Death Thing came out on Monday. Get your copy!

#deaththingface

Folks, Death Thing is out and I couldn't be any happier.

First of all, Craig McNeely and Emily McNeely are fantastic editors and wonderful people. I couldn't have asked for a better relationship with my publisher. Double Life Press is a small independent press but I get the feeling Double Life will be on the lips of a lot of people. We did an Ask Me Anything style online release party on Facebook and it already feels like Double Life has built a great community.

Will Viharo is class manifest, Danny Gardner is sharp as a razor, Pablo D'Stair is an artist in all forms, and Jessica McHugh is the life of the party. That's not even mentioning the other upcoming Double Life authors. Salvadore Ritchie has a novel concept whose synopsis alone blows my mind. April Hawkes has a novel coming out that I can't wait to read. I can't even remember everybody's name because Craig has so much coming out.

Double Life is going to be huge, folks, and I'm as happy as a pig tastes in bacon form to be a part of it.

I'll soon be transcribing the questions and the answers from the online release party here but I wanted to say hello and do another sales pitch for y'all.

Death Thing is about a man who will not take it anymore. It's a pulpy, grindhouse, horror novella that is full of black comedy.

Dyer Wilk did a wonderful job on the cover. It looks like an 80s horror movie poster or VHS. He does phenomenal work. Maybe there will be a poster version of this because it certainly feels like it should be blown up and hung on a wall.

I was very honored to get a blurb from Adam Cesare, writer of Tribesmen, on the cover: "Sometimes it feels like a book was written just for you. Demented, funny, and way more philosophical than you'd think a novella about a deadbeat booby-trapping his car would be, DEATH THING reads like part-Harold Pinter, part-Roger Corman."

Click here to buy a copy!

A 7-11 Trip for the Books

When we drove into our parking space, I got a real sense that something was up at my local 7-11. There was a lady in the passenger side of the car next to mine eating an ice cream sandwich and staring into the store, waiting for her driver who was presumably getting more ice cream sandwiches. Inside there were three cashiers behind the register, a young lady at the credit card swiper making hand motions as she talked to the uninterested cashiers, and we haven't even gotten out of our car yet.

I turned to Nina and said, "Somebody could do a sociological study on this one 7-11."

There were handwritten signs everywhere. "LEAVE YOUR BACKPACK AT FRONT DESK." "NO LOITERING, IT IS CRIME." It reminded me of the time I lived with a meth addict who went crazy cleaning our apartment and left notes reminding us to clean. "DO YOU WALK ON THIS FLOOR? YOU DO! CLEAN IT ONCE IN AWHILE!" These notes were everywhere. When I walked into the apartment and saw this, I felt like I was walking into some weird serial killer's game. Same way it felt going into that 7-11.

When I got out of the car, a large bearded man was also making exaggerated gestures to two cashiers that looked like they could have been cut from the same cheese curdle. I open the door. The bearded man exits. The store is quiet. Real quiet. There are three cashiers; two young ladies and a young man. Their arms were crossed. It felt like we interrupted them. I could feel their eyes on me as I walked toward the ice cream box.

When we got to the freezers there was a man, literally without any discernible shape with his skin melting out the sides of his shoes. He was covered in flea bites and he smelled the way a trash can smells after it rains and there's nothing but nacho cheese, dog shit, and standing water smell after you lift the lid off.

"I can't do this," I said. I turned around and headed for another part of the 7-11 and waited for the man to leave. He left with two Blue Bell pints and looked happier than I ever have at any point in my life. Good for him. He's gone.

You probably know that Blue Bell pints are criminally overpriced at 7-11, despite the buy one, get one free offer. You might as well go to HEB and get a gallon for the same price. It's much better to get a one off frozen-cream-on-a-stick deal at 7-11. I got the Butterfinger ice cream. Nina got the cookie ice cream sandwich. Solid choices.

When we went to the register, there were only two cashiers there. One was pulling at her lips via lip rings. The other was staring straight ahead in her Houston Rockets ball cap, nodding at whatever was intelligible coming from her compatriot's mouth as she tugged at her bottom lip. That's multitasking, folks.

"She said she was the only one to pass the test and I was like, damn, girl," the Houston Rockets cap girl said.

I have no idea what they were talking about but it went on for awhile.

We paid for our shit and left.

Death Thing is coming

Folks, I've been on a little bit of an internet-fast lately.

But Death Thing is coming.

Death Thing is coming soon.

The wonderful Double Life Press is publishing it. The one and only Dyer Wilk created the cover image. It looks great and I hope you'll enjoy it.

Meanwhile, I've finished the novel I was working on for awhile. It's called Invasion of the Weirdos and I'm currently doing some final edits. I think it's pretty darn good but I'm not sure it will have a home right out of the gate. It's a weird one.

I'm also writing the sequel to Death Thing called Party Bus: Death Thing 2. 

I originally envisioned Party Bus as a standalone but I found a way to tie it to Death Thing and, boy, am I glad I did. It adds a lot of texture to the Death Thing universe but it can be read as a standalone (I think).

I have a whole bunch of ideas bouncing around and I wanted to tell you that I'm not resting on my laurels. I'm back at the writing desk (which is just my couch and a coffee table in near total darkness).

This guy just wagered $5 on a Jeopardy Daily Double because of course he did. 

Give my author page a like on facebook, follow me on twitter, and do the same for Double Life!