Guns, Drugs & Money
Posted on August 28, 2018 Leave a Comment
DISINTEGRATION in great company here.
We thought we’d share another seven of our favorite reads with you, this time featuring novels and novellas with a thread of organization running through them. Organized crime, that is. With mobsters, drug dealers, cartels, and gangsters galore, there’s something we really love about this type of fiction and, given the selection, we think you will too. So, let us just drop a quick disclaimer here, and then we’ll get on to this list of must read books running the gamut from crime to horror and all points in between. The disclaimer: we are aware that this is pretty much a sausage fest and would like to point out that isn’t intentional. We love women authors as much as any other and would never seek to exclude or denigrate their work. This list merely reflects the favorites we’ve read in genre fiction that fit the theme we’re embracing here today…
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Monstrous Women Schedule
Posted on August 12, 2018 Leave a Comment
This class looks great. Hop in people. Plus, THE MERE WIFE!
Summer is coming to a close, and we’re getting geared up for a new section of Monstrous Women with Introductions starting the last week of August. There are currently only three seats left for the Tuesday night section of this workshop. Classes run through the first week of December and will be held from 6-8:30 pm MST (5-7:30 pm PST/ 7-9:30 pm CST/ 8-10:30 EST/ 10 am-12:30 pm Wednesday AEST).
Over the course of 14 weeks, participants will write five short stories based on the following themes: The Shifting Shapes of Animal Brides, The Seductive Allure of the Femme Fatale, Weeping Women and Tearful Prophecies, The Female Descent into Hysteria and Madness, Mayhem in Numbers and the Sacred Three. Participants will also have the opportunity to workshop a selection of revised stories during portfolio sessions, which are held the last two weeks of class.
In addition to the workshop materials…
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Lost Highways Anthology is Now Out! With My Story, “Requital.”
Posted on July 22, 2018 Leave a Comment
Brand new anthology out today! Very excited to be a part of this book, so many talented authors and friends in here. My story, “Requital” is inspired by the David Lynch film, Lost Highway, and it also (hopefully) taps into the idea of justice, karma, death, and purgatory. Hope you enjoy my work, and the entire collection. From Crystal Lake Publishing:
It’s dangerous out there…on the road.
The highways, byways and backroads of America are teeming day and night with regular folks. Moms and dads making long commutes. Teenagers headed to the beach. Bands on their way to the next gig. Truckers pulling long hauls. Families driving cross country to visit their kin.
But there are others, too. The desperate and the lost. The cruel and the criminal.
Theirs is a world of roadside honky-tonks, truck stops, motels, and the empty miles between destinations. The unseen spaces.
And there are even stranger things. Places that aren’t on any map. Wayfaring terrors and haunted legends about which seasoned and road-weary travelers only whisper.
But those are just stories. Aren’t they?
Find out for yourself as you get behind the wheel with some of today’s finest authors of the dark and horrific as they bring you these harrowing tales from the road.
Tales that could only be spawned by the endless miles of America’s lost highways.
So go ahead and hop in. Let’s take a ride.
Lineup:
• Introduction by Brian Keene
• doungjai gam & Ed Kurtz — “Crossroads of Opportunity”
• Matt Hayward — “Where the Wild Winds Blow”
• Joe R. Lansdale — “Not from Detroit”
• Kristi DeMeester — “A Life That is Not Mine”
• Robert Ford — “Mr. Hugsy”
• Lisa Kröger — “Swamp Dog”
• Orrin Grey — “No Exit”
• Michael Bailey — “The Long White Line”
• Kelli Owen — “Jim’s Meats”
• Bracken MacLeod — “Back Seat”
• Jess Landry — “The Heart Stops at the End of Laurel Lane”
• Jonathan Janz — “Titan, Tyger”
• Nick Kolakowski — “Your Pound of Flesh”
• Richard Thomas — “Requital”
• Damien Angelica Walters — “That Pilgrims’ Hands Do Touch”
• Cullen Bunn — “Outrunning the End”
• Christopher Buehlman — “Motel Nine”
• Rachel Autumn Deering — “Dew Upon the Wing”
• Josh Malerman — “Room 4 at the Haymaker”
• Rio Youers — “The Widow”
Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.
Amazon: http://getbook.at/LostHighways
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40609864-lost-highways
Shirt: https://bit.ly/2NnKVFw
10 (extra) spectacular speculative stories I read in May
Posted on June 7, 2018 Leave a Comment
Maria always has great taste. Some excellent authors on this list. Click over and enjoy!
May was full of stories. Great stories, wonderful stories, frightening stories, EXCELLENT stories. So. many. stories. I share ten of them here, and there’s another ten for your reading pleasure at B&N:
Faint Voices, Increasingly Desperate, by Johanna DeNiro in Shimmer
This rich, devastating tale is so good it sort of gives me vertigo to read it. DeNiro vividly reimagines Freia and Odin, the world tree, life and death (silk worms!), AND gives you Freia living in Vienna, blood magic, and a shattering love story. This Freia is such a fantastic character – awesome and hot-blooded, vulnerable and powerful. It’s a story that took me completely by surprise from beginning to end, and I love that.
What You Pass For, by Melanie West in F&SF
With an old fence-painting brush, white fence paint…
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DIVERSITY IN SMALL PRESS
Posted on June 5, 2018 2 Comments
This is great. Michael is working so hard to get this right. It’s very encouraging. I’m also honored to be in quite a few of these anthologies—Chiral Mad 2, 3, and 4; Qualia Nous; and Prisms.
There has been a lot of discussion lately about female to male ratios within anthologies, and a lack of female presence and diversity in general. Lisa Morton, president of the Horror Writers Association, recently recapped a study from 2010 of Women in the Horror Small Press, which is around the time Written Backwards first started publishing anthologies. This got me thinking about my own projects over the years, so I put all the data I have into a spreadsheet.
My goal with these anthologies has always been to find new voices (the reason I started the press in the first place) and to place them alongside legends, no matter the individual. For the last five years, however, I have consciously widened my scope, reaching out to more diverse writers from all genres, hopefully to bring you some amazing books along the way.
Anyway, I encourage all small presses to…
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PRISMS Table of Contents Announced, at PS Publishing, with My Story “Saudade.”
Posted on April 23, 2018 4 Comments
Thrilled to be a part of this excellent anthology. Announcement today from Michael Bailey:
I am proud to announce the official line-up for PRISMS, the next dark science-fiction anthology co-edited by Darren Speegle and yours truly, to be released by PS Publishing.
- WE COME IN THREES – B.E. Scully
- ENCORE FOR AN EMPTY SKY – Lynda Rucker
- THE GIRL WITH BLACK FINGERS – Roberta Lannes
- THE SHIMMERING WALL – Brian Evenson
- IN THIS, THERE IS NO STING – Kristi DeMeester
- THE BIRTH OF VENUS – Ian Watson
- FIFTY SUPER-SAD MAD DOG SUI-HOMICIDAL SELF-SIBS, ALL IN A LEAKY TIN CAN HEAD – Paul Di Filippo
- RIVERGRACE – E. Catherine Tobler
- SAUDADE – Richard Thomas
- THERE IS NOTHING LOST – Erinn L Kemper
- THIS HEIGHT AND FIERY SPEED – A.C. Wise
- THE MOTEL BUSINESS – Michael Marshall Smith
- EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IS ALSO A LIE – Damien Angelica Walters
- THE GEARBOX – Paul Meloy
- DISTRICT TO CERVIX: THE TIME BEFORE WE WERE BORN – Tlotlo Tsamaase
- HERE TODAY AND GONE TOMORROW – Chaz Brenchley
- THE SECRETS OF MY PRISON HOUSE – J. Lincoln Fenn
- A LUTA CONTINUA – Nadia Bulkin
- I SHALL BUT LOVE THEE BETTER – Scott Edelman
The prism: dispersion of humankind into the spectrum of herself / himself; an object, a place, or something figurative; the human condition as it relates to the self, or to humankind in general; ascension; translation…
* Note that these are not official covers of any kind, just mock-ups I created during the conception of this project.
2020 Richard Thomas Fiction Writing Course Guide
Posted on April 17, 2018 12 Comments
I’ve decided to teach and write full-time! So that means I’m expanding my catalog of classes, and opening it up to authors of all levels. If you’d like the complete University of Richard Fiction Writing Course Guide, click here to email me now! It includes more information on my classes such as rates, length, overviews, books, and testimonials.
What classes am I offering in 2020? Here is the list:
- Short Story Mechanics (LitReactor.com) two weeks long (which still has 2019 slots open for April and October)
- Keep It Brief: A Flash Fiction Intensive (LitReactor.com) two weeks long (which still has 2019 slots open for July)
- Contemporary Dark Fiction (Skype, email, and Facebook) 16 weeks long
- Advanced Creative Writing Workshop (Skype, email, and Facebook) 16 weeks long
- Novel in a Year (via Skype, email, and Facebook) 52 weeks long (only one spot left!)
Come join the fun! And help take your writing to the next level. Class sizes are small, and payment plans are available, so drop me a note today!
(Note: The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Eleven includes my co-written novelette, “Golden Sun.”)
Click HERE to get your free copy of the Writing Course Guide now!
In Defense of The Price
Posted on March 17, 2018 Leave a Comment
Great column. I was just talking about endings in horror stories on social media. Love what Nadia is saying here.
I miss high-stakes horror movies.
I miss not knowing who’s going to die. I miss not being able to telegraph the end. I miss protagonists that make bad decisions. I miss last-minute twists. What I really miss are lasting consequences. I miss horror movies where every bet is off save for one eternal rule: The Price.
This is the law of The Price. Imagine that in every horror movie, there is a troll under the bridge who collects the fare – The Price – for crossing over from the so-called normal world, or their ordinary existence, into the world of the dead or the damned or whatever else. Sometimes it’s a conscious decision to trespass across this boundary – a character decides to use a ouija board to contact a dead relative; a character uses a spell to hex a rival – and sometimes it’s not – a character makes…
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BEHOLD!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders wins Bram Stoker Award!
Posted on March 4, 2018 Leave a Comment
So excited to announce that BEHOLD!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Crystal Lake Publishing) has won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology. Doug Murano was an excellent editor, always a pleasure to work with him. My story “Hiraeth” was really out there, and Doug worked with me on it, and even accepted the EDGIER version, encouraging me to push it, and take chances with the narrative. It was also the last story in the anthology, which to me, is another honor.
Featuring Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Morton, Brian Kirk, Hal Bodner, Stephanie M. Wytovich, John Langan, Erinn L. Kemper, John F.D. Taff, Patrick Freivald, Lucy A. Snyder, Brian Hodge, Kristi DeMeester, Christopher Coake, Sarah Read and Richard Thomas. Foreword by Josh Malerman. Illustrations by Luke Spooner. Cover art by John Coulthart.
22 fabulously fantastic stories I read in December
Posted on January 2, 2018 Leave a Comment
Final love from Maria on Gamut. Much appreciation for all of your support.
December was full of wonderful short fiction, and in this monthly roundup I am making space for some special mentions.
- I’m very sad to say that December 2017 brought us the last issue of Gamut. I’ve really loved the strong voice and vivid dark/noir vibe of this magazine. Gamut published some of my favourite stories last year (and yes, they also published one of my own stories!), and I will sorely miss it. All the best to everyone involved with this publication.
- This past month I read The Fantasist for the first (but definitely not the last) time. It’s a magazine of fantasy novellas, and it looks rather brilliant to me. Read more about it. Check out their Patreon.
- Finally, December brought fabulous issues of Lamplight, Anathema, and Capricious. I’ve included stories from all three publications in this roundup, and I highly recommend them…
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- Richard Thomas - 