“The High Road” by Broken Bells, from the great pop-up show we produced in an Austin parking garage at South by Southwest. And by “we,” I mean the fantastic producer / director Michelle Stahl:

Clarion books has acquired my second novel, “Six One Three.” Although it’s a humorous novel, it’s a bit of a departure from The Sheriff — it’s the story of a 13-year-old kid left in the care of his much older and very volatile brother in the weeks leading up to his bar mitzvah. The older brother is a sort of impulsive, brawling force-of-nature type who looks at his wimpy younger sibling and decides that it’s time to make him into a man. Various and sundry misadventures follow. As for the Yrnameer sequel, uh, I’m working on it.

Great book trailer created by a co-worker, the incredibly talented Michael Slavens. Check it out:

So I have this other life: I’m the executive producer of AOL Studios, NY, where I work with a fantastic team of professionals to do all sorts of production (yes: when I’m not writing novels that mock branding and advertising, I’m creating content rife with branding and advertising. Um…I contain multitudes?)

I am, however, very proud of certain content we produce, like the free concert with Band of Horses that we did, smack dab in the midst of NYC’s Grand Central terminal (”If you pull this off, it’ll be the biggest thing we’ve ever done here,” they told us, the day before the event. Gulp). I can’t claim any real credit for this, other than having the aforementioned fantastic team, all of whom are great at their jobs and yet somehow foolish enough to work for / with me.

Below is Band of Horses performing “The Funeral” — I’d never thought much of this song until I saw them do it live, and heard Ben Bridwell’s soaring voice in that beautiful space. Now I love it.

Last October I was lucky enough to be invited to appear on the Livewire radio show in Portland, Oregon as part of the Wordstock book festival. I was especially lucky because paratrooper-turned-poet Derrick Brown read some of his work that night (or unlucky, perhaps, seeing as how Gred Robillard and I were the next folks on stage, and Derrick is a hard act to follow). He somehow manages that funny/moving thing all in the same poem, and he’s a great performer.

The next day I cornered him at his booth at the book fair and had one of those rather embarrassing conversations where I was being overly complimentary and effusive and he was being very gracious and humble while also working hard to conceal a look of subtle but mounting panic, the expression of a man who would be reaching for the little red security button under the desk if only such a desk and button were in reach. Sorry, Derrick. Did I mention I enjoyed the performance?

I bring this all up now because I just found this link to that very performance (I am not cyberstalking!) If you’re in the mood for two funny/moving poems, take a look.

Another fascinating question that I’m glad I’ve pretended you’ve asked me. My services have been engaged to develop and write* a YA fantasy series aimed at boys. They** approached me because of Yrnameer, but what I’ve been writing has turned out to be rather lacking in the ha ha and much more on the grim side. That said, everyone seems quite pleased right now, and I hope to have good news on that front soon.

Right. Having now successfully jinxed that project, on to the next: I have another novel out to publishers right now. I won’t say much about it other than it’s a humorous, non-scifi novel. Good, that’s officially jinxed as well. I hope you’re*** pleased with yourselves****.

What’s happening with the Yrnameer sequel, you*****ask? First chapter written, outline created, brilliant ideation occurring at this very moment (cue sound of gentle breeze blowing over vast, featureless plain). I have a full-time+ job and a family, so things tend to move at a somewhat sedate pace.

* With the demonstrated ability to craft excitingly passive sentence constructions like that, who wouldn’t hire me?

** They’re mysterious.

*** “You,” in the entirely hypothetical and putative sense, the same “you” who “asked” me what I was doing.

****See above.

***** Etc, in an endlessly recursive, poor man’s version of David Foster Wallace.

…courtesy of someone who is clearly more literate and intelligent than I am (comments about how the bar could hardly be lower go here). Here it is. Note: comparisons are made to a certain D. Adams and a certain K. Vonnegut. Partisans of either might be dismayed. I plead neutrality, or perhaps just stupiditynessism.

Thank you, Book Nerd, for one of the nicest reviews I’ve ever received. It’s what I hope people experience when they read the book. She’s the co-proprietor of the Greenlight bookstore in Brooklyn, which I must stop by and visit.

You had me at gritty, red-headed paste.