On Reaching #1 and My First Publishers' Marketplace Listing

An interesting week

Last week was a bit of a rollercoaster. The first few days of it saw seasonal depression rear its gray, lumpy head. It grinned at me with its yellow, crooked teeth and begged me to succumb, but I know its secret: the way out is through.

The key to this stuff is knowing that it won’t last forever. That may not be the actionable solution we all hope for, but it does work, provided you’re taking care of yourself in other ways (i.e. taking your meds, eating right, not sitting on your ass all day). After nearly forty years of wrestling with my mental health, I think I can speak with some authority on such things.

Nothing is permanent, not even things that are chronic.

Friday saw the release of Hunted Highways, an anthology featuring new novellas from Carver Pike, Rowland Bercy Jr., and myself. It managed to reach #1 in New Releases in its category on Amazon within twenty-four hours. Thank you so much to all who helped make that possible.

Here’s the back cover description:

Embark on a journey into terror, where every mile is marked by suspense and horror. These three horror novellas transform travel into a treacherous adventure where the next stop could be your last.

“B.I.R.D.S” by Rowland Bercy Jr.: In B.I.R.D.S, a 2023 reimagining of Hitchcock's classic, a group of friends embarks on a cross-country trip, unwittingly stirring a vengeful avian onslaught. Raquel, Robert, Karen, and David face chaos and carnage, learning that appearances deceive and the price of their actions can be deadly. This bone-chilling tale weaves a narrative of suspense and consequence in a world where one particular conspiracy theory is proven true.

“Dracula and the Devil Walk into a Bar” by Lucas Mangum: After a team of hunters raid their fortress, Dracula and Lucifer hit the road in search of a new place to call home. They stop at a roadside bar in an unincorporated locale to meet with a vampire named Mina. All three creatures of the night have the potential for violence. And none of them can resist the call of bloodshed. The people in this wood-paneled, neon-lit establishment are about to meet Hell itself.

“Road Wrath” by Carver Pike: For Melanie and her friends, this fun-filled trip to tour their favorite college campus is about to take a violent and macabre turn. If only they’d kept driving, if only they’d stayed far away from that rest stop, if only they’d been more polite when they encountered the creepy old couple. Now, it’s too late for apologies. Road Wrath is coming.

Brace yourself for a ride into the heart of darkness. Grab your copy of Hunted Highways now and discover the chilling thrills that await at every turn!

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

You can pick it up right here.

The three of us were also interviewed by Rick Hipson for Cemetery Dance and by A.F. Stewart on Crystal Lake Publishing’s YouTube channel. You can read Rick’s interview here and watch A.F.’s interview here.

In addition to Hunted Highways going out into the world, I also got my first Publishers’ Marketplace listing. After thirteen years and numerous books, I’m happy and astounded to see all my hard work pay off. Publishers’ Marketplace has been a big deal for a very long time, and it was kind of surreal seeing my name in one of its listings. The book in question is called Haunted Hearts, and it drops in October from Ghoulish Books.

Haunted Hearts is a book about a musical collective called Eldritch Youth who split their time between playing witch house music and helping the local haunted house attraction get ready for Halloween. But Moon Boy, the musical heart of the group, is reckoning with the reemergence of bad people in his life and the disappearance of a loved one. Haunted Hearts is a coming-of-age book for kids who never wanted to grow up and the ghosts that haunt them.

I wrote it during the pandemic, and it went through multiple edits and rewrites. The goal was to write something I would’ve written at a younger age but with the skillset I’ve attained from writing professionally for a number of years. It’s probably my most personal work since Saint Sadist, even though, like that book, little of what transpires on the page actually happened to me. It’s also not extreme so much as it’s a psychological horror story written in a poetic style. I feel a deep connection to this work, and I’m both excited and nervous to share it with the rest of the world.

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Last but most certainly not least, excellent writer and genre veteran Ronald Kelly has a GoFundMe up for his son-in-law Chase who’s battling cancer. If you’d like and you’re able, you can donate here.