If you are a subscriber to The Fiddlehead, or a sometimes buyer of it in stores, you will find a long-gestating story of mine in the Summer Fiction Issue, which has just been published. If you are neither of the things I said, maybe you should start anew, and let this particular issue of a journal into your life.

There are stories in here from Kathy Page, Cynthia Flood, and, one of my three favourite writers on earth, Daniel Woodrell. Not sure how that all shook out, but Mark Jarman did some outstanding wizardry to fill the pages of this issue.

As far as my story goes, Thought you were fast is an older one, written way back in late 2012, and submitted to a few places back then, before I had a run of stories in various journals and just let this one lie. After a long while, Jarman emailed to see if it was still up for grabs, and I did a few revised versions for him and just kept on with other things while waiting to see if he could find the right spot for it. Then, the other day, I saw a tweet by The Fiddlehead about this issue, and saw that it had been stuck in there with these other heavyweights. I’ve not had a story hang around for this long and find a home before, so that surprised me some and was also relatively hilarious. Thanks to Mr. Jarman for making room for it when the time came.

I have another story out this month, Most of the houses had lost their lights, in The New Quarterly, along with an “In Conversation” type deal between me and John Metcalf. That story is also Metcalf’s favourite one in my forthcoming collection, Debris. That is something I knew was happening this month for sure, and should be out in a few days, and possibly is already in the hands of some TNQ subscribers. Either way, I’ll post more about that when I’ve seen it officially switch over to their summer issue.

Thanks for reading everybody. I appreciate you all.

Hardcastle

As you might have noticed, there is a tab on this site regarding manuscript assessments, a service that I have been providing to other writers on and off for a the past couple of years. As of late, I have been occupied by work on my upcoming collection of stories, as well as some forthcoming projects, and have not been accepting many new clients for a little while.

In any case, with the galleys for Debris done, and other obligations well in hand, I’ve opened up a few spots for possible manuscript assessment clients. While my primary area of expertise is literary fiction, I have experience with speculative fiction, and other genre work, and I am happy to field queries from any interested writer to see if I might be of help to your current project.

I have an excellent track record of success with clients, both independently and through the Humber School of Writers Agency (this service soon to be under the new Humber School of Writers Publishing Services Program), and my writing credentials are posted on this site for you to peruse. If you would like to contact me, feel free to email directly to hardcastleassessments@gmail.com, or use the contact form in the manuscript assessment section.

More information about this service can be found under that tab, as well as the general range of standard industry rates. For an actual estimate, we can discuss your work in greater detail and determine any specific rates from there.

I am excited to be providing this service with greater frequency, now that I have the time, and look forward to hearing about your current manuscript, and how I might help you develop it further.

All best,

Kevin Hardcastle

As many of you know, part of this long process of getting a book done is reaching out to other writers to see if they’ll be willing to tolerate reading all your hillbilly murder stories (with feelings), and perhaps lend some support in the way of a line or two of blurb, or in actual other support by telling people you are not crap. Sometimes you get excellent people who do both.

Over the past few years I’ve had some kind words put up by the likes of A.F. Moritz, Lindsay Clarke, and Tamas Dobozy. Those were mostly during the early days when I had only a few publications and an agent trying to utilize them. Now I have many more of the former, and entirely none of the latter, but this kind of support is a little more crucial with the book on the way. In some cases, it could mean the difference between whether or we might get certain eyeballs on the work that would’ve not given it a chance otherwise. In the US, perhaps, for this Canadian collection of short fiction, it will help our US distributors/sales staff decide how far they can push the book in that much larger pond.

So, I just thought I’d take a moment to thank three writers who have taken the time to read Debris this far ahead of publication, while they are all busy with their own writing and life obligations. All of whom sacrificed time to read the book, and thought it non-terrible enough to let me hand over their blurbs to my publisher, Biblioasis.

Craig Davidson was a jury member for the Journey Prize last year when I had a story in the anthology, and actually offered his support, and, given that he’d read a number of the stories before, was able to rush out a few lines for the Biblioasis catalogue that they took overseas. This guy put something together on just a few days notice, and his words helped get the attention of some publishers in the UK and Europe, who might take a good look at the collection.

Tamas Dobozy was another writer I met through the Journey Prize, when we were finalists for the JP and Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, respectively. We were paired up for an interview in the National post, and Tamas was the eventual winner of the WT Fiction Prize for his collection Siege 13. Tamas has supported my work since, and has really helped me out more than once. His latest words are specifically for the collection and replace an earlier blurb. He is a hero.

Finally, and not at all fictionally, I met John Irving through a series of interesting events that I’ll not spell out here, but he did like my one story, Montana Border, recently published in The Walrus, and agreed to receive an ARC of Debris, even though he is up to his neck in his own new book, Avenue of Mysteries, also to be published this fall. I left it with Mr. Irving just to see if he had the time, and, somehow, he managed to get a read in and gave me the quote you see on my section about what people say about the work. I have not always had the best of luck over the years, but this series of events that led to even getting the book to John was very, very lucky. That is not lost on me at all.

In the end, it is pretty heartening to know that these writers, who have done considerable work in their careers, and who know far more than me, do not think I should quit this and spend the last of my knee-cartilage doing crime. I am very grateful to all of them, and to everyone who keeps publishing the work and asking me questions about it.

Anyway, the early opinions on the book are all up there in the part about “what people say about the writing.” You can go to that tab or click this whole line to have a look at them, and see who has sullied their good name in support of this pile of stories.

More to come soon. Cheers.

Hardcastle

That excellent photo was taken by Grant Munroe, at Biblioasis, and it is the first time a book I wrote ever became an actual object you can pick up, tear it half, or throw at another human that is texting during a movie.

I am in there with some very good writers (Anakana Schofield, Samuel Archibald, and Kathy Page) who are all part of the fall list from Biblioasis. They are known to make beautiful books at our fine publishing house, and I can tell you straight up that nobody in this row was disappointed. The covers are the work of Kate Hargreaves, and I owe her a beer and a high five. All these ARCs were all printed up to travel to Book Expo America, which took place last week.

Over the past few days there were some excellent responses online from people who visited the Biblioasis folks in the Consortium Books alley (as they are the US distributor), and that is pretty damn cool. It has long been my dream to get my writing down to the US and try to build a readership there. It makes a good deal of sense considering the vast majority of my influences are American writers from the south, or from other rural areas of the States. I know we are telling people that Debris is akin to the work or Daniel Woodrell or Donald Ray Pollock, but I am very interested is seeing how it will be received if it actually gets into the hands of their types of readers. There is a lot more work to do if this is ever to get that far. But Biblioasis is doing their damnedest to give this book the best chance it can get on both sides of the 49th parallel, and I’ve been hustling a fair bit as well to try to make sure it sticks when it is officially published.

All of this feels a little bit strange, moreso as we near the actual pub date for Debris, but I am going to keep on grinding it out until September 15th. There are some other interesting developments going on behind the scenes that will hopefully pan out, and get this book into other non-Canadian hands as well, but I’ve got to wait on that some and see what happens.

Finally, you might have noticed that my story Montana Border has been unlocked online from The Walrus, and you can read it here if you haven’t already. Massive thanks to Nick Mount and all the other Walruses that have been tweeting and sharing news of the story, and telling people it does not suck. I appreciate you very much for that. Same goes for everyone else who has been taking the time to read and tell people about this story.

There’s gonna be just the one last story from the collection published soon (unless the other lonely unpublished sucker gets hustled out last second), and it will be in the summer issue of The New Quarterly. The title of this story, the closer for my book, is Most of the houses had lost their lights. There is also a lengthy interview in that very same issue, where John Metcalf (my editor at Biblioasis) asks me various things about my work, how I go about my writing, and things he wanted to punch me for in the edits. I hope that is of some interest to readers. It is a long one and covers a hell of a lot, and I don’t think there are too many pieces out there quite like it. More on that later…

Until then, thanks for your support and your eyeballs. You are legends of the fall.

Hardcastle

If you subscribe to The Walrus, or saunter into a shop to buy it May 14th, you’ll notice that they’ve got a story in there this month called Montana Border. Turns out I wrote that story.

It is the penultimate story in my short fiction collection Debris, out this September with Biblioasis (and early new year 2016 in the States). The excellent fiction editor of The Walrus, Nick Mount, read a few stories of mine over the last while, and this was the one that really got his goat. At the time I was fairly surprised by that. But, as months go by and I’ve gone through various readings and edits of it, I do think it is one of the best stories I’ve written overall.

This story came about after I sent John Metcalf (Biblioasis’ fiction editor and champion) the latest draft of my second unpublished novel, now called In the Cage. He took it on to edit and publish later, but, in the meantime, he suggested that I mine some territory covered in the novel a little more as he found it quite interesting. The stuff of that novel, with its cagefighting and crime and chaos, always struck me as something that might not interest many readers as much as it interests me. But John thought it was worth exploring, and apparently Mr. Mount found it worthwhile enough to put it on shelves at your grocery store.

I am incredibly grateful to Nick Mount for his work on this story, as well as the other editors in-house, for bearing with me as I denied all commas and proper use of the English language during editing. I feel like I’ve already broke these sentences exactly the right amount and there’s really no going back. Nonetheless, I enjoyed going through the factchecking process and learning that Walrus staff sat there at their office computers watching regulated and unregulated MMA fights for research. If nothing else, at least this story accomplished that much…

All of this is something I’m very proud to be a part of, as I know what it takes to get into the pages of The Walrus. Luck not the least of these things. I’m looking forward to hearing back from readers about this story, and maybe seeing someone just standing there shaking their head at the news stand while I buy meat and coke zero. If you manage to get your hands on this one, I’d be interested to hear all the ways you either like or are baffled by Montana Border, and it being published in such a fancy place.

More story news to come soon. Keep your hats on.

Hardcastle

I’ve been at work revising and finalizing stories for the fall publication of my short fiction collection Debris, and fixing the mistakes of 2011 Hardcastle before getting into the real edits of In the Cage, the novel that is to follow (both from Biblioasis). Other than that, I’ve nothing real exciting publishing-wise to offer, but there are two things worth looking into for interested folks…

A couple weeks ago 49th Shelf put out a roundtable discussion on the State of the Canadian Short Story, and I was one of the authors that their excellent editor Kerry Clare asked to be part of it. Other than my ravings, there are very smart things said on the topic by Doretta Lau, Matthew J. Trafford, Megan Coles, Lisa Bird-Wilson, and Andrea Routley. These are all writers that excel at writing short fiction, and are passionate about the place and importance of the short story in our national literature, and in literature as a whole. If you didn’t read it yet, you can get into it by clicking this whole line that is a link to the discussion. Thanks to everyone who recommended it already on the social media, and special thanks to Kerry.

The only other thing I got is that I’ll be doing a reading at the Blue Coffee Reading Series on March 23rd, in Toronto. The series is founded and run by my friend/colleague Mindi St. Amand, who I’ve known just shy of twenty years, or ever since me and her brother would gather with other classy people for Midland Friday and Saturday night cultural fun times. The readings are at The Magpie, around Dundas and Bathurst (for Toronto familiars), and all of the necessary information can be found by clicking this line and the link to the facebook posting. It should be relatively hilarious, and I will read something awful. Come by and bring your green hat.

That is it. I will tell you more when there is some more to tell.

Hardcastle

Today I signed the contract for something that has been somewhat secret for a little while. My novel, In the Cage, will be published by Biblioasis, likely in fall 2016.

This book was turned down by every single publisher in this country, and a bunch south of the border, and I focused on writing short stories while I watched the rejections pile up. Early last year I got a call from John Metcalf about a short story of mine, Old man Marchuk, and this led to us working together on my forthcoming short fiction collection, Debris, which will be launched this fall by Biblioasis. As the stories had been put through the wringer by a lot of good editors at various journals (The Malahat Review, Little Fiction, The Puritan, PRISM international, EVENT, The New Quarterly), and Metcalf got what I was trying to do with the prose, there wasn’t a ton of editorial overhauls to be done. At least not at the moment. Metcalf knew I had this unsold novel, and asked if he could read it. About two weeks later I got a letter from him saying that we should work on the novel next.

Over the past months I’ve been focusing on writing and editing new stories to fill out the collection, and these ended up getting picked up by Joyland, Shenandoah, TNQ, and The Walrus. With the collection well in hand, I’ve been revising In the Cage line by line, and getting it up to the same level that some of my stories were at. When that’s done, Mr. Metcalf is going to get out his hatchet and sort this novel out.

I’d guess the main reason nobody bought this book, other than my relative newness to the scene, was that it needed a proper, old-school editor with the time to work on it and nobody looking over their shoulder, and those are hard to come by for a book like this. The novel is about a washed up MMA/cage-fighter who does muscle work for the local gangsters most evenings, to make ends meet for his wife and daughter. There are fights and gunfights and limbs removed and plenty of blood. There are robberies in the city and killings in the boonies, and a bunch of trees and snow and various landscapes in north-central Ontario. It is not a long book, but it is heavy and involves a lot of ugly things (much the same as my short fiction), and it certainly wasn’t something many editors were willing to risk their job over.

So, after banging my head against the wall about this two years ago, everything worked out better than I could have hoped. I got the editor the book needs, and I got a publishing house in Biblioasis that understands my work, and what I’m trying to do with it. This gives me two books with them in two years, and some real serious work to handle, and that is what I need at this point in my career.

As more details come out over the year, I’ll write a little more about the novel. I’ll be getting ready for the fall 2015 launch of my collection, Debris, for most of the year, while working on this as well, so you’ll be hearing about both as things develop. In the meantime, thank you all for the support over these years, and thank you to everyone who read any of my stories. I’ll keep you all posted about details for the launch this fall. I can guarantee it will be hilarious.

Otherwise, there are a few little things of note, and they’re as follows:

– I wrote something extraordinary as a top ten list from 2014, for Little Fiction, and you can read it by clicking this line. Then you should send hate tweets to all the people on it. 

– A story of mine called Most of the houses had lost their lights was accepted for publication by The New Quarterly, and will come out, along with a Metcalf/Hardcastle interview, sometime next year. That is Metcalf’s favourite story in the collection, and Pamela Mulloy, as usual, is my hero and really just gets me.

That is it. Thanks again and believe in your dreams, as always…

Hardcastle

Hey humans. Just a quick post today to say that the hilarious folks at Joyland: A Hub For Short Fiction have chosen my story Shape of a sitting man as one of their favourite publications in 2014. Pretty cool move on their part, especially given all the good work they’ve put out this year.

So yeah, thanks to Brian Joseph Davis and Emily Schultz, publishers of Joyland. Who said this about my story:

“In Shape of a Sitting Man, Kevin Hardcastle is rewriting the rules of Hoser-Lit with a lean prose style and a no fuss-no muss darkness.”

Considering all I ever wanted to do was be the best in North America at writing dark Hoser-Lit, I am very proud of this comment. Anyway, click all over this line if you want to read the story, from September this year. It’s only about 2500 words and a lot of people get hurt. 

Otherwise, check out the rest of the Joyland Publisher’s Picks for 2014 by clicking on this line, and read some of the other fine work by writers from all over the US and Canada. 

That’s all for today. Might have some more news about upcoming stories, and other baffling developments, in the next couple weeks.

Cheers,

Hardcastle

In my post Writers’ Trust Gala eternal free drink brain miasma, I’ve got some pretty damn good news to report. Right before I dressed up like an adult last evening, in a sweet vest and all, I signed off on a story of mine, Montana Border, that is slated for publication in the June 2015 issue of The Walrus.

This story is one of the most recent I’ve written, and it was read by literary champion, professor, and editor Nick Mount, and considered with a few other stories I’ve tried to drum up since the summer. Pretty much, I have this novel that never went anywhere (yet), about a washed up cage fighter who does muscle-work for some local criminals, and tries to keep his young family in food and under roofs. My editor at Biblioasis, the estimable John Metcalf, thought that this could be mined for some more material, in short story form. So, this one came about as a sort of possible history of the main character in that book.

In any case, I am real excited this story got picked up, and find it hard to believe that you’re gonna be able to buy a magazine at the grocery stores that involves legal and illegal MMA fights, biker revenge, teeth getting surgically removed from knuckles, and a ginger nurse with a shotgun. It’s a pretty long one, likely just under 5000 words when all is said and done. So, you’ll get some pages to cherish the misery and mayhem.

Again, Nick Mount has read a few stories and I’ve got to hand it to him for doing some work to just get the story in before the publication of my fiction collection, Debris, in fall 2015. Of course, The Walrus gets work from some damn good writers and has just a few spots in a year, so I didn’t know if I’d squeak in there before the collection is published. Nonetheless, it worked out. Massive thanks to Mr. Mount and everyone else that helped find a spot for it. Not gonna lie, there’d likely have been a bunch of head-sized holes in my drywall had I written something maybe good enough to print, but didn’t have the months left to see it in those pages. No worries though, thanks to Nick and the other Walrusers.

That’s the news I got for now. More to come soon hopefully. Keep the dream alive and whathaveyou…

Hardcastle

Today you can find my short story, Debris, in the pages of Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review. This is my third publication in the US, and by far the most significant of them. It is also the title story for my forthcoming short fiction collection (from Biblioasis, in 2015). I think it’s one of the strongest stories in the book, and will likely stay that way unless I go on a tear and write some baffling new stuff before we go to press.

Massive thanks to Rodney Smith, the editor of this venerable American journal, as well as any and all staff and interns that had a hand in getting this story out there. I have been pretty actively submitting to US journals for a long time now, along with some of the best journals north of the 49th parallel, and this was a big one for me. Shenandoah is widely regarded as one of the best in the land. They’ve published the likes of Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, James Merrill, Ezra Pound, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor. Not at all intimidating or humbling.

Debris follows an elderly couple in the middle of some rural everywhere as they figure out that the county they live in, and the backwoods near their property, might be home to a particularly heinous and dangerous human being. This after a storm stomps their farmstead one night. They deal with it all accordingly.

One useful piece of news is that Shenandoah now gets published online and can luckily be got by all of you (Yankees or Canucks) without having to snag it from some speciality store or further sullying your credit cards. It can all be had right here, so get into it and maybe read the work of the other fine authors in this issue as well.

This story is particularly family friendly and entirely free of blood and f-bombs, so feel free to let your children and grandparents read it before you vet it at all first. Absolutely take my word for it. Hell, you can even print this story off and hand it out on Halloween. That probably should actually be some kind of marketing plan that I suggest to the good people at Shenandoah…

Otherwise, an interesting thing to note is that this story was shown interest by Joyland: A Hub For Short Fiction just a hair before Shenandoah asked about it, and Joyland subsequently went on to publish the next story that I sent their way. That story, Shape of a sitting man, is up on Joyland right now and you can give that a read as well if you’re inclined. Thanks very much to all the people who facebooked and twittered it this past week. Keep it up if you can, and we can continue to show the folks in the states that we can fucking crack up here against the best of them.

After this I’ll be fairly tapped out for story news for the time being. I have a number of new stories out for submission in the US, and, after revising the newest I wrote, I’ll start bombarding Canadian journals again as well. If anything good shakes out as a result of that I’ll tell you about it. I’ll also post more info when I know more about my story Old Man Marchuk and its release as part of Best Canadian Stories 14, edited by John Metcalf for Oberon Press. That should be out within the next little while based on what the internet says to me. Finally, my unicorn-level magic secret news that I’ve alluded to in earlier posts is still locked up, but it shouldn’t be for long…

Until then, thanks for reading all this shit and keep believing in your dreams and so forth.

KH