BAM!

Interview and Reviews

Author: November 10, 2009

I think I am a fascinating guy. Like, really fascinating. Certainly everything I say sounds fascinating to me, and if my wife The Duchess says otherwise (all the time) then surely she is simply trying to keep me in line? Normally The Duchess uses physical violence and intimidation to keep me in line, but lying about my level of fascinatingness can’t be one of her tools, can it?

Don’t answer that.

Anyway, seeing as I’m so fascinating, I’m always surprised that more folks don’t interview me. Jebus, get me in a bar on a Friday night and just let the tape recorder go. By morning you’ll have gold, Jerry, gold!

Pete Dulin from the fantastic Present Magazine recently interviewed me, and the piece is up now along with an excerpt from and review of The Eternal Prison. Surf on over and give Present some love:

“Somers:  Strangely enough, the first version of The Electric Church involved a band of stray kittens struggling to survive in the backwoods of Texas Hill Country, scavenging for food and hiding from demonic, rabid squirrels.”

Also, Limerick posted a review of the Italian version of The Electric Church to his own blog, and you can read it here. My Italian is a bit soft, but I’m pretty sure it’s a positive review. If not, forget I said anything.

BAM!

Exhausted, New Video, and a Calendar

Author: November 3, 2009

Hey there – I’m exhausted. Spent Sunday racing around New York trying to support my wife, The Duchess, as she ran the NYC marathon. We’d planned to meet her at miles 6, 11, 17, and 23. Due to startling incompetence (centering on my failure to look at the Sunday subway schedule) we missed her at miles 11 and 17, when apparently she was begging total strangers to hold her as she wept. The Duchess has done 7 marathons and runs every day, but this year she suffered a bad calf pull a few weeks ago and her training has been an uphill battle. but she finished! And I have been manfully keeping my whining about how exhausted I am to a minimum.

As you all certainly have heard through the massive media coverage, the Avery Cates books are being re-released as mass market paperbacks. The Electric Church MM dropped on 11/1, and The Digital Plague will hit the stores on 12/1. So, yesterday I decided I had to mark the occasion with a quick little video (It’s less than a minute long!):

Now that’s quality stuff. I tried for a fast-paced quick-cut thing, and I hope it isn’t too fast. Anyway, just for fun. Feel free to tell everyone you know.

Finally, I got this in the mail yesterday:

That’s the Stephen King Library Desktop Calendar 2010, in which I have a brief essay in the month of August. This was edited by the great Jay Franco, and other contributors are Peter V. Brett, Gary Jansen, and Jae Lee, among many others. It is a beautiful and useful thing, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

BAM!, Filthy Lucre, Videos

Mass Market Me

Author: October 2, 2009

My sainted editor sent me a copy of The Electric Church mass market:

WO0t! That rocks. It’s purty. The design and packaging is amazing, and I wouldn’t be able to resist buying five or six of these if I saw their candy-like covers on the shelves. I AM GOING TO RULE THE AIRPORTS! And if you’ve been waiting to jump on board the Somers train because of filthy lucre, babe, this is your chance.

Besides, they’re adorable! Here’s a sense of scale:

You can have three or four in your pockets to hand out to people!

Now, seriously, it’s a fantastic package. As much as I love the Jae Lee trade covers (and I do love ’em), these are terrific and I applaud my publisher’s design sense and market savvy. Go on, buy five.

BAM!, Filthy Lucre

La Chiesa Elettrica

Author: October 1, 2009

Well, BAM! Lookie here, the Italian version of The Electric Church apparently exists. This cover frightens me. I want to put the angry man into the freezer and leave the lights on. The question is, will that be good or bad for book sales?

Check out more info (in ialtiano) here.

BAM!

Interview with ME! ME ME ME!

Author: September 17, 2009

The good folks over at Rescued by Nerds carried through on their terrorist threat and have posted an interview with me:

“In those five minutes, however, Avery sang a haunting ballad about life being hard for honest assassins. It’s too bad you won’t hear it. It was very moving.”

Surf on over and make some snarky comments. First person to make Jeff the Preparer cry with their snark gets a prize. Said prize may not be something you actually want, though.

BAM!, More Shit I Gotta Do, Writing

Eternal Prison Review

Author: September 13, 2009

And lo! A review of The Eternal Prison over at Rescued by Nerds:

“It’s a dark path that should be really interesting to read. If you are a fan of Richard Morgan, David Williams or David Gunn then Jeff is right up your alley.”

They also did a little interview with Your Humble Author that’ll be up in a day or so; I’ll let y’all know when.

BAM!

Me Reading TEP

Author: August 31, 2009

I really should not be allowed so much free time on the weekends, or access to liquor and a video camera. Doesn’t my publisher have handlers to, um, handle me? I mean, my goodness.

Anyway, if you’re one of the people who have asked me if I’m ever going to do a reading in your area, here’s something to tide you over: That’s right, me doing a short reading from The Eternal Prison! Tell your friends.

Lemme know what you think.

BAM!, More Shit I Gotta Do

We Can Has Movie

Author: August 25, 2009

Well, I’ve sold the film rights to the Cates books. This has actually been brewing for a while but I have a firm policy of “cash, or didn’t happen”, so I’ve been waiting around for a check before announcing anything.

Now, the chances that 18 months from now nothing has happened are pretty strong, so it’s not time to buy solid gold toilets yet. But it is time to start shopping for solid gold toilets, so I’ve requested a copy of Solid Gold Fixtures International for some bedtime reading over the next few months.

And no, none of you can be in the movie. Hell, even I can’t get a part, despite (or perhaps because of) my desperate pleading.

That is all.

BAM!, Filthy Lucre