April can be rough. Rain, thunder, bugs finding their way back into your bedroom, spring not quite sure if it wants to be warm, or suddenly drop back to sweater weather right when you’ve finally decided its time to stop dragging that thing around with you because you’ve never put it on. Yes it’s true that April tries to spice itself up a bit with April Fools’ Day but really, how does allowing people to screw you over help alleviate the stress of your looming taxes? But even the endless clouds of April have a silver lining and we here at Atticus Books found it in the form of four Independent Publisher Book Awards, a host of book reviews, and a whole lot of surprises from our authors. Read on to see what they’ve been up to…
JÜRGEN FAUTH
Since the April 17th release of his debut novel Kino, Jürgen Fauth has been getting some serious attention from the independent literary world. With reviews pouring in from popular blogs like Popcorn Reads and Forever 
Overhead, to the personal opinions of bloggers like Nicki J. Markus, and even a happily surprised close friend over at Litkicks,it seems there’s no end to the kind words of bloggers everywhere. Picky Girl calls the novel, “Funny at times but deeply despairing,” and praises Kino as “a testament to the visionary but destructive power of genius.” Of course, if you’d like to form your own opinion of Fauth’s debut novel, some tantalizing excerpts can be found at Guernica and The Collagist.
He was a liar and a fraud. But I had felt the power of the dragon, had tasted the unfettered potential of cinema to create something true and beautiful and dangerous, and I had to have more.
To get into the fascinating nitty gritty of how the book came to be, you can read Jürgen’s thoughts on himself as a German vs. American author, the research behind Kino, Fritz Lang, and the beginnings of translation talk at Readux, a Berlin-based literary magazine. If you’re interested in a more personal touch, Jürgen was spotted giving a reading of his novel over at Jimmy43 in NYC on April 15th, and he was tracked down by Largehearted Boy to put together a playlist that he thought best suited his novel. We hope the good times keep rolling and that all get to discover “that creative chaos lies underneath–standing in a foamy sea with a pirate hat and a peg leg.”
JARED YATES SEXTON
While awaiting the November 23rd release of his collection of short stories An End to All Things, Jared Yates Sexton has kept busy writing and keeping up with his duties as Managing Editor at BULL: Men’s Fiction. You can check out his latest short story, “A Man Gets Tired,” published at PANK, and if you’re in the mood for some interesting words on writing structure, music, and the status of the novel, check out Sexton’s interview with Chuck Klosterman, essayist and author of such popular hipster favorites as “Sex, Drugs and, Cocoa Puffs.”
ERIC D. GOODMAN
Almost a year after its release date, Eric’s novel-in-stories Tracks is still making an impression worldwide. He was spotted giving a reading at J&J Book Cafe in Madrid, Spain on April 15th to an eclectic audience of English, Irish, Scottish, and American ex-pats. And if selling out copies of his book in Madrid isn’t impressive enough, he also picked up the Independent Publisher Book Award for the U.S. mid-atlantic region. Eric was also a featured author at the Citylit festival in Baltimore and the Gaithersburg Book Festival. The folks at the Gaithersburg festival sat down with Goodman for a brief interview to discuss what he’s reading now and which writers he draws inspiration from. The Potomac called Tracks “A parade of colorful characters reappear throughout, narratives overlap”, and featured his latest story, “Family for Sale.” But most endearing is the heartfelt review earned from this young Aussie who can’t get enough of the author whose name he can’t remember:
MATT MULLINS
Matt’s collection of short stories, Three Ways of the Saw (released this past February) continues to find a warm welcome from readers . It seems that even those reviewers skeptical of short fiction are rolling the dice on this one, like those over at The Next Best Book Blog. Even new dad Nathan Holic at Burrow Press Review is finding time for Mullin’s stories. The Collagist raves that Mullins “[w]rites with an eye for the everyday travails of ordinary folk. He is unafraid to experiment with language and narrative form. In that sense, this collection avoids being lumped in with the forests of conventional, Bukowski-clone paeans to a nation’s down-and-outs.” And decomP writer Spencer Hews takes an in-depth look at his favorite story “The Braid.” Take a peek at Extracts for an excerpt from the collection.
JOHN MINICHILLO 
It’s been a busy month for John Minichillo. His published works cleaned up pretty nicely as his novel The Snow Whale was selected as one of Orion Book Award’s “Books We Liked” and won the Independent Publisher Book Award in the U.S. West-Pacific Region. The novel got a glowing review from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography and two of John’s short stories found their way into Wigleaf’s Top 50 List for short fiction. And as if that’s not enough proof that he’s doing something right, John also published two more stories, “Finally” and “Sleep, Mother, Sleep” over at Smokelong Quarterly.
STEVE HIMMER
Steve Himmer’s novel The Bee-Loud Glade has been praised as a “darkly comic commentary on modern work and wealth” by one reviewer, and Litseen called it “an honor to read.” Check out this trailer for it now.
ALEX KUDERA
While all authors rejoice at the idea of their work being taught, not all are grateful enough to Skype into a class discussion with the graduate students who’ve just studied it. But that’s exactly what Alex Kudera did when he heard that a class at St. Joe’s in Philadelphia was reading his novel. Alex has also given a reading of his latest work at the Clemson Literary Festival, and his book, Fight for Your Long Day, was reviewed in the academic journal “Radical Teacher.”
JM TOHLINE
Along with winning the Independent Publisher Book Award in the Northeast Region, the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography recently boasted that Tohline’s novel The Great Lenore is “certainly is a sign of a writer who still has a lot of great work ahead of him.” And we certainly hope to see it!
NATHAN LESLIE
Author of forthcoming novel Tommy Twice, Nathan Leslie recently published an article at Hippocampus Magazine about his first job. Check it out and see how real life experience sometimes makes the best stories!
Photo Source: guide2.co.nz