Confessions of a Pop Fan

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

LOOK AT YOU NOW; YOU TURNED OUT WELL, MY DANDELION

FOR IMMEDATE RELEASE - AUGUST 22, 2005

JAMIE S. RICH TO READ FROM NEW NOVEL AT TWENTY-THIRD AVE BOOKS

Twenty-Third Avenue Books and Portland-based publisher Oni Press are pleased to be hosting a reading by author Jamie S. Rich on September 14. Rich will be reading from his recently published novella I Was Someone Dead. The event is free and starts at 7:30 p.m.

Jamie S. Rich is a well-known writer in Portland thanks to his past contributions to many of the city's periodicals, including Willamette Week, The Portland Mercury, and The Rocket. He was also an editor at Dark Horse Comics in the mid-90s before moving on to Oni Press, where he was editor in chief until June 2004. In 2000, he published his debut novel, Cut My Hair, to much critical acclaim. Willamette Week called it "[A] lyrical elegy to lost youth, the death of modern rock, and the search for something authentic," and national magazine Alternative Press dubbed it "High Fidelity written by a young punk outsider instead of a 30-something music snob."

I Was Someone Dead is Rich's second major prose work. It is the story of Hieronymus Zoo, a man who has fled from modern life to live on an island where he hopes to create an existence free of pain. Two things threaten this plan. First, a mysterious monster he sees lurking the ocean at night; second, a woman who invades his paradise seeking her own version of escape. Both of these presences force Hieronymus Zoo to confront life once more.

Inspired by the classic novella storytelling of writers like Giovanni Boccaccio and Joseph Conrad, Rich has crafted I Was Someone Dead as modern storybook allegory. This feeling is aided by illustrations from UK comics artist Andi Watson, creator of Breakfast After Noon and Love Fights. Leading comic book blog Gotham Lounge has called I Was Someone Dead "a good book...that allows you to think about the story in greater detail; examining everything from all sorts of different angles, even after having finished it. It sticks in your mind, playing out those scenes over and over again as you try and figure out 'is that what the author meant?'" And Cellar Door Publishing echoes the sentiment: "...engrossing... causing the reader to think a little about not only the story, but also how it is told, and who is telling it."

Twenty-Third Avenue Books is located at 1015 NW 23RD Avenue, Portland, Oregon. Phone number: (503) 224-5097.

Oni Press can be contacted at 1305 SE MLK Blvd., Suite # A, Portland, OR 97214. E-mail: James Lucas Jones at jjones@onipress.com

Current Soundtrack: Alfie, Crying at Teatime

Current Mood: self-absorbed