Category Archives: Fiction

Wintertime Blues

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Hi friends and stalkers.

Well, fall is here, and winter is coming.  As usual, I’m feeling the urge to withdraw entirely from social media, the Knightmares blog/list, and life as it exists outside of my own head.  Part of that urge to shrink away from interaction is the increased workload and hours of the day job.  I drive a propane truck for a living, and when it gets cold, I get busy.  It hasn’t been as bad this year as most, at least so far.  The larger part is just plain old wintertime blues.  I get them every year, and they make me antisocial as hell.

I can’t let that happen this winter, at least not to the extent that it usually does.  I’m trying to treat my writing as a business now, and while I’m still not entirely sure what that means, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t mean ignoring my readers and subscribers until the sun comes back out next spring.

So, here’s what I’m gonna do to keep myself, and hopefully you, engaged.

First, I’m gonna take some of my digital chapbooks off the market and make them available only to members of the Knightmares list.  Two of the members only chapbooks are part of a series of stories called The Berserkers, and I will release future installments only to the Knightmares list until the series is complete.  Look for those free download links in an upcoming Knightmares.

Second, I’m going to try to start some conversations with you.  I have a few topics in mind already, but you should feel free to recommend your own topics to me.  Reply right here on this post or email me at thinkingbar@gmail.com.  Seriously, conversations are so much more interesting than monologues.  I want to make it worth your trouble to sign up or stay if you already are signed up.

Talk to you again soon.

Brian Knight

The Fiction of Brian Knight

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Available for free, and only on Brian-Knight.com.

Download for Kindle
Download ePub
Right-click for PDF

Fiction spanning Brian Knight’s nearly two decades publishing horror and action fiction.  Includes excerpts of Feral, Broken Angel, Hacks, and Sex, Death, & Honey.  The Fiction of Brian Knight: Stories and Excerpts – A Sampler also includes two complete novellas, Big Trouble in Little Boots and Midnight Blues, and two short stories, Don’t Toy With Me and Night of the Dog.

Sex, Death, & Other Stuff

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Hi friends and stalkers.

Sorry it’s been so long since the last update.  It has been a challenging summer.  I won’t bore you with it, but I do want to take a minute to thank all of you who donated to the GoFundMe for my mother-in-law and father-in-law.  You all helped make it possible for a dedicated and loving husband, my father-in-law Rocky, to travel the long distances required for him to visit his wife, my mother-in-law and one of my oldest friends, Judi, while she recovered from a massive and debilitating stroke.

She’s not back home yet, but she has been transferred much closer to home, and is recovering very rapidly.  She’s not back to 100% yet, but is much closer than any of us had a right to expect, and getting better every day.

Now on to some writing and horror related shit!

I have a few more books back in print since our last little visit.

Sex, Death, & Honey, the action/crime novel I brought back to digital life earlier this year is now also available in print and audio, narrated by one of my favorites, Roberto Scarlato.

They Call Us Monsters is now back in digital and print, as well as the previously available audio version.

Two more of my digital chapbooks are now available in audio, also narrated by Roberto Scarlato.  If you’re in the mood for a bite size story, then Heart of the Monster and Death is Blind might be what you’re looking for.

I have great news on some new work that I can’t share quite yet.  This will be of special interest to collectors and people who love books for the physical works of art they can sometimes be, as well as for the stories between the covers.  Stay tuned!

This next bit is only for subscribers to the Knightmares newsletter, so if you’re reading this on Brian-Knight.com please cover your eyes until we’ve reached the next paragraph.  Okay, now that all the non-subscribers are looking away … I’ve got some free shit for you subscribers!  I have ten free audio copies of Sex, Death, & Honey for the first ten people who want one.  Just reply to this email that you would like a copy and I’ll send you the free download code for Audible.  I’m also giving away digital copies of anything you want on Brian-Knight.com, except for the Phoenix Girls books.  Just reply to this email and tell me which one you’d like (limit one per subscriber per offer).

Okay, all you non-subscribers can open your eyes now.  If you did happen to peek (shame on you!) and see that subscribers are getting goodies denied to you, don’t worry, you can remedy that shit.  Just subscribe and you’ll be eligible for free goodies next time.

Stay tuned for flash fiction, news, and occasional free stuff!

Brian Knight

The First Quarter

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The first quarter of Tulpa’s first year in business is over.  I am not raking in the dough, burning up the charts, making a killing, or even a strong showing.  What I have done is get ten chapbooks, four novels, and one collection back into print, digitally speaking.  I am now working on getting the novels and collection back into actual print.

I told myself at the beginning to manage my expectations, and for the most part I have.  I’d like to see more pages read on my Kindle Unlimited titles (the digital chapbooks), or more sales for the other titles, but I’m still learning the business.  I still need to learn how to write better book descriptions and perfect my keywords and categories.  I might even have to replace a cover or two, even though I happen to love the ones I have.  I need to fine-tune my meta-data, and probably a dozen other things I don’t even know yet.  Advice from other literary do-it-yourselfers is welcome.

My plan for this next quarter is to turn Tulpa’s four digital novels and one digital collection into paperbacks, fine-tune the meta-data, and learn how successful indie authors sell a lot of books.  One of these days I have to be able to justify my Tulpa Books expenses to my better half.

So, a few things I’m changing here at Brian-Knight.com …

The Free Stuff page is going away April 13th.  The five free digital chapbooks are going to Amazon.  The main purpose of the Free Stuff page was to attract readers to my Knightmares newsletter, and to reward them with free stuff.  I pimped the hell out of the Free Stuff page, but it wasn’t much of a draw, and the download numbers did not inspire me to leave it up.

Knightmares subscribers will continue to get free fiction in the form of flash fiction or very short shorts included in the newsletter emails.  I will also continue to offer free digital copies to interested readers in exchange for honest reviews.

I have two new novels going on sale May 1st at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Google Play, etc.  Both are reissues of old novels, one my personal favorite.

You can preorder them now through my Digital page.

Before I go I want to thank Lisa Lee Tone and H Casper for everything they’ve done for me over the past several months.  I could not have done this without them.

I look forward to the Second Quarter.  I hope you’ll be a part of it.

The Gal in the Blue Mask and The Christmas Corpse

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Just a quick entry here to pimp an interview and a new short story, both now available to read at The Gal in the Blue Mask, an excellent fiction blog by Meghan Shena Hyden.  Both are part of Meghan’s yearly Christmas Takeover.  There are a lot of scary Christmas stories, and a lot of great interviews, including Mary SanGiovanni, Jonathan Janz, Armond Rosamilia, and film maker Mike Lombardo.

You can find my interview here, and I hope you’ll give my new story The Christmas Corpse  a read.  Yeah, I found some typos in the story.  I’ll make sure they’re fixed when The Christmas Corpse is included in my upcoming collection, Dangerous Toys.

Talk to you again soon.

Brian Knight

Review copies!  Get your review copies here!

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Hi friends!

My first three Tulpa Books titles are almost ready, and I’m sure you know what that means.

Advance review copies!

To get your advance review copies of Dragonfly, Feral, or Broken Angel, simply email me at thinkingbar@gmail.com with ‘ARC List’ in the subject line, and I’ll add you to the advance review copy list.  The ARC list will not be a news list.  I will only use it to make advance review copies available to those who ask to be on the list.

All ARCs on offer will be free of charge and available in Kindle, Epub, and PDF formats.  All I ask is that you leave a review on the book’s Amazon, Kobo, or Barnes & Noble page, whichever you usually buy your books from.

There are only a few days left to vote for my next release.  The choices are mostly from my backlist.  The exception is a new short story collection which consists of mostly previously published work.  So far the collection, Dangerous Toys, is in the lead.  If you have a preference, now is the time to vote.

*Poll expired*

Introducing Tulpa Books!

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I’d like to begin by thanking a few people who convinced me that my work was worth bringing back, who encouraged me to release them myself, and who have helped me learn how to do it.  I’ve since immersed myself in the Indie Publishing world, but quietly, as a lurker.  Mouth shut, ears open, and hopefully learning.

Douglas Clegg.
Lisa Lee.
H Michael Casper.
Kelli Owen.
KH Koehler.
Mark Allan Gunnells.
Lisa Vasquez.
David M. Wilson.
Monica J. O’Rourke.
Joe Mulak.
Susan Woods.
Julie Sparkman.

There are others.  I know I missed some of you.  My brain is not yet working at peak efficiency, so please forgive me.

Now, to the meat of this announcement.  Two of Tulpa Books first three titles are going up for pre-order now and will be available on Amazon, Kobo, Nook, and maybe Ibooks (if I can get through the rat maze that is their vender account setup) on January 9, 2018.  I plan to bring them back in print too, but have not yet decided when.  Hopefully soon after the digital release.

The third will also release on January 9, 2018, but will be available only on KDP Select for the first three months.  It may go wide afterward depending on sales, or demand from readers from different storefronts.

Shannon Pitcher was trying to forget the brutal murder of her ex-husband and the loss of her only daughter, when fate brought her to a lost, scared little girl named Charity at the gate of an abandoned and haunted place called Feral Park.

Gordon Chambers has searched for his daughter for six years. Even when his estranged wife is found slaughtered and his daughter, Charity, disappears, hope remains in the form of strange dreams.

After years of living as prisoner of the fairytale monster that killed her mother, Charity has escaped, but the Bogeyman wants her back, and he will not stop until he has her. There is only one safe place for her now, but the price of safety will be more than her innocence, it will be her soul.

List price: $3.99.  On sale for 99 cents until January 18, 2018.

Grim knows there’s something wrong with his new foster-sister, Angel, but he also knows what it’s like to be an outsider in the small insular town.  Michele feels the danger surrounding her new friend, Angel inspires violence with her mere presence, terror with a simple touch, but she’s also sweet, damaged, and all but alone.

As Angel’s health improves and her memories return, the hot Clearwater summer becomes increasingly strange and violent.  Insanity infects the small town, a shadowy figure lurking in the woods at night deals death, and no one is safe.

List price: $3.99.  On sale for 99 cents until January 18, 2018.

Vengeful revenants, ghost children, woodland zombies, and lustful, demonic toys are among the menagerie of small horrors showcased in Brian Knight’s first collection, Dragonfly.

Gripping, touching, and sometimes humorous, Dragonfly deals a powerful range of emotions from love to hate, hope and loss. Reviewers and readers alike have praised Dragonfly, which received four honorable mentions in The Years Best Fantasy & Horror.

Douglas Clegg (The Nightmare Chronicles & Bad Karma) says: “Brian Knight’s writing shines with a dark brilliance. Dragonfly is a chilling collection of terror.”

List price: $2.99.  Available only on KDP Select.

I will put pre-order links on Brian-Knight.com once all three books are available for preorder.

Future Tulpa Books from my backlist include a Monster Double Feature of Reservoir Gods and They Call Us Monsters, solo releases of Reservoir Gods and They Call Us Monsters, Hacks, and my neo-noir crime novel Sex, Death, and Honey.  You can help decide which I release first by participating in the poll at the bottom of the page.

Future original Tulpa Books include a new collection called Dangerous Toys, the sequel to Sex, Death, and Honey tentatively titled Cut to the Quick, a new horror novel tentatively titled The Girl Has Guts, and a horror novel called Hog Island.  Some of these may come out as limited edition hardcovers before Tulpa Books releases them.  I’ll let you know which, if any, and how to get them.

You can receive advance review copies of Tulpa Books titles by joining my Knightmares newsletter and responding in the affirmative when I make them available.

Thanks for joining me in this new adventure.

Brian Knight

*Poll expired*

What’s next?  You decide!

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Some of you know I’m launching my own publishing imprint to bring back my out of print books (announcement to come), and if you didn’t, you do now.  Dragonfly, Feral, and Broken Angel will be available again January 9, 2018 as digital books, and later as paperbacks.  I’m also working on new stuff, which may or may not be released as limited hardcovers before I release them in digital and paperback formats.  I have at least one limited hardcover publisher interested in publishing my new work, and it’s a publisher I’ve wanted to work with for a long time.  They have a great reputation, and produce excellent titles.

Between the release of Dragonfly, Feral, and Broken Angel, and the release of my new works, there are many out of print backlist titles to bring back into print.  I’ll bring them back one at a time rather than all at once, but not necessarily in the order they were originally published.

This is where you come in.  You can help me decide what to bring back first.

For updates, free fiction, and first cover reveals, please join my Knightmares newsletter.

*Poll expired*

My interview with Mark Allan Gunnells – A Summer of Winters

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I first met Mark on some message board or other a few years back and was first impressed by his enthusiasm for fiction … specifically mine. What can I say? I’m a sucker for flattery, and Mark was a very vocal supporter of my work.

Later I was impressed by his ability to spin a good scary yarn, very impressed. Of all his work to date I am most impressed by The Summer of Winters.

I found aspects of the story, the alienation and loneliness of some children and the cruelty of others, especially poignant. The disturbing sense of dark nostalgia that the story held for me, a resonance that genre fiction all too often fails to achieve drew me in almost immediately. Mark’s excellent storytelling kept me there, and I finished the story in a single sitting.

Q: Mark, A Summer of Winters feels like a very personal story. How much of it sprang from your own childhood, your friendships and relationships?

A: Well, the main plot is completely fictitious, and while some of the characters were modeled after people I knew, no one character represents a living person. That said, I threw in so much of my childhood into this story that I feel in some ways I was using it as a means to preserve my memories. The setting is real, my hometown, and I utilized as many of the places that were important to me as a kid as would fit in the story. The main characters house is a house I lived in as a kid, and the bamboo forest and the thick bushes with the tunnels running through them were all read. And several events in the story—the younger brother slamming the door on his finger and needing stitches, the teacher who snatched away the candy for not saying thank you, etc.—actually happened to me. So while the book is a piece of fiction, there is much truth of my past in it.

Q: How hard was this story to write?

A: Well, the plot goes to some very dark places, and that made it somewhat painful to deal with. Also, some of the more unpleasant aspects of my childhood made it in. That said, I did enjoy the process of writing the story.

Q: When I started reading, I expected a supernatural story, probably a ghost story. I was pleasantly surprised at the way you instilled such a creepy atmosphere into what is essentially a mystery/thriller. Is this the type of story we can expect from you in the future?

A: It is true that previous to this book, most of my published work was horror and supernatural in nature, but I don’t want to be a one trick pony kind of writer. My latest published book is a love story (with a sci-fi angle), and the book I’m currently working on deals with witchcraft and ghosts. So, I hope to explore many different genres in my career.

Q: A Summer of Winters is also a really great coming of age story on par with James Newman’s Midnight Rain (and trust me, that is a high compliment coming from me). Are you planning something similar in novel length?

A: I’ve always loved the coming of age genre, and the Newman you mentioned is one of my favorites. Along with works by Lansdale, McCammon, King. I’ve always wanted to write one but could never really hit on an idea that worked for me until The Summer of Winters. Would I be open to working in the genre again? You betcha. But I’d have to hit on an idea that I was really passionate about. I revere the genre so much, I wouldn’t want to half-ass it.

Q: What do you have in the works? What’s coming soon?

A: Well, I co-authored a novella with Benjamin Kane Ethridge entitled Locked Room Misery that is due out from Gallow’s Press sometime this year, but I’m not certain of any specifics. I’m also working on a novel for JournalStone, and eventually plan to do a sequel to my novel The Quarry. Also fingers crossed I’ll be doing a new collection with Evil Jester Press.

Q: Anything I missed that you’d like to talk about? I’m all ears.

A: I think you about covered it. Just want to thank you for your time, and thank everybody out there who has ever taken a chance on one of my works and everyone who may in the future.

Thank you very much for your time today, Mark. As always, you’re a real pleasure to chat with.

JournalStone Publishing is in a Giving Mood!

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A while back JournalStone Publishing gave away 10 copies of The Phoenix Girls, Book 1: The Conjuring Glass on Goodreads.  There were nearly 800 entries, so a lot of people didn’t win a copy. Now JournalStone has decided to give away 10 more.  Go to Goodreads now and enter to win a copy for your chance to read The Phoenix Girls, Book 1: The Conjuring Glass before it is available to the general public.

It’s easy!  Just go to Goodreads and click to enter. Well, you do have to have a Goodreads account, but if you’re a bookish type, you probably should have one anyway.

Good luck!

Brian Knight

*Contest Over*