Yo, yo, yo! Happy holidays from the Somers Imperium, where Xmas is generally known by its pagan name, Whiskey Festivus (apologies to all those whose holidays don’t coincide with December 25th, or who don’t have holidays at all–you can pretty much remove the cynical child from the Catholic Church, but even the coldest of atheist ex-Catholics holds onto Xmas with a death grip, because of presents. I’m not much of a Catholic, my friends, but I am a definite believer in Santa Fucking Claus, get me?). I think of December as a month wherein I can start drinking the Holy Water of the Gods the moment I get up, and a healthful vomit around 3pm isn’t a scandal. I mean, if you’re drunk at 11AM on, say, August 22nd, people start to talk about you in private. On December 23rd, you’re just in a festive mood. It’s great!

Writing is always hard during the holidays, though. Time is short, you have a dozen social obligations pulling you from the house, and there is the aforementioned problemed drinking. Plus, there’s travel. The Duchess’ family lives in Texas, so every Xmas morning there we are on a plane, where I sit and wonder if the other passengers will taunt me if I order a bourbon from the flight attendant.

I’m always optimistic, though. I load my laptop up with files I’m working on, bring fresh pens and notebooks, and imagine myself burning the midnight oil in the hotel, bloated from good home cooking and free liquor, blearily trying to plot out the third Avery Cates novel. The harsh reality is me sitting in bed watching infomercials, though I am certainly as bloated as one might imagine after a day spent eating fried chicken and drinking bourbon. There’s a lot of bourbon in this scenario. They don’t cotton to Scotch much in Texas. It’s bourbon and Rye, mostly, good solid American whiskies. Not that I’m complaining.

So, a happy Whiskey Festivus to you all! Have a splash of cheer in my name.

Nick Cato of Novello Publishing was kind enough to send me a head’s up on a review of The Electric Church appearing in the next issue of The Horror Fiction Review. The review says, in part:

“The Electric Church had me on the edge of my seat for most of it’s thrilling second half, and with the forthcoming second Avery Cates novel, The Digital Plague, I believe Jeff Somers has created what may become a classic series. This novel is that good.”

Wow! Needless to say, this was a really nice way to start my day. This was the edition put out by the Science Fiction Book Club, which was, I think, hardcover. Whoo hoo!

I just noticed this great review of The Electric Church by Brian Burns on Blogcritics.com:

“The Electric Church is a winding, twisting rollercoaster of a book. Somers’ sparse, noir-like prose is fun and easy to read and his excellent pacing kept me turning pages way past bedtime. The world Somers has created is a dark and scary place, but it’s also a real place full of compelling characters, political intrigue and the problems of ordinary people who happen to live inside a cyberpunk novel.”

This was posted back on 10/30/07, but I just noticed it. Or maybe I already posted about it and have killed those brain cells? Anything’s possible.

Also, there’s this out on the intarwebs on a very interesting blog:

“Damn. This book is good. . .It’s a story with a Blade Runner kind of feel. The protag operates on the wrong side of the law and without an ounce of human kindness he’d ever admit to, yet is possessed of a quirky, if jagged, knack for making the reader face his own humanity at every paragraph.”

Huzzah for me!

My agent, god bless her, sent me this the other day:

“This from a blog reader in the Netherlands to me today:

Walked into the biggest bookshop in Utrecht at the weekend to find Jeff Somers’ The Electric Church standing centre-stage on the main display rack. Read the first page and was completely blown away. Bought it immediately.“

Thinking back on the way my first novel, Lifers, disappeared under the waves years ago, to have my book sitting on a shelf in the freakin’ Netherlands is pretty cool. To have people in the freakin’ Netherlands buying my book after reading the first page feels almost hallucinatory. Thank god for heartless capitalist conglomerates that rule the world with a rusty iron fist! Or something.

Lifers was published by a tiny, tiny company, of course, which offered exactly zero marketing and PR support. They sent out review copies (heck, the New York Times reviewed it) and put it in their catalogs, but that was about the limit of their support. I knew that going in, and thought I’d be able to do a lot of homespun promotion. I did my best – I put together a little reading tour which was pretty successful as far as those things go, I got some press. Still, I think at the height of my efforts you could count the number of bookstores stocking the novel on two hands, and as you can probably guess, Lifers-mania never exactly swept the nation.

The difference between rubbing yourself raw dragging yourself from bookstore to bookstore to do readings and beg for shelf space and waking up one morning, pouring yourself a nice cup of coffee and bourbon, and discovering your book is in a store halfway across the world is startling. And pleasant. Carry on.

May I direct your attention to the new Mailing List page.

You see, back when I first set up the web page for The Electric Church, I set up a little form where people could submit their email and be put on a list to get updates whenever I had news about the book. A bunch of folks signed up, but then when the publisher upgraded the web site to the kickass Flash experience it is now, I plumb forgot about my little signup. And have spent the last few months wondering why no one signs up for it any more. Thus, my incompetence.

Well, if you’re one of the tortured few who desire updates from me, surf on over, fill out the little form, and I’ll add you to the list. The updates are random and often meandering, I warn you.