Mares in the Night Author's Notes: "The Deep South"

The Deep South 
 
             When I was in college taking film and video production classes, we were frequently assigned little short films as projects, 5-10 minute stories that had to adhere to some basic theme, but were otherwise free to do whatever with. Pressed for time and money, I was very quickly trained to come up with small stories on the fly. High-concept pieces that took place all in one setting with no more than 2-3 characters, focusing on ideas that had a big impact, with little room for anything more elaborate than that. It was kind of wonderful.

            The idea of an escaped slave coming across the Devil during his flight through the woods was one such story that I never got around to filming, and so I decided to turn it into a prose story instead. It was one of those ideas that come along every once and a while and just refuse to let you go, when it occurred to me that the Devil himself is a southerner--the ultimate Southerner, really--and the rest of it flowed out of that.

            There’s something about the American South… an unquantifiable, undeniable creepiness that seems to hover over everything like a fog, making the place a haunted region in the truest sense of the word. A land forever scarred by the sins of the past.

            In other words, it is entirely plausible to stumble upon the Devil whilst roaming the southern woods on a quiet evening.

            Order your copy of Mares in the Night today!

Mares in the Night Now in Print

            It took a little longer than expected, but my short story collection Mares in the Night is now available in print. As wonderful as it is to be able to carry around an entire library tucked underneath your arm wherever you go, I will always prefer to read an actual book whenever I can, so having the option of an actual printed book of my first collection is a special treat.

            And while we're talking of special treats, I'll take the moment to announce that for the next thirteen days, I'll be releasing little "Author's Notes" for each of the stories contained within Mares of the Night. I love it when authors do that in their collections, getting to read what their influences were and what was going through their heads at the time, and I even toyed with putting them into my own, but ultimately decided against it. But I'm proud to present them here for your enjoyment, and to hopefully pique your curiosity as to what exactly you'll find within. Look below for my notes on the first story in the collection, and check back here all week to find more!

Zombie: A Love Story

            The original draft of this story featured a husband frantically trying to get back to his wife during a zombie apocalypse, only to realize at the very end that he himself had become one of the walking dead. Coming back to it a few years later and completely and utterly sick of everything "zombie" at that point, I found it thoroughly unremarkable, and proceeded to scrap everything save the title.

            The chief inspiration for the new draft came whilst watching the latest, colorless zombie film (and yes, I know I already said I was sick of them--what do you want from me? I’m a masochist). While the hapless hero ran away from the undead horde, it occurred to me how hilarious it would be if all the zombies suddenly got together in a chorus line and broke out in a little song-and-dance routine. The rest of the story formed itself rather easily around that simple idea, not the least because the act of falling in love seems to go rather well with flesh-ripping.

            Or maybe that’s just me.

            Order your copy of Mares in the Night today!

Mares in the Night Available Now

            I've long wanted to put out a collection of my own short fiction, so I'm proud to announce my first collection, Mares in the Night, is now available as an e-book on Kindle. Ostensibly, most of the stories fall under the genre umbrella of "horror," although it's more of a mishmash, with science fiction, fantasy and even a western thrown in for good measure. The settings are also varied, spanning from the Cretaceous period to tribal, Burroughs-ian planets to the present day, populated with pulp radio show heroes, Lovecraftian secret agents and more monsters than you can shake a stick at. And, to further whet your appetite, here's a list of all thirteen stories you'll find in this collection:

            1. "Zombie: A Love Story"
            2. "The Deep South"
            3. "Scarecrows"
            4. "The Sweetest Meat"
            5. "The Liar, the Thief and the Bastard"
            6. "A Haunting of Hill Creek"
            7. "So Long, the Dark"
            8. "A Meat Most Foul"
            9. "The Man from A.B.Y.S.S."
            10. "Sniper at the Gates of Hell"
            11. "Old Time Radio"
            12. "Dark Side of the Heart"
            13. "Massive Blood Loss"

            I couldn't be more proud of the results, and would be tickled pink if you clicked on over and ordered yourself a copy today!

            P.S. I also plan to put out a print version, although that'll take a bit more work. Look for it in the coming weeks...

Doc Savage: The Man of Plastic

            When I was younger, I discovered the craft of "custom action figures;" basically, taking extant action figures and retooling, repainting and reconfiguring them into new ones. Being a crafty little tyke, I took to it like a fish to water, and spent endless hours taking apart and rebuilding my old toys. These days, I don't much have the time or the inclination for such pursuits, but when noodling over Christmas ideas for what to get my Dad--a fifty-nine-years-young, massive Doc Savage fan--I was reminded of that long-ago hobby of mine, and set out to craft a one-of-a-kind Doc Savage figure for my old man...

            Not wishing to endeavor upon anything too elaborate, I decided a Bruce Timm-styled, "animated" look would be the way to go, as the additional sculpting and detailing would be easier to achieve given the simplified style--not to mention having a whole host of options to choose from, given the long-running Justice League Unlimited action figure line. After careful deliberation, I settled on using a Captain Atom figure for the base body, and after sculpting on Doc's trademark, torn shirt and painting the whole thing, I had a one-of-a-kind Doc Savage on my hands.

            My Dad couldn't have been happier to receive it as a gift this year, and I wound up being so pleased with the results, I kind of want to make one for myself now. Not to mention the itch I have to make other, similar pulp-hero figures, like perhaps a Tarzan. Or the Shadow. Or the Spider. Or...

            Oh, god... nothing good can come of this...

            Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful holiday season.

Tales of the Shadowmen 13: Sang Froid Available NOW!

            For over ten years, Black Coat Press has supplied lovers of genre and classic pulp fiction with its annual Tales of the Shadowmen anthology series, the only ongoing series devoted to showcasing international heroes and villains of pulp literature. The end of every year brings a new volume, and I'm proud to have yet another story included in the latest volume, Tales of the Shadowmen 13: Sang Froid. My story this time out might just be my favorite yet, a tale of swinging spies, master thieves and miniskirts entitled "From Paris with Hate." The story sees that immortal avatar of evil Fantomas (based on his gargoyle-like appearance from the wonderful Jean Marais films of the sixties) kidnapping a French official and holding the entire country at ransom. Jean Bruce's indelible creation OSS 117 (Hubert Bonissuer de la Bath, for those in the know) is tasked with the rescue operation, and decides to "recruit" a team of specialists to help in his endeavor, the type of masked men and super-criminals who were directly inspired by Fantomas in the first place: Kriminal, Eva Kant and her heavily-eyebrowed lover Diabolik. As you've likely guessed by visiting this very blog, Diabolik and Eva Kant are amongst my favorite fictional characters, so getting the opportunity to play with them (in the era of the mod sixties spy films from which they were birthed, no less) was an incredible honor.

            All of that, plus eighteen other tales of pulpy, genre goodness, spanning from medieval times to the wild, wild west and beyond and featuring all of the Shadowmen standbys, such as Sar Dubnotal, Dr. Omega, Rouletabille and a dozen others.

            Make sure to order a copy here or here for you or a loved one this Christmas season!           

The Life and Times of Stickman, Ep. 17: Grounds for Spawning

The Life and Times of Stickman, Ep. 16: South by Northeast