Beyond The Darkness 5
Well, how do you like them deviled eggs?
The amount of work put into the last four months to get this book ready again for the public has been utterly daunting, to say the least. Between myself spending weeks (seriously) trying to find the right files in my computer and past emails, the countless hours my four pre-readers put into cleaning up the mess that was the previous edition, and the tedious layout work and file fixing Scott Cole had to endure, I’m surprised this project didn’t take twice as long to complete. Of course, I have to thank everyone involved in the process. Seriously, my pre-readers are absolute rock stars, combing through eighty-two thousand words of a typo-riddled manuscript to find all the mistakes that I was too stupid and lazy to catch six-plus years ago when I first published this novel. Seriously, I didn’t realize how many corrections had to go into this edition until I received my notes back from those four. Again, those four have my eternal gratitude for the time and effort they put into this and all my work.
So, The Betrayed. My first published novel. My first born. There’s a lot I could say here about what went in to writing this novel and where the idea came from and all that origin-y goodness, but I wrote a brand new afterword for this edition that goes into detail about all of that. What I will tell you is this: I am extremely proud of this novel. It’s the very first piece of long fiction I ever wrote, the first one I ever published, and it gave me the confidence and the drive to start my writing career. Unfortunately, it never got the attention I wanted for it. I get it though. I was a newbie with absolutely no name to back me. My hope with this new edition is to get a lot of fresh eyes on this old dog and hopefully get it the audience I believe it deserves.
Once again, I cannot begin to thank everyone involved enough, from my pre-readers, to Scott Cole for his wonderful work on the cover layout and the interiors, and to Anton Rosovsky for his unbelievable artwork.
Damn, it’s a thicc book! That’s 366 pages!
As for all the other good stuff…
The official release date for the trade paperback and e-book is Tuesday February 7th.
The e-book is now up for pre-order right now and can be found here.
The trade paperback will be up for sale on Amazon the day of release.
***SIGNED COPIES***
As a special THANK YOU for being subscribers to this newsletter, I will be offering you all first dibs at signed paperbacks several days before the release date. I have already ordered copies and have all the fun extras that will be a part of each book bundle through my webstore. I don’t have a specific date for when I’ll have those copies in-hand, but I am fairly confident I will have them within the next week and a half or so. I plan is to have them ready for you all in two Sundays from now (maybe sooner).
I have two specific paperback bundles to offer:
The standard book bundle will include a signed copy of the paperback, a high quality The Betrayed cover art hard refrigerator magnet (limited to the first twenty orders, will not be reprinted), a The Betrayed cover art sticker (given out in place of the magnet after the twenty magnets are gone), a large custom demon head button (limited to the first twenty orders), a Wesley Southard Horror button, and a bookmark. This bundle will be priced at $18.
The other set is called the Hell on Earth Bundle and will be limited to only five (5) sets total. This bundle will not be offered again after they sell out. It will include a signed copy of the paperback, an 11”x17” glossy art print of the Anton Rosovsky cover art (sans title font), a limited edition Wesley Southard Horror drink can koozie, a high quality The Betrayed cover art hard refrigerator magnet, a large custom demon head button, a Wesley Southard Horror button, and a bookmark. This bundle will be priced at $30. ***Unfortunately, I can only offer this extremely limited bundle to US residents. The art prints will be shipped out separately from the books and the extras, and part of the price of this particular bundle includes the shipping for the art print. Shipping outside the US for a package of this size wouldn’t be cheap or feasible. My sincere apologies.***
Again, my plan is to have everything ready to go by either Sunday January 29th (my birthday!) or at the latest on Sunday February 5th. I will probably send out a mid-week newsletter with an update as soon as I have everything I need in-hand.
My Tales from the Crypt full series re-watch continues…
Judy, You’re Not Yourself Today (S2, E11)
The housewife of a weirdo gun-nut is randomly visited by an elderly cosmetics saleswoman, who offers her a piece of jewelry that can make the two women switch bodies. This was an odd one. Everyone in this particular episode is so off-kilter and bizarre and by the time it was over, I was eager to move on. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but the husband character was over-the-top annoying and made for a tedious watch. It stars the great Carol Kane and the grandmother from Happy Gilmore.
Fitting Punishment (S2, E12)
When his parents die in a car crash, Bobby is forced to live with his penny-pinching funeral home owning Uncle, who’s terrible behavior proves to be fatal to his young family member. I love this episode a lot. I remember it used to scare me quite a bit as a kid, especially the ending. I think the combination of the acting, the set pieces, the pacing, and the effects made this a top-tier episode. Actor Moses Gunn made for quite the nasty villain.
Korman's Kalamity (S2, E13)
A illustrator who draws for Tales from the Crypt learns that the impotency pills his shrill wife forces him to take may have given him the power to manifest his creepy drawings into real life monsters. I fucking love this episode. It’s the right amount of silly and campy, and is able to work the meta angle very well. If you’re a fan of the William Kat film House, you’ll adore this one. It stars Harry Anderson, who was fresh off the IT tv film, and an unrecognizable Colleen Camp.
Lower Berth (S2, E14)
A mysterious stranger offers a freakshow organizer the deal of a lifetime: a 4,000 year old mummy to display at his circus. It not only gains the attention of all who pay to see her, but also four eyes of the show’s two-headed freak. Yet another standout in season two, one that creeped me out as a kid. The mechanical prosthetic of the two faced man was quite well done and disturbing, and the 1910’s circus set piece really showed the type of money they had to play with. And of course, we get to see the Crypt Keeper himself as a newborn, which was set another excellent mechanical puppet.
Mute Witness to Murder (S2, E15)
A woman is standing on her balcony and witnesses a murder through a window across the street, shocking her and rendering her completely mute. Her husband fetches a doctor, only to discover the medical expert was the man in the window. Again, another one I remember from my youth. The concept for this was kind of silly and far fetched, but it worked perfectly fine for a non-supernatural episode. Nothing special or groundbreaking, just another fine tale. Stars yet another 1990 IT alumn, Richard Thomas, who played the murderous, heart pill-taking doctor.
(Substack is now saying this email is now too long, so I’ll have to finish my thoughts on Season 2 next week.)
Currently Reading: Below by Laurel Hightower
Currently Watching: The Last of Us on HBO (Damn, how good was that pilot?)
Currently Listening To: Any and all In Flames albums as I gear up for their new record next month.
Thanks again, everyone! I’ll have more writing news and updates involving The Betrayed next weekend. Have a good week!