Spring into the Grave

New Book. Authorcon. Shirts. Germany. And more.

Hey! It’s been a minute since my last post, so I thought I’d send out a quick hello to y’all. Thanks so much for reading my newsletter. I’d like to thank you by giving you a ten percent discount on your next website order at Trianahorror.com. At checkout, just use discount code: NEWS. This code will be good until the 31^st.

And dude, there are a lot of cool new items on the site, including the rerelease of The Ruin Season in a revised edition with a brand-new cover—and yes, that’s Bear! Many of you have asked when my “death metal” shirts would be back in stock, and I’m delighted to tell you they are now available in all sizes. The shirts have also been upgraded to a material so silky smooth you’ll want to sleep in them. Just click on the image below (featuring my lovely models Mona and Gregg) to snag yours so you’ll have it in time for your school pictures. Mom will be so proud!

My first book signing of the year will take place in just ten days. Literally hundreds of horror authors will be at Scare That Care’s Authorcon event in Williamsburg, VA, March 31^st through April 2^nd. I’ll be signing books all weekend and will appear on two panels, one about slashers and another about trauma in horror fiction. You can check out the event’s full programming schedule here. This is the second event of its kind, and I can assure you the first one was incredible for everyone involved. Hope to see you there!

Get your tickets here.

My second book signing of 2023 will also be my first book signing in Germany. My German publisher, Festa Verlag, has set up a special event in Leipzig on April 29^th. I am absolutely ecstatic to meet all my fans in Deutschland and to get to explore their great country.

German horror has always been a fascination of mine, be it early expressionist works like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu, or the transgressive films of Olaf Ittenbach and Jörg Buttgereit. If you’re in the mood for an explosively gory horror movie, look no further than Premutos. I highly recommend it to fans of Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, and early Peter Jackson. It’s currently free on Tubi.

I’m also a fierce Rammstein fan, and they incorporate a great deal of morbidity and the bizarre into their heavy music (and in fact, Leipzig is the birthplace of front man Till Lindemann). So, as a creator of horror fiction, it is an honor for me to be a welcomed to a country that produces horror art of such high quality.

For more on the event, visit the Facebook page here.

This spring will also see the release of my fifteenth novel.

On May 12^th, Grindhouse Press is unleashing The Prettiest Girl in the Grave. This is a contemporary horror story which I believe will appeal to fans of Gone to See the River Man. The synopsis is below, followed by the cover art.

Some girls are fearful, others are brave. One girl’s a princess, the next one, a slave. But all girls are equal, when they’re down in this cave, until just one is left standing—The Prettiest Girl in the Grave.

It was only supposed to be a game.

When Bella, Celeste, and Rose meet with new friends at a graveyard in the woods, they soon realize they’re unprepared for what’s planned. At twenty-four, Aubrey is older than the high schoolers, and she knows of a secret game that’s been played by local girls for decades.

It starts with personal questions, but quickly moves on to a test of courage as Aubrey guides them into an underground crypt. But even Aubrey doesn’t know what they’re really getting into. Bella’s mother, Holly, may be the only one who does.

As a teen, Holly and her friends also played the game, and Holly barely survived. When she discovers her daughter has gone to the graveyard, she fears Bella will get lost in the mysterious catacombs just as she had… and face the same sinister forces.

As the girls search for a way out, Holly must return to the dreadful crypt she swore she’d never come back to, and finally face her own dark secrets.

Now that the self-promotion is out of the way, I can tell you about some of the nifty things I’ve been enjoying lately.

I finally saw The Whale. I always jump on the films of Darren Aronofsky. Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler are two of my favorite movies of all time. So I was excited for this release even before the Oscar buzz, but I hardly ever go to the movies because I strongly and dedicatedly prefer watching them at home. Once The Whale was available to rent, I fired up the Roku and sat down for a two-hour romp through raw humanity.

Not only is The Whale good, but it’s also darker than I anticipated, particularly in its moments of body horror (which feature spectacular practical FX instead of CGI). This isn’t Cronenberg-style body horror where people turn into flies or give birth to demonic minions—this is body horror that is true to life. The story—based on the play by Samuel D. Hunter, who drew from his own experiences with obesity—is both heartfelt and devastating on multiple levels, even if some of the character arcs feel rushed or even forced. But the film’s true divinity rests on the shoulders of its leading man. I never thought I’d say this about the guy from George of the Jungle and Dudley Do-Right, but Brendan Fraser gives one of the greatest acting performances I’ve ever seen. I don’t get choked up at movies very often, but my official take is this: “The Whale will leave you blubbering.” Feel free to use that, Hollywood. I’m sure no one else has thought of it.

I’m currently getting into the deep cuts of Jim Thompson. I’m a huge fan and have been reading his stuff for decades, but the guy was incredibly prolific, so I’m only now getting around to lesser-known titles like Heed the Thunder, Cropper’s Cabin, and The Kill-Off. Currently, I’m on Wild Town, which I was surprised to learn serves as a sort of prequel to The Killer Inside Me, one of Thompson’s best. If you’ve not read Thompson yet, I recommend Pop. 1280 or The Getaway to get you started. Fellow horror author Kristopher Rufty will back me up on this.

And while I’m not much of a Nine Inch Nails fan, I’ve been very much enjoying the dark film scores Trent Reznor does with Atticus Ross. My personal favorites are The Vietnam War, Bones and All, and Patriot’s Day. Brooding, atmospheric music like this keeps my imagination churning out new horrors, and that’s good news for everybody, right?

Until next time, keep reading, and try to be happy.

Your pal,

Kris