horror novel
MALINAE cover revealed!
Cover for MALINAE, my novella by D&T Publishing. Art by Don Noble.
MALINAE Virtual Book Launch + “Alzheimer’s: From Horror to Hope” (4/9)
In a virtual launch event on Friday, April 9 at 6 p.m. (MT), D & T Publishing unleashes MALINAE, the debut novella by biological horror author, Josh Schlossberg.
RSVP via Eventbrite for Zoom link.
Ward Ayers, physically disabled and confined to his Jersey Shore home, can only watch in dismay as his beloved wife Malina slips further and further into dementia. Until he uncovers the dark force behind Malina’s decline and must plumb the depths of sacrifice and selfishness to reclaim his wife and preserve humanity’s future.
The 1-hour event will feature:
–Josh Schlossberg reading a brief excerpt from MALINAE and sharing the real-life inspiration for his fictional work’s exploration of Alzheimer’s disease.
–D & T Publishing editor, Dawn Ellis Shea, relating her experiences working as a nurse with dementia patients.
–Huntington Potter, Ph.D., Director of University of Colorado Alzheimer’s and Cognition Center, offering hope in the form of the latest scientific progress towards a cure.
The event will conclude with Q&A.
MALINAE will be available as an e-book from Godless.com on April 9, and as print and e-book through Amazon on April 23.
For more information, please visit JoshsWorstNightmare.com or DandTpublishing.com.
Shut the F@&% Up, Already!
All my life, people have been trying to shut me up.
It started in grade school, when speaking my mind got me sent out into the hall. This kept up through junior high, where I’d commit the sin of “talking back” to teachers, earning me a double-digit tally of detentions.
I mostly stayed out of trouble through high school and college by funneling my unauthorized thoughts into writing, without ever bothering to try to publish any of it.
In my twenties, when I took a job as an environmental organizer, the state would muzzle my legal protests with detainments and arrests. On one occasion, I was passing out brochures on a public sidewalk when a SWAT team member and former Blackwater operative threw me to the pavement, kneed me in the neck, and confiscated my camera before carting me off to jail.
Upon discovering the political power of the written word, my activist career from that point on involved me being censored and blacklisted by government agencies and corporate-funded NGOs for daring to critique their failures.
After retiring from activism in favor of journalism, despite writing for dozens of publications and winning multiple awards, I eventually learned that editors would reject any pitch that didn’t conform to their own rigid ideologies.
Venturing into the horror fiction world, I was able to sneak several of my short stories into some forward-thinking publications and subversive anthologies, but not a single publishing house would touch my far more “controversial” longer fiction.
But 2020 changed everything. That’s when I sent my novella, MALINAE, to D&T Publishing’s Dawn Ellis Shea. Not only didn’t Dawn blanch at what I had to say, she offered me a contract for the book (coming out in April).
Praise the dark gods for people like Dawn; the opposite of censors, they’re the amplifiers raising up the voices of artists the establishment doesn’t want you to hear.
Darkest Regards,
Josh Schlossberg
HAIKU HORROR REVIEW: The Grip of It
The Grip of It
by Jac Jemc
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (2017)
FAIR WARNING: THIS IS
NOT YOUR TYPICAL HAUNTED
HOUSE NOVEL. GOOD LUCK!
EVENT: Defy Your Demons (10/25, Denver)
There are those who don’t simply hunt their demons down, but gleefully grab them by the throats, squeeze the life out of them, and dip their pens in the blood to chronicle the tale—we call them horror fiction writers.
This October, celebrate Halloween season by confronting the demon on your chest with Atlas Obscura and six horror authors. Gathered together at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop, authors will unveil their psyches, recount the battles they’ve waged against their own personal demons, and share the stories these clashes inspired.
TICKETS (Drinking tickets include a selection of white and red wine.)
AUTHORS
Award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones (Mongrels, Mapping the Interior)
Novelist, short-story writer and two-time honorable mention in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Horror, DeAnna Knippling (Alice’s Adventures in Underland, A Murder of Crows)
Horror Writers Association and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America member Chris Phillips (IGMS, Apex Magazine, Penumbra eMag, Sci Phi Journal)
Thomas C. Mavroudis, MFA (Turn to Ash, Terror in 16-Bits, Year’s Best Body Horror, Weirdbook)
Dark fantasy writer Linnea Linton (Denver Horror Writers)
Ghost story aficionado Effie Rose (Denver Horror Writers)
A Q&A panel will follow the reading wherein you’ll be granted full creative license to poke and prod our dark scribes to your heart’s content, followed by an opportunity to purchase signed copies of their works, as well as plenty of time to mingle with your fellow guests over a glass of wine.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Alcohol is available for attendees with a valid 21+ ID.
Please arrive 15 minutes early to check-in. Follow signs downstairs to the “grotto.”
Event will run rain or shine.
This event is suitable for ages 12+.
ADA: This event is taking place in an old home that is not wheelchair accessible. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact james.oneill@atlasobscura.com for additional accessibility information/questions.
A small lot is adjacent to the building and street parking is available. Please read signs carefully and carpool when possible.
QUESTIONS?
Email James O’Neill at james.oneill@atlasobscura.com.
Stay connected! Check out our other events; join our Facebook Group for discussions, photos, and likeminded adventurers; subscribe to the Atlas Obscura Society Denver Newsletter for a first glimpse at upcoming events.
Advance tickets only. All sales final. No refunds or exchanges.
HAIKU HORROR REVIEW: Sylvan Dread
Sylvan Dread by Richard Gavin
Three Hands Press (2016)
FAUNS OF THE FOREST,
ENVELOPING GREENERY;
THE “GHOST IN THE VINES”
HAIKU HORROR REVIEW: Skullcrack City
Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Lazy Fascist Press (2015)
MIND-ALTERING DRUGS,
BANKING CONSPIRACIES AND
BRAIN-EATING MADMEN
BOOK REVIEW: The Die-Fi Experiment by M.R. Tapia
Clash Media published my book review of M.R. Tapia’s new horror novella, The Die-Fi Experiment.
***
BOOK REVIEW: The Die-Fi Experiment by M.R. Tapia
– by Josh Schlossberg, Clash Media
I had trouble sleeping the night I read M.R. Tapia’s new novella, The Die-Fi Experiment.
Sure, it might’ve been the fact that I left the heat on too high. Or the woman on my mind. But I blame at least half of my sweaty tosses and turns squarely on Tapia’s locomotive-paced storytelling, the disturbing images he conjures, and the maelstrom of emotions he drags a reader through.
Let’s be clear from the get go: The Die-Fi Experiment is not for the faint of heart. Nor, just to be on the safe side, anyone with any kind of heart condition whatsoever. While the sometimes graphic depictions of physical violence aren’t gratuitous—they serve almost exclusively to hasten the plot—they are, let’s just say…intense.
The premise of The Die-Fi Experiment is that a newlywed couple honeymooning in Japan are kidnapped and forced to compete in a gory game show in front of a live audience and the eyes of thousands of social media junkies. Think American Gladiators meets Saw meets You’ve Got Mail.
