The 74th Delusion

Goodbye Red Meat . . . Hello Serial?

The universe will throw things at you when you least expect it. That’s how it goes, right? Sometimes it’s a good thing, maybe an unexpected promotion at work or stumbling upon a very rare and sought after book while perusing your favorite—and probably only—local used bookstore. And sometimes it’s not so good. Like finding out you’ve contracted alpha gal from a tick bite.

That’s what happened to me. If you’ve been reading this newsletter you might remember me writing about going into anaphylactic shock and falling, resulting in hitting my head and getting eleven staples. Well, I found out why. And it’s called alpha gal. It comes from a tick bite. Typically, a lone star tick. What this means is, proteins found in red meat can cause an anaphylactic response. And that means I have to stay away from beef, lamb, pork, and really any mammalian meat. And tick bites. In a year, I will get tested again to see if I am alpha gal free.

Had I not already been making big changes in my diet for health reasons, this would have been even more of a shock and even more difficult to deal with. But I figure at least I’m on this side of the sod. The hit to the head I suffered when I was in anaphylactic shock could have killed me. Had my wife not woken up and found me in the state I was in I could have laid back down and went into organ failure. It’s all food for thought and has been weighing heavily on my mind. It sucks that I have this alpha gal to deal with but at least I’m still here. I think I can manage to avoid red meat for a while.

Welcome to Confusions, Delusions, and Formidable Impressions!

I want to tell you about my new book The Traveling Movie Show. I want to tell you a bit about why I wrote this book and where the idea came from. No spoilers. The book has not sold very well, so I know it hasn’t been read by a lot of people. That’s just the way it goes. For me, book releases are total crap shoots. Some hit the mark and others just fizzle out. And then there are some titles that grow over time. I hope this is one of those, because I think it is a very good book that will appeal to a wide range of horror fans, and, quite honestly, mystery and thriller fans.

The core idea in this book that a small group of young filmmakers decide to take their debut film on the road to drive-ins to create buzz is something I thought I would have liked to do had I gotten into making horror movies like I wanted to after I graduated high school. That, of course, never happened. Deep down, even though I wanted to make horror movies, I wasn’t passionate enough about it to dedicate myself. You have to belong to it. Same as writing, and that, as it turns out, is where my true passion lies. Being a big fan of grimy old horror films, I thought it would be cool to follow in the footsteps of yesteryear and tour drive-ins. To actually film the movie on reels and screen it that way, causing wear to the reels like those shitty transfers of obscure movies that still have the scratches and flaws and even the little cigarette burns at the top right-hand corner to indicate a reel change. Sure, there have been movies, like Death Proof, that use computers to give the appearance of an old film, but it just isn’t the same and tends to feel unauthentic.

Going to the drive-in as a kid was such a wonderful experience for me. So many pleasant memories and such fun times. It seemed, to me, like a good backdrop for a horror novel. For most of us who are old enough to remember them, drive-in theaters are a fading novelty, unfortunately. Just another slice of nostalgia to reminisce upon as the world moves forward, changing into a landscape we hardly recognize. I could have gone back in time and told this story in a different decade, but I thought it would be more effective to have my young filmmakers living their dream in a world they feel somewhat detached from. To ride the final sputtering of a wave that has petered out rather than crashed.

I would love for you to join me and read about a strange mystery of murder that follows these young filmmakers as they travel from one drive-in to the next. Their trust will be challenged, as well as their loyalty and passion. Is their debut film Death Obsession really worth it?

This book is available in paperback, digital, and Kindle Unlimited.

The Joke is on Mankind, Dan Henk’s new anthology of cosmic horror, is out now! It includes my story "Buggin' Out." Creepy things are crawling around the Tennessee backwoods...so maybe don’t be so trusting when you go to pick up something you want from Facebook Marketplace.

The lineup in this book is stacked!

This week’s newsletter is a bit lean. I’m really trying to get the word out about The Traveling Movie Show. Disco Rice just about sold itself, and continues to do well, but getting people interested in this one is like pulling teeth.

On another note, I have considered serializing a novel using this newsletter. One or two newsletters per month would be a chapter or two, and I would only post a regular newsletter once a month. I floated the idea on Substack Notes and got a lot of feedback. Enough that I’m seriously considering it. It would likely be a book called At the Hour of Violence. I have several books finished and waiting for editors. That one has been in the cannon for several years now, just waiting for the right moment. Who knows when that moment is. Maybe I should have published that book instead of The Traveling Movie Show. Thing is, I don’t know what stories readers really want. But I do know that garish cover art and violent, nasty, grossness definitely sells. I also know that’s not always what I want to write. In fact, that’s rarely what I want to write. And that’s not at all what The Traveling Movie Show or At the Hour of Violence are.

What do you think about serialized books on Substack? Is that something you’ve enjoyed in the past, something you would be interested in, or do you like this newsletter the way it is? Please let me know! And thank you for reading.