Hey! Hey!

It’s the last day of January!! That’s right. Which means tomorrow is February 1st and that means it’s LADIES OF HORROR FICTION MONTH!!!

February is the annual celebration and focus on all things amazing with the Ladies who continually crush it in the horror world. I highly suggest you make sure to follow along at the awesome https://www.ladiesofhorrorfiction.com/

That will be a go-to resource and will help you choose an amazing book or books to read from amazing women authors!

So far this year, I’ve read;

• Benny Rose, The Cannibal King by Hailey Piper
• City of Ghosts by J.H. Moncrieff
• The Celestial Agreement by Theresa Braun
• Severin by Lydian Faust
• Crowded House & Other Stories by SJ Budd
• Moonlight, Gunshot, Mallet, Flame by Alicia Hilton

I’m currently reading;

• Whispers in the Dark by Laurel Hightower
• Lucid Screams by Red Lagoe

Any of these options would be worthy places to begin if you’ve not spent much time reading women in horror.

Additionally, this is what I have coming down the pipeline from amazing LOHF writers!

• Food Fright – Nico Bell
• Hairspray and Switchblades – V. Castro
• Wither and Other Stories – Sonora Taylor
• The Making of Gabriel Davenport – Beverley Lee
• The Farm – Amy Cross
• Soon – Lois Murphy
• The Luminous Dead – Caitlin Starling
• Experimental Film – Gemma Files
• The Bone Weavers Orchard – Sarah Read

and many, many more!

Once again, I’m teaming up with the LOHF for the Annual Writer’s Grant! We will have more details later in the year, so keep watching!

Ri2ual

What is Ri2ual? Well it’s a hilarious moniker that my friend Sonora Taylor bestowed on the sequel to Ritual. That’s right. A sequel.

I’m in the final stages of my last go throughs, before I’m sending it to a few beta-readers.

I do want to say two quick things before the title review and a brief synopsis/over view.

I was petrified when I released Ritual. I absolutely loved the story, and Father is a unique character. It also let me run through some demonology stuff that I’ve wanted to touch on. But it is a very stark turn from my other releases. Don’t get me wrong – if you’ve read my stuff you’ll know damn well that I like to go dark and awful – but Ritual went to another level. Graphic, sadistic, and in some places gratuitous – all to tell this horrible story. I was surprised at the response. I really was. I want to believe it was because the price point was awesome ($0.99 for the ebook) and the cover is DA BOMB. But, shockingly, people really seemed to connect with the depravity of the story. Beyond surprising was seeing it listed on the recommended reading list for the Stoker’s. I never once believed it would carry on  further, but what a boost.

Secondly – when I finished Ritual, I barfed out a sequel and a very rough trilogy finale. I refined the sequel, then waited to see if people would want to read more. It was one particular review that cemented that the demand to see more was there (no, not the 1 star review, which has been a godsend for interest FYI!). It was from my friend Diamond. Her review actually touched on a bit of the direction I’d went with the sequel, and seeing that cosmic connection on Goodreads – all systems were go.

So book two is dedicated to DIE!mond. Thank you for your kind words, but also never sugar coating anything. It’s meant a ton!

So what’s it called you ask?

Book two is formally and officially known as COMMUNION.

The word communion has a few definitions;

• a group of persons having a common religious faith
• interchange or sharing of thoughts or emotions; intimate communication
• the act of sharing, or holding in common; participation.

Those are but a few, but it all relates to the trilogy arc as well as book two itself.

Here’s a sneak peak of the cover, once again done by the amazing Mason McDonald.

A full cover reveal and preview will be coming to http://www.kendallreviews.com soon, so keep watching for that.

COMMUNION is approximately 90 pages, so about 15 pages longer than Ritual. The story picks up a week after the events of Ritual and follows Detective McKay (who appears at the end) as he tries to put the pieces in place from what happened and the compound.

For now – that’s all I’m giving you!

Wound Upon Wound

Lastly this week, I want to chat about some changes with my ongoing serial novella Wound Upon Wound. Originally, I’d said that a new chapter would appear every two weeks, but after reviewing the story and how it flows, I’ve changed that timeline. Now a new chapter will appear EACH FRIDAY until it is done. That’s right, each Friday, a new entry will drop. Chapters 1 and 2 are now live and you can read them here;

https://stevestredauthor.wordpress.com/wound-upon-wound/

When all is said and done, as I mentioned before, I see this lasting about 15 chapters. Once it’s wrapped up, I’ll share a cover and then this will become a perma-freebie ebook on Amazon, and will be deleted from here. Apologies, I am not tech savvy enough to know how to make each chapter a clickable jump spot, so you will need to scroll down each week for the next entry.

Alright, that’s all I got this week. I’m not going to share any music or anything, I’ll do that next time.

So, read more women horror authors and support this community!

Cheers,

Steve