The story behind the story begins in about 1996 when I was working in an auto parts store and one day asked myself, 'What
if instead of car parts, we sold people parts?'. I didn't answer myself then, not right away, anyway.
It took a few years to flesh out all the details and components of the story. I made a couple false starts in
this time, but couldn't quite get the whole thing down. The story went back into my head where the little world I built slowly
evolved and churned and grew.
Finally in February 2002, the last couple pieces clicked into pace, and in a maddening compulsion I typed out
the novel in the course of nine or ten days. By this time, the back story was so familiar in my mind as to seem like it had
really happened, it wasn't like telling a story so much as writing out an old memory.
Once I had it finished I fiddled and farted around for a while, I really didn't know what to do with it; I have
had music and songs published, as well as the odd poem or story or article here and there, but a novel is different, even
a short one.
In 2004 I struck up a friendship with a man named Sam Schroeder who I learned later just happened to be an editor.
Mostly as a favor, Sam ended up spending many hours with Aftermarket Soul, translating my fragments of thought and run-on
sentences into English, and putting a logical reasoning behind my random guerilla style punctuation.
Sadly, Sam passed away in 2006. He let me know before he left that I must do something with this book; that
he believed in it.
So here we are now in the spring of '07, and have decided I am going to publish it myself with the help of a
few companies that I have been looking into and talking to for the past couple years. Keep all the rights myself, keep the
book cheap to you, but be able to put it into bookstores and other places where people are literate.
There is a little bit of work to do still. For one, I think I need a better photo of an ant. I am hoping the
summer ants are more photogenic.
Check back here soon for selections from the novel, news of the ant shoot, and updates on the books release
