I have four short stories being published in early 2012. I’m excited to have one included in Hair Lit: Vol. 1, edited by the very awesome Nick Ostdick. The book compiles all-new stories inspired by 80s “hair metal.” My story, “The Lord of the Wasteland,” is a tribute to KISS and is a loose homage to Franz Kafka’s classic, “The Metamorphosis.” The book will be out in mid-January. Here’s an excerpt:
Tony Cleveland awoke one winter morning from the most unusually gratifying wet dream to find that he had, miraculously, transmogrified into the mighty Gene Simmons of the rock band KISS.
The 13-year-old boy knew something was amiss the minute he opened his eyes. The right side of his face, flattened against his goose-down pillow, was resting in a vast, thick, gooey pool of blood. But not real blood. Instead, a concoction of eggs, red food coloring, yogurt, and corn syrup.
Tony sat up in terror. He looked down at his body; at his left hand, then his right. Sure enough, he was garbed in the full, garish KISS regalia: the seven-inch silver metallic platform boots forged to resemble the heads of dragons; he was wearing a snug one-piece black spandex unitard; silver-tiled armor covered his legs, and his forearms with a matching, hulking metallic cod-piece over his crotch—the jock strap of the gods. He even had the trademark black leather bat wings. Overnight, Tony had morphed from 13-year-old puny mortal pubescent, to the God of Thunder.
I am reading with a few other contributors—Nick, Matt Rowan, and Ben Tanzer—at the Book Cellar in Chicago on Saturday, January 12 at 7 p.m. I hope you will join us. The book is highly entertaining and cool! I will have a whole list of new events posted on this site in the next few days. I will be doing several appearances and book signings in the first half of 2013. Boston, New York, Dallas and others. More soon….
I can not wait to give this to a friend of mine. He was actually my tormentor and bully from kindergarten through the seventh grade. Actually I wasn’t all that kind to him through my words, either. After twenty years we reconnected and reconciled. Now he is one of the two members of that class that I am glad to be friends with today. He was a huge KISS fan and recently told me of a time capsule full of KISS stuff that he buried in his backyard when he was a kid. The subject came up because I sent him photos of his childhood home where he buried the time capsule. I was able to do this because my father-in-law now lives in that house. Weirdness.