Beyond The Darkness 17

Big, Hairy, Heavy Metal Elephants

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! To the mothers, grandmothers, sisters, cousins―really, to all the women of the world―I hope you have a great day and get to spend time with your loves ones and those you hold close. Though my mother lives eleven hours away from me, she’s spending the week in Mexico with my father, soaking up the rays and eating well, and I’ll be living it up here in…Pennsylvania. (hooray)

Anyways, to all the women out there, parents or not, I wish you a great day and an even better weekend!

---

Remember a while back when I told you I was a concert junkie? Yeah, I wasn’t lying.

This week I was fortunate enough to once again see my favorite band in the whole world, Mastodon, live in concert. Now, I saw say once again because I’ve quite literally lost track of how many times I’ve actually seen them live in concert. About two or three years ago I was able to write down each time I had seen them live, but that list was eventually lost. If I remember correctly, it was somewhere between fifteen and twenty times. Seriously. I lived in Atlanta, Georgia, where Mastodon is from, for two years when I attended collage at AIM, and I believe I saw them at various venues five to six times over that span. Hell, since I’ve moved to PA nearly six years ago, I’ve seen them four times, twice on the same tour. Have I mentioned I love them?

The show I saw them on Wednesday night was in Baltimore at the Pier Six Pavilion, which sits right on the water in Inner Harbor in downtown. I love that venue. It’s easy to get to, easy to park at, and funny enough, it’s the same venue I’ve seen them perform at two other times. It’s got a capacity of around 4,600 people, and I believe there was indeed that many metal heads packed in to that place.

They were co-headlining with a French metal band called Gojira, and the deathcore band Lorna Shore opened the show. I’m not a fan of Lorna Shore at all, they’re just not my cup of tea, but everyone there seemed to love them as they ran through their forty minute set.

Then my boys came on.

I honestly couldn’t tell you if this was the best show of theirs I’ve seen. I’ve seen them perform so many times, they’ve all blurred tighter. I will say that they kept their setlist exceptionally heavy this round, considering who they were touring with. Either way, the show was once again excellent. They’ve grown so much as a band since the first time I saw them, way back at Ozzfest in 2005. I’m so happy for their success and can’t wait to see where they’re at in ten more years.

---

Some fun publishing news this week!

Previously only available as a webstore exclusive, my Imadjinn Award-Winning novel CRUEL SUMMER is now available from all retailers in a gorgeous dust jacketed trade hardcover!

Signed copies with extra goodies are still available at my webstore.

Amazon: https://a.co/d/9uQj9Uz

(Note... For whatever reason the image still hasn't populated onto Amazon's page, but this is the right page for the book.

Also, this is printed by Ingram, so even though it says it's out of stock, if you place an order, it will trigger their system into ordering copies to stock.)

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/.../cruel.../1137159363...

BAM: https://www.booksamillion.com/.../Wesley.../9798987371329...

My webstore: www.wesleysouthardhorror.com

---

Writing news…

I can finally say the second draft of my new book is completed! I finished up the manuscript a few hours ago, and I’m going to sit on it another day before shooting over to my pre-readers for their eyes and notes. After that, I will see where author Wile E. Young is with his novella and we can proceed with getting this book into the final stages of production. I know I’ve been saying it for a while now, but I can’t wait for you all you read this book.

As for other things…

Some interesting things happened this week. Very fun, interesting things…that I can’t quite talk about yet. Yes, I know that’s a douchy, pretentious things to say as an author, but I really can’t talk about what’s happening yet. Believe me, I wish I could. One thing came completely out of the blue, and the other I have been steadily working on getting into for some time. The most I can say at this time is that both are pretty damn cool.

---

Currently Reading: “DMV” by Bentley Little (really enjoying it)

Currently Watching: the new Second Sight Films 4K edition of the 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (absolutely beautiful restoration)

Currently Listening to: tons of ASMR on YouTube (yeah, I’m a weirdo)

---

And that’s it for this week. Be good to one another and I’ll see you back here next Sunday!