This has been in the works a little while now, but, now that contracts are all worked out and whatnot, I figure it is okay to let people in on some good news…

My first book will be published by Biblioasis in 2015. It is a collection of short fiction, tentatively called “Debris,” after a story of mine that is going to be published later in the year by Shenandoah.

As I talked about in an earlier post, John Metcalf gave me a call in March to talk about including a story of mine, “Old man Marchuk,” in the upcoming edition of Best Canadian Stories by Oberon Press. Mr. Metcalf scours all of  Canada’s literary journals to fill out that collection, and he read that story in EVENT and called me up. Like a lot of people, he didn’t know who the hell I was or where I came from, and asked if I had more stories. I had a bunch of them, and I sent them over to him.

Along with his writing and literary criticism, Metcalf is also fiction editor at Biblioasis, which turned out to be pretty fortuitous. After a couple months of writing and reading stories, and talking with Biblioasis’ managing editor Dan Wells, an offer was made and accepted.

So, after years of being told a load of weird shit by a bunch of people in this business, and a pile of rejections for stories and novels, this one little story read by the right person at the right time led to all of this magic. I always say that you should never be just sitting around waiting on other people to do something with your work, and, when you are waiting on worthwhile things, you should keep at the writing. Since 2012 I’ve just tried to lay down as many stories as possible, and to get better at it as I go. A lot of things didn’t work out the way I thought, but the stories kept on getting written, and people started reading them, and this is where it all ended up.

I don’t know whether the launch will be spring or fall, but I’ll report further when that is all sorted out. In the meantime, I’ve still got stories to be published this summer in Joyland and The New Quarterly, and that titular story this October in Shenandoah. Keep an eye out for those.

The stories will keep coming, and I think we are going to be able to build something solid over at Biblioasis, whether that means more collections or novels or both. A lot of really dumb things had to happen for this one great thing to turn up, but it worked out perfect in the end. I’m real impressed with Biblioasis so far, and especially with Mr. Metcalf and Mr. Wells, and I am pretty damn certain this is the right place for my work. For more about how they punch way above their weight class, you should read this excellent profile in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Pretty incredible stuff. Especially for a guy who thinks his writing might do even better on the south side of the 49th parallel.

Anyway, thanks again for all the support, and to everyone who continues to read my work and tell other folks that it does not suck. I appreciate it very much.

Hardcastle