My next book is collaboration with J.A. Tyler (if somehow you are not familiar with him and his Mud Luscious empire, go check it out here). We’ve written an image-text novel called No One Told Me I Would Disappear. I’m excited for this book for many reasons. The first of which is that Debra DiBlasi’s Jaded Ibis Press will be publishing it. J.A. and I had some very specific needs for this book, and Jaded Ibis is one of the few presses I could imagine that could fulfill those needs as its normal way of doing business. The book will be available in it’s standard form (including fourteen full color drawings), a very limited art edition (this will be a completely separate work, not simply a fancy version of the standard), and an electronic edition. My friend Justin Stile’s band Stethoscope will be recording the soundtrack for the book as well. The whole thing excites me – it necessitates the functions of several layers or art and community.

And I can also confidently say that this book is very different from anything either J.A. or I have done before. Basically, I think I pulled J.A. toward narrative, and he yanked me back toward abstraction. When we began the project, we both agreed that it should be a book that we should expect not publish (or, more accurately, to have to publish ourselves). Not because we planned to fail, but because we wanted to do things that might not be easy for publishers, or marketers. (Luckily, we found Jaded Ibis, who got what we wanted to do almost without explanation.)

The Stranger did an excellent feature on Debra and Jaded Ibis. Go read this to learn more.

Just got back to Brooklyn after a weekend in New Hampshire – a blizzard hit while I was gone. So after digging out a parking space for my car and then shoveling my stairs and sidewalk, I got inside inside to find a floor full of mail including the following books. (It was a welcome surprise.)

Two gifts from Alec Niedenthal: Will Gass’s The Tunnel (this was the push I needed to finally read this beast), and Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (on which I actually collaborated with Claudia). Thanks, Alec!

My contributor copy of the new Caketrain. (Did some drawing to accompany a few of J.A. Tyler’s Jimmy stories.)

Kristina Born’s One Hour of Television the first book from Year of the Liquidator.

Another press debut, Mud Luscious’s first novella, Molly Gaudry’s We Take Me Apart. (This book is as pretty looking as the internet pictures make it seem.)

And one of the most glorious looking indie books I’ve ever held, Brandon Downing’s Lake Antiquity. This thing is so wonderful looking, I don’t know how it only costs $40.

Y’all jealous or what?

One of the stories that I’m most glad that I wrote has just been published – at very long last – in the new Anemone Sidecar. It’s been a while since the last issue, but, from what I can tell, Kathryn Rantala has spent her time well putting this one together. The story is called “Waterslide” and it means a great deal to me. Please read it here, on page 11, if you have a chance (and be sure to check out some other stuff while you’re there, including work from fellow Big Others, Greg Gerke, J.A. Tyler, and Ryan Bradley). Anyone who wants to send me a note or leave a comment here about your thoughts on the story, it’d be much appreciated.