I sat down this afternoon and I realized that I have a, excuse me, shitload of stuff coming out over the next few months.  When it dawned on me how much is coming out in such a short period of time, I was a little flabbergasted.

Here’s what’s on tap:

“Three Dog Night” in Best New Werewolf Tales, out now!  (Get it at Amazon, leave a review!)

“Dust at the Center of All Things” in Evil Jester Digest #1, out sometime in March

“The Depravity of Inanimate Things” in Horror For Good, out sometime in March

“The Immolation Scene” in Horror Library V, out sometime this year

“Night Bird” in Big Pulp, out sometime in March

“The Bitches of Madison County” in Black Ink Horror #8, out sometime in April

Little Deaths, my first short story collection, out sometime in April

“The Tentacle” in Call of Lovecraft, out sometime this summer

And that’s just through June….so far.

I think 2012 is gonna be my year.  So, if you love or even like my stuff, there’s gonna be a lot of it this year!  And if you don’t like my stuff, well, you’re going to learn to.

Roy Daley, the publisher at Books of the Dead Press, was kind enough to involve me in the decision for a cover for my upcoming collection of short horror fiction, Little Deaths.  Roy’s working with a great new artist, Diego Candia, and I think he’s done a fantastic job…times two!

Here they are:

Roy is thinking of using one for the front cover and one for the back cover.  We’d also like to know what you think.  Books of the Dead has a new message board where you can find out what’s going on in the BOTD community, what books are coming out, what authors are doing, etc.  If you’d like to share your opinion of the Little Deaths covers, go here and let us hear from you!

http://horrorworld.org/msgboards/viewtopic.php?f=160&t=11546

I’m also thinking about having a release party when the paperback of Little Deaths is published.  I’m kicking around some ideas and I got Roy involved, too.  If you’d like to add your two cents, go here and let me hear from you.  I want this book to absolutely rock when it comes out, so any ideas you might have would be appreciated!

http://horrorworld.org/msgboards/viewtopic.php?f=160&t=11548

I’ll leave the link for the Books of the Dead Message Boards in my blogroll to the left.  Visit it often to keep up to date on what’s happening with this fantastic horror publisher!

In just less than a year!

And the hits just keep coming.

Seriously, I’ll be here all week folks.  Try the veal.

So, here’s the first of my appearances this year.  My short story, “Dust at the Center of All Things,” will be in Evil Jester Digest #1, which will be out as an e-book the second week of March, and as a paperback about a week after that.  Evil Jester Press will be unveiling the book at the World Horror Con in Salt Lake City in March.

“Dust at the Center of All Things” is my take on the mummy trope, and it’s a story that I, personally, quite like.  So glad to see it here.  It was one of only 10 stories chosen for this antho from 200 submissions.

I’ll post purchase information when I have it.

I also have some exciting news to share about Little Deaths as soon as I’m cleared by my publisher–the cover!  And it’s pretty cool!

This is the funniest and truest column about writing and being a writer that I have read in a long, long time.

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/02/21/25-things-i-want-to-say-to-so-called-aspiring-writers/

Read it, laugh and figure out how many of these you’re guilty of.  Me?  Well, still a few.

So, recently found that the charity anthology, Horror for Good, has accepted one of my short stories to include in the collection, which will be out this spring.  The anthology will benefit amfAR, the international charity for AIDS research.  So, I’m proud to be in it!  Can’t divulge the title of my piece yet, because they want to announce that.  But it’s an interesting little story.

I’m also proud to be in it because of the other names who will have stories in it also.  Writers such as F. Paul Wilson, Joe Lansdale, Wrath James White, Lisa Morton and Laird Barron, to name a few.  So, I’ll be in good company, and for a good cause.

I’ll post a link when the anthology is for sale.  Since all proceeds go to amfAR, your purchase not only supports a great cause, but also snags you some great fiction.

Horror for Good’s Facebook page is here: http://www.facebook.com/horrorforgood?sk=info

My final free story, “The Two of Guns,” went up on Amazon today, and already it’s scored a terrific, 5-star review…and from someone I don’t even know.

“I enjoyed John Taff’s short story a lot! The story of Gus and the gun he stole and what the dead oriental man did for revenge was sweet!  This has a little bit of the ole west and Twilight Zone.  It’s a nice enjoyable read that took me about 20 minutes.  I’ll definitely be downloading more of John’s stories.  Give this freebie a try. You’ll be glad you did!”  And five stars!

That’s from The Barbarian, so thanks, Mr. Barbarian!

Get it here for FREE this week.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Two-of-Guns-ebook/dp/B005C6CD4I/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1329786027&sr=8-18

After this week, all the free stuff is gone!

Books of the Dead Press (my publisher!) announced today that the ebook version of Best New Werewolf Tales Volume One should be finding its way onto Amazon later today. It’s a great book, edited by Carolina Smart, with cover art by Carl Graves.  It features my story, “Three Dog Night,” which is a fun little werewolf story that manages not to use the “W” word even once.   The paperback, once released,will include artwork by Robert Elrod. Here’s the ebook’s ToC.

The last of my free Amazon short stories goes up on Monday, and it’ll be free through Friday.  Then that’s it, no more for now.  This story, “The Two of Guns,” a a weird, horror western, sort of a Twilight Zone meets Gunsmoke.  One of the very earliest stories I wrote, it still holds up, at least for me.

Here’s the link to get it free:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Two-of-Guns-ebook/dp/B005C6CD4I/ref=sr_1_18?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329656514&sr=1-18

So how has this great experiment worked?  Hmmm…who knows?  By the time this is over, I will have given away in excess of 5,000 copies of my stories.  In terms of getting my work out there, spreading my name, I think that’s a success.  In terms of converting these readers to actual paid readers…well, we’ll see.

But, as I said in the last post, it’s time to concentrate on other things…my short story collection Little Deaths, finishing up a few short stories to add to the stable, getting back to the novel, thinking about the upcoming horror novel.  So, the mystery of Amazon will have to work itself out for now.  I got better things to do!!

If your interested, and all indications would be that you’re not, here’s what I’m working on right now.

I am trying to build up my number of finished short stories to keep in circulation, since recent sales and my upcoming short story collection, Little Deaths to be published by Books of the Dead this spring, have decimated my stock of remaining stories.  This has left me with about five stories that I can keep in circulation, which isn’t much.  So, I’ve been writing some more to add to the stable.

The one I’m working on right now is a longer, probably more novella-length scifi ghost story that I am really liking.  It’s called “Visitation,” and it concerns…well…ghosts.  Don’t want to say more right now as the story is evolving, but it’s probably another long story, like my previous scifi  novella “The Long, Long Breakdown” that will be impossible to sell due to length.  Oh well….maybe I should eventually write two or three more scifi stories of this length and try to put out a collection.  Who knows?

I am also working with Debbie to come up with a plan for a release party for Little Deaths here in St. Louis, probably in May.  We’re scouting a few places, talking with some people and trying to decide when and where to have it and what to do there; i.e., a short reading, a signing, some wine and cheese, a goat sacrifice.  Well, Debbie probably will nix the goat sacrifice, so don’t count on that.

What else?  Well, as soon as I get this scifi ghost story and one additional short done, it’s back into the novel I’m working on, the science fiction thing I’m calling Home.  I want to get that done so I can look for a new agent.  Then, it’s right into a horror novel, my first in a decade or so.  I have three competing ideas, and as I get closer, I will share all three and perhaps someone can help me decide which to choose.

Anyway, that’s the update.  And now, because you asked for it…a stoat.

A Stoat.