Vicious Books only produces a select few titles at a time to ensure our projects are given the full attention they deserve*. We've got 2 coming out in July...Rorschach’s Ribs by Marcus EderEscher Smallwater can’t sleep in. That’s the least of his problems. Two years shy of thirty and recently laid off from his job in advertising, Escher has a lot to deal with in his life right now. Forced to make some changes since losing his job, his lifestyle is gone and suddenly the American Dream seems more like a nightmare. As Corporate Charlie bares his darker side by way of recessions and hiring freezes, Escher has found himself with more time to reassess his life, and he’s mad as hell. He will never be a rock star or date a supermodel. He doesn’t get carded at bars anymore, teenagers now think of him as creepy, and he prefers VH1 over MTV. He’s never been in love, his career path has essentially disappeared and somehow, he and his neighbors have inadvertently become the drug kingpins of St. Louis. A life once filled with Ikea catalogs and cubicles now consist of consumer guerillaism, lesbian strippers and a gold-toothed thug named “Mo-Moâ€. All this and an impending high school reunion.************************************************Nobo dy Puts Swayze in the Corner: the Tao of Swayze by Phillip CallawayYou got your Tao in my Swayze. Your Swayze’s in my Tao.Within the ancient passages of the Tao Te Ching there is great wisdom on how to live your daily life; how to live the “Wayâ€. The same life lessons can be found in the sage-like colloquies born out of Patrick Swayze’s storied film career.Proceeds from this book benefit the American Cancer Society.Available in about a week!*we are currently NOT accepting unsolicited manuscripts
Vicious Books is proud to announce the addition of the Dr. Reverend Lance Carbuncle to the VB family.Carbuncle has amassed a dedicated cult following with his debut novel, Smashed, Squashed, Splattered, Chewed, Chunked and Spewed. He has been called the bastard child of everybody from Jack Kerouac to Christopher Moore to Henry Bukowski.We have to agree, he certainly is a bastard.Dr. Carbuncle has joined with Vicious Books for the publication of his upcoming novel, Grundish and Askew (working title), due out later this year.In the meantime, please check out the reviews of Smashed, Squashed, Splattered, Chewed, Chunked and Spewed on Reverend Carbuncle’s website, www. lancecarbuncle. com where you can purchase a signed copy of Smashed from Carbuncle.The family just got bigger, and slightly more disfunctional...Lance certainly fills the role of crazy drunk uncle quite nicely...Do stop by his myspace page and make nice......more news in our blog....go see for yourself.
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We’re big fans of literacy at any or all costs, so please be sure to visit these other great indie publishers.Buy their books. Read often. akashic books Reverse-gentrification of the literary world.ak press AK Press is a worker run book publisher and distributor organized around anarchist principles. All decision-making is made collectively. Their goal is to make available radical books and other materials, titles that are published by independent presses, not the corporate giants, titles with which you can make a positive change in the world.city lights books Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where book lovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark." Although it has been more than fifty years since tour buses with passengers eager to sight "beatniks" began pulling up in front of City Lights, the Beats' legacy of anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking continues to be a strong influence in the store, most evident in the selection of titles.cracked slab books Cracked Slab Books was started to provide an outlet to experimental poetry and poetics in its various forms. With the aim of publishing two works per year, Cracked Slab Books is dedicated to promoting the best new American poets and to introducing English-speaking audiences to interesting international poetry.cranky yellow publishing Cranky Yellow is an organization that builds its financial basis on the selling of art, music, and literature. However, as most companies and organizations stop at the bottom-line Cranky Yellow uses this black-ink to fulfill community and political endeavors that it supports. Crank Yellow sells a little bit of everything: artwork, apparel, zines and comic books, paper goods and housewares. The shop/gallery is equally as eccentric and cool.manic d press An award-winning literary press based in San Fran, publishing fiction (novels and short stories), poetry, art, narrative-oriented comix, and alternative travel trade paperbacks. Manic D Press represents a diverse group of unique writers and artists, with emphasis on those who have been shunned by the traditional publishing establishment for lacking commercial viability, regardless of their talent or future promise.mcsweeneys McSweeney's is an American publishing house founded by editor Dave Eggers. Apart from a growing book list, McSweeney's is responsible for four regular publications: the quarterly literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the daily-updated literature and humor site McSweeney's Internet Tendency, the monthly magazine The Believer, and the new quarterly DVD magazine, Wholphin. The publishing house also runs two additional imprints, Believer Books and the Collins Library.seven stories press Seven Stories Press is an independent book publisher based in New York City, with distribution throughout the United States, Canada, England, Australia, and New Zealand.smith magazine Six word memoirs and the work of writers both famous and obscure.soft skull press Thoughtful, critical, committed to expounding an openly manifold perspective toward all modern life, the releases by Soft Skull endorse a new, enlightened way of looking at society.soho press Soho Press primarily publishes fiction, with the occasional autobiography or cultural historical account. Completed manuscripts should be 60,000 words or more. While many of their published works arrive here through agents, they also place a high priority on publishing quality unsolicited materials from new writers.
(from Rorschach's Ribs, Chpt. 16)First you feel a sharp prick that stings for about 2 seconds, and you think, why do I keep doing this to myself? Then you start to go a little numb while the word “love†stares up at you from across four leathery knuckles wrapped in latex stabbing you hundreds of times per second, and you think, this isn’t so bad, it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as I remember. Then you suddenly get really cold, or are you hot? You turn your head to look at the Polaroid of a guy’s chest with 2 nipple rings connected by a chain. He has tattoos of a cowboy on one pec and a bull on the other, giving the illusion that Mr. Marlboro man is holding a chain attached to a ring in El Toro’s nose. When you turned your head, you noticed that you were moving in slow motion, like you were under water. The hum of the fluorescent lights burning down on top of you is suddenly a lot more noticeable. In fact, that’s just about all you can hear. You’re so hot you begin sweating, but the rotating fan behind you slowly makes its way back around, turning the beads of sweat into tiny ice cubes. Then we fade to black. I did it again. I do this every time I get a tattoo.
Vicious Books supports independent artists, publishers, writers, musicians, performers, poets and all things independent and creative.At Vicious Books, we also believe in doing something good for the world. Each year, Vicious Books will publish one book with all proceeds benefiting a charity of our choosing. This year, it's the American Cancer Society.Vicious Books only publishes our books as they are ordered, in an effort to be somewhat ecologically friendly, and save a tree, so that another might hug it.