2013

Pre-Order 'DOOMED' Today! Cover Revealed!

Dennis — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:20:23 -0400

You can now pre-order Chuck Palahniuk's upcoming novel Doomed! The novel will be released October 8th, 2013.

Doomed is a sequel to Damned. Here is the official description:

Having somewhat reluctantly escaped from Hell, she now wanders the Purgatory that is Earth as a ghostly spirit, seeking her do-gooding celebrity parents, fighting the malign control of Satan, recounting the disgracefully funny (to us, anyway) encounter with her grandfather in a fetid highway rest stop in Upstate New York when she . . . oh, never mind, and climaxing in a rendezvous with destiny on the new, totally plastic continent in the Pacific called, not at all accidentally, Madlantis. Dante Alighieri, watch your back, Chuck Palahniuk is gaining on you.

Random House has also announced early preliminary details for a Doomed tour:

*San Diego Comic-Con appearance - July 17-21
No specific date for appearance announced yet.
http://www.comic-con.org/cci

Monday, 10/7 – Wichita
Tuesday, 10/8 – Tulsa
Wednesday, 10/9 – Houston
Thursday, 10/10 – New Orleans
Friday, 10/11 – Baltimore
Saturday, 10/12 – Milwaukee

Stay tuned for more!

BEDTIME STORIES FOR GROWN-UPS FEATURING CHUCK PALAHNIUK, CHELSEA CAIN AND MONICA DRAKE AT THE WILD BUFFALO--TICKETED EVENT!

Dennis — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:25:47 -0400

Update: Tickets for this event are now on sale! Get them here!

Chuck Palahniuk and Chelsea Cain, along with Village Books and The Wild Buffalo are hosting another one of their awesome 'Bedtime Stories' readings on April 24th in Bellingham, WA, in support of friend fellow author, Monica Drake's upcoming novel The Stud Book. Here's a quick blurb from the Village Books site:

These three friends have cooked up a wild and entertaining evening that promises to be epic. Attendees are asked to wear sleepover attire, and bring pillows, flashlights, sleeping bags and/or blankets. (It will make the floor more comfortable.) Prizes. Cocktails. Dirty stories. PJs. Music. And whatever other thing Chuck decides to do at the last minute. This show will sell out.

This is a ticketed event that will definitely sell out. Only 200 spots are available. Tickets go on sale April 6 at 10am PST. On that time/date, you'll be able to purchase them from this link:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/366954

Bookmark that page!

For more information on the event, head over to the Village Books site. You can (and should!) also order Monica Drake's novel The Stud Book from that link as well.

[Photo from Photo from DuckTV]

The Cult Anthology 'Burnt Tongues' Has A Publisher!

Dennis — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 11:52:07 -0400

It's been a long time coming but, as of late last month, we have found a home for our anthology, Burnt Tongues. This project began life on our writers workshop back in 2004. It started as an idea between Chuck and I but soon grew into something more when Chuck announced he wanted to get personally involved in reading and critiquing the best stories from our workshop each month.

Throughout 2004 to 2007 a dedicated team of awesome readers screened all of the stories that flooded into our workshop and sent on the best 15-20 each month. Those were then narrowed down to the best 6 and sent over to Chuck. Chuck would then read and review those stories and his notes would be posted on the website for others to learn and benefit from.

In 2011 we had narrowed the two year's worth of stories down to the 70 best. And from that lot, Chuck selected what he thought were the 20 strongest entries that could make up an anthology.

Today, I'm happy to announce that anthology is called Burnt Tongues (after a popular method of minimalism Chuck employs) and that it will be published by Medallion Press in August 2014.

Read the official press release from here.

Getting this anthology published was a long and difficult journey that often times, felt like pushing a giant boat over a mountain. I want to acknowledge several people who played key roles in that journey:

All of our readers, who plowed through several stories a month for over two years: Kasey Carpenter, Johnathan Kabol, Mark Grover, and Kara Kilgore.

Mirka Hodurova who, along with me, read all the narrowed down semi-finalist stories and helped choose the best to send over to Chuck each month.

Mark Vanderpool, our diligent Workshop administrator, who also helped manage our writers, format stories and helped keep people updated during some of this project's quieter periods.

Richard Thomas, who began life on this anthology as one of our readers, but was later brought on as my co-editor to help get us across the finish line. Richard played a key role in narrowing down the best publishers and then helping to get this acquired by the best home.

And lastly, Chuck Palahniuk, who birthed this idea, kept sincere enthusiasm and encouragement going for it over the long years, and who will be lending his name, his credit as editor, and a beautiful introduction to the finished book which is one of the finest things I think he's ever written.

We will be posting updates about Burnt Tongues over the following months. Until then, we don't want to release too many specific details. A table of contents will come soon, along with all the official story titles. Let me just say that this is happening! And I think you will all find that it was worth the wait. Thank you for your patience and for believing in us.

Watch The Short Film Adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's 'Romance' Right Now

Dennis — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:38:27 -0400

Today is an exciting day for fans of Chuck Palahniuk films-- Yes, I said films. Up until now, Fight Club and Choke were the only two adaptations you could find of any of Chuck's work. But writer/director Andy Mingo went and changed all that with his short film adaptation of 'Romance.'

If you've never heard Chuck read 'Romance,' you missed a treat. Read on last year's tour, this is easily one of Chuck's strongest and funniest short stories. It's both heartbreaking and hysterical at the same time.

With Chuck's permission, Andy wrote and directed an adaptation of the short story into an awesome short film. And starting today, you can find it on Video On Demand. Here are currently the two best places to purchase and watch the film:

Vimeo On Demand

Screenburn

The film is 26 mins long and is already getting rave reviews. It recently played the Cinequest Film Festival and brought the house down!

In the coming days, it may pop up on Google Play and YouTube Rental. But for now, the above links are the only way to see it. So drop $1.49, support independent film, and sit back and enjoy 'Romance.'

For more on 'Romance,' visit its official site, Like its Facebook page, and watch its trailer here.

And definitely follow @AndyMingo on Twitter. He's one talented bastard.

Chuck Answers Fan Questions For His Third 'Phoenix' Essay

Dennis — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:20:22 -0400

On February 12th, Chuck Palahniuk released a new short story exclusively through Amazon's Kindle Single program called 'Phoenix.' At the time of my writing this, 'Phoenix' is #1 across the board on Amazon's Kindle Single rank. The story is burning it up! (pun intended)

So earlier month, Chuck decided to start a series of essays explaining the construction and backstory of this short story. (You can read Essay 1 here, Essay 2 here and Essay 3 here.) And he decided to let a small number of fans submit questions to him. So without further ado, here is the second batch of Questions & Answers. And it goes without saying, but if you haven't yet read 'Phoenix,' there are spoilers below.

(Chuck's answers are italicizied within)

From Brian McHale:

Regarding the anecdotes, how do you remember them?

Do you use index cards like you mention in *Stranger Than Fiction*?

Is this room akin to the one used in the creation of the first Oxford

English Dictionary?

Chuck's Response:

Brian, you send the strangest food pictures. The pineapple (?) still has me scratching my head. In regard to your question, here’s a great writing exercise. It’s something Tom Spanbauer used to assign his students on their first class session: Write the story of something you only half remember. Or barely remember. Start by recording the few details you can recall. Don’t focus on your feelings, just write down every physical aspect of the setting and what occurred. Doing this, Tom’s students are always amazed. Each might start with a couple sentences, but the longer they reflect the more those scant details evoke additional ones. This isn’t about inventing memories, the process actually demonstrates how memories cue deeper memories. It’s similar to song lyrics: If you can retrieve one line or phrase from your memory you can eventually recall most of the song.

With anecdotes, once I decide to quilt them into a story I’ll sit with scratch paper and do Tom’s exercise. The anecdote foremost in my mind will cue others, and I’ll make a list of them and decide which will work best as plot points. read more »

Photos: Chuck Palahniuk on the Red Carpet at Cinequest 2013

Dennis — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:05:05 -0400

Below are two pretty badass pics of Chuck, rocking the red carpet at Cinequest for Andy Mingo's short film Romance (an adaptation of a Chuck story). Check out Chuck sporting a fresh goatee, navy blue turtleneck, and a giant pendant (which he told me after, was inspired from the pendant on the infomercial in his new short story 'Phoenix.')

The pics were taken by Mike Gendimencio.

For more on Andy Mingo's adaptation of Romance, visit its official site!

To see more pics of Chuck and Andy Mingo, visit Cinequest's Facebook page.

Phoenix Unpacked: Part Three – Connecting the Dots

Dennis — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:04:03 -0500

Note: This essay contains spoilers for the new Kindle Single, 'Phoenix' by Chuck Palahniuk. If you haven't yet read this wonderful story, remedy that right now.

Read Part 2 of this essay series here.

by Chuck Palahniuk

Twenty years ago, my next-door neighbor got pregnant. Her husband complained to me that he was now required to clean their cat’s box. Because of toxoplasmosis, his wife explained. She told me that toxo was a parasite in cat feces, and it could cause blindness in unborn children. At the same time I was volunteering to care for AIDS patients. Soon enough I was cleaning the patients’ cat boxes because of a similar threat to people with compromised immune systems. Then came Trainspotting, and the character Tommy died from the infection transmitted by the book’s kitten. That’s how far back I began to write Phoenix. Back in 1992? In 1993?

At the time, a lot of my friends were getting pregnant. Most of them had cats that had been surrogate children -- beloved -- but now those pets occurred as menacing leftovers from a previous life. It was always a tragic stalemate. These couples loved their cats, but they didn’t want to risk the health of a new child. Most of those cats were old, unappealing cats and that made them unadoptable. Two friends, I’ll call them Glenda and Brad, decided that they would have to euthanize theirs. On the day they’d planned to end the cat’s life Brad noticed that its bag of food was almost full. It irked him to waste so much good cat food so he proposed keeping the cat until the bag was empty. They were both miserable over the prospect of killing a member of their family, and the cat food seemed like a rational reason to postpone the inevitable.

I’ll keep this short. I know I’ve told this story before. In secret, Glenda and Brad each added new food to the bag. Their child was born without defects. And their cat eventually died of natural causes. That was almost ten years ago.

This past July, I was in Los Angeles to promote the release of Invisible Monsters Remix. As a local publicist drove me to the Skirball Cultural Center for my appearance I told her the story about the cat food. In response, she told me about friends of hers who’d bought a house with a gas fireplace. The house stunk every time they used the fireplace, and they quickly learned that the previous owners had owned a cat. A few days later, in Seattle, I told the fireplace story, and a stranger told me about switching on a gas fireplace and inadvertently injuring – not killing – a cat that was using the fireplace as a toilet.

All of this demonstrates a movement from the specific to the universal. The Phoenix story uses small, probable events – anecdotes I’ve collected -- to make the impossible seem inevitable. But a good story is greater than the sum of its anecdotes. read more »

Chuck Answers Fan Questions For His Second 'Phoenix' Essay

Dennis — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:53:42 -0500

So two weeks ago, Chuck decided to start a series of essays explaining the construction and backstory of this short story. (You can read Essay 1 here and Essay 2 here.) And he decided to let a small number of fans submit questions to him. So without further ado, here is the second batch of Questions & Answers. And it goes without saying, but if you haven't yet read 'Phoenix,' there are spoilers below.

(Chuck's answers are italicizied within)

From Andrew Stanton:

What is the significance of the phone ringing so many times? What is Ted doing that it takes him 26 rings to answer? And why does Rachel wait?

Also, a bit more random, but did Chuck get the idea for naming the cat Belinda Carlisle after the book, Frank Sinatra in a Blender, where Frank Sinatra is the name of a chiwawa?

Chuck's Response: Thank you, Andrew, for bringing this up. The telephone ringing is Rachel’s particular way to measure time passing. She’s so meticulous that it makes sense for her to count the rings as her impatience builds. She’s thwarted with every unanswered ring, and it’s easy for her to imagine that Ted’s intentionally avoiding her calls. By stating that she’s waited 27 rings I’m already creating tension in the scene and depicting Rachel’s anxious state of mind – as well as giving some idea of how much time is passing.

Sorry, I haven’t read Frank Sinatra in a Blender. It was Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir The Chronology of Water that introduced me to the idea of using celebrity names for characters. She uses rock star names to represent each of her former lovers, and the technique works to establish the era as well as the person. Yes, it’s a shortcut, but it’s unique and works especially well in a short story where I don’t want to burden the reader with pages of description. read more »

'Phoenix' Is Now The #1 Kindle Single On Amazon!

Dennis — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:12:28 -0500

Chuck Palahniuk's newest creation is not a novel. It's a short story called 'Phoenix' that he wrote for the Kindle Single program on Amazon. And in a little over two weeks, it's already climbed into the #1 spot in these three categories:

#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Singles > Fiction
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories
#1 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories > Single Author

That's called a clean sweep, folks!

If you haven't read this amazong short story yet, I'd recommend going in blind. I can tell you that it's dark, funny, sad, smart and haunting. I honestly think it could be the best short story Chuck has ever written.

The story is only about 20 pages and costs 99 cents on Amazon.com. So rather than paste a description of the story here, just take twenty minutes and go read it now.

Get it from Amazon directly here. read more »

Phoenix Unpacked: Part Two – Playing with Time

Dennis — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:00:11 -0500

Note: This essay contains spoilers for the new Kindle Single, 'Phoenix' by Chuck Palahniuk. If you haven't yet read this wonderful story, remedy that right now.

Read Part 1 of this essay series here.

by Chuck Palahniuk

On its most-basic level the story Phoenix is about a week in a family’s life. It begins on a Monday and ends on a Sunday – not unlike the story of Genesis. Or the movie Se7en.

It’s always easier to pace the present moment in a story. Days or actions occur in a sequence that suggests actual time passing. Space breaks allow you, the writer, to imply a jump forward or backward. That’s simple to do.

But how do you keep the past and the future always present in the current moment?

In earlier books I used Tom Spanbauer’s device of reoccurring choruses. Each represents an earlier event in the story, and by distilling those events into a few words the author can revisit the past in a flash. Consider where your mind goes when you read the word “Rosebud” or “Nevermore.” Each word contains an entire story. Like a reoccurring object in a plot, a repeated chorus accrues power each time it’s used, but it also keeps history present for the reader.

I’ve always used choruses to present the past and future, so in Phoenix I wanted to use symbols. At the risk of spoiling the story for anyone who hasn’t read it, here they are:

In Phoenix, the past is ashes, filth and shit. Rachel’s long-dead passion for Ted is represented by the dirty talk that leaks through the motel room wall. Those obscene noises never stop, but she’s gone deaf to them. Ted still hears them, like echoes; actually, he’s so attuned to them that they’re all he hears when she talks. Rachel occasionally hears them, but she tries to hide them by covering the phone. When they catch her by surprise, she’s enraged. She beats at them with her fist and shouts back at them. For her, they’re synonymous with conceiving a child with Ted, an act she deeply regrets. read more »