Saturday, January 21, 2012

In the Language of Scorpions

The moonlight settled over the December beach like snow birds coming in to roost on an arctic plain. And the midnight world was brush-stroked in white, the white of sand and shells and stones, the white of bones and ghosts. In the midst of that white was a splatter of black, or what could have been red in brighter hours. It reminded Kyle Dupree of a snowflake in negative, and he thought it was incredibly beautiful until he realized what it represented. Then he dropped the cigarette he'd walked out on the beach to smoke, and reached down with his thumb to unsnap the strap that held his Colt Trooper in its holster.

In the Language of Scorpions is out from Borgo Press. I really love the cover. Maybe my favorite yet from Borgo/Wildside. This is a collection of my horror stories, written across some two decades. Some of the tales have been printed before but there are actually quite a few new ones written (or finished) for this collection.

The sample piece that opens this blog comes from a story called “Splatter of Black,” and it features the main character from my first novel, Cold in the Light. There are a few flash fictions here too, but most are full-length stories. Here are a few other story titles from the collection:

Still Life with Skulls
Roadkill
Razor White
Haunting Place
Wall of Love
Twenty-Four Mile Bridge

Just to let folks know. Most the books that people have seen from me so far, except for Midnight in Rosary, have been heavy on fantasy adventure. “Scorpions” is a horror collection. There are a lot of Twilight Zone type stories and tales inspired by writers like Edgar Allan Poe that any reader might enjoy. But there are also some stories that have graphic gore and explore very intense subject matter. Some folks find that kind of thing uncomfortable.

In the book itself, I inserted author notes in front of some tales to let readers know what they were in for. There are notes about each of the stories a the end of the book, too, which give more information about them. The most graphic tales are “Razor White,” “Splatter of Black,” and “Wall of Love.” These were all written during the heyday of “Splatterpunk.” If you like gore, those should satisfy you. And if you don’t like gore, there are plenty other tales that I think you would enjoy.

The books is available at Amazon at the moment, in both print and ebook. It will be available on Barnes & Noble soon.

Here’s the link for print

And for Kindle

Thanks, as always, for reading.
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41 comments:

  1. That is an exceptional cover, my friend.

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  2. That is a gorgeous cover. Congrats!

    Angie

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  3. Sounds like a great collection. I will make a note of it for a future purchase, being overloaded right now.

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  4. Bernardl, I agree. Very eye catching!

    Angie, indeed. Thankee.

    Oscar, I know the feeling.

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  5. The cover could be the coat of arms of some black wizard!

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  6. Congratulations! That's an amazing cover.

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  7. That is a beautiful cover! Congrats on the book, and on finishing "The Finest Cut", too.

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  8. Deka, cool. I like that.

    Golden eagle, I'm doing a happy dance for sure.

    Kate, it's always good to get things to that finish point.

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  9. A classy looking cover there, Charles!

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  10. Great cover and the excerpt pulled me in. I'll be picking up this one.

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  11. Sage, I know. I'm grinning about it.

    Keith, thanks, man. Glad to hear it.

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  12. That is one of the most eye-catching covers I've seen in awhile. Very cool!

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  13. Great titles, like usual! You could always make it as a thrash metal song writer too. Especially for the tiles.

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  14. Fantastic cover, Charles, and I love the title! Congratulations!

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  15. Great cover-I'll order a copy soon.

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  16. Nice title, striking cover. I haven't read horror in a long while now. I wonder how you keep them coming, Charles!

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  17. Ooooo, shiny! Will have to snag a copy of this.

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  18. Very kewl.

    Something to look forward to acquiring and reading, because sometimes, you have to give a genre a second chance to make a first impression.

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  19. Travis Cody, definitely so. I'm pleased as punch.

    Eric1313, that title occurred to me years ago and I used it in a poem. When I got ready to put this collection together it just sounded right.

    Vesper, thanks. I do like the title quite a bit myself.

    David J., cool, man.

    Prashant, Well, most of the work for this one was actually done years ago as the stories were written. What I did last year was write 3 or 4 new stories for it, and revise fairly extensively some of the others. Many of them didn't have to be worked over too much, though, so it wasn't as much actual writing as it seems.

    Ty, that was my response too. "Shiny!"

    G., most of the stuff in there I think you'd appreciate. There are a few stories you might not like. But it's a wide range of tales.

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  20. Damn fine writing to open your blog!

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  21. Ivan, thanks, man. That opening paragraph once won a contest for me.

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  22. Awesome! I'll be ordering mine today.

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  23. Anonymous2:56 PM

    Beautiful post. I just bought it Charles and look forward to reading it.

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  24. Greg, cool. There are a few poems in the collection also, surreal stuff.

    Richard, thanks, man. I think it's along the lines of stuff you enjoy.

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  25. Hello Charles, your work has quality all around, I can see and feel. Congratulations. And you are diverse yet I know is still uniquely you.

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  26. Just bought it, Charles. Facebooked it and tweeted it. Hope you sell a bazillion copies.

    I used to read horror all the time and loved it. Your cover kinda creeps me out though because I dreamed about scorpions the other night. One of my biggest fears!

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  27. grats all round, charles :)

    yeah, smart cover/title... still unorganized, but will get this one, too... soon, i hope :)

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  28. Oceangirl, thank you for the kind words. I appreciated.

    Jess, scorpions creep me out as well. I remember as a kid turning over rocks and finding pale scorpions underneath and you could see stuff moving inside. yuck.

    Laughingwolf, thanks, man. Appreciated of course.

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  29. I will pick this up for my kindle. It's been growing dust for too long.

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  30. Definitely looking forward to checking this out. Congrats on another release!

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  31. Looks great that cover. I've grabbed the Kindle. but will likely pick up the book version as well.

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  32. Patti, thankee, of course.

    Chris, thanks, man. A little closer together than I thought they'd be, but it's cool.

    Randy, I appreciate it. Hope you enjoy.

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  33. Merisi, I always say you should give in to temptation!

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  34. Fantastic ~~! Congrats, man -- very cool, indeed, and a perfect gift for many a reader, I'm thinking. Will order more than one for sure.

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  35. Erik, you are a kind fellow. :)

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  36. I gotta re-learn how to read something longer than a short blog post!

    It would be good for my fragmented brain.....mmmm swords of Talera looks like good escape. . .


    Warm Aloha from Waikiki
    Comfort Spiral

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    < ° ) } } > <

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  37. Loving the opening piece. :) seems really kewl. Thanks for sharing:0)

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  38. Cloudia, one's brain does get trained in reading certain things. I think it's the same for writing.

    Drizel, thank you for visiting.

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  39. That's a great cover. I'm not a big gore fan (not because of the grossness factor -- people have to die for gore to take place, and that always bums me out), but these sound like great horror stories.

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  40. Mary Witzl, I don't like just gore, but if it serves the story well I certainly can appreciate it.

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