I'm in another book?!
And several other books, and a few more books. And a book or two on the side.
So, in that weird cosmic epoch since I announced WHO KILLED THE HUMANS? (the second in the Sci-Fi Comedy WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? series) a few things have happened.
I published MACABRE MULTIVERSE (Halloween 2024), which includes a new story I wrote called THE SAVIOURS (exclusive to MM for now)
I had my own ‘work in progress’ show in a pub where I helped derail a couple’s first date, which turned out good for both of them
I wrote THE COSMONAUT WHO DIED TWICE, and it grew too big for WKTH, so it became its own novella and blasted off into space (you should read it, it’s one of my best stories. In my personal top 3)
I wrote a story for John Coon’s RIPPLES IN SPACE (and got in)
I published WHO GRILLED THE HUMANS? as a standalone short story (it is in WHO KILLED THE HUMANS? but I wanted it to get more reach, and to bring people into my larger worlds)
I wrote a bit of a story for Aaron Frale’s DAPPER MEN but I didn’t think it was good enough, so I didn’t even let him see it
I designed the cover for that book
I then designed some ads for that book
I then wrote this post about the ads for that book
This post is an ad for that book, but stay with me, it gets good
I’ll save you some time, it’s $1 and it is funny
Keep scrolling for some memes I made about it
That’s a good ad, right?
Even better. He’s rugged, handsome, just like that man on the TV.
So, Dapper men costs one dollar and contains three weird, hilarious, and new stories about that heist that happened for some reason.
It’s topical comedy, in a book!
So why buy it?
It’s got a bestselling author or two or three in it (I only really know Aaron and I am too busy playing with dinosaur pictures on the computer to check the other two) and also it is funny and I made the cover and it is good.
Here it is. You ready?
Aaron Frale (of TIME BURRITO fame) has also come up with an innovative new way of publishing books. He does this weird thing called “paying” the writers. Now I know this might be controversial to big companies and perhaps even some small presses who like to dress up as big but secretly blow their Arts Council grant on wine, but this whole money thing turns out to be pretty important to writers. They use it in exchange for goods and services, such as editors, or luxuries like soap and food.
Dirty capitalists the lot of them, I would personally pay them with moss.
(If you can remember, and then cite (and evidence) this joke to me at a live gig, I can, and will, accept a clump of moss in exchange for a book. Valid for the first five people who do it. I am serious. Future me. This is you in November 2025. You promised this. Stick to it).
So yeah, DAPPER MEN is gonna be a good read for you. Much nicer than turning the nightmare rectangle on and staring into crime statistics, or turning on the slightly smaller nightmare rectangle and cold-calling potential love interests whilst you’re on the toilet.
You can do that next week, when I launch my (optional) serious subletter. Yes, really, I do indeed have the capacity. It’s going to be very serious. I stressed myself out today when I was editing it. It’s genuinely very serious.
I am using my brain for good.
Anyway. So yeah, dapper men, heists, convenient open windows for criminals to escape out of, explosions, robbers, a weird and disconcerting lack of cops. It’s nightmarishly European.
You get the gist.
Come get some more gist.
I get paid from sales of this book, by the way. So you can help me out by getting a copy, too!
Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoy DAPPER MEN if you get it!
This is the end of the post, unless you want to continue into the scary zone of serious topics. Up to you.
Poll time.
I love the polls. Polls are good.
I have just written an incredibly serious, detailed article about a series of very preventable crimes in the UK. This of course is not the usual RealPhillipCarter.com stuff you signed up for, but nonetheless it is something I am starting to do. I have been bothered for months about these crimes, and nobody seems to have my perspective on how the UK has dealt with them.
I was going to send it to my friends at WrongSpeak, but I think it needs to be here. So, I want to know what you think of the following options.
I can make the post on my main (this email stream) so anyone, past or future, gets them by default. If you vote for this, the serious articles would be emailed to you alongside everything else, by default. You’d have to manually opt out, to not see them any more.
Or I can make them into a subletter, so I can link to them in my Notes or in other Posts, but you’ll have to then manually click them open within another genre’s email to read them. This means there’s some distance between you and the topics, so you don’t have to see them.
Disclaimer: I am already going to be picking option 2, but I wanted to know what your thoughts were anyway. These things interest me.