Back by popular-ish demand, Charactered Pieces is (paper)back!

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Caleb J Ross in Book News, Publication Annoucements | Leave a comment

After more than a few (a few+2) questions regarding the paperback availability of my first story chapbook Charactered Pieces, I’ve decided to do something with the distribution rights I’ve been squatting on for a couple years now. Why the squat? Laziness, mostly.

Re-available for your tactile reading pleasure, Charactered Pieces: stories is now back in print. Right now, it’s only at Amazon, but the rest of the internet stores should catch up within the next couple of weeks.

Spread the word. Tell your friends that the too-orange book with the weird hermaphroditic foot penis thing is now holdable in their very hands. Get the paperback version here: http://www.amazon.com/Charactered-Pieces-Caleb-J-Ross/dp/0615622135/

Video review of Matt Bell’s Cataclysm Baby (Video Blog Ep 004)

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Caleb J Ross in Other Writers, Video | 5 Comments

After watching, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to stay updated on new videos

Story Seeding and Social Media, I’m teaching both at the Tallgrass Writing Workshop in June.

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Caleb J Ross in Events, Study (the world/the craft) | 2 Comments

I am honored to have been asked to teach a couple of sessions at the 2012 Tallgrass Writers Workshop at Emporia State University in June.

If you will be in the Emporia area, you should register. Let me manipulate your mind to reflect my morbid desires. THE POWER!!!!

I’ll be teaching:

PLANTING A STORY: How to Grow a Plot from a Single Seed

Author Stephen Graham Jones has said that many of his story ideas stem from misheard conversations. This session will explore the process of building an entire story from practically nothing, with special consideration given to dismantling the sham known as writer’s block.

SURVIVING ONLINE: Why Social Media is Not a Waste of Time for Authors

Some writers claim that time spent engaging in social media is time wasted. But what is an author but a communicator of ideas, and what is social media but a platform for exchanging ideas (primarily by text, I might add). This session will focus on how the entrepreneurial author, even without a book yet to promote, can use social media not just for nurturing a potential readership but for nurturing story ideas as well.

Other workshop faculty include Thomas Fox Averill, Thomas Fox Averill, Linda Apple, Max McCoy, Jim Hoy, Cheryl Unruh, and Annie Wilson

See full details at the Tallgrass Writers Workshop website or by downloading the workshop brochure.

Brand new story, “Different People Entirely” in the Ice Picks anthology. Horror? Yep.

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Caleb J Ross in Publication Annoucements | Leave a comment

When anthology editor S.S Michaels approached me last year about contributing a story to the Ice Picks: Most Chilling Stories from the Ice Plaza anthology, I hesitated for a moment. I never thought of what I write as horror. Grotesque? Sure. Morbid? Sometimes. Horror? No. But the more I thought about it, the more I accepted that a stretched definition of horror (never mind that I didn’t even consider a narrow definition at all) could very well encompass my work.

Other people have thought of my work as horror, so I broke down and thought of the solicitation as a challenge. I came up with “Different People Entirely,” a story of a breaking family that embarks on a vacation to the Ice Hotel in Scandinavia. How does the family fare? Read for yourself.

The anthology contains stories from the following authors:

New review of Murmurs: “If another writer tells stories quite like this, I do know know of him”

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Caleb J Ross in Book News | Leave a comment

A beautiful few words from reader Frank Edler:

“These are fairly short bursts of that unique domestic fiction that Ross not only has a penchant for writing but also executes to a level that could earn him the moniker of ‘Father of Domestic Fiction’. If another writer tells stories quite like this, I do know know of him or her…Once again I walk away from another of Caleb J. Ross’ work with an uneasy feeling. ..The author is brilliant at looking at a tender moment and peeling away the layers to reveal the disturbing grotesque. We connect with it because under all our facades lies a bit of that same ugliness to some degree or another.

I must now venture forth into his longer works, STRANGER WILL and I DIDN’T MEAN TO BE KEVIN….I can not wait to have my emotions unsettled a little bit more.”

Read the full review here.