With Halloween right around the corner, the timing couldn’t be better. This collection of short stories brings examines the practice of ghost hunting. Not the Ghostbusters variety, but rather actual ghost hunting as it’s done today and on reality shows like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, and Ghost Adventures. I’m afraid my story takes liberties in the interest of drama and isn’t as scientific as actual ghost hunting, but the theme holds.

My story’s name, The Angry Stick, is taken from the tale’s setting—a rustic pool hall in the rural East Texas town of Pinebox. I’m sure nearly none of you will be surprised to learn that this isn’t the first time I’ve written about this particular pool hall. The Angry Stick made its official debut in an issue of the e-zine Modern Dispatch, though the issue number escapes me. It’s inspired by an actual pool hall here in Texas, though the name has been changed and the layout of the building is somewhat different. For whatever it’s worth, this Angry Stick and the events that take place within are officially part of the Pinebox setting continuity.

So what’s the story actually about? Here’s the elevator pitch: A seasoned ghost hunter struggles to conceal his curse while helping a pretty amateur who stubbornly investigates a hostile spirit.

That’s about all I can tell you for now without getting into spoiler territory. In closing, I’d just like to say that the nice thing about writing for anthologies is the opportunity to be associated with people more talented than yourself. I’m honored that The Angry Stick is being included among stories by such an excellent lineup of authors. If you’re in the mood for reading something spooky this Halloween season, I hope you’ll consider our “11 tales of Ghostly Horror”.

Come back in a few days to watch me do a deadly balancing act as I talk about how I came to write The Angry Stick while managing to avoid spoilers. Can it be done? Tune in and find out!

The ENnie-nominated Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas

If you follow the ongoing adventures of 12 to Midnight, you might have heard that the anthology we published last summer–Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas–was nominated for another award. I say “another” because it was nominated and won the Predators & Editors readers poll for anthologies, and it briefly made the “long list” of nominations for the Origins award. Now it’s up for the ENnie award, which will be announced at GenCon in August. You can read about the nomination at 12 to Midnight, but if you really feel moved to vote this instant then polls are open. Buried Tales is in lucky category #13. If you haven’t read Buried Tales, then this is a great time to do so. You can order Buried Tales in print from Amazon, or you can get the e-book for dirt cheap at the FlamesRising store.

Our little book shares the category with some amazing products from well-known publishers. It is truly an honor just to be nominated. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to editor Matt McElroy and all the contributing authors for making it the success that it is.

I usually don’t toot my own horn, but since this is my blog I guess I should mention that one of those contributing authors was me. My story, The One that Got Away, is a first person account of a fishing trip gone wrong. And when I say wrong, I mean kind of wrongness that only happens in Pinebox. It has everything a good fishing story should have– friendship, sorrow, beer, and the biggest damn catfish you could ever imagine. If you haven’t picked up a copy of Buried Tales yet, I hope its string of accolades will convince you to give it a try.

I’m pleased to say that Monica fully delivers another great tale while altogether avoiding the pitfalls I’d feared.

As a “book”, the Queen of Crows is an interest experiment in written content. The version I read was an e-book, focused first and foremost around a short story of the same title. (More on that in a little bit.) After the story (14 pages), the book contains what one would call “bonus material” if this were a DVD. An author’s introduction immediately follows the story, and describes where the idea for the story originated and how it evolved into the version in the book. After that is a character profile, a description of the setting and how relates to a larger work called the Violet War,  and finally a copy of the original version of the story before it was reworked into the Queen of Crows.

Not only did I enjoy the story (It’s coming; I promise. Keep reading), but I’m intrigued by what the extra content brings to the book as a whole and what it could lead to in the future. For instance, while there’s nothing particularly new about author introductions, imagine if future ebooks allow authors to overlay their annotations right over the text (in a separate layer than can be made visible or invisible, of course) like the pop-up trivia and other bonus material found on DVDs today. An author could note how a particular character or scene was developed right in the scene as we’re reading it. The character bio presents another interesting addition. It definitely gives readers greater insight into the larger world that we’re only glimpsing through the window of Queen of Crows. The extent of its utility will depend greatly on the reader. Some might skim through it as merely additional trivia, others might see it as a teaser for things to come, or while still others (I’m talking to you, RPG players) might read it with the intent to mine for ideas. The final bit of extra content, was the original version of the story. It takes a brave author to pull back the curtain and demonstrate how sausage is made (so to speak). Having read the final (much different) original story, some readers will be fascinated to read the original and see how much has changed, while others will undoubtedly wonder why they’d be expected to read anything other than the final, most polished version. In other words, if you’re the kind of person who eagerly consumes all the bonus content on a DVD then you’re likely to enjoy this book. If not, you’ll still enjoy the short story but you’ll likely skim over the extra content.

On to the story. Queen of Crows is a supernatural fantasy set in a pseudo-Native American past. It employs Native American shamanistic trappings to tell a story that’s equal parts horror and tragedy with overtones of myth thrown in for good measure. In it the protagonist, a grandfatherly shaman named Tse, slowly spirals in on his destiny as a harbinger of… something. Is it a force of good or evil, or does it defy those labels in the same manner as a thunderstorm? I was a little thrown off by a perspective switch more than halfway through the story, but it didn’t keep me from enjoying the tale. This 14 page story reads like the catalyst or prequel for the larger novel to come, but whether we’ll ever get a chance to read that novel remains to be seen. Here’s hoping.

If you’re interested in Queen of Crows, it’s available as an ebook (watermarked PDF) at DriveThruHorror.com for only $4.99.

I should mention that all of this is in conjunction with Straub promoting his new book, A Dark Matter. For those of you who like moving pictures, here’s a book trailer.

I’m a fan of Straub. I’ve read his Blue Rose books, Floating Dragon, Koko, Shadowland, and Ghost Story. Despite the rather lackluster trailer above, I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy A Dark Matter. Which brings me to the real reason for this post– to gloat! My entry was one of the winners in the contest, which means that I was sent a free copy of the hardback. Imagine my delight when FedEx(!) knocked on my door and handed me this thick envelope sporting a Random House return address label.

It's not exactly a giant crate with "Fragile" stamped on the side, but I'll take it.

And here's the book! I haven't actually started reading yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

The first is Best Anthology. 12 to Midnight’s very own Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas is in the running. In fact, much to our shock and amazement, we’ve managed to hold the #1 spot for an entire week. However, voting doesn’t close until January 14, so we’re not taking anything for granted. If you read Buried Tales and think it should win, I would greatly appreciate your vote. If you haven’t read it, visit the book’s website or Flames Rising for sneak peeks…then follow the links to pick up a copy of your own.

Speaking for Flames Rising, the other category you should be acting upon is Review Site. Flames Rising has an impressive lineup of author interviews, book reviews, and more. I believe it is well deserving of the award, and if you do too then I’m sure they’d appreciate your vote.

Your vote only takes a minute or two of your time, but it means a tremendous amount to the people behind the books or sites for which you’re voting. Thank you!

Screenshot of Angel Time at Buy.com.

The book is Angel Time, a new release by author Anne Rice. I was a fan of Lestat back in the day, but I couldn’t get into Tales of the Body Thief and haven’t picked up a book of hers since. However, I’ve been curious to give her another try ever since I read that the rediscovered her faith. Angel Time is an attempt to apply her talent to her faith in the creation of a story that is both thought-provoking and entertaining. We’ll see.
Being a new release by a well-known author, Angel Time was published as a hardback. However, you’ll note that in this screenshot that it is heavily discounted. At the time I grabbed this image, I could get the hardback for $12.99 and free shipping.

Screenshot of Angel Time at Fictionwise.

Now let’s compare that with the ebook at FictionWise. When I first got my Sony ebook reader, Fictionwise was my store of choice. The Sony store sold books in their own proprietary format, and I only wanted to buy books that could stay with me as I upgraded hardware. However, it didn’t take too long to realize that most of the popular books by bigger publishers weren’t available in Fictionwise’s multiformat file. The most popular books were locked behind DRM in their ereader format. This book is no exception, and it’s $7 more expensive than the hardback. (Or “only” $4 more if you join the club, which I had done.)

Screen shot of Angel Time at Books on Board.

After becoming disillusioned with Fictionwise, I switched to Books On Board. BoB sells books in the “universal” epub format, although they use a layer of Adobe DRM on top. Far from ideal, but I figure one problem at a time. At least they have it for $15, “only” $2 more than the hardback. BoB is nice about disclosing just what you’re getting, and in this case we see that the publisher has thoughtfully disabled copying, printing, and lending features. At this point, I’m left with weighing the extra expense and loss of features/benefits in using an ebook against the domestic tranquility of not invoking Mrs. Flametoad’s ire by further contributing to the teetering stacks of books already lining our study.

Screen shot of Angel Time at Amazon.

Amazon, at least on same level, gets it. The hardback is $15.17 and the Kindle edition is $9.99. Amazon has come under a lot of fire from publishers and competitors about their selling ebooks so low. However, until their utility improves and one is able to do more of the things one can do with a paper book (such as lend it to a friend), as far as I’m concerned ebooks should never be priced more 80% of the price of the most inexpensive paper version. Nothing ticks me off like seeing a DRM-crippled ebook selling for more than the cost of the same book’s paperback edition.

I think the moral of the story is that Buy.com had a really good deal on the hardback. They might even have been treating it as a loss leader. However, when I read about publishers lamenting the dangers of ebooks undercutting hardback sales, I look at this kind of thing and have to wonder.

Update: Speaking of publishers lamenting ebooks, Teleread documents a move by publishers to delay the release of ebooks to keep them from undercutting hardback sales. Undercutting.

Profit & Loss – If you’ve ever wondered why books cost as much as they do, you’ll want to check out this post on Marion Gropen’s Publishing for Profit blog. Marion takes the reader step-by-step through all the factors that make up a non-fiction book’s cost. It’s an eye-opening exercise if you’re not already familiar with the business side of publishing.

International Rights – Publishing rights are traditionally sold on a country-by-country basis. This made sense 100 years ago for print books, but in today’s ebook market it just hurts the customer. In this case, the customer is a solider serving overseas who is being blocked from buying American books because his base’s IP address isn’t registering as in-country. It’s just another sign that it’s time to rethink how publishing works.

E-book DRM – Nobody likes it, but in an industry where profit is slim, the threat of loss through illegal duplication is terrifying. Booksquare tries to move the conversation forward with minimal drama.

Comparison Shopping – The price of e-books varies a lot more widely than one would expect. The MetaEbooks site lets you search for a book by title or author and find the cheapest price across several online retailers. You can even narrow your selection by ebook format.

Save your Money – A friend recently advised me to consider TVs to be just like computers. The technology is changing so rapidly that there will always be a better model on the market just a few months after you buy one, and for the same price. Should we now add ‘books’ to that category as well? The venerable Teleread.org has an essay titled “Why you probably should NOT buy an ereader this year”. I’m not sure I entirely agree, but read it for yourself.

Lessons from History – The excellent O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing companion website has a short post called Lessons from Digital Disruption in the Music Business. I’ll admit that I didn’t listen to the linked hour-long podcast, but the quote and other links were certainly good food for thought.

Books Aren’t Baked Beans – That’s the title of the first in an excellent series of articles by Martyn Daniels, republished by permission at Litopia.com. If you’re interested in publishing or even simply interested in a case study in how digital technology is disrupting an entire industry, I highly encourage you read the whole series.

What made it all seem worthwhile was the book, the physical item, a kind of sacred and appropriate temple for the text contained within. Had I been told from youth that my literary destination would be some 7 inch plastic gizmo containing my texts shuffling alongside thousands of other “texts” I would have spit in the face of such a profession and become instead a hit man or a rabbi.

What do you think? Are e-books an abomination to all that is right with humanity?

A friend just sent me a link to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Eduction, titled Monsters and the Moral Imagination. For me, the money-quote follows.

In a significant sense, monsters are a part of our attempt to envision the good life or at least the secure life. Our ethical convictions do not spring fully grown from our heads but must be developed in the context of real and imagined challenges. In order to discover our values, we have to face trials and tribulation, and monsters help us imaginatively rehearse. Imagining how we will face an unstoppable, powerful, and inhuman threat is an illuminating exercise in hypothetical reasoning and hypothetical feeling.

This gets to the heart of not only horror, but the fun in roleplaying games as well. From the outside, there’s a vague notion that RPGs are for loners to play elves and dwarfs in their parent’s basement. In reality, it’s a highly social activity that posits a series of challenges and allows players to collectively overcome them (or not). Unlike traditional board games, the players usually don’t compete against one another, but cooperate against an external threat. RPGs come in all styles and flavors, but horror RPGs have a special place in my heart. The Chronicle article “gets it”. Enjoying horror isn’t about reveling in the macabre, it’s about imagining external adversity* and then overcoming it– all from the safety of one’s dining room table.

*As opposed to sitting around pretending to overcome internal adversity, like breast cancer. That’s just morbid.