The Ghoulish Times | 09/08/23

Little Ghosts - Secret Ghouls - The Dead Zone

Hello and welcome to the latest issue of The Ghoulish Times. My name is Max Booth III and this is my spooky newsletter.

Yesterday, we had to close our bookshop early due to Square, our POS system (either “point of sale” or “piece of shit” depending on my mood) experiencing a nationwide outage. Countless small businesses around the country (the world?) lost hundreds if not thousands of dollars due to some infrastructure fuckup they haven’t fully disclosed yet. This screenshot was captured yesterday by someone in a “Bookstores using Square” Facebook group I belong to:

I am very lucky that these glitches started occurring just moments after processing a $115 sale at my store (three Junji Ito hardcovers and a Ghoulish Books tote bag, if you’re wondering).

This morning, Square seems to be working again, so I am at the shop until we close at 8pm. Tomorrow, we are open from 10am-8pm and then close Sunday and Monday. I won’t lie: we are definitely looking into replacing our POS system, probably with a WooCommerce reader, which would make sense considering WooCommerce is how we handle online sales. Am I getting too inside baseball here? I apologize for nothing.

I will say we are almost done with our new website and it is going to blow you away. In fact, there are many exciting projects and secrets we are waiting to share with you. But those will have to wait for now.

---

BOOK LAUNCH AT LITTLE GHOSTS BOOKS

Are you in the Toronto area? Do you have plans for this Sunday afternoon (September 10th)? Well, you do now! Go on down to Little Ghosts Books (30 Dundas St W) and attend the book launch for Warren Wagner’s The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark.

If you’re on Facebook, check out the event page HERE. Otherwise, see you there, Canadian ghouls!

---

SECRET GHOUL BOOK EXCHANGE

It's about time to start thinking about our second annual Halloween discord book exchange: SECRET GHOUL!

How this will work: beginning now and until Sunday, September 10th, GHOULISH discord members can sign up to participate in the book exchange. Participants will be surveyed for a) your address and b) three things you like and three things you dislike in a book and c) reading preference (physical, ebook, audio).

Once sign-ups end, I will pair everybody together and send out relevant information to each person's secret ghoul. You will then have one month to send them a spooky book that hopefully vibes with their likes & dislikes.

Ideally I'm hoping everybody can get their book before or on Halloween, but obviously postage can sometimes be delayed.

For more information about signing up, join our DISCORD and check out the #secret-ghoul-2023 channel.

---

THE DEAD ZONE PODCAST

Our very own E. M. Roy guested on the My Horror Confessional podcast this week to talk about Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone adaptation (as well as her upcoming debut novel Let the Woods Keep Our Bodies). Listen to it HERE. And don’t forget to pre-order LTWKOB.

---

GHOULS NIGHT OUT: A Celebration of Spookiness

Come celebrate everything spooky with us at our bookstore Ghoulish Books in the Greater San Antonio Area. GHOULS NIGHT OUT will include 10+ local horror authors doing live readings & signing books, plus a scary costume contest with $$$ prizes, followed by a FREE MOVIE SCREENING of an infamous 1990s haunted house documentary.

The story readings will not all be kid-friendly, but you're welcome to bring your kid if you think they can handle it.

Author roster TBA.

Event page HERE.

---

GHOULISH TALES UPDATE

For anyone who maybe submitted to the recent issue of Ghoulish Tales, here is a quick update. I’ve officially read every single submission sent to us. I have not made final decisions yet, but here is where we currently stand: 660 rejected, 71 shortlisted, 13 withdrawn, 1 accepted. I admit I got a little lazy and stopped sending out “shortlist” notifications. If you haven’t heard anything from me yet, assume your story has been shortlisted. I will post an update once final decisions have been made—and, if you haven’t heard anything by then, feel free to query. I’m hoping to make final decisions by next weekend, with the help of some newly-added slush readers (Mindy Rose & Betty Rocksteady, in addition to Lori). Thank you for your patience.

In the meantime, issue #1 is available now for your ghoulish eyes to devour.

---

THE LAST HAUNT - TEASE

I am currently wrapping up a few final details on my next book, a novella titled The Last Haunt. It’s an oral history of the McKinley Manor Massacre, a real event that absolutely happened (and I’m sticking to it!).

Cemetery Gates is releasing it…uh, next month. October 24th. A little Halloween treat for all my creeps and weirdos.

Trevor Henderson painted the cover. We’re going to post the full artwork next week, but here’s a little tease in the meantime…

Stay tuned for the rest, my beautiful ghouls.

---

Okay, that’s it for now. 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).

My story collection, Abnormal Statistics, is out now through Apocalypse Party.

Or just click on our LINKTREE for all relevant links.

You can also join us on the Ghoulish Discord.

See you next time, ghouls.