City Paper’s resident Renaissance man Nick Smith wears many hats — contributing arts editor, filmmaker, reporter. Lately, he’s wearing his author’s hat and promoting his newest book, Eat Happy.
Smith is collaborating with local artist John Pundt and his publishing company Prokhaus. “We had talked about doing a book together for the past two years,” Smith says. The book only took about six months to put together. Pundt hand screenprinted the cover, and the guys at Prokhaus hand-weaved the book to create a unique look.
“There were only so many pages I could fill out,” Smith says. “I couldn’t just create a novel. It’s very different from screenwriting. For the movie I’m thinking about what sort of story I can tell; and with this book in particular, I have to think about what can I write in these pages.”
Eat Happy is a pocket-sized collection of poems, short stories, and illustrations featuring an eclectic crew of characters like a salty WWII sailor, an interstellar succubus, a sharp-tongued lover, and a tree who’ll do anything for its master. “The main story,” Smith says, smiling to himself, “is about killer burgers taking over a fast food joint.”
Smith and Pundt have made only 100 copies of Eat Happy, which will be available for $10 at nicksmithbooks.com or at Blue Bicycle Books. Smith hosts a book launch at Blue Bicycle on Fri. April 16 from 5-7 p.m. He will read excerpts from the book and present new material “in the spirit of instant gratification.”
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