Hey everybody, M. here,

January has been sort of a blur over here. I ended up doing the first real traveling I’ve undertaken since the pandemic and have continued to try to wrestle myself out of the doldrums of distraction and get back onto an appreciable reading and movie viewing schedule, lest my mind begin to sputter and run out of gas. And that automotive metaphor is as good a segue as any to the first of a few announcements I’ve got lined up today:

The Road Trip God anthology, now available in print
First off I’m happy to share the news that right on schedule, The Road Trip God, which is the first themed anthology from new indie-horror publisher PsychoToxin Press, is out now and available in print. This one contains my flash-horror story Leap of Faith alongside 10 other stories of dark deities out on the road, delivered at a breakneck pace.

I am finding it hard to discuss what the story is about without running the risk of dropping spoilers, as can be the case with a story that clocks in around 1,000 words. Suffice it to say that I meant to make it a tense one. If this story leaves you reaching for a phantom grab handle or slamming your foot down on an invisible brake, then I’ve done my job.

Pick one up today right here and while you’re at you can check out everything else PsychoToxin has been up to lately, they’ve really gotten things off the ground fast for having just launched last year.

Pre-order Lovecraftiana: The Magazine of Eldritch Horror Candlemas 2023 Issue
It’s the one you’ve been waiting for! The official date has nearly arrived for the release of the Candlemas 2023 issue of Lovecraftiana: The Magazine of Eldritch Horror, and as I have mentioned once or twice or a couple more times than that, this issue contains my novelette The Study of Worms, a story steeped in the Lovecraft Mythos, and packed full of weird science, weird gods, weird adventure, plus a bunch of other good stuff, like generational dysfunction and blood by the five-gallon glass carboy.

As you can see from that image right there, the cover looks completely amazing, and this issue is celebrating a full century since the 1923 launch of the original Weird Tales. I am certainly neither the first nor the thousandth person to observe that what that pulp mag started a century ago really has made horror what it is today as a genre. And I don’t mean just Cthulhu Mythos stuff, but a big chunk of the other horror that has appeared on the page and in the theater since then. So it’s a centennial I’m quite excited to have my work included in.

Pre-order your copy today in either print or e-book and get ready! More on what you can expect from the story coming very, very soon.

Startling Stories 2021 reviewed in SFcrowsnest (alongside the other Startling Stories #1s)
I got a pleasant surprise the other day when I saw Mike Chinn share a link over on Facebook from SFcrowsnest containing an in-depth review of not just the 2021 issue of Startling Stories, but the other two inaugural editions of the publication — the 1939 original published by Ned Pines‘ Better Publishing and edited by Mort Weisinger, and the 2006 relaunch from Ron Hanna and Wild Cat Books.

Reviewer Dave Brzeski had some very nice things to say about a number of the stories in the 2021 issue, including my story Payload, Check out the full review here.

And if you haven’t picked either of them up yet, you can still get both the first issue of the new Startling and the 2022 issue. The latter contains my upbeat, off-planet sci-fi detective adventure story Pharmakon, Pharmakon, which is accompanied by an amazing illustration from the legendary Vincent Di Fate (links to get both issues here).

More to come soon, take care everyone!
-M.