What Do You Say to the DJ? Expanded Edition is now available for sale for the Kindle (edelivery).

Click here to purchase for Kindle (edelivery)

Print edition also available

What Do You Say to the DJ? 1st Edition is now available for sale for the Kindle (edelivery).

Click here to purchase for Kindle (edelivery)

Print edition also available

Copy and pasted a review that appeared online for the Expanded Edition. Here’s a link to the reviewer’s website.

Review

What Do You Say to the DJ? Expanded Edition is an autobiography in the format of emails between two friends, Andrew Marx and Dara Shifrer. The book tells the two year story of Andy and Dara’s coming into adulthood. As the back of the book says, “college is over and real life is a work-in-progress”. The emails between Dara and Andy had me literally laughing out loud; they were hilarious! Also, I felt the book really allowed you to get to know the characters, as if they were close friends; which makes the’ Afterword by Andrew Marx’ and the Dara and Andy Interview at the end of the book all the more intriguing.

Andy and Dara were easy to relate to, and the email format portrayed them as very down-to-earth people. Although the email format had its advantages, I didn’t really like it – it was kind of confusing at times. In general, I felt the book was hard to follow and would’ve been better if backgrounds were provided for the characters. It took me quite a while to understand what Becca’s relationship was to Andy and Dara, and I never quite figured out Juilianna’s relativeness.

Although, one thing I can’t stop blabbing about is how consistently funny What Do You Say to the DJ? is. Also, I felt the ‘extended’ part of the book was a nice addition. As previously stated, my main problems with the book were the email format (yet, I’m not really sure the book would even be the book it is without it), the hard to follow-ness of it, and the lack of knowing who some of the characters were. My favorite parts were…all the funny parts!

Review by Kady Garrett

It’s spring-like weather in early March in New England. The sun is shining. My office air conditioning is trying to run (it’s not that warm yet).

If you haven’t heard…

Accidents Happen

Release Date: March 16. You can order it from amazon.com and other online retailers for $11.95.

Product Description:
Nothing comes easy to Matt Walters since an accident changed his life. He worries about what to say to his friends after the accident, and he can’t decide if his new job is a charm or a curse. Then a plane plummets to the ground in front of him, and Matt is propelled into an unpredictable world with villainous bounty hunters and mysterious new allies. Accidents Happen, the new work of fiction by Andrew Marx, takes the reader into a world just one step off of the familiar path, where the dead are rising and even the heroes are up to something sinister…

The first edition includes two special back-up short stories Bare Bones and the previously unannounced A Day in the Life of Sebastian Stanwood and interior art by Tabitha Worthington.

Here is it! The cover image for Accidents Happen. Click on the cover to order your copy.

Back in September 2009, an awesome promotional poster for What Do You Say to the DJ? Expanded Edition was designed.

Click on the image to see the poster in full-size

This isn’t really a promotional clip for Accidents Happen but it was a fun video shot in the snow during the recent promotional photoshoot.

Outtakes from a promotional photo shoot for Accidents Happen. Photography by Mark Khan.

Interview by Harris Hiller

HH: Describe your new release, Accidents Happen, in a couple of sentences.

AM: It’s a story about one man’s struggles after a car accident. But it’s not exactly what you think. This story has plane crashes and guns and the supernatural.

HH: What was the inspiration for the book?

AM: Accidents Happen was a happy accident. For the second half of 2009, I was actually working on another book.

What happened was that my friends and I were sitting around the kitchen table in our house last October, talking about writing and publishing. Someone issued a challenge: a fifty page story, a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. It would have supernatural elements, the aura of heroic epic, and the possibility of a sequel or sequels. The catch: finish it in three weeks.

I was like, “I can do that!”

HH: How long did it take?

AM: The first draft was finished in four weeks.

HH: What happened to the other book you were writing?

AM: Because of its length, I considered publishing Accidents Happen together with the other story. The stories were totally unrelated and it just wasn’t a successful merging. So I scrapped that plan.

HH: Will your readers be confused by going from What Do You Say to the DJ? – a “real life” book – to Accidents Happen?

AM: I like the fact that the story is grounded in the reality we know. Yes, there are supernatural things going on, but the main character lives in the same world that you and I do. So to answer your question, I don’t think so. The big difference is one story is a memoir and the other is entirely fictional.

Thematically, both stories touch on how hard it is to just live your life. Not that I feel like I need to justify my transition to fiction writing.

HH: Why the back up story? What is a back up story?

A back up story is basically a short story that relates to the primary story. In this case, the story introduces you to a few characters who will have major roles in the sequel.

Tabitha Worthington, who drew art for What Do You Say to the DJ?, sent me three sketches for new art. I used them as inspiration for the short story called Bare Bones. A girl, a boy and a chicken who will all have their own tales to tell eventually. The art was included in the book because it was gorgeous and I couldn’t keep it to myself.

HH: What are you working on now?

AM: The follow up to Accidents Happen. Every character you meet will be back for an appearance in the sequel. I’m also compiling Smart ReMarx articles for an annotated release. If you need a fix of my non-fiction writing, it’s slated for release this summer.

HH: Talk briefly about the publishing process.

AM: It’s intense. I write and edit the book from start to finish, work on all the promotional materials and put together a rough idea for the cover.

HH: You don’t design the cover yourself?

AM: No, I have it professionally done. It’s such an important element that it is worth it to let someone else do it and then I always have the option to tweak it here and there. But I do have ultimate approval over what it looks like.

HH: What is the cover image for Accidents Happen?

AM: It’s a good luck charm. Even though the title might suggest negativity, I wanted to counteract that notion with something suggesting the opposite vibe.

HH: On that note, good luck!

This holiday postcard was sent out to announce the presale for Accidents Happen. You can preorder the book here.