Welcome to Stately Tressel Manor, your new home for all the news and noise about lil ole RJT. The reasons for the new url and site design are top secret for now...you don't have the proper security clearance to know, but hopefully this will be updated a little more frequently than the old one, and you'll never get a chance to miss it. Some of the more popular features might reappear here, but for now, it's going to be a place where you'll get updates on the different projects we've got going on here at STM.
First and foremost, I'm very proud to announce the release of my new book, Girl in the Tree. It's a collection of short stories written in the fall of 2008 before I started work on my novel "The While" (still available here.) In a lot of ways, these stories were merely warm-ups, attempts to start writing fiction again after a five-year hiatus. But rereading them this summer in preparation for their release, I found they each had their own charm that I had forgotten about in the two years since I wrote them.
But the real reason this new collection is so exciting is the contributions of artist Kristin Texeira. There's an essay in the back of the book outlining the story of how Kristin got involved with the project, so I won't spoil it here, but she provides not only the painted cover, but also frontpiece illustrations for each of the stories. Her new work, visible at her own website and blog, is even more impressive and it's one of the first sites I check each day. I'm honored to have her be part of this new project.
As per usual, there is a book-specific blog where you can check out one of the stories, The Big Cat as well as Kristin's illustration. We'll add new stories periodically to help whet your appetite for the book itself.
There should be a new novel ready for early next year. I'm really excited about this one, and I'll make sure to keep the Manor updated as we get closer. Thanks for reading.
