VERY SAD NEWS today from the independent bookstore world. Borderlands Books in San Francisco is being forced to close. Independent bookstores are always a slim margin business, and the new minimum wage hike voted in for San Francisco will ultimately up their payroll expenses by nearly 40%. The bookstore is stable now, but will not be viable once the law fully takes effect. Borderlands has been in my life for most of the years I’ve…
I’M PROUD TO BE the February “Guest Writer” in the new issue of THE HORROR ZINE which just went live today! Check out the magazine online — they are featuring my story “After The Fifth Step” – one of my favorite stories to read aloud to an audience. It was originally written for the 2002 anthology Freaks, Geeks & Sideshow Floozies and had also been collected in my short fiction books Vigilantes of Love and…
I WAS BUMMED I couldn’t be there for the race (currently on a business trip), but I’m excited that Shaun continued his streak of winning “Creative” awards for his Pinewood Derby Car. This is the 4th “video game” car I’ve helped him build for the annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby (following Angry Birds, Minecraft and Dragonvale) and while we’ve never built the fastest cars… they hold their own. Tonight he placed 2nd, 2nd, 2nd!
I’M PRETTY EXCITED that the Horror Novel Reviews web site picked my 8th novel, The Family Tree, as one of their Top 10 Horror Novels of 2014! The list includes books by Stephen King, Joe R. Landsdale and Eric Red. You can see the full list and book descriptions here: http://horrornovelreviews.com/2014/12/25/the-top-10-horror-novels-of-2014/ HNR called the book “a crazy, crazy engaging story that leads readers down an exciting but unexpected path. Awesome characters, awesome conflict, awesome setup,…
EVERY YEAR ON NEW YEAR’S EVE, I sit down to contemplate the past 12 months. I used to do this in a paper journal, but the past few years I’ve done it here on my blog. It’s a great way to remember and document where I’ve been, take a deep breath, and get ready for a new merry-go-round. Over the past few years, I’ve traveled a lot for the dayjob, and on my end-of-year blog…
