Hello layghouls and gentlefiends
How the fuck are ya? I hope this finds you well. I think it’s been a minute between newsletters, my apologies for that. But I do have a bunch of interesting stuff to share, so also apologies if this is longer than usual.
On a slight tangent, I’ve been wondering a lot lately if things should be shorter. There’s a place for great and epic works (and I have one in mind myself that I plan to write before too long) but should a lot of things be shorter than they are? I know there’s a perception out there that people have shorter attention spans now. We live in the age of microblogging and YouTube shorts. My 10 yo won’t watch a movie because it requires concentration for too long, but watching an hour and half of YouTube shorts is no challenge at all apparently. That’s definitely a generational thing.
But I often see the opposite at work with people making things longer than they need to be. There was a golden age of pulp and literary fiction where so many classics were really novellas. The Old Man and the Sea, Animal Farm, The Great Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451 and so many more were all novellas or very short novels and they’re amazing for it. Then there was a shift to bigger works, often, I think, purely for thicker spines on bookstore shelves and therefore more noticeability. But I think we’re swinging back the other way now, slowly.
Regular readers will know I spent ages catching up on the American Horror Story series recently and by far my favourite was Red Tide, which was amazing at 6 episodes. All the others went on far too long trying to fill out 10 episodes. They would have all benefitted from being 6 or 8 eps instead despite how good many of them were. They would have been better if they were shorter, I think.
So yeah, I’m currently on Team Shorter – shorter series, shorter movies, shorter books. I’ve always been a huge fan of the novella and I’ve written a bunch. I’m writing a new one right now (Devourer patrons and above get to follow along with the first draft).
Anyway, at the risk of great irony with this newsletter going on too long, let’s get into the actual news.
I’m blown away by the ratings on Sallow Bend. New records all around for me. I have a dedicated readership, which is wonderful, but a relatively small one (please tell all your friends if you enjoy my stuff!) but Sallow Bend seems to have hit a chord and is racking up some amazing numbers. It’s currently got 4.2 stars on Amazon from over 730 ratings and 4 stars on Goodreads from over 1,000 ratings. Those are unprecedented numbers for me, so huge thanks to everyone who’s got behind that book. Blood Covenant, my latest novel, isn’t tracking as strongly but is still getting a great response, so that’s awesome too.
Talking of Blood Covenant, there’s an audiobook version on the way. You heard it here first, produced through Crossroad Press and narrated by Australian reader Amy Soakes, it should be out soon. It was really important to me that it was read by an actual Australian, not an American doing an Australian accent. I can’t wait for you all to hear it.
And on the book front, there are two brand new novels with my agent soon to go out on submission, so please cross your everythings for me there.
I’ve got a few public appearances coming up in the second half of this year that haven’t been announced yet, but I think will be soon. Watch my social media for news there. On that front, in case you didn’t know, I got banned from Twitter last hear for being mean to the uber-wealthy, so I’m in different places now. I particularly enjoy Bluesky, but you can find all my online accounts at this handy link: https://linktr.ee/alanbaxter
If you’re keen for some cool merch, be it actual Alan Baxter stuff or more generalised horror stuff, I’ve been expanding my Teepublic store lately. Take a look and see if anything catches your eye. You can get t-shirts, hoodies, caps, phone cases, magnets, and all that good stuff. I would recommend spending more for the Premium t-shirt if you do want one – the regular T is really lightweight.
So that’s about it for news stuff at the moment. There are several irons in several fires and I’ll be sure to share more soon, but I felt like it had been a while since I checked in.
What I’ve Been Enjoying
I’ve been watching some amazing television lately. We really are spoiled for incredible shows at the moment and most of them aren’t too long! I am absolutely blown away by the adaptation of The Boys. I love love love the graphic novels by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson and the TV show is a bit different but just so damn good. It is intense and goes so very hard. There’s also a spin-off called Gen V about superhero college and holy shit, that show holds nothing in reserve either. Season 4 of The Boys has just finished and Season 5 will be the last one, but apparently we won’t see it until 2026. Nooo! But there should be more Gen V in the meantime.
I also caught up with the adaptation of Fallout, which is another incredible bit of television. I spent way too many hours playing Fallout 4 and the TV show really does that source material justice. I can’t wait for season 2 of that.
And I’m currently enjoying a Japanese show called Alice in Borderland. Imagine Squid Game but city-wide and kinda more intense. Highly recommended. There are two seasons so far and I’m halfway through S2.
Reading-wise, I’ve been a bit slack of late. I guess busy more than anything. But I did really enjoy Ellen Datlow’s anthology in tribute to Shirley Jackson, When Things Get Dark. Some amazing stories in there. And I’m currently reading her latest Best Horror of the Year. I also highly recommend a brilliant non-fiction book I read recently called All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell. It’s a study on death from the perspective of people who work with death – funeral directors, crime scene cleaners, coroners and so on. It’s confronting as hell in places but absolutely fascinating. And for a horror writer, there’s some epic food for story thought.
Right, I think this has gone on long enough. I’ll try to make it less than two months until the next newsletter, but know that I love you all even if I don’t write as often as I should. Stay well, be kind, read good horror and I’ll talk to you again soon.
Al