Forest of Fortune in Publisher’s Weekly

Books

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Forest of Fortune gets a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. No spoilers, but lots of love:

Ruland brilliantly blends the darkly comedic crime fiction sensibilities of Charles Willeford with creepy paranormal undertones à la Dean Koontz in his addictively readable debut, the chronicle of three hard-luck losers who try to turn their lives around in an Indian-owned casino in a remote region of Southern California…. The existential angst in this story is palpable, and Ruland is particularly good at describing the casino’s customers: “addicts, imbeciles, and thrift-store bimbos.” Powered by adept characterization, darkly lyrical prose, and an unexpected but oh-so-perfect ending, this is the literary equivalent of a slot machine jackpot.

 

In Praise of the Quota

Books

Strictly for word nerds and people who obsess over their writing habits. 

Yesterday, I wrote three pages of­­­ my new novel. There’s nothing special about that. It wasn’t the first three pages or the last three pages or a particularly good three pages. But it was the 100th day in a row in which I wrote at least one page of the novel.

Forest of Fortune in Vol. 1 Brooklyn

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Tobias Carroll at Vol. 1 Brooklyn interviewed me about Forest of Fortune, Vermin on the Mount, and Famous Sailors. 

You recently decided to move to San Diego full-time. Do you anticipate this having any effect on your writing?

I hope so. Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve worked as a copywriter all my life and I’m taking a break from advertising for a bit. How long? I don’t know. I’m really looking forward to committing my time and energy to the things I’m most passionate about, which includes a new storytelling project with veteran writers called Famous Sailors. Maybe I’m being naïve. Maybe I’ll end up back at the casino. Maybe I’ll walk down to the Pacific and from there I’ll improvise. Who knows? San Diego has always been a great place for old sailors.

Forest of Fortune in Yay! L.A.

Books,

Super grateful to Justin Maurer for interviewing me for Yay! L.A. Magazine.  Justin is a writer and former frontman for Clorox Girls, who made one of my all-time favorite records, and is always on the level. An excerpt:

What advice would you give to aspiring writers who may be struggling with writers block?

Read. Read your favorite writer. Read your favorite writer’s favorite writer. Read everything your writing teacher has ever written (especially if you don’t like your writing teacher). Read poetry. Read plays. Read comic books. Read toothpaste ingredients. The only thing you have no business reading is the biographies of famous writers unless you are a budding biographer of someone famous. Drive around town and look at all of the words and remind yourself that every book, movie, TV show, commercial, billboard, bus bench, graffiti, radio jingle, menu, soda can, everything that has words on it was written by someone and there is a place in all that madness for you.

The Killers Inside Us All

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I spent a month with this monster. You should, too. 

Despite the influence of Roberto Bolaño’s “2666,” Sutler calls the protagonist of another open-ended epic to mind: Tyrone Slothrop of Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow,” a character who disappears from the book but whose presence can be felt on every page. “The Kills” has similar goals as “Gravity’s Rainbow”: to expose the greed and corruption that thrives in the economy of war.

Read the rest of the review in the Los Angeles Times.