Barring some sort of absolute doom, we’re officially committing to a late November release for Fiddleblack Annual #2: Nights Like These. The actual release date will come toward the end of the month, but suitably in time for the close of 2014.

This book has been many, many months coming, but design and layout are finished and authors are working through galley notes or awaiting production’s close. Here’s the entire list of contributors:

  • Justin Thurman
  • Michael Walsh
  • Kevin Catalano
  • Gillian Morrison
  • Dane Elcar
  • Karin Anderson
  • Shannon Perri
  • John McManus
  • Todd Grimson
  • Elias Marsten
  • Matthew Jakubowski

It’s a great collection full of erraticism, lewdness, and all-around odd behavior. It’s dark, historical, bleakly beautiful. Reading through the text is tantamount to witnessing the most grand celestial abduction in inverse. Imagine your body being pulled into a dark light emanating from the earth. Your skin buzzes instead of freezes. You feel an encasing, unnatural warmth.

We think you’ll like the book. And for as long as we have the stock, we’ll bundle first-come orders with a free copy of Fiddleblack Annual #1.


Second this month, we’re releasing our first audiobook: Stop Breakin Down by John McManus, as read by oft-contributor Dane Elcar. The text, a collection of fourteen stories, is a nineties time-capsule of proto-emo storytelling gloved in gnarled, spitting antipastoral brilliance. For the book, McManus carries the Whiting Writers Award as youngest ever recipient. We don’t hesitate to say that without Stop Breakin Down, there would not be Fiddleblack.

 

Cast of 'Stop Breakin Down'

 

Dane Elcar’s performance as reader of Stop Breakin Down is nothing short of captivating. He captures each character in motion, takes up every manner of speaking. His penchant for invocation is fair to label “perfect pitch,” and the stories transmuted ever so slightly by his influence make for an inescapable, must-listen work of fiction.

Stop Breakin Down will be available later this month as an audible.com download. We’ll soon post the release date to Twitter.

Here are our trailers for the McManus/Elcar collaboration: