Lee Hall gives a new review of Faulkner-Wisdom Prize finalist novella, Love’s Ragged Claws.
“For a short read, Gary Gautier packs in so much … I’m definitely urged to go back a few times and read it just to capture everything.”
See the full review at Lee Hall’s Book Reviews.
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Here’s a clip from Alice, a post-apocalyptic adult hippie fairy tale, now available online and in bookstores in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Austin, and Guanajuato. (Cp. the opening scene here.)
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John Wilson lifted one of his bushy eyebrows, and the black hairs came to attention. Alice thought of a black cat’s tail with the hairs standing in response to a threat.
“Your eyebrow looks like a black cat’s tail,” she said.
John Wilson reached up with a massive paw and touched his eyebrow, and then touched his equally bushy mustache, as if to compare the two. He looked for a moment like a distraught walrus sloshed in a button-down shirt. Then he went on.
“The fairies,” said John Wilson. “The hum went away by the pond last night. No hum for an hour and a half.” The fairies kept the whole of New Arcadia going. They were rarely visible but often audible, a humming that recalled the humming of bees restless to massacre the males and slaughter the other princesses to please their sister, the newly chosen queen. The fairies did not work in the fields or in the factory. They did not cook or clean. But it was they who wove a sense of destiny into New Arcadia. Without a sense of destiny there would be no going on, for there would be nowhere to go.
The fairies had no enemies – for how could destiny have an enemy? – save one. Ladybugs. Tiny orange specks with wings. Wings with tinier black dots. The ladybugs made no humming noise. No hint of massacres for the newly crowned queen. They just flittered in quiet beauty, careful to disturb no one, seen but not heard. Thus, no one, not Alice or Evelyn, not the kleptomaniac, not the mapmaker, not the white witch, not the rain king, not John Wilson, not even the sweeper as far as anyone could tell, could divine their purpose or what it was about them that touched the spleen of the fairies.
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On Sept. 8, 2022, BookLife reviewed Alice, the post-apocalyptic adult hippie fairy tale you’ve all been reading (or are eager to download and read today). Here’s a clip from the review:
“A whimsical, fairytale-like quality … magnetic … a storybook world [with] a flavor not often seen.”
And Northwestern University’s Jeffrey Burgdorf ran it through his nefarious artificial intelligence (AI) machine and asked it to create a cover image. Below is the actual cover (left) and the AI cover image (right). Take your pick.
Burgdorf’s AI, by the way, gave Alice “the first ever 5-star Amazon review done entirely by artificial intelligence,” though I have no idea what mysterious feelings beating in that mechanical heart motivated the encomium.
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Still in stores in New York, Chicago, and online.
Now in Austin, New Orleans, and central Mexico.
AUSTIN
NEW ORLEANS
GUANAJUATO, MEXICO
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Goodbye, Maggie. Faulkner-Wisdom Prize finalist.
Free here
When his brother shows up with the news that he has murdered someone, Phil’s life goes haywire. Comedy, drama, and road tripping. Racism, friendship, and yoga stops. Cutting through the bayous and into New Orleans, the madness in this weird southern quest narrative just won’t stop.
Please drop a rating on Amazon. These really help readers and writers.
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From Granada, 3/28/22
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Books getting out to new stores — signed copies in stock now! This week’s features are New Orleans stores. Buy local if you can!
SCHEMATICS AND ASSEMBLIES OF THE COSMIC HEART at
Blue Cypress
More Fun Comics
LOVE’S RAGGED CLAWS at
Frenchmen Art and Books
HIPPIES at
The Mushroom Records and Smoke Shop
And for you unfortunates who can’t chop local, find all through my website.
BONUS: Join me for a book club Zoom chat on my novel, Goodbye, Maggie, this Thursday, Feb. 24, 7 pm US central time. All are welcome. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84153455299
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Schematics and Assemblies of the Cosmic Heart is coming in all over.
For you poor souls who live without a bookstore cool enough, hit the Amazon link above (or get me a contact to your local store … and to local reviewers 🙂 )
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shakemyheadhollow 