"Damascus" excerpt up at Brooklyn Rail

Salutations, good looking:

How are you on this fine day?  I just took a long walk around the Mission, enjoying some morning sunshine, listening to old Flaming Lips songs.  Sometimes, it amazes me how they always know the right things to say.

My new novel "Damascus" comes out in October, and the fine folks over at the Brooklyn Rail just posted an excerpt.  Please check it out and drop me a note about it.  I'd love to hear from you.  I'm feeling needy.  I require extra validation right now.  I'm not sure why, but I'm going to blame astrology and the fact I haven't been eating as much bacon.

If you're a writer, I hope the words you scribble today are beautiful.

If you're an avid reader, make your next pick something like Nabokov's "Pale Fire"--something that's constructed of perfect words. 

If you're neither, may your boss be extra special nice all day long.  Dare I say raise?  Yes, you need a raise.

Josh

PS: Why is poaching an egg so hard?
PPS: All I want is a poached egg and I keep screwing it up...

Crazy cover art for new book and a chat with my editor

I am so excited to show you the cover art for my next novel, Damascus.  The book won't be released until October, but the art is so so so good.  The artist is named Damian Demartino, and he totally matched the mood of the story with his dejected Santa. Thanks Damian for your interpretation of the material--you are spot-on, sir.

My smart, ruggedly handsome editor at Two Dollar Radio is Capt. Eric Obenauf.  We chatted this weekend about Damascus.  The Q&A is here. Every writer needs a keen-eyed editor (I actually have 2, as Eric's wife, Eliza, does the copy editing).  Anyway, if my books succeed at what they set out to accomplish, Eric and Eliza deserve a lot of the credit.

Thanks E&E: I'm lucky to have your help/guidance/wisdom.

From the Q&A:

Eric: Two Dollar Radio is definitely an all-consuming venture, and it makes all the difference when we’re putting in late hours, investing everything we have (both financially and mentally), that we’re working with someone who’s freaking awesome and really wants to be engaged in a publishing relationship with us. Since I know you’ve had plenty of offers with the successes of your first two novels to move on, I just wanted to express our satisfaction and appreciation publicly.

Josh: Awwww… you’re going to make me cry and that will ruin my street cred!  It was really important to me to stay indie.  Way back when my agent was trying (and failing) to sell my first novel to the big swanky corporate publishers, they all told me to fuck myself.  So the idea of pandering to them now makes me sort of queasy.  You guys took a chance on me as an unknown writer and I’ll never forget that.  I doubt too many Random House authors have the RH logo tattooed on their arm, and I wear my 2DR tattoo proudly.  Loyalty is important.  We’re growing together.  I dig that.  I hope we can keep it up, though some day I’d like to have more than $300 in the bank.