It’s been a long time rolling along, but Sound Effect Infinity is finally ready for reading in full through most any meaningful online book outlet out there. I’ll pop a few links in at the bottom of the page. As noted in a post a few months ago, this book was originally planned for release in November of 2023. I’d like to blame someone for the time lag, but, honestly, the whole bookworld is in an uproar on so many levels these days. I’m just glad my publisher, The Story Plant, was able to get the e-book version out to meet the latest release date. The hardcover version is still on its way to distribution outlets worldwide. For those who pre-ordered copies, it shouldn’t be long now. For those interested in pre-ordering today, go for it! I’m gonna recommend doing that either with your local independent bookstore directly or through Bookshop.Org (the online arm of most independent stores everywhere). But you can obviously order books most anywhere virtual these days (even Walmart and Target).
I’m in the process of reviewing the audiobook files for Sound Effect Infinity. I hope to have that task completed before the end of January, so hopefully the audiobook will be an option for you as well by February.
This is my first time to review an audio version of anything I’ve written. Hearing another voice interpreting my sentences is quite interesting. I’d say refreshing in many ways, although it’s quite humbling as well. I’ve written in a number of places about how once my work is published I don’t feel any ownership at all and that stories are basically the provence of readers themselves. Writers can’t ever escape the responsibility of what they wrote, but readers are the true arbiters of stories. That point couldn’t be more obvious listening to Brian Hickey read in the narrator’s voice. Brian makes Lincoln Koufax come alive in a way I could only slightly imagine as I wrote (through every blessed edit and revision). I can’t wait for you to hear Brian read as Linc who is maybe what would happen if, in the near future, Easy Rawlins and Sam Spade were blended into a tabloid music reporter. And, yes, of course, this story deals with the challenges of being bi-racial (although not in ways anyone would expect). My vision has always been that Koufax could be played by Terrence Howard in the movie version. Howard is more or less the right age (50s) and has such an imposing, self-possessed physicality coupled with multiple layers of humor and vulnerability. (That kind of thinking is the height of ridiculous writerly bullshit, but hey, in the end we’re paid to go to the edge of make believe). I am going to keep my mouth shut about who should play the lead, Juanita “Carbie” Carbajal, in this story — although if you’re a fan of NCIS-LA and know who plays Kensi Blye, you might just be onto something.
Anyway, this week (and next at least) I’m reading through a book I finished writing in February 2023. I wrote the first sentences for it on January 1, 1989, and came up with the original idea in the fall of 1975 (yup, that’s roughly 50 years ago). This is the first time I’ve read through the entire novel uninterrupted by the need to edit and revise. I cringed when I began the first page (reading along to Brian’s narration). I am surprised so far that I am quite happy with how the story beckons and honors the reader (that’s my interpratation anyway). You never feel like you’re doing the reader justice when you’re inside the process of creating a novel. The idea is not to impress but to hopefully make the reader want to find out what’s going to happen next over and over again. The most important thing I’ve learned about storytelling is that there’s as much mystery to whether two teenagers are going to kiss as there is to who is murdering all sorts of innocent people or what is the secret power of music and sound that can explain everything important in the Universe?
So please go buy the e-book right now. Then, if you haven’t done so already, maybe pre-order yourself a copy of the premium hardcover version for when it finally comes out (very soon!). And, finally, think about all the people you know who love music and weird stories and the question of paranormal powers. Buy them Sound Effect Infinity in any and all forms you feel are appropriate.
Painting Credit (top of page): Shitao “Tim Williams”
David Biddle
View More PostsDavid Biddle is a freelance writer and novelist living in Philadelphia, PA and the author of the novel OLD MUSIC FOR NEW PEOPLE. His new novel, a science fiction story called SOUND EFFECT INFINITY, is due out in early 2025. Pre-order the special hardcover edition now wherever books are sold.
