Publishing News: Spanish edition of THE NAMELESS DARK: A COLLECTION coming in 2017 from Dilatando Mentes Editorial

Language is a bonding agent, a powerful force that groups us together and also keeps us apart from our fellow human beings.

I write in English, and only English, as I have a hard enough time mastering one language sufficiently to commit it to the page in any sort of interesting fashion. As such, I do so admire anyone who can speak, think, and write in more than one language. That seems almost magical to me, like being possessed of a compartmentalized brain that is far beyond my abilities or comprehension.

Being an English-language writer, I often forget just how many people - literally billions, and a majority of this planet - cannot or will never read my work due to the language in which I write. And by "me," I mean all English-language writers. Conversely, I am missing out on so many extraordinary literary talents because of my limited grasp of language diversity. This is unfortunate, and frustrating.

So, it's on days like this that one realizes the smallness of one's immediate world, and the vastness of the real one. And by "days like this one," I mean on a day when I am incredibly humbled and excited to share the news that a Spanish language edition of The Nameless Dark: A Collection will be published in Spain at the end of 2017 by Ondara-based dark media imprint Dilatando Mentes Editorial, run by the wonderful husband and wife team of Jose Angel De Dios Garcia and Maite Aranda.

I think it's safe to say that every author dreams of having their work published in a language other than their own. It makes the work seem more permanent, and perhaps more meaningful, in some small way, to be deemed worthy of laborious translation and republication in a totally new market where the author most likely has very little sway or visibility. Or, maybe I'm just getting carried away with myself. Regardless, this is wonderful news, and something that makes me very proud.

Immense thanks to Jose and Maite for putting their hard work and company brand behind this new Spanish language edition of my collection. I very much look forward to finding new readers and kindred spirits amongst my Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters across the world, on several continents, and even in my own state and hometown. Los Angeles is very much a Latino city, so having my book available to Angelinos who primarily or only read in Spanish is a pretty wonderful thing.

Follow Dilatando Mentes Editorial on all available media platforms, and watch this space for updates. Muchos gracias, amable lector.

Nomination News: The Nameless Dark - A Collection nominated for 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Single-Author Collection

It gives me great pleasure to announce that The Nameless Dark - A Collection was officially nominated today for the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Single-Author Collection.

I count this as especially meaningful, as The Shirley Jackson Awards have always focused on those writers that I personally think are among the best working today, consistently nominating and awarding such writers, editors, and other creatives as Brian Evenson, Michael Marshall Smith, Laird Barron, Nathan Ballingrud, Elizabeth Hand, Joel Lane, Mike Mignola, S.P. Miskowski, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, Gemma Files, Ellen Datlow, Melanie and Steve Rasnic Tem, Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones, Livia Llewellyn, Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, Peter Straub, Neil Gaiman, S. T. Joshi, Steve Berman, Reggie Oliver, Michael Cisco, Kelly Link, Tim Waggoner, Lucius Sheppard, Kelly Link, Glen Hirshberg, Stephen Jones, Jack Ketchum, Ian Rogers, Jeffrey Ford, Joyce Carol Oates, Nicole Cushing, Ramsey Campbell, Nina Allen, Josh Malerman, Robert Levy, Kate Jonez, Ross E. Lockhart, Michael Kelly, Mark Morris, and others. Those I left out I haven't yet had the opportunity to read, but always use the Shirley Jackson Award nominee list as a browsers guideline.

These are the names I regularly seek out. That these individuals have also been honored by the Shirley Jackson Awards in eight short years, while not necessarily other awards organizations, makes my appreciation all the greater that I am joining these names with my own. To say I'm humbled to be in this august company would be a disgusting understatement, but I'll say it anyway - I am incredibly humbled to be in this august company.

Also important to note, Shirley Jackson is an icon of dark fiction, and a master of the short tale. Ask me on the right day, and I'll tell you that "The Lottery" is the best short story ever written (on the wrong day, I'll tell you that it's Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find"). So, receiving a nomination for a prize named after Ms. Jackson is all the more special because of her impact, and what she did to push forward the genres of horror, supernatural, and fantastical fiction.

I don't write for awards, just like I don't write for reviews. But when I receive a positive review, it makes me feel good, knowing that the work connected with a reader. That's the whole point of all of this, at least in my mind. To write fiction that resonates, entertains, possibly transports and builds something new inside the brain of the reader.

So, too, is it with awards. I never expected to receive any accolades for my debut collection, or for any of the stories it contains. But receiving an honor from an organization that I truly, truly respect, based on the people involved and the past nominees and winners, is a wonderful feeling, and provides further evidence that what I am doing - writing dark fiction - is worthwhile, and has meaning to readers and colleagues.

I'd like to take this time to again thank Nathan Ballingrud for the brilliant foreword and the recommendation, and Laird Barron for the double rec to Lethe Press. Both of these guys helped get my work on the right desk. And I'd like to thank Lethe head honcho Steve Berman for taking a chance on a collection of dark stories written by a relative unknown.

Most of all, and it cannot be understated, I want to express my profound appreciation and head over heels, cartoon-eyed love for my extraordinary wife, Ives Hovanessian, for the priceless editorial work she did on these tales, helping to hone down and lean up my writing, as well as providing important plot elements, including the ending of "The Screamer." She quite literally found The Screamer for me after I was searching for it in vain for several years. She also found the collection cover artist (Arnaud de Vallois!) and designed what became the final look of the cover. But even more importantly, she has my eternal gratitude for being the first person in my life who gave me the confidence to be myself, cut my losses (in the form of 50 billion shitty scripts), and truly write what and how I wanted to write, following a calling I first heard in childhood but never answered until decades later. I've said this before in interviews and conversations, but it truly bears repeating that I wouldn't be working in fiction right now if it wasn't for her, and so I wouldn't be here writing this to you, dear reader. So, Ivy jan, this nomination is for you, and a fitting tribute after you first read to me aloud "The Lottery" a half decade ago and blew my mind yet again.

To my fellow nominees for all of the 2015 Shirley Jackson Awards, I wish you a hearty congrats and much luck, as it seems we're all going to need it.

Review News: The Nameless Dark receives stellar treatment in The Haunted Omnibus

After writing everything other than fiction for so many years, I still have a hard time processing the fact that people will sit down and devote hours and hours to reading stories I write, then feel moved enough to compose extensive, detailed, thoughtful reviews on these stories, with the primary purpose of helping draw more readership to certain books and authors. It's a wonderful thing.

Writer Jose Cruz did just this, and posted up one of my favorite reviews The Nameless Dark has ever received at his excellent electronic journal devoted to short dark fiction, The Haunted Omnibus, which is what The Cosmicomicon would be if I was a better reviewer, had better focus, and better taste in blog template design.

Its Mission Statement:

The Haunted Omnibus was established to recognize the long tradition and continued perseverance of the short form within the literature of horror, the dark fantastic, and the Weird. 

Although websites, journals, and awards dedicated to the field and yearly anthologies of the best in short fiction continue to proliferate, the founders of the Haunted Omnibus felt that there was still a need for a space dedicated solely to the discussion of dark short stories, novelettes, and novellas. 

Reviews of anthologies and single-author collections, by their nature, tend to relegate even the exemplary stories to one or two sentences of critical analysis at best, if any mention is warranted at all. The Haunted Omnibus seeks to in part turn this trend around by providing the attention and appreciation that these short works deserve. 

Taking its name from the landmark 1937 anthology edited by Alexander Laing, The Haunted Omnibus provides reviews, essays, and just-plain-fun testimonials of the short horror story’s power, history, and relevance. In this spirit, our single-story spotlights strive to include tributes made by multiple contributors and, when possible, short interviews conducted with the authors to detail their creation of the stories. 

It is our hope that through our efforts at the Haunted Omnibus, fans and readers will engage more deeply with darkly speculative short fiction and afford it the study that it merits.

Edward Gorey

I'll provide an excerpt of the review here, but please do head over to The Haunted Omnibus and poke around a bit:

"We live in a time of plenty. 

In the last decade and change, the rise of small publishing houses and e-reader devices has opened up a doorway through which a veritable smorgasbord of dark fiction has poured forth into the hands of fans who might not have otherwise encountered them. But not even the accessibility or mass proliferation of grim literature can be held entirely accountable for the embarrassment of riches we have today. A similar wave passed during the Great Horror Boom of the 70s and 80s, but the current renaissance we live in now has granted us the gift of quality in addition to quantity. 

This commitment to higher literary standards, along with a special devotion to the short story, has led to the releases of dozens of books in the last few years that all bear the craftsman’s seal of approval, a time when even debut collections hum with a vitality and talent that wouldn’t have been dreamt of in those bygone days of spinner rack terrors. With the unleashing of The Nameless Dark, T. E. Grau has cemented himself as an author whose byline should spark in readers a joyful expectancy for what surprises there are to follow.

Having spent his early days grinding away in the Hollywood dream machine, Grau has instilled the stories collected here with a cinematic beat and tenor. Many of them have the feel of miniature epics, stories of great change that course the classical arc and find his cast of rebels and hard-hearts attempting to desperately pick their way through life’s minefield before butting up against the high-powered electric fence of the unforgiving cosmos. Even at their bleakest—and many of the tales end badly for at least one person—Grau’s works satisfy with the rightness of their narratives, the feeling that the scales of the universe have attained their balance once more regardless of the insignificant lives that were overthrown to do so..."

John Picacio

(4/22/16 edit: Please also check out an author interview published today at The Haunted Omnibus here)

Nomination News: The Nameless Dark - A Collection nominated for Short Story Collection of the Year at This Is Horror Awards 2015

Image used as example, not an indicator of reading the future

Due to several deadlines, I've been unable to complete my Year in Review posting that I had planned for just before the dawning of the New Year. I have SO MUCH to be thankful for over the last twelve months, and wanted to encapsulate it all into one cuddly, gushy mega-piece, but haven't had the proper time. I shall attempt to rectify that before the month comes to a close.

In the meantime, it's coming up upon awards season in all areas of entertainment, including publishing, and specifically dark and horror fiction. The first to lead the charge with a complete nomination list is the This Is Horror Awards 2015, which has somehow seen fit to include The Nameless Dark - A Collection on the docket for Short Story Collection of the Year. I'm deeply humbled by this nomination, and look with hopeless trepidation at my fellow nominees. Still, I count it as a wonderful honor, and one for which I am extremely grateful, as it means that a few people outside of my home enjoyed the book, which makes it all worth it.

If you haven't already, follow this link to vote. Massive thanks to those who suggested The Nameless Dark for nomination, and best of luck and hearty high fives to all nominees!

Publishing and Interview News: T.E. Grau signs publishing deal with This Is Horror for new work in 2016, sits down for This Is Horror Podcast interview

Now that the cat is well out of the bag and skittering down the street, I may as well formally announce that I recently signed a publishing deal with This Is Horror for one, and possibly two, novellas to be published in mid 2016.

As for my reaction to the news, I think my quote available in the article says it best:

"I’m incredibly excited to announce my commission by This Is Horror to write a new work of fiction under their proud banner. 

In writing this book, I get the opportunity to work with Michael, Dan, and the whole This Is Horror crew, an outfit that seems to have exploded onto the scene with world-class works of contemporary horror fiction. Joining a roster that includes such names as Nathan Ballingrud, Ray Cluley, Gary McMahon, and Stephen Graham Jones is quite the honor, and I’m delighted by the opportunity. 

This will be my first release of new fiction after my debut collection The Nameless Dark, and I’m hoping my new work lives up to the incredibly high standard set by This Is Horror, with the aim of entertaining – and hopefully unsettling – the hell out of their readership."

In related news, I conducted an interview with Michael David Wilson and Dan Hovarth of the famed This Is Horror Podcast a few weeks back, and it just went live this afternoon. Follow this link and give a listen.

We covered a lot of ground, including my journey from fantasy to dark fiction, the horror of screenwriting, judging a book by its cover, the state of speculative fiction, my recent collection and upcoming works, the pros and cons of technology, why wives make the best editors, simplistic writing advice, the importance of reading Lawrence Block, Flannery O'Connor as literary Azathoth, and my unabashed love for most things British. And maybe a couple of other bits.

Give it a go if you have a spare hour, seven minutes, and forty-four seconds.

I'm excited and grateful to be hooked up with This Is Horror in 2016, and hope readers dig the new work. Stay close for more details as they become available.

In this podcast T.E. Grau talks about The Nameless Dark, screenwriting, technology, dark fiction and much more.

Show Notes:

[01:50] Interview start
[02:15] Initial interest in horror
[06:35] Screenwriting’s influence on fiction writing
[08:22] ‘Expat’
[10:10] Crossing genres
[15:00] The release of The Nameless Dark
[17:45] Cover art
[35:50] Writing process
[38:10] Best piece of writing advice
[43:50] Best things happening in dark fiction today
[53:20] Advantages and disadvantages of technology for writers and readers
[56:50] British scene
[58:10] New T.E. Grau release in 2016
[01:02:25] Connect with T.E. Grau
[01:03:00] Writers that intimidate Grau
[01:05:50] Competition time

Review News: Publishers Weekly reviews THE NAMELESS DARK, pre-orders discounted through Lethe Press site as release day nears

I'm very happy to report that Publishers Weekly gave a lovely review of The Nameless Dark, beginning the piece as such:

"The dark fiction in Grau’s first collection is nicely twisted, with stories that play on the best of eldritch horror, creating a sense of dread and the unexplained instead of overt malevolence."

(please click here for the full review from the PW site)

It's a good feeling to know that the goal of your writing was achieved, at least in the eyes (and brain) of this particular reader. This review, combined with the truly astonishing run of blurbs the book has received, makes me incredibly happy, humbled, proud, and excited as we approach the official release date for the collection in late July.

Also, The Nameless Dark is now available for pre-order through the Lethe Press website for $15.00, which is three dollars less than through Amazon, and a pretty swell deal for 275 pages of fiction. Aside from the lower price, it's always the better move to buy direct from the publisher, which relies upon each and every order to keep operations going.

Publishing News: THE NAMELESS DARK, the debut collection of short fiction from T.E. Grau, slated for release July 25, 2015 by Lethe Press

Cover art by Arnaud de Vallois

Now that the cover is squared away and the manuscript is into the last throes of the copy edit phase, I am happy to announce that my debut collection of short fiction, titled The Nameless Dark, will be published this July 25, 2015 by Lethe Press.

This collection represents (nearly) every single step of my journey into prose writing after spending over a decade as a screenwriter, and a music journalist and humor columnist several years prior to that, starting in my freshman year of college. It was at age nineteen - and hot on the heels of what Rimbaud described as a "long, boundless, and systematized disorganization of all the senses" - that I changed my major from History/Pre Law to English and never (okay, rarely) looked back. In all those years of writing, and through every minor accomplishment, nothing has even remotely been as satisfying as completing a book of prose and finding a publisher that is not just willing, but actually relatively excited, to print it upon rectangled paper and sell it to the reading public.

The journey from manuscript to publishing deal was a bit of a surprise. While wrapping up the last story for the collection ("Tubby's Big Swim"), Steve Berman of Lethe Press contacted me after both Nathan Ballingrud and Laird Barron posted reviews on Facebook of my prairie horror novella The Mission. Steve first sought to re-publish the limited edition novella (which was at that point out-of-print), but after a bit of discussion, he then made an offer to publish my entire collection based in large part of the good word of these two colleagues, whose writing I admire so much. Naturally, I am very much indebted to both Laird and Nathan for reading and then publicly commenting on my work. That sort of exposure is priceless, and incredibly important. Forever pushing the boundaries of manners and entitlement, I then asked Nathan to pen a foreword to The Nameless Dark. As gracious as ever, he agreed, for which I am and shall ever be eternally grateful.

As noted above, these stories stretch back to 2010, starting with "Transmission," which was the first short story I ever wrote, then becoming the first piece of fiction I ever sold. The bones of "Twinkle, Twinkle" were actually written before "Transmission," but I never sought to find a home for it, knowing that I'd want to sit on it a bit and rework it, which I did for The Nameless Dark. It, along with "Tubby's Big Swim" (my most recently completed story), and "Expat" (finished just before "Tubby"), are the three unpublished (and unclaimed) pieces in the collection. "Mr. Lupus," my longest work to date in terms of word count, sold to an anthology a few years back edited by Scott David Aniolowski, but has never been released to the public. "Return of the Prodigy" will be included in this summer's highly anticipated Lovecraftian fiction anthology Cthulhu Fhtagn!, edited by Ross E. Lockhart and published by his excellent press Word Horde. The rest of the stories have appeared in various anthos, fiction journals, and other books over the last five years, and I am excited to have them all collected under one roof, elbowing for space at the family dinner table.

As requested elsewhere in the ether, the table of contents reads as such:

Tubby’s Big Swim
The Screamer
Clean
Return of the Prodigy
Expat
The Truffle Pig
Beer & Worms
White Feather
Transmission
Mr. Lupus
Free Fireworks
Love Songs from the Hydrogen Jukebox
Twinkle, Twinkle
The Mission

Pre-orders will begin in April via Amazon, so keep watching this liminal space for information on that, and in the meantime, thank you ever so much, dear readers and watchers and tenders of the signal fires, for your interest in my work.  I hope The Nameless Dark satisfies, and opens the door for me to show you previously unknown places and the shadows that live there, both now with this book and in the years to come with whatever will come after. This is just the beginning, the hill country at the foot of the mist-shrouded mountain. I can see the overgrown trail up into the high country, and am adjusting my pack upon my shoulders. The way won't be easy, and is sure to be treacherous, but the view from the top promises to be so incredibly worth it.

Edited (3/30/15) to add: Pre-Orders now available right here.