A Clay McLeod Chapman Recommendation and Another Shallow Waters Finalist...

A working-class hero tries to do right by his daughter in "Hammered Halloween" and more news

Hello Macabre Mobsters!

Some great news to share today, but first, I have to recommend a trilogy of short chapbooks I’ve recently read. (For those of you not in the know, a chapbook is a low volume run of a single short-story length piece or poetry, bound and sold as a solo item.)

What I’m talking about here is a trio of stories written by one of my absolute favorite genre writers, Clay McLeod Chapman. He has written some absolutely heartbreaking horror novels over the past several years (Ghost Eaters and What Kind of Mother among them), and had a recent fantastic run in Marvel’s Venomverse, but here I am going to shout out about his three stories recently published by Shortwave Media: Mama Bird, Baby Carrots, and Knock Offs.

These are self-described by Chapman as weird, goofy, horror stories, but believe me, they are so much more. All three tales get to the cancerous heart of what it can mean to be a parent in modern times. They shine a dark spotlight on the relationships we as parents either nurture or let atrophy, the compromises we are often forced to make, and the disastrous consequences that are waiting for us on the other side of sleep-deprived decisions we make in our worst nightmares. I can’t recommend these chapbooks strongly enough.

Now, onto some more personal news and updates.

I have a new story out today from Crystal Lake Publishing’s Shallow Waters monthly flash fiction contest!

“Hammered Halloween” tells the story of a working-class hero of a dad trying to do right by his partially estranged daughter. Things don’t go the way he thought they would, but do they ever?

Read it and vote here (if you are a member of Crystal Lake’s Patreon, or get a free 7 day subscription to test the waters).

And finally, thank all of you who read and voted for my story in the Alien Buddha Press Horror Showdown! “The Madness of George Pollard Regarding the Return of the Whaling Ship Essex and the Great Fire of 1846” not only won the contest, but has been nominated for a prestigious Pushcart Prize by ABP!

Thank you for your continued support.

Go check out Clay McLeod Chapman’s stuff, and keep reading.

You all mean the world to me.

—Jonny G