This book will make you laugh out loud as it skewers the sacred cows of the graduate writing workshop
Jonis Agee, author of The Bones of Paradise
Ian M. Rogers is a terrific new voice, and his debut novel is a winner
Sean Doolittle, author of Lake Country.
A fierce testament to the struggle of fitting into the MFA environment and choosing to blaze your own path
S.R. Stewart, managing editor, Unsolicited Press
Click here to order a signed copy and get a FREE limited edition bookmark designed by cover artist Jessica Bell.
The MFA Thesis Novel Book Club Guide is now available! Download the author Q&A and discussion questions.
Synopsis
Creative ne’er-do-well Flip Montcalm isn’t cut out for office life, so he jumps at the chance to join an MFA program in the rural Midwest. Broke and infatuated with the 20th century literary canon, he alienates his writing workshop with five hundred pages of existential dread, can’t name a single player on the university football team, and is actively trying to steal a rival writer’s girlfriend.
Flip needs a new novel idea fast, so he turns to his cohorts for help: a career PhD student who hasn’t written in a decade, a professor with no opinions, a narcissist whose novels read like action movies, and a frat boy underplaying his suburban privilege. As he fights off academic conformity and obsessive football fans, Flip faces the challenge of writing a novel that’ll not only satisfy his artistic passions, but might even get him a better job.
A delicious romp through the smudged halls of academia, this book will make you laugh out loud, as pretenders, druggies, hapless romantics, and the slightly talented do battle in fiction, trying to invent a book that will save them from the fate of ordinary life.
Want to see more? Download a FREE sample chapter (PDF).
A very funny book about books, about creativity, about a writer’s desire for isolation vs. the desire for community—these are outsiders among outsiders, and Ian M. Rogers writes with a wit that’s as dry and sharp as the best academic satire.
Timothy Schaffert, author of The Perfume Thief
Buy a Signed Copy
Signed copies are available from the But I Also Have a Day Job store! Each one comes with a FREE limited edition bookmark, and I’ll even write something cool in it for you. (It’s the best way to support me as an indie author!!!!)
Buy Local
If your local bookstore’s on this list, order direct from them first!!
● Main Street BookEnds (Warner, NH)
● Gibson’s Bookstore (Concord, NH)
● Morgan Hill Bookstore (New London, NH)
● Water Street Bookstore (Exeter, NH)
● Byrd’s Books (Bethel, CT)
Buy Online
Support small presses and me as an indie author by buying directly from Vine Leaves Press! More money goes to me as the author, and to VLP. (The store automatically converts from Euros to your home currency at checkout, and all books print and ship from the US or UK.)
Prefer an e-book? Gumroad has you covered.
Hard copies are also available from IndieBound , Powell’s independent booksellers, or the destroyer of worlds, evil corporate empire Amazon.com.
I seriously hope you enjoy this awesome book I wrote, especially since it has a bunch of jokes in it. If you like it, drop me a line, consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads, or check out my blog for more on how the novel came to be.