Favorites of 2007 so far by Jay Tomio

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

“Grey by Jon Armstrong is a legit worthwhile debut. It’s this Versace-grunge SF that has as much substance as style,” says Jay Tomio, the co-owner of Fantasybookspot.com a review/interview site dedicated to Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Comic Book/Graphic Novels.

Yeah!

Click on the image to Heliotrope, a speculative fiction e-zine, which Jay edits.

Tied for fifth bestselling Trade Paperback at Borderlands

Friday, July 20th, 2007

As of July 12th at Borderlands Books (a fabulous bookstore in SFO)

Trade Paperbacks:
1. Reaper’s Gale by Steven Erikson
2. Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
3. Snake Agent by Liz Williams
4. The Demon and the City by Liz Williams
5. Grey by Jon Armstrong
TIE
9 Tail Fox by John Courtenay Grimwood

Not too shabby!

This just in…

Friday, July 20th, 2007

“Grey far from sucky!” – Lou Anders,

“Grey looks to the cult of idiot celebrity our media fosters now and projects it forward. As such, I can believe in (the) world, but I am not sure I’d want to live in (it) (any more than I already do!) Reading about it, however, was a blast. This book is recommend.”

Thanks Lou, and I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Word Nerd Interview

Friday, July 20th, 2007

Bethany K. Warner, a reporter with the Oshkosh Northwestern in Oshkosh, WI, interviewed me for her paper and blog.

“Jon Armstrong, this week’s featured author, didn’t start as a writer. He was a travel agent for a while, worked for Pan Am for a while and then became a graphic designer. “Grey” is his debut novel.

WN: What kind of a story is “Grey?” Where did the idea for this story come from?

Japanese influences

Friday, July 20th, 2007

My interest in Japanese culture had several significant influences on Grey.

I spent one year of college as a foreign exchange student at Kobe’s Konan Daigaku studying Japanese and Japanese culture. One of the most significant moments occurred when the weather changed and the thin jacket I had packed wasn’t warm enough. I headed to the Sannomiya Mall in central Kobe and searched for something heavier. After spending several hours not finding anything I liked, I happened to turn a corner and found a small men’s store packed with nothing but black, white, and charcoal clothes. I loved the minimalism and was delighted to find that one of the long, dark, and warm coats fit perfectly. I returned to the store many times, purchased more clothes and befriended the storeowner, Mr. Sugimoto.

That store was the source for the “grey” in my book–the subtle world of the protagonist juxtaposed against a bright, brash, and narcissistic world of his father. And the owner of that clothing store became the inspiration for the tailor in the novel, Mr. Cedar.

The fashion magazine featured in Grey, Pure H, was influenced by a Japanese friend of mine who was a big fan of what he called copy–the evocative text in certain magazine advertisements. It was poetry, he said, and translated and explained dozens of ads. I loved them and tried to write my own in both simple Japanese and English. This idea of poetic copy became the text from Pure H, which the characters quote as though it were Shakespeare or Dylan lyrics.

That it was possible to tell which magazine a person reads was an idea I came across in Japan. On several occasions, I heard things like, “She’s and AnAn girl.” In Grey many of the characters are identifiable by their style and the fictional magazines that embody their fashions.

Finally, Grey began as a short story about a world run by powerful family corporations a year before I lived in Japan. I’m sure it would have stayed a short story had I not gone and experienced all that I had. For a young man from the suburbs in Pennsylvania, Japan seemed like a glimpse of the future, and over the next several years, inspired by the size of scope, energy, and meme’s of Japan, I kept adding to that story and it became Grey.

Book Signing

Friday, July 20th, 2007

Book Spotting and Signing

My family and I headed out last weekend to see Grey at the bookstores and it was one of the biggest thrills of my life. Twenty years of writing and working finally paid off.

This is my book on a display shelf at Barnes and Noble Union Square, NYC. Top rack, mind you!

I sign the books.

And they go back on the shelves with the “Autographed” sticker. Now you know exactly how that secretive and complicated process works.

Next day we visited a Borders in Queens.

I sign more books with assistance from Coreen, the Sales Manager (not in photo).

My interview on John Scalzi’s By The Way

Friday, July 20th, 2007

I am interviewed on John Scalzi’s By The Way blog.

He says: “Grey takes place in a world not unlike our own — if our world had the volume knob pumped up to “11″ and then snapped right off…”