Tag: books

The Return (return) of the Richard Laymon Book Contest

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

This is the Return (return) – as in, no one entered for this prize the first time (what?!) of the Richard Laymon Book Contest.  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 in the past was in ‘Used – Very Good’ condition on Amazon and was 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 if you have read any of my stuff before (and no, if you haven’t, it won’t disqualify you from the contest – but it does mean, you better order something of mine and soon or I’ll be forced to send an evil garden gnome after you!).

One lucky winner will be chosen at random on (entries must be received by Midnight on July 31) August 1st from all entries received.  The lucky winner will be notified via email.  Please, only one entry per person.

Good Luck!

Night School – Now in Large Print

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I was recently informed by my publisher of two happenings.

1)  Night School is now being offered in a Large Print edition.

2)  The price of the Hardcover edition of the book will go up (I don’t know to what) beginning next week.

So, if you’re partially blind order a copy of the Large Print and if you want the Hardcover at the current price, I would suggest ordering one in the next few days.  Remember, the Large Print and the Hardcover editions of the book are only available at the current time through my publisher.  The Softcover is still available at any major online bookstore.

Click here to order the Large Print or Hardcover.

or

Visit the Storefront to see where you can buy the Softcover.

Enjoy!

Now on Facebook!

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

Yup, that’s right.  I’ve joined the drones of people and have joined Facebook.  I have contemplated whether or not to join for some time now, but yesterday night decided to ‘go for it’ and ‘see what happens’.  At this point, I’m not sure how long the page will be online, though I suppose that all depends on YOU.  So, if you want to add me to your existing or new Facebook page, go ahead.  You’ll more than likely get a more personal look into my life…whether that’s a good or bad thing…that’s for you to decide.

Click here to visit my Facebook page.

Enjoy and Happy 4th of July.  Be Safe!

Settled & Ready to Write, again

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I finally have all my things here in the suburb of Toledo, OH, where I’ll be living for the time being.  This was after 5 round trips back and forth from Cleveland to Toledo.  Needless to say, that’s alot of miles and gas money for a 7 day period.

Now it’s time to finish putting my crap away and start working (writing), again.

The top three things on my ‘To Do’ list are as follows:

  • Edit the novella that I finished writing about a week ago.
  • Continue talks with a magazine (I can’t tell you which one quite yet) about writing a serialized story for them, which would appear in parts in 2 or 3 issues in a row (this is a print magazine).
  • Start working again on my ‘novel-in-progress’ (currently at 25k words) about a ‘monster’.

Just the above items should keep me busy for awhile.  Besides what I just stated above, there is also the ‘Cake Batter’ film, which is in the works, as well.

Busy, busy, busy…but that’s the way it should be!

The End Is Near…

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

Finally finished the novella tonight that I started in the middle of May.  In fact, I think it turned out pretty well.

I’ve also, of course, have been moving to Toledo this week.  Made three round trips (1 1/2 hours each way) so far, but the next one should be my last.  I also have an interview for a ‘day job’ on Tuesday, as well – so I guess you could say things are finally starting to look up.

Now it’s time to relax after a long week of moving and celebrate the completion of the novella by, how else, going to the bar for a cold brew.

Hope ya’ll are enjoying your weekends…I’ll be seeing ya again in a few days after I’m settled in Toledo.

Now back to your regular scheduled web-surfing.

The move to T-Town and some updates

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I rarely, if ever, mention personal stuff on here, though I feel like making an exception this time.  Well, that and some other stuff.

As you know, I currently live in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.  Though, in one week from now I will be moving a hour and a half west to T-Town or better known as Toledo, Ohio – The Glass City.  This is not only because I have yet to find a ‘day job’ after being downsized in February after being with the company for 5 1/2 years, but also for personal reasons, that I won’t be mentioning here. 

With the move looming, I find myself looking back at the last nine years here in Cleveland, after graduating college in 2000.  The city and people have provided me with some good and not so good times.  I often wonder how things would have turned out if I wouldn’t have moved here after college.  Not that I had much choice.  Ya gotta go where the job takes you, ya know!?  Which is why I moved here to begin with.  The best thing to come out of living in Cleveland, of course, was the birth of my youngest daughter.  She rocks!

Anyway, at this point I am pretty much starting over.  Starting at the bottom and working my way back up, again.  Not that there is anything wrong with having to do that.  Ultimately it  may build my character.  That or it will just kick my ass and leave me lying in the gutter.  Either way, I am pretty much exhausted at this point in more ways than one.  It IS time for a fresh start.  Either way, I plan on continuing to pursue my writing career. 

There is one thing currently in the works (that I haven’t officially announced, but if you cruise the page you’ll see what it is already) and I am still awaiting word from a publisher on my short story collection that I sent out for consideration.  In addition, I am about 2,500 words away from finishing the novella that I mentioned here.  Though, there has been a little bump in the road with one of the authors I mentioned disappearing on us.  So, at this point, I have contacted another author and inquired if he would be interested in the project.  Then, after my novella is completed, I will be moving onto the ‘novel-in-progress’ that I had to put aside when Night School was published.  Currently, I’m at 25K words and my goal is to have it completed at the end of this summer and then sent out for consideration.  After that, I’m going to be switching gears a bit and venture into writing something else besides horror (don’t worry, I’ll come right back to it), that someone suggested I give a try.  I’m not going to mention what genre it’s in yet, though you can see quite a bit of ‘it’ in Night School.

That’s it.  Some random thoughts and some updates to tide you over until the 2nd (2 of 2.  The first being the hardcover edition of Night School coming out) major annoucement that I mentioned was coming a week or two ago, finally gets made official.

With that, I’ve got the SUV packed up and ready for a drive to T-Town tomorrow, er, today!  Time to get some rest and hit the road bright and early.

New Links Added

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

As you are probably aware, I met quite a few authors at Hypericon 5.  Besides getting to spend quite a bit of time hanging out with Brian Keene, I got to meet the following authors:  Maurice Broaddus, PS Gifford and Steven (Shrews) Shrewsbury.  I got to meet several others, as well, but these were the ones I spent the most time with.  All these guys were kind as can be and a joy to be around.

Their websites have also been added to Links on the right hand side of the page.

I highly suggest checking out their sites and work.