Matt Staggs pointed this book out today and… well. All right the book is called The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books. It sounded really fun and interesting.

From the book description: In The Late American Novel, Jeff Martin and C. Max Magee gather some of today’s finest writers to consider the sea change that is upon them. Lauren Groff imagines an array of fantastical futures for writers, from poets with groupies to novelists as vending machines. Rivka Galchen writes about the figurative and literal death of paper. Joe Meno expounds upon the idea of a book as a place set permanently aside for the imagination, regardless of format. These and other original essays by Reif Larsen, Benjamin Kunkel, Victoria Patterson, and many more provide a timely and much-needed commentary on this compelling cultural crossroad.

And hey, that sounds neet-o to me at least. Of course I also really want this book about fonts so I might be strange. Either way, The Late American Novel looked like something I would pick up in a heartbeat.

And I would’ve, actually, ordered it in a heartbeat, except that the book itself isn’t available in an electronic format. Now, it isn’t that I only read new books on my Kindle, I don’t, at all. But I feel that if you are offering a book about the future of books, and want to be taken seriously, you can’t only offer your book in a paper format. If you’re serious then you have to be serious.

Now, this book is from a small press it looks like and maybe Amazon simply hasn’t gotten around to adding it yet. It’s possible, but I don’t know. Either way it shows me something important. Your format choices tell a consumer a lot about how you think and where you stand.

Both Stays Crunchy in Milk and I Slept With your Imaginary Friend are available as paper books, Kindle format on Amazon and, most importantly, on Smashwords. Why is that important? Because over there they are obtainable in every electronic format we could think of. HTML, epub, PDF, RTF, Sony Reader format, Palm Doc, plain text and yes, as Kindle formatted .mobi but with a difference – NO DRM. None of the formats have DRM. And that’s where I stand on the issue. Zero DRM can be obtained in any format you want. For me that’s part of the future, a future without DRM.

But by showing me that they aren’t going the distance to provide for, or think about, the future they’re supposed to be writing about, The Late American Novel won’t get my money. And that’s a shame. Because it does look like fun. However I will also promise – if I see a Kindle version of the book I will buy it right then. Just to give them props for getting there.

I think what it is, for me, is that people who write about the future and come across as scared of it from the jump just don’t win me over.

EDITED TO ADD: One of the editors of the book left a comment on this post that states: “Thanks for taking a moment to write about and consider the book. The official release date for the book is March 1st. It will be available at that time on Kindle, Nook or whatever you prefer. We hope you give it a try. Thanks. – Jeff” So, note that it is an Amazon thing that made this seem odd. Also note, that as promised, I will buy the book as soon as it is out, and will read it as soon as time permits.

Hey guys, you know I don’t tend to like Zombie fiction much, right? It’s true. There isn’t much of it that really captures me. Still. Some of it is awesome and well worth your time.

The Confession by Laszlo Xalieri is one of those stories. I was lucky enough to get to see an early draft of it, and even then it was simply one of the best shorts I’d read in years. the thing is a masterful bit of prose and storytelling.

It appears in a book called Zombiesque out today. It’s a zombie anthology. Here’s the official blub:
———————-
From a tropical resort where visitors can become temporary zombies, to a newly-made zombie determined to protect those he loves, to a cheerleader who won’t let death kick her off the team, to a zombie seeking revenge for the ancestors who died on an African slave ship — Zombiesque invites readers to take a walk on the undead side in these tales from a zombie’s point of view.

Editors: Stephen L. Antczak, James C. Bassett, Martin H. Greenberg

Contributors: Nancy A. Collins, Charles Pinion, Tim Waggoner, Richard Lee Byers, Robert Sommers, Seanan McGuire, G. K. Hayes, Jim C. Hines, Sean Taylor, Jean Rabe, Gregroy Nicoll, Del Stone, Jr., S. Boyd Taylor, Laszlo Xalieri, Nancy Holder, and Wendy Webb
———————-

Now to be all aboveboard I am good friends with Laszlo. But I wouldn’t pimp something I don’t like. Not even for a friend. Because I feel that if I’m gonna ask you to spend your money I need to be able to look you in the eye and mean it when I say: This story is worth the price of the book, to me. It’s that good. I adore it.

You can click here and get Zombiesque as of today at Amazon in paper or Kindle format.

If you like zombies at all. If you like horror. If you want to read something that feels fresh and new. Then you want to give this book a shot

James Morrow is one of those writers that I both love and hate. He’s a terrific writer, mind you, but reading his books tends to make me depressed. He hits the human condition so well, and the dark side of it, at that, that I often end up wanting to just use the pages of the book to cut myself after I’m done.

Yet I still read him, because he’s that good. He’s interesting and gets down to an emotional level many people shy away from. His books are well worth watching out for and digging into. They just also make me sad.

So I had an idea that might solve this.

See, he has a trilogy of books that deal with God being dead and an effort to tow his body to the arctic where it is cold enough that everything will stay preserved so they can put Him on trial for His sins. An oil tanker is hired, with the captain (who is basically the captain of the Valdez) and angels go along and so on. People learn that when they’re starving, they can eat God’s flesh and… just… it’s a big lesson in what God means and how crazy we all are. And how fractured. But I’ve never read the whole thing. Too much depression, guys, I’m telling you.

And I want to read the whole thing, back to back, sometime and really soak in it but can you imagine what that’d do to me? Yeah. And that’s where my plan comes in!

I need a separate room set up where there will be someone to hug me as I stumble out of my room, dazed and consumed by what Morrow lays down. The room will also be filled with kittens. Cute, mewing kittens who will salve my emotional wounds.

The more I consider it the more I wonder if Morrow himself has a room like that where he takes breaks between writing. Done with a chapter or two – go hit up the hugs and kitten suite. I bet he does. Ad I bet that it is awesome!

More libraries should have a hugs and kitten suite, just in case you’re reading some really downer stuff. I think we can do this, people, if we work together. And buy a lot of kittens. And some space.

Anyway, that’s how I need to get through some of Morrow’s bigger novels. I can’t be alone, there.