Into the Obscuradrome #23
Hello. I’m Bob Pastorella, co-host of the This Is Horror podcast, website manager for This Is Horror, and writer. I’m the author of Mojo Rising, They’re Watching (with Michael David Wilson), and have numerous short-stories and non-fiction online and in print in various publications.
Hey, longtime no see.
Firing this thing back up. Hello 2025!
Knocking the dust off this thing, though I’m finding some of the settings here a little wonky. Like, I redid the preamble at the top, but so far I’m not seeing the changes made when I look at the preview. Maybe that’s just a glitch and the changes will appear in the final product, or maybe I didn’t save the changes (I did, in fact, save the changes), but I’ll get it right before long.
First, new things: The Small Hours, my splatterpunk vampire novel, releases from Ghoulish Books in June 2025. (««« Click the link to pre-order). I’m super excited about this book, and after recently seeing the cover art by the always incredible Betty Rocksteady, which captures the vibe so well, my excitement is threatening to boil over. It’s sexy, funny, and gory, as all good vampire stories should be. Well, maybe not funny all the time. My current WIP, also a vampire story, is not funny, or at least it’s not in-your-face funny. But The Small Hours is definitely fun, but not without serious loss and grief.
Sometime this month, over at my patreon, I’ll be serializing my novella The Killjoys Were Here. This is a home-invasion story from hell, literally. It’s basically about a young couple who happen to be serial killers. They target other couples and leave ghastly crime scenes in their wake. This new couple they’ve targeted seem perfect, until they’re not, and soon our serial killers find themselves facing a horror of cosmic dimensions. Transgressive, gory, cosmic and nihilistic, there were scenes in this one that were difficult to write. There’s some serious violence here, but this is NOT extreme horror. The cool thing about what I plan to do over at my patreon is post chapters, then post the chapters after the 2nd round edits, so readers can see the changes. This will be a paid tier, though I’m not exactly sure how I’ll handle the final drafts, as I’m considering subbing it for publication.
As for this newsletter, I hope to get back on monthly releases, with my patreon providing more weekly musings. With that said, I’m glad you’re here.
Here’s to a great 2025!
peace&love
Bob