2018 TOUR!

*updated 3/29/18*

I'm going on tour for Palaces!

To celebrate, I have inexpertly crafted the above poster. I've always wanted to make a tour flyer, so now that's done (would you believe that it has over 30 photoshop layers? I would not).

I'm incredibly fortunate to have an intimidatingly-talented group of writers and musicians performing alongside me at most of these events, and I couldn't be more excited.

All the details are below, and I'll continue to update this post as further details are finalized (all events are also forever housed on the performances page here).

Come out! All events are free and open to everyone!

(And as ever, if you're planning something and looking for enthusiastic participants or readers, please reach out!)

******HOUSE TOUR 2018******

March 29, 2018, 4:30pm
@ Earlham College, EPIC Co-Lab, Richmond, IN
Reading and Discussion

April 2, 2018, 7pm
@ Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI
Reading and Discussion
Event / Facebook event 

April 3, 2018, 7:30pm
@ Two Dollar Radio HQ, Columbus, OH
Reading and Discussion
Facebook event

April 4, 2018, 7pm
@ Wells & Co. Custom Tattoo, Dayton, OH
Wells & Co. Presents Simon Jacobs and Cricketbows
with Cricketbows!
Facebook event

April 5, 2018, 7pm
@ Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago, IL
Reading with Lindsay Hunter, Alex Higley, Rachel Hyman, and Alexis Pope
Event / Facebook event

April 6, 2018, 5pm
@ Mission Creek Festival, Iowa City, IA
Lit Walk at Mission Creek 2018
@ RSVP (Round #1)
with Hanif Abdurraqib, Shy Watson, Amy Saul-Zerby, Steven Fletcher, and James D’Agostino.
Event / Facebook event

April 12, 2018
SOMETHING IN THE BAY AREA WITH COLIN WINNETTE, STAY TUNED
Details to come!

******//HOUSE TOUR 2018******

PALACES: BEHIND THE SCENES!

Hi there,

PALACES was officially published last month! As such, there are a couple of reviews, etc that you can read if you're wavering (the full list is on the PALACES page elsewhere on this blog):

• starred review from Publisher's Weekly;
• starred review from Foreword Reviews;
• review by Toby Carroll on Tor.com;
• "Hitting Shelves," written by me for Fiction Advocate.

Thus far, I've done a couple of cool book-related events, including:

A launch at Bluestockings--

Launch crew (from left): Ross Wagenhofer, Cackler, Dan Schwartz,  Jeanne Thornton,
Freddie Moore, Miracle Jones (photo by Martha Moody, my mother)

A discussion with Leni Zumas (Red Clocks) and Eugene Lim (Dear Cyborgs) at the NYPL--

Eugene Lim, Cackler, Leni Zumas (photo courtesy of Leni Zumas)

Later this month, I'll be performing in Philadelphia at Gina's 45 with Carmen Maria Machado, Colin Winnette, Caren Beilin, and Cynthia Dewi Oka.

I'm also planning a short tour through the midwest (and one stop in San Francisco) for late March/early April (more details soon!).

As ever, if you're interested in learning more, reviewing or covering the book, etc, please get in touch! I am always up for readings et al and would probably love to perform with you.

If you see Palaces out at a bookstore or in the wild, let me know, and send a photo if possible! I am making a list.

ALSO:::: I'm opening for the psych-rock band Cricketbows at Wells and Co. in Dayton and I WOULD LOVE TO DO MORE STUFF LIKE THIS. INVITE ME TO YOUR BASEMENT GIGS!!

INVITE ME TO YOUR HARDCORE SHOWS ! !!

I HAVE A LOUD SPEAKING VOICE!!

*

In celebration of the book's launch, here is some secret behind-the-scenes content from the development of PALACES:

WORKING TITLES (some seriously considered, others not)

NEW MONEY, OLD MONEY
FOYER
LAWN
HIS REIGN ENDS
THRONE
PUNK ROCK

"AUTHORS WHO THINK THEY'RE DESIGNERS" SYNDROME
*an early cover concept that I submitted to Two Dollar Radio. I still love it but I understand that it's probably too bleak to ever be used (please also note my skillful integration of the TDR logo at bottom-right). I am also omitting the designs that exhibit blatant copyright infringement.

feat. Michelangelo's Death of Bara

SELECT WORDS FROM THE MS THAT MICROSOFT WORD DOESN'T BELIEVE ARE REAL WORDS

arabesqued
bottleweight
gooily
plasticky
psychosoma
punkhouse
punkroutine
sexcapade
sinkmouth

SOME PHOTOS OF DRAFTS OF KEY SCENES

"Casey Is Dead," early scene, notebook #1,
written early 2014

Preamble to "Mahogany Wardrobe," inside Vivian's
mansion, notebook #2, written late 2014

"Charity," a scene about spurning food, interposed
into notebook #2, written July 2015 in Montreal

SELECTIONS FROM 2017

Here's a list of some things that I've been excited about this year. This isn't meant to be a definitive or comprehensive 'best of 2017' list or anything (despite the subheadings) because there are a lot of 2017 books that I have yet to read (I am very behind on reading this year): it is merely a list of enthusiasms.

also if you have music recommendations, you should send them to me:

BEST ALBUMS
Land Animal, by Bent Knee
--favorite track, "Holy Ghost": I saw this band live for the first time last week and it was unlike anything else; their music is like some muddy dark gospel that someone dug up from the forest and translated for our modern times, just endlessly inspiring and inventive and dense. The band has an incredible camaraderie live, too, like they have their own secret language;

STAO, by Dun-Stao;
--favorite track, "STAO": this is like minimalist zeuhl filtered through black metal and gamelan and chamber music and a million other arcane influences (+ invented language). You should all listen to and buy this EP to encourage this motherfucker to make more stuff;

The Assassination of Julius Caesar, by Ulver
--favorite track, "1969": "a black metal band that just discovered synthesizers and 80s horror movie soundtracks" - Graham;

Stage Four, by Touché Amoré
--favorite track (TIE), "Flowers and You" and "Water Damage": every couple of years TA releases a new, terrific album, and each time it gets a little more melodic and somehow better than the last; this came out late-2016 but this is my list and I mostly listened to the album in 2017. I hope that Jeremy is taking care of his voice because otherwise I wonder how many more albums it can last. Perhaps the most cathartic 35 minutes of 2016 (2017);

Beyond the Fleeting Gales, by Crying
--favorite track, "Well and Spring": it's like being wrapped in a warm blanket, I don't know what else to tell you, this also came out in 2016 but whatever;

Between the Earth and Sky, by Lankum
--favorite track, "The Granite Gaze": Lankum makes all of their songs sound like myths from long-forgotten eras. Maybe some of them are. See also: "What Will We Do When We Have No Money?"

BEST MOVIE
Columbus (dir. Kogonada)
--A perfect, beautifully-shot, understated movie about the midwest.

BEST BOOKS
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, by Hanif Abdurraqib (Two Dollar Radio);
Literally show me a healthy person, by Darcie Wilder (Tyrant Books);
Priestdaddy, by Patricia Lockwood (Penguin Random House);
Hotwriting, by Todd Anderson (Instar Books);
The Grip of It, by Jac Jemc (FSG).

I haven't read the sarah book yet, fuck off

BRUTALEST DEATH SCENE IN LITERATURE
Gutted by a tri-antlered helldemon in The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, by Margaret Killjoy (Tor Books).

BRUTALEST OFFSCREEN SUBTLY IMPLIED DEATH SCENE IN LITERATURE
Every scene in The Buried Giant.

BEST LIVE ACTS
Bent Knee (@ Rough Trade);
Sick Shit (@ Punk Island);
Touché Amoré (@ Bowery Ballroom, see above, also it was a Bad Anniversary and this helped to make it right);
Patti Smith (@ Summerstage).

BEST EP ON A CD-R THAT I GOT AT PUNK ISLAND
Field Goal by Field Goal.

BEST ALBUM IN A JEWEL CASE THAT I GOT AT PUNK ISLAND
Softcore by Sick Shit.

BEST BAND THAT DIDN'T RELEASE SHIT THIS YEAR
Blackbird Raum (which doesn't mean that you shouldn't take this moment to go and listen to Destroying or Caspian's side project Scissorbills' THAN THOU, because these things will change your life).

BEST UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS
Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton (now with more hovercars)
Tyrant by Brandi Wells
Lake Humm by Martha Moody
THE OTHER NOVEL I WROTE (String Follow)

BEST YOUTUBE CHANNEL
atmospheric black metal

BEST BAND NAMES THAT I INVENTED (up for grabs)
House Ghosts (pop punk)
Crop Top (shoegaze)
Golgonooza (black metal)
Alphalpha (regular metal)

BEST RISE AGAINST ALBUM
...the one I made up, Hooves, a higher-concept and more allusive version of their mediocre 2017 album Wolves:

*

In other news, if you've found your way here without knowing, Palaces (my first novel), is due out on January 16, 2018 from Two Dollar Radio. I'm pretty excited; there's a whole page on this blog about it, with blurbs et al! If you're interested in learning more, reviewing the book, etc, reach out at jacobs852 [at] gmail [dot] com, as ever!

Booksellers, critics, and librarians can request copies from Two Dollar Radio here (available now!).

Palaces

PALACES (Two Dollar Radio, 2017)

The most exciting news: my first novel, PALACES, is going to be published by Two Dollar Radio in January of 2018! You can read the announcement and a short interview with me on the TDR site, and even pre-order the book here.

The book is about power and extremism and property and uncertain futures and a whole bunch of other thorny things. And check out the 70s movie poster-style cover!!

One of my favorite writers, Jeanne Thornton - author of The Dream of Doctor Bantam and The Black Emerald, who I have blogged about extensively, yet not nearly enough - has granted a perfectly-summative blurb:

"In this singular debut novel that reads like a cross between Derek Jarman's Jubilee and an unsettling folk ballad, Jacobs narrates the journey of two Midwestern pilgrims, each striving for ascetic purity both in their possessions and in their emotional lives, as they silently war against the ostentation of the wealthy, the dread expectations of gender, maybe against object permanence itself. It feels like The Road, but with less faith in humanity, and this S. Jacobs is a literary talent to watch." —Jeanne Thornton

It's hard to overstate how excited I am about this: Two Dollar Radio was the first indie press that I ever knew about (my first book was Joshua Mohr's Termite Parade in 2010), and they're based in Ohio, so we have Regional Affinity, and most decisively are wonderful people to work with. Publishing with TDR feels like bringing everything full-circle.

I started writing the book in May of 2013, and did my last substantial edits in April of 2017, so it has been a long road and I'm glad to finally get it out into the world. Most of that time I was consistently working on it, though there were a couple of spans of 2-4 months where I let the manuscript rest. I started writing the book when I was 22, and it has changed along with me: it has all of my formative years within it, as well as my shifting preoccupations. I'm excited for you to read it.

Here's a photo of all the cumulative drafts stacked atop one another, all the way down to when it went by - *shudder* - alternate titles (the very first original draft is handwritten and scattered across a few notebooks):

the many drafts of Palaces

Once more: you can order it here. :)

*

8 months ago I had a story published in Joyland called "Let Me Take You to Olive Garden" that I'm still tickled with. I think it's indicative of the turns that my writing is taking these days.

What else can I tell you? Earlier this week, I finished another novel ("finished" a "novel"), which is called at this point String Follow (I don't think the title will change) and is about a group of suburban Ohio teens who begin to experience occult phenomenon.

I recently finished Patti Smith's M Train, which was incredible, enormous in feeling, and long overdue. I used to think that if I lived in New York for long enough, one day I would run into David Bowie. David Byrne or David Bowie. Now I'm convinced that if I live in New York for long enough, I'll run into Patti Smith.

And I still walk past David Bowie's apartment on Lafayette sometimes; this photo is old now but it's still with me:

January 10, 2016