HALLOWRETCHED

So Halloween has come and gone, and this year, I actually managed to get out a book for it. Granted, it wasn’t the Extremes: All Hallow’s Eve edition I was planning on releasing to coincide with Halloween this year, but all the same, I still managed for the first time to drop a new book on the day. Well, technically, that’s not entirely correct-Ghoul Night came out in October last year, so saying first time is probably a bit of a stretch. Nonetheless, Ghoul Night wasn’t essentially a Halloween book per se, just one with loose connections to All Hallow’s Eve.

This one, on the other hand, revolves all around that particular day (and in the case of one tale, the eve which falls beforehand-Devil’s Night).

After concentrating on the likes of Extremes: Lone Wolves and No Safety in Numbers for the better portion of the first half of the year i left myself a fraction short when it came to knocking together enough material to comprise Extremes: All Hallows Eve, so again, for a second year, that one will have to go on the backburner. Three Extremes books in one year is probably a mite fucking ambitious in any case, but hey, who knows? Maybe that’ll happen next year. Perhaps I’ll drop all three books of a new set, who knows?

In any case, instead of an Extremes spooky season special, we have something different. That isn’t to say the material included in this book wouldn’t be right at home in the Extremes universe, because it sure as hell would-this isn’t some cutesy, watered down, good fun and frivolity version of Halloween shit, this is what most would have come to expect from me.

The book in question, which you may have seen floating around, if you’ve been paying any attention to social media sites and whatnot, is Hallowretched. I actually had some plans for this one many moons ago, but of course, like myriad other projects I have at the moment, it sort of shifted back in line behind others. Whenever I get into the swing of things with the Extremes books or other story notions that take grip and demand to be written and finished before I set my attention on anything else, whatever else tends to skulk back into the shadows and wait its turn to come out haunting. Such was the case with Hallowretched. That one wasn’t much as anything solid bar the various seeds of ideas and a rough cover notion, but seeing as how I was determined to get a Halloween book out this year, I finished up with the second series of Extremes books and then turned all focus on this one.

As luck would have it, it came out the night before Halloween-or at least that’s what the date on Amazon will tell you-Technically, over here in Australia, it already was Halloween. I’d taken the kids out for a bit, came back and finished up uploading the manuscript and all that shit, and by next morning it was live.

It isn’t the biggest book I’ve ever written, but there’s a couple of lengthy stories in there. Namely the more grotesque and bloodsplattered ones. Comprised of five stories and something of an intro poem, I’d like to say this is the quickest book I’ve ever written, and were I actually writing every single night, it would probably have been either concluded much quicker or made up of many more stories. In that case I could have just gone with the Extremes scenario, but on that note, I don’t specifically want to just be the Extremes guy. I’ve got too many other ideas festering for an assortment of different books and stories that have nothing to do with Extremes. Speaking of which there are more than a couple of novels I need to get around to writing sequels for. Not enough hours in the day for all of that.

Just on that, there are a couple of stories contained within Hallowretched which directly tie to other works of mine. One of them is an obvious pick if you’ve stayed up to date with reading all my shit; the other is not. There’s nothing specifically stated within that story that ties it to other works either already written (or sequels of said works) but the happenings relate closely to things other characters have done. There are stories to be found in a couple of the Extremes books that are also linked to the same work. I’ll drop a couple of clues with specific story names, but other than that, that’s all I will say. Last Stop Diner from Greater Extremes and Under the Floor from Extremes: Couples are both tied to the same universe, and events that will be in occurrence in a sequel book to others I already have out. Nope, it isn’t Plebs, nor Undead Fleshcrave.

Anyway, within the same story in Hallowretched I reference there are mentions of other events and locations, one just a passing reference, the other a frequently recurring thing. There is a reason for this, though it’s not one that actually came to fruition. The whole of Hallowretched, or at least numerous stories throughout, were meant to be interlocked, all tied together by a common thread (obviously apart from the whole Halloween notion), but two of those stories I never quite got around to finishing. Therefore, while they will be coming along at some future date, they aren’t here in Hallowretched, meaning the initial plan to connect the main stories and have them broken up by smaller, shorter pieces turned into something completely different. The two stories I speak of have the potential to grow into more than mere short tales, so we’lll see how they go. Novellas? Maybe. Or they’ll come out together, as some sort of comapnion piece to Hallowretched, or at least the introductory story.

In any case, enough ramblings. If you haven’t already, swing around and check out Hallowretched. Sure, All Hallow’s Eve might technically be over, but does it really have to be? Fuck no, it doesn’t. Never is in my house. We’re Halloween all damn year round. Even my kids have sworn they’d rather trade Christmas for another Halloween.

October 31. A favourite time of year for many. The season of the macabre. The time of the year when minds turn to themed parties, to trick or treating, to spooky decorations, festivals and fun. To celebrations and revelry. Creepy attire and cozy traditions.
For the folks here, this Halloween is going to play out far differently than any of them could have imagined.
This isn’t the time of year for fun and frivolity, for costumes and candy.
Launching into celebrations this late October night is going to drop these souls into a world of horror they’d never have anticipated, never been able to conjure up in their darkest nightmares.
This favourite time for many who worship the creepy and horrific is about to get turned upside down and shaken up in unimaginable ways.
The night is going to ring out with a symphony of screams, and unrelenting horror is going to be let loose on all those game enough to venture out.
This isn’t just Halloween.
This is Hallowretched.