My newest book came out on June 25th! Hey, I’m only 4 days late posting here. That’s not bad considering how many congratulations and posts about the book flew my way on social media. I’ve never broken into the top 100 on Amazon before, and Invaginies ranks #79 in LGBTQ+ Horror over there. Wild! (You should still buy it from independent bookstores, though, just to be clear. More about that below.)
Readers and friends said so many complimentary things that my head was spinning. It was a day of celebration. I guess we have a new holiday now! Happy Invaginies Day!
One of my favorite summations was this post from the astonishingly talented author Christopher Slatsky, who surprised me with the best unsolicited blurb I can imagine.
Lahaska Bookshop in PA shared this display. Yep, that’s Invaginies just hanging out with best selling authors. It’s a conscious choice by booksellers to make readers aware of what’s available by pairing my oddball book with more popular, mainstream horror books. I can’t thank them enough for this.
Then there’s Powell’s Hawthorne in Portland, highlighting independent releases as staff picks to show readers the Way to the Weird. Jubel has been my absolute hero since featuring The Wingspan of Severed Hands. His type of curation is what independent bookstores do best, and it’s hard work, especially with many large corporate mechanisms at work in publishing designed to suppress and eliminate anything that’s not a best seller.
We need books that aren’t best sellers. We need all the stories, not just crowd-pleasers and blockbusters. You can’t stay healthy on a diet of comfort food.
He writes below “A new Joe Koch collection is a goddamned cause for celebration,” and if Jubel is happy, I’m happy.
Last, now that you’re tired of all this publicity-type blather, here’s a review by Dave Fitzgerald at Heavy Feather that analyzes the book with an eye for cultural and literary context. Dave says it gave him vicarious gender dysphoria. Achievement unlocked, I guess?
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Horrorsong 