Back in the day, Paragraph Line consisted of a bunch of things: semi-frequent flash fiction, weird and strange blogging, books by many great writers, a lit journal, and zines. But it was also created by me and John Sheppard for a specific reason: to publish our books. In 2010, we bought a block of 100 ISBN numbers to use as we churned out our own books.
Both John and I saw our writing output go fallow about four years ago. This was a combination of The Algorithm and the business of selling books, and life in general getting in the way. But right as I came back and published Decision Paralysis, John also came out with a new one, called Fire Retardant Strong Man, which is now available in print and on Kindle at Amazon.
I blurbed the book by saying it’s like if Kurt Vonnegut wrote Idiocracy, because it reminds me of the dystopian dumb-apocalypse of Mike Judge’s 2006 comedy (now documentary), but it reads in the style of Vonnegut classics like Slapstick or Cat’s Cradle. It takes place a few decades from now in a world where a group of billionaires called The Broligarch rule the country, which is under strict surveillance and everyone is in forever debt and spends their time endlessly watching The Scroll.
It follows an Ohioan named William who fish-out-of-water ends up in a small town in Colorado, in hiding and caught in a dangerous scenario trying to frame an evil senator who is the third-wealthiest man in America, and enslaves is new girlfriend Hazel.
FRSM is a straight-up page turner, a burn through William’s story as he tries to piece together a plan to escape with Hazel and topple Senator Charles Chase. But it’s also a heartfelt tale about an innocent young man finding out about the cruel new world and how he can fight against it.
This book is a lot of fun, with great humor and a critique of everything from AI to big brother to oligarchy to porn. Spoiler alert: there’s an easter egg that crosses over to the Konrath-iverse, too. And I think the best thing about this is John’s firing on all cylinders and has much more gas in the tank here.
Check it out over at Amazon. And as for Paragraph Line, we’re getting there. Both of us are busy writing, which is the good news. I need a new web site, and that’s underway. And we’re slowly re-releasing a bunch of our old books that are out of print. Stay tuned.
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