Riekki releases 'U.P.' with the help of Road, Web

By: Daniel Baron

Posted: 5/19/09

Ron Riekki is a very busy man. After I had interviewed him over the telephone, he responded to some of my e-mailed follow-up questions with short answers, because he was at the Virginia Festival of the Book, an event at which writers and readers gather for book signings, author panels and other literary happenings.

Riekki, author of the "metal hip-hop punk novel" U.P., received his M.F.A. in Theater Arts/Playwriting from Brandeis University where he had a "brutal professor" who taught him "about the real world" in 1999. He also holds a B.S. from Central Michigan University, an M.F.A. from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. from Western Michigan University. If this were a bragging contest, we'd have to add his SAG membership and appearances on VH1, as well as connections to Tina Fey and Second City to this list of credentials. This author-scholar, however, is not aloof. He is quite grounded and down to earth despite being "addicted to writing"-something he professed to me with chuckles, laughing not because it was a joke but rather because of how true the confession was.

A lot of his understanding of the real world comes from his upbringing in a Michigan community disrupted by economic woes, as well as joining the military as a means to survive those monetarily difficult times. He would say that all times are financially tough for him, and I agree that this is true for most scribes throughout history.

His new book, U.P., is a coming-of-age story set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that deals with some heavy coming-of-age experiences. Riekki is also writing A Portrait of the Artist as a Boogey Man (due 2010), I Hate It Here (due 2011) and Hunger and the Ass (due 2012), which are all part of his contract with Ghost Road Press. And while you might be able to get a copy of U.P. at one or two stores, its main method of distribution is not through brick-and-mortar outfits; You can check out Ghost Road Press at ghostroadpress.com to get your copy. Search by author in the drop-down on the left side of the page, and then select Ron Riekki. Riekki's own Web site is rariekki.webs.com. Or, just go to Amazon.com and search for U.P. there.

I learned from Riekki that selling books primarily through the Internet is common, as books these days, apparently, are similar to songs and pieces of the music industry. Blogs, e-mail forwards, word-of-mouth and similar marketing techniques are being used more and more to promote sales. Riekki calls this very piece in the Justice the result of an interview that is part of his "weird post-modern book tour." In the age of YouTube, in which homemade videos can be responsible for more revenue than more traditional media, it is not surprising that viral advertising has become king for authors. "My book's definitely underground," states Riekki, "but [it's] accessible to anyone who wants to pick it up."

Music is more than an analogy that Riekki uses to discuss business and technology trends. It is also like oxygen to him; he can't write in silence. With one of his characters, he listened to the rapper Ice Cube over and over again for inspiration and direction. In the ninth grade a friend told him to "check this out" and played Run DMC; Riekki was in love with hip hop from that moment on. It was more than just the music, though. Riekki was also captivated by the issues presented in the lyrics, like incarceration, class and race.

I wanted to know more about Riekki's experience with racial differences, so I asked, and in doing so I became "the first person to ask me about race" out of 35 interviews up to that point. Growing up, Riekki's neighborhood was all white (yes, 100 percent). In fact, the first black person he ever met was Muhammad Ali when he got the boxer's autograph in an airport.

He's taught at Moraine Valley Community College and is currently on the faculty of Auburn University. But what are his future plans? What happens after his jackpot four-book contract with Ghost Road Press is a thing of the past? I asked about settling down, but Riekki told me he is more interested in going wherever the money takes him. If the money took him to Los Angeles, however, then maybe he will settle down and just stay there, especially since that's where he plans on finding the woman of his dreams.