September 29th

Hey, I was interviewed on Episode 501 of the Reading and Writing Podcast! Did I say anything insightful, or did I just babble? Listen and find out! http://readingandwritingpodcast.com/jeff-strand-interview/

September 28th

Hey, I wrote two short stories today! Yes, “short” is accurate, but they weren’t flash fiction.

Very often I’m required to STFU about stories until the projects are formally announced, but editor Matt Shaw has already announced Battered, Broken Bodies: An Anthology of Body Horror. The story for that one is called “Cherry Tree.” If he rejects it, I’ll be sure to report back so you can all bask in my shame.

I haven’t been in Splatterpunk Zine for the past few issues, but I was invited to return, so I wrote “Insufficiently Splattery.”

Tomorrow is Laundry Day, so I won’t get as much writing done.

Halloween Nights

Halloween Nights: Tales of Autumn Fright is now available! It was supposed to debut at the Merrimack Valley Halloween Festival, with every author in the anthology in attendance, but with Merrimack cancelled there was no reason not to publish the book early. It contains my story “My Favorite Halloween Memory,” and is packed with spoooooooky stories by spoooooooky authors!

Get your copy HERE.

September 25th

I got my official schedule for Multiverse, which is in Atlanta October 15-17th. As of right now it’s still an in-person event, with masks and proof of vaccination required.

I’ll be doing a reading, and I’ll be on the following panels:

“Quintessential Horror Movies.”

“Writing the Horror Short Story.”

“Writing in the Plague Age.”

“Writing Horror For The Screen.”

“Horror Realism.”

“Monster Mash 2.0.”

Be there!!!

September 20th

Look at that! It’s the Halloween issue of The Southwest Review. My work doesn’t appear very often in literary journals that were established in 1915, so I’m honored that “Mouthy” was included in this issue’s lineup. It was guest edited by the mighty Andy Davidson, and features all kinds of cool people, so check out the table of contents and order your copy HERE.

September 15

Dammit. Events are starting to disappear again.

Fandemic Dead would’ve been this coming weekend, but it got pushed back to March 2022. The Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival has been cancelled. And I just got notice that the Scary Fireside Stories event has been cancelled. It was a huge success in 2018. In 2019, it got cancelled at the last minute because of weather, which seemed like the biggest bummer imaginable until the global pandemic came along.

As of now, Multiverse, The Haunted Majestic, and the Atlanta Writers Conference are still on.

September 14

Ooooh, look at this! It’s an advance reading copy of Deathless!

Hardcover copies should start shipping very soon. A few are left at http://earthlingpub.com/js_deathless.html

The e-book and paperbacks will be available no sooner than a month after that, but aren’t officially scheduled yet.

September 4th

Finished up a short story today called “Dump Truck.” With that complete, I’m now 28 days away from my next short story deadline……..but when that arrives, I’ll owe five different short stories within the next ten days. So, uh, yeah, I probably shouldn’t procrastinate.

Nom Nom Nom!

If you’ve got a hankering to hear me talk about cannibalism (but not just ANY cannibalism–a special kind of cannibalism!), I’m on the latest episode of Staring Into The Abyss discussing Stephen King’s “Survivor Type.”

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/staring-into-the-abyss-a-podcast/id1482564231?ls=1

Welcome to September!

Wow, it’s September, huh? That was quick.

I don’t typically feel old, but I definitely do the whole “How is it September already? Where did the year go?” thing. When I was a kid, the summers felt so long that it was hard to remember that I’d even been in school! And then the school year most definitely did not fly by!

But while I’m unpleasantly surprised by the haste with which September arrived, today has been the first day I can sit outside and work without becoming a sticky sweat-drenched abomination. Soon this will transition into “Waaaahhhh, it’s too cold!” but for now the weather is delightful.