A New Charity Anthology + A Sneak Preview

I’m very excited to announce my story “Skin in the Game” will appear in DREAD COAST, a charity anthology of SoCal horror. All proceeds will go to charities assisting with the devastating LA fires earlier this year.

In “Skin in the Game,” occult PI Dex Craven chases after a missing tattoo that used to adorn the back of an insane cult leader and MIGHT be some sort of doorway into other dimensions.

The anthology also includes stories by New York Times bestselling authors, Peter Clines, Jonathan Maberry, and Scott Sigler; USA Today bestselling author Luke Dumas; and many more! So much delicious horror, and for a very good cause. You can preorder the anthology here.

We’re four months out from the release of MAN, F*CK THIS HOUSE (AND OTHER DISASTERS). Keep reading for a sneak preview. The original book has been revised and expanded, and there’s some brand new Easter eggs (think Halloween store). This is the definitive version of the story of the Haskins family and their very strange house.

You might also have been wondering what these “other disasters” are. I recently released the TOC over on social media and did a brief explainer. Here’s a list of the six short stories included in the volume. Four of these have NEVER been published before anywhere!

“Beware the Hurlyburly”: a middle school outcast is stalked by a social media monster

“Seven Years”: Grant thinks he’s finally met the perfect girl. But Sasha’s afraid of mirrors, Deathly afraid, one might say…

:"In the Rushes”: A cycling trip turns deadly for a feuding mother and daughter.

“Razor Bill”: a group of teens investigate the legend of their desert town’s famous haunted out house.

“Line of Sight”: SUPERNATURAL meets THE SHIELD when a group of crooked cops hunts down a mysterious killer

”The Tire Swing”: a young boy faces off against an ominous plaything.

If you dig what I’m doing, preorders help a TON. You can preorder the new, remastered version of MAN, F*CK THIS HOUSE in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio HERE.

And finally, as promised, here’s a sneak preview of one of the new chapters. Sabrina Haskins goes to prison:

Preorder Sale at Barnes & Noble -- 25% Off!

As you may have heard, there’s a gorgeous remastered edition of MAN, F*CK THIS HOUSE (AND OTHER DISASTERS) coming Oct. 7th from Blackstone. The original novella has been expanded with all new chapters, and there are six additional short stories, including “Line of Sight,” “The Tire Swing,” and “Beward the Hurlyburly,” which is currently being adapted for film. The new version will be available in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio.

Right now, you can get 25% off at B&N with the code “PREORDER25.” Every preorder helps immensely, so grab yours (at a sweet discount) today!

New Short Story in DreadPop!

I’m very excited to announce that my latest short story, “Nostrum Diana,” has dropped over at DreadPop, with the gorgeous accompanying art by Jamie Stearns. If you haven’t heard of DreadPop, it’s a cool new online magazine that delivers 1 new short story per week to subscribers, plus exclusive interviewers and more. I definitely recommend checking it out in general.

“Nostrum Diana” is one of my favorite short stories I’ve ever written. It’s quite different than the stuff you’re used to seeing from me. It’s a dark fairy tale in the vein of Angela Carter (and is actually dedicated to her). I’m super proud of this story and I hope you dig it. Here’s a little preview:

The girl lives alone in a tarpaper shack beyond the edge of a town that, once a month, is cursed by the moon.

She’s lived like this for years since her father died. The townspeople shun her and name her witch. Modernity protects her from the gallows but cannot shield her from their whispers. When she trudges the miles into town to the grocery, the pockets of her house-dress clinking with coins saved from trading furs--a vocation passed down by her father, a great hunter--she feels their eyes upon her. Sees them cluck their tongues and clutch their children tight and move to the other side of the street. Their scowls brand her as surely as an iron. Once the mayor himself, behind the wheel of his brand-new Model A, took a screaming blind turn onto Main despite the yellowing of the town’s equally brand-new traffic light and nearly mowed her down, sending her tumbling to the curb and tearing her dress.

It’s unfair, the way the townspeople treat her, but she understands it, too.

For once a month, when the moon plumps like a witch-caged orphan ready for the cauldron, a beast stalks their town, ripping and rending and howling out its blood lust over hill and dale. Whether that beast is witch-conjured or witch itself, no one knows, but they suspect the girl who lives in the tarpaper shack beyond the edge of town, because who else can it be?

To read the rest, go check out DreadPop Magazine today! It’s paywalled but worth the low price of go check out DreadPop Magazine today

Free ebook!

Also, in case you missed it, for a limited time you can grab a free ebook of OUR BLACK HEARTS BEAT AS ONE plus a bunch of other cool horror books here.

Man, F*ck This Cover Reveal + Preorder

I am extremely excited to announce the cover of MAN, F*CK THIS HOUSE (AND OTHER DISASTERS) has been revealed and it is beautiful! Coming October 7th from Blackstone, MFTH(AOD) is an expanded and remastered version of the novella, accompanied by additional short stories, including 2 never-before-seen novelettes, “Line of Sight” and “The Tire Swing.”

Just for you, my beloved mauling list, I’m going to share some juicy additional details.

In “Line of Sight,” a crooked cop hunts the man who killed his partner in a very gruesome and seemingly impossible manner. It’s kind of like THE SHIELD with a supernatural twist, and I think you’ll dig it.

Then in “The Tire Swing,” a boy moves into a new house with his family and immediately feels uneasy about the old tire swing hanging in the woods. Who knows how long it’s been hanging there, waiting for someone to play with it…or what games it wants to play…

Full TOC will be announced soon.

Out October 7th in hardcover, paperback, audio and ebook, you can preorder your copy right now!

FRee books!

And also, score some free horror ebooks, including my novella OUR BLACK HEARTS BEAT AS ONE, over on BookFunnel.

New Short Stories Out Now + V-Day Horror!

It’s Valentine’s Day, and I’m here to woo my beloved mailing list with two new anthologies featuring never-before-seen short stories of mine, which you can get right now (for yourself, or for your sweetheart, guaranteeing you a passionate and sexy V-Day).

First up is MY EVIL FUCKING NEIGHBOR, from the lunatics at Sinister Smile/Crystal Lake. In my story “There Goes the Neighborhood,” anxious, mild-mannered Doug Renner begins to suspect his next door neighbor Randall is a serial killer. But the joke’s on him, because ALL of his neighbors are serial killers. Here’s a little taste:

Less than twenty-four hours after witnessing Randall’s nocturnal excavation, Doug became convinced he was surrounded by a cadre of bloodthirsty sociopaths.

He was not wrong.

The McGills, for example, had a crawlspace stuffed with the mummified remains ofhitchhikers and runaways. Mr. Rooker did in fact use his birthday clown guise to ingratiate himself to families with young children and then, months later, sneak back into their houses to murder everyone with a device of his own invention he called the “Whack-a-Doodler” (taking a page from The Walking Dead’s playbook, said Whack-a-Doodler was not a baseball bat but an oversized clown mallet wrapped in barbed wire). Nurse Nancy, the severe and alliterative neighbor to his left, really was an Angel of Death, fiddling with doses of crucial medications tensure her geriatric patients checked into Our Lady of Aldergrove but did not check out. The blonde woman--Phaedra Wayne Curtis--had killed more husbands and fiances than she could count, and the man with the primer grey van was currently standing before a full-length mirror in his bedroom, wearing the face of a youth pastor he’d met in a truck stop bathroom.

In fact, the only person on Fairvale Lane who was NOT an active serial killer was Doug.

How did a bunch of serial killers all come to live on the same street? What’s their plan for Doug? And how the heck is he going to get out of this one? Find out in MY EVIL FUCKING NEIGHBOR, which also includes stories from folks like Nick Roberts, Candace Nola, Rebecca Rowland, and Mike Salt, available now!

Next up, we have THE CLUB HOUSE, featuring my video game horror story “Super Whopper Bopper,” which asks the question, “What if someone made a real-life version of a Mario-style game?” Like most people my age, I played a shitload of Nintendo as a kid, and I always wondered what it would be like to stomp on a Koopa trooper. How gross is their blood? What would it smell like?

Weird, right?

Well, now you can share my bizarre fascination. “SWB” is about an executive at a Dave & Busters-esque chain who’s looking for some new and exciting games for his adult patrons. And what’s better than a life-size version of the video game they loved as kids?

Something moved at the end of the corridor.

Definitely not my reflections because I’d been standing still. I gripped the mallet in both paws and advanced. A little shadow separated itself from the dark pools at the end of the hallway, moving quickly but with a tottering gait.

The thing moved into the light. Rabbit-sized, except it walked on two legs and wore navy blue coveralls. A wrinkly little face peered up at me with glassy eyes, its apple-sized skull covered in wrinkles and topped with a dollop of wiry red hair.

“Bop,” it said.

I screamed. The thing approached on unsteady legs, white-gloved hands outstretched. The mirrors lining the passage compounded the bizarre little creature into an army.

“Bop bop bop.”

Find out what happens next in THE CLUB HOUSE, on sale now!

And finally, my horror love story OUR BLACK HEARTS BEAT AS ONE is on sale in ebook right now! I wrote this book in the wake of a bad breakup. It’s about a rising musician who turns to the occult to salve his broken heart and the horrible things that happen when you fuck with black magic. This is quite different than anything else I’ve published. If you’re looking for a dark and creepy story about the horror of falling in love, this is it!

New Year, New Free Books *Updated*

(If you happen to be receiving this twice, it’s because I accidentally clicked “Publish” too soon, FML)

Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a few things they’re looking forward to in 2025. For me, it’s the re-release of MAN, F*CK THIS HOUSE (AND OTHER DISASTERS). As many of you know, the original version went out of print last year in order to make way for this new edition. It’s an expanded, “remastered” version that I think you’ll really dig. It also includes a bunch of never-before-seen short stories. MFTH (AOD) is out October 7th from Blackstone, more details to come as we get closer!

My werewolf novel GOOD DOGS, which came out this past October, continues to win new fans. If you’re in the market for a thrilling story of lycanthropy, found family, and revenge from beyond the grave then you’ll really dig this one. Out now in paperback, audio and ebook!

Oh, and I believe I did say something about free books. I wrote OUR BLACK HEARTS BEAT AS ONE in the wake of a pretty horrific breakup. It’s an occult horror novella about an up and coming musician who turns to the dark arts to fix his broken heart, with predictable consequences. The book was heavily inspired by everything from Thomas Ligotti and Angela Carter to Alkaline Trio and My Chemical Romance. It’s an emo, secondary world story of lost love and the horrible things that hide in the shadows.

And now, for a limited time, you can score a free ebook (along with many other rad dark fantasy books). A click HERE is all it takes.

It's a Thanksgiving Miracle! [FREE BOOKS]

Skip the Bullshit, Gimme the Free Books

Morning everyone, I hope you’ve got some exciting—or at least relaxing—holiday plans this week. Me, I’m going to be eating my weight in marshmallow-crusted sweet potatoes and some sort of protein and then OD’ing on football.

With the holidays coming up, I thought it was a good time to make my 2022 zombie horror comedy RETURN OF THE LIVING ELVES totally free for a limited amount of time. To grab a copy, just click HERE and download away. There’s a bunch of other cool horror books available for free too, so stock up in advance of the holidays in case you need to hunker down with some horror and avoid the relatives.

I wrote ELVES after going to a Christmas horror convention and thinking, “Man, it would be really cool to have an Xmas horror book to sell here.” Ironically, I attended the same convention the following year with ELVES in tow and sold exactly zero copies, but hey, that’s the business!

Luckily it’s gone on to have something of a seasonal cult following, not entirely unlike the film that inspired it. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD is one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s gross, it’s fun, it’s bananas, it’s got amazing performances from some of the best character actors ever. It’s essentially a perfect movie. ELVES is my attempt to pay tribute to something I love so much I got a ROTLD tattoo:

Of course, the book isn’t a completely shameless ripoff. Sure, like DEAD it starts out in a warehouse, an Xmas supply warehouse in this case, and involves two employees unleashing something they certainly shouldn’t. But it’s also very much its own thing. You’ll see when you read it. Which you should. Have I mentioned it’s free?

Horror Trivia Night + Signed Copies of GOOD DOGS

Have you ever wanted to see some of your favorite horror authors (plus me) compete head-to-head in trivia? Well, look no further, tomorrow at 7pm Central Time I’ll be squaring off with Brian McAuley (Curse of the Reaper, Candy Cain Kills/Again) and Angela Sylvaine (Chopping Spree) in a thrilling battle of wits courtesy of Raven’s End Books in Winnipeg. Loser gets sacrificed in a Wicker Man situation. Or made fun of mercilessly, IDK, we’ll see what happens.

It’s totally free to join, register HERE.

Also, with winter coming, you want to stay warm, right? And what’s better than nestling up inside the fur of a werewolf? Good Dogs is out now and available wherever books are sold. If you’re looking for signed copies, both Mysterious Galaxy and Artifact Books have you covered. If you want your copy personalized, just put a note in the order.

Good Dogs makes the perfect gift for yourself or your loved ones this holiday season, order yours today!