The Ghoulish Times | 11/19/22
The Ghoulish Times | 11/19/22
Hares - Trans Awareness Week - Wonderland Awards
Hello and welcome to another issue of The Ghoulish Times, the only ghoul-trusted news source in any graveyard. My name is Max Booth III and every time I write the introduction to a newsletter, one orphan is saved from a fire. It is the same orphan every time. I do not know how these fires keep happening. It is not my job to ask these questions. I’m just the newsletter guy. I was born writing newsletters and I will die writing newsletters. It is my destiny.
Speaking of fires, anyone been on Twitter lately? Holy hell. What a hilarious shitshow. I am not going to attempt to recap what’s been going on because the odds of you already knowing seem pretty high. But I will say the phrase “Space Karen” has been living in my head rentfree for the last day.
Like many people who spend way too much time on Twitter, I definitely panicked a little and aggressively pushed both the link to this very newsletter and the link to my discord server. Much to my shock and excitement, within the last 24 hours we have received almost 200 new members.
At the time that I am writing this newsletter, we are at exactly 450 members.
I originally started the GHOULISH discord because my friend Miguel Myers randomly suggested I should make one, and I spent a total of five minutes creating it. I never expected that we would someday have 450 people in this thing, nor would I have thought it would evolve into a full-on active horror community.
But it has. Interaction is near constant. Recently the community spent hours debating if and how centaurs might spoon, leading to members making illustrations to prove their arguments. I promise you it made sense at the time.
We also have an ongoing book club, plus we try to do a movie screening at least once a week (last night we all watched 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers together). If you are a writer, there’s an entire section for you, including a channel for open calls, writing advice, and a place to join in on writing sprints with other writers. There’s even a channel cryptically titled #reindeer-games that nobody has figured out how to use yet.
If all of this sounds interesting to you and you wish to join, simply click the button below.
Everything should be pretty straightforward, but if you have any questions about how it works, don’t hesitate to reach out.
HARES IN THE HEDGEROW, your new favorite cult horror novel, is available now
Hello, ghouls! How’s your November going? Excited for Thanksgiving? No, of course you aren’t. But don’t be too down on yourself, because we do have some good news to make you feel better: the second installment of Jessica McHugh’s Gardening Guidebooks Trilogy is officially out right now!
She wakes up in a 1973 Volkswagen Kombi, naked and afraid . . .
An aspiring singer/songwriter, Sophie Francis is searching for inspiration, pining for connection, and desperate to know why she feels so different from everyone else. Maybe it’s the ghosts whispering in the apartment above her, or the chilling thoughts writhing in her mind when the ghosts are quiet. Maybe she’s a reincarnated saint abducted as an infant and raised by a former serial killer.
Or maybe she’s just sixteen.
Upon meeting an intoxicating musician named Liam LaSalle and an enigmatic community of misfits known as the Choir of the Lamb, Sophie scampers down a rabbit hole of music, martyrs, and madness. There, she discovers her link to a dangerous legacy and a fiery little girl named Avery Norton.
From 2x Bram Stoker & Elgin Award nominee, Jessica McHugh, Hares in the Hedgerow leads Sophie Francis on a disturbing and transformative journey to expose and harness the darkness in the roots of her family tree.
Right now, the eBook for Hares in the Hedgerow is available everywhere.
Snag a digital copy from our WEBSTORE, or head on over to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Note about paperbacks: Due to a personal issue on the publishers’ side of things, the paperback for this novel has been slightly delayed. We anticipate all paperback orders to start shipping out by the end of the month. We sincerely apologize for the delay, and thank you for your patience and understanding.
While these two books could technically be read as standalones and you wouldn’t be too lost, we do highly recommend reading both Rabbits in the Garden and Hares in the Hedgerow. Luckily for you, we are offering the two paperbacks at one discounted bundle price in our webstore.
Secure your copies HERE.
Check out this spooky lil’ book trailer I made for Hares:
BOUND IN FLESH: AN ANTHOLOGY OF TRANS BODY HORROR - Cover & ToC Reveal
Yesterday, over at The Line-Up, we revealed both the front cover and the table of contents for our next anthology, Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror edited by Lor Gislason. Check out the post HERE or simply keep reading this newsletter. Here is what I had to say:
Hello. My name is Max Booth III. I am the co-founder and publisher (with my partner, Lori Michelle) of Ghoulish Books, an indie small press that’s been operating in San Antonio, TX for just over a decade now. Today I am thrilled to introduce the gorgeous front cover of a new anthology we’ve been cooking up for quite a while, along with its incredible table of contents.
The book, Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror, edited by Lor Gislason, brings together 13 trans and non-binary writers, using horror to both explore the darkest depths of the genre and the boundaries of flesh. It’s a fun, disgusting good time for all!
I am honored that The Lineup has offered to help us spotlight the cover this week, as it is Transgender Awareness Week, and I cannot conceive of a more perfect time to celebrate trans horror writers (other than, you know, every damn day).
Here is what our anthology’s editor, Lor Gislason, had to say about Transgender Awareness Week:
“Transgender Awareness Week strives to bring together transgender people to share their stories and push forward advocacy around the issues of discrimination and violence the transgender community faces. November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) to honour the memories of those we have lost to anti-trans violence.
“In this vein, Bound in Flesh also strives to highlight the talent of the trans horror community and to reaffirm the importance of diverse voices. Horror has always included stories of gender dysphoria, whether through subtext or outright stated. We want to make horror a welcome place for everyone.”
Right now, in my state of Texas, those in charge of our government are trying their hardest to make it impossible to live here as a transgender person—but that doesn’t mean everybody here agrees with them. Our government may be cruel, and many citizens of the state may follow their lead, but there are still good people here fighting with everything they have. Voting, protesting, living, surviving. I love my trans friends with all my being. The laws Texas wants to put into place are disgusting and infuriating. Too many cowardly monsters have gotten comfortable here with their ignorant mindsets.
It is often a helpless feeling, which is why we are so excited to be publishing Bound in Flesh.
Here in Texas, we sell books at physical events probably once a week if not every other week, and it is our goal as a publisher to continue publishing books that will piss off the right kind of people.
Trans people exist, and they are not going anywhere, and if you have a problem with that, then—to quote Godspeed You! Black Emperor—you can “eat shit and die alone.”
And now, I present to you Babs Rastorfer’s amazing cover art for Bound in Flesh:
And here are our lovely, talented writers:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
“Wormspace” by LC von Hessen
”The Haunting of Aiden Finch” by Theo Hendrie
“Coming Out” by Derek Des Agnes
”Mama is a Butcher” by Winter Holmes
“Fall Apart” by gaast
”Lady Davelina’s Last Pet” by Charles-Elizabeth Boyle
”In The Garden of Horn, The Naked Magic Thrives” by Hailey Piper
“A Scream Lights Up The Sky” by Joe Koch
“Long Fingers” by Layne Van Rensburg
“A Brief History of The Santa Carcossa Archipelago” by Bitter Karella
“Show Me” by Amanda M. Blake
”Man of The House” by Lillian Boyd
“Looking for the Big Death” by Taliesin Neith
Bound in Flesh will come out on April 18, 2023. Pre-orders are available now through our webstore. PRE-ORDER HERE.
XCRMNTMNTN (Deal Announcement)
THE GHOULISH SHOW - November 2022
THE GHOULISH SHOW is a live variety comedy show celebrating everything spooky, hosted by Max Booth III (hey that’s me) and featuring numerous guest performers. This month's show will occur on Tuesday, November 29th at 8PM CST and our performers will consist of...
Kelby Losack
RJ Joseph
Ryan C. Bradley
Michael Louis Dixon
Lucas Mangum
Andrew Hilbert
John Baltisberger
Come on down and enjoy the spooky fun! Merch table opens at 5pm and lasts until after the show ends.
Location: Radio Coffee & Beer in Austin, TX.
Check out the Facebook event page HERE.
Creative Writing Prompt
This month’s creative writing prompt is live on Patreon. Go check it out and see if the prompt inspires you to write a new short story. Then, when you’re finished, send it to me for some editorial feedback.
JURASSICHRIST Wins Wonderland!
While writing this newsletter, I took a break and ventured over to Twitter, where I learned that our author, Michael Allen Rose, just won the Wonderland Award for Best Novel for his book Jurassichrist, which we published last year through Perpetual Motion Machine.
How exciting! Congratulations, Michael! Everybody, go buy Jurassichrist to celebrate!
Okay, it’s 1AM and we have to be out of the house by 8:30AM to start setting up for this weekend’s event, so let’s go ahead and wrap things up. If you live in the San Antonio area, this is where we will be Saturday and Sunday from 11AM to 6PM.
Okay, that’s it for this week. You can support us on Patreon, browse the books in our webstore, and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter (PMMP | DMD | Ghoulish podcast | Ghoulish Books | personal).
Or just click on our LINKTREE for all relevant links.
Reserve your ticket for Ghoulish Book Fest 2023.
You can also join us on the Ghoulish Discord.
See you next time, ghouls.
Hello Max. Yes, the Twitter scramble is funny, in a very ghoulish way! I succumbed, like many. I also have a book coming out in the spring, and publishers LOVE newsletters, so it was inevitable anyway. I write horror occasionally (got a piece in Pulp Modern's Halloween Special), but I'm more into crime. Oh, and I'm a fellow Texan (adoptive), from around Houston. Cheers. My substack is called The Roll Top Desk.