Welcome, welcome, to our first newsletter here at Wintry Monsters Press. Think of this as an expanded version of The Icy Column with our latest reviews, news/updates, promotions, previews, and more.
. . . WHAT’S GOING ON HERE . . .
For the past nine days, I’ve been on vacation from work. Originally, I was supposed to have gone to Ohio to look at houses and jobs but a series of events postponed all that. My daughter got sick with the stomach flu while I was struggling with a UTI. For days, my wife and I got nauseous, but luckily we never threw up like my daughter did (which she sadly did a lot). My son even got sick, but with a heavy cough that had him choking all hours of the night. I was also expecting a bunch of thunderstorms to make travel worse, which never happened (at least, not here in Tennessee). You see, I hate driving in the rain, especially in unfamiliar areas. Ohio is about a 7.5 hour drive from where we currently live, so to do that drive and look at houses in shitty weather would have been too stressful. So, for all these reasons, I continued to postpone the trip until my vacation was nearly up and there was no longer enough time to bother.
Luckily, some good still came from this time off from work. I finished a novel and a novella, which I will detail further below in this week’s newsletter. I also spent days playing with my kids, which I don’t get to do enough because of work. We spent a lot of time outside skateboarding, scootering, and playing with squirt guns. My daughter (5) recently decided she wants to be a “skater girl” after playing the Tony Hawk games, so I picked us up an Element deck. When I was a teenager, I was a skilled street skater that emulated Rodney Mullen and Eric Koston. However, with the exception of a few unsuccessful months in my mid-20s, I haven’t really ridden a board in about 18 years. Getting back into it with my daughter has been great fun. I really thought I’d have to relearn everything, but I’ve been able to pick up my ollies and kickflips immediately. It’s the rest of it that needs work.
It’s a shame my vacation–which took months to obtain enough PTO to cover–ended up having nothing to do with the move we’re trying to make, but I also think the break was much needed. My anxiety has been picking up recently so getting this time off to sleep in, write, read, spend time with my wife, and play with the kids did a lot of good. My head is much clearer than it was at the start of the month. Remember, your mental health is extremely important; if you ignore it, you will start functioning like shit. And that may not only affect you but the loved ones around you. I know firsthand.
. . . WRITING UPDATES . . .
This past Thursday, I finished a novel I’ve been working on haphazardly since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. It went from a short story to a novelette in 2019, then to a novella in 2020. A year later, it was extended enough to be considered a short novel by some. In 2021, I sent the book to a bunch of beta readers, including Daniel Barnett (author of the Nightmareland series), for their notes. A few of those readers gave me some wonderful insight, pointing out continuity errors, impossibilities, and ways to improve the character relations. There was one night on the phone with Daniel that went on for an hour or two. That conversation led to many of the changes found in the final product.
After those beta notes rolled in, I began chipping away at the novel over and over. This happened at random times between 2021 and this year. The novel was extended some 20k words during that time, and received numerous edits and changes to go with the new material. The entire finale was completely redone twice. Though I’ve loved every ending I tried with this story, the final one works best for the journey that is set to follow. But I digress. That novel has now been submitted to a publisher that enjoyed its earlier pitch. It is for this reason I haven’t named the book or provided any specific details about the story.
I am also finishing my Artifact of the Eye novella today, which is the first book in my Fucked series. Sometime in June, I will be releasing that myself with WMP. The second book in that series, Feed the Sky, was actually finished a year ago and spent a bit of time in purgatory waiting on a publisher to launch. After months of it kicking around, I was told to just take it elsewhere because the publisher didn't know when they'd ever take the public plunge. I’ve almost put out Feed the Sky on my own several times since receiving that news, but then I started another two stories in the same series. At first, I didn't expect them to be any longer than 30 pages each, give or take. So, the idea was to release them together as "prequel novelettes" to the Fucked series. But the one story kept going until it reached a high enough word count to be called a novella. That story became Artifact of the Eye (though it was previously titled Down by the Quarry with the Hanky-Panky). The other, set during medieval times, has yet to go beyond an outline. I'm not sure when or if I will ever write that other backstory because it wouldn't share any of the characters of FTS or AOTE if I did try to get it done before the others (it doesn’t make much sense to me to have two books come out in the 1990s and 2020s, then follow them with a third novella set hundreds of years earlier, before then jumping back to current day). As such, I’m not too sure that story will ever be written. If I do get around to doing it–the idea is a fun one, after all–I would probably end up publishing it as a “lost” entry of the series, in the sense that King’s The Wind Through the Keyhole came out after The Dark Tower series had ended, yet it takes place somewhere in the middle of that timeline.
Truthfully, I could go on and on with additional updates to projects on the way this year, but I’ll wrap it here for this week’s newsletter.
. . . RECENT REVIEWS AND EDITORIAL . . .
Our Own Unique Affliction by Scott J. Thomas
“Told through a swirl of hallucinations, memories, desires, and the bleakness of desiring an escape from immortality, Our Own Unique Affliction offers a dark and unexpected look into vampires and the cursed lives they lead. It is surprisingly deep and sadly satisfying.”
Read the full review here.
Polyphemus by Zachary Ashford
“Polyphemus is a love letter to heavy metal and horror. With addiction and obsession at the forefront, you can expect the swallowing darkness of this novel to fuel you toward its final dying page.”
Read the full review here.
The Night Mother by John Everson
“This is a darkly perverse novel of extremes–extreme love, extreme betrayal, extreme violence… The Night Mother is all about upping the brutality of life and its most difficult to come by desires.”
Read the full review here.
Other titles I recently read include Let Him In by William Friend, Spin a Black Yarn by Josh Malerman, and The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa Matlin. Just click the title to be linked to their full reviews.
Also, about a month ago, Samuel M. Hallam and Andrew Jackson allowed WMP to host the prologue of their novelette, Project Jotunheim, on our website. You can read those opening pages here. Samuel also answered some questions about the story and how it came to be here.
. . . CURRENTLY READING . . .
I’m always juggling a few titles at once. This is partly due to my review assignments and deadlines, but mostly it’s because of my ADHD. I’m not only a mood reader, but my attention span is often too scattered to read one story for long before jumping to something else (no matter how much I’m enjoying it).
I am currently 50% into The Devil’s Pocketbook by Ross Jeffery. Though this isn’t my first time reading Ross–I covered Milk Kisses and Other Stories a year ago or so–this is the first time I’ve caught one of his longer titles. This novel is releasing from Darklit Press later this month; mark your calendars for the 23rd!
I am also reading Night of the Bunny by Derek Heath (his second novella this year) and Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror from Ghoulish Books and edited by Lor Gislason (author of Inside Out). When it comes to anthologies, I practically never sit down and read them from start to finish. I generally just pick up stories at random when I’m in the mood for something quick. With Bound in Flesh, I’ve handled four of the stories so far. They’ve all been winners, but the first one has certainly been my favorite so far.
My upcoming titles for review consideration include Edenville by Sam Rebelein, Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson, Godly Heathens by H. E. Edgmon, The Sacrament: A Religious Horror Anthology from DarkLit Press, and Lacuna’s Point by Tim Meyer. I hope to get to one or two of these before the next issue of WMP Dark Fiction Magazine is ready for publication in July.
. . . CURRENTLY WATCHING . . .
I don’t sit down to watch TV all that often, but I’ve reviewed several movies in the last month or two. Some aren’t available on the website yet because they’re set to appear in Prompted Hell (our July magazine) first.
Read my thoughts on Scream VI here, and my thoughts on John Wick 4 here.
I am currently looking forward to watching the Hugh Howey adaptation of Silo on Apple+ soon. I started the first episode, but didn’t get to finish it because the kids pulled me away from it.
If you like the dissection of shows and/or movies, you should check on my in-depth discussion of The Last of Us in our introductory issue, Rise Above, available now. Get it here. More info on this issue can be found further down in this newsletter.
. . . PREVIEW . . .
The following excerpt comes from Artifact of the Eye, publishing this June.
His dreams were uncomfortable. Dark. Violent. He never dreamed like this, so why now? Out here in the woods with the family? There was blood and gore and screaming. He saw his kids brutally murdered again and again, unable to wake himself. Then there was an eye–singular, enormous, and glowing–firing toward him like a missile. When he made impact with it, he was suddenly drowning in a thick, sticky substance that was filling his throat and suffocating him. His body spasmed with painful electricity, stretching his limbs far from his body as if to tear him apart.
Artifact of the Eye launches my new extreme horror series appropriately titled Fucked.
The Synopsis: A family of four visits a quarry during a summer camping trip in hope that it will help mend their relationships with one another. While playing a diving and retrieval game with his kids, Richard finds a strangely shaped carving underwater that seems to pulse with heat. He pockets it and tells no one. The next morning, he leaves camp to visit the watering hole on his own and realizes there’s a cave nearby with strange markings and bones inside. Though he tries to sleep, horrible dreams plague him. But they’re nothing compared to the beautiful stranger that has been watching them from afar. She’s looking for something and is willing to kill for it.
You can also read the prologue of Feed the Sky (book two in the series–don’t worry, they can be read out of order) in our introductory magazine issue, Rise Above. That novella is due out in October, just a few months after Artifact of the Eye. I don’t want to keep waiting for long between entries if I can help it!
. . . PROMOTIONS . . .
By becoming a subscriber to our newsletter, you can have a FREE ebook copy of Damned Hunger: Four Terrors by Aiden Merchant. Whenever I see a subscriber added to my mailing list, I will send out a separate email from Substack that will include the free ebook. In other words, if you’re a subscriber reading this, you should have a separate email from wintrymonsterspress@gmail.com with this promotion. If you don’t see it, feel free to contact me.
In Damned Hunger, a werewolf hunt ends in gore, siblings get lost through a portal, an entire carnival is swallowed alive, and an unhappy teen stumbles across a cavern of monsters that have just risen from their hibernation.
If you can get any of your friends to become subscribers to this newsletter (by letting me know which email they’ll be using, that way I can check to see if they’re on my mailing list), I’ll also send you a FREE ebook copy of Horrific Holidays, which covers New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. This collection is very gruesome at times, and just as wild and weird.
. . . THE CURRENT ISSUE OF WMPDFM . . .
Our introductory issue, Rise Above, released at the start of April this year. It is available in ebook and paperback. Get it here! Inside, you’ll find:
SHORT FICTION
Of Hunger and Other Creatures by Wailana Kalama
The Thing in the Hills by Andrew Jackson
The Demon Who Lives in Miriam’s Sinuses by Jennifer Jeanne McArdle
By the Harvest You Reap by Rob D. Smith
INTERVIEWS
Catherine Cavendish
Daniel Barnett
Shelly Campbell
V. Castro
Harriet Everend
Lor Gislason
Andrew Robert (DarkLit Press)
Mark Allan Gunnells (Regarding When It Rains)
Brennan LaFaro
Chad Lutzke
Caitlin Marceau
Janine Pipe
Ellie Roy (E. M. Roy)
Andrew Post (Regarding Milk Teeth)
PREVIEWS
The Broken Darkness by Theresa Braun
Day of the Mummy by Derek Heath
Tales from the Green Chair by Samuel M. Hallam
Sickness is in Season by Aiden Merchant
Milk Teeth by Andrew Post
Feed the Sky by Wesley Winters
ARTICLES
Writing Prompts
Ten Favorite Anthology Appearances
Common Errors in Writing: Using Quotation Marks
Four Recommended Books on Writing and Publishing
Common Errors in Writing: Similes and Metaphors … 165
HIGHLIGHTS
A Movie Night with M3GAN
A Movie Night with Knock at the Cabin
Quick Shot Book Reviews
Featured Book: Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros
Featured Book: Mister Magic by Kiersten White
Deep Diving into The Last of Us HBO Adaptation
Author Trading Cards
Featured Book: Inside Out by Lor Gislason
Featured Book: Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates
Featured/Anticipated Releases of 2023
. . . THE NEXT ISSUE OF WMPDFM . . .
In July, Prompted Hell is set to release. At the moment, I can’t reveal too much of the content that will be found inside, but the following pieces are currently confirmed:
Book reviews of The Once Yellow House by Gemma Amor, The After-Death of Caroline Rand by Catherine Cavendish, Connection Lost and Other Dark Tales by Gillian Church, and the titles previously noted in this newsletter under RECENT REVIEWS AND EDITORIAL.
Movie reviews of Escape the Field, Renfield, Evil Dead Rise, Cocaine Bear, and Significant Other.
A new music corner of reviews from Thomas Lehane, including the latest releases from Sleep Token, Illenium, grandson, Brand of Sacrifice, Veil of Maya, and more.
Two novel previews, including Raven’s Creek by David-Jack Fletcher and The Local Truth by Carlos E. Rivera.
I’m also hoping to include some artist profiles, a few author interviews, best single-author story collections, writing tips, and a brand new novelette that will appear first in Prompted Hell before getting a solo release later in the year.
. . . CLOSING WORDS . . .
Thank you for joining me today for our first newsletter. I hope you return next week! Please spread the word so that we can build enough of an audience to include more in these emails.