Escape of “Sound Effect Infinity”

More than anything, for me as a writer, seeing my work published means that the project is no longer really mine. I’ve always felt that way, for trade articles, commentary, short stories, or novels. Once something is published, it mostly belongs to the reader (and, to a certain extent, the publisher). However, what is not yet published is a bird hanging around the author’s neck. And as much as walking around with some rare, feathered creature flapping around your neck can be annoying, imagine how the poor bird feels squirming and flailing against the chest of a partially pompous, strangely egoistic, easily distracted, day-dreaming, overly self-important know-it-all.

I’ve felt bad, then, for my biggest project yet, dangling from my neck wherever I’ve gone over the past year. It’s true that I myself looked silly most of the time, however, that goofy bird, trapped and understandably frustrated and annoyed, has been ready to spread its wings and explore the world on its own for a very long time now.

I think that’s finally going to happen. It’s been a strange, yearslong waiting game for both of us. But news is that Sound Effect Infinity is going to take off in January. But let me give you a few thoughts on all of this:

I turned the final draft of my promised science fiction novel, Sound Effect Infinity, in for publication early in 2023. It was due to release in November of that year. Now, the latest word here in fall 2024, is that they’re planning a January 21, 2025 shipping date, including a fair level of promotion and marketing. Things seem pretty serious. Last weekend I sent character and story notes to my publisher that they have forwarded to the person hired to do the narration of the audiobook. I saw a planned promotional music video, too, a while back which is pretty cool and pretty wild, and perfect for a story about the psychological and paranormal mysteries of loud guitar music. There’s more creative stuff in development as well they don’t want to get me thinking about yet.

I’m still kind of frustrated, though. Sound Effect Infinity is a good book (please forgive me for writing that). It’s pointing at some important stuff that I don’t feel folks are thinking about properly in America these days. Our idiotic politics along with the eye-candy effect of social media has squeezed most of the juice out of our national curiousity about the deeper meaning of important stuff in our lives. In particular, I’ve felt for years that our obsession with music and consistent pondering about visionary experiences are not well understood. Music is not simply entertainment, or a background soundtracking tool while we are at work, driving to pick up the kids, or cleaning up in the kitchen on Saturday mornings. Everyone knows there’s something quite remarkable about the songs we love (or hate). Just watch a horror movie. How about the song from your teen years that you belt out and dance to when no one’s home? Or consider that little advertising ditty you find yourself singing in the shower every morning for a week until another one takes over.

We’ve only scratched the surface of the psychological realities of our imaginations and the ways we connect to emotion and spirit listening to everything from jazz and blues to pop and 15th century Gregorian chant and Ozempic commercials. Sound Effect Infinity pushes the envelope with questions about songs and tunes and beats that we all discovered together five and six decades ago, questions we’ve forgotten because we’re so caught up in the latest TikTok dance, celebrity relationship, and politically obnoxious blowhard pretending that they know what they’re talking about.

Back in the old days, a lot of us trying to understand what was going on with music were operating by the seat of our undies. Something happens with the mind and body when we listen to the likes of Jimi Hendrix or Miles Davis or Itzhak Perlman. But what? Also, more generally, we had back then little more than hearsay and speculation about the vast wilderness of raised consciousness and altered states.

Sound Effect Infinity offers a funky new interpretation of both the history and the near future of the CIA, Defense Intelligence, and other government agencies vis-á-vis mind control drugs and the cornucopia of paranormal experiments certain groups have been unofficially at play with for years–especially their attempts to weaponize the science of psychology and paranormal experiments. The history (and future) of all that stuff goes deep and wide, instigating myth and conspiracy theories galore. Sound Effect Infinity is undoubtedly fiction, but it points to a great deal that has been lost and forgotten over the years questioning the intentions of those actual crazy professional spooks during the Cold War who felt like everything was acceptable in the name of freedom, democracy, and facing off against evil empires with nuclear weapons who weren’t us.

But there’s so much more to the story than government shenanigans and Cold War lunacy. What remains of our great musicians, artists, and public figures who left this world way too soon? Maybe there’s a lot more to the question of the unconscious human mind in each of us that most people, including scientists, simply block out and ignore. Perhaps there’s something connected to sound in all of this–especially loud guitars and funky beats. Or not, depending upon how sophisticated your imagination is and your love of music. Also your knowledge of figures like Terence McKenna, Carlos Castaneda, and King Jones.

In Sound Effect Infinity, music journalist Lincoln Koufax and Columbia Police sergeant Juanita “Carbie” Carbajal work to figure out what the hell has really been going on with all of that and why it is that someone impersonating Elvis is traipsing around Central Missouri farmland having sex with willing young women and promising to speak publicly about something important that people need to know about. As Koufax writes, “It was thought there might be something about his voice they needed to hear–something significant in the grain of his sound.”

Stay tuned, then, for the release of Sound Effect Infinity. You should definitely pre-order the hardcover edition before it sells out. I have been told it will be a premium, high-quality book–a 1st edition, too, obviously–maybe worth a lot in a few years. If you are a musician or a musical professional of any kind–from DJ to teacher to therapist to rock ‘n’ roll superstar–this book will speak to you. If you wonder as well about the nature of psychonautic exploration, my intention was to add fuel to the pyre. Track down this puppy online now. It’s a great and funky read, the way it used to be.

Pre-order through Amazon.com or Bookshop.org or Barnes & Noble. You can also head on down to your neighborhood bookstore and ask them to order it for you.