We Shall All Meet At The Mountain: Bloodshot Books and Brian Fatah Steele

This an introduction to an ongoing series of articles spotlighting authors and presses Rooster Republic Press has worked with over the years. Twice a month, on Tuesdays, we will showcase clients and our conjoined work to hopefully help spread the word on the multitudes of talent we’ve encountered. 

So there’s been a few thousand eyes on the website just in the last month and we here at Rooster discussed what would be a good way to help spread some visibility around for the writing community. If you’re new to what we do, we’re an indie press that has a focus on weird fiction and horror. But wait, there’s more. 

A few years ago I moved from doing book covers just for our own releases to opening up shop to the public. The first day, right out of the gate, it became pretty clear that I’d found some kind of calling, or at least my niche. I was able to leave my job in hospice and work solely on the press and freelancing book covers. It was a total leap of faith, but it changed the trajectory of my life. Freelance work and a wise business wizard (my co-owner, author and artist, Nicholas Day @nickdayonline) help sustain a great direction for the press and keep the lights on. It’s been a trip, dear reader. 

I would say it feels surreal but that’s not really the case anymore. The thing about America that I’ve learned is that given enough time your goals and dreams simply become work, and eventually, that work becomes all encompassing, and in a way, its own prison – so build the prison you’ll feel most comfortable with and settle in, Sisyphus.

We shall all meet at The Mountain. 

It definitely was surreal at first. I’d wake up everyday with a bit of panic. Jump out of bed, reach for my scrubs and work gear and realize – wait, I’m already at work, and art is my job now. 

> insert mind exploding gif. 

Fast forward several years to one of our books (from the amazing Sara Tantlinger) winning a Stoker, another Stoker finalist nomination, aaaaaand a now exhaustive list of clients, we have approached a new precipice – if there’s going to be some eyes on us, then a part of who we are and why we exist is entwined with writers, and not just the ones we publish, but the ones we make covers for and the other presses who help propel these authors. 

So let’s go back to one of our very clients, Bloodshot Books and the first book cover I made for them.