September/October Updates

HALLOWED OBLIVION

a novelette from THE WILD DARK

A couple weeks ago, I released my latest work! Hallowed Oblivion is a novelette (about 52 pages) that takes place before the events of THE WILD DARK. It’s part campfire/hiking horror, part Halloween story. This is the first time I’ve written and released a story just for the season and I may make this a continuing theme based on how great the response has been so far!

Here’s a little more about the book:

On Halloween Night, Forest Ranger Hank Feld is called out to the White Mountain National Forest to search for a group of lost hikers. Crushed at not being able to spend the evening with his daughter, Hank sets off into the cold, misty mountains alongside volunteer, Gerard Castle.

But they are not the only things in the woods that night. When they come upon a massacred camping site, they realize there’s something hunting them: a malevolent creature that hungers for the souls of the lost.

A novelette from The Wild Oblivion universe, readers follow one of THE WILD DARK’s characters into the woods for a ghastly adventure, one that might eventually alter the world as we know it…

You can download an ebook copy from my website or order a paperback here

If you are a book reviewer and you’d like a free digital copy of HALLOWED OBLIVION (or any other book in my catalog), please email me at strangewildspress@gmail.com to request a copy!

HAPPY BOOK-AVERSARY!

It’s officially been a whole year since THE WILD DARK debuted and I am blown away. I never believed that I would get the response I did for this book. It took me about 7 years to write it and a full year to publish the thing myself. This is especially heartwarming to me because I went through a period of time about five years ago where I nearly gave up on publishing and writing. It just goes to show that even if one book doesn’t quite take off, if you keep on plugging away, your hard work will pay off. Thank you to everyone who have helped make THE WILD DARK and its companion books a success.

Don’t have your copy yet? You can grab a signed copy from my website here.

EVENTS

I’ve had an insane last few weeks packed with events all over the state of Maine. The first one was at Weekend of The Wicked in Bangor at the Cross Insurance Arena. This was a first-time, three-day event from the makers of the Bangor Comic Con. I met and became friends with several awesome writers at the event, sold lots of books, and reached a new coffee threshold for my over-tired body. My car also got skunked pretty badly, I revisited the site of last year’s thumb-in-the-car-door massacre on its anniversary, and got some cool swag from some of the other vendors at the show. All-in-all: a solid weekend.

Next up was the Maine Lit Fest, also a first-time event in Portland, ME the very next weekend. Maine Lit Fest highlighted diversity in Maine writers as well as showcasing all the wonderful talent Maine’s literary community has to offer through various readings, panels, and presentations. Due to a little bit of miscommunication, I arrived late for the book fair on Saturday. That didn’t stop me from slinging books, making new friends with other Maine authors, and finding an awesome new shop chock full of crystals, taxidermy, and awesome macabre home décor pieces directly across the street from where we were set up.

I got to go hang out with the cool kids at the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival in Haverhill, MA. While I didn’t vend at the show, I did pick up a TON of new horror reading material as well as caught up with some of my online horror community. In the picture above, I had fun with Todd Keisling and his wife, Erica. Todd runs a weekly Game Night which I frequent. It was so awesome to get to hang out for a little bit in person.

I even got to pop out to dinner and spend some time talking books with these incredible folks including: Sadie Hartmann and her husband, Michael Clark, Wes Southard, John Durgin, Olaf Buchheim and his wife, and Josh Malerman and his fiancee, Allison. I also got some quality time with my New England homies (Scott Goudsward, Rob Smales, Tom Deady and his wife, Sheila, Michael Burke, Morgan Sylvia, Emma Gibbon, and Renee DeCamilles).

My final event was a book-signing at the Rockland location of Sherman’s Maine Coast Bookshop! I signed a handful of copies, talked to some lovely people and had a pretty decent afternoon the Saturday before Halloween.

ONLINE

A few weeks ago, The Wild Oblivion series got some love on social media in two different forms. Michael Seidlinger, author of the terrifying home invasion horror novel, ANYBODY HOME? wrote an article for The Lineup, a horror/dark fiction news website, that featured HALLOWED OBLIVION in its line up of The Most Anticipated Horror Front List for the Rest of 2022. Other authors on that list include Cina Pelayo, Tim McGreggor, C.S. Humble, and Chuck Wendig. Again: absolutely blown away that my little book is up there with these extremely talented writers. Here’s the article.

Secondly, Steve over at Steve Talks Books on YouTube posted a non-spoiler review video for THE WILD DARK and Orchards. Steve has been a long-time supporter of my work and it always lifts me up to see my book featured in his videos and praised so highly. You can find the video here.

HALLOWED OBLIVION has only been out for a few weeks and it’s already pulling in 5 star reviews! Take a look at what Heidi and a few others had to say about it over at Amazon…

WHAT’S NEXT?

Coming this January 2023, Series 2 of Winterviews kicks off with a new season filled with awesome horror authors talking about their favorite horror subgenres. At the time I posted this list, I hadn’t settled my final guest and I’d like to announce that Stephen Cords will also be joining the January line up. As we draw closer to the new year, I’ll be posting the full-schedule as well as what genres you can expect your favorite writers to be discussing. Winterviews are live interviews featured via FB and YouTube. If you’re not familiar, you can check out the first series over here on YouTube.

What‘cha Reading?

Of course, I had to update this section of the newsletter though it’s a pathetic update. I’ve literally read nothing new. I’ve been so busy with events, writing, and publishing stuff that I haven’t had much of a chance to sit down and enjoy anything. But while we’re heading into a slower season, I will resume my TBR with my current reads which are ANYBODY HOME? by Michael Seidlinger and Thin Places by Kay Chronister.

Others on the TBR are:

• White Ibis by Wendy Dalrymple
• Children of Chicago by Cina Pelayo
• We Can Never Leave This Place by Eric LaRocca
• The Dismembered by Jonathan Janz

That’s all for now! I’ll be updating the blog next week with two very important holiday announcements! Readers of the newsletter will receive these announcements on Wednesday instead of Thursday and will have first dibs at whatever lays inside. Don’t want to miss out? Subscribe to the newsletter here…

~KSilva

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