What’s Happening
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Every time I start one of these newsletters I’m tempted to start in on the horror that is America in 2025. From the return of diseases that we cured long ago, to the unhinged and unqualified men and women cosplaying as cabinet members, tariffs flung right and left out of spite, and the entire east wing of the White House just… gone. I’m not going to do that, though. We all have a few things that matter to us more than anything – family – art – pets – and this newsletter is my way of reaching out to people who care on some level about books, mine in particular, but also for the recommendations on the works of others, some (hopefully) useful insight into publishing, and the craft of writing… absolutely cats. I just wanted to get out of the way why this isn’t the place for me to do all of that.
I did not send a newsletter last week because I knew I would have news. I waited, and it took longer than expected. I’ve probably mentioned that I have a new collection, Hickory Nuts and Bones and Other Uncomfortable Tales. I sold this (or my agent, Cherry Weiner sold this) for a good advance. Circumstances have shifted and moved the release date so often that it did not get off to PW in time for review, and it has not had a pre-order. The trade paperback is live now and can be ordered in time for Halloween, but I realize all of this will make marketing an uphill struggle. Despite that it’s not far out of the top 100 horror collections on Amazon. Of course, if all of you ordered it… anyway….
This collection features ten stories. I thought I’d talk about them a little here and see if I can tempt you…
The title story, “Hickory Nuts and Bones,” is set in Random Illinois, where my Stoker nominated novella Roll Them Bones was set. I modeled it after Flora Illinois, where my grandparents lived, and I channeled my childhood into the characters and settings, even including some actual characters, though the story goes to very dark places that are all my own additions. It’s easily one of my best stories, and new to this collection.
“Traps,” is another new story. There are bits and pieces of my past in this too, the big house in Hertford, NC where we weathered Hurricane Isabel, pieces picked from my story “The Milk of Paradise”. This is one of those stories that I love, but realize leans a little surreal and literary, rather than straightforward story.
“Convenience” is the epitome of “Writing What Hurts.” A horrible experience I had at a very bad point in my life, tied to a more modern version of myself – an apology of sorts to the world, nature, and the animals we take for granted for the way humans have ripped them apart because it makes our lives easier. This was hard to write.
“I Was Going to Tell You Tonight,” is a sort of Lovecraftian story first published in Deathrealm: Spirits edited by Stephen Mark Rainey and published by Shortwave Media. It was beyond my normal comfort zones at first, and then I found that my comfort zones are much wider than anticipated. Trish’s two-word review was “So gross…” and that blurb is included in marketing.
“Your House is on Fire,” a novelette, is folk horror set in North Carolina. I started it for a market I wanted to test, but it grew too long very fast to submit, so it is presented here for the first time. That one was a lot of fun to write.
“Ennui” is another longer, novelette to novella length story. First published as part of a long ago Amazon program, where it was a best seller, it’s dedicated to Patrica Cornwell and her theory that the artist Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper. There are some historical literary characters involved as well, but I’ll leave those for you to find. Another personal favorite.
“Headlines” is more like my Cletus J. Diggs stories. A tabloid reporter who visits a town that is outside our reality often to photograph giant bugs, etc. for those campy front-page features runs into an iteration of the Pied Piper. This one, again, has a dark humor to it, but also gets dark without humor at its heart.
“Dusted” – (the original title was too close to falling into the range where a band’s permission would be necessary) – is a story of Old Mill, NC, where Cletus J. Diggs is located. There are a couple of characters who first show up in this story that appear later on in the novel The Not Quite Right Reverend Cletus J. Diggs & the Crazy Case of Foreman James. This involves drugs, bugs, a crop-duster, and some very seedy characters.
“Burning Bridges” is a very old story. It is the first thing I wrote featuring Tommy Doyle, the “Psychos ‘r’ Us” cop. It starts with rats, and the basement of a large grocery store… the rats are far from the worst thing involved.
The collection ends with “The Call of Farther Shores,” which was written for a William Hope Hodgson tribute that never happened. It was published in Lost on the Darkside: Voices from the Edge of Horror and was included in the 2005 Horror: The Best of the Year: 2006 from Prime Books. The settings, a barber shop and a parental home are straight out of my childhood.
NEW AUDIO
Another collection of mine, The Whirling Man & Other Tales of Pain, Blood, and Madness, is now out in unabridged audio, performed by Kevin Meyer, who did a wonderful job. The description: This collection of 14 stories represents more than 20 years of writing. They all feature madness in one form or another. There is everything here from serial killers to fairy tales, crazy artists, and other worlds that might—or might not—actually exist. Listen to an AUDIO SAMPLE.
From Writing What Hurts
A slightly shorter, partial chapter this week
6. The Navy Cont'd
I graduated high school with good grades. I could have gone to any number of colleges as part of the ROTC program but was told by my recruiter (I'd already signed up as an enlisted man) that I couldn't go because I'd agreed to their Advanced Electronics plan, and Nuclear Power program. It was, of course, not true. I was part of a quota they had to reach and had I opted out for the life of an officer, I would have left them with a hole to fill. A particularly hard hole since I qualified so high on the exams and made it (by the skin of my teeth) into the Nuclear Power program. They got extra points for that. The joke was on them, in the end, as I found a way out of that program, but that's far in the future.
I could have gone to school right there in Charleston, Illinois. My mom ran one of the big food services on campus at Eastern Illinois University. I could have gotten into classes for free, or close to it. To do that, though, I would have had to live with those I hated. Many of the kids at the high school would just become young adults with the same attitude they'd always had, and though I had good friends, I had more enemies. My stepfather would have been ever-present, and I couldn't stomach the idea of living even another day under the same roof with him. The only thing remotely good for me at the time was that I'd been attending The Church of Christ, and I'd met a lot of very cool college students. At the time, that I might go into the ministry myself, but not there – not in that town, or that place. As it turns out, a story for a later chapter, the was no chance I was ever doing that. We all grow in stages.
The Navy offered me a good way out. There are many ways to describe the military, but for me it was an escape route. They paid me. They trained me. They gave me a place to sleep and had enough discipline in place to keep me from making any truly stupid moves too early in life. I honestly believed that a few years in the military was a good idea for most kids. It gives you time after school to align your priorities, save for school, grow up a little on your own, and learn about the world beyond your parents’ home and control. Recent changes in our country have changed my mind on that, since years have made a mockery of that service, but that’s another topic for another book.
I left home without so much as a glance over my shoulder. I was just ready to be gone. They flew me to Chicago, where I was processed in – an experience that included meeting a young black man named… David Wilson. Born on exactly the same day as I was. We had a lot of fun telling everyone we were twins and explaining how it was possible. He is now my long-lost twin, as I never saw him again.
(to be cont’d)
What I’m Reading
About 660% done with The Essential Bukowski: Poetry – Sometimes so dead-on. Sometimes ranting… as expected.
About half way through Cleave the Sparrow on my Kindle. Dark humor, satire, and very on point for the surreal situation 2025 has thrust upon us.
What I’m Watching
I have been watching the World Series. There is too much potential for Ohtani to do something no one has ever done every time he plays now to miss it. Since I had to subscribe to a month of Hulu plus Live TV to watch the Cubs in the playoffs, we have been binging episodes of American Pickers.
We are keeping up with all our streaming shows as new episodes show up, but letting them pile up for when we shift back to the cheaper subscription in a couple of days.
What I’m Listening to
I got an arc of the audiobook for The Works of Vermin, the upcoming novel by Hiron Ennes. I’m about 56% in – it’s a long book. The narrator has begun to grow on me. He only has a few voices, which is an issue in this book, and now and then, despite his elegant, articulate tone, he sometimes mispronounces words. This isn’t completely on him. It’s a book from a big five publisher, and they pay people to proof these. The story is coalescing, and the new intrigue is well-wrought. Review soon.
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