Tag: Paragraph Line

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John Sheppard’s latest, Fire Retardant Strong Man

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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Vol.13, Revisited

Vol.13 rides again. I’ve revisited and republished my 13th book from 2016.

Let’s cut to the chase with the Amazon link: https://amzn.to/4e81lyi

For those who don’t remember, this was a book of 20 short stories and flash fiction pieces. It included two things that were in other zines, and three stories that were in my own zine, Mandatory Laxative #14.

Let’s ask the KonGPT what it was about:

Vol. 13 by Jon Konrath is an eclectic, absurdist work that blends surreal humor with societal satire. The collection of short stories and essays addresses a wide array of random yet often connected topics, including pop culture, existential musings, and sharp critiques of consumerism and modern life. With chapter titles like “Mariah Carey Is Punk as Fuck” and “The Kansas City Tofu Firebombing,” the content explores bizarre scenarios filled with dark humor. The chaotic narrative jumps from one vignette to the next, portraying a disjointed, almost hallucinogenic journey through a world where everything is skewed to the point of absurdity.

Konrath’s writing style is frenetic, with a voice that mixes cynicism and wit while layering in cultural references ranging from fast food chains to forgotten celebrities. The underlying tone is rebellious, subversive, and at times grotesque, capturing the disillusionment with American culture in the early 21st century. The stories invite the reader to experience a twisted version of reality where logic breaks down, leaving behind a vivid, often unsettling commentary on the absurdities of daily life .

As I did with The Failure Cascade and Book of Dreams, this re-visit involved a quick edit to fix minor typos. If you already own the book, you’re not getting any new content here, but if you look hard enough, you’ll find some questionable use of commas quashed. This publication was mostly a long-tail effort to get old writing back out there.

The original cover was a play on the Black Sabbath album Vol.4. Back in 2016, I labored to get the font and the look of it right. The curse was the use of “The Picture” which seemed like a good idea at the time, the height of that dumb meme. I won’t get into the exact details, but that meme is dead and I’m scrubbing it from everything possible. There was something great about having a piece of branding like that, but it also very firmly painted me in a corner persona-wise, and I’m happy to abandon it. I like the new cover a lot, and it was neat to make. Finding an icon for each story was a fun project. Is it weird to have this book sort of named after the Black Sabbath album and not have the cover? Whatever.

I previously said I like Book of Dreams like 95% and Failure Cascade maybe 75%. I would honestly say I like Vol.13 maybe 80%. There are a few cringe bits here, and I do fall into some of the same Konrath tropes that I repeat far too much. (Me and Fat Mike go to the 7-Eleven; someone babbling about something at a fast-food restaurant; I’m at a Kroger talking to some weirdo; a military strike in everyday life.) There are certain callbacks that I used to make as part of my “brand” that have been driven into the ground that I can’t erase: Mariah Carey, Lunchables, NyQuil, etc. I’m done (or trying to be done) with writing like that, but I can’t erase all of it.

There are some stories in here that I absolutely love. “The Metaphor of Poundcake” is one of my favorite stories ever, and has two threads that weave together perfectly. “#JustKilldozerThings” has some absolutely fabulous lines and exchanges in it. While most of my flash fiction hovers around 1000 words in this era, there are a lot of stories that stretch out for two or three times that. It’s similar to Failure Cascade (and my next book) in that the stories almost get too long to be flash, but still feel like exactly the right balance between punchiness and story.

Anyway, there it is. Now, on to the next one.