The Ghoulish Times | 02/06/23

Book Fest Artwork - Crowdfunding Success - Flea Market Scores

Hello and welcome to the latest issue of The Ghoulish Times. My name is Max Booth III and this is my spooky newsletter. If you’re new here, you have probably subscribed due to some kind of interest in Ghoulish Books, Ghoulish Tales, the GHOULISH podcast, the Ghoulish Book Festival, or perhaps you enjoyed one of my own books (such as Maggots Screaming! or We Need to Do Something). I admit it is equally possible you are some kind of spy seeking information to speed up my inevitable demise. If that is the case, I wish you the best of luck.

All throughout the month of January I harassed everybody nonstop about the Ghoulish Books Kickstarter. Thankfully, our campaign finally ended last Tuesday morning with 371 backers having raised $25,416 (our initial funding goal was only $7,000!). This means we also hit our audiobook stretch goal, so we will soon be reaching out to narrators about getting these projects into production. 

Also, I know we had a $30,000 stretch goal for opening a brick & mortar bookstore, and we didn't quite reach that, but I would like to remind you the bookstore is still happening anyway. We already signed a lease for a building in the Greater San Antonio area and we officially move into the building next month!!!¹

Right now Kickstarter is attempting to process payments. I believe everybody has already been processed successfully except for 17 backers, amounting to just over $1,000. Supposedly Kickstarter notified these backers already about the failed payments, so just in case, I encourage you to double check that your payment went through on your end. Every time KS attempts to process a card, we get charged a processing fee (this includes repeat attempts on failed cards). Additionally, KS takes another 5% for their own cut.

However, don't be concerned, because even if the total $$$ earned drops below $25k due to failed payments, we will still be producing the promised audiobooks. That would not be fair to our authors. I do ask for patience on getting them all finished and sent out, though; it's unlikely most of the audiobooks will be finished and released exactly when the ebooks/paperbacks come out. 

Once everything has processed and the $$$ has been transferred to our account, we will start sending our backer surveys, so please keep an eye out for those sometime this month (if you backed the Kickstarter), as we will need some questions answered before we can start shipping out books and bonus merch.

I would also like to mention that if you wanted to back the KS but weren’t able to for whatever reason, most of the books offered in our campaign can also be pre-ordered directly from our webstore.

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This weekend was bizarre. I don’t think I did a single ounce of work Saturday or Sunday, and I genuinely cannot remember the last time I went a single day (much less two!) without doing something work-related. The guilt is thick and tangible. Hence why I’m spending Monday morning writing a newsletter.

On Saturday, Lori and I drove to the other side of town for a high school scrimmage baseball game. My soon-to-be stepson, Dylan, is 15 and joined the HS baseball team this year. The season is getting ready to kick off, so the schools are scheduling some fun little scrimmage games to see where each kid is at, skill-wise. Before the game, we had breakfast at Fidelo’s on Nacogdoches. Some of the best breakfast tacos I’ve ever eaten and if you’re ever in the San Antonio area sometime, I highly recommend giving them a shot. They have those fresh, thick tortillas that I often daydream about.

After the game, we caught Knock at the Cabin in theaters, which we both liked for the most part. See the “recently watched” section of this newsletter for more thoughts about the movie. On Sunday, Lori and I met with our pal Miguel at a massive nearby flea market, and spent a few hours browsing. Items purchased: a rubber mallet, a small shelf, bamboo wind chimes, three CDs, and a very cool ghoulish-green display stand we intend to utilize in the bookstore:

Unfortunately, each shelf isn’t quite wide enough for books to be displayed side-by-side, so I think we’ll end up placing little promo cards or something between the books to fill empty space. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

I guess, in retrospect, flea market browsing for bookstore decorations and furniture technically counts as doing something work-related. But at least I got out of the house!

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GHOULISH BOOK FESTIVAL ARTWORK

Did you know that on April 14, 15, and 16, the second Ghoulish Book Festival will occur in San Antonio, TX? It’s true, it’s true! We just printed 10,000 promo postcards and 100 flyers for the event, which features Betty Rocksteady’s new festival artwork. I actually don’t think we have publicly shared the artwork yet, either! So let’s do that right now!

Here’s the front and back of the postcard:

And here is the flyer we are having printed:

Behind the scenes, we are currently figuring out the official schedule, but let me tell you right now: this thing is going to be a blast. Also, Lori and I are going to get married during it. A Ghoulish wedding! Now how’s that for a spooky good time?

Badges are available HERE.

Do you plan on attending GBF? Let me know!

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Besides the aforementioned Ghoulish Book Festival, we will also have a vendor table this weekend in San Antonio for Love at First Bite.

We will also have a Ghoulish Books table at Authorcon next month in Williamsburg, Virginia!

Are you coming to Authorcon? It’ll be my first time attending and I’m excited! Virginia is a beautiful state.

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HORROR HANGOVER PODCAST

Lori and I were recently interviewed on the Horror Hangover podcast. You can listen to it HERE.

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TENEMOS QUE HACER ALGO

My contributor copies of Tenemos Que Hacer Algo—the Spanish edition of We Need to Do Something—finally arrived, and they’re beautiful.

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TODD KEISLING TAKES US TO DEVIL’S CREEK

Todd Keisling is the author of DEVIL’S CREEK, a Bram Stoker Award-nominated novel that’s freshly back from the dead thanks to Cemetery Dance. On today’s GHOULISH, Todd joined me to discuss spooky burned-down churches in the woods, researching death cults, and the originality of mysterious domes covering small towns.

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RECENTLY…

Read: I finished Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt last night, and it’s one of the boldest horror novels I’ve read in quite some time. Seriously, seriously recommended. I also started Nathan Ballingrud’s The Strange earlier this morning and it kicks off like a goddamn bullet. It’s been a struggle all day to get anything done, because all I want to do is continue reading it.

Watched: As mentioned earlier in this newsletter, we saw Knock at the Cabin over the weekend. As a massive fan of the book, I obviously have a few annoyances with certain choices, but honestly it turned out to be a really good adaptation with a fucking stellar cast of performances. My favorite thing about the movie, however, might’ve been the opening credit design.

TV-wise, I’ve been going through The Sopranos for the first time. We are currently 10 episodes into the sixth and final season, and holy shit, this season and the previous one have definitely embraced a darker, bleaker tone that I don’t think was very present in the rest of the series. I’m loving every episode. We have also been enjoying The Last of Us. It’s about as perfect of a video game adaptation as you can hope for, I’d say.

Listened: I’ve been revisiting Hozier’s first album a lot lately. Not a single skippable track on the whole thing.

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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 | Ghoulish Tales | 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.

1. But, if you did want to help us with the store, I’d encourage you to consider supporting us on Patreon.