FALLING IN LOVE IS NOT A WASTE OF TIME
A list of 8 things worth talking about.
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1.
NEW BOOKS (Non-Fiction)
Yes, my real name is Ian Rogers, hahah.
As some of you may now, I still have a day job.
I work in a university music program, mainly teaching music history and a bit project management. It’s a good gig.
Recently, the two beams of my life intersected and I co-wrote a non-fiction book with another academic (Ben Green) about Brisbane (Australia) indie-rock band Screamfeeder. Great band. Australia’s Guided By Voices, I reckon.
If you’ve never heard Screamfeeder, have a listen to this:
My Screamfeeder book is published by Bloomsbury for their 33&1/13 series (short books about a single album) and my entry is a little different in that it’s an oral history.
Pick it up all over, but it’s Amazon in a range of formats:
(👆You can also preview it there)
2.
DUNE 2 (Movies)
I’ve almost muted the words ‘Dune’ on Twitter, because the discourse is that out of control.
Is it about oil?
Is Paul an anti-hero?
Is it about colonialism?
How does this fantasy relate to the real-life carnage of war on planet Earth?
It’s so gross and weird because the only question Dune 2 answers is: What if Star Wars was more like Apocolypse Now?
3.
HORMOZI ON MARKETING (Spotify & Amazon)
Alex Hormozi is a pretty interesting guy. He was plenty rich before becoming a social media influencer, and has talked openly about how he made that pivot purely to get richer still. He’s aiming to get Kardashian money.
And while his content is not my usual fare, I read $100M Offers on the beach and, I kid you not, it’s really good. I’ve taken undergraduate and postgraduate arts marketing and still found a lot of it really helpful.
I’ve been using his stuff to retool my product pages. Unfortunately, novels don’t really meet his first criteria for getting loaded: sell something a lot of people want to buy. But one needs to persist against all good advice to become a novelist.
The book is free on Spotify and $9.99 on Amazon.
4.
THE STRIP (Kindle Unlimited)
If you live in America (and a few other places), you can now read my latest novel The Strip as part of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited library.
I’m just trying this out. I don’t love Amazon’s streaming model, so if it doesn’t move a few books, this might be somewhat temporary.
If you have KU and want to check the book out, please have look at it soon.
5.
CURRENTLY READING (Books)
I’m halfway through Zahid Gamieldien’s novel All The Missing Children. It’s good so far, but with a literary mystery like this, it’ll all come down to whether he can land it. Will report back soon.
I’m also still on a deep dad-rock bender with Soundgarden. So I’m checking out Greg Prato’s Dark Black and Blue: The Soundgarden Story. Look, I’ll say this much: he has good access. There’s plenty of primary interview material. But the prose and storytelling is fairly artless. It’s getting the job done — I’m enjoying it immensely — but can I recommend it? I cannot…unless you’ve listened to Superunknown 30 times in the last fortnight.
6.
CURRENTLY LISTENING (Music)
I went out to a show this week, opting in for a $160 AUD ticket to Melvins and Mr Bungle. It was a magical night out: Melvins opened with a hour-long set, during which I drank one full strength beer, and then at the end of said beer/set I went home, missing Bungle entirely.
This is what they played:
7.
GRUNDYS IN THE EARLY 80s (Photograph)
In my new novel — titled The Dream — two characters eat a toasted sandwich in front of this:
8.
A LITTLE AT A TIME (Short Story)
This is a pretty morose one, I’ll admit.
Weirdly enough, this may be the earliest writing I can show you. This little story was taken directly out of my first novel (something called Black Birches), which like many first novels was never published.
I’m pretty sure I wrote this in my late 20s, circa 2003-2004. It took years to write that book, and I undoubtably worked on it far harder and longer than subsequently published books of mine. Once it was done, I submitted, I edited, I took notes and feedback. And then, a year or two later, I put it in the bottom drawer (i.e. bin) and all that remains of it is this little story.
When it was all over, I had to admit that I’d failed, and that stung a little. But I soon started to miss working on it. That led to working on something new, then something new again, and then publication and mid-list oblivion and the rest of it. And here I am, still at it.
In other words, I was falling in love.
When is that ever a waste of time?
That’s all.
— IAIN
PS: Read my public-facing thoughts Twitter and see how I live my life on Instagram.
PPS: This newsletter is brought to you by Screaming Life by Soundgarden.
Would love to learn what the eventual outcome of the Kindle Unlimited experience has been. Considering trying it too.