Kevin David Anderson's Blog, page 2

The Box Born Wraith read by Jason Hill and written by Kevin David Anderson

The Mount of Death read by Jason Hill - written by Kevin David Anderson

Third Shift - written by Kevin David Anderson - read by Jason Hill

The FUBAR Ritual by Kevin David Anderson & read by Jason Hill

Midsummer Scream 2022After a two-year hiatus, Midsummer ...

 Midsummer Scream 2022

After a two-year hiatus, Midsummer Scream is back at the Long Beach Convention Center - last weekend in July. I'll be there at the Horror Writers Association booth (537) hanging out with some fantastic writers in the genre. 

Everything Poops by Kevin David Anderson

2021 - Not too Shabby

Wow, it seems like only yesterday we were all complaining about how bad 2020 was. Now we are winding 2021 down and I have to say 2021 was not too shabby. I had stories appear in seven anthologies. My characters Earl and Dale, The Midnight Men, were featured in four episodes of the Horror Hill podcast and I returned to The Drabblecast with a new story that I'm pretty proud of. I got some local press for my inclusion in the international Ramones-inspired anthology. I received a small mention for my work in the charity anthology Local Haunts in Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 13. I got to attend two wonderful horror conventions and reunited with writers who I haven't seen since the shutdown and got to make some new writer friends from around SoCal. I have new stories coming out in early 2022 including in the all Generation X anthology from Dark Ink Press, and the very popular No Sleep Podcast. And just a few days ago I signed a new publishing contract to have my collection Night Sounds published, coming out sometime in 2022. So, 2021, not too shabby. 

MISSPELLED
Magic Gone Wrong

 

My new story  Everything Poops  is in the new anthology from Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing. It's about a little girl who summons the monster under her bed on purpose.  Everything Poops also inspired the cover image. The Drabblecast also produced an earlier version of the story in audio. The link to the episode will be below.  


RELEASED
What Nightmares will Escape! My story  Liberation  is in the first horror anthology from No Bad Books. It's a straight-up body horror tale with a hint of crazy. Spiders are involved in my story and another tale by Evan Baughman, and I like to think our stories inspired the cover. 






CRUNCHY WITH CHOCOLATE
All Dragon Stories
My fantasy comedy story,  Nog, the Not So Terrible , made its debut in this oddly named all dragon anthology. I don't write a lot of fantasy, but it's nice to know that if I do it will find a home in a weird anthology. 

 

 HORROR for the THRONE
One-Sitting Reads
My reprinted story, Momentum, is now available in the third installment of the ONE SITTING READs anthology series. It's the third book in a series of anthologies, one for Fantasy, one for SciFi, and now Horror for the Throne: One-Sitting Reads. Yes, that is an outhouse on the cover...I'm in all the classy anthologies.



GABBA GABBA HEY
A Ramones Inspired Anthology The anthology, GABBA GABBA, HEY, An anthology of fiction inspired by the music of The Ramones featured my new story  The KKK Took My Baby Away!  I was extremely proud and excited when I got the notification that my story would be one of 24 selected from several hundred submitted to the U.K. publisher from around the world. I even got a little press out of it from our local online news source The Patch: Temecula. You can read that article here:  The Ramones And Temecula Paraeducator Rock In 'Gabba Gabba Hey'
Buy GABBA GABBA HEY at:


NICE PAT ON THE BACKAs mentioned above, I got a nice shout-out in Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year Volume 13, for my short story contribution to the charity anthology, Local Haunts. 
This year I was in a few places in the podcast world, most notable the Horror Hill Podcast and The Drabblecast. My Earl and Dale stories Serendipity and The Applicant occupied four episodes of the Horror Hill Podcast, and my short story Everything Poops made its way onto the Drabblecast.
NOW AVAILABLE
SERENDIPITY
The last story in my book Midnight Men, Serendipity, is a fist full of laughs and blood that sets up what I hope will be the next book. Serendipity is split over two episodes and is available on most podcast streaming services and YouTube. Horror Hill S4 Episode 11: Serendipity Part 1 - YouTube
Horror Hill S4 Episode 12: Serendipity Part 2 - YouTube THE APPLICANT In my newest Earl and Dale story, the demon-hunting truckers are getting around to setting up their new business, E & D Trucking. Against Dale's better judgment they decide to hire an office manager inviting all manner of unholiness to walk through their door. 

Horror Hill S5 Episode 03: The Applicant Part 1 - YouTube
Horror Hill S5 Episode 04: The Applicant Part 2 - YouTube 
 EVERYTHING POOPS
I returned to The Drabblecast this year with my short story Everything Poops. A very short, quirky story about a little girl and her closet monster. My story is one of three stories in this episode and if you want to just listen to mine click on this link which will take you 31 minutes into the episode, straight to my story: (click on "play" once it loads)
Everything Poops on The Drabblecast

To listen to the entire episode (all three stories)  go here:
Drabblecast 453 – Trifecta: Modern Fairy Tales MIDNIGHT MEN PLAYLISTBased on requests/suggestions from Midnight Men fans, this year I gathered all the Earl and Dale stories in one place on YouTube. The MIDNIGHT MEN Playlist is now available with hours of Earl and Dale's demon killin' goodness. 
 All stories are read and produced by the talented Jason Hill and the fine folks at Chilling Tales For Dark Knights Entertainment. 
The MIDNIGHT MEN Playlist on YouTube
           
             
Well, that is enough nonsense for this Year.
So long 2021, hello 2022. If you're looking for more stuff to read or listen to, head on over to my website and click on the BOOKS / STORIES link for an almost up-to-date list of everything I have available. Check out the FREE AUDIO link or my YouTube channel for dozens of my stories available for free produced by the likes of Jason Hill, the fine folks at the Drabblecast, Pseudopod, Simply Scary, and the No Sleep Podcast. 
 

New Releases

It's been a busy year so far writing and submitting short stories. I have more work out on submission right now than I think I ever have before. And I'm even doing things I swore I'd never do. I'm writing stories to fit often very narrow anthology themes. On one hand, it's a bit risky, because if the theme is too narrow it's hard to find another publication for your work,
should it get rejected. But on the other hand, I need to mix things up and try things I've never attempted before. Channeling my creativity into an editor's focused theme, time period, or setting is a good exercise. I'm still in the driver's seat, it's just that I'm letting someone else pick the destination. It's still up to me how I get there.

I’ve had a few things come out in the past few months, which will be listed below, but I have to admit hearing one of my stories, “The Interview,” read on the Australian podcast Night’s End, has been a trill. It’s fascinating hearing your words spoken in a different dialect of English substituting culturally appropriate words for the Australian audience. It’s a fun listen.

Most of my sales lately have been reprints, and with most of my reprints, there is at least one audio version out there on the world-wide interweb-thingy. I've included those links (a lot on YouTube) for easy access listening. 

NOW AVAILABLE
THE INTERVIEW

 

My short story "The Interview" is now available to listen to on the Australian podcast The Night's End. Stream from their site or your favorite podcast streaming service. It is also available to listen to on YouTube. The Nights End Podcast - "The Interview"








NOW AVAILABLE
LIBERATION
My reprinted short story "Liberation" will appear in the charity anthology Slice Girls. Proceeds will benefit a women's shelter in the Kentucky area. 

Product Description: From tales of revenge and spurned lovers to vengeful ghosts and blood-thirsty misandrists, this unique collection explores the violent potential of women. Turning old tropes on their heads, we have male victims and female killers. This anthology of Feminazi Splatter Goth will uncover the darkness of the “fairer sex” and prove the age-old maxim that the female of the species is more deadly than the male. Twenty-two short stories of murder and mayhem.
AMAZON 
With most of my reprints, there is an audio version on a podcast somewhere. "Liberation" can be heard on the horror audio show Pseudopod episode 23, read by the amazing Mur Laferty - It's also available on YouTube



COMING SOON
GET AWAY FROM ME
My short story "Get Away From Me." has been picked up by the Amazon Best-Selling charity HorrorTube anthology series, edited by R. Saint Claire and Steve Donoghue. My story “The Mount of Death,” appeared in Volume I: Local Haunts. Volume II: Served Cold is a collection of winter-themed horror tales, both volumes benefiting the literacy charity First Book. Served Cold will be released next winter.


COMING SOON
MOUNTING FAIRIES FOR DISPLAY
I've sold a somewhat updated version of my experimental fantasy short story "Mounting Fairies for Display" to the anthology Exterus Vol.2, No.1. Mixing comedy, horror, and dark fantasy, "Mounting Fairies for Display" is written in the style of a how-to article in which the reader (or fairy hunting enthusiast) can receive a step-by-step guide in the art of dispatching and preparing fairies, sprites, pixies, and other tiny folks for display. 

I have no idea when the anthology Exterus Vol.2, No.1 will be released, in a few months I hope, but I wanted to take this opportunity to show off this really excellent cover! 

An earlier audio version of the story is available. Big Anklevich read the story under the title "Framing and Mounting Fairies" for his podcast The Dunesteef.  Listen at The Dunsteef - Framing, and Mounting Fairies   It is also available on YouTube.





NOW AVAILABLE
MOMENTUM
 My reprint story, "Momentum" is available in the latest issue of NonBinary Review. The latest issue is called APOCALYPSE and has more than sixty authors and artists displaying their take on events involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale. 

PURCHASE- NonBinary Review #23 APOCALYPSE



  Listen to an audio version of Momentum below, on Youtube



NOW AVAILABLE
The MIDNIGHT MEN Playlist 
Tales from my dark, funny, horror collection  MIDNIGHT MEN: The Supernatural Tales of Earl and Dale  have been available in audio for a while in a variety of places but most notably, YouTube. I'm not really the kind of person who listens to audio stories on YouTube but there is an unbelievable amount of folks that do. If you are one of those fine folks and like dark horror seen through the eyes of a couple of monster hunting truckers then this is for you. I've created a YouTube playlist on my channel which allows listeners to listen to all the Midnight Men stories available in audio all in a row, including the book trailer. More than three and half hours of Midnight Men goodness is available, with more coming soon. All stories read and produced by the talented Jason Hill and the fine folks at Chilling Tales Entertainment. 
The Midnight Men Platlist on YouTube 

Click on any cover to go to the
book's AMAZON page
           
         

Well, that is enough nonsense for now.

 If you're looking for more stuff to read or listen to, head on over to my website and click on the BOOKS / STORIES link for an almost up-to-date list of everything I have available. Check out the FREE AUDIO link or my YouTube channel for dozens of my stories available for free produced by the likes of Jason Hill, the fine folks at the Drabblecast, Pseudopod, Simply Scary, and the No Sleep Podcast. 
 

Goodbye 2020

Yikes, what a year. 

This year can't end fast enough. And I know that things are not going to get back to normal on January 1, 2021, but I can dream, can't I? 

In the past few months, I've seen a few artistic representations, read a few well-worded op-eds, and listened to some scholarly commentary all trying to capture the essence of 2020. But I don't think anything comes close to capturing and or symbolizing 2020, how it felt, how it smelled, better than the 2020 Dumpsterfire Christmas Ornament. For me, it just sums it all up, and the best part, the part that makes it particularly poignant, is that it is made in America. Happy New Year! 

NOW AVAILABLE!
A BREACH IN THE FENCE

My short story "A Breach in the Fence" is now available on the new online horror site The Dread Machine. The site features horror stories and content from around the world. I'm also excited that it will also be produced in audio later in the year.

READ NOW - A Breach in the Fence
COMING SOON!
MOUNTING FAIRIES FOR DISPLAY

I sold my experimental fantasy short story "Mounting Fairies for Display" to the anthology Exterus Vol.2, No.1. Mixing comedy, horror, and dark fantasy, "Mounting Fairies for Display" is written in the style of a how-to article in which the reader (or fairy hunting enthusiast) can receive a step-by-step guide in the art of dispatching and preparing fairies, sprites, pixies, and other tiny folks for display. 
The anthology Exterus Vol.2, No.1 will be released later this year, but an earlier version of the story is available to listen to Bigg Anklevich read the story under the title "Framing and Mounting Fairies" for his podcast The Dunesteef.

Listen at The Dunsteef - Framing, and Mounting Fairies 

Listen on YouTube - Framing and Mounting Fairies



AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

In November I had five short stories produced in audio. The Horror Hill podcast produced the third Earl and Dale story in audio, "NIGHT OF THE SPIDER," which appears in my collection, Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale. Jason Hill reads "Night of the Spider" in Episode 5, season 3 of Horror Hill. The episode is called Tangled Webs.

Otis Jiry reads four of my stories on a recent episode of Otis Jiry's Scary Stories Told in the Dark. I'm the featured writer for this episode, two of the stories, "The Echo at the End of the Road," and "Blood, Gridlock, and PEZ" are free to listen to. Listeners will have to be a patron of Chilling Tales for Dark Nights to hear my other two stories, "The Lure of Heaven," and "Liberation."

Click on any cover to go to the book's AMAZON page
           
          Well, that is enough nonsense for this year. See you in 2021! If you're looking for more stuff to read or listen too, head on over to my website and click on the BOOKS / STORIES link for an almost up to date list of everything I have available. Check out the FREE AUDIO link or my YouTube channel for dozens of my stories available for free produced by the likes of Jason Hill, the fine folks at the Drabblecast, Pseudopod, Simply Scary, and the No Sleep Podcast. 
  Live Long and Prosper

Spooky Season

 

October, the Spooky Season. But can October really be the spooky season in a year like 2020? The whole year has been darn right spooky, unsettling, precedent-setting, the kind of year in which I started keeping my gin, rum, and whiskey in the same place I keep my other medications and pain relievers, mostly because it just saves time. 2020, the year we all wish we could just wake up in a cold sweat and say, "Oh thank god. It was just a nightmare."

But this year is not a nightmare. It's all really happening, and the part that chills me to the core is that I don't think we have seen the worst of it yet. So, Spooky Season? I don't think so. Spooky year.

I am very fortunate to be in three anthologies released in October. Not that anyone is counting but that is a total of 38 anthologies over the course of my writing career, many of which I am proud of.  I am especially proud of the charity anthologies, which benefit organizations that give back to the world in ways that I promise I will one day when I find more time. Side note: I did set a personal goal this year to reach 40 anthologies, and I did sell two more stories to anthologies that were scheduled for a 2020 release. But delays that are very unique to the year 2020 caused those books to be pushed back until early 2021. So technically I reached my goal, but like so many things in 2020, it doesn't feel right. 

LOCAL HAUNTS features my story The Mount of Death, which first appeared in the San Diego HWA Chapter anthology, California Screamin’. Local Haunts is a charity anthology benefiting the literacy charity First Book     Available at AMAZON

TRICKSTER’S TREATS #4 features my story The Box Born Wraith.

This is a charity anthology benefiting The Indigenous  Literacy Foundation (Australia)

Available on AMAZON
 

                    
Halloween Horror Vol. 2 put out by the Australian publisher, DBND Publishing features my short story  Pumpkin Seeds.

Available on AMAZON

New Audio Story - The InterviewOnce produced by The Drabblecast ten years ago, my story  The Interview  will get a reimagining by the Night's End Podcast. The scheduled released date is 1/15/2021.  
 

The Interview  is an undead story with a Twilight Zone styled twist. If you'd like to listen to The Drabblecast version read by Norm Sherman in 2008 follow the links below

The Interviewread by Norm Sherman
A world-renowned parapsychologist, a powerful child, and people without a pulse
Listen on YouTube
Listen on the Drabblecast DC Episode 59

The FUBAR Ritual  

My horror-comedy, The FUBAR Ritual, first published in 2019 in Dark Moon Digest is now available in audio on The Horror Hill podcast in an episode entitled, “Fabled Fiends.” The FUBAR Ritual is the second story in the episode (starting at about 21 minutes in) and answers the question, what happens when two teenagers try to summon a demon with inadequate offerings and a dismal recitation of the unholy words. 

Listen to The FUBAR Ritual on YouTube
The FUBAR Ritual

Listen to The FUBAR Ritual on your favorite podcast service (Spotify, TuneIn, Google...)
The FUBAR Ritual