R.I.P Marc Augé
‘Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it.’
—J.G. Ballard
Dear friends,
Thank you to everyone who bought a copy of my latest novel, Code Beast. The reception has been truly gratifying.
Don’t have it yet? Allow me to tempt you with a discount. The Code Beast ebook is currently 50% off (there’s a smaller discount on the paperback, too).
That’s £2 | €2.69 | US$2.99 | $AU3.99. Cheap as chips!
Get it here:
Apple Books (ebook only)
Bookshop.org (paperback only).
Thrill to rogue AI, digital hauntings, sentient hallucinations and all the insanity that comes from being too online.
Let me tell you, I had fun putting together the book trailer. Nothing screams ‘body horror’ more than messing with eyes. Is it perky enough for BookTok, do you think? Maybe I’ll post it there and let you know.
Also, the interview Lady Liminal did with me about Code Beast is up at the Liminal Lounge. We chat about digital ghosts, UFOs, telepathy, AI, anti-flaneurs and how Code Beast is both sequel and prequel to Applied Ballardianism.
NEW WORK
With CB out in the world, I’ve been working on my next novel. It’s nominally based on the Frederick Valentich UFO case, an infamous aviation disappearance with links to the area near my childhood home in Melbourne. I’m using the case as a springboard for a pulpy, Phildickian romp about parallel universes and quantum mechanics. With the recent Congress hearing about UFOs and the sense that Biden-led disclosure might come soon from the US government, the time seems right to revisit this idea, which I’ve had for about 20 years now.
I’ll post excerpts and background research here on Sleepy Brain. I’ll also discuss the five sightings I’ve personally witnessed (the earliest was 45 years ago; the most recent was last year). There were other witnesses to all except the first (which could be a false memory based on certain childhood factors).
These experiences have fuelled a lot of my recent writing, including some of the more outlandish conspiracies in Applied Ballardianism. Code Beast also explores the topic, but obliquely.
The work in progress is a chance to concentrate solely on the UFO enigma, although it’s proving more satirical than I expected. It’s strange. I take the subject seriously, even if my characters don’t. No one does, actually, so at least they’re true to life.
Anyway, at the glacial pace I write, disclosure will probably come and go before it’s ever published. But that’s my writing career in a nutshell: always late to the party.