Never apologise for loving good stuff
Hello fiends!
How the hell are you? I hope this finds you as well as possible, despite everything. Remember, finding joy and chasing your dreams is punk as fuck in times like these, so never apologise for looking for the good in the world.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about this stuff. Numerous times I’ve seen people saying something like, “Look, sorry, I know it’s all too much right now, but I have a book coming out” or something similar. And to that I say, fuck that noise. Never apologise for singing out about something you’ve done. Especially in times like these. Otherwise, what’s the point in fighting at all? Art and expression and freedom of thought and freedom of action—literally the freedom to exist as exactly who you are—are what it’s all about.
The more people try to crush the arts, the more arseholes try to destroy anyone deemed “different”, the more we stand up. The more we stand together. Remember that line from that movie, “We are the weirdoes , mister”? That’s us. And the beauty is, we don’t have to be all the same kind of weirdo. The fact that there’s a huge variety of weirdo out there is our strength. When it comes to these cookie-cutter white supremacist fascist shitstains, our individual weirdness is our strength and our vastly superior numbers is why we’ll win. Weirdoes together!
So never apologise for promoting something you’ve made, never think there’s no point. Every voice adds to the cacophony that, in the long run, will drown out hate. It always has and it always will. It pisses me off that we have to suffer again in the meantime, but we never quit.
Anyway, I didn’t actually intend to start this newsletter with a rant, but seeing someone apologise for mentioning their new book is what reminded me it’s been a while since I sent one of these. So there you have it!
Let’s talk about what I’ve got going on. First of all, the anthology of horror stories inspired by great action movies of the 80s, I’ll Kill You Last, edited by Cullen Bunn, is in the last few days of its Kickstarter campaign. Honestly, things aren’t looking good. Cash is tight right now and anthologies are expensive bastards, but if you can find a way to back this one and get it over the line, that would be great. Look at that line-up!
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My story in this is inspired by the heist movies I love so much with a bit of historical archaeology repurposed into horror to spice things up. I had great fun writing it, so I hope the book goes ahead. You can find all the details and back it right here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1330509990/ill-kill-you-last-an-80s-inspired-action-horror-anthology
Another thing I dropped hints about recently was this.
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I’ve written another official volume in the Tales From The Gulp series. The title and cover have already been revealed to patrons, but I’ll share those things publicly once I get a better idea of a release date. I’m hoping it’ll come out this year, but it might be early 2026. We’ll see how things go.
I’m super nervous about it if I’m honest. The Gulp and The Fall got such a great reception and I always thought about whether or not I’d go ahead with this third instalment. I had good ideas for the stories, but was nervous about rising to the standards of the previous two. In the end I decided to dive in and see what happened. I’m really happy with how it came together. It’s five novellas again, including the two longest stories so far in the series. And it includes one of the darkest things I’ve ever written. Funny how that goes!
More news on this as I get it through beta readers, editors, and so on.
One more thing. The 2025 Ditmar Awards are open for nominations, for work first published in the 2024 calendar year. (That includes my novel, Blood Covenant, if you thought that worthy of a nom.) This is a fan/reader voted award, which means the more people who get involved, the better a representation of good work we’re likely to see on the shortlists. Official wording says:
Nominations will be accepted from natural persons active in fandom, and from full or supporting members of Conflux 19 or Swancon 49 (no official Natcon took place this year due to circumstances beyond control). You may nominate as many times in as many categories as you like, although you may only nominate a particular person or work once.
Nominations close 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time Thursday 21 August. And you can nominate very easily with an online form. Click to submit a 2025 Ditmar Awards nomination: https://form.jotform.com/252001685025851
There’s also an unofficial eligibility list, so you can remind yourself of all the good stuff published last year: https://scifi.fandom.com/wiki/2025_Ditmar_Award_Eligibility_List?veaction=edit
If you feel so inclined, please get nominating! And Blood Covenant is eligible in the Best Novel category, did I mention that?
What I’ve Been Enjoying
I’ve been consuming heaps of TV and stuff lately. I won’t go into huge detail, but here’s a bunch of stuff I really recommend. I watched the rest of Andor, which is one of the best Star Wars spinoffs out there. It leads directly to events in Rogue One, which is both one of the best Star Wars films there is and a brilliant war movie in its own right. I highly recommend watching Andor, then going right away into Rogue One (again, if you’ve already seen it, like I did). Another great show is Secret Level, based on video games, from the people behind Love, Death + Robots. Some crackers in that series. The TV adaptation of The Three-Body Problem is also outstanding TV with some truly great performances.
Squid Game finally wrapped up. It hits a pretty satisfying conclusion. And you know that I loved finally catching Sons Of Anarchy a while back? There’s a five season spin off called Mayans that I’m watching now and really enjoying. I’m only just at the start of season 2, but it’s good stuff.
Lastly, for watching stuff, the people who made that amazing horror film, Talk To Me, are at it again with a movie called Bring Her Back. It’s genuinely superb and really intense in places. Hard-hitting, but well worth it. And Australian!
With reading, I’ve loved recently Road of Bones and House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden and Among the Living by Tim Lebbon. A couple of masters at work, and showing no signs of slowing down. Both these guys never miss for me, and these books are great.
Okay, that’ll do from me for now. Remember to back I’ll Kill You Last if you’re able to, and please do drop some nominations in the Ditmar Awards. Meanwhile, take care of each other and especially yourself. Kindness and empathy will get us through.
Big love to you all
Al