Shetterly releases Gospel of the Knife AND Dogland under CC licenses!

On Tuesday, I blogged Will Shetterly amazing new American magic-realist novel, The Gospel of the Knife — now, Will has released the whole text of the novel under a Creative Commons license!

That's just for starters: Will has also released the full text of Dogland, the book that comes before "Gospel." This is an incredible, magical novel about a kid whose father opens a dog theme park in Florida in the 1950s, and lands his family in the middle of the segregation fight, the wonderment and despoiling of Florida, and a centuries-old mystery. Dogland is one of my favorite novels of all time, and having it online to email to people will greatly ease my task of ensuring that as many people as possible read this and have their lives changed by it.

It was a dream, then a place, then a memory. My father built it near the
Suwannee River. I like to think it was in the heart of Florida, because
it was, and is, in my heart. Its name was Dogland.

Some people say you can know others if you know the central incidents
that shaped their lives. But an incident is an island in time, and to
know the effect of the island on those who land there, you must know
something about the river they have traveled.

And I must warn you before we begin, I don't know that river well. I
visit that time and place like a ghost with poor vision and little
memory. I look up the river and see fog rolling in. I look down the
river, and the brightness of the approaching day blinds me. I see shapes
moving behind me and beyond me, but who they are and what they do, I
cannot say. I will tell what I know is true, and I will invent what I
believe is true, and that, I think, is all you can ask any storyteller
to do.

Link to text of Gospel of the Knife,

Link to Dogland