The Ghoulish Times | 04/05/25
Hello and welcome to the latest issue of The Ghoulish Times. My name is Max Booth and this is my free spooky newsletter.
It’s been about a month since the last newsletter. Quite a bit has happened since then. We’ve hosted a whole dang book festival. We’ve released a new novella. We’ve revealed the front cover for a new collection. We’ve relaunched a podcast. We’ve…been busy, okay? And we’re going to recap all of it now. Or at least attempt to. Our memories aren’t the greatest these days. If we forget something obvious, feel free to beat the shit out of me at the bookshop (9330 Corporate Drive, Suite 702, Selma TX 78154). I’m closed on Sundays and Mondays, though, so don’t screw that up and show up when I’m not there. Maybe you’ll find a cool book to buy afterward. You never know.
A cool book like, perhaps, A Feast of Putrid Delights…
A FEAST OF PUTRID DELIGHTS
Our first title of 2025, Valentina Rojas’s A Feast of Putrid Delights, has officially been unleashed upon the world, and goddamn are y’all in for a true sickos buffet. First, here’s Matthew Revert’s cover art, along with some fun reader review excerpts:
Feast also recently received this pretty awesome write-up from Publishers Weekly, ICYMI:
It’s our first book of the year, and if this isn’t a mission statement of where we hope to take the press, I don’t know what is. It’s mean, it’s gross, it’s fun, and it’s…well, it’s ghoulish.
All webstore pre-orders have been mailed out. We still have a couple signed author stickers left, so if you wanted to snag one, simply order a paperback from our WEBSTORE (act fast). Here’s Valentina signing the cards last month:
If you’re near our actual bookstore, stop on by and pick up a copy! Make sure to ask about getting an author sticker from us, too. We have them hiding…
Otherwise, you can purchase Feast elsewhere, such as Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, The Little Gay Bookshop, and other indie bookstores! If your local brick & mortar doesn’t have it in stock, politely request they remedy the situation! Right now the eBook is only available via our webstore, but it’ll begin trickling in at the other usual places within the next day or so.
ISSUES WITH AUTHORITY COVER REVEAL
Over on the Night Worms socials, we revealed the cover art for Nadia Bulkin’s new collection Issues with Authority. Check it out:
Illustration by Svetlana Radayeva; Cover Design by Matthew Revert
Shirley Jackson Award-Nominated author Nadia Bulkin’s sophomore collection ISSUES WITH AUTHORITY drenches the reader in a sensory overload of power, belief, and horrifying transformation.
Included within these pages: Bulkin’s much-anticipated novella “Red Skies in the Morning,” about a world filled with RING-style chain curses that the government is frantically trying to control, plus the novelette: “Your Next Best American Girl”—which is a little like if David Cronenberg had made Miss Congeniality—and an original novella written for the collection titled “Cop Car”—in which a psychic government “fixer” discovers her true psychopathic calling.
Publication Date: September 16, 2025
All paperback pre-orders will receive a signed author sticker from Nadia Bulkin. PRE-ORDER HERE.
GHOULISH BOOK FESTIVAL 2025 RECAP
I have a note here to write a long, entertaining, heartwarming recap for last month’s Ghoulish Book Festival. But in truth, it’s been weeks, and my brain is elsewhere.
It was fun. People seemed to have a good time. It wasn’t as busy as previous years. Locals still showed up to buy a shit-ton of books. The panels were fun.
I missed all of my friends who couldn’t make it for a variety of reasons.
It happened and then it ended and that’s that, mattress man.
Will we do it again? I don’t know. We’ve hosted it for the last four years and we’re very tired. The country continues to get worse and worse. It doesn’t feel right encouraging my trans friends to visit Texas or the United States right now. Sometimes I fear it’ll never feel right again.
So I don’t know.
Right now it doesn’t seem likely we’ll continue it, at least not for a couple years. Maybe if things start feeling a bit safer, but nobody can ever accuse me of being an optimist.
So I don’t know.
We’ll still continue doing events at our bookstore, though. Plus, we’ll be hosting another horror book market at this year’s Fantastic Fest in September—but don’t tell anyone I told you that yet. They haven’t announced programming this early.
So if we end up never doing another traditional Ghoulish Book Festival again, I hope you were able to attend a previous year—and if you did, thank you for showing up and supporting something truly DIY. It’s been fun. Utterly fucking exhausting, but fun.
Also, we printed way too many festival t-shirts this year. Here is the design:
If you’d like to buy one as a little souvenir, or even as a thank-you for putting on such a cool event, we sure would appreciate some help getting these off our hands. We’ve even discounted them by 25% (the discounted is automatically applied during checkout). Snag one here while supplies last.
Thanks.
THE RETURN OF THE GHOULISH PODCAST
It’s been six months since the last episode of the GHOULISH podcast. I debated throwing in the towel for good, but some sick part of my brain convinced me to return, and that is what has happened. We even have a new theme song, courtesy of Taylor Fox!
Here are some recent episodes you might’ve missed…
202 - A FEAST OF PUTRID PODCASTS WITH VALENTINA ROJAS!
On this week’s episode of GHOULISH, Valentina Rojas joins me to celebrate the release of her debut novella, A FEAST OF PUTRID DELIGHTS. We talk about insomnia, drugs, time travel, chefs, video games, curses, and many other ghoulish topics. Also, despite there being a 6-month gap between episodes, this is somehow still the second consecutive episode of the podcast where I brought up the alternate ending of THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT. What is wrong with my brain?
LISTEN: https://ghoulish.rip/the-ghoulish-podcast-returns-with-a-feast-of-putrid-podcasts/
203 - VACATION HORROR WITH LESLY JULIEN!
On this week’s GHOULISH, Lesly Julien stops by to discuss vacation horror tropes, define what “woods” are, help me speculate what FROM DUSK TILL DAWN would have been like if the Wet Bandits from HOME ALONE had instead been battling vampires at the Titty Twister, and give a general run-down of what it’s like publishing DIY horror comics. Shady gas stations! Dogs puking in cars! Impatient drivers! Ghost-like women begging for their children back in complete darkness! It’s the vacation horror episode, baby!
LISTEN: https://ghoulish.rip/ghoulish-podcast-ep-203-vacation-horror-with-lesly-julien/
204 - FOUND FOOTAGE IN HORROR LIVE @ THE GHOULISH BOOK FESTIVAL!
From the Blair Witch Project to the cursed camcorder you discovered on the side of the road. Why are we so fascinated with found footage in horror? What about it separates itself from other subgenres? And what are some of the best examples in both film and literature?
Panelists: Johnny Compton, Trevor Henderson, R.C. Hausen, Susan Snyder. Moderator: Miguel Myers.
Recorded live at the 2023 Ghoulish Book Festival.
LISTEN: https://ghoulish.rip/ghoulish-204-found-footage-in-horror-live-the-ghoulish-book-festival/
WHAT’S NEXT?
The work continues. Ryan C. Bradley’s Say Uncle drops at the end of April. You should pre-order it from us. All paperback pre-orders before the 11th of this month will be personalized & signed by the author.
Also, Saturday April 26th is the bookshop’s two-year anniversary, so we plan to do an all-day celebration of both the anniversary, Indie Bookstore Day, and Ryan’s book release. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We don’t have all the details yet of what we’re doing, but in classic Max Booth tradition I will soon be freaking out and frantically figuring everything out.
Stay tuned…but also, save the date. April 26th. Ghoulish Books. Be there.