You have just two days left to read the special novella In Seeing: A Story of Cedar Hill before it disappears — possibly forever. All three parts are up now until August 1st. The author, Gary A. Braunbeck is an Ohio horror writer, known for this emotionally powerfully stories.

In Seeing: A Story of Cedar Hill: Click below to read it at Horrorworld

• Part One runs from July 1-11.
• Part Two runs from July 11-21.
• Part Three runs from July 21-31.

Yes, my very first official interview conducted by Ohio writer Lucy A. Snyder for the Storytellers Unplugged blog.

Lucy has been working on an article series and my interview comes in at part three. So if you want to read them in order start with Book Promotion: Part 1, then hop over to Book Promotion: Part 2 and finally slide in at More on Getting Your Books into Libraries where Lucy has made me bona fide star.

If you like what you’ve read - and if you’re on that long lonely road to authorship, you should pay very close attention to what she has to say - then stop by Storytellers Unplugged every 13th of the month when it will be Gary A. Braunbeck and Lucy A. Snyder’s turn to post again.

So, what do you think? Should I start charging for my autograph now?

Wovel up. Is it a battle cry? A secret society password? a new rock group? No. It’s a new expression I see every Monday morning in my e-mail box. Wovel Up! It tells me that this week’s installment of the online web novel is posted.

I wrote briefly about the wovel earlier — shortly after the first installment went live. Now I’m back to tell you more about the story and the author.

This isn’t your ordinary zombie novel.

First off a brief recap. Underland Press publishes the weekly installments of Kealan Patrick Burke’s novel The Living on their new website. Each Monday we get a short installment (takes between 5-15 minutes depending on reading speed) which ends on a cliffhanger and a choice that the audience gets to make about what will happen next. In effect, Kealan writes the novel with audience participation. The voting goes on through Thursday. Then Kealan takes the result and writes the next segment which is posted Monday morning. Then I get an e-mail announcing “Wovel Up!”

Missed the first episodes? Get all caught up right here. Then continue on to the latest segment right here. When you read don’t forget to vote. And when you vote, don’t forget to sign up for the e-mail reminders so you don’t miss another installment.

So, what’s this story all about? Here is the official summary:

THE LIVING

A virus has wiped out three-quarters of the world’s population.

You Decide

This isn’t your ordinary zombie novel.

Kealan Patrick Burke was born in Dungarvan, Ireland and now makes his home in Columbus, Ohio with his family. Besides writing horror, he is an editor, a screenwriter and a photographer. You can find out more about him and his work on his website Kealan Patrick Burke.com, Kealan’s Blog — Something Stirs and Kealan’s MySpace.

(Crossposted in …With Intent to Commit Horror and The Lair of the Undead Rat.)

This month Gary A. Braunbeck, an Ohio based horror writer, teams up with Horrorworld to make a special limited time presentation just for you. The novella called In Seeing: A Story of Cedar Hill will be serialized in three installments this month.

In Seeing: A Story of Cedar Hill
Click here to read it at Horrorworld

• Part One runs from July 1-11.
• Part Two runs from July 11-21.
• Part Three runs from July 21-31.

As the next part is published on the website, the last part is archived if you’re a johnny-come-lately, you can still read the entire story between the 21st and August 1st when it disappears.

Cedar Hill is . . . a town where the supernaturally weird happens . . . a lot

Yes, that’s right, after July 31, it all goes away, possibly for good! At this moment there is no word about future publication of this story. That decision seems to rest with Horrorworld owner and manager Nanci Kalanta. I’m sure a strong showing on the website (i.e., a lot of people drop by and read it) will improve its chances to see print publication.

What is Cedar Hill?

Cedar Hill is Gary Braunbeck’s the fictionalized Ohio town based loosely on Newark, Ohio and a few other places where he lived. It is a town where the economy is depressed, industries are failing and “getting out” is almost an impossibility.

It’s also a town where the supernaturally weird happens . . . a lot. Some people live their lives surrounded by the weird. Others find themselves catastrophically touched by it only once — but once is enough. Many people fall between the extremes.

Gary has over a hundred short stories and novellas as well as four novels set in Cedar Hill. His novel Keepers introduces you to the mysterious bowler hat wearing people (are they people?) called the Keepers, which you meet in the first installment of In Seeing.

The latest novel Coffin County is the story about how the supernatural came to Cedar Hill. The next novel, slated for publication in 2009, promises to be the story of the final fate Cedar Hill and the supernatural forces that inhabit it.

In the meantime, read and enjoy In Seeing and pop over to the Cedar Hill Story Cycle List on the sister-website … With Intent to Commit Horror for a list of the books that chronicle Gary’s beleaguered town.

(Cross-posted on . . . With Intent to Commit Horror and The Lair of the Undead Rat)

Last Thursday saw the launch of a new small press publisher entering the field of horror. Underland Press books’ website went live on May 29th.

Underland Press itself has several authors already under contract with the first book expected in the winter of 2009. However, you don’t want to wait until then before you visit their website because, if you hurry, you just might catch the first chapter of their wovel.

Yes, I said wovel.

“What is a wovel?”

“Well it’s . . . different. Yeah, it is different. It’s a web-novel.”

Ohio author Kealan Patrick Burke is the author of a very different kind of undead story titled The Living. Each week he delivers an installment of the novel and at the end of the installment, we get to vote on what happens next.

It’s like the old choose your own adventure stories. Whatever we vote for, we’re stuck with and so is Kealan. He has to take the result and write the next leg of the story. For more information on this exciting project, check out their information page.

I read the first installment of The Living and cast my vote.

The first vote looks like a simple decision but it makes a profound impact on the wovel and on the main character. I can’t say more without spoiling the story but trust me when I say it took me fifteen minutes to make my decision.

Once I cast my vote I got to see which choice was winning and by how much. Wanna know who’s winning? You’ll have to read the installment and vote if you want to find out — I’m not giving anything away here. Underland Press is extending the vote, until July 16th, to give people a chance to discover the wovel.

Go. Read The Living. Vote. You’ll be glad you did.

Afterwards check out the The Underland Press mission statement and then take a look at the first books they’ve got lined up for publication. And visit Kealan Patrick Burke at his website: Kealan Patrick Burke.com.

(Based on a post in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)

Who is the Undead Rat?

Who am I Really?

By night I am the Undead Rat, your guide to finding Ohio authors to read. On other websites I find horror books and graphic novels for people to read too.

By day I am Greg Fisher - husband, father, and a librarian assistant in a mid-sized suburban library. I have a Bachelors degree in history and religious studies. I don’t have a Masters Degree in Library Science and probably never will. Still, I have over 15 years of library experience so that counts for something.

[Read more →]

My name is Greg Fisher and I am the Undead Rat. And as the Undead Rat, I get to explore the world of horror fiction and share what I’m learning with people over the internet and in person. Horror is a great literary passion of mine.

But . . . (here is the confession)
[Read more →]

Congratulations to Gary A. Braunbeck who won not one but two Bram Stoker Awards last night.

He won:

The 2007 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction:
Afterward, There Will be a Hallway by Gary Braunbeck

and shared in winning:

The 2007 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement an Anthology:
Five Strokes to Midnight by Gary Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble (editors)

Afterward, There Will be a Hallway appeared in the anthology Five Strokes to Midnight which is available at The Horror Mall.

We want to congratulate Ohio author Gary A. Braunbeck on netting not one but two well- deserved Bram Stoker nominations this year.

His story “Afterward, There Will be a Hallway” which appeared in Five Strokes to Midnight was nominated for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction. Then the anthology Five Strokes to Midnight which he co-edited with Hank Schwaeble was also nominated for Superior Achievement in an Anthology.

As far as we know, Gary is the only Ohio author in the running - although if we’re wrong, we hope to be forgiven our oversight. All the authors nominated are deserving of awards, but we wish Gary a little bit of extra good fortune and hope that he wins not just one but two Stokers this evening.

You can check out his website at Gary A. Braunbeck — Official Site and view his author page here. Five Strokes to Midnight is available for sale through The Horror Mall which you can reach by clicking on the book cover above.

Each year the Horror Writers Association awards the Bram Stoker Award to horror fiction published in the previous year in multiple categories (best novel, first novel, short story, anthology, collection etc.). This is a prestigious award and this year, for the first time ever, the award ceremony is being broadcast through the internet to those of us unable to attend.

The broadcast is tonight (Saturday March 29, 2008) at 11:00pm Eastern Standard Time (at 9:00 Salt Lake City, Utah time - which is where the awards are being held)

Before the awards go to http://www.iscifi.tv/live/ to download the latest Shockwave Flash browser plug-in to make sure your computer is up-to-date and ready to roll. Then at 11:00, return to http://www.iscifi.tv/live/ to watch the festivities.

If watching a Flash production on your computer isn’t your bag, you can check out Horror Fiction News Network’s live blogging of the awards ceremony and find out who won in “real time”.

To get a list of the nominees (so you can decide who to root for), check out the HWA’s website.

I want to give a big “Thank you” to Gary A. Braunbeck for the tip about the iScifi broadcast and another big “Thank you” to Paul Puglisi and HFNN for posting the Stoker Awards again this year.

(Originally posted in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)