The Ghoulish Times | 12/23/22

Ghoulish Flesh - Rainbow Filth - NSFW Cover Art

Dec 24, 2022

Hello and welcome to the latest issue of The Ghoulish Times. My name is Max Booth III and this is my spooky newsletter. I am the co-founder of Ghoulish Books, the Ghoulish Book Festival, the brand-new Ghoulish Tales, and various other things with the word GHOULISH on them, including my very own flesh:

Last Sunday we announced Ghoulish Tales and opened for submissions. Less than a week later, we have already received over 200 submissions. But do not fear: we have no plans of closing early, and will remain open until the previously-advertised deadline of February 15th. At the rate we are going, however, I would not be surprised if we exceed 1,000 stories by the time we hit February—especially once our Kickstarter launches on January 5th and word about the mag continues to spread.

Please note: the magazine is happening regardless of the Kickstarter’s success. The only true impact our Kickstarter will have on Ghoulish Tales is rather we end up paying 7c per word or 10c per word. The standard will be 7c but we will have a stretch goal on the KS increasing payment to 10c.

The upcoming Kickstarter’s main purpose is to offer a convenient method of pre-ordering our entire 2023 lineup as a spooky book bundle. We did the same thing last year through our website, but this year I wanted to try something slightly different. My hope is using a platform like KS will allow our fanbase and audience to continue growing.

Speaking of our 2023 lineup, we actually just announced the final book we have scheduled next year:

RAINBOW FILTH

Fun fact: I had submitted this announcement describing Tim’s book as a “weirdo horror novella” but for whatever reason, Publishers Marketplace decided to edit out “weirdo.” Anyway, it’s definitely a weirdo horror novella, regardless of what PM might try telling you.

GHOULISH 2023

So, with Rainbow Filth finally announced, we have now revealed everything we have lined up for 2023. If you haven’t been keeping track at home, please allow me to break it down for you:

Like Real by Shelly Lyons (February 14)
XCRMNTMNTN by Andrew Hilbert (March 7)
Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror edited by Lor Gislason (April 18)
Conjuring the Witch by Jessica Leonard (May 2)
What Happened Was Impossible by E. F. Schraeder (May 16)
The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark by Warren Wagner (June 6)
The Screaming Child by Scott Adlerberg (July 11)
Rainbow Filth by Tim Meyer (September 5)
Let the Woods Keep Our Bodies by E. M. Roy (October 10)
Saint Grit by Kayli Scholz (November 14)

In addition to those 10 books, we will also release the 3rd issue of our YA horror magazine, Night Frights, and the first 2 issues of Ghoulish Tales.

It’s, uh, an ambitious schedule, to say the least. And all will be available to pre-order in one big book bundle in just a few weeks. I’m pretty excited, and definitely very stressed, but I think it’s going to be a good thing. I believe in these books and know people are going to love them.

On a personal note, next year will also see the publication of my debut story collection from Apocalypse Party, Abnormal Statistics, and my slasher novella from Cemetery Gates, The Last Haunt. However, neither of these will be included on the Kickstarter, so if you wanted to secure a copy of Abnormal Statistics I’d recommend going ahead and pre-ordering now.

SAINT GRIT cover reveal

Warning: the following section contains NSFW artwork. If you’re at work, consider continuing this newsletter in the bathroom.

The sick fucks at Daily Grindhouse were kind enough to host a cover reveal for Kayli Scholz’s novella Saint Grit earlier this week.

We actually have two different covers for this book, as one of them we legally cannot sell in certain places. So, let’s first show you the Censored Cover, which will be sold through bookstores and online retailers:

And now here is the Uncensored Cover, which we plan to offer exclusively through our Kickstarter campaign, our webstore, and under the table at physical events.

Artwork by the incredible Alejandra Oviedo, AKA Ruttu.

A little bit more about Saint Grit…

One brooding summer, Nadine Boone pricks herself on a poisonous manchineel tree in the Florida backcountry. Upon self-orgasm, Nadine conjures a witch that she calls Saint Grit. Pitched as Gummo meets The Craft, Saint Grit grows inside of Nadine over three decades, wreaking repulsive havoc on a suspicious cast of characters in a small town known as Sugar Bends.

If you’re too impatient for the Kickstarter, we’ve already made pre-orders available through our webstore.

THE GHOULISH SHOW - DECEMBER

Just a quick update about this month’s The Ghoulish Show in Austin: due to the weather in Texas, we decided to cancel the show. Which turned out to be a smart decision, because I am currently writing this newsletter while battling some kind of cold. I feel miserable, folks! Be very proud of me for managing to get this newsletter finished.

MERRY SLEAZE-MAS

My Black Friday order from Vinegar Syndrome finally arrived, and I am looking forward to hopefully going through some of these this weekend.

If you received this stack, which one would you be cracking open first?

READING HOMEWORK

I’ve received several exciting books lately that I am planning to start reading soon. All of the authors will be (hopefully) appearing as guests on the GHOULISH podcast in the near future.

Are these already on your radar? If not, I reckon they should be.

What 2023 book releases are you looking forward to the most? Let me know and maybe I’ll try reaching out to the authors to book them on the podcast!