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Shock Totem #6
January 2013Shock Totem Radio
Sunday Reads: On Drugs, Zombies, and Creepy Children
Here are a handful of links from around the Internet that we found interesting this past week.
Artist Bryan Lewis Saunders takes several different kinds of drugs and then draws self-portraits. Drugs are bad, m’kay, but the results are interesting.
I’m sorry, zombie friend, but I didn’t quite catch that. One of the funniest things I saw this week was a Bad Lip Reading of The Walking (and Talking) Dead.
Zombies aren’t creepy. Children are creepy. Nothing exhibits this better than this very cool, very strange Reddit conversation about the creepiest thing your young child has ever said to you .
And after you’ve been chilled by little Jimmy’s prophecy of your death, or sweet Molly’s insistence that SOMEBODY IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU, you can finish freaking yourself out by looking at these hyper-realistic dolls…of you.
Knock yourselves dead, darlings. See something cool that should be in the roundup? Drop me an email, or leave a post on our forum. Let’s while away our time in the dark.
Posted in Artwork, Blog, Humor, Recommended Reading, Video
Tagged Bad Lip Reading, Bryan Lewis Saunders, Creepy Children, Mercedes M. Yardley, Shock Totem Magazine, Talking Dead, The Short Story of the Week, The Walking Dead
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The Wicked—99 Cents!
Attention Kindle owners: Through Sunday, the Kindle edition of The Wicked, by James Newman, is on sale for 99 cents!
It’s currently enjoying a spell in the #1 slot under Horror/Occult on Amazon. It’s #2 under Horror, in the shadow of World War Z. Think we can oust it from the #1 slot? You can help!
Newman is considered by many to be one of the unsung greats of the horror genre. We agree, and the reviews for The Wicked, his ode to 1980s small-town horror novels, reflect this as well.
And now you can see what all the hype is about for next to nothing!
[ click for full image ]
To download, click here.
(Amazon has given the print version a slight discount as well, at $13.49.)
As previously noted, The Wicked has been revised by the author, expanded with a new foreword by Mark Allan Gunnells, a new afterword by the author, and brilliant new artwork and illustrations by Jesse David Young (with additional cover layout by Yannick Bouchard). Also included is a brand new, exclusive tie-in short story written specifically for this release.
So what are you waiting for? Please download this great novel and help us spread the word by sharing the link!
Posted in Recommended Reading, Sales, Shock Totem Digital, Shock Totem News
Tagged 1980s, 1980s Horror, Free Fiction, James Newman, Jesse David Young, Kindle, Small Press, The Wicked, Yannick Bouchard
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Psychos and the Appalachian Undead
Some staff news, ya’ll! Cue banjo!
This coming October, if not sooner, Apex Publications is set to release Appalachian Undead, a new anthology dedicated to the walking dead. I contributed a quirky tale called “Long Days to Come.”
[ click for full image ]
The brilliant artwork was created by Cortney Skinner. Quite a lineup, too: Elizabeth Massie, Jonathan Maberry, Tim Waggoner, S. Clayton Rhodes*, Maurice Broaddus, Bev Vincent, Tim Lebbon, Steve Rasnic Tem, John Skipp* & Dori Miller, and Gary A. Braunbeck, to name a few more than a few.
If you’d like to check out the full table of contents, click here.
You can also pre-order via the above link (and get 5% off if you tweet the link), but before you do, check out this groovy contest they’re running for those who do pre-order.
As always from Apex Publications, you can expect quality.
Not to be outdone, Mercedes and John each have stories—“Murder for Beginners” and “Intruder,” respectively—in Psychos: Serial Killers, Depraved Madmen, and the Criminally Insane, the latest slab—and I do mean slab; these things are massive—in an ongoing series edited by the inimitable John Skipp which has thus far included Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead, Werewolves and Shapeshifters: Encounters with the Beasts Within, and Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed.
[ click for larger image ]
Psychos is due out in September via Black Dog & Leventhal, and features new and classic fiction from the likes of Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, Lawerence Block, Neil Gaiman, Leslianne Wilder*, Violet LeVoit, Weston Ochse*, Kathe Koja, and many more.
If you order now, Amazon has it for $10.07. That’s 608 pages for $10! No-brainer.
We hope you’ll buy both!
* Shock Totem alumni.
Posted in Alumni News, New Releases, Recommended Reading, Staff News
Tagged Apex Publications, Appalachian Undead, Bev Vincent, Black Dog & Leventhal, Cortney Skinner, Depraved Madmen, Dori Miller, Elizabeth Massie, Eugene Johnson, Gary A. Braunbeck, Jack Ketchum, Jason Sizemore, Joe R. Lansdale, John Boden, John Skipp, Jonathan Maberry, K. Allen Wood, Kathe Koja, Lawerence Block, Leslianne Wilder, Maurice Broaddus, Mercedes M. Yardley, Neil Gaiman, Psychos, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, S. Clayton Rhodes, Serial Killers, Shock Totem Connection, Steve Rasnic Tem, The Criminally Insane, Tim Lebbon, Tim Waggoner, Violet LeVoit, Weston Ochse, Zombies
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Enter the Gate—Free Admission!
T.R.O. Publishing recently released the second installment of The Gate series, The Gate 2: 13 Tales of Isolation and Despair, an anthology featuring work from two of Shock Totem’s own—Mercedes M. Yardley (“Black Mary”) and me, K. Allen Wood (“The Candle Eaters”).
You can get the print version for $8.59 or, if you’re a Kindle owner, download it for free. It’ll be available at no cost today and throughout tomorrow.
[ Copyright © 2012 by Jesse David Young ]
In addition, you’ll find work by Daniel Pyle, Steven Pirie, David Dalglish, Robert J. Duperre, and seven others.
So if you’re looking for some great fiction at no cost, check out The Gate 2.
Posted in Blog, Free Fiction, Recommended Reading, Shock Totem News
Tagged Amazon, Daniel Pyle, David Dalglish, Free Fiction, Jesse David Young, K. Allen Wood, Kindle, Mercedes M. Yardley, Steven Pirie, T.R.O. Publishing, The Gate 2, The Gate 2: 13 Tales of Isolation and Despair
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And the Stoker Goes to…
Mercedes M. Yardley!
More accurately…
Earlier tonight, John Skipp won the Stoker for his epic of an anthology Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed, which Mercedes has an excellent story in.
A well-deserved win for a great editor and a fantastic anthology. Congrats to all involved!
Posted in Alumni News, Blog, Publishing, Recommended Reading, Staff News
Tagged Anthologies, Bram Stoker Awards, John Skipp, Stoker Award, World Horror Convention
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Stokers, Flashes and Black Ink
Later this month, at this year’s Bram Stoker Awards™ banquet, to be held at the World Horror Convention in Utah, Mercedes and I do battle. To the death!
Okay, maybe not to the death.
And maybe it’s not so much a battle.
But we are both lucky enough to have stories included in an anthology up for a Stoker Award. That’s worthy of a battle roar or two!
Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed, edited by John Skipp, features Mercedes’s short story “Daisies and Demons”; while my story, “A Deeper Kind of Cold,” appears in Epitaphs: The Journal of New England Horror Writers, edited by Tracy L. Carbone.
Though some would call me biased, I think both anthologies are worthy of the nod. As I’m sure the other three anthologies up for the award are. So may the best one survi—win! May the best one win.
RAAAAAAAAWR!
In other news, John and I have had some very short pieces—by me, “Skipping Shingles”; by John, “Wishes” and “Always Never Enough”—published in Necon E-books’s just-released Best of 2011 flash fiction anthology.
This e-book features all winning and honorable-mention entries from their monthly flash fiction contests throughout 2011, plus a few additional stories from the cover artist, Jill Bauman.
As well, Sideshow Press has finally released the seventh installment in their Black Ink series of extreme fiction (i.e. not meant for children or the weak-stomached). This one features John’s disturbingly twisted “Peter Peter,” which he calls a “tender and sweet, family-friendly tale about the wages of sin.”
I also hear he’s selling bridges in New York.
If any of these books interest you, click on the cover images to purchase.
Posted in Alumni News, Blog, New Releases, Publishing, Recommended Reading, Staff News
Tagged Anthologies, Black Ink, Black Ink 7, Bram Stoker Awards, Flash Fiction, John Boden, K. Allen Wood, Necon, Necon E-Books, Sideshow Press, Stoker Award, Tom Moran, World Horror Convention
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Sunday Reads: On Writing, Podcasts, and Zombie Ants
Here’s a handful of links from around the Internet that we found interesting this past week.
First, over at Liberty Conspiracy, Gard Goldsmith has posted two podcasts featuring over an hour’s worth of interviews and commentary recorded at this year’s World Horror Convention in Austin, Texas. You can listen to part one here and part two here. Great stuff!
On the writing front, here’s something for the struggling writer: Thirteen tips to help you get some writing done. And this would probably fall under the category of Struggling Writer, but specifically, here’s a little something for the depressed writer. But maybe you’re neither struggling nor depressed, so how about a Writer Reality Check? Can’t hurt.
Right?
For those of us venturing into the world of e-books, check out Nathan Bransford’s enlightening piece on the 99 cent e-book and the tragedy of the commons. It’s bananas (while they last).
Now for the fun stuff: Zombie ants! Heard of them? Have you read Spore, by John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow (dude, you need a website)? Either way, check out another example of art imitating life.
And with that, I’ll leave you with these amazing images.
Posted in Blog, On Writing, Recommended Reading, Writing Advice
Tagged Cody Goodfellow, Depressed Writer, E-books, Gard Goldsmith, John Skipp, Liberty Conspiracy, Nathan Bransford, On Writing, Photography, Spore, Struggling Writer, World Horror Convention, Writing Advice, Zombie Ants
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Sunday Reads: On Writing, Rejection, and Spiders
Here are a handful of links from around the Internet that we found interesting this past week.
First up, some stuff on writing. Shane Staley of Delirium Books posted an interesting essay on the current state of small-press horror. A more upbeat piece comes from Adrienne Crezo, where she tells us that the “Big Debate” doesn’t matter.
Here are a couple tips on handling rejection: Jacqueline Howett responds to a review of her book, The Greek Seaman. Read the comments, then always do the opposite. Though a bit one-sided, presented as it is, over at Crossed Genres we were shown yet another example of a not-so-recommended rejection response.
Now, how about some fun and cuddly arachnids? A man in Dortmund, Germany is killed and then eaten by his creepy-crawly pets. And in flood-ravaged Pakistan, spiders have taken to the trees in what can only be described as something out of a nightmarish fantasy.
[ Photo by Russell Watkins ]
Scares the hell outta me, anyway!
Posted in Blog, On Writing, Recommended Reading, Writing Advice
Tagged Adrienne Crezo, Crossed Genres, Delirium Books, Jacqueline Howett, On Writing, Recommended Reading, Rejection Response, Shane Staley, Small Press, Spiders, Sunday Reads, Writing Advice
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