New Short Story Collection Announcement
āShe Took Her Half Out the Middleā ā a book coming in 2024
Hello friends, subscribers, and lurkers ā
Itās been a while since I contacted you with a newsletter. Iāve been busy and trying to figure out what to tell you to update you on what Iāve been up to.
The main news is that Iāve been in discussions with Cody Sexton of Anxiety Press and itās looking like they will be publishing a collection of my short stories in 2024 called SHE TOOK HER HALF OUT THE MIDDLE. The tentative cover art you see above has a painting I did called āMedea Plays Tetris with AR-15 Parts.ā Most of the stories in the collection were published in 2020-2023 by venues such as Punk Noir, Expat Press, Misery Tourism, Bruiser Mag, Pulp Modern, Bureau of Complaint, Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere but there will also be some unpublished stories. I spent a good chunk of the time period in question trying to be a crime writer so there are plenty of stories doing that in the collection but thereās also (if we just focus on genre) a horror tale or two in there. Iām working on the manuscript still, tinkering and adding and subtracting, and there isnāt a firm publication date yet, but this is in the works and I just wanted to share this with you.
Iām working on a ton of projects, or better to say a lot is in various stages of development, but I wanted to get this collection out there to establish it and move on. The notion of genre fiction as a pathway to some other, stranger place is one that has always fascinated me, and these stories perhaps reflect a starting point in the way my novel Blood Trip did. All of this is preliminary, minor-keyed, and of the corner of indie lit where I have been an inhabitant in the COVID era that has defined some online literature in the 2020s so far. Iām trying to make a beachhead for my writing to start an invasion into something more mental, more psychedelic, more literary perhaps, more experimental.
Iāve worked with Cody on a few books already, including my nebulous role as doula for Adam Johnsonās Cialis, Verdi, Gin, Jag which was published by Anxiety Press last year with an assist from Prism Thread Books (Iāve spoken about that curious arrangement elsewhere), and Cody assisted me with work on The Tattletales in summer 2023. Heās an excellent book designer who knows all the levers and buttons to push to make finished books happen. Itās invaluable knowledge.
Speaking of The Tattletales, that crime novel got some attention at grit lit/country music magazine Cowboy Jamboree. Adam Van Winkle, the EIC at Cowboy Jamboree, read the book and gave a very generous short review. A quote from Van Winkle: The Tattletales is a āfantastic merger of the neowestern and seedy detective story.Ā Hilson deftly handles his complicated story and, more impressively, draws sympathetic pulp characters youāll fall for.Ā Thereās nothing rote about the writing in this paperback, a worthy descendant of the best of the dimestore novel racks.ā Just where Iād like to be. Hereās a link to the whole review: http://www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/jesse-hilsons-the-tattletales.html
I want to, among many other things, do some more writing at this intersection of crime and āgrit litā since I live in rural America and it reflects some of my upbringing ā it could be a fruitful area to explore and set some creative goals.
Iām just coming off a powerhouse of a weekend where I was involved with a writerās retreat hosted by Writers in the Mountains in the Catskills in New York State where I live. It was exhausting as we wrote based on prompts every day so I got a lot done and exercised muscles I wouldnāt normally work on in my typical hours as a writer. I met a lot of other writers in training, most from NYC or the Hudson Valley. I might write more here about the retreat as I have a lot of thoughts about it I want to put in the right frame. It psychologically affected me in ways both pleasant and unpleasant and I didnāt get a lot of sleep. Then immediately after that I started my new job as a reference librarian at a college library. Iām probably not going to say a lot about that job in a direct way here at the moment because I feel like I should keep that part of life private and I donāt want anything to reflect back on my employers. Itās been a good start of a new career. I wanted to transition away from newspaper writing and perhaps take on a new job that would give me some space to do my own writing and painting.
Iām hesitating on the brink of getting back into writing reviews. I did a lot of reviewing in the past two years or so. That is fun and a good use of time as a reader and writer, a good practice, but I have fallen out of doing it recently. Itās definitely a goal of mine to return to that.
I am active with editing a manuscript of Sabrina Smallās that I will keep under wraps except to say itās a collection of essays Sabrina has written that is often laugh-out-loud funny (I rarely lol at writing so this is an accomplishment) and penetrating about expat life in Berlin. Iām excited to work more on the book with Sabrina and move it towards publication. Itās a worthwhile manuscript. Weāve had discussions that it could be published by Prism Thread Books in 2024, but I donāt want to pin Sabrina down and perhaps limit her options. I have to confess to some commitment issues as Iāve just self-published a novel of my own at Prism Thread and Iām gun-shy about wrecking someone elseās book. The Tattletales, beyond some goodreads reviews and the Cowboy Jamboree review, has sort of disappeared like books do in our world, into a mysterious zone where you wonder where it went. I want to be careful before putting someone elseās book into the same spot when there might be a better potential for a bookās life at a more established publisher. Iām trying to work on thinking about Prism Thread Books as a conceptual art project more than as a solid, well-oiled commercial enterprise. Having said all that, Iām excited about Sabrinaās book and I look forward to helping her shape it and get it ready for the next stage, wherever that might be. Like I said, sheās a hilarious writer, and those who have read her pieces at the Last Estate will be able to see the great potential in having an extended Sabrina Small concentrate/infusion in book form. I want you all to read her book one day.
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Longtime readers of this newsletter will have picked up that I like lots of different types of music. I typically end the newsletter with a link to a YouTube video to serve as a musical accompaniment that reflects what Iām listening to lately. Today itās Ray Priceās āHeartaches By The Number,ā which is in that country music vicinity I talked about above with Cowboy Jamboree. Iām into this classic country music and it is inspiring me to look at my family background and think about other things to write about in a crime/grit lit territory.