Chew on This! OUT NOW!

 

 

Chew on This! has everything you need to satiate your appetite for the strange and macabre. 

Tonight’s menu is a fifteen-course meal of subtle and atmospheric tales all the way down to the grisly, blood-drenched extremes.

Creepy restaurants, treacherous take-out, forbidden feasts, and more!

We’ve got horror so good you can taste it!

Dig in!

Featuring: Kristopher Triana – K. Trap Jones – Nikki Noir - Mark C. Scioneaux – Vivian Kasley – Chad Stroup – John McNee – Victorya Chase – Armand Rosamilia – Sarah Johnson and Robert Bose – S.C. Mendes -– Shenoa Carroll-Bradd – Sylvia Anne Telfer – Tonia Brown – Ronald Kelly – Chad Lutzke

 

Purchase HERE in the US, and HERE in the UK. Available worldwide through Amazon.

Stronger Than Hate Pre-Order SALE

My forthcoming novel from Death's Head Press, Stronger Than Hate, is available for pre-order at the super low price of .99 cents! The book has a release date of September 1st, and that's when the price will go up.

When retired high school teacher Francine Mosely finds herself in a dire predicament at the bottom of a sinkhole that opens up in her back yard, she's delighted to see that her neighbor, ex-student Gregory Palmer, happens to see her and reaches out to help, only when he returns he brings a couple of other ex-students whom Francine remembers vividly.

She watches the deal play out above. They look down upon her, sneering and taunting.

They never liked her.

In fact, they hate her.
 

Get your per-order of Stronger Than Hate HERE for just .99 cents, but only for a few more days!

Writing in Tandem

So I've been collaborating with Jack Bantry for some years now. It all started with a story I submitted to him for SplatterpunkZine. He liked the story but thought it needed something, asked if he could tinker with it and if I liked the outcome we could publish it as a collaboration. Now, I didn't know Bantry outside of a fellow writer who was putting out a cool DIY zine. Had that particular story been one of my recent ones I might have declined, but the story in question, it was called "In the House of Wicking" at the time, had been with me for a very long time, in many different forms. It started as a screenplay when I was in high school, then turned into a short story, and then was completely rewritten two or three times.

I liked the story idea, obviously, but I had to admit that something was indeed wrong. All my efforts with the damn thing were getting me nowhere. I told him to go for it, and what he sent back pretty much blew me away. Bantry had gone through and rearranged some things, added stuff here and there, and gave an emotional depth to a villainous character that was desperately needed. We were off to the races.

Since then we've sold a few short stories in such notable places as Dark Moon Digest and Year's Best Hardcore Horror Vol. 1. Most recently we've published our novella Ain't Worth a Shit with Sinister Grin Press, and Insatiable with Grand Mal Press. There's more to come, including a project with Death's Head Press.

Writing with another author is not something that comes easy for me in the sense that writing is such a solitary act. When Bantry and I started collaborating I was a staunch pantser. I don't think I could have written a book with an outliner, so it was a good pairing since Bantry too is an pantser. These days I write a bullet point outline to streamline my work and utilize my time better. We did this sort of thing toward the end of Insatiable because we found ourselves lagging a bit. I would be interested in collaborating with another author, but I've never reached out to anyone. Part of me fears that the experience might not be as enjoyable as working with Jack. We mesh well together. It takes some time to get a longer story finished, but I appreciate that we don't clash and have a mutual understanding of our process.

 The hard part about collaborating is that I become immersed in other projects when the collaborative story comes back to me, and I sometimes struggle to get back into it. That can be a challenge, especially when we get well into the story. It's not like I'm going to go back and reread the entire thing each time I'm up and need to get a chapter down. The good thing is that I can usually go back a couple of chapters and become reignited. It's a very different process from writing my own story, but ultimately rewarding, particularly when the book comes out. So, now that we have two novellas out and the reviews have been good, I hope you, whoever you are, give our work a chance. And if you do, please consider leaving a review.

I'm BACK!!!!

I've been gone for a while and now I'm back. No, I haven't been away from the writing community, but I did take quite a break from this blog. It's been months. Mostly I stepped away because I started a Patreon page. I quickly realized that Patreon is not for me. I don't have the time or know-how to promote a Patreon page and frankly there was zero interest. No big deal, really. Quite honestly with all of the writing projects I have going on right now I would have struggled to keep up with the work load.

So what have I been up to? A lot. I have a lot of announcements coming up. What can I talk about? This:

I sold a book to up-and-coming publisher Death's Head Press. What happens when sadistic punks see their former school teacher slip into a sinkhole? Find out in STRONGER THAN HATE. Unleashing 2019!

I also sold a short story to Death's Head called "Little Black Book Turns Red" that will be included in their Dig Two Graves Vol. 1 anthology. And there's something else in the works with DHP that hasn't been announced just yet.

What else? Well, I recently signed a contract for a project that I am super exited about. I'm not at liberty to make an announcement, but things are flowing smoothly. It's tough not even giving a hint, but my lips are sealed ... in fact I'm contractually bound to silence until my publisher gives me the go-ahead. Okay, my publisher has given me the go-ahead, but you're going to have to wait to hear that announcement on my forthcoming interview this Monday on Necrocasticon.

Oh, I have a new book out co-authored with Jack Bantry. It's called Ain't Worth a Shit, published by Sinister Grin Press.

Issy has become used to her new life in the UK, away from poverty in her native land. New beginnings weren’t without struggle, and sometimes the past comes back when you least expect it.

Mark dealt a little weed on the side, just enough to get him a few bucks and provide some for personal use. No big deal. Not until he makes a little mistake. Sometimes even the smallest error can turn into a dire situation.

There’s another world under the veneer of city streets in London’s Leicester Square, streets people walk every day without suspicion. Issy and Matt find out about this world in the worst ways imaginable, and they must fight for their lives to get out.
In this underworld, people Ain’t Worth A Shit!

 "Ain’t Worth a Shit is fast-paced, compelling, and entertaining on a sick horror fan level. It is a gruesome and disturbing story full of suspense and action." -- Bibliophilia Templum

Read the full Bibliophilia Templum review HERE. Purchase the book here: US paperback, US Kindle. UK paperback. UK Kindle.

That's all for now. I am going to attempt a weekly blog post, but who knows. I've never been very good about keeping up with this blog. People say blogs are dead. Let's prove them wring.

Thoughts on The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is a classic. It has been adapted into at least two films, one in the 60s that is pretty good and the other in the 90s that is a steaming pile of crap. I always site Jackson's story "The Lottery" as the piece of fiction that opened my mind to the written word (this is after reading King, Lumley, and whatever schools taught at the time, but getting no inspiration), and though that story had such a profound affect on me, I have never gone back to read any of Shirley Jackson's novels...until now.

My favorite haunted house stories are Richard Matheson's Hell House, Douglas Clegg's Harrow House series, and The Elementals by Michael McDowell. Reading The Haunting of Hill House doesn't change my adoration of those books, but falls somewhere in the top ten. I loved the book, but there was something about the ambiguity that eventually lost me. More than a haunted house story, this was the story of a woman losing her mind. Now, perhaps it was the haunts that edged her mind into the realms of insanity, but she appeared to be going down that road right from the beginning. In the end, I wasn't even sure there was a haunting at all. I do understand that this was intentional, and it sure did have my mind running overtime after finishing the book. For a book to leave a lasting impression is something any author strives to achieve (well, most authors--some just pump out the pulp and cash in the checks). For the lingering affects, Jackson succeeded, and I am always pleased and interested in downbeat endings. At the time when this book was originally published it must have been quite a shock, much like the end of "The Lottery". All these years later the shock is dulled by so many books that have come since, and especially by the film industry. Consider the end to Night of the Living Dead. To this day, after watching that movie time and time again, it still gets to me. It's not so much a twist ending as it is a nihilistic mindbend, just a straight out glass of half-full fuck you. I can appreciate that.

A great book, no doubt. Up next is Stirring the Sheets by Chad Luzke, The Hell-Bound Heart by Clive Barker and several others. I'm falling behind on these, having been so focused on my forthcoming novel Death Obsessed, which is up for pre-order. Only .99 cents until June 19th when the price goes up to $3.99. The print book will be available around June 9th for $11.99 until release day when the price goes up. Pre-order HERE.

Thoughts on Death Mask by Graham Masterton

Graham Masterson's Death Mask is a bullet train of a supernatural murder mystery. I listened to the audiobook, but I can tell that this is one of those stories that could easily be read in a single sitting with red eyes when you know you ought to be sleeping so you won't be a complete zombie at work the following day.

Confession time: I have never read a Graham Masterton book. I tried Famine once, but couldn't get into it. It felt kind of bloated, like so many of the 80s tomes, as if his editor said, "flesh it out, old boy! More pages! The readers want MORE PAGES!" In Death Mask there's not one wasted word. This story is tight and you are not going to be able to figure out the twists. The story starts like this: There's an artists who discovers that she has this bizarre ability to paint a rose that suddenly appears in her garden like a miracle.Meanwhile a group of people in an elevator are slaughtered by a knife-wielding madman. One person survives. As more elevator massacres occur in town, the artist (who works as a freelance sketch artist for the police) and her gifted mother-in-law (she can read tea leaves and cards and communicate with the dead, etc.) go down a strange path to discover who is behind the murders and why no one can find them.

Easily one of the best books I've read in a while. Had me guessing the entire time, and I was wrong. If you can predict where this story is going, you're a closer reader than I. The prose is effortless the way a Joe Lansdale novel feels, seemingly simple, but deceptively lethal. If you're going to start this one, be prepared to have the time to finish it, otherwise it will eat at you between readings. Novels like this are the type I love to read, and I hope to be able to write someday.

Thoughts on The Specimen by Pete Kahle

Right off the bat I've got to say that for a debut novel, Pete Kahle has shown us that he knows what the hell he's doing. I haven't read a debut this strong in years. It's astonishing what he managed to do in this tome with character development and a plot that is told in a nonlinear format that most authors take years of novel writing to develop. Bravo, Pete!

So, The Specimen is a story about parasitic entities called Riders that, throughout human history, have been latching onto various people, living within them, and causing a great deal of bloodshed. There is a secret agency out to destroy the alien race of Riders, and have been doing so for many years, but their collective has corruption of its own. There's so much in this story that I can't even begin a good synopsis without spoilers, so I'll leave it at that.

The character development in this story is as rich and detailed as a Stephen King or Robert McCammon novel with visceral violence and gore that leans to the extreme in its vivid detail. Blood and body fluids abound! I found it interesting early in the story when a couple of guys were called "your typical goon", which I thought was a bad descriptor, until I realized that was a way of saying, hey, there are so many richly detailed characters in this book that these guys, who are only in the story for a few pages, are just a couple of red shirts. believe me, there's no lack of detail concerning the characters who matter to the story. They live. They breathe.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of massive tomes. They tend to feel padded and under-edited. I think this book could have been dialed down just a bit. There are a ton of sub-plots going on and the time-line jumps around a lot. It all makes sense and wasn't confusing at all, but I found the present day material to be the most interesting, and really the heart of the story. I think a lot of the story that was told through reports from the Graylock Institute (I may have flubbed the name there) could have been weaved into the narrative and completely eliminated, but that's just probably just me trying to slim down a novel that gives a great pleasure to people who like to sit down with that huge six-hundred-pager and commit for a while. I also think the intermissions (read the book to find out what I'm talking about), which gives the story nice historical context, were ultimately unnecessary. In fact, during the climax it is all summarized in a few paragraphs. The intermission chapters were well written, but I think they could have been pulled from the manuscript and used as promotional tools on a website or Patreon page or something. But who am I to suggest such a thing? Pete Kahle has done very well with this book, getting a shout-out recently from Brian Keene and earning almost 200 reviews on Amazon (that's fucking astonishing for both a debut novel and a small press author).

lastly, I listened to the audiobook version of the book, so I would be remiss to not mention a bit about that experience. First off, the narrator did a fantastic job. There were a number of accents that he nailed with convincing accuracy, which is so important. That gives the narrative movement and theater. No one wants to slog through an otherwise good book that feels like a sluggish monologue. Also, there were sound effects here and there that really added to the experience. They were used sparingly and were quite effective, making for a fun and entertaining experience.

Look, I know what Pete is doing with Bloodshot Books is important, but he needs to get another novel out there. I absolutely love reading new authors that are the real deal, and Kahle has got the goods. I highly recommend reading The Specimen, or better yet, listening to the audiobook (yes, the highlighted words are links).

Next up is Catacombs by Andrew Laurance, originally published under the title The Hiss. See ya then!

Thoughts on Paperbacks From Hell

The non fiction book of 2017 was Paperbacks From Hell by Grady Henrix, hands down. Not that I read a whole lot of non fiction in 2017. I just can't see something else that's better than a book about mass market paperback from the seventies until the crash in the nineties, loaded with colorful pictures of cover art, sublime and glorious. If nothing else, I imagine this book has and will continue to reinvigorate people's fondness for long lost paperbacks that have been relegated to used book stores, thrift shops, and library book sales. Some of them have been terribly mistreated, probably considered a slice of schlock that wasn't worth preservation. I have plenty that were used as door stops and bent and torn and probably thrown across a room a time or two (I can only imagine how previous owners treated some of the books in my collection). Covers taped on, spines so cracked you can hardly read the title much less the author's name. But the words are still there on the pages (if they're not falling out), and thus the story can be read, for better or worse. Some of those old books are great (Michael McDowell's The Elementals and T. M. Wright's Strange Seed are recent gems I've read), and others are utter trash (William W. Johnstone's The Devil's Kiss fits nicely in this category). Paperbacks From Hell covers it all, with brief summaries of certain titles, interesting factoids about certain authors, and even insight on some of the cover artists that brought us all those amazing creatures, skeletons, demons, evil children, native spirits, and devils that popped in embossed foil, holograms, and step-back art.

I savored this book slowly since getting it for Christmas. I didn't want to just blow through it. I lingered on the cover art, following paint brush strokes and skeleton faces, baby dollies and evil entities. The book is written with a nice dose of humor and sarcasm that could only come from someone who truly appreciates the subject matter. Hendrix has obviously read a great deal of the books (probably pored over them while writing the book and probably sick to death of embossed skeletons by the time he was finished). Putting a book like this one together is clearly a labor of love, and the insight on the titles that are summarized come from more than just reading the back cover copy.

My guess is that finding autobiographical info on the more obscure authors who graced paperback racks back in the seventies and eighties is pretty difficult. I could have done with more of that. I found the little biographical tidbits fascinating. I think there should be a companion book that focuses on some of the more prolific authors of the time, as well as the cover artists. A few authors and cover artists are highlighted, but there are plenty more, and I for one would be fascinated to learn more.

If you're a horror fan and you don't have this book, shame on you. You can purchase it HERE, and though there is an ebook available, do yourself a favor and pick up the physical version. It's full-color and well worth the investment.

That's all for now. Next up is Pete Kahle's The Specimen. I've already finished it, so those thoughts will be posted soon. 

Thoughts on American Gothic by Robert Bloch

I'm a huge fan of Robert Bloch. He was one of the absolute best writers of short stories ever. King of the twist ending and able to develop a character in a paragraph or less. I read a ton of his short fiction before I ever read one of his novels. My first was Lori, and it's a good one. Lori is one of those reads that even someone like me who is a dreadfully slow reader can get through in one day. The man just knew how to structure sentences for maximum readability, something that was probably spawned from the economy of words in his short fiction. I've since read a number of Bloch's novels and the latest was American Gothic. These are a few of my thoughts.

First off, it was clear from the first page or two that this was a story based in part on the notorious serial killer H. H. Holmes. The villain's name is G. Gordon Gregg and we quickly discover that he has built a castle in Chicago with quite a number of rooms as well as staircases that lead to secret passage ways and doors that blend into walls. H. H. Holmes hired several contractors to build portions of his mansion using separate plans so no one but himself would know about the secret passages and whatnot. Fascinating stuff, so it's no surprise that Bloch decided to render a fictional account of the infamous H. H. Holmes and wrap it up in a mystery. There's an afterward entitled Post Mortem in which Bloch explains a bit about Homes and the inspiration for American Gothic.

The story itself was very much a mystery like the early Bloch material such as The Scarf, The Couch and Psycho, only this one was a historical piece. The characters were well drawn and he certainly didn't beat the reader over the head with the fact that is was the late eighteen hundreds, which is something that often happens with period pieces. I do have to say that when reading Robert W. Chambers, who was alive and writing close to the time this story took place, his work in many of the stories in The King in Yellow are so fully drenched in the stagnant alleyways and unpaved avenues of New York that you can't help but feel like you are right there in another time. Though you don't ever forget the time period in which American Gothic takes place, I felt that the presence of time could have been a little richer.

I like the protagonist, Crystal, a go-get-'em journalist who risks life and limb to break a story no one has faith in. She has to take seriously desperate measures and essentially she's working on a hunch. I can't help but see in her a character I wrote a in an unpublished novella and an unpublished novel. My investigative journalist, Veronica Hensley, is Crystal reincarnated, only she deals with modern menaces both human and inhuman.

There's no real motive for why G. Gordon Gregg does what he does (some kind of absurd romanticism as shown in his collection at the end of the story?), but who cares? Do we always have to have a reason? It's not like he was going to make some confession in the last chapter when he's getting doused with his own flesh dissolving chemicals and stabbed with his own knife. Just accept that G. Gordon Gregg is a goddamned vicious psychopath (a specialty of Robert Bloch), and enjoy the ride.

Thoughts on Gone South

My second read of 2017 was Gone South by Robert McCammon. Initial thought on finishing it . . . I loved it! I've read a few of his books and this was the best by far. Better than . . . wait for it . . . Boy's Life. Yep, I said it. I actually didn't even finish Boy's Life. I had consumed far too many southern coming of age stories at the time (Fear by Ronald Kelly, Midnight Rain by James Newman, etc.), so I was admittedly burnt out on that trope. I'll finish Boy's Life one day, but for now Gone South takes the cake.

Every character was complex and interesting from our Vietnam vet protagonist who finds himself on hard times and makes a life changing mistake that throws him into a downward spiral of twists and turns through the American South, to the bounty hunters who crisscross the same path looking for him. I mean, you got one guy who is a consummate professional and part time gambler who has an arm and partial face of a twin brother connected to his chest. Team him up with a greenhorn Elvis impersonator who goes by the name of Pelvis, and you have a misfit duo that can't help but get in each other's way. Both of these characters are revealed through the story and far more complex than your run of the mill antagonists. You get to liking Pelvis and even the professional bounty hunter, especially when they make it to a podunk bayou town that runs by its own set of laws, which is to say no law at all.

I'm not going to get into all of the characters, but they were well fleshed out and could have climbed out of the pages. Their motivations were justified by their varied pasts and the actions that set the whole shebang in motion. Every action has a reaction, that's for sure. As crazy as some of this book gets, it's plausible. Not once did I lose my suspension of disbelief.

Gone South is character driven fiction at its very best. This isn't horror, this is a southern fried crime thriller. The cherry on top is a fulfilling ending that brings the plot to completion with a bit of a twist that had me thinking about fate long after I was finished with the book.

Highly recommended especially if you like the twisty, turny plotting of Laymon and the oddball charm of Lansdale's Hap and Leonard books. I know my thoughts don;t get too deep, but I'm hoping that these posts will act as a sort of exercise in the way I consume and analyze fiction. Up next are my thoughts on Andrew Neiderman's Pin. See you soon!

Books I Read in 2017

Here's the list of books I read over the past year. Not as many as I wanted to read, however I started a metric shit-ton of books that I couldn't get into, sometimes reading as much as fifty or seventy-five pages before shelving them. I'm currently reading Tom Piccirilli's A Choir of Ill Children and Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks From Hell, and enjoying both of them. I read mostly older books this year. I hope to dig into some newer stuff next year, but my bookshelves are filled to the brim with good old mass market paperbacks from the seventies through the Leisure crash, so who knows.

1. The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale
2. Mischief by Douglass Clegg
3. Edge of Dark Water by Joe R, lansdale
4. Road Rage by Stephen King, Joe Hill, and Richard Matheson
5.Ghoul by Brian Keene
6. Wild Blood by Nancy Collins
7. Arboreatum by Evans Light
8. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
9. Once Around the Bloch by Robert Bloch
10. Fear Today, Gone Tomorrow by Robert Bloch
11. Water Rights by Guy N. Smith
12. The Captors by John Farris
13. Breeding Ground by Sarah Pinbourough
14. Odd Man Out by James Newman
15. Dark Gods by TED Klein
16. Prodigal by Melanie Tem
17. Nightingale's Lament by Simon R. Green
18. Spectre by Stephen Laws
19. Mayan Blue by Melissa Lason and Michelle Garza
20. Dark Masques Ed. by J. N. Williamson
21. The Elementals by Michael McDowell
22. Strange Seed by T. M. Wright
23. How I Made A Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime by Roger Corman
24. Flesh by Richard Laymon
25. City of the Dead by Brian Keene
26. Midnight Sun by Ramsey Campbell
27. The Dirt by Motley Crue and Neil Strauss
28. It's So Easy and Other Lies by Duff McKagen
29. The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx and Ian Gittins

Monthy Newsletter #5 July 2017

Welcome back to my monthly newsletter. Maybe I should call it a newsblog, yes? Before getting to the usual news, reviews, and writerly goodness, I would like to thank everyone who has purchased, borrowed on Kindle Unlimited, or otherwise supported my latest horror novella Brothers in Blood over the past month and a half. This novella has had a better opening than anything I have published. I'm not saying I can quit my day job and write full time or anything, but I can maybe buy a better bottle of whiskey and a lobster dinner. Maybe. At any rate, thanks to everyone who shared a social media post or bought the book. Page reads on Kindle Unlimited have been fantastic. Unfortunately, as of this writing, there are NO Amazon reviews. I'm not going to lose sleep over this, but if you read the novella I would greatly appreciate an honest review. Thanks!

News

The latest San Diego Horror Professionals anthology has been released, this time with even more SD authors than before. My offering, "Brain-Case Soiree," is a Laymon-esqu story that follows a young couple in a strained relationship who decide to explore a long abandoned asylum and find something truly unexpected. You can purchase the anthology HERE in the US and HERE in the UK.

I'm fine tuning two novels that I am sending to two particular publishers for consideration. I have also started a story that I like to call a cross between THEM! and The Descent. The idea came from a recent experience at work and a conversation with my father during a recent visit to Arizona. I've put down another novel I was working on, figuring this one is more marketable. I'll probably end up writing them both simultaneously.




 Cool Read

I'm suggesting two books this month.

The Lucky Ones Died First is the debut novella from my pal Jack Bantry. I'm not only spotlighting his book because he's a friend, but also because it's a damn fun read. It's pulp cryptid horror fiction at its best. I think of this novella as Friday the 13th but with Bigfoot rather than Jason. I was lucky enough to beta read this one and was thrilled when I heard Deadite Press picked it up. It's getting good reviews, and rightly so. Purchase it HERE.

It would be remiss of me not to highlight James Newman's Odd Man Out. I bought the paperback a few weeks ago (a different sized trade PB than what I'm used to, but fitting for a novella), and read it in two or three sittings, which is quick for me. Not only am I a slow reader, but I have a young child. 'Nuff said. Yes, Odd Man Out is socially relevant, yes I'm a fan of Newman's work (and I consider him a friend), but more importantly, this was an all encompassing read. The kind of story that truly pulls the reader in and blocks out everything, creating a visceral movie in my mind. This story made me forget that I'm a writer, and that's hard to do, as any writer will tell you. That's the kind of thing that elevates a story. Animosity still holds its place as my favorite Newman read, but this one comes in a close second. You can purchase Odd Man Out HERE.

Featured Fiction

This week I'm going to tell you a little about a story published a while back called "The Nostalgiac." This one appeared in the Post Mortem Press anthology Fear the Abyss, which featured science fiction stories with a horror bend. It was great to be published with so many talented authors such as Jack Ketchum, Harlan Ellison, Mike Arnzen, and Tim Waggoner, just to name a few. "The Nostalgiac" was an idea I dreamed up long before I was invited to this anthology. I saw a pair of intergalactic grave robbers risking radiation to claim entire graveyards on a dying Earth. I wrote half of the story and left it there, not really knowing where to go. When I was invited to submit, I knew this was my only chance. All of the other sci-fi horror stories that I'd written at that point had been published. I thought through my issues with the plot,  developed the Nostalgiac angle, and treated it very much like an episode of the Twilight Zone (the story was actually compared to TZ in a review). I think it's my best sci-fi/horror mash-up to date. You can purchase a copy of Fear the Abyss HERE.

Book and Record Acquisitions

I bought quite a few books over the last month. The Ten Little Indians paperback was a nice find at two bucks in a book store I had walked by several times but never stepped inside. I think that and The Seed were pretty much two of the only horror titles they had in the entire store outside of some Stephen King and Dean Koontz. No lie. I looked through the entire store--literature, sci-fi, and fantasy sections--no labelled horror section!--with no luck. There were a few F. Paul Wilson titles, but I already had them. I was also pleased to find a hardcover first edition of The Kill Riff on Ebay (and very affordable to boot!). Here are a few of my finds:

Closing Words

In closing, I have some reflections about life and the genre. First off, the Fourth of July came and passed. I went to the fair with my wife, mother-in-law, and son. We had a great time despite insane numbers of fair-goers. Everyone was so nice. I think that was due to the Fourth being a more family friendly day, whereas an average night at the fair consists of wading through packs of asshole teens and drunk twenty-somethings who wish they were still asshole teens.

So I was looking over my files and wondering if other writers have so much unpublished material. I'm not talking trunked stuff, but novels and novellas that are good enough for publication (or at least I think they are). I have six novels (most teetering on novella status), two novellas, and five unfinished projects. I've been reflecting on how difficult it is to break through in the biz, even on a small level. I'm convinced that networking at conventions and writing conferences is better than blindly submitting to the very few respectable publishers who actually accept submissions. Of course, talent and good stories play a part, but I keep running that quote through my head that I've heard so many masters of the genre say: "It's twenty percent talent; eighty percent luck." The numbers vary depending on who's making that particular quote, but it can be attributed to any number of bestselling authors. I've developed a few fans. They contact me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and it's surreal. I've earned compliments (mostly for my short fiction), and some harsh criticism (don't we all). I believe in my work and I know I get better with each piece of fiction I pen, whether I trunk it or attempt publication. It's a tough business, but I'm relieved when I read some of the fiction being published and find that there are some amazing authors out there. At least, for the most part, I can see why my stories get rejected, considering the competition. I've been short-listed enough to know I'm on the right path, and I've had some of the best editors in the biz say nice things about my fiction. I have to remember this when self doubt rears its ugly head. Onward and forward and all that jazz.

That last part was long winded. Thanks for reading. See you next month!

Brothers in Blood is OUT NOW!

That's right! My extreme psychological horror novella Brothers in Blood is now live, available for FREE with Kindle Unlimited or $1.99 to purchase.

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre with twins!" -- Jack Bantry, editor of SplatterpunkZine and author of The Lucky Ones Died First

Twin brothers Kyle and Lyle Morris depend on one another to live and to kill, only Kyle’s strange desires are becoming more twisted with each new body. Lyle, a grown man with the mind of a toddler, doesn’t understand the perversity of his relationship with dead things. Lyle’s caregiver, Desiree, is worried about the big ol’ lug, and she’s terrified of his brother, but she’s been getting those strange letters again, the ones that her stalker ex used to send her, only now it seems as if he wants something she can’t give him.

A necromaniac using his deformed brother for fresh meat; a young woman in the clutches of her ex’s twisted fantasies—blood will flow . . . but who will bleed out first and what will be left of them?

 Think Rex Miller's Slob meets HG Lewis's Gruesome Twosome.

The response for this novella has been good. Big thanks to all who have bought a copy. If you have read it, please leave a review. This day in age independent releases live and die by the Amazon reviews. It's sad but true. And remember, you don't have to love a book to review it.
 

Here are a links to purchase in the US and UK.


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Monthly Newsletter #3 May 2017

Welcome back! Yes, I missed two months. I could tell you that I was churning out manuscripts left and right, that I had a busy couple of month saving the world from the grips of evil, or . . .  the truth--it slipped my mind. I would really like to post once a week at the minimum here on my blog/website, but I'm a terrible host. I find it difficult to use my writing time on anything other than fiction, but I'll work on that. In fact, I have something brewing that I hope to reveal in another couple of months.


News

I just got the cover for my brand new novella Brothers in Blood. Looks pretty cool, huh? This will be coming out very soon as an exclusive ebook from Grand Mal Press. Think HG Lewis's Gruesome Twosome meets Rex Miller's Slob. 

I finally got paid paid for a story that was published a year ago. I know Harlan Ellison would be disappointed with me were he to know--or even really give a damn--that I didn't get paid for a particular story. In fact, I didn't even make a request for the payment when it should have become clear that the publisher was slacking. Shame on me. The release of this particular anthology was lack luster, which kind of caused it to slip off of my radar, so imagine my surprise when someone took over the company and decided to pay the authors and send out contributor copies. Good on them. The real question here is, will Harlan Ellison sue me for not putting a trademark symbol next to his name?

I've been hard at work on an urban fantasy novel I started about two years ago. I have been working off and on, writing stories and other novels when my interest in this one waned. I'm nearing the final stretch and looking forward to typing THE END.


Cool Read

I've been trying to promote newer books books in the cool reads section, but I've been reading older books lately, so this week I would like to spotlight Douglas Clegg's Mischief. This is a Harrow house story that takes place back when Harrow was a dormitory, and deals with the mischief college students get into concerning secret societies and unusual intitiations. I'm a big Douglas Clegg fan, and I love the Harrow books. He finds unique ways to tell stories that revolve around that creepy mansion and this was one of the most unique I have read in the series, adding a layer of history and intrigue to a fictional building that has more to offer than your standard ghost story.


Featured Fiction 

This month I am going to highlight a story I co-wrote with Jack Bantry called "A Lesson in Renegade Filmmaking" that was published in Dark Moon Digest #25. This one is for the horror movie fans out there. It's a coming of age story about a kid in the 80s who befriends the local video store owner. As their relationship cements over talk of horror movies and strange lessons regarding the methods in which the movies are made, things get a little strange between the two. It's always fun writing with Jack, and I believe we come up with some killer stories. This is a great jumping off point to our work. Hopefully we'll have some good news soon about a novella we're shopping around.

Thrift Store/Used Book Store Finds

I have found a lot of good books over the past month and a half, so I am only showcasing a few of them. The Laymon books are a particularly good find, both acquired from a used book store I recently discovered. It is becoming more rare to find decent records at thrift stores since the popularity in vinyl has boomed in recent years, so I was pleased to find some good stuff.

Closing Words

Well, this is the third time I've written these closing words. The draft for this newsletter has been hanging around all through April. As I said in the opening words, there is something brewing that will force me to be a bit more punctual concerning my newsletter, but I don't want to spill the beans just yet.

And finally, congrats to all who recently won Bram Stoker awards!

The Writing Biz as Compared to the Rock Music Biz...It's All Art, Baby!

I've been at the writing thing for the better part of eight years. I sold my first story seven years ago for a ten spot and a contributor copy (note the word 'sold'--I foolishly gave a few stories away for contrib copies as if those publishers had some kind of audience. believe me, they didn't). In that time I've made a ton of virtual acquaintances and a lot of friendships. I've met a few of these people, and hope to meet many more in the future. The number of people across the world writing horror and, hopefully, publishing their material is staggering. I've watching so many people give it up and others succeed, and still other struggle to keep afloat. It's a cutthroat business in many ways, and yet I think that, for the most part, we are here to help each other out whenever possible. Writers make friendships and bonds with other writers and, for the most part, we stick together, because if we aren't for ourselves, who will be?

In the past eight years I've seen some of my writerly brothers and sisters achieve noteworthy success, some of them publishing on the regular with the great small presses and even a few landing book deals with the Big Five (though this is atypical). I'm always excited to see someone succeed, no matter how much I get down on myself for my lack of success. It gives me hope in what would otherwise seem like a crushing series of rejections and near misses. Let's just say I make the short list a LOT, there's just so much great writing out there that I'm nudged out.

So, how is this like the music biz? Well, I've long thought of my roll in horror publishing, at this point, as being comparable to a band playing local gigs here in, say, San Diego and getting the chance to gig up in LA from time to time and maybe even as far as Vegas, though not in the strip, but some shitty dive bar where the floors are sticky and the top shelf liquor bottles are filled with swill. It's better than playing the same local gigs, but not exactly where you want to be. Remember, this is an analogy and my description of the dive bar is in no way comparable to the publishers I work with (people in the Internet have this way of taking things out of proportion and getting butt hurt over nothing, so I feet it's necessary to clarify that). If my fellow writers were bands, those who have made it to the Big Five are headlining world tours (remember, not so many people there, not in the horror biz), and those who have found homes with the cream of the small press are hitting the arenas and taking names. They too played local gigs and dive bars and while some of them catapulted to success, others had opening slots on the arena tours, playing for audiences they may not have even been ready for, but were more than happy to rock all the same.

I know, this might be kind of abstract, but let's take it a bit further, shall we? We shall. I would say that Stephen King is the Rolling Stones of horror fiction. He's been at it longer than just about anyone publishing today and when he puts out a book (yearly as opposed to how infrequently the Stones tour), he packs the house, and he's always playing at the biggest stadium in town. I went to Barnes and Noble the other day (an event that's always depressing--maybe I'll write a separate post on that) and saw that there were four horror novels in the New Releases section, all in glorious hardcover: Pressure by Brian Keene, Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones, Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay, and The Fireman by Joe Hill (there may have been a fifth that I didn't see or was sold out, but I kind of doubt it). These are the folks who are currently doing stadium tours. Some of them have been on the stadium and arena scene for many years, and others are only now embarking on what, hopefully, will blossom into a fulfilling and successful career. I must say, seeing those books on the New Arrivals shelf made me feel just a little bit better about the blatant lack of horror represented in the Fiction section (remember, they did away with their horror section years ago), and the fact that they only had one Robert Bloch book. One. At least there were three Shirley Jackson books available, and, of course, rows of Stephen King (he's playing the pyramids in Giza by now), but, sadly, so many authors seem to have been forgotten. This sort of thing happens in music as well. I don't have to give examples; bands come and go like the tides.

So there you have it. The writing biz is kind of like the music biz, and I'm certain I could make similar correlations to just about any popular art form. Yeah, I hope I find success, but I'm also happy to see my fellow writers find that lucky break, because I've heard from many a pro that talent is important, but success doesn't come without a little luck.






My new novella Salpsan is now available exclusively for kindle download.


"Robert Essig has crafted one Creepy-as-hell tale of modern horror that sets an ominous tone from the first few words and never lets up."

            --James Newman (author of Ugly as Sin, Odd Man Out, and The Wicked)


 "With Salpsan Essig takes you through a twisted journey through the Spanish hillside; one full of intrigue, memorable characters and hellish encounters. This is a story that will stick with you long after you turn the last page."

            --K Trap Jones (author of The Charm Hunter and The Harvester)

Available in the US HERE
Available in the UK HERE

Local Horror Author Panel Podcast

Last Saturday at the big downtown San Diego Central Library I took part in an event with a few of my fellow local horror authors where we discussed out favorite horror novels, short stories, movies and what it is about horror that gets our gears going. It was a fun and lively panel and Horror Imaginings Film Festival & Podcast brings the event to you this week in episode 147: Halloween Super Special with SoCal Horror Authors! Have a listen HERE. Pictured, from left to right: me, Ryan C. Thomas, David Agranoff, Bryan Killian, Scott Sigler, Miguel Rodriguez.