My Castle of...
UPDATE 10/20/11: it's a good feeling to give a book a rave review. From The L Magazine.
Earlier this year I was driving late at night in New York City (the best time) and I put on the radio and heard static. But this wasn't normal static, this was the static of a band called Darvulia--
--who create some of the "Black metal, dark hardcore, modern "noise," occult-kosmische electronics, soundtracks, and horrorscapes™" on the My Castle of Quiet radio show.
I listened, stunned, for about 20 minutes and then picked up over the internet when I came back to CA. The show is hosted by Wm. Berger, who starts every program by playing the theme to the 1979 horror film Zombie, but sometimes gets impatient and skips through the CD so you hear it digitally sped-up before he takes the mic and complains about cassette tapes, the word "kvlt", and how far he has to go into Queens to see bands like Decimus.
The appeal of the music is that it contains such wretched bursts of noise that listening to three hours of it is a challenge, but always rewarded by the horror movie trailers and experimental quiet pieces. After listening for three weeks, I even considered getting a turntable so I could listen to black metal on vinyl --
-- but my wife and I have an infant in the house and this would not be a good influence. Our jack-o-lantern, which Sabra has named the "Jack-O-Wolf," is scary enough.
Jack-O-Wolf 2011
Anyway, My Castle of Quiet is asking for money this month!
Now I'm going to basically have to give some money.
- Uncle Tumba Issue #1 Sale
Speaking of giving money, I am selling issues of my Uncle Tumba comic at a SPECIALLY DISCOUNTED RATE FOR HALLOWEEN 2011 (which according to Etsy will last until February 2012):
$1.00
At this special price I can ship for free but only to the US. 9 copies remaining.
Uncle Tumba is featured in my essay "Forced March" in Teen Angst? Naaah.... - I Love Bad Movies
I do. Now that I work in Hollywood it's difficult for me to name them, but sometimes a bad movie can have one or two great ideas in it that good movies rarely approach.
Steven Seagal, Out for Justice - Gino vs Richie (Finale)
But I also love I Love Bad Movies, the zine that I contributed to with a piece on Attack of the Clones. Featuring essays on films as diverse as Demolition Man and The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, the series consistently delivers.
$5.00 - "The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers » Ask a Writer: Self-publishing & Choosing a Cover"
I answer a question about how book covers are chosen. - "Children's Literature at Cambridge: Twenty-first century implications for the implied author"
Be More Chill has never before been accorded the honor of epitextual (meaning auto-critical) analysis. - Today's Reader Email #1
From Kat, Shelby & JuJu in Tampa, FL:
Dear Ned Vizzini,
We are 13 years old and we are huge fans of your books. It's Kind of a Funny Story is still by far one of the best books that you have written.
In fact, you were one of the many authors that inspired us to start writing a book ourselves. We have written almost 20 chapters so far and have settled on the title Sisters of the Dawn. We would like to ask for you to take a look at our site. It can be found at fighting4dawn.weebly.com. If you read it, please give us your honest opinion, whether it is good or bad.
Okay so I checked out this site. It is a series of short stories written by different narrators (each handled by a different writer). First I clicked on the preface. This is the preface:
"It is time."
See! That's good writing. Concise! - Today's Reader Email #2
From Jenni in Morris, MN:
I'm hoping that I am among the first lucky five to contact you via any means necessary in order to buy this miracle demo tape of yours.
The demo speak that Jenni speaks of is Crap (And Lots Of It), the casette recorded by my short-lived band Wormwhole in 1994 and never played on My Castle of Quiet. The demo has been posted on YouTube and you can enjoy it there for free!
- Today's Reader Email #3
From Blake in Litchfield, IL:
I read Its Kind of a Funny Story and watched the movie. I loved it and cant get enough of it. I was wondering if you were planning on making a sequel or an expansion. That would be super awesome.
That's an interesting idea and honestly a new one on me -- an expansion to a book. Not a sequel, an expansion. I'm sort of wondering how a book can be expanded. I guess besides turning into a movie it could become a video game. But honestly I don't think I can make an IKOAFS sequel or expand it any more than it already is bloated by my web site.
As always, thank you very much for your correspondence and godspeed into the digital aether.