Tomorrow (January 23), the first book in Unnerving’s REWIND OR DIE series will be released. I’m excited and terrified to have my story, ANOTHER PRETTY FACE, included in MIDNIGHT EXHIBIT VOLUME 1, alongside Stephen Graham Jones and Philip Fracassi.

Look at this thing of beauty:

Now, when Eddie at Unnerving first mentioned this opportunity, I was like, “Man, no way is my work going to stand up alongside these two. I can’t even…” I’m like that every time my work is included in a collection/anthology that features authors I fan-girl, by the way.

And then he outlined the inspiration for the collection, the “feel” it should have, and I couldn’t let my little writer insecurities keep me from at least trying to come up with something cool. I loved Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, Twilight Zone, and every slasher film from that era I could get my eyes on. I mean, I’m an eighties baby, after all. How could I not write the shit out of this kind of story? I still have some nerves about being good enough, but I love the story I wrote, so it can’t be all that bad, right? I guess if it is, you’ll have the other stories, which are guaranteed to be great.

In other news (It’s been a long time since I had news to share, eh?), I have a novella that will be part of Rewind or Die. THE BLOOD LAKE MONSTER will be released by Unnerving in July, and I’m working on a series of short stories titled “Black Brothel” for Unnerving Magazine. These will have a lot of blood, sex and humor (I hope), so stay tuned for that. Later this year or early next year, my novel CLUSTER will also be released. More on that when I can announce the who and when and such.

I’m also working on a horror novel/collection titled RETAIL. It’s a collection of linked stories (that should also stand alone) told by a single narrator, based on my experience working in, yep, retail. The number of times I’ve been at work and heard myself and others say, “You can’t make this shit up,” has inspired me to use said stories, while also making shit up, as part of something. There will be blood, of course, a little sex, maybe, humor, because obviously, and some unease, because we’ve all “been there” in one way or another. We just didn’t kill or maim anyone over it. Well, most of us haven’t. Writing this has been therapeutic. Now that I’ve written about them, I don’t look at these characters and think, “Fuck, I hate you people.” Instead, I think, “Fuck I hate you people. I’m gonna write you the worst death ever.” And then it’s easy to smile and say “have a nice day.” I actually look forward to their assholery.

The tricky part of the whole project is knowing that my coworkers will immediately recognize some of the characters (maybe even all of them) and a few will recognize themselves. I’m not worried about lawsuits and whatnot, because a lot of the content is 100% fiction, but there are little nuggets of reality that will have everyone at work looking at me a little longer, maybe giving me a wide berth when I get annoyed… actually, that’d be a good thing. I’m not worried anymore. It’ll be great.

And, finally, I’m editing stuff that’s almost finished so I can sub it somewhere. I’ve got a couple of novels that need a little more horror, a little less, whatever it is that’s wrong with them at the moment. I’ve also started working on a serial killer thing. It’s from the POV of “the one that got away” and I’m hoping it’ll be pretty disturbing. We’ll see. It’s  in early stages, so I could decide it all sucks, and if it does, it’s likely I’ll abandon it for something shinier later on.

Between work, taking care of the zoo we have living in our house, and a hobby turned side business that weirdly helps to keep me sane, I haven’t had a lot of time for anything other than staring blankly at a screen/page and wishing I wasn’t so tired. I feel like I haven’t done much this past year, but now that I list it all, I see that I’m wrong. True, I haven’t subbed as much as I usually do, but I’m still plugging away, writing new stuff, and slowly getting it out there. These updates are just as much for me as they are for you. Maybe more so, because they make me feel a little better about the times I do absolutely nothing with my day.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m almost finished binge-watching this pirate thing, so…