Howdy, y’all! The past couple of weeks have been pretty nippy in the early mornings and evenings down here in Tennessee, with warmer temperatures throughout the day. It’s comforting to know that the sweltering temps of the past four months are packing their bags, making way for the arrival of autumn. Fall has always been my favorite time of year; the turning of the leaves, the rich scent of woodsmoke in the air, and, of course, the approach of Halloween. It has also been the season that stimulates my imagination the most. It was that way when I was ten years old, planning out Trick-or-Treating routes and costume selections, lying on my bedroom floor with a stack of Famous Monsters of Filmland and House of Mystery, or gluing together a Glow-in-the-Dark Aurora monster model (my favorite was the Creature From the Black Lagoon). It was the season where I felt most comfortable — most belonging — as a child, and oddly enough the feeling still surfaces at this time of year. As you move onward in years (and I turn the ripe old age of 64 in November) the nostalgia of your childhood days seems to grow stronger and more precious. You remember those days when you and your ghoulish compatriots roamed all over town in pitch darkness (alone, not accompanied by your parents) and returned home with enough confectionary booty to last you till mid-December. The glow-in-the-dark skeletons, the crudely carved Jack-O-Lanterns, the big bin of every rubber horror mask imaginable at Woolworths or Grants Department Store… all were your closest and most loyal friends come the beginning of October. For some of us — the fortunate ones — those spooky apparitions of autumn still live on, in the books we read (or write), the movies we watch, or in much anticipated visits to Spirit Halloween. But, most importantly, they live on in our imaginations. Put away childish things, as the world suggests we do? Never!
2023 Rereleases & Reprints
I’m sure that most of my readers have been wondering (a few just flat out DM’d me and asked) why I’ve been concentrating on rereleasing a lot of my old novels and short stories this year, instead of focusing on new material, like upcoming installments of The Saga of Dead-Eye series and the sequel to Fear. To tell the truth, when you’re in the writing business as long as I’ve been (going on 38 years) and you have the kind of backlist I do, it’s best to make sure all your options are covered. And that means having your work readily available in all formats (ebook, paperback, & audiobook). So, that’s what I’ve been doing throughout 2023; recruiting the help of my main publisher, Crossroad Press, and making sure folks have some extra RK available for their bookshelves and for purchase at horror conventions that I attend. This pretty much consisted of rereleasing several of the old Zebra Books novels (the Authors Preferred Edition of Fear, Pitfall, and Twelve Gauge (formerly titled Father’s Little Helper). Also, Hell Hollow and my Splatterpunk Award-winning collection, The Essential Sick Stuff; a couple of books that have been out of print for several years, due to the closure of publishers like Sinister Grin and Silver Shamrock. I also put out a couple of story collections. One was the second book in my Southern-Fried Horror Tales series, Tales From the Southern-Fried Crypt, while the other was The Shrouded Tome: Ten Forgotten Fables from D&T Publishing. True, the majority of Tales was reprinted stories, but I did include four brand new stories, and 13 pages of my comic book-style artwork. The Shrouded Tome was all reprints, but (staying true to the theme) they were all forgotten and very rarely read tales from extremely limited editions and long bygone small press magazines from the 1980s and 90s. So, when you see me release collections with a mix of new and old stories, that is my objective; to give you something fresh… recently penned tales, as well as a few you’ve probably never had a chance to read before because of unavailability. That has mainly been my objective in 2023; open a Southern-Fried Pandora’s Box and give my readership content they’ve missed along the way, sprinkled liberally with bonus content like novellas, new stories, and artwork. The 2023 releases also featured new cover artwork by the likes of Alex McVey, Zach McCain, Chad Lutzke, and Ash Ericmore.
Upcoming Anthology Appearances!
I do have new short stories in three horror anthologies scheduled for release in September and October of this year. My werewolf story “The Night of El Maldito” will be in Patrick R. McDonough’s Hot Iron and Cold Blood (September 26th from Dead Sky Publishing), a ghost story “Save Me a Spot on the Old Porch Swing” in Heather Daughrity’s House of Haunts (October 13th from Parlor Ghost Press), and yet another ghost story in Stephen Mark Rainey’s much-anticipated Deathrealm Spirits (October 17th from Shortwave Publishing). All three of these anthologies are unique in theme and edited by some of the best folks in the horror biz, so I recommend that you preorder them now or grab a copy upon their release.
Upcoming Appearances!
Next Chapter Con / Due to the heavy influx of flu and Covid that’s running rampant through the South right now (and a couple of other factors as well) I’ve decided to cancel my appearance at Next Chapter Con in Dalton, Georgia on October 7th. My apologies to anyone who had plans to come down and see me. Mrs. Joyce has had some BP issues lately and I thought it best to keep her healthy and safe, since this most recent strain of Covid seems to be a particularly nasty one.
AuthorCon 3, Williamsburg / I will have a table in the pavilion at AuthorCon 3 in Williamsburg next year on the weekend of April 12th-14th. As of right now, I’m not certain if I’ll be able to make it to AuthorCon 4 in St Louis.
What’s in store for 2024…
Here are the books I’m planning to release throughout 2024…
Vault of Southern-Fried Horror / Book 3 of my Southern-Fried Horror Tales series, Vault of Southern-Fried Horror should be ready for publication next January. The theme this time is serial killers, mass murderers, and homicidal maniacs. This volume of EC Comics-inspired stories will feature more of my grisly and gruesome comic panel art and another intense retro comic book cover by Alex McVey.
The Saga of Dead-Eye, Book 3: Man-Eaters, Mummies, & Murderous Maniacs / I’m currently midway through writing the third book in The Saga of Dead-Eye series. The zombified gunfighter Dead-Eye and his mojo man sidekick, Job, head into the wilderness territories of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizonia in search of the outlaw vampire, Jules Holland, and his unholy entourage, including the dark witch, Evangeline. Throughout this leg of the journey look for creatures and characters from some of my past books, like Pitfall, Hell Hollow, and Timber Gray.
Restless Shadows / In the spring of 2024, I’ll be releasing the first paperback edition of Restless Shadows, the sequel to my debut Zebra Books novel Hindsight. Restless Shadows was originally on the Zebra Horror schedule and slated for release in 1998, before Zebra closed down its horror line in 1996. After that, Thunderstorm Books released a limited hardcover of the book in 2014, but this will be the first time it will be released in a paperback edition.
Burnt Magnolia / Around summer of next year, I’ll be releasing Burnt Magnolia, which was published by Zebra Books in 1993 as The Possession. Burnt Magnolia involves Civil War ghosts haunting a restored Tennessee mansion and reenacting a deadly wartime tragedy through the house’s owners and a visiting paranormal investigator. This will be the first time the novel is available in paperback in 31 years.
Timber Gray / Next autumn, my traditional western novel, Timber Gray, will be available in a new paperback edition. The last time my novel of a lonely wolf hunter tracking a pack of fifty murderous wolves through the Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains saw physical print was in a Thunderstorm Books limited hardcover and Bad Moon Books paperback, both in 2011.
Fear Eternal / If all goes well, I hope to have the long-awaited sequel to my magnum opus, Fear, finished and ready for publication by the end of 2024. I can’t reveal very much about the intended storyline, but take it from me, it’s liable to be as big a tear-jerker as the first novel was. Fear Eternal will also incorporate elements of the original journey into Fear County, as well as explore the evil land’s dark origins, which may be of a cosmic horror nature.
20% Off Sale at RKHORROR!
From now through September 30th, get 20% off your entire order at the RKHORROR online bookstore. Grab new releases like Twelve Gauge, Hell Hollow, Pitfall, and The Shrouded Tome, as well as the new Halloween Horror Bundle, which includes my Halloween collections Mister Glow-Bones and The Halloween Store for one low price. My three-chapbook set, Somewhere South of Hell, is nearly gone, so get ‘em while they’re still available. Also check out my other books and my selection of RK art prints and t-shirts. As always, all books come with a personal inscription and some hand drawn RK art on the title page. Be sure to enter code RKHORROR20 at checkout to get your 20% discount!
Well, that’s it for this edition of The Fear County Chronicle. A lot of writing and publishing info in this one, so next time I’ll add a little free fiction or a cantankerous, old-school commentary just to keep you from dozing off. Until then, take care and Many Happy Nightmares, y’all!