Search Results for: E. A. Barker

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m just a boy standing in front of a bookstore hoping they’ll carry my books.

The number currently sits at two published with two others in the works.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The title of my latest book is You & I Erotic Tales: Trilogy. After my debut success with Ms. Creant: The Wrong Doers!, many people asked if I would write fiction next so I chose something fun to see if I could do it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Hunting and pecking.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I would imagine every book I’ve read has impacted me in some way, but I actively seek to have my own voice by not reading too much of any one author.

What are you working on now?
The next one is back to nonfiction with The $1.99 Author which humorously dives into the murky waters of the book publishing racket. It will be ideal for anyone considering publishing a book as well as indie authors, and small press publishers.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It’s funny you should ask as I’m here on PRETTY-HOT.COM because I’m researching this topic for my own purposes as well as my next blog on: https://youandi.art.blog/blog-feed/

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Run away. It’s not too late for you. 😀

Read my next book, The $1.99 Author, out in the fall of 2020 unless the pandemic changes that.

If they wish to be traditionally published or are pitching agents, perfection is the minimum standard when querying.

If they wish to self-publish, understand that this industry is hellbent on emptying your pockets.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

Oddly, I’m not religious.

What are you reading now?
Dan Brown’s Origin.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Getting the next book out so I can get busy on a fictional work which nags at me daily.

What is your favorite book of all time?
Can anyone actually answer this? I can’t. Given time I might be able to compile a list of top picks in different genres but to pick just one is like asking a mother which of her children is her favourite. It just wrong. 🙂

Author Websites and Profiles
E. A. Barker Website

E. A. Barker’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
From the Author
I attempt to be somewhat distasteful of my own writing, as the quality of my compositions should always be carefully monitored and edited. In my endeavor to find a singular placement for the experiment of language, my writing has been transmogrified and distorted until it has become etched. I find it daunting to write simple sentences. As I have encountered a wider range of obstacles pertaining to the final disasters of an author’s process, I have found that the range of required discovery for these immense battles consists of both more penetrating philosophical study and of the broader appreciation of literature.

I am secretive about myself because A.R. LaBaere is a character as well as my author’s persona. The majority of my characters are both nameless, genderless, and sexless, having first person narratives. My aims are somewhat at a clash, as Cosmicism usually calls for the pismirization of characters, and a lack of identity accomplishes this stupendously. However, I take an interest in my personifications as persons with human pathos, which should make the ultimate epiphany of Cosmicism all the more chilling. Gender identity and romantic orientation are crucial aspects of identity, and rarely conform to common portrayals in respected societies. I hold an immense duty in keeping my identity from the majority, although I want to share this further with you. While I trust your intellect and intentions, I must advise you that certain criteria must yet be met. As we grow nigh, I hope to become a nearer companion.I am ill with the loneliness that inevitably comes with severe trauma. I see the multiverse alone through my consciousness, and I never arrive at a single notion of identity. I have not found an exact nature of myself amidst the notions of each straining division, and I cannot hold any cohesive structure of myself. As I am trapped with the solitude of my worst expectations and of my further nightmares in the past. I am also hollowed with the longing always present in my empty bed. I have no Ligeia, no Berenice, no Eleonora, and no Poe. I agonize with the need to share lengthy discourses on Bataille and on ‘Pataphysics in the late hours, to scream about m theory and higher dimensions, with an arduous debater. I have never been a part of a family, and I am at a legacy of only my words. When I perish, I will no longer exist, as Rene Descartes, and I will never know the future of my accomplishments. I am aging and destitute, and the immense void of each day brings no relief for the agonies of cruelty.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Rene Descartes Does Not Exist peals with the undercurrent of plangent chimes in a forgotten gloaming… There persists a revelation which cannot be defined, but which is captured by the crude eyes of certain dolls. Within are Tsalalic, broken staircases which lead to nowhere, untidy, resistentialist galaxies of dark stars… A Ligottian antinovel, a surrealist literary criticism of House Of Leaves, Psalms Of The Silent, Fictional Observers, and Untidy Starving Shadows, it creaks and creeps… Suspirias susurrise among howling passages… The pages resonate with groaning undercurrents of masking things which are what they would not be, a mask for pandemonium… Within are phantasms, mirrors, burrowing universes… The unheimlich volume is a Borgesian unreality of lambent crookedness, a resistentialism of untidy tailor’s dummies which resonates with the eidolon of murmuring, garish laughter… It is crookedly peculiar…The words are upside-down, tenebrously untidy, a cosmic incantation, the tome a grimoire, a The King In Yellow of magick, a doppelganger… The manuscript tolls queer thoughts, things monstrous… vaguely, vacantly glimpsed… Unlighted candles migrate within That unheimlich volume, a Babel of lambent unreality which resonates with eidolons of laughter… A Mimicrying, metafictional criticism of House Of Leaves, The King In Yellow, Cosmicism, The Thing, and The Untidy Starving Shadows, the tome creaks and creeps… It resonates with twin mirrored Houses, untidy, unfamiliar shapes in the darkness… It is very strange; the words are clandestine, unreal, tenebrously untidy, as though… the work were hazy, a foggy, peculiar looking-glass- curious words that seemed to keep some secret, monstrous if one only knew.

Crucial Notification Regarding This Eighth Hundredth,

Exhaustive Edition

Eighth Hundredth And Final Edition

Rene Descartes Does Not Exist has been released within its final edition as of The Thirty-First Of December, Two Thousand And Twenty.
This final edition is the eighth hundredth edition of the work. No material has been destroyed or significantly altered from the work’s original publication as The Abyss Laughs. Alterations to the work now accompany a significant increase of the work’s length. The work has been incorporated with significant elements regarding its outer material, its metafictional nestedness, and its various poesies. The work now includes significant text upon its cover.
The work’s ergodic typography and experimental style have been restored to its original format, and text which was previously present upon the tome’s previous front covers has been entirely restored and expanded to this edition’s artwork. All attempts have been made by the author to preserve its format.
The structure of the platform’s format dictate the exclusion of divergent fonts, hues, watchers, and blank pages. Precautions have been made to translate the work as it would appear within a printed tome. The work’s expansion has been carefully curated to adhere to the concepts of the original manuscript. A declaration was previously promulgated regarding the expansion of Rene Descartes Does Not Exist. All changes to the work have now been set, and expansions of the tale will occur only through further instalments.
The antinovel’s sequel will be released upon The Twenty-First of August, Two Thousand and twenty-two, and will be available for pre-order upon The Twenty-First of August, Two Thousand And Twenty-One.

What are you working on now?
Biography
A.R. LaBaere is a publishing house which resides within the bizarre, the outlandish, and the Ligottian. Its focuses include Cosmicism, pessimism, the absurd, and the Weird. The author seeks to reproduce texts which deconstruct logic and enhance the Weird. A.R. LaBaere strives to disseminate literature to all readers.

Its next release shall be the epic The Abyss Laughs Book Two, a fiction. It is to be distributed to the public upon August Twenty-First, Two Thousand And Twenty-Two. The Abyss Laughs Book Two will be A.R. LaBaere’s second publication by author A.R. LaBaere.

The author’s Rene Descartes Does Not Exist will be incorporated into The Abyss Laughs Book Two, along with other works. A.R. LaBaere seeks to scribe a collapsing multiverse and paracosm in the completion of unreality.

The Abyss Laughs Book Two will combine literary criticism, pessimistic discourse, academia, and fiction. With Rene Descartes Does Not Exist, the novel shall explore Cosmicism, poesy, and allusion in a richer demesne.

Rene Descartes Does Not Exist is the inspiration of the epic novel, The Abyss Laughs. An antinovel of solipsism, Cosmicism, negligence, and illogic, Rene Descartes Does Not Exist does not exist.

The Abyss Laughs is currently being expanded to a million words. This cosmic horror opera is grown from a reality-bending tome, ever expanding.

Reality is a thin layer over something truly alien. The only kind turn of the cosmos may be the prevention of the human mind from comprehension of all its truths. The Old Ones are beneath that facade. They are those who were, are, and shall be, not amongst the familiar space and time known to humanity, but far outside the constraints of logic and reason. Entombed within our cosmos and without, They await the proper alignment of the stars, so that They may once again stalk the spaces between. The Old Ones cannot be comprehended by the human mind, for They exist in infinity beyond understanding.

These beings are served by religious sects devoted to their return to life, from the Brotherhood of Hastur to the Deep ones of Dagon and Hydra. Still yet more disastrous awaits the cult of Yog Sothoth, the All in One and One in All. Azathoth, Yog Sothoth, and Shub Niggurath are not Old Ones, but rather Outer Gods. When the music in the Court of Azathoth ceases, so too shall all things.

Beyond even the Old Ones lie the Outer Gods, beings who are to the Old Ones what the Old Ones are to the lesser species. These deities encompass all of space, time, and other fabrics of reality, and yet exist wholly outside of it. These deities were the first beings in existence, creating many of the Old Ones and one another long before the birth of reality.

An obscure horror author, Lovecraft, penned a supposedly fictional world of alien lore, prehuman nightmares, and inhuman races. For all of these terrors, the cosmos is not one of malevolence, but of stark indifference to any species. The Old Ones and Outer Gods are not cruel nor psychopathic; rather, Their psychologies and motivations are entirely beyond the comprehension of humanity.

Lovecraft wrote of their histories and mythologies in works disguised as fiction, creating a mythos of the supernatural, cosmic, and unknown. He recorded tales of prehistoric gods bubbling at the center of all infinity, and of partly human alien races the world over. His narrators live on, forever scarred by their forbidden knowledge as they await the End.

Presently, a concerned publishing agent investigates the mysteries of The Abyss Laughs, a self-referential work of cosmic horror in the vein of Lovecraft. The novel evokes inconsistent effects, from awe to derision at its pastiche. The novel’s narrative becomes the publisher’s own, as the characters and locations of cosmic horror seem to become reality. Narrative after narrative of the postmodern work become more obscure, unwinding the agent’s every sense of reality and reason. Nested within a complex narrative web of psychic visions and intertwined fates, The Abyss Laughs is no book.

In the apparently fictional work of cosmic horror authors previous, only a portion of truth is revealed. There are Outer Gods beyond the Outer Gods, and Outer Gods beyond this. With each revelation, logic and reason as we comprehend it fades into black seas of infinity, and the return of ultimate entropy draws nearer. This is the culmination of Lovecraft’s accounts of the vast cosmos beneath our own. The demented cultists have laid in wait for their gods, the Outer Gods have created Their spawn upon the Earth to walk amongst humanity, and the ancient texts have appeared to ordinary men. With a series of bizarre natural catastrophes, the oceans tumble into seismic upheaval. The minds of many are fevered by unnatural, maddening dreams.

Lovecraft wrote that the Old Ones would one day return, but never wrote of Their coming. At last, after untold aeons, the cosmos begins to align. The final rites are prepared, the prophecies come to fruition, and the foundations of reality begin to revert to their original state. And, beneath even this, something so incomprehensible as to be an informational void stirs.

The Abyss Laughs.

A.R. LaBaere is a lucubrant and intellectual of the night. The author is an oracle of the Old Ones, spreading madness and mayhem throughout the cosmos. Beyond the literary, LaBaere consumes theoretical physics, philosophy with an emphasis in nihilistic pessimism and antinatalism, and The Method of Loci. LaBaere strives to fictionalize and spelunk such topics into cosmic oddysseys and discourses.

The author’s inspirations include Thomas Ligotti, H.P. Lovecraft, Mark Z. Danielewski, Jon Padgett, Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, David Searcy, Rasu Yong-Tugen, Baroness de Tristeombre, Brian Aldiss, Navidson Tudor, Jorge Luis Borge, and a library of others.

The author’s work has been hailed as being convoluted, opaque drivel, as a profound transmogrification of Cosmicism, as being peerlessly ambitious, unkempt, baffling, and rambling, as folderolical, as disillusioned, as disturbing, as atrabilious, and as being nonexistent.

The A.R. LaBaere assemblage may be contacted via the Trystero: a.r.labaere@gmail.com

A.R. LaBaere’s

The Abyss Laughs

An Introduction

Welcome, weary traveller, to your unexpected destination. I am A.R. LaBaere, Cosmic horror author and philosophizer. Here, dear reader, is the realm of the Old Ones. Here, you will find a brief history of the genre, author information, and an explanation of Cosmic horror.

Brace yourself, dear reader, for as Fredriech Nietzsche wisely warned: “If thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”

Who is A.R. LaBaere?
I am an avid Writer and reader of tales from beyond.I focus much of my effort upon analyzing existential crises in literature, film, and other fiction media. I have penned short stories and poems, along with my work-in-progress novel, The Abyss Laughs.I aspire to bring the obscure Cosmic horror into light, along with forgotten authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers.

I aspire to share my passion for literature, storytelling, and all things unthinkable through fiction and nonfiction alike. As a nihilist and atheist, I share many of the views presented in the works of Lovecraft and others.

The Fear of the Unknown- and the Unknowable

Cosmic horror is a genre containing elements of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. The genre invokes the terror of Incomprehensible forces beyond humanity’s control.Rather than empowering characters and placing significance on human action, Cosmic horror places the focus on what lies beyond one’s frail egotism. Humanity constantly teeters on the brink of extinction, unable to find meaning or safety in a fundamentally indifferent cosmos. Godlike entities from other universes, the cults which honor them, ancient alien races, and madness brought on by quests for forbidden knowledge are staples of the genre.

What are the Origins of Cosmicism?
Cosmicism and its elements have existed since the dawn of literature.The supernatural is a critical ancestor; a necessary element of Cosmicism is the absurd contrast between unknowable forces and mundane life.

Edgar Allan Poe truly began the journey to modern Cosmicism, followed by Robert W. Chambers, author of The King in Yellow. Lovecraft truly completed the evolution, leaving behind thousands of pages and the Cthulhu Mythos, a universe which continues to be expanded upon by countless authors.

The Cthulhu Mythos

The Cthulhu Mythos is a fictional univrse created by H.P. Lovecraft.The mythos is composed of characters, locations, and events interconnected by the threat of ancient deities and forces. Commonly used characters in other works include alien races such as the Migo, the Elder Things, the Shoggoths, the Night Guants, and the Deep Ones.

Deities of the mythos include Cthulhu, the very source of humanity’s fear, Azathoth, who dwells in the center of our cosmos, Yog Sothoth, who is one with all of time and space, and Hastur, commonly known as the King in Yellow, an enigmatic entity which spreads through the reading of the eponymous play.

What Older and Modern Works are Cosmic?

The writings of Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Robert E. Howard, and John W. Campbell often contain elements of the Cosmic; several of these authors have contributed to the Cthulhu Mythos.

Many modern works contain existential dilemas, nihilism, madness, and forces from beyond.John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy, the Amnesia series, the first two Alien films, The Evil Dead, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, the writings of Clive Barker, Shirley Jackson, Neil Gaiman, Ramsey Campbell, and many of Stephen King’s works involve incomprehensible forces from beyond.

Mission Statement

My goal is to provide my readers with quality literature in all areas, building on the aspirations of other authors, as well as creating new horizons. I will serve the Old Ones to the best of my ability, bringing madness to the Earth.I will show the world the power of authors long forgotten, ensuring that their efforts were not in vain. I will bring the Outer Gods ever closer to resurrection, until I am eaten along with the rest of humanity.

In-Depth Terminology

The Cthulhu Mythos is a complex mythology, added to by many writers over the past one hundred and eleven years. Countless authors have contributed to it, including myself. The characters, locations, and events of the mythos are expanded upon here. Various sources are used, including my own contributions. Owing to the innumerable contributions to the Mythos, this list is by no means exhaustive.

Further Explanation on the Cthulhu Mythos

GHysolui- An unknown entity even by the obscurity of other Outer Gods.

The Abyss- The Abyss laughs.

Azathoth- Parent of many Outer Gods, including Yog Sothoth.

Shub Niggurath- An entity on level with Azathoth and Yog Sothoth. Also known as the Black Goat of the Woods With a Thousand Young.

Hastur- Also known as The King in Yellow, the Unspeakable, and the Unnameable. A deity which spreads through the Yellow Sign, along with the play The King in Yellow. Resides in Carcosa, a damned city upon a black hole. Hastur has the ability to project avatars and possess corpses.

Cthulhu- The High Priest of the Outer Gods, residing dead but dreaming in R’lyeh, a sunken city in the Pacific Ocean.

Ubbo-Sathla- Entity dwelling beneath Earth’s surface, forever exuding new life. May be the source of much of life on Earth.

Nyarlathotep- The Crawling Chaos; attends Azathoth in his court.

Ithaqua- Wind deity, widely ingrained in Native American legend.

The Conquerer Worm- an entity which burrows beneath all things; associated with Hastur.
Entities of the Cthulhu Mythos

Alien Races of the Cthulhu Mythos

The Deep Ones- Hybrid species between humans and wholly alien Deep entities. Commonly populate the town of Innsmouth. They are heavily associated with Devil’s Reef, Dagon, and Cthulhu.

Migo- Commonly known as Fungi from Yuggoth, inhabiting Yuggoth (Pluto.) Resemble fungal crabs. The species keep the brains of many races alive in jars. Commonly inhabit caverns in the hills of Virginia.

Night Guants- Mounstrous, winged entities inhabiting the Dreamlands, consuming various species. The species communicates through shrieks.

The Great Race Yith- Entities who achieve time travel through exchanging bodies with those in the future or past. Their original forms resemble bright light.

Colour Out of Space- Microbes of impossible, maddening colors, feeding upon the life-force of surrounding areas.

Dhole- Worm-like entities of the Dreamlands.

Byakhee- Servants of Hastur, once a sane extraterrestrial race. Dwell in Carcosa. Resemble a mixture of moles, bats, and rotting corpses.

Cats of Ulthar- Creatures dwelling in Ulthar in great numbers.

Elder Things- First life Earth, and creators of the first microorganisms. Also created the Shoggoths.

Shoggoths- Slave race which became sentient, attacking the Elder Things. Still living in the Mountains of Madness, feeding upon blind albino penguins. Attack William Dyer and Danforth Blair.

Locations of the Cthulhu Mythos

The Dreamlands- a universe entered through sleep. Home to Night Gaunts, Ghouls, Dholes, the Cats of Ulthar, and several Outer Gods. Compose many of Lovecraft’s tales.

Carcosa- a city upon the black hole Hastur, prison of Hastur. Appears to those who have seen the Yellow Sign.

Arkham- A human city in Massachusetts, home to Miskatonic University, along with the Coulor Out of Space.

Miskatonic University- Infamous university specializing in underground occultism. Hirer of Emily Marsh.

The Compound of the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign- A French structure dedicated to Hastur.

Ulthar- City in the Dreamlands, populated by felines. May contain the Pnakotic Manuscripts.

R’lyeh- Prison of Cthulhu, located in the Pacific Ocean.

Court of Azathoth- Location of Several Outer Gods, including Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, and many servants.

Devil’s Reef- Enigmatic structure off of the Innsmouth shore; place of many Deep Ones rituals prior to the 1928 bombing.

Plain of Leng- Region in Dreamlands, home to a form of Hastur kmown as the Yellow Veiled Llama.

The Mountains of Madness- Appearing and disappearing region in Antarctica, containing the cyclopean city of the Elder Things. Contains largest mountains on Earth.

Events of the Cthulhu Mythos

1.8 Billion Years Ago- The Elder Things colonize Earth, creating the microbes which will eventually evolve into modern life.

Cthulhu and his star spawn arrive on Earth at this time, along with the Polyps and Yith.

192? It is around this time that efforts to eradicate The King in Yellow play fail spectacularly.

1928- Government bombing of Devil’s reef in Innsmouth, followed by the capture and imprisonment of many locals.

1931- Disastrous expedition to the Antarctic is mounted by Mikatonic University.

1982- A mysterious species is unearthed in Antarctica.

1983- Death of William Dyer.

2ooo??? The Relic is discovered.

2000??? The Brotherhood receives a new Prophet.

2000??? The alignment of the cosmos begins.

Humanoid Characters of the Cthulhu Mythos

Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign- Cult born long before the creation of our universe, dedicated to serving Hastur. Are also connected to the Conqueror Worm.

Randolph Carter- Man who encountered many misadventures in the Dreamlands, along with distant planets in our cosmos.

William Dyer- Head of disastrous expedition to the Antarctic, and one of two survivors.

Danforth Blair- Second survivor of Antarctic expidition, residing in Alhaz Asylum following his breakdown.

The Prophet- Chosen avatar of Hastur in his quest for resurrection.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft- Author of extensive accounts of the Old Ones, often treated as fiction.

Emily Marsh- A remaining descendant of the Marsh line. Holds obscure position at Miskatonic University, along with unknown cults.

Father Thorn: Mysterious priest of Hastur; may hold other loyalties as well.

Wilbur Whateley- Spawn of Yog Sothoth and human Lavinia Whateley, brother to the Dunwhich Horror.

Lavinia Whateley- Tempory mate of Yog Sothoth; mother of Wilbur and the Dunwhich Horror.

Black Stars/Carcosa Appears- Signifies that one has fallen under the influence of Hastur, or that Hastur’s power waxes.

Objects of the Cthulhu Mythos

The Necronomicon- Occult tome written in the year 700 A.D. by the Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred. May invoke madness in its readers; contains information and rites on the Old Ones.

The Pnakotic Manuscripts- Lost manuscripts, thought to be hidden in Ulthar. Contain information on the Dreamlands, along with other secrets.

The King in Yellow- A portion of Hastur in the form of copies of a forbidden play. Reading the play opens the reader to Hastur’s influence, while performing the play will summon Hastur. May originally be French.

The Yellow Sign- A character forming Hastur’s name in the Yellow language, perhaps resembling Hastur’s true form. Seeing or possessing this character opens one to Hastur’s influence. The Sign is used by the Brotherhood to signify membership and is used in rituals.

The Relic- Key element in the alignment of the cosmos.

Gold Items of the Deep Ones- Strange items crafted by the Deep Ones, and originally traded by Obed Marsh.

The Pallid Mask- Mask commonly seen upon Hastur; seeing what lies behind damns one to madness.

Philosophical Terminology

Nihilism- A philosophy stating that significance, purpose, and morality are only constructs created by the human mind. Theories often taken for granted, such as the existence of others from the self, the uniqueness of the human race, and others are meaningless and possibly false.

Existential Crisis- a destabalizing series of revelations involving one’s perception of place in the cosmos, along with a loss of certainty in facts one once knew to be true.
This frequently occurs following maddening experiences with eldritch abominations from beyond.

Solipsism- The belief that the thinker is the only person in existence. The existence of anything outside the mind cannot be proven; as best said by Rene Descartes, “I think; therefore, I am.”

Cosmicism- Horror genre involving the inevitanbility of mortality, doom, and fate. Revolutionized by Lovecraft, the genre involves forces beyond imagination with advanced strangulated delirium…

Post From Beyond: My Journey to Solipsism

My Journey to Cosmicism
We are alone- separated by the far gulfs of the mind. The black seas of infinity separate us from one another- each mind lies in the prison of impotency.
We do not have any real power. Why do we believe we have any hope?
The world is a place which is not our own. We believe ourselves to have ownership over the world and our lives, but we are under an influence beyond our comprehension.
Our lives are under the influence of something too indecipherable for rational thought. If we were to understand those forces, we would no longer be human.
What makes the human mind? That is a lingering enigma.
What mystery faces us today? What do we face today? What awful things lay in the awful voids between time and space? We cannot know until fate has us in its indifferent grip.
Fate stalks us, and today is one day nearer to that empty end… Alas! Such is our lot in time and space. We did not have the choice to exist- and yet here we are. This is the power of the unknown rulings of the universe. These things are the power of the beyond.
Welcome, dear readers, to a personal reflection. Today, we examine the life and times of yours truly. The adventure upon which we are about to embark… Is a dark one. This journey is not one to be taken lightly, for many reasons. We have much to discuss, and so little time. The mechanisms of time are sinister and in revolt; shadows from beyond infiltrate and warp our reality. The stars hide terrible secrets in the depths of far space. The chill of the night is unparalleled, but the day is infinite in terror as well.
Today, we must face the nightmare of the backstory- that most weighty and cumbersome literary burden. This is something which embodies character and curses- that awful mystery eventually revealed. The curse of a family, a legacy, or an amphibian mutation are all fair game. These things will eventually be revealed- by an old man, by a transformation, an ancient book, or an Outer God. These things are inevitable in the mystery of the Cthulhu Mythos.
My own journey through fate is something twisted and nonlinear. The confused workings of fate are something which are not to be cheated.
I have learned this lesson many times before- life often has many twists and turns, and these may be fatal. The awful and unrelenting nature of the world works against us. We are not simply people- we are animals lf the smallest kind. The awful nature of this revelation is something not to be shared… These things are dark and impossible.
My rambling path to cosmicism has been a long one. I admit it was not love at first sight- no, the road to Carcosa was much longer. It often takes time to find the ruins in the mountains of madness.
There are awful tragedies in life, and sometimes there are no answers. These things are inevitable, and sometimes incurable. I don’t know what to think about those spots of painful, shining lights sometimes. The wounds of the past can be impossible to heal.
I know well about the terrors of our existential comsmos, and the endless pondering of those questions- nihilism is often an awful and brooding thing, filled with the irreconcilable doom of meaninglessness. What are we to do if we are to except ultimate futility?
Change is an inevitable part of life, as always. One day, we will all die. I will be gone forever- when the signals of the brain die, so does the person. The awful reality of death is strong- we are given a few years of existence- and then, Alas!- we are gone. We are lost in the nightmare of religion and delusion- the nightmare of desperation. I know that I will stop existing, but I have difficulty accepting it. The awful reality of life is something I would not wish on anyone. The nature of existence is painful, and an awful
​I’ve had a lot of changes in my life – some good, most bad. One of the biggest changes was a complete one eighty. Who would think it? That can be the trouble with human nature- the Jekyll and Hyde duality.
​When I was much younger, I was frightened by a lot of things. Anything even slightly spooky, or even meant to be goofy but spooky nonetheless, could stick with me for weeks. Worse still, I was often petrified of the basement at night and sleeping in the dark. However, I was never afraid of monsters – the fear was just there.
​The dark is full of possibilities, as I would eventually find out. There are infinite possibilities, both good and bad.
​Before I had my realization about the wonderful world of horror, I looked down on it. I definitely didn’t loathe it, but I didn’t see it as a genre like fantasy or drama. The opinion largely came from my parents, who didn’t “get” it.
​While I have been surrounded by religion and narcissistic belief in human superiority and purpose, I have always leaned towards the nihilistic side of things. I often thought of nihilism as darkness and depression, I would eventually come to see it as freeing from unquestioned assumptions and obedience. The ordinary conceptions of life have never sat right with me.
When I was ten, my father bought me the complete fiction and poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. I was instantly taken by the gruesome, haunting tales. The poetry was exquisitely morose and melancholy, and the whole burned an impression forevermore.
These things are the foundation of something incredible and a part of who I am, and I am forever in the debt of those who have helped me along the way.
​That was before I really got into the darker side of fiction. I can’t trace it exactly, but I believe it continued with “The Phantom of the Opera,” my favorite book and musical from a young age. From there, I went on to A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, then bad slashers, and then classics.
John Carpenter’s The Thing was my first real film foray into the Lovecraftian. I was instantly taken by the film- it was a completely new experience, both visually, musically, and in the mind-expanding story and cosmic implications.
And yet, at the time, I did not fully appreciate the film. It would take several more years to truly appreciate all the film has to offer. The Thing remains a great influence on my work to this day.
Of course, I would soon enough arrive at my discovery of the infamous Lovecraft. That discovery would come nearly half a year later.
I was led to it inadvertently, through a series of articles online. My curiosity piqued, I read about the Cthulhu Mythos. And then it slipped from my mind… For a while. As with the Thing, it lay dormant, waiting to strike. That is the devious scheme of literature- it strives to survive however it can, in the minds of many.
Does literature possess an unknown life? Something of sentience? Something brilliant? What lies in the very essence of ink on the page? These thoughts are an essence of cosmicism- the thought of life completely alien to human perception. Can there be life so alien that we would not recognize it as life?
None of these thoughts would occur to me for years, until my perceptions were widened by the cosmic.
​The first time I read H. P. Lovecraft was not a cataclysmic event. Like a food which tastes fine the first time which will later become a favorite, it was another good story.
​All right, I’ll admit it – I didn’t finish the first time. I just sort of forgot and went on to other things less than halfway through. Like Lovecraft’s Old Ones, it was buried until the stars became right.
Times have changed, and we are able to appreciate the past more fully. Disasters, nightmares, possession, terror, and extraterrestrial invasion can happen in the span of a year. Lives are rethought, options reconsidered, and lives destroyed. We are often lost in the realities of unbearable upheaval. Such is the awful nature of our tiny world.
Such mysteries do not make for pleasant speculation, and do not inspire hope. They go unspoken, and yet are astoundingly common. These things remain just out of sight, and crawl and fester in the dark.
​Then, a year or so later, during a dull and unhappy period, I found it again. I gegan to read it on my ipod – my small, cramped ipod screen. The background was black and the lettering white. Ever since that time, it would always strike me as fitting that the traditional colors were reversed – the fiction of Lovecraft had a nearly nonsensical sweep which defied all the usual notions of sense and reality. At the Mountains of Madness was a long read, and thick in prose, plot, and scientific detail. It began with a desperate plea taking place after the main events – a plea not to send another research team to Antarctica. From there, the story described the findings of the first expedition team.
​The unreality of events nightmarish and full of foreshadowing. Slowly, the pieces came together. Relics of another time appeared, and I was drawn into the cold world.
It was night when I began, and my room was dark. Everything seemed perfect, as I prefer the dark.
​I had background on the Cthulhu Mythos, the collections of interconnecting characters, events, and places of Lovecraft’s stories. The references to other stories in Mountains of Madness created a powerful fascination.
​The language conveyed a sense of doom and inhuman legend through to the point but elegant, rich language. The lack of dialogue and character interaction created a world of surrealness and pain.​

Site Directory

Home- Contains an overview of the website’s purpose, along with providing information on my goals and Cosmicism.

The Abyss Laughs- contains information, excerpts, concepts, and interesting facts about my upcoming novel.

In-Depth Terminology-Explains key concepts of the Cthulhu and LaBaere Mythos, along with philisophical terminology.

Author Information- Explains more about myself.

External Links- provides access to blogs, literature, and events.

The Abyss Laughs- contains information, excerpts, concepts, and interesting facts about my upcoming novel.

In-Depth Terminology-Explains key concepts of the Cthulhu and LaBaere Mythos, along with philisophical terminology.

Author Information- Explains more about myself.

External Links- provides access to blogs, literature, and events.

From Beyond- provides Cosmic readings of different fiction, along with day-to-day reflections on the Cosmic.

Reader Reviews- Contains comments from readers pertaining to the site, along with my fiction

Reader Reviews- Contains comments from readers pertaining to the site, along with my fiction

Works- Contains a selection of my fiction.

For Questions, comments, or business inquiries, please write to:
a.r.labaere@gmail.com

Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?

“If though gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into thee.”- Friedrich Nietzsche

https://arlabaere.my-free.website

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http://www.vincentstarrett.com

“Cordelia’s Song from The King in Yellow” (1938) by Vincent Starrett & “Evening Reflections, Carcosa” (2011) by Ann K. Schwader

https://www.markzdanielewski.com

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
www.amazon.com/A-R-LaBaere/e/B01M051FID

What’s next for you as a writer?
The Oblong Music-Box

Amid the narrative,

the narrative of The Abyss Laughs,

the absence and fugue swirls as prolific,

sterling, screaming

stars.

Found amidst singing looking-glasses, spirals ebullient, ebony,

the stranger

within.

In the place of peculiar supellectiles, there dwells the extraordinary gardeviance.

Hours, decrepit, senescent, and jewelled, a music box dancing of some ebony

wood , which looks as if it has that hardness of a jewel

and is florid with strange designs that beguile,

at once distinct and impossible to focalize.

It is a small music box, like a miniature treasure chest,

made of some dark wood which looks as if it has the hardness of a jewel.

This surreal object is antediluvian, very old.

Slowly, as sempiternally before, it creaks open into its plangent well,

obtuse, oblong, that starry silhouette.

Slowly, its lid draws back, which is ornamented by black-diamond radiances,

as black stars ornate.

It holds no breath, the inorganic muse, glassy and listening to a still colder music.

It is drawing eyes into itself, sucking looking-glass walls within,

the darkness an unheimlich darkness.

The crisp little notes that arise from the box are like stars of sound

coming out in the twilight shadows and silence of the House.

The crisp little notes that billow atrabilious within,

tenebrous, are as screaming

stars

of sound billowing out in the twilight umbras and silence of the dummy-House.

The storm is sempiternal, leaving the auditing world outside muffled by wetness.

The tornado rumbles, base, tossing the notes within, muffled by wetness.

Within those closed rooms, which might now ever be transported

to the brink of a chasm

or deep inside the earth,

the music glimmered like infinitesimal flakes of light in that barren decor of dead days.

Within these neglected chambers, which might now regress to

drooping walls hyperbolic, peeling paper humid, there, deep within those sealed

apartments, music regresses to uncanny caterwauling,

where light forgets, moulders, that barren décor of dead days.

Nothing hears that venous swell, amidst breathing and breathless flumes, pools of

the starving shadows.

Resistentialism charms with enchanted immobility.

Lo, silence stretches starving shadows, Tsalal, walls breathing,

and even the starving shadows behind the universe are crooning

with enchanting malignancy.

Everything holds for a moment to allow the wandering music from the box

to pass on toward some unspeakably wondrous destination.

Everything stenches the world into a greater blackness,

malignantly melodious,

malignantly useless,

Truth sung sublimely on toward some sublimely terrible destination.

Voices might be heard to murmur within the yellowish haze of the room

and deep into the darkness that presses against the walls,

and then deeper into the darkness between the walls,

sighing narratives spiral outward, unlit—

through the yellowish haze of the Dead Masks,

deep into the darkness that presses against the walls,

and then deeper into the darkness between the walls,

then through the walls and into the

then through the walls and into the unbordered red spaces,

unbordered spaces where those silvery tones ascend and quiver like a

swarm of insects,

where those silvery tones ascend and settle as true stars.

There tenebrous time stretches out forever and loses itself in the suppurating,

soothing mirrors of infinity.

Even at that point one feels one could lose oneself in the vastness spreading

before it,

this tenebrous expanse rich with unknown exploits.

There dwells still pulchritude in this vision,

however tinged it is with the sinister.

But then something is stirring,

Within that mirror-maze, something is stirring,

irrupting like a disease,

irrupting like a disease,

poking its horribly

colored head through the cool blackness . . .

poking its horribly-coloured head through the cool blackness…

and chasing one from vague, broken spiral staircases,

and crooning one into further mirrored whispers suspiria.

What is your favorite book of all time?
House of Leaves

Mark Z. Danielewski

Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth — musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies — the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.

Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.

The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story — of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe

Thomas Ligotti

www.amazon.com/Songs-Dreamer-Grimscribe-Thomas-Ligotti/dp/0143107763

Author Websites and Profiles
A.R. LaBaere Website
A.R. LaBaere Amazon Profile
A.R. LaBaere Author Profile Other Bookseller

A.R. LaBaere’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I grew up on military bases, the daughter of a Canadian Armed Forces officer. Moving frequently made it difficult to make and keep friends. So, I read. A lot. My first adventure with writing was creating song lyrics for a band. Poetry and short stories followed, and finally full-length novels. Simon Says, Perdition Games was my debut novel and introduced returning protagonists, Samantha McNamara and Reece Hash. The second book, Skully, Perdition Games received positive editorial reviews from Kirkus Reviews, San Francisco Book Review, and Readers’ Favorite. Red Rover, Perdition Games will be available in June 2016. Each novel has a distinct plotline. The only commonality is the returning protagonists. It isn’t necessary to read them in order of publication.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Red Rover, Perdition Games. It edges closer to the psychological-thriller side and the ending may disturb some readers. It offers multiple suspects, shocking twists, and a surprising yet inevitable ending. What inspired it? Well, I have no idea. The premise came to me unexpectedly. As I nursed it along, the idea grew and developed almost on its own. Beta-readers and critique partners offered positive feedback, and I’m excited to see what my editor thinks.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My pugs have beds under my office desk. There’s very little legroom for their human pet, but I make do. The rescued girl barks. This is odd for pugs, who aren’t chronic barkers, but wee Porsche has many important things to say that she wasn’t able to share in her hideous first home. You’d think this would be a distraction but the opposite is true. If they’re off at the groomers for a ‘spa’ day or out for a walk with another member of the pack, I can’t concentrate. Some writers have a beautiful muse to inspire them… I have three adorable pugs.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love The Prince of Tides by Pat Conray. The descriptive narrative is brilliant yet well balanced. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt is also amazing, especially his characters. My favorite genre is mystery-thriller-suspense. I admire Elizabeth George, Jonathan Kellerman, James Patterson, and Stephen King. Years ago, I met Stephen and his wife, Tabitha, at a diner outside Bar Harbor. I was twenty-three and with a young man who enjoyed alcoholic beverages. I had a lovely chat with Tabitha about writing… while the young man made a drunken ass of himself in the bathroom.

What are you working on now?
Red Rover, Perdition Games (release date June 30, 2016)

Death is the prize in a twisted game.

A beautiful ballerina commits suicide and a football player is the victim of a heinous murder. The only connection is PI Samantha McNamara’s close friend, a famous psychiatrist and self-help author. But when a psychopath targets Sam, ex-OPP Inspector Reece Harsh must set aside his personal feelings to prevent her from becoming the next fatality in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Pretty-Hot.com is wonderful as it allows readers to get to know the author. Book promotion is difficult in a saturated market, and any opportunity to reach out to readers on a personal level is a valuable asset. There is a limit to what you can do on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. “Social” means a two-way street, and there’s nothing more irritating than a Twitter feed filled with self-promotion. I recommend to all authors to develop a website with a blog that focuses on interesting content and other authors. Read in your genre and tell your readers about those hidden gems. As a reader, I love to hear about emerging Indie authors.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read, read, read. Start writing reviews. Even if you keep your review to yourself. Then, read and review some more. Write your first draft and pop it in a drawer. Take it out six months later. If you cringe, figure out why, and write another. Keep doing it. When you’re thrilled with yourself and believe you have the next best seller, hire a qualified editor in your genre. Never submit anything without an editor. When it’s perfect, hire a qualified copy proofer. Respect your readers and don’t make them suffer typos.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Put together a book team of freelancers.

Writers are too close to their work to make an accurate assessment. You need an editor. It’s the best money you’ll spend. Never publish or submit anything with hiring a qualified copy proofer. I worked for years as a corporate proof-reader. I can easily pick up typos, dropped words, and grammar errors in other people’s work. My own? Not so much.

What are you reading now?
A Fraction Of The Whole by Steve Toltz.

I interviewed an author on my website who recommend it.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Keep on keeping on. If we lived in a world where I had to pay to write, I would. That simple fact makes the future easy. This industry requires tenacity, patience, and a serious passion for writing. It is not for the faint of heart or the arrogant. You must learn something every day and never give up.

As Margaret Atwood said, “Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ¬essentially you’re on your own. ¬Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.”

What is your favorite book of all time?
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Author Websites and Profiles
L.E. Fraser Website
L.E. Fraser Amazon Profile

L.E. Fraser’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a giant sci-fi and fantasy nerd, especially with an element of horror, and you can see that in my writing. I have two books under my belt now—an anthology of poetry and short stories, and the first book in a paranormal contemporary fantasy series for new adults. Beyond that, I also love to draw, sing, compose music, write lyrics, play the bass (and I’m learning violin!), do a bit of photography and graphic design…I wear way too many hats, but I’m OK with that.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
INTO THE FORGOTTEN FOREST is a book I’d been working on for a long time. I think what originally inspired it was the fact that some of my favorite series (both books and TV) have both vampires and werewolves, but the main focus is usually the former. I wanted to write something where the main character isn’t just a human girl falling in love with a vampire. I wanted a story where the main character has to navigate turning into a monster, herself, while also maintaining her life in the “real world.” I also wanted romance to play a smaller part, so the first book in the series is more focused on family and friends, and the duality of the main character’s own nature.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I absolutely have to be listening to music to write. It fuels me. If I’m sitting in front of a blank page, and there aren’t tunes blasting into my skull, I’ll just be staring at it, gathering cobwebs.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh, the list is long! Susan Cooper, for sure. Her series, THE DARK IS RISING SEQUENCE, is my favorite of all time. I also turn to Ray Bradbury’s THE HALLOWEEN TREE and Clive Barker’s THE THIEF OF ALWAYS and his ABARAT SERIES when I have writer’s block. Terry Brooks and the entire SHANNARAverse is also a huge influence. And I reread Holly Black and Melissa Marr a lot! On top of all of that, I’ve always loved mythology, lore, and legends from all over. Stephen King, Anne Rice, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, and Orson Scott Card are a few more that grace my bookshelves.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently eleven chapters into outlining book two of THE OUTCROSSED SERIES—UNDER THE WOLF MOON, and about half that much into outlining the first book in another series about a college for magic.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m on Twitter a lot, so that seems to be where I promote things the most! But I’m working on branching out. And I’m always open to suggestions!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Absolutely! Keep on going. You got this. Whether you plan to go Indie or Traditional is completely up to you, and don’t let naysayers discourage you from either. Your first draft will always be horrible, but that’s where the magic of revising and editing comes in. It’s hard work, but it’s so worth it!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
That kindness should never be mistaken for weakness.

What are you reading now?
I just finally started in on Holly Black’s THE CRUEL PRINCE. No idea why it took me this long to pick it up!

What’s next for you as a writer?
So much! Hahaha. I’m hoping to get UNDER THE WOLF MOON out by January. After that, the first book in my magic series—WYLDE & STRANGE. I have another…8 series’ in the works, I think? There are so many, I often lose track. But, without spoilers, there’ll be an Arthurian retelling, a secret society, a dystopian underground society, space travel, time travel, some fairy tale retellings, and a prequel series to THE OUTCROSSED that takes place in the 1990s.

What is your favorite book of all time?
Can I just choose all five books in Susan Cooper’s THE DARK IS RISING SEQUENCE?

Author Websites and Profiles
River J. Hopkins Website
River J. Hopkins Amazon Profile

River J. Hopkins’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
While writing for magazines and websites, I’ve been working on my story, Unknown Stone, for years. No matter what I worked on, I kept coming back to this story. Now, after hard work and long nights, I have finally published it.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Unknown Stone is the name of the book and readers will find out that the stone is the key to the story. The fast paced action adventure set on a slow dull farm was inspired by my childhood growing up in a small forestry town. Going outdoors and using my imagination to create fantastic fantasy worlds.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Staring at my cat Angus. As I write, he is besides the laptop keeping me coming. Sitting like a Buda and purring like a tiger.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Dark fantasy and horror authors like Stephen King, Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman, but I also love classic children stories like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.

What are you working on now?
The follow up to Unknown Stone. Bet and her pet horse Lightning are set to go on many more adventures.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Using the advertising programs through Amazon or promoting on social media.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read and write as much as you can. Don’t just dream up stories, work hard and make those dreams reality. It doesn’t matter if you use a pen and paper or computer, just write. Set a word count for yourself and work on reaching it every day.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It’s corny, but never give up. There are always naysayers, negative people who don’t want anyone to succeed. Ignore them. Ignore those voices. Focus on what you want to do. Focus on accomplishing your goals. Believe in yourself and you can do it. No matter what anybody says.

What are you reading now?
Janet Evanovich – One For The Money

What’s next for you as a writer?
Continuing to write about Bet and improving my craft.

What is your favorite book of all time?
America Gods.

Author Websites and Profiles
Jamie Blower Website
Jamie Blower Amazon Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I make my living as an artist and (trying) to make it as a writer. I have always been passionate about reading and writing from a very young age. I have been writing sci-fi and fantasy genre stories from the age of twelve and have continued for a few decades! I finally decided to publish my first novel in 2014, the Guardians of the Crystals saga which is a mixture of several genres (science fiction, fantasy with a touch of romance). I have written several short articles that are online on different subjects, but the Guardians of the Crystals is a work in progress. I just released in 2018, my third novel in the series, Amun-Ra which continues the saga from book two (Herculobus). I have started writing a novelette which is a preface to the three novels and deals with the three male characters that become involved with the main character during the series. More or less a backstory on E’jah, Enkarath and Amun-Ra. This should be published within a few weeks, then I am starting the fifth full-length novel that continues the story from Amun-Ra.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Guardians of the Crystals: Amun-Ra (Book Three)

Being a lifetime student of ancient civilisations, with all the study and research I have done over the past thirty+ years, I wanted to give a vision of our world as seen through the eyes of the ancients that once inhabited our beautiful planet.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I always write with music playing in the background, genres like Globus.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Anne Rice, Stephen King, Graham Hancock, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, Greg Bear, Michael Crichton, H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stroker, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, Mary Shelley, Peter Straub, Philip K. Dick, Joyce Carol Oates, Tanith Lee, George Orwell, Issac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, Erick Von Daniken, Hank Wesselman, James Redfield, Michael Tellinger, Sonja Grace, Cecilia Holland , to name a few..

What are you working on now?
Fourth novelette that is a preface to the GOTC saga, a backstory on the three male characters that are in the first three novels of the series.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Twitter and instagram.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write, write, write then edit over and over and over until you are satisified!!!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write every day.

What are you reading now?
War God: Return of the Plumed Serpent by Graham Hancock

What’s next for you as a writer?
Getting picked up by a major publishing house

What is your favorite book of all time?
Earthblood by Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown ( I found a copy in 1999, 1991 edition at a second-hand online bookstore). I read this book in the late ’70’s. Loved it.

Author Websites and Profiles
K.D. Martel Website
K.D. Martel Amazon Profile
K.D. Martel Author Profile Other Bookseller

K.D. Martel’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a science fiction author living in Leicester city, UK. I’ve written two books that are or will be published, one that I hope will get published and a first try that I keep in a drawer. Trust me, it’s better that way. Really.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘The Scalpel’: Book One of Feral Space. In terms of character my big inspiration was the case of the Gibbons twins. Seriously, Google it. Eerie as heck but oddly moving. The two girls couldn’t function apart but knew they were consuming each other’s identities as time progressed. They announced one of them would die and, hey presto, one of them did that very day, just collapsed in her sister’s arms. Feral Space doesn’t go that way, but I wanted to take the twins’ predicament to an extreme: two sisters sharing a single body and presenting themselves as one to the rest of the world. The idea of showing that in a novel set my keyboard alight.

As for the far future universe it takes place in, that’s a reboot of a war-game me and my pals created at university. I couldn’t let the ideas in it die quietly. A universe where vast powers war over how humanity should be, an aesthetic conflict rather than a resource war. I thought that idea had legs.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I look after a hotel at night, all alone, and I’m required to do an hourly patrol around the corridors and stairs (I’m sure you’re picturing The Shining right now!). If I’ve got an idea for a character I’ll wait to the wee early hours when the world is asleep and physically do a corridor patrol as the character, like a method actor would. How would the character perform the task? What would they think while doing it? Letting them inhabit my bones and sinews for five minutes tends to bring them to life later when I come to write them. Bizarre, admittedly, but I’d recommend it to any writer. That said, it’s probably not a good idea if you work in a busy office or air traffic control.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Iain M Banks. I’d be a fraud if I missed him out. Anyone writing wisecracking, sexy kinda space opera is following in his superluminal wake. And he’s in Ursula LeGuin’s of course.

George Orwell for prose. He said it should be transparent like a window, so the reader can best see the ideas you’re trying to convey. That’s doubly true if the ideas and world you’re trying to convey are really weird.

Can I pick David Bowie? That allowed? His lyrical imagery and general mood on albums like Diamond Dogs have inspired me immensely. He may be the greatest science fiction writer of the late 20th century.

What are you working on now?
‘The Dragonfly Girls’. That’s the working title at least. A military SF set in the Feral Space universe and thus quite psychedelic. The setting is a planetary war half inspired by the Spanish civil war (a conflict that attracted many passionate foreign volunteers) and half by the current, continuous war we call social media. Well, sort of, but also not really. Anyway, it’s got fairy-winged power armour. What’s not to love?

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m learning as I go along. I seem to be getting a good reaction on Twitter. I can broadcast whatever daft thought occurs to me at any moment, long before my better judgement can stop me. People seem to like that. Plus I can link to the occasional blog post.

Facebook and Goodreads are good too. But I’m beginning to suspect that, in the long term, the best way to promote books is to write books people simply have to talk about. It’s as simple and as soul-crushingly difficult as that.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t do it. Turn back.

(If you ignore the above advice, congratulations. You may just be bloody-minded enough to achieve your dreams)

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I was in a class taught by the awesome Elizabeth Bear. She said “If you want a reader to care about a character have the character care about someone else”. Great advice when you’re starting a story. We’ve all cared for someone else’s welfare: a lover; a child; a parent; a stranger in trouble even. So we’ll root for a character who does likewise, even if they’re awful in every other way.

What are you reading now?
Age Of Assassins by RJ Barker. It’s a sort of whodunnit in a fantasy world that’s, well, rotting, I suppose. It has that hallmark of a good genre novel: a colour palette. It’s all yellows and browns, blacks and greys, like a Turner painting. If you’re giving a reader a new world to visualise then never be afraid to choose and emphasise certain shades. Great genre authors know this, if only subconsciously. Barker certainly does. It’s a quality novel. I recommend it.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Well there’s a lot more in the Feral Space universe, absolute lumps of it. I’ve also a louche and irresponsible fantasy novel I’m shopping around. On top of all that there’s film. I’ve co-written a couple of short films, one award winning, and there’s a script for a feature length. But, as a writer, that kind of thing is largely out of one’s hands. See how it goes…

What is your favorite book of all time?
Nineteen Eighty-Four. I took it out the school library when I was twelve and it capsized my little mind. I’m older now and can see the book’s occasional faults but I only love it the more. It changes every time I read it, or I do. Probably the latter. By the seventh read-through it’s almost a comedy. Almost.

Author Websites and Profiles
James Worrad Website
James Worrad Amazon Profile

James Worrad’s Social Media Links
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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was in sales for 21 years. I spanned from a telemarketer to a product trainer. My product knowledge was vast. It spanned from replacement windows to home maintenance equipment, with automobiles, and many electronics thrown in. I could tell you the difference between a veractor, and detant tuner, and even what they were. I went into military Intelligence when I graduated from high school and had to know all NATO, and Warsaw Pact vehicles. I had many stories from the military, and many he made up.

I also drew comics in high school and made up intriguing characters. Once I lost most of my sight to Diabetic Retinopathy, I continued my stories in book form. You can check out my ever-evolving writing journey on my Amazon web page. I have fifteen fiction tales in my library with another on the way.
https://www.robertson_fiction

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recent book is The Millennium Malevolence: All Four Complete Parts. The eBook and paperback are anthology pieces. The sci-fi/fantasy story was fueled when I read a Wicca book. The inspiration was my fiance’s mother. I figured it was way better than a Mother’s Day card. I know writing a book about her was nice, but I had to make her look good. it wasn’t tough. With Mrs. Aruna, I was just shining the Venus de Milo.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know if they’re unusual, but this is my method.
I begin with an idea. An idea would make an intriguing sentence, but an author has to craft an entire story from that one idea.
I brainstorm with a rough draft outline with whatever comes to me. When that process is over, I have to edit my outline.
Before you write your book you have to prepare yourself to write. A hack just does it willy-nilly. Do your research. I write fiction, but my stories are peppered with fact. Fiction authors, well good ones just embellish fact. We just need to know how to allow our audience the privilege of suspension of disbelief. They know your story isn’t real, but sometimes they want to escape those real bills and work harbingers of stress. Make your fiction as factual as possible. I didn’t know what Zyprexa Zydis was until I had to look up schizophrenia prescriptions for one of my stories.
I also write with my own soundtrack. I’m eclectic, so I go from Cibo Matto to Gustav Holst. When I write an intense scene, I have Trent Reznor playing. When I do a love scene, Sade or Imogen Heap is playing. Music sets the tone.
Outline your story, research, and feel like writing. Those tips kill writer’s block.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a big Stephen King fan. Phillip Kindred Dick, Clive Barker, Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, Matt Wagner, Marv Wolfman, Frank Miller, and Stan Lee play a part as well. I admit it. I’m a former comic book… how do you pronounce enthusiast? Oh yeah, nut.

What are you working on now?
My next book is based on bullying. It has a real topic with a hard science fiction motif to it. Hard means as factual as theoretically possible. The story houses a deep subject with deep science in the fiction. It’s called I’m Not Him: The Alien Abduction Case of Mistaken Identity. It should be ready by Thanksgiving. It’s almost finished now, but I have to market it in order to create buzz. Peop;e line up for this year’s iPhone for a reason.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My Blog: http://pimiebooks.com/
My Amazon page: ttps://www.amazon.com/author/kylerobertson_fiction
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/191419724391038/
Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/drakx42/
Ask david Page: http://askdavid.com/books/10751
I use more, but those are just services.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Learn your craft, have thick skin, and know you can do it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I ever heard was do not quit. You will fail many times. That’s where you gain experience. With tenacity, you can’t hep but to get better.

What are you reading now?
That’s another aspect of my process. When I write I don’t read. You can inadvertently plagiarize. It’s not your fault. I just eliminate the trigger.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To master marketing in this environment. I
used to sell, but my methods are old school. I have to learn this new way. I’m getting there.

What is your favorite book of all time?
The Stand. I read it in high school for me. I think Stephen King is a master at paranoia.

Author Websites and Profiles
Kyle Robertson Website
Kyle Robertson Amazon Profile

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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born and raised in Sharon, PA, and moved to LA to try and do the whole get found and get noticed thing, which ironically, doesn’t really happen to anyone who moves to LA. It’s more like in LA, the people who are famous there already were famous before moving there, so the rest of us who want to get noticed that live in LA are just in the shadows of the famous people, working for them, and trying to be them. Thankfully, I didn’t really move to LA for that reason. It was more for family reasons.
I have a pet cat named Gachapin who hates everyone, literally. I have a young daughter who is my everything and the only person in this world I really feel like I want to get up everyday to see and be around. I hope she wants to be creative when she grows up, but it’s okay if she wants to be a janitor too. I will love her no matter what she decides to do in her life. Also, I’ve been reading books since I could read letters of the alphabet, but I’ve only written one book so far. I have ideas for about four more books, and currently I’m working on a massive trilogy about cryptids, the Pan Gu myth, and the end of the world which isn’t really the end of the world. It’s my Game of Thrones, as it has like 80 characters in it. So far, it’s going good.
My first book I’ll talk about in a second, but other than this, I should say I was in a famous band called From a Second Story Window, and I graduated from Penn State with a degree in counseling, which I never, ever want to do again in my life. Oh, and I code websites for fun.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest (and only, so far) book is KAI. I was working as a counselor in Chicago and had a discussion with my supervisor, who is one of the smartest men I have ever met, and he told me this idea about theta waves and how you are the most creative when you’re brain enters into a state of theta waves, particularly at the 7 megahertz level. All great ideas in this world can attribute themselves to somebody out there reaching this theta wave level.
So anyway, I thought to myself… what is you could create something to replace something you’ve lost?
KAI came from this kind of idea. It’s the story about a Japanese girl from Hiroshima who wants to destroy the world because of something terrible that happened to her. In order to write about her experience in a realistic way, I lived in Hiroshima for awhile and really inserted myself into the culture and what it’s like to be somebody living in Hiroshima on a day to day basis. I also drew upon my counseling experiences in Chicago to write about the second character in the book, a Korean woman who is a counselor in Evanston, Illinois, right outside of Chicago. The story I draw between them both is equal parts Haruki Murakami and Stephen King, and that’s all I’ll say about that.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m terrible with procrastinating, which is probably something not that unusual with writers, but with me, I write in massive blocks of intense writing, and then I’ll go a month and not touch what I’ve written. I hate writing this way, but that’s how I write the best things, it would seem.
Also, I’m a method writer, I guess you could say? When I write about something, even if it’s just one sentence about that particular something, I have to live it, breathe it, know it, and feel it. So for example, in the latest book I’m working on, there is a part that involves an ancient writing system that isn’t used anymore by anyone. I have not only researched every inch of this writing system, but I’m becoming fluent in it, so that I can accurately write a few parts in my book that talk about it. I do this for every inch of the books I’m writing, which takes an extraordinary amount of time to do, but I feel it’s worth it in the end, because my writing rings true to my ears when I do this. I hate when I read something and it’s obvious the person who wrote that something didn’t do their homework. It’s not fair to readers out there who want to experience something and not be lied to about that experience, which is what authors do when they don’t take the time to either research something they’re writing about, or find an imaginative solution to filling in the blanks about stuff they want to write about.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
So, so many authors have influenced me, as well as books, but a few that stand out include Haruki Murakami and his book, 1Q84, which is my all time favorite book by anyone, Ryu Murakami, Natsuo Kirino, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Asa Nonami, Banana Yoshimoto, and Brett Easton Ellis. These are just a few, and I don’t want to go too much into this simply because I could fill page after page of books and authors that have moved my soul.

What are you working on now?
Right now, I have about four books in the works, but they are only ideas on paper at the moment. The biggest book I’m working on is actually a trilogy about cryptids, the Pan Gu myth, and how the end of the world could really be the beginning of the world. It’s my Game of Thrones, as it has around 80 major characters in it. I’m about 200 pages into it.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use my own website to do alot of promotion, and also Facebook and Twitter and Goodreads. Beyond that, I’ve been trying to find and connect with a lot of bloggers out there who love books, I like to do giveaways with my books, and just overall, talk to anyone out there who wants to talk about books and my book, especially. I think being humble is the best way to promote anything, and also being persistent too. I’ve probably sent out over 1,000 requests for book reviews from bloggers and have got about 11 people who said they would do a review for me. 11…out of 1,000. So yeah, persistence is key.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Persistence, as I just mentioned, is important, both in when you’re writing your books, and when you get them out into the world for everyone to read. Also, you have to get the idea out of your head that you’re going to be the next J.K. Rowling. She won the book lottery, as did most of the authors you hear about on TV or who get their books made into movies or TV Shows or whatever. Forget all that. Write a great story, believe in it, and share it with whoever is willing to read it, and be humble about it all. And you’ve probably heard this before… KEEP WRITING. Don’t stop. If you want to have a career as an author, you can’t stop writing. Think about it like this…. if you write 3,000 books, and each one of those books sells 1 copy as an ebook on Amazon a month, you’ve made around 3,000 dollars. That’s good enough for a 1 bedroom apartment and most of your bills, right? 3,000 books might seem like more than anyone can ever write, and I would agree, so even if you do a quarter of this, you might get a winner out of all those books you’ve written that sells 1,000 copies a month, so you don’t need to write THAT many. But if you got stories to tell, TELL THEM. That’s the best advice I can give new writers.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never expect anything from anyone, and this way you’ll never get hurt. My one boss at a video store I worked at for ten years told me this. It’s still to this day the best advice anyone has ever personally told me.

What are you reading now?
I tend to read about three or four different books at the same time. Since Star Wars has everyone talking, I got a little inspired and started reading the ULTIMATE Star Wars guidebook. Also, I’m reading Quick Draw, People Who Eat Darkness, and Vibrator by Mari Akasaka.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to keep working on my trilogy and try to finish this, and also I’m doing research for my next three books as well.

What is your favorite book of all time?
1Q84, by Haruki Murakami. It’s a great love story that is embedded in Japanese flavored magical realism. It’s the size of a Bible too, which makes it a satisfying read when you finish it. And it’s weird. So, so weird, and in the best possible kind of way.

Author Websites and Profiles
Derek Vasconi Website
Derek Vasconi Amazon Profile

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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Mark Allan Gunnells. I’m a 41 year old “southern boy” who lives in Greer, South Carolina, with my fiance Craig Metcalf. I work as a security guard to pay the bills while pursuing my writing. Storytelling has been my passion since I was very young, and I’m very proud to be getting my stuff out there.

I have thus far published 18 books with a variety of small press publishers.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is a short story collection called FLOWERS IN A DUMPSTER, released from Crystal Lake Publishing. While I like writing novels and novellas, short fiction has always been my first and truest love and I wanted to release a collection that really displayed my range. Tales that encompassed a variety of subjects, tones, themes. I also wanted to include pieces that dated as far back as my college years to ones I wrote just last year. And that’s how FLOWERS IN A DUMPSTER was born.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m very lucky in that I get to do the majority of my writing at my day job during my downtime. The thing is, I never know when I may have downtime or how long it will last, so I may just get to write for five minutes and have to stop for an hour then get back to it for fifteen minutes more. Some may find that sort of stop-and-start method hard to do, but I’ve sort of trained myself to write in the sporadic pockets of time that pop up.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Cliche as it sounds, King is a big influence on me. He has such a love of storytelling, and I adore his use of small towns and small town people. I also admire Joe Lansdale greatly, someone who writes what he wants and doesn’t worry about crossing genre because he is his own genre. Clive Barker also was a big inspiration for me coming up, both as someone who initially made his name in the short form and as a gay man working in the horror genre.

What are you working on now?
I just completed a collaboration with Australian horror writer Aaron Dries, a very different kind of zombie tale called WHERE THE DEAD GO TO DIE. And I’ve just started on my next solo project, a novella called BOOK HAVEN.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I do a lot of promoting on my Facebook page and my blog. However, I realize that with those I’m basically reaching the same people over and over so I like to do what I call “blog swaps”, where I let other writers do guest blogs on my page and I do guest blogs on theirs. That way maybe we can each reach some of the other’s readers and get them interested in our own work.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Have fun. Yes, you have to learn the business in, you have to self-promote especially in the small press, and you want to work to always improve your craft and get better–but none of that matters if you aren’t actually enjoying what you do. So pursue the stories that excite you, and just have a great time.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write what you love.

What are you reading now?
I’m currently finishing up Clive Barker’s masterpiece Imajica. I’m ashamed it took me this long to read it, but what he has accomplished here is quite amazing. When I’m done with that I’ll dive right into King’s new collection. I’m very excited as I think the man can still do amazing short fiction.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m just going to keep writing stories that excite me. Once I’m done with BOOK HAVEN, I’m going on to a new novel 432 ABERCORN.

What is your favorite book of all time?
That is so hard to say. I have a fondness for coming-of-age type tales like King’s THE BODY, Lansdale’s THE BOTTOMS, and McCammon’s BOY’S LIFE. Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE is an extraordinary piece of dystopian fiction. Neil Gaiman’s NEVERWHERE is a fantasy novel that truly illuminates so much about the human condition. So I guess the answer is, I can’t pick just one.

Author Websites and Profiles
Mark Gunnells Website
Mark Gunnells Amazon Profile
Mark Gunnells Author Profile Other Bookseller

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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have been an entertainment writer and interviewer for more than 10 years, talking to personalities such as Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, Dane Cook, Taylor Momsen from The Pretty Reckless, Chuck Palahniuk, and baseball legend Pete Rose. I have also covered everyone from Jerry Seinfeld to President Obama.

I’m the author of DRAMA DOLLS, ANONYMOUS (which was starred reviewed by Publishers Weekly), HELLO FABULOUS!, and HELLO LESBIAN!

In fiction, I enjoy everything from psychological horror, fast-paced thrillers, dark suspense, stories with lots of action, transgressive fiction, and unexpected plot twists. My favorite authors are Chuck Palahniuk, Bret Easton Ellis, Gillian Flynn, Christopher Buckley, Clive Barker, Craig Clevenger, and Charles Bukowski.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
DRAMA DOLLS is the new novel. I saw a documentary about grown men who dressed up as dolls. They ventured out in public, running their errands, basking in the attention given to them. The dolls thought they were beautiful. The perception by the bystanders was the opposite. The dichotomy was amazing to see. I thought, “How disturbing!”

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Other than writing about grown men who dress up as cheerleaders, not really. My writing process is simple – I think (or read) of an interesting idea and expand on it. Before I write anything down I work the storyline(s) in my head until there is enough material. I always have the ending in mind before writing; it’s easier to write to an ending.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My two favorite authors are Chuck Palahniuk and Dave Barry (Big Trouble). These two specifically got me excited to read novels again. I also enjoy what Gillian Flynn is doing with her books. There’s something about people doing crazy things.

What are you working on now?
I just finished DRAMA DOLLS (launched October 1st) so now I’m in between novels.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have about 5,000 Twitter followers and I generally write my own press releases and blitz them out across the web. But the best promotion is word of mouth. If I’m selling paperbacks, I do most of my promotions via Comic Conventions where I can physically talk/sell to the reader.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t worry about trends. Write what you want because you love to write.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Chuck Palahniuk, author of FIGHT CLUB, once told me writing is like a mistress with your full-time job being your wife. Keep working until you make enough to write for a living. In Chuck’s words, however, it was keep seeing your mistress while keeping your wife full-time; until it’s time to leave your wife for your mistress.

What are you reading now?
GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA by Douglas Coupland.

What’s next for you as a writer?
have an idea for another novel. But I can’t say. Not because I’m secretive, but by the time I start writing it, it may be a different idea.

What is your favorite book of all time?
This is unanswerable. Too difficult.

Author Websites and Profiles
Jason Tanamor Website
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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a Southern California-based writer of horror, SF, thrillers and bizarro fiction. My bibliography includes The Phantom Cabinet, The Fetus and Other Stories, and Into the Darkness: Volume One’s closing tale.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is The Phantom Cabinet. It was inspired by recurring childhood nightmares, growing up in Southern California, and poltergeist fiction ranging from the Victorian era to the present.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Scribbling illegible prose while drinking, and then attempting to make sense of it the next morning.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
H.P. Lovecraft, Grant Morrison, Stephen King, Alan Moore, Thomas Ligotti, Bentley Little, Peter Straub, J.D. Salinger, Peter David, Chris Claremont, Clive Barker, Warren Ellis, Jonathan Hickman, Michael Marshall Smith, Robert McCammon, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman and Richard Matheson.

What are you working on now?
I am writing Let’s Destroy Investutech, a science fiction novel, and Toby Chalmers Commits “Career” Suicide, a bizarro novella.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Contacting reviewers is helpful.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If your story’s been rejected by a few publishers, it may be time for another edit.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I forgot it.

What are you reading now?
Robert McCammon’s The Night Boat.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Long hours of editing.

What is your favorite book of all time?
H.P. Lovecraft: Tales

Author Websites and Profiles
Jeremy Thompson Amazon Profile

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