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  • Story Seeding and Social Media, I’m teaching both at the Tallgrass Writing Workshop in June.

    Story Seeding and Social Media, I’m teaching both at the Tallgrass Writing Workshop in June.

    I am honored to have been asked to teach a couple of sessions at the 2012 Tallgrass Writers Workshop at Emporia State University in June.

    If you will be in the Emporia area, you should register. Let me manipulate your mind to reflect my morbid desires. THE POWER!!!!

    I’ll be teaching:

    PLANTING A STORY: How to Grow a Plot from a Single Seed

    Author Stephen Graham Jones has said that many of his story ideas stem from misheard conversations. This session will explore the process of building an entire story from practically nothing, with special consideration given to dismantling the sham known as writer’s block.

    SURVIVING ONLINE: Why Social Media is Not a Waste of Time for Authors

    Some writers claim that time spent engaging in social media is time wasted. But what is an author but a communicator of ideas, and what is social media but a platform for exchanging ideas (primarily by text, I might add). This session will focus on how the entrepreneurial author, even without a book yet to promote, can use social media not just for nurturing a potential readership but for nurturing story ideas as well.

    Other workshop faculty include Thomas Fox Averill, Thomas Fox Averill, Linda Apple, Max McCoy, Jim Hoy, Cheryl Unruh, and Annie Wilson

    See full details at the Tallgrass Writers Workshop website or by downloading the workshop brochure.

  • Brand new story, “Different People Entirely” in the Ice Picks anthology. Horror? Yep.

    Brand new story, “Different People Entirely” in the Ice Picks anthology. Horror? Yep.

    When anthology editor S.S Michaels approached me last year about contributing a story to the Ice Picks: Most Chilling Stories from the Ice Plaza anthology, I hesitated for a moment. I never thought of what I write as horror. Grotesque? Sure. Morbid? Sometimes. Horror? No. But the more I thought about it, the more I accepted that a stretched definition of horror (never mind that I didn’t even consider a narrow definition at all) could very well encompass my work.

    Other people have thought of my work as horror, so I broke down and thought of the solicitation as a challenge. I came up with “Different People Entirely,” a story of a breaking family that embarks on a vacation to the Ice Hotel in Scandinavia. How does the family fare? Read for yourself.

    The anthology contains stories from the following authors:

  • New review of Murmurs: “If another writer tells stories quite like this, I do know know of him”

    New review of Murmurs: “If another writer tells stories quite like this, I do know know of him”

    A beautiful few words from reader Frank Edler:

    “These are fairly short bursts of that unique domestic fiction that Ross not only has a penchant for writing but also executes to a level that could earn him the moniker of ‘Father of Domestic Fiction’. If another writer tells stories quite like this, I do know know of him or her…Once again I walk away from another of Caleb J. Ross’ work with an uneasy feeling. ..The author is brilliant at looking at a tender moment and peeling away the layers to reveal the disturbing grotesque. We connect with it because under all our facades lies a bit of that same ugliness to some degree or another.

    I must now venture forth into his longer works, STRANGER WILL and I DIDN’T MEAN TO BE KEVIN….I can not wait to have my emotions unsettled a little bit more.”

    Read the full review here.

  • I did it. I have an official author Facebook page now. Changes coming.

    I did it. I have an official author Facebook page now. Changes coming.

    I did it. I broke down and created an official Caleb J. Ross author page on Facebook. I’ve been averse to doing this for a while, primarily because I want to avoid perceived ego as much as possible (well, as much as a guy with a self-titled website can do), but also because I don’t want to bombard people with duplicate content posts. The logic being that until the official author page gains traction, I would have to post updates to both the author page and my personal page in order to curb anybody missing out on my genius (see, no ego there). Nobody needs double Caleb.

    So, here’s what I propose:

    1. If you are currently a Facebook friend via my personal page, but you ONLY WANT TO RECEIVE AUTHOR TYPE UPDATES, then un-friend my personal page and Like my author page. You can actually do this by clicking this link or you can click “like” in the sidebar box to the right.
    2. If you are currently a Facebook friend via my personal page, and you want to receive BOTH AUTHOR AND PERSONAL TYPE UPDATES, then stay friended AND Like my author page. You can actually do this by clicking this link or you can click “like” in the sidebar box to the right.*
    3. If you are not currently a Facebook friend via my personal page, and you are not currently a fan of my author page, then you are likely responsible for the Holocaust. Sorry.
    *The inevitable question: “If I am a Facebook friend on your personal page and I Like your author page, won’t I be bombarded with duplicate content?” At first, yes. However, I have started a new category on this blog called Un-Writerly. Any blog post with this tag will ONLY be posted to my personal page and WILL NOT be posted to my author page. For example, if all is set up correctly, you are able to view this very blog post ONLY on my personal page. You may still receive a few duplicate status updates, but those should be very minimal.
  • Put this one on your radar. Psychosis, an Anthology

    Put this one on your radar. Psychosis, an Anthology

    This one has been in development for  awhile and is getting closer and closer to seeing print. I hope, anyway. While I wasn’t able to put something together to contribute to the collection (the editor approached me; I originally intended to, but life got crazy so I couldn’t do it…not literally crazy, not crazy enough to be appropriate fodder for this anthology…just metaphorically crazy).

    Add this to your RSS reader and keep an eye out for it. Based on the website, it appears we’ve got writing from the following authors to look forward to: Bryan Howie, Rebecca Jones-Howe, Dakota Taylor, Jessica Taylor, Kenneth Goldman, Liana V., Nicholas Wilczynski, Josef Van L., Richard Thomas, Renee Asher, DWG, Bradley Sands, Rachel Cohen, Sam Jackson, Martin Garrity, Cristiana Zanelli, and Sarah Davenport with Traci Foust, author of Nowhere Near Normal: A Memoir of OCD, writing the introduction. I don’t know most of these authors, but I soon will.

  • Ryan W. Bradley Fails the Internet: The Code for Failure blog tour.

    Ryan W. Bradley Fails the Internet: The Code for Failure blog tour.

    When I told Ryan that for the blog tour stop here I would write a bit about my own strange affection for convenience stores/gas stations he, in more eloquent words, told me I was crazy. Well, perhaps I misrepresented him. His actual words: “I like the nostalgia factor. I like the smell of gas but I’ll tell ya, the nostalgia goes away when you work there.”

    Perhaps so. But if the work experience is anything like that of Code for Failure’s narrator, then I’d say nostalgia is but one type of memory you’ll come away with. This guy gets laid like a disembarking Hawaii tourist.

    The novel is less a single, cohesive story and more a collection of vignettes all related to the narrator’s job as a gas station attendant cum oil changer, or gas station attendant cum to married women and teenage girls, as the case may be.

    Back to my gas stations. Why do I look back so fondly on convenience stores? Growing up in a small town of 3,500-4,000 people, shopping took place between two grocery stores and three gas stations. The gas stations felt consistently new and comforting. Why? I’m not sure. Perhaps the understanding of temporary fuel, of gaining sustenance where I probably shouldn’t. Is this a comment on my fatherless childhood, needing to thrive in less than optimal conditions? Probably not. But I have no better reason.

    When road-tripping (that’s engaging in a long-distance trip in a car, not hotboxing in a vehicle) I actually look forward to the gas station breaks. I’m not at all the sitcom stereotype father, the guy who simply wants to ‘get there’ as fast as possible. I’m the sitcom stereotype kid who wants to break every 100 miles to pee.

    But a kid’s gas station Code for Failure is not.

    You want a gas station experience like one you’ll surely never have? Order Ryan W. Bradley’s Code for Failure, now at Black Coffee Press.

    While you’re at it, check out the rest of the Code for Failure tour:

    Monday March 19
    The Next Big Book Blog
    Tuesday March 20th
    Allison Writes
    Wednesday March 21st
    This Blog Will Change Your Life
    Thursday March 22
    Dead End Follies
    Friday March 23
    Booked In Chico
    Saturday March 24
    Me
    Sunday March 25
    Monkey Bicycle
    Monday March 26
    Hawthorne Scarlet
    Tuesday March 27th
    Ryan W. Bradley

  • Kristin Fouquet offers some beautiful words about As a Machine and Parts: “I will continue thinking about this book for some time.”

    Kristin Fouquet offers some beautiful words about As a Machine and Parts: “I will continue thinking about this book for some time.”

    The always wonderful Kristin Fouquet offers some kind words about As a Machine and Parts over at La Salon Annex:

    Reminiscent of Metamorphosis and Flowers for Algernon, Caleb J. Ross takes us inside the mind of a man who is transforming. This man, Mitchell, experiences a slide from human to machine. This transformation coincides with the deterioration of his relationship with a much older lover, Marsha…Although I place As a Machine and Parts on the shelf alongside Charactered Pieces and Stranger Will, I will continue thinking about this book for some time.

    But perhaps my favorite line, just because I’m glad this particular referent story hit home with another writer:

    As writers, we must always wonder what is derivative and how many words we can truly call our own.

    Read the full review. Then, buy As a Machine and Parts. And while you are at it, round out that Amazon free shipping deal and grab Fouquet’s incredible, Twenty Stories and Rampart & Toulouse.