Invisible Work

Back in the fall I attended a party where a distant acquaintance commented that I seemed to be busier lately. By “busier,” the person meant the imminent publication of The Island of Small Misfortunes in March.

Behind the comment lay an assumption that somehow I wasn’t busy before Island was publicly announced. This is one of the frustrations of being a writer. Nobody actually believes that writers and authors exist — to most we are Bigfoots and Mothmen, creatures that exist purely in theory or in third-hand accounts by friends of friends, yet are never met face to face.

This is largely because the work we do often goes unseen. When a book lands on a table at Barnes & Noble, the reader may recognize the writing that went into it but probably not the countless hours that went into researching it, revising it, pitching it, editing it, marketing it, or any of the other invisible labor baked into its seemingly sudden and mysterious appearance at the bookstore.

This is further magnified when you consider that many authors also do writing that doesn’t result in books. A friend of mine runs a business writing corporate communications, and while she’s one of the most successful writers I know, very little of what she produces is seen by the general public. When I tell people that a large part of my freelancing over the years has consisted of editing and ghostwriting, they often give me the same look flashed by a red snapper lying on a bed of ice in the seafood department at Whole Foods. It has been my experience that few believe a writer can be busy in the absence of a firsthand tangible result of that busyness.

All of this is a long-winded way of me saying I’ve been very industrious lately, literally working seven days a week. When I’m not busy marketing The Island of Small Misfortunes (available March 25!), I’ve been ghostwriting another memoir project as well as banging away at a separate, high-priority, top-secret, I-wish-I-could-tell-you-more project.

I’m also a member of the planning committee for StokerCon 2025, to be held this June in Stamford, Connecticut. I am in charge of the Author Readings, as well as some informal responsibilities like menu planning. If you’re an author who has signed up to read at StokerCon, my intention is to have the reading slots finalized (more or less) by the end of April, after we figure out the programming. I know it can be frustrating to sign up for an author reading and then not know when I’m slotted to read until the very last minute, making it difficult to plan an itinerary for the con, so again, I hope to have a good idea of who is reading when by May 1. I will be contacting all authors when the schedule is live.

In the meantime, I must once again vanish in a cloud of brimstone. Work calls.

Cover Reveal!

In the summer of 1898, Sequoia Owen accepts an invitation from his estranged uncle to visit his family’s summer home on Todeket, a private island off the Connecticut coast.

Yet the house, constructed by Sequoia’s unstable grandfather and the site of his cousin’s mysterious death, is a strange place. None of his odd relatives, who seem to have sinister agendas of their own, can agree upon the origin of the house, nor do they all believe the sightings of a ghost that haunts its halls, said to appear before tragedy strikes.

Trapped on the island by a storm, Sequoia must unravel the enigma of Todeket before the next life lost is his own.

The Island of Small Misfortunes will be published March 25, 2025. Pre-order is available now from Regal House.

NecronomiCon 2024

I’m very excited to read a short story at NecronomiCon 2024 in Providence, RI, on Sunday, August 18.

I will be reading my stories “The Half That Matters” and “An Incident on Mulberry Street” in the Narragansett Bayview Room of the Graduate Hotel, 17th floor, at 2pm.

I will also have a few copies of A Season of Whispers available for sale.

If you’re attending this year’s convention celebrating weird fiction, art, and all things strange, I hope to see you there.

Hear Me on the Six Degrees of Poe

Edgar Allan Poe Statue, Boston, MA

Recently I had a delightful conversation with Carmen Bouldin and Jeanie Smith, hosts of The Six Degrees of Edgar Allan Poe podcast. We discussed my books and projects, de-compartmentalizing history, my fiction writing process, and of course Poe. Head over to Spotify to listen how I memorized “Annabel Lee” in middle school, which of Poe’s stories is my all-time favorite, and why “The Man Who Was Used Up” resonates with me now more than ever.

You can listen to the podcast on Spotify or watch it on YouTube.

And in case you missed it, you can also listen to the 2023 interview I did with Sandy Carlson of the Woodbury Writes podcast, available on Spotify and Anchor.fm.

The Electrical Amnesia Machine

Tenebrous Antiquities: An Anthology of Historical Horror

Editor and publisher CM Muller has announced the table of contents for his latest collection, Tenebrous Antiquities: An Anthology of Historical Horror. This handsome volume includes my story, “The Electrical Amnesia Machine of Doctor Fallow.”

Cold steel encircled Everly’s head and for some moments Fallow fiddled with various adjustments and straps. Finally he said: “Now, Mr. Everly, we are alone. No one can eavesdrop. Please tell me about the thoughts you wish swept away. Different ideas and introspections exist in different parts of the brain and I must know where to focus our efforts.”

“Do I have to say? Can’t your machine determine it on its own?”

“I promise you that as a doctor whatever secret you feel is too onerous is no secret to me. Do not be ashamed.”

Everly shifted in his seat. The helmet or whatever he now wore was heavy and uncomfortable. “The sign outside said something about ‘terrible dreams eradicated.’”

“Ah — you have nightmares.” Fallow flipped and toggled switches on the machine’s trunk.

“I have a nightmare. Just one.”

“The Electrical Amnesia Machine” is set in 1909 during New York’s Hudson-Fulton celebration, which marked the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration of the Hudson River and the centennial of Robert Fulton’s demonstration of a commercial steamboat along the same body of water. Fortunately my local historical society possesses a copy of the committee report about the celebration (800+ pages!), which bursts with all sorts of details and data. Because a theme of the story is isolation within the enormity of a big city like New York, those same details were perfect to convey the overwhelming grandiosity of the event.

Tenebrous Antiquities will be published in June 2024. You can preorder the paperback or hardcover at the publisher’s website or preorder the e-book on Amazon.