Two New Books ⚡

Two New Books

Robert Wringham here. It's been a while, hasn't it? And now that I'm back in your inbox, I'm basically asking for money like a terrible son. Sorry about that. But wait! I can explain!

I'd like you to back this Kickstarter to help me finish and publish two new books. Details of how I'll use the money are on the campaign page, but it's all rather clever and anyone who pledges will see a lot of bang for their fairly modest buck.

As well as helping me (lovely, lovely me!) and acquiring two cheerful new books for your own shelf, you'll be helping some small indie publishers who have not fared well in the pandemic and an identifiable book designer. It's a good project: a small act of genuine usefulness that will blossom and bloom in four immediate directions.

On a personal note, the new books are important to me. They mark my return to humorous literature (the genre of James Thurber, PG Wodehouse, Stephen Leacock, Fran Lebowitz) and less squandering of my finite jest on less creative outputs. I'll be able to hold my head a little higher if I can squeeze these works through the famously-tricky aperture between brain and world.

But what are they, eh? Well. WELL. Well. One is a miscellany and one is a novel.

The miscellany is called STERN PLASTIC OWL. It's a collection of humorously-intended short pieces, much like what I did with A Loose Egg in 2014. It contains around thirty short narratives and meditations, imbued with a sense of pre-pandemic urban life. Most of the pieces have been published before and improved for book form, but some are brand new and just for the book. A Loose Egg was never designed to sell gangbusters (your line: "no kidding!") but it met with some nourishing critical acclaim and I still get email from readers who tell me it's their favourite book or their go-to book in dark times. I want to create more things like that.

The novel, meanwhile, is tentatively titled RUB-A-DUB-DUB. It's not yet finished so I have to be careful what I tell you about it, lest those details not make it into the final work. But, in brief, it's a story of one man and his bathtub. That man is not me. It's a properly new character. This is my first novel but it's not a "First Novel." That is, it's not one of those largely-autobiographical early works that cannibalizes the author's real life. It's very fictional. You'll see. So far, it involves trains, some cans of premium-strength lager, and a shop that sells only wooden scrubbing brushes. No more clues.

If you like the sound of either (or both) of these titles, please back the project. Pledge levels start at £10 for one e-book and run to £22 plus shipping for two physical books.

But that's enough pitching. Thank you to anyone who pledges. Your help means a lot to me, will help some other people too, and will serve to nudge two nice new literary works into the world.

Not a single penny of your money will be spent at Amazon.

Onwards, upwards and outwards,

Robert Wringham
www.wringham.co.uk