I don’t need to tell you that people are reading less and less these days.
One poll reveals how one-quarter of American adults haven’t read a single book in the last year. Another survey finds that only seventeen percent of thirteen-year-olds read for fun every day, with three in ten saying they either never or hardly ever do so. Even more shocking is the fact that men make up only twenty percent of all fiction sales in the US, UK, and Canada!
Sorry to interrupt your social media doom-scrolling! I just wanted to remind you that my horror short story collection, WHERE THE SHADOWS ARE SHOWN, is available for purchase on September 30 through Godless.com (ebook only), Amazon (paperback and ebook), or get a signed copy through JoshsWorstNightmare.com (email josh [at] joshsworstnightmare [dot] com).
I bet you think I’m about to trash traditional publishers here, eviscerating everyone from the “Big Four” to indie presses. Sorry to disappoint you ghouls, but that’s not what this piece is about.
As the “most criminally underrated author on the scene,” according to Underbrush Books, I would be remiss not to pimp my fiction one last time during this season of spending.
As a gift to you (or is it a punishment?), I’ve got a free short story out on e-book, “Creepy Old Dude,” about a neighborhood stalker where things go a little too far (based on a true story!).
We all know my horror fiction writing ain’t for everyone (some might say, “anyone,” hahaha). But over the years I’ve found a quality crew of readers, who, for whatever reasons, have trusted me to guide them through my very worst nightmares. For those of you who’ve read, enjoyed, rated/reviewed, or otherwise spread the word about my warped works, I’m truly and forever grateful.
As the season of sacrificial festivals approaches, and you’re searching out a gift for a loved (or hated) one, I hope you’ll consider my new eco folk horror novel CHARWOOD, my cosmic horror novella MALINAE, or any of the four anthologies and collections I’ve edited (or had a hand in editing) for Denver Horror Collective. And for you absolute cheapskates, I’ve even got a new short story, “Creepy Old Dude,” available for free as an e-book, which you can email to an unsuspecting victim via this link!
If you’ve been anywhere within shouting distance for the past few months, you might know that CHARWOOD, my eco Jewish folk horror novel from Aggadah Try It, is finally out in the world! While this should be the time where I constantly refresh my browser to check reviews, I won’t be doing that. In fact, I won’t be reading hardly any of them at all.
And I’ll tell you why…
A seed sprouted. The sapling took root. And now CHARWOOD, my eco Jewish folk horror novel from Aggadah Try It, is growing in the forest, where, if it gets enough water and sun and avoids the chainsaws, it may someday flourish into a full-sized tree. That, or wither, die, and crumble back into the soil from which it came. Either way, my work here is done, and now, Dark Reader, CHARWOOD’s fate lies in your hands alone.
Whatever your experience of CHARWOOD, I guarantee it’ll be a journey you’ve not taken before, traveling, as it does, along the faint trails of eco horror, the forgotten backways of Jewish mysticism, and the well-trodden thoroughfares of folk horror.
Instead of going on and on (as is my wont), I’m going to shut up and let CHARWOOD speak for itself. You can find the book at your local independent bookseller (order through Bookshop.org), Godless.com, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon. And if you enjoy it, please rate, review, share, and maybe leave your copy somewhere deep in the pinewoods where a fellow wanderer might chance upon it.
Can writing fiction about the eco-crisis do what science, advocacy, and journalism have not? As in, can storytelling uncover the root of our abusive relationship with the natural world and inspire meaningful action?
Some parts of who we are as human beings are self-evident. We all also have our “shadow,” which Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1842-1896) defined as “the dark aspects of the personality.” What’s more, Jung believed awareness of this shadow to be “the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.”
To go even deeper, not all our shadow traits must be negative, merely hidden. For instance, while the shadow of a goody-two-shoes might be bitter resentment, a rageaholic’s could be a touching vulnerability.
Thanks, Josh, for the pop-psychology lesson. But what does this have to do with horror fiction?
Oh, I don’t know. How about…everything?
Josh's Worst Nightmare 