A stunning, heart wrenching memoir in flash from the perspective of a daughter whose father didn't want her. We're still seeking reviews and interviewA stunning, heart wrenching memoir in flash from the perspective of a daughter whose father didn't want her. We're still seeking reviews and interviews if you're interested!...more
Oh hell yaaass! This book is pure fire. It's an immediate favorite indie read, and ranks right up there with Termite Parade as my favorite Mohr novel.Oh hell yaaass! This book is pure fire. It's an immediate favorite indie read, and ranks right up there with Termite Parade as my favorite Mohr novel. And I'm already jonesing for the next book in the trilogy.
I love the way he writes his lead characters. They are complete pieces of shit yet they have so much heart that you just can't help rooting for them and and they just keep redeeming themselves and there's a part of you that wishes you knew them in real life. Like, these guys and gals are where it's at. They live on the edge and aren't afraid to bruise their knuckles or bloody their fists or gnaw off a fucking finger. They'd do anything to protect their own. And they are all just so perfectly badass.
Mohr hits a homerun with this one. It's all gritty LA punk scene, drugs and eyepatches, machetes and glowing reindeers, Viking bloodlines, and hallucinations in a Whole Foods. And it breaks the 4th wall the entire time which is just... mwaaaah! Chef's kiss!
This is a book you have to experience. Go pre-order it. You won't want to miss it. And if you've never read a Mohr before, now's your time to sneak a few in before it releases....more
I am so thrilled to be working with Joshua Mohr to help promote his latest novel Farsickness. This is so unlike anything he had written before. It's dI am so thrilled to be working with Joshua Mohr to help promote his latest novel Farsickness. This is so unlike anything he had written before. It's deliriously trippy and impossible to put down. And it's illustrated by his daughter Ava. So if the description doesn't pull you in, her drawings will!!
Reach out if you are interested in reviewing the book, interviewing the author, or featuring either in your social spaces! ...more
I recently saw that Brian Evenson had a few copies of this one on hand that he was willing to sign and ship out and, I mean, how could I say no to thaI recently saw that Brian Evenson had a few copies of this one on hand that he was willing to sign and ship out and, I mean, how could I say no to that?! You could say I'm a bit of an Evenson fangirl, but again, if you've read his work, how could you not be?
Black bark is an incredibly dark collection - clocking in at just under 150 pages - that showcases some of Evenson's creepiest stories. Pitch black tunnels that house dripping, whispering creatures. A strange cabin that beckons to a lost and injured man may be the last threshold he crosses. Due to a series of unfortunate events, a young boy is forced to live with his estranged grandmother, who is anything but the kindly old woman he was hoping for. And two men are sent out on a one-way mission to follow a fence line to determine where the contagion began...
His writing gets under your skin. It itches. It twitches. It burrows in deep and never leaves you. It's the movement in the corner of your vision. The noise you hear downstairs just as you're about to drop off to sleep. The slight disturbance in the air that tickles the hairs on the back of your neck.
Which of Brian's books have you read? Do you have a favorite?
Thrilled to be partnering back up with Karin to help her promote this lovely collection of short stories. They are sure to hit you in the feels and stThrilled to be partnering back up with Karin to help her promote this lovely collection of short stories. They are sure to hit you in the feels and sting your heart - there's so much love in these pages: new love, complicated love, unrequited love, lost love…. You are not going to want to miss this!
Reach out to me if you'd like an advanced copy for review or interview coverage purposes!...more
Thrilled to be pairing back up with Leah Angstman this year to help promote her stunning debut historical short story collection. We'll be kicking pubThrilled to be pairing back up with Leah Angstman this year to help promote her stunning debut historical short story collection. We'll be kicking publicity off in August. Don't be shy, if you want to review the book for us or interview Leah hit me up here with a DM!...more
This book has it all. Dark Native American lore. A family heirloom with unique powers. And a metalhead, shot-slinging, aint-taking-no-shit-from-no-manThis book has it all. Dark Native American lore. A family heirloom with unique powers. And a metalhead, shot-slinging, aint-taking-no-shit-from-no-man badass leading lady who finds herself suddenly haunted by horrible nightmares and a ghost who's got a story it needs to tell.
Like most people, Kari's got some emotional scars that just refuse to heal. Her mom ran off and left her when she was two years old. Her dad had a bad car accident shortly after that left him brain damaged. And her BFF died of an overdose when they were in their teens. In an effort to dull the pain and repress the memories, Kari keeps her mind busy with alcohol and smokes, and hanging with her cousin Debby at the White Horse, a bar she intents to purchase from its aging owner Nick.
That is, until Debby gifts her a bracelet that used to belong to her mother. When Kari touches it, she experiences powerful and horrific visions, and begins to interact with the ghost of her mother, who may not just be missing.
Drenched in heavy metal music, Stephen King novels, and Indigenous mysticism, White Horse is a horror adjacent murder mystery that will keep you turning the pages......more
This was the book that won the When Words Count publishing contest the Pitch Week that I judged as a publicist last year. It's so cool to finally be hThis was the book that won the When Words Count publishing contest the Pitch Week that I judged as a publicist last year. It's so cool to finally be holding a print copy in my hand. Congrats to Eileen!
It's a fiesty feminist thing set in time where women had to kick, bite, and fight for every inch they gained in a "man's" career. I really enjoyed it and I am certain you will too! ...more
Really excited to be partnering up with Jackson to help promote his memoir. Remember the choose-your-own-adventure novels from back when you were a kiReally excited to be partnering up with Jackson to help promote his memoir. Remember the choose-your-own-adventure novels from back when you were a kid? Jackson breathes new life into that format here! It's pretty dang cool!
Hit me up if you're interested in reviewing it, interviewing Jackson, or doing some other fun coverage kind of stuff!!...more
It's not often that I read a book in one sitting. Abigail's debut novel was the absolute perfect storm - short page count, tight prose, and heady paciIt's not often that I read a book in one sitting. Abigail's debut novel was the absolute perfect storm - short page count, tight prose, and heady pacing that makes the words just fly right off the page. It sucks you right in. You can feeeeeel the disaster right from the start.
Our protagonist Jeanette is a fiercely independent grad student who suddenly finds herself in a relationship she wasn't expecting. Though she's usually good at pivoting and letting life take her wherever it goes, things quickly spiral out of her control. An unplanned pregancy ushers in a loss of self she wasn't prepared for and the battle of rediscovering herself through art comes at a cost.
The Drowned Woman is simultaneously tender and triggering as it confronts motherhood, domesticity, and infidelity head on. And hello, can we just stop for a second and stare at that gorgeous cover?!?...more
Stacy Wilder was a contestant in a publishing contest I judged last year. While it didn't win, it was a really close race, and this was an absolutely Stacy Wilder was a contestant in a publishing contest I judged last year. While it didn't win, it was a really close race, and this was an absolutely favorite of mine! I'm so excited to see it out in the world so you can enjoy it too. Go get it!!...more
If I haven't made it clear over the years, I am a huge fan of Joshua Mohr. His novels are simply phenomenal and his memoirs are no different. They areIf I haven't made it clear over the years, I am a huge fan of Joshua Mohr. His novels are simply phenomenal and his memoirs are no different. They are ridiculously engaging. Opening up Model Citizen is like sitting down and shooting the shit with this guy. He pulls you right in, he's talking right at you. It's crazy how engaging and raw his writing can be. And after reading this one, and yes I realize this might be a little f'ed up to admit, but I think it made me fangirl on him a little harder.
((FYI - Model Citizen is half Sirens and half new stuff, for those who might not be aware. I hadn't been, and I had read Sirens back in 2017 and was experiencing some crazy deja vu as I started this one. LOL))
This is not just a story of recovery, but one of acknowledging that the demons never die. And of celebrating every moment of sobriety like it's the first one. And of living in fear of relapsing but of loving something outside of yourself so fucking much that it gives you the strength to laugh in the face of that fear and reduce those demons to dust right before your very eyes.
It's also a terrifying look at your own mortality, and of figuring out how to cope with not knowing if your heart, your literal heart, is going to keep you alive long enough to see your kid grow up and your wife grow old.
Get ready to be totally gut punched. In the best of ways....more
Here we have a ridiculously wealthy hermit named Alice Knott, owner of some of the most expensive pieces of art in exiWow. WTFH did I just listen to?
Here we have a ridiculously wealthy hermit named Alice Knott, owner of some of the most expensive pieces of art in existence. She awakens one day to find the vault in which they were contained empty, and a viral video is released in which each painting is being maliciously destroyed. From there, we are made aware that this event kicks off a series of copycat burgalies and vandalisms around the world, and we witness the beginning of Alice's mental deterioration as she struggles to remember details about her own past as she becomes the main suspect in these crimes - who her family members were, the very layout of her ever-shift, ever changing house... or... perhaps this is all in her head? Or perhaps I didn'd understand a god damned thing? All of the above is a possiblity, as this book literally made not one ounce of sense.
I typically adore Blake's writing style but this just sounded so unlike him. I kept thinking to myself that I should DNF this...and had I been reading it in print, I probably would have. But since it was on audio and I was listening on my drive to and from work, I figured I wasn't wasting time in the same way. Looking back, I should have DNFd it because the deeper we got into the book, the more convoluted and frustrating it became....more
Absolutely Golden strikes me as more style than story, in that D. Foy has penned a protagonist with a sanguine temperment swimming in ridiculously lovAbsolutely Golden strikes me as more style than story, in that D. Foy has penned a protagonist with a sanguine temperment swimming in ridiculously lovely prose. His sentences are either abruptly short or languorously lengthy, drizzled with commas and packed with so much emotion they shine like the sun, so bright we must shield our eyes lest they themselves get burned. You can feast on his writing:
"We suffer, we people, we do. We carry secrets we know nothing of, and harbor them even, and sometimes even nurture for life. And we keep this torment because we deserve it, or believe we do, because, really, nearly always, we feel guilty."
"The sun was rising, thought still the mountains hid it. My room lay covered with that hazy pall of brass-colored light that with each day's coming makes the world seem everything's good, and yet I hadn't slept but for the haphazard snatch. And when actually I did catch a wink, it was to be assaulted by disfigured cherubs, their hair aflame, and defecating gressils, and jackals and crones, and enless piles of hacked-off limbs. Tranquility, in short, had been a distant song."
"It was so quiet, in fact, you could hear the friction of smoke on the gathering dark, of its rising from the pits, slither, slither, thither and thence, the steady trudging as well of anys in their line in the soil between a crack in the stones on the path, the motes of earth beneath their constant legs, the sound even, above, of the night itself, settling down like the breath of a woman on her sweetheart's eyes."
Keep in mind this takes place in the 70's at a nudist colony, where our narrator - a thirty something widow named Rachel - has reluctantly agreed to follow her hippy deadbeat boyfriend and his 'cousin' Jenny, chasing a much needed break in her rather stuffy, boring life.
There is much drugging and drinking and swinging (both of the dancing penises and switching of partners kind). The characters are eccentric, almost overwhleming so, and are prone to fits of fabulous story telling, regaling their audience with tales that often send the reader on multi-page-long diversions that eventually, and perfectly, weave themselves right back into the here and now (or then and there?).
I've read early reviews that refer to this book as comedic, the reviewers admitting to moments of actually laughing out loud. The back cover even refers to it as comic. Perhaps the author's sense of humor was lost on me? Perhaps I was just more strongly drawn towards D. Foy's hypnotic prose and the sheer awkwardness of our middle-aged sun-burned goddess, trying to make her square self fit into the star-shaped hole of Camp Freedom Lake?
Whatever its intent, I found Absolutely Golden to be a bright and fascinating trip back to a simpler, if not necessarily sanier, time....more
Those who know me know that I don't typically go in for non-fiction or memoir but this is Joshua Fucking Mohr, one of my major small press author crusThose who know me know that I don't typically go in for non-fiction or memoir but this is Joshua Fucking Mohr, one of my major small press author crushes.
Being asked to read Sirens was like being given a backstage pass into Mohr's mind - how could I turn down the opportunity to roam freely inside his head as he breaks down his long and complicated relationship with drugs and alcohol?
This is not just a story of recovery, but one of acknowledging that the demons never die. And of celebrating every moment of sobriety like it's the first one. And of living in fear of relapsing but of loving something outside of yourself so fucking much that it gives you the strength to laugh in the face of that fear and reduce those demons to dust right before your very eyes.
It's funny and fascinating and, yes, at times so ridiculously sad, because it's so many of the friends I had back in high school and it makes me wonder where they are now and if they were able to kick their habits and make good lives for themselves or if they fell under the spell of their drugs of choice and got sucked in so far that they couldn't claw their way out.
It's a letter to junkies that its never too late, and that sometimes, as silly as it sounds, love really does fucking conquer all.
It's Joshua's love letter to himself and god damn if it didn't make me fall all that much more in love with him, too.
