BOOK 1 AVAILABLE NOW
A Punk rock Viking Trilogy + EP
Here is an important question: What if Johnny Rotten had a baby with The Rock?
Mohr’s answer to that question is the creation of a punk rock Viking named Saint The Terrifying. An ex-con, Saint was raised in the wilds of Norway, where his father brought him up in the old traditions and taught him the way of the Viking. Now Saint finds himself emersed in the Oakland music scene. On stage, he wears a pair of antlers that have been painted with yellow reflective paint, calling to mind bolts of lightning. Off stage, he’s hunting down criminals no one else cares to find, and falling in love with the singer of his band, Trick Wilma.
Bay Area author Joshua Mohr taps the troubled vein of class warfare and gentrification in the Bay Area to tell an ambitious tale of love and retribution. Saint’s role as hardboiled detective is informed by Mohr’s deft interweaving of recent history, including Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse fire—a tragedy that Mohr revisits in a bold act of reclamation. As Saint uncovers the crew who’ve been stealing the gear around town, the truth threatens to unravel Saint’s world, leading to a heartbreaking showdown. Propelled by a broken Baroque of punk language, Saint the Terrifying examines tensions between community and individual identity, social activism and vigilantism, while taking the reader on a roller coaster ride of hard-boiled twists and hardcore music.
ADVANCED PRAISE FOR SAINT THE TERRIFYING
"Josh Mohr is a kind of punk rock arc-angel, and this wildly sacred book is on fire with his genius. It’s everything. The whole horizon, within and without."
—Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Goodnight Irene
"Mohr writes with energy and a sense of music. Beneath the tragedy and neon mayhem runs a lovely optimism, a feeling of redemption and generosity toward mankind."
—Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay
"Delivering a pitch perfect voice, this is the book Henry Rollins would have written if he had been a fiction-writing-Viking, moshing to the Cro-Mags or The Misfits and viewing Sonny Chiba flicks, but he did not, instead you have the creatively powerful voice of Joshua Mohr at the height of his literary powers."
—Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana, Donnybrook, The Savage, and Back to the Dirt
INTRODUCING SLUMMY
(SAINT’S BAND)
Slummy is fronted by author and musician Joshua Mohr and based on a fictional band in Mohr's upcoming novel Saint the Terrifying. Slummy recorded their first EP, The Wrong Side, at Grandma's Warehouse (Sherman Oaks, CA), available digitally and on vinyl in tandem with the book. "Size Queens" is their first single.
“A raucous, unhinged anthem… a dizzying swirl of fuzzed-out riffs and gut-punching beats, with just the right touch of nihilistic humor.”
— It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine
“SIZE QUEENS is a rager of a punk song with some fun, angular guitars and a furiously driving rhythm.”
— New Noise Magazine
SIGNED FIRST EDITION BOOK + LIMITED EDITION BLUE VINYL
Bundle includes: Signed paperback original of Saint the Terrifying and six song ep Wrong Side (12-inch blue vinyl).
Track list:
1. Let the Diamonds In
2. Size Queens
3. Wrong Side
4. Don't Body Shame the Moon
5. Decapite the Government
6. Wrong Side (acoustic)
ABOUT
Joshua Mohr is the author of several books, including Damascus, which The New York Times called “Beat-poet cool.” He’s also written Some Things that Meant the World to Me, one of O Magazine’s 10 Terrific reads of 2009, and he’s won the Northern California Book Award twice. Termite Parade was an editors’ choice on the New York Times Best Seller List. His latest project is a trilogy of novels all to be published in one calendar year, starting with SAINT THE TERRIFYING in fall ‘24. In his Hollywood life, he’s sold projects to AMC, ITV, and Amblin Entertainment.
Listen to Josh read an excerpt from his memoir Model Citizen over at Poets & Writers.