Welcome to the future

Hey, do you live in the 21st Century? If so, you'll be glad to know that my latest book, NEVER DIVIDED, is now available in Kindle format from Amazon. That means that you can scientifically inject the book directly into your eyes using the internet. Plus, it only costs $4.95. Buy it now and become part of the "wired' generation!

NEVER DIVIDED has arrived!

I am positively giddy at the news that Never Divided, the third and final novel in my SF Punk Trio, is now available for purchase in paperback form from Amazon, with an eBook soon to follow. As always, I've endeavored to make it available at a reasonable price, so check it out, why don't you? And if you have a strong opinion about it, one way or the other, why not review it there and/or on Goodreads?

Readers in the Bay Area may be interested to know that I will be signing books and reading excerpts from Never Dividing at San Francisco's much venerated Green Apple Books on Thursday, August 29th at 7pm. There's no penalty for not having read the book, so if you want to just stop by and say hello, and maybe discuss the global implications of Magic Lizard, please feel free.

4DK = 10

When a blog gets to be ten years old, it is usually due to either perseverance or neglect. Given my last post bears a date that’s within the last two weeks, I guess I am to be congratulated for the former. Oh, how I have suffered these many years, again and again triumphing over staunch adversity to bring you thoughtful reviews of Filipino midget spy films, Indian dinosaur epics, Soviet beach movies and Turkish comic strip adaptations. Where else would you have learned of such irreplaceable cinematic icons as Suzzanna, Sultan Rahi, Dara Singh, Dolphy, and Ismail Yassin, or of the awesome contributions to the world cinematic cannon of auteurs like Sompote Saengduenchai, KSR Doss, Yilmaz Atadenis and Pearl Chang Ling?

Obviously, this is a cause for celebration. And that celebration will begin tomorrow, February 1st, when, every day until February 6th, the 10th anniversary of 4DK’s first post, I will be reposting significant reviews from throughout the blog’s improbably long history. Of course, comparing these early posts to my later work will show that I have neither matured nor evolved--but that I have done solely in the name of bringing you a consistent, reliable product. You’re welcome.

2018: A year in the rearview

I don't know about you, but last year was pretty busy for me. In fact, 2018 was the year when I finally started asking myself whether I had maybe taken on just a few too many projects. Then I would occasionally look up, bleary eyed, from my keyboard to contemplate what I would do without the firehose stream of literary, musical, web-based and broadcast projects I'd taken on--with the inevitable answer being that I would be paralyzed with fear and worry at the state of the world. So I had no choice but to say "Bring it on, 2018!"

For starters, 2018 was the year in which I published my second novel, So Good It's Bad. As you may know, that novel and it's predecessor, Please Don't Be Waiting For Me, make up the first and second installments of a trilogy that I'm calling The SF Punk Trio. Said trilogy concerns a tight-knit gang of teenage punk rockers who continually find trouble in the shadowy corners of 1980s San Francisco. The third and final installment, Never Divided, will be released in July of 2019. That one will take place in 1984, against the backdrop of that year's Democratic Convention and it's attendant protests. There will also be a covert gang of racist cops within the SFPD.

Then there is Pop Offensive, my monthly survey of the best in world pop music on Peralta College's KGPC. 2018 marked my first full year as sole host of the show following the departure of co-host Jeff Heyman to punker pastures in September of 2017. The standout show of the year was unquestionably our deluxe 50th Episode Celebration featuring special guests, a live musical performance, and three hours of music. Other highlights were our Scandinavian Invasion episode and our episode dedicated to cover songs.

In the podcasting realm, I entered my fourth year of acting as co-host on Ken Brosson's Taiwan Noir podcast, which is just a small cog in his massive Podcast on Fire empire. Though our release schedule slowed down this year (partly due to my busy schedule) I am proud that this year's episodes focused heavily on those goofy Taiwanese fantasies most beloved by me like Nine Demons, Hello Dracula and Fantasy Mission Force.

Meanwhile, my solo podcast, Friday's Best Pop Song Ever, clocked in a total of 14 episodes over the course of the year, with a 15th due in January of 2019. This is a podcast in which I take a more-or-less obscure pop song that I am particularly fond of and nerd the fuck out over it, providing context, commentary and personal observations. What I am most proud of is it's brevity, with episodes lasting from eight to eighteen minutes--in contrast to the bloated length of most podcasts, because just having breath in your body doesn't mean you have something to say. My most listened to episodes so far have been the ones focused on "Pretty Please" by The Quick, "Haunted" by the Pogues, and Kristy MacColl's "They Don't Know." The show is available on Stitcher, so, yes, I'm going to ask you to subscribe to it. And, hey, would it kill you to also rate and review it as well?

And last, but far from least, is 4DK, which I still consider the flagship of my whole operation, despite my falling far short of my original posting goal of 1-2 reviews a week. And though it might sometimes seem like the blog has become a bulletin board for all my activities elsewhere, I want you all to know that I still consider it to be primarily a film review blog and that, in keeping with that, I will continue to review films on it, albeit with the occasional lull. Happily, I've found that, despite the proliferation of film blogs, podcasts, and cult films on YouTube, there are still plenty of weird, obscure and even great movies to be found. Among my favorite films I reviewed this year were Banglar Robocop, the Indian CG monster-fest Creature, Abar: Black Superman, Fantasy Mission Force, Supersonic Saucer, Femina Ridens and Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss, to name a few.

Of course, what I am leaving out of all of this are the things that I'm currently working on for next year, such as a follow-up to Funky Bollywood and a musical. Those will have to wait until later, because I think it would be distasteful to make the first post of the year the longest. Also, I want to refer back to this post whenever I'm wondering why I feel so tired all the time.

Happy new year, everybody.

Start the day right with POP OFFENSIVE!

That's right, tonight sees the airing of a brand new episode of Pop Offensive on KGPC (live streaming at 7pm Pacific from kgpc969.org).  But that's not the only news that's fit to print in Pop Offensive land.

For starters, there's the fact that, for the next few months, KGPC is going to be streaming episodes of Pop Offensive at 9am every weekday morning. That means that you can have power pop with your Sugar Pops, drum loops with your fruit loops, ABBA with your avocado toast and... well, it was a good conceit when it started. Anyway, yay! Amirite?

The other news is that October's episode of Pop Offensive will be it's 50th (!!!!), a landmark that I will be celebrating with a deluxe three hour episode stuffed full of music, guests and shenanigans. To accommodate it's girth, this episode will air at a special date and time: Tuesday, October 30th at 6pm. Please mark it on your calendar, because I might get too busy to remind you.

And if you want to hear more about either of these items, just tune into tonight's show , because I'll probably be talking about them.

SO BAD IT'S GOOD is GO!

Just about a year ago, I published a little book called Please Don't Be Waiting for Me. It concerned a bunch of teenage punk rockers who went to Berkeley High School by day and went to punk rock shows in San Francisco.by night. Hey, that sounds like me and my friends back in the early 80's, which is when the book is set. Then one of their friends gets brutally murdered and they end up getting chased around by homicidal Hells Angels and meth addled, racist skinheads. Ok, that never happened to me and my friends... but it could have.

Anyway, it turned out that people who read the book liked theses made up people of mine, as did I, so I decided to put them through their paces again, this time in a book called So Good It's Bad. This book starts out with a disastrous DIY band tour (something I know a lot  about) that leads to our protagonist Scott and his band mates being held hostage by a family of dangerous loonies, one of whom is a serial murderer popularly known as The Jackpot Killer. Chaos and bloodshed ensues.

Plot synopsis aside, what's most important about So Good It's Bad is that, after months of me teasing you with it, it is finally available. In fact, you can purchase it right now from Amazon by going here (though you don't necessarily have to fuck off.)

It's also important--and dreadfully so--that the book's release will kick off a flurry of promotional activity on the part of your truly. This will include a launch event that will take place in Oakland on August 10th, at which I will read from the book and write my name in your copy of it whether you want me to or not. There will likely also be interviews, podcast appearances and publicity stunts involving varying degrees of public nudity. Watch this space to keep pace, because I'm sure you'll want to witness them all, no matter how much cross-country or international travel it involves.

That's all in the future, of course. For now, all I would like for you to do is read the book', hopefully enjoy it, and recommend it to a friend or two. (Also, Good Reads and Amazon reviews are always nice, but I won't ask for those outright, because that would be unethical.)

Finally, if you are someone who likes to look at and touch things--and I mean that in the most innocent way imaginable--I think that you will find the book to be a pleasing physical artifact, as it was once again designed by my talented friend Andrew Nahem. Then again, if you find the idea of confronting an actual book in all its stark physicality utterly nauseating, there will be an eBook version, though you will have to wait a few weeks.

In summation: MY NEW BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE. PLEASE BUY IT. I HAVE MADE THIS ENTIRE PARAGRAPH AN AMAZON LINK SO THAT YOU CAN DO SO MORE EASILY. THANK YOU.

Please don't be missing my new novel

As I mentioned back at the beginning of May, my new novel, SO GOOD IT'S BAD--which is a direct sequel to my previous novel, PLEASE DON'T BE WAITING FOR ME--will be out in a matter of weeks. What's changed since then is that there is now an official website for the book, on which you can find more information about the novel, read a sample chapter, view a gallery of relevant photos, and even hear the theme song. So what I'm saying is maybe you should go look at it now.

(NOTE: The image above might make more sense once you've read the novel, but I'm not guaranteeing anything.)

The PLEASE DON'T BE WAITING FOR ME book trailer is punkalicious!

Now you can read PLEASE DON'T BE WAITING FOR ME anywhere!

 

Rejoice bibliophobes, for the last physical impediment to you reading my new novel, Please Don't Be Waiting For Me,--by which I mean actual books in all their loathsome, paper-based tactility--has been removed. In other words, an eBook version of PDBWFM has just been made available on Amazon for the perhaps-too-reasonable sum of $4.99 (you see, you have to make eBooks less expensive than print books because they kind of suck--hey, just my opinion!) If this is you, head on over to Besos' place and download that sucker.

Yes, you can get it on Kindle...

WARNING: Parts of my new novel, PLEASE DON'T BE WAITING FOR ME, are so shocking that it might be dangerous to read while driving, walking, operating heavy machinery, or, of course, texting. Needless to say, that has not stopped me from making it available as an eBook so that you can do all of those things while reading it on that infernal mobile device that is probably glued to your nose at this very minute. You can pre-order it now by going here. Keep in mind, though, that you will not be able to download it until July, 25th, so try not to wander distractedly into the path of an oncoming locomotive until then.

PLEASE DON'T BE WAITING FOR ME is HERE!

I'm ecstatic to announce that, after a long series of hurdles that ended with a surprisingly generous proposal from the Sex Pistols' publishers, my first novel, Please Don't Be Waiting For Me is finally available to the public. In fact, you can at this very moment buy it for the very reasonable price of $7.95 by using either the link at the top of the sidebar, or by following this one here:

https://www.createspace.com/6971097

I'm asking you to purchase the book from Create Space because, while it is available from Amazon and other online retailers, I receive a larger percent of the proceeds if you buy it from there--and you get your book just as quickly. Brother got bills, people!

Of course, you're not obligated to buy it at any particular place, or at all, for that matter. Nor are you obligated to write a review of it on Goodreads and/or Amazon once you've read it. Although, you know, it would be nice.

For those of you who live in the Bay Area--or who are inclined to travel great distances for obscure reasons--a launch party for Please Don't Be Waiting For Me will be held at Oakland's A Great Good Place For Books on Wednesday, July 19th. I'll fill you in on details as they develop.

In the meantime, enjoy the book!

Please don't be missing my new book

From almost the instant that Funky Bollywood was published, people have been asking me what my next book project would be. Would it be a survey of Indian action movies from the 80s? Or perhaps an overview of an entirely different genre of Indian films? I very soon started to feel like I was being pushed into a somewhat confining, South Asian cinema-shaped box. Seeing as I fancy myself to be something of a wild card, it was not long before I was greeting these queries by testily hissing "you don't know me, maaan!" at my interlocutors. Clearly, some kind of break was in order, some means of confounding my readers' perhaps justifiably narrow expectations of me--and what better way to do so than write a novel?

Okay, that's not the actual reason that I wrote my first novel, Please Don't Be Waiting For Me. The truth is that it's an idea that's been kicking around in my head for quite some time. I just felt obligated to justify myself to those of you who might be disappointed that I didn't follow up Funky Bollywood  with another film-related book. I will definitely be writing another film book, and sooner than you think, but I just had to get this one out of my head first. And if it's any consolation, there's much in this book that will appeal to fans of fringe pop culture like yourselves.

Please Don't Be Waiting For Me is set in San Francisco in 1980 and follows a close knit band of teenage punks as they negotiate the ins and outs of that city's legendary early punk scene. In the aftermath of a particularly riotous Avengers gig, one of their friends is found brutally murdered and another is accused of the crime. Faced with an openly hostile police force and a local media intent on demonizing them, they set out to prove their friends' innocence on their own. Along the way, they become enmeshed in a nasty criminal conspiracy involving Hells Angels, fascist skinheads, and a missing satchel full of methamphetamines.

Now, in case you were wondering, I was a teenager during the early days of the SF punk rock scene, and I indeed have used my own experiences and observations as background for my story. This does not, however, mean that the book is autobiographical. It isn't. But if you insist on thinking that one of the characters in it is me, I only ask that that character be the one you consider to be the coolest.

I'll openly admit that Please Don't Be Waiting For Me was a bit of a tough sell. I intended it to be a kind of Young Adult/Crossover title, but the amount of swears, violence, drug use and implied underage sex it contains makes it unlikely to receive the endorsement of many school librarians. As a result, I've opted to self publish--which, along with guarantying that I won't have to compromise on  content, also means that I'll be able to offer it to you at a reasonable price. The book is currently ready to roll but for some lyric copyright issues that need to be cleared up, and I think you can expect to see it available within the next four to six weeks.

In the meantime, I've set up an official website for the book at pdbwfm.com There you'll find a lot of background and historical information, a sample chapter you can read, a YouTube playlist of classic punk tracks, and even a fun contest you can enter yourself into. Do check it out, won't you?

Save on FUNKY BOLLYWOOD and make out like a bandit!

As part of their March blow out, FAB Press is offering my book Funky Bollywood for the low, low price of £6.00. That's about 7.50 U.S.--less than a third of the cover price (though keep in mind that that price does not include shipping from the UK.) To buy it, go here. But act fast; there is only so much funk to go around.

Fantastic Fest goes Funky Bollywood!

As you may know, Fantastic Fest, which is just about a week away, is adopting a Bollywood theme this year. I am thrilled to announce that, in keeping with that theme, they will be holding a contest to give away five copies of my book Funky Bollywood. The lucky winners who are at the festival will also get to have their books signed, most likely by me. Yes, I'll be there, so come and say hi! I look like this:

See the contest details here.

Please give

You may have noticed the Patreon link that recently popped up on top of this blog's sidebar. This is a means by which those of you who choose to can contribute monetarily to the ongoing maintenance of 4DK and all of its adjunct podcasts, radio shows, dog and pony exhibitions, sack races, rainbow parties, etc.

I'll admit I had some reservations about setting up a crowd funding page for 4DK. I worried that some people might find it presumptuous of me to think that people might pay money for what I do. It’s certainly not very punk rock. But the fact is that I don’t need money so much as I need time. And time, as a famous person (Liberace, I think) once said, is money. The reverse, of course, is also true--and, believe me, if there was a way for you to donate your unused hours, minutes, and seconds to me, that’s what I’d be doing instead. Yes, I would be literally sucking the life out of you, so keep that in mind when drawing up your Christmas list

I don’t want to get too dire about this; I’m going to continue doing what I’m doing no matter what. And, don’t get me wrong, giving stuff away on the internet is fun as hell. It’s just that recently I’ve found myself increasingly failing in my duties as a Guy Who Writes About Crazy Movies on the Internet due to scheduling conflicts. One week I even forgot to post Friday’s Best Pop Song Ever. Can you imagine my shame? No, I don’t think you can.

Basically, what I’m saying is this: If you like my work and want me to write more books, to review more movies, to do more podcasts and radio shows, etc., I am as happy as ever to create them for you, although it would certainly be easier for me if I had a little more time in which to do so. This being America, I thought that having a little extra dosh on hand might accomplish that goal. If you don’t agree (and most certainly if you can’t afford to), you are free to continue enjoying it gratis, as most people will.

Of course, I should mention that those who do contribute will receive rewards in the form of music downloads, autographed books, etc. It’s the least I can do. After all, my readers are the best, no matter what side of the paywall they stand on.

4DK's Year in Review

Any hypothetical person who tried to keep track of all of this blog's various offshoots and adjunct projects could be forgiven for suffering a kind of 4DK fatigue. That is why I have decided to give you a handy rundown of this year's highlights. Here's hoping that I have, by this effort, at least slowed the process of you becoming a glassy eyed automaton that hates me.

FUNKY BOLLYWOOD: For me, the highlight of 2015 was the publication of my book Funky Bollywood: The Wild World of 1970s Indian Action Cinema, which was released by England's venerable FAB Press on March 15th. Sales of the book were healthy and the reviews positive, but for me the best part of being a published author was the in-store events at which I was able to meet readers, answer their questions and hear their comments. The Q & A sessions at these events were lively to say the least, and I probably ended up learning as much or more from them than the audience did. This is as true for the book launch at San Francisco's Lost Weekend Video as it was for my signing at Folio Books. But my favorite event by far was the one held at the Digital Gym Cinema in San Diego, the recording of which was released as an episode of interviewer Miguel Rodriguez's Horrible Imaginings podcast. (The less said about my talk at the SF Public Library, the better.)

POP OFFENSIVE: In 2015, Pop Offensive, a show that had originated as something of a lark, entered its second year of regular monthly episodes--and with that accumulated experience came the confidence to mess with the format a little. This resulted in theme episodes like our characteristically effervescent tributes to girl groups and Bollywood, as well as a Halloween episode that managed the unlikely juxtaposition of songs by Johnny Cash, Throbbing Gristle, and Kylie Minogue. 2015 was also the year that Pop Offensive transitioned from being an internet radio show only and hit the airwaves proper. Of course, this was a boon only to people living within a stone's throw of Oakland's Lake Merritt, who can now, thanks to our mighty 100 watt signal, listen to the show on KGPC, 96.9 FM.

THE 4DK MONTHLY MOVIE SHOUT DOWN: This 4DK sponsored movie Tweet-along continued to be a source of rigorously pointless amusement in 2015, with highlights that included two installments each from the Starman and Kommisar X franchises, as well as the Filmark produced robo-wreck Devil's Dynamite. As in 2014, @lowdudgeon, @avantgardea and @culturalgutter continued to be MVPs, displaying unfailing wit in the face of even the most dispiriting cinematic washouts.

TAIWAN NOIR: The best thing about co-hosting the Taiwan Noir podcast is that its host, Podcast on Fire's Ken Brorsson, has such a clear vision of where he wants the show to go--and such a sure hand in guiding it there--that I feel like all I have to do is show up and shoot the shit. Given the easy repartee that Ken and I have developed over the course of twelve episodes, that is something that is very easy and fun to do. Some of our most enjoyable episodes this year have been love fests in which we showered praise upon some of our favorites--which, of course, included crazy, effects-driven fantasy films like Feng Shen Bang, Taiwanese kaiju War God, and, in our most recent episode, The Child of Peach

THE INFERNAL BRAINS: Sadly, Tars Tarkas and I were only able to squeeze out two episodes of the Infernal Brains podcast this year. Happily, they were both doozies, including our "Space Ladies from Outer Space" episode--featuring guest Carol Borden of The Cultural Gutter--which is surely among our best and most popular ever.  We also gave a typically thorough going-over to Cat Beast, a squalling Pakistani monster/superhero mash-up that appears to have been edited by a garbage disposal and scored by an air raid siren. Our plan is to be more prolific in the new year, a goal which, given this year's meager showing, seems like it should be reasonably attainable.

FIGHTING FEMMES, FIENDS, AND FANATICS: Despite being out of production for just over two years, this video series continues to ratchet up viewers on its YouTube Channel and likes on its Facebook page. And it's no wonder, because it's a great series, one of my proudest accomplishments during my career as a guy talking about weird movies on the Internet.

TELEPORT CITY: After coasting on my backlog of reviews for a good while, I finally got off my butt in 2015 and contributed some new content to Teleport City, writing a review of the Australian superhero farce The Return of Captain Invincible and an overview of Egyptian popular cinema's golden age. I intend to contribute more in 2016 so that I may credibly continue to claim that I write for the best cult film website on the Internet.

4DK: I reviewed 17 films on 4DK this year. This assortment was the usual mixed bag, consisting of gems that I recommended unabashedly (Cairo Station, Having a Wild Weekend, Ana Antar, La Guerrera Vengadora 2) road apples that were only of interest as cultural oddities (the loathsome apartheid-era South African thriller Terrorist) and those that simply had to be seen to be believed (2016). Along the way, I checked in with some old friends (KSR Doss, Armando Bo and Isabel Sarli, Farid Chawki) and said goodbye to some others (Patrick Macnee). I even found time to ruminate on the role of language in film and my continuing habit of watching unsubtitled foreign movies. All the while I was thankful to have found this bizarre calling and to have appreciative readers like yourselves to make it all worthwhile.

OH, AND because I still didn't feel like I was doing quite enough, I followed my 18-year-old nephew's example and got a Band Camp account, then proceeded to make a couple of my long buried musical endeavors available online. One of them is a sort of "best of" compilation of my solo work from the aughts. The other is a frequently requested live recording of my old band B Team's final show, which took place at Wolfgang's in San Francisco in July of 1983. 1983! True, you only have my sincerest assurances that neither of these suck to go on, but, when living dangerously only costs five bucks a pop, why not just take the chance?

As for what lies ahead, as blasé as a prediction of "more of the same" might sound, it is in my case an exciting prospect. Given how much I have enjoyed all of the above activities, another year like 2015 would be welcome.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Have a fa la la la Funky Bollywood Christmas!

This Christmas you can give the Bollywood lover in your life a gift that will be a gift for me also. I'm talking, of course, about Funky Bollywood: The Wild World of 1970s Indian Action Cinema, a book I wrote that is just as fresh and filled with filmi fun as it was on the day of its release back in March of this year. To refresh your memory, this is the book of which Grady Hendrix of Film Comment/Kaiju Shakedown said "reading it makes you want to fill your eyes to overflowing with all the psychedelic glories of old-school Bollywood cray-cray." Jai Arjun Singh of Open magazine said "This book is the locket fragment that helps [Stadtman] prove he is a lost-and-found sibling to us homegrown fans." Oh, and our good pal Beth over at Beth Loves Bollywood says that it is "SUPERWOW". Need I say more?

Funky Bollywood is available from all of your favorite online booksellers, and also Amazon. If your loved one is extra fancy, you can still purchase a special signed and numbered edition directly from the FAB Press website. Get it today and start planning your New Years day marathon of classic Bollywood "dishoom-dishoom!"

Notes from the 4DKave

Photo courtesy of Greenie McGee

Almost a years ago, I told you of a vow I made to myself not to let 4DK turn into a cancer blog. I now must make a similar vow not to let it turn into a mere publicity organ for my book (FUNKY BOLLYWOOD, now available wherever fine books are sold). It's just that, well, since the book's release last week, there's just been a lot of stuff going on.

Case in point, Tuesday night's launch event. I want to thank all of you who came. I was very pleased by the turnout and the number of you who bought books. I was also flattered by the patience it took for all of you to put up with my somewhat rambling remarks when you could have instead been watching a clip of Feroz Khan driving a station wagon through the wall of a nightclub.

Photo by Erik Auerbach

I also want to thank Kasa Indian for supplying us with delicious Indian finger food and Sweetmue for the specially prepared Indian themed desserts. And, of course, Lost Weekend Video, for generously playing host to the event. As I mentioned on Tuesday, times are hard for them--as they are for most all brick and mortar video stores these days--and your support would be greatly appreciated. If you can't provide that support by simply dropping by and renting a copy of Don, Qurbani, or Geeta Mera Naam (they have the best selection of classic Bollywood movies of any local video store I can think of), they have an Indiegogo campaign that you can contribute to.

Lastly, but vastly, I would like to thank those who traveled all the way across the country to attend the event, including my boss at Teleport City, Keith Allison, whose unannounced appearance nearly rendered me incontinent with surprise. And then, of course, there is my lifelong best bud Andrew Nahem, whose design work on Funky Bollywood is being praised almost to the exclusion of any mention of the book's written contents by most reviewers.

I'll say no more about the event other than that a good time was had by all. If you missed it, rest assured that I will be setting up other Funky Bollywood related events throughout the US and beyond as the year progresses (my next scheduled is at Folio Books, in San Francisco's Noe Valley, on May 28th). I will be announcing those here... along with, needless to say, other, non Funky Bollywood related stuff.

Funky Bollywood: Buy it now!

Ok, there's been enough teasing. I first mentioned my book Funky Bollywood: The Wild World of 1970s Indian Action Cinema on 4DK in early June of 2014. Now, some eight and a half months later, and after a couple of significant delays--due in part to the book going from being a self-published venture to getting picked up by England's esteemed FAB Press--Funky Bollywood's official release date has arrived. And that's today.

Granted, this whole literary darling business is new to me, and I'm still struggling to understand some of the vagaries of the publishing business. But, in our case, "release date" means that this is the date that our distributors starts shipping the book. That means that, if you were to go to your favorite brick and mortar book store today and ask for Funky Bollywood, they might not have it yet (but, hey, it wouldn't hurt to ask anyway and, besides, our favorite brick and mortar book stores could always use the attention). It also means, though, that if you were to order it from your favorite online retailer, yours would no longer be considered a "pre-order" and can be expected to arrive withing a reasonable amount of time.

Of course, if you're lucky, you might also be able to order the book directly from FAB Press and still receive one of the special signed and numbered copies that were reserved for advance orders.

From the comments I've been getting here and on social media, a lot of you are very interested in seeing what Funky Bollywood is all about. And now, once you've finally had a chance to read it, I'm very interested in hearing what you have to say about it. If you would like to weigh in with your various comments, questions, and castigations, I'd love to hear from you over at the Funky Bollywood Facebook page.

And now, here are a few places where you can buy Funky Bollywood right now:

Funky Bollywood at Amazon US

Funky Bollywood at Amazon UK

Funky Bollywood at Barnes & Noble

Funky Bollywood at Books-A-Million

Happy reading!

FUNKY BOLLYWOOD sighted in San Francisco!

For a first time author, there is no feeling on Earth--none, I tell you!--that compares to holding an actual copy of your book in your hands for the first time. This is, of course, not to slight 4DK, which has played loving home to my writing for the past several years; but I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't be that much better if I could cradle 4DK in my arms and have it gaze up at me adoringly as I cooed lovingly to it. Okay, that got weird.

To those mining for a point, mine is that I yesterday received my advanced copy of Funky Bollywood and it looks amazing. All of the frantic proofing, copy editing, layout tweaking and last minute rewrites that filled the days leading up to its print date have paid off, with the result being an artifact of rare beauty, brimming with color and cheeky vitality. The little imp!

Right now, barring disaster at sea or the mischief of angry dock workers, the book is still on schedule for its March 16th release date. Until then, it can be pre-ordered from the FAB Press website, with those first to pull the trigger receiving a numbered copy signed by yours truly. Those who scoff at that as an incentive obviously have not heard of my signature's magical healing properties.

As for launch events, I will be scheduling a few around the Bay Area near the time of the book's release, so watch this space for details.