ASSORTED MALIGNANCIES, my first horror collection, is now available for pre-order from Lycan Valley Press!
Mine all mine! My name on the cover, and every word within written by me. There’s a poem, three drabbles, and fourteen short stories, all about monsters and supernatural phenomena. The majority of the contents are reprints from other anthologies and magazines (including, surprise surprise, one of the two weird west pieces I mentioned in the previous blog post) BUT you’ll also find three never-before-published stories to keep you up at night.
ASSORTED MALIGNANCIES hits the streets on June 27, 2023. Go to LVP’s web site to get in on the pre-order special package which includes the paperback, ebook and audiobook!
The first and second short stories I ever had professionally published were a couple of entries in the How the West Was Weird anthologies, volumes II and III. That was quite some time ago, and recently they managed to afford me with yet another first in my writing career: my first kill payments.
The editor/publisher of the series has decided that, after nine years’ availability that never quite cleared profitability, the books will be taken out of print. And because there were never profits to be split as royalties, the editor/publisher has elected instead to pay every contributor a token kill fee. Please know that I bring this up here purely as a matter of interest and peek behind the publishing curtain. The publisher had every right to make the decision to pull the books, these things just happen sometimes. In fact, this may or may not be the first time a specific book I’ve appeared in has been pulled, but it’s definitely the first time the publisher has had the courtesy to be transparent about it and formally notify the writers. The kill fee is a further generosity which is in no way something I would have expected. So I am not sniping at the editor/publisher in the slightest; if anything I am humbly grateful and expressing my appreciation.
I decided to dedicate a blog post to this topic for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted everyone to know that if you ever had any interest in obtaining a copy of How the West Was Weird v II and/or v III, now is the time to act, before it’s too late! The anthologies are still available on Amazon, here and here.
Second, both of those anthologies were released before this blog was even created, which means I had never previously had a timely occasion on which to highlight them. Or, even more self-servingly, to reproduce genuine positive feedback from an Amazon customer. If you’re on the fence about picking up v III, here is an excerpt of a 5-star review (which, for the sake I’ve brevity, I’ve snipped down to the specific mention of my tale):
This volume, ladies and gentlemen, is AWESOME! But let me go story-by-story. … 3. Dale W. Glaser’s “ELLIE FROGGETT AND THE CHARNEL PIT”: It was a terrifying story, where the apparently human characters were more monstrous than creatures from down below.
…
Much thanks to the reader who offered that gem. I will now have to set about finding a suitable reprint venue for “Ellie Froggett”, to try to keep it in print after all, so stay tuned for further updates on that front.
Dale W. Glaser 