For a synopsis and content-related aspects, it is best to take a look at the sub-section of the website called »Beachlandia«.
The style of the novel, which depicts the 78 hours that Lou Zipsky and his friends experience after his return to Beachlandia, could best be described as “complex”, “maximalist” and “transgressive”. There are countless storylines, the novel oscillates between a wide variety of literary genres and draws on registers of both high and popular literature and media.
Phrases from T.S. Eliot's 434-line poem »The Waste Land« are also placed quite prominently in the text. The novel—as absurd as this may seem at first glance—sees itself in its entirety as a translation of the same poem, although it negates the reader's expectation of a traditional translation. Whatever echoes of »The Waste Land« can be found amidst the fragments of »Beachlandia«, the reader may or may not be benevolent enough to take these echoes as an auto-commentary on an experimental translation.
However, »Beachlandia« is also a very long novel that is by no means finished with the publication of the first volume. Although the first part consists of over 700 pages, further volumes will continue narrating the events surrounding Lou Zipsky and his re-entry into the red walls until »Beachlandia« and his story are finished.
By the way: »Beachlandia« will be embellished by many, many illustrations, which will make the reading experience a very colourful endeaver, quite literally speaking.
The reading sample should be your first port of call and also a good indicator of whether or not you're gonna enjoy the rest of the novel, if you're not sure by reading the synopsis. You will find excerpts from »Beachlandia« as soon as early 2025 on the sub-section of the website. Untersektion der Website finden.
Only to a limited extent. Tom Ghostly doesn't want to go so far as to claim that Beachlandia is something incomparable and unique, but to be honest, making comparisons to »Beachlandia« is hard ...
At the same time, however, he believes that Beachlandia should also appeal to all those who are interested in high literature, such as the novels of
In addition, the narrative structure of »Beachlandia« is not entirely alien to the tradition of popular fantasy novels, even though it isn't classic fantasy or epic fantasy per se.
In terms of direct literary influences and inspirations, Tom Ghostly would like to refer for the time being to authors such as Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, Donna Tartt, David Foster Wallace, Arno Schmidt, Marianne Fritz, Marcel Proust, Thomas Pynchon, Mircea Cartarescu, Stephen King, Hans Kasack, Alfred Kubin, ...
However, literary works are by no means the only source of inspiration. Just like literary works, he is fascinated by the paintings of Francis Bacon and Franz Sedlacek. Movies keep inspiring him through the works of David Lynch, Werner Herzog, Charlie Kaufmann, Marco Ferreri, David Cronenberg, the Coen Brothers, Jean Cocteau, etc.
But popular culture also exerts an influence on him through Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, Batman and Donald Duck comics, Japanese mangas such as One Piece and video games from the 1980s and 1990s (mainly Nintendo), which should not be underestimated in this regard.
A graphic of this complex network of inspirations may be put online in the future.
Tom Ghostly likes to keep this under wraps, not least because he doesn't know it himself. Only seldomly is he forthcoming enough to suggest that nothing less than three volumes will do. It could be three, five, seven, twenty, a hundred ... because his mind likes to wander and he is always thinking up something new, but whatever he thinks up, he has to write it in the end, and that is sometimes less fun than disembodied thinking.
Most of the 70 or so illustrations will be hand-drawn, digital graphics. For some of the images, Tom Ghostly will use generative AI to create a design, which will serve as reference art and which will be altered in the creative process. generative AI ein Design kreieren, um auf dessen Basis neue Grafiken per Hand zu entwerfen.
As soon as further illustrations are available, samples will be presented in a gallery on this website.
Tom Ghostly is currently most active on Goodreads. However, he interacts relatively little there and primarily uses the platform to discover new literature and manage digital book shelves.
Unfortunately, social media is quite a time sink. Tom Ghostly is also on Instagram, but doesn't post much there at the moment. You can also find him on X and Threads, but up until now he remained mostly passive there.
If he were to spend too much time on social media, he would neglect his work on »Beachlandia«—which is his top priority and his life's work or what remains of a mere ghost.
No. Tom Ghostly shares his life with Thomas Peak, who, like many others, works for a living. He writes at weekends, after work and on his endless commutes he has to make to do in order to get to work or home from work.
»Beachlandia« will keep Tom Ghostly busy for years to come due to its multi-part layout, oh yes, really, really busy. He is currently brainstorming concepts that are more or less loosely connected to the »Beachlandia«-cycle. Whether and when these projects will be realized is not yet foreseeable.
Thomas thinks Tom Ghostly is the greater of the two. He prefers to define himself solely through his writing. Because the text speaks for itself. And about him.
At the moment, publication is still quite a few months away. As soon as there is something concrete, Tom Ghostly will announce it on the website. The safest way will then be to request one via the contact form, but it will be a while before then. Kontaktformular ein solches zu beantragen, aber bis dahin wird es noch etwas dauern.
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