Carlton Mellick III's Blog, page 6
December 12, 2012
Now Available: The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction
If you haven’t noticed The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction is back and will be published on a regular quarterly basis from now on. Issues will be released in March, June, September, and December. Count on that.
I highly recommend reading this publication. It’s a good way to support the bizarro fiction scene. Also, if the magazine becomes popular enough I might just start writing ongoing serials for it.
THE MAGAZINE OF BIZARRO FICTION #7
The premier magazine of the bizarro genre.
Issue seven features the novella “Noah’s Arkopolis” by David W Barbee short fiction by David Agranoff, Molly Tanzer, Andrew Wayne Adams, Shane McKenzie and Dustin Reade, comics by Andrew Goldfarb and SCAR, articles by Constance Ann Fitzgerald, Carlton Mellick III, Kirsten Alene Pierce, Garrett Cook and Bradley Sands, a spotlight on author Jordan Krall, reviews, and more!
Click HERE to order The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction (Issue Seven)!
December 11, 2012
COMING IN JANUARY
First week of January, I’ll have two books coming out. A novel, Cuddly Holocaust, and a story collection, Hammer Wives.
Cuddly Holocaust is about the extinction of mankind brought on by disgruntled toys. Hammer Wives is a collection of two novelettes and four short stories. Contents: Simple Machines, Red World, Hammer Wives, Lemon Knives n Cockroaches, The Man with the Styrofoam Brain, and War Pig.
November 30, 2012
The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade
My stories “Candy-coated” and “Ear Cat” were selected for the Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade anthology. Lots of amazing stories are packed into this beast of a book. I highly recommend it. Definitely worth the money for this much bizarro goodness.
THE BEST BIZARRO FICTION OF THE DECADE
A feeling has been tearing up the underground of the fiction world. It’s a nightmare reflection of the society you inhabit, a surreal explosion of pop, punk, and the post-apocalypse. Over the last decade, Bizarro Fiction has changed the definition of avant garde, it’s abolished the traditional prose of yesterday and established a new precedent for awesome. Collected in this anthology is some of the best weird fiction from the past decade. Award-winning writers, cult prodigies and burgeoning talents all collected together in one place. This is what you’ve done with the last ten years of your life.
With stories by:
D. Harlan Wilson, Alissa Nutting, Joe R. Lansdale, Carlton Mellick III, Kevin L. Donihe, Blake Butler, Ryan Boudinot, Vincent Sakowski, Cody Goodfellow, Amelia Gray, Robert Devereaux, Mykle Hansen, Athena Villaverde, Matthew Revert, Garrett Cook, Roy Kesey, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Aimee Bender, Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia, Jeremy C. Shipp, Andersen Prunty, Jedediah Berry, Andrea Kneeland, Kurt Dinan, David Agranoff, Ben Loory, Kris Saknussemm, Stephen Graham Jones, Bentley Little, David W. Barbee, and Tom Piccirilli.
Available at amazon.com
November 21, 2012
Works in Progress
Kill Ball was the last book of mine to be released this year, but I’ll have a new book called “Cuddly Holocaust” coming out the first week of January. More info on that one next week.
Here is a list of books I am currently working on. I have no idea when they will be finished or released, but I thought you might be interested in what I’ve been working on.
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Cuddly Holocaust – final draft stages
Hammer Wives - my next collection. Just need to finish the title story.
As She Stabbed Him Gently in the Face – bizarro serial killer story
Village of the Mermaids – a story about vampire mermaids and human livestock.
Pippi of the Apocalypse – the third book in the wolf women series.
Wonka - retelling of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in apocalyptic Beyond Thunderdome setting.
Quicksand House – quiet bizarro
Seven Cyborgs – bizarro sci-fi retelling of 7 Samurai
The Super Evils – bizarro superhero story
Clusterfuck – a follow-up to Apeshit
Bizarro Brigade Exclusives
these won’t be for sale to the general public.
Skinhead Girls – unreleased early work very similar to Satan Burger.
The Secret Adventures of Dr. Seuss – kinky Seuss world book.
October 9, 2012
Now Available: KILL BALL
My new book, KILL BALL, is now available at amazon.com. I like to describe this one as Bubble Boy if it were an Italian slasher movie instead of a comedy. I definitely believe this one ranks up there with my best.
KILL BALL
In a city where all humans live inside of plastic bubbles, exotic dancers are being murdered in the rubbery streets by a mysterious stalker known only as Kill Ball.
Available at: amazon.com
Other Recent Eraserhead Press Releases:
If you buy them together you’ll get free amazon shipping.
September 12, 2012
Deadite Press Releases – Fall 2012
Here are the three Fall releases from Deadite Press — Eraserhead’s cult horror imprint.
All three books are dark, violent, and awesome.
August 27, 2012
OUT NOW: “Tumor Fruit”
My new book is now available. It is a “mysterious island” story for the bizarro audience. Perhaps one of my best. It is definitely one of my most epic.
If they don’t act fast, they’ll never get out alive…
Eight desperate castaways find themselves stranded on a mysterious deserted island. They are surrounded by poisonous blue plants and an ocean made of acid. Strange creatures lurk in the toxic jungle. The ghostly sound of crying babies can be heard on the wind.
Once they realize the rescue ships aren’t coming, the eight castaways must band together in order to survive in this inhospitable environment. But survival might not be possible. The air they breathe is toxic, there is no shelter from the elements, and the only food they have to consume is the squid-shaped tumors that grow from a mentally disturbed woman’s body.
From the crazy imagination of bizarro fiction master Carlton Mellick III comes Tumor Fruit–an intense survival story full of eccentric characters, nail-biting suspense, and unpredictable twists.
Like LOST on steroids, for the bizarro generation.
Available at amazon.com
August 1, 2012
OUT NOW: Reissues of Three Early Experimental Novellas
Three of my earlier works have just been reprinted. These were written when I was in my early twenties, back when I had a much more surreal, disjointed writing style. If you’re only familiar with my newer stuff and want to check out the kind of bizarro fiction I was writing over a decade ago, these three are good place to start. Other works written in this style include: Teeth and Tongue Landscape, Baby Jesus Butt Plug, and Adolf in Wonderland. Once I wrote The Menstruating Mall my style began to evolve in another direction, one that focused more on plot and less on poetic prose.
All of these reprints include new introductions, new cover art, and are priced at $7.95.
THE STEEL BREAKFAST ERA: A POSTMODERN ZOMBIE NOVEL
It’s Naked Lunch meets Dawn of the Dead in this postmodern post-apocalyptic zombie nightmare by cult bizarro author Carlton Mellick III.
Hundreds of years have passed since the living dead conquered the Earth. Surviving humans have been reduced to vermin, breeding like cockroaches in ancient fortified high-rise apartment buildings. Those who are still lingering in the shadowy waste have either gone completely insane or become infested with parasites that mutate flesh into steel-string sculptures. There is nothing left to live for, no hope for any kind of future. Only the long wait for death remains. But one man refuses to die just yet. He must first find a wife, somebody who will love him, so that he doesn’t have to die alone. And he won’t give up until he finds this person, even if he has to build a woman himself using the scrap body parts that litter the hallways.
Told in Mellick’s early schizophrenic prose style, Steel Breakfast Era is perhaps the most surreal zombie apocalypse story ever told.
A surreal sexual nightmare by cult bizarro author Carlton Mellick III.
In a dark future where males have become extinct, humans are forced to breed with factory-manufactured living fuck-toys that possess an abundance of both male and female sex organs. One such creature is adopted by a warrior dominatrix named Celsia, who is trying to have a baby. But once she takes her new merchandise home, things don’t quite go as planned. Wild tribes of rapists, women with multiple vaginas covering their bodies, sex tournaments, erotic mutilation, and a giant vagina possessing the secrets of the universe, this is one ugly perverted hell of a world.
Told in Mellick’s early schizophrenic prose style, Razor Wire Pubic Hair is like postmodern minimalistic art mixed with Japanese “guro” porn.
Was Jesus actually a time-traveler from the future? The citizens of Ocean City believe this could be the case. Their world has become so technologically advanced that everyone now possesses the ability to walk on water, cure diseases, multiply food, and raise the dead… They are like an entire civilization of Jesus Christs. But when a team of researchers travel back in time to the days of Christ, they discover the past is a lot different than they ever imagined. It is an illogical flatland lacking in dimension and color, a sick-scape of crispy squid people wandering the desert for no apparent reason. And when they meet the Messiah, they learn he is not actually the great man they were expecting him to be. In fact, he isn’t exactly a man at all.
Told in Mellick’s early schizophrenic prose style, Fishy-fleshed is part pulp science-fiction, part experimental fiction, and 100% bizarro as hell.
May 24, 2012
OUT NOW: “Ugly Heaven”
My novella Ugly Heaven is finally back in print and is now available at amazon.com.
UGLY HEAVEN
Heaven is no longer a paradise. It was once a blissful utopia full of wonders far beyond human comprehension. But that was a long, long time ago. The afterlife is now in ruins. It has become an ugly, lonely wasteland populated by strange monstrous beasts, masturbating angels, and sad man-like beings wallowing in the remains of the once-great Kingdom of God.
As two men die and awake in Heaven, they find themselves inside of new bodies with strange alien skin. They no longer remember their previous lives. All they really know is that the afterlife is a horrible, ugly place. Desperately seeking answers, allies, and refuge, these two newcomers explore this surreal world. But what they will soon find is that Heaven has become a place not that much different from Hell.
Available at amazon.com
May 14, 2012
New issue of The Dream People
[image error]The Dream People is the ORIGINAL bizarro fiction webzine, debuting back in 1999 (when I was the head editor). It’s now on issue #37. An excerpt from my book Armadillo Fists has been published there. There are also novel excerpts and short stories from Michael A. Arnzen, Blake Butler, Sean Kilpatrick, William Pauley III, Andersen Prunty, Donna Fleck and Gary J. Shipley. And an essay from Lance Olsen.
Check it out here: http://www.dreampeople.org/
