Blog Archives

Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot

1/21/2016

I'm super excited to share that The Private Sector has made the preliminary ballot for the 2015 Bram Stoker Awards! Here's the full list:

Superior Achievement in a Novel
Barker, Clive – The Scarlet Gospels (St. Martin’s Press)
Bates, Jeremy – The Catacombs (World’s Scariest Places: Book Two) (Ghillinnein Books)
Clines, Peter – The Fold (Crown)
Collings, Michaelbrent – The Deep (self-published)
Faherty, JG – The Cure (Samhain Publishing)
Ferrario, Keith – Monster (Samhain Publishing)
Frievald, Patrick – Black Tide (JournalStone Publishing)
Johnson, Jeremy Robert – Skullcrack City (Lazy Fascist Press)
Klavan, Andrew – Werewolf Cop (Pegasus)
Lane, Leigh M. – The Private Sector (Eldritch Press)
Talley, Brett J. – He Who Walks in Shadow (JournalStone Publishing)
Tremblay, Paul – A Head Full of Ghosts (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Alameda, Courtney – Shutter (Feiwel & Friends)
Cushing, Nicole – Mr. Suicide (Word Horde)
Erb, Thom – Heaven, Hell, or Houston: A Zombie Thriller (Severed Press)
Harmon, Kenneth W. – The Amazing Mr. Howard (JournalStone Publishing)
Hawkins, Scott – The Library at Mount Char (Crown)
Herrman, Heather – Consumption (Hydra)
Kirk, Brian – We Are Monsters (Samhain Publishing)
McIlveen, John – Hannahwhere (Crossroad Press)
Romines, Kyle Alexander – The Keeper of the Crows (Sunbury Press, Inc.)
Smith, Jean Claude – Riding the Centipede (Omnium Gatherum)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Brozek, Jennifer – Never Let Me Sleep (Permuted Press)
Chupeco, Rin – The Suffering (Sourcebooks Fire)
Collings, Michaelbrent – The Ridealong (self-published)
Dixon, John – Devil’s Pocket (Simon & Schuster)
Hill, Will – Department 19: Darkest Night (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
Hurley, Tonya – Hallowed (Simon & Schuster)
Johnson, Maureen – The Shadow Cabinet (Penguin)
Sattin, Samuel – The Silent End (Ragnarok Publications)
Varley, Dax – Bleed (Garden Gate Press)
Welke, Ian – End Times at Ridgemont High (Omnium Gatherum)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Bunn, Cullen – Harrow County, Vol. 1: Countless Haints (Dark Horse Comics)
Gischler, Victor – Hellbound (Dark Horse Books)
Kipiniak, Chris – Behemoth (Monkeybrain Comics)
Kirkman, Robert – Outcast, Vol. 1: A Darkness Surrounds Him (Image Comics)
Lucarelli, David – The Children’s Vampire Hunting Brigade, Vol. 2:
Age of the Wicked (Creator’s Edge Press)
Snyder, Scott – Wytches, Vol. 1 (Image Comics)
Tobin, Paul – Colder, Vol. 2: The Bad Seed (Dark Horse Comics)
Weller, Sam, and Mort Castle (editors) – Shadow Show: Stories in
Celebration of Ray Bradbury (IDW Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Braunbeck, Gary A. – Paper Cuts (Seize the Night) (Gallery Books)
Eads, Ben – Cracked Sky (Omnium Gatherum)
Edelman, Scott – Becoming Invisible, Becoming Seen (Dark Discoveries #30)
Gunhus, Jeff – The Torment of Rachel Ames (Seven Guns Press)
Mannetti, Lisa – The Box Jumper (Smart Rhino Publications)
McGuire, Seanan – Resistance (The End Has Come) (Broad Reach Publishing)
O’Neill, Gene – At the Lazy K (Written Backwards)
Parent, Jason – Dia de los Muertos (Bad Apples 2) (Corpus Press)
Partridge, Norman – Special Collections (The Library of the Dead) (Written Backwards)
Yardley, Mercedes M. – Little Dead Red (Grimm Mistresses) (Ragnarok Publications)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Bailey, Dale – Snow (Nightmare Magazine #33)
Boston, Bruce – A Trader on the Border of the Mutant Rain Forest (Daily Science Fiction)
Braum, Daniel – An American Ghost in Zurich (Savage Beasts) (Grey Matter Press)
Gonzalez, Michael Paul – Choking Hazard (Winter Horror Days) (Omnium Gatherum)
Jonez, Kate – All the Day You’ll Have Good Luck (Black Static #47)
Manzetti, Alessandro – The Massacre of the Mermaids (The Massacre of the Mermaids)
     (Kipple Officina Libraria)
O’Neill, Gene – The Algernon Effect (White Noise Press)
Palisano, John – Happy Joe’s Rest Stop (18 Wheels of Horror) (Big Time Books)
Southard, Nate – The Cork Won’t Stay (Nightmare Magazine #34)
Walters, Damien Angelica – Sing Me Your Scars (Sing Me Your Scars) (Apex Publications)
Wong, Alyssa – Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers (Nightmare Magazine #37)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Benson, Justin – Spring (XYZ Films)
del Toro, Guillermo, & Matthew Robbins – Crimson Peak (Legendary Pictures)
Franz, Veronika, and Severin Fiala – Goodnight, Mommy (Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion)
Fuller, Bryan, Steve Lightfoot & Nick Antosca – Hannibal: The Wrath of the Lamb (Dino De
     Laurentiis Company)
Gimple, Scott M. – The Walking Dead: Here’s Not Here (AMC)
Logan, John – Penny Dreadful: And Hell Itself My Only Foe (Showtime)
Logan, John – Penny Dreadful: Nightcomers (Showtime)
Mitchell, David Robert – It Follows (Northern Lights Films)
Waititi, Taika & Jemaine Clement – What We Do in the Shadows (Unison Films)
Zahler, S. Craig – Bone Tomahawk (Caliber Media Company)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Bailey, Michael – The Library of the Dead (Written Backwards)
Datlow, Ellen – The Doll Collection: Seventeen Brand-New Tales of Dolls (Tor Books)
Delany, Shannon, and Judith Graves – Beware the Little White Rabbit (Leap Books, LLC)
Golden, Christopher – Seize the Night (Gallery Books)
Jones, Stephen – Horrorology (Quercus Publishing)
Kilpatrick, Nancy, and Caro Soles – nEvermore! (Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)
Maberry, Jonathan – X-Files: Trust No One (IDW Publishing)
Miller, Eric – 18 Wheels of Horror (Big Time Books)
Murano, Doug, and D. Alexander Ward – Shadows Over Main Street (Hazardous Press)
Nassise, Joseph, and Del Howison – Midian Unmade (Tor Books)
Rector, Jeani – Shrieks and Shivers from the Horror Zine (Post Mortem Press)
Thomas, Richard – Exigencies (Dark House Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Braunbeck, Gary – Halfway Down the Stairs (JournalStone Publishing)
Brozek, Jennifer – Apocalypse Girl Dreaming (Evil Girlfriend Media)
Cummings, Shane Jiraiya – The Abandonment of Grace and Everything After (Brimstone Press)
Cushing, Nicole – The Mirrors (Cycatrix Press)
Everson, John – Sacrificing Virgins (Samhain Publishing)
Grant, Taylor – The Dark at the End of the Tunnel (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Litherland, Neal F. – New Avalon: Love and Loss in the City of Steam (James Ward Kirk Publishing)
O’Neill, Gene – The Hitchhiking Effect (Dark Renaissance Books)
Snyder, Lucy A. – While the Black Stars Burn (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Warner, Matthew – Dominoes in Time (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Everett, Justin, and Jeffrey H. Shanks (ed.) – The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)
Hutchinson, Sharla, and Rebecca A. Brown (ed.) – Monsters and Monstrosity from the Fin de Siècle
     to the Millennium (McFarland and Company)
Jones, Stephen – The Art of Horror (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books)
Knost, Michael – Author’s Guide to Marketing with Teeth (Seventh Star Press)
Mynhardt, Joe, & Emma Audsley (editors) – Horror 201: The Silver Scream (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Olson, Danel – Studies in the Horror Film: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (Centipede Press)
Soderlund, Sarah – Haunted by the Abyss: The Otherworldly Experiences of Paranormal
     (Llewellyn Publications)
Southall, Richard – Haunted Plantations of the South (Llewellyn Publications)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Boston, Bruce – Resonance Dark and Light (Eldritch Press)
Crum, Amanda – The Madness in our Marrow (Amanda Crum)
Gailey, Jeannine Hall – The Robot Scientist’s Daughter (Mayapple Press)
Hanson, Michael H. – Dark Parchments (MoonDream Press)
Manzetti, Alessandro – Eden Underground (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Morgan, Robert – Dark Energy (Penguin Books)
Opperman, K.A. – The Crimson Tome (Hippocampus Press)
Randolph, Michael – Poetic Allegories (Eldritch Press)
Simon, Marge – Naughty Ladies (Eldritch Press)
Wytovich, Stephanie M. – An Exorcism of Angels (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Congratulations and good luck to everyone else whose works made this initial list.

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Book Blast: HEDON by Jason Werbeloff

1/8/2016

3 Comments

About the novel:

What if happiness were compulsory?
What if your thoughts were not your own?
Plunge into HEDON for soul-twisting sci-fi.

In 2051, the Bhutanese Empire rules post-apocalyptic Shangri with iron-fisted Buddhist compassion. Happiness is compulsory, but making everyone happy isn’t easy in an overpopulated world. Breeders are ghettoed, homosexuality is mandatory, and Shangrians’ happiness levels are strictly monitored by hedometers implanted in their heads. Become depressed, or feel too happy without helping others feel the same, and The Tax Man will get angry. Very angry.

Gemini and Cyan, winners of the pregnancy lottery, are on the run. Cyan can’t fall pregnant, and Gemini is addicted to the Experience Machine. Will they evade The Tax Man, and find a way to end the brutal pleasures of Shangri?

The lovechild of Brave New World and The Handmaid’s Tale, HEDON is gritty satire on a dystopia drunk with bigotry and positive thinking.

“A one of a kind dystopian novel.”
“As politically depraved as anyone could desire.”
“This is storytelling at its best”.
– ReadersFavorite.com 5 star review of HEDON

Excerpt:

The day before his father died, Gemini had carried the old, old man to the summit of the district heap. Cardboard boxes, plastic packets, clothes hangers, rags, and a thousand other remnants of the past had sagged, crunched and scratched beneath Gemini’s bare feet. By the time he’d reached the top, he was out of breath. But it wasn’t the weight of his father in his arms, clinging to his neck. His father weighed less than a memory. No, it was the thought that this would be the last time they would share the view together.

The heap was higher than the ghetto Wall, higher than the Devas. From the top, they could see it all. Rows and rows, and rows, of tin shacks stretched behind them. And before them, a mile away, was the great Wall, brown as the earth. Beyond was the city, its brown-white spires shrouded in fog. Brown fog.

His father had looked at Gemini then. Really looked. Looked at him, his son, not as a war veteran. Not as someone from the past. “Boy,” his father’s voice was hollow, soaked up by the heap, “are you happy?”

The breath in Gemini had caught. Of course he was happy. Everyone was happy. It was Shangri. But his lips formed a different reply. “No,” he said, and stared out beyond the Wall. His cheeks burned.

“That’s okay, boy. They say they’re happy. But they’re not. Nobody is.”

Gemini swung his head to study his father’s eyes. The blasphemy. Sure, there was unrest here, in the ghetto. Sure, there was discontent. But few spoke such … such blatant heresy. Such negativity.

“Find a girl,” his father said, placing a veined hand on his son’s. “Be happy with her, but not too much. Never forget …” His head twitched. “Never forget that there is more.”

His father fell silent. Gemini scooped together a pillow of detritus so the dying man could lie comfortably as he stared out at the city. The city the old man had fought for, and lost.

About the author:

Human. Male. From an obscure planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Sci-fi novelist with a PhD in philosophy. Likes chocolates, Labradors, and zombies (not necessarily in that order). Werbeloff spends his days constructing thought experiments, while trying to muster enough guilt to go to the gym.

He's written two novels, Hedon and The Solace Pill, and the short story anthology, Obsidian Worlds. His books will make your brain hurt. And you'll come back for more.

Subscribe to his newsletter to receive The Solace Pill for free, as well as VIP access to Werbeloff's latest fiction. You can also check out his work at his Amazon Author Page and Goodreads. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter for release date information on upcoming shorts and novels, and you can also bookmark his website to read about the author and the philosophy behind his fiction.

Hedon's purchase link.

Enter to win a $15 Amazon/BN GC - a Rafflecopter giveaway

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New Year’s Challenge

1/1/2016

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I’m not big on resolutions. We all mean well when we resolve to go to the gym five times a week or cut out all forms of junk food. While making personal promises to improve our health, for example, are admirable—and we all should strive, no matter what time of the year, to improve ourselves in every way we can—New Year’s resolutions typically only set us up for failure. I’m not saying don’t make any resolutions if you feel motivated or confident about it. If setting up a resolution is what will help you quit smoking or sneaking in those midnight Ben and Jerry’s splurges, do it. I am, however, saying is that you shouldn’t feel bad about not making a resolution either.

I’m not making any resolutions this year. I’ve already adopted a healthy lifestyle. I don’t smoke or drink. I’m not lazy, and I keep a clean home. I might not do enough recreational reading, and maybe I watch a little too much television and spend too much time on the computer (which is hell on my neck and back). Maybe I worry a little too much and don’t get out quite enough, but those are things I can address here and there as I see fit. Resolutions aren’t going to change any of them.

Nonetheless, New Year’s and change do go hand in hand. The new year represents a clean slate, second chances, excuses to try new things. So this year, instead of making any resolutions, I’m going to set a challenge.

I received a new review for World-Mart recently that touched me deeply—not because the person enjoyed my book, but because she’d been forced to read it for an English class, thought she was going to hate it because it was way outside her typical choice in genre. This is what she had to say:

It’s funny how we can cling to certain expectations only to find our assessments completely wrong. It can be so easy to resist books, movies, music we think will fall outside our comfort zones—but when you broaden your horizon, the results can be surprisingly fun. That was one thing that always stuck with me from college, just how many genres I actually enjoy (and how many of them I’d never have chosen to read had I not been required to).

My challenge to you: Pick a literary genre you’ve never had any desire to read and add it to the top of your TBR list. Maybe it really won’t turn out to be your thing … but if it does, how cool will that be? Bookmark this blog post and come back to it once you’ve finished. I’d love to know how your new-genre experiment turns out.

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Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot﻿

Book Blast: HEDON by Jason Werbeloff

​New Year’s Challenge

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