The Fear County Chronicle #28

Looking back at 2023, what's in store for 2024, and a few words about Ageism in the writing profession.

Howdy folks and welcome to another year of the Fear County Chronicle! Last year had its highs and lows for the Kelly family, but we’re ready to tackle 2024 head on. First, let’s see what kind of Southern-Fried shenanigans Ol’ Ron was up to during the past twelve months.

A Look Back at 2023…

Having retired from my blue-collar job of 22 years back in October of 2022, I had big plans for writing full-time at the beginning of 2023. Funny thing, though… retirement seemed much more involving and time-consuming than I first thought it would be. It seemed that other things — keeping up the house and yard, running errands, and simply relaxing and enjoying the fact that I didn’t have to pull on my steel-toed boots at 3:30 in the AM — kept me away from the keyboard more than I had intended. Looking back, though, I didn’t do too badly, especially considering the number of books I published and side-projects I was involved in.

Through publishers Crossroad Press and D&T Publishing, I released seven solo books. True, several of them were rereleases of books that had gone out of print over the past few years, and a couple of them hadn’t been available in paperback editions since they were first published by Zebra Books in the early 1990s. These included:

FEAR: Author’s Preferred Edition / This new edition of my magnum opus, Fear, included a new cover by artist Alex McVey, an introduction by author Brian Keene, and the original Zebra Books novel in its entirety, as well as the bonus stories “The Seedling” and “Beneath the Branches”, and an afterword by Ol’ Ron. Fear: Author’s Preferred Edition is currently available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

HELL HOLLOW / My coming-of-age horror novel, Hell Hollow, has a long and convoluted history. Originally scheduled to be my nineth Zebra Books release, it missed its chance when Kensington Publications shut down the Zebra Horror line in October of 1996. After my ten-year hiatus from writing, the novel finally saw print as a hardcover edition from Cemetery Dance Publications in 2010, then later as a trade paperback from Sinister Grin Press. Now, its back from Crossroad Press in a new paperback edition featuring the original Alex McVey cover from the CD release. Hell Hollow is currently available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.

TWELVE GAUGE / Previously released by Zebra Books in 1992 as Father’s Little Helper, my extreme horror/suspense novel, Twelve Gauge, reappeared on the scene in a new paperback edition with an intense new cover by writer/artist Chad Lutzke. It also included a bonus novella, “Killing Time”. Twelve Gauge is currently available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.

PITFALL / Another Zebra novel that hasn’t seen print in paperback form since the summer of 1990 was Pitfall. This roller-coaster creature feature book finally returned last year in a paperback edition with a new cover by artist Zach McCain and a bonus novella, “Last of the Chupacabra”. Pitfall is available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS / I started out 2023 with the release of the second installment of my EC Comics-inspired Southern-Fried Horror Tales series, Tales From the Southern-Fried Crypt. This collection included ten terrifying tales set in the bayous of Louisiana, a retro comic book cover by Alex McVey, and interior artwork by Ol’ Ron himself. The second collection was the paperback and hardcover rerelease of my Splatterpunk Award-winning collection, The Essential Sick Stuff, and the third was a collection of lost and rarely read novellas and short stories titled The Shrouded Tome: Ten Forgotten Fables from D&T Publishing.

ANTHOLOGY APPEARANCES / I was honored to have three short stories appear in major horror anthologies in 2023: “The Night of El Maldito” in Patrick R. McDonough’s Hot Iron and Cold Blood from Dark Sky Publications, “Prayers From the Mouth of Hell” in Stephen Mark Rainey’s Deathrealm Spirits from Shortwave Press, and “Save me a Spot on the Old Porch Swing” in Heather Daughrity’s House of Haunts from Watertower Hill Publishing. I also had a non-fiction article, “The Creature Dwells Within Me!” included in the 2023 StokerCon souvenir anthology.

And Looking Forward to 2024…

Tentative plans for my 2024 releases include the following books:

The Saga of Dead-Eye, Book Three: Man-Eaters, Mummies, & Murderous Maniacs / Zombie gunfighter Dead-Eye and Louisiana mojo man Job continue their vengeful journey westward, through Texas and into the territories of New Mexico and Arizona, hoping to save Dead-Eye’s abducted son, Daniel, from the renegade vampire, Jules Holland, his trio of demonic henchmen, and the dark witch Evangeline.

Fear Eternal / I’m currently working on the long-awaited sequel to my coming-of-age magnum opus, Fear. This novel returns to the most evil county in the state of Tennessee, with both new characters and several original characters from the 1994 novel, as well new creatures and villains from the dark heart of Fear County, with a little cosmic horror thrown in for good measure.

Vault of Southern-Fried Horror / The third and final installment of my EC Comics-inspired Southern-Fried Horror series will include dark crime horror tales of serial killers, mass murderers, and unhinged maniacs, as well as more of my interior artwork.

Restless Shadows / The sequel to my first horror novel, Hindsight, will be released in early 2024. Restless Shadows was originally on Zebra’s publishing schedule, but like Hell Hollow was cast into limbo due to the publisher’s shutdown It will soon be available in paperback for the first time since it was written in 1995.

Burnt Magnolia / Originally published by Zebra Books as The Possession, this novel of Civil War ghosts terrorizing the inhabitants of a restored Southern mansion will be available in a new paperback edition for the first time since 1993.

Timber Gray / I also plan to rerelease my traditional western novel, Timber Gray, in paperback sometime in 2024. My novel of a lonesome wolf hunter pursuing a pack of fifty murderous wolves through the wilderness of the Bighorn Mountains in 1880s Wyoming was last published by Bad Moon Books in 2011.

And Some Breaking News About a Secret Project!

Throughout 2023, I was privileged to work on an unannounced project with two incredible authors who are loved and respected in the horror community. Now, thanks to an okay from Joe Mynhardt of Crystal Lake Entertainment, I’m finally able to share this exciting news with you!

In February of 2024, Crystal Lake will be releasing Dark Tide #13: The Devil’s Backbone, featuring three shared-world novellas by myself, Red Lagoe, and Laurel Hightower. This collection will feature a trio of dark Appalachian folk tales set in the fictitious mountain range of the Devil’s Backbone, spanning from south-eastern Kentucky, through north-western Virginia, and into north-eastern Tennessee. I’m excited for readers to join us on this literary journey. I hope y’all enjoy it as much as we enjoyed writing it!

From the Rocking Chair / Old Dawgs and Young Pups: Ageism in the Writing Business

I turned 64 last month. True, I’ve been in my sixties for several years now, but “64” … well, that number seemed to rattle me for some reason. As I woke up that morning, that old Beatles song about “when I’m 64” kept playing over and over again in my head. I realized, despite how I feel in my mind (a steady 30 years old, the same age I was when I sold my first novel to Zebra), in reality I’m no longer a young pup. Especially not in the writing business or the genre I love so much.

That’s to be expected in all walks of life, in all professions. You’d like to remain strong, steady, and as sharp as a knife, but that’s not the way biology works. As you advance in years, you tend to get slower, grayer, and often not as keen and quick-witted as you once were. I’m seeing that and feeling that lately. When I sit in my Sunday school class at church and wonder “where did all these old dudes come from?”, I soon come to the realization that I’m an old dude myself.

I would like to think that ageism is something that folks discuss every now and then but doesn’t show itself as freely as one thinks or, heaven forbid, applies to me as an individual. But, like racism, sexism, and all the other ugly “isms”, it’s there, lurking in some people’s thoughts and demeanor and the way they act toward you and treat you from day to day. In the little Southern community I live in it’s not so prevalent or nakedly apparent, because, for the most part, folks have been raised to be kind and respectful to their elders. That’s beginning to slip little these days. Every now and then, a kid at the McDonald’s drive-through will call me “Gramps” or “Pops”, but I let it slide. I don’t let it bother me or ruffle my feathers.

When you’re a writer, and have been for a number of decades, the feeling is different. You come across a few — mostly younger writers — who believe you’ve done your time, had your chance at the brass ring, and now it’s time to step aside and allow the current generation to do all the writing and award winning and book selling. But, if you’re truly a writer and you're my age or older, you know in your heart that it simply doesn’t work that way. You still have a desire to write and create, to participate in the particular community you forged a career in and be a productive cog in the machine of your chosen genre. You want to remain relevant. And, given the current climate of today’s horror community, you end up supported and feeling like you’re still firmly grounded. Then one afternoon at a convention, from the concealment of a bathroom stall, you overhear a couple of jokers laughing and talking about “has-beens” and “fossils wanting to relive their glory days”. And those good vibes you’ve been feeling out on the floor, in the midst of your peers, seem more like tolerance for well-meaning storytellers past their prime than genuine comradery.

That’s when doubt, loss, and paranoia are triggered in older writers. We’ve seen it happen in the past couple of years; genre legends who feel forgotten or slighted amid the wave of fresh, new horror writers who have flooded the business in the past few years. Some handle it with grace and restraint, while others end up going off half-cocked and making statements and accusations on social media that end up making them look like cantankerous assholes and, in the process, tarnish their reputation, the many accomplishments they made in the genre, and the influence they had on generations of writers over the years. It’s sad and tragic and many in the community don’t understand their motivation for making their thoughts and opinions known in such a volatile way. When you’re they’re age, however, it’s more understandable. Such reactions usually stem from an underlying fear of being forgotten and disrespected. But, then again, it can always come from some darker place; a festering resentment of the genre changing in ways they don’t approve of or understand… perhaps even resistance to diversity and the inclusion of everyone into the fold, not simply those who traditionally dominated bookstore racks and award banquets in past decades.

So, where does Ol’ Ron stand these days? I’m hanging in there and doing what I’ve been doing for nearly 40 years; writing my brand of Southern-Fried horror and, hopefully, entertaining folks in the process. All in all, my outlook is sunny and positive. I continue to steadily write and publish my books and, thankfully, my peers treat me with love, kindness, and respect. They’re not adverse to hearing a few words of encouragement or advice every now and then, and treat me as one of their own, although many are young enough to be my grandchildren. To tell the truth, self-doubt and a sense of disassociation sometimes creeps in, but then a new writer comes to me for advice, dedicates a book to me, or tells me how Fear literally changed their life and infused them with the desire to write (or edit or create), and those feelings never last for long. Folks refer to me as an elder-statesman or, sometimes, even a legend in the genre (although, in my mind, that distinction belongs to much better writers that an old Tennessee country boy like me, who learned their trade by trial and error).

Despite things like apathy for horror history or ageism in the genre, you’re not likely to ever see me rant and rave online about the unfairness of the present state of what’s being written or who’s writing it, and who should and shouldn’t be receiving honor and praise for their efforts. I’m here to write and participate… to encourage and support. No big deal… that’s just who I am and what I do.

Update on Chase!

As many of you already know, my son-in-law, Chase Reeves, was recently diagnosed with cancer at the end of 2023. Chase will soon be beginning an intense round of chemotherapy for treatment of his condition. Your prayers and positive thoughts for Chase and my daughter, Reilly, would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to help support Chase financially while he is out work, you can order books and merchandise through my online bookstore, RKHORROR, and, during checkout, designate that you would like your purchase to go to his benefit. Also, you can contact me personally if you would like to make a monetary contribution and I will be happy to tell you how.

I’d like to personally thank pro-wrestling legend Mick Foley (Cactus Jack, Mankind, Dude Love) for reaching out to Chase and inviting him to his recent show at Zanies in Nashville, as well as meeting with him face to face. Being a former wrestler himself, this really meant the world to Chase and truly encouraged him in the battle to come.

Get 20% Off at RKHORROR!

From now through January 15th, get 20% off your entire order at RKHORROR by entering promo code NEW2024 at checkout. Due to popular demand over the holidays, several books are not currently available, but dozens more are, plus RK prints and t-shirts are still in stock. Head on over and check out what I have available!

Well, I reckon I’ve taken up enough of your time with this longwinded newsletter of mine. 1 2024 is in full swing now and I know y’all have a lot to accomplish in the next 362 days. I wish all of you a very happy and healthy new year, full of joy and success. And, until next time, Many Happy Nightmares, y’all!