Jan Smitowicz's Blog, page 3
October 24, 2015
Great New Blog About My Novel Redwood Falls
Fellow writer-activist Nancy at Blood Alley Diaries has written a fabulously nuanced, in-depth review of my second novel, Redwood Falls. Check out her terrific piece here.
September 11, 2015
Win a FREE Copy of My Novel Orange Rain!
I’m doing a Goodreads giveaway starting tonight, Friday, at midnight–enter to win one of 10 free signed, personalized copies by clicking Enter Giveaway below!
“The eco-warriors next door embark on a lightning round of vigilante justice. Orange Rain is what happens when the Monkey Wrench Gang goes Death Wish and moves from the scrubland to the streets. Literature that incites.”
–Peter Young, former political prisoner & animal liberator
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Orange Rain
by Jan Smitowicz
Giveaway ends October 19, 2015.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/widget/154077
August 17, 2015
New Eco-Thriller “Redwood Falls” Now Available!
My second novel, Redwood Falls, is now available for purchase via Amazon Kindle in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, India, Brazil, and other countries!
*NOTE–you do not need to own a Kindle to read books published on Kindle! Simply download the FREE Kindle App and use any e-reader or smartphone.
Redwood Falls is a daring, irreverent, wildly unpredictable eco-thrill; just when you think you know what’s happening, a new twist turns everything on its head. Sure to titillate any environmentalist, nature-lover, and/or fan of the great naturalist Edward Abbey, author of the classic ecological romp The Monkey Wrench Gang. But Redwood Falls takes eco-sabotage to the next level, upping the ante for a new generation.
“A wild environmental thrill-ride in the grand tradition of Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang. Direct action and ecological resistance at its finest!”
-A.S. Beebe
August 6, 2015
New Book Release: REDWOOD FALLS!
*Next week* I will be publishing my wildly unpredictable, bold, coming-of-age family saga of eco-sabotage & environmental revolution, REDWOOD FALLS.
“A wild environmental thrill-ride in the grand tradition of Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang. Direct action and ecological resistance at its finest!”
-A.S. Beebe
It will only be available as an e-book via Amazon Kindle for now, but with the free Kindle app, you can purchase the book & read it on ANY e-reader or Smartphone!
(I’ll also be publishing it FOR FREE on this blog in ~25 to 30-page weekly installments)
August 5, 2015
Why Review a Book?
Great, pithy little summation of why it’s so helpful for people to post reviews of books–especially if they’re written by indie/grassroots authors like myself! :)
Originally posted on Scribbles and Somedays:
Well, because encouragement–and gentle, useful critique–is appreciated, and authors need it as much as anybody else! Also, there’s this:
Plus, if there’s something that doesn’t work in a book–a plot line, a characterization, an unsatisfactory ending, or some other aspect of the story–the author will appreciate your saying it. That is, if you say it kindly and without ranting overmuch!
Or if you absolutely loved a book, let the author and your fellow readers know you did, and why!
A good review:
is helpful to the author
doesn’t rant and rave (much)
states what you liked and didn’t like
provides a little useful critique
offers your personal response to the story
You might also include a rating or a recommendation for who would enjoy the book, especially if you’re reviewing it for a blog or Amazon or Goodreads.
Do you review the books you read? What kind of reviewer are you–helpful, ranting…
View original 63 more words
July 20, 2015
New Author Website + $0.99 Kindle Book Sale
Hey, I finally got a decent-looking website up! Check it out :)
Also, the Kindle edition of my darkly funny anti-Monsanto political revenge thriller Orange Rain is temporarily on sale for just $0.99! It currently has *28* five-star reviews, check it out! You don’t even need a Kindle to read, you can download the Kindle app and read on your computer or smartphone :)
That authorial first-book glee.
December 6, 2014
My Undercover Animal Cruelty Investigations
CLICK HERE to read my narrative nonfiction piece about some experiences doing undercover stockyard investigations of dairy “farms” in Southern California.
The article is at turns riveting, heart-wrenching, beautiful, enraging, and militant (natch).
Or you can check out the same piece, print-published in a beautiful 16-page spread that includes pictures; it was the cover story for the November 2013 issue of The Animals’ Voice magazine. You can view the article as a PDF for *FREE*, or purchase beautiful glossy copies for just $6.40 each!
December 5, 2014
My Raunchy VASECTOMY Poem!
When you’re tired of stressing about birth,
The solution is oh so plain to see;
No more rolling condoms on your girth–
Vasectomy!
She can stop taking those nasty pills,
Flushing hormones from her pee,
Making downstream animals ill:
Vasectomy!
But you don’t want it to burn when you piss.
I know, you’re worried about an STD!
Well, all I have to say is this–
Monogamy!
Stop putting such a burden on poor women.
Take on your own responsibility.
No more sperm in your semen swimmin–
Vasectomy!
No more, ‘Where’s my baby’s mama?’
No more abortion pleas.
No more Hitlers or Osamas–
Vasectomy!
Overpopulation is the world’s bane.
To global life it is a curse.
Don’t worry about the procedure’s pain,
You’ve felt so much worse.
It’s nothing like a kidney stone,
Really not a big deal.
Nothing like a broken bone.
You won’t even miss a meal!
After the Novocaine makes you numb
All you feel is a gentle tug,
Of total discomfort a tiny sum,
And the strange smell of a burning rug.
That’s the sealing of your vas deferens tube.
Now your billion bastard babies perish inside–
On your body, a brilliant medical rube!
With scars tiny, not a centimeter wide.
And if you want to raise a child,
Think about the most righteous option;
It’s really not an idea so wild–
Adoption!
Never again a pregnancy scare,
Worrying, stressing, feeling sick,
Pulling at the roots of your hair,
Waiting on that piss-soaked stick.
And think of all the fun to be had!
Sex any time, anywhere.
Leave the rubbers at your pad,
Now you can raw dog in there!
Get it on wherever you are;
Almost any quiet place will do–
The movies, the back of a bar;
Even a Starbuck’s drive-thru!
Free to be
Forever me–
Vasectomy!
Enjoy that? Check out my revenge-on-Monsanto debut novel Orange Rain HERE!
November 29, 2014
Review–“Revival,” Brand New from Stephen King
Stephen King has repeatedly lamented the fact that so many people tell him their favorite book of his, more often than not, is something from the 1970s or ’80s, like The Stand or The Shining or Misery. He’ll say something like, “It’s a little disappointing to discover so many people find your best work to be many decades past.” But I happen to feel he’s done some of his absolute finest writing in the last ten years or so! He’s my favorite author, and influenced me to become a novelist rather than a sports writer (starting at the tender age of 12—after I first read The Shining). I adore books from throughout his entire 40-plus-year publishing career.
In any case . . . perhaps because of the near-fatal collision between his body and a speeding van in 1999, or maybe because he felt a kind of liberation after finally completing his enormously complex and nuanced masterwork—the seven-book Dark Tower series—I truly feel he’s produced some of his most beautiful and literarily relevant works in the latter stages of his writing life. Stuff like Lisey’s Story, 11/22/63, Under the Dome (my personal all-time favorite), and Full Dark, No Stars. And his newest offering, Revival (released just a couple weeks ago on November 11), is an entirely respectable overall addition to the fantastic groove he’s managed—some might say miraculously—to carve into his path the last decade.
Revival focuses on the intersecting lives of its two main characters. Jamie Morton spends most of his life as a kind of bohemian rock guitarist and a heroin addict. Reverend Charles Jacobs, Jamie’s childhood pastor, experiences an appallingly traumatic event; he then delivers a “Terrible Sermon” denouncing god and religion. Jacobs goes on to devote his life to studying and experimenting with electricity, striving for his ultimate goal of harnessing the “secret electricity,” which would create unspeakable power and danger. The plot is engaging and kept me on my toes. I found the romantic subplot beautiful, sweet, and surprising. King very accurately portrayed a multitude of things: the horrors of addiction, music’s power to bring people together, the clear evidence against a loving god, and how religion-based charlatans can use faith as a weapon to take advantage of the sick and/or vulnerable and/or gullible. My only real problem with Revival was I thought its climactic scene fell flat. That it suffered from a lack of the imaginative voltage King pumped into the rest of the novel. Even so, it was a worthwhile read. It’s far superior to Mr. Mercedes, his previous clunker of a novel, and the electric energy of Revival makes me even more disappointed that he’s turning the former into a trilogy. My score for Revival: 60/100.
November 28, 2014
FreeBook Fridays!
Very soon, I will begin a new promotion. Every Friday, I will publish a chapter from my novel Redwood Falls. The entire thing will be made available as an e-book on Amazon if people want to read the whole novel right away. But I will publish one chapter per week until the whole thing’s available for free, piece-by-piece.
Redwood Falls is the story of David Foster Sayers, who decides as a child that he wants to be a writer. His overbearing mother decides to do anything it takes to stop him. Foster eventually embarks on a search for his missing father, who may or may not have faked his own suicide. Redwood Falls is a big-hearted, wild earth-centered ride about friendship, creativity, madness, family, and community. It is an edge-of-your seat environmental caper, an eco-thriller in the proud tradition of Edward Abbey’s classic The Monkey Wrench Gang.
Stay Tuned! My FreeBook Fridays will be starting before the year is out!
