NOVEL IDEA

Well, I don't have to tell you that this blog is moribund. The squirrel has given up the ghost. I'm allowing it to do so for a few reasons. First, I have been writing content for a new blog that focuses solely on writing, editing, and publishing. Once the design is settled, I will get the address out there. Second, I have been working to get a backlog of old writing published for Kindle and other hand-held reading devices. The first book is my detestable first novel LUMPEN: A Novel of Prague. It was a bitch to write, and it will be a bitch to read. If you are brave enough, give it a try. I think after me and one very underwhelmed literary agent (who compared the novel to Janet Jackson's Superbowl nipple exposure) nobody has actually read the thing. The brief description is as follows:

A strange, loving but ruthless prostitute, a shadow that stalks its owner, and a new-age skinhead: Welcome to the dark world of John Shirting, a recent arrival in the city of Prague, back in the early 1990s.

Not long ago, Shirting held down a beloved job at Capone-cino’s, a coffee chain and global business powerhouse. When he is deemed ‘too passionate’ about his job, he is let go. Shirting makes it his mission to return to the Capone-cino’s fold by single-handedly breaking into a new market, and making the city of Prague safe for free-market capitalism. Unfortunately, his college nemesis, Theodore Mizen, a certified socialist, has also moved to Prague, and is determined to reverse the Velvet Revolution, one folk song at a time.

It is not long before Shirting’s grasp on his mission and, indeed, his sanity, come undone, leaving him at the mercy of half-bit mafioso, and his own shadow self.

A combination of Monster Magazine and Lord of the Barnyard, with a jigger of Confederacy of Dunces, Lumpen is a dark farce about globalism, expatriates, and coffee.

Have a look here for the Amazon product page: Lumpen: A Novel of Prague

About the author: Matt Ellis is an author coach and manuscript editor at Word Pill Editing. Have a look here for an affordable Manuscript Critique.