So Much News! Plus, It's New Fiction Month! Plus, October's New Subscriber Special!

Season's greetings. Want some stories?

For this month’s New (Or Re-) Subscriber Special, please scroll down to the bottom of the post. Or, you know, if you want to and feel it’s worth it, just click this button now, have done with it, and read straight on…

Now then. So much happening. Where even to start?

How about with this?

Wait, Glen, let me get this straight? That’s all those stellar writers, plus, whatever, you, in one place? In the Hudson River Valley woods, in the deep fall, reading ghost stories?

That is right, dear readers.

At a bookstore in a barn? In a town that really does pronounce its name “Green Witch”, and where the local high school’s mascot is the Green Witches?

You’re getting it now.

But…what exactly did you DO to Langan? What’s happening in that photo?

No idea, but he did it to himself. Is he molting, do you think? Just imagine what he may have become by the time we do this show.

In all seriousness: haven't been so excited to do an in-person event since the Rolling Darkness Revue went on hiatus. Would love to see you there.

Then there’s this:

Just in case you can’t make the above. Or even if you can:

If you haven’t caught one of these before, Joseph Freeman puts them together in the UK. Filmed ghost story readings from people I am delighted to be among, including my pal Gemma Files, Rolling Darkness Revue alum Lisa Morton, and more.

I’ll post a link when it goes live.

And then this (told you there was a lot):

Out October 24th, and including my Hanukkah—themed new spooker, “Dry and Ready”. Pre-order here, or wherever fine creepy volumes are sold.

And finally (except, obviously, for all the things after this, so keep scrolling down):

That would be the brand-new audiobook version. Out any day, possibly by the time you read this, on Audible, or through Encyclopocalypse. Will post links as soon as they’re live. (Of course, the paperback and ebook versions are still readily available.)

Meanwhile, coming right here this month:

Someday, if you’re interested, I will put up some of my internal wrestling about posting more new fiction here. Short version: I’m coming around to the idea. I’ve come around, I think. A lot of the evolution has to do with the (grim) (and also at least partially self-inflicted) realities of the traditional magazine and anthology marketplace. I mean, gaming submission periods, just as the most recent iteration of the upside-down, writer-last view of who and what actually matters in this process, which I have discussed before in multiple pieces on this site…

A lot of it has to do with simple math. Readers reached and money earned.

Some of it is about my lifelong commitment to staying the kind of writer I have always wanted to be. That is, a writer, full-stop. Someone whose job is to write about things. Many different things. Hopefully in interesting ways and compelling ways. The Robert Louis Stevenson model.

Some of it has to do with all these words that still seem to be sluicing through me. And my being 57, and wanting to share them.

For today, let’s leave it at this. I’ve got new fiction I can’t wait to share with you. And I’ll be doing that starting next post. First up is a mainstream literary story about slo-pitch softball that has been years in coming. Decades, really.

And then, assuming progress continues as it has begun, a brand new and exclusive ghost story toward the end of the month. For your seasonal pleasure.

One thing you can help with:

For stories that are longer than a typical single Substack post, would you rather get one double-length post, with the whole story in it, and then a couple weeks in between as I craft whatever’s next? Or should I serialize stories over several weekly posts?

Binge or weekly, that’s what I’m asking? If you have a preference, please do send me a note or post a comment.

THE OCTOBER NEW (OR Re-) SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL

It’s a doozy. A collector’s special.

Also a chance for me to address a weirdness in my bibliography, for at least a few of you.

Here’s the thing: before sending out Motherless Child, I left my agent of thirteen years. (Long story. Tough decision. Right or wrong? I may never know. For another day.)

So my strategy was this: partner with my longtime specialty press partners at Earthling Publications, do a tiny run, sell it out fast, and attract a major press deal on my own that way.

To my amazement, that plan actually worked. Better than I could have dreamed. (Except. Well. That’s another long story, of which this is only a small part. That’s for another other day.)

What I wound up with was Earthling’s gorgeous, limited original Motherless Child edition, with its arresting Vincent Chong cover art. And then Tor’s trade hardcover. Obviously, the Earthling is the more stunning (though Tor’s hardcover isn’t bad.)

BUT— my editor with Tor felt like there might be a chapter missing early in the narrative. And I agreed. And so, before coming out with the Tor edition, I wrote that chapter and inserted it. And I’m happy with it.

What I’m not happy about is that the Earthling edition and the Tor edition are therefore not quite the same book.

But this month, new or renewing subscribers can judge for themselves which is the better. And get a mini collector’s cornucopia besides.

Sign up for or renew an annual subscription this month, and I am offering your choice of a copy of the original, beautiful Earthling limited or the very briefly available second Tor edition, the mass market paperback, which has a positively ghastly cover (which is part of the second long story for another day mentioned above), but does include the added chapter.

And once again, If you refer someone who becomes a paying subscriber, and that person mentions you when subscribing…you both get a choice of one of these books.

Shipping, as always, on me. International subscribers, I will need a little help with the postage, but we’ll work it out.

Anything you can do to support this site, from spreading the word to subscribing, whether for free or financially, is not only hugely appreciated but will help ensure that my Substack stays as active as it has been these last six months or so.

Thank you for being here. Stories coming.