Here were the final results:

Greg has received his cash payout this morning of $500.  He'll also get to keep all of the profits of his next contracted novella through Delirium Books. And in the coming weeks, he will be receiving the actual award as well.

I'd like to sincerely thank all of the book club members who voted each quarter and in the final ballot.  The one thing I learned is that each quarter the vote counts were close, some winners separated only by a few votes.  We all know individual tastes are subjective and as an editor I will continue to focus on quality works that run the gamut of dark fiction.

And also, l'd like to thank the authors.  We're really dealing with all winning entries in my mind.  After sifting through more than 400 manuscripts in 2011, these 24 authors presented the best of them all, and that's no small feat, especially considering how tough it is to even get published at Delirium.  Over the course of my 13 years as editor,  quality fiction has always been my main focus and will continue to be so.

Now, lastly, if you're reading this and you're not a part of this book club, why not take part?  Our goal for 2012 is to reach our 1000th book club member.  And in order to do this, there's currently an offer for you to join the Kindle or EPUB book club and get each novella for under $3! You're also supporting an independent publishing company and its authors.  All 24 book club offerings for the price of about one limited edition hardcover. 

If you'd like to test the waters and sample the fiction, for $4.99 you can download the first annual Readers' Choice Winner below:

DREAMS THE RAGMAN by Greg F. Gifune

As a young boy Derrick listened to his grandfather’s spooky tales of “The Ragman,” an old junk dealer and boogieman of sorts to the children in the neighborhood who he claimed had followed him throughout his entire life and stalked him from the depths of his own worst nightmares. But as an alcoholic ravaged with senility, his grandfather’s stories were dismissed as delusions.

When years later, murder comes to Derrick’s small hometown, he and his best friend Caleb—both teenage outcasts—discover that the killer is a hobo dressed in rags who rides the rails in and out of town when committing his crimes. They dub him “The Ragman” unaware of just how accurate that nickname may be, but the murders are never solved.

As time passes, Derrick weds and settles into a troubled marriage while Caleb moves to New York City and spirals into drug addiction and madness. Thirty years later, in a dying seaside resort town, the killings have begun again. Has The Ragman returned, or is something even more sinister taking place?

As Derrick and Caleb meet at the scene of the latest grisly murders, they soon find themselves confronted with an unsolved mystery that has haunted them for decades and an eternal evil they may never be able to escape. The rain falls, darkness descends, a train’s whistle blows, and the Ragman begins to dream…

MORE INFO

A few years ago, I came to the realization that the one thing I was lacking in business was focus.  Being a sole-proprietor and entrepreneur, I found myself stretched thin, spending long hours trying to manage all aspects of my publishing company.  When I'd focus on editorial, marketing would suffer, when I focused on web designing, editorial would suffer and so on.  Part of my growth in the past few years is knowing my limits and letting go and realizing that my ambitions in publishing couldn't be handled by a single person. 

Delegation has not been an easy thing for me to do.  I am a bit of a perfectionist and control-freak, but part of that strive for perfection is learning from your past failures.  The best companies on earth share one common thing: they have also failed the most.  They have learned from their past failures, taking each phase as an experiment to assemble that magical formula that made them the best in their market.  And that continues to be my goal.

You can read more about the staff I've hired as well as each DarkFuse imprint on the About Us page.

Beyond the staff, there are many freelance personnel such as copy editors and artists who are contributing.  You'll see their names on the copyright pages of any DarkFuse imprint title.  If you know them, or see them online, send them a note to thank them for their contributions.

***Posted by Shane Staley, DarkFuse Managing Publisher

Thanks to all of the collectors and readers who purchased a copy!

The complete publication history of Altar 13 is available HERE.

A broader eBook release is expected next month.

A ring-leader of phantoms and collector of souls, he played rhythms on bare flesh, hellish melodies on bone. Fifty years ago he disappeared as quickly as he came and the town of Division gladly swept his acts of torture from memory.

But John McDonnell and Michael Johnston have drawn him home—he hears their names in his sleep, tastes their blood on his tongue, and fantasizes about the rapture birthed of their mourning.

Check out an excerpt, read reviews and watch the book trailer HERE.

I’ve long been fascinated by sacred rituals, especially those pertaining to ancient cultures. If you think humans are cruel to each other in the twenty-first century—and I’m not for a minute suggesting we aren’t—try researching things we did to each other in centuries past. Some of what we’re capable of as a species will keep you awake at night.

And I wanted to take a crack at an undead tale. The problem is that you can’t swing a dead cat right now without hitting another zombie book; they seem to be everywhere, even more prevalent than sparkly vampires, and I didn’t want to simply rehash the same old, tired, “Here come the rotting corpses, what do we do now?” storyline.

So I tried to combine the two into something a little different. HEARTLESS begins with a graphic prologue, which takes place centuries ago, during a Mayan ceremony involving ritual human sacrifice. Fast-forward five hundred years and the rest of the novella occurs in present day, with a sociopathic young man targeting pretty women; a serial rapist-murderer traveling the country indulging his homicidal fantasies.

The connection between the ancient blood sacrifice and the twenty-first-century killer doesn’t become clear until late in the novella, and if I’ve done my job right, when everything falls into place, the reader will be jarred by a reality completely different than what he or she is expecting.

What themes were you exploring?

Themes are in the eye of the beholder, but in my opinion, there are a couple of things going on in HEARTLESS. The standard horror fiction theme is good versus evil, and of course that’s here.

Maybe.

But what starts out as your standard “bad guy kidnaps good girls to do bad things to them” may not necessarily be what it seems. Everyone understands there are degrees of evil, but HEARTLESS addresses the question of whether maybe there are also acceptable degrees of evil.

Another theme that comes up in my work a lot is redemption. Human beings are capable of unimaginable cruelty to each other, but we’re also capable of incredible kindness and empathy. But what if there’s no possibility of redemption, ever; what if through no fault of your own, you’re doomed to walk the earth as nothing more than an empty shell? What if redemption is impossible? What then?

Did you start writing as a kid or did the skill and desire develop over time?

I was probably seven or eight years old when I wrote my first short story. It was about a guy who gets lost in the woods in a blizzard. He isn’t found until spring, and when a hiker stumbles over the body, one tear is frozen onto the guy’s face. I said it was my first story, I didn’t say it was any good, okay?

I’ve always loved to write, and my intention when I went to college was to become a newspaper journalist. Then I began to realize how few journalists actually make a living wage, and decided to go in a different direction, and that was it for writing for about the next thirty years.

I kept reading, though; I’ve always been a voracious reader. Then, about six years ago, the writing bug returned with a frenzy. I started out writing a sports blog, but eventually came to the realization I wanted to write fiction. So I started doing it and haven’t stopped since.

Do you consciously set out to write darker fiction?

That’s a good question. It seems like it should be an easy one to answer, but it really isn’t. I write the kind of stuff I like to read, and my entire life has been spent reading dark fiction and thrillers, so I suppose it only makes sense that’s what I would write.

I don’t have anything against literary fiction—that highbrow cousin of genre fiction where nothing much happens but you’re supposed to think deep thoughts—it just doesn’t interest me. I much prefer to see real people struggle against flesh-and-blood issues, life-and-death problems, and the more of them the better. I’m not sure what that says about me, but there you go.

My wife says I’m an eternal pessimist, that the glass is always half-empty with me, but that’s not entirely true. Sometimes the glass is completely empty.

Who are your major influences and inspirations?

There are a bunch of them. Lawrence Block for his longevity and unbelievably adept use of dialogue.

Tom Piccirilli for the way he splashes his blood all over the pages of everything he writes. The guy wrings emotion out of every word.

Stephen King for, well, just about everything he does. It seems to be fashionable to bash King, but I don’t believe he gets enough credit for almost single-handedly breathing new life into the horror genre at a time when it really needed it.

In no particular order, and for different reasons, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Lee Child, Shirley Jackson, Vincent Zandri, Peter Straub, Dean Koontz.  Man, I could go on and on. You’re sorry you asked now, aren’t you?

Do you follow a strict writing schedule or write when the ideas come to you?

I have to laugh when I read about authors who say they make a point of writing first thing in the morning. I wish I could be that structured. Between working full-time as an air traffic controller, babysitting my five-year-old granddaughter, doing household stuff and trying to make sure my family doesn’t forget what I look like, it’s a challenge to find time to write at all, never mind doing it on a strict schedule. Basically, I always try to write on my breaks at work, and then also whenever I can carve out the time to do it at home.

There’s no such thing as “waiting for inspiration,” though. If you expect to be a professional author, you have to sit at the keyboard and write, whether you feel inspired that day or not. Some days are more productive than others, but books don’t write themselves. A real sense of discipline is required, one that’s not easy to maintain but critical.

What is the scariest book you’ve ever read?

Another great question! It’s a tough one to answer, because different books can be scary for different reasons. And I’d love to say HEARTLESS, but that would be a cop-out and would make me look like a pompous ass to boot.

I find psychological stuff more compelling than blood and gore. For consistent creepiness, I would have to go with THE SHINING. The idea of a family trapped with no escape and at the mercy of a guy descending steadily into madness just gives me the shivers. The ending of PET SEMATARY sends chills down my spine every time I think about it. William Peter Blatty’s THE EXORCIST is chilling. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE is a classic.

If "writer" wasn't a career option, what would your ideal career be?

Well, you’ve eliminated the only one I’d really like to do, so I guess I’ll go with the career I’ve been doing for thirty years—air traffic control. People feel it’s stressful, and it certainly has its moments, but when I leave work I can feel I really made a difference.

Plus, I can write on my breaks when I’m not talking to airplanes, and when I go home, I leave the job behind. No phoning clients, no business trips, no calls in the middle of the night. It’s a pretty cool job and the only thing I really know how to do besides writing.

Any tips for up-and-coming or unpublished writers?

Unless you’re totally committed to it, don’t try to be a writer. The hours suck, rejection is virtually a constant companion, self-doubt threatens to overwhelm you ever single day, and in most cases, you end up working for pennies an hour. That’s if you get paid at all. Just forget about it.

There. Now that we’ve gotten rid of the wannabe’s, let’s talk turkey, because I know you really want to write. Here’s my tip: Write constantly, and read when you’re not writing. It’s like anything else: The only way to improve is by practicing.

Oh, yeah, and develop a thick skin while you’re at it, because no matter how many glowing reviews you get for your work, the one that’s going to bother you is the one that says you’re a talentless, no-good hack whose time would be better spent drooling in the corner. Or maybe that’s just me.

Allan Leverone is a three-time Derringer Award Finalist for excellence in short mystery fiction as well as a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee. His dark short fiction has appeared in Shroud Magazine, Dark Valentine, Twisted Dreams, House of Horror and Morpheus Tales Magazine, as well as many others, and his debut novel, a thriller titled Final Vector, was released by Medallion Press in February, 2011.

A member of the International Thriller Writers, the Short Mystery Fiction Society and the New England Horror Writers, Allan lives in Londonderry, New Hampshire with his wife, three children, one beautiful granddaughter and a cat who has used up eight lives. Learn more at www.allanleverone.com.

***Posted by Dave Thomas

The limited hardcovers of both The Men Upstairs by Tim Waggoner and Subject 11 by Jeffrey Thomas are now shipping. All paid orders have been shipped. These are books #3 and #4 of the 2012 Delirium Book Club.

Both of these titles will be released everywhere in eBook in 30 days.  Right now, they have been pre-released through Amazon in Kindle format.

THE MEN UPSTAIRS by Tim Waggoner

He finds her crying in the lobby of a movie theater and takes her home to his apartment. She's a strange, beautiful woman with no last name, a mysterious past, and a powerful sexual allure. He wants her, and she wants him. There's only one problem: the Men Upstairs. She used to belong to them—and they'll do anything to get her back.

"Waggoner delivers a tale of cosmic and body horror at its most disturbing. The Men Upstairs is a fascinating study of the ancient tension between repulsion and desire." – Laird Barron, author of Occultation

Buy Hardcover Edition

Buy Kindle Edition

SUBJECT 11 by Jeffrey Thomas

Welcome to the Subject 11 project.

We are currently seeking 10 individuals to participate in a research study. Participants shall receive a sum to be discussed during initial telephone interview. Interested parties should email us via our contact page, subject11.webs.com, providing their telephone number and a brief biography of approximately 100 words, describing themselves in terms of gender, age, race, and occupation if any.

The study will take place in a series of abandoned buildings rented for this purpose.

Note: subjects involved in this test may find themselves experiencing certain psychological distortions. They may experience lapses in memory regarding others and themselves. Subjects may even forget how long this test is supposed to go on for. And please disregard any additional people you may feel you’ve sighted in the complex, beyond those in the test group.

We thank you for your interest in our research.

Buy Hardcover Edition

Buy Kindle Edition

More about Without Purpose, Without Pity:

"What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," they used to say here. But nobody had any idea how true that would really come to be.

When Las Vegas fell, it fell in stages. First, the long, slow death by drought. Then financial collapse and mass exodus. Scorched earth and scapegoats thrown to the flames. Finally, it fell from the face of the earth, cut off by a mysterious vortex that churns as relentlessly as the Red Spot on Jupiter, raised by forces we couldn't possibly imagine.

So why had I stayed until it was too late? Easy: I'd spent years covering fights, and all of a sudden they were breaking out all over.

Now, in the aftermath, that's about the only thing that hasn't changed here. People still love to watch a good fight. So I'm lucky, one of the few to have kept his place in the world. Along with the fighters, who fight for the same reasons they always have. For honor, for respect, for the entertainment of a thirsty crowd of people starved for something unpredictable to watch, besides a horizon that will kill them.

But things can always get worse.

It started when one-time heavyweight contender Darius Thurman came back from a desert run a week late. It started with the call from his trainer, telling me how he was beginning to change. It started with the obvious conclusion:

Whatever had been on the outside all this time was finally finding its way in…

More about Sorrow Creek:

The name of Sorrow Creek Plantation should have been Max and Cassi Gautreaux’s first clue. The chilling inscription on the old rebel Captain Beauregard Buford Terrebonne III’s crypt in the cemetery on their property should have warned them away. Nevertheless, they’re committed to the cause of refurbishing the old home, especially in the wake of Max’s nervous breakdown, which drove them into the backwoods to seek a quieter life. But when they discover a cache of decaying baby items hidden away in the old summer kitchen’s wall with the name Magdalena on a yellowed scrap of paper, things start to happen. Unspeakable things.

Now, Max and Cassi are drawn into a tangled web of mystery, murder, ghosts and deceit. Voodoo stirs the mists of the Louisiana swamps, drawing them deeper into the scarred and haunted heart of the bayou, to face the darkest secrets of Sorrow Creek.

JOIN THE BOOK CLUB

Morning Star Press was founded in 2008 by genre publisher Larry Roberts. The initial concept and scope of Morning Star Press was to publish fiction and art that might not fit perfectly into the modern horror fiction genre, however over the last couple years Morning Star Press has progressed into publishing everything from plays and collections to novellas and novels. Morning Star Press has quickly become one of the genre leaders in publishing modern horror fiction. Morning Star Press has published many of the genres greats including, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, James A. Moore, Edward Lee, Greg F. Gifune, Weston Ochse, John Little and many more.

In a statement, DarkFuse's managing publisher, Shane Staley, had the following to say, "I'm excited about this venture and to add such a fine imprint to DarkFuse's roster. Morning Star has been my favorite imprint from Larry's publishing ventures.  Larry and I have worked well together for many years as business partners at Horror Mall and at Infernal House, so we both expect a smooth transition."

The inventory of Morning Star's past releases are now available directly through DarkFuse.  The following is a list and availability of each title:

1000 METTLE FOLDS: CUT ONE by Steve Gerlach & Amanda Kool (Signed Limited HC)—7 copies left

BY BIZARRE HANDS RIDES AGAIN by Joe R. Lansdale (Limited Edition HC)—3 copies left

CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES by J. F. Gonzalez and Brian Keene (Preorder)—23 copies left

DREAMS IN BLACK AND WHITE by John R. Little (Limited Edition HC)—3 copies left

PAGES TORN FROM A TRAVEL JOURNAL by Edward Lee (Limited Edition HC)—3 copies left

SMILE NO MORE by James A. Moore (Limited Edition Hardcover)—5 copies left

SPORE by John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow (Signed Limited HC)—2 copies left

UNDER THE OVERTREE by James A. Moore (Signed Limited HC) (Preorder)—26 copies left

WITCH WATER by Edward Lee—9 copies left

***Posted by Richard Patrick Spencer, Communications Director

To put this all in perspective, in 2011 I logged in 897 manuscripts reviewed for publication.  419 of these were novella submissions to the Delirium book club.  24 of these saw publication in the book club.  They are all listed on this page.

Members of the hardcover and digital book clubs voted each quarter on their favorite of these 24 published novellas.  On more than one occasion, the final vote count tally separated the winner by less than 2 votes.

The winner of this final ballot will be the 2011 Readers' Choice Award Winner.  A real award that's actually based on readers' votes.  Not some panel or person who thinks he or she is the ultimate god-like judge of what's best for everyone else.

It may not be a genre award (as it's exclusive to Delirium readers), but it's much less corrupted by cliques, from power struggles and most importantly by authors campaigning to win an award.

And it has a real award attached to it: $500 goes to the winning author on the 22nd of this month. Also with an option for a future novella contract at 100% profit payouts.

I've asked the book club to vote without prejudice.  I've noted to focus on the fiction and the merit of the story and entertainment it has provided each of them and to choose the best.

And with that, I present the final ballot for the 2011 Readers' Choice Award (listed in order of the date each has been published):

IT DRINKS BLOOD by J. F. Gonzalez

New Castle, Pennsylvania, during the tail end of the Great Depression.

Robert Brennan has never completely forgotten those days, even though he has tried to forget them. But when the nursing home he lives in receives a patient he remembers from those dark days, it takes his mind back to a period marked by terrible, blood-soaked violence…the very kind marked by the twisted perversity of the stories he used to write for the weird-menace pulps…and the kind marked by the real-life fiend that stalked the hobo jungles in search of fresh blood!

VIEW THIS BOOK

DREAMS THE RAGMAN by Greg F. Gifune

As a young boy Derrick listened to his grandfather’s spooky tales of “The Ragman,” an old junk dealer and boogieman of sorts to the children in the neighborhood who he claimed had followed him throughout his entire life and stalked him from the depths of his own worst nightmares. But as an alcoholic ravaged with senility, his grandfather’s stories were dismissed as delusions.

When years later, murder comes to Derrick’s small hometown, he and his best friend Caleb—both teenage outcasts—discover that the killer is a hobo dressed in rags who rides the rails in and out of town when committing his crimes. They dub him “The Ragman” unaware of just how accurate that nickname may be, but the murders are never solved.

As time passes, Derrick weds and settles into a troubled marriage while Caleb moves to New York City and spirals into drug addiction and madness. Thirty years later, in a dying seaside resort town, the killings have begun again. Has The Ragman returned, or is something even more sinister taking place?

As Derrick and Caleb meet at the scene of the latest grisly murders, they soon find themselves confronted with an unsolved mystery that has haunted them for decades and an eternal evil they may never be able to escape. The rain falls, darkness descends, a train’s whistle blows, and the Ragman begins to dream…

VIEW THIS BOOK

FEAR ME by Tim Curran

Shaddock Valley. A maximum security prison that houses the worst of the worst: drug gangs, psychopaths, rapists, gangters, and outlaw bikers. In a place like that, a skinny little kid like Danny Palmquist doesn't stand a chance. It doesn't take long before the hardtimers move in on him.

Then they begin to die horribly.

In locked cells.

When the lights go out at Shaddock Valley, the nightmare begins. When Danny Palmquist goes to sleep, something else wakes up.

Something primeval.

Something bloodthirsty.

And if you mess with Danny Palmquist, it will find you. And in the darkness, nothing can save you.

VIEW THIS BOOK

OLDEN by James Newman

Trapped. In a room that smells of death and sickness. Your food is running low, along with your resolve. You know you must leave here soon if you wish to live through the night.

Outside, the Others wait. Their numbers are legion. Their shrieks echo up and down the corridor. Occasionally they pound at the door, trying to get inside so they can tear you limb from limb.

But mostly they wait. So patiently. As if sharing one mind. A single dark purpose.

They can be killed. You've seen it for yourself.

But this isn't like the movies. Nothing you've ever seen in any old horror film could have prepared you for what is happening here.

You love them. Once upon a time, they loved you.

Now they want to watch you die.

VIEW THIS BOOK

Well, it’s a small part of a large story, and I knew that Frank Gunn was as close as you can get to shattered by the end of IRON BUTTERFLIES RUST, so I explored that and the trip, the adventure really, as scary as it can be at times, that brings him to the crazy little town of Division. I see things very clearly when it comes to my character and how his story ties into others, the big picture and the small beats, which made it easy to write about him in this book. I enjoy subtext too and there is a lot of that, and a lot of links to other Division books, and I like the forward propulsion of the narrative, the searching Frank does inside himself and trying to relate to all the odd things going on around him, which really is out of his reach like it is anybody’s. 

What themes do you enjoy exploring?

Oh, a lot of themes. Lol. Recurring ones are about betrayal and how we deal with it; the necessity of returning violence when somebody will be nothing but violent to you or those you love; growing up on the inside instead of faking it simply for the sake of others; how weak and strong and reliable and unreliable we can all be, how human that makes us;  that if anything in the world is a monster, it’s man; if anything in the world is a hero, it’s man; connections that may not appear to be connections at first until we dig deeper and figure out people’s motives; how frail love makes us, and how incredibly driven; how hate doesn’t eat us alive, our allowing it to rule over us for an extended period of time does, because hate is as necessary as love; how there’s magic in childhood and adults train it out of us; how desperate some people are to find an identity and others will sacrifice everything just to fit in, which I and most of my characters feel is very, very sad; I like to explore the results of tragedy, and show how different people cope or accept it; I deal in self-loathing because I’ve done it most of my life, and the work it takes to break those negative thought processes; bad habits and good habits, regrets and pride, extremes and everywhere between; the mystery of life and our fear of death; our egotism one moment and self-doubt the next; most of my characters feel like Holden Caulfield, that they’re surrounded by phonies, that they themselves might be phonies, and it whittles at their souls because if nothing is true or fair or genuine then what’s the fucking point when you don’t want to play the game to begin with?

When did you begin writing?

I was in my late twenties. I’d lived a lot. I’d stored up plenty of things I loved and despised, mostly emotional weight, kinetic energy to move mountains. I sucked at writing but I was disciplined and hungry to learn, to know the truth, because it gives me solid footing in what seems like such a shifting world full of masks, different ideas of success, the inconsiderate nature of people close to us who say they love us but hardly every do anything but tear us down. Satisfaction isn’t found in other people. It’s a temporary fix. We have to be happy with what we create in our own little corner of the world and be grateful if some others connect with it.

Do you consciously set out to write darker fiction?

Not consciously, no. I just know darkness. I know regret, bad choices, failed loves, wastes of time, going against the grain, conflict, stubbornness, and that what I’m doing is right for me, and all those things tend to get a little murky. I don’t think there is an absolute light and absolute darkness. I think we’re all gray. I believe all we have are our choices and sadly we act like little kids a lot: selfish, violent, manipulative, compulsive, impatient, wounded. All of that naturally walks right into dark territory. None of us are the fucking Care Bears. It’s natural to have those darker shades and I think it’s healthy to release them creatively.

Who are your major influences?

I love Tom Piccirilli for his lyricism and emotion, Greg Gifune for his atmosphere and tightly-woven plots, Clive Barker for his imagination, Peter Straub and Jack Ketchum for the places they can go even if it’s very heavy subject matter, Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly for those shades of gray even when it crosses a line to support their characters’ moral duties, John Connolly for creating a massive and entertaining story with Charlie Parker, William Faulkner for his honesty and style, Ray Bradbury for his jaded optimism, the list goes on. I’m a sum of many parts combined with my own perspective and life experience.

Do you follow a strict writing schedule or write when the ideas come to you?

Nothing strict about it. And I have too many ideas and not enough time to write them. I end up starting with an image of my characters and a title and I ask a bunch of questions about what their problems are and figure out how they all tie together, then I just write it as cleanly as I can before editing it and sending it off to my readers. Right now I have the next six books planned out but I can only tackle one of them at a time. And since I started selling work professionally I don’t rush myself anymore. I want to really know most of the major beats before I start on the prose. My focus is pretty intense so I can usually brainstorm a book in about a half hour to hour and really get to the heart of it: who the characters are, their internal and external struggles and their character arcs. The ending always ties into the beginning for some reason. Not sure why that is, but it’s usually subtle and I usually like it.

What is the most frightening book you’ve ever read?

Not sure about the most frightening. I think in many ways Peter Straub’s KOKO and Jack Ketchum’s THE GIRL NEXT DOOR were the most draining emotionally.

If “writer” wasn’t an option, what would your ideal career be?

Running my own business would be ideal and I’m going to do that anyway later this year. Once I get to the point where I can hire somebody reliable I’ll pretty much just write, play guitar, paint, speak to kids at schools about creativity and imagination, paint, hike and rock climb, practice martial arts, and read, read, read.

Any tips for up-and-coming or unpublished writers?

I summed it up on my website in a post called Gaining Traction and Maintaining Momentum:  http://www.leethompsonfiction.com/?tag=writing-success

More About Lee...

Lee Thompson started selling work in early 2010. His novel Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children, and his novella Iron Butterflies Rust, were released in 2011 by Delirium Books. You can find his short stories in Dark Discoveries, Darkside Digital, Sideshow Press, Shock Totem, Apex’s Zombie Feed anthology, Tasmaniac Publications, and other neat places. He's worked a lot, sweated a lot, and continues to take up space the best he can. The best place to keep track of what he's up to is his blog: http://www.leethompsonfiction.com.

***Posted by Dave Thomas