Release Tour and Author Interview: Psycho Hose Beast From Outer Space, by C.D. Gallant-King

 

I won't lie--this one's a bit out of my usual, but C.D. and I shared space in the 2018 IWSG Anthology, Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime, and we writers have to stick together. Besides, this looks like a darned good read, when I'm up for horror with my humor (not quite there yet). Anyway, I invited the author over for a grilling, and had a good chat. I'll share, after some of the important stuff about the book. 

Newfoundland, Canada, 1992.

 

Gale Harbour hasn’t seen any excitement since the military abandoned the base there thirty years ago, unless you count the Tuesday night 2-for-1 video rentals at Jerry's Video Shack. So when a dead body turns up floating in the town water supply, all evidence seems to point to a boring accident.

 

Niall, Pius and Harper are dealing with pre-teen awkwardness in the last days of summer before the start of high school. The same night the body is found, the three of them witness unusual lights in the sky over the bay.

 

Is it a coincidence? Are the lights connected to the rapidly-increasing string of mysterious deaths? And what does the creepy old lady at the nursing home have to do with it?

 

There is an evil older than time hidden deep beneath the waters of the North Atlantic. It is hungry, and vengeful, and it has its sights set on Gale Harbour to begin its path of destruction. All that stands in its way are a group of kids who would rather be playing Street Fighter II...

 

Buy it:

AMAZON US: https://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Beast-Outer-Space-Harbour-ebook/dp/B08BY2XGBC

AMAZON CANADA:

https://www.amazon.ca/Psycho-Beast-Outer-Space-Harbour-ebook/dp/B08BY2XGBC

AMAZON UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psycho-Beast-Outer-Space-Harbour-ebook/dp/B08BY2XGBC

 

 About the Author:

C.D. Gallant-King writes comic horror and fantasy stories in a variety of settings and genres. He is a proud Newfoundlander and Canadian currently living in Ottawa, Ontario. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre. He lived in Toronto for 10 years and tried to be an actor and a rock star, but we don't talk about that. He is now a happy husband and father of two.  

 

C.D. has previously published two novels, and a third book, PSYCHO HOSE BEAST FROM OUTER SPACE, is set to be released September 28. His book HELL COMES TO HOGTOWN was a semi-finalist in Mark Lawrence’s 2018 Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. His work has also appeared four times in Mystery & Horror's STRANGELY FUNNY anthologies of comic horror stories, an upcoming issue of The Weird and Whatnot magazine, and in two anthologies from Dancing Lemur Press.   

So, like I said, C.D. stopped by to answer some questions:

 

NL: When did you start writing? Did you always know you wanted to be a writer, or did you stumble into it later in life?

 

CD: I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, and it's always been to tell weird and fantastic stories. I often say the first story I ever wrote was when I was five years old, and I made my babysitter look up how to spell "extra-terrestrial" in the dictionary.

In my early twenties I submitted and queried a lot, but I never got anywhere. It wasn't until my second kid was born and I had a full time job and no time that I started to really become serious about writing, which is hilarious (in a crushing sort of way). I wish I had kept up with it when I was younger and got into self-publishing a lot earlier. 

 

NL: Love the early-writer story! I don't think I cared that much about spelling when I wrote my first story at six.

Your book has a pretty wild title. What’s the genre (like maybe, comic horror?) and who is the audience?

 

CD: I generally try to give my books unusual tiles - for one thing I want to make sure they come up in search results! Some books have very popular names, but when I’m searching Amazon and I find 12 books with the same title, it’s not exactly a good way to find the one that I want.

 

When I wrote PSYCHO HOSE BEAST, I was thinking comic-horror, but as I get more feedback from readers I see many calling it sci-fi or supernatural mystery. I get that. While it contains horror elements, it's not a traditional horror story.

 

As for the audience, I was really aiming for fans of Stranger Things and similar "kids on bikes" stories. Stephen King's It and Stand By Me would be other similar examples. Also anyone who has nostalgia for the early nineties, who lived through the rise of grunge and hip hop, who grew up speaking in Simpsons quotes and Super Mario/Sonic the Hedgehog references, this is the book for you!

 

NL: Um, I might be too old. Never mind. Now, the way I see it, anyone who can write the stuff you do either has led a very weird life, or one that’s too quiet. I’m better on the former. What is the strangest job you’ve ever held?

 

CD: I was a theatre kid in high school and got a degree in Fine Arts, and then I spent my twenties working with performers and artists. People would probably consider some of the things that I did weird, but I never thought of it that way.

Just being a technician at a local community theatre brings up all kinds of weird stuff. Have you ever had to tell someone they can’t bring a live running lawnmower onstage? Or fallen into a water fountain while taking down a stage at 3 in the morning? Or begging, pleading and threatening a DJ to turn down their speakers before they blow someone’s eardrums or you have to call the cops to shut down their show? Because I’ve had to do all those things, but I don’t find them weird, they’re just part of the job.

 

NL: Well, a not-too-weird job that took you in contact with a lot of weirdness. That counts! Now, to get to really understand you, I need to know: If there’s a spider in the corner of the room, do you a) panic, b) have to drop everything until it is removed, or c) hope it’s planning on eating the more annoying bugs that get in?

 

CD:

D) Recruit it for Project Strategic Spider Relocation, which is a real thing we have in our house. We don't just hope it eats more annoying bugs, we actually pick it up and move it to the window to catch any flies that buzz around there. My kids love that game.

 

NL: I love that! So... about writing... Do you draft your books longhand or compose at the keyboard?

 

CD: I wrote PSYCHO HOSE BEAST mostly on my cell phone (same way I'm writing this interview, actually). I wrote my last book long hand, though I was sitting on the bus at the time. I just write whenever and wherever I can. I can't afford to be picky or I'll never get anything done.

 

NL: I cannot even imagine writing a whole novel on a cell phone. I can hardly write a two-sentence text! Now, since you can't actually see what you've written (okay, I couldn't if I were using a phone), do you use a detailed outline before you start writing, or... ?

 

CD: I love writing outlines,  but I find that if I make it too detailed I never actually finish writing the story. I've written 25,000-word outlines for novels that never go anywhere. It seems like the outline uses up all of my creative energy. After I know how everything works out I'm no longer interested in writing it. It's weird. So now I mostly just stick to a loose list of bullet points that I know I need to hit, and fill in the blanks as I go.

 

NL: Well, that's a pretty reasonable approach if you ask me! Thanks for stopping by, CD, and best of luck with the book launch!

 

Learn more:

Website: https://galeharbourbooks.wordpress.com/

Blog: http://cdgallantking.ca

Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/book/show/54746956-psycho-hose-beast-from-outer-space

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CDGallantKing

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cdgallantking

Guest posting today at the IWSG Anthology blog

 Pop on over to IWSG Anthologies Blog and see what I have to say about writing, children's books, and a bit of this and that! Meanwhile, I'm in the wilderness once again. Heading into the Grand Canyon, having had some great fun in the slot canyons in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Peekaboo Canyon

Approaching Harris Wash

Proper National Park fashion for Ninjas!

All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

Writer Update... on the Road Again

 I seem to have missed by usual Wednesday update, but that's in keeping with how everything is going. After traveling to Colorado to deliver Eldest Son to start graduate school, I returned home with Second Son. Less than a week later, we left for Seattle, where he is spending his fall quarter (while attending UC San Diego... this is, indeed, a strange world we now inhabit!). Now I'm off again, for some exciting travel, including my first trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I'll share photos along the way, and maybe can come up with a story or two.

Amid all that, what of the writing? Well, I've been picking away at the edits on Death By Donut, and have some hopes that I will be able to make it a book. And I'm working away at planning my next novel, which will kick off an all-new mystery series. More on that as it actually happens (NANOWRIMO? Maybe).

And I still owe you all photos from the Weminuche Wilderness... 

For now, a few bits of travel to and from Seattle. I was up there when the West caught on fire, and the drive back to California was surreal, with smoke so thick that visibility was down to 1/2 mile, and I only got out of the car to race to the restroom, then back to the filtered air inside the car.

Amazing what you can fit in a Prius... bike, duffels, lunch... pet snake.

 The air in California was pretty smoky when we left, and we did a lot of exclaiming over it. If only we'd known..

Passing Lake Shasta, we were also struck by the devastation of the fires from 2018.

A hazy pink sun at the Weed rest area (yes, there really is a town called Weed in California).

When we arrived, the air in Seattle was clear and beautiful--and so cool and pleasant after triple-digit temps in CA!

The kind of summer evening that makes people move to Seattle.

The perfect conditions in Seattle blew up in a hurry when more fires broke out in Oregon and Washington. When I headed south, it was hard to tell where I was, because I couldn't see anything but the road!

A field in Oregon.

When I got home, I found everything covered in ash from our local fire.

A hard time to be a spider.

All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

Cover Reveal! Princelings Revolution, by Jemima Pett

The long-running Princelings of the East series has reached the final book... and it's coming soon! Before we can tell you about the book, you have to see the stunning cover, by artist Danielle English (kanizo.co.uk).

Today is the Cover Reveal for the final book in the Princelings of the East series: Princelings Revolution.
Princelings Publications is also kicking off the Launch & Anniversary Giveaway, which will run until midnight on October 23rd, to cover Jemima's tenth blogoversary on 21st October! There may be additional options for entries added between now and then, so check whenever you see it.

Jemima Pett has come by to tell us about the Princelings series covers.

NL: Cover art is a challenge for author-publishers. How did you managed to get such fantastic art for yours?

JP: When I decided to publish the first three books, I needed a cover illustrator. Looking at the lists of people offering their services, I gulped. Then my niece mentioned her daughter was in her final year of art school, doing Design and Illustration. Danielle English said 'yes' when I asked her to do the first three. It was a way to get her name on something other than her college portfolio.

Little did we know it would lead to a run of ten books, and the start of her freelance illustrator career. See her Facebook page or Twitter feed for a better idea of what she's doing now - or buy cards, gifts and prints at her Etsy shop!

NL: In the interests of full transparency, we should note that Danielle has also done all of our covers. Thanks for sharing :)

So, are you going to show us the new cover?

JP: I thought you'd never ask! Here it is.

NL: (Drum roll, please!)

That is gorgeous, Jemima! Now, tell us about the book.JP: First, I have to tell everyone that Book 10 of the Princelings of the East series – Princelings Revolution – the final book in the series, is on schedule for publication 1st October 2020.

Now here's the blurb:
The planes are crashing, George appears to be blowing things up, the people are angry at the changes and shortages. King Fred puts democracy to the test and finds it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.  There’s an organised anti-monarchy group called the Causists, and they are spreading false information which the people seem to believe. Things are bad—but they are going to get worse…

Will Fred even keep his head, let alone the promise made to Lord Mariusz at the start of the whole adventure?

NL: Thanks for that teaser, and for sharing the fantastic cover art. Now we can have the banner with the whole series!

 
The Princelings Revolution ebook is now available for pre-order a very special price at iTunes, B&N, and Kobo. This special launch price is only for a few weeks. It’s also on pre-order at Amazon.

The Launch Giveaway
This giveaway is only valid in countries and states where such games are legal. Entries close 11.59 pm on 23rd October 2020.

Entry options may increase during the giveaway period - check back or when you see it on another post (including launch and guest posts on other blogs).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Watch for reviews, interviews and more during the launch tour!

 

Writer's Wednesday: Some Writing Errors to Avoid

 I've been reading and listening to books more than I'm writing, but my writer brain is clearly turned on, because I've stumbled on--or over--some writing mistakes that I certainly felt shouldn't have gotten by the editor. 

The worst, a constant irritant in an otherwise pleasant (if somewhat saccharine) series, have to do with what I'd have to classify as info dumps. I'll call this one, "The dog had three legs, he remembered." The particular author I'm listening to (who I see no reason to name) has a tendency that I don't think I noticed so much when it was on paper, to use "John remembered that blah blah" in order to get info dumps out there. To make it worse, some of them don't really even matter to the story at any time. 

A subset of this, equally a clunky device for sharing background the reader may need but shouldn't trip over (from a different writer, whose works I also usually really enjoy), is, "She remembered she'd been meaning to ask about X." Apropos of nothing, we learn of something that suddenly will become important to know.

Back to the first author, another thing that's irritating me as that at times the books, set in an Irish village, read as though they are meant to introduce the American reader to the language, customs, and culture of Ireland, rather than just to tell a story. I wonder at times in an editor told the author he needed to explain all this stuff for then poor idiots across the pond. The result is lots of awkward leveraging of "he knew the Americans would call that soccer." (In fact, do I have hold of an edition meant for the US market, or is it all that way, because the sport is consistently referred to as soccer by the narrator and I think even the characters, which jars on my ear every time).

Enough of my ranting. I think it boils down to: if your backstory and local colo(u)r don't fit into the story organically, leave them the heck out! This is a hard one for me to believe sometimes, but: your reader doesn't need to know everything you do about the characters, the setting, or the history.

Photo Friday: Random shots

 I didn't feel like putting together a proper post for this week, so I'm just going to share a few random photos from my recent trip to Colorado (I wasn't traveling frivolously, lest you wonder. I was delivering Eldest Son to Boulder to start graduate school. I admit that while I was there I took the opportunity to do some backpacking, though!).

A too-friendly deer

One of the millions of Colorado trees killed by bark beetles.

Virga--rain shafts that never reach the ground (though some very soon after this made the ground very wet indeed).

Nevada sunset

More Nevada sunsets

A bit of the burn area in Glenwood Canyon along I70 in Colorado. We were lucky that the freeway reopened a day before we headed back west. (Photo on my phone by Griffen Dempsey)

Train crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats

I promised you random! I think that delivers :)

All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

IWSG: The best Beta-partner? & Writer's Update

 

 It's the first Wednesday of the month, and that means IWSG posting! 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the September 2 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, J Lenni Dorner, Deniz Bevan, Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, and Louise - Fundy Blue! 

Every month there is an OPTIONAL question:

September 2 question - If you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner, who would it be and why?

 ***

I've had some fun thinking about who I'd like to have as my beta partner. I mean, I already have some of the best, members of this group with a keen eye to plot and prose. But what could I learn from Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie? 

Maybe not as much as I think. I love their books, but there's no denying their writing styles are dated. So maybe I can think about someone contemporary... I'll pick on a few mystery writers I really admire, and whose style I think would compliment my own. Here's the short list off the top of my head: 

Jacqueline Winspeare. Her Maisie Dobbs mysteries are beautifully crafted, both plot-wise and linguistically. And I bet she could help me get a grip on my characters' feelings. 

Rhys Bowen: Her "Royal Spyness" series proves she knows a lot about goofiness and sometimes wild plots, developing characters that are just a touch over the top, and how to balance humor with murder.

Elena Taylor/Elena Hartwell. She knows a thing or two about quirky small towns, as well as about humor in murder mysteries. Plus she set her first series in Bellingham, WA, just a stone's throw from Pismawallops Island. 

Finally, just for the sake of some of the best prose I've ever read, I'll take Ivan Doig (see an example of my ravings about his writing here or here). 

***

Now for my writer's update. I spent a lot of the last month on the road, or in the wilderness, so much of my writing was mundane journalling, with some less mundane entries, and a little work on the main character of the new mystery series I'm contemplating. 

But all is not about hiking: I did manage to complete and send in my entry for the new IWSG anthology, and am still plowing, little by little, through the edits on Death By Donut.  I have a lot more travel on my agenda now through October, but I do have some hopes of completing the book and bringing it out early in the new year, though I don't think I can make the pre-Xmas target I was trying for before the world turned upside down.

My mind wants to skip around, too. I still have other stories and some anthologies in mind to work on. Maybe as my ability to focus returns (not that it's ever great), and when I settle in this fall to stay home for a couple of months (mostly), I'll be able to at least edit the shorts and put together those anthologies! 

Every word written, every page edited, is a triumph.

This month's photo treat: a couple of really nice moose. Meese? Mooses?

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All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!