Someone Should Host the Boychik Lit Fest

Not sure what the point is here, but it appears the lady is getting the worst of it - and the men are, well, beasts. (Conference de Londre, Wikimedia)

I saw this New York Times article recently "Media Outlets Embrace Conferences as Profits Rise." I'm certainly glad that the mass media are finding ways to survive, but I hope it's not because all those unpaid blogging gigs are lowering their overhead expenses.

A conference I regularly attend is the annual Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) Bid and Proposal Con, which will be held next May in Chicago. I've submitted a presentation, and if I'm chosen to speak this will be my third year in a row. The first year I spoke, I was scheduled opposite a wildly popular panel - a debate between Millenials and Boomers about the roots of generational misunderstanding. Naturally, I wasn't there, and I was sorry I missed it. Second-hand reports told me it ended in something just short of a food fight.

The NYT article reports that traditionally male-centered Fortune magazine will be hosting its Most Powerful Women Summit. I wonder what the ratio of attendees will be, male, ahem, "over" female?

And then coming back to the point of this humble, disruptive blog - if anyone held a conference for authors and fans of boychik lit, would anybody show up? Perhaps Tucker Max and I could debate - his brash take-no-prisoners approach and my more mild-mannered curiosity - but if we're to generate any interest at all, we might need to stage that food fight.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Farnsworth's Revenge

by Gerald Everett Jones

Giveaway ends December 17, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Rollo Makes Cents - 99 to Be Exact

A recent white paper circulated by Vook publishing advanced the idea that 99 cents is the ideal price point for ebooks. And "free," they say, is best for short-term promotions.

A lot of author-publishers tried this approach, but apparently Amazon is not thrilled with the zero-dollars option.

However, 99 cents is just fine with everybody, so now Rollo Hemphill's two misadventures, My Inflatable Friend and the sequel Rubber Babes, are at the magic price point in the Kindle library:

Read Rollo on Kindle for .99

But wait - as they say in those tantalizing TV pitches - there's more! The Kindle versions are also available now on SmashWords, where free is free. So My Inflatable Friend has been knocked down to zero bucks, for now and for how long, go figure:

My Inflatable Friend - Kindle and all other versions - free on SmashWords

Rubber Babes - in all formats - at the magic 99 cent price, all on SmashWords

So if you're gifting ebook readers for the holidays, finally treating yourself to one, or have one and just plain bored and craving a laugh, catch up on where Rollo has been and where he's going.

Because... his third misadventure Farnsworth's Revenge: Rollo's End is coming out in a big way sometime soon, and you'll want to know why on Earth you'd bother to pre-order that one, much less fork over its cover price.

Audio preview of Farnsworth's Revenge

Wodehouse Is Papa of the Boychik

P. G. Wodehouse, author of the Jeeves and Wooster stories,
and a whole lot more. (Image from The Guardian)

Right Ho, Jeeves should be a mandatory course of remedial study for modern fratirists, as well as would-be authors of boychik lit or any male-centered comic fiction.

I hereby enter the name of P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse into nomination for Papa of boychik lit, the humor genre about young men with more chutzpah than brains. Bertie Wooster, protagonist of the wacky Right Ho, Jeeves and other stories, most certainly fits that bill.

Notice I'm not proposing that Wodehouse is somehow the godfather of fratire. The genre of fraternity satire, as columnist Warren St. John first defined it, centers on college-age bad boys who are preoccupied almost totally with scoring, or sexual conquests numerically touted. Its most notorious practitioner has been Tucker Max. My point, if you can find one in this thoughtful essay, is that Wodehouse has what fratirists lack and what boychik authors should emulate - namely, a hipper sensibility. Class. What Bertie Wooster would call "the real Tabasco."

The "Papa" of twentieth-century literature, of course, was Ernest Hemingway. His biographer Carlos Baker says the nickname had something to do with his wanting to be regarded as an authority. And indeed Papa H was the high priest of clean, modernist writing style, the fabricator of sentences that slip out as effortlessly as a good bowel movement. As I've said in other posts and rants, his was an estimable contribution as to nonfiction, and particularly journalism. But to the extent that he killed style in narrative fiction, the ghosts of Peter Benchley and Heywood Hale Broun are still reviling him at some great Round Table in the etheric realms.

Also at that table, and possibly chairing it, would be Wodehouse, cackling as he explains how prose should come in other flavors besides vanilla. Note to Ben and Jerry: How about "Boychik's Banana"?

My comic novels about boychik Rollo Hemphill have attempted a world view inspired by the Wooster ethos: Avoid responsibility, romantic entanglements, and financial conundrums. Fear marriage and anyone in uniform. Pursue amusement, particularly if a practical joke will end in a "good wheeze." Fraternize with like-minded adult males who, despite their social standing, aspire to remain boys. Encourage food fights, but only with dinner rolls so as not to create a mess for which responsibility would have to be assumed. Coordinate rugby scrums in the clubroom, but only if fragile crockery has first been cleared. Solving real-world problems (such as romantic entanglements) by way of practical jokes and stratagems might not work but it's always worth a try.

E-Book Blowout Madness One Week Only!

Do you think Darwin was more of a Kindle or an iPad kinda guy?

Read an E-Book Week on Smashwords.com

It's that time again - basketball playoffs, baseball spring training, LA book fair anticipation, and best of all, the greatest annual electronic clearance sale while digital supplies last - Read an E-Book Week on Smashwords.com.

Just follow these links and enter coupon code RE100 to get free (while they last and our accountants don't find out) e-books in your choice of format, including HTML, LRF, EPUB, and others:

My Inflatable Friend: The Confessions of Rollo Hemphill

Rubber Babes: Further Misadventures of Rollo Hemphill

This streaming, screaming extravaganza runs one week only - from March 6 to 12 (or until the last electron is out the door!).

I Am So Not This Guy Either!

Jerry Jones owns the Dallas Cowboys. Now, despite the fact that I answered obediently to "Jerry!" throughout my boyhood and considerably afterward, it's Gerald Everett Jones who created Rollo Hemphill and coined boychik lit as an alternative to Warren St. John's unfortunate term fratire.

Please update your files accordingly.