Four Months

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...

amazon

barnes and noble

powell's

Friends in High Places, Part II

Okay, so these next folks aren't necessarily "friends" (well some of them are), but they've all helped me in some way during my writing career (are you allowed to call it a career if you don't really make any money?).

Paul Tremblay:  Besides writing me a really nice blurb for my (still unpublished!) collection, Paul has offered advice along the way.  More importantly, he's always been gracious about it even when I email him out of the blue with dumb questions.  If you haven't read any of Paul's stuff, you really, really need to do so because the man can flat out write.  Here are a few options to get you started: The Little Sleep, No Sleep Till Wonderland, and the soon to be released In the Mean Time.  Check them out.

Douglas Clegg: I met Doug at Borderlands in 2006 when he was nice enough to say some encouraging things about my short story Halloween Comes to County Road Seven.  Since then, he's always been responsive to my emails, providing timely and valuable advice.  He also read my (still unpublished!) collection and wrote a nice blurb.  He also said some other things to me in the email that made me feel really good about my writing.  Doug has tons of stuff out, but here are some highlights if you'd like to check him out: Neverland, Isis, and many more.

John Rector: Another nice guy, who hasn't let all of his success go to his head (a rare thing, I think).  I met him when he was writing short stories and being a general smartass at RJ Cavender's Horror Library at Zoetrope.com.  Now he's got book deals coming out of his ears and has already garnered some rave reviews for his upcoming novel The Cold Kiss.   He's offered me great advice on pushing through the inevitable wall when writing a novel and helped me focus my query letter.

Thanks guys!