Imagine a novel called “Help! A bear is eating me!”

Are you imagining it?

No, seriously, try it now. How would it start? Main character. Being eaten. By a bear. For real. For a whole novel.

Are you getting anything yet? No? Not even a first line?

Well, if you’re having trouble imagining this novel, fear not, because my dear and astonishing friend Mykle Hansen has imagined it for you! Not just imagined it, but written it down in so many words! In chronological order! And as if that weren’t enough, he’s actually started to read them out loud and record them digitally for your digital word-listening enjoyment! I assure you, this is no bait-and-switch. No false bears here. No men in bear suits. No bears-as-metaphors-for-falling-stock-markets. The main character really* is being eaten, by a real* bear. I kid you not.

Anyway, you gotta hear this stuff. It’s really good. Pick your favorite flavor:

feedburner RSS feed
subscribe via iTunes
just download the mp3s

The book itself is due out in print this fall, via Afterbirth Books. And if you like what you’re hearing, may I also recommend Mykle’s first book of short stories (self-published, in the literal sense of xeroxing and cutting and gluing and binding), Eyeheart Everything.

Update: How do I know about this book, you may wonder? Well, Mykle sends out these incredibly entertaining emails every time he publishes another chapter. These used to be only for a select elite (“people whose email address Mykle happens to have”) but now they’re available to the world on his blog! Check the conveniently named helpabeariseatingme.com!

*Disclaimer: by “real”, I mean “fictional”. But you get the point.