Author Archives: Martin Bannon Beaudet
Coming to the big screen…
The feature film adaptation of Senseless Confidential began development on January 2, 2014. It is scheduled for 
shooting in and around Clackamas County, Oregon, in summer 2016.
Senseless Review: I can relate…
The beautiful Pacific Northwest
An acquaintance of a friend was kind enough to tell our mutual friend the following about Senseless Confidential:
“I got my hands on a copy of Senseless Confidential a few weeks back and read it start to finish. We all have our connections to characters in one way or another, and Nick Prince’s story quickly became one…I can relate to…. [T]he way Nick feels stuck in his environment, and the resentment that has built up over the years. I can relate to his tendency to hold onto the past and his apprehension to change. That being said, the setting of the story couldn’t be more exciting out in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.”
Just a reminder: You can get your hands on a copy at Portland bookstores and online at Amazon, as well as in ebook and audiobook formats.
To those who’ve claimed Pheeby isn’t a real pitbull, her owner says…
The size and shape of a pitbull, as defined by the people who decide these things!
“She is a purebred tricolor pitbull registered purple ribbon show dog with some of the best lineage [as] pitbull genealogy goes!”
Bookmaker Jake’s Senseless Review
Senseless Confidential ***** (5 stars) I, being a native of the gun-slinging la-la land-body known as "Clackamas," I opened Martin's book expecting to laugh at the many flaws of my people like kids on playgrounds laugh at fat- sos, nerds, and geeks. Beer-drinking, sports-loving, xenophobic suburban red- necks aren't cool these days, especial- ly in Portland. I was glad that wasn't the way the book ended. I was surprised how quickly I fell in love with his plot, which left me (at book's end) with a warm wanting for the same kind of community Nick Prince happened to stumble upon. It felt like coming home to my wife, Emily, without the cats. Thanks for your hard work, Marty! This was a great read! —Bookmaker Jake
Thanks, Jake, for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed it! —Marty
The rest of you, be sure to check out Jake’s handmade books at the StoryBank Exchange. You can see my recommendation of his book “The Living City” at Fun Books to Read.
The Senseless Book Trailer!
(Click the brackets in the lower right corner of the frame to watch the video fullscreen.)
The long-awaited Senseless Confidential video trailer, shot by director Andrew Michael Bray on location in the Oregon Cascades, was premiered last Sunday at the Senseless Audiobook Launch Party at Portland’s Post 5 Theatre.
Starring Brian Allard (who voices over 25 characters for the audiobook) and other talented actors—including Sara Fay, Bruce Handley, and Pheebe the Pitbull—the trailer lays out the plight of Census worker Nick Prince.
Get a free preview listen to Allard’s reading at Audible! Just click the “Sample” arrow beneath the cover image on the page.
The audiobook is available at St. Johns Booksellers in Portland, Oregon, in both CD ($24.99) and downloadable mp3 ($14.99) formats. Print editions are also available at St. Johns ($14.99 list).
All three editions are also available from Dinkus Books for the same prices. (For the CD boxed set and print editions, a shipping fee of $2.50 will be added to US orders.)
You will find the mp3 audiobook at Amazon for $17.49 (plus applicable taxes); you may also download the mp3 edition from Amazon’s subsidiary Audible (list US$19.95, though the actual cost may be lower depending on the type of Audible membership you have.)
The ebook edition is available at Smashwords for $3.99 in ALL digital formats.
Both print (US$13.49) and Kindle (US$3.99) editions are available from Amazon.
Audiobook recording has begun!
Just a tease for now…
(Music written by Ben Larsen, performed by the Renegade Stringband, Portland, Oregon.)senseless confidential intro mix 1
Audiobook and Video Trailer Music Licensed
I’m excited to announce that awesomely talented Portland artists will be contributing the music for the Senseless Confidential audiobook due out this spring, as well as for the video trailer that will soon be used to promote all editions of the book. My friends Joe Seamons and Ben Larsen have recently signed licensing agreements for their songs: “Nature’s Gospel,” written by Joe, and “Flown Away,” written by Ben.
Both tunes are performed by the Renegade Stringband of Portland, Oregon, featuring both Joe and Ben, as well as my friends Gavin Duffy, Ben Hunter, Jessica Jarris, Austin Moore, and Max Kutzman.
Check out sample clips of both tracks below.
Martin Bannon interviewed on Anarchy Radio
It was mid-January when “The Bald Guy” aka Jason Allen shot a message to author Martin Bannon saying he’d just finished reading “Senseless Confidential” and loved it. Would the author like to come on the Anarchy Radio show for an interview?
Well, of course he would? So, click the link below (in mp3 format) to hear the nearly hour-long conversation Martin Bannon had on February 7, 2o13 with the Bald Guy, Mark, and the Buddha at Portland, Oregon’s Anarchy Radio. (To hear the entire four-hour show, go to the show’s website and click the link under the date specified.)
Census Comedy to be Voiced by Portland Actor
A fun book to read
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Marty at Dinkus Books (phone number available upon request); mb@funbookstoread.com
Census Comedy to be Voiced by Portland Actor
Audiobook release of Senseless Confidential, “an absurdist romp through the Oregon Cascades,” to be recorded by film, stage, and voice actor Brian Allard
Clackamas, Oregon – February 1, 2013 — “A job with the U.S. Census Bureau might not seem like the stuff of comedy,” says Martin Bannon, author of the comedic crime caper Senseless Confidential. “But when you take a reluctant minion of a government bureaucracy and send him into the heart of the Oregon Cascades, where folks are living off the grid for a reason, it’s going to lead either to comedy or tragedy.”
Bannon’s publishing imprint, Dinkus Books, has announced that it has found a voice for the novel’s main character, Nick Prince, in the person of Portland actor Brian Allard. Allard was recently seen on the big screen in Portland at three local screenings of “The Falls,” a film written and directed by Northwest filmmaker Jon Garcia. Allard also stars in Portland director Andy Mingo’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s short story “Romance,” now in early screenings.
In addition to his film and voice roles, Allard is also the artistic director at Portland’s Original Practice Shakespeare Festival, which will begin its run of Macbeth at Portland’s Post 5 Theater in February. Allard will be appearing onstage in the title role.
“I consider Brian to be an ideal choice to voice Nick Prince,” says Bannon. “And he’s more than capable of providing all the other necessary voices as well. I couldn’t be happier to collaborate with such an awesome talent.”
Bannon, who spent over a decade working for the U.S. Census Bureau, first released Senseless Confidential (300 pages, $14.99 in print, $2.99 ebook; ISBN-13: 978-0615639574) last August. It’s a tale that is part send-up of government bureaucracy, part wild ride through the backwoods of local Oregon communities. Much of the book’s action takes place at a fictional polygamist compound in the real-life community of Elwood, just south of Estacada.
The offbeat comedic caper, which calls itself “an absurdist romp through the Oregon Cascades,” has been generating a steady buzz locally, where Bannon has given readings throughout the fall and summer. Reviews have been unanimous in their praise of the story, which balances a touching personal journey with hysterical situations and observations by Nick. The Portland Book Review’s four-star review of the novel calls it “a story that is funny, adventurous and strangely believable… told in a style reminiscent of Bill Bryson’s writings.” The reviewer concludes, “This book can be enjoyed as a light summer read or contemplated for what we can learn about our community and ourselves.”
“It’s hysterical,” enthuses Laura Peterson, a longtime Brightwood area resident who loved the book so much she bought copies for all her friends. “It’s so real,” she says. “I know people like [the narrator] describes. The dialogue is just how people talk [up here]. It’s a super fun read.
Dan Bosserman, editor of the East County Gazette (Clackamas County), agrees. “A damn good read!” he says.
Bannon has been invited to read at the monthly Authors in Pubs event at the Jack London Bar, located beneath the Rialto Pool Room at SW 4th and Alder in Portland on February 4, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., and will be interviewed on Portland’s Anarchy Radio on Thursday, February 7, at 8 p.m. He will also be a featured artist at the Artist Edge Salon in Sandy on Sunday, March 31.
When asked how much of the story stems from his own work for the Census Bureau, Bannon declines to say. “Title 13 [of the U.S. Code] prohibits me from revealing that,” he quips. Title 13’s very real confidentiality requirement is at the heart of Nick’s troubles in the story. There is a fine of up to $250,000 stipulated, and imprisonment up to five years for revealing the personal information of Census respondents.
Bannon, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, spent seven years as a writer and editor for magazine-publishing giants Ziff Davis (publishers of PC Magazine) and IDG (publishers of MacWorld and PC World) before becoming a freelance writer and editor when he moved to Damascus in 1998. There he became a regular contributor to the now-defunct Damascus-Boring Observer. Senseless Confidential is his third novel, although it is the first one published under the name Martin Bannon.
Links to online sales of the book, in print and ebook formats, may be found at the author’s website (martinbannon.com), Senseless Confidential is also available on Amazon.com as a print book and Kindle e-book, and available in select local bookstores, including Wyeast Bookshoppe in Welches; and Broadway Books, St. Johns Booksellers, and Wallace Books in Portland, as well as Sunriver Books in Sunriver, and at Bob’s Beach Books in Lincoln City. It can also be ordered from most other booksellers upon request, including Powell’s.com.
Press contact: Marty at Dinkus Books (phone number available upon request); mb@funbookstoread.com
Senseless Confidential: 