MUSINGS (short story for Cemetery Dance Four Killers anthology)
THE LOST LEVEL (Lost world-styled novel for Apex Book Company)
HOLE IN THE WORLD (Labyrinth-related novel for Camelot Books)
APOCRYPHA (book for former newsletter subscribers)
WITH TEETH (Vampire novel for Cemetery Dance)
SUBURBAN GOTHIC (Sequel to Urban Gothic, for Deadite Press)
I’m currently writing a novel called The Lost Level. I’m almost finished, in fact, which is good because it’s way past its deadline. Originally, it was supposed to be a novella. Then the publisher (Apex) asked me to make it a novel instead, so I had to start over from scratch. Last year’s heart attack and a few other things have also contributed to the delay. But it’s almost done and I expect to turn it in to Apex soon. To thank you for your patience, I offer the following unedited excerpt as a spoiler-free taster. Continue reading
I’m on a writing vacation, so posts will be sporadic for a few weeks. Here are some updates on various things (movies, interviews, book releases, book delays, plugs, etc). Continue reading
Camelot Books has begun shipping copies of Is There A Demon In You? There are still copies available. You can order one here. Still a few free chapbooks left, too.
It occurred to me last night that, had the heart attack killed me, my Lifetime Subscribers would be justifiably pissed off. It didn’t kill me, but it has slowed me down. Over the last two weeks, I’ve been working on The Lost Level, Hole In The World, my keynote speech for Anthocon, and editing Apocrypha. That, combined with some familial stress, has left me feeling like I did in early September. I described it to my ex-wife this morning as “a head cold on the left side of my chest”. I had a much needed and welcome respite last Saturday night. Went out with Geoff Cooper, Kelli Owen, Bob Ford, Meteornotes, Wesley Southard, Matt and Pam Blazi, and Qweequeg, and spent an evening not thinking about deadlines or family stuff. Thanks to them for the break. And thanks to Apex Book Company for being patient above and beyond reason regarding this Lost Level deadline.
KHP won’t be publishing Binky. That was another one I blew the deadline on, and they elected to exercise the contractual clause that cancels the book. I don’t blame them a bit. The fault lies entirely with me. I mailed back the advance this morning, and I wish Jerrod, S.D., and Karen all the best in the world. They’re good folks, and business is just business. So, for now, Binky is on the back-burner. I’ll finish it after I finish some of these other late books.
Lifetime Subscribers can expect their next shipment in coming weeks. Shipments start next Monday and will be staggered, so please be patient. This shipment will include the following: The Damned Highway, Dead Sea, The Last Zombie: Dead New World, and The Last Zombie: Inferno issues #2, 3, and 4 (and copies of Clickers II for those who were shorted). January’s shipment will include Kill Whitey, Castaways, Ghoul, The Cage, Dark Hollow, and The Last Zombie: Inferno #5.
I’ll be at AnthoCon in Portsmouth, New Hampshire this weekend. My schedule is here. And next weekend, I’ll be in Portland, Oregon for Bizarrocon. Hope to see some of you there. As announced previously, these will be my last two appearances for quite a while.
The late, great Janis Joplin once sang “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” I would add that so is apathy.
Let’s talk, you and I. It’s been a long time since we’ve really done that. Oh, sure. We talk on Twitter every day, and we talk here in the comments section. And we used to chat at The Keenedom and on Facebook until the sound of white noise in those places began to overwhelm me, throbbing in my pineal gland night and day, threatening to drive me mad, and I ended up stabbing both of them with a knife so that they wouldn’t bother me anymore. Continue reading
Today’s entry is mainly for my publishers/editors/production people. The rest of you can come back later in the week for Deluge (when Leviathan shows up) safe in the knowledge that you didn’t miss anything important.
Emerging from the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Lee, I wrote you a new chapter of Deluge. Now I’m disappearing for the next five days (except for the occasional Tweet) to work on:
CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES
THE LOST LEVEL
BINKY
In five days, The Lost Level and Clickers vs. Zombies will be finished, and Binky’s first draft will be completed. And then I will collapse into an exhausted, twitching fugue state…
I’m currently working on three things. The first is a bizarro novella for KHP tentatively titled Lake Fossil. The reason the title is tentative is because we’re still not sure what works best. For a while, I wanted to call it Binky: A Bizarro Novel, but that might not work either. The second is a John Carter-esque novella for Apex called The Lost Level. It’s a love letter to the man-out-of-time sword & sorcery epics of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Otis Adelbert Kline, Joe Lansdale, etc. (yes, hisownself wrote one). The third is a novel with J.F. Gonzalez for Bloodletting Press titled Clickers vs. Zombies, which is about Clickers and zombies and zombie Clickers. Here are the first sentences of each:
(From Lake Fossil): Phil Campbell was sure that living in Lake Fossil would suck.
(From Clickers vs. Zombies): As he did most mornings, Jim Thurmond had to remind himself that this was no longer his home.
(From The Lost Level): My name is Aaron Pace, and I’m writing this by hand in a spiral-bound, college-ruled notebook that I found in a backpack attached to a skeleton inside a school bus.