7/6/26
For those who didn’t get to see it before the sale closed yesterday (because several folks have asked via Patreon and email) the original bound manuscript for THE RISING went for $5,000. A few author friends questioned why I lowballed it at that price, and while I agree it could have probably fetched twice that, I don’t have time to wait. As I said yesterday, my intent had been to give the manuscript to the University of Pittsburgh, who are getting the rest of my papers (and indeed, have some already). But with an almost 101-year old grandmother recovering from a fractured pelvis and ribs, an 81-year old father fighting a rare tick-borne illness that less than 3,000 Americans get each year, and a kid heading off to college, my work time has been severely impacted this summer. And with work time impacted, so is my productivity, which means less $ coming in this fall and winter. Given the uncertain state of the current economy, that’s a concern. Bottom line — I sold it because I need the money.
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Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered a well-preserved Byzantine-era city in the western desert.
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Women In Horror Year: Day 75
The Worst Is Yet To Come by S. P. Miskowski
2019 Bram Stoker Award® Nominee for Superior Achievement in a Novel
For most of her fourteen years, Tasha Davis has languished in the rural-suburban town of Skillute, Washington. Her parents offer plenty of comfortable--if stifling--emotional support, but what she needs is a best friend.
In her final year at Clark Middle School, Tasha meets a strange, new classmate. Briar Kenny is the self-styled rebel Tasha wants to be, and the Davises are the kind of close-knit family Briar covets. A moment of unexpected violence spawns a secret between the two girls and awakens a mystery from the past.
Unknown to Tasha and Briar, their secret also attracts something monstrous from a forgotten corner of Skillute. The town is haunted by its history, scarred with the lingering spirit of broken and scattered families, abandoned real estate ventures, and old scores never settled between neighbors. But there's more to the place than memory and legend. Beneath the landscape something malignant rages, and it will stop at nothing to find a route into the physical world.
In 2001, Leisure Books published Tom Piccirilli’s novel, A Lower Deep. This was notable for many reasons. First of all, it was one of the first mainstream trad-sales from our peer group (the so-called Horrornet Cabal). The novel was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award the following year. It’s one of the best of Pic’s early novel-length output. And finally, it is remembered for this iconic cover that did not have much to do with the novel itself.
What was frustrating to many of us, however, was that the novel serves as a conclusion to a long-running cycle of stories called the “Self” saga — an overarching cycle about a modern-day necromancer / occult detective and his demonic familiar. Many of those stories were included in a collection called Deep Into That Darkness Peering, which was only published as a signed limited edition hardcover, so they weren’t readily available to the mainstream public who picked up A Lower Deep and Barnes & Noble or Walmart or their grocery store spinner rack. And Leisure had no interest (at that time) of publishing a short story collection featuring them.
So, basically, what Leisure Books did was release Avengers: Endgame out into a world where 75% of the general public had never seen any of the other Marvel Cinematic universe films.
I bring all of this up because, like Pic’s novel, The Worst Is Yet To Come by S. P. Miskowski is part of a wider saga — the Skillute Cycle, all of which take place in the same fiction location. And — to the best of my knowledge — not all of the other books in the cycle (Knock Knock, Delphine Dodd, Astoria, and In the Light) are currently in print, which is an absolute crime against horror fiction. (I’d also like to voice my tangential discontent that Miskowski’s unrelated novella Muscadines also appears to be unavailable). Knock Knock is available in audio, and the other books can be found on the secondary market (although definitely at collector’s premium prices).
The good news is that unlike Pic’s conclusion to the Self Saga, The Worst Is Yet To Come can absolutely be read and enjoyed by folks who have no knowledge of the previous books in the Skillute Cycle. I know this as a bookseller. It’s not the starting point I’;d prefer to hand people, but I can confidently hand it to them and know that they’ll enjoy it, and not be confused as to what is going on. Would the reader’s experience be richer for having a familiarity with those first? Sure. But it’s not required. Her stuff is great — literary and leisurely, like a long walk through a winding trail in the forest that gets progressively darker and more sinister with each step you take.
Supernatural / cosmic small town horror that will appeal to fans of Charles L. Grant, Gwendolyn Kiste, or Peter Straub, The Worst Is Yet To Come is available in paperback and eBook from Journalstone.
UPDATE: I am happy to report that less than 24 hours after posting this, @spmiskowski.bsky.social's Skillute Cycle is available for preorder once again in paperback, hardcover, and eBook. Here's the link!
UPDATE: I am happy to report that less than 24 hours after posting this, @spmiskowski.bsky.social's Skillute Cycle is available for preorder once again in paperback, hardcover, and eBook. Here's the link!