Been re-reading Mike Nelson's stab at writing a novel, the 2003 publication "Death Rat!". It's about one Pontius "Ponty" Feeb, a Minnesotan author of eighteen books, none of them page-turners, very well researched but dry non-fiction tomes with titles like Push Me, Pull You: The Importance of Railroad Handcars to an Emerging Industry, Better Than Great: A Maritime History of Lake Superior, and Where Did Amerigo?: Vespucci And The New World Order. After the owner of the small publisher Feeb writes for dies in a freak accident, his son liquidates the company and Feeb is out of a job. Desperate, only able to get a job at a medieval-themed burger joint and disgruntled at seeing the sort of junk that makes it on bestseller lists, Feeb decides to try his hand at writing fiction, cranking out a novel grounded in the historical minutiae of a small Minnesota village, as the residents fight for survival against a marauding giant rat in the 19th century.
Unfortunately, being an out of shape 60 year old, he finds himself rejected by publishers since they feel they can't sell him as an author of outdoor adventure. Jack Ryback, an aspiring actor and co-worker, agrees to pose as Ponty, since he's more of a square-jawed, broad-shouldered type manages to sell the book (without reading it) to a slick agent (who also doesn't read), and the book quickly gets a lot of hype and publicity. Jack, familiar with the sort of books Feeb used to write, however, sold it as a true story. Now, afraid they'll be busted for fraud, Feeb and Jack work to "convince" i.e. bribe the inhabitants of the book's setting, Holey, MN - Population: 38 -to play along and pretend their ancestors were really terrorized by a giant rat, and that they have so many stories to share with the media about it.
Obvious take-offs on Governor Ventura (a two fisted politico who shows up for events by rappelling out of a helicopter) and Prince (funk singer King Leo, who declares he feels a spiritual connection with the monster rat and starts to build a religious movement around it) bring their own agendas into the mix to complicate matters.
When Feeb's book looks ready to win a Minnesota literary award, author Gus Bromstead (a thinly veiled version of Garrison Keillor, target of some rather pointed lines on MST3K) is furious that some upstart may win the award instead of his latest entry in his series of books about life in "Dogwood Downs". So angry, he hires some Danish hitmen (who affect Minnesotan accents) to deal with the usurper.
So far this is Nelson's only foray into fiction; he's been interviewed about it here and there and revealed there were some struggles in getting the book into print; the book lost it's biggest supporter at the publisher when the man left the firm, and nobody else seemed much interested in championing it, so Death Rat was released with little fanfare or support and just sort of faded away.
