David G. Cookson's Blog, page 30

Pain Center: the Novel! is out!!!

Many years from now, when people ask you, "Where were you on April 4, 2017, when Pain Center: the Novel! was released?" what will you tell them?








Pain.


Lost Love.


Betrayal.



And most importantly…


Coffee.



When Kyle's headaches drive him to seek the help of the Hartsburg Holistic Pain Center for Hartsburgers with Holistic Pain, he is reunited with a lost love from his youth. But
what is the deal with his roommate with the stuffed animal that he uses to take notes after his midnight treks? Why do they make the patients do jumping jacks and pottery? And why do they force them to eat bean bowls and abstain from coffee?
As he begins to question his situation, he soon finds that there is a deeper conspiracy that will rock the coffee loving town below...







PAIN CENTER: THE NOVEL!!!, By David G. Cookson!

Available through my web page:

http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCentertheNovel.html,



atomic books in Baltimore,


Quimby's Bookstore in Chicago


or through the good, old fashioned US Postal Service, by sending 8 US dollars to :



David Cookson


PO Box 23568


Baltimore, MD


21203.






There, I hope you seek it out at one of these fine establishments, more to be added in the future. This is a good book, I hope you check it out!

Today's the Day! Pain Center: the Novel! is out!!!

Many years from now, when people ask you, "Where were you on April 4, 2017, when Pain Center: the Novel! was released?" what will you tell them?
Pain.
Lost Love.
Betrayal.
And most importantly…
Coffee.
When Kyle's headaches drive him to seek the help of the Hartsburg Holistic Pain Center for Hartsburgers with Holistic Pain, he is reunited with a lost love from his youth. But what is the deal with his roommate with the stuffed animal that he uses to take notes after his midnight treks? Why do they make the patients do jumping jacks and pottery? And why do they force them to eat bean bowls and abstain from coffee? As he begins to question his situation, he soon finds that there is a deeper conspiracy that will rock the coffee loving town below...


PAIN CENTER: THE NOVEL!!!, By David G. Cookson!
Available through my web page:
http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCentertheNovel.html,
atomic books in Baltimore,
Quimby's Bookstore (Chicago area only, for now)
or through the good, old fashioned US Postal Service, by sending 8 US dollars to :

David Cookson
PO Box 23568
Baltimore, MD
21203.

There, I hope you seek it out at one of these fine establishments, more to be added in the future. This is a good book, I hope you check it out!

Pain Center: the Soft Opening

I know this is a few days early, but...PAIN CENTER: THE NOVEL: (the Soft opening) IS NOW AVAILABLE!!!


"What the hell does that mean,?" you ask?

It really means anything you want it to. I have copies now, and I'm putting it out there.

"How?" you ask.

--through my (admittedly rudimentary) web page, listed at bottom of this post.
--by coming up to me and asking for it. Hell, I may even give you an autograph.
--by inboxing me
--by shopping at a fine store near you.
"A store? Really?" you ask. Well, yes, but it's not set just yet. Thus, the "soft opening."
It is 164 pages, and will run 8 dollars (Postage included...the cover price is $5). I am really happy with this one, I hope some of you take the time and seek it out.
However...
If you find yourself desperately wanting to read my book but too broke to afford it, I will soon be announcing a giveaway (next week, in fact). So stay tuned, and jump on it!

http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...

The Impossible Fortress

The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I know it's only March, but this is the best book I've read all year. A celebration of the '80s, a coming of age story about the dawn of the age of computers...It's love...and within, I got all these songs stuck in my head. Fourteen year old Billy Marvin designs a video game with fourteen year old Mary Zelinsky, who he meets as he is on a mission to procure the infamous Vanna White Playboy spread from her father's shop. It's great fun, could have read in one long sitting, had I the time.



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Pain Center: Pre order!

“Do you ever wonder why people who do the same job as you love doing what they do while you hate it? Do you ever sit up late at night wondering, what if the weather is actually part of a continuum and not actually cyclical, and therefore global warming is actually not a real thing, merely the logical result of a weather pattern that is part of a long chain of changing weather and not recurring?”
“I…I don’t know that I’ve ever thought that.”
“Or that the best way to save a lot of money at Burger King is to simply stop eating at Burger King? That’s the paradox.”

Let me ease your Pain. Pre-Order Pain Center: the Novel!

http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...

Bucky F-Word.

Bucky F*cking Dent by David Duchovny

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The former X-Files actor writes the tale of Ted Fullilove, aka Mr Peanut, a New York man whose estranged father Marty is dying but whose situation rapidly improves or deteriorates depending upon the outcome of the Red Sox game. Marty is a Boston fan living in New York, mainly to piss off his neighbors. It is 1978 and many, many years away from the New England sports dominance that the kids have gotten used to today. (Trust me, I grew up in New England in the ‘80s. The Sox sucked, the Bruins sucked, The New England Patriots team that got routed in the Super Bowl by the Chicago Bears 46-10? THAT’s the team I remember. The Celtics were the only team that was any good in those days.) And as the once long-suffering Red Sox fans remember, 1978 was the year the Sox choked up a huge lead only to have it all come down to a one game playoff with the Yankees and…Bucky F*cking Dent.

It is during this summer that Ted Fullilove schemes to keep his father’s spirits high by faking a Red Sox winning streak by manipulating the newspapers and by making use of a new device called a VCR…

I was a little all over the place with this one, at times loving it and at other times believing it to be a little bit thin. But I think it won me over with its wisdom about family and insight above love and death. And then there is this great observation about New Yorkers on pages 181-182, when he talks about former Yankee owner, the (now) late George Steinbrenner:

“Steinbrenner fed into and fed the inflated self-image that Ted perceived was growing stronger in New York City every day…this notion of the city being made up of ‘winners’ took up more and more psychic space, like a cancer. Steinbrenner was a symptom of that spiritual cancer and a cause. Proud to be a New Yorker…really? Why? What gives that particular geographical location the right to demand a winner as opposed to, say, Cleveland? …it meant nothing to be a Yankee, to be a New Yorker, to be an American. It was a uniform. The pinstripes. Like Wall Street. This city on a hill. To cater to this nationalistic heart lurking in all men was evil, and damn good business.”



As the kids say…I’m just gonna leave this here…





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Pain Center: the Novel! Available April 4th!!!

Pain. Lost love. Betrayal. And most importantly...Coffee. Pain Center, the Novel!, the new book from David G. Cookson, Available April 4th.

Pain Center: the Novel!

Just a heads up to fans of Beer Club or The Best of Thunder Johnson: I have a new book I will be putting out called "Pain Center: the Novel!" Aiming to put it out around April 4th. More details later. I still have a lot of work to do on it but I'm happy with the way it's turning out. Stay tuned!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Cometbus #56

A Bestiary of Booksellers by Aaron Cometbus

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Cometbus #56: A Bestiary of Booksellers.

An A to Z trip through the world of the New York bookseller scene, as reported by Aaron Cometbus in this 2015 edition of the long running punk zine.

What can I say about this? I have been a fan of Aaron and the Cometbus ‘zine since I was a teenager, though I’ve fallen off reading his work, while he has been working nonstop for over 35 years now. When I read Cometbus, I am reading from someone who has always inspired me as a writer. He has always epitomized the spirit of punk in his writing, in the undertaking of a ‘zine that is seen and loved by a large number of people but never truly gone mainstream. He can be positive, but not in a “blow sunshine up your ass” kind of way…and yet he can also be scathing when he needs to be, pointing out hypocrisy or making observations that I find myself emphatically agreeing with—like on the “Namaste for me, fuck you to you” attitude of the Whole Foods crowd…I’m paraphrasing here because I can’t find the quote.

Admittedly, I will always be a bigger fan of his earlier travel stories, but no one can do that forever. It is just good to see where his travels have finally led him: to a place where he can be ensconced and report on the world he inhabits with other New York City booksellers. Aaron goes through an almost anthropological study of the bookselling world, a world that is so varied and unexpected that it is downright fascinating. Along the way is a mini-thread of his quest to locate a woman that he has become smitten with, whom he dubs “The Raccoon” (his writing has always been full of colorful pseudonyms and aliases.)

Ok, picky criticisms, the kind that you reserve only for the things you truly love: yes, I miss the Aaron Cometbus handwritten “font,” one of the trademarks of this ‘zine. I totally get what a painstaking labor that must have been, and I certainly cannot fault him for moving into the last century by finally switching over to a 19th Century Schoolbook font. I’m sure it was time. (Again: this is not a serious criticism, and I am mostly kidding anyway.) He speaks of scams, rip-offs, old men, hoarders, collectors, community, library sales, and all manner of resale. The underlying truth of the bookseller is that no one does it for the money….at least no one gets rich selling used books. And at one point when Aaron nearly fantasizes about the benefits of simply having a job where you hate your boss, waste time, screw around and punch out, rather than trying to fend for yourself by being in business for yourself…well, it just turns everything you hate about your job on its head, doesn’t it?

A Bestiary of Booksellers reaffirmed everything I’ve always loved about Cometbus. I have a modest collection of Cometbus at home that has been diminished by loaning out the issues I liked the best. I regret that maybe slightly, as I also regret not keeping up with this ‘zine.

But anyway, life is not about regret. Life is about simple pleasures. Like drinking coffee and reading Cometbus.




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A Hundred Thousand Worlds

A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Valerie Torrey used to play a part on a (fictional) sci-fi show called Anomaly. Then 6 years ago, she took her son, Alex, and fled to New York, where she started her new life. When a custody agreement forces Valerie to come back to the West Coast to give Alex back to his father, Andrew (her costar on the old TV show), Valerie decides to make her way west making appearances on the comic convention circuit as her former character, taking her son in tow, who in his isolation, takes refuge in the world of comics and all their hundred thousand worlds.

May we take a moment to celebrate the reliable, durable, timeless joy of the road trip as a metaphor, as a storyline, a vehicle through which a story travels? It works so often for a number of reasons: giving a story a destination also gives the story a place to go, literally. The road trip is where thoughts are expressed, where dreams are revealed, where fears are laid out. We find them so enjoyable because deep down we all want to be on the move, to be going somewhere else, experiencing the joy of unknown possibility. And the road trip at the heart of this wonderful story was key in my own reaction to this wonderful book, as I already loved it before I was even 30 pages in…

I loved this book. You don’t need to know anything about comics to appreciate it, though if you do, you will recognize some of the tropes and the characters upon which the made-up superheroes of this world are based. And just to ground it in a little reality, the sections are bookended by quotes from the great (and very real) Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Alex is a sweet, likable kid who learns of Valerie’s former show through her bedtime stories, in which she retells old episodes of Anomaly. And all throughout, we are reminded of the unbridled joy that can come from loving something silly to the point of nerdy exhaustion. Bob Proehl, an obvious comic book aficionado himself, really nailed it.

I couldn’t wait to get to the end so I could write this review. I highly recommend this one.





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