Aw Shucks

This Canadian guy named Jamieson Wolf has a nice book blog and he wrote me a very nice review.  Check it out at   http://jamiesonwolf.blogspot.com/2009/05/shadow-magic-by-john-lenahan-listen-for.html

Shadowmagic in Paperback Aug. 6th

Shadowmagic is out in paperback here in the UK on August 6^th.   Here’s the new cover.

 

I’ve been brainstorming about ways to drum up publicity.  The other day it occurred to me that since I got my publishing deal by podcasting on the internet, that maybe the science and technology sections of the newspapers would be interested.  Also the readers of tech sections probably read more fantasy then the readers of the book/arts section.  I decided to call the London Time’s technology editor and try to pitch him a story.

The Time’s switchboard put me through to the Tech Department.  A woman answered and I went straight into my spiel.  “Hello I’m John Lenahan.  I’m the author of a novel that at first no publisher was interested in and then I podcasted it on the net and …”  I went on like this for about four minutes.  She periodically tried to stop me but I plowed forward. 

Finally she said. “This is the tech department.” 

I explained that I knew that and told her that I felt the tech readers were more my audience than the arts readers. 

That’s when she said, “You don’t understand, this is the tech department.  We’re the people you call if your computer stops working or you spill coffee on your keyboard – but good luck with your book.”

Tarzan of the E-Reader

As Tarzan walked down the wild canon beneath the brilliant African moon the call of the jungle was strong upon him. The solitude and the savage freedom filled his heart with life and buoyancy. Again he was Tarzan of the Apes—every sense alert against the chance of surprise by some jungle enemy—yet treading lightly and with head erect, in proud consciousness of his might.

 

Thus begins Chapter 10 of Tarzan Returns by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  I just finished reading it on my new toy, The Sony Reader eBook, PRS-505S.  I know I’ve jumped the technological gun and really should have waited until there was more e-book readers out there to choose from but my luddite neighbor got one and I just couldn’t stand to be technologically inferior. 

Saying that – I love it.  I might even prefer it to paper.  www.gutenberg.org has almost every book that is out of copyright on their site and I’m catching up on classics.  I had read Tarzan a couple of years ago and was impressed and delighted with an unexpected story not about savagery but cultural sophistication.  (It also has a cracking ending.)  The sequel is no less a delight. 

This is not Shakespeare.  Burroughs was one of the founding fathers of pulp fiction but if you have read me, then you know I consider pulp fiction a high art.  I often worry in my novels about improbable coincidences but Burrows obviously didn’t lose any sleep over that.  In The Return of, Tarzan is pitched overboard from a cruise ship.  In the middle of the ocean he finds a sunken wreck and recovers a lifeboat.  He then rows to the same African beach where his old hut is!  Two weeks later Jane, on a different boat, shipwrecks only a mile away. 

But it doesn’t matter.  The book is a romping joy to read – as is the Sony Reader.  Buy one and catch up on all of that: Twain, Austin, London, Melville, Bronte, Doyle, Baum, Stoker, Dickens etc, for free.

I’m reading Jack London’s, White Fang at the moment – wow – kids books were rough back in the day.

 

John L

Who needs David Attenborough?

Who needs David Attenborough when you have this kind of drama in the back yard?

 

Longtime readers of this blog will remember that the beast fighting with the vixen is my cat Burt.  I was cheering for the vixen.   They both back down.

JL

Lúnasa Live

Lúnasa, the Irish band that so graciously allowed me to use their music for the Shadowmagic podcast, has a fab vid on youtube.  Check it out and then buy all of their CDs at www.lunasa.ie 

JL

Sorry I’ve been away so long.

Oh how disappointed I am with myself – I’m a blog-fader. At the beginning of 2008 I promised I would wear a new pair of socks every day and blog the experience. I succeeded with the sock wearing but fell down at the last straightaway when it came to writing about it. It’s a recurring theme of my life. Built deep into my psyche is a morbid propensity for not finishing projects. With my fiction this is an annual struggle. The last five chapters of both my novels were like swimming in molasses. With my blog I just skipped town at the end and – I’m sorry – I owe you guys a summery of what life is like with circadian pristine hosiery. If only to dissuade (or encourage) you from doing the same.

If you are thinking of recreating my experiment I can wholeheartedly – not recommend it. I once loved new socks because they were special, and as everyone knows when the special becomes daily, it’s no longer special. A lesson I learned with sweets at age five and should have remembered.

John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you are making other plans.” Well for me, life was what I could squeeze in after: writing about, photographing, and/or thinking about socks. Like a squirrel constantly flitting around looking for nut, my life became all about socks.

Still that’s not why I don’t recommend you duplicating my four seasons of socks. The true reason I went off sock-a-day was because sock stopped being apparel and became omens. You see, when you wear a new pair of socks every day you gotta have a lot of cheap socks. I got the price down to 25p (35 cents) per foot but they weren’t the kind of socks one would like to wear to a party. For an event or a gig I wanted to wear a pair of the more salubrious socks that I had squirreled away in my sock drawer (drawers.) The problem was that every day I had to decide first thing what sort of day it was going to be. If I knew I was just going to dag around the house, I would put on a pair of M&S two for 50p-ers. If I had a film premier to go to (it could have happened) then I would wear a pair of the Sock Shop’s snazzy top-of-the-liners. But what if I wore good socks and never left my post code or what if Spielberg invited me to lunch and my hosiery budget for the day was under a pound?

I started to think that my morning sock decision was becoming a self fulfilling prophesy – or even scarier – my socks were determining my life. When you start fantasizing about your footwear starring in an episode of the Twilight Zone – it’s time to stop your sock project.

 

So I have dicovered  that a new pair of sock every day is a bad idea – Iguess that’s why nobody else does it.  I can wear any pair of socks I want at the moment and I like it. Don’t make the mistake I did kids. Keep your new socks special – and don’t do drugs.

Saying that, I’ve missed writing my blog and would like to start posting again. I have some news (especially about Shadowmagic books 1 & 2) and might even have a tale or two up my sleeve worth telling.

Hope you can be here to join me.