Happy Ghouloween
First, let me acknowledge something. I fully recognize that “Ghouloween” is a terrible word. But I need you to understand that I’ve had an extremely long day, it’s after midnight, and I am very tired. “Ghouloween” is the best you’re getting from me in this newsletter. I refuse to apologize for this, and I refuse to apologize for anything else, too. I will never accept responsibility for my actions. I am innocent. I am pure. I just bit my finger eating a tiny pretzel. I’m not sorry about that, either.
Here is the first thing I need to tell you.
GHOUL ’R TREAT
Today is Halloween and we are both a small press and indie bookstore specializing in horror fiction. Obviously we are doing a little thing celebrating the occasion. This should not be surprising to anybody. But what are we doing? Well, starting right now (or, actually, starting at 12:00am CST which is when I started this newsletter) and ending at 11:59pm CST, everything (besides gift cards & subscriptions) in our webstore will be automatically discounted by 20% upon checkout. You can find our webstore HERE. Alternatively, you can receive the same discount if you are a local ghoul and wish to shop at our physical bookstore in downtown San Antonio. Our hours for today are 12pm-8pm. We will also have candy available for any costumed trick ’r treaters.
Speaking of Halloween, I recruited 13 local horror writers to knock out 100-word flash fiction pieces for the San Antonio Current. I think it turned out to be a really fun read. Check it out HERE.
Last night I drove down to Austin and participated in Mu! Ha! Ha! Storytime at Radio Coffee & Beer. I read an excerpt from my novel-in-progress, Honeyvine, which is this lengthy small-town drama about…uh, an evil baseball? I’m not finished with the book yet and I have no idea when I will be. Lately, writing productivity has been mostly nonexistent. Anyway, there was a video recorded of the event, which you can watch below:
My reading starts at 23:20 but you should watch the whole thing, imho.
LAST DAY FOR SHIRTS & BAGS
Today is the last day to pre-order our BANNING BOOKS ONLY MAKES US SCARIER design. We have shirts, tanks, and tote bags available.
Order HERE (you’ll even get 20% off today, don’t forget!). We will get these printed throughout November and hopefully have them shipped out before December. Thank you.
MOTHER-EATING IS HERE
In case you missed the news, Jess Hagemann’s Mother-Eating officially released last Tuesday. This is the latest publication from Ghoulish Books, and we couldn’t be more thrilled about it.
I first met Jess Hagemann back in 2018 or 2019. We both had novels come out through the same (now defunct) small press. Her novel, Headcheese, absolutely blew me away. It gave me the same excited, dangerous feeling I used to get as a kid while reading early Chuck Palahniuk. Sometime around then I thought, Man, it would be really sick if I ever got the opportunity to publish this person through my own small press. Many years later, that's exactly what we've done—and, reader, let me tell you: it is sick. It's very sick. It is perhaps the sickest.
Jess Hagemann's second novel, Mother-Eating, is billed as a documentary because it's written as a series of transcripts from the surviving members of a deranged cult. It's also a modern retelling of Marie Antoinette's reign as the queen of France, set in Austin, Texas. Instead of marrying her daughter off to King Louis, Resa Habsburg sells Mary Toni to a pseudo-religious torture-happy sex cult in exchange for a TV contract.
After Daniel Kraus (Whalefall, Angel Down) read an early copy, he declared that "Hagemann might be the best horror writer in America," and you know what? Difficult to disagree with this.
Check out the book jacket below (artwork by James Hutton, text design by Zach Chapman):
For those curious, the artwork is based on real 18th-century political caricatures of Marie Antoinette, such as this one:
We held an early signing for Mother-Eating at our physical bookshop in San Antonio last weekend. Here is Jess Hagemann at her table with many, many copies of the beautifully red tome:
You can read the first chapter of Mother-Eating for free HERE. Watch a video of Jess Hagemann reading from the book on our YouTube channel below:
Over on CrimeReads, Jess Hagemann wrote a guest article educating us all on five important horror hubs in Central Texas. Read the article HERE.
Mother-Eating received pretty much a perfect review yesterday in the Austin Chronicle:
"Mother-Eating is gruesome, ambitious, and meticulously written. It is not an easy book to read, nor is it meant to be. Jess Hagemann demonstrates both sick imagination and exquisite craft, delivering a story that is as horrifying as it is captivating. The book may not be for everyone, but it is undeniably unlike anything else on the shelf."
Read the full review HERE.
The Blog Without a Face also published a great review, which you can read HERE. Side-note: I’ve been loving this blog a lot lately. It’s rare, imho, to find such thoughtful long-form criticism being written. Check them out!
But most importantly, you can simply buy a signed copy of the book HERE (order it before midnight tonight and get it 20% off from us!). Alternatively, check out Jess Hagemann's book tour dates on her website HERE.
Now, finally, we end today’s newsletter with a brief conversation between Mindy Rose (our assistant editor) and Jess Hagemann. That’s right. It’s a GHOULGAB!
Mindy: what got you interested in Marie Antoinette and why did you decide to reimagine her story?
Jess Hagemann: Sofia Coppola, first. Her film take on the French queen is sumptuous and delightful and dark in all the best ways. It wasn't until I found out I "share a common ancestor" with Marie Antoinette, though (thanks 23&Me--a gift from my sweet mother-in-law) that I really dove into learning more about her story, which IMHO is, despite her royal upbringing, really a story of oppression, repression, and mother trauma. I set my version in present-day because I wanted her story to feel alive.
Mindy: so technically you're basically royalty
Jess Hagemann: Somewhere way back there maybe?!
Mindy: that's pretty cool
Mindy: you could use that to your advantage probably
Jess Hagemann: If some Austrian noble wants to pay off my remaining grad school loans, I would not say no.
Mindy: hell yeah
Mindy: is there anything you'd like people to know before reading the book?
Jess Hagemann: Mother-Eating won't be for everyone. It's called a "documentary" on the cover because it's written as transcripts of interviews with former cult members. So readers shouldn't go in expecting traditional exposition or world-building, or even chapters. No narrator is reliable. And the violence made at least one early reviewer throw her Kindle. You've been warned.
Mindy: were there any books or media that you found inspiring during the writing process?
Jess Hagemann: Chuck P's Rant and George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo are great examples of similarly structured oral histories. French film Martyrs (2008) is, like Mother-Eating, about a religious group that uses torture to bring people closer to God. Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse and Dennis Cooper's The Sluts showed me it's okay to push the occasional boundary.
Mindy: do you have any writing habits that are weird or bizarre or are you pretty chill about it?
Jess Hagemann: I write everything longhand the first time. Then I transcribe it. Then I throw it out and write the thing again, trusting I'll remember the most important bits. Writing is telling yourself the story first.
Mindy: you rewrite the entire story from memory?
Jess Hagemann: I use v2 (the transcribed version) to build a detailed outline, then rewrite it based on that. I can't take credit for the method. It's Matt Bell's, from Refuse to Be Done.
Mindy: that is wild
Mindy: what made you want to work with ghoulish and what's that process been like for you?
Jess Hagemann: I met Max when we both had books come out from another publisher. But I still didn't expect them to pick my story from the Ghoulish slush pile, and I was thrilled when they did.
Jess Hagemann: Max gives great notes. Hire them for freelance editing!
Mindy: are there any other ghoulish titles you've particularly enjoyed?
Jess Hagemann: Pocketknife Kitty by Shannon Riley is so much fun, and Bury Your Gays is awesome if you like bleak. The Ghoulish Tales magazine offers something for everyone.
Jess Hagemann: I also have a huge Ghoulish TBR, including Warren Wagner's The Only Safe Place Left Is the Dark.
Mindy: pocketknife kitty is a fav of mine as well!
Mindy: what advice would you give to aspiring horror writers?
Jess Hagemann: Read constantly so you know what's out there (and therefore how you can add to or subvert it!), and listen to podcasts with horror authors/filmmakers discussing their wins and challenges because it's inspiring and will make you feel less alone during the otherwise solitary pursuit of writing. For the same reason, attend horror fests when you can to meet other writers. Your network matters in publishing as much as it does in your day job.
Mindy: beautiful
Mindy: last question: how do you feel about daniel kraus saying you "might be the best horror writer in america" ?
Jess Hagemann: It's exceedingly generous and blows my mind because I admire what he does so much. Have you read Angel Down? The dang thing is written as one single long gorgeous sentence!
Mindy: it's always really beautiful to me when writers are vocal about admiring and appreciating each other's work
Jess Hagemann: We have to champion each other. This thing we're doing is hard.
Mindy: agreed.
Mindy: this was lovely, jess, thank you so much for letting me gab you!
Jess Hagemann: Thank you, Mindy!
Get a signed copy of Mother-Eating HERE.