THANK YOU, BOOKLIST!

From Booklist:

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse.
Gischler, Victor (Author)
Jul 2008. 336 p. Touchstone, paperback, $14.00. (9781416552253).

Nine years after Mortimer Tate retreated from the end of the world (he thought) to the Tennessee mountains, three men appear before his cabin. He emerges, desperate for conversation. Unfortunately, they mistake his intentions, and he is forced to shoot them. Despite this inauspicious incident, Mortimer is optimistic enough to venture down the mountain. What passes for civilization surprises him: a chain of strip joints called Joey Armageddon’s Sassy-A-Go-Go has set itself as mankind’s savior. But as with any fledgling world-saving operation, there is opposition—to wit, the terrorist-like Red Stripes, whom Mortimer is sent to defeat. His subsequent breakneck journey is full of cannibals, slave runners, bad booze, and other dangers, none more perilous than hope. Although this dark comedy makes one laugh, it isn’t a romp in a postapocalyptic playground. It’s violent and sleazy, laced with moments of quiet gravity, an
intelligent satire of how American society works even after it has broken down (the label for
postapocalypse Jack Daniel’s in chapter 23 is pure comic gold). Compulsively readable.
— Krista Hutley

NASA, please get to work on this.

Beer in orbit? It's not just a refreshing beverage, it's also propulsion. Be careful when you pop that top. Check HERE for the story. Thanks to Mike Cane for the heads up.

Wish I could be there.

As most of you might know already, the mystery convention MAYHEM IN THE MIDLANDS is going on in Omaha as we speak. This is a very fun convention which I've been to three or four times, and I'm hoping to get back soon. Fellow Crime Dogs Sean Doolittle and Anthony Neil Smith sent me some golf outing pics to show me all the fun I'm missing.

Next year, Guys. Next year.

Neil, I hope you're selling numerous copies of Yellow Medicine.

Friday's Forgotten Books

This nice lady asked me to tell you about a book I think needs a little attention. Sounds like a good idea. Listen up.

When I was approached about doing this, I was right in the middle of watching the film Blade Runner -- one of my all time favorites. I have the new neato-keen 5-DVD set, complete with "the making of" etc. Blade Runner, as most of you know I'm sure, is based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? But this isn't the forgotton novel I want to talk to you about. The enormous cult following of Blade Runner has made many familiar with the PKD novel, but the simple fact is that Phil wrote a lot of damn books. A lot.

One of the somewhat overlooked novels is a gem called Clans of the Alphane Moon. This is the novel in which PKD out LaSalles Emerson LaSalle. Clans of the Alphane Moon clearly demonstrates PKD's willingness (eagerness?) to toss reality and plausibility out the window in favor of a great yarn. Also, PKD's brand of science fiction deals far more with themes than it does with the extrapolation of technology. Clans revolves around a mental assylum planet that was abandoned by Earth during an interplanatery war. When Earth authorities return to the moon decades later, they discover that the loony-toons who were left behind have formed themselves into clans. (For example, the paranoids form a clan that is obsessed with building their defenses to fend of all the attacks they imagine.) Back on Earth, our hero (with the help of an intelligent slime mold) uses a remote control robot to spy on his wife.

Yeah.

Die hard PKD fans will already know about this one, but those only familiar with PKD'S more glamorous work might want to take this crazy, pulp sci-fi side trip.

My Promotional Wish List

In my dream world, the band Nerf Herder would do a cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" but change the words to make the song "Smooth Alchemist" to help promote the novel I'm finishing now. In the meantime, check out Nerf Herder right HERE for an old Blogpocalypse favorite.

YouTube With Guns

Yellow Medicine author Anthony Neil Smith seems to be all over the place these days. Go HERE to check him out.

Jackie Cassada of Library Journal is about to get a big, wet kiss.

Jackie Cassada - Library Journal
Ten years after the world ends, insurance salesman Mortimer Tate emerges from his well-stocked mountain hideout to find a desolate land populated by bandits, savages, cannibals, and a lone cowboy named Buffalo Bill, who becomes his sidekick in danger and exploration. Joined by Sheila and Tyler, two women who have made their own paths to survival, the group discovers the glue that holds a fragile civilization together-a franchise of strip clubs called Joey Armageddon's Sassy-a-Go-Go. Gischler (Gun Monkeys; The Pistol Poets; Suicide Squeeze; Shotgun Opera) specializes in morbid humor, dark sarcasm, and comic noir, complete with violence and mayhem. Eccentric seriocomic sf in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, this postapocalyptic adventure is recommended for most mature sf readers.

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Any time I'm compared to Kurt Vonnegut, it's a good day. Vonnegut was my "primary figure" in grad school at the University of Southern Mississippi. So I'm happy. Really really happy.

What does Psychobilly Monday mean to you?

It means you should buy THIS BOOK.


Yeah, that's right.


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Science Fiction Trading cards?

Yep, something new for us to collect, and the folks doing it want to include Emerson LaSalle. They need your help! Click HERE for details.






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THE GREAT PSYCHOBILLY BLOG ROAD TRIP OF 2008: DAY 1, PART 2

Anthony Neil Smith has hijacked my blog and wants to tell you this:



Last Stop: Smith’s Crimedog One

Holy hell, I finally made it. It was grueling and I’m delirious, but we’re now at the Blogpocalypse, where we find Gischler smoking a giant cigar and grilling up some BBQ ribs for the road. Add another set of golf clubs to the bed of the Big Red Truck, plus the most giantest case of Coors Light I’ve ever seen.

Now, Gischler’s got a new novel out in a couple of months. It’s called Go Go Girls of the Apocalypse, and I have to say that when you compare his book to the recent spate of post-apocalyptic literary novels that serve as both social commentaries on our own culture and prophetic cautionary tales, his is by far the silliest. And if your post-apocalypse ain’t silly, then you’ve got a giant stick up your ass. Do yourself a favor and hunt this one down, especially if you live in Texas and can make it out to one of our scheduled signings for July in San Antonio, Austin (along with Justin C. Gordon from Out of the Gutter), Dallas, and Houston.

The price of gas on this trip might make that end of the world scenario feel closer than ever, so in that case we’ll just have to turn the music up louder as we fill the tank, oblivious to the little digital numbers climbing higher and higher. So maybe when you’re shortening your vacation this year because it costs waaaaay too fucking much to go, like, anywhere, you can give yourself a “mental vacation” by purchasing Yellow Medicine at Barnes & Noble (or their website…and only if you have no super cool indie stores around, because they should come first), and indulge in the exploits of Deputy Billy Lafitte, a Mississippian exiled in Minnesota after Katrina, hoping his Southern charm can melt some of those frosty Northern attitudes in order to better con them. That guy, I’m telling you, he’s headed for trouble.

Next stop, the dead literal center of the heartland (okay, maybe not “literally”, but play along anyway)--Omaha, Nebraska, to pick up our good friend and third Stooge, the famous Sean Doolittle.

Driving time: 14 hours (but that’s only Daylight Savings Time, and only with a good watch battery) Tune for this leg: “Caledonia” by The Gourds (as it is for every road trip we’ve been on for the past eight years)


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Guns, girls and alcohol ... oh my!

Publisher's Weekly has weighed in on my forthcoming novel. I'm pretty darn happy. Check it out:


Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse Victor Gischler. Touchstone, $14 paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-4165-5225-3

Guns, girls and alcohol occupy almost every inch of this raucous thrill ride, providing nonstop opportunities for both action and comedy. After coming down from his mountain bunker, insurance salesman Mortimer Tate finds a world that is postapocalyptic by way of early '90s action films. Mortimer's quests to find his ex-wife and discover his own purpose serve as a strong center line through a haze of madcap events. He and "Buffalo" Bill, a man obsessed with the idea of cowboys as a postcivilized focal point, encounter a wide cast of characters along their journeys, including foul-mouthed, gun-toting Sheila, who at times seems the best adapted to the harsh new world. The trio hop from one explosive encounter to another, often with the thinnest of reasons. Despite the frontier violence and sketchy plot, the humor of this armageddon western is woven deeply enough to keep Mortimer's adventures feeling like a party. (July)


Not perfect (but I like frontier violence!) but I'm extremely pleased. Thanks, PW. You get a cookie.


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More reading for your cyber-pleasure

So Thug Lit has a new issue up. Check it out, mofos!

This hits cyberspace on the heels of Anthony Neil Smith's all-crime issue of Storyglossia. Looks like some new renaissance of hardboiled on-line writing is emerging. Or something. Maybe some groovy hepcat publisher should do a best of cyber-noir or some similar project. I'd buy it. (Bryon, when's the next Demolition out?)

Smell the Awesome

Anthony Neil Smith did this: http://www.storyglossia.com/28/cover.html




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