Virginia Highlands Signing 9/17, New Podcast Episodes, Libraries

A book signing at a (relatively) new book store, a bunch of movie podcasts you can listen to for free, and how to get my books into readers' hands with the public library system

From 1-3 PM on Sunday, September 17, I’ll be signing books at the new Virginia Highlands Books in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood in Atlanta. It opened in 2020-ish during the pandemic and it’s got two levels of books (the storefront level and a basement level), something that I didn’t expect when I visited for a friend of a friend’s book signing over the summer. It’s very cool.

I’ll have all seven of my the books I typically sell at events — The Thing in the Woods, The Atlanta Incursion, Battle for the Wastelands, “Son of Grendel,” Serpent Sword, “Little People, Big Guns,” and Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire, as well as stickers based on the Thing book cover.

New Episodes of the Myopia Movies Film Podcast

One topic of conversation at my convention tables is the comedic film podcast Myopia Movies I regularly participate in. On the show, we watch movies from “our childhoods” (typically the 1980s to the early 2000s with a few 1970s outliers) and see if they’re still good, giving them a good ribbing along the way. A number of people have scanned the QR code linking to the podcast, especially those with long road trips in their future, so I know there’s some interest.

So here are the Podbean links to episodes that have come out in the last few months. You can also find them on pretty much all podcast apps. Enjoy!

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan-In which I recite Khan’s full monologue in a VERY good impersonation of actor Ricardo Montalbán, if I do say so myself. :)

Batman Forever-This is the third time I’ve seen it — the first time when it came out, the second for an earlier version of the episode now no longer widely available, and now for this. I learned a good bit about new love interest Chase Meridian as well as this version of the Riddler on the third watch.

A Goofy Movie-This film leans heavily into the dynamic between dorky single dad Goofy and his teenage son Max, who’s no longer a child but Goofy doesn’t seem to understand. It’s actually really thoughtful.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2007)-This is the kickoff to the new season and discusses the CGI TMNT film that came out when I was in college. No Shredder, but a different villain. Also in this one April does karate.

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure-Comedian Paul Reubens’ kid’s show Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was not one of my go-to childhood favorites, although I do remember watching a couple episodes. In this film (which is actually older than the show), Reubens’ man-child character Pee-Wee Herman goes on a madcap adventure to retrieve his stolen bike. Beware of Large Marge and RIP Paul Reubens.

Alien Resurrection-There’s this super-creepy character in this movie whom we gleefully mock, plus would a robot advanced enough to practice a religion have a soul?

Alien 3-Never has the phrase “interchangeable bald men” been used so many times.

Aliens-I’m not in this one, but you might enjoy it anyway.

Alien-This movie is so well-done it’s hard to make fun of per se, but we do get some jokes in here.

Popeye-Robin Williams goes full “Charlize Theron in Monster” in this one — he’s unrecognizable. And you get to listen to me sing. :)

Running Man-Like reality TV? Hate reality TV? Either way, you’ll like this one.

Shrek 2-This episode is freaking hilarious.

Pet Sematary-A Stephen King adaptation that’s super-sad.

Splash-Young Tom Hanks dates a mermaid, or why there are a lot of women born in the 1980s named Madison.

Waterworld-Mad Max at sea, or one of the most expensive movies ever to just barely cover its costs. That’s why the closest thing to a sequel is a stunt show. It was fun when I was in fourth grade and it’s fun now, but not everybody agreed.

Getting My Books Into Libraries

I recently reviewed my subscriber data and I have readers from seventeen U.S. states and eight countries outside the United States. To quote the great Borat, this is very nice.

And (hopefully) those communities all have public libraries. Most systems have an option for patrons to request purchase of particular items. I’m fairly certain Georgia’s Cobb County public library system purchased several of my books — I donated one or two copies when they were new, at some point I noticed a number of paperback purchases through Amazon’s expanded-distribution network, and now the library system has a much larger number of copies of most of my books.

So if you’d like to read my books without having to buy or borrow them (Kindle Unlimited) or like the books and want to spread the word, a way to do that is to find out how your local library system accommodates patron requests for materials and request they purchase my books. As an example, here’s how it’s done in the Atlanta-Fulton library system. My novella “Little People, Big Guns” and short story collection Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire could be acquired in either e-book (using apps like Libby) or paperback form, while my remaining e-books are Amazon exclusive (and in the case of The Thing in the Woods’ audio book, Audible exclusive) and libraries would need to purchase physical copies.

In a time where fewer and fewer people (or Americans at least) are regularly reading, this will be giving people — especially young adults, who are a big audience for Thing and its sequel — more options and allow more people access to my books (and books by other authors you might be interested in) at no cost.