I recently did an interview with Fear and Trembling Magazine (e-zine).
You can read what I had to say, by clicking here.
As always, to read any of the interviews I’ve done, you can visit the Published/Upcoming Works page.
Also, remember to check out the book trailer to Night School. If you like what you see after viewing the trailer, visit the Storefront to buy the book.
That’s right. After months of throwing around design ideas and building the hand-crafted knife, JD Borden of JDB Knives and I announce the release of the Night School Knife/Book Set. It is now available for ordering!
A photo of the knife/book set and details on the knife are as follows:
It’s a Bowie/martial style with brass bolster and a sculpted subhilt walnut handle.
Overall Length: nearly 10″ Blade Length: About 5 3/4″ Blade Width: 1 1/4″ Blade Thickness: just over 3/16″ Handle Length: 4 3/8″ Handle Width: just under 1 1/2″ Handle Thickness: just over 3/4″ Finger Guard: just under 2 3/4″. Hidden tang.
Price: $229.99. Includes Knife, Stand, Matching Numbered and Autographed copy of Night School, Plus FREE shipping! Include any Custom Inscriptions With the Order. Since Each Knife is produced in the order in which the request is received, Serial Numbers are on a first come first served bases.
If you want to read more about the design and actual making of the knife, visit the Build-A-Long on the JDB Knives’ message board or if you want to read more about the knife/book set or order it, click HERE. Remember, all knives are hand-crafted, limited-edition and serial numbered. So, your knife isn’t made until you order it. As, this is a limited-edition arrangement between JD and myself, they will only be made for a limited time. So, if you’re interested, order soon!
In the past, I have written a few book reviews for Withersin Magazine. These books always came from my own collection. The reviews that have been written already, can be read here.
The reason I mention this, is that I was recently contacted by the editor/founder of Withersin and asked to read a number of books and write reviews on them. They are shipping the books to me this week. The titles I will be reviewing are below.
Stonewiser (Dora Machado)
The Giant’s Fence (Michael Jacobson)
Murderland Part 2 (Cook)
GUD Magazine
Eyes Falling Down (Needle)
Dragging Wings (Jennifer Caress)
Island (Richard Laymon)
Jigsaw Man (Gord Rollo)
House Infernal (Edward Lee)
Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
Withersin Death (Sumek, Gersley)
Memmories Forgotten, Nightmares Recalled (Vincenzo Mortillaro)
Accidental Vampire (Lynsay Sands )
Messenger (Edward Lee)
The Mad Cook of Pymatuning (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt)
The Summoning (Bentley Little)
Quite a few of these books I have wanted to pick up for myself anyway, so it works out perfectly on those. Some of the others, I have never heard of, but am eager to read them, as well, and possibly find a new book/author that I might enjoy.
Reviews for the above books should start showing up on Withersin’s website in the near future. I will, of course, inform you when they are available to check out.
I mentioned here about the ‘Name The Title’ Contest that is currently going on until the 15th.
I mention this again, because I received a request yesterday from someone asking me if it were possible for me to post the names of the short stories that will be in the collection. I thought about it for a bit and decided that it might help some of you that are already sending me title proposals for the ‘short story collection.’
Below you will find the names of the stories that have already been written and a few words on what they are about. Please note, these are the stories that will be sent to the publisher for the collection. Although, there may or may not be additional titles and/or some of the below titles might be removed at the publishers discretion. In addition, if you see a ‘*’ by a title, this means it’s a previously published story which will still be part of the collection, but you can read them now either online or by buying the magazine in which it appeared.
Below are the story’s current titles in no particular order.
‘Rebirth : The Rise of Pharaoh Masika’ (about a mummy brought back to life)
‘The 7th House’ * (haunted house attraction)
‘The Legend of Johnston’s Creek’ (creepy story about a creature that lives in a local town’s creek)
‘Cake Batter’ (a wife’s revenge)
‘Gnomus’ * (evil garden gnome)
‘Jacob’s Mind’ * (monster story)
‘The Ringmaster’ (about a circus where some creepy stuff happens)
‘Thirst’ * (werewolf story)
‘Web Blog’ (about the main female character in Night School)
‘One Brew Too Many?’ (the consequences of underage drinking & driving and premarital sex)
‘All In The Line of Duty’ (cop/zombie story)
That’s about it. If you are interested in learning more or wish to enter the contest, click here.
A book review that I wrote about Survivor by J.F. Gonzalez has been published by Withersin Magazine.
Click here to read the review.
You can always check out a full list of my published items, by visiting Published/Upcoming Works.
I mentioned in a previous post how the Night School Knife is almost finished being made by JD Boren of JDB Knives. If you have been following the knife’s progress, you can again go to the Night School Build-A-Long on the message board at JDB Knives, by clicking here to see the recent updates.
Pricing and ordering information for the hand-crafted, limited-edition knife (there will only be a set amount made) and book set will be coming soon.
Enjoy!
I mentioned here that I’m currently working on some short stories that will ultimately become a ‘short story collection.’ As of right now, I’m almost done with the second to last story (it has grown to a long-short-story with over 10K words) that I want to include in the collection. Of course, after I am done with this one, I’ll still have one left to write.
Authors take great pride with the content of their work, whether it’s a novel, story story or a collection of shorts. Along with the stories themselves, authors enjoy coming up with a suitable title that not only the publisher will like, but for their fans, as well.
This is where you, the fans, come in.
The gist of this contest is as follows.
– Come up with a title (never seen before) that is suitable for a ‘short story collection.’ Try to stay away from common titles, such as, ’13 tales of terror’ ‘a collection of scary tales’ and the like. Delve into new territory, experiment, see what you can come up with. Remember, this will be a collection of shorts dealing with all aspects of horror (monsters, madmen, strange events, etc), so the title should be something that will grab the readers eye when it’s sitting on the book self.
What will you win, you ask?
– The person that comes up with the best ‘title’ for the collection will win a starring role in the last short I will write for the collection. Yup, that’s right, you’re full name (or only your first if you choose) will appear as the main character in the story. The only thing is, I can’t guarantee ‘you’ will still be alive at the end…
– You will be mentioned in the acknowledgements in the front of the book
– You will receive a copy of the book, free of charge, once it’s published and released
Sound good? It should. This is your chance to make a contribution to the genre that you love and possibly have a wild ride in the process – but only in the story. 🙂
How to enter and rules:
– Email me with your full name (first, last), email address and one or two ‘titles’ (please don’t list a whole slew of them, one or two is fine), by April 15, 2009.
– The suject line of your email should read, exactly: ‘Contest Entry for Short Story Collection’ If it doesn’t have this suject line, I can’t guarantee you that it will be read.
– One entry (email) per person, only.
– If your chosen the winner, you will be notified by email on or before April 30, 2009. So, if you don’t receive an email by the end of this day, you’re not the winner.
Good Luck!
As a side note…if you haven’t yet checked out the book trailer for Night School click here. Then go to the Storefront and buy the book!
FYI. If you were planning to attend the book signing at the Borders in Solon, Ohio this coming Saturday – it HAS been rescheduled at the store’s request.
The new date will be Saturday, April 18th. The time is still from 1:00 – 3:00. The Appearances page has also been updated.
As always, you can buy the book at the signing or bring in a copy you already own.
I mentioned awhile back about having a Book Trailer done for Night School. Well, Warren Provencal with Shadetree Films has completed the project and has sent it onto me – and I think he did a bang up job! The trailer is currently being uploaded to various sites on the internet, but you can view it NOW on my You Tube page, by clicking HERE.
Enjoy and let me know what you think!
If after viewing the trailer, you want to buy the book, visit the Storefront.
I mentioned here about having done an interview for Blood Moon Rising #37. Appearantly there was a hurry to get the issue online for viewing and my interview (along with some other articles) were inadvertently left off.
The interview has now been added back to the issue and can be read by clicking here.
Ty Schwamberger 