Goddess Fish Promotions Guest Post: Jonathan Gould

It’s really great to be here with A Chick Who Reads. Thanks for having me along.

So what exactly is Dag-Lit? Put simply, it’s the name I’ve devised for the particular style, or genre, of the books I write. They’re not easy books to describe. They don’t easily fit into the regular genres, like romance, or action-thriller, or science-fiction. They’re stories that stand out from the crowd.

But just because a story doesn’t clearly fit into a recognised genre doesn’t necessary mean that it could be described as Dag-Lit. There’s a particular, not easily definable, quality that it needs to have before it can have that title bestowed on it.

If you’re a bit confused at this point, I probably need to explain (or remind, for anybody a little familiar with my work) that dag is Australian slang for a person who is uncool or unfashionable bit in a genial and fun kind of way. With this in mind, I tried to come up with a few characteristics that may help to define Dag-Lit as a genre:

1.       It pays absolutely no attention to what is currently fashionable or popular

2.       If it ever made it into a bookshop, the staff would have no idea what shelf to place it on

3.       When sent to publishers, it tends to ping-pong back and forth between adult and children’s sections (and yes, this actually happened to something I wrote)

4.       It’s the sort of book you’d hide at the back of the shelf when sophisticated friends came to visit – but if they found it they’d probably want to read it too

5.       It’s completely pointless – and that’s the whole point of it

6.       Because it’s never in fashion, it can never go out of fashion

7.       It could be applied to stories in a bunch of different genres. Each individual story is daggy in its own way

8.       It’s not for everyone, but if it’s right for you it will put a smile on your face that will last all day.

Still confused? For more information, check out my What is Dag-Lit page at Dag-Lit Central. Or better still, take the plunge. If this sounds like the kind of story you’d like to read, why not sample some good old, dinky-di, Dag-Lit today.

Thank-you, and goodnight.

Book 1

Title: Doodling
Genre: Comic fantasy
Blurb: Neville Lansdowne fell off the world.

Actually, he did not so much fall off as let go. The world had been moving so quickly lately and Neville was finding it almost impossible to keep up.

Doodling is an engaging comic fantasy which relates the events that befall Neville after he finds himself abandoned by the world and adrift in the middle of an asteroid field. Douglas Adams meets Lewis Carroll (with just a touch of Gulliver's Travels) as Neville wanders through his new home, meeting a variety of eccentric characters and experiencing some most unexpected adventures.

Book 2

Title: Flidderbugs
Genre: Satire/fable/fantasy
Blurb: As Kriffle the Flidderbug investigates why his fellow 'bugs find it impossible to agree on the pressing issue of how many points there are on the leaves of the tree on which they live, he finds that the truth is more complicated, and ultimately more terrifying, than he ever could have imagined.

Flidderbugs is a political satire, a modern fable, or maybe just a funny little story about a bunch of insects with some very peculiar obsessions.