Heading Back To Jersey

Well, it seems that I'm headed back to the East Coast, the land of pain and inspiration. Who knows, maybe this will cure me of my recent bout of writer's block by the time I have to go attend that release party and make that special announcement about The Graceless and the future of the series. So there you have it, ladies and gents, Asher Rosenbloom is headed back to Jersey. I'm sure it will be a getaway to be remembered, filled with fun, danger, alcohol, and of course, cigarettes.

Take care and wish me luck, ladies and gents.

This is Rosenbloom, signing off.

East Coast Release Party Announcement

What's so special, you ask, about January 3rd? It just so happens that it's the date of the book signing/hangout/release party for The Graceless, and will also feature a special announcement about the status of the book by Yours Truly. The special even will be taking place at Clinton Station Diner in Hunterdon County, and will be running most of the night, thanks in no small part to the fact that CSD is a 24-Hour establishment. Now, the release party itself is a bit of an officially unofficial event, so there are no formalities. Show up, hang out, eat good food, and relax with the writer, of the book, answer your questions, and get a signed copy. Because hey, why the hell not, right? Look forward to seeing you there.

Can't wait, ladies and gentlemen. I really can't.

This is Rosenbloom, signing off.

Now. Affordable. In print.

https://www.createspace.com/3522298

That's the link. To The Graceless. My novel.

I'm somewhat exhausted from the work I've been doing on The Forgotten. I'll make some updates about that very secret project in a few hours. But now, time to detox and drink some coffee, smoke a cigarette and move forward with the stories.

Affordable Print Copies? What Madness Be This?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's true. For the not-at-all-unreasonable price of $7.99 you can pick up a paperback copy of The Graceless from the lovely folks at Amazon.com and as a free bonus, get a short story from yours truly printed RIGHT AFTER THE EPILOGUE. They should be hitting the printers in about a week, just in time for you to pick up copies to get signed if you happen to be in the Jersey area and are into that kind of thing.

Meanwhile, if you really can't wait to read The Graceless, I encourage you to check out the Smashwords page linked through this site, maybe get a copy, or pick up Thoughts In 2D, Adam Estela's breakout work that I've been plugging on this blog.

That's all I've got for you today, folks.

This is Rosenbloom, signing off.

Thoughts in 2D and The Funeral of Reason

Those are the titles of two fantastic poetry collections, the first of which has been compiled by my esteemed colleague in the writing profession, upstart poet and novelist Adam Estela. Ladies, try to keep your distance from him, I know he's quite gorgeous to look and and that his poetry is quite catching and romantic, but let's be honest here: I'm not half bad either. On to more serious matters, though. Adam's collection will be available in an easy-to-read E-Book format within the next few days, as will my own collection of poems, The Funeral of Reason. Not sure what to get a poetry enthusiast for the holidays? Pick up one, or even both of these volumes for under $10 each. It's really a steal, considering the quality of Mister Estela's writing. The Funeral of Reason will be available for a modest $1.50 until December 19, at which point you'll have to pay the full price of $4.50 to enjoy the collection.

In fact, I think I'll treat everyone to an excerpt from Funeral, just to whet the appetite. This piece is called "The Colossus"

The vein of ivy stretches,
Strives skyward,
Curls around my stony fingers,
Encasing the marble digits as years
Blooming flowers in my palm as it snakes up
Up-
Up-
Toward my neck.
Like a gentle, subtle garrote.
But what lungs?
What liquids do I possess?
A stone of a man am I.
An emotionless facsimile of the truth.
Yet blessed still
With the faculties to appreciate beauty.
The beauty of the life that courses through the little white veins.
I dare not move.
Surely should I, the life of this poor plant,
This tesoro naturale,
Would be stripped from the world
Long before its time.
I stand still.
A stone of a man.
With just enough of a soul to be love.
But unmoving.
Immune to reciprocation.

And that, ladies and gentlemen is all.

This is Rosenbloom, signing off.

Print Copies Now Available!

Yes, the rumors are true ladies and gentlemen! The Graceless is now available in print from the lovely people at Wordclay.com and it's quite a bit of good news for me. Don't let the price tag set you off, though. It's a cool $12.67 for not only the full text of The Graceless, but two original short stories, Scarlett and The Sign, as well as a bonus treat: an excerpt from the first chapter of The Forgotten, the second act of the Chainsmoker Trilogy.

For those of you who want a signed copy, shoot me an e-mail and I can get you an address to send your copy to for autographing. Alternately, if you're in the Jersey area, I'll be around from December 19th to January 6th.

It's been a pleasure today, folks.

This is Rosenbloom, signing out.

Writer's Block And Bliss Updates

So, here I am, calmly minding my own business, pounding away at keys as I stomp through the first chapter of The Forgotten, and suddenly I realize that despite the outline and the familiarity with the characters, it's a substantially harder book to write than The Graceless. You see, readers, Graceless was always about the characters. It was about developing them, making sure that the reader was emotionally invested in them. But then I get through it, I publish it, and somehow... They lose that spark. Sicily's story is also character-oriented, I suppose, but they're mad at me now. They know, somehow, the things that I have put them through and they're starting to fight back. Maybe it's the mere idea of Jack's slow redemption that's driving them away from me. He has made himself out to be quite the villain, after all, but those of you reading already know that.

What's more important, I find, is that the Chainsmoker Trilogy is slowly giving way to a greater story, outside of the microcosm of Jack and those who he affected with his disappearance. I feel that the series may be taking a very new direction by the time I finish the last act. Somewhere along the line, they asked for a break, so I'm respecting that and focusing for a while on Bliss, a mostly unrelated novel.

I did promise in this title that I would be talking about Bliss, though, and so I shall. It opens with an unfamiliar scene, a beach of violet sand, with a green sun hanging in a slate-colored sky, and we are introduced to our heroine, a confused young girl named Skye. She remembers only her name and tries to make sense of the strange world she woke up in. It's a different story than The Graceless, that's for sure. It's fantasy, an epic tale of redemption, soul-searching, and the battle between good and evil, but it retains some ties to that first story, going so far as to even speculate on the fate of some of the characters.

Hoping that Sicily and her cohorts will speak to me will ultimately do no good. It's definitely time for me to focus on Skye for a little while. She needs some love, after all.

Thanks for your time, dear readers.

This is Rosenbloom, signing out.

Oh, Psycho...

One of my favorite characters to write, I'll be honest. Psycho, the character had it all. She was strangely insightful, tortured, and pathetic. Ultimately, however, it was impossible to hope that the real-life version of her was anything but crazy. I find it a bit of a shame that I have lost contact with the inspiration for that somewhat uplifting, complicated character, but a weight has at last been lifted from my chest. You see, here's the thing about people like Psycho, who I will refer to not by her real name, but rather by her alias from here on out. Kat Parker, I think you need a great deal of help, and sadly you will never seek it. Not until it's too late, at least. I will admit that it's very likely that I exploited you, but not without reason. In my own naive way, I suppose that I hoped you would see the message contained in the pages of The Graceless, and that I was rooting for you to power through your own illness and psychosis. A futile and wasted hope I see. And thus we pack up and move on. I am now ready to bury that portion of my past. Thank you very much for opening my eyes to the mistakes I once made, and I think you could use a good few kicks in the head yourself. But alas, it is not my place to say.

In other news, I have begun work on my new novel, Bliss, a love letter to surrealist writers and my current fan base, small as it may be. I wonder if Bliss will actually succeed in translating its message more than The Graceless. But I suppose there's only one way to find out. I almost regret giving the unbalanced Ms. Parker credit for helping me write The Graceless, but I think it would be petty and selfish do deny her that. No, she truly does deserve the credit for the creation of the character of Emily, and the real crime here is that she doesn't see past the similarities between herself and the character. She's so absorbed by the negative aspects of her own personality that had become so deeply ingrained in Emily, that she does not see just how much positive was soaked into the character.

Again, I cannot mourn for the ignorant all day. It would wear me out far too much. However, I must make a small distinction between myself and some of those who I have come to know in my day. I'm not a hero. I make no effort to save people through my writing. I just want to bring to light some of the things that I've seen in people who I know that they seem to always miss. Few things, after all, are more dangerous than a man who wants to change the world. I just want to start a spark of thought. And if that's too ambitious, I suppose I'll burn for it.

Thanks for your time.

This is Rosenbloom, signing out.

The Graceless

Okay, so the very first novel of my Chainsmoker's Trilogy has finally been released in e-book form, and here's the kicker... The first 60% of it is completely free. Yes. Free, no strings attached. If I can't hook you in with the first half of the book, after all, I suppose that the book isn't really for you, now is it?

Anyways, I've begun work on the second part of the series, and a little side-project called Bliss: A Romance. I'll be keeping pretty tight-lipped about the sequel for a while, except for the title, which I will reveal right here and now: The Forgotten. Yeah, got that all down? Good to hear, since if you're following this, you're probably one of the 12 or so people who have been with the series since its inception and have already suckered me into giving you a free copy, because those people are a bunch of evil bastards who don't want me to eat.

But I digress. I dearly love those 12 people, not gonna lie. Nevertheless, I think that The Graceless has a place with today's readership, and if you haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, I strongly urge you to do so at your earliest possible convenience, and not just because I have to eat.

It's a $6.00 e-book that you can probably blow through in a weekend. The print edition is twice as expensive (oh, the trials and tribulations of self-publishing), but you will also find printed within a thank-you letter from me, two exclusive short stories, and a sneak-peek into The Forgotten.

So, that's my plug for today, and I'll be sure to keep you all in the loop about Bliss as the project comes along.

Signing out.