by Brian on January 17, 2012
in Fiction
I’ve just come to an agreement with Crossroad Press to put out my fifth collection, hotter than usual on the heels of last year’s Picking The Bones. The title for now: No Law Left Unbroken.
Things are a little different with this outing compared to my previous four collections: This one will consist solely of crime fiction. Turns out I have around 85,000 words of the whacked-out stuff that have never made it into any of the earlier volumes. Which, as usual, I’ll be supplementing with new material.
And because this one’s a little different, it seems like a good time to experiment with releasing it as a digital original.
When? Too soon to say, but I’m hoping for a summer release. Bottom line, much faster than usual.
Meanwhile, over at Cemetery Dance Publications, the guilty parties have finalized the cover for the forthcoming e-book edition of my first crime novel, Wild Horses. For this one we turned back time, and ended up duplicating the original dust jacket art from the William Morrow hardcover.
Original, mind you … not what was ultimately used. There were reasons for scrapping it, but I’ve since come to wish that it was what the book had gone out with.
Compare and contrast: It’s a pretty amazing likeness:
A tale of two covers: On the left, the William Morrow original. On the right, the CD Publications replica.
by Brian on January 11, 2012
in Fiction
Looks like I no longer risk getting my knuckles whacked with a ruler for breaking the news too early that editor Ellen Datlow has slated “Roots and All” for inclusion in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Four.
“Roots and All” is the novelette that I did for Stephen Jones’ could-it-be-any-more-awesome A Book of Horrors, covered below, in this news update.
Check out Ellen’s blog for the full table of contents.
by Brian on December 21, 2011
in Fiction
You know that old assumption about digital works never going out of print? Not entirely true, as it turns out!
Shortly after the first of the new year, the original digital edition of my story “Just Outside Our Windows, Deep Inside Our Walls,” a dual-year’s-best-pick for 2010, will no longer be available.
Sooo … if you ever had an inclination to add this one to your library, but just hadn’t gotten around to it, better cut your holiday budget by a couple bucks and get to clicking. Because once it’s gone, it’s gone. Oh, you might be able to pirate it somewhere, of course … but that would make me wrathful.
Until the countdown ends, you’ll find it here.
by Brian on December 10, 2011
in Fiction
Slated for next autumn is a new short story, “For I Must Be About My Father’s Work.” Trustee for this one is Nancy Kilpatrick, wearing her editor’s hat for the anthology Danse Macabre. Look for this one in fall 2012, from Canadian publisher EDGE.
Richard Kuklinksi, a.k.a. "The Iceman." Heart not included.
The genesis of this one dates back to pair of documentaries that HBO ran in the 1990s, called The Iceman Tapes. A simple set-up, just Richard Kuklinksi — one of the most chilling individuals who’s ever lived — talking from prison about his life as a mob killer.
Strange but true: Among his seemingly endless, and endlessly savage, string of murders, the only one he regretted was one in which he let a man await his own killing, to see if God would answer his prayers to save him.
“I shouldn’t have done it that way,” Kuklinksi said, clearly bothered by the recollection.
That always fascinated me. I always thought there was a story in that. Now, finally, there is.
by Brian on November 21, 2011
in Fiction
Last year’s story, “Just Outside Our Windows, Deep Inside Our Walls,” ended up with a double-dip presence in year’s-best roundups. While I would of course maintain that you need the story in its original e-chapbook form, courtesy of Darkside Digital, these volumes are pretty nice too.
First up, because it actually appeared last May, is this assortment of all that was good and unholy in 2010 as selected by the one and only Ellen Datlow. A good ratio of familiar names to other folks that I’m looking forward to getting to know better.
Tapping into the Amazon reviews, for some reason I’m especially fond of one reader’s declaration that Norman Partridge and I should have permanent slots reserved in every year’s-best anthology. I think I can also speak for Norm when I say, “Sure, why not?”
Next it’s editor Stephen Jones’ turn, with his autumn annual and latest book whose spine is thick enough to double as a weapon in the next Jason Bourne movie. There’s a bit of cross-over with us chicks in Ellen’s brood, but it’s largely a different roster. I’m just happy to have pleased them both.
Along with this Amazon reader, who calls “Just Outside Our Windows…” “…a superlative example of dark fantasy; a masterclass in magic realism.” Really, I’m going to have to start putting these folks on the payroll.
by Brian on November 12, 2011
in Fiction
After the two new novelettes, it’s reprint time. In case you missed my story “Godflesh” in any of its previous outings, here’s one more chance. This is the one that once got me contacted by a unique fetishist society wanting to know one thing: “Do you have any more stories like this?”
Perhaps fortunately, no.
Again, I can’t complain about the neighbors: Joe Lansdale. Ray Garton. A pre-Game Of Thrones George R.R. Martin. Longtime friends Elizabeth Massie, Wayne Allen Sallee, and J.F. Gonzalez. Edward Lee and Wrath James White, whom you’d sort of suspect would have to be here. 20 culprits in all.
I’m thinking that Comet Press editor Cheryl Mullenax may have assembled her dream team, then let each one select the story that they felt best fit the criteria. That was at least true in my case. Meaning that, if so, you really do get each individual author’s perspective on their own work.
by Brian on November 10, 2011
in Fiction
Another brand new one. You have to love seminal editor Stephen Jones’ concept for this: a deliberately unthemed anthology, just Steve inviting an undisclosed number of the most dependable writers he knows to do their very best, then selecting the cream of the crop. I’m ecstatic not to have curdled on this one.
Again, the company rocks: Caitlin R. Kiernan. Dennis Etchison. Ramsey Campbell. John Ajvide Lindqvist. Michael Marshall Smith. R.C. Matheson. Some guy named Stephen King. 14 in all. The reviews at the Amazon link below are very comprehensive, and will serve up a much better idea of what’s an offer here than I have room for. Suffice to say that my piece is called “Roots and All,” a kind of folkloric reaction to what’s become of the place where my grandparents spent their lives.
Here’s the thing: It’s from UK publisher Quercus, where also-seminal editor Jo Fletcher now has her own imprint. Meaning, a Kindle download notwithstanding, at this point a stateside purchase may mean a little extra effort or wait.
Then there’s also what I call the Richer Than God Edition, a 100-copy traycased limited coming later this year from fellow contributor Peter Crowther’s specialty press, PS Publishing. Depending on the exchange rates, that one will set you back about $1000.
Probably not the version you’ll want to take along on a rafting trip.
