During the preorder phase of Stranger Will (around January(ish) of 2011) I decided to do something special, as I try to do with all of my book preorders. With Stranger Will, the temptation to integrate the preorder extras into the thematic content of the book itself was obvious and too persistent to ignore. A large part of the book deals with the trade of messenger pigeon messages between a woman named Mrs. Rose and to-be parents who are, shall we say, less than excited about their coming children. What comes of these transactions is an intricate, yet intentionally misdirected, sales pitch designed to encourage the to-be parents to abort their pregnancies. Heavy stuff, I know. I decided to use one of those exchanges presented in Stranger Will as a base for expanding the communication chain into a longer dialog between Mrs. Rose and a parent. What became of this is a 14-part,…
Category Archives Publication Announcements
You will be hearing about this a lot in the coming weeks. I sense a paradigm shift. Enter: Velvet Noir. Website: warmedandbound.com Twitter: @WarmedAndBound Facebook: Warmed and Bound Facebook (The Velvet): The Velvet
I would normally hold off on announcing a publication until the publication in question has been, well, published. But Warmed and Bound is different. Warmed and Bound is a story collection many, many years in the making. Honestly, since the start of The Velvet forums, the idea of a collected story collection has been tossed around. And finally, with talent figuratively forcing apart the forum seams, it's about time the group warmth is bound for all to read. What makes this collection especially amazing is not only the number of stories included, but the degree of talent to be contained within. This table of contents features some of the greatest writers going right now, honestly. I truly consider my small contribution to this thing a very, very high point of my short career. Seriously, look at this Table of Contents. This is for real, people. I'm excited to be bound…
I have been reading > Kill Author for quite some time. The fiction they publish rarely disappoints, the editors are anonymous, and the layout of the site makes reading super-dooper easy. So when they accepted my story Evenson's Tongue for publication, I felt truly unworthy. Readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of Brian Evenon's work. He is consistently impressive. His work does things with the grotesque that many writers try yet few accomplish. So, a few years ago I wrote this piece, "Evenson's Tongue" (a play on the title of his collection Altmann's Tongue), as a way to say thank you to the man and his work. I even had the opportunity to give Evenson a copy of the story at the Austin AWP Conference in 2006. Click over to > Kill Author to read the story. Bonus: I recorded an audio version of the…
Buy Direct from Publisher: Click here for Paperback Click here for Hardcover From Amazon: Click here to buy from Amazon 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.” -Rob Roberge, author of More Than They Could Chew and Drive “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…
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,…
I was recently approached to write a short piece for a project called Life in 100 Words or Less. A quick perusal through the aptly named Life in 100 Words or Less blog revealed some very interesting takes on this morbid, though inspiring, topic. A deeper dive left me feeling dirty, but not so much that I didn't decide to offer my own few words. Read mine here. Read the rest here.