The Fifth Delusion

New Release!!!

Welcome to the fifth edition of my newsletter. I’m kind of shocked that I have been putting these out at a steady bi-weekly pace. Back when I would try to keep up with a blog I was lucky to get three or four posts up in a year. Looks like this one is a day late, but that’s okay.

News

My new book Circus Oasis dropped. this is my first title with Ecyclopocalypse Publications, and I couldn’t be happier working with them.

Can you smell the popcorn and peanuts?

Can you smell the blood?

When the vagabond woman places a beautifully carved tramp art box like an offering at the water’s edge, things begin to get interesting. Guests Bette De Anza and the Burkheads Family begin to experience episodes of the uncanny. These episodes seem to be trivial at first but get more peculiar in the days leading up to the Big Top Show. Soon they are drawn into a strange underworld in a desolate little town society has forgotten.

Everyone smiles as they wait for the Big Top Show to begin. And what a show it’s going to be!

Don’t miss . . . The Circus Oasis!

Grab a copy HERE. If you’d like a signed copy, please reach out and I can make that happen. All signed copies come with a sticker and bookmark.

My next book with Encyclopocalypse is Mojave Mud Caves. This book was originally published as a signed/limited edition by Thunderstorm Books a few years ago. This new edition is the first trade release. Check out that awesome cover art! I’ve been itching to get a trade release for this book. I’m excited for more people to read it. Mojave Mud Caves is up for pre-order now and releases on August 12th.

Podcast Interview

I have been recording a bunch of podcasts. Two so far, with two more to go (I’ve have two cancellations that I hope get rescheduled). This is the first to go live. We discuss The Circus Oasis. The host read the book and has some really good insight. It was a blast. It’s so rare to do a podcast with a host who has actually read the book. That’s not a knock at other podcasts, it’s just a pleasant deviation from the normal interview format.

I was also on the podcast Skull Session with Dan Henk. We had a great conversation about writing, books, movies and everything in between. It was a blast. I’m on episode two, Daniel J. Volpe is on episode one (I fucked that up on social media telling people Aron Beauregard was the first interview . . . he’s gonna be on a future episode—sorry Dan!). The list of people Dan Henk is having on the show is impressive. Definitely have your radar tuned into this one.

Recent Reads From HELL!

Okay, so I finished The Fog by James Herbert. Kind of. I hand to DNF it. I read about three quarters and gave up. It started out really good, but I lost interest about halfway through. I’ve read and enjoyed The Rats and Sepulchre, but this one didn’t do it for me.

I listened to the audiobook of And the Devil Cried by Kristopher Triana. Holy shit what an intense ride that was. A splatterpunk noir through the eyes of a psychotic, sick-fuck gangster as he navigates his twisted urges after getting out of prison. This is a deep one. It’s tragic. It’s disturbing. I listened to half of it and took a break for about two weeks before finishing. Let’s just say I was so enraged that I wanted to violently murder the protagonist. Remember, folks, protagonist doesn’t necessarily mean good guy. The narrator did a smash up job on this one. His reading and Triana’s writing were so good that I was deeply affected by the story. Triana sure knows how to write a believable scumbag.

Currently I’m reading Nightrunners by Joe R, Lansdale, Borderlands 5, and Come Thirteen by David Silva (I’ll finish this one tomorrow).

Publishing Schedule

I’ve been teasing my publishing schedule for the past two newsletters, so here it is:

Cult of Rattlesnake Mountain: Evil Awaken 3 (Raven Tale Press) novel July/August

Mojave Mud Caves (Encyclopocalypse Publishing) novel August 12th

Untitled (Raven Tale Press) novel 2022

Infected Voices (Infected Voices Publishing) collection September/November

Sing Me a Death Song (Death’s Head Press) novel 2022/2023

Secret Basements (D&T Publishing) novel 2023

2022 has been the most loaded a release schedule I’ve ever had. Too much? Maybe. I’ve been at this for so many years, barely treading water, that I figure building a back catalogue is nothing but a good thing. I don’t have all my eggs in one basket, as you can see. 2023 will be a lighter release year, and that’s okay. What bums me out is that I don’t have any short stories coming out. I do have one under contract with Death’s Head Press, but that’s been in the works for a while now. I have submitted a few shorts, so hopefully I get some good news on those. I love short fiction. used to publish a lot of it. I’ve kind of fallen out of the loop. Which means I need to try harder.

Cracking the WIP

I’m currently working on finishing my next novel (well, next written novel—they never come out in the order I write them), tentatively titled At the Hour of Violence. Currently somewhere around 43K words, I can see the end is near. It’s plotted out, to a certain extent, so I have about four or five more chapters. The shit is really hitting the fan right now. I’m excited to finish the story for two reasons. 1) the climax is fun to write. 2) I’m looking forward to the next project.

I wrote a short story called “If Denied a Frenzy” that I rather like. I’ll polish it up in a week or two, or longer, and see where I can submit it. Or just hold onto the thing. That happens a lot, unfortunately. My short story game has been way off. I’m completely out of the loop (I feel like that might be a redundant statement in this here newsletter). I miss deadlines for open submission windows. It’s a mess.

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That’s all for this newsletter. I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay. Support indy horror, leave reviews for the books you read, suggest them on your social media, and accept none other than one hundred percent pure unfiltered horror!