New audio version of “Available Light” at Tales To Terrify

This is truly exciting. Lawrence Santoro’s Tales To Terrify has produced audio versions of all of this years nominees for outstanding achievement in short fiction. This episode has Joe McKinney, Bruce Boston, and yours truly. My hat is off to Jacob Boris, the narrator of Available Light. He really dramatized and brought the story to life. I loved his voice. It was the perfect timbre and pitch for Available Light. Quite exciting. Next week will conclude with Lucy Snyder and Weston Ochse. This has been such an amazing honor. I look at that list of names and am deeply humbled to be amongst them. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Thanks, Lawrence. Great job.

By the way, this marks the second audio recording of Available Light, the first produced by Mike Davis at his amazing Lovecraft E-zine, who published and championed this story from the beginning.

http://talestoterrify.com/tales-to-terrify-no-72-the-2012-bram-stoker-nominees-part-1/

NERVES is FREE! Signed and rare items almost gone!

NERVES is free April 24, 25, 2013

Hey! If you’ve been wanting to read NERVES, it’s free April 24th and 25th, 2013 on Kindle.

http://www.amazon.com/Nerves-ebook/dp…

And there’s still time to grab one of only two remaining signed hardcopy for cheaper than retail at the Bad Moon Books Kickstarter.
They’ve also got the original printed manuscript up for a reward, too. There’s lots of stuff for horror fans. Rare Clive Barker items that are amazing, and of course, the Thomas Ligotti Death Poems editions will be amazing.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1…

Pretty fun stuff. Hope you all enjoy reading the book. And please, please, please review it when you’re done. And if you have read it, and haven’t put up a review, I urge you to do so. They are extremely helpful to us indie authors and make a big difference.

My lunch with my friend, the Angry Author

Met my friend, the Angry Author, today at his favorite coffee shop. Was really hoping he’d go over the critique of my short story, but straight after he got his blueberry pastry and chicory coffee, he started in.

“Know what I hate?” he said.

“Cold coffee?” I said.

Angry said, “Worse. Facebook. Twitter. The whole shebang. And don’t think it’s just me being old and in the way. It’s these damn people posting their daily word counts.”

“That’s bad,” I said. “Aren’t we supposed to write everyday. I mean, you said…”

“Hold on,” Angry said, and grabbed a busboy. “Can you tell me how many coffee cups you’ve taken today? How many plates have been washed?”

The busboy said, “Who knows? A lot. I just keep busy. I mean, who cares so long as the work’s done, right?”

Angry smiled, which was a rarity. “See?” he said. “It’s not interesting. It doesn’t say anything. Writers are supposed to be writing. How boring to think about some guy sitting in front of his computer tapping away. Sure doesn’t make me interested in reading their work if all they’re posting about is their word count. It’s no guarantee they’re good words. Most of them will get edited later, anyway. Hopefully. Unless they go ahead and self publish their first drafts.”

“What about the ones who post parts of their works in progress?” I said.

Angry slammed his coffee. “So damn presumptuous. I’ve read them, and they’re all so pleased with themselves. A clever turn of phrase. A wonderfully descriptive passage. Stuff that gets cut out later when you edit for story and trim the purple prose. Who thinks it’s a good idea to make material from their first drafts public?”

“Not me,” I said. “I’m scared to let anyone see anything until I can polish it.”

“They’ve got you captive. Just like when you go to the bathroom and someone’s dropping a loaf. In both cases, they’re forcing their crap on you. Those sites are like being in the middle of a room of prideful balloon heads, all grinning and hard selling me on their clumsy books,” Angry said. “I can’t stand it. And their works are filled with exclamation points. Do you know what an exclamation point is?”

“Emphasis,” I said.

“Wrong,” Angry said. “Imagine you’re having a nice conversation, and when someone says something profound…”

In a flash, he whipped something out of his jacket, and I had to cover my ears because the sound was so loud. The whole shop stopped and looked.

Angry just smiled. He waved at the staff, they went about their business, and he handed me a small bullhorn. It had an exclamation point drawn on it with a Sharpie. “See?” he said. “That’s the effect they have. There’s very few times you need to use one.”

“Huh,” I said. “I get it.”

“And all these narcissists sprinkle exclamation points on every line of dialogue,” Angry said. “Who walks around shouting all the time?”

“Maybe old rock stars with hearing damage,” I said.

“That’s true,” Angry said. ”So that’s my soapbox for today.” He nodded my way. “I read your story yesterday.”

“Oh?” I said.

“I had the same reaction to road kill in front of my house this morning,” he said. “I thought it had a pathetic ending, gross, and I couldn’t wait for someone else to clean it up.”

I stopped eating.

He laughed. “Just kidding,” he said. “It was quite good for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

“I…”

“Relax,” he said. “It’ll stay between us. At least you didn’t post it online.”

“Well,” I said. “At least there’s that.”

An interview with author Rena Mason

Today I’m psyched to interview Rena Mason. She’s a truly gifted writer and storyteller. It’s a great day now that the world can read her work. She’s got a great voice and her macabre stories are right up my alley. Here we learn a little bit about the artist behind the stories, as well as some of her inspiration behind her just-released novel, “The Evolutionist”, out now from Nightscape Press. Check it out, friends. Rena rocks!

Can you tell us a little bit about The Evolutionist?    The Evolutionist is a story about Stacy Troy, a woman who’s been suffering from nightmares for months. Convinced she’s on the brink of a midlife crisis, her husband insists she see a psychiatrist. Dr. Light becomes an integral part of her solving the mysteries of the terrifying dreams, but meanwhile, her health, and the relationships between her family and friends begin to deteriorate. Then the nightmares take a turn for the worse, and before everything comes crashing down, Stacy has to decide what is most important and choose between leaving the life she’s grown to love or possibly destroying who she really is.

What inspired this story?     Ha! Changes in my own life. My love of horror and science.

How did you get started writing?     One summer, I was reading an interesting selection of books that were either one thing or another and I couldn’t understand why a bit of murder & mystery, horror, or sci-fi couldn’t be added to them to stir things up a little. I’m speaking in particular of a Sue Miller book I’d read. I feel most people know why relationships go under. But what if the real reasons are compounded by extraordinary circumstances? That’s what I wanted to read. Life with some crazy unexpected twists and turns. I was also bummed when I read Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and there were no “actual” angels and demons in it. Ha! And that’s when I started writing.

What was the path to publication like for you?     I wrote my first novel about five years ago. Submitted it, got it rejected (probably between 30-50 times,) and put it away. It’s a very personal story to me and I came to the realization that my writing wasn’t good enough to do it the justice it deserves yet. But the time will come, and I was all right with that. Then I wrote The Evolutionist, edited it, and polished it. I pitched it at a fancy convention and got the interest of some agents. Then before submitting it, I decided to go over it one more time and realized it was nowhere close to being ready. Rather than go through the whole rejection process all over again (which is not easy by any means,) I decided that I probably needed some help. Over internet connections, I kept seeing the name R.J. Cavender come up as a horror editor. I thought, if I can convince this horror editor that my novel is horror and not just sci-fi or mainstream, then maybe he can help me polish it, get it ready for submitting, and even know some good places/people to submit it to. Well, I’m glad I made that decision. R.J. has not only been a good editor for me, he became a good friend as well. After my short story, “The Eyes Have It” got into Horror For Good: A Charitable Anthology, things started to look up, and people started asking me about my work, if I wanted to write a story for them/work with them, etc. It was really awesome. Some of the editors of the Horror For Good anthology started Nightscape Press. I submitted The Evolutionist to them, and they accepted it with kind words about the story, which really made my year. So my path wasn’t all that bad. I’ve read some real horror stories, but I think the indie press has made it easier for more unknown authors to get their works published. There is hope.

What’s in the future for you?     Promote and sell the hell out of The Evolutionist. Hee! I have a personal short story, “Awk•ward” coming out close to June this year in The Haunted Mansion Writers Retreat Year Two anthology. My novella, East End Girls, which is paired up with Gord Rollo’s Only the Thunder Knows is kicking off the premier of JournalStone Publishing’s Double Down series in June this year, too. In October, my short story “Death Squared” will be released in Crystal Lake Publishing’s Fear the Reaper anthology. I’m currently rewriting/editing my next novel The Vein of My Existence, a horror/dark fantasy/mild erotica story, and I’m working on the outline for its prequel. It’s a storyline that could easily become a series. Fingers crossed.

What would people be surprised to find out about you?     I lived on a farm in Modesto, California for a few years. Shoveled chicken shit out of coops in temperatures over a hundred degrees into a wheel barrow, which I had to push around to the back of the barn and unload. I walked for miles and opened up irrigation valves to flood the pastures, (and swam in irrigation canals – gross. But it was fun then.) I would help move the cattle to different pastures and walked the hot wire line to make sure it was clear of debris. I fed horses, turkeys, Cornish game hens, and cows. (Fortunately, it wasn’t a dairy farm and no milking was involved.) I was never allowed to feed the hogs. Not long after I left the farm, I had to read Animal Farm and was glad about not feeding the hogs. I also had Netherland Dwarf rabbits I used to show at the Stanislaus County Fair for “honorary mention” ribbons. Went to rodeos and dressed like a cowgirl. It’s a hard life and I have every respect for the people who take it on. You’ve absolutely got to love it to do it.

Where can readers find and follow you?
http://www.renamasonwrites.com
http://www.renamasonwrites.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/rena.mason
and my Amazon author page

http://www.amazon.com/Rena-Mason/e/B00C7YOVDY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Where can people buy your books?
AMAZON “The Evolutionist”
http://www.amazon.com/The-Evolutionist-Rena-Mason/dp/1938644085/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365269004&sr=8-1&keywords=the+evolutionist+rena+mason

JournalStone “East End Girls”:
http://journal-store.com/fiction/only-the-thunder-knows-east-end-girls/

NIghtscape:
http://www.nightscapepress.com/books/novels/

Bad Moon Books Kickstarter

Bad Moon Books launched their Kickstarter campaign today, with some truly awesome rewards. Biggest amongst them are two different editions of Thomas Ligotti’s ultra rare “Death Poems”. Being a huge Ligotti fan, this makes me so damn happy. We just need a new edition of THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY. I’m still searching for an affordable copy of Grmiscribe, myself.

There’s also signed copies of NERVES, and a one-of-a-kind original manuscript from a draft of NERVES, featuring corrections and excised sections not in the printed book. Sorry: the get killed by Brian Keene in a book went quick fast in a hurry. But there’s still some absolutely awesome stuff to be had. Personally? I’m at least getting the Ligotti and probably a T-shirt.

Bad Moon is a great small press, and you’d be doing them a good service, and insuring they stay in business, healthily, through the next year. Get on board!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1034933224/thomas-ligotti-death-poems-updated-deluxe-edition?ref=email

Visit “Forever” in AFTER DEATH

A very personal story, “Forever” has been released in AFTER DEATH. This was a tough one to get out.

After Death

NERVES is FREE March 19 & 20, 2013

NERVES if FREE today and tomorrow for your Kindle reading pleasure. Please enjoy, please share, and please leave a little something in the reviews when you’re done.

Last night, work began on a true sequel/prequel. Many of the questions raised in NERVES will be answered. It took me quite a bit of time to write the original, so who knows how long this will take, but it is coming.

In the meantime, enjoy…

Nerves

“A River of Blood, Carried into the Abyss” to appear in BLOOD TYPE

“A River of Blood, Carried into the Abyss” has been selected to appear in BLOOD TYPE: An Anthology of Vampire SF on the Cutting Edge, edited by Robert S. Wilson. All proceeds will be donated to Cystic Fibrosis. Appears the anthology will be out in June 2013, in time for the Bram Stoker Awards in New Orleans. ”A River of Blood, Carried into the Abyss” tells the story of Galaday Red, a scientist adrift on a ship in low orbit, as he watches the world slowly die below. He’d found a cure, only it caused him to live much longer, by feeding from the filtered blood of his sleeping crew mates. Only one of them has woken, and they’re none to happy about it.

Here’s the Facebook page for the anthology: https://www.facebook.com/Bloodtypeanthology?fref=ts

I love this cover art.

“Available Light” makes Final Ballot for the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards®

“Available Light” illustration by Nick Gucker

“Available Light” makes Final Ballot for the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards®

This news is beyond delightful. Being recognized by my peers working in horror fiction, non-fiction, screenplay and poetry, is a major honor. Much gratitude to Mike Davis and Aaron J. French at the Lovecraft eZine for taking in the story, as well as the Jury and members of the HWA who thought enough of the story to give it the nod.

The thing that fell from the sky
Also returned
Also went back.

“Available Light” by John Palisano can be read at the Lovecraft eZine online:

http://lovecraftzine.com/issues/2012-2/issue-12-march-2012/available-light-by-john-palisano/

There’s also an audio interpretation by Bruce L. Piddy, free to download.

Lovecraft eZine editor Michael Davis is making it free to voting members, in Kindle (mobi) and Nook (epub) formats. You can e-mail him at: michaeldaviswriter@gmail.com

The issue also includes another Stoker Preliminary Ballot work: Nicole Cushing’s “A Catechism for Aspiring Amnesiacs”. Nicole is a great writer, and I urge you to check out her work, and the stories of the other fantastic purveyors of the weird.

Much gratitude goes to those who have read, and who will read, “Available Light”, as well as so many other fantastic works this year. Thank you.

Here is the full ballot. Congratulations on all my fellow nominees.

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Final Ballot for the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see http://www.horror.org ) is the premiere writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with nearly 1000 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see http://www.horror.org/stokers.htm ).

The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards Committee congratulate all these Bram Stoker Award Nominees.

Notes about the voting process appear after the ballot listing.

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

Ethridge, Benjamin Kane – Bottled Abyss (Redrum Horror)
Everson, John – NightWhere (Samhain Publishing)
Kiernan, Caitlin R. – The Drowning Girl (Roc)
Little, Bentley – The Haunted (Signet)
McKinney, Joe – Inheritance (Evil Jester Press)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A FIRST NOVEL

Boccacino, Michael – Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling (William Morrow)
Coates, Deborah – Wide Open (Tor Books)
Day, Charles – The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief (Noble YA Publishers LLC)
Dudar, Peter – A Requiem for Dead Flies (Nightscape Press)
Gropp, Richard – Bad Glass (Ballantine/Del Rey)
Soares, L.L. – Life Rage (Nightscape Press)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Bray, Libba – The Diviners (Little Brown)
Lyga, Barry – I Hunt Killers (Little Brown)
Maberry, Jonathan – Flesh & Bone (Simon & Schuster)
McCarty, Michael – I Kissed A Ghoul (Noble Romance Publishing)
Stiefvater, Maggie – The Raven Boys (Scholastic Press)
Strand, Jeff – A Bad Day for Voodoo (Sourcebooks)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A GRAPHIC NOVEL

Bunn, Cullen – The Sixth Gun Volume 3: Bound (Oni Press)
Moore, Terry – Rachel Rising Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death (Abstract Studio)
Thornton, Ravi – The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone (Jonathan Cape)
Wacks, Peter J., and Guy Anthony De Marco – Behind These Eyes (Villainous Press)
Wood, Rocky, and Lisa Morton – Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times (McFarland)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN LONG FICTION

Burke, Kealan Patrick – Thirty Miles South of Dry County (Delirium Books)
Ketchum, Jack, and Lucky McKee – I’m Not Sam (Sinister Grin Press)
McKinney, Joe, and Michael McCarty – Lost Girl of the Lake (Bad Moon Books)
O’Neill, Gene – The Blue Heron (Dark Regions Press)
Prentiss, Norman – The Fleshless Man (Delirium Books)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN SHORT FICTION

Boston, Bruce – Surrounded by the Mutant Rain Forest (Daily Science Fiction)
McKinney, Joe – Bury My Heart at Marvin Gardens (Best of Dark Moon Digest, Dark Moon Books)
Ochse, Weston – Righteous (Psychos, Black Dog and Leventhall Publication)
Palisano, John – Available Light (Lovecraft eZine, March 2012)
Snyder, Lucy – Magdala Amygdala (Dark Faith: Invocations, Apex Book Company)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN SCREENPLAY

Goldman, Jane – The Woman in Black (Cross Creek Pictures)
Kim, Sang Kyu – The Walking Dead, “Killer Within” (AMC TV)
Minear, Tim – American Horror Story: Asylum, “Dark Cousin” (Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, Ryan Murphy Productions)
Ross, Gary, Suzanne Collins, and Billy Ray – The Hunger Games (Lionsgate, Color Force)
Whedon, Joss, and Drew Goddard – The Cabin in the Woods (Mutant Enemy Productions, Lionsgate)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN ANTHOLOGY

Castle, Mort, and Sam Weller – Shadow Show (HarperCollins)
Guignard, Eric J. – Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations (Dark Moon Books)
Miller, Eric – Hell Comes to Hollywood (Big Time Books)
Scioneaux, Mark C., R.J. Cavender, and Robert S. Wilson – Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology (Cutting Block Press)
Swanson, Stan – Slices of Flesh (Dark Moon Books)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN FICTION COLLECTION

Carroll, Jonathan – Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories (Subterranean Press)
Castle, Mort – New Moon on the Water (Dark Regions)
Hand, Elizabeth – Errantry: Strange Stories (Small Beer Press)
Hirshberg, Glen – The Janus Tree (Subterranean Press)
Oates, Joyce Carol – Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories (Ecco)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN NON-FICTION

Collings, Michael – Writing Darkness (CreateSpace)
Klinger, Les – The Annotated Sandman, Volume 1 (Vertigo)
Morton, Lisa – Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween (Reaktion Books)
Paffenroth, Kim, and John W. Morehead – The Undead and Theology (Pickwick Publications)
Phillips, Kendall R. – Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film (Southern Illinois University Press)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN POETRY

Addison, Linda, and Stephen M. Wilson – Dark Duet (NECON eBooks)
Boston, Bruce, and Gary William Crawford – Notes from the Shadow City (Dark Regions Press)
Collings, Michael – A Verse to Horrors (Amazon Digital Services)
Simon, Marge – Vampires, Zombies & Wanton Souls (Elektrik Milk Bath Press)
Turzillo, Mary A. – Lovers & Killers (Dark Regions)

NOTE: In two categories there are six nominees because two works tied for fifth place.

Our voting members will now vote on this Final Ballot, with voting closing on March 31 (only Active and Lifetime Members are eligible to vote).

“Fifty Shades Of Decay” is out

Here’s something cool. “Fifty Shades Of Decay” is now out and prowling for blood. There’s 51 stories of zombie erotica, including one from yours truly– “Some Like It Rot” about a lowly Hollywood personal assistant and the young starlet he’s taking charge of. “Nobody’s perfect. Even if they’re putrid.”

It will soon be available in paperback, for when the zombie apocalypse comes and there’s no juice for our Kindles and iPads. I’ll let it be known as soon as I do. Until then, here it is on all formats over at the wonderful Smashwords and Amazon.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/286863

Amazon