There’s genre fiction and then there’s genre fiction.
There’s the run-of-the-mill bits of detective noir and historical romance and science fiction and so on – and if you think even something as (often literally) otherworldly as science fiction can’t be reduced to ho-hum mediocrity, then you probably also enjoy that whole Stars Wars franchise, too, don’t you, Best Beloved?
Guh.
But then – ah, then – there’s genre fiction that doesn’t necessarily transcend its chosen ghetto of literary pigeonholing … but that goes completely bugfuck gonzo within it, that turns it up to 11 and throws away the volume knob, that achieves a sort of interior transcendence.
We wrote of one example right here a while ago.
And now we’re telling you about Instar Books.
Instar Books, that web-based platform of weird fiction currently featuring the novels Sharing by Miracle Jones and The Black Emerald by Jeanne Thornton. Oh, look: Both authors are former Austinites.
(Note: We interviewed that Jones a while ago, partly about his let’s-call-it-unorthodox method of book distribution. And as for Thornton, well, the author of The Dream of Doctor Bantam was one of our Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest judges the year before last.)
And so we’re giving you a heads-up, here, in case the more wild and unrestrained works of what some call slipstream are your particular cup of tranya.
Because what Instar Books offers is just that. Well, that – and the possibility that the authors will perform all manner of stunts for your amusement and edification.
Say what?
Say, for example, if he sells a certain number of copies of Sharing, Miracle Jones will get high and then eat an entire erotic cake, alone, on a street corner in Queens, to an 8-bit version of “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond.
No, for real. With a video of it streamed Netwise for evidence, of course.
Because, in this era of our constantly flooded mediascape in which there exist Too Many Things To Pay Attention To And Some Of Them Aren’t Even Cat Videos … in this modern phase of relentless sensory inundation, an author’s gotta do what an author’s gotta do to promote the work, right?
Right: See for yourself.
This article appears in January 16 • 2015.