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Join Us for This Tour from September 27 to October 15
Book Details:
Book Title: ZITHER! by Jeffrey Hanlon
Category: Adult Fiction 18+, 350 pages
Genre: Mystery, Humor
Publisher: Zither Studios
Release Date: April 20, 2021
Content Rating: G.
"A zany rollicking mystery adventure as compelling as it is hilarious." ~ Independent Book Review
"Hanlon’s humor shines bright and will leave fans of such madness wanting
more." ~ Publisher's Weekly
Nominated for the prestigious Audie Award, Best Fiction 2021
Book Description:
A nutty religious cult rustles a herd of prime gazebos (huh??) and it’s up
to bumbling P.I. Mars Candiotti to rescue them. Wannabe author Mars
chronicles his quest in Jeffrey Hanlon's rom-com mystery Zither.
Guided
by his magically prescient IHOP waitress, Mars strives to mitigate the
shocking global consequences of the gazebo heist, even though he has no idea
what the word mitigate means.
As Zither swallows its own tale,
Mars finds it increasingly tricky to distinguish between real people and his
rambunctious fictional characters. Zither becomes the romper room where his
reality meets fantasy - and get frisky with each other.
Mars’
international odyssey leads to an explosive conclusion in Panama. Teevees
around the world tune in to watch live coverage of “Carnage in the
Canal”.
And amid the lunatic havoc that is Zither there is (of
course!) an epic love story as Mars meets Marian, the brainy librarian he
had dreamt of. Marian says his books are "slapstick existentialism with
subjective reality couched in parable". (This is news to Mars). But is
Marian real, or just another illusion in Zither World?
And in
Mars’ klutzy (yet endearing) courtship of the enchanting Marian will he ever
muster the nerve to ask her for a date???
Author Interview For
those interested in exploring the subject or theme of Zither, where should they
start? That’s a
good question, but I’m not sure I have a good answer. Zither is groundbreaking
in that it is humorous metafiction and the bookshelves aren’t exactly sagging
with humorous metafiction. Or any metafiction, for that matter. Vonnegut used
meta in some of his books. The best examples of humorous meta are actually
movies that ‘break the fourth wall.’ Annie Hall, Deadpool, Monty Python and the
Holy Grail, The Wolf of Wall Street, Fleabag.
How did
you become involved with the subject or theme of Zither? I’d been
struggling with my ‘Great
American Novel’
for ages. There were no shortage of problems with the manuscript. But one in
particular was persistent: quirky characters kept invading my novel, and there
simply was no place for these characters in my dark and brooding story. I had an
obsessive addiction to these peculiar characters. So I decided to purge my
addiction by writing something quirky. This made no more sense than an
alcoholic trying to purge his alcohol addiction by drinking a fifth of Wild
Turkey. But I did it anyway. The happy result was Zither.
Anything
you would like to say to your readers and fans? Yes!
Listen to the audiobook. It’s even more fun than the book, if such a thing is
possible. Full cast dramatization, music, the works. (Promotional price of $16.99
$3.49 for a limited time at Apple,
apple.co/3BRI4xR and Chirp bit.ly/3BSNVTx
What
did you enjoy most about writing this book? You’ve
heard the old saw about writing – just stare at the blank page until blood
seeps out of your forehead. But with
Zither there was no blood. It was easy. It was fun!
Can you
tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have planned for the
future? I’m
looking at a Christmas release for ‘The Red Umbrella’: An anthology of short
stories, ranging from humorous to poignant, with a touch of the mystical. If
your readers would like an ARC of the book or audiobook go to ZitherStudios.com
and click ‘Contact’.
Can you
tell us a little bit about the characters in Zither? Our hero
is private detective Mars Candiotti, bumbling and endearingly naïve. He’s not
very good with girls. Marian the Librarian is the girl Mars dreamed of, then
met, then fell in love with. He’s afraid to ask her for a date. The mystical
Strange Nameless iHOP Waitress
guides Mars in his attempt to solve his latest challenging mystery. Pete, Mars’
sidekick, who speaks in malapropisms. And Celeste who is desperately seeking
fame by being a fictional character in Zither.
If you
could spend the day with one of the characters from Zither who would it be?
Please tell us why you chose this particular character, where you would go and
what you would do. Probably
the Strange Nameless iHOP Waitress. She seems to know things.
Or maybe Marian The Librarian. I’d probably fall in love with her, just like
Mars did.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
I was born in a Southern California beach town.
My family moved to Northwest Oregon when I was 7. Or maybe when I was
8.
Had we stayed in the Beach Boys town, and knowing myself as I do now, I
suspect I would have grown long hair, started a rock band, and been
heavily into drugs. The rock band would probably have been pretty good.
The rest of it, not so much. I’d likely have joined the ranks of those
like Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin.
We moved to a mountaintop. The last five miles to get there were
gravel. The final two miles were steep and to the end of the road.
That’s where we lived: the end of the road, 22 miles to the nearest
town.
Our closest neighbor, about a mile down the road, was a hermit who
lived in a shack. He had a goat. About once a month the goat would visit
us. Then the hermit would show up to retrieve his goat. I think the goat
liked us better than the hermit, which is why the goat kept showing up.
Goats are funny animals. I think they aspire to be house pets.
And speaking of animals, we had cats. Lots and lots of cats. Because we
were remote and at the end of the road, unkind people – and ‘unkind’ is
the kindest description I can use here – would dump their unwanted cats
on or near our property. The cats would find our house. We gave them
Fancy Feast and our love, and in turn they loved us.
My childhood friends didn’t visit too often. That was at least partly
because when they did show up my father would say something like this:
“Great! We have a job that could use an extra hand. Won’t take more than
five minutes.” Well, that five minutes usually turned into an hour or
two – volunteer labor! – and that friend would seldom visit again.
So my favorite childhood playmate was a 2000 pound Hereford bull, a big
boy with horns spanning three feet. I’d go out in the pasture and the
bull would strike a pose not unlike what you’ve seen in the movies where
the bull was ready to charge, head down, eyeing me. But he wasn’t going
to charge me. He just wanted his forehead scratched. And so I would
scratch his forehead. He liked that, shaking his head every so often to
show his approval. Then we’d elevate to a game that the bull might have
called ‘Let’s see how far we can toss this little kid!’ and I’d place my
right hip against his massive head and he’d toss me into the air like a
sack of flour. Over and over, farther and farther, higher and higher. I
could have done that for hours – I can fly! – but after a few tosses the
bull would grow bored with the game and wander off. Probably to chase
some cute heifers.
The nearest library was 30 miles away, and we ventured there often. It
was a majestic old building, and the Grand Room had books on all four
walls with reading chairs in the center. But that was not where I wanted
to be. I figured all those books were popular books or books I was
supposed to read. I wanted something different, so I would enter the
room with a small sign that said ‘Stacks’. It was row after narrow row
after row of books, floor to ceiling, dimly lit, dusty. It was like
entering a cave. Filled with treasures!
It was in those Stacks that I discovered the likes of Kerouac and
Heller and Huxley and Fowles and Steinbeck and Ellison and Bradbury and
Hemingway and many many others.
As Stephen King said, “Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
And those, each in their own way, was the inspiration for the first
book I wrote at the age of eight or nine: ‘Pond Scum’.
It was illustrated.
Jeffrey currently lives at an undisclosed location on the shores of
the Caribbean where he spends his days is shorts and sandals making up
stories.
Zither! by Jeffrey Hanlon - Book Tour
Reviewed by Jasmine J
on
9:00 AM
Rating: 5
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