FAFO (Fox Around & Find Out)
So this Fox walks into a bar, right? And they walk up to the bartender and say, “Hey, mind if I break the fourth wall?” The bartender says, “Wait, have I been a joke this whole time?” The Fox shrugs, smiles, and says, “Matter of perspective, dear chap.” The bartender pauses, and then laughs, kind of getting it.
And then they give a little wink to the writer at the keyboard and enjoy their black coffee, pulling a broken-spine paperback from nowhere in particular to read until the writer finally has the wherewithal to subject them to a sequel. Really, the indignity.
Audition For The Fox is my debut book. It comes out September 16th this year. I’m really proud of it. It’s really its own weird little thing but one that I hope people enjoy and resonate with. It’s got whimsy. It’s got darkness. It’s got laughs. And it has its share of tears. It also has in-world fables, jaw-dropping interior art by Elizabeth Story, and the merits of mediocre art, (you’ll see).
This book started out as a 5000 word conversation between Nesi and my Fox, with the former very confused and the latter stealing letters out of her name to gobble down, classic scamp behavior. But while that’s fun, it’s not exactly a story. And then the Fox said they were going to throw Nesi backwards in time, “see what happens.”
Now THAT felt like a story.
Too long of a short story. Then too short of a short story. Then too long for a long story. And it wasn’t until my buddy Brent Lambert called my bluff and said, “I’d read a novella by you, got anything?”
And I went, “HMMMMMMMMMMM—yes!”
Some curveballs, some loop-de-loops, some surprise confetti, and here we are, coming out from Tachyon this September, which is exactly the Fox’s season. (They’re an autumn).
I’ll be talking about it more in the months to come, but suffice to say, ordering this book would mean the world to me and it will directly help my career. And this weekend, ordering a copy could look like:
B&N 25% off sale currently happening until EOD today, 4/25 OR…
Ordering from your favorite local Independent Bookstore for Indie Bookstore Day!
I will love you either way and even if you order off of the bad river website, I will still love you, (though I hope you buy an indie book from an indie store to balance the scales, as Anubis intended).
More soon, with all my love,
Marty