Monday, December 2, 2024

The Front Yard War Is Out!

The picture is what started the new novel.  I arrived home one night to find this little doorhanger curled up in the screen door handle and was aghast.  The city was wasting my tax money to nag me about cutting the grass!  What gives?!  I was planning on cutting the grass anyway, so that was the end of the matter (aside from calling the mayor to give her an earful), but it got me interested in the yard.  The result over a decade later is the novel The Front Yard War.  I write them so I can read them, and I enjoyed reading it.  Maybe you will as well.  It's vulgar, irreverent, thought-provoking, and funny.  It may even be controversial.  It was interesting taking what might have been an academic book and turning it into a novel.  I guess I would describe it as P. G. Wodehouse meets Edward Abbey just for a somewhat frame of reference, but, with luck, it should be its own original self.  As with most of the novels I've written, it has a different form from most novels.  The story is the most important aspect as a novel is ultimately just a long story, but the formal aspect can enhance the story if done well, and it's done well here, though the other readers will be the judges of that as well.  It will eventually have a print version (maybe even more than one since SmashBooks seem to be getting into print on demand as well) and a Kindle version and a Google Books version, and blah blah blah multiple ebook versions.  I will get those all up and running in coming weeks, and then make a permanent page on the blog for it like I have for the other novels and add to the list of novels on the Library page.  For now though, it is available only directly from me.  It's $5, though you can still try to woo a review copy from me (reviews, like readers, are hard to come by these days, doubly so for independent writers).  Just PayPal me at wredfright AT yahoo DOTT Com (if you're human, then you should be able to figure out that email address--if you're not human and somehow still reading this blog, then just use your big A.I. brain to conjure up some cash and get it to me somehow I guess) and let me know if you want the PDF version or the EPUB version (for maximum convenience, you can even use the begging bowl link on the sidebar if you're reading the web version of this blog).  I coded and tested them both myself, so they should both work great, but if you do have any issues, then just give me a yell.  I can even tell you how to upload the novel onto your phone if you need a hand (I enjoyed reading it on the cell phone a chapter a day, which is how I tend to read most ebooks).  Thanks to Sigil and Libre Office Writer for the compositional tools.  Keep in mind, I'll be emailing it to you manually, so please give me 24 hours or so after payment to get it to you; there's no A.I. Bot zipping it out automatically.  If you want that, then please wait for it to land at the ebook retailers.  If you don't like PayPal and just want to mail me $5 or something, then email me, and we'll figure something out.  I'll be hyping the novel due to excitement for the next few months, so I'll let you know when the other versions are available, but if you've been waiting to read it, then now's your chance at last.  It is done and looking for readers!