The book that simultaneously redefines and spoofs the zombie genre.
LITERARY AWARDS:
Finalist, Comedy/Humor: 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
First Place, General Fiction: 2014 Halloween Book Festival.
Runner-Up / 2nd Place, General Fiction 2014 London (England) Book Festival
Runner-Up / 2nd Place, General Fiction: 2014 Hollywood Book Festival
Honorable Mention, General F
The book that simultaneously redefines and spoofs the zombie genre.
LITERARY AWARDS:
Finalist, Comedy/Humor: 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
First Place, General Fiction: 2014 Halloween Book Festival.
Runner-Up / 2nd Place, General Fiction 2014 London (England) Book Festival
Runner-Up / 2nd Place, General Fiction: 2014 Hollywood Book Festival
Honorable Mention, General Fiction, 2014 Great Midwest Book Festival (Chicago)
Honorable Mention, General Fiction, 2014 New England Book Festival
Honorable Mention, General Fiction, 2015 Los Angeles Book Festival
...more
Paperback
,
292 pages
Published
July 7th 2014
by Createspace
(first published July 6th 2014)
so, this is a story about a zombie clown. but it's not this kind of clown
nor is it this kind of zombie
therefore, it is not this kind of zombie clown
no, what we have here is an ornery stand-up comedian clown who becomes a zombie after a violent icepick incident coincides with a freak tornado that somehow causes all the recently dead to turn into zombies, or a version of a zombie. put your hand down, science, we are not taking questions at this time.
in this book, the zombies are similar to the zom
so, this is a story about a zombie clown. but it's not this kind of clown
nor is it this kind of zombie
therefore, it is not this kind of zombie clown
no, what we have here is an ornery stand-up comedian clown who becomes a zombie after a violent icepick incident coincides with a freak tornado that somehow causes all the recently dead to turn into zombies, or a version of a zombie. put your hand down, science, we are not taking questions at this time.
in this book, the zombies are similar to the zombies in
the revival series: people come back from the dead, yes, but they don't lose motor skills, cognitive function, or eat human brains. or any brains, for that matter. unless they are at a dinner party where brains are being served. but as we all know,
monkey's brains, though popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often to be found in Washington D.C.
and speaking of dropping pop culture references into a narrative - this book is full of that: television shows, comic books, movies, music, former pro wrestlers - it's all likely to show up in this book, with exhortations to listen to a particular song while reading a particular segment of the story, or with deep asides into the underpraised gems of both the big and small screen, like
Kolchak
or
My Sister Sam.
. naturally, these kinds of asides break up the narrative flow, but formal structure is not a high priority here, where the book opens with an interview and then a couple chapters relating the story of a little boy, some bloody snowmen, and an observed crime which turns out to be an excerpt of the book the character is reading and never returns to once "his" story starts rolling. there are no rules.
so, ripper the clown is a dude who walks around at all times in full clown makeup, leather pants,
"screw you" sunglasses, with blinking christmas lights strung up all around him. he's got several chips on his shoulder, and not just from clown-related shit. he's pretty much your standard douchebag - moaning about the shallow girls who wouldn't date him because he had long hair, while feeling pretty okay about calling other women funny-looking, his previous girlfriend bethany included. moaning about how much better of a comedian he is than more-successful comedians and how unfair it is that he isn't getting the same kind of treatment. his assessment of his comedic and personal merits fall under that "unreliable narrator" banner when we get his current girlfriend willow's version of events he'd painted in a completely different light. so, trust no 1. this all takes place in the near future, and ripper-narrator addresses the reader as though we are part of his world, as though he is telling his side of a story we already know - the story of how the zombies came to be (science, no!! stop waving your hand around - i didn't mean "how" literally.), and what happened afterwards in the realm of human/zom relations. obama and bush are mentioned, giving it that dash of "real-world," but if we are in the same world, why does ripper need to tell us who the president is now, as though he is revealing a new fact? i mean, obviously, this person is
not
the president and probably won't be in the near future, but if ripper's audience is ostensibly contemporaneous (god, there has GOT to be a less douchey way to say that), so but if the readers are supposebly on the same timeline as ripper, we would know that, right? so the way the information was relayed would be more of an offhand comment than a
reveal
, yes? unless this is meant to be ripper speaking from the not-yet-occurring future and that tornado did more than just make zombies happen?? and then i realize i am thinking too hard about a book revolving around a zombie clown.
it's a romp of a story - more of a comedic adventure/horror parody/rant mash-up, which might be the first of its kind. also perhaps in the "first of its kind category," the character of ripper the clown actually does tour as a comedian, and has many youtube videos:
Jake Aurelian has once again written a fantastic book! I thoroughly enjoyed this story and, as a die-hard zombie fanatic, I appreciate what he has done for the genre. Ripper & Jake have brought so many elements to an already stereotyped genre that has left me DEMANDING that others read this book.
If this were to ever grace a silver screen, you would need one helluva director to pull it off.
Jake Aurelian graduated from the University of Illinois in 2000 with a degree in Media Studies/Communication & Rhetoric. Aurelian has taught English and media at the college level, and to date, has authored eight books (fiction, non-fiction and children's) and over 500 pop culture articles.
On Halloween 2012, Jake Aurelian took an obscure character from his fiction books, an angry clown named
Jake Aurelian graduated from the University of Illinois in 2000 with a degree in Media Studies/Communication & Rhetoric. Aurelian has taught English and media at the college level, and to date, has authored eight books (fiction, non-fiction and children's) and over 500 pop culture articles.
On Halloween 2012, Jake Aurelian took an obscure character from his fiction books, an angry clown named Ripper, and turned the character into a stand-up comedy and online comedy video gimmick; billed as "an unpredictable cartoon character come to life," Ripper the Clown morphs truth, fiction, pop culture and social commentary into comedy chaos. As his clown alter-ego, Aurelian performs material from his books; no other author has done anything even remotely similar, and the clown character quickly gained notice from NBC, award-winning movie producers and notables within the entertainment industry.
Ripper's zombie (spoof) novel, The Life & Mimes (& Zombie Apocalypse) of Ripper the Clown: The Autobiography of an Unconventional Zombie simultaneously redefines and spoofs the zombie genre.
The Life & Mimes... has won the following literary awards:
Finalist, Comedy/Humor: 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
First Place, General Fiction: 2014 Halloween Book Festival.
Runner-Up / 2nd Place, General Fiction 2014 London (England) Book Festival
Runner-Up / 2nd Place, General Fiction: 2014 Hollywood Book Festival
Honorable Mention, General Fiction, 2014 Great Midwest Book Festival (Chicago)
Honorable Mention, General Fiction, 2014 New England Book Festival
Honorable Mention, General Fiction, 2015 Los Angeles Book Festival
Aurelian's collection of gritty, quirky short fiction, "Dead Wrestlers, Broken Necks & The Women Who Screwed Me Over: A Main Event of Fiction and Photography" (2011) has received rave reviews on Amazon.com for its diversity of fiction genres, "the immaculate writing," the laugh-out-loud humor, "crazy scenarios" and the author's "addictive" storytelling.
"Dead Wrestlers..." was the recipient of a Finalist Award (Short Fiction) in the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and received 2nd Place/Runner Up (General Fiction) in the 2012 Hollywood Book Festival. After reading "Dead Wrestlers, Broken Necks & the Women Who Screwed Me Over," legendary and iconic pro wrestler, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, posted on his Facebook page: "This is a very good book, folks, savvy stuff ... get your copy TODAY!"
Aurelian's "Living Well is the Best Revenge" (2012, crime fiction) received 1st Place (General Fiction) at the 2013 Hollywood Book Festival, Honorable Mention at both the 2013 New England Book Festival and 2013 London [England] Book Festival. In addition, "Living Well..." was the recipient of a Finalist Award (Novella) in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Told in a true crime style, most readers believe that "Living Well is the Best Revenge" is an intense work of non-fiction.
"We Leave With Our Guns Out!" (2012, short fiction, bad romance) received Honorable Mention (General Fiction) at the 2013 Hollywood Book Festival.
He is the co-author of Michale Callahan's "Too Politically Sensitive" (2009, true crime/political); featured on three episodes of CBS' "48 Hours" and "On the Case with Paula Zahn."
The illustrated "Obama-Wama-Ding-Dong: A Children's Book for Adults About the Political Climate of America" (2012) is a reflective look at Barack Obama's meteoric rise to fame and presidency coupled with analysis of the mainstream media's unhealthy obsession with Obama. Aurelian's "Children's Book for Adults" format was called "profound" by Right On! Weekly and has been featured on the nationally syndicated George Jarkesy S
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