Vyx Starts the Mythpocalypse!

Release Day

This book almost didn’t happen.

Writing it was an act of hope and joy. (I won’t go into the parts of the book world that aren’t hope and joy, but buy a writer a coffee or a stronger beverage, and they will gladly tell you.) I have not self-published a novel since Blade of Dishonor in 2014, despite the urging of my literary heroes Andrew Vachss and Lawrence Block. I’m back together with editor, copywriter, and interior designer Jaye Manus, artist Kim Parkhurst, and cover designer Suzanne Dell’Orto, who worked with me on the Protectors Anthologies, and it is pure delight to work with them again.

Today, you can order the paperback of Vyx Starts the Mythpocalypse from Amazon! The e-book is available on Kindle and all other e-book formats, and if you would like a signed paperback, you can buy one directly from me. Look at this beauty:

The book includes nearly three dozen full-color illustrations by Kim Parkhurst in its 260 pages, thirty-one chapters of adventure from Jersey City to Mount Denali to worlds undreamed of. If I repost this synopsis often, it’s because writers agonize over writing them:

WHAT IF on the worst day of your life, you also learned that all the folklore and myths you love were real?

Vyx just wants to draw and be accepted for who they are—until their parents are dragged away by the government. Vyx embarks on a rescue mission, journeying through a rapidly changing world where avaricious dragons attack the post office, talking foxes beg for disco fries, and government officials can freeze families into blocks of ice.

Vyx will outsmart diabolical homeroom teachers and ravenous creatures from folklore, discover a magical faerie world beneath us, and even sail with living constellations of the night sky in order to restore their family...and maybe even fix the world.

I love rhyming “teacher” with “creature.” Did you ever go to Arthur Treacher’s seafood restaurant? That was the fancy place when we were kids. And yet, we called it Arthur Creature’s and pretended the hush puppies were fried sea monster eyeballs. We had no idea who Arthur Treacher was then, and I had to read the intriguing Wikipedia article¹ on the ill-fated franchise to recall that he was a character actor known for playing English butlers, most famous for selling his name to this fish and chips restaurant.

There are no fish and chips in Vyx Starts the Mythpocalypse, but there are a lot of disco fries. If you don’t know what those are, you haven’t been to a good New Jersey diner. That’s what we call french fries drowned in gravy and melted mozzarella cheese, which may exist because Quebeçois love to drive down to the Jersey Shore, and they demanded poutine from Greek-American diner owners. (At least, that’s my theory.) By the time you finish the book, you will want some.

If you can’t visit a Jersey diner, ignore all the disco fries recipes online. They are ridiculous, fancied up with homemade gravy! Just buy a can or jar of your favorite brown gravy, or whisk up some from a packet. Turkey, beef, vegan, who cares? It’s going to be soaked into fries and buried in cheese. Heat it, pour it over steak fries still sizzling from the oven, top with way too much shredded mozzarella cheese, and shove it under the broiler until it’s bubbling and even a little browned on top. When you can’t pull out a fry without a long strand of mozzarella reaching two feet from your mouth, they are done.

Now you’ll know why Tod loves them.

Vyx also has bird content. You can guess from the cover, there’s a magpie (with a disco fry in her beak!) I’ve not yet seen one in person. Maybe when I go on my “book tour” (aka road trip that I want to write off on my taxes) I will see some. I hope so. I’ll share my fries!

If you want signed copies of my other books, I have a few copies of Blade of Dishonor, Bad Boy Boogie, and The Boy from County Hell on hand. They are available through the links. The e-books are available in the usual places, and you can order them from your local bookstore, if you prefer.

I am a strong supporter of public libraries, and all my books, including Vyx, are available via your public library. This is the Overdrive link for Vyx, and if you’d like to help the book, please request it from your library using that link. It’s unlikely they will order the paperback, but the e-book is available via Libby in Overdrive, if they choose to purchase it. It is also available through Hoopla.

The working title for this book was Fox Child Running, and by pure chance, I saw a beautiful red fox on a hike with Suzanne this weekend. It is cub season, and this fox was likely guarding their den from a nearby dog, who was oblivious to their presence. I took this photo from fifty yards away using a 600mm zoom lens (you can see the white neck ruff is overexposed) and far from their den, on a sidewalk.

For the record, the fox did not steal my sandwich. (Read the book to get what I’m talking about.)

Thank you all for reading my nature explorations and tomfoolery. If you enjoy my joie de vivre, it is distilled in its purest form in Vyx Starts the Mythpocalypse.

Stay foxy!

1. Read on to learn of the “Cod Wars” and more!