HIGHWAY TO HELL

Book launch! Book tour! UK editions! Plus a new chapbook!

I’ve been a bad substacker, forgive me. It’s been a month since my last confession…

My excuse? I’ve been deeeeep in revisions of my next novel MR. LONELYHEARTS. Can I just say it’s felt good to get lost in a book again? As in, rewriting one? Sometimes it feels awful, then good, then awful again… but I felt myself having fun in Revision Land and it got hard to think of anything else. Forgive me.

I pressed send on the latest draft, and in the interim between me getting that last round of feedback back (feedback-back?) from my editor, I started… well, I started writing something else. Something nobody is really asking me for. That nobody wants. It may never end up seeing the light of day, but it was stuck in my chest and I needed to release it. It’s dark. And personal. And, well… almost out. We’ll see.

So. Now that that’s all out of my system, apologies out of the way… I have a deluuuuge of news I want/need to share. Forgive me for the info dump here, but it’s been a bit.

I’m backlogged. Time to release. Here goes…

BOOK LAUNCH

I’m so excited, and rully rully terrified, to invite you all DEVIL INSIDE’s book launch at The Strand Bookstore. I’ve spoken on panels and been other authors’ conversation partner at The Strand… but this is my very first official solo launch. So… I’m bringing out the big guns: Rachel Harrison (PLAY NICE) and Nat Cassidy (WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOME) will be joining me onstage to chat about all things evil-y lovey dovey.

I need you there. Like, for reals. Pretty please? Oh — you gotta register online here.

BOOK TOUR

I’m going everywhere to promote this gosh darn book…

And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERRRRRYWHEEEEERE.

Three months. Eighteen stops (and more counting). Thirteen states. One author, one horrormance novel… and zero sleep. If I’m anywhere near you, PLEASE join me.

DEVIL INSIDE UK EDITION

Titan Books is bringing DEVIL INSIDE to the UK and it’s got its own gorgeous cover! I love it. You can preorder your own copy here here heeeere.

TWISTED SPINE’S SMOOCHY PREORDER CAMPAIGN

Speeeeaking of preorders, here’s something vury vury special that I’m doing in partnership with The Twisted Spine bookshop:

Come on… you know you want to. I’ll pick out a special color, just for you. Preorder your vury vury own copy from The Twisted Spine here.

BLURBY BLURB BLURBS

CHECK OUT THAT BEAUTIFUL BLURB FROM KYLIE LEE BAKER! Such an honor to have her seal of approval on this one… I’m such a fan of BAT EATER, and I’m dying to read her new novel JAPANESE GOTHIC that comes out TODAY!

NEW CHAPBOOK: SOFT FLOTSAM, TENDER JETSAM

Sooooo in some totally non-DEVIL INSIDE news, I have something vury vury special to share: I have a BRAND NEW chapbook! This short story—“soft flotsam, tender jetsam”—is a pretty intense piece of grief horror. I’m warning you: it goes there.

The absurdly gorgeous artwork is by the obscenely talent Chris Panatier. From Rapture Publishing! This is an extremely limited print run of 250 copies, with less than fifty still available. You can order yours here.

BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR: VOL 18

This just got announce today so I’m totally over the moon that I can finally talk about it… My short story “backsliding,” which originally appeared in The Black Crow Book of Best New Horror: Vol. 1 has been selected for THE BEST NEW HORROR OF THE YEAR, VOL 18, edited by Ellen Datlow!

That’s huge! I’ve wanted to have a story make the annual Best Horror anthology foreeeeever, so to finally have a piece of mine make it… I mean, it’s a total dream come true. And check out that table of contents! It’s stunning. Can’t wait to see the cover.

SELF CONSCIOUS CORNER

Okay… so, as I mentioned above, I’m working on something new-ish that has no home. There’s no plan, no destination, no nothing really. I don’t even know what it is yet, to be completely honest, only that it’s a story I have to tell. It’s clocking in just north of 20k words at the moment, and I don’t know if it’ll need to be much longer.

There’s something scary about… well, about just writing something. I’ve had the good fortune to be able to pitch projects, even sell them, during the writing process. Most novels tend to be a part of book deal these days—which, I mean, wild—but the publisher always has an idea of what they’re buying beforehand. I’ll write up a treatment, maybe even put together a few sample chapters… but the idea is there.

Here, now, with this… I’m just writing something to write something, telling a story that I want to tell, and with that, there are certain guardrails missing. I don’t know what’s going to happen to it, if anything. All I know is… I needed to get it out. It’s an intensely personal story (though most people probably won’t ever realize that), and it’s rattling some personal skeletons in my closet, and… and… well, I just don’t know.

Maybe there is no home for this story. Maybe it doesn’t need one. Maybe it’s just for me. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

BOOKS I LOVE

ARSON BY DESIGN by Tyler Jones

I literally just finished this book and goddamn does it fill me with such joy. I have to blurb it and I’m speechless. I just don’t know what to say. Tyler Jones is the future.

CRONE by Keith Rosson

And GODDAMN this was the book I read before Tyler’s… I can’t hide the fact that I’m an absolute FAN of Keith Rosson. The guy’s career is on a stratospheric rise and I just want to watch him reach the stars. I loved this book so much. Maybe my favorite?

THE HOUSE THAT EATS THE DEAD by Max Doty

I LOVE SENTIENT HAUNTED HOUSE NOVELS AND MAX DOTY DID NOT LET ME DOWN. I loved it. So much fun. Get it. Now.

LOVE NEVER DIES: ROMANCE IN HORROR MOVIES by Emma Cole

So Emma was my editor for DEVIL INSIDE, so I may be biased… BUT SO WHAT? THIS BOOK ROCKS. You want to do a deep dive on lovey-dovey horror movies? This is the book for you. It’s a perfect companion to Emily Hughes’ HORROR FOR WEENIES. There’s just so much terrain covered here, for bona fide horror purists and those romancers who might want to get a little down and dirty (and blood red).

Aaaaaaaand that’s it. That’s all I’ve got this month. StokerCon is next week, and I’ll be there, doing the panels and readings and signings and everything. ACQUIRED TASTE and SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE are both up for Stokers, so I’m going to be anxious the whole goddamn time. I shouldn’t focus on it, but I’m weak-willed and anxious and that’s where my head is going to be. Up my ass. All weekend.

Hope you’re doing well… and hope to see you on the road. Soon, yeah?

Take care,
CMC