Shoutout: Janz, Sangiovani and Hirshberg

I've had my nose to the war machine out here in Afghanistan so I apologize for not being keyed in and part of the community like I usually am. I do want to take a moment and talk about three folks.

First of all, big congrats to Mary Sangiovani. I was there when she was talking about submitting her new novella to Cemetery Dance early in 2017. Now that she's actually taken the time to write it, get it edited by an army of garden gnomes and then turn it in, I'm happy to say that the powers that be at Cemetery Dance have gladly accepted it and it will be part of their prestigious Novella Series.

Second, I wanted to make sure everyone was tracking Jonathan Janz. Who is this guy? Jon and I were both guests at Scares That Care last year and I had the honor of listening to him talk about his works in progress. It brought me back to when I was first starting out and I couldn't wait to tell everyone about the demons crawling with ice picks and hammers through my mind. Jon had that same energy. If I'm not mistaken, today marks the first birthday for Janz's 10th novel, Exorcist Falls. Janz writes with a certain violent glee reminiscent of Richard Laymon. Not that they are even the same author, but Janz's characters' naive rollicking through darkness can't help but remind me of how one of the greats approached his own spiked walls of fear early on in his career. Not sure if Exorcist Falls was or is on your radar. If it's not,then it should be before it passes you by.

Finally, I'd love to give a shutout to Glen Hirshberg. His collection The Ones Who Are Waving was born a few days ago from Cemetery Dance Publications. Glen is a writer's writer. I love reading his work. He's won the Shirley Jackson Award and the International Horror Guild Award and even gets consistent love from Publishers Weekly and that never happens unless the words Oprah Book Club appear printed on the front cover of one of your books. Oh, shit. Now I've done it. All of you are going running because you think Glen is a Bridges of Madison County sort of writer. He isn't, but so what if he was. He writes beautifully and dark and his sentences take me wholly unexpected. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of his newest collection.

So there you have it. Reporting from Afghanistan. Three folks who are doing awfully well. Do the world a solid and go read something of theirs, especially if they have something that just came out. Remember, what sells in the first two weeks of publication matters to the future success of authors. So go do your thing and support them.

Now back to the War Machine.