Keith Rosson's Blog, page 2

NPR DIGS MY NOVEL, Y’ALL!

Been a while since I last updated about my novel, but one of my favorite mentions is that Jason Heller of NPR was gracious enough to review it. My personal fave quotes are that I’m “a talent to be watched” and that Mercy’s “Riptide is one of the most immersive fictional settings in recent memory.” But hey, why don’t you just check it out for yourself.

THE TIDE’S ROLLING IN

Hey, thanks for stopping by! Lot of things cooking here in regards to my debut novel, The Mercy of the Tide. With the release date less than a month away, there’s a lot going on. Let’s get caught up, shall we?

REVIEWS:

Reviews have been coming in via blogs, Goodreads, LibraryThing and NetGalley, and they’ve been incredible! I just want to thank all of the people who’ve taken the time to write thoughtful, nuanced reviews – I mean, not to mention reading the book. I seriously appreciate it, it’s been an amazing process. Also, very excited to say that the book received a Starred Review in Publishers Weekly, which you can read here. Thrilled about that.

AMAZON:

Amazon is new shipping all preorders, even though the book doesn’t “officially” come out until February 21st. So if you’re chomping at the bit, please feel free to order it here in either print or ebook format, and they’ll get it to you right away. But if you want to order through another channel – say your local indie bookstore – you can hop onto Meerkat Press’s order page and do that. Also, if you can please write a quick review and post that on Amazon and/or Goodreads, that’s a huge help, especially for us debut authors working with an indie press.

BOOK LAUNCH:

We’re having a book launch on Saturday, February 25th, at 7 pm. It’ll be at Mother Foucault’s Bookshop here in Portland, Oregon. It’s a wonderful bookstore, and I’m excited to be reading with Hannah Pass (Our Reincarnated) and Doug Cornett. We’ll be signing books, giving away gorgeous The Mercy of the Tide t-shirts, and having a raffle to give away a free TMOTT illustration by yours truly. Come on out, it’s gonna be siiiiick.

GIVEAWAYS:

There’s two giveaways going on right now. One is a Goodreads giveaway. If you go here, you can sign up to win one of ten free print copies of the book. The other one is being done by Meerkat, and that’s one where you can enter to win a signed 1st edition of the book or one of three TMOTT illustrations done by me. It’s totally free to enter, and you don’t need to buy the book to be eligible.

And that’s where were at. It’s been a crazy few months – in regards to the book and otherwise – and I just want to thank everyone involved who have put so much time, money, effort and hard work into bringing this thing to life. It’s a huge honor, and it does me good to hear that people are enjoying it.

As always, if you need to get in touch, please do. And as always, if you need design or illustration work done, please reach out. I’ve got an ever-growing album of art available for your project under the “Available Designs” section. Meanwhile, a lot of design projects are rolling in, and I’m still doing regular monthly columns for Rebel Noise – the newest one’s about the necessity of protest songs.

Thanks again. Let’s remember to look out for each other.

 

 

THUNDERING, BLUNDERING, ETC.

Hey, everyone,

Just wanted to drop in and let you know about some cool stuff that’s been taking place around here. There’s been some pretty significant happenings in the writing dept., for sure. But there’s also plenty of visual stuff to take a look at: new merch designs are up for grabs, as well as a shirt design for WESTERN SETTINGS, a logo for ROSE QUARTER RECORDS, a new VERMIN ON THE MOUNT poster, and more. Check it out, let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, in the writing world, here’s an update on current events:

I sold my second novel, Smoke City, to Meerkat Press. Look for a publishing date of Jan 2018. I’m beyond thrilled; as we’ve worked together towards getting The Mercy of the Tide into people’s hands, they’ve shown to be an amazing, motivated, dedicated publisher willing to work their asses off for their authors.
I finished the first draft of my new novel last week. Clearly, there’s tons of editing and revisions ahead, but after spending the previous year writing a book that I was desperately unhappy with, I finally shelved it and wrote this thing in four months. All told, it’s the most complete, non-fucked up first draft I’ve ever written. I just finally had to admit I like writing weird books.
My short story “Dunsmuir” was included in the newest issue of December Magazine. Particularly proud because, while this was one of my favorite stories I’d written, it was rejected 18 times over a period of 2+ years before it landed a home with December.
My short story “Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events” was published in the newest issue of Phantom Drift; the editors were also kind enough to nominate it for a 2017 Pushcart Prize.
I’ve been asked by the folks at the music website rebelnoise.com to begin writing a monthly column. Mostly covering politics because, you know, shit’s pretty much coming undone right now. Here’s my first one, in which I discuss the appointment of racist lunatics to Drumpf’s Cabinet, Y2K as a somewhat apt analogy, AK47s, and not falling for the sleight-of-hand that’s taking place right in front of us.
The Mercy of the Tide made John Dufresne’s (Love Warps the Mind A Little) Suggested Reading list. Big honor, since it’s among powerhouses like LeGuin and Chekhov and whatnot.
The Mercy of the Tide’s still thankfully garnering some solid reviews on Goodreads, and it’s available for preorder at Amazon. Official release is Feb. 21st, 2017.

Thanks for checking in! As always, if you need any illustration work done, would like to purchase on the designs in the Available Designs section, or want to talk about book stuff, please shoot me a line.

Catch you on the flipside.

 

THE MERCY OF THE TIDE AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER!

Hey everyone!

Big news – The Mercy of the Tide is up for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Very exciting! (You’ll also be able to get it at your local bookstore and – I swoon at the thought – hopefully your local library.) And if you’d like to sign up for a free copy of the book (digital or print) in exchange for a review on Goodreads, Amazon, your blog, etc., please do that! Every little bit helps, and I’d love for you to be able to read it! Sign up for an Advance Reader Copy here!

Also, my short story “Forgive Me This,” which was shortlisted for the 2016 Birdwhistle Prize in Short Fiction, is now up at Noble / Gas Qtrly. Check it out and let me know what you think! Exclamation point!

SHORT STORY STUFF AND WHATNOT

So there’s been some recent movement in the short story department, thought I’d check in with folks regarding that side of things. Recently picked up acceptances from December, Phantom Drift, and Noble / Gas Qrtly, where my short story “Forgive Me This” was shortlisted for the Birdwhistle Prize for Short Fiction. I’ll keep you posted when those get printed/published.

Meanwhile, here’s some links to oldie-moldy previously published stuff if you’ve some spare minutes and more willingness to gaze at a screen.

“Shrub Angel” at Menda City Review.

“Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That” at Gulf Stream.

“Coyote” at The Nervous Breakdown.

“Gifts” at Rivet. 

Thanks for your interest, let me know what you think! And if you have any short story collection recommendations, I’d seriously love to hear them.

I WROTE A BOOK AND THEN THREW IT AWAY

A year ago I was in a tough spot as far as my writing “career” went. Granted, I had a solid, awesome literary agent that I was stoked on. I’d written two strange novels and he was excited about both of them and shopped them around to publishers, convinced that they were solid books. He did a great job of propping me up when the inevitable answers came down the pipeline from editors:

Great writing, but this character’s viewpoint lost us.

Solid writing, we’re just not quite sure how we’d market it.

I loved it, just couldn’t get the rest of the team behind it.

Admittedly, they are strange books. One is an alternate history novel set in a small coastal Oregon town in the 1980s. The other’s a road trip book of sorts, but the two buddies are an alcoholic painter and the living reincarnation of Geoffroy Therage, Joan of Arc’s guilt-ridden executioner.

Like I said, weird-ass books.

It made sense why people were trepidatious, right?

It was hard not to take it personally.

“So yeah,” I eventually wrote my agent, after the submission velocity of both books had eventually slowed. “I think I’m gonna try to write a crime novel. Just a straight up genre novel, a thriller. Single-person viewpoint. No ghosts, no monsters, no historical fuckery.”

It would be lean, clipped, short. A simple story.

Dark motivations, fucked up, fallible characters, and brief, brutal moments of violence.

Most importantly, and my main motivation: something that was marketable. That would remove the apprehension publishers had. I pretty much have one skill set, such as it is, and I was gonna use it.

I was gonna write a book that would sell, goddamnit.

 

Can you guess what happened next?

 

Fast-forward a year.

I had written a 100,000-word screaming mess.

It wasn’t a novel, per se, save for the fact that, you know, it was a whole bunch of words strung one after the other, and I had managed to stick with the single-person narrative throughout.

I’m not going to get into all of the reasons why the manuscript was bad, and why, at least at this point in my life, no amount of editing could save it. There’s no point to it. But I will say that the most important part of writing – the simple leaping awesomeness of it once the words start coming, once that world starts being crafted out of nothing, once the dialogue starts pinging around in your head like a ricochet – was lacking throughout the entire process. It was drudgery, a commitment to myself. I did it, but it was just not fun writing a book like that, and the joylessness absolutely translated to the page.

Other people may be able to write like that, but it’s just not sustainable for me.

Long story short, what I learned over the past year is what type of writer I am. I can’t write a book just because I want to be able to sell it. The lack of heart translates directly onto the page. The end result is bad work. It’s one of those things that I knew instinctively, but apparently had to learn the hard way. I finally had to recognize that the crime novel, as a finished piece, was just not very good. At its core, it was flawed in ways that no edits or run-throughs would fix. At least not now, and probably not ever.

I sat on that notion for a while and came to terms with it: I’ve gotta write stuff that resonates with me, otherwise, what’s the point? If I don’t, it’ll be terrible work anyway, so I’ve got to stick with what I love.

I’m just one of those weird writers, it turns out. I have to embrace it – monsters, ghosts, murky crypto zoology tropes, merging all that stuff with literary fiction is my jam. That’s what I love. That’s the writer I am. When I’m motivated by fear – because that’s what it was, when you get down to it – I write badly.

 

Fast-forward a few weeks. The crime novel is safely moldering in its digital file folder. I will probably open it up again at some point, though probably not for a long while, and probably with a wince and more than a little gratitude, like a man who leapt out of the way of an oncoming train after walking, like a jerk, for miles towards the train tracks.

I’ve started a new project. I’m 25,000 words in. A long way to go still, obviously, but the difference between the two stories is palpable. I can’t wait to sit down and work on it. Plotlines stack up and then interconnect easily in my mind. Phrases, entire sentences, come to me out of nowhere when I’m doing something else. The joy is there. The entire reason I’m a writer in the first place.

It took me a year, and writing a really bad book, to realize I can’t write what sells. I can only write what I love. (Oh, and in the interim one of those was novels sold, too.)

COVER REVEAL & RELEASE DATE FOR MERCY!

Hey everyone-

Here’s a link to the cover reveal for my upcoming novel, The Mercy of the Tide: http://meerkatpress.com/the-mercy-of-the-tide-cover-reveal/ (Though if you lurk around here, I bet you can find it too!) The novel is due out via Meerkat Press in Feb. 2017, and in the interim, we’ve got a ton of fun stuff planned. Readings, promo stuff, giveaways, etc. It’s gonna be great. In the meantime, be sure and drop by Meerkat Press to keep up-to-date on the book. Sign up for their newsletter! Rejoice! And if you can review the book, please get in touch with the great folks at Meerkat to get ahold of an Advance Reader Copy here.

 

Meanwhile, there’s some other fun stuff posted, as well as a few new available designs (oddly enough in the AVAILABLE DESIGNS section) and some posters, beer labels, etc. As always, hit me up if you have any design or illustration projects you’d like me to tackle! Also, please follow me on Twitter, which is the best way to keep current on various happenings.

 

Thanks much, hope everyone’s doing great. Talk to thee later and such!

I’ll close out with link to a cool audio/print excerpt of the book.

Keith

PRESS RELEASE FOR THE MERCY OF THE TIDE!

Okay, so I kind of look like a pompous jerk in the press release that Meerkat Press put up on their site a day or two ago, but whatever! It’s exciting news! You can check out details about the plot, and a release date, and read nice things my editor and agent say about me! That’s cool, right?

“Meerkat Press has acquired Keith Rosson’s debut novel, The Mercy of the Tide, which will release in February 2017. The deal, which includes worldwide English rights excluding UK, was negotiated by Tricia Reeks, of Meerkat Press, and Christopher Schelling, of Selectric Artists…”

READ MORE BY CLICKING HERE, YO!

And thanks for your interest!

Keith