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!
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