Write-Brained Leftovers

What To Look for in a Publisher...and Why

12/17/2022

Because a certain publisher that should have went under years ago is still alive and kicking, holding on by the skin of OTHER people’s teeth, I’m writing this.

I’ve dealt with said publisher. I expressed my issues quietly and went straight to the source. I gave the benefit of the doubt. More than once. Finally, I quietly asked for rights to be reverted back to me for a book that was under contract. I asked for the rights because of non and/or consistently late payment.

In the middle of me trying to be civil, there were several people on the publisher’s roster who had either never been paid a penny or hadn’t seen their royalties for quiet some time. When I found this out, my voice got a little bit louder, but only to friends. And that’s when I ultimately pulled my book.

However, I still kept quiet publicly. I believe in second chances and forgiveness and acknowledging that behind every keyboard is a human being. One with feelings and with issues going on in their own lives.

The problem with my being quiet was not knowing how many others were suffering too. And worse yet, how many more would sign up for a press that I now consider to be nothing short of a scam.

I learned a lot from this experience, and I’d like to offer some advice when considering a publisher for your book. I’ve said all this before, but I’ll keep it posted here on my website for future reference.

Ask around. When signing up with the problem publisher mentioned above, I did ask around. The problem is I only asked one person, and that person happened to be the publisher’s “golden egg.” Golden eggs are going to be treated differently. They’re going to be given special attention and paid on time. What I should have done is ask lesser known authors how they’re being treated, if they’re getting paid, and if they’re happy with the attention they’ve gotten as well as effort toward promo. Don’t ask the golden egg. They’ll most likely not be privy to what’s really going on.
Visit the publishers website. Make sure it’s up to date. If the last three books they put out aren’t even listed, they’re lazy, and it’s a red flag. They’re not doing their job.
Visit their social media pages. If your publisher uses the same place to promote your hard work as they do to promote their political opinions–even if you agree with those opinions–just know that they are alienating an audience. Social media is the worst place for political discussion anyway. Because there is no discussion. It’s bitching, looking for like-minded bitchers. Whether you’re bitching about how slow service was at the restaurant last night or how much you hate the president or about someone else’s views, this causes negative somatic markers, which are like little parasites the reader soaks in, letting them know, even on a subconscious level, this place is not a good time. That’s why everyone likes hanging out with the person who makes them feel good. Sure, most of us love dark movies and dark books. But when it comes to living life, we all just want to be happy and to maintain that happiness. By constantly bitching, you’re poisoning yourself, and if that publisher can’t treat their own company with respect and professionalism, they’re losing sales and driving people away, and this hurts you.
Take note of book sales. Look at the roster of books the publisher has to offer. Check the sales rankings and reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. Do take note that at least the first 10-20 reviews on a book are usually friends or acquaintances of the author who are going to offer kind words no matter what. Read recent reviews. The ones from complete strangers who have no obligation to stroke the author. If the reviews state things like “Loaded with errors…needed to be edited” that’s a red flag. The publisher may not be doing their job.
The book covers. Are they good? A lot of authors and publishers are using AI art these days so the art may be good but the font and placement godawful. Pay attention to that. Also, have you been seeing the book cover all over Twitter and Instagram? If so, that’s a good sign the publisher is doing their job promoting.
Ask to see a contract. Look it over carefully. If you’re not familiar with current rates, ask around. And make sure the publisher isn’t asking for movie rights. I probably don’t need to expand on this. Also, make sure you’re getting copies of your own book. I’m not talking e-copies. Get those trophies for the shelf. You shouldn’t have to pay for a copy of your own book. If a publisher like Thunderstorm Books can offer their authors two to three copies of a limited hardcover that goes for $100 a piece, a publisher can definitely offer you a few paperbacks.

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Top 10 Films of 2021

12/31/2021

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I watched a lot of great films this year, but these are the top 10. Just like my top reads of 2021, they are in no particular order and weren't necessarily released this year.

1. The Shout
This hidden gem from the 70s completely surprised me. Amazing acting with a unique premise. I can't believe more people don't talk about this movie.

2. The Lie
Edge of your seat, screaming at the TV kind of movie. It makes you ask the question "What would you do?".

3. Birdemic: Shock and Terror
If you love to watch bad movies with a friend, it really doesn't get better than this. I laughed nonstop while watching it with my co-host of PaleoCheeze Podcast. You've gotta see this with your B-movie buddy.

4. The Clovehitch Killer
Super tense. A great coming-of-age thriller.

5. Leatherface
Let's face it. This franchise is loaded with stinkers, and I had low expectations going into this one. What I got was so much different than your average TCM movie. This was a gory action thriller epic in size.

6. Halloween Kills
If you know me, you know Michael is my favorite killer. I knew there would be stuff I didn't like about this movie, but when the franchise is loaded with as many rotten eggs as this one, all it really takes is getting the mask right and some great edits. (So far only 2 movies have gotten the mask right since the first two originals: 2018 and Kills). When this finally came out, I think I was smiling the whole time watching it.

7. Lake Mungo
Two things got this movie on the list: The subtlety and the acting. I've never seen acting this good in a found footage movie.

8. Midnight Mass (mini series)
Great dialogue, acting, and concept. And to think it's actually a love story when it comes down to it.

9. Come True
This is not a movie you can turn your brain off with. You need to be paying attention to every detail. And you're probably going to want to watch it at least a few times. I did. One of the best soundtracks I've heard in a while. Also, we got a chance to hang out with the director Anthony Scott Burns for an episode of PaleoCheeze Podcast. (Episode airing soon).

10. Caveat
One of Shudder's best. Great concept, creepy atmosphere.

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Blame Joe Lansdale

4/28/2021

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It was 1984. I was a freshman in high school. My favorite bands were AC/DC, KISS, BLACK SABBATH, ROLLING STONES, and IRON MAIDEN. And like most kids my age, I listened to local radio stations, believing they were trustworthy gatekeepers of music, weeding out the bad with some all-knowing filter and presenting only the best music the planet has to offer, saving us from having to hear anything less than stellar.

But then one day, while roaming the halls of Harper Creek High School, I discovered punk rock. A friend of mine was playing it on his little boombox. What came out of the speakers was the most aurally offense music I’d ever heard.

I was in love.

That same friend made me a mix tape filled with bands I’d never heard of: THE PLASMATICS, MDC, THE MEATMEN, DOA, and SCREAM to name a few.

After listening to that tape, I realized the gatekeepers I’d been trusting with their magic filters didn’t know their asses from a hole in the ground, which I’d already had my suspicions about. I mean, why weren’t they playing KISS? And why when they finally did play SABBATH it was always Paranoid? Why not Planet Caravan or Lord of this World or Electric Funeral?

As I dug deeper into the punk scene, I found out these bands had a DIY ethic that completely opened my eyes to a whole new way of doing things. They were making stuff happen on their own terms. They were writing the music they wanted to write. Not for the money, not for the fame, not for the chicks. They were angry and energetic, and it was a healthy way of pissing vinegar on The Man.

I clung to that ideology over the years with everything I had and carried it through my love of indie films, those gems that obliterate blockbusters in storytelling and originality. The indie books that offer wild plots that haven’t been done before. I even found that for every genre of music, there’s an indie scene giving birth to amazing talent you’ll never hear on the radio. Not just punk. There’s underground funk, jazz, new age, pop, you name it.

Once I'd found my individuality through the discovery of punk and its ethics, I ran from trends. I’m still that way. If a trend starts, I bolt the other way. I pierced my nose 30+ years ago, when the only other person I knew who’d done it was a punk in my band. Talk about drawing attention. But several years later, when my daughter wanted hers done and it looked like that would become the norm, I took mine out and never wore it again. I chopped my dreads off after catching a whiff of a trend there too. But Chad, you’ve got a beard! Yes, I know. I haven’t let the hipsters chase me away from that yet. Instead, I refuse to worship my beard with product and its own special comb.

This might sound like a bullheaded way of thinking (my wife and kids certainly poke fun), but really I’m just an advocate for individuality and paving your own way without checking to see what the masses are doing first.

Fast forward a few decades.

I decide I want to do what I can to make a career out of writing. Right away, I want nothing to do with anything considered mainstream horror. This pretty much rules out monsters and ghosts, but particularly zombies and vampires. And absolutely no dystopian settings. Call it artistic integrity, punk-rock ethics. Whatever. But writing to market is not for me. I’ll leave that to those who enjoy doing it, because God knows the world is full of readers who love those tropes. And good for them. We like what we like, right?

So, I write OF FOSTER HOMES AND FLIES. Very unexpectedly, Jack Ketchum and Richard Chizmar praise it. I couldn’t be happier. So I write a few more “dark fiction” books in the same vein (STIRRING THE SHEETS, WALLFLOWER, THE PALE WHITE), using real-life scenarios and enough ambiguity and bleak drama to hastily slap a “horror” label on it.

During this entire journey, unbeknownst to him, I’m using Joe Lansdale as a distant mentor. Here’s an author who is embraced by the horror community, yet when he changes genres they move from the popcorn line at the blood-spattered drive-in to the back of an old pickup to solve crime, then it’s on horseback to head out west.

But for me, the pull of sticking to what’s expected of me--or even jumping on a bandwagon as it strolls by, waving its zombie-scented money in the air on its way to apocalyptic lands we’ve already been to a thousand times over--is strong. I think about caving often. And I suppose I did when I wrote BLOODLETTER (the first book in a vampire series) as C.E. Lutzke. And it may not be the last time I cave. Matter of fact, to play the devil’s hypocrite here and be completely transparent, I’m not above writing to market under a pseudonym just to make money, because, unfortunately, a mortgage trumps integrity.

But what makes me truly happy is the unapologetic exploration of other genres and mixing them. With THE SAME DEEP WATER AS YOU I wrote a tragic “romance”. It’s bleak, it’s beautiful, it’s angsty, and hearts are broken. It was a total experiment I wrote 100% for me.

It wasn’t the first time I did this. SKULLFACE BOY was an experiment too. A bizarre road trip where I ask the reader to suspend all disbelief right on the first page, when I tell them our protagonist has a skull for a face.

Other than THE NEON OWL--another off-the-road exploration into territory new to me (crime noir-ish)--those two books were the most fun to write. They're loaded with more me than anything else.

While I'm honored to have a readership with reader expectations and hear whispers of anticipated broken hearts with what many have deemed "heartfelt horror," it's also a little scary. If STIRRING THE SHEETS and OF FOSTER HOMES AND FLIES made them cry, how are they going to react when when I've got a one-legged handyman searching for clues on who's shitting in the bushes at THE NEON OWL?

I imagine Lansdale had this same problem at first. The difference is, Joe is more punk than me, and I don’t think he gave a good shit. After Lansdale wrote THE DRIVE-IN, readers screamed, "We've got a splatterpunk guy on our hands!"

Joe said, "No you don't," and wrote a crime novel, while pointing toward THE MAGIC WAGON, stating, "And don't forget about the western."

Joe gave the finger to the pigeons and their holes.

I want to give that same finger.

Joe did for my view on writing what punk rock ethics started at the age of 14. His “fuck-the-reader” and “write-like-everyone-you-know-is-dead” principles are as punk as it gets. It’s why he’s in my list of top 3 writers of all time, right alongside Mr. Ketchum and Mr. King (for me, they're all tied for first).

I’ll never be done writing “heartfelt horror”. It’s in my DNA. But I’m not done writing dark drama or humorous crime stories either. Just know that whatever I write is honest and 100% me, on my terms. And I sure do appreciate you riding along.

But if you’re one who tends to like the same comfortable shoes--as Lansdale puts it--and don’t care much for when I wander too far, blame Joe Lansdale. It’s his fault.

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Best...and Worst of 2020 (Film Edition)

12/26/2020

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Unlike the number of books I managed to read this year, I got quite a few movies in (around 180), most of which weren't released in 2020. Here's my top 10 best and worst films I watched this year (in no particular order...except for Paddleton).

Best of:
1. Paddleton
2. It Comes at Night
3. The Greasy Strangler
4. Anything for Jackson
5. Blue Jay
6. Come to Daddy
7. Doctor Sleep
8. The Boy
9. The Beach House
10. The Rental

Worst of:
1. Found Footage
2. Thankskilling 3
3. Demon Wind
4. The Love Witch
5. Drive-In Massacre
6. Death Bed: The Bed that Eats
7. Invasion of the Blood Farmers
8. The Amityville Curse
9. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things
10. The Giant Spider Invasion

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Best of ...Books 2020

12/22/2020

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Sadly, I found myself not reading as much this year. Chalk it up to the stress we've collectively shared, as well as a surprise writing project, a handful of blurb requests, hiding behind too many bad movies, and rewatching Curb Your Enthusiasm for the 3rd time.

Here are the top 5 books I read this year (in no particular order).

The Best of... - Joe R. Lansdale

Gorilla in my Room - Jack Ketchum

Magic - William Goldman

Slash - Hunter Shea

It - Stephen King

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Best and Worst of...

11/1/2020

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Last month I did the 31 Days of Terror Challenge where I comprised a list of horror films to watch for every day in October. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to follow the list either because the movie was no longer streaming or because I needed to watch a film for PaleoCheeze Podcast or because of those godawful Amityville movies with author/podcaster Jason Brant.

That being said, I did watch at least one horror film per day, totaling 33 films in all. Here's my top best and worst of the month (featuring only films I hadn't seen before).

Best:
1. It Comes at Night
2. The Greasy Strangler
3. Borgman
4. Zombeavers
5. Jennifer's Body

Worst:
1. Death Bed: The Bed that Eats
2. Found Footage
3. Invasion of the Blood Farmers
4. The Giant Spider Invasion
5. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things

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Bloodletter Cover Reveal

10/23/2020

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If you're familiar with my work, you may be surprised at the simple theme I tackle in this one. I'll admit it's atypical of what I normally write, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. While I'm not necessarily marketing the book as YA (young adult), it most definitely could be classified as such, and I believe those who regularly indulge in YA will take to the series.

I'm not ready to spill a full synopsis yet, but I will say The Hemato Pages treats vampirism as more of an affliction rather than something supernatural. The protagonist is a female tattooist in Los Angeles, CA who struggles with life after being "turned" one year ago, trying desperately to feed only on those who meet the criteria based upon her moral code. There's bloodshed, suspense, and even romance, within.

Bloodletter, the first book in the series, will be available December 2020.

Artwork by Zach McCain (who also did THE SAME DEEP WATER AS YOU, OUT BEHIND THE BARN, THE PALE WHITE as well as the Thunderstorm limited editions WORMWOOD and HALO OF FLIES).

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31 Days of Terror

9/27/2020

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Following the lead of my buddies Hunter Shea and Jack Campisi over at Monster Men, I'm accepting the challenge of watching a horror movie every day in October.

Hunter and Jack made their horror to-do list randomly by using the 31 Days of Terror: Halloween Horror Movie Dice Game wherein they rolled dice to determine their categories as well as films they'll be watching. Because I didn't want to get stuck watching films I just recently saw, I copied the categories they randomly rolled and filled in the blanks with movies I either have never seen before or haven't seen in 30+ years (with the exception of Halloween 2018, which I've just been wanting to get at again).

Below is the list I curated, along with the platform where they can be streamed. Join us, and let me know which movies you'll be tackling during October.

*Where it says "Best Horror Movies" I left for whatever it is I'm in the mood for that day (TBD).

1. Creature Feature - THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK (Shudder)