Free E-Book Promo on Smashwords During July

Yes, you can believe it. Pigs do fly (for a limited time).

eBook formats on SmashWords.com:

• My Inflatable Friend - EPUB, iPad, and Sony Reader download
• Rubber Babes EPUB, iPad, and Sony ebook versions

MP3 Clip of Vroman's Reading: Farnsworth's Revenge

Listen now

This reading is from the third of the Rollo Hemphill misadventures, Farnsworth's Revenge: Rollo's End. In the first two books*, Rollo has masterminded a plot with a life-sized rubber doll made in the image of a famous soap star, Monica LaMonica. Rollo’s former boss, old crusty Hugo Farnsworth, has developed a passionate fascination for the doll. He is currently entertaining “her” as his sole guest aboard his private yacht Shameless Palms, currently anchored at St. Tropez. Meanwhile, Rollo has also fled to France to avoid being arrested for a money-laundering scam he didn’t do. As the book opens, Farnsworth secretly summons Rollo and pleads for his help because the doll has mysteriously disappeared from the boat.

Listen now

* Rollo books in softcover:

• BUY Rubber Babes - Amazon Page
• BUY My Inflatable Friend - Amazon Page

eBook formats:

• My Inflatable Friend - EPUB, iPad, and Sony Reader download
• Rubber Babes EPUB, iPad, and Sony ebook versions

Gerald Reads at Vroman's Bookstore on Sunday June 12 at 3pm

Author of the Rollo Hemphill comic misadventure novels Gerald Everett Jones will read from the forthcoming third book in the series Farnsworth's Revenge: Rollo's End. It's the sequel to My Inflatable Friend and Rubber Babes.

In the first two books, Rollo has masterminded a plot with a life-sized rubber doll made in the image of a famous soap star, Monica LaMonica. Rollo’s former boss, old crusty Hugo Farnsworth, has developed a passionate fascination for the doll. He is currently entertaining “her” as his sole guest aboard his private yacht Shameless Palms, currently anchored at St. Tropez. Meanwhile, Rollo has also fled to France to avoid being arrested for a money-laundering scam he didn’t do. As the book opens, Farnsworth secretly summons Rollo and pleads for his help because the doll has mysteriously disappeared from the boat.

Vroman's Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA

3 - 5pm, Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sponsored by the Independent Writers of Southern California "IWOSC Reads Its Own" series

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.

Meet Gerald Everett Jones at the Book Fair in LA

Where: Booth #76 Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC) www.iwosc.org

When: Saturday, April 30, 12 - 1pm

Topic: IWOSC membership, the writer's life, my straw hat

When: Later that day, 2 - 3pm

Topic: Book signing, My Inflatable Friend and Rubber Babes (first two comic novels in the Rollo Hemphill series) - and wide-ranging insightful discussion on "Boychik Lit is Hipper Fratire." 

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!).

Opera Review: The Turk in Italy at LA Opera

Okay, boychiks. What would you do if you were married to her? And imagine that you're overweight and almost twice her age.


Your name is Don Geronio, and you are coping with the challenges of your May-September marriage when a dark male stranger floats into town on a flying carpet...more

Photo by Robert Millard courtesy LA Opera