Champion of the World continues to creep through the publication process, headed for a 2016 release. We’ve completed what we hope is the final copyedit and bound proofs are now in the hands of a few selected readers. Slowly but surely, it feels as though a bit of momentum is building.

The first piece of advance praise for the book comes by way of New York Times bestselling author Jeff Guinn, and it makes me feel a little misty-eyed every time I read it.

Not that I’ve been reading it again and again or anything.

Here’s what Guinn has to say about Champion of the World:

“Here’s one of the finest first novels in years, a gritty tale involving professional wrestling, bootlegging, and the byzantine strategies of cold-blooded conmen and desperate grifters. If the subject matter strikes you as too quirky, think again. My advice to anyone who loves brilliant storytelling is this: read Chad Dundas’s Champion of the World.”

— Jeff Guinn

Guinn is the author of numerous books, a former Edgar Award nominee, a former books editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and an award-winning investigative journalist. His book The Last Gunfight made the NYT bestseller list in 2012.

To see him say nice things about Champion makes me feel downright giddy.

— Chad