Monday, July 27, 2015

A great new 5-star review on Amazon

Dang, check out this is great new 5-star review of "The Billionth Monkey" from Amazon:

Despite the almost inevitable invocations of the names Wilson, Pratchett, Adams, and Robbins, Kaczynski is clearly his own monkey, and as a joyride through turn-of-the-aeon mass media culture, 'Billionth Monkey' takes a back seat to no one's V-173. You don't need x-ray specs to see that this is one hot tomato, and I eagerly await an academician's edition containing Prof. Kaczynski's annotated guide to all the in-jokes, oblique strategos, and pop culture easter eggs. (Qlippoth Press, are you listening?)

tl;dr: 'The Billionth Monkey' is a gleeful romp through iGeneration popular culture that plays with just about every early twenty-first century tabloid trope you know, and a pawful you've probably never heard of. It's more fun than... nah, I just can't say it.
Speaking of an "annotated guide to all the in-jokes, oblique strategos, and pop culture easter eggs," I will be doing just that in an upcoming series of posts that go through the book in order. But before beginning, I'm giving people some time to pick up the book and read through it first.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Appreciating Greg LaRocque's original art for "Hamlet Special Edition"

I'm really excited to receive Greg LaRocque's original art pages for the Hamlet Special Edition mini-comic that appears in The Billionth Monkey (for scale, the art appears with the back cover of the 6x9 hardcover flip-book, showing the cover painting by Robert Randle).

Greg has drawn literally hundreds of bronze-age comics, including such titles as Spider-Man, The Avengers, Legion of Super-Heroes, Power Man, Iron Fist, and a five-year run on The Flash (in which he redesigned the Flash's costume to its iconic modern form).

As a comic book geek since age four, I'm honored to have had the opportunity to work with a legendary artist like Greg. And as someone with a modest collection of original art pages, I'm thrilled beyond words to have the original art to my very own comic. It's so cool to examine details on the original boards before the addition of coloring and lettering.
 

Friday, July 17, 2015

A Night of Book Signing for the Limited Hardcover

All 100 monkeys making up the limited hardcover edition of The Billionth Monkey got signed last night ...despite the handicap of signing left handed. ;) A skinny colada helped immensely to ease my burden. The second photo shows the limitation page and matching signed/numbered print that comes with each hardcover.



Thursday, July 16, 2015

Limited hardcover edition now in stock!

The limited hardcover edition of The Billionth Monkey has just arrived! Right on schedule, too. Tonight I'm going to sign & number all 100 copies, and pair each with its matching signed and numbered 6x9 art print. Tomorrow I will ship out all pre-orders. (A big thanks to everyone who pre-ordered a copy!)


If you haven't ordered one yet, copies are still available here.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

On Doing the Right Thing

I'm touched by the story "Go buy The Billionth Monkey" on the A Perfect Example blog in which Stewie dubs me "a-okay" and "a class act" because I: a) asked permission to use two photos that he had posted online, and b) followed up by sending him a signed copy of the book as a thank-you.
 
Here I thought I was simply doing the right thing. It makes me sad to think that many don't do likewise with the work of other artists/creators.

One thing I discovered in producing The Billionth Monkey is that asking permission is almost always met with "yes." Even when finding the right person to ask is challenging, the effort is usually rewarded. I've reached out to photographers, graphic artists, corporations, estates, bureaucrats, famous musicians, and a well-known actress, and all of them [with only one exception] generously granted the requested permission for my novel. Some permissions were gratis, others charged a modest license fee (which was worth it to be able to tell my story way I wanted it told).

The upside to doing the right thing is that it also builds goodwill. Turns out Stewie is also a-okay and a class act...as are all the other cool people that I would never have met if I hadn't written them asking permission to quote their lyric, use their photo, etc. And that, in turn, makes the world a fuller, happier, and more interesting place to live.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

New review on Goodreads

If you're picking up Go Set a Watchman today, why not also go for something completely different and grab a copy of The Billionth Monkey, which one Goodreads reviewer recently gave 4 out of 5 stars and called "A thoroughly enjoyable romp through the byways of what some might like to think possible."

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Two more 5-star reviews on Amazon

The Billionth Monkey has two more 5-star reviews on Amazon:

If you're a fan of Robert Anton Wilson's surreal fantasy novels you will love this!
A fast-paced weird-adventure novel with more pop-culture references than MST3K, if you're a fan of Robert Anton Wilson's surreal fantasy novels you will love this!

Five Stars
It's Douglas Adams meets Terry Pratchett in the best possible way.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Author Don Webb ("Through Dark Angles") on "The Billionth Monkey"

Don Webb, author of Through Dark Angles: Works Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft (plus more books, short stories, and poems than I could possibly list), says of The Billionth Monkey:

"This is funny and magic(k)al. Kaczynski has written a crazy quest novel equals parts of Dan Brown and Terry Pratchett. Can Professor Belanger and the quantumly impossible Destiny Jones defeat _____? (Can’t write the Dread Name). In some universes this is already a Hollywood blockbuster.”

Click for more information--including how to pre-order the limited hardcover edition--see the "book" link above or visit http://www.richard-kaczynski.com/index.php/home/books/the-billionth-monkey/.

To get a copy of Don Webb's Through Dark Angles, visit http://www.hippocampuspress.com/mythos-and-other-authors/fiction/through-dark-angles-by-don-webb or contact your favorite bookseller.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Goodreads Gives "The Billionth Monkey" Five Stars

Goodreads' first review of The Billionth Monkey gives it five stars!

"Enjoyed this one from start to finish. It's like every book you've ever read and like no book you've ever read. You can decide if the movies (and monkeys) are worth mentioning after you've read it. :-)"
Thanks!

Friday, July 3, 2015

Comic Book Creator Steve Englehart Praises "The Billionth Monkey"

Steve Englehart​--creator of Star-Lord, Coyote, and Scorpio Rose, and author of the definitive Batman--says of The Billionth Monkey:

"This book is endlessly creative. If you even *think* you like weird fiction, you will love The Billionth Monkey​."

Thanks so much, Steve!

Thursday, July 2, 2015

First Amazon review of "The Billionth Monkey" gives it 5 stars

The first review of The Billionth Monkey on Amazon gives the book five stars!

"Supernatural beings, explosions and nerd humor, who could ask for more? An extremely entertaining book with just enough trivia and silliness to keep you thinking, smiling and wanting more."

Thanks so much for the review! You can read it for yourself here, or for more information click on the "Book" tab above or visit http://www.richard-kaczynski.com/index.php/home/books/the-billionth-monkey/.