HorrorTalk on FANGBOY

HorrorTalk has posted a review of Fangboy, saying such sweet things as “The dark humor in this book is fantastic.” Click HERE to read the full review.

And now you can get the paperback edition from Amazon (for a mere $13.22!) HERE! Score!!!

Tales From The Yellow Rose Diner And Fill Station

So I was at the World Horror Convention, and author Sam W. Anderson asked me to sign one of my books, and I wrote “Compared to The Reverend’s Powder, this book SUCKS!!!” It was, of course, a clever reference to Sam’s novella, which I’d written about on my blog a while back.

He read the inscription, laughed, and said “You know that Erik Williams wrote The Reverend’s Powder, right?”

My world came crashing down in an avalanche of shame. He was right! Sam W. Anderson was, in fact, the author of the short story collection Postcards from Purgatory, which I had also written about on my blog. How could such a thing happen? Was there any possible explanation for my stupidity?

Yes. They’re both part of Snutch Labs, a six-author group of troublemakers. (Check out my 2009 chat with them right HERE.) They both write for Sideshow Press. The request for a Reverend’s Powder blurb mentioned the Postcards for Purgatory write-up. And right before WHC, Erik sent me Tales From The Yellow Rose Diner And Fill Station, which has both him and Sam. I say that if you’re going to choose to intertwine your fate so deeply with that of another human being, then dammit, at some point an author is going to reference the wrong book on an inscription.

Anyway, all six of the Snutch Labs deviants are present in T.F.T.Y.R.D.A.F.S. (The others are John Mantooth, Kim Despins, Petra Miller, and Kurt Dinan.) The book is comprised of six novelettes connected by scenes in-between, creating what they’re calling a “mosaic novel.“ Basically, you’ve got the connecting story that mostly takes place in the diner, and then each Snutcher does a backstory for the various characters lurking in there.

“Dying of the Light” by Erik Williams is a supernatural crime thriller about human trafficking over the Mexican border. “This is Where the Road Ends” by John Mantooth is about a drunk driver who hits a young boy and hides the body, a decision which causes some inconvenience as he tries to move on with his life. “Doshalo” by Kim Despins is about a gypsy curse. Let’s face it, we’ve all had that moment where we’ve been cursed by a gypsy, and it’s really annoying.

“Hate Crimes and Therapy Over Creamed Chipped Beef” by Sam W. Anderson (I’m looking at his name on the PDF right now, so I know this information is accurate) is the tender, cheery tale of a psychiatrist and a bounty hunter. “Knowing the Deal” by Petra Miller is about a man who foresees a gruesome future for his friend, in a story that has one doozy of a twist ending. Finally, “The Darkness Game” by Kurt Dinan is about a good girl who decides it’s time to be bad for a while, which she perhaps takes a smidgen too far.

The stories in Tales From The Yellow Rose Diner And Fill Station are all about the impact of really bad decisions. Stupid decisions, panicked decisions, and decisions that seem like perfectly good ones, even noble ones, until you realize that you’re missing a crucial bit of information. All six of the authors pull their own weight and deliver killer stories…which is good, because otherwise I’m sure it would be awkward for the one who screwed up. I can only imagine the humiliation if somebody were kicked out of Snutch Labs.

I’m not sure when this book is coming out, but when it does, grab it. In the meantime, check out the Snutch Labs website right here:

http://snutchlabs.wordpress.com/about/

Ursa Major

There are two strong selling points to the novella Ursa Major:

1. It was written by the brilliant John R. Little, author of Placeholders, The Memory Tree, Miranda, and other amazing books.

2. It’s about a KILLER GRIZZLY BEAR!!!

Either element would have been sufficient cause to part with my money, but together, Ursa Major was a book that I had to read as soon as I heard about it. (A third selling point is that it takes place in Fairbanks, Alaska, which is where I grew up and also the setting of my upcoming novella Faint of Heart, but I didn’t know that before I bought it.)

And it doesn’t disappoint. Dan, in an effort to bond with Nichole, the 6-year-old daughter of the woman he’s been dating for a year, takes the girl on a weekend cabin trip. Nichole doesn’t have much fun and wants to go home, and they’re just about to pack it up when the trip suddenly becomes even less fun, because suddenly they’re trapped in the cabin by a big-ass grizzly bear!

That’s the whole premise, and that’s all you need. Ursa Major is a nail-biting thriller with all the depth of character you’d expect from a John R. Little book and all the excitement you’d want from a “man vs. bear” story.

It comes out next month from Bad Moon Books (I bought a copy, and then politely-but-firmly requested that John send me a PDF so I could read it sooner). Get it HERE.