1–What is the title of your latest release?
2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A found family that includes a gill-man, a twelve-year-old witch, and a pint-sized gunslinger, must survive the worst natural disaster in US History, while evading a pair of greedy scoundrels, and helping the eponymous gill-man get home to the ocean.
3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I knew from the start that this book would take place during the Great Storm of 1900, a hurricane that leveled the city of Galveston and killed thousands. Galveston is the heart of this story, and one of the main characters.
4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Yeah, sure, although I feel there are a few different protagonists in this one. Let’s go with Charlie Fish, since he’s the strangest, and the book is named after him. I feel like Charlie would be content to sit back on the porch, drink some beer, and smoke a few cigarettes. Maybe play some dominoes or watch a baseball game. Charlie is quiet, so I’d be able to read a book in peace and maybe take a nap too.
5–What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Homesick, Loyal, Scaled
6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?
This book features alternating first person points of view, moving back and forth between Nellie (the aforementioned witch) and Floyd (the lynchpin of their makeshift family.) All the Floyd sections were written first, and then the Nellie sections were added later. I’m generally a linear writer, first chapter to last, and I had to figure out how to add the Nellie sections to the existing work, without making it feel like they were being shoehorned in. Overall, I think the whole thing flows really well, and it’s a narrative approach I’d like to try again.
7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit obsessively as I draft. Every time I sit down to write, I retool the last section I wrote to make sure it’s exactly what I want it to be, before proceeding. I do this throughout the process. The result is, my first draft comes out clean as a third or fourth draft, and there’s no huge re-write to be done. This isn’t the right or the wrong way to do it, but it’s the one that works best for my brain. The thought of writing and rewriting drafts gives me the chills.
8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
To quote the great Larry McMurtry, “Only a rank degenerate would drive 1500 miles across Texas without eating a chicken fried steak.”
9–Describe your writing space/office!
I write everywhere. I travel for work, so The Legend of Charlie Fish was written in hotel rooms, airports, coffee shops, and anywhere else that I can make space to open my laptop. I’ve never had a particular writing location that I go to every day. Now that my oldest son has moved out, I do have an office in what used to be his bedroom, outfitted with a writing desk and everything. Yet I still find myself sitting on the couch, because writing at a desk seems foreign to me at this point.
10–Who is an author you admire?
There are so many, but the one that comes front of mind is Joe R. Lansdale. He’s an obvious influence on The Legend of Charlie Fish, and on my writing in general. I began reading him in the early nineties when I discovered his short stories. I enjoyed them immensely as a reader (and still do) and they really opened up my eyes as a writer. Joe has never shied away from mixing and matching genres in his stories and novels and reading him in those days assured me it was okay to mix those things up in my own work. I’ve been publishing stories for twenty years, and they’ve ranged from dark fantasy to weird horror to western to science fiction to alternate history, and so on. Often, I mingle a few of those together in each of my stories, and The Legend of Charlie Fish is no exception. Thanks to Joe for that enduring inspiration!
11–Is there a book that changed your life?
It’s got to be Lonesome Dove. I read it in my twenties, and it shook my world. I immediately went out and read everything else I could find from Larry McMurtry, and he’s since become my all-time favorite writer. His voice and his themes have become major influences in my writing, and I don’t think anyone has ever written a better book about Texas and the people who inhabit it. It was the first book that made me question the reality of the west vs. the Hollywood version, and that sentiment is ingrained into almost everything I write. Follow up Lonesome Dove with The Last Picture Show, Horseman Pass By, Terms of Endearment, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, and so many others. Reading McMurtry changed the direction of my writing in much the same way that reading Lansdale did.
12–Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
It was Rick Klaw, my friend and editor, who called to give me the good news. The book was submitted to Tachyon, and everyone there liked it, but felt it needed a bit of work. Rick put his editor hat on and helped point me in the right direction. I undertook some substantial additions and got it back in Tachyon’s hands. So, I was hopeful they’d give it a home. Cautiously optimistic. But there was no guarantee. When the call from Rick came, I just imagined my ten-year-old self, buying books off the spinner rack and dreaming of being a writer someday. Man, it was such a cool feeling.
13–What’s your favorite genre to read?
I read in a ton of genres, all the ones I mentioned above and more. These days, though, I’m more likely to pick up a crime novel or a western than anything else. And I love reading short stories above all else.
14–What’s your favorite movie?
The Empire Strikes Back. It latched on to my seven-year-old brain and has never let go.
15–What is your favorite season?
Autumn, Fall, Halloween, Samhain, anything else you want to call it. When the chill hits the air, and the leaves start to fall, and darkness comes calling early, that’s my perfect world. I spend the rest of the year, waiting for it.
16–How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Staying at home with my family, watching movies and playing games. Add in some donuts for breakfast, tacos for dinner, and a strawberry cake, and that’s the perfect day.
17–What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’ll cheat and recommend one of each. I’ve haven’t seen much of Yellowstone, but the prequel, 1883, was an absolutely fantastic western, with just ten or so episodes, so no major commitment. For a movie, I really enjoyed Something in the Dirt, the new film from Benson & Moorhead, a filmmaking duo who never miss the mark. Like all their movies, this one is cosmic horror, and wonderfully surreal. The best book I’ve red recently is Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper. I think Jordan is the best crime writer working, and this one features the dark side of Hollywood, a contemporary noir in the spirit of James Ellroy. And my favorite podcast is Dead and Lovely, a horror film review show with hilarious and insightful hosts.
18–What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Mexican food, without a doubt. I will happily eat it morning noon and night. In particular, al pastor or carnitas tacos can sustain me indefinitely.
19–What do you do when you have free time?
Play guitar, read books, watch movies, play board games. And write, of course. Writing isn’t my main source of income, so it’s all done in my spare time.
20–What can readers expect from you next?
I’m working on another book that’s set in the same universe as The Legend of Charlie Fish, and it may have one or two characters tying them together. For years I’ve been writing monster stories set in Texas between the 1830s and the 1930s, and they all exist in the same world in my mind. Occasionally these stories will reference one another, but the idea is that they will all stand alone. The Legend of Charlie Fish is the first book length work in that universe, but I hope to have more soon!
THE LEGEND OF CHARLIE FISH by Josh Rountree
Josh Rountree’s powerful debut Western novel wades into the literary waters of True Grit and Lonesome Dove by way of The Shape of Water. This story of turn-of-the-20th-century Texas pits an unlikely found family, including a strange gill-man, against relentless bounty hunters—all set against the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
After burying his father, Floyd Betts is returning to Galveston, Texas. He is not alone in his journey, riding out of town with two orphaned siblings he has rescued. Descended from a long line of witches, Nellie struggles with visions from other people’s minds. Her impulsive younger brother Hank just wants to break out his oversized revolver.
On the way to Galveston, Floyd, Nellie, and Hank rescue a lost, two-legged amphibian, Charlie Fish. But dangerous men, who want to profit from the spectacle of Charlie, are hot on their trail.
As Nell forms a strong psychic bond with Charlie, Floyd, still grieving, is struggling to protect this strange new family. Ominous winds are picking up from an impending hurricane. Meanwhile, all Charlie wants is to return to his home at sea.
With the taut intensity of an impending storm, Josh Rountree has created a unique Western, neo-gothic novel that demonstrates exactly why he is a rising star of American fiction.
Fantasy [Tachyon Publications, On Sale: July 25, 2023, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781616963941 / ]
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About Josh Rountree
Josh Rountree has published more than sixty stories in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies, including Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Realms of Fantasy, The Deadlands, Bourbon Penn, PseudoPod, PodCastle, Daily Science Fiction, and A Punk Rock Future. Several of his stories have received honorable mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth and Twenty-First Annual Collections, as well as The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection. His latest short fiction collection is Fantastic Americana: Stories from Fairwood Press. Josh lives somewhere in the untamed wilds of Texas with his wife and children, and he tweets about books, records, and guitars.
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