Yesterday, I got to do a fun thing that I’ve been planning for well over a year. Check it out:
When we discussed cover ideas for The Middling Affliction, the publisher was on board with the five Watch guardians on the cover but wanted them against the background of an iconic Brooklyn landmark. Brooklyn is awesome, but there aren’t that many immediately-identifiable locations like the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building, etc. After some thought I settled on this extremely popular spot in Dumbo offering a view of the Manhattan skyline and a slice of the Manhattan Bridge (not the Brooklyn Bridge, which looks completely different!). The fabulous cover artist Tulio Brito made the spot look both magical and recognizable at the same time. I immediately thought it’d be cool to have a picture taken in that spot, holding the book. Except Brooklyn is huge, and Dumbo is a 45-minute drive away from my house (that’s not even assuming you might get stuck in rush hour traffic.) I was finally in the vicinity yesterday, meeting a friend who was visiting from out of town for lunch, and we got this done.
Of course, this means I will need to visit the Bowling Green by Wall St. and take a photo in front of the Charging Bull when Kakistocracy is released.
Meantime, I’ve been sharing small snippets of text from Kakistocracy on social media as the means of promoting the upcoming book and drawing attention to this campaign. I figured I should share them here as well, since not everyone stalks me on social media (their loss, I say!)
#1. Can you tell what this author’s favorite beverage is?
# 2. Those who listened to the Kickstarter campaign video will recognize what this bit is riffing off of.
#3. This one is non-fiction. Rat Rock is a real NYC landmark, located on West 114th St.
#4. Not a humorous bit but this is very relevant to the themes of the novel.
#5. This one was selected by my friend and one of my favorite writers, Ken Liu, who’s currently reading the book. He said it made him laugh out loud, prompting his kids to ask him what was going on.
There’s less than a week remaining in the campaign. Please continue letting anyone who enjoys audiobooks and a good laugh know about it! Thank you.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ufopublishing/kakistocracy-audiobook
Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction 