Kevin David Anderson's Blog, page 3

STAR GIFTS

I've been writing fiction for more than, yadda-yadda years, and I've sent out hundreds of signed copies of my work, books, and posters, to NotLT fans around the world. But never in all that time has a NotLT fan ever sent me a gift. Well, that streak ended in August when Jack Fine and Frank Sanchez both sent me what I consider to be most-excellent gifts. From the east coast, Jack sent me two cans of Son of Mogh beer, a Star Trek-themed ale from Brewery Fire in Maryland. And Frank sent me a package of Star Trek socks which included a pair in Command Gold, Science Officer Blue, and Expendable Red.

I'll probably wait until 2021 to wear the Red ones. Just seems like too big of a risk this year.

I mentioned last month that Frank and his sister Amanda got matching Night of the Living Trekkies tattoos. We got a look at Frank's last month and here is Amanda's with her signed NotLT poster. This is what dedicated fandom looks like!

MIDNIGHT MEN SALE

Only $2.99

Two of the five stories in Midnight Men (GREEN EYES and CHILI DOGS, and THE GREATEST FEAR) are available for FREE in audio performed by Jason Hill of the Horror Hill podcast. If you like what you hear, download your kindle edition copy for only $2.99!

 

1) Listen to GREEN EYES and CHILI DOGS on YouTube

GREEN EYES and CHILI DOGS(running time about 38 minutes)

 

2) Listen to THE GREATEST FEAR on YouTube

THE GREATEST FEAR
(running time about 1 hour and 42 minutes)

Listen via audio podcast service, TuneIn, Spotify, Google Podcast...

THE GREATEST FEAR

(running time about 1 hour and 42 minutes)

 

Purchase the Kindle Edition of

MIDNIGHT MEN: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale

A handful of my reprinted stories will appear later this year in anthologies from publishers as far away as Australia and as near as the wilds of Kentucky.

Pumpkin Seeds will be in Halloween Horror #2 from DBND Publishing, available October 2020

Liberation will be in the charity anthology SLICE GIRLS. All proceeds will benefit a domestic violence shelter in Kentucky. Available in September 2020

The Mount of Death will be in LOCAL HAUNTS, an anthology to benefit the literacy charity First Book. Available in late Fall 2020

The Box Born Wraith will appear in the Australian anthology Trickster’s Treats #4 which will be one of the final publications of Things in the Well Publishing and will benefit The Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Available in October 2020

With the success of my Star Wars joke book, STAR WARS: TheJokes Awaken under my pen name Giggles A. Lott & Nee Slapper, I've decided to keep the series of geeky, dad jokes going with a volume dedicated to STAR TREK. It will be filled with new and old jokes, mashup illustrations and cartoons, and anything I can think of to make those eyes roll. Still working on a title. The working title at the moment is TREKKIES: Deep Space Jokes.  I'm more than halfway done with the interior of the book which will run about 75 pages. I have a couple of ideas for the cover but not married to any of them yet.

 

Here is a SNEAK PEEK:

What do you call fans of Jeopardy and Star Trek?

Trebekkies

What do you call a frozen Borg ship?

An Ice Cube

What do you call it when a young Sci-Fi fan goes to a Star Trek convention dressed as Chewbacca?

A Wookie mistake

Who is the clumsiest engineer in Starfleet?

Trip

I know what you are thinking. "I CAN WRITE BETTER STAR TREK JOKES THAN THAT!"

Well fine. Prove it. And stop yelling at me. Send me a usable, original, clean, STAR TREK joke and I'll include it and put your name in the book as a contributor. No money, no royalties, just send them in for the honor and the glory of the Empire.  Kevin@KevinDavidAnderson.com

 To check out the Giggles A. Lott & Nee Slappers

books currently available click here.

Well, that is enough nonsense for this month. See you in October 2020!

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

Fan Dedication!

What does Night of the Living Trekkies fandom look like? I think it looks like this. 

I recently learned the NotLT fan Frank Sanchez and his sister got matching tattoos of the image on the inside cover of my debut novel  Night of the Living Trekkies.  I'd heard rumors that there were a few tattoos out there but this is the first time I've been able to verify that the owner did it because of their love of the novel. True Fandom! I sent them some signed NotLT posters and a copy of Midnight Men. 

My long-form short story  The Greatest Fear , which was published last year in Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale has just been produced in audio, and it's amazing. I had absolutely nothing to do with the production but I'm as proud as a new papa. It has everything I love, zombies, humor, blue-collar heroes, and a sprinkle of social relevance. It's just a few thousand words short of a novella, so it runs pretty long. If you want to listen in a single sitting you'll need to set aside 1 hour and 40 minutes, with two commercial breaks. It was performed and produced by Jason Hill, the same voice talent that produced the audio for Green Eyes and Chili Dogs ,(also in Midnight Men) which features the same characters. My story is the solo story in the fifteenth episode in season 2 of the Horror Hill Podcast called Rotten to the Core.
Listen to The Greatest Fear on the Horror Hill Podcast
or Listen on YouTube

 Purchase

Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale

!n the July newsletter, I mentioned that I just sold the story Scarecrows and Devils to the Otis Jiry's Scary Stories Told in the Dark podcast. Well, it's been produced and is now available for your listening pleasure. It's available in your favorite podcast feed or YouTube.

Listen on the Scary Stories Told in the Dark Podcast  or Listen on YouTube

It took some doing, but I finally got my audio page on my web site at KevinDavidAnderson.com fully updated with everything I have available in audio. Okay, more like 90% of everything I have in audio, but the new layout makes it much easier to update. In the last four months, I've had so many podcasters wanting to read my stories (Yeah, that sounds like bragging and I do apologize) and it's been hard to keep up. But I think I have a handle on in now.

To find everything I have in audio (okay, 90%) go to http://www.kevindavidanderson.com/audio.html

CHARITY ANTHOLOGY

My published story (one of my most published stories) The Box Born Wraith will appear in the pages of TRICKSTER'S TREATS #4, Coming, Buried or Not! from the Australian publisher Things in the Well. Scheduled for an October release the anthology's proceeds will benefit the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. This will be my 36th appearance in a genre anthology. Maybe I can hit 40 by year's end.

I do have more announcements/stuff that is newsletter worthy but this issue is getting a little long, so I'll sign off until next month. 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.

The Elixir of the Undead

Wow, 2020, the year nobody wanted is now half over. Yaaay...I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for us. I know my son is rooting for Godzilla to rise from the Pacific. My daughter and I are hoping for Zombies. The Romero Zombies, not that fast running nonsense. At my age and with my new stay-at-home / quarantine waistline, I wouldn't stand a chance in a world overrun by Zombie Usain Bolts. Speaking of Zombies, Father's Day has come and gone and if you're wondering what do the kids of a Horror/Zombie writer who lives in wine country get their father on Father's Day...well, they get him one of these.



It’s called The Elixir of the Undead Zombie Wine Bottle Holder, and I love it. Wine sold separately.
COVID-19 has required us all to spent quite a bit of time at home with our family. For a writer having a full house all the time can be a problem. For my family, it's hard for them to tell if I'm writing on my laptop, and don't want to be disturbed, or if I'm goofing off on Facebook. So in addition to my Elixer of the Undead gift, the kids made me this clever two-sided sign and it has already come in handy.


MIDNIGHT MEN SALEOnly $2.99


The fine folks at Grinning Skull Press, publisher of my book, Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale and Vincent Courtney's What's Wrong with the Baby are reducing the Kindle edition price of both books from $4.99 to $2.99. The sale is currently ongoing and may continue throughout July.
Purchase the Kindle Edition of Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Ear and Dale

Purchase the Kindle Edition of What's Wrong with the Baby?

New Audio Stories in ProductionSeveral stories from Midnight Men: The SupernaturalAdventures of Earl and Dale are currently being evaluated for future audio productions. I'm excited at the prospects of hearing Earl and Dale in full audio again. It has been a few years since Jason Hill produced my story GreenEyes and Chili Dogs , the tale that introduces the truck driving, monster hunting duo. Nothing has been set in stone, and it might not happen, but fingers crossed.
To listen to Green Eyes and Chili Dogs on YouTube - clickhere
In the meantime up and coming podcaster Matt (CreepyFace) MfDaniels has requested a few of my stories to produce for his new podcast. He is considering two of my stories, Home Care which first appeared in the anthology Night Terrors III from Blood Bound Books, and Between Sisters which has been published several times. Neither story has been produced in audio and I'm excited to hear what he does with them.

SCARECROWS and DEVILSMy story Scarecrows and Devils has just been sold to the Scary Podcast Network and will be read by Otis Jiry on a future episode of Scary Stories Told in the Dark. This will be my second story read by Otis and I'm very interested in hearing his take. He has a unique style. Its kind of like listening to your grandfather tell you a story he shouldn't be telling you. If you'd like to listen to the first story of mine he read, The Room, click here.

In addition to being produced in audio SCARECROWS and DEVILS will also appear on the dark web site Creepy Pasta Stories. This will be my third story on the site. To read any of my stories on the site click on the title below. 
SCARECROWS and DEVILS - Southern-style horror with a twist The ROOM - A Nightmare that follows you into the wake of day TOUALETEHYDROPHOBIA - A childhood fear seizes the lives of a family and won't let go
NEW VIDEO on my YOUTUBE CHANNEL



Just uploaded to my youtube channel is a new video with three pieces of MicroFiction written and performed a while ago on the Drabblecast podcast and the Dribblecast, which is a side venture of the podcast run by fans. The fiction is dark and creepy but the best part, in my opinion, is that the video features one of my daughter's amazing photographs. Still, in her teens, she has already had photos published in two magazines, a horror magazine and a literary zine published here in Southern California. You can see more of her work and follow her photography on Instagram at _shutter_butterfly. Go to: https://www.instagram.com/shutter_butterfly_/

APPEARANCES 2020
None. After careful thought and consideration I've decided that I will not be making any appearances in 2020. Which is a real bummer. I hate this damn virus. With a new book coming out at the tail end of 2019,  Midnight Men , and two new joke books for kids published under my pen name Giggles A. Lott and Nee Slapper at the beginning of this year, I had scheduled appearances all throughout 2020 and was really looking forward to a year of in-person promotions. Oh well. On the upside, my joke book  STAR WARS: The Jokes Awaken  is doing very well with little to no promotions on AMAZON. So if you know a youngster (ages 8 and up) these Joke Books, full of cartoons and illustrations, make great gifts. 

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

NEW Author NEWSLETTER

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To go along with my old world blog I thought I'd create and old world E-Mail Newsletter. I launched the first issue this month which you can take a look at here: Kevin David Anderson NEWS for June.   To subscribe to future Newsletters go here: SUBSCRIBE
My short story The Mount of Death will be a part of the charity anthology,  Local Haunts  edited by Regina Saint Claire. All proceeds will go to First Book which works toward providing equal access to quality education for kids in need.  Local Haunts  will be available later this year.  The Mount of Death  is also available in audio for FREE read by Jason Hill of the Horror Hill Podcast. It is also available in the anthology  California Screamin’ , a horror anthology of stories from members of the San Diego chapter of the HWA. Listen to  The Mount of Death on the Horror Hill Podcast
Purchase  California Screamin’ on Amazon 
I've been very lucky in the past few months with a handful of stories being developed for audio by podcasters Otis Jiry and Jason Hill. But before I get to the new stories I want to first mention my short story  Contractions,  which was produced last year as part of a Horror Hill episode and has recently been reproduced with new sound effects and relaunched as a stand-alone episode on the Chilling Tales for Dark Nights podcast.

This is one of my darkest tales. I'm not usually this dark, but it kind of fits in 2020
Contractions  read by Jason Hill - Listen on Youtube

Otis Jiry's long-running podcast is a staple horror show on the internet, and my short story  The Room  was featured with other author tales in season 5 episode 19 of  Otis Jiry's Scary Stories Told in the Dark.  I wrote this story over a year and a half ago and it hauntingly fits in way too well with our current crisis.

The Room  read by Otis Jiry - Listen on YouTube

Six months ago Rob Davids a contestant in the EVIL IDOL voice acting contest (think American Idol but for audio readers/narrators) contacted me asking to read a few of my stories as his entry into the contest. Well, I did, and then he did. He performed pretty well, advancing to the final round of 10 contestants out of hundred or so, but in the end, he did not claim the top prize. But that's okay. I loved his dramatic reading. Here is Rob reading his 3rd round entry my story  Toualetehydrophobia . It's an odd little story about irrational fears and parenting. Toualetehydrophobia  read by Rob Davids - Listen on YouTube 

If you prefer to read a story instead of listening you can read both  Toualetehydrophobia  and  The Room  on the new horror fiction website, Creepypasta Stories. (CreepypastaStories.com) And just like the audio stories, it's all FREE. If you like what you read the site has a 1 to 10-star rating system, please feel free to add your rating. You can find both stories at my author page on the site, just scroll down past my long self-promoting bio: Kevin David Anderson - Creepypasta Stories 
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
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News Stories at Large

My short story, The Mount of Death, which first appeared in the San Diego chapter’s anthology, California Screamin', has been released in audio on the latest episode of the Horror Hill podcast - season 2 episode 8 called, When the End Arrives.  I love the episode art created by artist, Omega Black.  The episode is also available on YouTube.


I’ve also sold my short story, The Room, to Otis Jiry’s Scary Stories Told in the Dark podcast. The Room will also appear on the website CreepyPastaStories.com, along with another of my stories, Toualetehydrophobia. The new web site also gave me a featured author page. I think they give all the authors a featured author page, so I won’t let it go to my head. Toualetehydrophobia will also be produced in audio by Rob Davids as part of the Evil Idol voice narration competition. I’m really looking forward to hearing this as Davids did a great job with my story Ink Spot a few months back.


My reprint story Liberation is now available in the Australian body horror magazine, The Asylum Diaries: AUTOPSY. To listen to a FREE audio version of the story read by Mur Lafferty, listen to Pseudopod, episode 36 Liberation. 

At the end of last year, I competed in the October Flash Fiction Challenge run by Crystal Lakes publishing and won 1st place, tied for first actually, with my story Babysitting for Writers. As a bonus for winning the contest the story is available in the Crystal Lake anthology, Shallow Waters Vol 5. 
I just heard yesterday that my favorite convention Midsummer Scream has been canceled for 2020. I had so many plans for this years as far as getting out there and selling some books. It's a little hard to do from home. Not impossible, but difficult. Oh well, I hope everyone has a good STAR WARS day on Monday - May the 4th - to celebrate I'm discounting my Star Wars Joke Book all the way down to nothing. FREE download on May the 4th. So take care of one another and may the farce be with you. 

LINKSListen to The Mount of Death - podcastsListen to The Mount of Death on YouTubeRead The Room on Creepy Pasta StoriesFeatured Author profile on Creepy Pasta StoriesListen to Ink Spot on YouTubePurchase Asylum Diaries: AUTOPSY at Amazon, Liberation Listen to Liberation of Psydopod episode 36Purchase Shallow Waters Vol. 5 at Amazon, Babysitting for Writers  STAR WARS: The Jokes Awaken on AmazonArtist Omega Black on Instagram 

STAR WARS: The Jokes Awaken

In mid-March, I released a new joke book under my pen name Giggles A. Lott and Nee Slaper, a joke book that gets its laughs from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...


STAR WARS: The Jokes Awaken in just a few weeks is proving to be my most popular of the three Giggles & Slapper joke books. ST: The Jokes Awaken is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon and is perfect for Star Wars fans of all ages. 

LINKS:
Star Wars: The Jokes Awaken
JURASSIC JOKES: A Joke Book 65 Million Years in the Making
Giggles & Slapper's Amazon Page

Jurassic Jokes Book Trailer

Since I'm housebound like the rest of the world, I had some time to throw together a book trailer for Jurassic Jokes: A Joke Book 65 Million Years in the Making! The second joke book for kids I've produced under the pen name(s) Giggles A. Lott & Nee Slapper.
Jurassic Jokes is available in paperback and eBook on AMAZON 

Two More Stories Now Available in Audio

My story Third Shift is now available on Jason Hill's Horror Hill Podcast Season 2, Episode 4. Growing Pains. If you're not familiar with The Horror Hill podcast, it's part of the Simply Scary Podcast network, which seems to be dedicated to the genre of horror producing an astounding amount of content available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.

Third Shift has been published several times, even produced as a radio drama in 2009 and broadcast live on Halloween. This latest interpretation from the very talented Jason Hill is fantastic. It's a heavy dialogue piece and if you have ever heard any of Jason's work you know he is amazing with dialogue, giving each character their own voice, and going far beyond the written words provided. The episode features two other stories, It Grows Inside by G.V. Anderson and Oddity by Meegan J. Meehan.


One of the contestants on Evil Idol (Think American Idol but for voice actors, and not god awful) Rob Davids made it to the second round and chose to perform my story Ink Spot for his next entry into the contest. It's a tough piece to read as it requires a pretty authentic Texas accent. I think he knocked it out of the park.

Ink Spot on Evil Idol - YouTubeThird Shift on Horror Hill - YouTube
Third Shift on Horror Hill - listen on your favorite podcast service



The YouTube book review duo Book Mouse & Book Kitty produced an online video review of my first novel, Night of the Living Trekkies , for their channel OBN (Our Book Nook) Its a solid honest review, but what I like most is that people are still discovering this little gem a good ten years after it came out. It makes me think that it will be around long after I am. I still get positive emails from readers about the novel and the amazing NotLT book trailer.

I should be making a few appearances in the next few months and I'll post about that soon. Until then Live Long and Prosper.

LINKS
Night of the Living Trekkies OBN Review
Night of the Living Trekkies Book Trailer
Purchase Night of the Living Trekkies
Ink Spot on Evil Idol - YouTubeThird Shift on Horror Hill - YouTube
Third Shift on Horror Hill - listen on your favorite podcast service

New Charity anthology for Australia

It always feels good to donate to a worthy cause and this is definitely most worthy. My strange love story Damaged will appear in Burning Love and Bleeding Hearts, a charity anthology put together by Louise Zedda-Sampson and Chris Mason to aid the victims of the devastating Australian bushfires.  All proceeds will go to the Australian Red Cross. 
The official release date is Valintine's Day (Feb 14th) but the anthology is available for pre-order on Amazon  Burning Love and Bleeding Hearts
Other contributions to the anthology include:Erik Hofstatter ~ “Tender Whisper on a Crimson Tongue”Kurt Newton ~ “Honeymoon Lodge”, “Bloom”, “The Rose Room”Susan Snyder ~ “When He Comes”Janis Butler Holm ~ “Abduction Again”Russell Hemmell ~ “Orchid, Squirrel, White Hot Star”, “Lover Song, Mantis Instinct”Josh Strnad ~ “A Receipt”William Falo ~ “Broken Crows”Bruce Meyer ~ “Invisible Boy”Miguela Considine ~ “Oldstones”Lynne Lumsden Green ~ “Smoke Signals”Kevin David Anderson ~ “Damaged”Liam Hogan ~ “A Ballet of Blood and Flames”Kevin J. Kennedy ~ “Edible Panties”Matthew R. Davis ~ “The ballad of Elvis O’Malley”Alyson Faye ~ “Fallen Angel”Sara Tantlinger ~ “Fermented fatalities”, “Incisions”, “Or Something”, “Polluted”Elizabeth Eve King~ “DNA”James S. Dorr ~ “A Saint Valentine’s Day Tale”Ronnie Smart ~ “Doris”A.J. Collins - “Valentine’s Volunteer”Josh Dygert ~ “King Cupie”Anthony Ferguson- “One from the Heart”John Grant ~ “The Music of the Heart”Sarah Doebereiner ~ “Melody in the Dark” Steve Dillon ~ “Cleaning up the Act”

Interview by Stuart R. West

Author Stuart West interviewed me recently for his blog. We talked about comedy in horror, a bit about our wives, whether or not I'm a redneck, and dove into my new book Midnight Men, from Grinning Skull Press. I shamefully plugged my book as much as I could and tried to come up with reasons that put me in the not a redneck column. Did I do a good job? You be the judge. Thanks to Mr. West for a fun interview. It's nice to chat with other writers, especially those with a quick wit and a dark sense of humor.
Interview by Stuart R. West
Rollin' Down the Supernatural Highway with Author Kevin David Anderson

In other news, I just published my second Joke Book for kids under my pen name Giggle A Lott and Nee Slapper. This one has a prehistoric theme - Jurassic Jokes: A Joke Book 65 Million Years in the Making, and is currently available in Trade Paperback. Kindle edition coming soon. 


I had the pleasure of reading Stuart R West's latest book Corporate Wolf. This is a comedy horror with real bite. My Goodreads review is posted below. 

GOODREADS Kevin Anderson rated it (5 Stars)                                                   Dec 15th 2019

I haven’t read a good werewolf story in a while so I was pleased to get a review copy from the publisher for Corporate Wolf, the latest from Stuart R. West. This was my introduction to West’s work and I have to say, I was surprised to find an author who can mix comedy and action-horror as well as Jeff Strand. Horror comedy is often attempted, but rarely successful. West has a great feel for dialogue, especially for his male characters, and Corporate Wolf had me chuckling and laughing out loud.
As the title suggests the story takes the Lycan mythology into the dog eat dog world of corporate America. The main character Shawn is a typical cubical bound corporate drone who felt very familiar. Not in a trite way, but more because he made me recall my own corporate drone days. When Shawn has a run-in with something in the woods during a corporate retreat he wakes up in the hospital. Not going to give it aways but there are some nice twists and turns that take the story in a few unexpected directions. Corporate Wolf is a really good suspense mystery meets An American Werewolf in London. Lots of fun.