Springtime for Horror
Nominations, Clowns, a New Novel, and a Book Tour
What a week it’s been… and it’s not over yet, baby!
First, I was notified that I was nominated for two Splatterpunk Awards this year—Best Novel for The Old Lady and Best Short Story for “Baby, I’d Die 4 U.” The latter appears in The Obituaries #6: Red Romance, an anthology I edited (except for Daniel J. Volpe editing my story), which was nominated for Best Anthology.
The Old Lady is one of my favorite books I’ve ever written. I think it contains some of my best character-building, and I’m proud of how I mixed action/suspense with splatterpunk horror. It’s about the traumatized daughter of a deranged Vietnam Vet, who was trained by him as a child to be the ultimate killing machine. She’s a survivalist and a former convict who returns to the cabin she grew up in decades later, only to get wrapped up in a dangerous situation with a group of teenagers and the deadly extremists they encounter in the woods. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook. You can also snag a signed copy on my website.
“Baby, I’d Die 4 U” is a twisted horror comedy about preteen girls obsessed with a boy band that has evil intentions. The members of the band, which is called O-Biz, are parodies of Aron, Dan, and me, with songs titles like “Kissin’ on the Playground” and “A Cold Place for Cuddling.” While humorous, it’s also brutal and depraved, so check it out in The Obituaries #6: Red Romance. Currently, that is the only place you can read the story. Get it at the link below.
On Tuesday I attended the NYC premier of Clown in a Cornfield, the new horror film by Eli Craig, based on the hit novel by my friend Adam Cesare. More than anything, I was just so happy for Adam’s success. He’s a good dude and deserves it all. You can get the novel and its sequel right now from Harperteen, wherever books are sold. Read them before the movie comes out so you can be cooler than all of your friends.
Also at the premier were horror authors Aron Beauregard, Scott Cole, Daniel J. Volpe, and Joe Pesavento, as well as popular book reviewers Chandra Claypool (Where the Reader Grows on Instagram) and Sonja Ska (Ghostlyreads on TikTok). Oh, and the director and stars of the film were there, too, haha. It was a wonderful time, complete with a mock corn maze full of scary clowns, and the movie is an absolute blast. It’s filled with the creative, gory kills fans of slasher films love while subverting any preconceived notions you might have about a killer clown movie. I highly recommend you check it out when it hits theaters May 9th.
Just before the premier in Brooklyn, I was repairing a toilet tank. How many people can say they were elbows-deep in a toilet just hours before attending a big movie premier? I’m special like that.
Speaking of special, the launch of the special edition hardback of my new novel I Don’t Recognize This World Anymore has been a big success at Trianahorror, so thank you to everyone who preordered the first run. If you ordered your copy before April 26th, it was shipped out on April 28th (check your email for tracking). Orders placed after that will ship later in May but will still arrive before the wide release on June 17th, in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. All orders are mailed out in the order they are received.
A lot of people have commented on the title of this prison novel. It came to me one day when I wasn’t even thinking about the book. As a man in his 40s, I’ve watched the world change drastically in my lifetime, so much so that it barely resembles the one I grew up in. It’s not just that I don’t recognize this world; it’s that there is so much about the new world I do not understand, and so much of its culture goes against everything I’ve ever known. Things that were commonplace are now offensive, and things that were considered batshit crazy are the new norm, leaving people like me to be ridiculed (or worse yet, demonized) if we don’t accept them. I suppose that just comes with getting older, but even younger readers have said how much they relate to the title, especially in the globe’s current state of pandemonium.
Speaking of pandemonium, many of you are probably aware of Richard Chizmar at Cemetery Dance being called out online for not paying authors royalties and mocking them when they ask for them, which led to the press being publicly shamed and even banned by the Horror Writer’s Association from taking pitches at Stokercon. For legal reasons, I won’t get into things too deeply, but I have pulled my novel That Night in the Woods from Cemetery Dance and will soon be republishing it through Bad Dream Books. I also had a short story accepted for Cemetery Dance Magazine over nine years ago, which has yet to see print. If it ever gets released, please know it was sold to them before they were exposed for mistreating their authors. I will not be working with them in the future, which is a shame because when I was a young writer, they were a bucket list press for me.
But back to happier news.
Spring also marks the beginning of my 2025 book signing tour! I love meeting my fans, especially you.
This Saturday and Sunday, I will be alongside Aron Beauregard at CT Horrorfest in Stamford, Connecticut. Some of the celebrity guests include David Howard Thorton of Terrifier fame, Sleepaway Camp’s Felicity Rose, and several Friday the 13th Part 2 alumni. This is always a fun convention, so if you’re anywhere near Stamford, come check it out!
The following Saturday, May 10th, I will once again be joined at the hip to Aron Beauregard for a book signing at Barnes and Noble in Smithfield, Rhode Island, at the Smithfield Crossing location. This event is from 5pm to 7pm. We hope we’ll see some ravenous horror readers there!
I’ll have more book signing announcements once they are concrete. Currently my next appearance won’t be until Books and Brews in Noblesville, Indiana on August 2nd.
In June I’m undergoing another shoulder surgery, this time on my left shoulder to repair damage caused by tendonosis. Years of heavy weightlifting takes its toll, I guess! So if you’ve been thinking about grabbing one of my books, now would be a great time to do it. But don’t worry about old man Triana. He’ll still be able to write while he heals. It would take more than a surgery procedure to stop the horrors hemorrhaging from my imagination. I couldn’t build a damn for them if I tried.
I recently finished the rough draft of a Satanic horror novel I’m very excited about, which I hope to release before the end of the year.
There will also be a special, limited-edition hardback of one of my most popular titles very soon, but more on that later…
Until next time, keep reading, and spend some time outside.
Your pal,
Kris
Satanic horror novel!? Holy shit!
In the last year or so, I’ve purchased things from CD that took forever to receive or didn’t receive at all. After getting the runaround on two separate orders I decided to not buy from them anymore. It’s unfortunate; I thought they were the better of the indie publishers.