Latest update, October 30, 2007 This is the part where we all jump up and down in glee … because Mad Dogs is finally in release! And please scroll toward the bottom, where you’ll find a new giveaway section that should remain a permanent feature, or at least until the sun goes supernova. First out of the gate, two stories — one audio, one text — that are yours for a measly click of the mouse. Dogs on the Loose After spending several months trapped in a future tense limbo, my new crime novel, Mad Dogs, now officially exists in the present tense. I got an early sample copy a week ahead of its release, and it sure does feel nice and fat and purty. There’s more … but it’s much too extensive to cram here. Which is why we’ve whipped up the special Mad Dogs page, for a quick plot rundown, the opening chapter, an interview covering aspects of the novel’s background and its stupefyingly twisted path to publication, order links, and review excerpts. Prototype v.2.0 — Now Available! If You’re Lucky! Delirium Books’ hardcover limited reissue of Prototype began shipping in late September. And there was much rejoicing. Chances are, it’s sold out by the time you’re reading this. As I compile updates, I’m told that you can count the remaining copies on one hand that’s been in a severe industrial accident. But you never know — you may luck out and nab the last one. Beyond that, it’s the secondhand market for terminal procrastinators. Read or download the first chapter. Storytellers Unplugged Are you just nosy enough to be interested in what makes writers tick? Wearing my nonfiction hat — actually more of a helmet with horns and dual drinking straws — I’ve been holding down the 9th of each month at Storytellers Unplugged. It’s a daily blog (discounting the occasional no-shows) in which roughly 30 writers and fellow travelers expound upon the art, craft, business, and soul of the world’s real oldest profession. For the aurally-fixated, I’ve recently begun recording my entries as podcasts, as well. You can find them at Podango, or subscribe through iTunes.   Same Voice, Different Podcast I’ve just said yea to an invitation to submit to interrogation at the Pod of Horror podcast. More on this as it develops. Assuming they were only kidding about the sodium pentathol. As The World of Hurt Turns Recent word from the publisher is that this short novel is just about sold out. If you’ve been stalling, it’s now official: You stall at your peril. For the eternal fence-sitters waiting to be swayed, here’s another recently discovered accolade: “Hodge is one of today’s finest authors of horror and dark fantasy. This novella isn’t for the faint-hearted, but it rises head and shoulders above the unintentionally silly sadism of too much modern horror.” — Poppy Z. Brite at Dogmatika – Best of 2006: Books.   Dark Advent Revisited: More Teasing Plans are still in the works for that rumored new (although very limited) edition of this vintage post-apocalyptic novel. So why no dirt dished on the whole thing yet? These things are better left unspoken until the paperwork is done. So keep watching this space, and details should emerge later this fall. In the meantime, since the new edition is 100% unlikely to have a cover remotely as silly as the original, it would almost be worth it to hold a contest to see if someone can design a bogus cover that would rival the old Halloween mask.

Short Stories … Now Out, Or Near Enough

• Belatedness alert: “And Our Turn Too Will One Day Come” has been out in Alone on the Darkside: (Darkside # 5) for a year … I just wasn’t aware of it until fairly recently.
  
  
• “And They Will Come in the Hour of Our Greatest Need,” set in the aftermath of the Allied firebombing of Dresden, in is the World War II-themed anthology A Dark And Deadly Valley.
  
  
• If the title “The Passion of the Beast” sounds somewhat familiar, that’s surely just a coincidence. Look for it in Midnight Premier, Tom Piccirilli’s homage to movies.
  
  
• It will be months before "A Good Dead Man Is Hard To Find" is out in Monster Noir, but the mind still reels at what was possible in this clever shared-world anthology. I've combined crime and comedy. And I've combined crime and horror. Still, I never thought I'd have a chance to combine all three, but that's exactly what happened with this reimagined version of historical lowlifes Burke & Hare. Favorite line: "Now you get 'im strung back up that wall, and I'll fetch a barrel and a pipe."

Consume on-the-spot, download for later, forward to exploitative organizations headquartered in third-world back-alleys … the choice is yours. New freebies will appear here on no known schedule.
Extract A short-short audio story I did for the podcast version of my October 2007 Storytellers Unplugged blog, although it’s been pruned of the SU intro theme. (5.8 MB) On the Music page, ambient aficionados can check out a separate mix of the atmospheres, music, and effects that comprise the story’s soundtrack.	Download MP3 now
When The Bough Doesn’t Break Many readers of the Misbegotten story cycle — World of Hurt was the fourth and, so far, longest installment — have asked where they can find this story, the third in the sequence. In contrast to the first two, which have been widely published in Poppy Z. Brite’s Love In Vein anthologies, plus my own collections and elsewhere, this piece appeared in a limited edition anthology that instantly went out of print. So here ya go. This is a PDF file of the galley proof, and shows the story as it appeared in Damned: An Anthology of the Lost, edited by David G. Barnett for his own Necro Publications. It’s a direct outgrowth of story #2, “The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins.”	View PDF now

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