AT FEAR'S ALTAR

I'm several days behind in posting my appreciation to everyone at Burning Effigy Press for putting on a fantastic launch party last Sunday. A very special thank you to Monica S. Kuebler, who worked her fingers to the bone getting everything just so. Another heartfelt thanks to all the folks who came out to The Central that night to support us.

It was a full house. I was pleased to see so many familiar and friendly faces in the crowd when I stood behind the mic to close the evening's program with a reading from Primeval Wood. I had some tough acts to follow: Gemma Files set the bar very high with her poem and an excerpt from her forthcoming novel, A Book of Tongues (A weird western where the cowboys sling hexes as readily as guns. What's not to love?). After Gemma came Dave Alexander, the Managing Editor of Rue Morgue magazine. Dave made a smashing debut as a fiction author by reading a sample of his tale "Growth Spurts"; a story that weaves pubescent body horror with Kwaidan-style surrealism.

My reading went well, I think. I and the other B.E. authors all signed and sold some books, and after the crowd thinned out, some of us closed the place down. I enjoyed late-night food and drink, and even better conversation.

Now that the party's over, it's time to see what the world thinks of my latest work. The early indicators are all positive, so we'll see what readers and critics make of Primeval Wood.