The Fear County Chronicle #23
Old storytelling resurrected, new tales in upcoming collections, 300 scary faces, and a commentary about the writing gig, then and now. Lordy mercy! It's a grab bag of Southern-Fried shenanigans!
Well, it’s been a while since the Chronicle #22, hasn’t it? Not the bi-weekly journal I first promised, but that’s the way it goes. To tell the truth, the lovely Mrs. Joyce and I have been digging and scrounging, emptying every dusty corner and dark hidey-hole, getting ready for a big yard sale. I do declare, you better be glad you didn’t show up at the house in Brush Creek to visit. It looked like a Goodwill truck careened off the highway and crashed through our living room wall, depositing its contents from carpet to rafter. Never fear, though. The big two-day sale took place last weekend, giving us some much-needed pocket change and a hellacious sunburn to boot. What was left over (and there was a generous amount) was hauled off to the local help center. Now, it’s back to the business of writing (Ol’ Dead-Eye is loading his pistol, ready to ride again) and promoting what’s new and coming your way.
Caution! Pit-Devils ahead!
The new edition of my second horror novel, Pitfall, is now available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook from Crossroad Press. This is the first time in that Pitfall has been available in paperback since its original Zebra Books release in 1990 (33 long years ago, to be exact). Of all my books, I’ve always considered Pitfall to be my “relentless roller coaster ride” novel. This edition features a new cover by Zach McCain and includes the bonus novella “Last of the Chupacabra.”
Synopsis: They were called diablos hoyos. Vicious, black-furred beasts that fought in the pit with the raw fury and savage ferocity of Satan himself. For their owners, they were a lucrative investment. For the people of Sulphur Springs, Texas, they were the best entertainment they'd had in a long while.
For Bowie Kane, they were his darkest nightmare come true. He alone recognized the dark and ravenous evil that his Apache ancestors had foretold. But Bowie Kane was an outsider in Sulphur Springs. No one would listen to his warnings. And now it was too late to avert the rampage of carnage and terror unleashed on an unsuspecting town.
The paperback is now available at the RKHORROR online bookstore, if you’re hankering for a personally inscribed copy with some ferocious RK artwork on the title page.
The Shrouded Tome now available in paperback!
Also available at RKHORROR is the paperback edition of my new story collection, The Shrouded Tome: Ten Forgotten Tales from D&T Publishing. This 167-page collection features ten rare and long-out-print stories and novelettes from limited editions and long bygone horror magazines from the 1980s and 90s. It includes an introduction by Ol’ Ron and just take a gander at that creepy cover by artist Ash Edgemore!
Synopsis: Within this dark crypt, lie stories long untold…
These are the forgotten fables… tales that have suffered the fate of premature burial. Shrouded and unceremoniously laid to rest. Stories that languish in deep shadow and tattered cobweb, abandoned and unread.
Within these pages, you will find ten such yarns of Southern horror. Novellas, novelettes, and short stories that appeared briefly in limited editions and bygone periodicals, then faded into obscurity and became relics of the past.
In this volume, Ronald Kelly lifts the shroud to give you a peek underneath. Like the good Doctor Frankenstein, he has sewn these lost tales together and resurrected them into a palpable and bone-chilling collection, to live and breathe, unnerve and horrify once again.
This book is dedicated to Erica Robyn Metcalf for the friendship and support she’s given me and the horror genre during the past few years. Check out this cool review of Tome from Erica!
You can order your signed and remarqued paperback of The Shrouded Tome here. Sorry! The hardcover of TST has sold out (twice)! We hope to have more in stock by August 8th. And if you prefer to read digitally, Tome is also available in ebook.
Hell Hollow: New Paperback Release!
The new paperback edition of Hell Hollow from Crossroad Press will be released on August 3rd. This novel of dark rural horror has been out of print since Sinister Grin shut their doors in 2021. Now it’s coming back in paperback, with Alex McVey’s original Doctor Leech artwork from the 2010 Cemetery Dance hardcover edition. For those unaware of its history, Hell Hollow was originally scheduled to be Zebra Books title in 1997, but due to Kensington shutting down the Zebra Horror line in 1996, it sat in publishing limbo for 14 years. I should have signed and remarqued copies available at RKHORROR in mid-August.
Upcoming anthology appearances!
The months of September and October are going to be great for horror anthologies. Here’s three upcoming collections that I have new stories appearing in.
Hot Iron and Cold Blood / Edited by Patrick R. McDonough Release Date: September 26th
This weird western anthology from editor Patrick R McDonough and Dead Sky Publishing (formerly Death’s Head Press/Stygian Sky Media) brings together some of the best authors in the business for a bizarre, rip-roaring collection set in the darkest and most dangerous regions of the Old West.
Synopsis: Desperados and yellow-bellies be warned: These ain’t your typical westerns… Herein find legendary masters of anomalous Western and Horror stories— along with a posse of budding word-slingers— who all bring you an electrifying and frightening collection of extraordinary tales set in the Old West and beyond... Within these pages, the improbable is made real: cowboys encounter a chimeric critter of the night; dinosaurs return as massive poltergeists; Chinese railroad workers are haunted by invisible frights; outlaws experience Cronenbergian body-horror; fallen-light stalks mother and daughter upon a wintry prairie; a headless horseman roams the badlands; otherworldly creatures hunt within our domain; screaming spectral birds nest within the damned; and gunslinging women with murderous skills annihilate foolish notions of a man’ s world. These are just a handful of the offerings in this body of macabre lore. So, mount your saddlehorse and join this gang of rogue authors for a ride down dark trails of terror and unsettling thoroughfares that lead deep into strange, nightmarish territory.
Contributors include Joe R. Lansdale, Owl Goingback, David J. Schow, Ronald Kelly, Edward Lee, Kenzie Jennings, Jill Girardi, Vivian Kasley. Wile E. Young, Briana Morgan, Brennan LaFaro, Patrick R. McDonough, Drew Huff, L.M. Labat, and Jesse Allen Champion. Foreword by R.J. Joseph.
You can pre-order your copy of Hot Iron and Cold Blood here.
House of Haunts / Edited by Heather Daughrity Release Date: October 13
This unique anthology of 24 ghost stories set in the fictional Hale House will be edited by Heather Daughrity and released by her new independent press, Parlor Ghost Press.
Synopsis: Some houses carry lasting impressions of those who have lived and died there. Some places still bear the scars of past tragedies. Some buildings are heavy with the spirits of the dead. Hale House outweighs them all.
Come tour the most haunted location in the world. Come visit our House of Haunts. 24 rooms. 24 ghosts. 24 stories.
Contributors include Clay McLeod Chapman, Mercedes Yardley, Justin Holley, Ronald Kelly, Heather Miller, Joshua Loyd Fox, Jay Bower, Simon Bleaken, DE McCluskey, Jo Kaplan, William J Donahue, Brooklyn Ann, Mer Whinery, Christy, Aldridge, Gage Greenwood, Samantha Underhill, Caitlinn Marceau, Jae Mazer, Jennifer Anne Gordon, Joe DeRouen, Jean-Francois Dubeau, Marie Lanza, and Matthew Hollis Damon. Introduction by Josh Malerman.
Deathrealm: Spirits / Edited by Stephen Mark Rainey Release Date: October 17
From 1987 to 1997, Deathrealm: The Land Where Horror Dwells, edited by Stephen Mark Rainey, was one of the leading small press magazines of its time, offering the best contemporary and Lovecraftian horror from some of the finest writers in the genre. Now, Alan Lastufka’s Shortwave Publishing and Rainey presents the upcoming anthology, Deathrealm: Spirits.
Deathrealm: Spirits features 20 new ghostly stories (and poems) by some of the best to have ever written in the genre, including Joe R Lansdale, Kasey Lansdale, Brian Keene, Elizabeth Massie, Ronald Kelly, David Niall Wilson, Eric Larocca, Linda D. Addison, Bridgett Nelson, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Jeff Oliver, Richard Thomas, Tony Tremblay, Patricia Lee Macomber, Maurice Broaddus, Heather Daughrity, Megan Arcuri, Larry Blamire, Timothy Huguenin, & Earick Nunnally.
You can pre-order your copy of DEATHREALM: SPIRITS here.
We Are the Monsters!
If you’ve laid eyes on the 2023 StokerCon souvenir anthology, you may have seen the now iconic “We Are The Monsters” collage, featuring 300 faces of horror, from authors to artists, rock stars to game developers, and assorted personalities. This was highlighted numerous times throughout the book (edited by Cynthia Pelayo), becoming a living, breathing part of its overall design. This was due to its creator, author Todd Keisling, who has become sort of a horror genre Renaissance man in a very impressive and impactful way.
Good news! Todd’s tribute mural is now available for purchase, to frame and display in your own ghoulish lair. Ol’ Ron even has a place in there (in the lower righthand corner, sandwiched between Kevin Lucia and Bob Ford, and a spitball throw away from Mary Sangiovanni and Brian Keene). You can order your copy of Todd’s We Are the Monsters mural poster here. This quality print is available in two sizes: 12x16 and 18x24 (I chose the larger of the two and it’s gorgeous!) And while you’re on Todd’s website check out his books and merchandise. Also, through his Dullington Design Co., Todd does unique and unforgettable covers and print interiors, so if you’re a writer or publisher in search of something truly beyond the norm for your upcoming project, you can contact Todd for rates and availability.
From the Rocking Chair: The Writing Gig: Then & Now
Lately, I’ve been looking back at how the process of preparing, becoming, and being officially validated as a published writer was when I came up in the horror genre in the 1980s. In turn, I’ve also been comparing it to how that process plays out in today’s publishing world. Take it from me, it looks a heck of a lot different.
Of course, there were distinct differences dictated by that era compared to this one… big differences. Let’s take a look at the way an aspiring writer tackled the road to publication in the 1980s and 90s, compared to how it’s pretty much done today.
THEN: Those who craved publication knew from the get-go that it would be a long, hard road. Countless hours writing in various genres until you found the one that was second nature to you, developing a unique voice that differentiated you from your fellow writers, and learning the actual process and discipline that would turn you into a saleable author. You wrote using a legal pad or a manual or electric typewriter (and maybe a word processor, if you could afford one). This involved typewriter ribbon, bottles of white-out, and reams of paper (for both typing and making copies). You made regular visits to the local library and bought dictionaries, encyclopedias, and Roget’s Thesaurus and used them all religiously.
There was really no internet to speak of and certainly no social media. You found sources to submit your work to through the yearly Writer’s Market hardcover, genre newsletters like Scavengers or the Small Press Association, or simply by word-of-mouth from fellow writers, all struggling for that first story or book sale like you were. If you wanted to be a horror writer, you submitted your work to the small press horror magazines of the day: The Horror Show, Cemetery Dance, Deathrealm, Grue, 2AM, New Blood, as well as dozens of others that flourished in the 80s and early 90s. This involved typing and printing multiple copies (one for you, one for the editor you were contributing to) and mailing them off with self-addressed, stamped envelopes for the return trip in the event that it wasn’t accepted. It also involved waiting… sometimes a long time (three months, six months, even a year or longer). You didn’t submit a story to more than one magazine or publisher at once; that was considered a big no-no. Also, self-publishing or publishing through a vanity press was strictly considered taboo.
Sooner or later, you submitted that one story that an editor thought fit in well with their publication and you had finally achieved the first step in your journey: validation. You were now officially a published author. You continued to submit and publish work, mostly short stories, and built an identity and a solid presence in the horror small press. Then you set loftier goals. You sought out an agent who would submit your first novel to mass market publishers (paperback was your objective; if hardcover ever came, it was because of the rare success of becoming a bestselling “name”). Your popularity in the small press and the quality of your work might even land you in some big-name magazines like Night Cry, Midnight Graffiti, or The Twilight Zone, or major anthologies like Dark Forces, Shadows, Night Visions, Silver Scream, Hot Blood, or Shock Rock.
Once you accomplished those goals, one of two things might take place. You’d continue to rise to the top of the genre, garner awards and accolades, score bestseller spots in the NYT, and attain legendary status near the ranks of Poe and Lovecraft, King, Koontz, and Straub. Or you could get in a solid run of paperbacks, continue placing in the anthologies, earn respect from readers and peers, and carve your own little niche in horror genre.
And then there’s…
NOW: Anything goes.
There seems to be no traditional template for writing success set in place… no boundaries, imposed by the industry or oneself. Self-publication is no longer frowned upon. Instead, it has become the new norm. Writers no longer work for years and years to have their work accepted and validated by their peers, editors, or publishers. Many choose to validate themselves. Write it, edit it, format it, slap a slick, atmospheric AI cover on it, and load it into KDP. Some take the more traditional route, focusing on open calls for anthologies and submitting novellas to numerous independent presses. Those with loftier ambitions seek agents to give them greater opportunities and an extra push toward upper-echelon publishing.
The writing is more streamlined now. No clunky typewriters, messy ribbons, or endless paper cuts. Just type, save, download, email, and submit. Promotion? You’ve got social media for that. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Declare your brand, flood the feed, stake your claim. Make your appearances: podcasts, blogposts, conventions galore. And don’t forget the Amazon ratings, Goodreads reviews, and coveted awards.
Gasp! Ron! Do I detect a tone of mild sarcasm in that last paragraph? Echoes of the all-knowing Boomer with his quaint tales of the good-old writing days and walking five miles barefoot through the driven snow to pluck a handful of rejection slips from his frozen mailbox?
If I sound that way, it’s unintentional. It’s just all so different, you know? Then and now. The ways of the old guard versus the ways of the new kids on the block. Maybe Ol’ Ron is just old-fashioned in his views of obtaining and sustaining a writing career. Maybe my notions of taking your time, learning your craft, and paying your dues are outdated and irrelevant. The truth of the matter is, I’m right there with you. Still plugging my work and pitching my tales, just a face in the horror crowd trying to sell books and stay relevant in an ever-evolving publishing world. Maybe I’m a little long in the tooth to be running with the pack, but heck… I’m writer. And I’ll be one until they doctor me up with powder and rouge, dress me in my Sunday-go-to-meeting suit, and stick me in a pine box, six feet under Tennessee clay.
There’s one thing for sure. I do miss the smell of Liquid Paper and the taste of postage stamps every now and then.
Well, that’s all for this edition of the Fear County Chronicles. Remember, summer is nearing its end and the cool months of autumn are nearly in sight. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with more RK news and special features. Until then, Many Happy Nightmares, y’all!
PS: Lordy Mercy! Last night our water heater burst and flooded our kitchen floor! If you’ve got an empty spot or two on your bookshelf that needs filling, any book purchase at RKHORROR to help with repairs would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, y’all!
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