Andrew Scott's Blog, page 44

Thanks!

I just wanted to take a minute to thank the readers who've already bought a copy of Naked Summer, and especially those I've met in person at readings. Hearing from readers by e-mail has also been a welcome and surprising development.

This website design allows a blog feature in this column. I haven't made much use of it — yet. But soon I plan to post regularly about topics related to writing, editing, and publishing. I've got a lot to say, as you might imagine. 

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This is pretty cool. My wife screen-captured a "Hot New...

This is pretty cool. My wife screen-captured a "Hot New Releases" page over at Amazon.com. That's my little book, one notch above Ann Packer and two notches above Stephen King. That's not something I could have imagined twenty years ago, when my dad and brother and I heavily quoted the It movie all summer: "Beep beep, Richie!"

Would you like to sample Naked Summer, but are too lazy to read...

Would you like to sample Naked Summer, but are too lazy to read any of the five short stories from the book that are currently available for free at excellent online journals? If so, then have I got a deal for you: "Tornado Light," a 13-minute story, available for your aural pleasure. ("Aural" — look it up.)

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The book trailer for Naked Summer, my debut short story...

The book trailer for Naked Summer, my debut short story collection, which will be published on June 1, 2011.

The publisher is launching an "Amazon Attack," trying to get the book's earliest readers to buy it from Amazon on June 1, thus tweaking the algorithms of that website to help my book shoot up the charts. (Will it work? Can't win if you don't play.)

The music is by my friend Nathan Shoaf — an excellent musician and reader — who's also from Lafayette, Indiana, the setting for these stories. Crank up your speakers.

"In NAKED SUMMER, Andrew Scott brilliantly conjures up my home state of Indiana, that in-between,..."

"In NAKED SUMMER, Andrew Scott brilliantly conjures up my home state of Indiana, that in-between, mixed-up blend of farmland, suburbia, isolated towns and would-be cities stuck in the flyover, but he accomplishes much more than this. His stunning collection of stories also deftly captures those in-between states that everyone, not just Hoosiers, find themselves in at some point—those times of limbo when we're between jobs or relationships, or, most memorably, that last "naked summer" when childhood lingers and adulthood has not yet arrived. This is a heart-wrenching collection, at once hilarious and wise. I couldn't put it down."

- Elizabeth Stuckey-French, author of The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

"Andrew Scott's stories are streamlined, intense, and unsettling. His characters don't..."

"Andrew Scott's stories are streamlined, intense, and unsettling. His characters don't quite know themselves, but the author knows them well. They teeter in the margins of safety, in a way that many Americans have been pushed off the path to the dream. I recommend these stories highly."

- Alice Elliott Dark, author of In the Gloaming

"Andrew Scott's stories take place in the Heartland, and they will land squarely in your heart...."

"Andrew Scott's stories take place in the Heartland, and they will land squarely in your heart. Unflinching but sweet-tempered, they ring as plaintive and pure as ballads."

- Michael Parker, author of The Watery Part of the World

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