Watching People Burn Trailer

Martian Lit has released a trailer for my book Watching People Burn. It's short (just over a minute), was a lot of work, and is really good. Please watch it and, if you like it, share it on your preferred social network!

This is the first video from Martian Lit, so if you like this sort of stuff, it would really help to see those YouTube views count upward. Many, many thanks!

Free Kindle Books, Today and Tomorrow Only

My historical screenplay Watching People Burn is a fictional portrayal of the worst school massacre in U.S. history, which happened -- shockingly -- in rural Michigan in 1927.

My short story The Slave Factory examines a rarely discussed element of the Atlantic slave trade -- the slave factory -- and how slavery warps the psychology of both slave and master alike.

Both are available for free on Kindle this weekend (24-25 March). Go download!

Watching People Burn

The Slave Factory

More Miracleman and New Martian Lit Material

The fourth installment of my analysis of Alan Moore's Miracleman is out on Sequart. In it, I look at the powerful depiction of super-hero sexuality in the opening of chapter three ("When Johnny Comes Marching Home").

Over at Martian Lit, the first piece of fiction by someone other than me is up. It's called "Life, Limb, and the Devil's Dissent," by Mark Rapacz, with original artwork by Chris Coffey. It's simply beautiful and well worth reading.

Martian Lit is the publisher of my own free serialized fiction, The Many Lives of Yelena Moulin, as well as two books by me that are currently available on Kindle for 99 cents, and free to borrow for Amazon Prime members: Watching People Burn and The Slave Factory. Martian Lit will also shortly be publishing my transgressive novel Nira/Sussa. These are excellent works that are just begging for your attention.

That is all.

Superman's a Fascist Fantasy... a Huge Twist... and More Self-Promotion

Over at Sequart Research & Literacy Organization, my analysis of Miracleman's second chapter goes live today. It's good stuff, during which I call Superman a fascist fantasy. Because he is. Hey, I like him too, but he is.

If you know anything about comics, you know how important this landmark series by Alan Moore is -- and how rarely discussed, in any depth. Check it out.

Over at Martian Lit, the fourth chapter of my The Many Lives of Yelena Moulin is also up, illustrated with original art by the great Doug Smock. This chapter has a huge twist in it -- two, actually. How huge? PRETTY GODDAMN HUGE.

If you haven't been following this biweekly experiment in serialized, illustrated, wild, sci-fi fiction, you owe it to yourself to start from the beginning. If you don't like it, there's something wrong with you. Seriously, go read Twilight or something. But then, if you weren't smart, why would you be here to begin with?

Did you know I have three books available on Kindle for 99 cents each? Yep, that's how desperate I am! Years of my life, for the price of a telephone call!

If you like comics and comics movies, there's Improving the Foundations: Batman Begins from Comics to Screen. Terrorism and dead kids more your style? Then there's Watching People Burn, the real-life story of the worst school massacre in U.S. history that you didn't know about. Systematic oppression like slavery more your speed? Then check out The Slave Factory, literary historical fiction in 12 short and beautiful chapters.

As we march towards the release of my novel, Nira/Sussa, it's now got a page up on Goodreads. Go rate it five stars, even though you haven't read it. Then spam all your Facebook friends about it, because that's what they'd want you to do.

Then if you do all that, go buy yourself a flagon of ale. You deserve a break today.

The Boy with Manic Depression on His Sleeve

Over at Goodreads, I'm running a contest to give away three print copies of Watching People Burn. This is part of a transparently desperate attempt to drum up support for the book, which has everything going against it: it's a screenplay, not a novel, and it's smart. It's also not a heartwarming subject: it's about the greatest school tragedy in U.S. history, which no one knows about.

The book is also out on Kindle today. For the usual 99 cents, because I really, really just want people to read it. Someone. Anyone. Free to borrow / read for Amazon Prime members.

This whole lack of readers thing has gotten me quite depressed. I think all writers want their work to stand on its own, although they surely all recognize the importance of marketing. In my case, I happen to think Watching People Burn and The Slave Factory are pretty goddamned brilliant, and I'd like to think that I've got some credentials to say so: the whole, y'know, Ph.D. and having written hundreds of pages each year for 20 years. But the truth is that quality doesn't matter, if no one knows your product exists. And the other truth is that poorly-written vampire love stories sell a lot easier than, say, dissections of the psychology of the slave trade, or cinematic exegeses of horrific acts of domestic terrorism.

That leads me to this awful feeling, looking at my listings, on places like Amazon and Goodreads. Seriously, The Slave Factory and Watching People Burn? Those have to be among the two most somber titles imaginable. How much of an emotional masochist do you have to be, at least when it comes to art, to say, "Oh, shit, The Slave Factory? That's something I'd like to read more about!" In fact, I've started to look at those listings and laugh, thinking that they're telegraphing the author's severe manic depression.

It doesn't help that I know my upcoming novel, despite the ambiguous title Nira/Sussa, while profoundly ambitious, is pretty goddamn dark. Or that the novel after that, while actually much lighter, has a title that would feel right at home with those two apparently depressive ones.

That's not to say that these aren't towering works of literary prowess. I certainly think so, or I wouldn't be publishing them, much less using them to lead this venture into making my creative work available in a big way, after all these years of writing.

That's also not to say that these are really all that dark. Sure, there's plenty of darkness there. But like the best transgressive writers, like Vladimir Nabokov or Bret Easton Ellis, I see a lot of hope underneath even the darkest aspects of my stories.

They're filled with a palpable sense that this darkness is man-made. That it lies within all of us, yes. But that it's not God or fate that fills the world with suffering and terrorism and slavery: there's just humans, in particular circumstances, acting in ways that not only hurt others but in fact hurt ourselves. That are counter-productive and self-destructive. And that, because of this, we can change. Not eradicate, perhaps -- I'm no utopian hippie, pretending that peace and love are simple alternatives. They're not, and they're not in my stories. But this doesn't mean we can't untangle the knots that tie us together in exploitative and self-destructive ways. And seeing how those knots work is the first step to fixing them.

The few people who read this blog probably won't care about these things. I have written this only for me, at this frightening and unsettling moment, when my adult life and all my education and all my writing experience will either propel me to a place I can live with... or crash into some very hard realities that suggest a trajectory I'm not psychologically prepared to deal with. That's surely a binary point of view that doesn't reflect reality -- and I'm certainly not expecting overnight fame, I assure you. But when I see zero sales at 99 cents, despite strong reviews, I shudder, and the prospect of no one caring, of everything being for naught, begins to loom in a very real way. Such, I suppose, is part of the price of doing new and bold things.

And obviously, whatever happens, the novel after I'm through with my present work simply must be a Care Bears murder mystery. Preferably with a love plot and some Christian vampires, who kneel like Tebow before chowing down. Because that's what the Kindle bestsellers list wants, and it must be fed. ;)

Tons of My Writing That's Important for You to Read and Tell Your Friends About and Use to Build a Shrine to Me

1. In Sequart News, My Look at Miracleman Starts Today

Today, my introduction to Miracleman, "Why Miracleman Matters," is up on Sequart Research & Literacy Organization! It's the public beginning of something I've been working on for maybe half a decade: a major, book-length analysis of Miracleman. If you don't know why this is such a big deal, please read and find out. I hope you'll enjoy it and tell strangers about it.

If you haven't heard, I also hosted Sequart's first podcast. The second podcast, in which I'm a mere guest, went live yesterday (New Year's).

One week ago, I continued my look at Frank Miller's Holy Terror (though I haven't mentioned, on my blog, this third article yet).

2. In Martian Lit News, More The Many Lives of Yelena Moulin

Over on Martian Lit, the third chapter of The Many Lives of Yelena Moulin went live today as well. It's aggressively punchy, uber-smart sci-fi accompanied by original art from the great Doug Smock. How fucking cool is that?!? You owe it to yourself to check out this great work of new fiction.

Also my book Watching People Burn, which examines the Bath school disaster, is now available on CreateSpace and Amazon. It's the brutal true story of an act of domestic terrorism by an anti-tax extremist in rural Michigan in 1927. Oh yeah, and it blew up a grade school. What the fuck? Yep, all true. And the book's only $9.99.

Busy, Busy, Busy

First, book news! Martian Lit has announced Watching People Burn, my fictional account of the Bath school disaster. It has also announced my novel, Nira / Sussa, which took over a decade to write. Both couldn't mean more to me. Here are their covers:

Second, Martian Lit published the second chapter of my The Many Lives of Yelena Moulin today, accompanied by art by Doug Smock (see image at right). It's punchy sci-fi, where every chapter has a twist or a mind-bending idea of some sort.

Finally, my second article on Frank Miller's Holy Terror is up on Sequart. It focuses on the introductory sequence as a key to understanding the text.

Thanks for reading! And please, if you like anything, consider sharing them through social networking sites. Many thanks!