April 2022: The Saga of the Stolen Pen
AuthorCon, Silver Shamrock's closure, and More...
Brian Keene stole my pen at AuthorCon. He’s been taunting me about it all month, so I decided to get even…
Anyway. Hi, I’m Todd Keisling, and this is Messages from the Southland, my (mostly) monthly newsletter. Prior issues can be found here. Comments are turned on, so you’re welcome to drop me a line if you want. I like hearing from you.
What a month. Wow. I’ve got a lot to recap here. I hope you’ll stick around.
April kicked off with the inaugural AuthorCon, presented by the folks who run Scares That Care. Unlike the STC Charity Weekend that happens every summer, this con was entirely author-focused. Panels, readings, and lots of vendors. Erica and I had a great time, hung out with good friends and made some new ones, too.
If you’re an author and couldn’t make it, definitely consider checking it out next year. AuthorCon 2 is happening next May, and vendor tables go on sale May 1st an 8 PM1.
Something else happened that weekend that set the tone for the rest of the month. Most of you know what I’m talking about, but for those who only keep up with me here, I’m going to quote my Patreon post:
Now, the elephant in the room. It’s a big one. While a big chunk of the indie horror world was partying it up at AuthorCon, a shitstorm was raging on social media, and at the center was my former publisher, Silver Shamrock Publishing.
For those who are out of the loop (and mercifully, at that), the nutshell synopsis is this: Silver Shamrock revealed the cover for an author’s forthcoming book, and the jacket copy on that cover had some incredibly racist and White Nationalist terminology. To put it bluntly, the jacket copy was atrociously offensive. Fingers were pointed, a mob formed, authors pulled their books and stories, and by the end of Saturday, Silver Shamrock Publishing was no more.
As I’ve said publicly, I’m grateful for the support SSP gave my book. Honestly, it might not have seen the light of day if not for them. Not in its current form, anyway.
As of now, DEVIL’S CREEK is on its way to being out of print. I have sold out of my personal stock of the book. I am trying to get one last order of books before the rights formally revert back to me, and I will announce via social media if that order goes through.
That’s the long and short of it, I’m afraid. DEVIL’S CREEK is now out of print as a paperback and an eBook. Currently, the only way to purchase the book is via Audible, as the audio book has a different publisher.
There’s still no word from SSP about that final order of books. My fingers and toes are crossed.
As for the book’s future, it’s with an editor now for consideration. I can’t say who or where; all I can say is that if it happens, it will be big, and I need all the good vibes. And if this happens to fall through, the book has a home with a smaller, yet immediately recognizable, publisher. So, DEVIL’S CREEK will return. It’s just a matter of when.
Unfortunately, I have to back out of attending Necon 40 this year due to personal reasons. My apologies if you were looking to connect with me there.
That said, I will be attending the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival this October in Haverhill, MA.
And you can also catch up with me at Scares That Care Charity Weekend this July.
On the writing front, I began working on rewrites of A SUNDOWNER’S DANCE. They’re going slow, but very well. I’ve added about 3k words to the manuscript so far, mostly to expand the early sections of the book that were written when the story was just going to be a novella. Some additional character development is needed.
Once that’s done, it’s off to my editor. I also want to send it off to a sensitivity reader, one who is familiar with elder care and/or dementia. If you happen to be one such person, I’d love to discuss hiring you. Drop a comment on this post and we can go from there.
Now that it’s been announced…
My short story “Annie’s Heart is a Haunted House” will appear in THE HIDEOUS BOOK OF HIDDEN HORRORS, edited by Doug Murano and published by Bad Hand Books. Look for this one to drop later this summer.
I’m really proud of this story. I pitched it to Doug as “The Breakfast Club meets Harlan Ellison.” Equal parts a slasher story and haunted house story, viewed through the lens of weird fiction. Inspired by Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” and the song “Annie” by Our Lady Peace.
The StokerCon souvenir anthology went to print this month. Editor Cynthia Pelayo showed off a sneak-peak of the interior:
I’m relieved/excited it is done. And I can’t wait for everyone at StokerCon to receive their copy.
Speaking of design work, I took Bob Ford’s advice and created a T-shirt featuring my award-winning artwork of ARTERIAL BLOOM. I also made shirts for UGLY LITTLE THINGS and a general branded shirt featuring my logo. These are available in Men’s and Women’s fittings in my shop.
Spent a big chunk of last weekend working in my yard. In recent years, I’ve grown to look forward to this time of year, which is funny to me. As a kid, I used to hate being outside. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge fan of being in the sun to begin with, but lately it’s become more of an annoyance than anything else.
Erica and I decided to seed our lawn with clover this year, with hope that in a couple of years, we won’t have as much grass to maintain. This meant mowing my yard (which is horribly uneven) as low as my mower would go. There was so much grass, too. I had to empty the bag four times.
Anyway, it’s all done, and the whole thing is seeded. I’m sure there will be photos in the coming months as the clover grows. I, for one, welcome our new clover overlords.
I also began the process of stripping the paint from my front porch so it can be repainted. Ended up buying this weird paint stripping goop to loosen up the old layers. It looks like mood slime from Ghostbusters 2:
We’ll have to do another coat of this stuff. It only worked well in places where it was thickest. A thin layer didn’t work well. More scraping is in my future. And sanding. And painting.
But by this time next month, my porch will have a much-needed fresh coat of paint. All this stuff is a lot of work, but the end result is almost always worth it.
Speaking of which, I should probably get back to work, so I’m going to wrap this up for now. Thanks for reading, everyone. See you all next month!2
TK
Just don’t let Brian Keene borrow your pen. Even if it’s for a horror legend like Tom Monteleone. Trust me.
Or maybe sooner. Twitter’s recent sale to Elon Musk may doom the platform, and if that’s the case, I’ll be utilizing Substack much more. Probably weekly updates instead of monthly. Stay tuned.
Loving the newsletter as usual. Sending good vibes. Just throwing this out there - I used to be a cna at a nursing home.