The Bottomless Bottle of Beer: Shameless Self-Promotion

My MH Avatar

What will a man not stoop to in pursuit of success? I recently stooped so low as to advertise my book on the Open Thread of a blog where I had ever before been a decent guest, the Marmot's Hole:

Allow me at least one instance of shameless self-promotion on this Open Thread.

My novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, is now available (since July 20th) on Amazon Kindle (or iPad, smartphone, desktop computer, etc.).

It's a postmodern Faustian dark comedy about a naif who trades his 'soul' to the devil for a bottle of endless beer. Your cost is far less, merely the low price of $4.99 for about 150 pages with illustrations by the renowned artist Terrance Lindall.

Preview is enabled, so you need not purchase blind . . .

Surprisingly, there came several positive responses. First, from "Hoju-Saram":

Well, if it's as full of witty ripostes as your contributions here at the 'Hole, it will be well-worth reading. Congrats on writing and publishing your book!

I replied:

You'd probably enjoy the Koroviev character -- he's the 'devil' I most identify with. Of course, he's also the most annoying character in the story . . .

"Bum From Korea," responding to the remark by "Hoju-Saram" about my "witty ripostes," quotes a description on the Amazon site as a transition to his own view:

"The tale recalls such writers as Neil Gaiman, H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen Vincent Benét, Charles Pierre Baudelaire, Honoré de Balzac, Herman Melville, John Milton, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Mikhail Bulgakov, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and more."

I think it's safe to say that the book meets that ["witty riposte"] standard and more. X-D I haven't even started reading it, and I love it already.

"Adams-Awry" -- who must have been reading my novella, for he quotes a line -- found that my literary writing does meet at least the "pun" standard entailed in the comment by "Hoju-Saram" on "witty ripostes":

"I thought some woman might, some eve or other, find him seductive." I see the puns are there if you look for 'em, dad. Wonderful!

The "dad" reference is a standing joke between "Adams-Awry" and me -- he says that I pun just like his father. I replied:

AA, in the shorter, anthologized version of the story (with few illustrations), an editor failed to recognize the pun, assumed I had erred, and capitalized the word as "Eve," leaving the impression that the Naif was not so naive!

If only you had been editing, my son . . .

In fairness to that editor, I ought to have given fair warning since I intended the pun to be 'misread' (miss-read?) as "Eve." This led to some Monday-Morning-Quarterbacking by "Anonymous Joe":

"I thought some woman might, some eve or other, find him seductive."

As a post-published editor or, as I more aptly see myself, MMQB, I would have played it "I thought some woman, some eve or other, might find him seductive."

A fair point, and one I myself had considered when I was composing that line, as I explained:

I considered your version, AJ, for the sentence does flow better that way, but I went with the less graceful, published one because I wanted to hide the pun a bit more.

On more material matters, "Bum From Korea" exulted that he had paid less than the price I stated:

I bought it, but only for $2.99. Because I'm a cheap bastard like that.

I explained things to the extent of my knowledge:

That $2.99 is actually the price I requested be set for customers, but the price I see listed is $4.99. If you can get it for $2.99, more power to you!

Two other commenters, "R. Elgin" and "Brendon Carr," explained that Amazon charges more for customers in Korea, though the two differed over the fairness of this extra charge. I jokingly addressed them with a suggestion:

Elgin, Brendon, I suggest we cool down those emotions with enough good, cold bottomless beer that ordering my novella -- whether for $2.99 or $4.99 -- seems like an exceedingly wise choice to both of you . . .

They didn't take me up on the offer. Maybe they know what soulless consequence to expect from bottomless beer? Anyway, one final "Guest" commented:

Lindall's illustrations are amazing. How did you get him!

I explained:

He volunteered. We got to know each other through my blog. I had been blogging a lot on Milton's Paradise Lost and in the process of looking into illustrations, I came across Lindall's images for that epic poem. The name "Lindall" rang a bell -- I recalled his illustrations of Creepy, Heavy Metal, and other quasi-underground comics I'd seen in the late seventies. I blogged on the connections, and at some point about six or seven years ago, he noticed my blog entries on his art and left a comment of appreciation. Gradually, we became friends.

And that's about the extent of my shameless self-promotion. I shamelessly hope that it bears fruit, both at the Marmot's Hole and here at Gypsy Scholar . . .