"Love Stories Are To Violent For Me" Back In Print!

Original cover art by Matt Brown

UPDATE: Official book launch party now confirmed for 50 MASON SOCIAL HOUSE in San Francisco on Saturday, July 27, 6-8pm, with live music by THE AQUA-VELVETS!

Finally, after first being published by the now-defunct Wild Card Press of San Francisco in 1995, optioned by Christian Slater in 2001, then woefully out of print for the past several years, my novel LOVE STORIES ARE TOO VIOLENT FOR ME is being republished by the reputable pulp fiction press GUTTER BOOKS out of Portland (confirming my northward trajectory), and edited by popular author JOE CLIFFORD, whose acclaimed new book Junkie Love was just issued by Battered Suitcase Press. Gutter Books also specializes in reprints of classic crime fiction, so I'm in excellent company. I couldn't be happier, or feel more honored. This will be the definitive edition of Love Stories, slightly revised and modified, in a pristine presentation.

The new cover image by the movie's storyboard artist MATT BROWN depicts Christian Slater as Vic Valentine, Private Eye (with Christian's permission, of course), whom he will portray in the film, directing his own script (with significant input by yours truly). The movie version - which will be set in Miami rather than San Francisco, otherwise keeping the storyline and characters basically intact - is still in development and there is promising progress to report, but not publicly, at least not  yet.  Christian himself is quite pleased with the book's reissue and artwork. This is basically a pre-movie tie-in. "NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE" will hopefully be added to the cover of a future run. Check out the career page for the film on the official Christian Slater fan site.

Publication version, to be further modified

Below are some of the blurbs that will appear on the back cover:

LOVE STORIES ARE TOO VIOLENT FOR ME is the steamy, seamy saga of a San Francisco private eye named Vic Valentine, bravely facing the fin de siècle with his heart still rooted firmly in a fatally romanticized past and his head stuck someplace even darker. A client has hired him to find a mysterious, promiscuous femme fatale who turns out to be his own long lost love, leading him down a twisting trail of decadence, danger, and deception. This is ironic, iconic pulp served hot 'n' fast, straight out of the emotionally gory grindhouse called Life.

"As soon as I found this book I totally related to the main character and thought, 'this would make a great movie.' I'd never read anything like it. I felt like it was written just for me. I love it." - actor/filmmaker Christian Slater, star of True Romance and Heathers

"Fast, funny, and way ahead of the 'noir' curve. They say to write a good book all you have to do is bleed on the page. Viharo does that, and spews a few other precious bodily fluids in the bargain." - Eddie Muller, author of The Distance and Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir

"While it has all the trappings of Philip Marlowe by way of Race Williams, this book is an old fashioned (if slightly fractured) love story at heart...To tell more of the story is about as hopeless as, well, trying to explain the plot of a Marlowe or a Williams. It's in the telling, in the characters, in the whirlwind pace." - Bernard A. Drew, The Armchair Detective

Early non-text renderings fo Christian Slater as Vic Valentine (by Matt Brown)

Stay tuned for purchase information for both Kindle and print editions, late spring/early summer.

Onward! Cheers.

Cool mock 60s men's magazine style artwork by Mike Fyles - might make a good alternate cover for a future edition of this novel, too...