Pimping Ain't Easy

If there is one thing Twitter and Facebook have taught me, it's that it's much easier, time-wise, to pimp my various projects and such in 140 characters and bit.ly links than it is in full and complete paragraphs filled with irony and wit and interesting metaphors. Or maybe it's interesting similes. I've frankly always had a hard time remembering which is which, just as I can never really tell when to end a sentence with "me" or with "I" and therefore I end up avoiding those kinds of sentences as often as I possibly can. At any rate, there's a bunch of cool stuff all of you need to be made intimately aware of and the only way of doing it is in sentences..but please, feel free to follow my dark, inner life on Twitter and Facebook, too, lest you miss something exciting like what I had for lunch or my thoughts on NBA free agency:

1. I have a new book coming out on July 6th. It's my 3rd Burn Notice book and, I'm happy to report, it's much better than the 2nd one which, candidly, just wasn't very good. I'm sorry about that. I wrote it very quickly while also writing another book and, upon looking at it recently, I saw that it really doesn't make much sense. So, to make up for that, I wrote a good one this time called The Giveaway. There's an excerpt of it here. Here's a big ass photo of the cover:

I'll be doing a few events this summer in support of the book, but mainly only in Southern California as I'm busily writing the 5th Burn Notice book at this very moment and thus can't stray too far from my computer, lest the book, you know, not get written. Which would be a problem.  There are contracts and such. And money is involved. And I've told people I've already started working on it, so, you know, it's like this thing now. But before book #5 comes out -- it's called The Bad Beat -- yet another Burn Notice book, called The Reformed, will be coming out in January. You can already pre-order it. You know, for the holidays. At any rate, I'll post some book signings shortly in this space for The Giveaway.  

2. For those of you who don't read my spy novels and prefer my sad literary stylings, you're also in luck! The fine journal Black Clock has just published a new story of mine called "Welcome to Thousand Palms" which you can read here, but really you should buy the whole issue because it also has fantastic new work by good humans like Matthew Zapruder, David Ulin, Nina Revoyr, Carolyn Kellogg, Lisa Teasley and Lou Matthews. And then in just a few months, you'll be able to read another new short story in the fall issue of The Normal School called "Last Night at the Dairy Bar"...and then, well, some other places, too, because I'm thinking about another short story collection sometime in the next few years in light of how much I enjoyed writing Simplify and Other Resort Cities and how nicely they've been received.

3.  Speaking of Other Resort Cities...you can now read it on your book reading machines.

4. I'm sad to report that you missed some cool stuff because I keep forgetting to mention these things in all the various forms of media available (I have got to update my Friendster...) but that you'll have a chance to see/hear/possess that cool stuff shortly. Like, for instance, Gary Cole's great performance of my story "Walls" at WordTheatre. Luckily, the good folks at WordTheatre recorded the performance for replay on the radio and iTunes and which will be available soon. 

5. And, lastly, if you forgot to apply to get your MFA from UCR Palm Desert's Low Residency MFA program -- and I don't understand how you forgot -- you also missed a great summer residency three weeks ago, hallmarked by a fantastic visit from Dave Cullen, the author of Columbine, a book I've been raving about for the better part of a year. Here he is talking with David Ulin during residency about the structure of the book:

  

Comments

[Dave Cullen]

I'm with you on the short pimps. I hated Twitter for ages, but did it anyway because my publisher begged me to, and now I can barely sputter out an entire paragraph. I have not updated my blog in months.

But I do like to blab in the comments, for some reason. Less pressure or something.

Tanks (as we say in Chicago, where I have not lived in 30 years) for the video plug. I had a great time doing the MFA residency, and talking with David, and later in the "discussion" I actually let him talk occasionally. I swear.

Good plugs on your stuff, too. I will order your Burn book. I just started watching the series, but then my fake-tivo died with the other episodes, so I have to start over with my new fake-tivo.

p.s. Some nutjobs will be here shortly.

[Colleen Mengel]

No apologies! I really enjoyed the End Game! I will have to reread The Giveaway (because these kinds of books need a run through of at least 3 times before it all comes together in my mind!) before I pass judgement. Suffice it so say that all 3 Burn Notice books are fun reads! You do a good job of voicing all of the characters. I know that isn't easy especially when those characters are already alive in fans' minds. I don't usually read the tie-in books to TV shows. Looking forward to #s 4 and 5!