Glenn Rolfe's Blog, page 26

Summer’s End in all of its dark glory!: Samhain Horror’s August Specials!

It is that time again, people!  New horrific releases from Samhain Publishing!

Don’t hurt Jane. You may live to regret it.

Bullied by her abusive father, Jane always felt different. Then the lonely child found a friend in a mysterious dark lady who offers her protection—a lady she calls her “angel”. But that protection carries a terrible price, one to be paid with the souls of those Jane chooses to suffer a hideous and eternal fate.

When Jane refuses to name another victim, the angel reveals her most terrifying side. Payment must be made in full—one way or the other.

The hunt is on!

Alice Logan has gone missing, and Harry Bailey and Department 18 have been called to help find her. The main suspect is Anton Markos, a satanic cult leader who has a predilection for young women like Alice. Members of Markos’s cult start turning up dead—shredded by what seems to be a wild animal. Is there a madman within the cult? Or is it something far more horrible?

Can Department 18 discover the impossible truth and end the spree of murder, insanity and carnage? Or will they become the prey?

They want the children!

Someone is taking children from their homes on Roanoke Island and gruesomely slaughtering their families.

After a small, hideous-looking creature is discovered at one of the murder scenes, Chief of Police Marcus Hale realizes whatever is responsible for the killings isn’t even human. Hale suspects a bizarre link to the past, to the end of the 16th Century, when the island’s first settlers disappeared, leaving only the word Croatoan carved into a tree.

But something far more sinister than he ever imagined is at work. And if it isn’t stopped soon, the entire island’s population will perish. Just like it did so many centuries ago.

The dead work in mysterious ways.

Morty Saggs is desperate when his wife, Glenda, turns up missing. But all evidence points to Glenda never having left the house. Soon, odd smells permeate the property, and sometimes the doorway to his bedroom burns a hideous red. Is Morty going crazy, or did the house do something with Glenda? Is there some connection to the house’s previous owner, a vicious murderer named Ted Lindsey? All of Morty’s questions will be answered on the night the burning doorway opens—the night when the trap is sprung.

Boom Town – Glenn Rolfe

grolfe:

Really digging the Boom Town love. Thanks, Ken!

Originally posted on Into The Macabre:

A novella from a new player in the horror lineup from Samhain Publishing, which is also the home of the excellent author, Jonathan Janz. Glenn Rolfe weaves a tale that is one part The Blob and one part Invaders from Mars. While the story isn’t original, its still a blast to read. Rolfe has a style that derives from some of the great storytellers (King, McCammon, etc) where it sucks you in with wonderful, believable characters and realistic dialogue. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way the children protagonists talk amongst themselves. So many authors get this wrong. They’ll screw up how a kid would react to a situation and totally slaughter the dialogue of how they would really talk. When I see an author do this, it ruins the whole story for me because now I can’t buy into it; my suspension of disbelief is shot to…

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My wife says “I do” again. :) I’m a lucky dude.

My wife and I met at my brother’s wedding (to her sister).  Six days after meeting this girl, we got married. Yes, you read that right–we knew each other for 6 days.  On July 25th we celebrated our 10 year anniversary by renewing our vows.  We finally had a wedding for the majority who weren’t at our original courthouse surprise marriage.  It was so cool to have our three kids there with us. I love you, Meghan!  I don’t know how or why you put up with me and my crazy life, but I’m glad you do.

Here’s a few pics from the day.

Here’s to another decade of wild fun!!!!

Update City: What’s going on in the Rolfe Universe.

I’ve been trying to enjoy the heck out of this summer. I hope you have, too. The wife and I are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary on July 25th with a vow renewal.  We also celebrated by going to see one of our favorite artists Kacey Musgraves in concert this past week. She rules. Besides playing in the sun with my wife and the kiddos, I have been writing and reading quite a bit. I’ve also been doing some Author Relations type things for Samhian Publishing along with helping out with their official blog.  If you skip over to iHorror.com, you can read my most recent interviewees and reviews (Brian Kirk, Ronald Malfi) with more on the way!

As for my fiction…

Slush, my first short story collection that came out in eBook back in October of last year, is now available in print and audio.

The Haunted Halls, Abram’s Bridge, and Boom Town should be available in audio by year’s end.

Blood and Rain, my werewolf novel for Samhain Publishing, will be out October 6th. You can pre-order it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble now.

Things We Fear, my next novella from Samhain Publishing, will be available in eBook in March, 2016. Things We Fear, alongside Boom Town and Abram’s Bridge will be combined in my 2nd print book for Samhain (my first novella collection), Where Nightmares Begin (also out in March).

I wrote a new novella called, The Last Show, that will be on its way to a different publisher later this month. Whether it lands with that publisher, Samhain, or I end up self-publishing it, The Last Show, will be out sometime in 2016.

Doodle cover for The Last Show

I’m still revising/re-working my current WIP, a novel called, Becoming.

I’m hoping to get back to work on the next novel, Window, by the end of August.

As for my next short story collection, The World Comes Down, I read through a batch of stories I think may make the final cut last night. I’m pretty happy with the direction and hope to release it in all formats next summer.

On the to be finished list: I have two yet-to-be-titled novellas and the follow-up novel to Boom Town (Ascension Agenda). Maybe look for those in 2017.

I’ll be doing some massive blog tour (with Oh, For the Hook of a Book)/publicity stuff for Blood and Rain over the next three or four months. I’ll also be attending Horrorhound Weekend in Indianapolis, IN in September (armed with advance print copies of Blood and Rain). Come see me and a bunch of cool Samhain authors if you’re in the area.

Stay tuned!

July Monster Beach Party: A Trio of New Releases from Samhain Horror

RELEASE DAY!  Yep, Samhain Horror welcomes you to the heart of summer with these three hot releases. Brian Kirk’s debut puts you in the crazy house, Russel’s James’s latest treats you to a New York-sized epidemic, and Devin Govaere takes you out to the lake. What could go wrong?

Click any cover below to order today!

-GR

The Apocalypse has come to the Sugar Hill mental asylum. 

He’s the hospital’s newest, and most notorious, patient—a paranoid schizophrenic who sees humanity’s dark side.

Luckily he’s in good hands. Dr. Eli Alpert has a talent for healing tortured souls. And his protégé is working on a cure for schizophrenia, a drug that returns patients to their former selves. But unforeseen side effects are starting to emerge. Forcing prior traumas to the surface. Setting inner demons free.

Monsters have been unleashed inside the Sugar Hill mental asylum. They don’t have fangs or claws. They look just like you or me.

Reviews:

“Keep an eye on Brian Kirk. His ambitious debut, We Are Monsters, is a high-voltage thrill, like watching Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor and Joel Schumacher’sFlatliners on split screens. ” — Jonathan Moore, Bram Stoker Award nominated author of Redheads

“Brian Kirk’s debut We Are Monsters is a smart, elaborate novel that weaves together the best and worst of us. Complex, terrifying, and still humane, this book moved me to both horror and compassion, and that’s a difficult thing indeed. Easily the best book I’ve read this year.” – Mercedes M. Yardley, author of Pretty Little Dead Girls: A Novel of Murder and Whimsy.

Epidemic!

An ancient virus has surfaced on Long Island, NY, turning its victims into black-veined, infectious, psychopathic killers. Chaos and madness rule.

In desperation, the military quarantines the island, trapping Melanie Bailey and her autistic son, Aiden. Somehow Aiden survives infection. He could be the key to a cure…if Melanie can get him to the mainland.

Gang leader Jimmy Wade also survives the virus, but he’s acquired a hunger for human flesh. Believing consuming Aiden will make him all-powerful, he and his gang hunt the boy. Melanie and Aiden must evade both Wade’s tightening grip and the growing army of the infected in an impossible escape from what all call Q Island.

Reviews:

“James creates powerful intimacy and terror….This is a seriously creepy page-turner that will keep readers up all night.”

 – Starred review from Publisher’s Weekly

“This could very well be the best horror novel of the year. 5 Stars!” – The Examiner

Surrounded by fears. And all of them real.

There isn’t much that doesn’t frighten ten-year-old Kelly Carter—the dark, the water, monsters, you name it—but she’s about to enter the summer of all fears. When Kelly and her family arrive at Kildare Lake, she knows it’s not just for vacation. They’ve come to say goodbye to her little brother, Cody, who is dying.

Kelly tries to be brave for Cody, but everything around her is plagued by darkness, and all of it is scary. Dangerous things lurk beneath calm water, and others skulk beneath her bed. Shadows swirl through the lake, and more dart in the upper corners of her room. Her parents tell her there’s nothing to be afraid of, but she doesn’t believe them. Her fears are real. Somehow, scared or not, she must find the courage to keep her brother safe.

Find all three new releases, plus all of your favorite horror titles from authors like Hunter Shea, Kristopher Rufty, David Bernstein, Jonathan Janz, and more!  Click the Samhain Horror logo and discover your dark side.

Blood, guts, and gory meet character and heart: The Gentle Art of Finding the balance

This week, I started writing a brand new novel. Anyone who has paid attention to me knows that I’m already working on more than four other pieces. So, what the hell am I thinking starting something else? That’s just how my ADD writing brain works. Part of the inspiration was trying to choose my summer re-read (every summer I like to re-read one of my favorite books). This year, I was trying to choose between one of my favorite Richard Laymon novels, The Woods Are Dark, and Jonathan Janz’s Savage Species. Holding the two righteously vicious novels and thinking about my first Laymon-inspired debut, The Haunted Halls, I felt that old familiar pull to scribble another chainsaw attack of a horror story. One that would make Ketchum or the late Laymon smile.

I decided to go with Laymon’s re-stored classic.

I got ready to read it and a light bulb went off in my brain.

I opened a new word document and started typing.

In less than 24 hours I typed up the first 8K words for a new novel I’m calling, The Last Show.

Unlike with The Haunted Halls where I had to go back and re-work the story to make it more than just a outright trail of blood and scares, this time around, I want to add great characters and a dump-truck load of heart. Will I succeed? That’s the real trick, isn’t it? Finding the balance between vicious and tender. Heart and outright gore-a-palooza.  Sometimes these mad romps of killers tearing apart semi-innocent campers and travelers don’t really call for any Love Me Tender moments, but I believe the ones that stick with us have other memorable characters outside of our violent death dealers. There can be more magic moments than the jaw dropping scenes that scorch our brains. Scenes like, well, almost any in Ketchum’s Off Season, or the fantastic kickstart opening to Laymon’s Woods…(A hairy, half-bodied man who chucks a severed hand at two girls driving down a back road????). These things stick with us, for horror writers, the do a little more. These scenes stain us.

My favorite thing about a guy like Laymon is the surprising helpings of heart he manages to slip in between the line of entrails and the cock with razor sharp teeth that is also a pleasure machine. The Traveling Vampire Show’s childhood romance between its two main characters brought me back to those early episodes of The Wonder Years. Watching Winnie Cooper and Kevin Arnold kiss for the first time.

How can we replicate this masterful art of blood and beauty? Well, it ain’t easy or everyone would do it. I think the key is one word: honesty.  Keep it real (as real as your monsters will allow). It is far easier said than done.Our imaginations can get pretty fantastic. It is easy to get lost on the dark side. To get caught up in the crimson pool of guts that we paint the page with. Sometimes, that’s all a story calls for. I couldn’t write that way, but I know some authors who do and pull it off. For me, I have to push a couple more buttons on my readers. I have to hit those buttons in myself first. I bring up my own guts, my own pain, my own joys, and then I let the monsters terrorize the hell out of all that goodness, all those emotions, all of the honesty.

I hope when I write THE END on the last page of The Last Show, I’ll have accomplished all of that.I promise you one thing–I will give it my best shot.

Here’s to heart, horror, and that crazy Laymon inside of us all.

Cheers!

“…proof that we’re in the presence of a rising star in the genre.”–Ronald Malfi

It blows my mind that one of my favorite writers in the horror fiction scene over the last 10 or so years has endorsed my latest piece, Blood and Rain (Samhain Publishing, October 2015). I’ve admired the hell out of this guy’s talent and the with the way he handles himself for a long time.

From when I read Snow to when I read Floating Staircase, Ronald Malfi’s style and storytelling ability has simultaneously influenced and intimidated me. He makes me want to write because his words are like magic. Yet, he also makes me say, “Shit, I can’t fucking do that.”

Well, Ronald Malfi is one of only a handful of people to have read Blood and Rain. And this is what he had to say:

“With slashing claws and blood-soaked fur, Glenn Rolfe’s novel will have you howling in terror and delight. A welcome addition to the werewolf mythos and proof that we’re in the presence of a rising star in the genre. Highly recommended!”–Ronald Malfi, author of December Park

My jaw dropped.

It’s like Tim Armstrong (lead singer in Rancid) hearing one of my punk rock songs and saying, ‘that’s wicked.’

Soon, you’ll all have the chance to dig into my ‘wicked’ new werewolf novel. I’m excited for my baby beast to make its way out into the world.  You can pre-order the Kindle edition right now on Amazon.com, and soon at all of your other favorite eBook joints. The print edition hits the streets October 6th (and maybe on audio shortly thereafter). If you make it out to Horror Hound Weekend Indianapolis in September, I will have pre-release copies for sale!

To pre-order the Kindle Edition now, click the cover below!

Aaaarrrrooo!!!

Also, if you didn’t know…Ronald Malfi has a new book out! Check out Little Girls. Click HERE

SLUSH giveaway! you have 80 minutes to enter!

You have about 90 minutes to enter to win a print or eBook copy of my short story collection, SLUSH!  Go NOw!

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Click the link below and follow the instructions!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Short stories and a super cool cover! Get Slush in Audio and print

First off, thank you all for grabbing copies of my debut, The Haunted Halls, this week while it was on sale.  I moved more copies of any of my works to date in that five day period.  Thanks to everyone who clicked to buy and to anyone who shared, twittered, or commanded their friends to get a copy.

My second release, my short story collection, Slush, is up next in line. Edited by my good friend, Erin Al-Mehairi, and with an old piece of artwork from Jason Lynch (who did all of my Haunted Halls work), Slush is being revamped and made available in Print and Audio formats. Thanks to another good friend, Joe Hempel, for narrating these creepy tales and helping me through the process.

Grab your copy hear….get it?   SLUSH (AUDIO)

The audio edition of my Samhain novella, Boom Town, will also be available in July.

I’ve been wanting to release a Print edition of Slush since day one, but I got busied up with my Samhain Publishing works and had to wait for my bud, Jason, to find some time in his crazy schedule, too.

This week, Jason sent me the brand spankin’ new cover art for the print edition of Slush. Per usual, he blew my mind.

The print edition of Slush should be available by the end of the month.

Stay tuned!

The Haunted Halls (2014)

grolfe:

Once in a while, authors get reviews that knock their socks off–my socks are now on the other side of the room! Thank you Horror Underground. It always feels good to make such a great impression on a reader. :)

Originally posted on Horror Underground:

The Haunted Halls

James Ward Kirk Publishing

Author: Glenn Rolfe

 The Burton Inn, located in Hollis Oaks, Maine, is a notoriously haunted hotel. Since being built, the Burton Inn has had a troubled history of death, murder, and disappearances. It is also home to the Ice Queen. A supernatural, demonic presence that is making its way to the physical realm. As the Ice Queen amasses an army, two hotel clerks, Rhiannon and Jeff, along with a celebrity shaman, Lee Buhl, will have to work together to stop this supernatural force.

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