I wanted to get this one up sooner, as the magazine has been on newstands for over a week now, but we've been sort of deluged by news updates lately.  (and the 'Pygmy' tour hasn't even started yet!).  Anyway, Chuck Palahniuk is the main interview in the May issue of Playboy, now out.

You might have heard me make mention once that we were interviewed as well.  This was actually the case, and the editors were going to include a full sidebar piece all about The Cult.  But last minute they had to cut it out, due to layout issues.  Oh well, at least we came close.

The full interview can only be read in the print magazine, but you can get a tease of it here:

http://www.playboy.com/articles/playboy-interview-chuck-palahniuk/index.html read more »

Hey, guys!  With the May 6th reading for Chuck Palahniuk's Pygmy tour close to selling out, the good people of The Strand have decided to move the event to a larger venue.  This will allow them to offer more tickets.  Enough from me though, here's the word from The Strand:

GREAT NEWS FOR NEW YORK CITY CHUCK FANS: 

NEW BLOCK OF TICKETS ON SALE FOR WEDNESDAY, 5/6 WEBSTER HALL EVENT

Chuck will appear live at Webster Hall on Wednesday, 5/6 with Amy Hempel to promote his new novel, PYGMY, in conjunction with the Strand Book Store.  Due to the overwhelming demand for event tickets, the Strand is now moving Chuck’s event to the legendary Webster Hall’s historic, majestic Grand Ballroom. 

An additional 250 tickets are now available for sale – visit http://www.strandbooks.com/app/www/p/profile/?isbn=149969170x to purchase. 

The $35 ticket guarantees a signed copy of PYGMY and two drinks at the event. 

**Please note that the 150 VIP tickets that enable you to meet Chuck and get your book personalized are sold out. read more »

'Pygmy' tour dates for Canada are here.   Click each link below for the specific Calendar page, which includes more details on the event, such as websites, times, phone numbers and locations.  Also, read below for instructions for each event.

Toronto, ON - May 12th
Details here

Montreal, QC - May 13th
Details here

Burnaby, B.C. - May 21st
Details here

Same as with his US tour, pre-signed copies of PYGMY will be available at all events.  Chuck can only personalize for the first 150 people so there will be a wristband policy in effect at the events.  Contact the venues for specific signing and ticketing details.  And as his fans know, he will arrive at his events 1 ½ hours early to start signing for the 150 people with wristbands. read more »

Chuck has a personal request for you all today, about the upcoming 'Pygmy' tour.

Notice Regarding the 2009 Book Tour for Pygmy:

Wear a Costume, Get a Prize.  At this spring’s book events for Pygmy, I’ll be looking for people who attend wearing the native costumes of Model United Nation delegates.  Yeah, just like the scene in Chapter Thirteen of the new book.  If you have a kilt – wear it.  Or, wear a kimono, a toga, dashiki, lederhosen, sarong, sari, grass skirt, burka… you get the idea.  Don’t let good taste or political correctness limit you.  I’ll reward the first fifty costumed delegates with prizes.  I’m still grateful to everyone who attended the Rant book events dressed as brides; you helped to make those evenings so much more spectacular.  So, if you have Cossack costumes, French mime costumes, Basque shepherd gear, Mexican serapes, American cowboy stuff – wear it, and win.  Again, the first fifty at each event get the goodies.  Don’t let your dignity stop you from having a good time, and I won’t feel like such a freak, myself. 

                                 
    Thank You,
    Chuck Palahniuk read more »

Tour Dates Here!

Order "Pygmy" Today!

Hello all!  Doubleday needs our helps.  Using the site crowdSPRING, they have designed a slew of mock stickers for 'Operation Havoc', the fictitious terrorist group in Chuck Palahniuk's upcoming novel Pygmy.  Doubleday needs you all to vote on your favorite designs by viewing each and clicking the hearts for the ones you like best.  They'll then make stickers out of the one that gets the most votes and these will be handed out during Chuck's upcoming tour.

To see the designs, go to: http://tiny.cc/tElte

This has been up for a week or so now.  I Twittered it, but I think it could also use some front page love. read more »

Order "Pygmy" Today!

Remember earlier this year when we unveiled the awesome news that, not only would Chuck Palahniuk be reading five original fan stories every month, submitted via our Workshop, but that he'd also be critiquing each story and providing invaluable feedback? And remember when we also said that at the end of the year, Chuck would choose his favorite stories and publish them in an anthology on his dime? Well yeah, all that's happening right now. Chuck may have already even found a publisher for the project. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

First, we have Chuck's story critiques on the five February selections that were sent his way last month.

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/forum/1000160/get-your-chucks-critiques-of-february-submissions-here

*You'll need to be a Premium Member to view this page.

Premium Membership is what allows you to join our unique Writers' Workshop AND participate in this amazing opportunity.  Once you have this Membership, you are eligible to be selected to have your work read by Chuck, and possibly even included in this ground-breaking Anthology next year. 

Still not convinced this is worth it?  Well, let us alleviate any hesitation you may have. Mark Vanderpool, our diligent Workshop Administrator, has graciously allowed an excerpt of his selected story to be published on the site for all members to see.  Not only that, but it also includes the direct criticism and feedback Chuck gave it last month.  

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/blogs/vigorous-puppy/a-look-at-whats-going-on-inside-the-workshop

Read Mark's story.  Then scroll down further to read Chuck's criticism of the story.  And if you're still not convinced, then frankly, you're nuts.

This is an opportunity unlike any other you may be given for your dreams of becoming a published writer.  I can liken it to Radiohead asking fans of theirs who are in bands, to submit demo tapes to them that they would then listen to, provide helpful feedback on, and then, if they liked it... they would produce, mix and distribute it for you a year later.

So what the hell are you waiting for already? 

Join The Workshop!

Today is the day you've been waiting for.  Tour dates for Chuck's upcoming book "Pygmy" are here.  Below are the cities and dates.  Click each link below for specific details in our awesome new Calendar section.

Boston, MA - May 5th
Details here

NYC, NY - May 6th
Details here

Baltimore, MD - May 7th
Details here

Philadelphia, PA - May 8th
Details here

Washington, D.C. - May 9th
Details here

Also, here's an important note from his publishers:

“Here is the tour for PYGMY, Chuck’s new novel out on May 5.  Like last year’s Snuff tour, pre-signed copies of PYGMY and Chuck’s backlist will be available at all events.  Just a reminder: Chuck will personalize for the first 150 people in line only – contact the venues below for specific signing/ticketing details – and he will arrive 1 ½ hours early to begin pre-signing for those 150.  In Baltimore there will not be a signing portion to the event.”

The Strand event will be ticketed -- $35 and that includes a signed PYGMY and 2 drinks – since it will be offsite at Webster Hall.  read more »

A couple years back, we had a beloved section on the site called Palahniuk-esque Authors.  With the help of people like Will Tupper, this section became a mecca on The Cult, where fans of Chuck could explore authors that might fall into the same category of literature. Unfortunately, this section didn't quite survive Drupal.  But it has now returned, with a vengeance... and it's brought some old friends.

Palahiuk-esque has become Palahniukian Authors.  We also have a general Book Recommendations section that is broken down into the following sub-categories:

• Chuck Approved: Books that Chuck Palahniuk personally recommends.
• Staff Favorites: Books that we recommend.  (expect this to grow and become more personalized, with individual Staff Rec pages.
• Member Favorites: As you can now comment on and review books in this section, we have a way to filter the top rated books. 
• Book Club Selections: Our ever popular Book Club gets some love, as all the past monthly entries are featured here.

Please view all of these new pages.  We think this section is really something special.  Almost every book you'll find inside is tied to an individual author page.  While I'm still yet to give him proper credit, most of the summaries you'll find there were written by Will Tupper, and you can comment and rate on every item included.  Items that are commented on, are treated as Forum posts, and show up in our tracker.

I'll also mention that, every item that is purchased within these pages, earns us a small commission from Amazon.com.  This may not sound that important, but we honestly don't make much income from this site.  So every little bit helps.  Even if you follow a link into Amazon directly through one of our pages and end up buying something unrelated, we still earn a commission.  So you're really helping us keep the site alive.

For those of you that already have Amazon bookmarked in your browser, please change the URL of your bookmark to this: http://amazon.com/o/redirect-home/officchuckpalaha

For now, go check out this new section.  And give a big thanks to Kirk for making this all look so damn pretty. read more »

Another positive of 'Pygmy' just turned up.  This one from Booklist.  Props to Keir Graff for shooting this one our way.

"In a time of justifiable concern about terrorism, Palahniuk has written a hilarious novel about an unlikely terrorist cell: foreign-exchange students who arrive at a midwestern city, bent on unleashing 'Operation Havoc.'The story unfolds in a series of dispatches from an unnamed 13-year-old agent, dubbed 'Pygmy' by the locals. (That his reports are in broken English makes no sense, but the prose provides terrific opportunities for humor even if, at book length, it requires some effort.) Despite Pygmy’s command of the deadly arts, he is still a 13-year-old, prone to unwanted erections, and he is not the coolest kid in the cadre, either. The frisson around his internal, target-acquiring narrative, the locals’ unwitting perception of him, and his outsider’s view of the routine humiliations inflicted upon high-school youth is so spot-on it produces a sense of déjà vu: surely someone would have thought of this before. ('Dispatch Sixth,' treating Junior Swing Choir, is laugh-out-loud funny.) This isn’t for everyone: as ever, Palahniuk is interested in pushing the limits of what readers will tolerate in terms of clinically described sex and gore. However, in contrasting the mindless sloganeering of totalitarianism with the anything-goes nature of Americanism, his own message is anything but subversive. By now, the author’s fans know who they are. Those left cold by last year’s Snuff (2008) will welcome his return to the fine form of Fight Club (1996). Palahniuk leaps over the line of good taste—and lands squarely on his feet."
— Keir Graff, Booklist (starred review read more »

Order "Pygmy" Today!

Big props to Luke Felton.  Him and his buddies got together one Friday night and re-enacted some of the great scenes from 'Fight Club'.  Lotta love, enthusiasm and talent here.

Check out all the pics in our Gallery!

Proper credits are due:

Photography: Megan Brooks - www.myspace.com/sexualgoregeous
Make-Up: Michelle Brooks - www.myspace.com/peoplesuckyo
Photo Retouching & Art Director: Luke Felton - www.myspace.com/isawgodinyoureyes