Is it still March? Oh. That must mean I have a new story out.
Yes, in some bizarre coincidence of editorial schedules, March seems to be The Month of Sam — or at least The Month of Sam’s Fiction. So far I’ve had two stories published, and today I add a third, in the seriously cool SOL: English Writing in Mexico. It’s my second time in this exceptional magazine (last year they published my story “It Was the Only Way”), but this one’s a bit different: it’s an excerpt from my Civil War novel, Hagridden.
This publication feels special to me for a whole bunch of reasons. For one thing, it’s the second excerpt of this novel but the first you can read online. It’s not like people have been hammering at the gates trying to get at my novel (yet), but I do have a cabal of close friends and readers who’ve been hankering for this thing, so it’s nice to be able to share it. (I still encourage you all to buy a copy of Sententia #3, where the first excerpt appeared.)
Also, this excerpt is the beginning of the novel, so you know how things start out. It’s as good an introduction to the book as I can imagine, so settle in and hang on!
For another thing, this is the novel that helped earn me an Oregon Literary Fellowship — and in about a week or so, I’ll be heading down to the Louisiana bayou to visit the area where this book takes place, courtesy of those fellowships funds. (Huge thanks, again, to Literary Arts and the fellowship judges!)
And finally, SOL‘s editor, Eva Hunter, has been an enthusiastic supporter of this project, and I am just thrilled to be able to work with her again. She’s a wonderful human being, and whenever we finally get to meet in real life, I owe her a bottle of wine or something.
Anyway. One of these days Hagridden will be a novel, with pages made of ink and paper and some kind of cover. You’ll be able to smell the binding glue and wood pulp. You’ll know how it ends and everything. But in the meantime, here’s how it begins, with this pretty badass excerpt in this very badass magazine, and I hope you enjoy it.
March on, gang!
Samuel Snoek-Brown 
I just read the excerpt from ‘Hagridden’. It’s pretty damn good, I have to say. But don’t let too much of it out in advance, or you run the risk of blunting the impact. I was tempted to reveal a lot of material from ‘Lupa’ in advance; in the end I played my cards very close to my chest, waiting eight years between completing the novel and seeing it published. I think I made the right decision.
Nevertheless, good taster! I’d buy it.
Enjoy Louisiana – laissez les bon temps rouler!
M