Why Alienjest Press?
In 2008, as I graduated from college, I knew that I was going into the Peace Corps. I would be shipping out in October to Lesotho. The plan was to live there for 2 years, and teach science. I had a whole summer ahead of me. So, I decided to take a bike trip…. no that’s not exactly right.
The previous spring, I’d volunteered with a group from the UK Newman Center to do a massive home build in Georgia. Colleges from around the US sent students to frame in 100 houses in 1 week for Habitat for Humanity. UK Newman Center had a home to ourselves, and a competent contractor telling us where to aim our hammers. We finished the house, (exterior, those contractors were going to return and complete all the harder, more complicated inside work later.) and as all 100 groups celebrated the accomplishment of 100 homes under construction a charismatic young man named Ryan talked about how he was leading a charity bike ride across the country that summer in support of an organization called the Fuller Center For Housing. (founded by one of the founders of Habitat, and a friend of Jimmy Carter) It’s mission statement is similar to Habitat for Humanity, but many of the chapters are enabled, through donations and community volunteers, to offer home repairs for existing homes, and they operate in a variety of cities and countries.)
Building a home for organizations for Habitat for Humanity is great, and easy when you have competent people who tell you what to do. (because I would have no clue on my own.)
So, remembering this pitch, I signed up for the first Fuller Center Bike Adventure. (they are still going, and if anyone is interested in biking across the country, I would recommend.) The trip wasn’t just my own. I fundraised, spoke with churches and businesses, and got individual pledges to raise money for the Fuller Center. All of that money went to their charitable work, as the bike ride was fully funded. (I was expecting to buy my own food, and to be camping most nights, but with Ryan’s connections and a lot of kindness, we were met almost everywhere by someone willing to house us, and a lot of awesome communities provided meals.) Anyways, a lot of people sent me on that trip, and I knew that it was going to be awesome, so I wanted to chronicle it.
also there were lots of other people on the ride, and while, I think, only 9 of us did the full ride, we had anywhere from 2 - 20 extra people most of the way.
Turns out, you don’t get many pictures of yourself biking. Here’s one of me at the end of the trip, marking the ride from sea to sea.
I also knew that I would want to maintain a public record of my Peace Corps service. So, in order to share stories from the bike ride, and to share about working in Lesotho, do both, I decided to create my own website. All I needed was a name, and a web address.
That’s right. This isn’t a blog about an epic trip across the country!
It isn’t about the 2 years I spent in another epic country.
And I haven’t even types about the 5 years I spent in China.
This blog is about how Alienjest Press got it’s name. (and logo)
The original website is gone. All that time I spent learning basic html coding so that I could make a quirky little page of my own, forgotten. The blogs I kept about the bike ride, and my life in Lesotho still exist, but on my hard drive. (for the best, because I was even more hasty about typing them, and less committed to editing than I am now.) But I carried one thing over. Alienjest.
Now it’s Alienjest Press because I write books. (announcement about Book #3 Treasure of Biscayne Bay coming very soon!)
I even have a fancy logo to go along with it: an alien jester reading a book. was particular about the color scheme too. You can see it on this website. The green and purple. The blue is a good mix.
But why an alien jester, and why Alienjest?
My grandmother and grandfather, (the Landrum ones,) were a big part of my life growing up. And while I have vague memories of staying with them on a farm in Missouri once or twice, most of my memories come from when they moved to Roswell, New Mexico. A place probably most know for the story of the Roswell UFO Incident of 1947. The alien theming is everywhere. And the alien greens pop in the otherwise drab adobe desert cattle town. There are fun things to do in and around Roswell, but the UFO Museum, and the other Alien themed businesses and decorations definitely stand out. And because of the alien association with the town, I started to collect UFO stories. You’ll have to find my opinion on this event elsewhere. But it’s safe to say that the alien theming stuck with me.
Also, I like Sci-fi. I don’t think any other genre has more shaped my imagination. X-files, Animorphs, Star Wars, Star Trek. It’s fun imagining what might be out there, amongst the stars. And stories about aliens allow us to reflect upon our very human and worldly issues from an outside perspective. Or just make up fun adventures.
But what about the jest in Alienjest, well. In college, I would actually take time on the weekends to walk down to the city library in Lexington, Kentucky and check out books. (University of Kentucky has a great library but a minimal fiction section) 2 authors stood out as inspirations, people who’s work I loved enough to want to emulate: Douglas Adams* and Terry Pratchett. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (especially Books 1 - 3) and The entire Discworld series. (But especially any books with Death or the Night Watch.) It was the first time I’d ever encountered humor so well interwoven into fiction.
They weren’t filled with simple jokes, but instead absurd and poignant observations about humanity, the world, and the universe written with wit and hilarity. (Didn’t expect a book review today did you? Well, this isn’t one though I would Highly recommend both authors, Junior Rangers might want to wait a few years) While you won’t find much reflection of these two authors in the Junior Rangers Investigative Club Novels, my Coffee Chronicles series was definitely inspired by them.
Also, I like comedy. I’m not a comedian, nor could I be one. I also really like the mythic figure of court jesters. Often the only people who speak truth to royalty, guised in the vail of comedy. While this is a heavily mythologized it’s fun to think think that sometimes laughter can cut through to a solid foundation of truth. (Plus laughing is fun.)
So, somewhere, sometime in college I came up with the idea of using alienjest as a handle. And a bike trip in 2008 gave me enough momentum to use it for something good. (raising money to help people build homes, and sharing an experience traveling across the US, and to Lesotho.)
That’s kind of it. A history of collecting UFO stories, and Sci-fi fueled by my family connections, plus an appreciation for comedy and laughter expressed in a recognizable form. Put them together and you get an Alien Jester. Shortened to Alienjest because the ‘er’ seems clunkier. And when I use it as my logo for the things I write, that alien is reading a book.
I wonder what he’s reading.
(I’d like to hope that aliens read too.)
Oh, and I’ll be sharing more about that bike ride in the future, and about my time in Lesotho and China. Those were part of the plan for this year. I’m simply running a bit behind, because National Parks need attention right now, (I write about those too.) Something else happened recently which I plan to cover next week.
But since I get asked, incredibly rarely but it does happen, about my imprint, I thought I’d go ahead and give a bit of a longer, answer. Thanks, for reading!
(technically, I’d picked up the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books in High School, but I found the rest of Adam’s works in college.)