Frank Bill's Blog

Way back at the first part of this year I made the trip to Manhattan, met my Editors, my publishing house, had drinks, more than once with loyal friends and writer Todd Robinson and his wife Allison, my agent Stacia, my wife and her friend, Jason Karlawish, the crazy Krovatin brothers, writer Victor LaValle and I did this event with FSG and GQ Magazine and John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats http://www.mountain-goats.com/, and I had a blast. Here's about a three minute clip of a two hour evening: http://www.fsgoriginals.com/|

And since then I've been busy. Started in Louisville, Kentucky at Carmichael's books, read in New Albany, Indiana at Destinations Booksellers. Then a reading in Columbus, Indiana at the library. Followed by Milwaukee where I read at the Boswell Book Company http://crimespreemag.com/frank-bill-reading-in-milwaukee/. Hit Chicago, read at a bar with the author Scott McClanahan http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/books/review/crapalachia-by-scott-mcclanahan.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. Got a bit of rest. Hit the book festival in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Caught a red eye the next morning for the LA Times Book Festival, did a signing with the wonderful folks at SKYLIGHT BOOKS. Did a great panel with some awesome authors:
Fiction: True Grit
(Conversation 2113) Frank Bill
James Greer
Joshua Mohr
Rob Roberge Moderated by Jim Ruland

I met my man Nolan Knight http://www.nolanknight.com/, did my rounds the next day for the screenplay I adapted, had breakfast with my buddy Daniel Knauf. Got picked up by my buddies Seth Marko and Scott Ehrig-Burgess, who drove me to San Diego for http://www.thebookcatapult.com/2013/03/a-frank-bill-donnybrook-in-san-diego.html . Had a blast, signed a lot of books, met a lot of wonderful people, caught up with my ole buddy Todd Naegele,  drank too much, caught an AM flight on about two or three hours of sleep and took a long awaited nap.

Since then I've finished a comic book, written a few essays and I'm busy with the next book while slaving at the day gig and recently did a reading at the Jeffersonville Library and the Artisan Center in my hometown.

I left a lot of friends names out and some great writers, I apologize, its early and I have to go to the day job.  But do know I appreciate each and every one of you!

The interviews and reviews are slowly popping up, here are a few links to check out:
http://thomaspluck.com/
http://www.theawl.com/2013/02/too-much-like-reality-writer-frank-bill-on-violence-meth-and-work
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/frank-bill/donnybrook-bill/
http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/2013/02/review-of-frank-bills-donnybrook.html
http://www.revolvermag.com/?s=donnybrook+by+frank+bill&x=0&y=0
http://flavorwire.com/373829/10-new-must-reads-for-march-2
http://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/mysterypeople-pick-of-the-month-donnybrook/
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I'm guessing everyone caught good friend/singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard ( http://www.raywylie.com/ ) on David Letterman the other night? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r92RkIKm6Wc

Good to see him getting the attention he deserves. I've plans to catch him later this year down in Texas at his annual Grit and Groove Festival: http://www.raywylie.com/gritngroovefest.html
Should be a great day of belligerence, booze and just all around anarchy. Can't wait.

 Me, I'm busy. Writing. Lots of writing. Gearing up for travel to Manhattan for some early publicity for the release of my first novel Donnybrook of which here are a few things I've come across:
http://schulerbooks.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/donnybrook-a-novel-by-frank-bill/
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/09/prepub/fiction-previews/fiction-previews-mar-2013-pt-4-seven-debuts-to-watch/

And there's some other news but I can't mention it just yet....






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I'll be here on January 16th with John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats http://www.mountain-goats.com/

Some kind comments from Seth Marko over at his blog about my upcoming Novel DONNYBROOK: http://www.thebookcatapult.com/



















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I met singer/songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard over a year ago. We'd began talking just before the release of Crimes in Southern Indiana. A long time fan of his music I was pretty blown away by his response to the book, telling me he'd have to go to confession after taking it all in, not once but twice. He's a man to be admired. And as my respect has grown for him as a writer and a musician so has our friendship. I've been fortunate to hang out with him on his tour and spend late nights talking about movies, books and our own personal projects as well as our demons and downfalls within the industry of being creative. With that all I can say is Happy Birthday RAY! Keep kicking ass. Looking forward to meeting up and hanging out next year on the road...

And if you haven't heard his newest album, The Grifter's Hymnal, you're dead to me!

Over at http://spaceythompson.blogspot.com/, Jed gives Noir at the Bar Corydon some insight. While the guys over at Booked podcasting give the recorded readings http://www.bookedpodcast.com/, they've been broken down, being in three separate parts. Makes for easier listening. All and all it turned out to be a great evening. Got to catch up with long time friend, Jed Ayres only Scott Phillips was MIA. These two cowboys, along with Anthony Neil Smith gave me my first shot at offering my prose to the public. What an unmerciful hell that was. Driving four hours to St. Louis, I hate cities by the way, I'm a small town-rural boy all the way, finding the venue. Sucking down two Americanos and then standing in front of people I've never met. Couldn't hold the sheets of paper my story was written on with one hand, had to two hand it, my nerves mixed with the caffeine gave me more than quivers and shakes. But I did it and made the trek once more last year just before the release of Crimes in Southern Indiana. What a night that was. Words of wisdom, some friends are drunks and some are alcoholics. The difference, a drunk can drink a few beers, be shitfaced and out of hand, an alcoholic can go all night and never slur a word. That's all I'm saying.


And here's all I'll say about this, when I wrote the non-fiction piece for Granta, it was just that, Non-Fiction. Me and an officer of the law, who happens to be a part of a gang task force division in and around southern Indiana. Meaning I interviewed him over the course of weeks, had conversations with him and wrote down his opinions along with newspaper articles we'd discussed. And htere was the refrence to shoes on a powerline and I went with what the police officer told me, however it can hold several meanings, read here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tossing
Somehow people overlook the point that this was a man speaking through me. Not to mention the area I was writing about was going through a major downturn, a rebuilding phase because the area was rundown. Basically landlords didn't want possible renters googling their rental areas and coming across my article. Of course no one living around that area wanted it either. But there will always be someone who takes things out of context to create their own agenda.

http://cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com/2012/07/novelists-and-non-fiction-frank-bills.html







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 To answer a question, that'd be from Carrie Gaffney, wordsmith of the best non-fiction, the character Fu, from my upcoming novel DONNYBROOK, came from one of my martial teachers. Though he was not sadistic in any sense, he was a skilled man full of knowledge, a true friend, just as his other student and my other teacher were. I was fortunate to know and study with each of them. He also did acupuncture on my lovely wife twice for an illness. But that's another story.
Below are a few links from some early eyes of DONNYBROOK...


|http://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/frank-bills-donnybrook-out-in-spring-2013/ http://www.vol1brooklyn.com/2012/09/26/nerd-porn-the-punch-drunk-cover-of-frank-bills-donnybrook/

                                                          







What I've posted are foreign book covers, France (Crimes in Southern Indiana), the UK (Donnybrook), Norway (Crimes in Southern Indiana) & Germany (Crimes in Southern Indiana) and of course the US cover for Donnybrook. I believe they're all amazing and couldn't be happier. Below is a German review/discussion of Crimes in southern Indiana, (the publisher renamed the title from one of the short stories, Cold Hard Love, seeing as no one in Germany knows little or nothing about Indiana). If only I spoke German. I've also attached an old podcast I'd missed for a review on Crimes in Southern Indiana, I'm the worst at updating this site.


Share http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxZ2XNUSlMM
http://www.bookedpodcast.com/2011/09/17/episode-43-crimes-in-southern-indiana/

I do not write about puppy dogs, though I���d write about the stains they���d create on your floor. The carpet they���d ruin and the plywood they���d rot. I don���t write about popsicles and kids and the ice cream man who drives through your neighborhood. Though I���d write about the one who steals your child and why he is the way he is. And the fear your child feels from not being taken care of when they bought ice cream from the sicko who cruised your neighborhood. In other words, I don���t lie about how fucked up our world is. I write about it and the ones who others pretend do not exist. I write about redemption. Loss. Revenge. Struggle. Survival and the values that have been squandered at the workings, the blue collars morals or shirtsleeves.

I don���t write about hit men. Though I tell of lawmen who���ve lost their way. Of their lives and the empowerment they abuse.  I have to say when I write it���s about what I know. What I���ve seen disappear in this flood of stupidity that some call existence. I don���t sit behind a computer all day in a cubicle. Typing and facebooking or tweetering. I sit on a fork truck. I have an iphone, a moleskin notebook. These are my vices. My weapons to siphon blood. I text and I write between pulling shipments and movement of new product to rows while one boss runs around like a chicken with a club foot, though he���s cool outside of the district we recognize as WORK. I watch my chief who crosses the gambit with the flagrance of fouls that���ve been placed upon us, the heavy loads of add ons and customers who need product right this fucking minute. Though the last minute problems have been there every day of every week since I was bumped to the warehouse.
Same old shit different day.
I run bills in a concrete office. I deal with cool-country-boy-truck-drivers with a tire iron beneath their seats and possibly a child duck taped in their home, at least I can imagine that with 90% of them for my fiction. I also deal with hillbilly felons who navigate trucks and can���t take directions any better than their mothers took being seeded and giving birth to their simple temperament asses. It���s a trade of ego or macho-ism.      
But I dig those cats, can understand their situations. Only I wish they could understand mine. Those types I kill with kindness. With words like, ���Nice tatts, who did those? Really you were in prison? I���d have never known that with the web on your elbow, the tear drops below your eye. The four leaf clover on your forearm. Your channel-lock teeth. Or the short fuse you seem to have cause you gotta wait to get your 53 foot LTL loaded and I���ve never met you but you seem to give me attitude so I���ll just phone your dispatch and explain your digression. Really we���re in the same boat. Your job sucks and so does mine. We���re only renting our time and our bodies for a fee. The other side of the coin is you did time. I paid for your body to be fed and do ungodly things to other mother fuckers for a pack of cancer sticks. And by the way, you���re welcome!���
I think about my boss. The second marriage he goes home to. My chief and his second marriage. The kids they���ve seeded but are flawed and loved. Then my own marriage. No kids. Single dog. Brunette beauty of a wife. God Damn I LOVE Her! The 3:30 am mornings I wake up to write before anyone���s day begins and the days we���ve each had. Venting our egos at one another. This world and the people we encompass with frustration. The weights I lift. The pavement I push and the beer I drink at the end of each day and I believe I���ll have another���.

 

For Charles Bukowski       

 I rarely vent to others about my day job but here's a day in the life of me:
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