6/29/26
It’s my parent’s turn with Grandma in West Virginia this week (to recap for the slaves to the social media algorithms who don’t check here each day — my grandmother, age 100 years and 7 months, recently fell, fracturing several ribs and her pelvis. She has been in a rehab facility for the last month. My parents, my sister, and myself have been taking turns making the 5 hour drive from Central Pennsylvania to West Virginia).
Anyway, Dad got up at the family cabin around 1:30 this morning and passed out. He, my mother, and one of my cousins are currently at the hospital. They don’t know what’s going on with him yet. So… I’m in a holding pattern this morning, and will probably be heading back down at some point today.
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Yesterday’s newsletter can be found here. After sending it out, I spent most of the day with Mike Lombardo. We found a theater big enough and centralized enough to hold our cast and crew screening of DEAD FORMAT, the rough cut of which is coming along beautifully. There is still debate about the final few minutes and which way to go, and whether or not to shorten the run time. The score, sound, and some touch ups are next.
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Women In Horror Year: Day 68
The Pink Agave Motel & Other Stories by V. Castro
Signed Limited Edition Hardcover - Signed Paperback - Paperback - eBook
Two-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated author, V. Castro dims the lights in a collection where you might devour your next lover or meet your next meal.
Readers are invited to The Pink Agave Motel,where brutality and intimacy ooze across the pages, exploring the depths of the unhinged imagination and how human desire unlocks the impulse to bite. Castro’s voice, influenced by Mexican folklore and a feminist perspective, illuminates a deeper view of how unrequited love affects every type of being alike.
The titular story focuses on Valentina, the proclaimed leader of a creature cohort, who manages hotel guests, until she is enlightened to a carnivorous death on the property. To avoid exposure that threatens her existence, she partners with (the hauntingly handsome) grieving friend of the dearly departed to solve the murder. Further within these tales, discover a woman who is a fish out of water drinking at a seaside honky tonk, the trapped guests who undergo sexual liberation, and aliens who find the sexiest of disguises.
These short stories evoke an alluring voice, sure to make the reader shiver in arousal and horror, never quite knowing what could happen next. Castro pushes past the limits of gothic terror and fantasy to carve a dangerous path of lust and violence, all throughout the reader’s charming stay at The Pink Agave Motel.
By popular demand, V. Castro gives her readers what they want — a book length collection of erotic horror that is both sensual and sinister, often simultaneously. They range from one-page flash fiction to the novella-length title story, and along the way, show just how diverse her literary chameleon skills are. She can do extreme horror and splatterpunk without breaking a sweat, craft deeply moving quiet horror, and summon something supernatural effortlessly. These are confident stories by a writer who has found her voice, and knows what she wants to say with it. If you miss the seminal Hot Blood anthologies of old, then this one is definitely for you. Available as a beautiful signed limited edition hardcover from Thunderstorm Books, in paperback and eBook from Clash Books, and signed paperback from Vortex Books.
