Jonathan Janz's Blog, page 3

CHILDREN OF THE DARK Scores a German Rights Deal!

The Children are coming for you, Germany.

Thanks to my agent Louise Fury and all the fine folks who work with The Bent Agency on foreign rights, the following news was just announced on the agency website:

“Jonathan Janz’s CHILDREN OF THE DARK sold in Germany to Voodoo Press.”

Voodoo Press has already published the likes of Bentley Little, Edward Lee, Jeff Strand, and many other writers I respect, so I’m delighted that they’ll be creating the German-language edition of CHILDREN OF THE DARK.

Voodoo Press and Bentley Little

There’s a lot going on right now, and as a result, I haven’t been blogging much. But rest assured it’s all good stuff. 2017 is shaping up to be the best year yet.

Thanks, friends, and I’ll talk to you soon.

A Halloween Surprise: WITCHING HOUR THEATRE!

Hey, friends. Exciting moment here. My very first novella was called WITCHING HOUR THEATRE, and for the first time in a good while, it’s available for your Kindle. Even better, this is an all-new version, complete with two thousand more words, a gorgeous Matthew Revert cover, a new Foreword, and an Afterword called “My Wife, Stephen King, and Witching Hour Theatre.”

You can grab it right here for only $2.99 (or on Kindle Unlimited for free!).

You won’t regret it if you do.

STRANGER THINGS, Stephen King, and Horror

Hello, friends! Becky Spratford at RA for All was kind enough to let me share my thoughts on my new favorite television show, my favorite writer, and my favorite genre of books. Without further ado, I give you the link to “Finding Happiness in the Upside Down: Stranger Things, Stephen King, and Horror.”

Have a great night, my friends!

CHILDREN OF THE DARK on Sale (Briefly) for 99 Cents!

The title says it all, huh? If you haven’t grabbed CHILDREN OF THE DARK yet, I hope you do in the next couple days. If you have read it, I’d be delighted if you spread the word about the sale.

That’s all for tonight. Peace, friends.

Night of Horror: Paul Tremblay and I Terrorize Virginia!

Hey, all. On October 27th (my birthday, coincidentally), I will be in Arlington, Virginia for a wonderfully spooky event called “Night of Horror!” with Paul Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock) and Bill Schweigart (Northwoods, The Beast of Barcroft) . You can read about the event here.

Not only will we authors be reading something spooky, we’ll be selling our books as well. Therefore, if you’re in the Arlington/Washington DC area and missed me at Scares That Care this July in Williamsburg, you should come out and celebrate Halloween four days early with us.

As if that’s not enough, you can grab the title shown above, as well as the beauty displayed below.

So make your plans now, friends. We’d love to see you in October!

Guest Post: Glenn Rolfe, Author of CHASING GHOSTS

“Treading Familiar Ground: The Art of Making Themes it Your Own”

By Glenn Rolfe, Author of Chasing Ghosts

Vampires, zombies, werewolves, serial killers…oh my! Yeah, you’ve read the stories about a billion times already, right? So why do we keep coming back? Well, for the most part, even though you may love these monsters, it’s really the author’s voice you’re craving. It’s what the author brings to the table, such as their pains, their lessons, their life in general, that makes their stamp what it is.

Look at Brian Keene. There were plenty of zombie books being written before his debut, THE RISING, but none of them read like his zombie book. Brian has a knack for straight-up, no bullshit, street-wise punk style prose and drives it home with his ability to mix the blood and the action with heart and soul. It certainly didn’t hurt that he added his own unique mythos to the classic monster. Inter-dimensional beings/demons taking over the bodies of the recently deceased? Yeah, that’s pretty fucking great. Keene just kept the stories coming, and because of his voice, we followed. At this point, he could write about a demonically possessed kitten ravaging a small Pennsylvania town and we’d gladly go along for the ride. We trust him, and he has earned that trust.

My blog host, Mr. Jonathan Janz, has also given some fine examples. His novel, DUST DEVILS, brought vampires into the Old West. I haven’t read vampires in the Old West before, but I guarantee it’s been done (and probably a lot). What we get with Janz is his passion for literature and his honesty, even when writing about vampires. He can’t help himself. We love and root for the good guys and despise the evil, bloodsucking bastards on the other side. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Anyone can throw good vs. evil out there, but it takes talent to make it work to perfection. Janz’s characters are often those “regular Joe’s,” and that makes them so damn easy to empathize with and to follow. In DUST DEVILS, he gives us Cody Wilson, a regular Joe who loses his wife to a band of actors who just so happened to be vampires. The set-up is awesome, and the delivery is just as good.

For my latest book, CHASING GHOSTS (Sinister Grin Press), I venture into the woods of Naples, Maine, and introduce a family of inbred killers, the Cobbs. Early reviews have likened the story to something from Richard Laymon, and to the movie Wrong Turn. I accept both of these with a badge of pride. It’s part of the reason I dedicated the book to Laymon, along with Janz, Keene, and Jack Ketchum. I wanted to honor these guys. While comparisons are great, as a writer, you can’t settle for being a clone. You want to stand out. You want to earn that trust. You want to create a relationship with your readers that will have them coming back time and time again. In CHASING GHOSTS, I think the constant that keeps people engaged is the realness of the characters, from their flaws and their actions, to their language and their fear. I also had a lot of fun adding my punk rock background into the mix. The New 45 is a band I played in with guys named Ian, Connor, Mark, and Dan. I used the band name, and brought Ian and Connor along for the ride. It can be a blast killing your friends. I hope that personal touch adds to the mix, as well. The band plays a gig at a rented cabin on the outskirts of town. The scenes within and around the cabin are colored with all the different types of people we got to meet out on the road.

In the end, I hope I’ve managed to make my writing voice unique or enjoyable enough for you to dig CHASING GHOSTS, but even more so, I hope I’ve succeeded in making the kind of connection that will keep you coming back for more (even if I bring a mummy to rave).

Cheers!

 

 

Booklist Names CHILDREN OF THE DARK a Top Ten Horror Book of the Year!

I was thrilled earlier this year when Booklist gave CHILDREN OF THE DARK a starred review. Now, they’ve named my novel one of the Ten Best Horror Books of the past twelve months (August 2015-to-July 2016). Here are just a few of the reasons why this made me so happy:

–It’s Booklist.

–Daniel Kraus (ROTTERS) wrote the article.

–I got to share the list with my buddy (and one of my primary influences) Brian Keene.

–I also got to share the list with Bentley Little and Joe Hill.

–One more name on the list really floored me. You see, back in the fall of my freshman year at Purdue University I bought a book called AMERICAN SHORT STORY MASTERPIECES that introduced me to some of my very favorite writers. Among those were James Baldwin, Flannery O’Connor, Raymond Carver, Phillip Roth, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Bernard Malamud.

Another name in that incredible collection was Joyce Carol Oates.

Her tale “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is one of the finest short stories I’ve ever read. Her other short works and novels are also stunning. Recently, I read ZOMBIE for the first time and was amazed at the beauty and ferocity of her prose.

In short, Joyce Carol Oates is one of the finest authors of the past hundred years.

Now, I get to share a list with her.

If you’d have told my gangly, eighteen-year-old self that I would someday experience that honor, I would have probably gaped at you. Then fainted.

I’ll stop now.

So thank you to Booklist for such an amazing honor. And thank you to writers like Joyce Carol Oates for inspiring me for so many years.

Scares That Care III

Hey, friends. Been awhile since I’ve posted, but then again, well, you know. Your lives are crazy too.

Speaking of crazy (what an awful segue!), we are now in Williamsburg, Virginia for one of our favorite events of the year: the Scares That Care Weekend Convention. You can read all about it here.

The Grand Master

What you also need to know is that this year’s event will be bigger and better than ever, which is saying a great deal when you take into account how amazing the first two conventions were. I’m gearing up to hang out with some of my favorite writers, including Brian Keene and Bryan Smith. The latter, by the way, will be getting married on Saturday, with the former conducting the ceremony.

Bryan Slash Smith

Speaking of Brian Keene…

Not only is Brian a dear friend–and the reason why Scares That Care is now one of the premier writers’ conventions in America–he’s also one of the best horror writers the genre has ever seen. And he happens to have two new books for you to grab. One is called THE COMPLEX, which is harrowing and incredible; the other is a fantastically-received deep-sea thriller called PRESSURE, which is near the top of my TBR pile.

And if that weren’t reason enough to come, how about this? Mr. Joe R. Lansdale himself will be here this weekend. If any keystrokes in the above sentence went awry it’s because my fingers were trembling while I wrote it. Mr. Lansdale is one of my favorite writers of all time and a major influence on my work. In fact, I wrote the following about him in the Acknowledgments of THE NIGHTMARE GIRL:

The first person I want to thank is Mr. Joe R. Lansdale. He influenced this book, and his writing continues to influence me. He tells a story like nobody’s business, and he also happens to be an uncannily generous human being. If you enjoy this book, you’ll enjoy a Lansdale book. If you hate this book, you’ll enjoy a Lansdale book. He’s a national treasure who will be read a hundred years from now. So read him. And thank you, Joe, for doing what you do.

Our Next President

I’d say that about sums it up. If you want to hear further some further thoughts about Mr. Lansdale, here are a couple of links:

DEAD AIM

“Night They Missed the Horror Show”

HONKYTONK SAMURAI

LEATHER MAIDEN

Enough. Come to Scares That Care III. You’ll meet some of the best authors on the planet and see some of the coolest movie stars around. Plus, I’ll be reading from my newest novel CHILDREN OF THE DARK on Sunday and selling all my novels all weekend. So come.

I hope to see you there.

 

 

Brand-New Fiction: “A Southern Evening”

Hey, friends. There are certain editors I really respect. One of those is Jacob Haddon, the mastermind behind the wonderful quarterly magazine Lamplight. Jacob’s publication exudes quality and professionalism and is one of my very favorites in or out of the genre, which is why I was delighted when he asked me last summer at the Scares That Care Weekend Convention if I’d be the featured author in an issue of Lamplight.

I agreed and “A Southern Evening” was born. It’s now available right here in digital format for only $2.99. Next week you’ll be able to purchase the gorgeous print version of too.

Before you read the tale, a few things…

Southern Gothic

One, this story is, in a way, an answer to my own story “The Clearing of Travis Coble.” I love both tales, but they approach their subject matter in very different ways. You don’t need to read “Travis Coble” to appreciate “A Southern Evening”–in fact, they’re completely unrelated–but if you have read “Travis Coble,” you’ll experience another layer of meaning in the new tale.

Secondly, I’ve long been a fan of Southern Gothic fiction and hope this story reflects some of that adoration. Writers like Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, and Tennessee Williams have long been major influences on my work, and I have a blast channeling that influence when I write.

Lastly, this novelette will likely surprise you. I reached a point in it where it was itching to go in a certain direction. Though taken aback by that direction, I nevertheless followed the story where it led me. I think those of you who’ve read my work will be surprised too, and hopefully, that’ll be a good thing.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed writing it. And by grabbing this issue of Lamplight, you’ll not only get my novelette and a revealing interview with me, you’ll not only receive several other pieces of great fiction and non-fiction, but you’ll also be supporting one of the most important publications in horror.

So go check out Lamplight, Volume 4, Issue 4. I hope you enjoy “A Southern Evening.”

HOUSE OF SKIN: Thunderstorm Edition

Some book covers make you gasp. Some make you whistle softly.

The cover for the brand-new Thunderstorm Books limited edition hardcover version of my ghost story HOUSE OF SKIN made me smile slyly and nod my head.

Because it really suits the story.

You like?

If you do, how about this: You can now read several never-before-published deleted scenes of the novel that Edward Lee called “The Quintessential Haunted House Novel” and that The Library Journal recommended for fans of Peter Straub’s Ghost Story and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. You can also read a brand-new intro from me that reveals a great deal about the novel…and about the genesis of my writing career.

And because I haven’t posted enough about this amazing Shadow Side line of Thunderstorm books yet, here are a few more pics to whet your appetite:

Thank you to Michael Hicks, Tod Clark, Chris Kosarich, and Duane Mincel for taking such marvelous pictures. The Sorrows special edition is sold out, folks, but I think there might still be copies available of House of Skin. I’ll post more pics of HoS soon (including the awesome bonus materials), but I’ll say goodnight for now. Peace.