The 34th Delusion

I've published HOW MANY short stories!

Hello everyone! I just wrote a big ol’ intro to this post and decided it was unnecessarily depressing, so I cut it and pasted it into a Google Doc in case I want to share it in the future. It was very honest and open, and the way a lot of writers feel about this thing we dream of, but it was no way to open a newsletter.

I have been clean and sober from alcohol for about a month and a week. That’s the longest I’ve been sober (outside of my Covid hospitalization) since I was about eighteen. I’m forty-two. I don’t talk about this part of my life publicly, not much at least. I feel a lot better, but sobriety also brings things into crystal clear focus, hence the original intro I removed about watching my dreams drift away. The past month has had some rough spots, but the past twenty years have had some spots I’d assume forget, so I really can’t complain about bumps in the road to sobriety.

That portion of the intro was written yesterday. This morning, as I finalize this newsletter, I am smoking a brisket. I’ve been up since before sunrise trimming the meat, slathering it with a mustard/apple cider binder, and applying dry rub. I’ve got the coals bringing the smoke up to temp. I’m looking to smoke this brisket longer than I usually do, at a lower temp. I’ve heard they turn out better that way. I mean, it’s always been good, but why not shoot for better?

Welcome to the newsletter!

News

My new book This Damned House dropped last Thursday. This is a book I am very proud of. I spent a lot of time thinking about the themes for each of the four stories and the wraparound and how they would all connect. Being a house painter for many years, I used to work residential homes in San Diego. I met all kinds of people, working in all kinds of environments from neighborhoods with bullet holes in the glass at the local laundry to neighborhoods with live-in nannies to care for the children while mom and dad are away making millions. I always liked working at the older homes with unique architecture. Unique mostly because they are still standing where often they are destroyed to build something modern. One building in San Diego near Hillcrest always fascinated me. It was a quadruplex, and I must have painted the units a dozen times. I used that building as the model for This Damned House. I chose very different people for each story. because each home in a building like that has a unique story. Just like the multitude of people I used to meet at work.

To live in This Damned House is hell. To die there is even worse.

This Damned House is a collection of four novelettes bound with a wraparound story of the strange man who lives in the house upon the hill, forever obsessing over the people of Greenwood Planes.

Clean Freak
Growing up in filth can make a clean freak out of anyone, but what can even the most avid housekeeper do against a verminous invasion that seems to come out of nowhere?

Behind the Greasepaint
Brazzy the Clown is a drunk. After another abysmal birthday party, she decides to finally commit to killing herself, only she finds that Death doesn’t want her yet.

As I Lay Rotting
What happens when a couple of aging goths start to rot from the outside in? Can they get away from the threat at their door that wants their putrid flesh?

Photo-Graphic Content
It started with a picture of his son molesting the family dog. Then more pictures showed up. Then videos. Soon a tight-knit family of four turn on one another as horrific secrets are unveiled.

I will be vending at CreepyCon in Knoxville on August 25-27, sharing a table with fellow word-slinger Chuck Buda. If you are in or around East Tennessee that weekend, please drop by and say hello. They have changed the venue, so I hope for a really cool time this year.

Recent Reads from Hell

I’m currently reading When Darkness Loves Us by Elizabeth Engstrom. Wow! Talk about a book that gets right to the point and just throws the reader in to a literal abyss. I’m stunned and eager to see where the story goes. Still reading Maggots Screaming! by Max Booth III. I took a break from this one. I’m enjoying it, but I feel like the pacing is a little off. I’ve read a good bit, and despite the gradual decay of the characters, which is pretty cool and interesting, not a lot has happened. I’ll dive back into it very soon.

I just finished Childgrave by Ken Greenhall. This book is the very opposite of When Darkness Loves Us. It starts out slower that molasses in winter and stays that way for a good hundred pages, hardly even hinting at what the plot really is and where the story is going. A man falls madly in love with a harp player he hasn’t even met. Like, what the fuck? She isn’t into him at all. It’s like he wants a mother for his daughter and will do anything to have that. Now, after finishing the story, I can’t help but wonder if he was enchanted or something. That isn’t clear. His motivations and decision making are fucking atrocious. He’s an asshole man, not because he treats women badly or beats his kid, nothing like that. Well, not quite like that. He was just a shitty character. The supporting cast were great. Had I not read Greenhall’s Elizabeth, which is a stunningly brilliant book, I would have given up on this one fifty pages in. I stuck with it and the ending mostly pissed me off. This was a big miss for Greenhall, in my opinion.

A comprehensive List of My Short Story Credits

Last newsletter I promised a list of my short story credits. Really, I’m doing this more for me than anyone, because it’s not like any asked for this. Somewhere along the line I got confused and thought I’d published over 150 short stories. I wanted to make a comprehensive list (most of this was pulled from my old blog) and see exactly how many shorts I’ve published. It’s more like 100. I swear my brain is pickled sometimes (see opening of the newsletter). I might have missed a few (I purposely omitted a few because they were bad mistakes very early on I’d rather forget about), but this is a pretty solid list. The first short I published was in 2008, I believe. I currently have
three forthcoming stories and a couple of submissions that will be going out very soon.

The Cheap Rooms in The Never Dead (DeadGuyllc)
Wrapped in Plastic in Dead and Bloated (Evil Cookie)
These Hybrid Moments (nonfiction) in Inside the Indie Horror World (KJK Publishing)
Is That Voodoo Doll Anatomically Correct? in Razor Blade in the Bites Sized Candy (St. Rooster)
The Extraction King on Godless.com
Atypical Man on Godless.com
Red Asphalt Driving School on Godless.com
B is For Brains on Godless.com
Dead Crow in Her Mind-Jar on Godless.com
The House Always Wins on Godless.com
The Mad Cabby on Godless.com
Finger Paint in Splatterpunk Forever (Splatterpunk Press)
Blood Expectations in Counting Bodies Like Sheep (Evil Cookie)
You Can’t Kill the Dead (with Jack Bantry) in Gorefest (Evil Cookie)
Confessions of a Drunk Asshole in Brewtality (Evil Cookie)
I hang My Hat and There’s No Blood in Welcome to the Splatter Club (Blood Bound Books)
From Unclean Spells in Double Barrel Horror Vol. 3 (Pint Bottle Press)
Fuel for the King of Death in Double Barrel Horror Vol. 3 (Pint Bottle Press)
Little Black Book Turns Red in Dig Two Graves Vol. 1 (Death’s Head Press)
This Old Battle Axe in Breaking Bizarro (Death’s Head Press)
Like Ants on a Carcass in Shallow Graves (Death’s Head Press)
Dermousfusion in Shallow Graves (Death’s Head Press)
Tears of a Clown in San Diego Horror Professionals Vol. 2 (Grand Mal Press)
The Brain-Case Soiree in San Diego Horror Professionals Vol. 3 (Grand Mal Press)
Hank R. Chief in DarkFuse Magazine
A Lesson in Renegade Filmmaking (with Jack Bantry) in Dark Moon Digest #25 (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
High Fashion in Splatterpunk's Not Dead (Splatterpunk Press)
Starving Artist in San Diego Horror Professionals Vol. 1
Names in the Sidewalk in 44 Lies by 22 Authors (Post Mortem Press)
Moonlight Sonata in 44 Lies by 22 Authors
Meeting the Quota in 44 Lies by 22 Authors
Inflatable War in DarkFuse Magazine and Tenebres 2017 (French translation)
Clarissa (with Jack Bantry) in Campfire Stories for Grown-Ups and Years Best Hardcore Horror Vol. 1 (Comet Press)
Hooked on Strange Story Saturdays (Strangehouse Books)
Like Ants on a Carcass on Eldritch Press online
Molting in Widowmakers a James Newman Benefit anthology
Teppan-Yucky in Dark Eclipse and The Best of Dark Eclipse
Cramped published in the "extras" section of the Grand Mal Press website
Wicking (with Jack Bantry) in Splatterpunk 4
Dr Scabs and the Hags of El Cajon in DOA II (Blood Bound Books)
The Nostalgiac in Fear the Abyss (Post Mortem Press)
Fountain of Eternity in Cover of Darkness (Sam's Dot Publishing)
Tale of the Abnormal Beauty Queen in Darker Minds (Dark Minds Press)
The Suicide Program in Undead Tales 2 (Rymfire eBooks)
Like Father, Like Daughter in Night Terrors (Kayelle Press)
Skeletons in the Basement in Dead Souls (Post Mortem Press)
Contents of a Canvas Bag in Look What I Found (NorGus Press)
Window to the Soul in Rock is Dead (Blood Bound Books)
Back for More in Necrotic Tissue # 14
The Hitman Who Never Used a Gun in Made You Flinch (Library of Horror)
The Fruits of Incubation in Alienology (Library of Horror)
The Lakatos Clan in Sideshow Fables #3
Glutton for Punishment in DOA (Blood Bound Books)
Rusted Roots in the.gloaming magazine
In Bloom in Seasons in the Abyss (Blood Bound Books)
Nature is a Cruel Beast in Seasons in the Abyss (Blood Bound Books)
Trapped Under Ice in Season in the Abyss (Blood Bound Books)
A Crack in the Silver Lining in Pantomime chapbook (Panic Press)
A Step Toward Redemption in Pantomime chapbook (Panic Press)
A Night to Last Forever in Uncanny Allegories (Post Mortem Press)
Dilapidated Souls in Abandoned 2
An Abominable San Diego Winter in Everyday Weirdness
Brain Food in Everyday Weirdness
The Faint Ringing of Bells in The Zombist (Library of the Living Dead)
Patrolling the Outer Rim in Hungur (Sam's Dot Publishing)
Berserk: Brennon's Story in Novus Creatura (Aurora Wolf)
Beneath the Floorboards in The Scroll of Anubis (Library of Horror)
Rosco the Clown in Sideshow Fables Peep Show & Daily Flash 365 days of Flash Fiction (Pill Hill Press)
The Devil's in the Alcohol in Daily Flash: 365 days of Flash Fiction (Pill Hill Press)
Sub-Zero in Zombonauts (Library of the Iiving Dead)
The Woman of His Discontent in Dark Things (Pill Hill Press)
The Truth About Scarecrows in Dark Things III (Pill Hill Press)
Only Three Dead Presidents in Night Terrors (Blood Bound Books)
Jack Laroo's Magical Pumpkins in It was a Dark and Stormy Halloween (Whortleberry Press)
The Devil's Workshop in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
Death in the Flower Fields of My Mind in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
Behind the Chipping Veneer in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
The Safest Place on Earth in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
Cacti Mirage in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
The Price of a Priceless Painting in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
Autumn Soup in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
A Crack in the Silver Lining in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
Blood Mobile in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
A Step Toward Redemption in Anatomy of Fear (self-published)
Hanging Around Singing Death Songs in Bards and Sages Quarterly
The Really Big Prize in Bloody Carnival (Pill Hill Press)
A Strange Means of Suicide in Flash! (Static Movement)
The Amazing Talking Vampire Head in House of Horror
By Maggots Be Driven in Abaculus III (Leucrota Press)
Tale Spinner in Ethereal Tales
Dark Side of the Tomb in Night Chills
A Witch's Worst Enemy in Tales of the Talisman
Travis' Imaginings in Withersin
Pantomime in Tales of the Talisman & Pantomime chapbook (Panic Press)
The Safest Place on Earth in Sinister Tales
A Paranoid Rant in The Nocturnal Lyric
The Old Man in Cemetery Moon & Pantomime chapbook (Panic Press)

In Closing

I’ve had a rare week of getting very little done, which has a lot to do with my original intro that was removed. I’m working on a Christmas themed short, preparing for a heavy metal themed short that I will begin writing as soon as I send out this newsletter. I have been picking away at a novel I started a few years back. I had gotten to a stopping point where I couldn’t keep everything organized. I wasn’t sure how the book should be formatted, how exactly the chapters should break. There was a rhyme and reason I was unable to see at the time, so I put it down for a few years. It’s a book I feel could have a shot at something bigger than indie publishing. It’s a more mainstream concept. Something I feel would have been perfect for the Dell Abyss line back in the day, that is, if there were a Dell Abyss line presently. After I finish my obligations, I will delve back into that one and hopefully knock out the first draft by the end of November.

Cheers! Read lots of horror and tell the world about it!