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It's been quite the year hasn't it? Well, it's not over yet! Today it is time for an announcement of a brand new book release.
I did it, readers, just like I said I would! Today releases the second book in 2022 from yours truly, Y Signal! This might technically be my third book this year (along with The Last Fanatics and the FREE Generation Y: The Lost Generation), however, I nonetheless managed to keep good on my promise to deliver the goods for you this year.
The first thing you might be wondering is if this is the same Y Signal that is up for free on the blog. The answer is that this book is the FULL story. The piece on Wasteland & Sky is only one portion of the full tale of Ray's journey across time and space and the strangeness inflicted on his world of 1995. You can think of the blog entry as a preview of the full narrative. The book goes to a lot more, and off the wall, places on the way to its ending beyond that summer night in 1995. I can't quite say where it ends up without spoilers, but this is a truly weird tale. You will most definitely not be reading anything else like this anytime soon.
Here is the description:
BACK IN 1995
Summer vacation is the same as usual for Ray and his friends. It's video games, hanging out, and endless good times! But when his cousin introduces him to a mysterious radio broadcast, reality is inverted. What is real, and what is a dream? Is the future open, or is disaster inevitable?The Y Signal reveals all.Join Ray on his journey as time and space itself bends to forces beyond his control, in his quest to come out the other side. Ape-men, crazed punks, sky trains, hidden worlds, the past, and a so-called Paradise, await him as he fights to discover the truth in a world gone mad.Paradise is but one dream away. All he has to do is reach out and touch it . . .
That is no exaggeration, though you will have to read on to find out what it means! It is an adventure quite unlike anything I have done before.
Y Signal is a story from the heart of Generation Y, when it seemed like the world was at its peak and nothing could go wrong. Things would only be getting better, because that's what things did. All one had to do was the bare minimum and listen to all the right people, and all would work out in your favor. Of course, that isn't how life works, but it was how kids in the 1980s and 1990s were told it would happed. And there was a time where it felt like it was almost true, before it all came crashing down with a series of events in the late '90s and early '00s that shattered the last illusions of modernity and left us in the decline we've been in ever since. Before Cultural Ground Zero, everything was the way it should be. Or was it?
Part of the nostalgia Gen Y suffers is due to spending their entire lives since the mid-1990s in a societal decline, starting from a high in the materialist age of the 1980s and early '90s, and only sliding into a lower and lower place in the years to come. Generations before them have experienced rises and falls before, and the ones after have only lived at the bottom and lack perspective, but Generation Y (born approx. 1979-1989) are defined by decline. That is their identity. The reason our suicide rates are as high as they are is, for the most part, because of where we started from and not seeing a way to reach those highs again. Is that rational? That's fairly irrelevant to the reality facing us in the modern day. It is what is is.
Nonetheless, none of this is helped by a societal climate that gets irrationally angry when one points out that not only does this generational cohort exist, it was deliberately buried by Madison Avenue in order to sell product to the kids coming up under them. We keep creating new, ridiculous terms like "Xennial" or "Geriatric Millennial" to define a group that already exists and had a name: Gen Y, the younger brothers of Gen X. The last generation to grow up without internet, social media, cellphones, and before Columbine, before 9/11, before the War on Terror, before Cultural Ground Zero. As David Stewart once said, they are a generation raised in an analog world expected to live in a digital one. It is no wonder the entire cohort is a total and confused mess.
The reason '80s and '90s nostalgia refuses to go away is specifically because the world Gen Y was promised never came to fruition and it is the only memory they have in a present that isn't really working out. But it's not just that. It is also because the world that DOES exist already stated this group not only doesn't exist, but everything they loved is now evil and should be destroyed. How do you square this circle? In an imploding social climate that proves Gen Y is right about how the current world is inferior to the one they were promised, and shows no sign of turning from its current dead end trajectory, there isn't anything they can do but check out. The wider culture wants to implode and will do anything to continuing Progressing towards that cliff. All this from the same people who sold them a fake future back in the 1990s that they don't even remember to a group they would rather forget ever existed.
What we are left with is a group adrift and detached in a society that prides itself on alienation and unity through corporate product and vague law enforcement. Hardly an improvement on what a bunch of starry eyed kids saw coming back in 1995 when they were more ignorant about how things worked. What does one hope for, at this point?
I'm not going to pretend I am anywhere near the first person to notice any of this, or even write on it. There has been a small but growing library of releases in this niche of Generation Y experience that has been blanked out by angry modernists who want to pretend there was no eye of the cultural storm, but it did happen. Appreciating those quieter moments, learning why they were so effective, and how to apply them going forward, is the way to reach Generation Y and show just how much they have to offer in a world that very badly wants to pretend they don't exist.
Y Signal is an overarching story about one period of a 90s kid's life as everything changes around him in ways he could never predict. Despite that, I can't quite call it a "coming of age" story due to what actually occurs in its pages. Again, you'll have to read it yourself to see what I mean. If you've read the first part on the blog then you might have an idea what that means, but, even still, the complete story goes far beyond that.
As for other Gen Y books, I can recommend a few aside from the new Y Signal.
The first would be our FREE 2022 release, Generation Y: The New Lost Generation. This one contains edited pieces and stories from myself, Brian Niemeier, and David V. Stewart. We even have files for paperback or hardcover printing if that is what you desire. It is a good place to start if you are completely clueless on the subject as it traces our discovery and understanding of this cohort towards our thoughts on where they can go in the future. Please spread this one around far and wide. It is meant to be shared.
David himself has put out two books specifically addressing this group. The first is The Eyes in the Wall which is a horror story about a Gen Y kid who meets a horrific monster as a child and does not know how to process or deal with it. The ending is particularly satisfying on this one. He also just released Afterglow: Generation Y, a collection of small stories that encapsulates the feel of what being Generation Y, of what being in a Lost Generation, is actually like. It goes without saying that both of these come highly recommended.
Another example is Mark Pellegrini's They'll Get You, which is a book about a kid during this very period. He has also written other short stories in this world, which mythologizes a lot of the weird things from this time period you might have forgotten about. They are all in various issues of Cirsova, so pick every one of those up! Gen Y or not, it is a fantastic magazine of wonder and imagination worth your time.
I do hope we see more takes on this subject in the future. This is quite fertile ground that we are only beginning to discover and will absolutely lead to more and more interesting stories. Even other mediums have begun diving into the subject.
Those all take different approaches to the topic of Generation Y, but Y Signal is about one's relation to reality itself and how we see each other and our place in the world in an age where that wasn't so clear. How are things meant to be? Who decides that? It is a difficult book to describe because it isn't quite like anything else I've done before, nor is it one I've seen from any other writer. This is the definition of a weird story.
I will write more about it in a future post. For now, I just needed to announce it to the world. You won't read anything else like it!
In related news, there is also a sale going on right now, thanks to author Hans Shantz! This is the Big Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale from authors all across the board, new and classic releases included. All works are on sale for a buck or even free, You can find it here!
Three of my books are included in the sale, Grey Cat Blues, Someone Is Aiming for You & Other Adventures, and Brutal Dreams! You can pick these up along with the freshly released Y Signal and have yourself quite the reading selection in the process, There is plenty to go around, so give it a look over. As always, NewPub has you covered for all your entertainment needs! Who needs the mainstream with a selection like this?
That's all for this week, folks. I hope you now know why I was laying a bit low recently. I had to make sure to get all my ducks in a row. Now that it is out, please enjoy to your heart's content. 2022 has been a crazy year.
Thanks again for reading! It is only because of readers like you that I am able to do this at all. My gratitude is immeasurable.
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