With respect to Eddie Murphy and the late, great James Brown, I happily bring you my first Hot Tub Cast™.

Direct link to download.

That's right: who else could you count on to go where no podcast has gone before, to break new ground in robe-wearing and coolness of the podcast industry? That's me. It's your boy. I can read the tea leaves with the best of them and my current tea leaves say: chill out! Take a kick back in this afternoon and see the view from your hot tub! (That's right, I sheepishly, with an odd pang of guilt, admit that I have one. It's Cali, baby! What do you expect?)

So here I am, waxing on the state of the publishing industry, upcoming events, and splashing around like the coolest of cucumbers! It's me.

Links in this show: David Lucero's new thriller The Sandman

Phoenix's own Teel McLanahan III, Modern Evil Press and the Untrue Tales from Beyond Fiction podcast/novel.

AND finally, the Podioracket podcast, where I'll be visiting for a LIVE interview on Tuesday July 21st, at 6PM PST. Be there! Please!

This podcast is sponsored by JACK WAKES UP, my visit to LA this Saturday, and the letter R.

For your viewing pleasure:

Gerald So, fiction editor for the ever-awesome Thrilling Detective Website, reviews JACK WAKES UP on his blog here and has this to say:

If you remember the B action flicks of the 90s as fondly as I do, you'll appreciate Jack Wakes Up. The book's third-person present narration brings a movie to mind and, along with short, punchy chapters, keeps the plot moving. Though Jack Wakes Up may be a homage to action movies, Harwood's careful characterization and overall energy made Jack and his world seem new to me. And now I'd gladly visit them again.

Thanks, G!

Direct link to the audio of my interview with James.

Direct link to UNLEASHED: The Podcast to F*&k Up Your Sh%t! - 02

That's right, our boy James Melzer sits down to talk with me about JACK WAKES UP, where I sit in terms of publishing, numbers, and the ongoing saga that is The Quest to Publish JP2™.

Visit his website here to find out more about his podcast novel trilogy The Zombie Chronicles and Escape, the first book, which is already a complete podcast novel that has been sold to Permuted Press.

James is a great guy, a hot podcasting commodity, and someone you're going to be hearing A LOT about. It was a real pleasure to talk with him yesterday.

New Site Content Introduced: The Quest to Publish JP2™: the ongoing saga of my quest to sell enough copies of JACK WAKES UP or find another way to get JP2 published in the calendar year 2010, preferably with a pre-sales launch on Palms Sunday 2010, March 28th. Czech it out!!

Crew at Two Bars

Direct link to audio of Houston -Murder by the Book Reading

NOW I'm ready to proclaim myself the hardest working man in showbiz! Forget about James Brown, God rest his soul, after this weekend's 4 readings in 4 nights in 4 cities over 3 states and covering over 4,100 miles, I'm ready to challange any other first-book author to bring his/her own goods and go head-to-head with a schedule like that! Damn right!

For the record, I did Phoenix/Scottsdale-Poisoned Pen- on Thursday, Tucson- Clues Unlimited- on Friday (that's T-U-C-S-O-N, thanks Daniel), then Houston- Murder by the Book- on Saturday, followed by fun at Two Rows... and then I flew home to appear at Book Passage in Marin County on Sunday night! Yeah. Boo-yah.

It was fun, firey, hot, humid, exciting, worthwhile, and tummy-rubbing all at the same time. Lots of early mornings, even when I tried to keep it from going that way. Thanks to everyone who came out, but especially: Kevin, Karen, Kate, Rich, Jason, Keith, C.J., Evo, Sheila, Teel, Paul, Lisa, John, Suzanne, Jeff, Todd, Jen, Gwennie, Shirley, Ttreed, and... if I forgot you, I'm very very sorry.

I should have a video montage from the event coming up pretty soon, but in the interim, here's the audio of the Houston event for your listening pleasure. If you'd like to skip ahead and pop right to the Q&A portion, it starts at the 23:00 minute mark! Enjoy the kid-gab! That's my friend Todd's wonderful son Caspar!

Know what? You're right. It's crazy to get right back to another book. But if it's what needs to happen to keep selling copies of JACK WAKES UP, then that's what I'm gonna do! You know I've got a few things stashed away, The Genius School book and also... a little something that I like to call HUB HEARTBREAK!

It's coming. That's the big news. I started preparing for the launch today by readying the manuscript for my read. I started getting  things together to rip this baby out so I have all the files to start working with. I'm getting close. And soon you'll have a whole new story to sink your ears into!

Like I've said before, give me four episodes on this one and you'll be lock stock and fully hooked! It's different than what you've seen from me in the past, or maybe you'll think it's the obvious missing link. You'll see it, you'll learn about its world. You'll meet its people. This is HUB HEARTBREAK!!

But for today, I present you with my call to arms, my battle cry, my push for what we need to do this summer. Are you listening? Are you ready to ROCK???

I'm proud to be speaking this fall at a conference put on by Writer's Digest magazine, called "The Business of Getting Published." Sigler and I will be teamed up to talk about how we've dropped ourselves on NY publishing whether they liked it or not!

They've given me a discount code to hand out. If you're interested in coming to the conference, get $50 off your registration by entering the code: S7Har

The Business of Getting Published is designed to guide any author through the new dynamics of today’s publishing world.  This three-day event takes place Friday, September 18, through Sunday, September 20, 2009, at the New York Marriott Marquis, on Times Square in New York.
With emphasis on platform, networking and social media, The Writer’s Digest Conference is an innovative and ground-breaking conference, featuring the industry’s top forward-thinking speakers, leading sessions on topics relevant to the current and future state of the publishing world.
Chris Brogan, social media genius, is the keynote speaker.

Other speakers include Kassia Krozser, editor/publisher of BookSquare.com;  David Mathison, whose online sales success is the new business model;  Mike Shatzkin, the industry’s top publishing consultant, Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, whose own podcasts and videocasts have made them superstars in the business;  and many more, plus the editors of Writer’s Digest!

Complete program information, including speaker bios, special events related to the conference and registration, is now available at www.writersdigestconference.com.  See you there!

Very cool! For July Brilliant Slackers Blog chose JACK WAKES UP to be it's book choice! Hooray for Brilliant Slackers Blog!

JACK WAKES UP just made the Bestseller List for the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA)!

I came in at #9 softcover for MAY. Link here.

You want answers?

You sure you want the answers?

You want the truth, huh? Well you can't handle the truth!

Or maybe you can. In any case, I present to you here, in all podcast loving kindness, the basic deets, facts and unbridaled truth about the JACK WAKES UP sales numbers so far. I'm banging the drum, you're working to sell copies of the book and--know what?--WE ARE DOING just fine! And we will do fine. We'll keep it up, keep banging that drum, spreading the JACK PALMS Gospel, and the copies will get sold. But today I'm also telling you a lot about how things really work, back behind the scenes where the sausage gets made. Listen at your own risk.

Direct link to THE TRUTH!!

BONUS: Good news included: JACK WAKES UP just made the Bestseller List for the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA)! I came in at #9 softcover for MAY. Link here.

That's right: this is me reading at the Harvard Coop, live from Harvard Square Cambridge. Check out this short video to see me read a good-sized chunk of JACK WAKES UP's first chapter. Enjoy! If you'd like to see a longer version of the reading, watch this video.