As promised, the complete cover for TONE-BONE, from
@CastaignePub
, out on 9.13.24. Some hidden references in here to TNTI, so get ready to scour. (Blank sq. is for the ISBN...) Art:
@DeeplyDapper
I know this means diddly-squat to most ppl, but my wife and I have spent the past 2 yrs w/ our 2 small kids every day w/o any breaks whatsoever. No dates. No vacays. No grandparent relief system. No nearby relatives, close friends, or trusted neighbors. Lots of ppl are like us.
I’m not boohooing. I’m just saying: if you see a family struggling, it might e because they have zero in the way of material resources. Hilarious to think my dentist asked where I was going for the summer. “You have to have money for vacations,” I said. Or time.
@NatatiaLynn
The boy encounters a bag of wishes that talks. It tells him he has to go and find a person who makes wind swords, and he has to travel there by hot air balloon a 1,000 miles. And my son said that the bag of wishes is a liar. So...
How did this book go from published to not published to self-published, all while being amazing? Who has the story on this journey?
@Buehlmeister
? In any case, the writing is sharp, sad, funny. Enjoying this immensely.
Just got notified that a story I wrote 7 yrs ago was accepted for publication in May. I'm telling you--persistence is everything in writing. That's it, and that's all.
I’m gonna need readers to get more onboard with multiple POVs in a novel. I keep reading that publishers dislike these because readers don’t cotton to them. But I mean, like, GoT has tons of switches and is super popular? So wtf?
Which writers are almost like philosophers to you in the way that they write their stories/novels? IE, writers that have acute and brilliant observations that wouldn’t be misplaced in a philosophical discourse…
Quit overthinking. Finish yr fucking book. Seriously: you’re putting too much pressure on yrself. Just blab it out. Start. Right now. Go. One paragraph. I dare you.
I'm willing to take the hit on this one:
I don't enjoy most contemporary Big Five publishing cover art. It just feels like souped-up hotel art most of the time w/ one of six different fonts.
Hearing a lot more from my students that a writer (student or otherwise) is "good" when they are "relatable." I think this is horrible. If a baseline for aesthetics is a recognition of self, then we are in odd fucking territory. But wait, there's more!--
COVER REVEAL: I am impulsive and could not wait. This is the kickass cover for my cosmic horror novella THE NOTHING THAT IS. I'm aiming for a May 11 release. If people are interested in reviewing it, let me know, I'll send an digital ARC in the next few weeks! xoxo
I just sold my first story. And it was the first acceptance after a nine year drought. Story's called "Smudge the Head" and it's quiet horror. It'll be out in the Scare Street anthology, likely coming in the next half year!
Don't worry. I'll remind you all!
you know that scene in Hereditary when Toni Collette turns off the light and sees that outline of her mother in the dark and even the viewer isn't sure but then they are and Toni is and then the light comes on and nothing's there?
That's the genre of book I'm working on now.
Resolving vaguetweet: I'm publishing my novel GRASSHANDS w/ JournalStone. Release date Jan. 19, 2024.
Ty to
@scarlettralgee
for reading, liking, making the offer. Will share more (cover/blurbs) w/ folks as it comes. See 👇 for 🧵 abt the book from last month.
2 quick updates.
1. Our daughter was born and is wonderful. Mom and baby are doing well!
2. Confirmed that I’ll be at the Scarelastic Book Fair for the second year in a row. If you’re near Indy, come out and meet a murderer’s row of authors.
I realize I have a lot of new followers b/c of my son’s kickass fantasy’s story. Wow. So real quickly: hi. I’m a writer of mostly speculative stuff—(hmm, wonder why my kid writes it?)—and an English professor. I tweet a lot abt language/writing/books. Often vulgar. Sorry!
FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS:
Today GRASSHANDS is born among the frosty muck of late January. I will post intermittently thru the day abt the book. Plz consider ordering a copy and indulging in library horror, body horror, & sweet metaphysical sadness! Available everywhere.
I've probably said this before, but when my parents died 3 yrs ago (113 days apart), I felt like a very small door behind me closed, the seams of which I couldn't even trace if you gave me an infinite amount of time. & I didn't even know it existed until it closed. I'm fine btw.
We are going to the hospital tomorrow to have our third (and last) baby. And our first girl! But please stop telling me girls are harder to raise than boys. People are hard to raise, period. Raising another human is a fucking endeavor. Anyway, I may be offline for a while. XO.
I don’t believe in heaven. But if it existed, it would be the Scholastic Book Fair. And every book you wanted from that flimsy onion skin paper handout you could get. I see you, late 30s/early 40s people.
Did I mention I’ll have a collection of weird fiction coming out in mid-November?
It’s called OH PAIN. Twelve fucked up stories sprinkled with body horror, comedy, and lots of mothers.
Cover reveal coming soon…👀
Might as well do this now!
Here's the cover to GRASSHANDS and a preorder link for the ebook. Pbk should populate everywhere soonish! Cover by
@FrankNobleArt
I'll retweet this w/ some choice quotes from writer friends.
Proud that my current finished novel draft only has 11 "fucks" in it, whereas the previous one had, like, 88 or something, and my agent kindly asked me to, yanno, maybe cut it down a tad. Which I, of course, fucking did.
So I live directly 49 miles west of East Palestine. Ppl talk about but no one seems bothered. Not even kidding that I wrote about shit like this in my novel & hoped it wouldn't come to pass. I do not expect the town to be livable, tho they'll pretend it is.
I want to write a story where a person tries to unclog a toilet but starts pulling up pieces of a Lovecraftian elder god that’s embedded itself into the ground under their house.
This story would have no resolution.
Do any writers believe that your ambitions can outpace your capabilities? Like, how do you know you're capabilities are shit or if you're just not working hard enough?
Also: what does it mean if you can come up with a story that you're not then able to fulfill/write?
I sort of decided to take weekends off from writing and just read. Does anyone else do this? Also: writing short scenes on Notes app. instead. Less treating it like a job, but more of a way to release the pressure to get words down every goddamn day. Also, um, excuse me? Reading?
@ChristianaSalah
e x a c t l y. Thank you for saying that. It's circumstance, as I've said. Social conditions in areas you move into don't snap into our fantasy versions of life. We have to live w/ what they are. And we are a country that's increasingly atomized/isolated. Add the pandemic. Phew.
Book News: I signed a contract w/
@Lever_Press
to publish a weird, academic, & stylish book called ADJUST YOURSELF TO MIDNIGHT: POSSIBILITY AND PLAY IN RHETORIC. Now I am going to go into a hole and finish writing it. (thank you Emily Dickinson for the title 🖤)
Real talk. Got a novel we sub'd almost 2 years back before COVID. Literary horror. Fun shit. No bites. Too lit for horror, too horror for lit, etc. Who does 71K word weird creepy novel w/ crazy badass women MCs? Should I try Inkshares? Kickstarter? Other small press?
Thoughts?
FOR THOSE WHO'VE FORGOTTEN/DIDN'T KNOW:
I have a new novel coming out on Jan. 19, 2024. It's horror. It's called GRASSHANDS. JournalStone is the publisher.
@horrorsong
said this about it (🖤🖤):
41 today. Whee. Nothing special. However, if you're into that kind of celebration, plz consider buying one of my books. Or send cinnamon rolls. Both are appreciated.
Last night, did a book event w/ Dan Chaon for GRASSHANDS & it was a fucking blast. Best bday gift ever. xoxo
Book/Design Twitter: help me w/ an investigation. Who are the ppl behind these early 90s Signet pbk Stephen Kings? They hold a special place in my memory. Would love to put a name(s) to the covers. And any stories behind them. Thank you.
I love
@SGJ72
, like, a lot, but $42 for PEOPLE LIGHTS is nutty. (Sorry, brother.) Who is going to buy this man's back catalogue and reprint all of it?
WE NEED MORE AFFORDABLE COPIES OF STEPHEN'S OLDER BOOKS!
Thank you for coming to my lecture.*
*go buy my heart is a chainsaw
@stephstephking
I can't get into it with ppl who say "Well you chose to have kids, so you should shut up." Hmm. OK. Does that mean that parents are meant to suffer more than non-parents? It makes no sense.
1. Go to the bookstore.
2. Hold a bunch of stuff.
3. Feel guilty about unread books at home.
4. Drop books.
5. Mope out of bookstore.
6. Repeat following week.
My oldest son took GRASSHANDS to school & showed his first grade class the book. And my bio pic. Some other 1st grdr was quite impressed. The teacher asked if she could have a copy as she'd like to read it.
I will be hiring my son as my publicist.
Also keep thinking about how much SF writers in 60s/70s shoved into 150 pp. that in today's aesthetics would maybe take up more like 150K words/500 pp.
Shorter, weirder, harder, blastoid, vroom, gulp.
Have cut almost 40K words from 3rd draft to 4th. In many ways, it's like a wholly different novel. In others, it's not. But I do wonder how others who've written large books feel about their much smaller ancestors thru the revision process? I am pleased.
KOKO by Peter Straub. Yea? Nay? General thoughts? Seems like an interesting premise. And before ppl. are all, "It's slow" and whatnot, I've read the premise and complaints, and I'm cool with slow burn.
I feel it’s solid to announce:
@frombeyondpress
will publish my 3rd novel, ENTER THE PEERLESS. I’m lucky to consistently work w/ publishers who get me & want to put my books in the best light. Thrilled to do this w/ a talent like
@frombeyondmike
. Aiming for Summer ‘25 pub date!
I would like to say that I think having lots of small presses and ppl wanting to take on the task of publishing weird books is a good thing. None of us can live on the proceeds, but that may not be the point. Onward.
A 🧵on book publishing.
So I'm 2 days away from a book coming out (GRASSHANDS/JournalStone) a "traditionally published" one. & I'm here for a self-assessment. Join me, won't you?
1. How has the actuality of a trad pub'd book turned out in the face of what I envisioned...?
Feel like we don't talk enough about how, in MACBETH, after Duncan is killed, his horses ate each other. (2.4.23)
Umm, wtf?
I will now write a story/novella on this moment alone.
*vanishes up into smoke*
I don’t push my own junk enough.
These copies just came in cuz
@the_bookeyman
requested new ones since he gave his away to a curious reader. Love that generosity. Check ‘em out. You may love them.
In the next year, I’d like to meet a lot of you somehow. Let’s have pie and coffee. Let’s read books out loud.
Yes, this is a convention, but I hate entry fees. And I love pie.
I gotta New Book coming yr way in May, folx.
BORIS SAYS THE WORDS is a full-on speculative/horror-adjacent/weird/SF-ish novel
Cover reveal in April, I hope.
Meanwhile, here's a taster. Opening graf of the book...DM me if interested in review ARC! xoxo
This is the first month since I’ve been publishing that my novel BORIS SAYS THE WORDS is selling better than any other title I have.
My mutated baby is finally finding its audience!
Paperback is now available! Read all about the sadness! I hope you dig it. If you read, plz leave a review, even if short. They always help. 🖤☢️
Boris Says the Words
The new hotness is 50 to 55K horror novels that just burn hot rubber from word one to the gory end. Let's make it happen. Publishers wanna publish shorter, fine. But we're going to write the most fuckyou crazy waking nightmare images you can shake a haunted stick at.
Kathryn was my teacher for 3 yrs. I learned more abt writing from her by drinking coffee & talking abt Isak Dinesin or Eudora Welty than any other person/book. The art of transition was a topic I remember her discussing. Much of who I am as a writer can be traced to her work.
“There are points in your life when you think you’re about to become whatever’s next.” The opening words of Kathryn Davis’s new memoir Aurelia, Aurélia, which I read today. Cerebral, erudite, digressive, and strangely hypnotic, this one will stay with me for a long time.