To one and all, have a wonderful autumn, and for all you writers out there: get submitting!

Go back to where all the craziness began with this very special miles vertigan Life Kills/Almanac pack. The first book Sleepers published, The Sleepers Almanac 2005 – the Deathbed Challenge, is the original place we published miles, having discovered him in that very first pile of Almanac submissions. Zoom forward to 2011 and the inimitable miles vertigan releases a novel, winning high praise from readers and critics and leaving many of us gasping for air with his tireless rants. We also chucked in The Sleepers Almanac no. 6, for no special reason in particular, but it sure as heck makes this one of the best book deals you’ll find anywhere!

Stock for this pack is very limited (seriously, there’s only a handful of that 1st Almanac left) – so jump in quick and spend a few hours seeing life through miles vertigan’s eyes. Only $35 including postage! Don’t miss out!

This year sees new stories from people the eds had previously not heard of, including the incredibly talented likes of Isabelle Li and Julie Koh. But there are names that might be familiar, too, to those who love short stories: Brad Bryant, Pierz Newton-John, or Sian Prior, perhaps better known for her journalism, but proving that she knows how to wrangle a story too.

What makes the Almanac different is its breadth. The Almanac, which focuses on new and emerging authors, is the result of a slush-pile read, where writers from all over the country have been encouraged to send in stories up to 10,000 words long.

“This bright new instalment” – Owen Richardson, The Age

“What is perhaps most noteworthy about The Sleepers Almanac No. 7 is the great balance Dattner and Swinn have brought to the collection as a whole. There’s a satisfying variety in the subject matter and tone of the stories, and there’s a nice variation in structure that keeps the reading experience here always fresh and never dull, and that makes for a very impressive anthology of writing.” – Canberra Times

“This year’s is another hefty contribution to the good health of short fiction in Australia, with the weight towards material by new and emerging authors.” – Kerryn Goldsworthy, Sydney Morning Herald

The Sleepers Almanac is available from all good bookstores, particularly your favourite local independent, or you can buy it here.

An ebook of this title is also available from:
Readings

A book by Booki.sh

What’s in store for readers of the Griffith Review Fiction Ish:
Griffith REVIEW 34: The Annual Fiction Edition explores islands – physical and metaphorical – with stories that engage with wonder. This third annual collection of new fiction features an exciting line-up of emerging writers, many poised to make the leap to the national stage. Also includes the announcement of the winners of the 2011 Griffith REVIEW-CAL Emerging Writers’ (GREW) Prize.

Including acclaimed authors Georgia Blain, Craig Cliff, Chris Womersley, Melissa Lucashenko, Jospehine Rowe, Ashley Hay and Benjamin Law; plus young writers who have made a mark this year including Favel Parrett, Rachael S Morgan, Nicolas Low, Romy Ash and Sally Breen; poetry from Thomas Shapcott, Kathleen Bleakley, Margaret Merrilees and WH Chong; and more.

Thursday, December 1st, 6 for a 6.30 p.m. start.
Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall Carlton

And so begins the tale of a family finding itself, told by each of its members as they discover powers they never thought possible, from the author of the acclaimed Things We Didn’t See Coming.

“What the Family Needed is a wonderful novel: imaginative, intelligent, empathetic. It’s like a cross between The Corrections and The Slap, except without any of the gloom or rage and with the addition of something that may or may not be either a form of magic realism or simply that old staple of the literary art, metaphor.”
— Sydney Morning Herald

“Every now and then, a novel arrives that conveys not only wisdom and understanding but also offers a dose of magic. Part fable, part dreamscape, part family drama, What the Family Needed can be read in several ways. Some of the delight is that nothing is lost in choosing one way over another; in fact, each reading contains all other possible readings.”
— Brisbane Courier Mail

“To tell you the narrative concerns a family whose members have superpowers is only to graze the surface of a moving and beautifully realised meditation on what it is to be an ordinary human being.”
- The Australian

“Strange and marvellous territory… With such a ferocious intelligence and playful curiosity at work here, all we can hope for is to hang on for the ride.”
— The Monthly

“Amsterdam has a gift for switching reality about: in his sharp and engaging fiction, life seems ordinary but radically unsettling. It’s not even clear what species of fiction we are dealing with… Exhilarating.”
— The Australian

“Ingenious.”
— Australian Book Review

“A wonderfully fresh perspective on families, homing in on those transformative moments that shape not merely our futures, but our understanding of the past. This is a novel that pulses with hope… It’s a tantalising novel, one that’s both sharp and touching, and Steven Amsterdam is fast becoming one of our most interesting writers.”
— Canberra Times

“Unputdownable.”
— Townsville Bulletin

“What the Family Needed is a probing exploration of familial love and forbearance, communication and letting go.”
4.5/5 stars
— Bookseller & Publisher

“There’s something fresh and engaging about Steven Amsterdam’s writing — a lightness of touch with some of life’s more troubling human scenarios sprinkled with a frisson of other worldliness… Like his 2009 debut Things We Didn’t See Coming is packed to the brim with fascinating ideas that play on your mind and characters so vivid… It’s a magical concept…”
November’s Great Read, 2011
— Australian Women’s Weekly

“Amsterdam seems to my mind to be at the height of his considerable literary powers. A tale of a couple of chalk ‘n’ cheese sisters, their respective spouses (ditto), and their teenage siblings – all of them tangled up in what appears to be the ‘wrong version’ of their lives. How those young people in particular make their journey through life, and the means by which they do so, is some of the magic… It’s a book where almost line for line you’ll be unable to wipe the smile off your face; it’s also one where you will marvel at the human sympathy Amsterdam brings to his characters.”
— Readings

“An Incredibles for grown-ups. In this cunning and kindly novel, the fantastical is not primarily for show but for illuminating so-called ordinary life.” – Steven Conte

“A brave book, that moves effortlessly through time, reality and space. Amsterdam captures the strangeness of ordinary life in a truly extraordinary way.” – Jessica Au

“Puckish and humane, this is a novel that gives family drama a twist, and another twist, and another.” – Malcolm Knox

“In only his second novel, Amsterdam comes at us as a writer of immense accomplishment, depth,
complexity, and a style already his own.” – Matthew Condon

You can read more about and from Steven at his website.

++ What the Family Needed is also available as an ebook, from the following places:
Readings
Kobo

Life Kills follows the dark journey and twisted mind ravines of a mysterious unnamed terrorist as he goes about his business. On his flight, stewards Bubbles and Sparkles, pilots Brad and Chad, and a bunch of burnt out z-list hackster celebrities face their own particular brands of demons. Our terrorist antihero faces terrible choices along the way, torn between burning passion and mindless passivity; and throughout, the Inflight Infotainment system lurks, ever present but becoming a more powerful and sinister force as the story unfolds. Life Kills is a unique work of dark and comedic avant-garde literary fiction, in the mode of Hunter S Thompson crossed with Kinky Friedman. In it, our protagonist is out to kill some noxious rockstars to prevent them from their pathetic talent-vacuumed futures. But it’s not as easy to hijack a plane as he might have thought… In short snapshots, Life Kills ridicules the many contradictions in the way people live their lives, with an authentic humour that belies the anger boiling beneath the surface. For hipsters, boomers, and anything in-between.

“Reading Life Kills is an unadulterated thrill. Vertigan’s prose is delicious: taut and precise; although not for everyone. Vertigan is obviously the master of the spoken word and one should read this novel with this in mind. Sentences can run into pages of words and could often stand in isolation to the overall plot. Life Kills is an original tirade against society. Reading this torrent of apprehension is breathtaking, fun and creates a damning portrait of our society. James Joyce: I reckon you have met your match”
– Readings

“A decadently funny and unnervingly original exploration of a civilisation in decline.” – Helen Elliott

“Life Kills is social satire turned up to eleven, the bastard offspring of Ben Elton and This Is Serious Mum [TISM]. Vertigan takes his hypervitriolic milk-thru-the-nose wit in hand and runs full tilt at a darkly surreal yet convincing existential caricature of the follies of self-absorbed contemporary consumer society, skewering them neatly on his perfectly balanced page-long compound adjectival sentences to devastating, jaw-dropping, giggle-inducing, read-it-aloud-to-whoever-is-in-earshot effect.” – Adam Ford

“It pleases me to no end to see a local writer up there with the big guns of American fiction who are usually the ones responsible for this sort of manic prose. It’s like the cover for Pantera’s ‘Vulgar Display of Power’ record – being punched in the face, freeze-framed for eternal glory. I’m surprised that Sleepers, a small local publishing house, has picked this novel up but then again I’m not surprised whatsoever. They’ve really established themselves as a great house of quality writing over the past few years and this novel (novella?) only reaffirms this… One of the most sarcastic, horrifying and hilarious reads of recent times. For fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis. Read it in one sitting for maximum effect – hell it’s short enough.”
– Nicholas Brodie, Castle Co-Op

“This is a funny, original novel that shakes its fist at everything.”
– Bookseller and Publisher

++ Buy the ebook version of Life Kills:

Readings

Kobo

And for even more goodies from miles vertigan, head to his website.

Life Kills Trailer from Sleepers Publishing on Vimeo.

After fourteen years of marriage, Jen – aka ‘Monty’ – wakes one morning to find herself ‘with a well-defined sexual attraction to my next-door neighbour who… was female’. Not long after, Monty leaves her husband, Dave, and their son for a woman, Renny. She follows Renny to Melbourne where Monty, a social worker, begins employment at Marlowe Downs, a suburban institution for child psychiatry.

“A calm and thoughtful novel set in contemporary Melbourne, written for intelligent grown-ups by someone with an ear for laughter and forgiving. Which might resemble acceptance of the things we cannot change.” – Helen Elliott, The Age

“A clever and deceptively complicated debut novel. As a novelist, Finn shows incredible control over her authorial voice, an excellent willingness to take risks and a restraint in refusing to spell things out too explicitly for the reader… what’s been left out becomes every bit as important as what’s been put in.” – Emmett Stinson

“It is a moving, wonderful, thought-provoking read, make no mistake.” – Sunday Territorian

“Finn’s succinct characterisations are filled with insight and are often very funny. Her story adroitly records a short but telling period in a life. ‘“Chapters”, as people call them,’ notes Monty. We look forward to more of them from Finn.” – Australian Book Review

“This Too Shall Pass acknowledges, in a way like Helen Garner’s The Spare Room, the difficult and the confusing and life’s unresolvable, constant and intricate instabilities.” – Angela Meyer, Sydney Morning Herald

Read a great review of the book here on the Overland website.

This Too Shall Pass is also available as an ebook from the following places:
Readings eBooks
Kobo