In four months, The Year of the Storm comes out from
Penguin/ Berkley. Though it's
still a ways away, I've got a few updates to report. First, I can finally reveal the cover...
I'm extremely pleased with it. What do you think?
Speaking of extremely pleased, I also have received the
first two blurbs for the book.
John Rector has been a friend since I began writing back in
2002 when we were both publishing in little for the love magazines. He has since gone on to be a
bestselling author, and I've, well, I'm trying. Heh. Anyway, he was kind enough to read TYOTS for me and he
offered this amazing blurb:
"Powerful, dark, and heartfelt. The Year of the Storm
is a wonderful coming of age novel by a very talented new writer. An astounding
debut."
- John Rector Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of
Already Gone, The Grove, and The Cold Kiss.
Pretty cool, huh?
The second blurb comes from Frank Bill. If you're not familiar with Bill, you
will be. He's already published a
universally well-regarded collection called Crimes in Southern Indiana, and
he's got an awesome looking novel due out this spring from FSG called
Donnybrook. Here's what he had to
say about TYOTS:
“A dark and mysterious southern-gothic story with hints of
Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter and Stephen King’s novella The
Body, John Mantooth’s voice is masculine and powerful, flavoring the pages with
the Alabama wilderness, the turmoil of family and how all of these elements
work to shape and nurture teenage boys into men.”
-Frank Bill,
author of Crimes in Southern Indiana and Donnybrook
I've got to say, that one feels really good as I am a huge
fan of The Body and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. Not sure my book's in the class of those two, but I've never
been one not to take a compliment.
If any of this looks interesting to you, I do hope you'll
consider preordering...
