Cover by Ives Hovanessian

Greetings, all.

I decided to take a crowbar to the corroded door of my online bloggish HQ, if only to crack it open long enough to announce the new release date of my debut novel I Am The River, and to share the updated cover image (which is subject to minor tweaking before wrapping the MS for the sometimes perilous journey to the printer).

The official release date for I Am The River is now October 1, 2018. All pre-order customers who placed their orders through the Lethe Press website will (a) get their orders shipped out on September 1, 2018, and (b) be allowed to apply any monies already paid to Lethe Press through their website for the trade paperback to the planned hardcover edition of the novel (contact Lethe Press to arrange for the credit transfer). This is the most recent news from the publisher, shared with the caveat that small adjustments to schedules and details could be made between now and September. If so, I will share what information I have with you when it becomes available on this site.

Note, too, the updated cover, created by the insanely talented Ives Hovanessian, with changes from “A Novella” to “A Novel,” as the latter is what I Am The River grew into while assuming its ultimate form, settling down into its skin at just over 53,000 words. As shared previously, I hadn’t planned on writing this grim, strange story of Israel Broussard as my first novel, thinking that the piece didn’t need that much room to breathe, but the persons, places, and things dwelling in the jungle and in and around the perpetually damp streets of The Floating City had other ideas. It’s a bigger story than I first envisioned, more brutal, and odd, wanting to be told in a way that took me out of my comfort zone. Which is fitting, I think. I do hope you enjoy it.

In the meantime, while waiting for the always cruel summer to grind through to autumn, I’d be thrilled if you’d add the book on Goodreads, and if so moved, pre-order through the Lethe site. ARC and galley copies are available to verified review sources and related media, so please contact either me or Lethe Press directly to secure a review copy.

And now, the blurbs we have marshaled so far (also available in semi-permanence here), of which I am quite proud, humbled, and incredibly grateful:

“I Am The River is the kind of thing that might happen if Algernon Blackwood had been brought in to do a rewrite of Apocalypse Now. A man barely holding onto his sanity in Bangkok remains haunted, stalked by a huge hound and undone by his own addiction.  His only way out is through revisiting his past in the Vietnam War and the secret PSY-OPS mission he was involved in–and which he’s been running from ever since.  A haunting meditation on war, death, addiction, and responsibility, with mindblowing forays into the weird.” — Brian Evenson, author of A Collapse of Horses and The Warren

“With echoes of Peter Straub’s KOKO and Apocalypse Now, T.E. Grau’s blazing, immersive novel takes us on the hell-ride of the Vietnam War’s last days as its raging waters also carry us through the first of our last days. I AM THE RIVER is a hallucinatory tour de force.” — Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World

“An intelligent accumulation of inner and outer darkness.” — Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual

“A lush green nightmarish journey into the dark, reminiscent of the late, great Lucius Shepard.” — Ben Loory, author of Tales of Falling and Flying

“Grau is our boatman on this psychedelic journey of ghosts and guilt, artillery and atonement. More than a war story, I Am The River forces us to confront the bloody aftereffects in a way that is both powerful and poignant. A cautionary tale for the soul.” — Ian Rogers, author of Every House Is Haunted

“I Am the River is a macabre journey through a hostile land where a soldier’s act of brutality haunts him, body and soul. With one remarkable collection under his belt, Grau now shows with his debut novel that he’s clearly at the head of the pack when it comes to compelling voices in weird horror fiction today.” — Christopher Slatsky, author of Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales