FEATURED AUTHOR: TONY DiGEROLAMO

ABOUT THE BOOKS

The Pineys: Book 1:  My Cousin, The Piney

From the creator of the Jersey Devil comic book comes a story about four cousins cursed by their ancestors, brought together by destiny and trying to keep South Jersey from going to Hell.



In 1732, Mother Leeds gave birth to the infamous Jersey Devil, which has roamed the Pine Barrens ever since.



Or so the story goes . . .

The truth is, Mother Leeds was a witch and opened the portals to Hell unleashing hundreds of devils into woods. But the villagers next door in Abe’s Hat noticed and formed a secret hunting society to track down the fiends and send them back to the Abyss. Their descendants continue the Hunt in secret to this day.



So grab your pork roll, put on your Piney Power hat and join the hunt, because the Galloway cousins are coming to save you whether you like it or not.

The Pineys: Book 2:  Witch Piney Are You?

For centuries, the South Jersey Pine Barrens has been the home of not just the Jersey Devil, but the witches of legend and lore. When the devil-hunting Galloway clan is confronted by a coven of old crones, all Hell breaks out—literally.



In the next gun-toting episode of the Pineys, we reveal the origins of Hemingway's undead mother, who and what the Witch Boy is and we burn down part of the Pine Barrens (which pretty much happens every year in South Jersey). Shelly goes to college, Milton and Lewis go to work and Hemingway engages in his, er, uh, "hobby".



So down a pint of blueberries, load up your silver bullets and get ready for the Hunt because while devils are hard to kill, witches don't die!



From the creator of the Jersey Devil comic book comes a story of four cousins brought together by destiny, cursed by their ancestors and trying to keep South Jersey from going to Hell.

The Pineys:  Book 3:  The Third Grade Piney

Before he was the world's greatest hunter, Hemingway Galloway was a rambunctious third grader in Abe's Hat Elementary. A devil that lived in an old well by the school lured children to their doom, but the Galloway cousins thought they killed it Forty years later and Hemingway is a substitute teacher at the school. When the hunter starts reliving his nightmare from the past, he soon realizes something dark still lives in the old well.


And when cousins Lewis and Milton take a trip to South Philly, Lewis must confront his own past in the form of mobster debts and his dead father.

So grab yourself a deep-fried pizza turnover, load up your silver bullets and get ready for the most intense Piney adventure yet!



From the creator of the Jersey Devil comic book, comes a story about four cousins, cursed by their ancestors, brought together by destiny and trying to keep South Jersey from going to Hell.

Wokeistan: A Novel

President Trump has just been inaugurated for the second time. The students at Upstate College are not happy. Led by one charismatic person of color, of African, Indigenous, Pan Asian descent who is a differently-abled Muslim-Atheist, they obliterate the college experience forever.



Wokeistan (co-written by Christian Beranek) is a satire: Politics, media, corporations, feminism and the relationships between men and women. In a world where anyone to the right of Fidel Castro is considered a fascist, one college professor will try to save his school.



Read this book before it’s banned, because nothing escapes Wokeistan.

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH TONY DiGEROLAMO 


A few of your favorite things: currently, it’s my computer and the accessories I’ve added to make YouTube videos.

Things you need to throw out: there’s an old fence in my backyard that I am slowly throwing out a few pieces at a time.

Things you need in order to write: iced tea, the computer, music and/or silence.

Things that hamper your writing: everything else.

Things you love about writing: I like creating worlds and exploring them in my head and on the written page. I like the idea of transferring thoughts from my brain to the reader. I like the feeling of discovering something about a character, even though it’s only in my head.

Things you hate about writing: nothing really. Just wish I made slightly more money on it.

Easiest thing about being a writer: coming up with new ideas. I am a font of creativeness.

Hardest thing about being a writer: for me, it’s always been the money.

Things you love about where you live: it’s a small town and just a few doors down from The Whitman-Stafford House where Walt Whitman summered.

Things that make you want to move: probably the taxes.

Proudest moment: I guess it was when I could finally present a book that I wrote about Italian heritage called F*ck You, I’m Italian: Why Italians Are Awesome to my dad, who I dedicated it to.

Most embarrassing moment: did you ever shit yourself on a camping trip? Yeah, me neither.

Things you never want to run out of: money, iced tea, new restaurants.

Things you wish you’d never bought: I try to live with no regrets. Whatever it was, I’m sure it was small.

Words that describe you: odd, relentless, positive, positively charming, hilarious, handsome and too much.

Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: fat, old.

Favorite foods: sushi, potato chips, iced tea, cheesesteak hoagies, pizza, stromboli, General Tso’s chicken, and many more. Bit of a foodie.

Things that make you want to throw up: asparagas.

Favorite song: “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys
.
Music that make your ears bleed: bad country music.

Favorite beverage: iced tea.

Something that gives you a pickle face: most alcohol.

Favorite smell: garlic.

Something that makes you hold your nose: shit.

Something you’re really good at: annoying people with my comedy.

Something you’re really bad at: trying to explain later it was a joke.

Something you wish you could do: time travel.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: use dating apps.

Something you like to do: play video games.

Something you wish you’d never done: got married.

People you consider as heroes: George Washington, Hunter S. Thompson, Mark Twain.

People with a big L on their foreheads: anyone that treats Twitter as being even remotely serious.



Last best thing you ate: Stromboli.

Last thing you regret eating: Chipotle.

Things you’d walk a mile for: a burrito served by a waitress in a bikini, who sits on my lap and feeds me that and an iced tea.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: someone who calls themselves “woke” unironically.


Things you always put in your books: a lot of myself.

Things you never put in your books: hypocrisy.

Things to say to an author: Can I buy a copy of your book?

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book:  Can I give you suggestions for your next book?

Favorite places you’ve been: Toronto, Dragon Con, Old Atlantic City.

Places you never want to go to again: Los Angeles.

Favorite things to do: write, play video games, watch TV.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: going to a wedding.

Things that make you happy: my dog, days off, hits on my website, sales on my books, and subscribers to my YouTube videos.

Things that drive you crazy: oh, just the worry of my own mistakes I suppose.

Biggest lie you’ve ever told: guess I told myself marriage would be a good idea.

A lie you wish you’d told: I wish I had told my first wife the wrong address for our first date.

Best thing you’ve ever done: I quit my day job to write comics after my car accident.

Biggest mistake: getting married.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: that is an incredibly sleazy story which I’ll keep to myself.

Something you chickened out from doing: I tend not to like heights or skiing. I’m not afraid, I just don’t think the risk is worth the reward.

The last thing you did for the first time: tried Ethiopian food
.
Something you’ll never do again: that’s an incredibly sleazy story which I’ll keep to myself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tony DiGerolamo is a New Jersey screenwriter, novelist, comic book writer, game designer and comedian. He is best known for his work on The Simpsons and Bart Simpson comic books. He has also been a joke writer for Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, a scriptwriter for Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and a blogger for Comedy Central’s Indecision website. He has written the screenplays including Mafioso: The Father, The Son starring Leo Rossi. His novels, Fix in Overtime and The Undercover Dragon are available through Padwolf Publishing. After publishing his own comic books (Jersey Devil, The Travelers and The Fix) with SJRP, he eventually got a publishing deal with Kenzer & Company. Kenzer published The Travelers. Tony also wrote Everknights (another Kenzer comic book), as well as the Hacklopedia of Beasts (Volumes 1 thru 8) and Slaughterhouse Indigo (an adventure for the Hackmaster RPG). He also adapted Mark Twain's Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc for Campfire.  Performing in the Philly comedy scene for over ten years, Tony performed and directed such improv groups as Next Line Improv, The Cabal, The Ninjas and Bulletproof Giraffe.

Besides writing for various comedy websites, he had a long running comics review column in Knights of the Dinner Table magazine. He was the marketing director for comics publisher, Silent Devil. He is creator of Tony DiGerolamo’s Complete Mafia for d20, creator/biographer for the online webcomic, Super Frat, the co-creator of the Webcomic Factory and writer for the over two dozen webcomics on the Webcomic Factory site including Lester Crenshaw is Dead, Miserable Comedians and Weird Biker Tales.  Look for his book, F*ck You, I’m Italian: Why We Italians Are Awesome, from Ulysses Press.  He recently finished a political satire, Wokeistan: A Novel, with Christian Beranek.  His current project is a comedy/horror novella series about the hunters of the Jersey Devil called The Pineys.




Connect with Tony:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  |  Brighteon Channel  |  Bitchute Channel  |  YouTube Channel



Buy the books:

Amazon 

FEATURED AUTHOR: STEVE GROGAN

He was lost, directionless, unable to find his identity. He thought he found it in her, which was good because he was teetering on the edge of madness. She had no way of knowing her actions would push him over it.

This novella is part splatterpunk, part erotica, part psychological study of an unstable mind, told in Steve's highly visual and deeply emotional prose. 

Some stories have protagonists/narrators for which you can feel empathy, or at the very least you can feel sorry for them.

This isn't one of those tales.

This is a story about a young man who makes the mistake of depending on others for a sense of self-worth. It is a dark, disturbing story not meant for the faint of heart. The graphic content makes up only 15% of the prose, but it is some of the most harrowing writing ever committed to page.

Book Details:

Title: Maybe the Dream Knows What is Real


Author: Steve Grogan


Genre: Horror


Published: June 24, 2018


Print length: 150 pages

Things you need in order to write: pen and paper, or my computer, enough time to let ideas flow (because sometimes they are slow to move), a steady background noise like a fan, a humidifier, or classical music (music with singing and lyrics distracts me).
Things that hamper your writing: time constraints, if there is anything stressful on my mind, noisy or overly stimulating environments
.

Things you love about writing: creating believable worlds and characters, using stories to explore issues that bother me in my life, writing passages that people can visualize
Things you hate about writing: having to stop writing to do research, writer’s block, not having the knowledge or skill to describe what I want to write.


Easiest thing about being a writer: the writing itself
.
Hardest thing about being a writer: balancing time between writing and doing things to get the word out about my stories…like interviews!

Things you love about where you live: I live in my childhood home so there are a lot of memories. I know how to get wherever I need to go. I know the people around me.
Things that make you want to move: it’s not very culturally diverse, no thriving music scene, also very hard to get things off the ground if you want to make films.

Favorite music: Smashing Pumpkins, Jayhawks, Tragically Hip, Beatles, Queen.
Music that make your ears bleed: Nikki Minaj, Outkast, Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, Eve.

Something you’re really good at: writing, martial arts, guitar
.
Something you’re really bad at: any sports.

Something you like to do: play video games!

Something you wish you’d never done: moved to Denver, Colorado.

People you consider as heroes: Bruce Lee, Phillip K. Dick, Billy Corgan.

People with a big L on their foreheads: Non-celebrity celebrities like the Kardashians, cute actresses who turned into trainwrecks like Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: stood up to my ex-wife’s violent ex-con boyfriend
.
Something you chickened out from doing: asking a beautiful Brazilian exchange student to my senior prom just because I was scared she would say no, so instead I didn’t bother trying and regret it to this day.

OTHER BOOKS BY STEVE GROGAN

The Size Curse

The Lone Warrior: A Guide to Home-Based Wing Chun Training

How to Teach Wing Chun

The Search for the Warrior’s Path

Steve Grogan was born in the often-filmed city of Troy, New York. He started writing as far back as second grade. He has written in a variety of formats (novels, short stories, poems, screen and stage plays, blogs/articles) and genres (horror, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, drama). He has had several stories, articles, and poems published in print and online.

Steve is also a father, a boyfriend, a musician, a fitness fanatic, and a martial artist. He has been studying Wing Chun Kung Fu since 1995, and he maintains a blog/YouTube channel that describe his training habits, epiphanies, and advancement. It also candidly discusses his stumbling blocks, such as his struggle with nutrition and mental health issues.

He is no relation to the New England Patriots quarterback from the 1980’s.


Connect with Steve:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter

Buy the book:
Amazon

FEATURED AUTHOR: STEVE GROGAN

ABOUT THE BOOK

He was lost, directionless, unable to find his identity. He thought he found it in her, which was good because he was teetering on the edge of madness. She had no way of knowing her actions would push him over it.



This novella is part splatterpunk, part erotica, part psychological study of an unstable mind, told in Steve's highly visual and deeply emotional prose. 

Some stories have protagonists/narrators for which you can feel empathy, or at the very least you can feel sorry for them.



This isn't one of those tales.



This is a story about a young man who makes the mistake of depending on others for a sense of self-worth. It is a dark, disturbing story not meant for the faint of heart. The graphic content makes up only 15% of the prose, but it is some of the most harrowing writing ever committed to page.

Book Details:

Title: Maybe the Dream Knows What is Real

Author: Steve Grogan

Genre: horror


Published: June 24, 2018


Print length: 150 pages


IFs ANDs OR WHATs INTERVIEW WITH STEVE GROGAN

Ifs


Q: If you could talk to someone (living), who would it be and what would you ask them?
A: Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins. He and I had very similar lives, which is why I connect with their music so much. I would talk to him about those things, as well as issues like self-esteem and mental health.

Q: If you could talk to someone (dead), who would it be and what would you ask them?
A: Kurt Cobain. Since he committed suicide, I’d talk to him about mental health too, but maybe I’d be subtle about it. Basically, I would try to talk him out of making the decision that he made.

Q: If you could be anything besides a writer, what would it be?
A: Full-time martial arts instructor, doing seminars around the world
.

Q: If you could meet any author for coffee, who would you like to meet and what would you talk about?
A: Thomas Pynchon. I would like to talk about his writing process. His books are so layered that I wonder how he plans them.

Q: If you could choose a fictional town to live in what would it be and from what book?
A: Castle Rock from many Stephen King books. For being a somewhat small town, a lot of interesting things happen there!



Ands

5 things you love about writing:
    •    creating new worlds
    •    exploring ideas
    •    writing things that move people
    •    painting a picture with words
and
    •    escaping from reality

5 things you love about where you live: 
    •    quiet
    •    it’s my childhood neighborhood
    •    I know my way around
    •    I love the historical architecture
and
    •    since my house has been in my family for decades, there is no mortgage!

5 favorite books:  
    •    A Scanner Darkly
    •    Gravity’s Rainbow
    •    Imajica
    •    Money
and
    •    Naked Lunch

5 favorite authors:
    •    Thomas Pynchon
    •    Phillip K. Dick
    •    William S. Burroughs
    •    Henry Miller
and
    •    Martin Amis

5 people you consider as heroes:
    •    Bruce Lee
    •    Billy Corgan
    •    Thomas Pynchon
    •    Tony Horton
and
    •    my girlfriend

Whats

Q: What’s your all-time favorite movie?
A: A tough one, but I’ll go with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Q: What’s your all-time favorite author?
A: Thomas Pynchon.

Q: What’s your all-time favorite city?
A: New York City. For an artsy person like me, there is so much more there than where I currently live.

Q: What’s your all-time favorite library?
A: Albany Public Library.

Q: What’s your favorite song?
A: “Cherub Rock” by the Smashing Pumpkins. It inspired me to learn guitar.

Q: What’s your favorite beverage?
A: Arizona Diet Green Tea.

Q: What’s your favorite quote?
A: “Every man is my superior in that I may learn from him.” (Thomas Carlyle)

Q: What’s your favorite movie snack?

A: Sweet Tart makes these things now that are like Red Vines, except of course they make your face pucker.

Q: What movie genre do you prefer?
A: Horror.


Q: What book are you currently working on?
A: A guide to help people build a piece of martial art training equipment called a wooden dummy. My guide is unique in that most wooden dummies have to be mounted on these huge, space-gobbling frames, but I show them how to build a freestanding version. It’s also meant to help them save money because buying a professionally made one can cost you easily $1,000 or more.

Q: What’s your latest recommendation for:
    •    Food: Lemon Butter Chicken
    •    Music: Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, the Tragically Hip
    •    Movie: It (2017 version)
    •    Book: Imajica
    •    Netflix/Amazon Prime: Stranger Things

OTHER BOOKS BY STEVE GROGAN

The Size Curse

The Lone Warrior: A Guide to Home-Based Wing Chun Training

How to Teach Wing Chun

The Search for the Warrior’s Path





ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Grogan was born in the often-filmed city of Troy, New York. He started writing as far back as second grade. He has written in a variety of formats (novels, short stories, poems, screen and stage plays, blogs/articles) and genres (horror, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, drama). He has had several stories, articles, and poems published in print and online.

Steve is also a father, a boyfriend, a musician, a fitness fanatic, and a martial artist. He has been studying Wing Chun Kung Fu since 1995, and he maintains a blog/YouTube channel that describe his training habits, epiphanies, and advancement. It also candidly discusses his stumbling blocks, such as his struggle with nutrition and mental health issues.

He is no relation to the New England Patriots quarterback from the 1980’s.


Connect with Steve:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter

Buy links:
Amazon

FEATURED AUTHOR: FRAN LEWIS

ABOUT THE BOOK

Driving down a rocky road I saw the overgrown grass, weeds, and poison ivy overtaking the outer perimeter of the bushes. The smell of mildew permeated the air, along with the stench of animals killed by cars coming up from the ground along this dirt road. I could see the sadness on the faces in the cars behind me; I could feel the pain and sorrow. As I looked inside the cars and saw the faces of the drivers, I began to wonder what they were thinking, their thoughts and feelings as they traveled down life’s highway, maybe for the very last time.

What stories lay behind the faces behind the wheel of each oncoming car?

What stories were hidden?

Whose voices are now silenced?

Book Details:


Title: Silent Voices

Author: Fran Lewis

Genre: horror, suspense

Series: Silent Voices


Publisher: Southern Owl Publications, LLC (June 10th 2019)


Print length: 51 pages


On tour with: Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH FRAN LEWIS

A few of your favorite things: reading interesting novels, doing my interviews, walking in the morning to my favorite bakery.
Things you need to throw out: old shoes and old coats.

Things you need in order to write: my thoughts, my computer, my notepad on my phone.
Things that hamper your writing: annoying phone calls and writer’s block.

Things you love about writing: I get to write whatever I want and express my thoughts in my own way.
Things you hate about writing: editing and correcting mistakes.

Hardest thing about being a writer: writing and hoping to attract many different types of audiences.
Easiest thing about being a writer: choosing my titles and genres.

Things you love about where you live: the quiet, the people and the local stores within walking distance.
Things that make you want to move: not anymore.

Things you never want to run out of: coffee pods, paper, ink for my computer, paper cups and smiles.
Things you wish you’d never bought: some of my shoes and jackets.

Words that describe you: intelligent, humorous, headstrong, tough, perceptive, and kind.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: hard to handle, confrontational at times, inquisitive.

Favorite foods: pizza and tuna.
Things that make you want to throw up: foods with too much sugar or salt.

Favorite music or song: classical and opera.
Music that make your ears bleed: Rap and HIP HOP.

Favorite beverage: black coffee.
Something that gives you a pickle face: spicy foods.

Favorite smell: fresh air.
Something that makes you hold your nose: perfume that makes you want to walk down the stairs because it is so strong.

Something you’re really good at: book reviews, interviews on my radio shows, helping my nieces and nephews understand their projects for school and solving problems and getting answers to my questions no matter what.
Something you’re really bad at: hearing the word NO.

Something you wish you could do: have a magic wand and bring back the people that I miss everyday.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: play tennis in college.

Something you like to do: visit more museums.
Something you wish you’d never done: gone to Florida with college friends.

People you consider as heroes: my dad who made me strong and my grandfather who taught ethics and morals.
People with a big L on their foreheads: people that critique others just for the fun of hurting their feelings because their self-esteem is low. People that are constantly negative.

Last best thing you ate: one slice of pizza.
Last thing you regret eating: salty tuna.

Things you’d walk a mile for: a great sale at my favorite store, finding the right nondairy cupcake, my family.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: phone calls that ask for money, surveys on the phone and people that just always want something and never do anything in return.
 
Things to say to an author: write what you know about, stay true to who you are and do not write a book with a small font or that is too long. As a reviewer I  cannot review books where I need a magnifying glass to see the print or the plot is overdone.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I would love to be an evil twin to your main character in your next book and hopefully be brought back many times.,

Favorite places you’ve been: San Diego, Florida, several states.
Places you never want to go to again: Staten Island.

Favorite books: fiction, non-fiction, historical fiction, memoirs, general fiction, romance, historical romance.
Books you would ban: erotica.

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Iris Johansen, Charles Dickens, James Patterson.
People you’d cancel dinner on: negative people.

Favorite things to do: read, walk, jog, go to museums, parks, and the Bronx  Zoo.
Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: the dentist, the laundry, cooking.

Things that make you happy: when my nephews and nieces text me every few days to say hi or call to say they miss and love me when am I going to visit.
Things that drive you crazy: when someone calls for money.

Most embarrassing moment: learning to drive when I was 16 and driving towards a cute guy.
Proudest moment: when I got my masters and PD.

Biggest lie you’ve ever told: I never tell my age I usually pick a number from 19-29 and choose a different one every day.
A lie you wish you’d told: When I weighed 200 pounds and was about to go on a blind date I told him I weighed 100, but now I do weight 107.

Best thing you’ve ever done: spending my years as an educator, dean, staff developer and helping my students succeed in life. They are on Facebook and remind me all the time of the positive impact I had on their lives.
Biggest mistake: never really feeling comfortable behind the wheel of a car and not driving anymore.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: taking a camel ride and walking for March of Dimes.
Something you chickened out from doing: motorboating and kayaking.

The last thing you did for the first time: buying distance glasses one pair for each day of the week and getting my colorful highlights in my hair: Red, blue, green, purple and more.
Something you’ll never do again: go back to black hair. I am a blonde

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Fran Lewis taught for 36 years in a New York Public School as a dean, staff developer and reading specialist. She loved helping children with learning disabilities soar and rise to the top. Fran loves music and majored in music when she attended Hunter College and was a concert violist. Fran has a master’s in reading and learning disabilities , education, Administration and supervision and a PD in Administration and supervision. Fran enjoys doing book reviews, interviews on her network MJ network on Blog Talk radio and she is currently writing her next Faces Behind the Stones book. Title to be decided.

Connect with Fran:
Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon

FEATURED AUTHOR: VANESSA MORGAN

ABOUT THE BOOK

This is an overview of the most offbeat and underrated vampire movies spanning nine decades and 23 countries. 

Strange Blood encompasses well-known hits as well as obscurities that differ from your standard fang fare by turning genre conventions on their head. Here, vampires come in the form of cars, pets, aliens, mechanical objects, gorillas, or floating heads. And when they do look like a demonic monster or an aristocratic Count or Countess, they break the mold in terms of imagery, style, or setting. Leading horror writers, filmmakers, actors, distributors, academics, and programmers present their favorite vampire films through in-depth essays, providing background information, analysis, and trivia regarding the various films. Some of these stories are hilarious, some are terrifying, some are touching, and some are just plain weird. Not all of these movies line up with the critical consensus, yet they have one thing in common: they are unlike anything you've ever seen in the world of vampires. Just when you thought that the children of the night had become a tired trope, it turns out they have quite a diverse inventory after all.


Book Details:


Title: Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies


Author: Vanessa Morgan


Genre: horror, vampires, non-fiction


Publisher: Moonlight Creek Publishing (April 28, 2019)


Page count: 334 pages

   


LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH VANESSA MORGAN

A few of your favorite things: my plush rabbit that I had since I was four years old, my computer, some presents.
Things you need to throw out: probably all the rest
.

Things you need in order to write: silence.
Things that hamper your writing: music
.


Easiest thing about being a writer: imagining
.
Hardest thing about being a writer: overcoming my imperfections.

Things you love about where you live: the film festivals.
Things that make you want to move: the weather
.

Favorite foods: huitlacoche and authentic Thai green curry.
Things that make you want to throw up: sauerkraut.

Favorite beverage: still water.

Something that gives you a pickle face: sugary drinks.

Favorite smell: vanilla.

Something that makes you hold your nose: gasoline.

Things you always put in your books: cats
.
Things you never put in your books: dragons.

Favorite books: non-fiction books
.
Books you would ban: books about hunting.

Favorite things to do: going to film festivals all over the world and cuddling cats.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: adventurous sports.

Things that make you happy: film festivals.

Things that drive you crazy: discos.

The last thing you did for the first time: undergoing a surgical intervention.

Something you’ll never do again: hopefully the same thing

.

OTHER BOOK BY VANESSA MORGAN

When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals 
Clowders
The Strangers Outside
Drowned Sorrow
A Good Man 
Next to Her 
GPS with Benefits

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Vanessa Morgan is the editor of When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals, as well as the author of the cat book Avalon, and the supernatural thrillers Drowned Sorrow, The Strangers Outside, A Good Man, and Clowders. Three of her stories have been turned into movies. She has written for a myriad of Belgian magazines and newspapers and introduces films at BIFFF, Razor Reel, and Cinematek. She’s also a programmer and copywriter for the Offscreen Film Festival in Brussels.





Connect with Vanessa:
Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |   Goodreads

Buy the books:
Amazon

FEATURED AUTHOR: J.S. BREUKELAAR

ABOUT THE BOOK 


A collection of twelve of J.S. Breukelaar's darkest, finest stories with four new works, including the uncanny new novella "Ripples on a Blank Shore." Introduction by award-winning author, Angela Slatter. Relish the Gothic strangeness of "Union Falls," the alien horror of "Rogues Bay 3013," the heartbreaking dystopia of "Glow," the weird mythos of "Ava Rune," and others. This collection from the author of American Monster and the internationally acclaimed and Aurealis Award finalist, Aletheia, announces a new and powerful voice in fantastical fiction.




Book Details: 


Title: Collision: Stories


Author: J.S. Breukelaar

Genre: Speculative fiction

Publisher: Meerkat Press (February 19, 2019)

Print length: 205 pages




INTERVIEW WITH J.S. BREUKELAAR

Q: What’s the story behind the title of your book?

A: The title story, "Collision” is about a collision of worlds in a multiverse, the result of which is a kind of coming together and mutation, if not extermination, of a whole bunch of other worlds. This is a theme in many of my stories—worlds, ways of being human and not—in many of the stories it’s the genres themselves that collide, or at least gently jostle. So it seemed like a good title to stamp on the whole collection.   

Q: Do you have another job outside of writing?

A: I teach literature and creative writing.

Q: Where’s home for you? 

A: I was born in the US, so that, particularly New York, will always be one home. But Sydney, where I work and where my family and friends are, is another. But I am most at home on the page, wherever that is. 

Q: What do you love about where you live?

A: I love Australia because it’s dangerously beautiful, and it has universal health care and gun control and relatively safe schools for most kids. The people try, by and large, to be good to each other, although I know that I speak from a position of privilege and that is not the case everywhere, and at all times—Australia is mightily wrestling with the demons of a dark colonial history, and its current policies on refugees remain much less humane than they should be. 

Q: What’s your favorite memory?

A: The birth of my children.

Q: What’s one thing you wish your younger writer self knew?

A: Reach out to other writers. Find workshops or take creative writing classes. Learn basic story mechanics and other hacks that can make the “write, write, write” mantra much more productive. 


Q: What is your most embarrassing moment?
A: Sending an email to a well-known writer that was meant for my husband. Luckily I didn’t say anything bad about anybody, but I did gush about that particular writer, who’d said some nice things about my work, and I smooched all over my husband, so the whole thing was a complete and utter face-plant.

Q: Yikes! What makes you nervous?

A: Sending an email to the wrong person.


Q: That was my guess. What makes you scared?

A: Every morning, those long drawn out seconds before my fingers hit the keyboard.

Q: What makes you excited?

A: Travel.

Q: How did you meet your husband?

A: I picked him up in a bar.

Q: What are your most cherished mementoes?

A: My statue of Don Quixote that my kids gave me is one of them. A Mont Blanc fountain pen from my husband, a filigree necklace that belonged to my grandmother. A note from my uncle telling me I could do this. 

Q: What’s one of your favorite quotes? 

A: “Those of us who are going to live are going to have to start living by our own lights.” Neal Stephenson, Seveneves.

Q: Are any of your characters inspired by real people?
A: Many of the characters in the stories collected in Collision are inspired by real people, but by the time they’re half-way through the story, they’re only loosely connected to their model. In “Raining Street,” for instance, the character of Marie is inspired by a lady who lived next to us in an upscale neighborhood that we couldn’t afford. Like Marie, she gave me tips about where to go to find affordable food for my family, but unlike Marie, this lady was a good witch, and I’ll always be grateful to her for sending me into neighborhoods far from home, where I found a bunch of stories.

Q: Is your book based on real events?

A: Some of the stories are loosely based on real events—I mention some of these in my notes—my friend’s wedding that got washed away in a storm inspired “Like Ripples.... “; some of the other stories are a response to the 2016 elections. I lived next to a Rhodesian Ridgeback once who was a forced of nature.

Q: Are you like any of your characters? 

A: Yes, there is some of me in all of my characters. Otherwise I couldn’t create them.

Q: One of your characters has just found out you’re about to kill him off. He/she decides to beat you to the punch. How would he kill you?

A: They kill me all the time. I die a thousand deaths when they elude me, when they refuse to tell me what they need to do next, when they stink, or suck, or fail to believe in themselves. Writing is constant death and resurrection, and your characters will always find a way to outlive you. The moment you don’t believe that, you’re done.

Q: With what five real people would you most like to be stuck in a bookstore?

A: Lana and Lily Wachowski, Barack Obama (you knew I’d say that), Patti Smith, Ray Bradbury. 

Q: Who are your favorite authors?

A: Too many to mention. Jeff Ford, Shirley Jackson, Stephen Graham Jones, John Langan, Karen Joy Fowler, Cormac McCarthy, Kelly Link, Emily Dickenson, Stephen King, among others. 


Q: What book are you currently reading and in what format?

A: I’m reading The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner in paperback.


Q: Do you have a routine for writing? 

A: Mornings before 9 am, longer if I’m not teaching. A break around the middle of the day when I attend to admin chores, and then more writing in the afternoon if I can after the day job.

Q: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your writing?

A: My agent emailed me after he read Aletheia and said that I was the Cormac McCarthy of Gila Monsters. I can’t top that. Close to it are the blurbs on Collision from John Langan and Stephen Graham Jones and Kathe Koja and Sebastien Doubinsky. I hold the book in my hands and still can’t believe those blurbs are on it.

Q: What’s the worst thing someone has said about your writing? How did you deal with it?

A: There was a time when every story that was rejected was the worst thing anyone could say about my writing, and by extension, me. I dealt with it often badly by crying or getting drunk or feeling that I should give up. But then, because I really didn’t want to give up, I’d consider any feedback they’d offered, and address it if I could without breaking the story. But sometimes it broke anyway. A broken story can sometimes be fixed for the better. Either way, I’d send it back out again. And it usually got picked up. 

Q: Are you happy with your decision to publish with Meerkat Press?
A: My road to publication with Meerkat Press was through my agent who is also Superman. I had a collection that was slated with another publisher, but that fell through, so Superman went into overdrive. I also have a couple of angels in my corner—writers much more established than I am who also stepped in and got the word out. One of these is Angela Slatter, who magicked up some competing interest in the work and who wrote the introduction, and the other is Sebastien Doubinsky who had work coming out with Meerkat. He recommended Aletheia to the CEO Trica Reeks, and she dug it. I couldn’t be happier with Meerkat—this is a savvy press with vision and fire, which supports writers, and literature, above and beyond the call. The road to publication is a rocky one filled with pot holes and littered with roadkill. But if you make friends along the way, nothing else matters.

Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am completing a novel called The Bridge which is about a pair of twins spiritually conjoined to a mysterious old woman with one eye.

OTHER BOOKS BY J.S. BREUKELAAR

Aletheia
American Monster

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J.S. Breukelaar is the author of the novels American Monster, a Wonderland Award Finalist, and the Aurealis Award-nominated Aletheia, as well as the forthcoming collection of short stories, Collision, from Meerkat Press. You can also find her work in magazines such as Lightspeed, Gamut, Black Static, Unnerving and anthologized in Welcome to Dystopia, Women Writing the Weird, among others. She has a PhD in creative writing and teaches literature at the University of Western Sydney, and is a columnist and instructor at LitReactor.com.

Connect with the author:
Website  |  Meerkat Press  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  |  Instagram

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Book Depository 

COVER REVEAL: STRANGE BLOOD

ABOUT THE BOOK

Strange Blood is an overview of the most offbeat and underrated vampire movies spanning nine decades and 23 countries.

Strange Blood encompasses well-known hits as well as obscurities that differ from your standard fang fare by turning genre conventions on their head. Here, vampires come in the form of cars, pets, aliens, mechanical objects, gorillas, or floating heads. And when they do look like a demonic monster or an aristocratic Count or Countess, they break the mold in terms of imagery, style, or setting.

Leading horror writers, filmmakers, actors, distributors, academics, and programmers present their favorite vampire films through in-depth essays, providing background information, analysis, and trivia regarding the various films. Some of these stories are hilarious, some are terrifying, some are touching, and some are just plain weird. Not all of these movies line up with the critical consensus, yet they have one thing in common: they are unlike anything you've ever seen in the world of vampires.

Just when you thought that the children of the night had become a tired trope, it turns out they have quite a diverse inventory after all.

Book Details:

Title: Strange Blood

Author: Vanessa Morgan

Genre: Horror

Published: Moonlight Creek Publishing (April 2019)

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH VANESSA MORGAN

Vanessa, what will readers love about this book?
More than 30 contributors wrote about their favorite vampire movie(s) for Strange Blood, and readers will love the variety of writing styles associated with this – it's an extremely entertaining and informative mix of essays. They'll also love that several film directors wrote about their own vampire films. Most of all, though, readers will discover many films to add to their to-watch list, and they'll be surprised to see how diverse and original the genre is.


What age group is this book for?
You need teeth to sink into a book about vampire movies. So if you're too young or too old to have teeth, Strange Blood is not for you.


Who is this book targeted to?
Strange Blood is for anyone who wants to discover new horror movies or likes to read about their favorites. And it's especially aimed at those people who think vampires are boring; this book will change that opinion for sure.


Did you do any research for this book?
I did a lot of research for my own film essays, because I wanted readers to learn something, even when they already know the film. This not only included reading every possible article and book written about the film, but also interviewing the filmmakers.


Where did you get your ideas for Strange Blood? Why vampires?
I got the idea for Strange Blood  in the beginning of 2018. I am a programmer for the Offscreen Film Festival in Belgium, and my boss suggested a theme around unusual vampire movies. Vampires were my least favorite monsters, or so I thought, so at first, I wasn't convinced. But as soon as I started looking into it, I realized how offbeat and original the genre was and that some of my favorite horror movies are, in fact, about vampires. It's just that the gems get buried under the large number of cliché stories. Strange Blood is a book about those gems.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vanessa Morgan is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books in the horror genre. Three of her stories (The Strangers Outside, Next to Her and A Good Man), have become movies. When she's not working on her latest book, you can find her reading, watching horror movies, digging through flea markets, or photographing felines for her blog Traveling Cats.


Connect with Vanessa:
Newsletter  |  Twitter  |  Amazon  | Bookbub

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FEATURED AUTHOR: CRAIG STEWART

ABOUT THE BOOK

Something is listening to the prayers of St. Paul’s United Church, but it’s not the god they asked for; it’s something much, much older.

A quiet Sunday service turns into a living hell when this ancient entity descends upon the house of worship and claims the congregation for its own. Trapped in what used to be their sanctuary, the terrified churchgoers are given an impossible ransom: their new god wants a sacrifice. For everyone to live, a child must die.

As fear rips the congregation apart, it becomes clear that if they’re to survive this untold horror, the faithful must become the faithless and enter into a battle against God itself. But as time runs out, they discover that true monsters come not from Heaven or Hell… they come from within.

Book Details:

Title: Worship Me

Author: Craig Stewart

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Hellbound Books (August 4, 2017)

Page count: 356

INTERVIEW WITH CRAIG STEWART


Craig, what’s the story behind the title of your book?
I really like the style of old B-horror movie titles, like, Don’t Answer the Phone, Don’t Go in the Woods, or, more recently, Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell (though that movie isn’t ‘B’, it’s more like ‘A+++’). I enjoyed the way these titles commanded the audience, which seemed appropriate for my novel, specifically since it deals with the frightening relationship between an obedient congregation and what they perceive to be their god. I needed a title that demanded with that kind of force, and also, one that sounded a little kinky, too.

Is Worship Me based on real events?
None of what is in this book really happened, obviously, I mean, it’s about an ancient monster terrorizing a church. However, thematically speaking, the story is very real, and very personal for me. And, I think, for anyone who reads it, because it’s dealing with something we all go through: existential crisis. I began writing this novel not long after my sister, to whom this book is dedicated, died of a brain tumor. At its heart, this book is an exploration of grief, and of the horror one feels when you look upon it in its raw state, before the flowers, before the sympathy cards. It asks hard questions, like, how can there be a soul, when it seems we’re limited to the meat we’re printed on? And if love conquers all, then why can our love drive us to do evil things? These thoughts were all mined from my own grieving process, and adapted into the pages of this book, hopefully, in a way that is frightening, engaging, and perhaps, if I did my job, enough to get people asking these questions of themselves. Because, sooner or later, we all will.

Do you have another job outside of writing?
I certainly do! I’m also a filmmaker because I love it, and I edit because it pays me. And I act occasionally. You can check out my filmic work on my website if you’re in the mood for a laugh and a shriek.

Do you have a routine for writing?
I almost always write with music playing. Actually, I often write my own music. I’ve scored all of my films, so I thought I might as well make a soundtrack for my books as well. It helps when you’re trying to return to certain themes and characters, especially when you’ve stepped away from it for a bit.

Please check out some of the tracks I wrote for Worship Me on my website.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a small town in Ontario, Canada named Chatham. It’s infested with crows. Literally. You’ll look up at the sky and say, “But, I thought it was supposed to be sunny today,” as the murder passes over head like a big, black cloud of doom. No wonder I like horror. And actually, the church in the book is based off the real church my parents used to take me to. That was a fun side note.

What makes you scared?
Oh, so many things. Lucky for me, because, if it didn’t, I’d have no reason to write what I write. There are the big ones, of course, the ones we all share: death, darkness, dismemberment, people who smile too much. But, for me, I think my number one is tornados; mindless cloud claws that carve through the land and snatch it up to Oz. And deep water.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?
“Why, there they are both, baked in that pie;
 Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
 Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.” – Titus Andronicus

What’s your favorite line from a book?
“She willed him to look past the flames in the hope that he might see her burning. Not so that he could save her from death - she was long past hope of that - but because she pitied him in his bewilderment and wanted to give him, though he would not have thanked her for it, something to be haunted by.” – Clive Barker’s The Forbidden (Books of Blood)

What book are you currently reading and in what format?
Currently I’m devouring Michael Rowe’s October about a 16-year-old bullied boy dishing out a terrible revenge to his abusers. And, don’t harpoon me, but I’m reading it on kindle. So far it’s fantastic, I highly recommend it!

What are you working on now?
I’m currently bouncing between a few new projects, but the one that has seemed to gain steam is a new novel called Follow Him, which will be a sister novel to Worship Me (not quite a sequel).  If Worship Me explores the horror of faith, then Follow Him explores the horror of love. So, you know, it’s a feel-gooder.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Craig Stewart is a Canadian author and filmmaker who learned how to count from the rhyme, “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you.” He’s a creator and connoisseur of everything horror; never afraid to delve into the dark. His written works include short stories, film scripts, articles, as well as his first horror novel, Worship Me, recently published by Hellbound Books. He has also written and directed several short horror films that have enjoyed screenings across North America.


Connect with Craig:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon 

Featured Author: Kevin Doyle

ABOUT THE BOOK

They kept to the shadows so no one would know they existed, and preyed on the nameless who no one would miss. Where did they come from, and who was protecting them? In a city that had seen every kind of savagery, they were something new, something more than murderous. And one woman, who had thought she had lost everything there was to lose in life, would soon find that nothing could possibly prepare her for what would come when she entered their world.

INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN DOYLE

Kevin, what’s the story behind the title The Litter?
It kind of seemed obvious. Once I had the main plot premise, along with the age of some of the participants, the word “Litter” just kind of popped into my head.

Where’s home for you?
I’m a lifelong Midwesterner. Born and lived most of my life in Wichita, Kansas. But for over a decade Columbia, Missouri, has been home.

What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned?
That nobody owes anyone anything. It all has to be earned.

What do you love about where you live?

Columbia is a city of about 100,000 people, and it has a vibrant, engaged citizenry. There’s a ton of little hole-in-the-wall eateries, theatres and music venues. But at the same time, a short drive in any direction presents all sorts of outdoors opportunities.  It’s equidistant between Kansas City, St. Louis and the Ozarks, so you never lack for stuff to do.


What is the most daring thing you've done?

Considering that I’m terrified of heights, zip lining ranks right up there.

Do you have another job outside of writing?
Not even sure you could call writing a job, seeing as how it brings in very little money, especially when compared to the amount of work. My main career is as a high school teacher, English and public speaking.

What choices in life would you like to have a redo on?
If I had some way known that I would end up teaching (it was totally unplanned on my part), I probably would have gone into either social studies or foreign language. Fewer papers to grade.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?
I’m not sure who originally said it, but I saw it reprinted in Small Town, by Lawrence Block: "Witing is an occupation at which you can earn a fortune, but you can’t earn a living." 

If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
The Gulf Coast, probably Mississippi or Alabama. Already making plans to head down that way when I retire in about nine years.

My dad lives down there — in Alabama — and loves it. How did you create the plot for this book?
It sounds like a cliche, but I woke up one morning with a scene imprinted on my mind. It’s actually the final scene in part II of the book. Once I had that scene jotted down, I just had to go backward and forward to finish it up. I wrote about the first three or four chapters, then I flashed ahead and wrote the final chapter. Then I wrote the fifth, then the next to last, and went back and forth like that until I had it basically in shape.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people?
To the best of my knowledge, no. Though one of my students claims I owe him royalties because I used his last name for the name of a street in the book.

Who are your favorite authors?
Lawrence Block and Robert B. Parker are among my most recent favorites. Although Parker really began phoning it in around the halfway point. I’ve recently experienced a lot of Robert Crais and have just started reading Michael Connelly. I also have a huge soft spot for Arthur C. Clarke.

What book are you currently reading and in what format?
I do almost all my reading in paperback and hardcover. A few months back, I lucked out. Walking through one of our local used bookstores, I came across several copies of the Doc Savage Omnibus volumes. Doc Savage reprints were my absolute favorite reading as a kid, and right there were six volumes containing around thirty stories that I’d heard of but never read. I snatched them all up and for the last few months have been reliving my youth. Once I’m finished, I plan on re-reading Block’s When the Sacred Ginmill Closes. Then probably get back to Connelly.

Do you have a routine for writing?
No real routine. During the school year, I work it in when and where I can, usually trying to do at least a couple of pages a night.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your writing?
A review that showed up on Goodreads for The Litter. Paraphrased a bit, the reviewer said “This book scared the hell out of me.” Also, several people who read The Litter have commented that they had trouble sleeping for a while afterwards. The average seems to be two nights.

Yikes! Now that's scary. If you could be a ghostwriter for any famous author, whom would you pick?
Block, hands down. I would say Parker, but I doubt I could even come close to the job that Ace Atkins has done.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
A short story of mine called “The Old Dogs.” It’s another one that came to me from a snippet of a dream. I woke up in a literal cold sweat (honestly) with my heart racing. I jotted down this one image I managed to retain, and the next afternoon started playing around with it. But the basic plot line was so disturbing that I could only write about half a page a day, and this was during the summer break, because I couldn’t stand any more than that. I managed to sell it right off the bat, but when it came out in magazine form it took me two or three attempts to sit down and read it because I knew where it was going and didn’t want to get there. It’s since been reprinted by another ‘zine, so it must have been halfway decent.

What’s the worst thing someone has said about your writing? How did you deal with it?
An editor of a local lifestyle magazine, back when I was twenty and first trying my hand at all this, looked over an article I’d written and told me he couldn’t use it because “You’re not a very good writer.” In retrospect, it doesn’t sound that harsh, but at the time it sucker punched me. After a couple of days, I shook myself off and decided to learn the craft as well as I could.

How did you find your publisher and how long did your query process take?
This is probably going to tick some people off, but I really don’t get the whole self-publishing thing. I know things are changing, but to me it doesn’t really feel legitimate. Besides the fact of how expensive it could get. So for me, and I’m not one to dictate to others, traditional publishing was the only way to go.

That being said, so far I’ve dealt exclusively with small presses, just as I do with small magazines. As for finding them, I basically use Duotrope, which, for me, is well worth the yearly fee. 

One nice thing about the small presses is that there usually isn’t that long of a wait to hear back. When I sent One Helluva Gig to Vagabondage Press, it took them only a few months to send me an acceptance.

Once Gig came out, I was putting the finishing touches on The Group and felt a lot more confident that maybe something would happen. What I wasn’t prepared for, though, was that three weeks after I began submitting it, I received an offer from Barbarian Books. My first full-length mystery novel, and three weeks after sending it out I had an offer in hand.

My newest work, The Litter, took a bit longer, but not all that much. I finished it at the end of June of last year and began sending it out in July. It racked up several rejections before Night to Dawn made an offer a couple of days after Labor Day.

Bottom line, when it comes to sending books out and having them accepted, I’ve been very, very lucky.

I'll say. But I would respectfully disagree with you on self-publishing. My book is doing much better now, as a self-published author, than when a small press published it. I think there's room in the market for both. What are you working on now?
Currently, I’m working on a sequel to The Group. It focuses on the cops who were secondary characters in the first book, and doesn’t really include the original protagonist at all.  I had hoped to have a first draft finished before school broke for the year, but that didn’t happen, so right now I’m way behind.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A high school teacher and fiction writer living in central Missouri, Kevin R. Doyle’s  short stories of horror and suspense have appeared in over twenty-five small press magazines. In 2012 his first e-book, a mainstream novelette titled One Helluva Gig, was released by Vagabondage Press. In January of 2014, Barbarian Books released his first full-length mystery novel, The Group, and in February of 2015, Night to Dawn Magazine and Books released his horror novel, The Litter.

Connect with Kevin:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Goodreads