I wrote a book!

It's true! Last year, I actually buckled down and completed a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month (wherein you must hit the 50k word mark in 1 month). Since then, I've been hacking away at it, drafting a few writer friends to help provide edits and suggestions, and generally whipping it into shape.

Now, I am giddily excited to say that said novel, The Fix Up, is available in honest-to-goodness book form. I went through a company called CreateSpace (which is an Amazon affiliate), which provides really high-quality print-on-demand services for books, CDs, and DVDs. Turned out to be a pretty good deal, really.

I realize that this is just self-publishing, and not as fancy pancy as getting a novel published by some big publishing house (that'll come, just you wait!), but I still happen to think it's pretty cool. Honestly, this whole print-on-demand thing may well be the future of publishing for everyone.

In the meantime, it's my present. And I would love it if I even sold, like, 10 copies. So hey! If you're in the mood for some entertaining fiction, head on over to my store and check it out.

I will also be making copies available through me, myself, and I, for just $10 (I should mention that this will happen in about a week, at which time I will post about it again). Heck, I'd even sign 'em if for some crazy reason you were into that sort of thing. So if you're interested in that method, drop me a line at lostalbatross at gmail.com and we can arrange to either make the trade in person or by mail (U.S. only, and no extra cash for shipping).

Here's the somewhat generic teaser I whipped up for the book, to wet your whistle:

Chapel's not having a good decade. Released from prison for a crime she doesn't particularly want to talk about, she's looking to lead a more normal, legal life - but life, that bastard, has a few curve balls aimed at her head.

Befriended by a couple of well-connected street punks, Chapel finds herself navigating a treacherous underworld filled with drugs, betrayal, sexual ambiguity, crime, crooked cops, and death. All she really wanted to do, though, was make rent.

Inspired by the short film series and character created by Rob Matsushita, The Fix Up is equal parts suspense thriller and introspective, darkly humorous personal journey.

Those short films I reference are "Complicated" and "Distracted," in case you're curious.

So yeah, it's not the Great American Novel, but I'm happy with it. Nice to actually finish a novel for once in quite a long while, too. I may post a small excerpt from it in the near future, so you can get a better idea of what you'd be in for. That seems fair, anyway. Regardless, please check it out! And have a great weekend.