The Next Big Thing

I’m not sure how long ago it was but it’s been at least three years now since I had the swell idea of hey, my friend Paul and I should start a publishing imprint. Like everything else I fool with, it starts with a wild idea with little thought beyond. My friend Paul and I have been involved in our convention and events group and have talked a lot about projects but we hadn’t really gotten anything off the ground together. We’re both authors and have both made short films (though he has made waaaay more movies and written more books than I have) and we have both done shows and promoted our work so we know a lot about all of that and both have the itch to create. For me, I wanted to create something different, something low level, low cost, and low investment, but which could offer something different to those that are out there. We can’t counter a major publisher or ‘label’ but we can do something that reflects our ideals, our interests, our experience, and which supports and amplifies authors who are still looking to catch some eyes.

This summer we finally decided to take the plunge and after lots of What Ifs, lots of Hey We Coulds, and just a lot of foot dragging and it was time to do it. My fear was money, really, how we’d afford things, but in doing things how we are that alleviates some of that concern. Releasing a book now, during a pandemic, is a mess.
BELIEVE ME.

I am nearing the release of my second pandemic book and to say it will go over like a lead balloon is not an overstatement. In March I released what I feel like is a super good, super fun, super unique book and I have sold maybe two books. Just the way it goes. Not being able to do shows it is what it is. All five of you that might come across this post found me through some miracle or alchemy but no one else is, and so I am not moving books.

Life goes on.

But while we can’t do shows to support this project, it does mean we save money on that aspect of it. While we’ll still have to find ways to promote this thing, it means we don’t have to focus on shows.

Hey, ya find the rainbows where you can.

So what is this project?

When we first started talking about the project we had never really known what we wanted to do exactly other than we wanted to work on something together. The perfect project appeared clearly enough when our group of friends that does a podcast together all wrote bigfoot stories for an episode. It seemed like a fun challenge since we all were fascinated by the big hair fella/gal and we are all writers. I think we were all a little surprised at how different each story was and how fun the podcast turned out and there was the seed for our project.

Bigfoot.

We would take the stories we had written, refine them, and add some more stories to those as well as another author.

As the project started to coalesce we also started talking about what we wanted for a cover. We know a lot of artists and didn’t doubt that it’d be a great cover to the book and Paul turned to an author known for his work with Mad Magazine and who had a touch of whimsy to what he drew and he seemed perfect.

Boy was Paul right, as you’ll see below.

So what are my contributions?

I wrote two stories for the book, one that was from the podcast, and one that I wrote for the book. Both are dark stories that focus on the woods, and the mysterious and dangerous nature of the Sasquatch. My stories are straight horror with an emphasis on the terror of the woods.

I really like them.

I like the whole book.

All of the stories in it are unique, really capture the voice of the authors, and really feature different aspects of the big wooly critter of the woods.

Our hope was to create a fun book that wasn’t too expensive, that offered the reader some creepy chills, and which got our authors some more attention for their work.

I think we nailed all of those things.

With the book on the verge of coming out I am as jittery as I am excited but I think is going to be really fun for everyone and bring a little more Bigfoot into everyone’s lives.

Check it out if you’re of a mind.