New Collection, New Publisher

In my previous entry I alluded to an upcoming new short story collection and described the process of pulling together the stories for that collection. Many of you reading this will no doubt have already heard the news from various other sources earlier this week, but I'll go ahead and formally announce it here, as this blog essentially functions as my official site.

The title of the collection is Highways To Hell and that "publisher-to-be-named" is Deadite Press. The release date for the collection is April of this year. The content of the collection has largely been decided, though we are still working to finalize the lineup. Yes, the title is an allusion to the AC/DC song "Highway To Hell." No shit, right? The reason I selected that name is pretty straightforward. As I was reviewing the stories under consideration, I noted that several of them could, in one sense or another, be described as "road stories". Because I am a horror writer, they are a particularly nasty and, well, hellish take on that trope. Not all of the stories in the collection fall into that niche, but enough of them do that the title feels appropriate. It also dovetails nicely with another of the stories included, "Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be", which originally appeared in Necro's Edward Lee tribute anthology Infernally Yours. Many of you may also recognize that story title as the name of an AC/DC song. Again, no accident, as the protagonist of the story, a serial killer, runs into the late AC/DC singer Bon Scott in hell after committing suicide.

Another story that should be of particular interest in Highways To Hell is "Pizza Face", which is a story slated to eventually appear in Cemetery Dance's Richard Laymon tribute anthology In Laymon's Terms. A lot of you are likely familiar with the saga of that long-delayed tome. For a lot of reasons to which I am not privy, publication of that anthology has been delayed for several years. The story was accepted in early 2003. The people at CD kindly allowed me to use the story for my new collection. It will still appear in In Laymon's Terms when that book is eventually published, but it felt right to include it in Highways To Hell as well.

Deadite Press will now function as my primary publisher. This is not to say my book length work will not appear elsewhere. You will occasionally see things from me by other publishers, including later this year. But 90% of my output will be done by Deadite. In addition to the collection, they will also be releasing new editions of my entire Leisure backlist, beginning with The Killing Kind in June. A new backlist title will follow every other month thereafter. In 2012 Deadite Press will publish a new original novel, The Killing Kind 2.

I'm in pretty good company with Deadite, who are also now the primary paperback publisher of horror luminaries Brian Keene, J.F. Gonzalez, Edward Lee, Wrath James White, and Robert Devereaux.

Pop on over to their site and pay them a visit. If you're a regular reader of my stuff, I think you'll like what you see.

http://www.deaditepress.com/