Press Release for Messiah of Monsters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Messiah of Monsters

Chicago, February 24^th, 2012 

My father’s middle name is crazy.  It should be mine too, according to my mother and Greg, my mother’s husband.  My first name is Sam, short for Samael, not Samuel.  It’s biblical, but not in a conventional good-lad-goes-to-church sort of way.

In Messiah of Monsters (320 pp., tpb, $13.99, Kindle, $5.99), Chicago area author R. A. Dunn introduces us to Sam Bladen and a menagerie of other miscreants: juvenile delinquents, whores, and literal sideshow freaks.  As the story’s unreliable narrator, Sam crafts a tale that is at once believable and fantastic.  He divides his time between Storm King, a small town in the Catskills “situated at the ass end of the universe,” the seat of his mundane life, and Sheepshead, a decaying oceanside borough outside New York City, home to the Sans Merci performance troupe.   

A fresh entry into the erotic horror genre, Dunn describes her work as offspring of Chuck Palahniuk and circa-1990s Poppy Z. Brite.  She veers away from the modern realm of romanticized monsters, werewolves, and sparking vampires.  Instead, she draws the reader into a fascinating mythology which combines ancient legends with modern sexuality and body rituals.  Early reception of the novel at pre-release readings described it as:  “riveting,” “sensual and poetic,” as well as “graphically well crafted” with “detailed characterization.” 

Written as a revealing first-person confession, Messiah of Monsters is an intoxicating combination of graphic sex and cerebral horror.  Initially, Sam’s self-destructive behavior appears to be the root of his problems with long-time sidekick and confidant, Danny Eagan.  Though their relationship survives a morass of small town bullies, fickle friendships, and personal betrayals, it isn’t enough to steer Sam away from Brande, a member of the Sans Merci Troupe, a suspension artist, and self-styled Messiah of Monsters. Under the charismatic freak’s tortuous tutelage, Sam begins an agonizing process which leads him to question the very basis of human morality.

R, A. Dunn works as a tutor, consultant, and freelance editor in Chicago, IL.  She has a double degree in Anthropology and Creative Writing from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and received her Masters in Anthropology from Kent State University. Not limited to erotica, Dunn is currently planning a project which involves both a travelogue and her self-described magnum opus, a historical novel spanning much of 15^th century Ottoman history. Dunn operates a writer's blog at dangerousfiction.blogger.net.  She is also active on many forms of social media, including Facebook and Twitter.  Her professional website is located at www.cityofglass.com.

ISBN: 1468175475

The book is currently available on Amazon.com and through other Distributors.

To arrange a book signing or interview, contact Ridgely Dunn at XXX-XXX-XXXX or by email at dunn.ridgely@gmail.com.

Effing Social Media

Now you see me...now you see me AGAIN.

Twitter, Facebook, Myspaz, Livejournal, Blogger, Google +, Pinterest...okay, I am not really using all of them at the moment, but I've made my electronic footprint on them all.  I replicate myself over and over into the digital universe, hopeing that people will be able to find me without looking too hard.  Why bother, you may ask.  The answer is simple; it's because I'm a writer, and currently a self-published one at that.  Social media is free marketing, and I plan to use it as much as I can.   

As you have likely seen, I now have two blogs and I think I like it this way.  Each one does something completely different.  One is about a particular subject, and this one is about my writing and my work.  I maintain that my goal is to write in them minimally twice per week, each.  Since I have to regard media as more than just a way of communicating lunch plans with my pals, I have developed a social calendar to keep things rolling.  There are some pretty swell opportunities out there for writers who can keep a decent online writing presence.  It took me some time to arrive on how to plan out this new approach to social media, which is only half the reason why I'm so late getting started.  That first novel kind of devoured my time, you know?

Blogs make great portfolio material, so long as they don't overlap too much into the personal diary or journal spectrum.  Further, I think blogs should be written with an audience in mind, whether the audience is 12 or 12,000.  This is why I left Livejournal, and why it's taken me this long to get these started.  I just didn't feel the need for an audience per se.  All my personal stuff migrated to Facebook, and many of my friends on one medium were the same friends I had the other.  Facebook is great for the everyday, random, and short attention span stuff.  Blogs are where I can get into the meat of a subject.

I am still in the baby steps phase of blogging.  While I am writing to an audience, I am still trying to build my readership.  This means getting an idea of what interests people, and what too many blogs are already talking about.  I've done so much blog reading these past few weeks that my head is about to explode.  I've read a lot of garbage, particularily from people claiming to be experts on erotic fiction writing.  I'm not going to limit my tips to a specific genre, but I do want to use this as a sandbox for Dangerous Fiction.  I'm also going to avoid the obligatory plea for comments and critiques.  If you have them, you know what to do.  We all use enough social media to know how it works.

So if you want small doses of information on writing, including writing tips and updates on my books and related projects, go add me on Twitter: @iwritesmut.  And if you want to see pictures of the King Cake we just devoured during Tuesday Night writers group, find me on Facebook.  And if you want to see the giant invisible knot of 20 different kinds of social media that is my favorites bar, you'll have to become my  friend in real life first.

The Plan

I need a 4 hour work week. 

More accurately, I need a work week that does not demand that I leave the house, regardless of the hours I actually work.  I want to move, travel without giving notice.  I also want to spend as much time as I can on creative endeavors, because pretty much everything else I do is pointless.  The answer, as I am learning, is dangerous fiction.  And because I can only write so much, and only so much of what I write is dangerous, I hope to take a dive in the shallower end of the pool as well, where much of the editing and publishing happens.

I am not going to get carried away with making fruitless plans, either.  For that reason, this blog is a test market; this blog will help define the genre and the audience for dangerous fiction.  At the very least, I will write about writing and all of that writing might help 3 or 4 or a dozen other writers.  At best, we discover that good books that were believed to be so niche as to be unmarketable now have a stable, loving home.

And one thing a nice home needs is some basic housekeeping, right?  So first: what is dangerous fiction?  I am going to tell you how I define it; then I will put it to you to define it for yourselves, and for others who read it.  To me, dangerous fiction is not always experimental or speculative.  These things have their own sort-of genres, established rules, and readerships.  Nor is it necessarily subversive in form.  To break the rules, you have to demonstrate you are aware of them.  This means proper punctuation and spelling in all places except those places where breaking those rules achieves something new.

And that is what dangerous fiction does.  It is not the attention whore, but the person who sneaks into the party uninvited, weaves a few fabulous but believable tales, then leaves right before the guests realize that their wallets are missing and all their shoelaces are tied together in one gigantic knot.  Dangerous fiction is distracting.  It breaks stuff.  Taboo subjects, impossibly shaped plots, themes and stories that are begging to be told, if only to piss people off.  All of these contain an element of dangerous fiction.  And this is what I want to write.  And read.

Now that you have an idea of what I am suggesting, let me tell you what I'm going to do about it.  First, I'm going to help myself.  Having a blog about writing when you're a writer kind of does just that.  This blog is not entirely about me, but it's not wholly selfless either.  I have my own novel to promote, which I will talk about in later posts.  I'm also going to speak to other writers, especially those that are still working on their craft.  I'm going to make it simple and straightforward, and because I am not attacking your actual manuscript with my red pen, maybe you'll listen to me.  I already teach writing.  I've hosted a workshop or two, and also edit books and marketing materials.  This isn't going to be the grammar show, but it is going to prevent a few people from making idiots out of themselves.  At least that's the hope.

More importantly, this blog will serve as an incubator for the creation of Dangerous Fiction Press.  I am not about to run out and apply for my business license just yet;  I want to generate interest first.  In the first few years, this will be a very small scale operation:  probably a couple of anthologies and a few novels.  It means a lot of learning for me.  Having this blog here will help me keep track of accomplishments and make me accountable for the plans I make.  It might also serve as a blueprint for others who want to take a similar route and enter the world of small press publishing. 

Deep breaths.  Here we go.