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Two novels, two different presses,
one simultaneous release date:
3/31/10
FRIENDS, listen: Following Richard Brautigan and The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores are now available at www.burkesbooks.com. (And other fine retailers.) They can be ordered signed or inscribed.
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| Due in March 2010 from Bronx River Press |
THE BALLAD OF THE TWO TOM MORES: A TALE OF SEX AND MURDER
Due out Spring 2010.
About The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores
"Corey Mesler's writing is scary, funny, smart, and deeply twisted. There's nobody else like him." – Tom
Piazza, author of City of Refuge and Why New Orleans Matters
"Fast-paced and funny, ripe with literary references, wry snappy humor and surprising turns of phrase, Corey
Mesler's The Ballad of The Two Tom Mores pulls the reader inexorably along. In the fictional town of Queneau, Arkansas,
there exists a salaciously sexy labyrinth of characters that even Faulkner would have been proud to create. Mesler's humorous
ballad ends with a surprising twist. You will emerge slightly tweaked—and better for it." – Suzanne Kingsbury,
author of The Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me
"The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores is a riot from start to finish. Witty, ribald, sometimes profound and
sometimes ridiculous, it will frequently make you laugh out loud and sometimes lead you to scratch your head in contemplation.
It is an unvarnished, unapologetic glimpse of small-town Southern life, as raw and sexually charged as something out of Erskine
Caldwell. At the same time, it is a story that is always told with a grin and a wink by a narrator who is chuckling from beginning
to end. With patience and confidence, Corey Mesler manages to pull off a lovely double feat, writing a novel that is both
a steamy Southern sex-and-violence page-turner and a gentle mockery of the genre." – Greg Downs, author of Flannery
O'Connor Award Winner Spit Baths
"A turgid bratwurst of a story slathered in bawdy humor? A confederacy of Arkansas dunces? Ah, hell, this strange,
hilarious novel needs a new vocabulary to describe it. Half yarn, half romp, half acid trip, a yawp combined with a Tarzan
yell? Ah, double hell. Just read this book." – Tom Franklin, author of Hell at the Breech
“A wondrously southern sex
romp teeming with greatly memorable characters, insights and comedy, with all of this wrapped in an entertaining tale of egos,
lust, and the hilarity of a rumor-filled small town.
Ham Acres,
who is both the mayor and sheriff, is a delightful character to follow. I could read about Ham all damn day.
The romping affairs and sexploits
that pace the book are highly amusing and fun to read; I don't think I've ever encountered that much on-getting without the
need of a towel. What I mean to say is: Bravo.
Mesler invigorates
The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores with a good peppering of wit, lines that can vault
from raunch to soulful introspection quite quickly and expertly. These moments, never lacking, allude to far more than the
simple balance of a character, they give the characters a sense of mental reality that is a pleasure to read. A wondrous little
book from an excellent author. I'd highly recommend it.”
--Ray Succre, author of Amphisbaena
My reading from The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores, on you tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJXBcaPlmlg
Bronx River Press: http://www.bronxriverpress.com/
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The astonishing video Rebecca Tickle made to accompany my reading the opening sections of the novel:
Advance plugs for my novel, Following Richard Brautigan, due out March 31st, 2010 from Livingston Press, the
exact same day The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores is due out from Bronx River Press:
PLUGS FOR FOLLOWING RICHARD BRAUTIGAN:
“One always wonders, "What if?" What if Richard
Brautigan had taken his own advice and not gone joy riding in the beautiful car called death. What if he had lived,
and kept writing, long into the age where flowing digits replaced the winsome flowers. Brautigan, maven of the San Francisco
countercultural zeitgeist, would have surely continued to write his spare themes of love, death, and how we are haunted by
both. Surely also, he would have embraced the Internet, publishing his episodic narratives in blogs, chats, and other social
networking spaces, holding us all in anticipation, waiting for the next installment. His poetic prose would have shimmered
on our screens like cathedrals made from the crystal bones of birds. Alas, Richard, we hardly knew ye . . . But wait, here's
Corey Mesler, broken hearted, adrift between the living and the dead, lost, and like so many others, he finds a connection
with Brautigan, a lampost on a foggy street, always, magically, lighting the way to the next corner, and beyond. Mesler's
novel, Following Richard Brautigan, answers the "what if" regarding novels Brautigan might have written. Uniquely individual
in style and voice, yet resonating with the tone and whimsy of Brautigan, Mesler's novel is a paen of the highest order, not
to mention a travelogue of his own inner journey. Brautigan is there, every step of the way, often directing the eccentric
life adventures meant to throw off the allure of death, even though he is but a ghost himself, a spirit with a mission in
death as he was in life. If you know and appreciate Brautigan, read this book. Give it to your friends. Turn them on to both
Brautigan and Mesler, who has surely taken up the torch left burning in the hallway of Brautigan's dark seaside house, and
gone exploring the upstairs rooms.”
--John Barber, Archivist and Curator, Brautigan Bibliography and
Archive, and author of Richard Brautigan: Essays on the Writings and Life
“Corey Mesler has summoned up all the sad lost innocence and wry humor
of the best of Brautigan. It’s a wistful, haunting novel that makes you laugh out loud, too.’
--Thomas Dyja, author of Meet John Trow and The Moon in Our Hands
"I am mightily impressed as always with your amazingly graceful
combination of whimsy and heartbreak. Following Richard Brautigan is pretty wonderful--a real warm blanket of a narrative. And what
I like is that the blanket is infested with lice and cholera and bloodticks and stinging nettles and death, etc, but it still
warms, which is a bit of a magical trick. I know how it's done though--with language,
language that always amuses and surprises and lends drama to the least event. It's also a language whose suppleness
admits the impossible, which is of course the best trick of all.“
--Steve Stern, author of the Jewish Book Award winning The Wedding Jester and The Frozen Rabbi
" If you love Richard Brautigan you'll have fun reading Corey Mesler's
fictional tribute, Following Richard Brautigan. I'm going trout fishing today for short stories about water."
--Alice Hoffman, author of Seventh Heaven
and The Fisher King
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