Ban My Book---PLEASE!

In yet another selfish bid for attention for my new book, Not From Around Here, I must ask all of you to help me call upon, and infuriate, all the repressive cultures of the world to help me publicize my book---by banning it. That's right, we're talking to you; Iran, North Korea, Utah! Not From Around Here is filled with all the things that you guys hate. It's got thought provoking ideas, strong, independent, free thinking characters, it has adult themes, vivid imagery, and spans multiple genres. It's everything good that you wish to hide form your populace as you seek to shroud them in darkness and keep them repressed. You know you want to hate Not From Around Here. The only reason you don't hate it already, is because you've never heard of it. Don't let a little thing like anonymity stop you from doing what you do best---repress the hell out of Not From Around Here! I dare you, I double dare you! You know what would be nice? A book burning! Come on, you know you want to, you know you need to! Now, ebooks don't burn very well, so you'll need to buy a bunch of paperbacks---but that's okay because right now they're on sale! And when you burn them, don't just call the local media---get international coverage, you deserve it! Except for you, Utah, national is good for you. Please, friends, family, readers, help get the word out---Not From Around Here, is a threat to authoritarian governments everywhere, and full of much too much fun, free thinking and frolicking for any repressive regimes. Ban the book! Burn the book! But above all, make sure the media is there when you do! Thank you, and please remember, Reading Is Fundamental. And Books are our Friends! Larry

Where the $%#& is Not From Around Here?

NFAH was invited by some other books to visit the Rhinebeck, NY library. This was a good opportunity for the book to get some exposure, and possibly be invited back as a book instead just a visitor. NFAH didn't show up.

Thank You to Our Service Men and Women on Vetran's Day and Everyday!

You, who protect our freedoms and allow us to pursue our goals, beliefs and happiness---we thank you and we salute you.

Satan asks, "What's in a name?" About 20 cents a use, apparently.

In a show of the modern over classic, Voldemort, Harry potter baddie, had the forethought to trademark "Dark lord" and now Satan has to pay a small fee each time someone refers to him in that capacity. "There were no trademark or copyright offices when I started using that title!" Satan exclaimed with his lawyer, Johnny Cochran, at his side. Johnny explained that Satan would be invoking Habeus Corpus. When asked how that applied in this instance, Johnny used his flair for turning a phrase, if Satan doesn't prevail, I'd say "Hey bus--get me out of here before Satan makes everyone into Corpuses." The thinly veiled threat was not taken lightly, and an action of contempt of court has been threatened. However, that is by acting temporary Judge, Judge Judy, while a new official magistrate is appointed. The first appointed Judge, Antonin Scalia, was protested by Voldemort's legal team as being in the pocket of Satan. The second Judge, Clarence Thomas, was also cited as owing his career to Satan, but strangely, Voldemort's team declined to protest. However, Satan's team refused to accept this appointment on the grounds that "Justice Thomas is incapable of rendering a credible and coherent opinion, and during opening statements, seemed confused as to which was the defendant and who was the plaintiff. Heaven has intervened and has offered up a bevy of honorable, long deceased Judges and a final decision is expected soon. Stay tuned. Also, Satan would like kids age 6-16 to know that, should his court battle fail, he'll be looking for a new moniker and will be running a contest soon. Watch your sugary cereal box for details!

Win a free ebook or paperback!!!!!!!!!!!

I just scooped this out of the latest review for "Not From Around Here". I reversed it. Details of free book first, then the review is below that! (Re-Published with permission of Styll Reviews) The author, Larry Hochwald, wants to help us celebrate our review, and upcoming author interview. So, we will be giving away 5 Kindle ebooks and 5 choices of ebook or paperback during the next week. To enter, just send an email to my blog at marysub76@gmail.com. In the subject put NFAH Free Giveaway. The ebooks will be given as gifts from Amazon so you need an email used for an Amazon account that you should write into the body of the email. Kindle ebooks can be read by most devices with a free Kindle reader app for your appropriate device, downloaded from Amazon. If the ebook option doesn't work for you, or you only want a paperback, you must say that in the body of the email, along with an address to send the paperback if you win. To choose a paperback you must live in the contiguous 48 states. Our blog will be hosting the giveaway. We will print out each entry email, fold them all up exactly the same, put them in a pouch and observe as the author draws out the winning entries. The review, courtesy of Styll Reviews: http://styllreviews.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-best-book-you-probably-havent-read.html I try to find stuff for you that you might not find on your own. Sometimes I bring you the big stuff, like “Doctor Sleep” or “Gravity” but I prefer to make finds like I did with the musical work of Leah Finkelstein. Now, I bring you one of the most exciting, interesting and thought-provoking books I have read in years, and definitely one of the best for this year. I am speaking of “Not From Around Here,” a new book by a relatively new author, Larry Hochwald. You may have seen Larry’s work before, because he was publishing regularly online, until last year, when he started to seriously work on this book. On the surface, Not From Around Here, is a collection of fiction that spans horror, fantasy, humor, literary, contemporary and science fiction genres. However, it is more than just a collection of exciting and surprising stories. There are several threads and themes that run throughout and, without providing a spoiler, I can tell you that it all comes together. It starts, innocently enough, with a story called “Best Friend”. By the end of that story I was hooked. I was surprised by what happened, but also by my reaction. I was crying at the end of the story, and that was to happen 3 more times while I read the book. Now, I read short stories and I love good ones, but I’m not a big fan of collections in general. Why? There are two reasons for this, though I am very pleased to say that Not From Around Here avoids both pitfalls. One reason I skip short stories collections is when they are filled with stories that are only slice of life. You come into a scene, you live it, and then you leave, without anything finishing. Thankfully, all of these are satisfying and complete stories, more like mini-novels, in that they are complex tales with a beginning, middle and end. The other reason I often avoid short fiction collections is, sometimes, I find the quality of the stories becomes inconsistent in the middle of the book. They start with their best, and try to end on a high note, but the middle feels like filler, as does a lot of the content on many a CD. Fortunately, this book hold up very well, with some of the most inventive, surprising and visual stories right in the middle of the book. A handful of the stories have been published previously, and in fact, my first brush with the work of Larry Hochwald was a read of the second story of this collection, “The Placebo Effect”. Now, even those previously published stories have been polished and , in some cases, added to, so even though ire ad this one I was happy to read it again. This story is one of the most gripping I have ever read and I found there are comments all across the internet from people who back this up. One commenter recommended the story saying, in effect, “I don’t even like to read but I loved this one!” This story is an action packed thriller with an ending I couldn’t predict. In fact, that’s a hallmark of most of these---“WOW” endings that you just can’t predict. One of the most surprising stories was the 4th story, “Join the Club”. I’ve excerpted here on this site. I already called it “50 Shades meets The Shining”. I have to tell you, I don’t find much writing truly scary, and almost no short stories ever rise to that occasion but this was the scariest story I have ever read!” Now, I could keep going story by story, but that seems a bit too much. It is hard for me to choose favorites because I really enjoyed every story, and certainly there were no disappointments. “Faker” was a twist I’ve never seen before. “Mirrors” was a very original vision turning the nature of some beliefs upside down. Though, “Revelation” had some twists that I saw some readers said they haven’t seen that caliber since “The Sixth Sense” and I can’t disagree. “Wall” and “Desolation Lovers” were two visual stories that I think would make great movies, though, “Old Ways” could be anything from a great adventure movie to a series of novels. “Mother’s Nature” and “When this War Began” are two very special and effective stories. Some stories just flat out freaked me out, and I would list “OCD”, Carpet Shock” and “The Group” in that category. “A Present For Mikey” was a very short horror movie that I had the bad fortune to have someone tap me on the shoulder just as the family cried out in unison. And “Almost Home” was one of those I cried at the end.” All in all, there are laughs in just about every story, many in some of them, such as “Fur and Loathing” and, ironically, “Join the Club”. This book is like a roller coaster ride and I can’t remember enjoying a book, of any type, this much in quite a while, and in my entire life there are only a handful of short story collections that I enjoyed even close to this much. I think this is a wonderful first book, and springs Larry Hochwald on the world in a very enjoyable, exciting, thought-provoking and convincing way. The price of entry, for 18 stories (totaling274 pages in the paperback) if you read the ebook is an excellent bargain at only $2.99! The paperback is a very reasonable $12.99. You can get the book at Amazon, by clicking here . The paperback should be available by November 18th. You will find it on Amazon, or you can ask for it at your local bookstore. If you like to read, you need to read this book. If you don’t like to read, you should read this book…it will get you hooked on reading. Enjoy!