Insanity is Contagious

You’ve probably heard the definition of insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result.” But oddly enough, I’d done this before.

I started e-publishing back in the 90s, starting up one of the first e-publishing ventures ever (no, not the first. I walked the paths of other pioneers, and tried to avoid the pitfalls they ran into, finding new ones instead) with a company called BiblioBytes. We proudly outlasted a number of better-funded latecomers, but time and the Twin Towers took their toll on the biz, and I packed up shop in early 2002. So when Michael Jan Friedman said, “I want to start an e-publishing venture for our books, and I want you invovled,” I was trepidatious. That’s because my mother raised me not to say “Are you f%$#@! nuts?” to friends.

And yet– times had changed. In the decade since I stopped doing e-publishing full time, the Internet had become even more omnipresent in our lives, electronic readers had come out with wide selections and deep market penetration, print-on-demand was finally economically viable, and traditional publishing business-as-usual wasn’t cutting it. Clearly, a bit of madness was called for.

And to be fair, I’d already been dragged back into e-publishing with ComicMix doing digital versions of comics, so prose wasn’t that far of a stretch, and in many ways it was easier. So I couldn’t use “no more e-publishing!” as an excuse.

But more to the point, there were people who were willing to come along for the ride. The hardest problem in any startup is finding people who will share your vision, who will go in the same direction you are– people who are committed. With Aaron Rosenberg, Bob Greenberger, Peter David, and Mike, along with early asylum cellmates David Mack, Marco Palmieri, and Howard Weinstein, and later inmates Russ Colchamiro and Paul Kupperberg, there was a squad of people all ready to slay giants, even if they did look suspiciously like windmills to the uninitiated.

And we’ve done pretty darn well. With over two dozen releases in two years, and many more on the way, we’ve gotten far along the way to our plan to take over the world, all while wearing our Napoleon jackets and hats.

So doing the same thing and expecting a different result may not be insanity after all, it may just be… crazy.

And they said it couldn’t be done! Fight The Gods, Michael Jan Friedman’s brand-new roller coaster of an urban fantasy novel, can now be accessed on your Kindle or through your Kindle app. Just look for the link here on the Crazy 8 Press site.

Fight The Gods is about Zeno Aristos, who, at the age of thirty-eight, is trying to find himself. Much to his girlfriend’s chagrin, he’s quit the New York City police force and can’t figure out what he wants to do with his life. A job in security doesn’t appeal to him. Bodyguard work leaves him cold. Only single-wall handball, with its street culture of razor-edged competition, seems to get his juices flowing.

Then someone close to Zeno is kidnapped, and his search for that person leads him through a gauntlet of increasingly dark and cryptic forces, taking him from the sullen streets of gang-ravaged Brooklyn to the manicured cemeteries of suburban New Jersey to the slick corporate penthouses of midtown Manhattan. The deeper Zeno digs, the more certain he is that he’s dealing not with a mere earthly adversary, but with an ancient entity steeped in the deepest and most malevolent of mysteries.

In Fight The Gods, Friedman takes a major creative step beyond the Star Trek novels, comic books, and television scripts with which his name has become synonymous, and braves the sinister rooftops and mystical back alleys of urban fantasy. Whatever you think you know of him or of his work…you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Read The Free Preview or buy it now for the Kindle or Nook, or buy it in trade paperback!

Yes, it’s finally here! Aaron Rosenberg’s hilarious new science fiction novel, No Small Bills, is now available for sale through both Barnes and Noble and Amazon! Here’s what people are saying about it:

“If you’re looking for some wacky light reading, this book is for you. . . . Bob’s narration is the best part of this book — half Mickey Spillane and half Woody Allen. Definitely great reading for a rainy Sunday afternoon.”

“This book is really fun and funny! . . . Love the narrative voice and the flow of the story.”

“Fans of surrealist humor, Monty Python, Science Fiction, and Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide” series will enjoy the adventures of DuckBob Spinowitz, a classic wise-acre everyman (who happens to have the head of a duck).”

What are you waiting for? Pick up your copy today!