The Trouble With Being God

Free Excerpt of The Trouble With Being God on Shortcovers

Posted by William under Read Online, book

If you’ve been looking to read a slightly extended excerpt (something longer than what’s on Amazon or Google book search) of The Trouble With Being God, you’re in luck.  As of today, a free preview of the first fives chapters of the book is available to read for free on Shortcovers.

If you’re unfamiliar with Shortcovers, they’re a great site to “Discover thousands of bestselling books, chapters, news and magazine articles, short stories, blog posts and more, anywhere, anytime online and on your mobile device” (their words, not mine).

I actually have installed their app on my new Palm Pre phone (they also have an iPhone app), and it’s quite nice. I still prefer my Kindle, but given the limitations of a small LCD screen, it’s a fairly decent experience.

Speaking of iPhone, don’t forget you can now use it to read the Kindle edition of the book (just have to download the free iPhone Kindle app first).

New Press Quote

Posted by William under reviews

Haven’t had anywhere else to use this yet, since it just came in… but thought it was worth sharing. Got a press quote today from Lise Avery, the host of “Everything Goes!! Internationally Syndicated Radio.”

Here’s what she had to say:

“The Trouble with Being God is a great summer read that keeps you glued to its pages! Now we’ll wait with breathless anticipation for the next novel from the very talented Bill Aicher.”

Thanks Lise!  I’m working on my next one!

The Ending of The Trouble With Being God

Posted by William under Philosophizing, book

Now that The Trouble With Being God has been out for a while and quite a few people have read it, I feel it is now okay for me to discuss an area of the book in which there have been questions.  Some of you have contacted me directly about this, and I’ve seen a few other instances out there where people are asking the question, “What happened at the end?”

Now I’m not going to go into huge amounts of detail here, since there are plenty of you who still haven’t bought a copy (wink, wink), but consider the following to contain a bit of spoilers about the ending of the book.

First though, let me be clear: unless there is a printing error out there I don’t know about, the ending really is the ending.  You’re not missing any secret chapters or anything like that.  The story was always planned to end like this, and this ending was always in mind while telling all the parts that lead up to the final act.

(Here’s where the spoilers really start, so if you haven’t read the book yet, stop here and go read the book first).

<START SPOILERS>

Who the murderer is in the story is unknown. What I was attempting to do was have the reader go through the same kind of assumptive process that Steven did, even though in reality there was nothing really tying him to any of the murders. I wasn’t trying to trick anyone with the story, but instead I wanted to reemphasize the importance of understanding self, and the dangers of thinking you are someone you are not.  There is no denouement because crises are not resolved, there is no release of tension, you get no catharsis, and things end up being pretty shitty - kind of like real life.

As for the story ending the way it does, I really consider it to be Steven’s story, and when Steven died his story ended. The main point wasn’t to really find out who did it, but instead to see how these events affected Steven, and those around him.  One reader likened the identity of the killer to the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction - which is a better explanation than I’ve ever been able to put forth.

<//END SPOILERS>

And so, the book definitely was an experiment of sorts - and this is one of the main reasons I decided to publish it independently. My goal was to write a story in a somewhat traditional pop-thriller style, but to use this style as a way to deliver a different kind of story than what one would normally get out of those types of books.

Much like how Spike Lee used the Son of Sam murders as a catalyst for telling the story in Summer of Sam, The Trouble With Being God is an attempt to use extraordinary circumstances to tell the story of the final stages in the devolution of a man.

Whether I did a good job of this or not, is entirely your call.

Music Selection (Suggested Listening)

Posted by William under Music

If you’ve read TheTrouble With Being God or are at all familiar with the book, you know the book also includes footnotes for suggested listening for key parts of the story.

I’ve recently gotten a few questions and other feedback regarding these selections, and wanted to clarify one thing: the songs suggested are not the songs I was listening to while writing those sections of the book.  In fact, despite my tremendous love (or unhealthy addiction) to music, I seldom write with music on in the background. I frankly find it to be distracting, as I tend to have a hard time not listening to what music is playing.  Therefore, when I write I tend to either do so in silence, or with something lacking decipherable lyrics, like Sigur Ros.

So, if the songs in the suggested listening playlist aren’t what I was listening to whille writing those passages, then what are they?

They’re exactly what I claim them to be - what I consider to be the perfect musical (and emotional) companion to the particular section of the book they are tied to. During the course of writing The Trouble With Being God I would oftentimes come across a song that struck a chord with me as embodying exactly what was going on in the story, sometimes emotionally, othertimes literally, and was the perfect way to get that across through another (albeit borrowed) artistic medium.

The $1.99 E-Book Sale Really Does End Soon

Posted by William under Events

Recently I mentioned that the e-book for The Trouble With Being God is available on Scribd.com for a limited time at the low price of just $1.99 for the DRM-free PDF download version. What I failed to mention is the end date of this promotion.

Since this promotion coincides with Scribd’s launch of their e-book store, it is definitely a limited-time promo, and the $1.99 pricing is only available for one week. After May 25th, the price for the e-book is scheduled to return to the standard pricing for all e-books of The Trouble With Being God (including the suggested price of the Kindle edition) of $7.95.

So yes, this is definitely a limited-time offer… if you want the e-book for cheap, you better hurry and buy it now.

Get The Trouble With Being God for $1.99!

Posted by William under Events, Read Online

Alright all you cheap bastards… here’s something sure to make you happy.  For a limited time, I’m offering an e-book version of The Trouble With Being God for download over at Scribd for just $1.99.

Not only is it an awesome deal, but I’ve even opted to allow for the e-book to be in the DRM-free PDF format so you can read it pretty much wherever you want.

Just don’t go uploading it illegally all over the Internets.  If you do, I will hunt you down and checkerboard you.

The Trouble With Being God: A Philosophical Thriller

New Reader Review at WeRead

Posted by William under reviews

In my ongoing effort to try to share all the reviews of The Trouble With Being God that keep popping up online, I have another review to share - this time from reader “Clyde’ at WeRead.com.  Here’s a bit of what he had to say:

This is an incredible novel especially for a debut. It reminds me of early Chuck Palahniuk with the tone and the unexpected twist. The story seems very simple at first, but gets complex. … As a reader, you will find yourself going back and re-reading parts just to make sure you understand what is happening because there are turns, and in the end it will all click. Then you will realize that this is more than a thriller novel, it has multiple levels. So if you are interested in reading something that is smart please check out The Trouble With Being God. William F. Aicher I look forward to reading more of your work.

Have you written a review, or found any reviews or discussions online that I’ve missed?  Let me know.  My goal here is to give all you potential readers the best overview of what others have thought of the book so you can make an informed decision as to if you should or shouldn’t buy a copy for yourself.