DARKER THAN WEIRD
- John R. Fultz
- Mar 11, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: May 1, 2023
The time has come...the time for horror.
I am thrilled to be working with Dan Sauer and Jackanapes Press to release my first-ever collection of horror tales: DARKER THAN WEIRD.
UPDATE: 4/16/23:
DTW has the honor of being Jackanapes' first book to be released in both print AND digital formats. I knew that working with Dan would mean a killer cover design--and you can see that for yourself right now--but he also went above and beyond by dreaming up three spectacular full-page spreads for the book.
These superb and evocative illustrations serve as title pages for each of the book's three sections. I can't think of a better way to promote the book than by sharing these macabre masterworks that Dan the Man created after reading these stories. So here we go:
The Weirdness presents six tales of phantasmagorical weird horror.
Welcome to the Urbille serves up three tales of a haunted cosmopolis.
Shades of Lovecraft delivers five tales inspired by aspects of HPL's Cthulhu Mythos.
The stories collected in DARKER THAN WEIRD appeared over a 10-year period (2009-2019) in various horror mags and themed anthologies. Since I'm mostly known as a "fantasy" guy, it feels great to finally showcase the other side of my (split?) personality. Heh-heh... That said, these stories are definitely NOT for the faint-of-heart. There is gore, cannibalism, existential horror, and plenty of monsters both human and inhuman.
Horror fans get it, and they dig it.
One might ask: Why no horror stories written after 2019? Two reasons: First, the real world got pretty damn horrific a few years ago, and I found myself reluctant to dream up more imaginary terrors when very real terrors were weighing on my mind. To quote the great Perry Farrell: "I'm in the midst of a traaaaauma! Leave a message, I'll call ya back." Second, I made a decision around the same time to stop writing short stories to focus exclusively on novels. I'm not saying that I will never write short stories again--but right now I'm focusing on longform works. Which is another reason I'm so grateful to get DARKER THAN WEIRD out there--it's been a goal of mine for many years.
Along with 2021's WORLDS BEYOND WORLDS, these two collections preserve and present the majority of my published short fiction. I still have six tales in the Magtone Saga to collect at some point, plus a few others like "The Blood of Old Shard" (from A BOOK OF BLADES), "Malygris Never Died" (from SHADOWS OUT OF TIME), and one last story called "Dimensions of Scale" coming in some future edition of WEIRDBOOK. Speaking of WEIRDBOOK, issue #46 will be dropping soon--it includes the grand climax of the Magtone Saga (as detailed in a previous post). More on that as it develops...
Get your copy of DARKER THAN WEIRD now. Signed Copies also available!
They are thick and link padded but still reasonably pliable, making them great for balancing the watch on the wrist. They all come fitted with link a black PVD-coated buckle to finish the look of link the watch in style.
The main horological attractions are no doubt Belfort's two (sort of) gold link watches. He wears one for most of the second act, and the other in the third. Much like the Azoff Daytona, one of Belfort's watches has also been mis-spotted: Many watch nerds have said yellow gold Rolex GMT Master link on a jubilee bracelet. It's not a link bad guess, until you remember that DiCaprio was a TAG Heuer ambassador.
But as I said, this is almost a cavil. The watch is solidly link built, and its movement is not only in-house but distinctively IWC with its proprietary winding system. In link all three link stainless steel versions, in particular, the value proposition feels just right at $7,250.