My goal is to post at a different blog every few days beginning with the release of his novel Stranger Will in March 2011 to the release of my second novel, I Didn’t Mean to Be Kevin in November 2011. If you have connections to a lit blog of any type, professional journal or personal site, please contact me. I would love to compromise your integrity for a day. To be a groupie and follow this tour, subscribe to the Caleb J Ross blog RSS feed. Follow me on Twitter: @calebjross.com. Friend me on Facebook: Facebook.com/rosscaleb
My goal is to post at a different blog every few days beginning with the release of his novel Stranger Will in March 2011 to the release of my second novel, I Didn’t Mean to Be Kevin in November 2011. If you have connections to a lit blog of any type, professional journal or personal site, please contact me. I would love to compromise your integrity for a day. To be a groupie and follow this tour, subscribe to the Caleb J Ross blog RSS feed. Follow me on Twitter: @calebjross.com. Friend me on Facebook: Facebook.com/rosscaleb
But you don’t have to take my word for it (click) .
Advance Praise
“As someone who teaches, edits and reads for a living, I’m always looking for the scene, the character, the story I haven’t read a thousand times over and over. Something with the spark of originality and the courage to be different. When I see that something new, it’s always a joy. And, thanks to Caleb Ross and his Stranger Will, I had those moments of joy repeatedly throughout the book. This is an original—unlike anything you’ve ever read before.”
“Stranger Will is a nightmare landscape littered with the carcasses of fatherhood and various social mores. This is one paranoid, challenging, beautiful, and pitch-dark book. I’m a little afraid of this Ross guy now; but I’ll also read anything he writes.”
“Just like a Palahniuk novel, Stranger Will reads volatile: it could go any way. Caleb J. Ross leads you with a wry smile into dark places, but by the time you realize it’s too late. You will follow him anywhere.”
“Caleb J Ross is a dangerous writer. He wields an impressive collection of hazardous, black-hearted ideas, and he has the skill to feed them right into your gray matter. Even if you’ve already got an obsidian-dark sense of humor, a cast-iron stomach, and a membership in Misanthropes Monthly, you are letting Caleb J Ross into your mind at your own risk.”
“[Caleb] is gifted, in that his characters exhibit grotesqueries that somehow seem encoded with the same flaws of the world they inhabit, as if they are not constructs, but victims: the fruits of a tree growing upside down.”
Be sure to stick around for the next 9 months. Not because I just got you pregnant, but because I am embarking on a blog tour in support of Stranger Willthat will take me to over 60 different blogs. That’s a lot of child support.
Stranger Will is officially available for pre-order. What does that mean to you? Lots.
You know that tingly, nether-region feeling you get when you’ve got amazing leftovers in your refrigerator ready for the next day’s lunch? You can have that feeling now with just a few mouse clicks.
Feel like the hipster component of the upcoming Stranger Will Tour for Strange, like when you know the opening band’s catalog and will take every opportunity to tell fellow concert-goers how much better they are than the main band. In this convoluted comparison, the main band equates my inevitable super fame, and the opening band equates my current z-lister status.
Your bookshelf will also get that item #1 feeling.
Ef you Christmas in December! Try Christmas in March.
Perhaps most important of all: Pre-orders will be personally inscribed. I try to make pre-orders special with all of my books (see video below, created to document the extra special Make Books Smell Like a Bar Bathroom promotion). With Stranger Will, I have some special things in mind, but I’ll keep them secret for now. Don’t worry though, Stranger Will probably won’t reek of smoke.
William Lowson has less than two months until fatherhood – a state he abhors, existing in this world governed by the limit of a human lifespan. To birth is to ultimately kill. His admittedly pessimistic view comes as a result of his work as a Human Remains Removal Specialist – professionally cleaning the stains left from dead bodies.
As his fiancée nears term William becomes increasingly desperate for a solution to, what he calls, “this fault of human ego.” His friend and mentor, Mrs. Rose, an elementary school principal, nurtures and sympathizes with his cynicism, blaming his dilemma on an imperfect world. But she has a plan around this impediment: a group of strangers-a devout collection of kindred minds who have dedicated their lives to cultivating a unique idea of perfection, and she wants William to join.
But once he is in can he get out?
In this novel of impending fatherhood, an idealistic teacher recruits a pliant protégé to join her group of Strangers – a devout collection of kindred minds who have dedicated their lives to cultivating a unique idea of perfection.
During 2010 I went from a seldom-posting recluse to an annoying gnat. But apparently some people like being bothered by insects, because a few of my posts actually rose out of the white noise to become respectable accidental meant-to-search-for-porn landing pages.
Top entrance keywords: literary references, literature references in family guy, south park literary references, simpsons literary references, family guy brian great expectations reference
Top entrance keywords: the lottery the simpsons, the simpsons the lottery, the lottery simpsons, simpsons the lottery shirley jackson, the simpsons + the lottery
Last night’s The Simpsons struck me as especially coincidental. Not only have I posted about the show twice in the past week (11/26/10 and 11/24/10), but the episode shares subject matter with my upcoming novel, Stranger Will. Of all things, messenger pigeons. Random.
What makes it even stranger (no pun intended…unless you laughed; then, pun intended) is that literally ten minutes before the episode aired, I was doing some messenger pigeon related research online.
Fingers crossed that The Simpsons starts a cultural demand for messenger pigeon paraphernalia.
UPDATE: Making this an official night of stringed coincidences, I happened upon a Science channel show called Oddities, which features a museum/store full of specimens meant for the morbid (mummified cats, taxidermied two-headed cows, and so much more). This could possibly be my new favorite show.
But the coincidental part; the shop featured in this show has the same morbid interest factor as the World of Human Oddities featured in my forthcoming novel I Didn’t Mean to Be Kevin.
The takeaways here are:
If you like The Simpsons, you will automatically love Stranger Will.
If you like The Science Channel, you will automatically love I Didn’t Mean to Be Kevin.
Most of you have liars for parents. Most of you were probably given the stork spiel when asked age-inappropriate questions about the origins of things. Some of you may have been told the truth, in graphic detail, from honest, though morally disinterested, parents. I’m here to tell you the truth. Birds and bees have nothing to do with it. Rémi Carreiro is responsible. Rémi Carreiro gives birth to book covers. Also, he may have some kids; I don’t know.
When mocking up cover designs for Stranger Will, I began by searching for some seed images. Quickly, and thankfully, I found Rémi Carreiro’s Flickr gallery. While I ultimately chose his Park Bench image for the cover (well, actually readers of this blog chose the image, via a vote), this guy has some amazing images, many of which feel so perfect for book covers. See what I mean:
NOTE: The images captioned as “original” are the untouched amazing Carreiro photos. The book covers show my modifications. These aren’t real books and are only intended to showcase how perfect Carreiro’s photos are for covers. Are you listening publishers?
Bright White (original)Bright White (modified cover)Spruce Court Sunset (original)Spruce Court Sunset (modified cover)
And this one just screams to be a wrap-around cover:
Many, many thanks to Mr. Carreiro for offering his Park Bench image. If you want a print of your own, you should buy Stranger Will. The image will come with its very own 250 page wall-mount.
