J. L. Long
J. L. Long lives in Rochester, New Hampshire with 1 spouse and 3 cats (exact numbers subject to change). He has the hugest possible writer crush on Shirley Jackson, and his fictional boyfriend is Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.
J. L. has published two novels, a novella, a collection of short stories, and a poetry chapbook, as well as written pieces for some small local publications and the Poetry Society of New Hampshire’s anthology, Touchstone. He also hosts a monthly literary salon for writers, Rochester Writers Night. He received a J.D. and a B.A. in English from the College of William & Mary, where he was published in various literary journals and co-founded a progressive political quarterly magazine.
He happily shares his best macaroni and cheese recipes upon request.
Books
Silicon Kings
Jude Randolph works for a biotech company owned by one of the richest men in the world, Dagin Taliaferro. Jude’s just a lowly peon in the financial department until the day he ends up in a meeting with the company higher-ups, including the big man himself.
Before Jude knows what’s happening, he’s been promoted to be Dagin’s personal assistant. The position comes with a great salary increase–but there’s also a corresponding price to pay. Dagin is a man used to getting what he wants, and it’s now Jude’s job to meet every whim and demand of the eccentric tech tycoon.
Which includes a top-secret project that Dagin promises will revolutionize humanity.
Set in the not-so-distant future, SILICON KINGS explores the limits of technology, capitalism, masculinity, and other American ideals through the story of the complex and ever-shifting relationship between two men in Silicon Valley.
Ladykillers
Frank Peterson is dead.
Maybe.
His sister Laura certainly thinks so, and she hires over-the-hill former cop Ro Peszke to investigate. Ro is used to cases involving infidelity, not missing persons and potential murder, but can’t turn down a damsel in distress.
The closer Ro gets to the truth, however, the more she realizes just how out of her depth she really is. In both the mystery of what happened to Frank Peterson … and the mystery of how a middle-aged trans lesbian living in New Hampshire can have a successful love life.
A Slow-Motion Suicide
Lonely tween Robbie teams up with exuberant newcomer Stacey to explore the truths of their claustrophobically small town and the varied cast of characters who inhabit it. A national essay-writing contest kicks off their investigations, and their efforts hone in on the rumors surrounding fifteen-year-old Nathan Klein, who may or may not have killed himself a few years ago. As they begin their self-imposed mission, the young pair encounter a number of well-known and well-worn types: The uptight mother. The town drunk. The bombastic mayor. But the deeper Stacey and Robbie probe into their town and their fellow residents, the deeper these people are revealed to be and the more three-dimensional they appear to the two amateur journalists. And the deeper they go, the more everyone’s lives come slowly but surely unraveled.
The Trees Grow Crooked Here and Other Stories
Tea-obsessed pseudophilosophers. Lesbian teen Audrey Hepburn fanatics. X-rated Santa Clauses. The literal Devil.
All these characters and more you’ll meet in The Trees Grow Crooked Here and Other Stories, a collection of thirteen short stories written over the span of nearly two decades. Character-rich stories written in a range of genres create a book that represents classic yet modern American story-telling.
The Cancer Cantos
In the autumn of 2019, my mother was diagnosed with cancer.
In the winter of 2019, she underwent chemotherapy and surgery. In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States. In April 2020, my mother was declared in remission; later that same April, my mother’s cancer was found to have spread to her brain.
In October of 2020, my mother died.
This poetry collection covers that year and beyond, exploring grief, family, resilience, the COVID-19 pandemic, sweet potato casserole, and more.
Fireworks Are Just Pretty Bombs (& Other Poems)
“I’m dying to believe
In the ghost of the goodness
You strangled
So many years ago
And in the thin rattle of hope
That beats like
A newborn butterfly’s wings
Inside my fractured heart …”
—”‘Tis of Thee”
FIREWORKS ARE JUST PRETTY BOMBS (& OTHER POEMS) is the debut chapbook from established novelist J. L. Long. From the volatile mix of longing and loathing explored in the title poem to the bold defiance in poems such as “Burn Down Everything You Love” and “I’ll Give You Something to Be Afraid Of,” and from the quiet, broken prayer of “Merciful” to the heartfelt ode to community found in “Little Brother,” this poetry collection explores the full gamut of human emotion and experience. Life and death, love and grief, gender and sexuality, faith and despair: You will find all of these, and more, within these pages.