May 02, 2007
More Radio Dates
4/24-10:30-10:40 AM EST-Regional IL-WQUB-FM
With Jim Lenz
4/25-9:30-9:40 AM EST-Indianapolis-Metro Networks
With John Mayor
4/27-9:50-10:00 AM EST -Columbia-KRES-FM
With Stephanie Ross
4/27-10:40-10:50 AM EST -Cleveland-WEOL-AM
With Larry Wright
4/27-11:40-11:50 AM EST -Spokane-KPQ-AM
With Ken Johanneson
5/1-7:35-7:45 AM EST-Gainesville-WOCA-AM
With Larry Whitler
5/1-7:05-7:15 AM EST-Hartford-WXLM
With Lee Elci
5/1-7:35-7:45 AM EST-Gainesville-WOCA-AM
With Larry Whitler
5/1-8:10-8:25 AM EST-Fort Myers, FL-WOLZ-FM
With Rick McGee
5/2-9:35-9:45 AM EST-Omaha-KFAB-AM
With Jim Rose and Gary Sadelmyer
5/2-11:00-11:15 AM EST-Detroit-WVMV-FM
With Alexander Zonjic & Madison Leigh
5/2-12:20-12:30 PM EST-Seattle-KMPS-FM
With Randy and Ichabod
5/2 2AM-3 AM EST WOR-AM
The Joey Reynolds Show
5/4-9:10-9:20 AM EST-Tampa-WPCV-FM
With Roger and Tom
April 26, 2007
More Radio Shows
Today, I will be interviewed for WEOL/Cleveland News-Talk, KRES-FM Regional Missouri Country, and KPQ-AM Spokane.
The Grey radio Tour Rolls on.
Today I had the honor to be taped for an upcoming PRI's To The Best Of Our Knowledge with Jim Fleming. I'm not sure when the episode will air, but the segment is featuring post-apocalyptic fiction. I will link to their site when it's out.
April 17, 2007
Radio Interview in DC area on B101.5
Tomorrow, April 18th, I will be interviewed by Baxter and Bonnie on B101.5 in the Washington D.C. area. They were lots of fun, so tune in if you're in the area.
April 10, 2007
KGB Reading
I will be reading from Grey at at KGB's Fantastic Fictionon Series April 18th at 7PM.
Also reading will be Kit Reed.
KGB is at 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave).
Radio Tour
Over the next couple of weeks, I will be on the Grey Radio Tour. I'll announce all of the programs here as soon as I can.
Up first is The Michael Dresser Show on April 10th at 5:30 - 6:00.
I will add a mp3 link when it's available.
April 06, 2007
Coast to Coast Sightings
A shot from the Borders in Philly.
The Borders in San Francisco.
March 14, 2007
Book Spotting and Signing
My family and I headed out last weekend to see Grey at the bookstores and it was one of the biggest thrills of my life. Twenty years of writing and working finally paid off.
This is my book on a display shelf at Barnes and Noble Union Square, NYC. Top rack, mind you!
I sign the books.
And they go back on the shelves with the "Autographed" sticker. Now you know exactly how that secretive and complicated process works.
Next day we visited a Borders in Queens.
I sign more books with assistance from Coreen, the Sales Manager (not in photo).
My interview on John Scalzi's By The Way
I am interviewed on John Scalzi's By The Way blog.
He says: "Grey takes place in a world not unlike our own -- if our world had the volume knob pumped up to "11" and then snapped right off..."
March 02, 2007
Interview on the Radio
Tomorrow (March 3rd) I will be on WBAI's Hour of the Wolf with the fabulous Jim Freund. The show begins at 5 am and runs until 7.
February 15, 2007
It's for sale!
Grey is in stock at Amazon. It seems like a long time coming. And from reports I've gotten, it will be in stores by the end of the month.
Woo hoo!
February 06, 2007
Japanese influences
My interest in Japanese culture had several significant influences on Grey.
I spent one year of college as a foreign exchange student at Kobe's Konan Daigaku studying Japanese and Japanese culture. One of the most significant moments occurred when the weather changed and the thin jacket I had packed wasn't warm enough. I headed to the Sannomiya Mall in central Kobe and searched for something heavier. After spending several hours not finding anything I liked, I happened to turn a corner and found a small men's store packed with nothing but black, white, and charcoal clothes. I loved the minimalism and was delighted to find that one of the long, dark, and warm coats fit perfectly. I returned to the store many times, purchased more clothes and befriended the storeowner, Mr. Sugimoto.
That store was the source for the "grey" in my book--the subtle world of the protagonist juxtaposed against a bright, brash, and narcissistic world of his father. And the owner of that clothing store became the inspiration for the tailor in the novel, Mr. Cedar.
The fashion magazine featured in Grey, Pure H, was influenced by a Japanese friend of mine who was a big fan of what he called copy--the evocative text in certain magazine advertisements. It was poetry, he said, and translated and explained dozens of ads. I loved them and tried to write my own in both simple Japanese and English. This idea of poetic copy became the text from Pure H, which the characters quote as though it were Shakespeare or Dylan lyrics.
That it was possible to tell which magazine a person reads was an idea I came across in Japan. On several occasions, I heard things like, "She's and AnAn girl." In Grey many of the characters are identifiable by their style and the fictional magazines that embody their fashions.
Finally, Grey began as a short story about a world run by powerful family corporations a year before I lived in Japan. I'm sure it would have stayed a short story had I not gone and experienced all that I had. For a young man from the suburbs in Pennsylvania, Japan seemed like a glimpse of the future, and over the next several years, inspired by the size of scope, energy, and meme's of Japan, I kept adding to that story and it became Grey.
December 21, 2006
Livin' in the Blurbs
“If F. Scott Fitzgerald had ever imbibed himself into a science-fictional state of mind, subsequently pouring his talent for vivid images and acid observation into a futuristic dystopian extravaganza, the result might very well read like Jon Armstrong’s debut novel. This formidable newcomer has given us, in Michael Rivers, a grey Gatsby who will revisit your reveries long after the last page is turned.”
— James Morrow, author of The Last Witchfinder
“Grey is a truly extraordinary and original work--a deft and raucous mash-up of William Gibson and J.D. Salinger by way of Fellini. It’ll change your outlook, your brain chemistry, and your wardrobe.”
— Catherynne M. Valente, author of The Orphan’s Tales
“Grey is a fascinating book. It’s a fusion of the quasi-apocalyptic corporatism of Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination with Bladerunner and a big hunk of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.”
— Jay Lake, author of Trial of Flowers
“Two thumbs up... I couldn’t put it down.”
— Cherie Priest, author of Four and Twenty Blackbirds
“...a stylish, weird, funny, and inventive debut.”
Tim Pratt, author of The Strange Adventures of Ranger Girl
October 29, 2006
Blurb from Michael Chabon
"Grey is a legendary book waiting to happen. It's a mad, stylish, trippy, endlessly inventive romp through the biohazardous wastes of post-genre literature.
Jon Armstrong is a genius, with an umlaut, to the fifth power." - Michael Chabon
October 16, 2006
On the back cover of the novel . . .
This appears on the back of the advance reading copy of Grey:
In a world pushed beyond the moral simplicity of black and white, all that survives is Grey.
For Michael Rivers, life is perfect. Michael has everything: he is tall, handsome, and famous, worshipped by billions of fans around the globe. He is wealthy beyond measure, the heir apparent to RiverGroup, one of the handful of high-tech corporations that controls the world. He is fashionable, setting trends with his wardrobe of immaculate designer suits, each a unique and celebrated work of art. And Michael is in love—a perfect love, sharing a private language based entirely on quotes from the latest fashion magazine advertisement—with Nora, his beautiful, witty, and equally perfect fiancée, the only woman with whom he can see surgically altered monochromatic eye to eye.
When an assassin’s bullets pierce Michael’s body before the unblinking eyes of cameras, reporters, and viewers at a press junket, everything changes, forcing Michael to question his previously perfect world. Illusions shattered and forcibly separated from Nora, Michael seeks to uncover the reasons behind the attempted assassination, embarking on a quest that lead him to question his relationship with his loud, profane, and narcissistically Ultra father; his estranged mother; and the perilous, contaminated, neo-feudalistic world that lies beyond the safe and protected bubble of corporate family life.
Michael must delve deep into his past, finding that all paths seem to lead to the now-closed PartyHaus, and to a time when he was the golden boy, dancing furiously to the beat of the notorious all-night Rage parties thrown by his father. High fashion, corporate malfeasance, celebrity culture, and a media obsessed with the Next Big Thing collide with exuberant violence and volatile intensity in Grey, the explosive debut novel by newcomer Jon Armstrong.
August 14, 2006
About Grey
In the mid 22nd Century, Michael Rivers is the heir apparent to the wealthiest family in the world. His father has arranged his marriage to another wealthy scion, Nora. Fortunately, Michael and Nora are a perfect fit. They share a disdain for the excessively public life they must lead (their first dates are huge, public affairs where they are surrounded by the press and fans), and a desire to return to more simpler, pared down times (both are obsessed with the color grey).
It seems as though Michael has found a partner in his wish to escape from his life of forced exhibitionalism…until things go terribly wrong on their last date. A gunman attacks Michael and Nora, seemingly at random. Their marriage is called off; Michael’s company is about to go out of business. Michael decides to uncover who exactly was trying to kill him . . . even if it means digging up the truth behind his own fame and fortune.