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.

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.

 

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.)

Martin Bannon_Anarchy Radio_interview (mp3)

**** Funny, adventurous and strangely believable —Portland Book Review

Four stars to Senseless Confidential from the Portland Book Review

The Oregon Cascades are a scenic, forested mountain range, but one that shelters an unusual assortment of people. Senseless Confidential takes us down logging roads and into the lives of some of those people with a story that is funny, adventurous and strangely believable.

Nick Prince is a part-time Census employee, sent to ascertain headcounts deep in the forests. Along the way he discovers mayhem and misfits, old friends and new friends, lost love and new love. Alas, the mayhem leads to arrests and court proceedings, hampered by the strict confidentiality rules to which Census employees are sworn.

While told in a style reminiscent of Bill Bryson’s writings, Nick’s tale explores human stories including sectarian religious life, domestic violence, homosexuality, and challenges our notions about family. This book can be enjoyed as a light summer read or contemplated for what we can learn about our community and ourselves. The setting of the story will be enjoyed by locals and might tempt others to visit, if not to go quite so far off the beaten trail.

See what other readers had to say here.

Senseless Raves!

“Senseless is a laugh-out-loud comedy, with a generous sprinkling of mystery and suspense. I was hooked from the opening sentence.” —Author Darcia Helle; New Port Richey, FL

“Awesome… hard to put down.” —Joe Rhinewine; Portland, OR

“Bannon knows part of being a writer is letting his books take on lives of their own.” —Emily Fuggetta, The Oregonian, Portland, OR

“Fabulous, fabulous book.” —Lisa Anderson, Sandy Post, Sandy, OR

“…a humorous, sensual and thrilling story that will keep you enthralled until the final page. …It reminded me a lot of Chuck Palahniuk…” —Author Jason DeGray; Boston, MA

“Martin Bannon truly writes his way across the entire human spectrum with this riveting and hilarious book.” —Grace Tippetts; Centerville, UT

“I totally enjoyed this book. Bannon’s dark humor reminded me of Carl Hiaasen.” —Libby Wentz; Gladstone, OR

“I was hooked from the beginning. A very enjoyable read right through to the end.” —Marie Kennedy; Welches, OR

“A damn good read!” —Dan Bosserman; East County Gazette, Boring, OR

“Senseless Confidential is written by a guy who obviously knows how to write a book …absolutely hysterical…. The characters are believable, full of human flaws and frailty. —Holly Bernabe; Portland, OR

“A diverse group of relatable characters and some well-placed plot twists kept me turning pages eagerly. Mr. Bannon knows what he’s doing.” —Brent Skuba; Long Beach, CA

“I found it so exhilarating that I sped through it! I need to get more books to share because this one was a life changer for me. I am so happy that you wrote this book and can’t wait to read your others.” —Sary Dobhran; Portland, OR

“[While] searching for something to freshen the Elwood, Oregon Facebook page, I ran across this book and couldn’t believe I hadn’t ever heard of it. [I] immediately purchased and read it, in one sitting; couldn’t put it down. Fun, fun, fun, fun read! We are proud of our gun-toting backwoods community and Elwood is a real place. And the events of the book–although fiction–could have seriously happened (or at least most of them). Can’t wait for the movie! I hope it is actually filmed in Elwood!” —Rhonda; Elwood, OR

You can find Senseless Confidential at Amazon and Smashwords. Remember, for a good time this summer, Get Senseless!

A fun book to read!

“Hardly a day goes by when some fuckhead doesn’t want to shoot me. Today is no exception.”

Meet census worker Nick Prince.

Nick wants nothing more than to go drown his sorrows at the Safari Club and pine for Beth, his lost college love. But before he can do that, his job with the U.S. Census Bureau requires him to face down reluctant respondents in the remote forests of Oregon, who repel him with everything from pit bulls to shotguns.

When a chance encounter in the tiny town of Elwood lands him in the midst of a loopy polygamist clan, it sets off a wild, wacky race to save himself, his job, and his bleeding heart. You won’t know whether to laugh or cry as Nick struggles to sort out the multiple warrants and women that stand between him and his sanity in this comedic crime caper in the tradition of Carl Hiaasen, Daniel Price, Chuck Palahniuk, and Josh Bazell.

Click on the sample chapters (Titles) at the top of the page for a free preview read.**

You may purchase both the print and Kindle editions at Amazon.

Digital editions in other formats may be purchased from Smashwords.

Disclaimer: Senseless Confidential contains language that may not be suitable for all ages.

**Census workers must have a note from their mother to proceed beyond this point.

Where in the hell is Elwood?

Census worker Nick Prince is forced to confront some pretty wacky people in Elwood, Oregon. But where in the hell is it? Way off the beaten path, in the heart of the Oregon forest at the base of the Cascades, right about here (zoom out to see it in relation to other, more familiar, Oregon landmarks):

A Big Organ or a Fun Book to Read?

I was so proud of my big organ. Now I’ll settle for a fun book to read.

In 4th Grade I was rejected for the Glee Club. In 5th I tried the clarinet. In 6th, the sax. In 7th I got a cassette player and got pretty good at recording music from the radio, though. And in 8th I did an admirable job of listening to that music. In 9th Grade they humored me and let me into the high school choir as a bass, where I stood behind the sopranos and sang falsetto instead to hide the fact that I couldn’t make it as a bass singer. In 10th I tried the guitar, where I only learned two chords (the two necessary to play America’s “A Horse With No Name”).  I skipped 11th grade because I couldn’t think of an instrument to fail at. But in 12th Grade I bought a small church organ, with two tiers of keys and other cool knobs and buttons. I learned one song: the Skaters’ Waltz. My greatest success was impressing my friends with the biggest instrument of any of them. Size does matter. Having a big organ counts, at least when you’re in high school. I’ve given up on music now. I’ll just settle for writing a fun book to read…

Welcome to Elwood

This gallery contains 4 photos.

PolyRomnogamy: Mitt’s many great-grandmothers

Polygamy provides one of several tongue-in-cheek themes for the humor in the comedic romp that is Senseless Confidential. But in real life it is a serious business, practiced in the United States predominantly by offshoots of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons), which no longer condones the practice and has no affiliation with the “apostate” churches the religion has spawned over the last 182 years.

Occasionally polygamy pops into the consciousness of the mainstream media, as with the case of polygamous leader Warren Jeffs, jailed a few years back for his role in the “taking” of underage girls to wife (a fact that is mentioned in the novel). But, more recently, polygamy has been in the spotlight because of the ascendance of Willard Mitt Romney as a contender for the U.S. presidency. It’s no secret that GOP Presidential nominee-to-be Mitt Romney comes from a line of polygamous Mormons, back in the day when the Salt Lake City–based main branch of the faith actively practiced “the principle” of Celestial Marriage, the sealing of multiple wives to select, “worthy” men “for time and all eternity.”

Romney is descended from two lines of polygamists, through his great-grandfathers Miles Romney and Parley P. Pratt, the latter a hero of Mormonism later murdered in Arkansas by a vengeful husband from California whose wife Pratt stole fora plural wife after converting her to Mormonism .

Romney biographer Lawrence Wright says of the polygamous Romneys:

Although Romney, like other Mormons, defends the practice of polygamy in the early days of the Church by pointing to a surplus of women in Utah, census reports for the time show roughly equal numbers of men and women. Church leaders were told to take multiple wives and “live the principle.” In religions where polygamy is still practiced — for example, in Islam — the number of wives is usually a reflection of the husband’s wealth; the currency behind Mormon polygamy, however, seems to have been spiritual. Only men are given the priesthood power of salvation, and through them women gain access to the celestial kingdom. Faithful women were naturally drawn to men who they believed could guarantee eternal life; in fact, Brigham Young authorized women to leave their husbands if they could find a man “with higher power and authority” than their present husband. Apparently, many of them did, as shown by the rate of divorce at the time.

It’s interesting to note that it’s census numbers that contradict the oft-repeated claim of “more women than men” used to justify Mormon polygamy, because the main character in Senseless Confidential, Nick Prince, is a harried employee of the U.S. Census Bureau, who stumbles upon a secretive polygamous clan deep in the forests of the Oregon Cascades in the tiny almost-town of Elwood. Unlike many real-life experiences with polygamy, Nick’s are humorous.

So, go ahead and laugh as you read Senseless Confidential; just remember that for many women and children—as well as the men either forced into the practice by domineering religious leaders—it is a deadly serious subject. That is true as well for the young men driven out of polygamous communities in order to eliminate rivals or reduce competition for older, already-married men looking to add to their spousal collection.