The Business of Publication

Tue 23 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Today we’re celebrating the launch of Robert Freeman Wexler’s new novel, The Silverberg Business!

He and Jeffrey Ford will be at Two Dollar Radio HQ tonight and then he heads out on the road to Cincinnati, Austin, Houston, and Chicago. It’s a hell of a time to tour, fingers crossed everyone masks up.

Thank you to those who pre-ordered the book! They were mailed out last week by the fine people at Book Moon and the Consortium warehouse.

Robert’s been writing more about the genesis of this weird gem on his site.


The Silverberg Business

Tue 23 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

trade paper · 288 pages · $17 · 9781618732019 | ebook · 9781618732026 | Edelweiss

In 1888 in Victoria, Texas, for a simple job, a Chicago private eye gets caught up in much darker affairs and ends up in the poker game to end all poker games.

Read

» an interview by Tobias Carroll, Skulls, Detectives, and the Texas Surreal, in Vol. 1 Brooklyn.
» an excerpt on Lithub.

Listen

» Robert interviewed by Rick Kleffel on Narrative Species
» Robert & Victor LaValle reading @ KGB Bar, NYC, 4/20/22
» Vick Mickunas interviews Robert on WYSO.

In 1888, Shannon, a Chicago private detective, returns home to Galveston, Texas for a wedding. Galveston’s new rabbi asks Shannon to find Nathan Silverberg, gone missing along with a group of swindlers who claim to be soliciting money for a future colony of Romanian Jewish refugees.

What seems to be a simple job soon pushes Shannon into stranger territory. His investigations lead him to a malevolent white-haired gambler, monstrous sand dune totems, and a group of skull-headed poker players trapped in an endless loop of cards and alcohol, who may be his only means to survive the business.

With The Silverberg Business, Robert Freeman Wexler has delivered a gloriously strange hard-boiled tale that crosses genres and defies expectations.

Reviews

“By subverting expectations in both genre and character, Wexler’s writing continually asked me to look closely, beyond initial expectations and surface observations—much like a detective must. This genre-defying novel works at many levels to consider what it means to live as an outsider in a landscape that holds a dark mirror to our contemporary era. And it’s not only deeply-layered: it’s a page-turner, a wild ride, and an immensely enjoyable read. The Silverberg Business is a mystery that kept me thinking about its deeper questions and haunting images long after the case was closed.”
— Melissa Benton Barker, Ancillary Review of Books

“It’s one of the mostly deeply weird novels I’ve read in some time, at times hallucinatory and dreamlike, at other times gritty and naturalistic. We’ve heard a lot in the past several years about genre-blending or ‘‘cross-genre’’ fiction, but Wexler starts out by combining two genres that seldom come up in these discussions: the western and the hard-boiled private eye mystery.”
— Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

“Steeped in the early history of Texas’s statehood and laced with eerie portents of supernatural horror, the outstanding latest from Wexler (The Painting and the City) impresses with its originality and inventiveness. In 1888, a Jewish private detective who goes by the name of Shannon travels from Chicago to Victoria, Tex., to investigate the disappearance of New Yorker Nathan Silverberg, who was sent with donor funds to buy land on the Texas coast for a settlement of Romanian Jewish refugees. Shannon discovers that Silverberg was first swindled, then murdered by a pair of con men, one of whom—a gambler named Stephens—wears an ornate ring with magic powers. When Shannon pursues Stephens, the ring’s magic transports him to an otherworldly “scratch land” populated by skull-headed beings whose rituals—involving card games and strange dancing—shape a cosmic context for catastrophic events that unfold in the human world. Wexler keeps his twisty plot refreshingly unpredictable and endows his characters—even the non-talking skullheads—with vividly realized personalities that enliven his surreal, atmospheric tale. This weird western packs a wallop.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Shannon isn’t planning to become embroiled in a case while visiting his family in Galveston, but when his old rabbi asks him to look into a group of men who might be swindling Jewish refugees, he can’t say no. . . . In this effective, creeping, weird-western novel, time slips, hands fold, and something ancient brews. Wexler refuses to give the reader all of the answers, instead leaving them with a slight, satisfying shiver and visions of stormy seas.” — Booklist

“A weird but oddly convincing creature feature.” —Kirkus Reviews

Early reader reactions

“Certainly the strangest book I’ve ever read, and strangeness is a thing that I take to. The grotesque horrors, the impossibilities, the shifting scenes, Silverberg’s skull, the skull-heads, the wooden house that turns into a mansion without the detective finding it particularly odd. It is in fact a book not like anything I’ve ever read.”
— John Crowley, author of Little, Big

“A haunting novel that traverses an American West inhabited by nightmarish characters, human and otherwise, The Silverberg Business evokes the unease of classic weird fiction with a contemporary gloss: William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land by way of Jim Jarmusch and Cormac McCarthy. Unnerving and unforgettable.” — Elizabeth Hand, author of Hokuloa Road

“Robert Freeman Wexler never fails to knock me out, and The Silverberg Business hits like a hurricane—there’s strangeness and beauty on every page. The novel is that rare thing, a weird western that’s truly weird, set in a Texas that’s simultaneously gritty, violent, and real, yet soaked in myth. Don’t miss this.” — Daryl Gregory, author of Revelator

“This philosophical Jewish-Texan retro-neo-noir—at once detective story, western, and ambling picaresque—is populated by a memorable cast of schemers, toughs, and oddballs, and rendered with a keen eye and ear for detail.” — J. Robert Lennon, author of Subdivision

Praise for Robert Wexler’s books

“An unusual, haunting tale from a distinctive new voice.” — Lisa Tuttle, London Sunday Times

“This complex, enthralling novel is concerned with relations between art and commerce, and nature and commerce; the importance of the past; the everyday oppression of capitalism; and how art may shape history.” — Booklist (starred review)

“As buoyant and airy as a center-ring trapeze act.” — Publisher’s Weekly

“Quietly stunning.” — Asimov’s

“Wexler demonstrates a wonderful touch with his writing: to render Lewis’s lengthy inner journey through this dream-state without losing a sense of living, vital immediacy is an extraordinary accomplishment.”—New York Review of Science Fiction

“A fascinating, deeply bizarre adventure.”—Faren Miller, Locus

Also

» an interview on Good People, Cool Things.

Previously

Aug. 23, 8 p.m. Two Dollar Radio HQ, Columbus, OH — with Jeffrey Ford
Aug. 27, 8 p.m. The Emporium, Yellow Springs, OH
Aug. 29, 7 p.m. Joseph-Beth, Cincinnati, OH — in conversation with Rebecca Kuder
Aug. 30, 7 p.m. Book People, Austin, TX
Aug. 31, 6:30 p.m. Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX
Sep. 13, 7 p.m. Book Cellar, Chicago, IL — with Jon Langford
Oct. 13, 6 p.m. Yellow Springs Library, Yellow Springs, OH — with guitar accompaniment by Brady Burkett of Stark Folk Band
Nov. 3-6, World Fantasy Convention, New Orleans, LA
Nov. 19, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Books by the Bank, Cincinnati, OH

About the author

Robert Freeman Wexler’s novel The Painting and the City has recently been released in paperback by the Visible Spectrum and his short story collection Undiscovered Territories: Stories is out now from PS Publishing. He was born in Houston, Texas and currently lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio with the writer Rebecca Kuder and their child. His website and blog are at robertfreemanwexler.com

Cover art by Jon Langford.


Indie Bookstore Silverberg Spectacular

Mon 22 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Write here, write now, Write Columbus.

I wish I were going to be at Two Dollar Radio HQ tomorrow night for Robert Freeman Wexler and Jeffrey Ford’s event (Aug. 23, 8 p.m.) where Robert will launch his new novel, The Silverberg Business, and Jeff will read from Big Dark Hole. An aside here, having been to many readings by Jeff over the years he is just as likely to pull out a sheaf of papers and read from something he has finished that day.

Tomorrow is the first night of Robert’s Indie Bookstore Silverberg Spectacular. If you get to go, do post photos and tag us on twitter — or even BKMN on instagram.


DRM-free Ghosts

Thu 18 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

I saw a poll on twitter yesterday asking when the Halloween season starts* and the answer is obviously right now with this Ghosts & Apparitions Storybundle where they have 4 books for $5 or all 10 books for $25 (you can pay more [or less] — and then the authors get more! [or less]) including Mary Rickert’s World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson award finalist collection You Have Never Been Here. Readers can also choose to donate a portion of their proceeds to Girls Write Now and Mighty Writers.

Get (or gift) your bundle here.

* Some say October 31.
Some say October 1.
Some say mid-September.
Some say it never goes away.


Heads up NY & NJ

Tue 16 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

The Adventurists cover -This week Richard Butner is traveling up from his home in Raleigh, NC, for a couple of New York City area readings:

Wednesday, Aug 17, 7 p.m. KGB Fantastic Fiction, KGB Bar, NY
Richard reads with our good friend Veronica Schanoes whose collection Burning Girls is now out in paperback

Thursday, Aug 18, 7 p.m. Little City Books, Hoboken, NJ

The most recent reviews for Richard’s debut collection The Adventurists are from Lyndsie Manusos on Book Riot:

“Richard Butner’s work explores the weird, uncanny corners of everyday life — from a theater kid who becomes the queen, to a tree who talks to just one person, to Death’s Fool, who you really shouldn’t ignore.”

and from rather legendary printer, papermaker, publisher, & poet John Dancy-Jones on his Raleigh Rambles site:

“Richard Butner’s new collection of SF stories is a wonderful look at his long-established but back-burner career as a writer of speculative fiction. Richard is beloved by many in Raleighwood for his quirky and often endearing local theatre roles, his championing of local music and its venues, and (among the cognoscenti) his loyalty to Modernist architecture. This review is overtly from the perspective of a Raleigh native who enjoys the many local references in these stories and the bits and pieces of RB rendered in the protagonists.”

Richard, as the reference to the theatre roles above attests to, is a good reader and I hope you’ll attend these events if you can!


Reconstruction is a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee!

Mon 8 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Reconstruction coverWe are delighted to see Alaya Dawn Johnson’s collection Reconstruction: Stories is a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee! Alaya probably does not need any introduction to readers here. She is a fabulous writer whose work we have long admired — as does Janelle Monáe who asked Alaya to be one of the co-writers in her fiction debut, The Memory Librarian.

Reconstruction has ten stories and to give you some idea of the range, here are a couple of stories, A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i and A Song to Greet the Sun, you can read online and an excerpt from the outstanding title story on Tor.com.


Hallucinatory, Dreamlike, Gritty and Naturalistic

Wed 3 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

In the new issue of Locus Gary K. Wolfe reviews Robert Freeman Wexler’s The Silverberg Business who calls it “deeply weird” and goes on to say:

“It’s one of the mostly deeply weird novels I’ve read in some time, at times hallucinatory and dreamlike, at other times gritty and naturalistic. We’ve heard a lot in the past several years about genre-blending or ‘‘cross-genre’’ fiction, but Wexler starts out by combining two genres that seldom come up in these discussions: the western and the hard-boiled private eye mystery.”