Entries from January 2009 ↓

I just got a very lovely message via GoodReads

Hey Ben, 
I just voted COUCH for the 2009 Puddly Award on the Powell’s website. 
Good luck! 
~Stephanie

Awesome, thanks Stephanie!

Of course, I’m competing against a phenomenon known as Twilight, but it’d be awfully fun to place. It looks like you could walk away with several hundred dollars in prizes no matter who you vote for (though they’re not exactly clear on that). If you get the hang of the voting deal, here’s another spot…

Second: Look at all these handsome posters with Andi Watson’s artwork on them.

As I mentioned, these will be sent out as part of Indiespensable along with Paul Harding’s Tinkers. It’s got a secret letter from me on the back as well as postcards from Thom, Tree and Erik and I signed the front — or rather, I was half way through when my index finger crashed and burned, leaving a fiery skid mark across the table and setting off the fire alarm.

I need to send the rest back back to my publisher, but I think I could probably sneak a few off the deck.

If you want one send me an email at ben at ideacog.net with your address. I could probably make off with about 5 or so?

Happy inauguration all!

Powell’s books has this really lovely program called Indiespensable, which both my spell checker and I agree is a very poor way of spelling indispensable. It’s like a grab bag delivery service of excellent indie lit and other goodies, usually in original printings/signed/etc, shipped every six weeks. 

Check it out here www.powells.com/indiespensable/

The next installment includes Tinkers by Paul Harding – which looks really amazing. There’s also a very nifty, limited run item from Couch in the next Indiespensable box, which I’ll be signing shortly. 

If you’re in Portland – please come to the Indiespensable #8 happy hour at the Someday Lounge, Monday January 19th from 6pm – 8pm. Paul and I will both have a short reading and then we’ll be all like dancing on the tables and breaking the lamps and slamming tequila shots.

The more I look at the word ‘indispensable’, the more I get confused. I’ve had to look it up twice now.

and the view is just lovely (click for large-size).

I have too many domains — about 30 or so. It’s an addiction. I’m trying to pare down some so today I’m giving away listmaker.org

It’s a great domain, I think, and at one time I had plans for it.

Build your web app there, house your blog, etc.

Just leave me a comment here over the next few days about how you might like to use it — if you’re the only one it’s yours (by the way – it expires in two days – but I will register it for you for another year at gandi.net, and then transfer it to your account). If there are a couple of interested people, I’ll pick the one I like best. If you have no technical skills — I’ll even host it for you at dreamhost for a year (with wordpress?) to get you started.

Now, who wants it?

Here’s a couple of updates to Couch:

Couch is now officially an Indie Next List pick since it’s now January.

Read about other Indie Next List picks here or, if you’re a bookseller, get yourself some very fancy Shelf talkers or download them directly as PDFs here.

Three new reviews:

Paul DiFilippo, writing for Barnes & Noble Review, said about Couch:

“…comic and pratfall-laden on the surface, but surprisingly affecting and mythic underneath. Parzybok’s easy voice is guileless and contemporary, fluid and colorful as that of Tom Robbins, yet concealing considerable craft.” 

Read the whole review here.

Thanks, Paul! (Paul’s books are here)

John Enzinas of SF Site wrote:

“The story gets stranger and stranger as the adventurers find themselves riding the rails on an electric cart, drifting on the couch in the Pacific Ocean, stowaways on a freighter bound for the Ecuador, and carrying the couch through the jungles of South America on a cart with a fog propeller. In between there is action, philosophy, violence, sex, drinking, fishing, terrorists, shadowy cabals, fishing and gluten intolerance.

 The story is fun, the characters are sympathetic and the writing is tight.”

Read the whole review here.

Thanks, John!

Mark Flanagan of ContemporaryLit.About.com said:

“Literary and historical allusions sprinkled throughout make the novel something of a treasure hunt, and a bit of bathrobe philosophizing in parts will make you go “hm.” Couch is a quick and funny read, a short fable that ensnares us in its quixotic intentions and encourages us to believe for a short time in something magic, even if it is just a couch.”

Read the whole review here.

Thanks, Mark!

I will be doing another mini-tour come the end of February – oncet we work out the details, yo.

Happy New Year all, my lovelies. Stay safe and warm. It’s raining devilishly outside. This year is going to bring a whole lot of awesome, especially since we have nowhere to go but up.