Richard Laymon Book Contest II

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

The Return of the Richard Laymon Book Contest and it’s a big one!  You can view how the contest came about, by clicking here.

So, here goes…

YOU COULD WIN…  The Richard Laymon Collection, Volume 1. 

Laymon Collection V1

This is a triple-book (885 pages) containing The Cellar, The Beast House and The Midnight Tour.  This was published by Headline (in the U.K.) in May 2006.  This trilogy is arguably what put Laymon on the map, so to speak. 

 

The description of each book is below.

The Cellar

Visitors flock to see the Beast House with its blood-soaked corridors and creaky doors. Armed with Instamatics and video camcorders, these poor souls enter the forbidden house, never to return. The deeper the tourists go into the house, the darker their nightmares become. The men are dealt with quickly. The women have to wait longer…first they are tortured and sexually ravished.

But the worst part of the house is actually beneath the haunted structure. There lies even a more terrifying presence waiting for its next victim. Don’t even think about going into the cellar…

 

The Beast House

Bodies torn and chewed. Blood blackly-encrusting open wounds. Flaps of skin hanging loose, clawed from the stripped, ripped corpses. Men, women, children, slaughtered, mangled…

The old woman who showed them round was well-practised in her grim, money-spinning take of the mysterious beast that has killed and killed again. Of course it was all in the past and all nonsense. Anyone would agree to that.

Until, trapped, they heard, then smelled and felt the white, night-time creature that had come, grunting and spittle-slicked, for their bodies, their blood.

 

The Midnight Tour

The sales pitch hasn’t changed much over the years – except now you can listen to it on earphones as you take the audio tour of the house.  But the taped tour only gives you a sanitized version of the horrific events that made the Beast House infamous.  If you want the full story, you’ll have to take the Midnight Tour.  Saturday nights only.  Limited to thirteen unlucky tourists.  It begins on the stroke of midnight.

Tonight the guide will show you every nook and cranny of the house.  She’ll tell you everything – including the details too ghastly and perverse to be mentioned in the daylight.  But she might not be able to save you.  Because this Saturday night, those on the Midnight Tour will be joined by an unexpected visitor.

They’ll be lucky to get out alive.

 

As you can imagine with Headline being a company based in the U.K. these books are extremely hard to come by.  In fact, it is almost impossible to buy in new condition, as this book is in.  The closest I have seen to new condition for this book is in ‘Used – Very Good’ on Amazon and is priced at $86.55.  So you know in new condition it is well over $100.00!  That’s right, this prize is valued at more than $100.00 and it could be yours for…Free!

So, how do you win, you ask?  Simple.

Send me an email (ty_schwamberger@yahoo.com) with the subject line, ‘Richard Laymon Book Contest’ and include your name, mailing address and why you love the horror genre.

One lucky winner will be chosen at random on (entries must be received by Midnight on June 19th) June 20th from all entries received.  The lucky winner will be notified via email.  Please, only one entry per person.

Good Luck!

Book Review(s) Published

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I recently had two (2) book reviews that I wrote published by Withersin Magazine.  The two books that I read and wrote reviews on are both by Edward Lee – Messenger and House Infernal.  You can click the titles to read the reviews if you wish.

As always, you can check out the full list of all my published items (novel, short stories, book reviews, etc) by visiting Published/Upcoming Works.

I Scored At The Coffee Shop!

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I was at a local coffee shop in Berea, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) yesterday to get my usual drink of choice – Iced Coffee – when I peered over my shoulder and spotted a bin full of movies priced at only 50 cents.  Needless to say, I said, “hold on” to the barista and headed on over to the bin.  As I started to dig through the movies, with the help of my 2 year old, I started to notice that a few of them were of the horror variety.  Though, as you might imagine these movies weren’t new or even close-to-new releases.  For the most part they were all movies and shows from the 60’s and 70’s.  But, that didn’t deter me from finding a few movies that caught my interest.  Among them are: Wolf Man (1979), Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) and Scream of the Wolf (1974).

I watched the Scream of the Wolf, tonight, staring Peter Graves and Clint Walker.

From the back cover of Scream of the Wolf:

Adventure writer John Weatherby, played by Peter Graves (Mission Impossible) is called in to investigate a series of brutal murders that has investigators confused.  The clues are not clear and leave no clear trail.  The tracks left at the murder site appear to be that of a wolf, or a man, or both.

Lost in his search for answers, Weatherby contacts his old friend Bryon, played by Clint Walker, a mysterious hunter and recluse, to help him track this unknown killer.  His friend is not much help but may know more than what he’s willing to say.  The suspense and terror builds as danger lurks in the shadows of the night.  SCREAM OF THE WOLF will keep yo on the edge of your seat and remind you to stay in at night and lock your doors because you never know what could be lurking in the shadows of the night!

I’m not going to say much about the movie itself, except that I enjoyed it.  The movie was fast paced (it was only 80 minutes long) and had some classic 70’s music, which I was bobbing my head to!  Oh, and I definitely didn’t see this particular ending coming.  Overall a pretty good early horror flick!

Oh, did I mention Scream of the Wolf was written by the one and only Richard Matheson (I Am Legend)?  Cool!

Sittin’ on top of a hot stove…

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I’m not actually sitting on top of a hot stove in the kitchen, but I and Night School were recently given a shout out by jharmon on May 27th on a site called, BookStove.

The title of the article is, ‘Five Horror Novelists You (Probably) Haven’t Heard of…Yet’.  The blurb about me is at the top of the page. 

You can read what jharmon had to say about me and the book, by clicking here.

Posted: New Excerpt of Night School

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I apologize for the sporadic posts this week, but I am busy working on the novella that I mentioned here.  I do expect to have the novella completed before I leave go to Nashville, TN, for Hypericon 5 next Thursday.

So, having said that, I wanted to at least give you something new to read.  You will find a new excerpt of Night School posted here.

If you like what you read, head on over to the Storefront and buy the book.

Remember The Contest!

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

As a reminder, the current contest runs through, Friday, May 29th.  So, if you’re interested in scoring a free copy of Sinister Tales Magazine 4.2, which contains my short story, ‘The 7th House’, I would suggest you enter soon (I would also be more than happy to sign the mag for you).  You can read more about the contest and how to enter, by clicking here.

 

As a side note, thank you to all of you that have ordered Night School via B&N.com since they have been offering free shipping (which ends Today).  The current sales rank is the highest the book has ever been down to (the lower the better).  Awesome stuff!

Free Shipping on Barnes&Noble.com

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

From May 21 – 25, Barnes & Noble.com is offering Free Shipping on any order over $10.00.  Buying Night School during this special will qualify you for the free shipping (a $4.98 value).

To take advantage of this offer:

1)       Buy at least $10 of qualifying items marked FAST & FREE DELIVERY and ‘Usually ships within 23 hours’.

2)      Proceed to Checkout; ‘Expedited Delivery’ and ‘Send in as few packages as possible’ will be pre-selected.  (Note: Your discount will not appear on the ‘Shipping Options & Gift Preference’ page.)

3)      To apply discount, enter Coupon Code C8F8V7L at Checkout.  The ‘Estimated Shipping’ line on the Order Preview page will indicate ‘FREE’ after your discount has been applied.

 

Click here to order the book.

New Project

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I mentioned here that a few other horror authors and I were going to write a novel-length book, containing three novellas, one written by each of us, but we weren’t sure what the theme was going to be.  So, now that I have finished and sent out my short story collection, I figured it was time to update you on what is going on with this particular project.

The theme of the book will be ‘a doctor makes a house call’ and each novella will be loosely based on this theme.  Basically this means that each novella will contain this idea in the first chapter, but from there each of us takes the story in our own direction.

I mention this now because I have begun the writing for my part of the book.  Though, I’m not going to give you any clues yet with what my novella contains, I will say that the writing is going well…and fast.  At this rate I should be done with my novella in 8 days (a novella is a minimum of 25K words) – so you do the math where I’m at right now.  But, even though the writing is coming fast and furious right now, I doubt I’ll be able to keep up this pace or have the time to do so, to complete it in only 8 days.  But, hey, never say never…right!?

I’ll let you know more about this project as updates become available.

A Comment From…

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

John Raab, the Editor at Suspense Magazine.

We are very happy that Ty contacted us. He is the type of author that we love and want to see become a national bestseller. I think the public needs to keep an eye out for Ty, his energy and style are great. We need more emerging authors like him.

Thanks for the kind words, John.  I look forward to working with you, as well.

Sinister Tales Magazine 4.2 – Contest

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

How would you like to win a free copy of Sinister Tales Magazine 4.2, which contains my short story, ‘The 7th House’?  You can check out the cover of the mag and read a short description of the story, by clicking here.  The cover price of the mag is $9.99.

How to enter:

– Send me an email (ty_schwamberger@yahoo.com) by Midnight on Friday, May 29th with the correct answers to the following questions.  Those that have the correct answers will go into a random drawing for the contest.  Only one entry per person, please.  The winner will be notified via email on Saturday, May 30th.  Please include your name and mailing address along with your entry.  In the Subject line of your email, please insert ‘Sinister Tales Magazine 4.2 Contest Entry’.  Hint:  All of the answers to the following questions can be found in some way on or via a link on this site.  

1)  In what month/year was my first short story, ‘Gnomus’ published? 

2)  Who are the three main characters in my novel, Night School?

3)  Who is my favorite horror author?

4)  What is the ‘place’ in the opening scene in the Night School Book Trailer? (two words)

5)  What is the title of my 5th grade short story that will appear in my short story collection?

 

That’s it.  Good Luck!