literary criticism that conflict is the basis of all story. The more conflict, the more engaged readers are, and the moire likely they will stay with you until the last page, full of fear and anxiety for sympathetic characters in peril.
This essay asks, Can there be a powerful story for which the driving energy isn't conflict? Is delight a sufficient driver? Surprise and delight?
Consider books for young children. Consider Curious George up in the sky, clinging to a kite. And how quickly I needed to get to his rescue, Caitlin was so agitated at the idea that he might fall and hurt himself.
Now can there be an adult story where continual and unexpected delights are the driving force? Might the creation of conflict, anxiety, and various sorts of violence–the reinforcement of the myth of duality–be the lazy writer's way out?
I'm just asking these questions.
Consider Don Quixote. Surely there is conflict, but perhaps in greater measure there is delight. Consider Falstaff in I Henry IV. Delight. Only later will he be rejected by the prince, but until then, easy banter and that grand persona. Tom Sawyer and the whitewashed fence is similar, scampishness and no conflict. Consider much of the Oz books, the unfolding wonders of the odd creatures and environments Dorothy encounters. Or many of the tales in the Arabian Nights.
Is it possible to sustain the magnificent engine of a novel with these other-than-conflict drivers, told in prose so powerful and engaging that the adult reader cannot put the book down, and must immediately reread the novel as soon as the first reading concludes?
Might such a book bring to vivid life once more the lost innocence and delight of the child in us all, giving way as well to vast possibility, sparking our creativity and the bold optimism of the person for whom the whole world continually opens up infinitely?
Santa Claus Conquers the Homophobes has received its first review, in
The Harrow, and it's a good 'un.
Excerpts:
"The premise concerns Santa's immortal stepdaughter Wendy using her
talents to see into the futures of the children of the world and seeing
the promise of one life snuffed out due to homophobia and intolerance.
At her behest, Santa sends up an entry to God himself to intervene and
save young Jamie Stratton's life. Working through Archangel Michael,
God allows Santa and Wendy–with the help of the happily castrated
Easter Bunny–to visit those whose intolerance will lead to Jamie's
ultimate suicide in an attempt to persuade them to change their ways
and embrace diversity. The Tooth Fairy gets wind of his plans and does
everything within her power to stop him."
"The Tooth Fairy [is] one of the most delightfully wicked villains in
any book I've read in the past five years, a creation that can cause
other writers to feel a mixture of admiration and jealousy that they
didn't come up with a character that much fun and evil."
"a wonderful mix of ancient mythology and childhood icons . . a hell of
an accomplishment . . . startlingly original and daring"
Full review here.
