I've been blown away by the type of authors who have agreed to read and blurb my upcoming release ALL SMOKE RISES: MILK-BLOOD REDUX.
You see what I mean. Braggart. But it has truly been humbling.
John FD Taff for one, the modern day king of pain, who writes books with such emotion, and the epitome of proof that dark fiction writers have the finest hearts. But he's been a digital friend of mine for years, and, you know, friends read your book...
Then along comes another Jon. Jon Bassoff, someone who is on my short list of autobuy writers. Winner of the Darkfuse Reader's Choice Awards for his book Corrosion. He writes with a tone so unique, and with characters so cool, that I hate to message him for every second he responds means less time spent writing fiction for me to read.
Well, he read ASR fast and gave it a blurb.
Les Edgerton, who writes crime fiction so real that you'd think he'd opened up the brain of those who commit such dark atrocities and dropped you inside.
Blurbed my book.
Richard Thomas, who writes like he has a gun to his head, with lyrical sentences, modern day urban epic poetry, (Read Breaker and read Disintegration) blurbed my book.
I know, when you score a touchdown or hit a home run, you're supposed to act like you've done it before. I'm not hearing that. I know I work my ass off, I know I obsess over what I write. I write from the wound and the scar, and God forbid I ever bore a reader or make them think they'd rather be reading something else. Still, this is not how it's supposed to be. I'm a self-published hack. A hobbyist. So I'm not pretending I'm not surprised, humbled, because I am. And I'm bragging on it. I may sound like an ass. But, I don't care. Cause I'm going on
Bram Stoker Award winning author Kealan Patrick Burke, a horror writers' horror writer, whose fiction you can not deny is art, whose novel KIN is the one book I would choose if asked to pick an example of how to write Horror, agreed to do an introduction after reading the book. When I read what he wrote, it was perhaps the highlight of my writing career (um, hobby, ... ). Not just for his words on ALL SMOKE RISES, but for its explanation of what horror and dark fiction is all about.
I feel incredibly indebted, so thanks to you all above, and for the many who have helped shape the book.
I am like a Lannister, I always pay my debts, and I will be paying them back as I'm able. It starts with Kealan Patrick Burke, and my mission to release a bit more KIN into the world. I'm going to explain more in a future post on the elements of KIN that make it how one should (in my humble-bragging opinion) write horror, but first, I'm gonna release a bit more KIN into the world.
I'm doing a twitter giveaway of a KIN paperback soon. Like real soon. Look for it on twitter later today.
