Stranger Will Archives » Page 2 of 19

Stranger Will to see a new life with a new publisher

July 23, 2012

Many people have been asking me if Stranger Will is to be reprinted following the news of it's current/previous publisher closing down. The short answer is yes, Stranger Will is to see a new life. The longer answer--to the assumed question of "when?"--is that I'm not 100% sure. I do know who the publisher will be, and I do have a pretty good idea of when it will be published, but I'm a bit of a superstitious geek when it comes to revealing good news. Suffice it to say that the novel should come back even better and bigger than every before, toting extra materials not seen in any of the previous printings.

The Misadventures of Stranger Willy

April 13, 2012

Laurance Kitts, creator of the brand new Slit Your Wrists Magazine, has opened up about his perversion, thanks to the courage I've displayed with my latest video blog post in which I force perverted imagery on book covers. Thank you Mr. Kitts. You are so brave. Here's Stranger Will through the eyes of Laurance Kitts. My favorite part is the penises with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles masks.

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

March 28, 2012

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: 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…

New short story available at Amazon.com, “The Lipidopterist.” Man collects human lips. Ex-wife wants half of his collection.

March 9, 2012

It has been a while since I've had a short story to whore out to the world. While I've been busy bombarding poor souls with news of my 3 recent book releases, I haven't had much to say in the way of short stories since...well, since September, if you can count my non-fiction piece "Denis Johnson Almost Drank My Pee" as a short story at Dark Sky (though "short story" implies fiction, and the Dark Sky piece isn't). Anyway, my story "The Lipidopterist" is now available as a Kindle story over at Amazon.com. I recently read this story in St. Louis at the Meshuggah Cafe. The reactions were quite good, I must say. I believe it is also part of the Kindle lending library thing, or at least will be shortly. Still, though, it's only $0.99. Fork over the coins! Available now from the fake publisher Viscera Irrational. Buy. Read.

Quotes from Flannery O’Connor’s “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction”

February 26, 2012

In the world of grotesque fiction, Flannery O'Connor is the go-to mouth to voice what's worth our academic time and what's worth ignoring. Knowing my love of the grotesque and my respect for Flannery O'Connor, Richard Thomas passed along a copy of O'Connor's important "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction" (1960) which somehow I had never read before. I'm glad I have now rectified that problem. Below are a few choice quotes, words I'm sure I will cite for the rest of my writing career, especially when citing my own grotesque fiction. On mystery as motivation ...if the writer believes that our life is and will remain essentially mysterious, if he looks upon us as beings existing in a created order to whose laws we freely respond, then what he sees on the surface will be of interest to him only as he can go through it into an experience of mystery…

What is Grotesque Noir?

February 4, 2012

Logically, grotesque noir can be defined by a mashup of the traits that define grotesque and noir separately, so perhaps we can best define the combined term by investigating the individual components. What is noir fiction? Noir fiction is not so much a genre as it is an overlay to existing genres. Most people probably think of early black and white detective films as representative of noir, and while those films may represent some of the overlay's qualities, in truth film noir can generally be more accurately (more specifically) categorized as detective noir or mystery noir. So what exactly is this mysterious noir overlay? There are a few fantastic attempts at definition out there. A couple of the most important, I think, are: From Noir Fiction Is About Losers, Not Private Eyes by Otto Penzler: Noir is about losers. The characters in these existential, nihilistic tales are doomed. They may…

What is Domestic Grotesque Fiction and Why Do I Write It?

January 21, 2012

I’ve called myself a writer of grotesque family fiction, but what does that term really mean? I give a brief definition of grotesque domestic fiction, or grotesque family fiction, by way of example, in an earlier blog post: Take a family situation—usually some sort of broken family dynamic—mix in something grotesque—possibly morbid but not necessarily—and you’ve probably got domestic grotesque. But I don’t know if that fully captures it. Up front, I have to say that I’ve always been the type to back away from definitions that try too hard to avoid definition. You know the type; those writers who say, “No, I don’t write horror fiction, I write transgressive commentaries on modernist life where social norms are exposed as metaphorical fangs in the collective neck…” But in the world of marketing, it is important to simultaneously embrace and reject established genres. You know, ride coattails while sewing your own.…