Try to Spike it! The Book Market! — Sort of works??!

Just a quick update on that… jeez, thanks.  Seriously thank you.  Yes, Herbach really will write you and those you gift gifts to loving notes of thanks.  All through this week, please let us know!

Here, young Stephen McClurg of Alabama enjoys The Miracle Letters with his monkey.

Heather McElhatton thought it up. Sam thought it was a great idea. It seems right. What if everyone who wants a copy of the book did it in the next couple of days… you know, bought it?

Here’s the message we’re putting out:

Time Out Chicago called it “Letter Perfect” Help it spread!

In a cynical attempt to place a “spike” in the book market, we are asking that all of you buy a copy of Herbach’s Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg today or tomorrow! If you already have it, buy it as a wonderful gift (send us a message, and Herbach will provide you a personal letter to the loved one you are gifting to).

Support Indies? Go to the book sense site below to find your local retailer. Amazon or BN? Direct links to the book are below! Send us a message proving purchase and poor Herbach, a lowly fellow, will write you a personal message of thanks! He also believes the book will do it to you for real.

Let us bring home the bacon. Please spread the word, loved ones.

Buy Miracle Letters at Amazon for as low as four and change plus shipping!

Buy Miracle Letters at Barnes & Noble, online or locate a store

Find your Indie through Book Sense

More about the book? Here!

“The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg is a darkly comic, extraordinary peek into the delicate mind of a suicidal no-hoper. T. Rimberg is a superbly crafted character: death obsessed and soulful, resentful and ashamed, chivalrous and scruffy. In his brilliant debut novel, Geoff Herbach parks good and evil side-by-side in the sandbox and, with masterful confidence, allows them to figure things out for themselves.
–Tish Cohen, author of Town House

“I read The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg and I was gob-smacked. It’s a tasty dark treat, inspiring the reader to suck on every last hilarious morsel.
–Heather McElhatton, author of Pretty Little Mistakes

“The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg is a wonderful trifecta–funny, mysterious, and full-hearted. From a farewell letter written to Aunt Jemima to a quiet moment in a Polish cemetery, I laughed and ached alongside T. Rimberg all the way through his fantastic journey.
–Brian Leung, author of Lost Men

Herbach gets question straight up… “Why would you write a ‘funny’ book about suicide?”

That was a blunt question that showed up in my email this morning.  Thanks for thinking the book is funny.  I think it’s funny.  I intended it to be funny (T., the protagonist is sort of a jerk, but he’s very funny).

The book isn’t about suicide, though.  It’s really about lots of stuff, but to a very large extent it is about the power of reflection.  These letters T. writes, which are intended to punish some and to apologize to other people in his life have this insidious effect.  In the act of writing, he begins to make sense of his past.  Making sense of his past causes him to question, to become curious, to pursue answers.  T. may be suicidal at the start, but as the book goes on, he becomes totally engaged in making his life.  My favorite marketing tag line for the book is: “Sometimes life gets in the way of a well-planned death.”  The Miracle Letters is about the opposite of suicide, you know?

I’m a big fan of dark humor, too.  Writing through a character in this state of mind gave me all kinds of opportunity to be explosive and funny.  Use what you got!  I mean… I was able to write to the manager of White Castle, pay all kinds of compliments to him for having a nice staff and excellent food, then request coupons be sent to the character’s ex-wife because, “I’ve killed myself since writing this…” That is fun for me.

Thank you for asking!

There are so many things coming up for Sam and Herbach and friends…

First, how would you like to see comedienne extraordinaire Mary Mack performing/reading with Lit 6’s Steph Ash, Paul D. Dickinson and the former base player from Babes in Toyland, Michelle Leon ?  This is happening in the Clown Lounge of the Turf Club June 8th as part of the Riot Act Reading Series!  We are all freaking hopped up on liquid candy.  Ten to One, Larkin will be taking photos, as he is wont to do (although his photos from New York are on Sam’s camera, which is also in New York and thus Herbach cannot see them).  Liquid Candy, Larkin!  Enough said.

Second, there are few bookstores as booky as this.  It is what you want your bookstore to be.  Of course, Mr. Keillor himself owns it and he knows what a bookstore should be.  Common Good Books is across from W.A. Frost in St. Paul, MN, and it is packed to the gills with wordy excellence.  All of Lit 6 (Sam, Herbach, Steph and Brady) will be reading there in support of Miracle Letters and good times in general on Thursday June 12 (7ish start).  Honestly, there aren’t going to be many Lit 6 readings from now on.  You should go.

If you can’t come to the reading, please buy The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg from Common Good Books.  We will support these beautiful Indie stores!  Everyone buy a copy right now!  Both Mr. Keillor and Herbach will be pleased.

Third, Sam and Herbach are hosting the Red Stag Block Party on June 14!

Finally, you really should see the Flak Radio fellows in action.  Jim and Taylor will be kicking it Live-Style in the lobby of the Ritz Theater at 7pm on Monday, June 16th.  It is free.  There will be beer for sale.  It will be excellent.

June 16th is Bloomsday, by the way.

More on all of this later.  Sam and Herbach are quite tired.  Sam is back in New York figuring out life.  Herbach is struggling to write anything of value.  There is magic in the air.

MnArtists.org

As we made our way across the states, Sam and I wrote longer form expressions of our deep-seated fears.   MnArtists.org was kind enough to publish them.  We’ll have one more, discussing the end of the first leg.

Read parts one and two.

Baltimore and then home… for now…

After a long stay in NYC (brilliantly excellent and filled with a combination of family visits and late night bar brawls both in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan — by brawls we mean sobbing and hugging our pals), we lit out for Baltimore, home of Weeds and Homicide before it and Pecker (the neighborhood where we stayed!). Baltimore was a great reading… what a way to end this leg.

Hosted by Michael Kimball, the 510 Reading Series is Baltimore’s only fiction reading series. The crowd was big and pretty and smart. The readers (other than dear Herbach), Adam Robinson and Betsy Boyd (who has no webpage, but whose talent deserves several dedicated to her) were excellent. The drinking afterwards was delicious and a miracle occurred, either coincidence or containing serious religious implications, that could cause Herbach to actually stop smoking. This is not just that Meg and Justin of Minneapolis showed up at the reading. It was more.

Here, Sam and others laugh at Herbach’s revelation.

When Sam and Herbach awoke in the morning, they were greeted by a wonderful 2 year-old (daughter of Jason and Pam — friends). The 2 year-old asked that Sam and Herbach leave her home. And, so, they did and did not stop driving until early the next day, when they arrived in Minneapolis. They ate of Sbarro and Taco Bell along the way.

It isn’t over. The whole of Lit 6 will be performing at St. Paul’s Common Good Books in support of Miracle Letters and life on Thursday, June 12. There are dates getting set for Las Vegas! Wichita, KS! and Charlottesville, VA! Ah… Life!

New York forever.

As Sam and Herbach stay in different parts of the city, spring slowly creeps to summer. They will soon reconvene (this afternoon) to plan for lengthier stays in the American wilderness (where they will read) (Las Vegas, Wichita, for instance). And Baltimore approaches.

In the meantime, Sam and Herbach were guests by phone on Flak Radio.

The Flak Radio is so good, you might want to hear more than the interview. You can listen to the whole show!

Oh… and… of course…

Today Sam and Herbach read.  They will be joined in NYC by special guest Steph.

7pm, Tank Gallery, 279 Church St., TRIBECA.  It will be excellent.  Refreshments and beer served.  Quite delicious.  An Indie will be selling The Miracle Letters, too.

Herbach stares into the light:

NYC is full of people

We are not talking regular people, but people other people (not ourselves) would like to stalk (or at least people other people would have liked stalking in the past, because the people are has-beens in the present — but what, really, is a has-been?  Don’t we all have the ability to grow and change and become our true integrated selves, even after our moment in the spotlight has come and gone?? — maybe, maybe not).

Herbach saw Christian Slater in a steakhouse.  Oh was Herbach excited!  He whispered to his pals enthusiastically!  Christian Slater was with a woman (at least she was legal — 18).  Christian Slater sat at the next table and Herbach was at first so delighted, then Herbach became terribly distracted by Christian Slater incessant babble.  It went on and on, like a river.  It burbled blah blah blah and did not stop.  Demoralizing babble.  The young woman said nothing.  When Herbach was a young man, he loved Christian Slater in films such as Heathers and Pump up the volume. Herbach might have stalked Christian Slater.  No longer, because Christian Slater talks a lot and he’s also shorter than Herbach imagined, which is okay, because Herbach is shorter than Herbach imagines.  Maybe Herbach is too hard on Slater.  Probably.  Never mind.

Slater

The real coup: Herbach ran into Mitt Romney, wife and all of his sons in the lobby of an apartment building.  Shock and joy sprang both from Romneys and Herbach.

Enough said.

No sleep til Brooklyn…

We got up at the crack of dawn and hightailed it Texas style (big and fast) through the mists of New England.  Herbach slept.  Sam drove wildly, tailgating, flashing his lights, honking his tiny horn.  As good as Providence was, as nice as it was to read our stories in front of a sweet, intelligent little crowd, as great as it was to meet one of the bon vivant Andy Sturdevant’s greatest life-long friends, the big city called (more to Sam than to Herbach who was passed out cold).

And now Sam is in the East Village.  And Herbach is up on the Upper Westside (the deluxe apartments in the sky are across the park).  It looks like this on Herbach’s street:

Famous Ray’s Original Pizza is down the block on Columbus.

Preparation: Three cases of PBR, a catered meal, Steph is coming to town, Sam is lubing his joints for maximum flexation, and Herbach sits in the park and points at birds.  Thursday’s reading at The Tank will be grand.  Please send all your NYC peeps.  We will love them so hard.

Providence

Do you remember that show? The plastic surgeon who came home to Providence to be a human-being instead of a plastic surgeon? Yeah. She had curly hair. She also had a family and a ghost mom. Remember?

We didn’t run into any of these people when we visited Providence. Still, we had a good time.

Brown University is in Providence. As is RISD. There are really old, ornate buildings. And hills (hurt Herbach’s legs as he smoked and climbed). Providence is, in fact, incredibly beautiful and somehow perfect. Despite the hills, Herbach would move there. Brown:

That’s not all. Oh no. Why is Herbach in love with Providence (other than pretty hills, buildings, bookstores, writers — William Walsh — and a really excellent audience for a reading)?

Hot dogs. 1am. Delicious.