“Giant Slugs invade!” imagines Chicago novelist for NZ launch

AD Jameson’s Giant Slugs, a largely silly, slightly filthy, pun-laden Epicurean retelling of the ages-old Epic of Gilgamesh, is to be released tomorrow by Lawrence & Gibson.

When first approached with the Giant Slugs, MJ Stevens, project manager for Giant Slugs with Lawrence & Gibson, asked himself why on earth they would even consider releasing a book by Jameson, an unknown author who lives six time zones to the wind in Chicago.

The answer: “I am thrilled by the opportunity to launch a book against the tide of popular marketing wisdom. We believe in Giant Slugs. It is an astounding book. I, and the collective, are thrilled at the opportunity to be the first to release it, to create the first edition.”

Michael Kelly, author of Ulrich Haarbürste's Novel of Roy Orbison in Cling Film had more praise for the novel:

“Told in a style unlike any other—a dazzling prose-poetry-comedy like some jackdaw Professor of Everything colliding fragments of ancient myth, world culture and modern ephemera into a multi-coloured verbal collage—Giant Slugs is startlingly, refreshingly original and more than a mere novelty."

While Giant Slugs is his debut, Mutable Sound , based in Oregon, released Jameson’s short story collection Amazing Adult Fantasy earlier in the year. Jameson is also a contributor to the blog ‘Big Other’ and is the non-fiction and reviews editor of literary journal Requited.

In addition to Giant Slugs, and in keeping with their dual releases, Lawrence and Gibson will also launch the most novelistic of Richard Meros’ books thus far, Zebulon: a cautionary tale.

Youth, Zebulon warns, are wholly incautious in action and in thought. They spit polemic in the same manner as their quieter elders hock chewing tobacco and betel nut loogies. But when adolescent beliefs fade, how do the no-longer younger deal with the stains left by their pubescence?

Through Zebulon, a keen­­ing recollection of his sunflower youth, Richard Meros provides his own answer to this perennial question.

“This is the closest that I’ve come to writing a proper novel,” Meros muses. “There are intertwined plots, lessons to be learnt and character development: the whole kit and caboodle.”

Giant Slugs and Zebulon are to be released Thursday, 2 June. As part of the eLaunch, videos of Meros and Jameson reading from their new novels will be streamed on the Lawrence & Gibson website along with the posting of as an essay by Meros on the possibilities afforded by artist-oriented collectives in the internet age, photos of the production process and a live question and answer forum.

Contrary to rumours, there will be no "e's", "eckies", "ecstacy" nor "MDMA" at the launch party. In fact, an eLaunch is a relatively BYO affair.

Surf on over to www.lawrenceandgibson.org from 6pm, Thursday, 2 June for the eLaunch.