25th anniversary of PINS: San Francisco Public Library event Oct. 15

 

25th anniversary of PINS

Author Jim Provenzano in conversation with Mark Abramson

at Eureka Valley San Francisco Public Library, Oct. 15, 6pm.

 

(posting my press release)

 

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the debut novel by local author Jim Provenzano, he will be joined by popular local author Mark Abramson in a one-hour conversation about their early publishing successes with independent presses and self-publishing. Provenzano will also sign and give away free copies of PINS.

 

In 1997, having completed an early version of his Masters thesis novel about gay high school wrestlers, Jim Provenzano succeeded in getting the attention of two high-profile literary agencies. But after both failed to snag a deal, he continued writing and improving the work, changed the title, and decided to self-publish it on October 1, 1999. 

 

With the guidance of the late Richard Labonté and other colleagues, he succeeded in getting reviews and booked multiple reading events in Ohio, New York, California, and even Sydney, Australia. Part of his success, along with being a first-time author, was the fact that at the time Provenzano was an accomplished masters-level wrestler himself.

 

After the first 1000 print run sold well, he decided to print 5000 more copies. In 2000, PINS was the #1 gay fiction title on Amazon.com for several weeks. A commissioned stage adaptation followed in 2002 and premiered at San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theater Center. Since then, Provenzano’s books have been mostly self-published in print, e-books, and audiobooks. 

https://www.jimprovenzano.com/

 

With a legendary local history as a bartender, and as a benefit revue and dance party coproducer, Mark Abramson’s life in San Francisco is documented in his fiction and memoir books. He also recounts his youthful days in Minnesota living on a farm in his other memoirs. His earlier Beach Reading series follows the life of Castro Street waiter Tim Snow and the intriguing stories set in the Castro district and around San Francisco.

https://markabramson.net/

 

The two authors discuss their early books, their inspiration, and their successes in small press and self-publishing in the gay fiction genre. Provenzano will also sign free copies of his debut novel, PINS. Other books will be available for sale.

 

San Francisco Public Library/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch, 1 Jose Sarria Court

October 15, 6pm. (415) 355-5616 Free

https://sfpl.org/locations/eureka-valley

 

 (RSVP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/874431874224738 )

New book outlets and the "disappearance" of PINS

While the holiday shopping season may be over, authors like myself hope that you still consider buying books. A new outlet, along with a recently developed one, provide the opportunity to purchase books like mine from independent booksellers online. 

One book that you won't find among those is my first novel PINS. I'll explain why, but first the good news.

ShopQueer.co is a new LGBTQ-owned online shop co-created by author Eric Servini. They're growing their inventory evevry day, and you can find the best recent LGBTQ books there.

It was very easy to use as an author. I simply entered my ISBNs of my books and in a matter of days they were (almost) all listed. 

And with Bookshop.org, I was able to list almost all my books, including The Lost of New York, written by my uncle seventy years ago. The straight-themed novel, which I edited and self-published, doesn't quite fit into a queer-focused seller's inventory (You can read more about that on my website).

But why is my debut novel far and wide missing from these lists? That's because if you ask a bookseller for the copy, they'll look it up on the wholesalers list like Ingram and Baker and Taylor, which consider it out of print. But that's not true. In fact I still have about 150 copies left.

The problem is, since I closed Myrmidude Press as a DBA, I stopped shipping to Ingram, Baker and Taylor and other smaller book distributors. So, according to them, the book has run its course. You can also find use copies on Amazon and elsewhere, of course. And via e-books/Kindle, all my other books are available as well.

Having contacted wholesale buyers/resellers, they don't buy a case full of old books, especially more than 20 years old. Which make sense, but it would be nice if some smart professor added the book to their curriculum lesson that I can to ship some free copies to some university. PINS was part of nearly a dozen college courses years ago.

But with the flood of new LGBTQ literature, there's really no need for it right now and most people are reading online, and even on their phones.

But what bugs me is the idea that PINS is considered out of print when it actually isn't. Having self-published in a variety of formats, I have found that Ingram is the most dependable and easy for bookstores to find your books. Also, by not publishing through (evil) Amazon, indie booksellers are happier to carry your books. It is a bit of a hassle; you have to input chapter by chapter and the formatting can be difficult with a limited array of fonts. 

And if you didn't know, PINS actually had two printings. The first edition was only a thousand copies. It was all just a big experiment to see if it would work. It did. After the success and reviews, I then ordered five thousand copies from the printer in Michigan. I review excerpts to the front and back cover; well, most of them. There were so many! And then cleaned up all the typos and adjusted the coloring on the cover art.

The idea of doing a third printing would put it back in circulation in any bookstore in the world. I'm considering it now and I understand that it's a lot of work when I have other books already in the process. 

In the meantime, however, if you're reading this, and I know people aren't reading blogs much anymore, but feel free to inquire, send me an e-mail or a DM on my Facebook author page, and I'll be happy to send you a few free paperback copies of PINS while they last. 

Or you could just go to your local library. I recently checked, and was happy to see that 84 U.S. libraries have a copy.

So until the next book project is under way, I'll consider revamping PINS one more time. It's done me well with a translation, a stage adaptation and an audiobook. 

Until then, buy my other books, and other authors' books, on ShopQueer.co and Bookshop.org

 

Among the recent reviews on Amazon, I'll leave you with this expanded insightful rave (with spoilers!) from reader Philip:

"Jim Provenzano explores the homophobic teenage jock culture which sometimes can escalate to ugly incidents in his 1999 first novel PINS. The story is told through the eyes of 15-year-old sophomore Joey Nicci ("his name was not pronounced Nitchey, but Nee-Chee, after which he was dubbed Neech") who has just made the varsity squad wrestling team and fallen for teammate Donald "Dink" Kohrs ("everybody called him Dink because his penis was small -- Dinky Dick -- but the way it pushed up in his sweat pants, Joey figured that wasn't always true"). While Neech and Dink explore their mutual attraction, the team's bullies direct their homophobic wrath against Anthony "The Whiner" Lambros who not only is gay but perhaps more damning is a poor athlete who never wins a match. It's a brutal ending for poor Anthony, and that tragic moment becomes a turning point for Joey Nicci.

"Provenzano provides an authentic voice in portraying the high school locker room, and accurately captures every nuanced dynamic in this complex environment. PINS honestly portrays wrestling's homoerotism and how that can result into homophobic defenses among teenage boys, and captures the innocent rough-and-tumble world of boys and how that can escalate into sinister over-the-line violence.

"Joey Nicci is a likable kid with a Jersey accent -- he wrestles in the "one-twenny-six" weight class -- that makes me smile each time it comes out but it's not so constant that you have to be fluent in "Nerk" (translated as "Newark" in the King's English) in order to understand him. Neech is as nuanced as the book. He's no choir boy but he's a good kid who in the end does the right thing after appreciating that one doesn't go along just in order to belong. It's also refreshing to see a teen character who genuinely loves his family which is there for him in both the triumphant and the trying times. "It's an Italian thing," as Joey says.

"God bless Joey Nicci in PINS. Notwithstanding all the homophobic crap that Neech went through on his high school wrestling team, he found love and kissed a boy."

Welcome to the Orange & Black; living a literary allegory

Dink: “Welcome to the Orange and Black.”
Joey: “Huh?”
Dink: “It’s always Halloween.”

That’s one of my favorite lines from my debut novel PINS and this week –actually last month– is the 23rd anniversary of its publication. It’s not a very auspicious anniversary except to say that I should’ve posted this before Halloween, but I didn’t.

Holidays and all are good for annual reminders. But I’ve been really busy.

The reason Dink’s remark is one my favorite lines is because it’s multilayered. Dink is warning Joey, new to his also new school’s wrestling team, that he needs to prepare for the pressure and actual pain of training, to put on a mask to hide it, and cryptically, to hide being gay, which Dink intuits, because he is as well.

But it also has a secret autobiographical color code that means more to me.

You see, in high school, our school colors were also orange and black.

I didn't use the same mascot because of our high school mascot was an inanimate object; an arrow.
 

We did have a human mascot; Arry the Arrow. For pep rallies and football games, a girl from the cheer squad would play Arry with a big papier-mâché head, Sometimes a guy would do it, too. We used to have T-shirts with his illustration version resembling a little Mighty Mouse-style flying superhero.

But the arrow symbol was derived from the fact that in Northern Ohio, particularly near burial mounds, one used to be able to randomly find arrowheads sculpted from rock. Obviously now that you think about it, it’s a bit of cultural appropriation, but what mascot isn’t? Our junior high version was The Darts. The Arrows even made a list of problematic/racist mascots.


Of course, if you read the book PINS, you know that there’s a religious allegory in it that has a parallel to the tale of Saint Sebastian. I could’ve use the arrows as a symbol or a mascot in the book but it would’ve been overkill, with Joey/St. Sebastian being stuck with arrows metaphorically by his numerous wrestling injuries. 

Besides, back in the new internet area, and even with the help of some history books, I didn’t find references to arrowheads as easily discovered in suburban New Jersey, despite the abundance of cities and towns with First Nation terms.

Instead I chose horses; colts in particular, because that was another symbol of animal symbol that runs throughout the book. These are all things that I don't care if you notice or appreciate or understand. They’re merely aspects woven into the book over the nine years it took me to complete it.

It’s the same for the holiday moment of November 1; All Saints Day, which is the actual date where the book starts. Everything before in Chapter 1 is past/previous tense by the mysterious unnamed narrator. The action actually begins on November 1, near the Day of the Dead for some Latino cultures.

I’m reminded of all this, because a few weeks ago I hosted the 12th –or 13th?– Lit Crawl event at Martuni’s, a bar in San Francisco where I’ve hosted Litquake events for a dozen years or so. I’ve lost track of how long it's been.

Anyway, I decided that I and the other authors would do book giveaways for trivia questions, mostly because I still have a box or two of PINS in my basement and I really want to get rid of them.

I’ve tried hand-selling them for cheap. I even went back on eBay for a while but that's tiresome. Since I closed my DBA Myrmidude Press, I can't reconnect with wholesale distributors because they’re not interested in a 23-year-old book that’s already sold more than 5500 copies. So basically, according to Baker and Taylor and Ingram, my book is out-of-print.

But it’s not; if you want a free copy just mail me the postage, I guess. It would be great if some smart literature professor added it to their syllabus, then I could ship an entire box, which I did several times years back.

One of the curses of self-publishing old school-style is that, when you print out 6000 copies, you do end up having some leftovers. But after that, print on demand led to an easier formatting and I don't have boxes of other books lying in wait.

There are so many newfangled ways of getting a book out that first-time self-published authors can access. I’m a bit envious actually of their naïveté and not understanding how the old school formatting works; hiring a printer, shipping cartons by UPS, etc. I’ve described that elsewhere in other posts.

But even six books later –actually seven including the short story anthology, and three audiobooks and a play make a lucky 13, and the German translation of PINS makes 14– I still get people who tag me with the wrestling badge of honor.

I recently posted an old Halloween picture of me as Wolverine from the X-Men movies. I even sported it at a Philadelphia literary conference in 2000 when I was coasting on PINS’ success.

Yet just today some literary friend had to make a wrestling comparison as if I'm still running around in the singlet at age 60. I’m not embarrassed by my age. It’s in my Wikipedia entry.
(Truth: the last time I wore a singlet for actual competition was 2006, other than a later Halloween costume as a wrestler/werewolf.)

But to still be tagged by something you completed more than two decades ago is a bit limiting. I still have people who complement me on that book, but haven’t read any of the others, which is a bit frustrating.

So, please read this book and then maybe the six or seven others I’ve cranked out over the years. I hope you had a happy Halloween and you have a nice autumn and I hope to post more frequently in the future now that I’ve discovered the magic of voice-to-text. And buy my damn books, bub!

Little Free Libraries and Giveaways

Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but I've been secretly donating copies of my first novel PINS at little public libraries around town. If you want a copy just let me know. When I shared this elsewhere, I was surprised by the response, and shipped off half a dozen signed copies.

If you want to pay for postage, I'll let you know how to send $3 (U.S.) 

I still have a box or two left from the old pre-print-on-demand days. You can read about the books history in my 20th anniversary blog post.

Of course, you could just buy a used copy online. 

But the gift is the point. It is fun to peruse the selections at little public libraries. I often donate other books, but wonder who among random browsers might be interested in my own.

Anyway, to get your copy, just follow me and contact me on any of my social media: 

https://www.instagram.com/jimprovenzano/

https://www.facebook.com/JimProvenzanoAuthor/

https://twitter.com/jim_provenzano

Read all the fabulous reviews on www.jimprovenzano.com

PINS 20th Anniversary; Wrestling with the Publishing Industry

This week is the twentieth anniversary of the publication of my debut novel, PINS, a wrestling coming-of-age story about patron saints, headlocks, crash diets, thrash metal, dogpiles, nutpulls, and only the occasional assault.

It's been a long fascinating journey from those first scratches of writing (I started with Chapter 16, by the way) to having not one but two high-powered agents fail to sell the book, then 56 rejection letters, most brief, a few quite educational, to self-publishing the book the old-school way by starting a sole proprietorship home office, shipping cartons to wholesalers across the country while having a stack of cartons serve as a hard makeshift sofa in my living room, to creating ebook, stage and audiobook adaptations, and even getting a German translation. This was all while actually wrestling for 14 years and winning a few matches.

Yes, to paraphrase SNL actor Garrett Morris' baseball-playing character, 'wrestling's been very very good to me.'

The story follows Joey Nicci, a 15-year-old Catholic boy and his family after they've moved from Newark, New Jersey to the small nearby suburb of Little Falls. Joey's crush on his wrestling teammate Donny "Dink" Kohrs leads him to joining Dink and a few other teammates in increasing dangerous activities that lead to the death of a teammate. While Joey narrowly escapes jail, the second half of the novel focuses on his outcast status, and a layered religious theme, to the point of Joey's near-martyr-like near-death.

And yes, it is spelled PINS, not Pins. That word/acronym takes on multiple meanings in the novel, including one (spoiler), a different term for juvenile delinquents used in the New Jersey state court system of the time: Person in Need of Supervision.

That's just one of the many research tidbits that helped shape the novel, while I was simultaneously writing others, since 1991 when I inherited a tiny Mac and stayed up too many nights struggling with them all, like a garden of prose (not unlike the scraggly garden next door to my early 1990s East Village apartment where it all began) after watching, and videotaping, a few TV shows about a violent crime (The Hail Mary murder), a wrestling team gang assault (covered on The Phil Donahue Show) and being haunted by the atmosphere at a Queens protest after the murder of Julio Rivera, to whom the novel is dedicated. 

The author in 1999. photo: Rick Gerharter

Old-Schooled
By May 1997, as a graduate in the Master of Arts English/Creative Writing program at San Francisco State University, an early version on the other-titled manuscript was my thesis. But it wasn't the only novel I was working on. 

I must have really annoyed my fellow novel-writing classmates when, instead of submitting the same reworked manuscript as others did, I switched gears and shared works-in-progress of what would become my third, fourth and (hopefully seventh and eighth) novels. 

But the wrestling novel soon became my main focus. You can read a hardbound embarrassing early version of PINS at the university's library (a requirement for completing the degree). But even then, I had some intense interactions with a few wrestlers, both good and bad, that would change the story even more. 

It would be nice to say that things would have been more successful if either of my two high-powered agents had sold PINS by 1998. But in retrospect, it wasn't finished. It wasn't even called PINS. 

Now We're There: mapping time through fictional realities

The recent trend of sharing then-and-now photos has me thinking of the years spent between major accomplishments, and how we document our lives. I mark my timeline by novels, and where they took place has been aided by old analog maps, memories and photos, from slides to prints and now online searches.

I remember a lot, which is good, because a few pivotal moments' memories never got mapped or on film.

Now I'm Here... now I'm there, too

The years that my novel Now I'm Here took place, 1970 and 1980s, are countered by my many return visits home, where the story seemed to be accumulating like slow ivy. The two main characters are Joshua, a piano prodigy, and David a pumpkin farmer.

For piano provenance, proving the years of my musicianship existed, I offer a newly found (see PINS photo/map search above). The piano itself and its location in our home is the dining room. I'd play for hours, but also at the local (then) Ashland College studios, choosing from Yamahas and Steinways.

For farm boy authenticity, sadly I never documented my pumpkin farm experience in any 1981 photos. It was often beautiful amid the labors of hauling truckfull after truckfull for months, but not a camera-ready environment back then. I never even remembered to drive by years later and get an image of the farm house and barn. Now it's all floral greenhouses, as I included in the story.

All I have left are the Red Wing boots I bought for the job, which lasted 40 years. But they're in the basement and you don't need a photo of a pair of boots. You'll have to settle for the 1998 image above.

Flirting With History, Browsers and Other Kinds

What is the legacy you want to leave behind? As a person, you can hope your family will remember you. As an artist, you usually hope for a little more. If you're ambitious, you crave a lot more.

I began to reconsider this question as I walked from The Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco this week. I was among several hundred lucky people who got to see the first open dress rehearsal of the mega-hit musical Hamilton. We didn't have to pay, because the production wanted an audience to warm them up for their extensive run.

Before the show began, Director Thomas Kail introduced himself, and asked us not to Tweet or Facebook or Instagram our experiences. Because offering opinions about a show before it opens is just bad form.

But Kail also expressed that the experience of seeing this live production (a beautiful one, by the way, but don't mistake that for a review) was a shared experience that cannot be recreated through social media.

PINS print and Kindle giveaways

Spring into action for a free copy of my debut novel, PINS.
Gay grapplers. Get a grip.

I'm currently giving away a few free Kindle Editions of PINS, for who have yet to read it.Two more weeks.

For a signed personalized print edition, check out the GoodReads giveaway. 
That's open until April 6. 

A Bookstore's End: How 'Evil' Are You?

Giovanni's Room, the oldest U.S. LGBT bookstore in America, if not the world, will soon close. And it's our fault.

Giovanni's Room in June 2012

Think about it. We buy books on Amazon.com. I self-published my last two books with them. It proved to be the easiest and most profitable format for self-publishing authors like myself. Expanding our culpability, we use the arrogant Google, whose motto has quite obviously re-punctuated from "Don't be evil," to "Don't. Be evil!" Google the term "Google buses" to catch up on this ongoing San Francisco controversy. Feel guilty? Use Bing.com instead (even though it pales in comparison).

Our smart phones and Apple computers are manufactured by near-slaves in China who will die from the toxins made with these products. I wrote all my novels on Apple computers. I am right now blogging on a Google platform.

We're evil by association. And the last great American gay bookstore is our latest sacrifice.

PINS, the audiobook trailer

"Listen to my muscle memory."

Finally, the trailer for the audiobook adaptation of my debut novel, PINS is here!

Praise for PINS the audiobook, narrated by Paul Fleschner:

“A genuine treat for lovers of great stories. The hero of PINS, little Joey Nicci, is the undersized member of his high school wrestling team, though he has an oversized libido, fanned by his major crush on a fellow wrestler. Joey is hands down one of the most engaging characters in all fiction.” – Victor J. Banis, bestselling gay fiction audiobook author

Read Me, Hear Me, Touch Me

It's always great when word gets out about my books, and those of my fellow authors. But when the same large corporation with whom you publish actively resists getting your books shared with disabled people, that's f*cked up.

The first published review of PINS the audiobook has been posted on Amos Lassen's blog. 

Here's a short excerpt: "What makes this novel so important is that we so identify with what goes on and it tears at our heartstrings. I found that reading this is difficult because of the subject matter but hearing it read really drives it home."

"Hearing it now made me realize how important this book it. The voice makes everything seem more real and [narrator Paul] Fleschner is able to capture that in his voice. Get a copy and sit down for a listen. You will not regret it, I guarantee."
  

PINS, the audiobook, now on Audible

Patron saints, headlocks, 

thrash metal, crash diets, 

dogpiles, nutpulls and 
only the occasional assault. 

PINS, my acclaimed debut novel,

narrated by Paul Fleschner. 

www.Audible.com, www.Amazon.com and iTunes.com.

Fa la la la la...

...and buy my books. Rather fitting for the holidays, doncha think?




And if you're a fan of the thriving literary site GoodReads.com, please vote for Every Time I Think of You in this interesting poll of Gay Romances that Include Disability. I had no idea there were so many in this subgenre! I wish I had time to read more of them.

Check out the other lists my book is on; pretty neat. Vote!

Listen Up

Did I mention there's a playlist to go with PINS?
It works with the novel and the play.

I did have some doubts about making specific references to songs in the script. But if one is going to use, say, Brahms, one doesn't simply say, "insert classical piano here." The specificity of the time the story is set, as well as the tastes of the characters and the songs referenced by name, make it seem plausible.

If a theatre company wants to produce the play, they should follow the descriptions that make it specific to a time and setting. Plus, the music's pretty cool, even if it is a bit, uh, early 90s.

Again, here's a link to the playlist, in case the embedded videos don't load properly.