A Terrific Friend of Yours
Bringing a Rabbit to the Table
Hullo, friends! Welcome to my first newsletter!
I know I’m really late to the party with this, but since social media is slowly withering on the vine (or just sprouting in too many directions to keep up with), I thought I’d try something more direct and to the point. I don’t have any sick memes for you today, nor do I have a hot take. But I’ve got news! Hence… a newsletter!
My next book Red Rabbit is coming out September 19th from Tor Nightfire, and will be available everywhere books are sold, lent, or stolen. I’m sure you know how important preorders and word of mouth are for any book. The publishing landscape is weird right now (hell, the whole entertainment/media landscape is getting weirder by the minute, and it’s hard to tell what “normal” might eventually turn out to be). So whether it’s mine or someone else’s book you’re interested in, please tell your local bookseller about it. Or talk to your favorite librarian. Those folks are on the front lines and they’re trying to guess what to put on their shelves. A little positive input goes a long way.
If you’ve read any of my books and liked them… here’s another one by the same guy. That’s my hard sell.
What’s Red Rabbit about, you ask? Well, when a Kansas farming community’s crops fail, they put a bounty on the head of a woman who lives out at the edge of town—a thousand dollars to anyone who kills the witch. Most of the book’s about some folks who ride up from Texas and Oklahoma in hopes of claiming the reward. Except along the way, they encounter ghosts, demons, and ghouls. The Old West was no picnic.
“This is a book I’m going to be pressing into the hands of every reader I know. It’s an epic, sometimes brutal, sometimes tender, but always surprising gallop of a book, populated by characters I found myself caring deeply about. Red Rabbit was impossible to put down.” ―Kelly Link, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Get In Trouble
“Eerie, exhilarating and endearing, Red Rabbit paints the old American West red and wicked, but also creates a world that the bold and curious will love to explore, provided you're handy with a hex and a six-shooter.” ―Johnny Compton, author of The Spite House
“Alex Grecian has crafted a winding river of a tale that is fast-paced, intricately patterned, funny, and scary all in equal measure. It’s a wild ride and I enjoyed every page.” ―Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters
Before you ask (as if the summary didn’t tip my hand), Red Rabbit isn’t a Murder Squad book.
I get a lot of people asking when the next Murder Squad book will come out, and I appreciate the interest. I love those characters, and I absolutely intend to finish the sixth and final book in the series. But I’ve changed publishers and it’s hard to carry a series over from one publisher to another. So while we all wait for the last adventure of Day and Hammersmith, I really hope you’ll give Red Rabbit (and its sequel) a try.
The other question you might be asking your phone or monitor (it’s okay to talk to your screen; I do it all the time)… “Alex, isn’t fantasy/horror/Western a change of pace for you?” Well, really, most of my stories contain historical elements. And I’d argue that horror and fantasy have always been present in my work. Proof and Rasputin were straightforward fantasy series, and in my first novel, The Yard, a man’s eyes and mouth were sewn shut. The Saint of Wolves and Butchers featured a murderous retired Nazi, and my novella One Eye Open was pure horror from stem to stern. My point is, if you’ve read my books you know I skew a little dark.
I’ll be touring for Red Rabbit, starting September 19th at Watermark Books in Wichita. (Perfect for a book set in Kansas, right?) Then I’ll be in Houston at Murder By the Book on the 21st, and in the bay area at Books, Inc. the following day, with more dates to come. My full schedule will be updated on my website when/as it changes. I hope to see you, but if you can’t come see me in person, I’ll be doing a Facebook livestream event with the Peculiar Book Club September 28th.
If you’d like a signed and/or personalized copy of Red Rabbit, or any of my books, please contact Round Table Bookstore.
I’m not sure what form or frequency this newsletter will eventually adopt, but for now I plan to send it out only when I’ve got news. That said, if you’ve got questions or suggestions for this thing, please let me know. And if I’ve mistakenly added you to my subscriber list, I apologize and I promise I won’t be hurt if you unsubscribe. I’m not sure I even get notified about that kind of thing.
Have I mentioned this is my first time doing this?
Next time around, I might talk about the genesis for Red Rabbit, about writing the sequel, and about what’s next on my plate (for instance, I have a Rabbit-related short story coming to tor.com within the next month or so). But I’m all ears (pun intended). Let me know what you think I should include in the future.
Thank you very much for signing up, and for reading this thing. Please feel free to pass it along to any book lovers you know, and I promise I’ll only bother you when I have something to say that might be of interest.
As a terrific friend would.