Herb Guggenheim

 

 

Are you ready for

THE NOTHINGNESS IMPERATIVE?

 

Herb Guggenheim is excited to announce the launch of his new novel THE NOTHINGNESS IMPERATIVE October 1, 2019. What you don't know is that it's available right now on Amazon.com!

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From the back cover:

Washed up English professor and recovering narcissist Skip Gershwin doesn't expect time travel to be a part of his daily life. Nor does he anticipate becoming a member of a nihilistic death cult. But when a mysterious silver cylinder falls into his possession, his life path takes a series of bizarre turns. Sought after by an elusive cult leader, a band of impudent millennials, his laconic girlfriend, and a duo of unorthodox federal agents, Skip is forced to confront a disturbing truth--THE NOTHINGNESS IMPERATIVE!

 

Herb Guggenheim explains rationale for writing Strange Encounter at the Shakespeare Motel

 

My goal in writing STRANGE ENCOUNTER AT THE SHAKESPEARE MOTEL was to create a poetry book that could be enjoyed by any reader--not just by readers steeped in academic poetry.

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I want my readers to be able to pick up my book and dive into the reading experience just as they would were they diving into a new novel for the first time.

I don't believe that poetry is purely the province of academic poets, meaning those poets who teach in MFA programs and publish in highfalutin journals.

Some of that poetry is easy to understand but a lot of it isn't. And a lot of it leaves me cold. Most poets these days are writing for other poets. They're not writing for a general reading audience.

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Much contemporary poetry involves the production of subtle effects--effects that only other poets can appreciate. They can say things to each other like, "Gee, I really like the way your image of a parachute dissolves into an image of a swan," or "Gee, I really like how you play with assonance and alliteration in your new opus 'Altruism and Anemia in Albany,'" or "Gee, I really like your narrative voice. I feel the same anxiety that your narrator feels when you have him stroll into a crowded room with an over-full cup of coffee."

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It's fine to write the poetry of subtle effects but one should do so with the full knowledge that the guy in the next beach chair won't be reading it.

Song lyrics and rap do a better job of making poetry accessible to the everyday reader. But I think there's plenty of room for those like me who want to write poetry but don't want to speak purely to other poets.

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That brings me back to STRANGE ENCOUNTER AT THE SHAKESPEARE MOTEL. I guess I wanted to make it so damn interesting that I could hand it to anyone--like, for example--the paramedic who lives in the house across the street or the high school student drinking SLURPEES at the 7-Eleven or my dad's best friend the auto mechanic--and they could read it and enjoy it and say to their friends "You should read this. It's really cool." Hopefully, I've succeeded.

 

Guggenheim's novel

Violations of Causality named finalist in Foreword INDIES

book competition

Foreword Reviews is a magazine that spotlights self-published books and books published by small independent presses. Each year, Foreword sponsors the Foreword INDIES book competition. I'm proud to say that my book was chosen as a finalist in this competition. This means I get to display this mark on my book and on my web page:

 

​BUY HERB'S BOOKS

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Fiction:

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RESURRECTION 2020

The Nothingness Imperative

Violations of Causality

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Poetry:

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Strange Encounter at the Shakespeare Motel

Sunset at the Hotel Mira Mar

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