Ephemera.

By Jay Stringer

A light one this week. I'm chasing a deadline, and the deadline is getting away. I just wanted to bring a couple of things to your attention.

I guested on the Fuzzy Typewriter Podcast at the weekend. I joined the usual motley crew of Paul Montgomery and Dave Accampo to discuss John Constantine, Hellblazer, and some dude named Constanteeeeeen. It was a fun chat, and if you like comics it's worth a listen.

My second novel comes out from Thomas & Mercer in two months. I've not yet started bombarding you with news about it, but to help get ready I decided to make my two ebooks free at the weekend. For saturday and sunday you can pickup either The Goldfish Heist or Faithless Street for precisely zero of your pennies or cents. (Everything that is in Faithless Street is also included in the much larger collection Goldfish Heist, so you may not want both.)

And one last thing. You all know that the greatest Rock and Roll band to ever exist were The Replacements, right? You did? Good. Slim Dunlap -the lead guitarist during the bands more sober years- suffered a stroke last year. By all accounts he still has his wit, charm and general all-round greatness, but physically he's not doing well and health insurance is...let's face it.....crap. The Replacements have released an EP through New West Records to raise some funds, and limited edition copies are on auction now for another day. If you love(d) the band and have some spare cash, take a look. If you're one of the strange people who don't think they're the greatest thing to ever thing the thing since the thing was created, then other artists like Craig Finn, Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams will be having releases come out through the same system in the coming weeks and months. And Frank Black of Black Francis fame. And Tommy Keene of Tommy Keene fame. And Lucero of Lucero fame.