Monthly Archives: September 2016

Special Books – The Raggedy Man and The Witch at Sparrow Creek will be signed at Shockacon and will be sold at a reduced package price, or bring your pre-purchased copy of one and get the other book for a big discount. Kindle counts! Show us your Kindle copy!

Here’s what else is coming…

Lifetime Learning Series at West Virginia University – I’ll be teaching a writing class in October. Click here to view the course catalogue.

My new play, “A Thing of Shadows” is under review by Ohio City Theatre Project for a full production. Dates TBA

My nascent publishing company Contagious Magic, Inc. will begin assembling its staff and writing its mission statement.

About the books and my writing…

I wanted to bring a new literary style to the world of supernatural adventure. There’s rhythm, mystery, and song in the old-style storytelling and I was impressed and inspired by Appalachian folklore, ghost stories, and also Navajo singers. That the old stories used to be sung, that they were shared and repeated, and meant for changes in style depending upon the singer. This is what I aimed at with The Witch at Sparrow Creek. A limited, terce language – patterns – dialects and monologues –  but also errors. Humans are rife with them and I could never forget how Harold Pinter put as much space and dead ends in his dialogue as the unedited Grimm’s Fairy Tales put unexplained sausages and devil houses to dance.

“While the words were so important, Scott Hanson’s artistry exposes the strangeness of Falk’s world like lightning over scraggly trees.”

The Raggedy Man predates The Witch at Sparrow Creek by about a decade and is filled with action. Originally, it was released on this blog in three parts, and was designed as vignettes to advertise and peak into the expanding world in which Jim Falk and his companions struggle against a nameless evil. While the words were so important, Scott Hanson’s artistry exposes the strangeness of Falk’s world like lightning over scraggly trees. Hanson’s work makes this exclusive mini-series worth the having. The Raggedy Man is now available as a special print from Amazon and on your Kindle device.

Later this month, I’ll be at West Virginia’s Shockacon on a panel with some other writers of local renown. Importantly, I will be sitting at a table with the very talented illustrator, Scott Hanson – whose dark and vivid imaginings appear in The Raggedy Man. Bring your copy and we’ll sign them. The two books – The Witch at Sparrow Creek and the special edition The Raggedy Man, will be on sale at a reduced rate at our booth during the convention.

Thanks so much – oh – and check out the intro to The Raggedy Man, you may find that I’ve thanked you there!