John at eight weeks old. 1/66.

From time to time, you may wake up from a dead sleep and wonder, "What's new with John?" That's what this page is meant to tell you.

Of course, John may not update it as often as you'd like. Or he may update it more often than you'd like. It's hard to tell what will happen.

Whatever the case may be, new things are always happening to John. When those things happen, John will ponder them at length, make lists, jot down notes, and distill all the new things into two categories: 1) new things worth mentioning, 2) new things not worth mentioning. In the end, what you'll find below is a list of all new things worth mentioning. Enjoy!

(Warning: You'll occasionally find one or two things that were not worth mentioning. Please ignore them.)

5/11/2009

Yo. Here's the catalog copy for my new novel.

***

AFTER THE WORKSHOP: A Novel by John McNally
to be published by Counterpoint, early 2010

THE LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FICIONALIZED MEMOIR OF A STUNTED WRITER-TURNED-AUTHOR ESCORT

You graduate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop with a short story published in The New Yorker and subsequently Best American Short Stories. You stay in town and work on your novel. And work on your novel. And work on your novel. Until, finally, twelve years have passed and you are working as a media escort for author tours and your unfinished novel sits in a box under your bed. Your girlfriend has left you. Your car is missing a muffler. Your neighbor is walking around naked because his hands are too badly frostbitten to unzip his pants. You are at the whims of a slew of increasingly crazy writers, and when one of them disappears, an insane New York publicist begins stalking you.

This is the life of Jack Hercules Sheahan, a character well understood by author John McNally. He is also a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as well as a former media escort, and these misadventures are brought to life by his very own.

Recalling the ease and humor of novels by Nick Hornby and Michael Chabon, After the Workshop tells the satirical story of a writer who confronts the demons from his past while escorting those of his present.

5/9/2009

It's Short Story Month over on Emerging Writers Network, and I posted my two-cents on a Guest Post. Nothing earth-shattering, but I hope it'll lead you to some writers you don't know, or, perhaps, revisit some writers you know but haven't read in a while. Enjoy!

3/19/2009

I am very pleased to announce that my new novel, After the Workshop, will be published next year by Counterpoint. Counterpoint puts out great (and great-looking) books, so I'm particularly honored to have a book with them. Some of their authors include James Salter (an old teacher of mine), Evan Connell (who wrote the Mr. and Mrs. Bridge books, as well as Son of the Morning Star), and Gina Berriault (a favorite of Richard Yates). More details as they become available.

3/2/2009

Ghosts of Chicago made The Believer Magazine's Reader Survey for top twenty best books of fiction published in 2008. I'm thrilled, but...how did this happen? No, I mean, really: If The Believer was published in Chicago, I'd understand it...maybe. I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm honored. I am. And, in addition to the members of the Academy and Touchstone Pictures, I'd like to thank whoever voted for the book. Seriously. Thanks, folks. Here's the list:

THE BELIEVER'S READER SURVEY RESULTS

1. 2666—Roberto Bolaño
2. Unlucky Lucky Days—Daniel Grandbois
3. Lush Life—Richard Price
4. The Lazarus Project—Aleksandar Hemon
5. Netherland—Joseph O’Neill
6. Vacation—Deb Olin Unferth
7. Unaccustomed Earth—Jhumpa Lahiri
8. Arkansas—John Brandon
9. A Mercy—Toni Morrison
10. Indignation—Philip Roth
11. Death with Interruptions—José Saramago
12. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle—David Wroblewski
13. Bottomless Belly Button—Dash Shaw
14. A Heaven of Others—Joshua Cohen
15. So Brave, Young, and Handsome—Leif Enger
16. How the Dead Dream—Lydia Millet
17. Personal Days—Ed Park
18. A Fraction of the Whole—Steve Toltz
19. The Drop Edge of Yonder—Rudolph Wurlitzer
20. Ghosts of Chicago—John McNally

11/11/2008

As those of you who saw me on book tour in October witnessed, I was sick for the entire two weeks, coughing on prospective book buyers and offering my clammy hand for them to shake. My apologies for anyone who fell ill after coming to see me.

But I'll be back in December for a one night reading/signing engagement on the fifth. Check out the Book Tour section of the website. Right now, I'm scheduled to appear on WGN-TV's midday news that same day to talk about GHOSTS OF CHICAGO. Afterward, I'll head down to Beverly for a reading at what I've been told is a very nice bar called O'Rourke's Office. I hope to see you there!

4/24/2008

For those of you from Burbank, Illinois, or the southwest side of Chicago, I've started a blog dedicated to Burbank nostalgia: Beautiful Downtown Burbank (Illinois). I hope you'll check it out. And if you have photos of Burbank -- or significant southwest-side landmarks -- please email them to me at bookofralph@aol.com

Thanks!

4/21/2008

Hey, hey. Amazon has finally added book jacket images for my two forthcoming books. The first book, which I coedited with Owen King, Who Can Save Us Now?: Brand-New Superheroes and their Amazing (Short) Stories will be out in mid-July. It is precisely what it sounds like: 22 superhero stories by writers such as Jennifer Weiner, Tom Bissell, Jim Shepard, among others.

The publisher is presently running a short story contest, but if you want to enter, you'd better hurry. The deadline is May 15.

My other new book, a collection of short stories titled Ghosts of Chicago, will be published in October. Here's a description of the book: "John Belushi. Walter Payton. Richard J. Daley. Nelson Algren. Frazier Thomas. These dead Chicagoans are among those who hover over and haunt John McNally’s Ghosts of Chicago, his first story collection since the award-winning Troublemakers. Gene Siskel, impatient with the movie he’s watching, taunts Roger Ebert; Miss Betsy, the host of Romper Room, experiences her own awakening during the sexual revolution; George Pullman remembers his greatest triumph as he draws his last breath. But there are also stories here of everyday people who must confront their own private ghosts: an accountant who falls in love with a woman who’s in love with a man on death row; a boy whose fascination with movie monsters grows stronger as his mother’s pregnancy comes to term; a memoirist whose dark night of the soul leads him on a journey from which he may not return. Praised by writers as diverse as Richard Russo, Irvine Welsh, Elizabeth McCracken, T.C. Boyle, and Mitch Albom, John McNally confirms with Ghosts of Chicago what National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon wrote after reading America’s Report Card: 'John McNally is emerging as one of the best American writers of the new century.'"

Keep checking the book tour section as I'll be adding dates throughout the year.