Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Here's The Map

I've always been fond of this couplet of dialogue from the Coen Brothers film No Country for Old Men; Has such Blakean truth ever been expressed so elegantly in postmodern film?
Llewelyn: "I'm just lookin' for what's comin'."
Woman at motel: "Yeah, but no one ever sees that."

But be that as it may, motel lady, I'm going to jot down here a tentative schedule of where this ship is sailing, and what we plan to do when we reach that far shore:

December 24 - Theoretically The Moleskin Checklist will be released on Crispness Eve. It's a dark and grim detective-noir tale of a washed-up private investigator named Jack who starts receiving body parts in the mail from blackmailers. His mischievous lowlife friend Sappy, who lives his life like he's in the movies, urges him to play this Big Lebowski-esque situation out to the cinematic hilt. But they soon quickly learn that real life is nothing like the movies. If gore, bad language, and gutter-tone characters aren't for you, skip this one.

January - Sometime early in 2013, the JSH Book Club will formally take shape with a website and an advertising campaign. It's still all being worked out by my friends at Wakeling & Harbour but the book club will offer a monthly selection to club members, including early releases of forthcoming works and special items for members only. And all at a cheaper price than you'd pay for the print editions individually, of course.

April - April will see the simultaneous release of The Bartender and an as-yet-untitled science fiction opus that will take 'em out a whole new door. The Bartender is another noir-ish affair, about a man who sees his duties as a bartender to be a noble pursuit comparable to the Knights Templar or the Cathars, serving a higher calling to serve mankind spiritually as well as serving them beer. But his ethics are put to the test when he finds himself overhearing something he shouldn't from one of his inebriated customers. It will include copious illustrations from J. Todd Dockery. More details on the science fiction novel will follow as it progresses.

Summer - By summer, Wakeling & Harbour will begin publishing hardcover books independently of Amazon's CreateSpace platform. Whether this will be all new works or hardcover reissues of the previous books is currently unknown. Another work in progress - a prequel to the events depicted in The Devil and Daniel Boone - will be published in hardcover by Wakeling & Harbour sometime in 2013.