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Coming soon
I believe this is known in the PR trade as “generating buzz.”
(Title, subtitle, and author credit subject to possible revision.)
Yes, that is Carl’s work. The guy is a mensch.
UPDATE! I’m now waiting for my review copy from the printer. If all is well with it, you should be able to buy copies right here very shortly. (Like maybe in a week.) Or you can order it from your local bookstore once I get the ISBN assigned.
Posted by: Chris Clarke
Note: A database glitch in 2008 ate a bunch of archived comments. Don't be offended if yours isn't here, or confused if the conversation seems disjointed. Thanks!
So much upheaval, and now a second book to write.
Let’s all hope the blue funding fairy joins you and your muse in your new desert haunts.
[Aside: that’s a PAINTING of Zeke!? Carl is a genius.]
By: By omegapet on 2008 02 20
I like the use of FAMILIAR.
By: By KMTBERRY on 2008 02 20
Love the title but not sure about the subtitle. Does a book always need one ? I have no idea.
I am by no means an expert so please ignore this if this is irrelevant but the subtitle takes away the strength of the beautiful title for me. Makes it weaker somehow. Maybe that’s because I have followed you and Zeke so I read more into the title than others might but that’s my two pence worth.
Good luck with everything, Chris. I really wish you well in whatever you do.
By: By Devious Diva on 2008 02 20
Interesting how personal a title / sub title can be interpreted. I see the sub title as grounding to the title, a comfort in the hint of what’s to come.
Either way, it’s a stunning cover.
By: By Al on 2008 02 20
Wait, Zeke was your familiar? You’re a witch? Huh.
By: By Orange on 2008 02 20
what’s that infernal BUZZING NOISE??!
By: By Sven DiMilo on 2008 02 20
Wait, Zeke was your familiar? You’re a witch?
The couches clothed in hair,
Your sad “stop typing” stare
Breath like a polar bear
It’s witchcraft
You whine and plead intense for it
I built all those rows of fence for it
With redwood planks, barbed wire and bamboo
‘cause it’s witchcraft, Zekie witchcraft
When we walk, my job is picking up poo
Where ever you start leading me
my heart with squirrels is treed in me
I fed you but you’re feeding me too
Sidewalks or in a ditch
I’m happy in my niche
there’s no nicer son of a bitch than you!
By: By Chris Clarke on 2008 02 20
I don’t know whether to squee with delight (for the promise of that book and the glorious cover) or suppress a sniff (for the absent Zeke-ster himself).
By: By Rachel Shaw on 2008 02 20
I prefer daemon to familiar (see, e.g., Pullman’s His Dark Materials). It’s sexy, because it’s Greek, and it’s got that cool “ae” combo.
By: By Rob G on 2008 02 20
First poem ever to include the words, “my job is picking up poo.”
By: By Orange on 2008 02 20
I think you’re probably right, Orange, though Katherine Lee Bates came close in the first of her two America To England sonnets, 1899:
Who would trust England, let him lift his eyes
To Nelson, columned o’er Trafalgar Square,
Her hieroglyph of duty, written where
The roar of traffic hushes to the skies;
Or mark, while Paul’s vast shadow softly lies
On Gordon’s statued sleep, how praise and prayer
Flush through the frank young faces clustering there
To con that kindred rune of sacrifice.
O England, no bland cloud-ship in the blue,
But rough oak plunging on o’er perilous jars
Of reef and ice, our faith will follow you
The more for tempest roar that strains your spars,
Your fate forever picking up the poo,
Your courses shapen by the eternal stars.
By: By Chris Clarke on 2008 02 20
Was I the only one to think the subtitle alluded to the doglike Canis subspecies name?
By: By miguel alondra on 2008 02 20
YES, DUH, Chris is a witch. HAVEN’T YOU BEEN READING THIS BLOG??!?!!??ZOMG
Oops I meant Chris/chris.
By: By KMTBERRY on 2008 02 21
Oops I meant Chris/chris.
BWAH!
(I mean that in a purely transfigurative and representational way, indicating through the dialectic of shared internet discourse and formulations of representational behavior that the reader, here personafied under the pseudonym of “Rana,” produced a loud eruption of laughter in response to the absurdity and humor value of a transgressive comment presented in a way that contrasts with the original content of the post.)
(Gah. I don’t know which is scarier, that I _can_ write like that, or that I just _did_.)
By: By Rachel Shaw on 2008 02 21
I can hardly wait! Please let us know when and where we can buy this book.
By: By blondie on 2008 02 21
great cover. you’ve got a lot of content already. whatcha waiting for?
By: By kathy a on 2008 02 21
Uploading the inside to Lulu as we speak.
By: By Chris Clarke on 2008 02 22
I’ve updated the post to reflect the fact that I’m now waiting for my review copy from the printer. Whee!
And Devious Diva, I didn’t miss your feedback on the subtitle. Thanks for it: it’s not always easy to give negative feedback in a situation like this. I gave it some thought and wasn’t sure what to decide, frankly. But this is all kind of experimental. You have to live before you can live and learn, right?
By: By Chris Clarke on 2008 02 22
The beauty of “familiar” is that it works as both a reference to the supernatural as well as the natural. Not to consign your life w/ Zeke to the commonplace, but there are few things more culturally familiar than the relationship between human and dog in all its mythological, historic, economic, and emotional ways.
Ron
By: By soitnly on 2008 02 22
Thanks for replying Chris. I had been feeling bad for being negative about the subtitle. Of course, it was just a personal opinion. Maybe a cultural reference that I missed.
Anyway, I can’t wait to buy the book. I am sure you will have a paypal option here.
This is so exciting. You’re the first blog friend who has written a book that I can’t wait to read.
This gives me hope that others will follow your example and write the books that I know are in them.
Thank you for being so inspiring.
By: By Devious Diva on 2008 02 22
W00T!
By: By thebewilderness on 2008 03 03
