More of More of This Sort of Thing!

Careful Now Promotions of Medway, Englishland have finally come up with a fourth issue of More of This Sort of Thing!, a proper print fanzine like nature intended which you won't be able to download to your silly overpriced portable telephone. This issue features writing by the excellent Vic Templar, author of the highly recommended Taking Candy from a Dog, which should be sufficient recommendation by itself; also Bob Collins, Stuart Turner and myself returning to strip cartoons for the first time in fucking ages (me, I mean, not Stuart or Bob) with Dennis the Drum Kit, a typically puerile rearrangement of the same old poo jokes which served me so well back in the late 1700s, back when everything was better than it is now.

There's not much point waiting for any of this stuff to be posted online or reproduced in some digital format, so if you want it, you'll either have to go back in time to the Careful Now gig at which they were giving them away for free (Heavenly and Treasures of Mexico, May 13th), or possibly badger someone on the associated facebook page. There's a notice in the fanzine saying further copies can be had for 50p and an SAE sent to CNP Towers, but with no address given, so that would probably be the Oast in Rainham, Kent, which is where CNP stage all of their fab pop concerts. Each issue of More of This Sort of Thing! is actually designed to be read at its associated gig whilst waiting for the next band or for bar staff to pour one's sixteenth pint of the evening, but is a satisfyingly substantial read in its own rights.

The Tragedian

I never really intended to be a publisher of anything besides my own material, but I really wanted to read Andy Fraser's first novel, and it turned out that the easiest way to do so (given that I hate reading off a screen) was to make a copy for myself; then I sent one to the author - figuring that he should at least see it - and one thing led to another, and here we are...

I've known Andy (whom you may remember as a contributor to Kiss of Life) on and off since the eighties. He's one of those people who has proven difficult to pigeonhole, but he always makes things interesting; and his writing is as distinctive and possibly as unique as his music so I'm disgustingly proud to be in the position to make this available to a slightly wider audience. The Tragedian is approximately autobiographical, alternately funny, tragic and emotionally powerful despite a shitload of writing conventions having been thrown out the window. As I've said elsewhere, it's a novel which does what it does because no-one told it that it couldn't.

Buy your copy here, then review it on Goodreads so it will appear successful to future potential readers, who may then buy it, read it, review it on Goodreads, until it eventually achieves critical mass and takes over the world; which will at least be preferable to the singularity.

Figures in a Landscape

I have a new collection of short stories, mostly written around the time of Against Nature but previously unpublished and freshly tarted up around the end of last year. They're mostly science-fiction by a definition which allows for wiggle room, and I'm inappropriately pleased with all of them, particularly Evolution of Language and The War Against Continuity, both of which are fucking excellent; and yes, I do indeed say so myself. Some are long, others are short (just a couple of pages), and Life After Games probably counts as a novella. If you've read anything I've written, you probably have some idea of what to expect, and that's what you'll get except it'll be better, quite frankly. If you like to read, then there's a reasonable chance you'll enjoy this collection. If you don't like to read, just fucking buy one anyway.

Make your purchase(s) by clicking on this link.

No, there isn't an eBook and nor will there be. Same goes for the possibility of an audiobook, specifically that there isn't one. Much as RA the Rugged Man doesn't want fans who don't know who Kool G Rap is*, I intend to maintain a certain standard in terms of my readership, such as it is, and am keen to discourage riff raff.

*: The album came out twenty years ago. There's no good reason for you not to have known this.