Author: Ted Wheeler

Lost in Iberia

| Ted Wheeler

Here are some choice photos from my last couple weeks hanging out in Portugal and Spain! The Disquiet International Literary Program is what brought me to Lisbon–and I had a blast with the other participants with all the events and bar nights–but I was also able to fit in a couple side trips too. It’s been pretty great to recharge spiritually before my first novel comes out in a few weeks. (Have I mentioned Kings of Broken Things yet? Order now!) On the spiritual restoration score, mission accomplished! But my body is a little beat up. So much fun though.

 

Alfama, Lisbon.
2D sculpture, Barcelona.
Bookmobile parked outside our visit to the US Embassy, Lisbon.
Green sea rocks, Cascais.
Sardine tapas at Sol e Pesce, Lisbon.
Lisbon.
Sagrada Família, Barcelona.
Beach in Cascais.
The rocky outcrop we sunned on at Cascais.
Gótico, Barcelona.
Jamón in Barcelona.
Miradouro breakfast, Lisbon.
Gótico, Barcelona.
Golden Gate Bridge, sort of, Lisbon.
View from Aljube, Lisbon.
On the Tagus River with Amina Gautier.
Beautiful views in Cascais.
Church at Miradouro Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Lisbon.
Mural in Bairro Alto, Lisbon.
Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcantara, just around the corner from my place in Lisbon.
Cais das colunas, Lisbon.
Praça do Comércio, Lisbon.
Crazy sea boulders, Cascais.
Tapas, Lisbon.
At Sole e Pesce with CCB, Lisbon.
Beach drinks, Barcelona.

Goodreads Giveaway Goes Live

| Ted Wheeler

img_4239Amazon Publishing and Little a are conducting a Goodreads Giveaway this month for my novel, giving away 100 free Kindle editions of Kings of Broken Things to those who are selected.

For the uninitiated, you have to join Goodreads in order to enter the contest; once you’re a member just click the “Enter Giveaway” button on this page. It’s pretty easy.

I’ve only ever won a book once, but I love Goodreads Giveaways. Free books! Well, possible free books. Anyway, you can’t win if you don’t play.

Kings of Broken Things is a Kindle First Selection!

| Ted Wheeler

wheeler-kings-of-broken-things-final-front-coverThis is some special news I’ve been sitting on for several months–so it’s with great pleasure that I share that my novel Kings of Broken Things is a Kindle First selection for July!

For those who don’t know, Kindle First is a free program that offers early access to select books from across Amazon Publishing at a discounted price. So, while my publication date remains August 1 for the print and audio editions, anyone in the US can get the Kindle edition early for $1.99, or for free if you’re a Prime member.

Anyway, click on the link for more information. It’s a great deal and a special honor for APub authors. Only six books a month are chosen and they must be nominated by their edition to be considered. Thanks so much to my amazing editor Vivian Lee and the rest of the team at Little a for pulling this together.

Here’s what Vivian had to say about Kings and why she nominated it for the program:

“It is 1917 and Omaha is home to a diverse array of refugees and immigrants from war-torn European countries. Jake, Karel, and Evie are coming of age in a time of increasing nationalism, xenophobia, and political corruption. And with wounded soldiers returning from war but finding their jobs have been filled by black migrants from the south, Omaha now looks to be a tinderbox of racial resentment, gleefully stoked by the corrupt, moneyed politicians running the town. Wheeler masterfully creates multiple layers and hidden depths in these characters and the worlds they inhabit in restrained, yet powerful language. Intertwining scenes of the annual Interrace baseball game, a town navigating a false accusation that leads to the real-life lynch mob that burns down parts of Omaha in what is now called the Red Summer of 1919, and the characters’ acts of love and survival in all their complicated forms, Kings of Broken Things is heavy, yes, but will stay with you for a very long time. To quote PEN/Faulkner finalist Julie Iromuanya, ‘This book’s relevance, in the context of today’s concerns, cannot be overstated.'”

 

Kings Named a “Must-Read” by OWH

| Ted Wheeler

Check out today’s Omaha World-Herald, which named Kings of Broken Things one of 13 must-read books for this summer! We’re less than six weeks out before pub day and it’s amazing to see this go out across the city and interwebs. 

Thanks so much to OWH for calling Kings a novel of “special interest to locals” that’s getting “national attention.”  

More soon…

Emerging Writers Network Interview

| Ted Wheeler

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Check out this latest interview about my story collection Bad Faith that was posted today on the Emerging Writers Network!

EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as a reader?

TW: I enjoy magazine or journal short stories as sorts of beautiful found objects. My house is often littered with magazines and books that come in the mail, and it’s a certain pleasure to pick up an object and read a short story inside without knowing what the story is about or even who the author is most of the time. My reading list is often crowded and probably too carefully curated, so that sense of surprise and wonder that comes from spontaneously jumping into something new is often lacking. Short stories, particularly stand-alone stories, fill this need in my life as a reader.

Kirkus Reviews Kings

| Ted Wheeler

The first short review of my forthcoming debut novel Kings of Broken Things was published this morning on Kirkus Review! A thoughtful and generally insightful review, it’s pretty exciting to see my book being critiqued after working for nearly a decade researching and writing. Only 77 days until pub day! Let the sleepless nights begin.

Read the full review on Kirkus–and pre-order your copy now if you haven’t already. Here’s a sample of the review:

“Underlying the novel is a taut racial division, illustrated by the yearly interrace baseball game and culminating in a false accusation which incites a sickeningly vicious lynch mob. For its descriptions of the violent outcomes of prejudice and political misconduct, this novel at once illuminates a savage moment in history and offers a timely comment on nationalism and racism. An unsettling and insightful piece of historical fiction.”

“Folding Nebraska into fiction” from the OWH

| Ted Wheeler

58e8eeebf4180-imageCheck out this article from last month in the Omaha World-Herald by Micah Mertes that explores how Nebraska has been used as a setting by contemporary novelists.

The article focuses mostly on Dan Chaon and his new book, with some choice quotes from Stephen King, Jonis Agee, Timothy Schaffert, Rainbow Rowell, and a hot young new-comer named Wheeler with a new novel coming out this summer. It’s a fun article, and an honor to have my thoughts included with the titans above.

Here’s the full article if you’re interested, and a quote for now:

Depending on the writer’s aim, that emptiness can yield horror, despair or loneliness. It can yield solitude, serenity, God. It can yield mystery.

“And mystery,” said Omaha author Theodore Wheeler, “is what drives almost all fiction in one way or another. Every story needs something to solve, I guess.”

Wheeler’s next novel will explore a different kind of the unknown, and one closer to home: the immigrant culture of Omaha in the 1910s. “Kings of Broken Things,” on sale Aug. 1, casts fictional characters amid precise historical detail and real-life events — like the Omaha race riot of 1919.

My D.C.-AWP 2017 in Photos!

| Ted Wheeler
Vivian Lee, Viet Dinh and me at the Little A party.
Outside our KWLS reading at East City Bookshop.
Inside the KWLS reading at East City Bookshop, with Sam Slaughter, Jay Deshpande, Paula Whyman, and Amina Gautier.
Hanging out with Dave Mullins at the Creighton MFA booth.
Nicole at the Lincoln Memorial.
Hello! from the Washington Monument.
At the FDR Memorial.

 

Tethered by Letters Author Q&A

| Ted Wheeler

c77vnhlwkaqyaiiCheck out this new interview that features my thoughts on writing, publishing, and MFA programs over at the Tethered by Letters Author Q&A Series!

I’m ecstatic to be featured on the page, as the TbL Q&A Series is a great resource for writers, both beginning and established. It’s well-worth your time to check out the archives, including interviews with Maggie Smith, Dana Gioia,  Sandra Marchetti, Karen Craigo, and Saleh Saterstrom. The Q&As are heavy on the process of becoming an established writer and are great for writing students.

Thanks so much to Tethered by Letters for including my responses, and for Amanda DeNatale for conducting the interview.

Here’s an excerpt:

Probably like most writers, I’ve always had an inescapable urge to tell stories. Some of my earliest memories are of using a George Washington paper-doll my mom made to recreate scenes from a Time-Life series of American history books we had in the house, and I was writing some of these stories down by the time I started elementary school. That’s not a career event, of course, but where things started. For most of my childhood I planned on being either a sports writer for a newspaper or a comic book writer for Marvel when I grew up. What I do now isn’t too far off from that—my day job is as a reporter (but on civil law and politics, not sports) and I write literary fiction instead of super hero comics. Most of my life has been following an impulse to write, which led to different jobs and styles that allow me to keep going in ways that are fulfilling. I don’t think there was ever an epiphany, more just doing what has kept me engaged and happy.