Catching Up, Big News, and 11-11-11...

Been awhile since I’ve done a blog [checks how long, shakes head], but it’s time to lock in and make them regular. Why? Well, many reasons, but primarily because of an ebook collection coming out!

But first…let’s catch up a bit, a lot in the pipeline.

Sometime next week--it’s the 6^th of October as I type this--there will be an e-anthology of Halloween themed stories--not all horror--called, “Past the Patch,” put together by the talented horror writing fiend, Brian Fatah Steele. Looks like fun, and it includes my tale, “The Perfect Pumpkin.” Perfectly gruesome stuff, appropriate reading material for the spooky season.

Vincent Daemon’s new magazine, Grave Demand, "The Journal of Transgressive Thought in Literature & Culture," looks like it will specialize in no-holds-barred fiction and more that won't flinch.  Excellent! One of my personal fave short stories I’ve written, “Broken Teacup,” is included. Gnarly, messed up, you’ll be thinking, my God, John Claude, these blokes are Just Wrong…but then, ahhhh, see, it goes off the rails and things are not as they seem and you end up realizing the story is about love. Or not. I remember reading a short story by John Everson, the title eludes me at the moment, but it had some truly evil lead character, and I was impressed by how by the end of the story, we were made to care about this character. That inspired this one a bit. Now, I don’t think caring about the narrator of "Broken Teacups" is the deal here, not exactly, but I enjoyed twisting it in a way where, well, you might care about his predicament. Or not. Either way, it’s a hardcore horror ride that doesn’t flinch, perfect for this new mag. Surreal, too, when it gets there.  Grave Demand will be out in October or November.  Worth investigating!

Then there’s what you’ve all been waiting for. Or not, haha…but on 11-11-11 I will have an ebook short story collection released--possibly a print version too, that would be great--entitled…um, well, we (the editor at Ampichellis ebooks and moi) are working on it. The original title was, The Dark is Light Enough For Me, a 9,200 word novelette of insidious perversion and self discovery that is featured in the collection. That still may end up being the title, but recently I was re-reading that story, proofreading a tad, tweaking as we writers do, and within that story, there’s mention of another book entitled, My Heart Belongs To Darkness, and it struck me how much I liked that title as well. Fickle me.  No, no, just...um... So, one of those, I’ll let you know soon, post cover art, the whole deal, teasers, samples, gonna have fun, shake up some interest. But it is coming. 11-11-11 = 11 + 1 stories (yes, that’s twelve, but I think I will play up the 11’s and 1 and, er…yeah, you get me, don’t you?).

Hmmm…

Anyway, time to strap in, we’re going for a ride into the heart of darkness. There’s no guarantee we’ll return…

;-)

                                          A broken teacup, of course.