Steve Stred's Blog, page 7
October 21, 2024
Book Review: Hella Weird by Calvin Demmer
Title: Hella Weird
Author: Calvin Demmer
Release Date: October 7th, 2024
*Huge thanks to Calvin for sending me a digital copy of this one!*
If you read horror and love short stories, and haven’t yet read anything from Calvin Demmer, you’re doing yourself a HUGE disservice. Demmer is easily one of the best short story writers churning work out right now and between his collections and his singular releases, he has a ton of work for you to dive into.
I went into this one fairly blind, though, judging by the A.A. Medina cover, I assumed something involving an apocalyptic-type event would be involved.
What I liked: Clocking in at roughly seventeen pages, Demmer shows you exactly why he’s a master at the short fiction craft with what he accomplishes within. We get a fully formed world, two engaging and fully formed characters, and we get creatures, tension, and a horrific reveal. Par for the course for Demmer. And, he’s worked within the post-apocalypse world before (not this one specifically).
We follow Hella, a woman who is working with fellow survivor, Hunter, as they navigate a world filled with creatures, mutated people and survivors scavenging for scraps. Hella is strong, but also reserved, befriending Hunter, but only to a certain degree, not letting him fully know her.
It’s this underlying tension, where Hunter asks questions and Hella gives short answers that ultimately builds these two up far more than should be possible within such a short page count, but it’s what pulls us along, knowing soon, the shit will hit the fan.
And when it does, Demmer does what he does best – shatters the readers expectations and predictions. The ending was dark and perfect.
What I didn’t like: It’s a short story, so obviously the biggest short coming is that this is only seventeen pages. I always want more, longer, Demmer stories, but he does such a wonderful job of creating things in micro-doses that you also understand why he attacks it like this.
Why you should buy this: Demmer fans will be all over this, and if you’re looking for a deeply unsettling slump buster, this short story will be the perfect answer for you. Demmer demonstrates once again that his short fiction is second to none. Phenomenal.
5/5
October 15, 2024
Book Review: The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
Title: The Wild Robot (The Wild Robot #1)
Author: Peter Brown
Release date: April 5th, 2016
If you have kids – heck, even if you don’t – you might’ve seen that The Wild Robot movie has recently come out and it came out to critical acclaim and audience love. On our end, our son turned eight at the end of August, but we’d not read the book, though it was on our radar. We’d seen the previews at movies for a while now, and we were all excited for the movie to arrive. During the first week of school or so, his teacher shared that she’d be reading the book to/with the class and that they’d be going to see the movie in theatre for a class field trip.
My son was super excited and practically begged us to get the book. We snagged a copy and dove in, pausing our other longer read, and immediately fell in love.
Now, before I get into the bread and butter here, this book is much like the movie Shrek, and what I mean is that it works perfectly as a fun story for kids, but as an adult, there’s plenty of darker/adulty moment throughout, so kudos to Peter for doing that.
What I liked: The book opens up with a container ship sinking and some of the sea cans onboard crashing into the shore of a remote island. All of the shipping containers are destroyed, save one, which is accidentally opened by some curious otters. Inside, is a robot, and with more curiosity, the otters approach and accidentally activate the robot, turning it on. It’s a Rozzum unit, known as Roz, and with Roz activated, thus begins the journey of a robot that is much deeper than even I expected.
Soon, an accident happens and Roz is left to nurture an egg, that then hatches and a small gosling is born. Imprinting Roz as their mother right away, Roz has to work with the other animals on the island – those who believed she was a monster to begin with – to help raise Brightbill and ultimately bring the animals of the island together in ways they never knew.
Roz is able to make fire. Build structures. Help grow better crops. And so on and so on. With Roz’s programmed information, she can make life easier, but it’s the personal side, the development of this soul within the machine that is the prize that Peter describes and when we get to the finale, where reconnaissance robots arrive to try and take Roz back, that we see how the island has become family, but also just how deeply touched we, as readers, have become.
What I didn’t like: Honestly, this book was perfect until the final few lines. It just felt meh. We got to such an emotional moment in the book, and at this point, I’m privileged because I know there’s two more books in the series, so it might’ve been different back when it was released, but the last few lines just didn’t have the emotional OOOMMPPHH I was expecting.
Why you should buy this: Chances are, if you’ve seen the trailer to the movie and thought this looked great, you’ve bought the book. OR, you’ve already bought it. OR you have a kid in the MG age group and their friends have read it and you’ve bought it. But, for those outliers who’ve not read it/bought it, prepare yourself for a wonderful story of discovery, learning, examining the world in different ways and how friends can look and be very different from yourself.
On the adult side, this story also examines the encroachment of automation and robotics into our world, which is impressive considering it’s almost ten years old and AI is being more and more of a hot button issue right now. But it’s done in a layered, subtle way, which worked to have a mildly growing tension throughout.
A phenomenal book and we’ve already grabbed book two so we can dive right in!
5/5
Book Review: Noose by Brennan LaFaro
Title: Noose
Author: Brennan LaFaro
Release date: Originally released September 1st, 2022, re-released August 24th, 2024
*Thanks to Brennan for sending me a digital copy of this one!*
Horror Western’s have been such a fun subgenre to be reading over the last five or so years, haven’t they? We had the surge in Splatter-Westerns and the return with Horror-Westerns, which ushered in the age of paranormal/supernatural plots and narratives. It made it far more impactful, for me at least, that it wasn’t purely the good guys trying to catch the bad guys who robbed the train car.
When this book was first released, I was swamped in books, swamped in getting digital copies sent from Andrew – former head honcho of DarkLit – and it simply didn’t get read. With the collapse of DarkLit and the return of a number of these books to the world, I wanted to try and read these and help support/get the word out, about the books that might never recover or die a death they didn’t deserve. Brennan kindly sent me a digital copy of this one – and the new publisher, Brigids Gate, approved me for book two on Netgalley – so, I was set to gallop into this world and get dirty and dusty. I loved Brennan’s previous trilogy, the wonderful Slattery Falls books, which made me confident that this story wouldn’t be a surface level point-and-shoot Western.
What I liked: Ironically, this book starts off with some bad guys attacking a train car! Ha. Well, moving past that tidbit, we open with young Rory, riding the car with his parents. It’s then attacked by the nefarious Noose Holcomb, who kills Rory’s parents and flees with everyone’s riches.
Solid set up, Batman-esque truthfully.
Fast-forward fifteen years and Brennan re-introduces the Holcomb gang into Rory’s world and, as one would expect, vengeance is the main dish on the menu. Though often, Westerns get bogged down in the ‘vengeance-will-be-mine’ plot, LaFaro does a wonderful job of showing why it throws Rory’s world into chaos and why we want to root for Rory.
And, as expected, the emotional aspect runs high throughout, and Brennan then infuses the story with a nod to the supernatural. We get a unique twist, one that gives Noose an advantage and makes the stakes even higher for Rory and makes it paramount that Rory must overcome. Now, obviously some things are left unfinished – there is a sequel after all – but what LaFaro does so will within, is gives the readers hope and closure, something that – in a book like this at least – is needed.
What I didn’t like: I kind of went back and forth between wishing this was a one and done and wishing LaFaro had left more of a massive cliffhanger to set up book two. It’s an odd conundrum, and one that speaks to the solidity of characters and story progression.
Why you should buy this: Not a typical Splatter-Western, but still one that gets its hands dirty, LaFaro has skated that fine line of brutality for story versus brutality for brutality a few times in here, and by doing so, I think it opens the doors up for every reader of Horror-Westerns to want to jump on this one, especially with a second book arriving and a collection of stories set within the world to come as well.
5/5
October 14, 2024
Book Review: The Fury of the Gods by John Gwynne
Title: The Fury of the Gods (Bloodsworn Saga #3)
Author: John Gwynne
Release date: October 24th, 2024
*Huge thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a digital ARC of this one!*
Book three of a three book series is either going to make the readers happy or piss them off. It’s like the series finale of a TV show, where expectations have been raised so high, that 99% of the time, no matter what the author/writers do, fans will be all grumpy and insist they could’ve done it better, even though they neither created the characters or the world that the characters live in.
I get it. You have this picture in your mind about what you want to happen, and you’ve become emotionally invested in their lives and the story.
I’ve heard nothing but great things about Gwynne’s other series’, but the Bloodsworn Saga was my first foray into his writing, and going into book three, I knew that he’d be delivering the goods.
Why did I have such faith?
Well, first, the characters were so fully developed over books one and two and the world so fully realized, that it would be a case of pushing through the plot, to get to the climatic finale. Gwynne is a master at writing action and battle scenes, so I knew when we got to the ending, it would be as though Peter Jackson was directing a Michael Bay script.
The second, was because of the personal loss that Gwynne suffered after book two was out. I won’t go too far into it, as I don’t think it needs rehashing – go Google it if you want to know – so I felt confident that he’d be layering this is so much emotions, that it would act as a type of therapy for him, even if it wasn’t from a fully certified and trained professional.
Now, 100% full warning here – this is book three – no chance there won’t be any spoilers for book one and two here, it’s really the nature of getting this far, so read no further if you’ve not read the first.
What I liked: Book two closed with Orka dying after being bitten by a frost spider, the gods returning to the world to try and regain all their dormant power and we had a number of open storylines between the numerous other characters we’d been introduced too.
I will fully admit that Orka was the driving character for me. Sure others were great, and some came close to Orka, but for me, she was the main character and I was more engaged in her chapters than the others. I wanted to see how her and her son survived and carried on, how Vespi and Spert played a role in the coming clashes and ultimately, how the battle for power would play out.
Like many of the greatest fantasy novels and series, there’s a ton of characters and a ton of subplots. Gwynne fully works through them, and, at times, there’s moments of slog with the dialogue and jumping around between the numerous moving pieces, but we get to where we need to get with plenty of tension ready to go.
The ending of this one was perfect.
That’s right.
Gwynne deftly tied up the storylines, gave everyone their moment to have their story told – and yes – some live and some die – but that’s the power of the character development here. It’s a case study in decision making and Gwynne plays no favorites. Not even Orka, who we see have to overcome extraordinary odds to continue surviving, though I won’t say one way or the other if she does or doesn’t.
What I didn’t like: As mentioned, there are some serious chapters focused on planning and learning news from afar, etc, etc, which means we get some truly slow moments. It’s all necessary, as we need to have all roads lead to the same destination, but at times it becomes maddening when we get right to a devastating moment and then the next four or five chapters all focus on different characters as you practically scream for Gwynne to return us.
Why you should buy this: If you loved books one and two as much as I did, book three is a no-brainer. This is accessible fantasy that features some of the very best storytelling out there. And even better – the series is finished. For all of those who have been burned by other big-time fantasy authors still not having finished their series’, Gwynne has delivered here (actually his third completed series now!) and wrapped things up in a way that I think fans will be elated with.
I know I was.
5/5
Book Review: There’s Something Sinister in Center Field by Robert P. Ottone
Title: There’s Something Sinister in Center Field
Author: Robert P. Ottone
Release date: June 25th, 2025
*Huge thanks to the publisher for a digital copy of this one!*
You know what I love?
Baseball.
I know it’s not something I post about often, but since I was a little kid I’ve loved baseball. Where I grew up, we didn’t have baseball when I was a kid, though we could play it in Nakusp, about thirty minutes away. That would’ve been amazing, but my parents wouldn’t sign me up, and by the time I was hitch hiking and then got my license, I was focused on soccer and baseball in the area had kind of dried up. I played softball until I was sixteen or so, but again, moved away from it as I focused on other sports.
But man… how I wish I would’ve played baseball.
Over the last number of years, I’ve loved soooo many of Robert P. Ottone’s books, and shamefully, I actually don’t recall this one coming out. I feel like I might’ve seen it announced, but as we all know, there’s a bajillion books coming out every single week, but that’s still no excuse, ESPECIALLY when considering that earlier this year I was working with Robert and another publisher on helping out with a re-release of his phenomenal YA Lovecraftian releases The Triangle and The Deep.
But here we are, and recently, this publisher, Cemetery Gates Media, sent out a Stoker email blast and this was included.
Sign me up! I sent it to my Kindle and dove in right away. This one’s a middle grade spooky story and it was positively wonderful.
What I liked: I say this with no disrespect to Robert or CGM publishing it, but this book from start to finish is simple. And that’s what works so well for it. Also, it’s what’s within this simple story that really elevates it.
The book follows an early-teen baseball team that has to practice at a different field, after a mix-up. Not realizing there is a haunted cemetery near the outfield, the baseball ghosts that haunt it decide to take one of the living players and won’t give him back, unless the living can beat the dead team in a best-of-three showdown.
There’s no surprises here, and if you’re reading this, you’ll know the outcome, but again, push that aside.
This book is perfect to introduce your kids to a lot of the themes that crop up in ‘adult’ horror novels. We get scares, good-versus-evil and working together to overcome an obstacle. Ottone himself is an amazing storyteller, which is showcased throughout. We get sooooo many learning moments within. We see that girls can play baseball just as good as boys. We see young love, we see accepting friends when there are differences and we see how banding together and standing up against bullies and for what is right, will always be the right thing to do.
The diamond in the rough here (pun kind of intended) is that this is centered around baseball. A sport that has a unique ebb-and-flow of game play and works so well to show how you can over come the lowest lows, but also supporting each other through the highest highs.
What I didn’t like: I typically am never a fan of POV changes, and that is featured within here. Each chapter jumps between a few different players, which made for a challenging time for this reader at the beginning.
Why you should buy this: If you have a younger reader and you want to start getting them into reading the scary books, this is a perfect one. Ottone is an amazing teacher within his MG and YA books and that is so perfectly on display here. Fans of fun baseball books, books where friends work together and books that teach valuable lessons will all want to line up and read this one, because it was just fanastic.
5/5
October 11, 2024
Release day for The Invisible
Look at that! The Invisible has risen from the ashes!
It’s always amazing when it’s a release day for a book you’ve written, but in this case, I’m a bit more emotional.
The Invisible started life as Invisible and was my first ever novel. Released back in 2017, it had taken me about a decade to write it, with numerous starts and stops. I released it, some people loved it, but the writing was atrocious and the editing was worse.
After re-editing it a bit – but not much, if I’m honest – I re-released it, but was still unhappy with it. I just wasn’t a good enough writer to pull off what I wanted to pull off. Now, I’m not saying I’m anything close to resembling a ‘good writer’ but, I’m definitely a better writer than Steve in 2017. So, I’ve re-written it, re-edited it, had David Sodergren edit it, and I’m very happy with it now.
Huge thanks to A.A. Medina for the phenomenal new cover/wrap, to Jeremy Hepler for your kind words and foreword, Zachary Ashford for providing the only blurb I sought out, and to all the readers who preordered the ebook or snagged a paperback when it went live.
Thanks to my Patreons for keeping me honest and thank you to every single person who has liked, commented, shared, retweeted or simply wished me well with this one.
Lastly, thank you to Amanda and Auryn for being my boat in wavy water.
Love you two to the moon and back.
Here is the Universal Link;
Amazon US Link
October 4, 2024
Book Review: Terror at Back Woods Lodge by Eddie Generous
Title: Terror at Back Woods Lodge
Author: Eddie Generous
Release date: October 1st, 2024
Over the years, Eddie Generous has found a groove that’s let him continue to release fantastic, slasher/thriller/creature feature novellas at a rate that is simply mind-boggling.
Don’t believe me? Go take a look at his output listed on Goodreads. And while there, don’t look at the sheer volume of releases and think to yourself that they are not good. No, Eddie continues to pump out fantastic gems that grab you and don’t let go.
When he shared on IG that his next book was going to be released on his own, instead of with Severed Press (as they’ve started to go the route of using AI covers – BOOOOO), I was so excited. Look at that cover! At first you think it’s a werewolf, but you’d be wrong. Instead, it’s some massive rat-beast, trashing a car. Sign me up!
What I liked: The story is set in the 80’s and follows a group of divorced folks, who all head into the British Columbia wilderness for an art retreat. A former hunting lodge has been repurposed by the owners, looking to get new business. What they don’t know is that hundreds of years ago, a horrible event occurred and the company behind it, is still up to nefarious things.
Generous gives us a brief introduction to the folks who’re attending, and then from that moment on, it’s essentially all teeth, claws, blood-fountains and screams. The group begins to be picked off, even as love blooms between a few, and as more go missing, those still alive contact the RCMP to get help, though, as expected, the cops believe this to be a rogue grizzly or moose.
Throughout, the scenes of carnage are the highlights and easily remind the readers that Generous is the same person behind the Unnerving series ‘Rewind or Die.’ This could’ve absolutely been a featured novella when those books were coming out and would’ve been a highlight of the series.
The final quarter of the story features a very unique ‘revelation’ that transforms some of the prologue into a more impactful aspect, as well as gives us an unexpected hero to battle the rat-beast. It was a very fun, engaging moment and allowed the epilogue to feel connected and not thrown on for word or page count filling.
What I didn’t like: The reality here, is that all the characters, even the main ones, are very light in terms of depth of development and in some cases, even description. It does lessen the impact of many of their deaths, but honestly, it didn’t both me, because I expected no survivors. The way Eddie framed this one, I figured it was a creature-slasher where this rat-beast would come in, lay waste to the attendee’s and return to the woods.
I will say, the part that will either work or not for people will absolutely be the transformative aspect to the story near the end. Readers are either going to pump their fists or shake their heads. In my case, I was stoked, but I can see why some may not respond to it.
Why you should buy this: While different in vein to Eddie’s monumental releases ‘Plantation Pan’ and ‘The Walking Son,’ this novella is a tight, action-packed story akin to his ‘Savage Beasts of the Arctic Circle’ – only more fun. It might be because of the setting, or that it just felt like Generous was having a blast writing this, but not matter, this one hummed along from start to finish and had me grinning like a mad man throughout. If you’re a huge fan of Hunter Shea’s style of creature-slashers, then this might be the perfect Generous novella to dive into, if you’ve never read him before. Otherwise long time fans of Eddie’s are in for a treat!
5/5
October 1, 2024
New Developments in the DarkLit/Marceau Publishing Fiasco
Today, the HWA emailed me to let me know Caitlin Marceau has filed a complaint against me, stating that I’ve harrassed them online. If you’ve followed along, you’ll know none of this is personal – purely business/contractual failings – & something we’ve been very upfront about. Caitlin has also previously labelled us misogynists, & at this time, we’ve still not received a public apology, nor has Yolanda received an apology for how she was treated or any update on the significant editorial fees owed to Austrian Spencer. This past weekend some royalties were paid out, though discrepancies & questions regarding those remain. I’m sharing the email I’ve received from the HWA (with the sender redacted) & my reply, as, from the beginning, we’ve been forthright with being transparent.
Email (with screenshots below);
“Steve,
I am contacting you with the consent of the HWA Board and copying the Executive Director. We received a troubling email from a member, Caitlin Marceau, complaining that you are harassing her online and defaming her character.
Now, to be clear, none of this happened in HWA spaces so we cannot intervene; however, as she is a member, we gave her advice and passed on the information about the Grievance Committee, which is there for members to settle business disputes.
Here is the page with that information: https://horror.org/grievance-committee/
Since you are a member, we felt that it was our responsibility to alert you to her formal complaint and give you the same advice. We also would like to encourage you to stop posting in public about your issues with her and her press and please utilize the grievance committee to adjudicate this issue. See above.
We let her know that you would be contacted as well.
We are here to help our members. We have formal processes especially for business disputes.
We urge you to take that route.
Please let us know if you have any questions.”
My reply;
“Morning (redacted)! I hope all is well and October looks promising for you!
Thank you so much for letting me know.
To be upfront, it’s not surprising, though the allegation of personal harassment, is at best, laughable, as everything I’ve posted online has been factual and accurate and is directed at Caitlin Marceau EiC of DarkLit Press and Hedone Press, while nothing is directed towards Caitlin Marceau the person.
I’m aware the HWA won’t be intervening into Caitlin and DarkLit’s publishing fiasco, which is where this issue is stemming from, nor that the HWA will intervene on the very real libel issue Caitlin has created by publicly labelling the group of authors seeking royalty compensation as misogynists. I’m unsure what role the grievance committee can play here, nor how they’d be involved, as what lies before us and Caitlin is both a legal financial issue and a legal libel issue.
If you have any further information you’re able to share with me, I’d be interested in seeing/hearing about it.
Thank you for your time and bringing this matter to my attention.
Take care,
Steve”
This is where we sit at the moment and I plan on submitting everything to the HWA, showing there’s been no shred of personal harassment towards Caitlin Marceau, while from the other end, there’s now been a misogyny claim still out there and now a false harassment claim.
As always, I’ll keep you posted.
Screenshots of the HWA email;
My reply;
September 26, 2024
The Ongoing DarkLit/Marceau Publishing Fiasco
Hey all.
Obviously, I’d rather be working on other things behind the scenes – writerly type stuff – but as September 24th, 2024 would’ve been the three month anniversary of when my novella “When I Look…” should’ve been released through DarkLit, I messaged a few folks from the former DarkLit family to ask if any progress had been made, and as none had, I decided it was a solid time to once again remind folks that the authors remained in the dark on a lot of things with what was actually happening behind the scenes. I posted a social media post – factual again, as that is key when dealing with issues of business – this isn’t, nor ever was a personal thing. The authors signed a contract with DarkLit to have their books published and as such would be compensated accordingly. With almost every author that I reached out to telling me they’ve still not received sales data, or any follow ups, I posted that. As well, a number of the DarkLit books were still listed for sale on Amazon and Ingram, which had many of us question just where were those royalties going for those books? There were still the ongoing questions regarding the refusal to pay Austrian Spencer his editing fees owed. The questions posed online about why Hedone had taken over the DarkLit Kickstarter. There was much unanswered and the piece that Publishers Weekly had originally posted – but was later edited with no posted notice of correction – changing the entirety of the piece – didn’t do anything to draw things to a conclusion.
So, on the 3-month date, I posted this;
Later that evening, Caitlin Marceau emailed some of the DarkLit authors. I read the email, messaged a few of the other authors to get their takes, and then formulated a reply, which I sent on the morning of September 25th, 2024. A few hours later, Caitlin emailed me back directly. Originally, I stated in my reply that I wouldn’t post the emails publicly. After reading Caitlin’s reply, I reached out to a few of the DarkLit authors again, and seeing as how there was still some factual inaccuracies within Caitlin’s reply to me, we took a vote and decided to post the entirety of the three emails – Caitlin’s first email to five or six of us, my reply, and Caitlin’s reply to me. As the screenshots are small, I’ve decided to copy and paste the text here, for ease of reading, but have included them at the bottom, so that full transparency can be seen that nothing between the emails and what was posted have been altered.
Caitlin’s email to the group;
Tue, Sep 24, 8:07 PM
‘Hello all,
It was brought to my attention that there was another post made on social media about DarkLit Press today. The post mentioned that there was a lack of transparency concerning important information pertaining to authors, despite this same information having been sent to everyone via Discord, mentioned in author meetings, flagged as an important announcement, and sent via email back in July during the rights reversal process for each of you. Despite this, I thought I would reiterate this information one final time.
As previously mentioned, the payout periods are once every three months to account for the payment delays from both KDP and Ingram (which are 60 and 90 days respectively). As the last royalty payment was made in early July, the next one is this October. If you didn’t receive a payment with a statement in July, then it’s because we had no sales information or royalties for your book at that time. This is either because there were no sales for your book or, a more likely scenario, because your book wasn’t released during the royalty period that had been paid out. (For example, if you were an author who had a book published in June and KDP takes 60 days to pay royalties out, while Ingram tkes 90 days to pay royalties out, then you wouldn’t have received anything in July.) Additionally, as the books were all taken down from KDP and Ingram at the end of June and July (depending on the title), the final payment for these royalties is this October.
Again, as mentioned several times across multiple channels, the KDP terms of service clearly state that any returned stock, pre-printed copies, or inventory they ordered from Ingram can be sold even after the title has been removed from all sales channels. Furthermore, Ingram has a legal obligation to fulfill any open orders from before the books were taken down and they have 180 days to continue displaying these titles in their catalogue (even if they’re not possible to be purchased). Again, unfortunately there is nothing we can do about these terms of service.
For anyone who is not sure what to do about the remaining stock being listed on Ingram, please know that I’m happy to call KDP to see if there’s any way for people to purchase the remaining copies of their work as author copies, or to see if there’s a way for them to discount the books to try and liquidate them. Again, because the books are being sold as limited stock by Amazon and NOT as print-on-demand titles available from DarkLit Press, there’s no guarantee that they will be able to accommodate these requests but I’m willing to call for anyone interested. But please know that beyond this, there’s nothing more that I can do to help.
I also wanted to mention that I know some of you have reached out in the last week or two to ask if we can remove DarkLit Press as the co-author on your books. Unfortunately, because the books are unpublished, any edits we make to their metadata won’t be reflected in the listings unless we republish the books themselves. And, understandably, that’s not an option I’m entertaining. Additionally, even when the books were actively being published we struggled to get the DLP co-author title removed despite changing things in KDP. I believe the best solution is to call Amazon Author Central and see if they can remove DarkLit Press as an author. It should be easy enough to prove that DLP was the former publisher of the work, not the co-author, and they should hopefully be able to make the necessary changes.
Lastly, I would like to remind everyone that Andrew is still the legal owner of DarkLit Press and responsible for all matters relating to your books. Despite resigning from my position as EiC back in July, I’ve remained available via email and made sure funds were paid out to authors despite no legal obligations to continue assisting with this publishing house. Please note that once the final payment has been made next month, I will no longer be responding to questions or requests pertaining to DarkLit Press and strongly encourage people to reach out to Andrew.
Regards,
Caitlin’
My reply;
Wed, Sept 25th, 2024, 10:08AM
‘Caitlin,
Your email arrived last night, which I read, and full disclosure – a few messages were sent around between those who received it and a DarkLit author who did not. As is often the case, especially on social media, there can be a knee-jerk, reactionary response and I work hard to not do that. I’ve seen it time and time again, where somebody flies off the handle and gets worked up, when really some communication would’ve resolved the matter far before flames were stoked.
Such is the case with the email that was sent.
I’d like to note a few things here, as I believe they’re worth noting, and stood out to myself as well as other authors who have echoed the same sentiments online, or as you called it ‘another post made on social media.’
I’ll actually begin at the end of your email for this one, where you state that Andrew is the legal owner and you won’t be responding after October 1st, and that you resigned as EiC.
I understand you don’t want to accept any accountability or responsibility in what’s happened, it’s evident from the few responses we’ve all received and the online posting. The reality is – there was a big, massive press release posted in Publishers Weekly and across social media that indicated Andrew had handed the reins over to you and that you and your team had taken over. Additionally, the KDP accounts and Ingram accounts were handed over to you and your team. That act there is enough to ensure that you are responsible for DarkLit. There’s no formal paperwork showing that Andrew ever legally made DarkLit a company or a corporation. If you have the monetary accounts and the publishing accounts – even if DarkLit is closed and you’ve decided to not publish any more books from DarkLit – if the funds are flowing to you, you are responsible, not Andrew. Just because you state one thing, doesn’t abscond you from your fiduciary duties and your legal liabilities.
Every single author that worked with DarkLit knows how KDP works. We know how Ingram works. It seems to be your go to with re-iterating how they work, and we get it, it fills up a word count and gives the email bulk, but the fact is – several authors have never seen a single statement about sales or page reads since you and your group took over. I understand there’s missing months from when Andrew handed things over to you. But since that date, which is either March, April or May, depending on which email we’re to believe or comment in the former Discord group, several authors – myself included – have asked to see reports of sales and nothing has been delivered. I can log onto KDP right now, see how many books I’ve sold today, yesterday, this month, last week, the last three months or a custom time period, and within seconds a number pops up. You can see why, when asked, some are upset that nothing is delivered, other than the cut and paste KDP policy which is posted in their FAQ section online.
I also understand that based on when my own book was released, I’ve not yet hit the royalty payment time. But others have and though you stated in your email about when they were paid out, there are still authors messaging myself, others and posting on social media about not being paid. I’ve seen you claim that you also were missing royalties, and in that case, that’s 100% on you for not doing your own due diligence before agreeing to take over EiC responsibilities. But the authors who signed a contract and within that contract it was stated when they’d be paid, still haven’t been paid, that still falls on you for responsibility, as you have the accounts. Not the author who has to chase after what’s rightfully theirs. Those contracts became your responsibility when you took over from Andrew.
From the beginning, a number of us have been openly frustrated at the lack of communication and lack of transparency. This was heightened even more by you, personally, blocking a significant amount of us across social media. While that is your prerogative, I would also hope you see it as an inflammatory reaction and why some of us would be frustrated.
Within your email, you didn’t address that, nor the accusations you made in a previous online post – which I only saw through screenshots because of you having blocked me – where you labelled a number of us misogynists, which is very, very, very far from the truth. This might have been a reactionary moment on your part (see above), but it is also slanderous and should warrant a public apology at the very least. A number of us have day jobs that have professional codes of conduct, codes of ethics we must abide by and are put in positions of trust with individuals at risk and/or youths. Statements like that, online and for the wider population to see, can have long-lasting, real-world consequences, when there’s not a single shred of proof to substantiate such baseless claims.
The email you sent was also incredibly condescending in tone and at a few parts downright rude, which truly speaks to the lack of professionalism we’ve been dealing with since we started to ask for transparency and straight forward answers. We are not children. We are adults, who have contracts, who are looking for answers and responses. To have you claim that after October 1st you’ll no longer communicate about any of these matters is simply another way of you trying to put distance between yourself and your responsibility for the DarkLit books.
Going forward, it would be prudent for you to, at the very least,
– Issue a public apology for your mishandling of this situation – including, but not limited to, the naming and attempted shaming of Yolanda Sfetsos.
– Issue a public apology for calling a number of us misogynists.
– Send out statements for each author showing how many of their books have sold through Ingram up to and including current date, how many KU page reads, ebooks and physical books have sold through KDP/Amazon, how many audiobooks have been purchased through ACX.
– Release a dedicated statement regarding the path forward, including how those DarkLit authors who’ve been too afraid to speak up and/or email can be in contact with someone to get the answers they’re looking for.
While you may consider this specifically as a ‘Steve being a jerk’ issue, I assure you, it is nothing personal, purely business, and a number of the items above were presented by fellow DarkLit authors who do not want to go public for fear of losing writing opportunities. I have no problem being considered the ‘face’ of this group, as somebody needs to speak up and make sure those who are unable to have their say have a voice.
Do know, while I won’t publicly post screenshots of this email, I will be sharing that you have sent an email, and a response has also been sent. Transparency is crucial to having this process come to a conclusion, and while the conclusion of it will be welcomed, much like the ChiZine incident, this will be something that isn’t soon forgotten by many.
Steve’
Caitlin’s reply;
Wed, Sept 25th, 2025, 12:21PM
‘Hello Steve,
I received your email and wanted to address the key issues you brought up in it.
Any author that has asked for a sales report has been given them or shown them, as per their request. Additionally, everyone who was paid during the first week of July was sent a report pertaining to their sales data. If there was any confusion as to why someone didn’t receive a report, it was mentioned in their email that it’s because no sales were made. I apologize for any confusion that may have caused.
When it comes to my responsibilities pertaining to the closure of DarkLit Press, I’m responsible for making sure that the books are removed from KDP and Ingram (which they have been since June/July, depending in the title) and ensuring that everyone is paid for works sold between May 26th and–for titles that remained active–July 31st. We have paid out all authors for royalties earned last quarter during the first week of July and, as previously mentioned, will be paying out the balance for this quarter by October 1st. I would also like to reiterate that none of the DarkLit Press authors have had to hunt the previous editorial team down to collect royalties, as we’ve been extremely clear about quarterly payout dates. Any royalties earned while DarkLit Press was solely operated by, and paid out to, Andrew are his responsibility to pay.
I would like to reiterate that all contracts with DarkLit Press were signed by Andrew and the parties involved. With the exception of a book contracted for Dark Sails, no contracts for DLP were signed by me. As I’m sure you remember from the Discord that Andrew was a part of, he acknowledged and claimed responsibility for missing royalties predating the KDP merger and all existing contracts.
You also mention in your email that you “know how KDP works,” yet continue to make inflammatory remarks on social media that we’re distributing your work without consent, despite me sending you proof via email on July 30th that your book was successfully removed from KDP as well as a followup email on July 31st confirming that the book was taken off of Ingram. You continue to make false claims about us knowingly selling paperback copies of your work via Amazon and so, as mentioned in my previous email, I would encourage you to review KDPs terms of service as they pertain to stock and returned manuscripts.
You mention wanting sales data for work sold through ACX. As mentioned repeatedly, we do not–nor have we ever–had access to DarkLit Press’ ACX account. Although you routinely mention the preemptive public announcement made by Andrew about the transfer of DLP’s ownership, no paperwork was ever signed to confirm this transfer of power and accounts that were needed to fulfill ownership–including that of ACX–were not sent. The only thing we were able to do on our end for authors impacted by this issue was confirm the reversal of rights so authors could request their audiobooks be removed. Regrettably, you will need to reach out to Andrew for all sales data, royalties, and additional information pertaining to work sold through ACX.
You mention a lack of communication and choosing to block select DarkLit Press authors in your email and I feel that it’s important to address this. Firstly, email communication was–and continues to be–made available to all DLP authors. As I’m sure you’re aware, I have a job in addition to editorial work, so while it may take a little time to reply to all queries, they have all been replied to. Secondly, the DarkLit Press Discord server was made immediately available to all authors so that we could efficiently communicate important information (such as payout dates, events, author meetings, etc.). To say that communication hasn’t been open and transparent is demonstrably false. Additionally, we were advised to hire a social media manager to filter content and alert us to important information, and we were also encouraged by a mental health professional to block anyone who made/shared/replied to inflammatory, false, and vitriolic posts about us online (including, but not limited to, people who created posts, engaged unknowingly with misleading posts, retweeted content, etc.). Lastly, I would like to stress that I’m allowed to set boundaries on how I interact with social media. This includes unfollowing and blocking accounts I do not feel comfortable engaging with or seeing in my feed.
Lastly, you’re correct. Please note that as of October 1st, I will no longer be communicating with authors about DarkLit Press as I will have fulfilled all of the responsibilities I took on as editor for works sold from May 26th to July 31st and will no longer have access to these accounts.
Regards,
Caitlin Marceau’
**
Throughout this, we’ve come to see a lack of accountability and responsibility, and this was on display in the email originally sent out and the email received in response to my reply. Still, no apologies have been made, no acceptance of responsibility and a continued passing of the buck while trying to control the narrative is taking place.
The labelling of being misogynistic hasn’t been addressed, nor has the missing reports, or the willingness to apologize.
Instead, it’s a continuation of Caitlin stating – I’m not responsible, I’m not in charge, you signed a contract with Andrew, not me, and I want nothing to do with my duties and liabilities that were handed over to me when I took on DarkLit.
If the frustration level we all collectively had was at a 100/10 previously, we’re now at a 1000/10.
Not a single thing any of us has stated since we publicly voiced our concerns has been false. I still have not seen a single report detailing any accounting of what my novella sold while with DarkLit.
It also appears at this stage that the HWA will not have any involvement in this, so we will continue looking into the legal actions available, as well as connecting with the Author’s Guild and Writer’s Beware.
At the time of writing this, most of the DarkLit books are now no longer available through Ingram. The disclosure that there was a social media manager being paid definitely raised some flags.
We still would like to see the following;
– Issue a public apology for your mishandling of this situation – including, but not limited to, the naming and attempted shaming of Yolanda Sfetsos.
– Issue a public apology for calling a number of us misogynists.
– Send out statements for each author showing how many of their books have sold through Ingram up to and including current date, how many KU page reads, ebooks and physical books have sold through KDP/Amazon, how many audiobooks have been purchased through ACX.
– Release a dedicated statement regarding the path forward, including how those DarkLit authors who’ve been too afraid to speak up and/or email can be in contact with someone to get the answers they’re looking for. An October 1st date to no longer deal with any of this is pure deflection and is instead a kid taking their ball and going home.
*Screenshot showing one of two instances of misogyny being claimed in a public post by Caitlin Marceau*
Truth be told, myself, and the former DarkLit group of authors who’ve been discussing things behind the scenes feel that it is highly unlikely at this point.
As always, updates will come when we have them. If you’re a former DarkLit author or a current Hedone author who is struggling to speak publicly, please, feel free to DM me on any of my social media pages. If you are a Hedone author, you may want to read and re-read your contract thoroughly and know what your rights are going forward and when you’re payout dates and statement dates are, as those seem to be moving goalposts for the former DarkLit author group.
Screenshots;
Caitlin’s initial email;
My reply;
Caitlin’s email reply;
September 17, 2024
Book Review: Mischief Night Massacre: Ten Tales of Halloween by Jason Parent
Title: Mischief Night Massacre: Ten Tales of Halloween
Author: Jason Parent
Release date: September 24th, 2024
*Huge thanks to Jason Parent for sending me a digital ARC of this one!*
Ah, Halloween.
That wonderful time where spooks, ghosts and goblins get to dance around the neighborhood’s, get candy and pretend to be a regular kid doing regular kid things. And guess what? It’s only six weeks away! Well, at least it is, at the time of writing this!
And that also means two things will be happening in the horror literature world – a lot of exciting releases and many, exciting collections focused on the theme of Halloween. Jason Parent is one such author, but he smartly decided to get the book out in advance of Halloween, which frankly is prudent, as you don’t want to get lost in the deluge of releases.
I’m a huge fan of Jason’s work, whether it be short stories, novella’s or full-length releases, so when I saw this one was launching and he was looking for reviewers, I messaged ASAP.
What I liked: As mentioned, within this collection are ten short stories that deal specifically with Halloween. Parent does a wonderful job of mixing things up between kids, teens and adults and because of this, the stories don’t feel repetitive, nor recycled. I read this on a recent flight, while reading Garrett Boatman’s newest collection, so it was great to bounce back and forth between those two, as they were very differently themed.
Highlight for me were;
‘Easy Pickings’ – massive bully, Trevor, and his forced sidekick, Rascal, are on the prowl on Halloween night, stealing candy from the little kids. They’re having a blast until they run into Jack and his imaginary friend, Jacob. This story was fast-paced and had me on the edge of my seat. I knew something was going to be revealed, but when it was, wow! Parent went totally off the rails with this story.
‘Rain’ – crazy, heavy rain falls on Halloween, disappointing two young brothers who want to go Trick or Treating. To ease their sadness, their dad tells them a scary story, but nothing prepares them for a knock on the door and the ‘costumed’ folks standing on their porch. This felt like an X-Files episode that never aired. Amazing.
‘Black’ – an emotionally weighted story, this one followed a husband who recently had some heart issues, and his wife, while they go to a haunted theme park. He’s been cheating on her, but realizes he’s been an asshole and decides to make things right. Unbeknownst to him, his wife knows and she’s dealing out revenge in secret. The layers within this one were spot on and the anxiety that Jason created as our main character begins to fight for his life was unnerving.
‘Last Halloween’ – what starts as your standard story – two female friends want to Trick or Treat one last time before considering themselves too old – takes a turn when they run into two male friends and they decide to go to the woods and get drunk. Some odd noises begin and not long after, the darkness collects. Again, another highly unnerving story that had me absolutely captivated.
From start to finish, Parent gives us such solid characters to root for, characters we want to see survive, even when we know the story they’re in is unsurvivable.
What I didn’t like: A few stories felt a tad long, but that might be more that I was bouncing around between two different collections. Saying that, I noticed a dip in pacing a few times.
As well, though needed to showcase the deplorability of some of the characters, I did find a few specific words to be a bit off putting and wished a different word had been used.
Why you should buy this: Parent writes like a bat out of hell on the best of days, but when focused solely on the horror that can be conjured around Halloween, this collection rampaged within my Kindle in the best way possible. Every story had me glued to the screen/page and every story had me emotionally invested, which is always a highlight when dealing with a collection.
Another home run by an author that should be on everyone’s ‘must-read’ list!
5/5
