reading material to get excited about
From the category archives:
For the third installment of BOOKGASM’s “WTF Q&A,” in which we hurl at an author random questions having nothing to do with his/her book, we put Lou Berney in our sights. He’s just made his full-length debut with GUTSHOT STRAIGHT, a crime novel cut from the cloth of Elmore Leonard. Er, if Leonard made cloth …
BOOKGASM: Ratio time! Radio Shack : banana = Lou Berney : ______.
BERNEY: Radio Shack.
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Although Jasper Fforde is perhaps best known for his series of fantasy novels featuring literary detective Thursday Next, he also writes the Nursery Crimes mysteries and now, SHADES OF GREY, the start of a new trilogy. In the satirical thriller, social order is dictated by the colors one sees. But that’s not the only thing that’s strange …
BOOKGASM: SHADES OF GREY imagines a world with institutionalized mercy killings. Was that element included simply to shock your readers?
FFORDE: Not really. Aspects that we consider normal today could very well be repugnant in the future — eating animals, for one thing, or abundant choice or invasive surgery. I was simply trying to demonstrate that what is acceptable today may not be acceptable forever, and vice versa. Social mores change with time, like fashion: Who knows where it might all end up? I especially like the idea that waste, impoliteness and overpopulation become “abominations,” although I’m not sure recycling one’s aunt will ever truly catch on.
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With the bunny-vs.-zombies ZOMBOCALYPSE NOW, Matt Youngmark has launched Chooseomatic Books, at once a revival and a parody of the old CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE series. One difference: These tricks aren’t for kids. Here, Youngmark discusses the idea’s genesis, the unique process of penning such a title, and Chooseomatic’s future.
BOOKGASM: How did you get the idea to do a CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE type book? Now, how did you get the idea to do one with a bunny?
YOUNGMARK: I was reading a webcomic where a dinosaur decided to write a CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE book because he wanted to tell his readers directly what they were supposed to feel instead of, like, setting a mood and stuff. I just thought that sounded like the best idea ever. The whole thing with the bunny came about after I settled on zombies for the subject matter, and needed something to set the book apart.
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Recently, while interviewing Mike Nelson about RIFFTRAX for another publication, the conversation turned to books, and what couldn’t be used there can be used here. After serving as head writer and host of TV’s long-running MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, Nelson wrote a few books, including MIKE NELSON’S MOVIE MEGACHEESE, MIKE NELSON’S MIND OVER MATTERS and the novel DEATH RAT! And then …
BOOKGASM: I love your books, by the way. Are you going to write any more?
NELSON: Well, thanks. I didn’t have a great experience writing them, just from the nature of the publishing business, but it’s changed enough now that …
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For the second installment of BOOKGASM’s “WTF Q&A,” in which we hurl at an author random questions having nothing to do with his/her book, we recruited Mark Rayner. He’s the author of MARVELLOUS HAIRY, which purports to be a slapstick comedy about a surrealistic artist with an addiction to Freudian mythology and guilt-free sex who turns into a monkey. Yes, a monkey.
BOOKGASM: OMG, I found $4! I can go antiquing! What should I buy?
RAYNER: That’s incredibly good luck. I just heard about an ancient reliquary holding the mummified naughty bits of St. Piltwacker, the Poxy’s helper monkey. Or, $4 just happens to cover the costs of the eBook edition of MARVELLOUS HAIRY.
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