'Other Cruel Things', 'A Fine Young Day', and 'Thank You and Good Night'

Hello electronic world, I greet you in the middle of December with the usual apologies for lack of update and other, thick behavior. For those three or four of you that read these posts, I give you much information regarding several projects either underway, completed, or outright published.

OTHER CRUEL THINGS, my first and fledgling book of poetry has just been released through Differentia Press as an ebook, free for all, and edited by the always great Felino Soriano. The book compiles what I feel to be some of my best work from the past 18 months or so, and can be read here: http://www.differentiapress.com/2009/11/other-cruel-things.html

I worked hard on this one, and I hope you enjoy it.

In other news, A FINE YOUNG DAY, my third novel, is currently in my publisher's hands, and I'll let you know the minute I've heard back. I'm nervous about this book for a variety of reasons, the first and foremost being that I think it's the best thing I've ever written, which always makes one nervous. The other reasons for my shaking knees involve the subject matter, the way the book unfolds, the more poetic and sound-oriented language I let myself use, for once, and the outright disturbing things that happen throughout the book. There's no whimsy in this one. It's my take on a horror novel, and it runs both pretty and repugnant at the same time. My thanks to Andrew David King for his artwork on the potential cover.

I'm about 28 chapters into a new novel, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT, which has come along nicely thus far. I'm having a surreal round of experiments with the biography format, and this book has much going on, beyond it's large size. A fictionalized biography modeled on the life of Rod Serling, the novel snaps into teleplay format often, has commercial breaks, and generally follows the rise and fall of Rod Serling's career. There is some real tragedy in this book, and it doesn't let up much, as well as some moments of Rod's early achievement and success. It spans forty-five years. In short, I'm writing the life of Rod Serling in a fictional style, Serling as a protagonist, and doing so as if he were a fictional character on his own famed show.

That's about all for now. I did finish another book of poetry, but have no plans to seek out a publisher for it just yet. I'm going to send the poems around a bit, see if anyone likes them for the glorious mags of the small press.

Life is busy but good. My son will be turning five in February, and my wife and I are having a great end-of-the-year with present shopping and other, various shenanigans of festivity. Hurrah!

Happy holidays to all.

Amphisbaena Officially Released

My second novel Amphisbaena is out and available in a variety of places. Read the last few posts and you can find out all sorts of things about this experimental, surrealist romance novel, including some reviews that have gone live and synopsis.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon, which has it in stock:

http://www.amazon.com/Amphisbaena-Ray-Succre/dp/0955899273

And for anyone who received that mailout I recently sent, which outlined Amphisbaena's official release, you may have realized that the link within the email for the Reviewer's Edition is busted. My apologies, it tested before I sent the mailout to all of you, but there's been a problem with the service. I set up a new download, but now that one has problems as well. Geh. If anyone wants the special features, just let me know with your postal address (send it to raysuccre@hotmail.com), and I'll send out a disc. It's no trouble; I like doing this and I'm confident you'll like what I've put together.

Postal mail is all I have for the program, at the moment. If anyone knows of a good free service to store a file for download, by all means, leave a comment below.

For those who use torrents, I do have a dedicated torrent over at Mininova for the program, guranteed to be seeding:

http://www.mininova.org/tor/2629217

Also, feel free to contact me if you think you'd be interested in doing a review, but would rather have the .pdf, without all the features or the large wraparound program: raysuccre@hotmail.com.

Enjoy the end of Summer, and check out the book if you're interested.

A Review

A great review of Amphisbaena has gone live over at Unlikely 2.0. Check it out:

http://unlikelystories.org/blog/content/?p=133

The release date for the book has been pushed back a few weeks, but should be out shortly.

Amphisbaena

My second published novel, Amphisbaena, will be released on July 4th, 2009. That's Independance Day, here in the States. While it was written last Summer, I've been working on this book all year thus far, with numerous revisions and drafts, until complete. Amphisbaena will be released through Cauliay Publishing (who you might remember published my novel Tatterdemalion in June of 2008).

Here's the trailer:

From back cover:

"A sober disinterest in relationships causes Bill Sherman, failing calendarist, to abandon dating for many years. When pressured into a speed dating event by his brother, Bill meets Amy and decides to attempt a relationship again. He learns quickly, however, that Amy is two people: The inseparable Amy and Janine. These two women design to date Bill in tandem, both to his confusion and enjoyment. Where Amy holds Bill dear to her heart, Janine is unable to function outside of physical pleasure. Bill soon discovers that this strange predicament is only the beginning of a much larger system of rules and interraction, and the relationship changes more when Bill realizes that the two women happen each to be one half of an ancient, two-headed black snake. Amy is the alpha head and has subjugated her poison in an attempt to understand human notions of beauty. Bill is not allowed to touch her. Janine is the enticer head and may not be in league with Amy where Bill is concerned.

Can a man love if there is only appetite? Will he care more deeply for the woman he can never touch? What happens when monogamy becomes taboo and a fine-tuned machine of murder learns the human consequence of going against one's nature for a greater meaning?

Laden with whimsical depiction and a foraging exposition on gender, occupation, and dating in modern society, Amphisbaena is the story of three people trapped somewhere between nature and culture, through a humorous adventure into the biological mess of love and romance. "



So there you have it, a surreal and quite expository romance novel between a man and a two-headed snake. There's much more to it, of course. Here's a very low-resolution version of the front cover:

As with Tatterdemalion, there is a comprehensive and detailed special features package I've put together for Amphisbaena. This is fully interactive and contains animation, dozens of audio tracks, introductions... even a few hidden features (if you can find them). The special features are part of the Amphisbaena 2009 Reviewer Edition (I'll place a link to this download below). The Reviewer Edition also contains the entire ebook version of Amphisbaena for free, to anyone who wants to read it.

Included in the Reviewer Edition:

About the Author section containing images, synopses, and full publication history with links.

An interactive video trailer for Tatterdemalion, with sample chapter and links to the free download.

A themed Concept Art feature.

An Alternate Cover Art feature, exhibiting the 12 alternate covers created for the book.

An audio introduction from the author.

An animated feature on speed-dating.

An animated feature telling the story of the Amphisbaena and its mother, Medusa, from Greek mythology.

Explanatory Notes about the some of the machinations used in the book, including the excerpt system that introduces each chapter.

Information about Cauliay, an in-depth link page, much in the way of video and audio, hidden features you can hunt for, ordering and contact information, and so much more. Seriously, I spent a busy year programming this.

The entire book, Amphisbaena, free of charge in an ebook format. You can view the book from directly within the special features program, or open it in any .pdf viewer. There are links for a download of my previous novel, as well, should you decide to take a look.

How I loathe sounding like a pitchman.

Moving on, here's a link to the download (yes, it's somewhat large, but entirely free of cost and more than worth the wait): http://www.daedalao.com/downloads/Amphisbaena.zip

For those of you in the torrents, Amphisbaena and the Reviewer Edition can be found as a dedicated torrent here: http://www.mininova.org/tor/2629217

I'll post more information as the book nears print. I hope you enjoy the book. A lot of time and effort has gone into writing it.

The Rat is Here

Announcing the release of The Rat, an executable, fully animated, interactive publication edited by Ray Succre, containing new poetry by Alan Morrison, Alissa Nielsen, Andrew David King, Christian Ward, Constance Stadler, Corey Mesler, David LaBounty, Dee Rimbaud, F.D. Marcel, Felino Soriano, Justin Hyde, L.Ward Abel, Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, Matina Stamatakis, Matthew Zapruder with Matthew Rohrer and Joshua Beckman, Michael Lee Johnson, and Misti-Rainwater Lites, featuring an animated piece by Beau Blue, and original audio tracks by Kevin MacLeod.

Here's a link to the download:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/16/1915229/The%20Rat.exe

Going through The Rat is somewhat like taking a very visual tour through some truly good poetry. Go grab something to drink, start up the mag, and settle in. If anyone would like to give a shout-out for The Rat, by all means, go for it. Feel free to send the link to anyone and everyone you think will enjoy it. I spent a lot of time on it and the poetry in the issue is superb. Make sure your speakers are on, because this thing has audio tracks, videos, flash animation, tons of images, effects, and text animations. It's a bit of an experience, if you don't mind me using that tired term.

The Rat is a single issue, invitation-only magazine I put together as a sort of present to some of the poets I greatly admire. On another note, I tried everything I could think of (and then some) in trying to create a program that would also function on a MAC, but simply couldn't do it. Sorry MAC users. Grab a friend who owns a PC, head over to their place, and hang out drinking coffee and taking a look at The Rat on their machine. They'll love the company and it's a good way to spend the afternoon. Besides, PC owners miss you. Come visit.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email at raysuccre [at] hotmail.com. I check it pretty often and will get back to you shortly. Enjoy the mag.

My Novel 'Amphisbaena' to Be Published

I've received some good news recently in that my second novel, Amphisbaena, has been picked up with Cauliay for print. I'm pleased as hell right now. The release date is yet to be decided, but if my first book, Tatterdemalion, is an indication of schedule, it's likely Amphisbaena will be released sometime around the middle of June. I'll be posting various details and information as we go along, and have begun the revision and drafting tasks which will absorb me for the next few months. My first novel, Tatterdemalion, received strong and very favorable reviews, so if you're on the market for a good read, give it a shot. If you enjoy it, you'll enjoy Amphisbaena.

I'm developing a special features promotion for the book, as I did with Tatterdemalion, and will release it in the next month or so. Details (and the download, itself) will be posted here. For those of you who missed the large project of Tatterdemalion special features I put together, or have an interest in that book, any reviews, or locations where it can easily be ordered, go here:

http://raysuccre2.blogspot.com/2008/06/tatterdemalion-news-and-update.html


As with my first novel, Amphisbaena will be a print book, but my publisher and I will be creating an ebook version available to all for free. If you want to read the book (or my last book) and don't have the extra cash around (and who does, these days?), you can read it free, so long as you don't mind doing through a screen, or hitting CTRL-P and printing it yourself. I'll post more on this as it's developed.

On to a very brief description:

Amphisbaena is the story of a thirty-something calendarist, Bill Sherman, who lives with his divorced brother, two odd nephews, and an uncommunicative niece. Bill has a serious disinterest in dating, having all but abandoned the notion, and his career in calendar design is waning hard as all the major calendar presses are trimming down their production. Through the convincing pressure of his brother, Roger, Bill agrees to attend a speed-dating event with him, and finds himself unexpectedly enthralled with a particular woman, Amy. The feeling is mutual, and things quickly escalate from interest into deep-seated care. Bill learns, however, that there is much more to Amy than he at first realized. Amy has the bizarre rule that she will not date Bill unless Bill dates her roomate, Janine, as well. He can have a relationship with both of them, or neither. He is reluctant but does agree, and soon discovers that this strange dating situation is only the beginning of a much larger system of rules and interraction. Stranger still is his discovery that Amy and Janine, while appearing to be roommates, are actually a single creature, each woman being one of the heads of an ancient, two-headed snake. Amy is the alpha head, the upper half, and has subjugated her poisons in an attempt to understand human notions of beauty. Bill is not allowed to touch her. Janine is the enticer head, the lower half, and may not be in league with Amy where their relationship with Bill is concerned. Janine seems only interested in sex.

Can a giant serpent designed for killing and eating men temper it's nature to keep and love one? When offered a seemingly endless reservoir of sex and physicality, without the constraints of whim or approach, can Bill be satisfied, per Janine's theory, or will he begin craving the other? Can he love when there is only sex? Will he care more deeply for the woman he can't ever touch? What happens when monogamy becomes taboo, and a fine-tuned machine of murder learns the human consequence of going against one's nature for a greater meaning?

These are a few of the things I've tried to give thought to in Amphisbaena, but there are many more running themes involved.

Amphisbaena is a modern, surrealist romance novel describing the courtship of three people trapped somewhere between nature and culture.

I hope people enjoy it, and I'll post more in the near future. On a side note, for anyone on Facebook, I've posted some potential cover art for Amphisbaena in a photo album. Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments. I'll be adding more of them as we go along.

Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=56013&id=661626574

Also, for anyone who enjoys my books, I promise that the third book won't have a one-word title. The others just happened that way, is all.