The 91st Delusion

READ ME!!!!

As I navigate through this thing called publishing, I find myself with more questions than answers. I find I don’t understand a goddamned thing. I find it confusing and frustrating and everchanging. I lament. I sigh. I constantly remind myself that I started this journey because of my love for writing and that’s it. I love to write and my dream was to be published. Well, I’ve been published for many years now. The dream is to make a living off of publishing. With every passing day that feels more like a pipedream.

Here’s what’s been on my mind lately. My extreme books sell better and more consistently than anything else I’ve published. Disco Rice, Mickey & Mo, and Sick! Sick! Sick! in particular. Those three titles sell regularly. Not huge quantities or anything. I have days where no books sell at all. But those ones are easily my bestsellers. Even Baby Fights has fallen off and that one used to dominate. I’m happy to have a few books that I can count on to keep my name alive and keep people interested in my work, but I’m frustrated that I cannot seem to get the same reader motivation out of titles such as The Traveling Movie Show, Sing Me a Death Song, Four Cheers to Madness, or The Circus Oasis, for instance.

Thing is, I cannot make sense of it. Because I have other extreme books that just don’t get the same love as the aforementioned hardcore titles. Books like Stronger Than Hate and Eat Shit and Die/When the Fall Consumes.

Publishing is so weird and unpredictable and confusing it makes me crazy. Another instance is my forthcoming book At the Hour of Violence. I tried something new with this release, as I often do since I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to navigate successfully launching a book. I have given out fifteen physical proof copies as well as put the book on BookFunnel and given out over 50 eBooks in addition to my regular street team mailing list of over forty readers. That’s a shitload of ARCs out there. It’s getting rave reviews on social media and has already received ten reviews/ratings on Goodreads well before the April 2 release. All this and there has only been three pre-orders, making this, by far, the worse pre-order I’ve had yet.

So I say again, I do not, for the life of me, understand publishing. I’m done trying to understand it. I will just do what I do and hope for the best. I suppose that’s all I can do.

Hopefully I didn’t turn too many of you away with that opening. It’s been on my mind a lot lately and I just had to get it out. I’m trying to adopt a different outlook on publishing. All I can do is write the best books I can. Period.

From the outside, Owen’s life is the picture-perfect representation of the nuclear family, all bright and shiny and smiling and happy and hurting and struggling and goddamn when will I get a break from this fucking nightmare?!

But Owen is a good man running a successful business who is there to help his wife through her struggles and help with the kids and he is friendly with the neighbors and clenches his teeth and worries and wonders how much more I can take until I lose my ever-loving mind!!!

All the while, something stalks the night in human form and yet cannot be detected for these beings have no fingerprints, no hair, nothing distinguishable. They wander the streets, frolicking in a land of destruction, harming people for kicks, killing without consequence. They wander into Owen’s neighborhood like a physical manifestation of his inner animus. But what happens when their worlds collide? Who will come out victorious At the Hour of Violence?

Head over to Goodreads and give the book some love. Mark it as “want to read.” I suppose that helps it get visibility, but what the fuck do I know?

Eric Butler is one of those authors you see everywhere. He does a ton of shows every year, puts out books regularly, and is always lifting up other writers with social media posts and whatnot. And he’s an animal lover. Just ask him about his dogs . . . if he doesn’t tell you about them first! I’ve shared a table with him and tabled right next to him and he’s a down-to-earth kind of dude, which I can surely appreciate. As they say, he’s one of the good ones. So why not check out his books? He has a new one out called The Bargain that looks awesome!

Here’s where I’ll be signing books this year. I hope to see you at one or more of these events. Be sure to stop by and say hi!

Knoxville Book Festival, May 2 & 3

FrankenCon, Alcoa, TN June 26 - 28

CreepyCon, Knoxville, TN July 31-August 2nd

ShiverCon, Muncie, IN August 14 & 15

WrestleScream, Alcoa, TN Oct. 9 & 10

I’ve, unfortunately, had to DNF a few books I’ve been reading recently. I hate that, but I have no time to waste on fiction I’m not thoroughly enjoying (it’s not always quality, sometimes I’m just not feeling it). Often, when I fall into a reading slump like that, I will go to one of my faves, an author whose fiction does me no wrong, that way the chances of me enjoying a book are increased greatly—I’m fucking picky and I know it. So I started reading the Sorority trilogy by Tamara Thorne, which begins with the book Eve. I blew through half the book in one day, which is a feat for me as I’m a very slow reader, hence why I don’t waste time reading stuff I’m not into. Thorne has quickly become one of my favorite authors after finally reading her amazing book Haunted a few years ago and I’ve been digging into her back catalog ever since. Why she wasn’t published in hardcover and displayed on endcaps along with Stephen King is beyond me. It’s a travesty to horror fiction. Why are there no movies based on her books? Why does no one talk about Tamara Thorne?

If you haven’t read her books, please fix that. Haunted, Moonfall, and The Forgotten are all exceptional. I have a feeling I'm going to blast through all three of the Sorority books in no time.

That’s it for this edition of Confusions, Delusions, and Formidable Impressions. Please join me in a couple weeks for the next one. I might post a free short story. Who knows?