voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMarch 8, 2015 - 2:15pm
They're some very cool blurbs, Richard :)
Class Director
Rob
from New York City is reading at a fast enough pace it would be cumbersome to update thisMarch 10, 2015 - 8:38am
Hey everyone—just wanted to drop a line to pass out some links to New Yorked. We're getting a really strong reaction from bookstores and racking up the pre-orders, so I'm hoping to keep the momentum going.
You can learn more about the book at my website, too. The blurb game has been strong, and I love what everyone has had to say. Here's the latest:
“…the literary version of The Warriors.” —Lyndsay Faye, author of The Gods of Gotham
What Lyndsay didn't know is that The Warriors was one of my inspirations. I love that movie to death.
Keep an eye out—next week, in my Path to Publication column, I'll have some very cool stuff to announce, including a galley lending library that's going to be a good bit of fun...
NikKorpon
from Baltimore is reading Book and books and books andMarch 13, 2015 - 5:33am
I don't have anything to whore but wanted to put you on notice, Rob and Richard, that when you become famous I will be hitting you up for money and blurbs. But mostly money.
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMarch 13, 2015 - 2:26pm
"Warriors, come out and play."
That blub's got me totally intrigued :)
mcvaughn
from Shelbyville, Kentucky is reading Vinyl Destination from Adam MillardMarch 14, 2015 - 9:09am
Hey everybody! I have a novella out through Bizarro Pulp Press called The ADHD Vampire! If you like slasher and satire, sex and gore, then you might like this book! Here is a couple of nice things said about it.
"Matthew Vaughn masterfully weaves comedy and horror in this tale of a vampire sucking the life from a bunch of geriatric swingers on a cruise ship that ends up quickly heading south." - William Pauley III, author of Hearers of the Constant Hum
"Brilliant, crude, and often hilarious. A triumph of a debut!" - Adam Millard, author of Hamsterdamned! and The Human Santapede
Jack Campbell Jr.
from Lawrence, KS is reading American Rust by Phillipp MeyerMarch 16, 2015 - 5:22am
Rejected, an anthology of short stories that have been rejected from at least one market is out for Kindle from ACA Books. Print-on-demand should be available within the next couple of days. My short story "A Simple Device" is in there with 37 other stories. The first amazon review says that my story is "a fine example of what a short story should be, simple, to the point, but with an interesting plot twist at the end."
Devon Robbins
from Utah is reading The Least Of My Scars by Stephen Graham JonesMarch 16, 2015 - 7:05pm
NEEDLE.. FUCK YEAH
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesMarch 19, 2015 - 10:09pm
nice job everyone. hell yes.
Jack Campbell Jr.
from Lawrence, KS is reading American Rust by Phillipp MeyerMarch 25, 2015 - 2:08pm
My short story collection, All Manner of Dark Things, is now available for pre-order on Kindle. The full release is April 7th. The print edition should be out around the same time. I am enrolled in Kindle Select and Kindle Matchstick. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V5IE0A2
MattF
from Tokyo is reading Borges' Collected FictionsMarch 27, 2015 - 6:04am
Gargoyle 62 is out now with a short story of mine in it.
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMarch 27, 2015 - 9:21am
Choose Wisely: 35 Women Up To No Good is a feminist anthology of dark fiction, co-edited by H. L. Nelson and Joanne Merriam. Containing 35 stories of “bad” women, and “good” women who just haven’t been caught yet.
Table of Contents:
Janet Shell Anderson, “Every Purpose Under Heaven”
Sidney Archer, “Woman Enough”
Alisha M. Attella, “Rise”
Gwen Beatty, “Angel Thinks She Will Die Very Soon”
Aimee Bender, “Broke”
Tina Connolly, “Hard Choices”
Diane Cook, “Moving On”
Kathy Fish, “The Hollow”
Amina Gautier, “A Cup of My Time”
Amelia Gray and Lindsay Hunter, “Sisters”
Tina May Hall, “Vampire”
Rebecca Jones-Howe, “Better Places”
Andrea Kneeland, “Imagination”
Molly Laich, “Kristen Doesn’t Like Surprise Parties”
Heather Lindsley, “The Angel of Death Has a Business Plan”
Holly Lopez, “The Head”
Kelly Luce, “Rooey”
Mesha Maren, “Eminent Domain”
Jessica McHugh, “In the Silt”
Mary Miller, “This Boy I Loved a Rock”
Ellen Birkett Morris, “After the Fall”
Joyce Carol Oates, “Spotted Hyenas: A Romance”
Jennifer Pelland, “The Kennel Club”
Cat Rambo, “Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut”
Joani Reese, “Good Neighbors”
Marytza K. Rubio, “Clap If You Believe”
Nisi Shawl, “Looking for Lilith”
Quill Shiv, “The Bitter Sea”
Emily Slaney, “Bear Traps”
Amber Sparks, “We Dressed Up Like Other People”
Rachel Swirsky, “The Sea of Trees”
Meg Tuite, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”
Damien Angelica Walters, “Girl, With Coin”
xTx, “Today I Am A Wife”
Bonnie ZoBell, “Tricking the Moon”
So excited to be a part of this! It's not out officially until the 31st March but for some reason you can get the print copy early from Amazon now :)
fortunewookie
March 27, 2015 - 10:28am
Big fan of a few names in that anthology. Good job. Congrats.
TheScrivener
from Seattle is reading short stories March 27, 2015 - 10:54am
Emily--awesome! I remember Bear Traps---good stuff!
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMarch 27, 2015 - 2:00pm
Thanks, guys :)
Angel Colón
from The Bronx now living in New Jersey is reading A Big Ol' Pile of BooksMarch 27, 2015 - 7:23pm
Em! Bad ass, I loved Bear Traps. Totally picking that antho up. Awesome TOC.
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMarch 28, 2015 - 2:27pm
Thanks, Angel :)
Wendy Hammer
from Indiana is reading One Night in SixesMarch 28, 2015 - 9:33pm
Awesome, em! That's a sweet TOC.
Tucson
from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. CoetzeeMarch 30, 2015 - 1:57am
I don't know whether this is the right thread for this, but I'm thinking of joining a class here. And I wanted to know where my English writing skills are at? Are they good enough to join or should I do some extra schooling on it (I'm not a native speaker).
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMarch 30, 2015 - 1:46pm
Thanks, Wendy :)
Vonnegut Check
from Baltimore
March 30, 2015 - 4:41pm
So excited to be a part of this!
I bet, Emily. That's rad. JCO? On second thought, "rad" might be an understatement.
I don't know whether this is the right thread for this, but I'm thinking of joining a class here. And I wanted to know where my English writing skills are at? Are they good enough to join or should I do some extra schooling on it (I'm not a native speaker).
Your writing looks solid, my man. For real. Take a class. I think Gutter Opera with Foy looks highly interesting, but admittedly I haven't taken it. And if you haven't already, the essays on this site are helpful, especially the ones that come with the premium membership. Read 'em up.
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMarch 31, 2015 - 1:10pm
Thanks, Ryan :)
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesMarch 31, 2015 - 2:37pm
All of the BLURBS are in for Disintegration. Pre-order it at AMAZON and/or add it to your "to-read" shelf at Goodreads. Thanks for the support!
“A dark existential thriller of unexpected twists, featuring a drowning man determined to pull the rest of the world under with him. A stunning and vital piece of work.” —Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting and Filth
“Sweet hot hell, Richard Thomas writes like a man possessed, a man on fire, a guy with a gun to his head. And you’ll read Disintegration like there’s a gun to yours, too. A twisted masterpiece.” —Chuck Wendig, author of Blackbirds and Double Dead
“This novel is so hard-hitting it should come with its own ice-pack. Richard Thomas is the wild child of Raymond Chandler and Chuck Palahniuk, a neo-noirist who brings to life a gritty, shadow-soaked, bullet-pocked Chicago as the stage for this compulsively readable crime drama.” —Benjamin Percy, author of The Dead Lands, Red Moon, and The Wilding
“Thomas builds his universe and its population with terse prose and dynamic, often horrifyingly visceral imagery that unspools with grand weirdness and intensity. Then he rips that universe apart, brick by bloody brick. Disintegration is provocative. It’s also damned fine noir.” —Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and The Croning
“A sodden, stumbling anti-hero in a noir so dark it makes much of the rest of the genre seem like Disney movies by comparison. Gritty, obsessive, and compulsively readable.” —Brian Evenson, author of Immobility and Windeye
“Disintegration is gritty neo-noir; a psycho-sexual descent into an unhinged psyche and an underworld Chicago that could very well stand in for one of the rings of Dante's Hell. Richard Thomas' depraved-doomed-philosopher hitman is your guide. I suggest you do as he says and follow him, if you know what's good for you.” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Little Sleep
Pear Drop
April 3, 2015 - 9:50am
Just launched a new online art & literature journal - Pear Drop. A UK/US collaboration. Seeking submissions for our next issue in May. www.peardrop.net
If you have time please check it out, thanks.
Nathan
from Louisiana (South of New Orleans) is reading Re-reading The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste, The Bone Weaver's Orchard by Sarah ReadApril 3, 2015 - 8:34pm
SoHLV2 features my story “Dog Killer,” which placed among the Top 5 Winners and Finalists of the Writer’s Digest 8th annual Popular Fiction Awards for the Crime category.
“Dog Killer” and SoHLV2 are available in paperback and e-editions through Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, and Kobo—All editions are linked from the Charon Coin Press website here.
Thanks to everyone for the support over these past couple of years!!
Jack Campbell Jr.
from Lawrence, KS is reading American Rust by Phillipp MeyerApril 7, 2015 - 9:28am
My collection All Manner of Dark Things: Collected Bits and Pieces went live today. The e-book is exclusive to Amazon. The print edition is available through Amazon, Createspace, and anywhere else Bottle Cap Publishing can get to sell it. If any of you gave me feedback on "A Burial," "My Brother's Keeper," or "The Polka Man" in the workshop, all three are in there. "A Burial" is in the lead-off position and will be published by Page and Spine on the 10th, along with the book info.
Murasaki_Ducky
from Austin is reading StardustApril 7, 2015 - 3:01pm
Faith, Sub-culture, and musings.
@ violetisthenewblack.wordpress.com.
Thanks all!
mickey
from Virginia is reading The Story of OApril 8, 2015 - 2:30pm
The Gifted series is finished!
The Gifted, four full-length novels that tell the story of a great power created to help the people of Luxatra fight to stay free and to right a grave injustice. Follow this group of unexpected heroes on an adventure filled with mystery, battles, and magic as they seek to know what only the entities of power understand.
Thuggish
from Vegas is reading Day of the JackalApril 8, 2015 - 5:47pm
Damn, there are some intriguing works in here lately...
Jack Campbell Jr.
from Lawrence, KS is reading American Rust by Phillipp MeyerApril 13, 2015 - 9:15am
My story "A Burial" is up at Page and Spine. I workshopped it here. They bought it several months ago, but decided to hold off publication so that they could post it on the same week as my book release.
Do you like to laugh but seem to laugh an inappropriate things and times?
When you play Cards Against Humanity with your closest friends do you come up with the answers that make other people get really quiet?
Would you like to read something that’s so evil it only could’ve been written by the devil after binging on crack cocaine for a full week and a half?
If you said yes to any or all of these questions, then today is your lucky day because this fine tomb which was painstakingly crafted from the bones of lonely orphans can be yours for the meager sum of only 99 cents.
Support a writer trying to raise revenue to fund their real work. Do it. It’s 99 cents and it’ll be the hardest you’ve laughed in years.
Follow the link below to get access to the only E-book the 4CHAN-centered, hacker super group ANONYMOUS calls “modern poetry” and “weapons grade autism”. Download the free sample and if you like it, there’s more where that came from. Volume II coming soon.
WARNING: this e-book contains adult humor not suitable for children, the weak of heart, expectant mothers, selfie-stick owners, or those not wanting to be turned away from the gates of heaven.
They could be your relatives, your neighbors, your pastors, your high school sweethearts or even your own nasty grandmother. If you truly have no scruples whatsoever, then prepare for an onslaught of honesty and malice that will have you cackling like the embodiment of evil you truly are.
And if you needed an added incentive to buy, not a dime of the profits from this book will go towards aiding children in need. In fact, all proceeds for the sale of this book will go where it's needed most: the G-strings of strippers, the guy i buy drugs from and the costly upkeep of providing that glassy-eyed mother of yours in herpes medication. check'em.
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesMay 5, 2015 - 1:18pm
Part of the TOC is set for CHIRAL MAD 3, and it looks great. My 6,000-word story, "The Offering on the Hill" is in here. Who else?:
"The latest update on CHIRAL MAD 3 includes new artwork by Glenn Chadbourne, as well as the latest fiction acceptances: Stephen King, Richard Thomas, Mercedes Murdock Yardley, and Jason V Brock, as well as the final poetry acceptances: Sydney Leigh, P. Gardner Goldsmith (El G Grande), Jonathan Balog, Rose Blackthorn, and Ciarán Parkes. 12 stories are yet to be filled...
Also mentions previously accepted fiction by Gene O'Neill, Ramsey Campbell, Jessica May Lin, Paul Michael Anderson, and poetry by Erik T. Johnson, Elizabeth Massie, Marge Simon, Stephanie M. Wytovich, and Bruce Boston."
Also, check out the ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATION by Glenn Chadbourne for my story. He's done work for King before, doesn't it give you a Dark Tower vibe?
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMay 5, 2015 - 1:38pm
You and Stephen King again, eh? Getting to be a bit of a habit isn't it :P
Congrats!
fortunewookie
May 6, 2015 - 5:42am
That's a solid pub. Love what that company is doing. Would be so awesome to pub with them. Great illustration too. Congrats Richard
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesMay 6, 2015 - 7:35am
Thanks, guys. Yeah, keep an eye on Written Backwards and Michael Bailey. There may still be an open call. I've been SO LUCKY to get alongside King four times now—Shivers VI, Qualia Nous, Cemetery Dance #72, and now Chiral Mad 3. Right place, right time.
Brandon
from KCMO is reading Made to BreakMay 10, 2015 - 3:07pm
“Sacrilegious is one word that comes to mind. Transgressive is another. This novel carries a lot of heat, mixed with epiphanies, regret, and disgust. But it is not without humor—the harsh truth lying just beneath the punch lines that coat the scarred surface. A strong voice that always entertains and never disappoints, GSGP is a wild ride, from start to finish.”
More blurbs, reviews, and the official synopsis can be found HERE on my site.
After May, the price goes back up to over $4...so act now. Thanks to all in advance.
-BT
Liam Hogan
from Earth is reading Hugo NominationsMay 11, 2015 - 12:58pm
Any Litreactors in LA?
I'm a finalist for Sci-Fest LA Roswell Award, at the award ceremony on the 24th May they'll be reading all 6 short stories by actors from the SF world (star trek, star gate, agents of sta.. erm, shield). Should be a fun night, alas, there's an ocean in the way, so I can't be there myself but I'd be most intrigued to hear back from anyone who goes!
http://www.sci-fest.com/#!the-roswell-award/cif2
Kind regards,
Liam
Class Director
Rob
from New York City is reading at a fast enough pace it would be cumbersome to update thisMay 14, 2015 - 12:19pm
Minor spoiler for my first novel, New Yorked: The protagonist carries a weaponized umbrella.
So my publisher, being awesome, went and made custom umbrellas.
How cool is that?!
I'll be giving a few of these away. First up is through Goodreads. All you have to do to enter is put New Yorked on your 'want to read' shelf.
On June 8, the day before publication date, we'll choose one person at random off that list to receive an umbrella and a free copy of the book.
Tucson
from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. CoetzeeMay 23, 2015 - 10:25am
Looks very interesting. Cheers.
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesMay 26, 2015 - 7:33am
DISINTEGRATION IS OUT TODAY!
I can't even believe Disintegrationis finally here, six years in the making. I started this in my MFA program back in 2009, writing the first half with my professor Lynn Pruett, who knew nothing about neo-noir. After I gave her copies of work by Will Christopher Baer and Craig Clevenger, she got what I was going for, and was extremely supportive. When I got to Dale Ray Phillips, who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he said it might not be thesis material, which means—not good enough. I put it aside to work on literary short stories with him, and it was worth the wait. A year and a half later, I had a week between gigs and wrote the second half, 40,000-words in five days, my fingers bruised, my arms aching, practically in tears when I stopped, feeling like I might throw up. That began the year search for a small press, where it was rejected 20, 30, 40 times. Running out of options, I decided to try and get an agent, and over 100 rejections later, Paula Munier at Talctott Notch called me, only 100 pages in, to say she loved it and wanted to sign me. I said finish the book, it's kind of dark. She did, and she signed me, and we went after the big six and their imprints. So many close calls, coming down to board votes in some cases, and then we got the offer from Random House Alibi. I knew we were taking a chance on this eBook only imprint, but it has been a fantastic experience, my editor there, Dana Isaacson, so supportive, helping to make this book so much better. A team of three copy editors, and four marketing/PR associates, gave me more support than I've ever gotten. Now, the day is here. I hope you enjoy the book, this neo-noir, transgressive thriller that is the first book in the Windy City Dark Mystery Series. It's kind of Dexter meets Falling Down. The second book, The Breaker, is also set in Chicago, with a different protagonist (out in late 2015, or early 2016). It's more like what Stephen King did with small town Maine novels than the F. Paul Wilson series, and his Repairman Jack.
“A dark existential thriller of unexpected twists, featuring a drowning man determined to pull the rest of the world under with him. A stunning and vital piece of work.” —Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting and Filth
“Sweet hot hell, Richard Thomas writes like a man possessed, a man on fire, a guy with a gun to his head. And you’ll read Disintegration like there’s a gun to yours, too. A twisted masterpiece.” —Chuck Wendig, author of Blackbirds and Double Dead
“This novel is so hard-hitting it should come with its own ice-pack. Richard Thomas is the wild child of Raymond Chandler and Chuck Palahniuk, a neo-noirist who brings to life a gritty, shadow-soaked, bullet-pocked Chicago as the stage for this compulsively readable crime drama.” —Benjamin Percy, author of The Dead Lands, Red Moon, and The Wilding
“Thomas builds his universe and its population with terse prose and dynamic, often horrifyingly visceral imagery that unspools with grand weirdness and intensity. Then he rips that universe apart, brick by bloody brick. Disintegration is provocative. It’s also damned fine noir.” —Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and The Croning
“A sodden, stumbling anti-hero in a noir so dark it makes much of the rest of the genre seem like Disney movies by comparison. Gritty, obsessive, and compulsively readable.” —Brian Evenson, author of Immobility and Windeye
“Disintegration is gritty neo-noir; a psycho-sexual descent into an unhinged psyche and an underworld Chicago that could very well stand in for one of the rings of Dante's Hell. Richard Thomas' depraved-doomed-philosopher hitman is your guide. I suggest you do as he says and follow him, if you know what's good for you.” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Little Sleep
“In sharp, icy prose that cuts like a glacial wind, Richard Thomas’ dark Chicago tale keeps us absolutely riveted to the very end.” —Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMay 27, 2015 - 2:17am
Awesome, Richard :)
MattF
from Tokyo is reading Borges' Collected FictionsMay 27, 2015 - 3:27am
Congratulations Richard! Looking forward to reading it. That is a heavy weight line-up of blurbage. Also really enjoyed hearing the story behind it.
On a business-side question, curious how the eBook only imprint is going to shape your promoting. It's something I hadn't considered before, but it kind of changes the scenarios of the classic bookshop reading tour. Will you be forgoing that approach, or have you come up with some novel way to get face time with readers?
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesMay 27, 2015 - 7:35pm
Thanks, Voodoo.
Thanks, Matt. Yeah, it does change a few things. Typically, book tours LOSE money unless you're Palahniuk or King. It's a lot of time for really poor turnout. SO, we're doing a blog tour, a stop a day for a month. We do a lot of other things, FB/Twitter, got a lot of early reviews on Goodreads/Amazon, and I'm talking to local media about TV, newspaper, etc. I'm also teaching and a part of conferences all summer in Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Oshkosh, West Bend, University of Iowa and Transylvania. That's gotten me in front of a variety of groups from 22, to 40, to 150, to 1,500, etc. Trying out a lot of different things to see what works.
I've gotten as high as into the #8,000s for Kindle, and top #50 in several subcategories, such as Thriller>Hardboiled and Mystery>Assassins, etc.
Dylan.Taylor
from Peterborough, Ontario is reading until I see double.May 30, 2015 - 4:31pm
Hey all,
The fine folks at Blotterature Literary Magazine are publishing my short story Virginia, 1998 in their July 25 issue. This is my first publication so I'm pretty exited. Getting published was hard. I'm feeling really lucky placing this piece at Blotterature!
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesMay 31, 2015 - 9:44am
Got to hang with Chuck Palahniuk and Irvine Welsh last night. Had a BLAST. So much fun. After the reading, I was lucky enough to be included in a private room discussion where I sat between Chuck and Irving, talking about craft, the industry, Hollywood, his upcoming work, etc. Wow. Hell of a night.
Tucson
from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. CoetzeeMay 31, 2015 - 10:42pm
They're some very cool blurbs, Richard :)
Hey everyone—just wanted to drop a line to pass out some links to New Yorked. We're getting a really strong reaction from bookstores and racking up the pre-orders, so I'm hoping to keep the momentum going.
You can currently pre-order from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Powell's. And you can add it on Goodreads.
You can learn more about the book at my website, too. The blurb game has been strong, and I love what everyone has had to say. Here's the latest:
“…the literary version of The Warriors.” —Lyndsay Faye, author of The Gods of Gotham
What Lyndsay didn't know is that The Warriors was one of my inspirations. I love that movie to death.
Keep an eye out—next week, in my Path to Publication column, I'll have some very cool stuff to announce, including a galley lending library that's going to be a good bit of fun...
I don't have anything to whore but wanted to put you on notice, Rob and Richard, that when you become famous I will be hitting you up for money and blurbs. But mostly money.
"Warriors, come out and play."
That blub's got me totally intrigued :)
Hey everybody! I have a novella out through Bizarro Pulp Press called The ADHD Vampire! If you like slasher and satire, sex and gore, then you might like this book! Here is a couple of nice things said about it.
"Matthew Vaughn masterfully weaves comedy and horror in this tale of a vampire sucking the life from a bunch of geriatric swingers on a cruise ship that ends up quickly heading south." - William Pauley III, author of Hearers of the Constant Hum
"Brilliant, crude, and often hilarious. A triumph of a debut!" - Adam Millard, author of Hamsterdamned! and The Human Santapede
http://www.amazon.com/ADHD-Vampire-Matthew-Vaughn/dp/1940161983/ref=sr_1...
Probably a bit late, but I had a story published in the Winter 2014-15 edition of Needle: A Magazine of Noir, published by the estimable Steve Weddle.
Needle: A Magazine of Noir
Rejected, an anthology of short stories that have been rejected from at least one market is out for Kindle from ACA Books. Print-on-demand should be available within the next couple of days. My short story "A Simple Device" is in there with 37 other stories. The first amazon review says that my story is "a fine example of what a short story should be, simple, to the point, but with an interesting plot twist at the end."
http://www.amazon.com/Rejected-Jo-Anne-Russell-ebook/dp/B00UARXUUU/ref=s...
NEEDLE.. FUCK YEAH
nice job everyone. hell yes.
My short story collection, All Manner of Dark Things, is now available for pre-order on Kindle. The full release is April 7th. The print edition should be out around the same time. I am enrolled in Kindle Select and Kindle Matchstick. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V5IE0A2
Gargoyle 62 is out now with a short story of mine in it.
Choose Wisely: 35 Women Up To No Good is a feminist anthology of dark fiction, co-edited by H. L. Nelson and Joanne Merriam. Containing 35 stories of “bad” women, and “good” women who just haven’t been caught yet.
Table of Contents:
Janet Shell Anderson, “Every Purpose Under Heaven”
Sidney Archer, “Woman Enough”
Alisha M. Attella, “Rise”
Gwen Beatty, “Angel Thinks She Will Die Very Soon”
Aimee Bender, “Broke”
Tina Connolly, “Hard Choices”
Diane Cook, “Moving On”
Kathy Fish, “The Hollow”
Amina Gautier, “A Cup of My Time”
Amelia Gray and Lindsay Hunter, “Sisters”
Tina May Hall, “Vampire”
Rebecca Jones-Howe, “Better Places”
Andrea Kneeland, “Imagination”
Molly Laich, “Kristen Doesn’t Like Surprise Parties”
Heather Lindsley, “The Angel of Death Has a Business Plan”
Holly Lopez, “The Head”
Kelly Luce, “Rooey”
Mesha Maren, “Eminent Domain”
Jessica McHugh, “In the Silt”
Mary Miller, “This Boy I Loved a Rock”
Ellen Birkett Morris, “After the Fall”
Joyce Carol Oates, “Spotted Hyenas: A Romance”
Jennifer Pelland, “The Kennel Club”
Cat Rambo, “Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut”
Joani Reese, “Good Neighbors”
Marytza K. Rubio, “Clap If You Believe”
Nisi Shawl, “Looking for Lilith”
Quill Shiv, “The Bitter Sea”
Emily Slaney, “Bear Traps”
Amber Sparks, “We Dressed Up Like Other People”
Rachel Swirsky, “The Sea of Trees”
Meg Tuite, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”
Damien Angelica Walters, “Girl, With Coin”
xTx, “Today I Am A Wife”
Bonnie ZoBell, “Tricking the Moon”
So excited to be a part of this! It's not out officially until the 31st March but for some reason you can get the print copy early from Amazon now :)
Big fan of a few names in that anthology. Good job. Congrats.
Emily--awesome! I remember Bear Traps---good stuff!
Thanks, guys :)
Em! Bad ass, I loved Bear Traps. Totally picking that antho up. Awesome TOC.
Thanks, Angel :)
Awesome, em! That's a sweet TOC.
I don't know whether this is the right thread for this, but I'm thinking of joining a class here. And I wanted to know where my English writing skills are at? Are they good enough to join or should I do some extra schooling on it (I'm not a native speaker).
Here's a 500 word example:
http://densmaterial.blogspot.be/2015/02/the-baby.html
Thanks, Wendy :)
I bet, Emily. That's rad. JCO? On second thought, "rad" might be an understatement.
Your writing looks solid, my man. For real. Take a class. I think Gutter Opera with Foy looks highly interesting, but admittedly I haven't taken it. And if you haven't already, the essays on this site are helpful, especially the ones that come with the premium membership. Read 'em up.
Thanks, Ryan :)
All of the BLURBS are in for Disintegration. Pre-order it at AMAZON and/or add it to your "to-read" shelf at Goodreads. Thanks for the support!
“A dark existential thriller of unexpected twists, featuring a drowning man determined to pull the rest of the world under with him. A stunning and vital piece of work.”
—Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting and Filth
“Sweet hot hell, Richard Thomas writes like a man possessed, a man on fire, a guy with a gun to his head. And you’ll read Disintegration like there’s a gun to yours, too. A twisted masterpiece.”
—Chuck Wendig, author of Blackbirds and Double Dead
“This novel is so hard-hitting it should come with its own ice-pack. Richard Thomas is the wild child of Raymond Chandler and Chuck Palahniuk, a neo-noirist who brings to life a gritty, shadow-soaked, bullet-pocked Chicago as the stage for this compulsively readable crime drama.”
—Benjamin Percy, author of The Dead Lands, Red Moon, and The Wilding
“Thomas builds his universe and its population with terse prose and dynamic, often horrifyingly visceral imagery that unspools with grand weirdness and intensity. Then he rips that universe apart, brick by bloody brick. Disintegration is provocative. It’s also damned fine noir.”
—Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and The Croning
“A sodden, stumbling anti-hero in a noir so dark it makes much of the rest of the genre seem like Disney movies by comparison. Gritty, obsessive, and compulsively readable.”
—Brian Evenson, author of Immobility and Windeye
“Disintegration is gritty neo-noir; a psycho-sexual descent into an unhinged psyche and an underworld Chicago that could very well stand in for one of the rings of Dante's Hell. Richard Thomas' depraved-doomed-philosopher hitman is your guide. I suggest you do as he says and follow him, if you know what's good for you.”
—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Little Sleep
Just launched a new online art & literature journal - Pear Drop. A UK/US collaboration. Seeking submissions for our next issue in May. www.peardrop.net
If you have time please check it out, thanks.
State of Horror: Louisiana Volume II was released this week!
SoHLV2 features my story “Dog Killer,” which placed among the Top 5 Winners and Finalists of the Writer’s Digest 8th annual Popular Fiction Awards for the Crime category.
“Dog Killer” is also the prequel to my story “Wakey Wake”—featured in Thuglit Issue #3, and the follow-up to “Roland The Conqueror”—which is featured over at DarkMedia.
“Dog Killer” and SoHLV2 are available in paperback and e-editions through Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, and Kobo—All editions are linked from the Charon Coin Press website here.
Thanks to everyone for the support over these past couple of years!!
My collection All Manner of Dark Things: Collected Bits and Pieces went live today. The e-book is exclusive to Amazon. The print edition is available through Amazon, Createspace, and anywhere else Bottle Cap Publishing can get to sell it. If any of you gave me feedback on "A Burial," "My Brother's Keeper," or "The Polka Man" in the workshop, all three are in there. "A Burial" is in the lead-off position and will be published by Page and Spine on the 10th, along with the book info.
I've got a Goodreads giveaway going for the book, as well.
The book trailer is below:
Faith, Sub-culture, and musings.
@ violetisthenewblack.wordpress.com.
Thanks all!
The Gifted series is finished!
The Gifted, four full-length novels that tell the story of a great power created to help the people of Luxatra fight to stay free and to right a grave injustice. Follow this group of unexpected heroes on an adventure filled with mystery, battles, and magic as they seek to know what only the entities of power understand.
Available on Amazon.
Damn, there are some intriguing works in here lately...
My story "A Burial" is up at Page and Spine. I workshopped it here. They bought it several months ago, but decided to hold off publication so that they could post it on the same week as my book release.
http://www.pagespineficshowcase.com/story.html
Hey You!
Are you a terrible person?
Do you like to laugh but seem to laugh an inappropriate things and times?
When you play Cards Against Humanity with your closest friends do you come up with the answers that make other people get really quiet?
Would you like to read something that’s so evil it only could’ve been written by the devil after binging on crack cocaine for a full week and a half?
If you said yes to any or all of these questions, then today is your lucky day because this fine tomb which was painstakingly crafted from the bones of lonely orphans can be yours for the meager sum of only 99 cents.
Support a writer trying to raise revenue to fund their real work. Do it. It’s 99 cents and it’ll be the hardest you’ve laughed in years.
Follow the link below to get access to the only E-book the 4CHAN-centered, hacker super group ANONYMOUS calls “modern poetry” and “weapons grade autism”. Download the free sample and if you like it, there’s more where that came from. Volume II coming soon.
WARNING: this e-book contains adult humor not suitable for children, the weak of heart, expectant mothers, selfie-stick owners, or those not wanting to be turned away from the gates of heaven.
They could be your relatives, your neighbors, your pastors, your high school sweethearts or even your own nasty grandmother. If you truly have no scruples whatsoever, then prepare for an onslaught of honesty and malice that will have you cackling like the embodiment of evil you truly are.
And if you needed an added incentive to buy, not a dime of the profits from this book will go towards aiding children in need. In fact, all proceeds for the sale of this book will go where it's needed most: the G-strings of strippers, the guy i buy drugs from and the costly upkeep of providing that glassy-eyed mother of yours in herpes medication. check'em.
http://www.amazon.com/Anonymously-Yours-funniest-inappropriate-strangers-ebook/dp/B00UHZXITS
Awesome to see all these Lit Reactorites putting out great work!
aloha everybody...
Check out our new video:
we are available for gigs, interviews, etc just drop me a message.. :-)
thank you for watching, greets
CONTEST! Add Disintegration to your "to-read" shelf by midnight 4/28 for a chance to win a signed copy of THE NEW BLACK or BURNT TONGUES.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23308200-disintegration
Part of the TOC is set for CHIRAL MAD 3, and it looks great. My 6,000-word story, "The Offering on the Hill" is in here. Who else?:
"The latest update on CHIRAL MAD 3 includes new artwork by Glenn Chadbourne, as well as the latest fiction acceptances: Stephen King, Richard Thomas, Mercedes Murdock Yardley, and Jason V Brock, as well as the final poetry acceptances: Sydney Leigh, P. Gardner Goldsmith (El G Grande), Jonathan Balog, Rose Blackthorn, and Ciarán Parkes. 12 stories are yet to be filled...
Also mentions previously accepted fiction by Gene O'Neill, Ramsey Campbell, Jessica May Lin, Paul Michael Anderson, and poetry by Erik T. Johnson, Elizabeth Massie, Marge Simon, Stephanie M. Wytovich, and Bruce Boston."
Also, check out the ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATION by Glenn Chadbourne for my story. He's done work for King before, doesn't it give you a Dark Tower vibe?
You and Stephen King again, eh? Getting to be a bit of a habit isn't it :P
Congrats!
That's a solid pub. Love what that company is doing. Would be so awesome to pub with them. Great illustration too. Congrats Richard
Thanks, guys. Yeah, keep an eye on Written Backwards and Michael Bailey. There may still be an open call. I've been SO LUCKY to get alongside King four times now—Shivers VI, Qualia Nous, Cemetery Dance #72, and now Chiral Mad 3. Right place, right time.
**the above link takes you right to it on Amazon**
You may remember this novel from the Journey in Publication series I wrote for the site.
It got some good reactions, with favorable reviews from horror sites such as Shock Totem and The Horror Bookshelf. It also got the Booked Podcast treatment.
I managed to get some excellent blurbage as well:
“Sacrilegious is one word that comes to mind. Transgressive is another. This novel carries a lot of heat, mixed with epiphanies, regret, and disgust. But it is not without humor—the harsh truth lying just beneath the punch lines that coat the scarred surface. A strong voice that always entertains and never disappoints, GSGP is a wild ride, from start to finish.”
-Richard Thomas, author of Disintegration
More blurbs, reviews, and the official synopsis can be found HERE on my site.
After May, the price goes back up to over $4...so act now. Thanks to all in advance.
-BT
Any Litreactors in LA?
I'm a finalist for Sci-Fest LA Roswell Award, at the award ceremony on the 24th May they'll be reading all 6 short stories by actors from the SF world (star trek, star gate, agents of sta.. erm, shield). Should be a fun night, alas, there's an ocean in the way, so I can't be there myself but I'd be most intrigued to hear back from anyone who goes!
http://www.sci-fest.com/#!the-roswell-award/cif2
Kind regards,
Liam
Minor spoiler for my first novel, New Yorked: The protagonist carries a weaponized umbrella.
So my publisher, being awesome, went and made custom umbrellas.
How cool is that?!
I'll be giving a few of these away. First up is through Goodreads. All you have to do to enter is put New Yorked on your 'want to read' shelf.
On June 8, the day before publication date, we'll choose one person at random off that list to receive an umbrella and a free copy of the book.
Here's the link—have at it!
My book The 10,000th Day and Other Stories is free for the next 48 hours.
http://www.amazon.com/10-000th-Day-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B00XEPDZ5K
100 Stories of exactly 100 words...
Looks very interesting. Cheers.
I can't even believe Disintegration is finally here, six years in the making. I started this in my MFA program back in 2009, writing the first half with my professor Lynn Pruett, who knew nothing about neo-noir. After I gave her copies of work by Will Christopher Baer and Craig Clevenger, she got what I was going for, and was extremely supportive. When I got to Dale Ray Phillips, who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he said it might not be thesis material, which means—not good enough. I put it aside to work on literary short stories with him, and it was worth the wait. A year and a half later, I had a week between gigs and wrote the second half, 40,000-words in five days, my fingers bruised, my arms aching, practically in tears when I stopped, feeling like I might throw up. That began the year search for a small press, where it was rejected 20, 30, 40 times. Running out of options, I decided to try and get an agent, and over 100 rejections later, Paula Munier at Talctott Notch called me, only 100 pages in, to say she loved it and wanted to sign me. I said finish the book, it's kind of dark. She did, and she signed me, and we went after the big six and their imprints. So many close calls, coming down to board votes in some cases, and then we got the offer from Random House Alibi. I knew we were taking a chance on this eBook only imprint, but it has been a fantastic experience, my editor there, Dana Isaacson, so supportive, helping to make this book so much better. A team of three copy editors, and four marketing/PR associates, gave me more support than I've ever gotten. Now, the day is here. I hope you enjoy the book, this neo-noir, transgressive thriller that is the first book in the Windy City Dark Mystery Series. It's kind of Dexter meets Falling Down. The second book, The Breaker, is also set in Chicago, with a different protagonist (out in late 2015, or early 2016). It's more like what Stephen King did with small town Maine novels than the F. Paul Wilson series, and his Repairman Jack.
ENJOY!
Here are some early reviews:
THE HORROR BOOKSHELF 5/5
ENTROPY MAGAZINE CRIME FICTION LOVER 4/5
MATT PUCCI BLOG
SPLATTERHOUSE FIVE 5/5
QUIET FURY BOOKS BLOG 5/5
SJ2B HOUSE OF BOOKS 5/5
PAUL READ OR DEAD
PANTHEON MAGAZINE
Here are some excerpts:
ZOUCH
PUNCHNEL'S
ENTROPY
Here are the blurbs:
“A dark existential thriller of unexpected twists, featuring a drowning man determined to pull the rest of the world under with him. A stunning and vital piece of work.”
—Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting and Filth
“Sweet hot hell, Richard Thomas writes like a man possessed, a man on fire, a guy with a gun to his head. And you’ll read Disintegration like there’s a gun to yours, too. A twisted masterpiece.”
—Chuck Wendig, author of Blackbirds and Double Dead
“This novel is so hard-hitting it should come with its own ice-pack. Richard Thomas is the wild child of Raymond Chandler and Chuck Palahniuk, a neo-noirist who brings to life a gritty, shadow-soaked, bullet-pocked Chicago as the stage for this compulsively readable crime drama.”
—Benjamin Percy, author of The Dead Lands, Red Moon, and The Wilding
“Thomas builds his universe and its population with terse prose and dynamic, often horrifyingly visceral imagery that unspools with grand weirdness and intensity. Then he rips that universe apart, brick by bloody brick. Disintegration is provocative. It’s also damned fine noir.”
—Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and The Croning
“A sodden, stumbling anti-hero in a noir so dark it makes much of the rest of the genre seem like Disney movies by comparison. Gritty, obsessive, and compulsively readable.”
—Brian Evenson, author of Immobility and Windeye
“Disintegration is gritty neo-noir; a psycho-sexual descent into an unhinged psyche and an underworld Chicago that could very well stand in for one of the rings of Dante's Hell. Richard Thomas' depraved-doomed-philosopher hitman is your guide. I suggest you do as he says and follow him, if you know what's good for you.”
—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Little Sleep
“In sharp, icy prose that cuts like a glacial wind, Richard Thomas’ dark Chicago tale keeps us absolutely riveted to the very end.”
—Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff
Awesome, Richard :)
Congratulations Richard! Looking forward to reading it. That is a heavy weight line-up of blurbage. Also really enjoyed hearing the story behind it.
On a business-side question, curious how the eBook only imprint is going to shape your promoting. It's something I hadn't considered before, but it kind of changes the scenarios of the classic bookshop reading tour. Will you be forgoing that approach, or have you come up with some novel way to get face time with readers?
Thanks, Voodoo.
Thanks, Matt. Yeah, it does change a few things. Typically, book tours LOSE money unless you're Palahniuk or King. It's a lot of time for really poor turnout. SO, we're doing a blog tour, a stop a day for a month. We do a lot of other things, FB/Twitter, got a lot of early reviews on Goodreads/Amazon, and I'm talking to local media about TV, newspaper, etc. I'm also teaching and a part of conferences all summer in Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Oshkosh, West Bend, University of Iowa and Transylvania. That's gotten me in front of a variety of groups from 22, to 40, to 150, to 1,500, etc. Trying out a lot of different things to see what works.
I've gotten as high as into the #8,000s for Kindle, and top #50 in several subcategories, such as Thriller>Hardboiled and Mystery>Assassins, etc.
Hey all,
The fine folks at Blotterature Literary Magazine are publishing my short story Virginia, 1998 in their July 25 issue. This is my first publication so I'm pretty exited. Getting published was hard. I'm feeling really lucky placing this piece at Blotterature!
Got to hang with Chuck Palahniuk and Irvine Welsh last night. Had a BLAST. So much fun. After the reading, I was lucky enough to be included in a private room discussion where I sat between Chuck and Irving, talking about craft, the industry, Hollywood, his upcoming work, etc. Wow. Hell of a night.
Very nice, Richard. Well done.