Weird Fiction discussion

It just occurred to me: as we grow, writers will no doubt be joining our group. You need a venue at which to tell us all about your great writing, your most recent project(s). Here is the place! Please tell us what's best about your book. You can even provide us an Amazon link if that's where your book is for sale.

Thanks Dan for providing this space for a bit of discreet horn-tooting.

My novel The Golden Cut: A Surrealist Western came out a couple of months ago. I hope some fans of the weird here might enjoy it. Or if not enjoy, then be entertainingly annoyed by it.



Here's the blurb:

Ante up, dreamers...

Circus stunt rider TJ Breckenridge hires a drifter called Cantos Can to help her find a stolen horse. Together they ride out into a desert populated by weird animals, feuding mystery cults, and the remnants of a lost culture known only as the Great Invisibles. But then Cantos goes missing too… and TJ is forced to choose sides in a war where dreams are deadly weapons.

Combining hallucinatory imagery with pulp-fiction plotting, The Golden Cut is a tale of tripped-out gunslingers, puppet-headed outlaws, crystal caves, and magicians on the rampage.

It's free to download in Kindle and other formats (and there's also a paperback edition, if that's how you roll):
https://tinyurl.com/SurrealistWestern

Thanks for telling us about it, Merl. I must say, I'm much more inclined to order up a book and read it from a participant like yourself than just someone posting. (Though even then I'll give anything a try if it sounds interesting enough.) I do read a Western every other year or so. I'll come back when my reading stack lightens in a month or two and give it a try.

Dan wrote: "I must say, I'm much more inclined to order up a book and read it from a participant like yourself than just someone posting."

Yes, same here. I hope others will share their own projects as time goes on.

Thanks to Dan for pointing out this place for shameless self promotion! Very excited my second novel is now available in print. I hope people give it a shot and let me know what they think of it.Caskets Full

Merl wrote: "TJ Breckenridge is devastated when her horse Cowhead is snatched from the big top one night."

What a coincidence! Just a few weeks ago someone confused my horse head for a cow head. What nerve!

Ed wrote: "What a coincidence! Just a few weeks ago someone confused my horse head for a cow head. What nerve!"

That was a bit rude of them. Which head are you wearing today?

Rick wrote: "Thanks to Dan for pointing out this place for shameless self promotion! Very excited my second novel is now available in print."

Congrats Rick. Looks like a fun book.

I agree, Rick. That's quite an eye-catching cover. I want to read it alone just for that.

Maybe this is the former editor coming out in me, but is there an apostrophe missing in the title, or are you really meaning it in the plural sense?

Dan it was intended that way

To be intentionally confusing, or intentionally ambiguous?

Sorry no I meant title was intentional as it is a shout out to a song that inspired the writing in part.

This song? It's beautiful. Reminds me of a Simon & Garfunkel tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVdxd...

Just wanted to let other members know that I have two of my formerly published Weird stories on my website, free to read. Just click on the "Short Fiction" tag near the top. I generally write histfic but still need to scratch the Weird itch now and then!
www.cliffordbeal.com

Perfect for horror week, I have a recently published collection of short stories called Door and other twisted tales. Please have a browse on my Goodreads page where you will also find a trailer, reviews and buy links.
I am thrilled that it is beginning to receive great reviews - think Algernon Blackwood/Stephen King - but I need more reviews.
I have 20 free ARC copies available here if anyone's interested...
https://booksprout.co/arc/21480/door-...
Thanks all, and happy horror week!

That sounds really cool. Of even more possible interest to me is your Sherlock Holmes and the Cult of Cthulhu.

"Why Can't You See Them?"

Officer Brigitte McCray led the small, pale woman into the interrogation room. She pulled out a chair for her at the table, then sat down on the other side. She used a pen to write the woman’s name, Allison Derby, and her address on a notepad. Then, with a blank look on her face, she said, “Tell me again why you’re here.”

“I killed three people and I’m afraid I’ll kill again. You need to arrest me right now,” Allison said.

Read the whole story here: http://jamesgboswell.com/why-cant-you...

Catherine wrote: "Perfect for horror week, I have a recently published collection of short stories called Door and other twisted tales. Please have a browse on my Goodreads page where you will also find a trailer."

Congratulations on the recent publication!

Dan wrote: "Catherine wrote: "Perfect for horror week, I have a recently published collection of short stories called Door and other twisted tales. Please have a browse on my Goodreads page where you will also..."

Thank you Dan. It's beginning to get some great reviews with comparisons to Lovecraft, Blackwood and Stephen King so I'm thrilled.

Great! I enjoyed reading this interview of you by Fiona: https://authorsinterviews.wordpress.c.... I agree that there ought to be a message (at least one) of some sort in anything one writes. Call it a theme if the word "message" frightens due to its didacticism. I don't always have one in mind when I start writing, but I do by the end. I wouldn't know how to direct my rewrite (or second draft) without one. I've had the message question directed to me in the past and fumbled it badly. You just owned it here.

I noticed all your ARC copies have gone, but your book (Door and other twisted tales) is available on Amazon for a more than reasonable $2.99. When my TBR pile diminishes a bit--I'm reading the 17 Vernon Lee stories this month, besides which I've just had three volumes of Howard Wandrei's short stories arrive--I will get to it. I'm very curious about your work.

"Burn: Horror Stories" is a collection of dread-inducing, mind-twisting, existential horror stories inspired by The Twilight Zone and H.P. Lovecraft. It's now available on Amazon for 33 percent off until Nov. 13.

Visit the book's Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XH1FPP1

A man’s wife and business partner believe they killed him as part of an insurance scam, but then he reappears as if nothing happened. Two fugitives take shelter in an abandoned industrial facility, but what they find inside might be more dangerous than what pursues them. A tech guru's lifestyle is immersed in smart technology, but what if it's so smart, it's dangerous? The parents of an out-of-control child will do anything to curb her awful behavior, but at what cost? A woman awakens upside down in a totaled car with no recollection of how she got there. Will she be able to find help, or will something more sinister find her first? These stories and more await you in this collection of existential horror by James G. Boswell.

I don't like to pimp my own books, but for anyone that's curious I also do a free weekly weird fiction review blog called Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein. This week I take a gander at "Red Star/White Snow/Black Metal" by Fiona Maeve Geist.

https://deepcuts.blog/2019/11/09/red-...

Interesting blog. Your Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E. Howard and Others is right up our alley too! On Robert Bloch not being a Conan fan, I get that. If I hadn't been introduced to him as a youngster through Roy Thomas and John Buscema I wonder how much a fan I'd be.

"The Tree of Death" by James G. Boswell

Pedro Oliveira circled a spot on the map that lay unfolded on the table before him. A thin film of sweat shined upon his forehead. Dust motes floated in the light that beamed through the hut’s wooden shutters.

He tapped his pen in the circle as he looked at Isabella Silva and said, “Here’s the place, Professor Silva. The last known location of the Apuelito tribe. It’s a month’s journey from here through the jungle on foot, but you shouldn’t go there. No one should. It’s too dangerous.”

Isabella said, “Thank you, Mr. Oliveira. I appreciate your concern, but I’ve been searching for this lost rainforest tribe for many years. I’m too close now to give up. Besides, I’ve been on a half-dozen expeditions through the jungle, the last two of them by myself. I think I’ll be fine.”

Read the whole story here: http://jamesgboswell.com/2019/10/the-...

Dan wrote: "Interesting blog. Your Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E. Howard and Others is right up our alley too! On Robert Bloch not being a Conan fan, I get that. If I hadn't been introduced ..."
Nice blog, Bobby. I was a huge Howard fan as a teenager but had not reread any for years until I wrote a review piece for SFX magazine on Howard and particularly Solomon Kane. Howard's stuff really has not aged well and the racism is right in your face. That said he probably was not unusual for his times and Lovecraft was pretty blatant about his racism and racial purity fears as well. What was interesting though was how Howard wrote in Kane about an African juju priest who befriends Kane and later appears in several stories with him. Very sympathetic and human portrayal and nothing like Howard's other distasteful stereotypes. Weird.

The deeper you get into REH's stuff, the more complicated the portrayal of race in his work tends to get. While he did deal a good bit in stereotypes, context is important. I had an essay on the subject not long ago, looking at two different stories from Weird Tales and how they addressed race: http://onanunderwood5.blogspot.com/20...

“Things You Shouldn’t See” is a new compilation of existential horror stories with all the dread, paranoia, and cosmic horror you need to keep you up every night.

Learn more here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0812B9J8Z

Hi everybody, I'm not a great one for self promotion, but I need to try!

It would be great if someone other than friends and family would find my little book and maybe even buy it.

It's called 'The Cenotaph of Dreams' and is a small collection of very short and very strange stories. If you are at all interested you can find it at the links below (by the way, I would love to hear opinions/reviews too - please don't be too harsh...!).

Amazon UK:- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prince-Caval...

Amazon USA:- https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Cavallo...

And here it is on Goodreads:- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Thanks,
Prince Cavallo.

"That Feeling When You Know You're Doomed" is now $0.99 on Amazon until Dec. 10.

Learn more here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S3Z6LK8

A woman confesses to killing several people, but no one can see the bodies. An expedition through the jungle to find a lost indigenous tribe leads to a terrifying trial by ordeal. A woman becomes trapped in a wilderness cabin as a flesh-eating mold erodes her sanity. A missile silo launch team receives a dire warning from an alternate reality as they're about to fire their payload. A hiker discovers the source of the terrifying rumors surrounding a mysterious mountain. These stories and more await you in this collection of existential horror by James G. Boswell.

Sign up to receive new book announcements and promotions for books by me, James G. Boswell. I'll never spam you or share your information, and you can opt-out at any time.

Click here to sign up: http://bit.ly/horrorbooksignup

"Deprived: Horror Stories" is $0.99 until Dec. 31.
Learn more here: http://jamesgboswell.com/deprived-hor...

Things You Shouldn't See" is $1.99 through Jan. 1.



Click here to learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0812B9J8Z

Dan wrote: "Great! I enjoyed reading this interview of you by Fiona: https://authorsinterviews.wordpress.c.... I agree that there ought to be a message (..."

Good grief! I'm SO sorry I missed this reply Dan! Please forgive me! I would appreciate that so much.

Hello, my name is Tyler Thompson and my new eco-horror/weird fiction novel "Listener" is now available here...
https://www.amazon.com/Listener-Tyler...

This book was influenced by the gnostic mysticism of Philip K. Dick, the cosmic terrors of H.P. Lovecraft, and the deep world building of Gene Wolfe. Below is the back cover blurb...

WELCOME TO THE WEIRD AND TERRIBLE WORLD OF NESSA PROPER Grazzah Set's in debt and now the Milk Titans are talking transmigration. What's a Shepherd to do? To save his family, Grazzah must embark on a hallucinatory journey into the unknown and free himself from the Beat, an imperceptible thrumming pulse of fear which leashes all to the will of the Archduke Quims Mot. Bear witness as Grazzah encounters a series of horrors, both numinous and obscene, and unwittingly stumbles upon the secret architecture of the Universe. Laced with pitch-black humor, cosmic terror, and Gnostic mysticism, Listener is a work of weird fiction for weird times. All hail the new dread.

There is a lot of talk (not much discussion) about Lovecraft's prejudices. This piece examines the first time someone (amateur journalist Charles D. Isaacson) publicly challenged Lovecraft's beliefs - and how Lovecraft responded.

https://deepcuts.blog/2020/02/05/conc...

Responded in Lovecraft topic here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

NEW RELEASE

"Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of Cthulhu"

Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089CFVHPM



In this tale of mystery and cosmic horror, Sherlock Holmes finds himself kidnapped by his archrival, the evil crime lord, Professor James Moriarty. Seduced by promises of limitless power whispered into his ear in the dead of night, Moriarty intends to sacrifice Holmes and awaken Cthulhu, a malevolent entity of immeasurable power. It’s up to Holmes’s friend, confidant, and biographer Dr. John H. Watson to track him down using powerful methods of deductive reasoning he learned from Holmes himself. Watson’s harrowing journey leads him into the darkest corners of the Amazon and the deepest recesses of his own mind, where he must confront terrors from his past in order to save the future. Will Watson succeed in rescuing Holmes from Moriarty’s clutches? Or will he fail, thus allowing a deadly prophecy of cataclysmic proportions to be fulfilled?

Meanwhile, Irene Adler, adventuress and treasure hunter extraordinaire, and one of the only people to have ever outfoxed Sherlock Holmes, explores an evil sorcerer’s lost tomb, filled with forbidden secrets and dangerous traps. Along with her husband and fellow adventurer, Godfrey Norton, she confronts a long-imprisoned force of evil on her quest to achieve fame and fortune. Will Adler and Norton emerge from the Tomb of Akuyaku alive and in possession of the Amulet of Omniscience and Omnipresence? Or will they become trapped, forever entombed inside a living hell deep within the bowels of the Earth?

Find out the answers to these questions and more in this riveting new novel by Amazon Best-Selling Author, James G. Boswell, now available on Amazon.

Hi, Guys!
My collection, Door and other twisted tales (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...) is available free from Tuesday 2nd June through Saturday 6th.
It has been very well reviewed and has been called, ‘...a cross between H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King.’
I would be so grateful if some of you picked it up!
Thank you,
Catherine McCarthy
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbznF...
Link: mybook.to/doortwistedtales

Catherine wrote: "Hi, Guys!
My collection, Door and other twisted tales (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...) is available free from Tuesday 2nd June through Saturday 6th.
It ..."

I picked up your book for free just now one click at Amazon using the GoodReads link. Amazing! Fun literature to read obtained so easily. Thanks for letting me know about this. Botany Bay just came up for me on a map in a game I was playing twenty minutes ago. Okay, I am off to read the first story in my new collection. Cheers!

Hey, Dan! I'm thrilled you picked it up! I hope you enjoy it. The first and last stories in the collection are kind of book-ended, with the final story dropping further hints as to the mystery behind the Door. You're a connoisseur of the genre, so I'm also kind of nervous. (Sweats)
What was the game were you playing that featured Botany Bay?

I misremembered Botany Bay for Port Botany, which is a part of Sydney, Australia, the southeastern most part actually. Sorry about that. It's in an online game like Risk that involves maps I play in sometimes.

I read "Doors" and must admit to it not being quite my cup of tea. I like best stories with dialog and interpersonal conflict, a protagonist whose goals are clear and an antagonist who is trying to stop the protagonist. These aren't hard and fast rules that can't be broken for good reason. It's just my preference. I do understand that is hard to meet when you have basically only one character (so far).

I also must admit to not being a fan of all the profanity. I tried to count the f-bombs in "Doors," but lost track when I ran out of toes and fingers. I understand the excuse for including it is that the character uses it, but characters also eat meals, eliminate waste, and sleep, and not all instances of this are included. I know Brits tend to use more profanity in their language than Americans, and the Welsh use it more than most Brits (if the series Keeping Faith was an accurate portrayal). I just personally tend to avoid people who can't express themselves any better than to use expletives every other sentence, more because they bore rather than offend me.

The writing is decent. I understand the use of subjectless present tense sentence fragments is a style choice to maybe make the stream of thought more immediate. I like that the editing seems to be well done even if the rulebook is different from what I'm used to, as in when to spell out numbers, spacing for a.m. and p.m., etc. There are some good ideas in the story. I am curious to discover what might be behind the door or even who put it there and why. So I'll go on for a while in hopes of more dialog and interpersonal conflict in subsequent stories.

Door is the only story with profanity, and yes, I used it because of the character's situation, to get the reader inside his head with his OCD's and anxiety. Sorry if I offended you. I hope you'll enjoy some of the other stories. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I do appreciate it.

James wrote: ""Burn: Horror Stories"

THIS is a great cover!

Hello you lovely lot,

Take a trip 20,000 years ago and imagine mammoths in the streets of a golden metropolis. Neanderthals inspiring our memories of Nordic mythological dwarves. A magic system using cymatics. Humanities first and forgotten civilisation, created by the seemingly benevolent Elohim and their chosen immortal human ruler. Ancient cults and sleeping gods, all are ripe to clash in this forgotten epoch of our distant history.

Think Peaky Blinders meets Lord of the Rings.

The God Song

I just woke up to find my book the #3 bestseller in the horror anthology category on Kindle. This is wonderful of course but also I worry that weird fiction as a genre is kind of niche and what if some of the people that ordered it are disappointed.

Oh well, just wanted to share the news with someone. What a day!

Mary wrote: "I just woke up to find my book the #3 bestseller in the horror anthology category on Kindle. This is wonderful of course but also I worry that weird fiction as a genre is kind of niche and what if ..."

That is amazing! And so well-deserved! Congratulations :)