The Ghoulish Times | 02.28.24
Hello and welcome to the latest issue of The Ghoulish Times. My name is Max Booth III and this is my spooky newsletter for all things ghoulish.
Anyway, if you're wondering what it's like to live a day in the life of a horror writer and publisher, yesterday I finally got caught up on COVID boosters and flu shots (maybe a little late for flu season, though) and then spent half the night massaging my dog's butt with a warm washcloth in a desperate attempt to dislodge an obstruction. It worked, I am happy to say. Here is a photo of the dog, post-massage.
His name is Conan O'Brien and today he's feeling much better. My left arm, however, is screaming with pain from yesterday's injections. Thankfully, no other side effects to report. I realize now that I should not be telling the internet which of my arms is in pain. Any maniac could read this and track me down and punch me in the very same arm. But that's one of the risks you have to take when you're in this business: strangers punching you in the arm and sometimes other places. [I wrote all of the material about the dog and my arm on Tuesday. Which meant it all occurred on Monday. It is now Wednesday as I complete this newsletter. If you are prepared to fact check me, you're going to have to try harder than that. Also, two days later and my arm still hurts. It could easily still be punched and I would feel an extra amount of pain than usual.]
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GHOULISH TALES SUBMISSION UPDATE
Speaking of people punching me, we're still considering submissions for Ghoulish Tales. Here are current submission stats (at the time of this newsletter's writing, at least): 2 accepted, 9 shortlisted, 9 withdrawn, 400 rejected, and 0 unread. Deadline isn't until the end of March, so there's still plenty of time to send something in. Check out our guidelines. And check out a sneak peek of Betty Rocksteady's cover art for issue 3.
Issue 2 will be coming out officially later this week or at the beginning of next week. If you haven't already ordered a copy, consider doing so. Physical copies are on the way to our offices as we speak, if a newsletter can be considered speaking. I never went to college so I don't feel educated enough to say one way or the other. So let's just please move on for now.
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GHOULISH BOOK FESTIVAL PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Earlier today we finally announced the official program schedule for Ghoulish Book Festival 2024, which is...nearly two weeks away now.
Click here to check out our schedule.
Panels, readings, signings, contests, workshops, etc await you. As usual, the schedule was incredibly exhausting to put together and I'm greatly looking forward to the Big Sleep that will swallow me whole on the Monday proceeding the festival. It cannot come soon enough.
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THE DAY OF THE DOOR CONTEST
Did you know all paperbacks of THE DAY OF THE DOOR pre-ordered before March 1st from our webstore will come personally signed by Laurel Hightower? It's true!
Look at that Trevor Henderson artwork! Look at that Hailey Piper blurb! Don't you wanna get scared like a little baby?
There are 2 ways to pre-order a personally signed copy.
Option 1 includes pre-ordering only TDotD: https://ghoulish.rip/product/the-day-of-the-door/
Option 2 includes pre-ordering our entire 2024 publication line-up by securing a Ghoulish membership: https://ghoulish.rip/product/2024-ghoulish-membership/
Also, as extra incentive, anybody who pre-orders the paperback from any of the above options by this Friday will also be entered into a contest to win four other signed books by Laurel Hightower.
All you gotta do is pre-order by Friday.
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PODCASTS
HOUSEOF1000BOOKS - I was recently interviewed on the HouseOf1000Books podcast about the making of We Need to Do Something. I also teased a little bit about my next novel, I Believe in Mister Bones. Listen to it here.
SMALL TOWN CREEPY - Kayli Scholz (author of Saint Grit) was interviewed on the Small Town Creepy podcast. Listen to the episode here.
GHOULISH - I interviewed Tim Meyer (author of Rainbow Filth) on the GHOULISH podcast about trippy horror, psychedelic drugs, and growing up as a Goosebumps kid. Listen to it here.
MY HORROR CONFESSIONAL - Miguel Myers welcomed Jenny Kiefer to his classic horror movie podcast to discuss Anaconda. Listen to their conversation here.
DECAYED TAPES - Miguel and I recorded another episode of our SOV horror movie podcast. This time, we talked about David A. Prior’s Sledgehammer from 1983, the very first SOV horror movie released straight-to-video. A two-roomed slasher that gets creative with seances and spooooky ghost shenanigans? Sign us up! Just please, for the love of god, prepare yourselves for an atrocity of slow-motion editing effects. Also: which one of us once destroyed an entire couch with a sledgehammer so it’d fit into their trash cans? Tune in and find out!
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TRANSLATION NEWS
Here's something cool concerning my own writing. Earlier this week I was able to announce that La Biblioteca de Carfax will be publishing the Spanish translation of my story collection Abnormal Statistics. Spanish readers can look for its release in October 2025.
La Bibliotecha is also the press that put out the Spanish translation of We Need to Do Something, so I'm very excited to be working with them again on another book.
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WHAT I'M WORKING ON
This is a section of the newsletter where I talk about some stuff I'm working on, writing-wise. Assume, Ghoulish publishing-wise, that I'm up to my knees on various projects that I've either already talked about in this email or that I'm not allowed to discuss yet. I wear a lot of hats, and I need to make room to talk about my own writing more, I think, so I'm going to attempt to have a section in the newsletter going forward to talk about works in progress and upcoming publications.
Right now I'm actively working on four books. Those are...
THE 'DILLO - This is a novella, and I think I'm nearly finished with it. It's about a man who gets obsessed with killing an armadillo after his wife leaves him for another man. I have fun publishing plans for this one that I'm choosing to keep a secret for now, but you should be hearing more about it soon.
THE BOOK OF FRANK - A collection of flash fiction about my dog Frank. I am behind on this collection and owe all of last year's Kickstarter backers a copy. I'm hoping to have it ready by the summer, which isn't ideal, but it's the best I can do right now.
I BELIEVE IN MISTER BONES - This will be my next novel, planned to come out later this October through Apocalypse Party. Really excited about this one! It's not quite finished yet, but I'm actively working on it and anticipate no issues with turning it in on our agreed-upon deadline. The most I'll say about it is it's about a small press specializing in horror fiction operated by a man and wife who lose their minds after receiving an unsolicited manuscript in their inbox. I've been pitching it to people as The Cipher meets In the Mouth of Madness.
SHE CREEPS - A vampire novel I started in the summer of 2019. I am over the halfway point on it, writing-wise. Currently no publisher attached so I'll have my agent shop it around once we decide it's ready to be seen. The reason I've been working on it so long is I've stopped multiple times to focus on other projects. Since beginning the novel in 2019, I've written several other books (such as Maggots Screaming!, Indiana Death Song, The Last Haunt, and the currently-trunked crime novel Casanova Curbstomp), I've launched a book fest, a bookstore, I've gotten married, I've lost my mind following the sudden death of my mother, and I've probably done a thousand other things I'm blanking on. But the point is, this book has never been totally forgotten, and if anything it's benefitted from such a long gestation period. I've tweaked the outline a lot and really cemented what kind of vampire story I wish to tell. Although I do admit it's been weird, spending so many years working on a book that essentially takes place in one day.
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Well, I think that's it for now. There are probably other things I should talk about. But I am tired of typing and I am sure you are tired of reading. I hope you are okay and I hope everything works out for you. I love you.
Here is a photo of me and my dog Frank being normal on the couch together:
-max