First of the RV & OI Novels!

Water Towers Look Like Martians, the first of a projected series of four "RV & OI" novels (well, novellas, really) by Jeffrey Scott Holland, is less than two days away!

The story concerns the tiny adventures of a pair of eccentric street buskers calling themselves "Retrovirus" (RV) and "Opportunistic Infection" (OI) and has the added virtue of being based on a true story. (You can read about the real-life RV & OI and their homemade tape and indie comic book empire here.)

Unlike standard JSH Book Club selections, Water Towers Look Like Martians will not be available through Amazon and will be released in print format only, each copy handmade with rather primitive and lowbrow production values. Each book will be a unique art-object unto itself, held together with string, glue, gum, tape, and who knows what else. Each and every copy is signed and numbered by the author.

To be officially released on March 31, Water Towers Look Like Martians is approximately 40 pages long and costs a mere $9.99 postpaid. Order copies directly from the JSH Book Club at our mailing address. The four volumes will be eventually collected into one greater compendium, so these individual editions are strictly limited!

(Meanwhile, the next "real" JSH novel is likely to be the weird western epic The Invisible Ranch with a projected release date of June 25!)

"The Alternation of Night and Day" now available in paperback and Kindle!

At long last, Jeffrey Scott Holland's The Alternation of Night and Day has been released in both paperback and Kindle ebook formats! Originally announced in November 2013, the novel had originally been intended to follow closely on the heels of The Bartender and The Seventeenth Island but became a casualty to the yearlong lull during which the author moved to Florida and became distracted by warm weather and Wicked Weasels.

The story, set in 1936, concerns Louisville welterweight boxing champion Daniel O'Corbin, who in a short span of time is confronted with personal and professional woes: his erratic girlfriend walks out on him, and his boxing manager pressures him to throw a fight and ruin his perfect unbroken string of wins. Some unexpected visitors try to convince him that perhaps a trip to New Orleans to visit a voodoo priest might solve all his problems.

"The Devil and Daniel Boone" Valentine's Day giveaway!

It's a new JSH Book Club giveaway!

On Valentine's Day, a lucky winner's name will be drawn to win a FREE copy of the print edition of The Devil and Daniel Boone, the first of the neverending series of peculiar pulp-fiction lowbrow literature-objects.

As with last month's Moleskin Checklist giveaway, all you have to do to enter is send a DM (direct message) via Twitter to either @catclawtheatre, @jshbookclub, @telecrylic or @schachtons.

This edition is already destined to be a collector's item as all JSH Amazon/CreateSpace books will eventually be replaced with in-house hardcover versions.

If you already entered in the Moleskin Checklist drawing, your name will automatically remain in the hat for this one!

New JSH Book Club Merchandise

An entry from the JSH Florida blog Report from the Florida Zone:

Hey, kids, break open those piggy banks! There's a whole raft of new JSH merchandise available, and much, more coming on the way!

The one I'm most excited about is the set of The Bartender poker chips. You could stock up on these and play an actual game with this handsome poker chip created by Chip Lab in Tampa, Florida, but we prefer to think of them as currency for the next civilization, or one of those "commemorative minted medallions" you used to see on TV offers. Display them in your man cave as an Objet d'art, have one matted and mounted as one would a rare coin, put them away in your safety deposit box for hard times, or keep one in your pocket as a good luck charm when you hit the casino or strip club. This limited edition chip is anointed with J. T. Dockery's striking artwork for the book's cover, and is sure to increase in value over time.

Then we're offering playing cards bearing that same Dockery cover art. You can play some high-stakes poker with them (using, of course, our Bartender poker chips), treasure a framed one in a place of reverie and contemplation as one would holy icons, perform acts of divination with them as if they were Tarot cards, or invent your own Pokémon/Magic Cards style game utilizing them.

Then there's the Toulouse-inations travel mug, bearing the graphics for the original stage production's theatrical poster:

And the Toulouse-inations t-shirts, available in both "men's" style and "women's" slim cut:

Like my good friend Gene Simmons of KISS, I'm an unabashed fan of over-the-top merchandising and marketing. As the great man himself once said, voicing disregard for the portions of his fan base who disapprove of aggressive salesmanship and showmanship: "I think it's cool to see my face on a lunchbox. It's fun. I'm doing this for me. You don't have to buy one."

If you buy any of this stuff, contact me and I'll reward your diligence to the cause to which we are all so devoted, by gifting you a FREE JSH Book Club e-book of your own choosing! (Send me a pic of yourself holding said item and I'll even tweet about what a High Grand Super-Double-Titanium Meritorious monster you are!)

Hundred Dollar Word Hoard

The JSH Book Club is now a genuine book club! Send $100.00 and you'll receive, each month for a year, a different slab of slop from the swamp! If you already own some of these fine deathless works of intergalactic literature, just let us know and we'll be sure to omit them from your schedule of twelve volumes. If you already own it all, you'll get each new book as it is released (just know our schedule sometimes moves in geologic time.)

This offer only applies to the print editions of the books at the present time, but members will receive bonus surprises, including advance ebook editions of new impending titles. Since the average JSH paperback retails for around $12.99, the book club membership therefore offers you an amazing savings of.... um... of... well, whatever, you do the math. But it's worth it. And when Wakeling & Harbour eventually unveil the line of hardcover editions (someday... probably...), you'll have the option of switching over to those if you prefer - which will be an even greater deal!

Send check or money order to our snail-mail address, or Paypal us at catclawtheatre@gmail.com! This offer is only for U.S. mailing addresses!

"Toulouse-inations" Released!

Toulouse-inations is now available in paperback (174 pages), as well as a Kindle ebook edition!

The paperback retails for 12.99 but is currently discounted by Amazon to a mere 11.69. The Kindle version is being offered, as with previous JSH Book Club releases, at a ridiculously low introductory price of 99 cents (it will be 5.99 after the offer expires.)

Based on the 2008 stage play, Toulouse-inations conjures up a fanciful historical revision of Paris' declining fin de siecle days of the 1880s - as seen through the absinthe-drenched visions of painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

A number of lovely women and peculiar characters weave their way through the woof and warp of Henri's struggling art career. That career is imperiled continously by his bohemian lifestyle and alcoholism, which threatens his health and his sanity as his hallucinations increase in severity.

Included as a bonus: the original theatrical play script, along with notes on the production.

Purchase it here.

MOLESKIN CHECKLIST giveaway!

JSH Book Club is giving away a FREE print copy of The Moleskin Checklist and all you have to do to enter to win is send a DM (direct message) to either the @catclawtheatre, @telecrylic, or @jshbookclub twitter accounts!

You don't have to say anything in particular in the DM, just send one. Say "hey" or "enter me" or "yeah" or "I hope this one is better than The Devil and Daniel Boone because that one made no sense at all, you freakin' hack."

The lucky winner will be drawn from a hat (of course) on Christmas day.

The Moleskin Checklist is a detective-noir tale of a private investigator named Jack who does more chain-smoking and jazz record collecting than solving crimes. When Jack receives a disturbing package in the mail from criminals whose motives are unclear, he's reluctant to take action. But his mischievous lowlife friend Sappy - who tends to live his life as if he's in the movies - urges him to play this cinematic situation out to the hilt. They soon quickly learn, however, that real life is nothing like the movies and real villains do not behave as predictably as on TV.