SIX THINGS ABOUT ME WITH NUMBERS IN THEM
2) Smoke City is my second published novel, but was my third novel manuscript. My first published novel, The Mercy of the Tide, was my fourth novel manuscript. I have – as of yesterday! – finished a sixth manuscript. Meanwhile, there was a fifth manuscript that I wrote and I ultimately wasn’t happy with. Are you confused yet?
3) For every short story I finish, there are about six or seven that remain half-done. And for every short story that I place in a magazine or journal or online outlet, there are two or three that are done and still trying to find homes. And for every five thousand words that I write that make it out into the world, there are probably 20,000-30,000 that don’t quite go anywhere, resting in the odd half-life of my computer.
4) I submitted a particular short story 25 times over a period of nearly three years before it was finally accepted. I believed in its value, believed that it was a good story. I was then paid more money for that story than anything else I’d written, short of selling my novels. Not that financial compensation should necessarily be the measure with which we gauge our stuff, but it came as a nice surprise, and reminded me in the importance of holding steadfast to that belief in the work.
5) Smoke City was rejected by over 90 literary agents before it was picked up.
6) All of these – even the first one, because those dogs teach me a lot - are about perseverance.
Smoke City
by Keith Rosson
January 23rd 2018
Published by: Meerkat Press
Genres: Adult, Magical Realism
Marvin Deitz has some serious problems. His mob-connected landlord is strong-arming him out of his storefront. His therapist has concerns about his stability. He’s compelled to volunteer at the local Children’s Hospital even though it breaks his heart every week.
Oh, and he’s also the guilt-ridden reincarnation of Geoffroy Thérage, the French executioner who lit Joan of Arc’s pyre in 1431. He’s just seen a woman on a Los Angeles talk show claiming to be Joan, and absolution seems closer than it’s ever been . . . but how will he find her?
When Marvin heads to Los Angeles to locate the woman who may or may not be Joan, he’s picked up hitchhiking by Mike Vale, a self-destructive alcoholic painter traveling to his ex-wife’s funeral. As they move through a California landscape populated with “smokes” (ghostly apparitions that’ve inexplicably begun appearing throughout the southwestern US), each seeks absolution in his own way.
About the Author:
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Keith Rosson is the author of the novels The Mercy of the Tide (2017, Meerkat Press) and Smoke City (2018, Meerkat Press). His short fiction has appeared in Cream City Review, PANK, Redivider, December, and more. An advocate of both public libraries and non-ironic adulation of the cassette tape, he can be found at keithrosson.com.
by Keith Rosson
January 23rd 2018
Published by: Meerkat Press
Genres: Adult, Magical Realism
Marvin Deitz has some serious problems. His mob-connected landlord is strong-arming him out of his storefront. His therapist has concerns about his stability. He’s compelled to volunteer at the local Children’s Hospital even though it breaks his heart every week.
Oh, and he’s also the guilt-ridden reincarnation of Geoffroy Thérage, the French executioner who lit Joan of Arc’s pyre in 1431. He’s just seen a woman on a Los Angeles talk show claiming to be Joan, and absolution seems closer than it’s ever been . . . but how will he find her?
When Marvin heads to Los Angeles to locate the woman who may or may not be Joan, he’s picked up hitchhiking by Mike Vale, a self-destructive alcoholic painter traveling to his ex-wife’s funeral. As they move through a California landscape populated with “smokes” (ghostly apparitions that’ve inexplicably begun appearing throughout the southwestern US), each seeks absolution in his own way.
Website-FB-Twitter
Keith Rosson is the author of the novels The Mercy of the Tide (2017, Meerkat Press) and Smoke City (2018, Meerkat Press). His short fiction has appeared in Cream City Review, PANK, Redivider, December, and more. An advocate of both public libraries and non-ironic adulation of the cassette tape, he can be found at keithrosson.com.
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