April 1, 2008
Dear All,
With the July publication of my new book, an anthology of literary superhero stories called Who Can Save Us Now? (co-edited with my good friend, John McNally), fast approaching, there are several pieces of news to report!
First of all, we're honored to report that the spring issue of The Virginia Quarterly Review contains a portfolio of three stories from the book: "The Thirteenth Egg" by Scott Snyder, "My Interview with the Avenger" by Tom Bissell, and "Man Oh Man—It's Manna Man" by George Singleton. The cover of the issue is by none other than Art Spiegelman, which hasn't stopped blowing my mind yet. A year or so ago, when I was talking over the idea for this book with John in a café in Winston-Salem, jotting down the pitch on a series of very tiny napkins, if you had told me that it would lead to Art Spiegelman drawing something, I would have been ecstatic—he's amazing. And I would have been a little disturbed—I probably would have asked: How can you see the time to come, future man? What do you want from me? Will the new Indiana Jones be good, or should I just stay home that weekend and clutch my untarnished childhood memories close to my breast, where George Lucas cannot reach them? But mostly I would have been ecstatic. What a thrill! Anyway, please do check out the magazine if you're interested in getting a taste of what's to come in the book.
Moving on to our next piece of business: Do you want to win a Wii? Hell yes!
Do you want to achieve a lasting place in the American canon? Okay. Yeah, sure. That'd be neat.
Which do you want more? Ah...Well, if I have to make a decision...And I don't mean this as a value judgment, but they were sold out at Best Buy when I went the other day...Ahem. So I guess I'll go with the W—
—You don't have to decide! You can have both! The Free Press is running a superhero short story contest. The winner gets a Wii and their story will appear in the e-book of Who Can Save Us Now? Go here for the details
Finally, I can report a couple of appearances that I'll be making in support of the book with some of my contributors:
* August 28th @ River Run Books in Portsmouth, NH @ 7pm w/Kelly Braffet and David Yoo
* September 9th @ Newtonville Books in Newton, MA @ 7pm w/Kelly Braffet and David Yoo
Stay tuned for more updates.
Cheers,
Owen
P.S. I've had a few very nice e-mails about my story, "Nothing is in Bad Taste," and two questions keep coming up.
Q) Really?
A) Okay, this is in bad taste.
Q) Where can I get a copy?
A) From the wonderful journal Subtropics.