2021 - Not too Shabby

Wow, it seems like only yesterday we were all complaining about how bad 2020 was. Now we are winding 2021 down and I have to say 2021 was not too shabby. I had stories appear in seven anthologies. My characters Earl and Dale, The Midnight Men, were featured in four episodes of the Horror Hill podcast and I returned to The Drabblecast with a new story that I'm pretty proud of. I got some local press for my inclusion in the international Ramones-inspired anthology. I received a small mention for my work in the charity anthology Local Haunts in Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 13. I got to attend two wonderful horror conventions and reunited with writers who I haven't seen since the shutdown and got to make some new writer friends from around SoCal. I have new stories coming out in early 2022 including in the all Generation X anthology from Dark Ink Press, and the very popular No Sleep Podcast. And just a few days ago I signed a new publishing contract to have my collection Night Sounds published, coming out sometime in 2022. So, 2021, not too shabby. 

MISSPELLED
Magic Gone Wrong

 

My new story Everything Poops is in the new anthology from Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing. It's about a little girl who summons the monster under her bed on purpose.  Everything Poops also inspired the cover image. The Drabblecast also produced an earlier version of the story in audio. The link to the episode will be below. 

 

RELEASED
What Nightmares will Escape!

 

My story Liberation is in the first horror anthology from No Bad Books. It's a straight-up body horror tale with a hint of crazy. Spiders are involved in my story and another tale by Evan Baughman, and I like to think our stories inspired the cover. 

CRUNCHY WITH CHOCOLATE
All Dragon Stories

My fantasy comedy story, Nog, the Not So Terrible, made its debut in this oddly named all dragon anthology. I don't write a lot of fantasy, but it's nice to know that if I do it will find a home in a weird anthology. 

 

 

HORROR for the THRONE
One-Sitting Reads

My reprinted story, Momentum, is now available in the third installment of the ONE SITTING READs anthology series. It's the third book in a series of anthologies, one for Fantasy, one for SciFi, and now Horror for the Throne: One-Sitting Reads. Yes, that is an outhouse on the cover...I'm in all the classy anthologies.

GABBA GABBA HEY
A Ramones Inspired Anthology

 

The anthology, GABBA GABBA, HEY, An anthology of fiction inspired by the music of The Ramones featured my new story The KKK Took My Baby Away! I was extremely proud and excited when I got the notification that my story would be one of 24 selected from several hundred submitted to the U.K. publisher from around the world. I even got a little press out of it from our local online news source The Patch: Temecula. You can read that article here: The Ramones And Temecula Paraeducator Rock In 'Gabba Gabba Hey'

Buy GABBA GABBA HEY at:

NICE PAT ON THE BACK As mentioned above, I got a nice shout-out in Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year Volume 13, for my short story contribution to the charity anthology, Local Haunts.

New Releases

It's been a busy year so far writing and submitting short stories. I have more work out on submission right now than I think I ever have before. And I'm even doing things I swore I'd never do. I'm writing stories to fit often very narrow anthology themes. On one hand, it's a bit risky, because if the theme is too narrow it's hard to find another publication for your work,
should it get rejected. But on the other hand, I need to mix things up and try things I've never attempted before. Channeling my creativity into an editor's focused theme, time period, or setting is a good exercise. I'm still in the driver's seat, it's just that I'm letting someone else pick the destination. It's still up to me how I get there.

I’ve had a few things come out in the past few months, which will be listed below, but I have to admit hearing one of my stories, “The Interview,” read on the Australian podcast Night’s End, has been a trill. It’s fascinating hearing your words spoken in a different dialect of English substituting culturally appropriate words for the Australian audience. It’s a fun listen.

Most of my sales lately have been reprints, and with most of my reprints, there is at least one audio version out there on the world-wide interweb-thingy. I've included those links (a lot on YouTube) for easy access listening. 

NOW AVAILABLE
THE INTERVIEW

 

My short story "The Interview" is now available to listen to on the Australian podcast The Night's End. Stream from their site or your favorite podcast streaming service. It is also available to listen to on YouTube. The Nights End Podcast - "The Interview"

Goodbye 2020

Yikes, what a year. 

This year can't end fast enough. And I know that things are not going to get back to normal on January 1, 2021, but I can dream, can't I? 

In the past few months, I've seen a few artistic representations, read a few well-worded op-eds, and listened to some scholarly commentary all trying to capture the essence of 2020. But I don't think anything comes close to capturing and or symbolizing 2020, how it felt, how it smelled, better than the 2020 Dumpsterfire Christmas Ornament. For me, it just sums it all up, and the best part, the part that makes it particularly poignant, is that it is made in America. Happy New Year! 

NOW AVAILABLE!
A BREACH IN THE FENCE

My short story "A Breach in the Fence" is now available on the new online horror site The Dread Machine. The site features horror stories and content from around the world. I'm also excited that it will also be produced in audio later in the year.

READ NOW - A Breach in the Fence

COMING SOON!
MOUNTING FAIRIES FOR DISPLAY

I sold my experimental fantasy short story "Mounting Fairies for Display" to the anthology Exterus Vol.2, No.1. Mixing comedy, horror, and dark fantasy, "Mounting Fairies for Display" is written in the style of a how-to article in which the reader (or fairy hunting enthusiast) can receive a step-by-step guide in the art of dispatching and preparing fairies, sprites, pixies, and other tiny folks for display. 

The anthology Exterus Vol.2, No.1 will be released later this year, but an earlier version of the story is available to listen to Bigg Anklevich read the story under the title "Framing and Mounting Fairies" for his podcast The Dunesteef.

Listen at The Dunsteef - Framing, and Mounting Fairies 

Listen on YouTube - Framing and Mounting Fairies

AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

In November I had five short stories produced in audio. The Horror Hill podcast produced the third Earl and Dale story in audio, "NIGHT OF THE SPIDER," which appears in my collection, Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale. Jason Hill reads "Night of the Spider" in Episode 5, season 3 of Horror Hill. The episode is called Tangled Webs.

Otis Jiry reads four of my stories on a recent episode of Otis Jiry's Scary Stories Told in the Dark. I'm the featured writer for this episode, two of the stories, "The Echo at the End of the Road," and "Blood, Gridlock, and PEZ" are free to listen to. Listeners will have to be a patron of Chilling Tales for Dark Nights to hear my other two stories, "The Lure of Heaven," and "Liberation."

Click on any cover to go to the book's AMAZON page

Well, that is enough nonsense for this year. See you in 2021! If you're looking for more stuff to read or listen too, head on over to my website and click on the BOOKS / STORIES link for an almost up to date list of everything I have available. Check out the FREE AUDIO link or my YouTube channel for dozens of my stories available for free produced by the likes of Jason Hill, the fine folks at the Drabblecast, Pseudopod, Simply Scary, and the No Sleep Podcast.    Live Long and Prosper

Spooky Season

 

October, the Spooky Season. But can October really be the spooky season in a year like 2020? The whole year has been darn right spooky, unsettling, precedent-setting, the kind of year in which I started keeping my gin, rum, and whiskey in the same place I keep my other medications and pain relievers, mostly because it just saves time. 2020, the year we all wish we could just wake up in a cold sweat and say, "Oh thank god. It was just a nightmare."

But this year is not a nightmare. It's all really happening, and the part that chills me to the core is that I don't think we have seen the worst of it yet. So, Spooky Season? I don't think so. Spooky year.

I am very fortunate to be in three anthologies released in October. Not that anyone is counting but that is a total of 38 anthologies over the course of my writing career, many of which I am proud of.  I am especially proud of the charity anthologies, which benefit organizations that give back to the world in ways that I promise I will one day when I find more time. Side note: I did set a personal goal this year to reach 40 anthologies, and I did sell two more stories to anthologies that were scheduled for a 2020 release. But delays that are very unique to the year 2020 caused those books to be pushed back until early 2021. So technically I reached my goal, but like so many things in 2020, it doesn't feel right. 

LOCAL HAUNTS features my story The Mount of Death, which first appeared in the San Diego HWA Chapter anthology, California Screamin’. Local Haunts is a charity anthology benefiting the literacy charity First Book     Available at AMAZON

TRICKSTER’S TREATS #4 features my story The Box Born Wraith.

This is a charity anthology benefiting The Indigenous  Literacy Foundation (Australia)

Available on AMAZON
 

                    
Halloween Horror Vol. 2 put out by the Australian publisher, DBND Publishing features my short story  Pumpkin Seeds.

Available on AMAZON

New Audio Story - The Interview

Once produced by The Drabblecast ten years ago, my story The Interview will get a reimagining by the Night's End Podcast. The scheduled released date is 1/15/2021.  
 

The Interview is an undead story with a Twilight Zone styled twist. If you'd like to listen to The Drabblecast version read by Norm Sherman in 2008 follow the links below

The Interview

read by Norm Sherman
A world-renowned parapsychologist, a powerful child, and people without a pulse
Listen on YouTube
Listen on the Drabblecast DC Episode 59

The FUBAR Ritual

 

 

My horror-comedy, The FUBAR Ritual, first published in 2019 in Dark Moon Digest is now available in audio on The Horror Hill podcast in an episode entitled, “Fabled Fiends.” The FUBAR Ritual is the second story in the episode (starting at about 21 minutes in) and answers the question, what happens when two teenagers try to summon a demon with inadequate offerings and a dismal recitation of the unholy words. 

Listen to The FUBAR Ritual on YouTube
The FUBAR Ritual

Listen to The FUBAR Ritual on your favorite podcast service (Spotify, TuneIn, Google...)
The FUBAR Ritual

STAR GIFTS

I've been writing fiction for more than, yadda-yadda years, and I've sent out hundreds of signed copies of my work, books, and posters, to NotLT fans around the world. But never in all that time has a NotLT fan ever sent me a gift. Well, that streak ended in August when Jack Fine and Frank Sanchez both sent me what I consider to be most-excellent gifts. From the east coast, Jack sent me two cans of Son of Mogh beer, a Star Trek-themed ale from Brewery Fire in Maryland. And Frank sent me a package of Star Trek socks which included a pair in Command Gold, Science Officer Blue, and Expendable Red.

I'll probably wait until 2021 to wear the Red ones. Just seems like too big of a risk this year.

I mentioned last month that Frank and his sister Amanda got matching Night of the Living Trekkies tattoos. We got a look at Frank's last month and here is Amanda's with her signed NotLT poster. This is what dedicated fandom looks like!

Fan Dedication!

What does Night of the Living Trekkies fandom look like? 

I think it looks like this. 

I recently learned the NotLT fan Frank Sanchez and his sister got matching tattoos of the image on the inside cover of my debut novel Night of the Living Trekkies. I'd heard rumors that there were a few tattoos out there but this is the first time I've been able to verify that the owner did it because of their love of the novel. True Fandom! I sent them some signed NotLT posters and a copy of Midnight Men. 

My long-form short story The Greatest Fear, which was published last year in Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale has just been produced in audio, and it's amazing. I had absolutely nothing to do with the production but I'm as proud as a new papa. It has everything I love, zombies, humor, blue-collar heroes, and a sprinkle of social relevance. It's just a few thousand words short of a novella, so it runs pretty long. If you want to listen in a single sitting you'll need to set aside 1 hour and 40 minutes, with two commercial breaks. It was performed and produced by Jason Hill, the same voice talent that produced the audio for Green Eyes and Chili Dogs,(also in Midnight Men) which features the same characters. My story is the solo story in the fifteenth episode in season 2 of the Horror Hill Podcast called Rotten to the Core.

Listen to The Greatest Fear on the Horror Hill Podcast
or Listen on YouTube

 Purchase

Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale

!n the July newsletter, I mentioned that I just sold the story Scarecrows and Devils to the Otis Jiry's Scary Stories Told in the Dark podcast. Well, it's been produced and is now available for your listening pleasure. It's available in your favorite podcast feed or YouTube.

Listen on the Scary Stories Told in the Dark Podcast 

or Listen on YouTube

It took some doing, but I finally got my audio page on my web site at KevinDavidAnderson.com fully updated with everything I have available in audio. Okay, more like 90% of everything I have in audio, but the new layout makes it much easier to update. In the last four months, I've had so many podcasters wanting to read my stories (Yeah, that sounds like bragging and I do apologize) and it's been hard to keep up. But I think I have a handle on in now.

To find everything I have in audio (okay, 90%) go to http://www.kevindavidanderson.com/audio.html

CHARITY ANTHOLOGY

My published story (one of my most published stories) The Box Born Wraith will appear in the pages of TRICKSTER'S TREATS #4, Coming, Buried or Not! from the Australian publisher Things in the Well. Scheduled for an October release the anthology's proceeds will benefit the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. This will be my 36th appearance in a genre anthology. Maybe I can hit 40 by year's end.

I do have more announcements/stuff that is newsletter worthy but this issue is getting a little long, so I'll sign off until next month. If you're looking for more stuff to read or listen too, head on over to my website and click on the BOOKS / STORIES link for an almost up to date list of everything I have available. Check out the FREE AUDIO link or my YouTube channel for dozens of my stories available for free produced by the likes of Jason Hill, the fine folks at the Drabblecast, Pseudopod, Simply Scary, and the No Sleep Podcast.

The Elixir of the Undead

Wow, 2020, the year nobody wanted is now half over. Yaaay...I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for us. I know my son is rooting for Godzilla to rise from the Pacific. My daughter and I are hoping for Zombies. The Romero Zombies, not that fast running nonsense. At my age and with my new stay-at-home / quarantine waistline, I wouldn't stand a chance in a world overrun by Zombie Usain Bolts. Speaking of Zombies, Father's Day has come and gone and if you're wondering what do the kids of a Horror/Zombie writer who lives in wine country get their father on Father's Day...well, they get him one of these.

It’s called The Elixir of the Undead Zombie Wine Bottle Holder, and I love it. Wine sold separately.

COVID-19 has required us all to spent quite a bit of time at home with our family. For a writer having a full house all the time can be a problem. For my family, it's hard for them to tell if I'm writing on my laptop, and don't want to be disturbed, or if I'm goofing off on Facebook. So in addition to my Elixer of the Undead gift, the kids made me this clever two-sided sign and it has already come in handy.

MIDNIGHT MEN SALE

Only $2.99

The fine folks at Grinning Skull Press, publisher of my book, Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale and Vincent Courtney's What's Wrong with the Baby are reducing the Kindle edition price of both books from $4.99 to $2.99. The sale is currently ongoing and may continue throughout July.

Purchase the Kindle Edition of

Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Ear and Dale

Purchase the Kindle Edition of

What's Wrong with the Baby?

New Audio Stories in Production

Several stories from Midnight Men: The SupernaturalAdventures of Earl and Dale are currently being evaluated for future audio productions. I'm excited at the prospects of hearing Earl and Dale in full audio again. It has been a few years since Jason Hill produced my story GreenEyes and Chili Dogs, the tale that introduces the truck driving, monster hunting duo. Nothing has been set in stone, and it might not happen, but fingers crossed.

To listen to Green Eyes and Chili Dogs on YouTube - clickhere

In the meantime up and coming podcaster Matt (CreepyFace) MfDaniels has requested a few of my stories to produce for his new podcast. He is considering two of my stories, Home Care which first appeared in the anthology Night Terrors III from Blood Bound Books, and Between Sisters which has been published several times. Neither story has been produced in audio and I'm excited to hear what he does with them.

SCARECROWS and DEVILS

My story Scarecrows and Devils has just been sold to the Scary Podcast Network and will be read by Otis Jiry on a future episode of Scary Stories Told in the Dark. This will be my second story read by Otis and I'm very interested in hearing his take. He has a unique style. Its kind of like listening to your grandfather tell you a story he shouldn't be telling you. If you'd like to listen to the first story of mine he read, The Room, click here.

In addition to being produced in audio SCARECROWS and DEVILS will also appear on the dark web site Creepy Pasta Stories. This will be my third story on the site. To read any of my stories on the site click on the title below. 

1. SCARECROWS and DEVILS - Southern-style horror with a twist
2. The ROOM - A Nightmare that follows you into the wake of day
3. TOUALETEHYDROPHOBIA - A childhood fear seizes the lives of a family and won't let go

NEW VIDEO on my YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Just uploaded to my youtube channel is a new video with three pieces of MicroFiction written and performed a while ago on the Drabblecast podcast and the Dribblecast, which is a side venture of the podcast run by fans. The fiction is dark and creepy but the best part, in my opinion, is that the video features one of my daughter's amazing photographs. Still, in her teens, she has already had photos published in two magazines, a horror magazine and a literary zine published here in Southern California. You can see more of her work and follow her photography on Instagram at _shutter_butterfly. Go to: https://www.instagram.com/shutter_butterfly_/ APPEARANCES 2020 None. After careful thought and consideration I've decided that I will not be making any appearances in 2020. Which is a real bummer. I hate this damn virus. With a new book coming out at the tail end of 2019, Midnight Men, and two new joke books for kids published under my pen name Giggles A. Lott and Nee Slapper at the beginning of this year, I had scheduled appearances all throughout 2020 and was really looking forward to a year of in-person promotions. Oh well. On the upside, my joke book STAR WARS: The Jokes Awaken is doing very well with little to no promotions on AMAZON. So if you know a youngster (ages 8 and up) these Joke Books, full of cartoons and illustrations, make great gifts.  If you're looking for more stuff to read or listen too, head on over to my website and click on the BOOKS / STORIES link for an almost up to date list of everything I have available. Check out the FREE AUDIO link or my YouTube channel for dozens of my stories available for free produced by the likes of Jason Hill, the fine folks at the Drabblecast, Pseudopod, Simply Scary, and the No Sleep Podcast. Live Long and Prosper