Jon Padgett's Blog - Posts Tagged "weird"

I'm delighted to announce that my story, "20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism," first published in The Grimscribe's Puppets, will be produced and published by Pseudopod .

I'll keep you all posted on the details, but it looks at this point like they're aiming for sometime this Spring as the go live date. Obviously, I'm excited!

My chapbook, The Infusorium, is available for pre-order!

Actually the 10 limited edition hardcovers with signed plate, frontispiece and dust jacket sold out the first night it was made available.

Of the 40 paperback copies that will be printed, there are only 5 available as I type this. This is the cheap option (only $8 a pop)!

SOLD OUT!

Casewrap hardcover with frontispiece.
Limited to 25 copies.
(Note: this edition is NOT signed any the author. Only the sold-out dust jacket edition is signed.)

Click here to order while you can

Fortunately, given the demand, the editor of Dunhams Manor Press--Jordan Krall--extended the print run, making 25 wraparound hardcovers with frontispiece available for pre-order.

And what frontispiece by artist-wizard Dave Felton (who also created the gorgeous chapbook cover):




---

Praise for The Infusorium:

“That imagination precedes reason in our lives is perhaps the most obvious truth of all. It is the foundation upon which the mind is raised. In The Infusorium Jon Padgett adeptly conjures the more terrible and, we should admit, blatantly captivating aspects of the imagination. What is not obvious is how Padgett has done this and done it so well. While the terrors of his story are imagined, they are no less real for that.”
-- Thomas Ligotti


“Only a few writers are able to distill the essence of some personal, primal nightmare and transmit it to others. Only a few horror stories are so artfully constructed that they generate an authentic sense of dreadful darkness and impending doom. Jon Padgett is one of those writers. The Infusorium is one of those stories.”
-- Matt Cardin, author of Dark Awakenings and Divinations of the Deep

My debut short story collection, The Secret of Ventriloquism, is just about to be released, and it's gotten some fine praise so far.

“The Secret of Ventriloquism is horror with a capital H. Some of Padgett's lines raised the hair on my neck. In a year of exceptional weird fiction, this [book] is a mattock handle wrapped in barbed wire heavy hitter.”
—Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase

“Padgett proves with his stunning debut collection to be a worthy successor to Thomas Ligotti. There's no gristle, no bone, no dilly-dallying here: only pure meat whose terrors seamlessly grow into the metaphysical. This volume is jam-packed with the stuff that nightmares are made of.”
—Dejan Ognjanović, Rue Morgue Magazine

“[A] dread-soaked volume — stocked with tales of decay, death and dummies...”
—Michael Calia, The Wall Street Journal, "6 New Literary Horror Collections for the Spooky Season"

“The sense of dread the reader is set with from the opening guided meditation lingers throughout and while the details issued throughout the stories help to unravel the mysteries within each in some way, they offer nought in the way of comfort... for those who enjoy fiction of a weird nature with a capital ‘w’ The Secret of Ventriloquism should not be missed.”
—Kev Harrison, This Is Horror

With themes reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti, and Bruno Shulz, but with a strikingly unique vision, Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism heralds the arrival of a significant new literary talent. Padgett’s work explores the mystery of human suffering, the agony of personal existence, and the ghastly means by which someone might achieve salvation from both. A bullied child who seeks vengeance within a bed’s hollow box spring; a lucid dreamer haunted by an impossible house; a dummy that reveals its own anatomy in 20 simple steps; a stuttering librarian who holds the key to a mill town's unspeakable secrets; a commuter whose worldview is shattered by two words printed on a cardboard sign; an aspiring ventriloquist who spends a little too much time looking at himself in a mirror. And the presence that speaks through them all.

Pre-orders:

Click here for the PB edition (sans interior art) -- Ships in December

Click here for the limited HC edition (with interior art by the great Dave Felton) -- Ships in late October

Click here for the limited HC/PB/ebook bundle -- HC ships in late October / PB/ebook in December

My debut short story collection, The Secret of Ventriloquism, was just selected as the Best Fiction Book of 2016 by Rue Morgue Magazine!

It also recently picked up a Golden Ghoul Award for Best Fiction (Foreign) of 2016.

Thrilled!

“The Secret of Ventriloquism is horror with a capital H. Some of Padgett's lines raised the hair on my neck. In a year of exceptional weird fiction, this [book] is a mattock handle wrapped in barbed wire heavy hitter.”
—Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase

“Padgett proves with his stunning debut collection to be a worthy successor to Thomas Ligotti. There's no gristle, no bone, no dilly-dallying here: only pure meat whose terrors seamlessly grow into the metaphysical. This volume is jam-packed with the stuff that nightmares are made of.”
—Dejan Ognjanović, Rue Morgue Magazine

"...Greater Ventriloquism is the fictional philosophy cutting through all of the stories in this collection, giving them a much appreciated spine of intent and eerie energy. When we understand that we are no better than dummies--when we see the strings that move us and hear the voice that animates us--we become the uncanny object, as opposed to the dummy. Our own embodiment thus becomes a vessel for great horrors."
--Adam Mills, Weird Fiction Review

“[A] dread-soaked volume — stocked with tales of decay, death and dummies...”
—Michael Calia, The Wall Street Journal, "6 New Literary Horror Collections for the Spooky Season"

"...Jon Padgett [is] one of the best writers you might not have heard of yet..."
—Kayleigh Marie Edwards, Ginger Nuts of Horror

“The sense of dread the reader is set with from the opening guided meditation lingers throughout and while the details issued throughout the stories help to unravel the mysteries within each in some way, they offer nought in the way of comfort... for those who enjoy fiction of a weird nature with a capital ‘w’ The Secret of Ventriloquism should not be missed.”
—Kev Harrison, This Is Horror

With themes reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti, and Bruno Shulz, but with a strikingly unique vision, Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism heralds the arrival of a significant new literary talent. Padgett’s work explores the mystery of human suffering, the agony of personal existence, and the ghastly means by which someone might achieve salvation from both. A bullied child who seeks vengeance within a bed’s hollow box spring; a lucid dreamer haunted by an impossible house; a dummy that reveals its own anatomy in 20 simple steps; a stuttering librarian who holds the key to a mill town's unspeakable secrets; a commuter whose worldview is shattered by two words printed on a cardboard sign; an aspiring ventriloquist who spends a little too much time looking at himself in a mirror. And the presence that speaks through them all.

Ordering info:

Kindle Edition

Trade Paperback, 2nd Edition


Audiobook should be available via Amazon, Audible and iTunes later this week. Stay tuned!

The audiobook version of The Secret of Ventriloquism is finally available (via Amazon, Audible, iTunes).

It was recorded/produced by me, with a creepy singing assist by author/Pseudopod Associate Editor, Dagny Paul. Even if you've read the book already, I believe that hearing the stories aloud lends a dimension to the collection that the text alone cannot offer.

Please check it out and share liberally!

Click here to purchase.

Some terrific news today!

Bram Stoker Award winning author, Paul Tremblay, had the following to say about my collection:

"Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism is a horror revelation. The interconnected short stories are ghastly, clever, dryly witty, but also genuinely and bone-rattlingly creepy and disturbing. Sure, going in, I was already afraid of ventriloquist dummies, but now I'm deathly afraid of Jon Padgett."

Thank you, Paul!

Also, thanks to Charlene Cocrane of Horror After Dark , who just today gave Secret a five star review!

"Jon Padgett... satisfied ALL of my wants and needs as a reader of dark and weird fiction. These stories... are as utterly satisfying as short fiction can be."

For a limited time, you can get the Kindle version of my book... for FREE. For a couple bucks more, you can add the audio version (read by me) too via Whispersync.



Please share far and wide!

Get it here.

Selected as the Best Fiction Book of 2016 by Rue Morgue Magazine.

“Jon Padgett’s The Secret of Ventriloquism is a horror revelation. The interconnected short stories are ghastly, clever, dryly witty, but also genuinely and bone-rattlingly creepy and disturbing. Sure, going in, I was already afraid of ventriloquist dummies, but now I’m deathly afraid of Jon Padgett.”
– Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock.

“The Secret of Ventriloquism is horror with a capital H. Some of Padgett’s lines raised the hair on my neck. The stories radiate darkness… In a year of exceptional weird fiction, this is a mattock-handle-wrapped-in-barbed-wire heavy hitter.”
– Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase

“Padgett proves with his stunning debut collection to be a worthy successor to Thomas Ligotti. There’s no gristle, no bone, no dilly-dallying here: only pure meat whose terrors seamlessly grow into the metaphysical. This volume is jam-packed with the stuff that nightmares are made of.”
–Dejan Ognjanovic, Rue Morgue Magazine

“…Greater Ventriloquism is the fictional philosophy cutting through all of the stories in this collection, giving them a much appreciated spine of intent and eerie energy. When we understand that we are no better than dummies–when we see the strings that move us and hear the voice that animates us–we become the uncanny object, as opposed to the dummy. Our own embodiment thus becomes a vessel for great horrors.”
—Adam Mills, Weird Fiction Review