Coming Fall/Winter 2020 from Gott Press!

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The seven stories in Asshole Years are (in some instances very) loosely based on my life and are set at various points during the late 90s and early 2000s in rural Northeastern Ohio. Highlights of the collection include: “Dropout,” about a newly minted former college student returning home for the summer to begin the rest of his life, “Truck Shop” about a 12-year old boy living at his parent’s middle-of-nowhere semi repair shop, fighting boredom and trying to stay out of trouble, and “Greasy,” about a McDonald’s worker and rock star-in-his-head dreaming of one day escaping his redneck town, biding his time by pursuing what he loves the most—sex, drugs, & rock n’ roll, of course. All are heavily inspired by the Salinger, Updike, Carver and early Easton Ellis that I was obsessed with at the time I was writing them, and Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children directly inspired at least one story in the set. If anything, Asshole Years, my seventh book, is an honest look at life in the Midwest around the turn of the 21st century.