#fridayreads – 5 Questions with Post Mortem Press owner Eric Beebe

I’m back after an unexpected blog vacation. I had a few authors lined up, but it didn’t work out. Them’s the breaks I suppose. The good news is, this week I’m back with a growing publisher of horror and genre fiction. I first heard about Post Mortem Press in my last year at Borders. There was an e-mail going around the office about a store employee who just published a short story collection called Detroit Macabre. I wanted to make sure the book landed with me instead of with the Regional Buyer, so I reached out to Joseph directly. Unfortunately, Borders liquidated before I could do anything special with the book, so I’ve always tried to support him as much as I can since then. Through this new friendship, I learned more about his publisher, Post Mortem Press. I liked what I heard (especially the owner’s commitment to his author’s success), so I checked out a few of their anthologies.  Great stuff! I recently reached out to Post Mortem Press head honcho Eric Beebe to participate in my Friday 5 feature and he graciously accepted. Below are his answers.

With a book industry where places to buy physical books are shrinking due to eBooks and online shopping, what made you want to start up Post Mortem?

After years of working in “corporate America” and an increasing distaste for the things I was being forced to do, the stars aligned and my job went away. At first I looked for another job within the corporate world, but to be honest my heart wasn’t into it. After some soul searching, the good fortune of several months of severance and a highly supportive wife, what started as a one anthology experiment turned into Post Mortem Press. I have a background in marketing and management and I understand sometimes the best time to jump in the pool is when the water is lowest. We don’t rely on brick and mortar stores, the hands on retail model for books is no longer relevant. Sure, if you want the latest NYTimes bestseller, why not. But to find something new on-line is the place to be. The same can be said for eBooks. All of our titles are in eBook. There is absolutely no reason not to offer our books in that format, none. Many small presses have come and gone since I started this little venture, but we continue to grow.

What’s it like being in charge of your own publishing house? Are there any challenges you face that people wouldn’t necessarily think about?

I love the vast majority of what I do. It’s not always fun, but it’s always a challenge. Because we are “author centric” sometimes I run into some interesting challenges. The biggest one is balancing the needs/wants of the authors with the needs/wants of the business. I spend some significant time helping authors gain some perspective on realistic expectations. I would love to pay for giant promotional campaigns for all of our books, but realistically, the expense is almost always too high for the return.

The other challenge dealing with internet schemes launched by less than ethical people seeking money for “services”. While the $99 press release is a common sight, more and more people are offering things like $500 to promote your eBook, and $1,500 for book trailers, etc. These are scams and our experience tells us book trailers do little but line the pockets of the people who make them. Sometimes it is hard to convince an eager author this is not a good way to spend money – be it theirs or Post Mortem Press’.

For aspiring authors, what kind of fiction do you look for…and, are you open for submissions?

We just reopened for submissions for inclusion in our 2014 release schedule. We will remain open until the end of July. Our core business is dark fiction and we are expanding into paranormal non-fiction. On the fiction side thrillers, mysteries, and realistic supernatural themes are what we are most interested in for now.

We are also interested in dark science fiction, like our anthology FEAR THE ABYSS. Hard science fiction, not so much. .

Now some may say paranormal non-fiction is an oxymoron – and perhaps it is – but that’s what we’re interested in. Our first paranormal book Amityville: House of Lies, presents forensic evidence from the DeFeo murders and the Lutz “haunting” and lets the reader decide. This is exactly the kind of thing we’re looking for.

What is your proudest moment so far as a member of the book industry?

That’s a tough one. There are so many “little moments” that make me proud. But I suppose the best moments probably involve recognition as someone who is doing it right. I have had people approach me with projects simply based on the reputation of Post Mortem Press, this still amazes me.

What’s next for PMP?‘

Slow and steady wins the race. We grew exponentially in 2012 and I have intentionally slowed this down for 2013 and 2014. I want to be sure we are able to focus on providing readers with the best books we can produce. We’ve had some success with slow growth bestsellers, movie options, award nominations, higher profile notice for our authors. etc, and I want to keep that momentum moving without a detrimental impact on our current titles. Our bestselling book took a year before it broke 100 sales and then it just exploded. Now it has since slowed down, but it still sells pretty consistently. This is what I hope for all of our books. I like writing big checks. I really do.

As I noted earlier, we are expanding into the paranormal genre. There is a strong and growing interest in the field, yet on the publishing side most things I have seen are poorly executed. To me this is an opportunity to become a leader in the genre by providing the community with a quality product.

Post Mortem Press’ latest releases include …

• Brad Carter’s (dis)Comfort Food. Publishers Weekly says (dis)Comfort Food is “an unsettling story that goes from appetizing to nauseating as the narrative plunges from dark fantasy straight into horror, where familiar ingredients bring unexpected results.” General release is April 30th, but you can find it in paperback on Amazon now.

• Kenneth W. Cain’s Dead Civil War. Bestselling and award winning author Joe McKinney describes Dead Civil War as “Patrick Henry goes to Zombieland”. This one is a must for fans of zombie fiction. It is available now on Amazon, B&N, etc in trade paperback and eBook formats.

Peter Clines weaves a superhero yarn with a powerful zombie backstory in Ex-Heroes

When I worked for Borders, Permuted Press had a co-distribution deal with Simon & Schuster where some of their more popular series also got published by Simon to give them a wider audience, better distribution, and a chance at more marketing and publicity.  After reading Ex-Heroes, I immediately called up my Simon rep and told them they needed to seriously consider Peter Clines and his Ex series for their next round of Permuted Press acquisitions.  Nothing came of it and Permuted went on to publish the second book in the series, Ex-Patriots.  The final book in the trilogy ended up getting delayed, and as it turned out, that was because Peter was working a deal with Crown Publishing (and specifically their Broadway Books imprint) to bring the series to the masses.  I applaud Permuted Press for all the support they offered Peter Clines.  Without them, who knows where this series would be today.

And where it is today, is being released by Random House.  Because I’m such an advocate for Peter Clines, I’m going to write a 3-part blog celebrating his zombie/superhero mash-up.  First up, my review of Ex-Heroes.  Before we get started though, here’s an excerpt, so you can know what to expect.  Click HERE for the excerpt. 

Ex-Heroes

OK, on with the book.  With Ex-Heroes, Clines blends elements from the superhero and zombie genres, which just so happens to be two of my favorite genres.  While being set in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, Ex-Heroes rotates between the past and present to give readers a glimpse at each of the heroes showcased in the book.  After the apocalypse begins, the heroes band together to save over 4000 people at The Mount.  Each hero has their own personification, but the story focuses mainly on St. George, Cerberus, and Gorgon.  The only problem with having so many heroes featured (I only mentioned half of them) is that I wanted more.  Clines could have easily added another 100 or so pages, but he keeps the pace brisk and the story flowing.  This is due to his background in the film industry I’m sure.  The good news about the fast pace of the novel is that it leaves the reader yearning for more.

Folks looking for a pure zombie novel may be a tad disappointed with Ex-Heroes because it doesn’t just stick with the regular tropes of the genre.  Instead it asks the fundamental question about how the existence of superheroes would affect the zombie apocalypse.  It’s not just the heroes that need to be focused on.  While doing what they can to survive, the survivors on The Mount discover that there’s a rival group who might just be more dangerous than that actual zombies.

I’m extremely happy that Ex-Heroes is on the verge of breaking out even further.  To put it bluntly, it’s a fun read…especially the running contest everyone has on who can kill the biggest celebrity zombie (they are in LA afterall). Think of Ex-Heroes as the book equivalent of a summer movie blockbuster.  Who knows, maybe one day, it’ll transition to the silver screen.

Before I get to the contest, I also wanted to turn your attention on an interview Peter did with me for my Friday 5 series.  Please take a look.  It’s a great read.  You can find the link HERE!

Horror Author Peter Clines

#fridayreads – Friday 5 Questions with horror author Craig DiLouie

Because Permuted Press is the home to so many great authors in the horror and apocalyptic fiction genres, with this week’s blog I decided to keep the theme going and interview another Permuted Press author. This week, I’m welcoming Craig DiLouie, a Canadian author who is right on the cusp of becoming a household name in the horror genre.  He’s definitely not a one trick pony though.  Aside from his work in the zombie genre with Tooth and Nail, Infected, and The Killing Floor, DiLouie has also written sci-fi/fantasy, thrillers, and non-fiction.  If you’re looking for a great zombie novel that doesn’t fall into the same tropes and pitfalls of the genre, then look no further.

Author Craig DiLouie

1) It must be hard to do something original these days in the apocalyptic zombie genre. How were you able to keep things fresh for Infection and Killing Floor?

Thanks for having me! You ask a very interesting question. First, let me say I do not mind familiar tropes in zombie literature. When people open a zombie novel, they have certain expectations they will want to see satisfied. What makes the story good or not depends on how well it’s told. Look at The Walking Dead on AMC. There’s nothing I can recall about the zombies in that show that’s original over what Romero did many years before, but it works because the story presents people we care about realistically struggling to survive. And for the most part it respects our willing suspension of disbelief. Most of the story has flowed naturally, without appearing contrived.

That being said, I do believe it’s important to innovate to keep the genre fresh and to distinguish yourself as a writer in the genre. I also think a good zombie story needs a threat vector apart from the zombies. In a typical zombie story, once we know the rules for how the zombies behave–fast or slow, cannibal or not, crazy alive or living dead–they quickly start to become predictable. Some other threat is needed, one that is unpredictable, to keep the story exciting.

Nothing is more unpredictable than other humans. The conflict could be internal or external. In AMC’s The Walking Dead, in the first season the conflict was against the zombies. In the second, it was primarily internal–between Rick and Shane (and it was done naturally). In the third, it’s external–Rick’s group is fighting another group.

For my novels The Infection and The Killing Floor, I wanted the threat to remain focused on the creature element. At all times, I wanted the survivors to be terrified for their lives they would be slaughtered or infected by unpredictable monsters. So I incorporated an element in the story in which most of the Infected are people compelled by an organism to violently spread the organism, but some continue to mutate into monsters. These monsters add a Lovecraftian element to the story, and because they’re pretty horrifying and unpredictable, it makes the story more compelling and frightening. Many people have enjoyed this innovation, the purists not so much, which is fine with me–there’s something for everybody in the genre.

The Infection

The Killing Floor

2) Aside from what’s inside the book, your series has some of the best covers I’ve seen from Permuted Press. Who’s responsible for those masterpieces and what type of input do you have as an author during the creative process?

One of the great things about working with small presses is that while they have fewer resources than big publishers, they give authors more input on things like cover design. For THE INFECTION, I had an idea for a very artsy cover, as I wanted to convey the image this wasn’t your standard zombie pulp but aspired to something higher. Permuted said that’s fine, but we want to sell books, and you need something that hits the buyer in the gut. So the publisher sent me an image of a man going berserk–a victim of Infection who a short while ago could have been your boyfriend, waiter, dentist, son. I said that’s great, but let’s do it as a very dramatic closeup so the threat feels even more imminent–when you pick up the book, his face is right in yours, so to speak.

And a cover was born. It was a great collaboration.

For the second cover, Permuted found a terrific cover image in a painting produced by Andree Wallin. In my view, it’s the perfect image of the apocalypse: A soldier in a gas mask, dehumanized by his cold, robotic appearance and horrific actions. Fighting to survive and just maybe save the world to ensure this is not really the end, but a new beginning–the start of a world where others will not have to experience what he has. This is what the people in THE KILLING FLOOR face-–a choice to save themselves, or give everything they have, even their lives, so that humanity itself has the best chance to survive.

The painting that inspired The Killing Floor

For that cover, there was no discussion. I loved it. We were lucky to get it.

3) When you see people like David Wong and Pete Clines making the jump from Permuted to one of the big houses, have you set that as an ultimate goal for yourself?

I don’t know David Wong, but I do know Peter Clines, and I’m very happy for his success as he’s not only a talented writer but one of the most genuine, friendly, interesting and humble people I’ve ever met. I’m not kidding when I say the sky’s the limit for this guy.

As for myself, I’m currently working on closing a deal for a new horror novel with a major publisher. It’s not zombies, but it’s apocalyptic. It’s honestly the most creepy thing I’ve ever written (or read), and I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. If the sale with this publisher doesn’t work out, however, I’d be happy to stay with small press or even take a stab at self publishing. I’ve been humbled, amazed and grateful at the reception my novels have received, and I already honestly feel like I’m living the dream.

4) In terms of zombies, what’s one cliche about them that you wish would just go away and be stricken from the canon?

Nothing is off limits to me as a reader as long as the writer tells me an interesting story involving people I care about facing monsters that scare me in a world that is realistic enough for me to believe in.

As a writer, however, there are several tropes I typically avoid, such as people tripping and dropping their gun when the slow zombie shows up, or contrived conflict between the good leader and the guy in the group who’s a jerk seemingly for the sake of it, and so on–this kind of thing in my opinion is just lazy writing. I also tell my stories on their own terms, without injecting personal wish fulfillment and subsequently jeopardizing the realism and willing suspension of disbelief. In my stories, people react like real people to what’s happening to them, actions have consequences, the setting is messy and toxic, and so on.

5) What’s next for you?

While I’m working with an agent and publisher to close this deal for my new horror novel, I’m working toward completing two other novels in 2013. The first is another horror novel, a seriously disturbing work with the theme of body horror. The second is an historical fantasy novel. In my ideal world, I would write and publish two novels per year in two markets; we’ll see how that works out. Meanwhile, I’m also hoping to produce a small self-published project this year.

I don’t know where my writing career is going to take me in the future, but as I said earlier, I already feel like I’m living the dream. It’s been a lot of fun, and again I’m honored and grateful so many people enjoy my fiction.

#fridayreads – Friday 5 Questions with horror author Peter Clines

Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines was the first book I ever read from Permuted Press.  I’m not sure why it took me so long to start reading books from Permuted.  They specialize in zombie and apocalyptic fiction (two of my favorite genres), but there was some unexplainable force causing me to resist for some reason.  The barrier was broken when Ex-Heroes entered my life.  A few of my friends recommended it, so I put it on my “I’ll read it one of these days” lists.  It features superheroes and a zombie apocalypse.  How could you go wrong?  Some time went by and it slipped my mind until I was browsing the shelves of a bookstore.  There it was.  I had some extra cash in my wallet, so I decided to give it a chance.  After I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down.  Ex-Heroes was pure escapist fun.  I became a cheerleader for the book and even started following Peter on Facebook.  One thing led to another and I’m proud to host Peter for today’s Friday Five.  The stars seem to be in alignment for Peter these days.  Broadway Books has recently picked up the Ex series (Ex-Heroes, Ex-Patriots, and Ex-Communication) and are about to re-release the first in the series next month.  Hopefully, this will help Peter gain a much larger audience.  He deserves it.  Coincidentally, Broadway released the new cover for Ex-Heroes this week, so I linked it below.  It has an almost pulp fiction comic/manga cover type feel to it.  Works for me!

If you’re not familiar with Peter Clines, then now’s your chance before his popularity grows even more.  Read his answers below so you can say you knew him when.

If I haven’t done enough to intrigue you just yet, maybe Nathan Fillion can be of assistance.  He said the following about Ex-Heroes:  “My two favorite things, zombies and superheroes. Hurry with the sequel to EX-HEROES!”

Horror Author Peter Clines

1)  You got your start in the world of cinema.  How did your experience as a screenwriter help you as a novelist?

I think I lucked out because I was working on film crews as a prop master while I was trying to get a screenwriting career going.  It meant I got exposed to hundreds of screenplays with the added bonus of actually seeing how they were interpreted on set.  I think a lot of would-be screenwriters don’t consider that there are a hundred other people the story’s going to be filtered through before it’s actually seen, and it was clear really quick what made for a good script and a bad one.  I worked on a few shows where I can remember everyone in the office groaning when a new episode would show up and we’d see writer X’s name on the cover.  So it made me very aware that a writer—any writer—needs to be aware of who their audience is and how they’re going to interpret things.

Screenwriting is also very concise, so it taught me to try for maximum impact with minimum words.  I may write a loose first draft but I cut the hell out of it in later drafts.  Especially with action.  I’m a big fan of tight, fast action.

Cover for the Broadway Books reissue of Ex-Heroes

2)  When I heard about Ex-Heroes, the first thing that came to mind was “what a great idea,” quickly followed by “why didn’t I think of that?”  How did you get the idea to put superheroes in your zombie novels?

Well, to be fair, it’s not a terribly new idea.  Zombies have been showing up in mainstream comics for years.  Heck, if memory serves, when John Byrne took over the Superman titles in the mid-eighties he had Superman fight them in Action Comics.  I think it was a Phantom Stranger team-up.

I think what’s new about it is that it’s superheroes actually fighting a full-scale zombie apocalypse.  One of the Big Two comic companies announced years ago that they were going to do a Romero-style zombie invasion in their universe and I got so excited.  An honest crisis like that is where you get to see heroes at their best and their worst.  It’s such a great setting for serious action and drama, but also great heroic moments.

The book they did, though, was… well, I understand a lot of people liked it, but I just thought it was such a wasted opportunity.  In my eyes—as a horror fan and a long-time comic fan—it just did everything wrong.  Thinking about “how I would’ve done it” was one of the sparks that started Ex-Heroes.

3)  With Ex-Heroes heading over to Crown / Broadway, what are your future plans with both Permuted Press (and Random House for that matter)?

To be honest, I’m not sure.  I don’t mean that in some scheming way, just in an honest “we’ll have to see” way.  I’ve got crazy hopes and things I’d like to happen, yeah, but I’m also a realist.  If they’ll have me, I’d love to keep working with Crown and doing stuff with their Broadway imprint, but I’m sure it all depends on how the Ex-Heroes series sells.  This is a business after all, and they’ve put a ton of work into re-launching the series.

And I’m still going to be working with Permuted—they’ve got 14, my Robinson Crusoe horror mashup, The Junkie Quatrain, and a bunch of anthologies I’m in (including a new one called Times of Trouble, about time travel gone horribly wrong).  If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be where I am now.

14 by Peter Clines

4)  While I first discovered you because of your zombie superhero novels, you also had a great year with 14.  What’s your elevator speech on that novel?

14 is a book I wanted to write for about a year and a half but things kept getting in the way.  I kind of lucked out that I had another project lined up and when the time came to start it Jacob Kier at Permuted told me to hold off.  He’d just bought a book from another author—Bryan Hall—that had a couple similar themes and ideas, and he didn’t want two books competing against each other.  As it happened, Permuted had just broadened their scope a bit, so to speak, as to what they were accepting, so I pitched Jacob the idea for 14 (which was called The Apartment at the time) and he loved it.

At its heart, 14 is sort of a horror-mystery-adventure story.  It’s about a very regular guy named Nate who moves into an old apartment building in Los Angeles and starts to notice unusual things about it.  Individually each little them is just kind of odd, but as they start adding up there’s a whole greater pattern of weirdness.  And it’s also about forming a community and how people become friends.  It’s tough to say much about it because it’s a slow-burn mystery that keeps building through the book, and I’m very anti-spoiler.  Nothing sucks more that getting something out of context and having all the strength and fun sucked out of a twist or reveal.  My original one line pitch to Permuted was “LOST set in an apartment building,” and I’ve been very flattered to see a lot of other people making the same comparison.

5)  What’s on deck for you next? 

Well, right now I’m trying to juggle work for the re-release of Ex-Heroes and Ex-Patriots, plus edits on Ex-Communication and trying to finish a fourth Ex-book in time for an October release.  Then I’ve got a couple of conventions.  And then I might sleep for a week or two.

After that… I’ve got an idea for a new series.  Something a bit more real-world grounded.  Well, as real-world grounded as I can get, anyway.  And then, if people want it, maybe another Ex-book.  Or two.  It’s more important to me to have a good, entertaining story to tell than to crank out another book just to keep the series going.

#fridayreads – 5 Questions with Author Jeff Mariotte

Jeff Mariotte has had an amazing career in the book industry thus far, and lucky for us, he’s showing no sign of stopping.  My first introduction to his work was a D&D novel called City Under the Sand.  With that novel, I booked him to post on Babel Clash with a handful of other D&D authors.  From there, the two of us kept in contact and I’ve been working on catching up with his backlist ever since.

Aside from all of the work he’s doing on numerous writing projects, Jeff also co-owns one of the coolest genre bookstores around…Mysterious Galaxy.  Click the image below to direct link to their website…lots of great stuff going on there.

As you’ll read from our interview below, Jeff has a very exciting year ahead of him.  If you want to get caught up with one of the hardest working guys in the industry, keep reading.  Trust me…it’s worth it!

Without further delay, see my Friday Five with genre author Jeff Mariotte below.

1) You’ve really had a career that is pretty drool-worthy to this point: publishing, author, comic writer, book store owner. When looking at what you’ve done so far, what are you the most proud of?

That’s a hard question, because any writer who’s been lucky enough to keep working as long as I have has a lot of proud moments. The first time a comic book came out with my name on the cover, then the first novel, were big ones. Getting blurbs from some of the folks I’ve admired for so long, like David Morrell, Don Winslow, T. Jefferson Parker and Michael Connelly (nobody has seen those two yet, but soon…), being nominated for Stoker and International Horror Guild Awards, and winning the first two Scribe Awards ever presented for original fiction. All great moments. And one of the best is when I meet a reader who has liked the work, and that momentary thrill when you learn that they’re a fan–whether it’s Joss Whedon, Harlan Ellison, or a random stranger in a bookstore or comic shop or airport.

But I’m going to have to go with a more personal memory. My father passed away several years ago, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. One of the last times I saw him, he couldn’t remember who I was, but his natural friendliness still shone through, and he showed me around his room, showed me some books on his shelf–books I had written–and told me how proud he was of his son, the writer. I don’t think anything will ever match that.

2) Speaking of the book store, as an indie store owner, what do you anticipate the landscape of the book world being in the next few years? What are the particular challenges you face?

Bookselling is a challenging business on so many levels. There’s the world-domination plan that Amazon has, like a supervillain bent on taking over without giving any thought to the unintended consequences of that act. There’s the ongoing issue of how publishers can effectively monetize e-books, and how independent booksellers can sell them (our bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy is selling KOBO e-readers and Kobo e-books, and so far, so good). There are the struggles that have always existed in bookselling, which you know as well as anyone–relatively small profit margins, dealing with returns, trying to get those initial orders right, and so on. We’re lucky in that Mysterious Galaxy is blessed with amazing staffs at both locations (San Diego and Redondo Beach, CA), we have a great reputation with authors and publishers, and we continue to exhibit at some of the best book events in the country, including the Los Angeles Times and Tucson Festivals of Books, Comic-Con International: San Diego, the Phoenix Comicon, the relatively new Long Beach Comic and Horror Con, and others, so we’re constantly finding new readers and friends.

3) You’ve got a pretty busy schedule of book releases for 2013 with Season of the Wolf kind of kicking things off. What can fans expect from this one?

Season of the Wolf is a supernatural thriller that, I believe, will keep you up far into the night. I like to write books that build up a head of steam and then don’t let up, so you’ve got to flip the pages until the end. This one’s about a coal-company heir who’s trying to do something positive with his fortune, to make up for what he sees as the environmental devastation caused by the family business. He’s also got some personal secrets weighing on him. He winds up in Silver Gap, Colorado, a little mountain town, at just about the same moment that a pack of incredibly powerful, cunning, and tenacious wolves begin preying on the townsfolk. It’s not a werewolf novel, but these are not quite like any other wolves you’ve encountered, either. And there’s more going on in the little town than just wolf problems. The book’s scary and intense and, I think, maybe a little enlightening at the same time.

Click the image for a chance to win an advanced copy via Goodreads (through Jan. 17th).

4) How does your writing approach change when you’re writing something like Season of the Wolf as opposed to your work with tie-in novels or comic books?

A tie-in novel is necessarily different in that the underlying universe isn’t something that I created, so I have to treat it with a certain amount of respect, and give it back in more or less the same condition it was in when I got it. If I want to kill any characters, I have to either make them up and fit them into the world, or I have to figure out a way to bring them back to life by the end (easier in some fictional universes than others). But beyond that–and the fact that they can be research-intensive, especially if it’s something like Star Trek, with 40-some years of history behind it–the craft is the same. I need to create a compelling plot, populate it with interesting characters, and tell a good story. That doesn’t change, regardless of who the owner of the underlying property is.

With comics, the primary differences are that the individual issues are much shorter than even most short stories, and there’s a collaborative element, because I’m not doing the art. So I have to figure out how much of the story to let the artist tell (as much as possible) and slice my prose down to the barest minimum so I don’t cover up those pictures with word balloons.

5) Any last words?

I’m about to go off and do something a little strange, for me–I’ve been invited to speak at a symposium called “Inside the Mind of a Mass Murderer.”  I was invited thanks to my nonfiction book Criminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers and Other Deviants, and I’ve been spending the last couple of months doing nonstop research on mass murder. It’s a sad topic, one I wish we never had to talk about, but the research has been fascinating, and I think I’ve come up with some relatively original theories. There may or may not be a book about it down the line. Coincidentally, it’s in Colorado (Vail, not Silver Gap–which doesn’t actually exist), so I get to visit Season of the Wolf country a month before the book comes out.

Other than that, I’ll be busy writing, and I appreciate everybody who buys and reads my stuff!

#fridayreads – 5 Questions with Stoker Award Winning Author Joe McKinney – plus a free book giveaway

It’s a real treat to welcome today’s author to my weekly “Friday 5 Questions With” blog.  Joe McKinney is most well-known for his amazing horror novels, but he’s a Renaissance Man of sorts when it comes to writing.  He can do it all, and as his Stoker Award for Flesh Eaters can attest, he can do it very well.  If you’re a fan of horror fiction, but aren’t familiar with Joe McKinney, it’s time for your introduction because he’s one of the best writers in the genre right now.  Also, as an added bonus, Joe has agreed to sponsor a book giveaway today.  More details about that appear after the interview.  With that, here’s Joe!

Joe McKinney

First things first, the final book in the Dead World series came out this year.  What’s it called and what should fans expect from it?

That’s right. It’s called Mutated, and it came out in September. The first three books in the Dead World series all took place right around the beginning of the outbreak. Dead City and Flesh Eaters describe how the outbreak started, and Apocalypse of the Dead, which takes place about two years later, shows how the outbreak goes global. Mutated takes place about eight years after Apocalypse of the Dead, and picks up on a lot of the themes and plot lines left off at the ends of the previous books. For example, in Apocalypse of the Dead we learned that the military found a cure to the zombie virus, but the hospital working on that cure was overrun before they could make use of it. The only person to escape was a simpleton named Nate Royal, who is immune to the virus and who wears a flash drive containing the cure around his neck. By the time Mutated starts, Nate has been wandering the ruins of America for eight years. He’s not doing well. In fact, he’s nearly dead from exposure and malnutrition. It’s then that he meets up with Ben Richardson and a handful of survivors who are caught in a war with the leader of a zombie army known simply as the Red Man. In my books the victims of the zombie virus are living people who have been zombiefied by disease, and that disease goes through several stages. Most zombies die off in the first stage, though a few become second and third stage zombies, progressively capable of more and more sophisticated cognitive acts, such as setting traps, deception and using other zombies the way fox hunters use dogs. The Red Man though is the first ever Stage 4 zombie, and he is a force none of the survivors could have imagined.

Mutated, the last book in the Dead World series.

Aside from being an author, you also have extensive law enforcement experience.  How does that play into your written work?

That’s right, I’m still an active duty police officer with the San Antonio Police Department, where I’ve gotten to do a little bit of everything. I’ve been a regular patrol officer, a disaster mitigation expert, a homicide detective, I ran the city’s 911 Center for a while, and I’m currently a patrol supervisor. It’s the greatest job in the world, and policing does figure prominently in my books. A great many of my characters are cops, and so I guess that’s the obvious way my police career works into my writing, but it goes beyond that too. Policing taught me an awful lot about human nature, its highs and lows, and when I write, I pull from that knowledge and experience.

I know you mostly as a horror author, but you also write other genres.  What’s your favorite genre to write in…or are you more inspired by story versus genre?

Excellent question! Yes, it’s story for me. I’ve written horror, science fiction, non-fiction, crime, even some contemporary non-genre stuff. I tend to work with genre stuff most of the time though because that’s what I enjoy reading. That’s fun for me. But really, the story is king. The story will suggest what genre it needs to be.

To date, what’s your single proudest moment as an author?

I’ve hit a lot of milestones in my career. I remember with great affection my first professional story sale; my first book contract with a major New York publisher; my first multi-book deal; winning a Bram Stoker Award and getting handed the award by two of my literary heroes, Joe R. Lansdale and Robert McCammon; the first time Hollywood came knocking; and watching my Dad’s eyes bulge out of his head when he saw the check for one of my advances. But without a doubt my proudest moment came just this year, when I was taking my daughters to school. I was talking with one of the other parents, not really paying attention to what my youngest daughter was doing, when I heard her tell a group of her little friends, “Oh yeah, well my Daddy’s a horror writer.” Then she turned and smiled at me, and I felt like I was king of the world.

What’s next for you?

More writing! I have a haunted house novel called CROOKED HOUSE coming out any day now from Dark Regions Press; my collected zombie short stories in a volume called DATING IN DEAD WORLD from Creeping Hemlock Press; a sequel to DEAD CITY as part of the JournalStone Publishing Double Down series; a shared world novella for JournalStone in their Limbus II anthology; a full length novel called St Rage for Journalstone; a standalone zombie novel with Kensington, due out in September, 2013; and a new zombie series starting in 2014 called The Dead Lands for Kensington. In between I’ll be doing short stories and articles, and possibly publishing another collection of my non-zombie short stories. There’s a lot to do, for sure! Anybody looking for more information can check out my website, http://joemckinney.wordpress.com, for all the details.

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Now…let’s talk about the book giveaway!  Joe has graciously offered to give away THREE copies of his new novel, Inheritance, to three lucky readers of this blog.  He’ll also sign them before mailing them out!  So, here’s the deal.  First off, this giveaway is open to US RESIDENTS ONLY.  To be eligible for the giveaway, you need to comment on this blog with an answer to the following question:  Do you believe in ghosts?

We will then choose three winners at random from all eligible entries.  You have until Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013 at 12:00 pm EST to comment on the blog to be eligible.  Good luck and happy haunting!

A signed copy of Inheritance can be yours!

#fridayreads – 5 Questions with serial novelist K. Anthony Pagano

Today’s entry into my “Friday 5 Questions with…” series comes from K. Anthony Pagano.  With his Lion in the Dark series, Pagano is helping bring back the lost art of serial novels.  K. Anthony Pagano has a lot to say about the art of writing and the challenges of being an independent author, so instead of wasting time with a bulky interview, I’m going to let his answers to my questions do the talking.  So, without further ado, I give you K. Anthony Pagano!

K. Anthony Pagano

#fridayreads – 5 Questions with Joseph Williams, author of The Hunt

As I mentioned last week, I’m a big supporter of horror author Joseph Williams.  So much so that I invited him to participate in this week’s Friday Five to help him promote his debut full-length novel, The Hunt.

Also,  since I’m working on making this a regular thing on the blog, feel free to submit some “5 Questions With…” logos.  I’d love to see what you come up with!

You’re known mainly for your short story collections. What made you want to switch it up and go with a long-form novel?

It was the next step towards where I want to be. I actually started out writing novels before I got into short stories, and those early manuscripts suffered for it. Short stories are a great way to learn writing. You have to be economical and get rid of all the bullshit you want to use, like absurdly unnecessary adverbs (which are still hard as hell to cut out), rants, and overly (or underly) detailed descriptions. You have to learn how to develop your plot and characters simultaneously in a much more confined space. You also don’t invest nearly as much time or energy in writing them, so it’s not as devastating if they turn out to be awful or no one will publish them. A couple years ago, I got frustrated with spending months writing bad novels and turned to shorts to learn the art of storytelling. I got to a point where I vowed not to write another novel until I had written at least fifty new short stories, and my work improved immensely in that time.

Publishing short stories is a great way to get your foot in the door in the greater publishing world. It beefs up your cover letter so publishers will look closer at your work. You get more of a lifeline, more room to take chances and make mistakes, and I really needed that. Even publishing with some smaller ezines got my novella Number Six in a real horror anthology. That first acceptance was very exciting. Unless you come out and blow people’s minds with the best debut novel in the history of the world or something with bare-chested werewolves, agents and publishers (in my experience) won’t give your work a second look without some writing credits. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with two outstanding publishers in Post Mortem Press and Severed Press, so I’ve felt comfortable with each of my three books. They represent exactly what I wanted them to be. If I had spent months trying to find publishers for my early novels, it would have distracted me from progressing as a writer and I probably would have wound up publishing them with a less than reputable press, which may have helped but more likely would have made my work stagnant. I wouldn’t have thought I was capable of moving on up.

For my novel debut, I wanted to make sure I took my time and went through many drafts before putting it out into the world. I didn’t want to do a straight-up horror or sci-fi or fantasy novel the first time around, either. The Hunt is about addiction and hard choices more than anything else. I think as people read it, they’ll see that the emphasis is on the relationships much more than the setting. I also didn’t want to throw in guts and gore or really anything genre-related unless it served a purpose on a deeper level. Whether or not I did what I set out to do is up to the reader to decide, but I’m very happy with how the book turned out and am glad I waited through the other ten-or-so unpublished novels before coming to this one, although there were close calls in the past. There’s one cool young adult novel I wrote that I still really dig, but it involved a kid’s Starting Lineup figurine of Nicklas Lidstrom. I had a publisher for the book and everything, but Mr. Lidstrom’s agent wouldn’t allow it to go forward. I’m happy with the way it worked out in the end, though. I’m really proud of The Hunt.

Did you approach The Hunt different than your short stories?

In some ways, although it felt like I was writing a short story collection when I did all of the flashbacks for Doreen. The Hunt was actually my Master’s thesis project in Creative Writing, so the approach was already different than anything I’ve done before and it helped the book. I had a few months where The Hunt was all I worked on and I had an amazing editor/poet/musician (Dr. Caroline Maun) to critique it. After the first draft that I went through with Dr. Maun, I went back and added seven chapters that were all flashbacks (I also took one chapter out completely along with paragraphs upon paragraphs of unnecessary introspection), and those were the ones that made me feel like I was doing a collection of literary fiction short stories rather than a dark fantasy/horror novel. It really energized my later drafts and helped me view the whole book in a different perspective. Dr. Maun really encouraged me to continually dig deeper into the motivations of Doreen, Katy, and Mr. Woods. It was cool being able to build character histories like that. I’ve never been able to do it to that degree in my short stories.

Even adding those chapters to the book was a lot different than my last short story project though. The Tea Leaf Green book, Swinging from Stars. In a lot of ways, that was the most challenging writing project I’ve ever undertaken and it had the most unique approach I’ve ever used. There’s a very fine line in that series of books (Blues Traveler and Grateful Dead forthcoming) between respecting the lyrics/general mood of the song and putting my own spin on the stories so they’re worth reading, both for people who already know the words and for people who’ve never heard the band’s music in their life. I had to completely immerse myself in Tea Leaf Green when I wrote Swinging from Stars. I’d make playlists of all of my favorite live renditions of each song and listen to them on repeat the entire time I was writing and editing. You really have to commit to something like that and accept that not all of it is going to work out. I had to leave three stories on the cutting room floor. There were songs I thought would be easy to adapt based on the lyrics and those were usually the ones I had to give up on. That whole experience helped me in editing The Hunt. I learned to let go of stuff that was pure shit even though I really wanted to include it in the book for whatever reason.

Beyond that, the new novel I’m working on for Severed Press was started as two successive short stories which morphed into a longer project, so I’ve been approaching each chapter as its own entity. I really like working that way. I think writing short stories has changed my approach to writing novels and vice versa.

What is it about the horror genre that is so appealing to you?

I’m just drawn to more realistic human experiences. I don’t mean all of the monsters and blood and guts, although those do symbolize very real things in our lives. I think that the horror genre, when done well, offers a unique arena for exploring what makes people who they are. I think the way that people react in horrific situations—whether it’s an ugly divorce, an addiction, or the sadistic mutant living in the closet—truly defines their character, and it also helps me sort of exorcise and control my own fears. Writing these stories gives me a peculiar agency in situations where I would be powerless in real life. It’s a coping mechanism, to a degree.

Not to stay on Tea Leaf Green for too long, but I interviewed their singer/songwriter/pianist Trevor Garrod for Real Detroit Weekly back before I’d even pitched the project to the band, and I asked him a very similar question. His response pretty much sums it up for me:

“I’ve always loved that kind of music. You know, the Bob Dylan sort of folk tradition. The Jack Kerouac ‘rambling man’ sort of image. It’s always been terribly romantic to me. Anything about the dark places you go in life. I’ve always found it so much more compelling than writing songs about…what else is there to write about? Cars? Girls? Parties? I mean, I wish I could write about stuff like that, but it always seems so shallow.”

Preach on, Trevor. Preach on.

The dark places we go in life are much more compelling to me than the bright ones. Romance stories and cake walks aren’t what make a man or woman weak or strong, at least not in my life. That’s what Doreen’s journey in The Hunt is all about. There’s a reason fertilizer (shit) makes things grow. How boring would a book or movie about a perfect marriage with perfect children in a perfect house be? Give me a crisis of faith or a mountain of adversity over that garbage any day…

…and add a demon, zombie, or serial killer, too. Preferably all three. Thanks.

What’s the best book someone has recommended to you lately?

Hmm. That’s tough. Ever since Borders closed down and I don’t get to converse about books in person as much as I used to, I actually haven’t gotten many recommendations that didn’t come from the author or publisher. The last one I remember from those days that’s really stuck with me was from my friend Trevor Snyder, who told me about Richard Laymon. I’d heard of him before but never really had an interest in checking him out until Trevor recommended a book to me. I also used to get great recommendations from customers when we’d talk books, but now I mostly buy my books online (I know, right?) since Barnes & Noble doesn’t even have a horror section for me to browse. An awesome non-horror recommendation I got in the Borders days was Glen Cook’s Black Company series, but I can’t remember who told me about it (sorry).

I tend to find things on my own these days and it’s pretty exciting in its own way. I’ve gotten over some of my silly embarrassment over reading and watching ‘nerdy’ sci-fi stuff and that has provided me with some good reads like the Hand of Thrawn books by Timothy Zahn. My wife teases me relentlessly whenever I watch Battlestar Galactica or Firefly or Star Trek, but whatever, she watches Dance Moms (sorry honey). I’ve gotten really into Philip K. Dick and Chuck Palahniuk lately, too, because I’m ahead of the game like that. One of my creative writing professors just passed away (Christopher Towne Leland, to whom The Hunt is dedicated) and I’ve been poking around in his short stories and novels. He was an amazing writer who published with Scribners and Houghton Mifflin. Toni Morrison even edited one of his books. Check him out if you get the chance.

Do you have any recommendations for me? I’d trust this blog with my life.  (Editor’s Note:  If it’s Chuck Palahniuk you’re after, you can’t go wrong with Invisible Monsters.  This is by far one of his best books and a fun re-read…especially these days when his work has been hit or miss)

Any last words?

Grasshopper. Long-johns. Shears. Butt.

…I think that’s all of them.

Get the new horror novel from Joseph Willams, The Hunt, free until Sunday!

I’ve been friends with Joseph Williams for a little over a year now.  I met him when I found out about his short story collection, Detroit Macabre.  I tried to bring it into the local stores, but I couldn’t because I could only get it non-returnable through Ingram (luckily, Joe was able to get some at his store without us).  We kept in contact after Borders shut down, and I even picked up his book before the Novi store closed down.

In September of last year, I did a “5 Questions with…” feature with him for Curiosity Killed the Bookworm.  Then, Joe came back to my blog in October to contribute to my 31 Days of Halloween Hijinks blog challenge with a blog about the best Horror films.

We also have plans to start a writing group and a horror blog one of these days.

As it just so happens, Joe released his latest novel, The Hunt, and it’s a free Kindle ebook download until tomorrow.  If you want a great read in the horror genre, consider giving The Hunt a chance.  I’ve read lots of Joe’s short stories, but this is his first novel.  Support independent authors.

Download The Hunt for free today!

Unless of course you want to take Grumpy Cat’s advice.

#fridayreads – 5 Questions with Jay Bonansinga, co-author of The Walking Dead novels

I’ve done several “5 Questions With…” features on my blog since its inception, but I’m hoping to make it a more regular occurrence.  Since Friday is also known for Friday Five, it just makes sense to move this feature to Friday as well, don’t you think?

I’m starting things off with a bang – with the New York Times bestseller and co-writer of The Walking Dead novels, Jay Bonansinga! Before he teamed up with Robert Kirkman for this project, Jay was responsible for 16 other novels including the Stoker-nominated The Black Mariah.

© 2011 jill brazel photography

I got my first taste of The Walking Dead book universe with the first in the series – Rise of the Governor.  This book already had a few things going for it:  it was part of TWD’s universe, it focused on The Governor, and it was well-written.  I had big plans for the book in terms of promotion at Borders.  I was presented it right before Borders went belly up, and I was immediately ready to make it the focus of my October 2011 promotional efforts.  Those plans never came to fruition unfortunately, so it’s especially cool that I was contacted about helping promote the second book in the series.  I jumped at the opportunity!

So, without further ado, here are my Five Questions with Jay Bonansinga.

What’s it like to be part of the Walking Dead universe and to be able to work with Robert Kirkman?

Best job of my career… really.  Twenty-five years in the horror field, sixteen books, 60 short stories, a gig with George Romero, and an absolute LOVE of zombies, and I feel like I have been in training for this work my whole career.  Love it, love it, LOVE IT!!

Now that the comic has transcended to just about every form of medium, do you find it challenging to make sure the novels stand out in the crowd?

Yeah, absolutely, it’s really scary and fascinating to see the novel form pitted against these sexier mediums… but that is what’s SO interesting about this whole experience, the books are self contained and yet perfectly conformed, like genetically modified organisms, to the comic and TV series.

The first novel focused on the origins of the Governor and the latest novel mainly focuses on Lilly.  Do you anticipate branching out into different parts of the world in future work, or are you going to stay close to Woodbury?

I want to do this until I die… so, yeah, I see it branching out… in fact, I want to do it beyond the point that I die, especially if I turn and come back as a zombie, in which case I will continue to write, although my penmanship will suffer.

What would you say to fans of the comic or fans of the show who haven’t given the novels a chance to entice them into checking them out?

I would say that the novels are like having sex with a lot more foreplay, and it’s really excellent foreplay, so come on… if you want to just get your rocks off, fine, but don’t you want more foreplay?  (Is this a family publication?)  Editor’s Note:  We’ll let it slide

Who’s more fanatic:  Trekkies, Star Wars fans, or Walking Dead fans?

I would say either Trekkies or Star Wars fans are more fanatic… Walking Dead fans are more like GRATEFUL Dead fans… and we all know Dead Heads are too stoned to be fanatic.

Also, if you want to give it a shot, Paste Magazine posted the first three chapters of The Walking Dead: Road to Woodbury HERE!