It was only a matter of time before someone figured out that Joe Pernice had more to offer than his annual disc of literate pop-rock songs. Word from Pernice's Ashmont Records camp today has it that the songwrite has inked a deal with Penguin imprint Riverhead Books for a novel.

According to Ashmont, Pernice is about one-third done with the book: "If you ask him when he'll finish his face turns all red, and he yells, 'When I finish!'... If you ask Joe what the book is about, he sticks his fingers in his ears and sings 'la la la la la, etc.'"

It's not Pernice's first foray into the written word. He started the Scud Mountain Boys while working toward his MFA at UMass, and he has a self-published book of poetry and the 33 1/3 book about the Smiths' Meat is Murder under his belt. The latter was one of the few fiction-based 33 1/3 books, so there is precedent for the media hop from music to literature.

According to Ashmont, Pernice's response to signing with Riverhead was thus: "I am really excited to join the Penguin family, where I get to be label mates with writers like Homer."

Labels: books, music