Neal Pollack

An interview with Jewcy.

An interview with Forbes.com.

And more to come!

About eight months ago, I started writing a novel called Jewball. About four months after that, I announced that I'd be publishing it myself. And now, today, October 11, 2011, Jewball officially exists, at least in digital form. You can download it here, for only $4.99.

If I may offer my biased opinion, I really think you should buy a copy. Not because it's the culmination of my dreams, or because it's the book I always wanted to write, though both those things are true. Lots of people dream of writing a book, many people do, and often those books aren't very good. While I can't say for certainty that Jewball is very good--I can't be objective on that score--I do know that it's a funny, breezy, exciting read, and that it absolutely stacks up with books put out by conventional publishing entities. I worked with great editors and a fantastic cover designer and made sure that Jewball reads and feels like something put out by a professional. There's pride and love on every page, and I hope you all can sense that.

If you'd download a copy, I'd be extremely grateful. If you'd tweet and Facebook about it, I'd be even more grateful. This isn't a book that's going to move via traditional channels. Its success won't and can't be easily quantified. But if the Internet does what it does best--spread the word about things that are awesome--then Jewball stands a chance in the glutted digital marketplace.

So enjoy the book, and, if you feel like it, help a brother out. Thanks so much. See you on the court, and hopefully not in court.

NP

When I’m an adult, if my first job doesn’t work out, I want to be someone who owns the awesomest laser tag place that will ever exist in the world.

I will make robotic snakes that have fake electronic poison that deactivates your armor. I will have dragons that’s breath deactivates your armor. Then they pick you up in their mouth and then they swallow you. Then you just land in a place with toys, books, TV, video games and snacks and stuff like that.

There will be one haunted house. And that haunted house will have a room with a robotic skeleton that sits in a chair rocking back and forth. The skeleton has a holographic knife and gets up, walks toward you, and then it slices your armor and your armor gets a fake crack in it and your armor is gone. It will make it unable to use for the rest of the round.

You will be able to outnumber your opponent and capture them. There’s going to be as many floors as I can afford. On the top floor, whatever it is, a lot of it is going to be some space thing with aliens that have weapons that do insane damage to your armor. There are holographic UFOs on the roof. They blast at you, obviously.

There will be giant birds that will swoop down, grab you, put you in their nest, and then if they like you they will let you go, and if they don’t, they eat you, take you to an area, and you’re kicked out of the game.

I hope you like my laser tag story.

Great coverage of Jewball so far, with more to come as the publication date is only a month away.

Here's a profile of me from The Jewish Daily Forward, which made my mother kvell.

Here's an in-depth interview with Propeller Magazine, which made my mother say, "So what is this Propeller Magazine?"

And to round out the picture, here's a piece of Slate about the "rise of the yoga memoir." It rose a year ago, people!

In any case, I'm staying in a far corner of the public eye. That self-published novel about Jewish basketball players in the 1930s is gonna be my ticket!

1937. The gears of world war begin to grind, but Inky Lautman, star point guard for the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association, is dealing with his own problems. His coach has unwittingly incurred a massive gambling debt to the German-American Bund. Harry Litwack, Inky's rival on the team, is self-righteously leading public protests against the rise of homegrown American fascism. And Inky's girlfriend wants him to join a Jewish student organization that's all talk and no action. Inky just wants to play ball and occasionally beat people up for money. But the tides of history are flowing against a guy like him. Can he make his free throws and still make it through the season alive? This is war. This is America. This...is Jewball.