The Front Yard War Excerpt!

 

Usually, I use Scribd for the novel excerpts, but they were a bit slow getting back to me (they also sell the whole novel so the excerpt always has to clear their copyright division), so I just cut them out of the loop and did a DIY PDF embed. You can read the first chapter of the novel for free here, and then if you want to carry on buy a copy either directly from me ($5 USD PayPal to wredfright AT AT AT yahoo DOTT com--let me know if you want the PDF or EPUB version). This excerpt is in PDF form of course. You can also get the novel from Amazon (has a print and Kindle version), Google Books, and Smashwords has gotten it everywhere else basically, so you can probably find it at your favorite ebook retailer even whomever Scribd is part of whom can't seem to figure out quickly that I'm the copyright holder they're protecting.  Next time, I'll create an official page for the novel on this site and start the publicity campaign (if you write a novel, then you should at least let people know it exists a bit).  That might be a futile attempt as there don't seem to be many readers these days.  I'm still one though, so maybe some others are out there.  Otherwise, literary culture is pretty sad these days.  Libraries seem to be mainly keeping it afloat.  You have the NPR/MFA set who read well-mannered fiction that's usually boring.  You have the genre stuff that still sells to folks who like it, but if you aren't into Amish romances or detective novels or maybe even Amish detectives falling in love doesn't do much for anyone who's read more widely.  And then there's the underground which is like the literary equivalent of the open mic where everyone wants to play but no one wants to listen to anyone else for the most part.  Ah, well, at least there's still me for anyone who wants to laugh while they read.  Slapstick Camus isn't high in demand, but at least there's a supply for the adventurous sort, like me, and maybe only me.  Maybe you also?  

New Single!: Childhood Friend

wredfright · Childhood Friend

This is a little sweet song about those friends from early childhood.  You may forget them for years, you may never see them again, and you may think of them rarely, but when they do come to mind, if you're like me, you get a warm feeling.  Musically, I had some fun with the synthesizer here, plus the usual vocals, guitar, fake bass (also guitar), and drums.  Lyrics are below.  They're pretty simple just like an early childhood friendship.

Do you ever think of me the way I think of you?
When I remember those days the skies are always blue.

Childhood friend.
Our love was not pretend.

Oh, the fun we had when we would play and play.
That went on and on until I had to move away.
I always hoped we'd see each other again some day,
but as the years have passed, it seems separate we're going to stay.

For more Wred Fright music, listen to the Yeast? 7" or give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!

New Zine: Frighty #1!

 

It's been over 20 years since I published a zine, but I felt the itch to do one again.  Here it is:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1crG3N9s09JQ5zDP-dHdhzZHV03YdtoXQ/view?usp=sharing.  I had a lot of fun putting it together; I hope you have fun reading it.  It's not really designed to be read online though.  You'll need to print it out.  That's why it's a zine and not an ezine.  We're just using the Internet for distribution.  Print it out doublesided, so print it on both sides and flip it (print on short edge).  Otherwise, you'll end up with pages printed upside down.  I mean, hey, if you're into that kind of thing . . . But for anyone, who isn't, let's chant along with me, PRINT DOUBLESIDED ON SHORT EDGE!  Then it will come out as it should, and you'll have a nice little zine you can fold, staple, bind however you want.  Feel free to make copies and distribute them if you want.  I was thinking it might be a one-off, but Mark Sonnenfeld and The Midnight Rider sent more than one contribution, so there will be at least one more issue (no 20 year wait this time!), probably in the summer.  Quarterly might be about as much as I can handle as a publication schedule, but, as always, no deadlines remains the motto of Wredfright.Com, except when, you know, there's a deadline . . . Anyway, if anyone tells you that zines are dead, you can toss them a copy of Frighty #1!

And if Frighty #1 isn't enough writing to tad you over, then read The Front Yard War, my latest novel!

The Front Yard War Is On Smashwords!

 

All right, I have The Front Yard War on Smashwords, so it should be on its way to the remainder of the ebook retailers such as Barnes & Noble, meaning you can pretty much get it anywhere now.  So I've done my part.  Now it's time to do your part, and read the thing!  I'll be doing my little promotional push in upcoming weeks, but feel free to help out and review it and bug any media outlet you like to review it.  It's available directly from me for $5 (PayPal at wredfright AT yahoo DOTT com) as a PDF or EPUB, Amazon has a print and Kindle version, Google Books has their version; and Smashwords has gotten it everywhere else basically.

Smashwords merged with someone or got bought out or something, but uploading the book there was fairly similar to uploading previous books.  They have a print on demand component similar to Amazon, but it looks like the two editions might have bumped into one another, so I didn't explore it.  It's nice to have another option, however.  They did some automatic formatting on the EPUB I uploaded similar to the silly modifications I had to do for the Google edition (it looks like these ebook distributors are getting geared more towards people uploading Word documents and converting them to EPUBs than they are anymore to people who do their own EPUB coding), but it looked fine from what I could tell.  Anyone who encounters any issues though is welcome to get in touch with me, and I'll see what I can do (the original EPUB version worked just fine on my phone, so I'm guessing it'll do the same on yours).  

So if you're looking for a fun and thought-provoking story, give it a read!

The Front Yard War Excerpt On New Pop Lit!

 

New Pop Lit is running an excerpt from The Front Yard War in their Fast Pop section.  Check it out at https://fastpoplit.com/2025/01/25/an-excerpt-from-the-front-yard-war-by-wred-fright/.  Thanks to King Karl for running it!  If you want to read the whole thing, it's available at Amazon, Google Books, and directly from me ($5 PayPal to wredfright AT yahoo DOTT com--you'll figure it out).  The PDF version is available only from me, but you can get an EPUB anywhere, and Amazon has a print edition also.  I'm working on the Smashwords edition, so it will be available at most other ebook retailers soon as well.  It's a fun novel.  If you like good and interesting stories, then give it a read.  There is still life in American literature, but you're likely going to have to dig for DIY stuff like this.

The Front Yard War Available On Google Books!

 

That's the White House lawn in Washington DC USA in the summer of 2023.  It looks fairly Chemlawned to me.  I didn't see dandelions or clover on it anyway.  Maybe with a new, if slightly used, president in the house, the lawn could provide a nice model of organic lawn care for the nation.

Yeah, that's probably not going to happen.  However, you can read The Front Yard War now on Google Books.  Google even has a nice hefty sample, so you can read the first three chapters or so.  After that, it'll cost you $5 to read the rest.  $5!  Just $5!  I see people trying to sell ebooks for $10 or $20 even.  It's a digital file, dude!  It should be like $5.  We're not paying for printing or mailing it.  Come on!  So if you want to see some dandelions on the White House lawn, then read the book and then you can get fired up and write a letter to the president, or at least the White House landscaper. 

Based on the preview, the Google Books edition looks pretty good.  It's basically the same file as the regular epub, but of course Google or their coders get a bee up their bonnet and I had to change some code for no good reason.  I actually use Google Books as my main ebook reader on the phone, and the original file worked great.  However, the Google Books edition really hated the underlining code, despite it working perfectly fine in the epub and on their reader software, so I had to turn the underlining to italics.  Sorry underlining fans!  I think the underlining looks better as well, but that and a hissyfit over the type of center code was keeping it from popping up for sale, so I had to "fix" them.  The other amusing thing is that the original epub has 232 pages, but the Google edition has 357 pages, so despite the book description listing 232 pages, you get an additional 135 pages for free I guess.  Please let me know what's on them . . .

For now Google fans, of course, the book is still available directly from me for $5 as an epub or pdf (PayPal me at wredfright AT yahoo DOTT com--you'll figure out that complex human code) and at Amazon, which has a printed version as well.  Next up is Smashwords, who should get distributed to Barnes & Noble, Apple, and all the other major ebook retailers.  They apparently have a new print on demand branch as well, so we might see two different print editions of the book (in addition, to the cheaper alternative probably of just ordering and then printing out the PDF yourself).

The novel's funny and thought-provoking.  Given most if not nearly all of what passes for American literature these days, I can understand that people may not be into reading contemporary fiction, but you should give lit a chance again and give this one a read.  I bet you'll enjoy it.  It's not really like anything else out there.  I don't want to say it's better because art's an expression even the crass, commercial stuff in its way, but I wrote the dang thing and it makes me laugh out loud and I know what's coming and I didn't write it in a Mary Sue way, and it still makes me crack up.  Give it a shot!  In fact, take a shot or two while reading it; I bet it'll be even funnier!

drinkdrankdrunk: Excerpt From The Loud Boys By Karl Wenclas

 

TUESDAY MORNING: AT THE NEWSPAPER

The newspaper offices:  glass interrupted by black-and-white horizontal lines.  A young woman striding through the entrance disturbed the building’s impersonal design.

The city newspaper’s new publisher, Howell, was hand-picked representative of the billionaire venture capitalist who’d bought the 170 year-old legacy relic for ten percent of what it’d once been worth.  Shortly after arriving in town and studying the operation, Howell had taken over editorial duties as well.

“We’re not doing journalism,” Howell told the staffers from behind a smartphone held in front of his face.  “Journalism is dead. We’re not objective. Neither are we partisans. Our slant--our politics--is what sells.”

He’d done a stint in Silicon Valley as well as New York, and subscribed to the tech mindset.  “Data, Then More Data!” his mantra, to the extent he had the slogan emblazoned in bold crimson-red letters on a large white banner hanging over the main entrance of their new, downsized headquarters.

Then he fired most of the long-time staff and brought in free-lancers and contract employees.

He was a thirty-nine-year-old arrogant cushion of a man wearing Warby-Parker eyeglasses, who’d been raised on video games and sci-fi CGI films.  If it wasn’t electronic, he didn’t want it.

“The bottom line is views,” he told Dara Defiant when she arrived in his office to discuss a new assignment.  “More views, subscribers, numbers, however we get them.  More personalities, celebrities, drama.  In this newspaper.  On screens.  Scandals.  Targets.  Triggers.  Tragedy.  Controversy.”

The office looked like it’d been erected yesterday, and would be gone tomorrow.

“That’s why I’m here,” Dara said with indecipherable eyes. “That’s what I write.”

As ruthless as he pretended to be, coddled Howell was intimidated by his encounters with Dara.  When she walked, her figure cut through the atmosphere as if separate from it.  Tangibly alive.

“What I like about you, Dara,” he said, blinking as he scrutinized her through his glasses (his eyes trained for screens, not people) “is you have no illusions.”

Dara thought to herself at age twenty-five maybe she should still have a few illusions.

"King" Karl Wenclas has a new novel out, The Loud Boys!  I am happy to run an excerpt from it as part of drinkdrankdrunk!  Check out his "War Hysteria" in The Underground Literary Alliance anthology and his current New Pop Lit project.  Finding good contemporary writing can be difficult these days, so the King is a good guide to it, whether it's his own or that of others.  He's also still blogging occasionally at Attacking The Demi-Puppets, trying to give American Lit. the jump start it so desperately needs these days!

The Front Yard War Available In Print!

 

If you see a chemlawn truck pull up on your street, then that's a bummer.  Fortunately, in the winter, one doesn't see them much, so score one for the cold season.  Another reason to celebrate is that the print edition of The Front Yard War is now out.  Amazon usually does a nice job on their print on demand paperbacks, so I'm hoping that's the case here.  I haven't seen a copy myself yet.  One change I made with this paperback is that I went with indented paragraphs instead of the blank line between paragraphs I prefer.  All those blank lines add up though and would contribute to more pages costing more.  So with inflation raging still I elected to keep costs down, so The Front Yard War costs the same as Fast Guy Slows Down did in 2022 (and still does), Edna's Employment Agency did in 2020 (and still does), and so on.  You can't say that about many products these days.  And it's not even shrinkflation.  The word count is about the same as the last novel; it's just a thinner paperback due to the indenting.  If you want a print edition and want to save more money, then order the pdf version directly from me (epub also available, though that is not as print-friendly) for $5 USD (PayPal me at wredfright AT yahoo DOTT com) and print it out yourself (maybe your local public library has free or cheap printing, for example).  As for Amazon, the Kindle version is here, and the paperback version is here.  They are $5 and $15 USD respectively.  They'll probably charge you shipping on the paperback unless you have Amazon Prime or are ordering more stuff, and they likely charge sales tax on both (the government always wants its cut, even from indie lit).  I'm working on the Google Books edition next, so stay tuned for those Googler fans!