Put on your grass skirt and coconut brassiere, it’s time for another Link Luau.

From the How to Make My Day Dept.
Over at SFF Audio a few weeks back, three very nice people saw fit to devote a fair amount of time to heaping praise all over “Assam & Darjeeling”.

Click here to listen to the squee-worthy episode. They cover a lot of interesting topics in each show, so it’s well worth subscribing to.

Take Your Pick
It’s official. “Assam & Darjeeling” is now available for your iPad. Just search for it in the iBooks store. In case you’re keeping track: You can now read it in paperback, hardcover, on your Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or listen to the free audiobook. Hell, ask me nicely and I’ll pop ’round and act it out in your basement, den, or rumpus room.

A few people have asked and yes, there will be an iBook/iPad version of Matters of Mortology as well. Look for it sometime around Hallowe’en.

Correction
Apparently some crazy person snuck in and added a few lines of insanity to one of my recent posts, promising a new book this summer.

The aforementioned lunatic has been apprehended and is currently locked in the basement awaiting extradition to the attic.

So. No new book this year. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The Intermittent Wossname
For those of you who are wondering about the new baby, those darn eyes appear to be getting bigger and bluer by the day. It’s hereditary so there’s probably nothing to be done. She’ll just have to learn to live with ’em.

From the Like I Don’t Have Enough to Do Dept.
I’ve never gone in for National Novel Writing Month. When it rolls around each year, I’ve always got a project in the works and don’t want to slow down or take a month off. Also, a month seems like a very short amount of time to, y’know, write a whole damn book. But it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days.

As it stands right now, I just might find myself in a spot to participate this year. It’s a hard call. I really ought to kickstart “Pantheon” once again — woefully neglected during all the new babyness of the past few months — but there’s a faint echo in the back of my head that could turn out to be a very nice little book, something that’s possible to crank through in a month. Especially if I break the rules a teensy bit, which I just might do.

And I very much like the idea of having something new this year.

(I know, I said no new book this year. But we’ll see…)

Spreading the Good News
But if you’re hankering for something new to read from Your Obedient Savant, might I recommend a semi-steady diet of short, easily consumed pieces from The Gospel of Thomas? Each episode is lovingly prepared and served up piping hot. And our handy downloadable PDF provides carry-out curbside service to keep pace with your modern on-the-go lifestyle.

We’ve already got a handful of episodes out there, with a lot more in the works: Everything from poetry to plays to short stories to odd little things that don’t quite fit anywhere else. In addition, I’ll be giving listeners sneak peeks (sneak listens?) at a brand new Jee story as well as sections from my new novel “Pantheon” in progress.

Exciting stuff.

Broadcast News
And speaking of Listening to Things That Sound A Lot Like Me, there’s been a big surge in listeners to all of my podcasts/audiobooks.

Since October of 2009, “Assam & Darjeeling” has seen over 14,000 downloads from all around the world. We’ve only been tracking for a year or so, but the book has been out there since 2007 — which is when it was first offered as a free audiobook/podcast download on iTunes. So it’s safe to assume that those numbers are potentially much, much higher.

Unfortunately, the data for “Matters of Mortology” appears to be corrupted and I don’t have entirely reliable data to share. I’m just going to say “lots and lots” of people have been downloading it since 2008 when it first launched. But don’t let that stop you from giving it a listen (iTunes or RSS).

My latest podcast is an anthology show called The Gospel of Thomas (which you should already know about from reading the blurb above, unless you weren’t really paying attention). It’s been running since May of this year, with approximately 1,000 downloads so far. You can subscribe to it on iTunes as well or listen via RSS.

Yay. Aren’t numbers fun?

The Book of Love
A few weeks back I had this idea that it might be fun to start up an online book club — just a little group of us getting together online to chat about a book or two. I put out a few feelers and enough people chimed in with some interest, so we took the plunge.

Our first book is Kij Johnson’s excellent The Fox Woman and the conversation’s just getting started over in our new Forums section.

Even if you’re a little bit behind, it’s not too late to pick up a copy of the book and join us. Glad to have you along.

(And we’re looking for other books to read in our next round, so throw one of your own favorites into the mix.)

“She is Theology in Flames”
Imagine you’re best friends with the reigning mad genius of comicdom, the author of seminal works that, twenty odd years later, continue to dominate best seller lists and inspire generations of new readers, artists, and writers… Best friends with a self-proclaimed magus who stages public workings, exploring and exposing the parallels between quantum physics and the Kabbalah, among other topics… And imagine he sets his sights on your life story, tracing your own winding path up the Tree of Life, eavesdropping on your (albeit a mad enterprise in it’s own right) wooing of the moon goddess Selene.

“Unearthing” — Alan Moore’s latest work (and possibly his latest working, I can’t quite say) employs all of his storytelling magic (literally) in the exploration of his boyhood chum Stephen Moore (no relation). A study in the evolution of a powerdork (not a pejorative term, I assure you), “Unearthing” moves through the strata of human existence — from the physical to more ethereal realms.

The piece hinges on a late-night invocation of the goddess Selene — a startling and puzzling episode late in the story that exposes more questions than it answers. Whatever might have happened on that night in Alan Moore’s Northampton flat, it’s clear from his account that something most certainly happened — a shared numinous experience that not even drugs or insanity can explain away.

It’s an amazing work, difficult to classify and certainly not something that every listener will find accessible. Like his other workings, Alan Moore so densely layers the images and language in “Unearthing” that a single listen leaves you with anecdotes and impressions, whereas repeated playings deepen the experience to the point where you occupy the mind of each Moore in turn — the lonely wandering in search of his goddess . . . and the acute observer chronicling the journey, even as he drifts from the role of spectator into that of participant.

“Unearthing” serves as the latest layer in Alan Moore’s exploration of the mystical levels of consciousness. Glimmers of it appear in his early work on Swamp Thing, complimented by brief flashes in Watchmen before he picks up momentum in his masterpiece From Hell. For a shorthand overview of his creative and magical mindset, there is the excellent “Mindscape” documentary (available on iTunes and Amazon).

But the purest expression of his mystic evolution and exploration is found in his “workings” — verbal performances to which the label “spoken word” does not do justice. Most of his previous workings are available on CD either through Top Shelf Publishing or for astronomically ridiculous prices on eBay.

Fortunately, “Unearthing” is much easier to get a hold of. You can either spring for the deluxe, limited edition box set from Lex Records or download the stripped down audio version from iTunes.