Special MFA Thesis Novel Signed Pre-Order With Bookmark and Sticker!!!!

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Update: The Special Limited Pre-Order for MFA Thesis Novel is over, but you can still order a signed copy and get a free bookmark! See my webstore for updated info.

Many of you have been asking about the best way to get a signed copy of MFA Thesis Novel when it comes out on April 19th.  Others have been asking how to buy the novel in the way that gives me the largest amount of royalties.

Whelp, you can kill two birds with one stone during the Special Limited MFA Thesis Novel Pre-Order Period!

Order a copy of the novel through my webstore by clicking here, and not only will I sign it and write you a cool personalized message (if you want one), but you’ll also get some super-cool FREE swag, including…

  • A limited edition MFA Thesis Novel bookmark designed by Jessica Bell!
  • A 3″x2″ You Don’t Pay Me to Care sticker inspired by the But I Also Have a Day Job blog!
  • The satisfaction of knowing that more of your money went toward supporting me as a small-press indie writer and not toward Jeff Bezos sending billionaires into space! (Technically not swag, but still important!) Continue reading »

New Erochikan Zine Available! Plus Thoughts on Satire and Putting Out Your Own Work

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Combatting Life’s Challenges Through Learned Helplnessness: A User’s Guide is the third zine I’ve put together for the Erochikan collection, and it’s now available in my webstore.  This 18 page guide shows readers the many advantages to giving up on your aspirations and finding complacency with your current, mediocre life.  It’s illustrated with a selection of superficially appealing stock photos to help you visualize the surface-level happiness that awaits you!

For those of you not in the know, the Erochikan Zine project is something I started a few years ago for the now on-hiatus Art Swaps.  I had fun making them and people really liked them, so when I opened my webstore I printed some more copies and started selling them along with my Eikaiwa Bums chapbook, where they got even more positive responses.  (BTW, thanks to everyone who bought copies, either online, or at my reading back in August—you’re all awesome.)

The name Erochikan comes from the ero in erotic and the Japanese word chikan, a pervert who gropes women on crowded subways.  The fictitious company Continue reading »

Recap: I Gave a Book Talk and It Went Super Well!

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I just flew back to Japan, and boy are my arms tired *drum fill*

For those of you just joining me, last Sunday I gave a presentation and reading at MainStreet BookEnds, the independent bookstore in my hometown of Warner, New Hampshire, about what it’s like to live and work in Japan.  The owner had agreed to stock my Japan chapbook, Eikaiwa Bums, back in March, and offered to let me do a reading when I was back in the States.  I’d planned to come back for a three-week August vacation anyway, so doing a reading while I was back seemed like a great idea.

In the interest of showing you how the sausage was made, here’s a rundown of the entire event from start to finish: Continue reading »

Eikaiwa Bums Chapbooks Now Available! (Plus Thoughts on Webstore Mechanics and Why Personal Touches Matter)

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The big moment’s here!!!!!!!!!!111

The actual, printed copies of my chapbook, Eikaiwa Bums, got to Japan this week and are ready to order.  I’m not going to lie—opening that envelope and seeing them stacked up was all kinds of exciting, and it was something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time :-)

Quick catchup in case you’re just joining in: Eikaiwa Bums is a 20-ish page short story about life at a for-profit English conversation school in Japan.  It’s based on some themes from my Japan novel that I pitched to the good folks at Blue Cubicle Press and that they published last month as part of their Overtime series of chapbooks about work.  (If you’re interested in how the story went from novel draft to Blue Cubicle chapbook you can read all about it here.)

I’m sure a lot of you out there are asking the same question: How can I get a copy of this fine piece of writing? Continue reading »

Run Your Own Art Swap

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It’s that time of year again.

For the past five years I’ve done a yearly Art Swap where I round up a group of creative folks (almost all of whom have Day Jobs of their own) and everyone makes a project of some kind, in any medium, big or small.  They make enough for everyone in the swap, mail them to me, and I collect the shipping money and mail the projects out to everyone else.

Organizing the whole thing is surprisingly simple—I keep in touch via plain ol’ email, set some deadlines early on to keep people on track, then send out group reminders as those deadlines get closer.  Most everyone involved finds the deadlines helpful, since as I wrote about a few weeks ago, we tend to take tasks Continue reading »