now available for pre-order: Affluenza by David LaBounty

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:

AFFLUENZA
—a novel by David LaBounty—


pre-order link: http://www.silverthought.com/affluenza/




AFFLUENZA
by David LaBounty
Publisher: Offense Mechanisms, an imprint of Silverthought Press
148 pages
paperback: $8.99 $9.99 + S/H



Charles Dash has everything a young insurance executive rising through the ranks of Midwestern Accident and Life can hope for—a beautiful wife, a white Mustang, a townhouse, a tape deck, satin sheets, and contemporary leather furniture. As Dash climbs the corporate ladder, his superiors soon recognize his brutal skill set: denying customer claims with a ruthlessness they had seldom seen. Midwestern rewards Dash with promotions. Banks reward him with credit cards.

Soon Dash finds his spending spiraling out of control. He lives paycheck to paycheck to support his suburban lifestyle of golf on weekends, owning the first SUV in his neighborhood of luxurious McMansions, and a growing penchant for prostitutes. He applies for—and banks are more than willing to give him—more credit cards. Ensnared in the vicious cycle of spending, he finally has to remortgage his house, but soon, even that isn't enough.

Broke and desperate, Dash decides to wage a violent one-man war against the credit card companies. His spree of destruction leads him to a financial solvency that comes with a very heavy price—but it is a price he is more than willing to pay. He will do anything to keep his lifestyle intact.

Affluenza, the third novel by Michigan author David LaBounty, is a scathing critique of credit card culture, a tale of consumerism, vanity, debt, and sexual addiction torn from today's headlines. Relevant to these troubled times, Affluenza is a dire warning to those who choose to spend their way to the American Dream.



pre-order link: http://www.silverthought.com/affluenza/

Mark Brand interviewed at Printer's Row Lit Fest

Host: Amy Guth
Date: Saturday, June 6, 2009
Time: 2:00-2:30PM CST
Location: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-subtext/


The Chicago Tribune is host to the 25th annual Printer's Row Lit Fest this weekend, and their ChicagoNow affiliate literature blogger Amy Guth will be interviewing local Chicago authors and streaming live from the event.

Silverthought author and associate editor Mark Brand will be interviewed on Saturday at 2:00PM. You can log in from home and watch. Mark encourages you to check out the other authors Amy will have on hand also, including James Kennedy at 11:00AM.


link: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-subtext/

ST Online update: 01 June 2009

The June 2009 update of Silverthought Online features the second chapters of the serials Mr. Head by Michael Gold and The Cowboy Trilogy by Thomas Henry Dylan along with new short fiction from ST's Mark R. Brand, who took time from his recent adventures at the Pilcrow Lit Fest and editing Thank You, Death Robot to write a story that prominently features ham. I'd also like to welcome Leah Erickson, Sasha Janel McBrayer, Jon McRae, Jason D. Moore, Jennifer Shumate, and Cavan Terrill, who make their debuts on Silverthought with short fiction that runs the gamut from travel guides to DOD reports, from junk mail to wooden fish, and from a hole in the ground to, well, the most vomit I've ever found in the slushpile. Prospective submitters take note: the work presented in this update is some of the best we've seen on ST. It embodies the contemplative, challenging, and sometimes downright bizarre material we're looking for.

I'm happy to report that ST's print division is finalizing our Summer 2009 releases, Thank You, Death Robot, edited by Mark R. Brand, Affluenza, by David LaBounty, and Horror House Detective by Michael Gold. Stay tuned for pre-order information and for first looks at excerpts and covers. With just over eight thousand publishing queries since we opened for print submissions again in January, response time has slowed. I'm finding some gems among the hundreds of Twilight clones, and if one of those gems is yours, you'll be hearing from me. But no more vampire novels, please. Just please.

And on a final staff development note, drop by the forum and say hello to Silverthought's summer intern, Intern Andy. What? you say. Silverthought has a summer intern? That's what I said too. This is a cool development for a company whose corporate headquarters contains more woodchucks than human beings.

Check back soon for news about further site improvements, more social networking crap, our shiny new ST Book Club, and maybe even some good old fashioned dead tree reading.

—PEH

ST Online update: 02 February 2009

Welcome to the February 2009 Silverthought update. Happy Groundhog Day. And New Year. Merry Christmas. And don't forget to vote. Okay, sorry for the wait. We've been working frantically on some necessary improvements under ST's hood, but now that those are in order and now that the Pennsylvania Bastard Snow Rat has been scared away by his shadow, take some time over the next six weeks of winter hell to enjoy this fiction.

The February update features the last chapter of Out of Nothing by Thomas Henry Dylan and the first chapter of Mr. Head by Michael Gold. We have short fiction by returning writers Gayla Chaney, Alex Clark, Ken Dean, Joseph Hirsch, Chris Hlad, Kimberly Raiser, and Joel Van Valin, along with the ST debuts of Patrick Anderson Jr., David J. Batista, and Tim Lieder. You'll find grenades, cannibalism, Nazis, mercenaries, robots, ghosts, and multiple stabbings—everything from Mr. Head to Mr. Toes.

On the print front, I'm pleased to say that ST has received nearly five thousand queries since we opened for print submissions again in January. We've begun putting the 2009-2010 print lineup together. First up, the long-awaited Thank You, Death Robot anthology edited by Mark R. Brand, which you can expect in the spring. I've also accepted Brand's The Damnation of Memory, How It Ends by Scott Lyerly, Bliss: A Novella and Blood: The New Red by David S. Grant, Horror House Detective by Michael Gold, and Affluenza by David LaBounty. More announcements about the print division will soon follow, including a planned limited-edition horror collection, a women's collection edited by Becci Noblit Goodall, and perhaps the most heartbreakingly gorgeous sf novel I've read in years. Stay tuned for details.

Those of you wishing to submit material to our online or print divisions should peruse our updated submission guidelines closely. We've made some minor changes to simplify the process and clarify who we are and what we do. I'm talking to you, two hundred people who lied when they said they picked up an issue of Silver Thoughts and liked what they saw. Sure you did.

And now on a more serious note, if you didn't read "Strangedays" by Rhian Waller in our last update, you really missed out. You should read it now. You should also consider donating to Rhian's fundraising campaign for Amnesty International: http://www.justgiving.com/rhianwaller. She's going to shave her head. More information is available on the Facebook group "Rhian Goes Bald for Amnesty" at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46506923946. ST wishes Rhian all the best at her endeavor. I'd show my support by shaving my head, but if winter continues like this, I will have pulled the rest of my hair out in frustration by our next update anyway.

Enjoy.

—PEH

ST Online update: 15 November 2008

The November update of ST Online features serial fiction from Thomas Henry Dylan and short fiction from Jeff Baker, Elena Clark, Ken Dean, P.S. Gifford, Joseph Hirsch, and ST newcomers Chris Hlad and Rhian Waller. We've also included the winner of Mark's "Modify the Phase Variance, Carl" comedy writing contest, "The Fable of Luck - Amendments.doc" or "Milos Shizz" by Andrew Murphy, which also wins the award for having the most superscript/footnotes of any piece on ST.

Some of you may have heard of a little novel called The Department of Off World Affairs by Russell Lutz. In this update, you'll find two (or three) interviews with Russell by two (or three) ST staff members. Learn more about the book, the writer, the legend, and the cure for cancer.

This update has heaping helpings of footnotes, electroshocks, cowboys, devastated futures, sexy fun times, wedding shenanigans, and stump-fuckings. This is change in which you can believe.

--PEH

ST Online update: 20 September 2008

ST Online's September update features new serial fiction by Victor Giannini and Kimberly Raiser and short fiction from Jeff Baker, Dan Devine, Thomas Henry Dylan, Joseph Hirsch, Andrew Murphy, and Joel Van Valin, along with two excerpts from The Department of Off World Affairs by Russell Lutz. Anyone who's been around ST for a while may recognize "Heliopause" and "Junior," but we've crossed a few eyes and dotted a few tees. These are the submissions that novels are made of.

Since the official announcement of our latest writing contest fell between updates, we've extended the deadline for Mark R. Brand's "Modify the Phase Variance, Carl" comedy contest. See the update for details.

There are some big ideas and adult themes in this update. I blame the LHC. Drop by the forum to join the conversation and exercise your Caps Lock.

--PEH

ST now accepting pre-orders for The Department of Off World Affairs

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:

THE DEPARTMENT OF OFF WORLD AFFAIRS
—a novel by Russell Lutz—

pre-order link: http://www.silverthought.com/dowa/

The Department of Off World Affairs
by Russell Lutz
Publisher: Silverthought Press
ISBN-10: 0-9815191-7-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-9815191-7-3
488 pages
hardcover: $19.99 + S/H

Since the time of Copernicus, we have asked if we were alone in the universe. Now we know the answer:

Not even close.

Astronomer Vanessa Hargrove longs for the days when mankind sent ships like Voyager toward the stars. When she accidentally alerts the galaxy to the presence of Earth, she gets her wish. Thousands of alien species, previously unknown to Earth, populate the galaxy. Many of them come to visit.

Air Force test pilot Terry Youngblood is one of the first to interact with these visitors, transforming him into the military’s leading expert on the tens of thousands of interstellar guests to Earth. But is the task of avoiding interstellar incidents, defusing accidental war-provoking situations, and preparing a defense against possible threats too much for one man?

As a brilliant young engineer and one of the leading authorities on the physics of space travel, Keira Desai is selected to be one of the designers of Earth’s first starship. She sees first hand the marvels that alien technology can accomplish. But such marvels can quickly become horrors when they are not properly understood.

And what of Sylvester, the mysterious snakelike traveler who arrives on Earth to peddle his wares? He helps to cure mankind’s worst diseases and gives Earth the means to watch its stellar neighborhood. But what is his game? Can he truly be trusted?

Leading the United States—and, in fact, the world—in this exciting and dangerous new time is the Department of Off World Affairs. DOWA’s mission is to ensure Earth is ready for the visitors, and that the visitors are ready for Earth.

The Department of Off World Affairs: It's your galaxy.


RESERVE YOUR COPY OF DOWA TODAY:

The Department of Off World Affairs will be released in October 2008. For a limited time, Silverthought is offering pre-order sales of DOWA for $19.99. Orders will ship to pre-release customers in October 2008. Reserve your copy today, and be sure to check back for updates.

pre-order link: http://www.silverthought.com/dowa/