Make It Stop Don't Stop

LA Times Festival of Books, Book Soup & beyond...

First, I have some upcoming events that might interest you:

Saturday April 22
LA Times Festival of Books: Make It Stop signing at 2pm at Rare Bird/Unnamed Press booth #169. If you’re going to be at the festival, stop by and say hello.

Sunday April 23
LA Times Festival of Books: “Fiction: LA Stories” at 2pm with Tracy Brown, Sammy Harkham, Sarah Priscus & Antoine Wilson. Tickets required and there will be a signing after the panel.

Tuesday April 25
Book release party in Mar Vista at 6:30pm with Terese Svoboda.
(Contact me if you’d like to attend)

Wednesday April 26
Book Soup in West Hollywood at 7pm with Terese Svoboda.

Tuesday May 2
Stories Books & Café in LA at 7pm with JD O’Brien, Francesca Lia Block, Dan Ozzi, and Chris Terry.

Wednesday May 3
Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ at 7pm with JD O’Brien.

Thursday May 4
Wooden Tooth Records in downtown Tucson, AZ at 7pm with JD O’Brien

Friday May 5
Bright Side Books in Flagstaff, AZ at 4pm with JD O’Brien

Sunday May 7
2060 Logan Ave in Barrio Logan in San Diego, CA from 10am to 3pm with JD O’Brien.

Got all that? Because there’s more—a lot more—but you’ll have to wait until next week as we firm up the final details for the Make It Stop Midwest Tour.

A whole lot of Make It Stop

Last weekend I went up to LA for my event with Bucky Sinister at Skylight Books but first I stopped off at Rare Bird HQ to sign books so they can be shipped to everyone who preordered. Rare Bird is located in Highland Park mid-way between Razorcake and Book Show, which was Vermin on the Mount’s final home. So I have a lot of good memories in Highland Park and love that Rare Bird is right in the mix.

After I signed the books I went to the punk rock show (more on that in a bit) and then I headed to Los Feliz and Skylight Books. Los Feliz is another neighborhood I’ve grown to love. I never lived there but Keith Morris does and when we were working on his book we’d meet for breakfast or lunch, work at his apartment for a while, break for coffee, and then work some more. I’ve also done a fair amount of cat sitting in the neighborhood.

I started the event at Skylight by reading one of Bucky’s poems off my phone, which is something I never do. I’d brought the book in which it was originally published back in 2004 with me from San Diego but I left it at Razorcake HQ. Luckily, someone on Reddit took photos of the poem and made a thread about it. Upvote for you, kind sir or ma’am. The poem starts like this:

There’s an alternate universe
in which Bruce Wayne is poor
and I have my shit together.

That’s the entire premise of the poem. I’m not going to tell you how it goes or how it ends but it’s one of my favorite last lines—not just in Bucky’s work but in all of literature. It’s one of those lines that rearranged my thinking about the possibilities of poetry. It’s also deadly funny and sets the stage for a conversation about alternate universes and a speculative tale like Make It Stop. Not only is Bucky a brilliant writer but he’s also a stand-up comic. A good time was had by all.

After the event I signed a few books and a group of us, including a friend from my first stint in LA back in 1992 (hi Liz!), went across the street to House of Pies, an old-fashioned diner with great food and reasonable prices that shouldn’t exist in the heart of hipsterville but does. We told stories and laughed and it didn’t feel like LA at all but like some kind of strange and wonderful homecoming where I got to see people from different stages of my life who mean the world to me.

As you’re probably tired of hearing me explain, Make It Stop’s original release date was pushed back two weeks, but the books arrived with plenty of time of spare, which means that you can find Make It Stop in stores. Friends have been sending me pics of it in various places, including The Strand in New York. (If you see it somewhere, please send a photo.) Also, some readers have already gotten their preordered copies in the mail. But, since it technically doesn’t come out until next week, you can still preorder Make It Stop from the publisher and get a signed copy shipped to you.

Bookshop.org News

Message from the Underworld is now a Bookshop.org affiliate. What does that mean? It’s means that when I link to my new book on Bookshop and you click through and buy it, I get a small cut. (Not a tiny stab wound, to be clear, but a percentage of the sale.) In addition, effective Friday April 21, you can get a discount on my new novel at Bookshop when you use the code MAKEITSTOP. I get a cut, you get a cut, everyone gets a cut! (Again, no one is getting stabbed.)

What’s more, I can link to any book on Bookshop and I’ll receive a cut of sales generated from that link. I have no idea how much money we’re talking about here but when I talked to the rep about the affiliate program she didn’t oversell it. She said every once in a while I could maybe buy a pizza, which I thought was funny and honest and strange.

Going forward, I’m going to try to maintain a list of all the books that I discuss here that are available on Bookshop. Of course, there are tons of books that aren’t available on the site, including a few of my own. I’m making a list of Essential Punk Rock Reads and there’s no Blight at the End of the Funnel, no Get in the Van, no After Naomi. Nothing’s perfect.

Anyway, anyone can be a Bookshop affiliate. If you are passionate about books, consider whether it’s the right move for you. We can have a pizza party.

Heartworm Reader Vol. 2

I keep forgetting to tell you to preorder the unbelievably cool new anthology from Heartworm Press. It’s got a ton of amazing contributors, including Blixa Bargeld, Steven Jess Bernstein (!), D. Randall Blythe, Simon & Bronwyn Bonney, Parker Love Bowling, Richard Denner, Craig Dyer, Wesley Eisold, Shannon Funchess, Kurt Heasley, Kristin Hersh, Harry Huntington, David Coppin Lanegan, Mark Lanegan, Amy Lee, Thurston Moore, Daniel Moro, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, William Pym, Geoff Rickly, Jim Ruland, Emma Ruth Rundle, Jeremy Szuder, Colin H. Van Eeckhout & Steve Von Till.

That’s not a typo. That’s me between Geoff Rickly and Emma Ruth Rundle. The book will have two covers: one with Mark Lanegan and another with Jeffrey Lee Pierce. You can, and should, preorder it right here.

What About Punk Rock?

I promised 300% more punk rock last week (301% for CC) so here goes. In between visiting Rare Bird and Skylight Books I went to the Razorcake benefit for the LA Zine Fest at The Offbeat and saw a few bands. Lauren Denitzio of The Worriers and

Get It Together

played a set of new tunes. Drum and bass combo Duderella ripped it up in their own inimitable style and were followed by The Groans. I had to leave for my event at Skylight and when I got back I just missed Jeff Rosenstock who lives right up the street from Razorcake HQ. I also bumped into Dan Ozzi of

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who coaxed me into posing for a photo in front of Danzig’s house for a series he's doing. I'll leave you with this video I've been watching all week of Austin's Die Spitz, whom I'm looking forward to seeing with OFF! next month.

Thanks for reading! Stay safe and see you on the other side…