The Ghoulish Times | 05/12/23

I personally guarantee this newsletter will scare you

Hello and welcome to the latest issue of The Ghoulish Times. My name is Max Booth III and this is my spooky newsletter. Disclaimer: I do not guarantee this newsletter will actually scare you. If you’re some kind of thrill junkie looking for your next fix, and you received word that maybe The Ghoulish Times will be the thing to get your body quivering, I’m sorry to disappoint, but that’s probably not going to OH HOLY FUCKING SHIT A GHOST

illustration from betty rocksteady’s soft places

I am drinking a giant thermos of coffee right now. It is good. My friend Lucas Mangum recently posted that he quit coffee and his life is perfect now. I saw that post and thought, “Is drinking three pots of coffee a day unhealthy?” Of course it is. Am I going to stop? I am not. Am I going to continue wondering why I find myself constantly pacing around struggling to concentrate on the simplest task? Yes. There is no solution here.

I am drinking a giant thermos of coffee and I am writing this newsletter while sitting in our new horror-themed bookshop. It has been two weeks since our grand opening. For the most part, we have seen a steady flow of customers every day.

I imagine the excitement is going to soon start dying down a little. We do not have the best street traffic, which is something we knew about already. But I do think we are building a fanbase out here of horror-obsessed ghouls. Word of mouth is spreading. Once we start hosting more events, I think things are going to continue picking up.

Here is a cool picture that perfectly captures our green lighting in the store’s front lobby, taken by a customer who goes by lizzi.librarian on instagram:

We actually do have one event already planned for the bookstore later this month. We are going to begin hosting a monthly horror movie night called Saturday Night Spookies.

We have a screen and projector and soon we will even have a bunch of chairs for you to sit on. The movie nights will be free, curated and presented by Miguel Myers of the My Horror Confessional podcast.

The title will be a surprise until the movie begins playing, but we can say this month our theme is WITCHES! But which witch movie will we screen? Come find out for yourself. Snacks will be available, but if you want to drink this event is strictly BYOB. Showtime begins at 7pm, so if you want to pick up a book or two from our store, we recommend showing up a little early. You will also have a chance to shop after the movie ends.

If you’re on Facebook, we just set up an event page for the screening. Consider sharing!

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There are actually a few events I need to promote in this newsletter, I am realizing now. One of those events is happening tomorrow, as in Saturday May 13th. Specifically, tomorrow at 6pm in Louisville, KY at Butcher Cabin Books. It’s the official book launch of Jessica Leonard’s Conjuring the Witch!

If you’re nearby, please come out and listen to Jessica read. Make her sign some books! Support indie horror. THANK YOU.

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Here’s a fun Zoom event I’ll be participating in next Wednesday, for anyone interested. It’s FREE. Also, yes, I will be closing the bookstore an hour early next Wednesday so I can join in without interruption.

When the world shut down in 2020, many of us were stuck at home. So too were writers, and their books were stuck too. Most bookstores closed, and even Amazon stopped shipping novels to turn their capacity over to sending millions of sheltering people toilet tissue instead. Hollywood let movies go direct to streaming, but authors had few options.

What was there to do? Publishing AT HOME: Books and the Plague Years brings together four authors to talk about publishing books just as a disease swept the world.

Hosted by Nick Mamatas and featuring Max Booth III, Molly Tanzer, and Vanessa Veselka.

Sign up HERE.

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It’s a new month, which means another installment of my monthly comedy variety show in Austin, TX called The Ghoulish Show. This month we will all perform on Tuesday, May 30th at 8pm at Radio Coffee & Beer. Books by the performers will be sold before and after the event.

For May 2023, we will be hosting the following performers:

Kelby Losack
Ryan C. Bradley
Michael Louis Dixon
Leticia Urieta
Nate Southard
Susan Snyder

Check out the Facebook event page HERE.

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Coming soon: E. F. Schraeder’s WHAT HAPPENED WAS IMPOSSIBLE.

Have you pre-ordered yet? Get your copy reserved HERE.

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Ending soon: opened submissions for Sofia Ajram’s Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror.

What we want

We’re looking for tales that explore queer tragic horror, and any other interpretation of the title theme. Show us what tragic queer love means to you. Horror is a genre with serrated edges—so make your characters bleed.

We love queer stories of love but intermingle them with tragedy and horror. Give us characters who are angsty and complex, depraved and lecherous, and take us through their ecstasy of heartbreak and suffering. We want hauntings! Possessions! Lovers doomed to be separated for eternity! Mad scientists reviving their beloved wrong! Gays in hell! Sad Bly Manor gays! Don’t like the bury your gays trope? Curse ‘em with immortality and the indefinite madness that comes with it instead!

Most of all, we are looking for compelling characters in stories that stick the landing. Their fates should ideally resonate with their emotional arc. We want feverish intensity, dread, and heartache. When asked, “yo, u good?” after reading your story, the answer should be “no”.

This anthology is only open to queer writers. Those questioning whether or not they identify as queer are also encouraged to submit. We are particularly interested in work from underrepresented voices.

Payment is $0.07 per word and the deadline is May 31, 2023. Check out our submissions page for more guidelines and details about how to submit.

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I think that’s pretty much everything I need to promote right now—aside from my own story collection, Abnormal Statistics, which came out back in March. I sincerely can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this in the newsletter already but just in case I forgot, it was recently featured in a pretty awesome article over on Esquire.

Read the full article HERE.

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Do you prefer these newsletters have unique titles, or do you prefer the consistent “The Ghoulish Times | Today’s Date” format, like today’s issue? I can’t decide.

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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.

You can also join us on the Ghoulish Discord.

See you next time, ghouls.