7/8/26
The Manhattan On Mars Press edition of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is finally live on Nook, Kobo, and Apple, in addition to already being available on Kindle and in paperback. Textually, there’s no difference between this edition and other editions, except for a new cover by Kealan Patrick Burke’s Elderlemon Design.
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My ex-wife, our son, and I were out to dinner last night when I got a text from Paul Tremblay with a link to this article on Wired. Meta (the company who owns Facebook, Threads, and Instagram) now lets anyone use your Instagram photos in AI images. Wired reports:
The new model, called Muse Image, rolled out with deep integrations woven into the Instagram app. As part of this update, public Instagram profiles are now automatically opted into being fodder for generative AI remixes. All someone has to do is tag your account’s profile in a prompt—if it’s public—and they can use Meta AI to generate an image using your likeness.
The worst part about this is you will not receive any sort of notification that your image has been used for AI.
The good news is it’s fairly easy to opt out. Open the Instagram app, and on your profile, tap the three lines at the top right corner of the screen. Then, scroll down to the Sharing and Reuse tab, and look for the toggle switch that says ‘Allow people to use your content on Instagram and with AI features on Meta’. Make sure it’s turned off. Here is what it looks like on my phone.
And thanks to Paul for tipping me off on that. Who would have guessed that my encountering of John Langan’s utter clone in a Central Pennsylvania restaurant would lead to such a dire warning.
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Women In Horror Year: Day 77
Eminence Front by Rebecca Rowland
A winter storm ravages a small community in New England, but the residents of one street are unprepared for what the snow brings: an ancient curse, an entity that knows both their sins and their regrets and will stop at nothing to consume what belongs to it.
When John Stephenson peers out of his window on a Tuesday morning, he sees nothing but clear, gray skies hovering above the houses on his staid suburban street, but the next 48 hours will prove to be a waking nightmare from which John and his neighbors cannot escape. As the first flakes fall, the whispering begins. A woman walking her dog leans into the sidewalk as though something buried beneath speaks to her. As the storm grows in ferocity, each of the residents hear the storm calling.
What it says, however, few may survive to repeat.
From Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award finalist Rebecca Rowland comes a winter horror novel of cosmic proportions, one in which one neighborhood comes face to face, and ear to ear, with a malevolence as old as the world itself.
In a review, Cemetery Dance said this novel is reminiscent of John Carpenter’s The Thing, and while I get what the reviewer was going for, I’d argue that it’s more like Tim Lebbon’s White, Stephen King’s Storm of the Century, and my own novel EARTHWORM GODS… but on steroids. I’m a sucker for “apocalyptic storm traps humans in a nightmare scenario” plots, and this one delivers in spades. Rebecca’s voice remains uniquely her own, and like previous works, her prose is easy, accessible, and lyrical. She is a writer who knows and understands this genre, and she’s not uncomfortable switching gears if the story requires it. And that’s what happens here, as Eminence Front begins as a slow burn psychological tale before gleefully and masterfully veering off into cosmic horror with plenty of bloodshed. (Not the level or gore as an Extreme Horror novel, nor the transgressive message of Splatterpunk, which one reviewer called it. No, this is just good old-fashioned mainstream gore, and in an era when suddenly everybody and their brother is claiming everything is Splatterpunk, it’s refreshing to be reminded that you can eviscerate someone in a book or movie without it having to be Splatterpunk or Extreme Horror).
Bottom line — Eminence Front is a fun read. You’ll devour it in a weekend, and have a great time with it. An excellent way to beat the heat. Available in paperback and eBook from Clash Books. There was also a beautiful signed limited edition hardcover from thunderstorm Books that quickly sold out, but I’m including the cover to that below as well, because Vincent Ching’s artwork is eye-popping.
