In late June, I shot for a week on location in Nacogdoches, Texas under the terrific direction of Terrill Lee Lankford, and it was a hoot and a half! I still have a sore throat from screaming when I get et by the zombies, but the footage should be worth the pain! Here’s a out of focus shot of me and Mike Blankenship, one of the zombies who  gets a big chaw outta me. Watch this site for more news of the film and check out the official website here.

The Sockfather was presented by the zanies at Creative Works of Lancaster, an arts organization I currently chair. I wrote the script, except for the brilliant final song by Erich Goldstein, and play the Don as well as a number of other roles. Other puppeteers were Lydia Brubaker, Erich Goldstein, and Joanna Underhill, with Joel Lesher on sound effects. We did three performances on a Sunday afternoon and evening in the Lancaster Dispensing Company, a bar in Lancaster PA, and packed the place each time. So join us! Here’s the trailer, and here’s the performance itself, compliments of filmmaker Jeff Lynch! The better you know the films, the more you’ll enjoy it, but newcomers should like it too!

At first glance, Dreamthorp seems as named — a charming Pennsylvania Chautauqua town set deep in the woods. A perfect haven from the pressures of urban life. But before long this “village of dreams” is enmeshed in a nightmare, a dark dream of cruel torture and savage death.

Is the cause magic, centuries old? Or is it a new and unexpected magic born of random violence and mindless brutality?

Among those searching for the answer are:

Tom Brewer, a recent widower whose attempts to reconcile with his disturbed teenage son seem as futile as his efforts as a carver to bring life out of wood…

Laura Stark, a newcomer to Dreamthorp, dealing with the mysteries of her newly discovered sexuality and the aftermath of her lover’s vicious murder…

And Gilbert Rodman, more than human and far less than divine, a serial killer who lives only for revenge on the one woman his twisted mind blames for his bizarre mutilation — Laura.

As Rodman blazes his own bloody trail across the country to reach Laura, the horrors of Dreamthorp intensify, until one unholy night Tom and Laura confront the terrors that haunt not only our worst dreams, but our most feared realities.

$2.99 at Crossroad Press or Amazon’s Kindle Store, or many other ebook sellers. Find out more of the details about the book under my “You Wrote What” section on this very website!

Father Thomas experiences the Stigmata.

If you liked The Exorcist, you’re bound to enjoy On the Third Day. The unabridged narration is available from Crossroad Press for $12.99, and can also be found at Amazon, Audible.com, and other fine purveyors of audiobooks…

The book is available for $.99 (a few sips of a latte!) at Amazon, and also at Barnes and Noble and many other fine ebook retailers on your favorite neighborhood Interwebz…

Nightjack

“On the day of his release from a mental institution Pace is taken “hostage” by Faust, Pia, and Hayden, three escapees from the hospital who disappeared after the presumed rape and beating of Cassandra Kaltzas, daughter of the Greek munitions tycoon Alexandra Kaltzas. Each suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder, experiencing complex delusions and sometimes fantastical identities. Pace tries to piece together what happened when apparently one of their alternate personalities tried to kill Cassandra.

Pace himself is an alternate of William Pacella, a man whose wife died in a restaurant fire set by a local mobster for insurance money. William Pacella “dies” so that Nightjack can be born–a new personality who may or may not be Jack the Ripper.”

And it rockets along from there! The seven hour unabridged audiobook is available from Crossroad Press for $12.99, or at Amazon and Audible.com.

The unabridged audiobook is available at Crossroad Press for $12.99, at Amazon, and at Audible.com.

The Blood Lust audiobook came out a few months ago, and this novel is set in the same world of the Preternaturals. The story?

To quote from the virtual jacket copy:

“When Paul Blair’s wife is killed by a young drunk driver, he decides to dedicate his life to keeping the youth of his church from bad influences. And if that means bringing down the wolves who tempt them, so be it. When Paul finds that one of his own “flock” has adopted and escalated his own murderous strategies, he joins forces with the boy in a bloody crusade of vengeance upon the unholy. But can he control this mindless, violent force he has unleashed, not only upon the guilty, but the innocent as well?”

It’s a flat-out thriller, with many moments of horror, which was inspired by hearing a ceremony of baptism and wondering what might happen if someone were to take literally the congregational vows to protect children as they grew older — with no limitations on the methods involved. If you’ve read my previous books (and why would you be here if you haven’t?), I’m sure that you’ll find this one intriguing, thought-provoking, and a damned good read.

Available from Crossroad Press or Amazon for $4.99, the cost of a typical Grande Crappamochachino. Enjoy, and please tell me what you think of it!

The chapbook would consist of two stories, “The Pebbles of Sai-No-Kawara,” which had appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2004, and a new story I’d recently finished, “Blanket Man.” Both tales had supernatural elements, and both were set in Japan and dealt with the subject of remorse, so the book would be called Kaikon (Remorse). The publisher planned to create an edition of 200, each of which would be housed in a handmade wooden box with sculpted decorative elements made of resin.

However, the resin proved chemically unstable and became sticky to the point where it could not even be touched. In despair, the publisher abandoned the project, in spite of having already paid me and having published the actual chapbooks on a lovely and delicate Japanese paper, with beautiful art. At long last, in just the past few months, he mailed me a number of the chapbooks, which he had never released nor distributed, except for a small number which were heavily marked as review copies. The edition was never signed nor numbered.

It is one of these rare chapbooks that I have donated to “Genre for Japan,” a wonderful British fundraiser to raise money for Japanese relief. All monies collected will be earmarked for Japan through the British Red Cross. There are well over a hundred items up for bid, all in the field of fantasy, horror, and SF. Bidding started yesterday, March 28, 2011, and bids will close at the end of the week. I will sign or inscribe the chapbook for the winning bidder as desired and mail it to him or her personally. The minimum bid is 20 British pounds (all bids are in pounds rather than dollars, and a conversion scale is available on the website). Please bid here, at Genre for Japan.

I hope that some of you who may have been dismayed when your advance orders for the book were cancelled will take advantage of this opportunity to add it to your collection, as well as many other rare items offered. It’s for a great cause. I have many friends and acquaintances in Japan — my son works for a Japanese company, Square Enix, though he doesn’t currently live there. The country and its people are truly wonderful, and I’m glad to be able to do at least something to help, small as it may be.