GHOSTS DON’T SCARE ME… PUBLISHING DOES
Immoral Dilemmas. It’s a title I’ve long wanted to use. Initially it was slated to be the name of my old garage band’s first full length album… which never happened. And now? Immoral Dilemmas is the title of my curated splatterpunk collection, set to be released in December. It might be up in digital form before that date, as we all know on demand publishing is unpredictable at best.
Some of you may notice this book isn’t with a small press. Typically, I’ve self-published my collections, and am continuing this tradition, taking it a step further. It’s officially under my personal imprint, NIGHTSWAN PRESS; named after my immortal multiversal witch, Amy Nightswan. NSP is going to be a home for much of my forthcoming material, including my Splatterfolk Collection, WE ARE 13, coming out in Spring 2024. I do intend to shop THE CURSE OF KATIE ELDER around to potential small presses that may be interested in the book.
Reactions from Immoral Dilemmas ARC reviewers have been overwhelmingly positive, much more so than any of my previous releases. Some of the comments have blown my mind—like who gets compared to Ed Lee? Me, it seems!. The stories included within its covers were previously published in a variety of outlets, including the Books of Horror volumes and From the Ashes anthologies, Stranger With Friction magazines, and my own chap books. They were edited by great talents in the horror community: Lisa Lee Tone, Mary Danner, and Candace Nola. Of course the content editing fell under the aegis of Lisa Vasquez and Garrett Cook—both of whom’s skills helped develop my voice.
My beta readers also helped me bring this collection to life, and a shout out to them for taking their time to assist me.
One of the stories included in this volume, SOBRIQUET ALA MODE, was also part of the BRADONOMICON II that came out this past fall. The story is getting a TON of attention. In fact, Brad Tierney himself had this to say about it: “The Brado story is a goddamned Flawless Victory. LOVE it. LOVE! Such a rank fruit cocktail of everything I love.”
I’m pretty sure that says it all, the seal of approval from the Super Fan of horror himself. This story, you mist know, was the vile thing I’ve ever conceptualized, to the point where I refuse to read it aloud and almost stopped writing splatterpunk because of it. With this being said, you can help this story grow by:
1. Buying it in either BRADONOMICON II or IMMORAL DILEMMAS.
2. Send an email to splatterpunkawards@gmail.com and suggest the story SOBRIQUET ALA MODE by Thomas R Clark for best short story, BRADONOMICON II for best Anthology, and IMMORAL DILEMMAS for best Collection.
This weekend is the 2nd Greenhouse Craft Fair at Lasnicki’s Landscaping in Hastings, NY and you can find me there, with my friends in the Wandering Wordsmiths, for my final Public Appearance of 2023. Normally I’ve gone to the SKY ARMORY event in downtown Syracuse… but not this year. You can see my publisher and friend Tim Murr at that event and he will have a few titles with my name on them. So why in tarnation am I going into the woods of upstate NY? Because it’s a small business support day and what is an indy horror writer other than a small business?
I will have the remaining chap books of Alive Inside, What Fragile Beings Are We, and Dropping Karma with me. All three are included in Immoral Dilemmas, so these will be collector’s items if I ever get famously and shite like that! I will also have a limited stock of my other titles with me, basically whats left from this year’s conventions… which were a huge success. I did what I set out to do—better establish my regional fanbase. I’m so grateful to all of you who took a chance on this guy and his stories.
For those of you who can’t wait for Immoral Dilemmas to hit, I’ve had a bit of material come to life in 2023. A PRAYER FROM THE DEAD, my cyberpunk splatterpunk novella tops the list. I’ve had stories appear in the aforementioned BRADONOMICON II, BOOKS OF HORROR VOL 4 PART 2, as well as the reissues of From the Ashes’ anthologies FAIRYTALE HORRORSHOW and TIL DEATH. I’ve got a story coming out early next year in THANK YOU RJ, too.
It seems there’s lots of Thomas R Clark everywhere this holiday season. So… mark your calender for 12/8/23 for the release of what some people are calling one of the best splatterpunk collections they’ve ever read (no joke!). Immoral Dilemmas, featuring the best of what I’ve written in the splatterpunk genre over the past five or so years. And if you’re within a few hours of me, come to Hastings on Saturday from 10am to 3pm and see me in a Greenhouse!
