"Staying Crazy" Gets Celebrity Endorsements

March 17, 2011 - PRLog -- (Cary, NC) – “Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane,” the upcoming book by Cary, NC, writer and blogger Cris Cohen, has caught the eyes of both Pen/Faulkner Award-winning author T.C. Boyle and Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist Dave Barry.


“Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane,” due out in the fall, will be a collection of Cohen’s humor columns, most from the years he spent as a columnist for several newspapers in California as well as some new ones he’s written since he and his family moved to Cary, NC., in 2008. Cohen is publishing the book as a way to raise money for the Miracle League of the Triangle, a baseball league for children with special needs. Cohen’s nine-year-old son is a member of the league.


Cohen sent pre-publication copies of his book to Boyle and Barry in hopes of getting an endorsement to include on the book’s cover. He wasn’t disappointed.


“Very funny stuff,” said T.C. Boyle, “and your very strong voice shines through.”


And from Dave Barry: “A fine book for a fine cause.”


How big of a deal is this for Cohen? “Huge,” he said. “I have enormous respect for T.C.’s writing talent. He’s almost not human. It’s like the planet that sent Superman also sent TC, except, instead of the ability to fly and a cape, they gave him an immense vocabulary and a really good pen. Although, maybe he has a cape too, but he just saves it for formal occasions.


“And as for Dave, well, every since college I’ve wanted to be Dave Barry. Most people dream of being the music stars they listen to or the actors they see in the movies. I wanted to be like that humor writer who was known for using a Rollerblade Barbie to set a pair of underwear on fire.”


Dave Barry has been an author and syndicated humor columnist for 25 years. His work has appeared in more than 500 newspapers in the United States and abroad, and he has had 30 books published. Two of his books were the basis for the CBS sitcom “Dave’s World.” He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988.


T.C. Boyle has published 22 books of fiction, including his most recent novel When The Killing’s Done (2011). He is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and his work has been translated into more than 24 foreign languages. His short stories have been published in most major American magazines, and he has received several literary awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Prize for best novel of the year (World's End, 1988).


“The fact that these guys took the time to read my galleys is mind-blowing enough,” Cohen said. “To get quotable endorsements back from them is almost too much too handle. When they wrote back, I needed to slip on a blood pressure cuff and breathe into a paper bag.”


Cris Cohen is also the author of the humor blog “Nothing In Particular: Trying Not To Take Life Too Seriously” (criscohen.typepad.com).


For more information on “Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane,” visit www.stayingcrazy.com and the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/stayingcrazy.

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About Cris Cohen: Cris Cohen, the author of the Nothing In Particular blog, was born in Buffalo, NY, and grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, eventually graduating from the University of Southern California. After a stint in rock radio in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Cris started writing his humor column for a collection of California newspapers. He eventually gravitated toward the tech world and Silicon Valley, working for companies such as Netscape and Cisco Systems. Cris, his wife Michele, and their young son Max moved to Cary, North Carolina, in 2008. Cris’ blog is available at http://criscohen.typepad.com. His first book, “Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane,” is due out in the fall of 2011.