The 28th Delusion
Stronger Than Polka, Modern Hysteria, AuthorCon III, and more!
Last weekend my wife and I went to the Schulz Brau Brewery with author Chuck Buda and his wife to see a polka act called the Alex Meixner Band. You think polka and shrug figuring it would be good background music, but man did we have a good time. The band was great. Alex Meixner has the right kind of charisma for a successful leader of the band, something I don’t see as much anymore when I take my son to rock/metal shows that have small-time or local openers. It really got me thinking that the opening bands we’ve seen that leave the biggest impression on me are the ones that have some kind of stage presence or charisma, especially when the music is generic rock. I mean, this Meixner guy got me into polka for a night. That’s pretty impressive.
We had some beers, ate some good German food, and had and all around wonderful time. And I hope you have a wonderful time reading my latest newsletter.
News
I rereleased my novel Stronger Than Hate last week with new and improved cover art. This has turned out to be one of my favorite covers. It fits the story perfectly. It took me several emails to Amazon to get my old reviews on the new edition. I lost a few, but that’s okay. It’s better than nothing. if you have read this book, please consider leaving a review. This one didn’t do as well as I had hoped when it was first published. It’s a very hardcore story, very bleak, but enjoyable for those who dig that kind of thing, and I know you’re out there. It’s kind of like Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door meets Bryan Smith’s Depraved.
Francine watches the deal from below, trapped within a sinkhole that opened up in her precious garden. Forty bucks and a quarter bag of weed. How could she be sold off for so little? Familiar faces look down upon her—the worst students she ever had the displeasure of teaching before she retired from the local high school. They snicker as money changes hands. They spit on her. Throw things at her. And there’s no way in hell they’re going to get help.
What happens when the horrors around her infiltrate her mind? How much can she take before breaking down? How much worse can the torture and humiliation get? Is Francine Mosely STRONGER THAN HATE?
Here’s the teaser art for the final issue of my Infected Voices Godless series. The story is called “The House Always Wins”. I grew up in a family that liked gambling and casinos. From a young age I remember going to the Barona Casino in San Diego County, eating the buffet, and then playing video games in the little arcade while my mother and grandma gambled. It was fun until the day some kid took a shit on the floor in the arcade. That was it. No more arcade. No more kids allowed to hang out while their parents gambled. Which meant no more The Who and Guns ‘N’ Roses pinball (those were my go-to machines in that little arcade). Anyway, when I got older I would go to Vegas at least once a year. I never was that big into gambling, but I was always astonished at how eager people were to just give their money to the house, so I wrote a story about it.
Speaking of Godless, they’re having a Southern Fried Necrocide Giveaway right now where you could win a shitload of cool stuff.
Signed Print Books
A Cowboy Hat with a rattlesnake skull and a raccoon tail made by Al Jourgensen for Drew Stepek. Signed by several members of Ministry (including Al) during the Houses of the Mole Tour!
Kiss Me Where it Smells Funny, The Surrogate, There’s Something in the Water, & To Stare Death in the Eyes by Eric Butler + a Kiss Me Where It Smells Funny T-shirt
Baby Fights, Tweaker Creatures, Mojave Mud Caves, Broth House, Stronger Than Hate by Robert Essig + a Swag Pack
Muerte con Carne by Shane McKenzie
Treif Magic by John Baltisberger
Mania by Lucas Mangum
Lost Words in a Dream by Lucas Milliron
Exactly the Wrong Things by Joseph M. Monks and Candace Nola
Sick 'N Twisted signed comic by Joseph M. Monks
Hillbillies & Homicidal Maniacs by Stuart Bray and Jason Nickey
Bowery by Matthew Vaughn
MUCH MORE!
Head to Godless and grab a book. That’s all you need to do to enter into the giveaway.
A Couple Anthologies Coming Soon
I have work coming soon in a few anthologies. In addition to the two below, my story “The Cheap Rooms” will be in Dan Henk’s The Never Dead anthology, accompanied by not only a great bunch of authors, but artwork by Dan Henk himself.
Recent Reads From Hell
I am currently listening to the audiobook of Somer Canon’s You’re Mine and enjoying it immensely. Reading The Troupe by Gordon Linzner. Very good read so far. And still working through Laymon’s Dreadful Tales. I also read . . .
Aron Beauregard’s Modern Hysteria
So at Scares That Care AuthorCon II I met Aron Beauregard. We chatted a bit. I came at him with a copy of my book Baby Fights and asked if he’d like to trade. He suggested Modern Hysteria, and I was cool with that. I read the book and loved it. It’s a story any parent can surely relate to, considering the theme of kids getting manipulated by dangerous internet shenanigans. Modern Hysteria has fleshed out characters and a great plot with some cool surprises. I like stories with twists and turns, and this one has them. Aron is known as an extreme author, and that he is with such hugely popular titles as The Slob and Playground, but this one has more subtlety. Don’t get me wrong, there are some seriously messed up characters in this book, it’s just the focus is more plot driven.
I loved the book. I would say that if you’re a fan of Beauregard, you should read this one, but also if you’ve held off on reading his stuff because you’re afraid it’s too extreme, give this one a read. Seriously. I haven’t read them yet, but he mentioned that his new Morbid Curiosities trilogy is more in the vein of Modern Hysteria.
In Closing
Tables for Scares That Care AuthorCon III sold out in four minutes. I was waiting at my computer ten minutes before they went on sale. I had the Facebook page open. The post with the link to the page to grab a table wasn’t showing up. I don’t know why. But I wasted precious minutes until I finally went to my feed and saw the link there. Anyway, I didn’t get a table. I reached out to a few people, but it seems everyone else had already been planning and scheming to share tables.
Well, Tommy Clark stepped in by introducing me to Carter Johnson, and Carter was gracious enough to split his table with me. That’s pretty damn cool. If Carter’s a drinking man, I’ll be buying him a drink or two at the bar.
So, it looks like I will be attending Scares That Care AuthorCon III in 2014. I can’t wait!
Until next time . . .