Frank Bill's DONNYBROOK and CRIMES OF SOUTHERN INDIANA will be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux!
Last year Elaine Ash and I had the wonderful opportunity to have two Frank Bill stories in our BTAP hands: "Tweakers" and "The Need." Of course, this presented a dilemna, which to run with because as you know we publish one story a week. Thankfully, Frank allowed us to keep both and for the first and so far only time we presented two punches from the same author in the same week. We called it The Frank Bill Double Bill and it remains one of our highlights. Of course, the credit goes to Frank and his unique manner of writing. Ms. Ash summed up his approach best by saying:His style is defined by direct, sharp, staccato sentences, and I think of him as the Ornette Coleman of the crime short. When Ornette first played horn in the 1950s, he was considered highly controversial with his cascade of bleeps, blats and squawks. Some critics dismissed him as a music illiterate. But jazz musicians and free thinkers recognized something very special in Ornette, and they were eventually proven correct by his exemplary career. Like Ornette, Frank Bill has a rhythm all his own, with a sentence structure that takes deliberate grammatical “license” to create a cadence in his prose.If you are unfamiliar with Frank's work then I suggest you check out the two stories above and savor what fresh talent is all about.
Congratulations Frank, We're all happy for you and wish you the best of success!
19 comments:
He's an original, no doubt about it.
I remember his stories and he is indeed a talented writer.
Hey, that's great news Frank! You must be shittin' in tall cotton right now.
Very cool. Congrats to Frank.
Congratulations to Frank and to you for spotting his talent. I loved that music analogy.
Patti/Travis, I 100% agree.
Mike, I bet he hasn't come down from cloud nine yet.
Charles, It's nice to see one of the good guys make it.
Sarah, My partner has a way with words, that's for sure. And his talent was easy to spot. It was like a Ferrari on a highway of Yugos.
Sorry for the stupid question, but, what's a Yugo?
A very sad excuse for a car. Some consider it one of the lamest ever manufactured.
Just read TWEAKERS. The guy's good.
Congratulations to Frank!
'savor what fresh talent is all about'--awesome!
'It was like a Ferrari on a highway of Yugos.'--even better! ;)
Ron, Tweakers was a huge hit and more importantly fabulous story.
Alyssa, I'm thinking my Yugo comment could have come across wrong. To clarify, anyone who has ever written a story for BTAP or was even rejected by is not a Yugo. I was referring to the mass glut of mediocre that Frank will be doing battle against soon.
But I'm glad you found me amusing :)
Thanks, David and to everyone else.I hope eveyone is ready to make some noise next summer/fall. That's when the first book hits. But I couldn't have gotten this far without all of you.
Congratulations, Frank.
Cogratulations to Frank. It's always nice to see talent rewarded. I just finished "Tweakers" and it's quite unlike anything I've read before.
Jon Dodd
Frank, We will be there. Count on it. And congrats again, amigo.
Barbara, Thanks for stopping by today. How's Canada doing?
Jon, Don't forget "The Need." Another out of the ballpark moment.
Shall be checking him out. Thanks.
Don't forget that Frank's "Acting Out" novella will debut in BTAP's upcoming anthology. Frank let slip that he had a novel collecting dust in a bottom drawer and I cajoled him into giving me a peek. I immediately contacted David and told him we should snag it for the anthology. With a scalpel in one hand and a tourniquet in the other, I carefully and lovingly "shaped" Acting Out into about 18,000 words down from full-length. We are very excited about debuting it!
Elaine Ash
Very very cool. And well deserved!
Oh man, just read 'Tweakers' --great story. I can't stop laughing at
"Confused Pop asked, "Who put fire ants up yur ass?"
I probably shouldn't be laughing this hard, but it struck me funny.
Congrats to Frank Bill on the book! And again, wonderful that BTAP features such fine quality work.
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