DEAD EARTH: SANCTUARY is Spreading...

Our new post-apocalyptic sf/zombie novel, the third in the Dead Earth series, can now be found for KINDLE and NOOK, not to mention KOBO. And the trade paperback is just around the bend.

READ, enjoy and spread the word, readers! Thank you.

"A gripping story of survival. Book of the year contender!"--Evan Roy, Bricks of the Dead

Jubal Slate has stopped a madman controlling an undead army and survived the destruction of the aliens responsible for the plague that decimated humanity. Now he leads a small band of survivors across the shattered landscape of America, fighting off the forces of the living and the dead. The group races north pursuing a legend, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale: a town protected from the walking dead.

Tired of the war and his nomadic life, Slate follows the path to Sanctuary, even while doubting its existence. Along a journey filled with hordes of zombies, Slate and his companions face new enemies and find themselves pursued by the final weapon of the vanquished necros. Is sanctuary even possible on a dead Earth? And if so, is the cost more than Jubal Slate is willing to pay?

Even after alien invasion and zombie armies, Slate will discover that the worst horrors are home grown.

Nothing Beats eBook Samples

Blurbs? Not really reliable. Reviews? Another person's opinion which you may or may not value; they are not you and no two people have the exact same taste in anything.

Here's what my wife does with her iPad: she downloads ebook samples to see if she can get a feel for the writer and whether or not she'll enjoy their book. She sets a good example for me because I'll just download based on random recommendations or pretty book covers ;) and more likely than not get burned. Keep in mind that some books are given away free, the best darn sample ever.

In book stores of olden times, you would walk into the place and browse, but there are fewer opportunities to do that these days. So chuckle at the blurbs, take the online reviews into consideration and then read the e-sample. Logical, I suppose but it can't hurt to be reminded.

DEAD EARTH: SANCTUARY Available on Smashwords

The long wait is over for Dead Earth fans who use Smashwords. Click the link below to purchase the latest book in the Dead Earth saga: SANCTUARY!

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/293611

Kindle and Nook users don't have long to wait. The novel in these formats will be available any day now.

DTW Ebooks All Around

I know I post Kindle ebook links a lot, probably because I'm a big Amazon customer but my books can be found most anywhere ebooks are sold. Just search for my name and you might find some. For Dead Earth stuff you might want to search on Mark Justice's name because for some reason not all dealers list both authors of a novel. Also, it's strange that reviews for The Green Dawn on B&N get mixed in with Vengeance Road like they're the same books--In fact, now that I look, they don't even list The Green Dawn on B&N anymore. What a mess. Oh well. What can you do? It's all just product to some of them.

Thanks for buying my books. I really appreciate it. Let me know how you like them.

The SHADOWS EDGE Interview

Open any horror fiction anthology of recent vintage to the table of contents and chances are you will find the name "Simon Strantzas". Go directly to the author's website and you will discover he's published three critically acclaimed short story collections. But we're not discussing any of those wonderful achievements here; no, the topic here is SHADOWS EDGE, the new horror fiction anthology edited by Mr. Strantzas and published by Gray Friar Press.

DTW: I'm very excited to read this book. Please tell us how this project came about. Whose idea was SHADOWS EDGE?

SS: SHADOWS EDGE was my idea. I can't recall exactly its moment of conception, but likely I had been musing about what sort of anthology I'd like to edit should the opportunity ever come, and I realized the theme of thin places fit perfectly within my realm of interest and expertise, and yet was a topic I hadn't seen countless times already. This was in 2007, and I shared my thoughts with Gary Fry at Gray Friar Press. He was intrigued, but unable to commit at the time. I made half-hearted attempts afterward to find a publisher, and though others liked the idea, they too could not commit. At one point, I had a co-editor on board, and we had grand plans for the book to be a snapshot of the current "weird" scene, but once I heard about another pair of books being launched that would mine the same field of writers, the wind in my sails dissipated considerably and we called the project off.

But though I was done with the book, as they say the book was not done with me. As if out of nowhere, Gary Fry reappeared and asked if I remembered that idea I'd had years before, and if I was still interested in it. It took a while, but I realized I was.

DTW: I think this is your first time as editor of an anthology. What was the experience like?

SS: Equal parts thrilling and infuriating. Perhaps the best aspect of editing this book was making my dream-list of contributing authors and finding nearly all were willing to be part of the book. I still can't believe the line-up of stories I ended up with. The worst aspect was the grunt work of reading, re-reading, and editing the work of other writers while my own projects languished.

DTW: Tell us about some of the stories you selected and their authors.

SS: I can't possibly do justice to them all. There's a story inside that, I swear, reads as though the author was writing it just for me. Take everything I love in a story, mix it up, put it on the page, and you'd have this tale. Another was by a writer whose work I hadn't read much of before, but I took a chance and fell in love as soon as I read the piece. It's probably outside my guidelines for the book, but I loved it so much it went in. And then there's a tale that is amazing in how much it tells in so little space. What would have taken me a novella, this story manages in a few thousand words. It's a perfect gem. And these three stories aside, the book is filled with weird and strange greatness. In some ways, being an editor is easy: pick a group of incredibly gifted authors, give them a theme that appeals to them, and simply reap the rewards.

DTW: Do you plan on editing more anthologies any time soon? What can we expect next from you, Simon?

SS: More anthologies? I don't know. I really don't. They take a lot of time to do right, and time is so limited that I'd rather work on my own writing than others. There are some great anthologists out there, far better than me, at any rate, and I'd much rather read what they can do so I can write what only I can write. But, who knows? Time has a way of changing people's minds on a lot of things. SHADOWS EDGE is not the only book I had rumbling in the back of my brain. And it may turn out to not be the only one that comes to fruition.

In the interim, I'm hard at work on a new collection of my own fiction, one that I hope sees print in 2014. After that, things are a bit murky. But I like them murky. It keeps me excited about the possibilities.

Click here for Simon's website.

Click here for the Gray Friar Press site.

Interview with Author Douglas Clegg

One of the nicest and most talented guys in the spooky fiction writing biz took some time out to be interviewed by yours truly and--lucky you--here are the results!

DTW: Hi, Doug. How have you been?

DC: Great--enjoying a cozy winter here in New England, writing too much, now and then getting into trouble. Thanks for having me over at your blog, David.

DTW: Your ebooks are available everywhere. How has this format been treating you?

DC: I feel as if I was with the ebook in its earliest days--when I launched NAOMI in 1999 on the Internet, and my novella PURITY on cell phone in 2001. Way back when, during the wild west phase--before the Gold Rush hit and well before all these settlements grew around the ebook world.

I'd say, ebooks have treated me well--for years.

DTW: And as a follow up question, what are your thoughts on self-publishing now that basically anyone can do it?

DC: My thoughts are: good for the writers who are enjoying it. I've never thought poorly of self-publishing, even before ebooks. Publishing is publishing. 

DTW: What is your favorite Clegg book? And what is the fan favorite?

DC: I have six favorites of mine, and they're favorites because of what I feel I was able to do within them, as a writer. They are NEVERLAND, PURITY, ISIS, MORDRED BASTARD SON, THE PRIEST OF BLOOD, and THE HOUR BEFORE DARK. Every now and then another one--like THE CHILDREN'S HOUR or HALLOWEEN MAN or YOU COME WHEN I CALL YOU--sneaks back on that list.

Fan favorites--well, I think it depends on the fans of the particular books.  I hear from readers all the time, and everyone seems to have a different favorite.

I appreciate that any of my novels and stories have fans at all. I never set out to be the writer who consistently writes one kind of novel. My intention was always to follow the story--no matter what the story consists of--and forget everything else. Sometimes that means a fan of one story may not be a fan of another. 

DTW: What are you working on now?

DC: I've been writing like mad for a few years here without sending any of it out--and these new works have just taken me over. These include a short novella called DINNER WITH THE CANNIBAL SISTERS, one called THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO and a novella called MY FATHER'S MISTRESS. Plus, the novel I've worked on for about three solid years. 

I can say for a fact that DINNER WITH THE CANNIBAL SISTERS and the long-overdue novella MR. DARKNESS will be out in 2013, but I don't yet know about the others. I think I may also be able to get a short story out this year--I've been working on one for awhile, hoping to hit the right note with it. 

DTW: You have an ebook containing 16 short stories titled NIGHT ASYLUM (which I just purchased). When will we see additional collections like this one in electronic format?

DC: I'd have to write more short stories. I've always been a slower and more methodical writer than I think people in the genre have suspected. A handful of my novels took years to complete, and only another handful of them were written in brief periods of time. The same goes for my short stories--some seem to write themselves fairly quickly, and others take a long time to reach the end.

So, short answer is: once I have 8-13 new short stories, I probably will put out another collection.

DTW: Any reading recommendations before I let you go?

DC: I have several. A writer who had a huge influence on me as a child was John Collier.  Recently, I rediscovered Collier, and I think his short story, "Evening Primrose" may be one of the funniest and creepiest and most wonderful of short stories I've read.

I've also been falling in love with Steve Rasnic Tem's fiction, and would recommend reading his short story, "The Battering," which can be found in his collection called CITY FISHING. All the stories in CITY FISHING are provocative and beautifully done. He has this kind of poetic dystopian vision; if Franz Kafka and Ray Bradbury had a love child, he might have Tem's imagination.

This reminds me of another short story to recommend--a great one called "Toilet Paper Run" by Juleen Brantingham which is in an anthology called DEATH, edited by Stuart David Schiff,  Another one called "Child's Play" by Villy Sorenson in the Ramsey Campbell-edited anthology FINE FRIGHTS.

With short fiction, I could go on and on. My friend--and family, in my opinion--Matt Schwartz recommends a lot of short fiction to me, and that guy has impeccable taste in terms of identifying great fiction.

BIO: Douglas Clegg’s fiction explores the nature of evil, particularly with regards to the human heart, whether in his horror, fantasy or psychological thrillers. 

His published novels include ar Neverland, Isis, The Priest of Blood, and The Hour Before Dark.

Visit his site at http://douglasclegg.com/

Cover Art for Dead Earth: Sanctuary

Permuted Press will be releasing Mark Justice's and my new sf/horror novel sometime in the first half of 2013. Here are the cover and description.

After stopping a madman who controlled an undead army and barely surviving the destruction of the aliens responsible for the plague that decimated humanity, Jubal Slate leads a small band of humans across the shattered landscape of America, fighting off the forces of the living and the dead. The group races north pursuing a legend, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale: a town protected from the walking dead. Tired of the war and his nomadic life, Slate follows the path to Sanctuary, even while doubting its existence. Along a journey filled with hordes of zombies, Slate and his companions face new enemies and find themselves pursued by the final weapon of the vanquished necros. Is sanctuary even possible on a dead Earth? And if so, is the cost more than Jubal Slate is willing to pay?

Even after alien invasion and zombie armies, Slate will discover that the worst horrors are home grown.