UGLY AS SIN: The "Playlist"

It won't be long at all now.  Hopefully I will be able to announce very soon that I have completed my fourth novel, Ugly As Sin.  Finally!

In the meantime, I thought this might be fun for those of you who have followed the book's progress . . . .

As I near the finish line, I present to you my Ugly As Sin "playlist".  These are either: 

     A) songs I listened to repeatedly as I wrote my lil' tale of Southern-fried noir . . . these are the tracks that became in my mind a sort of unofficial "soundtrack" for the story, influencing the mood, pacing, tone, etc.
     or
     B)  they are directly mentioned in the manuscript itself . . . a few of these will stick out like the proverbial sore thumb, but they deserve to be here because they are "heard" in the novel at some point (i.e. thumpin' during the strip-club scene, or when my protagonist decides a local drug-dealer called Coko Puff would look great with a tire iron upside his head   :)


     More soon!  Enjoy, my friends, and thanks for reading/listening . . . .

OTIS TAYLOR:  "Nasty Letter"

HOWLIN' WOLF:  "Built For Comfort"

LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS:  "Goin' Back Home"

ETTA JAMES:  "Trust In Me"

SUNNYLAND SLIM:  "The Devil Is a Busy Man"

SONNYBOY WILLIAMSON:  "Your Funeral, My Trial"

ROB ZOMBIE:  "Living Dead Girl"

LIL' WAYNE:  "Lollipop"



ALICE COOPER:  "Poison"

AC/DC:  "You Shook Me All Night Long"

BLIND WILLIE MCTELL:  "You Was Born To Die"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE:  "Midnight Walker"

DR. DRE (FEAT. SNOOP DOGG & AKON):  "Kush"

JOHN LEE HOOKER:  "I'm Bad Like Jesse James"

NINA SIMONE:  "Feeling Good"

MOTORHEAD:  "The Game"

Now Available In Trade Paperback: MIDNIGHT RAIN

Check it out . . .

I'm proud to announce that my first novel, Midnight Rain, is now available as a beautiful trade paperback from Evil Jester Press.  Originally published by Leisure Books, this one's been out of print since around late 2005.

http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Rain-James-Newman/dp/0615746659/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357078475&sr=1-2&keywords=midnight+rain+james+newman


Enjoy!  And please tell your friends!

"Author Infection"

So I’ve been tagged by my buddy Kristin Dearborn in a game of author infection!

The rules are simple:  Search your work in progress for the first use of “look”.  Copy and paste that paragraph and the ones immediately before/after into a blog post. Then tag five other authors.

This is from a short I've been working on, a twisted lil' tale of Southern horror tentatively titled "SLIT".

     As always, it was me and Shelly who was given the task of findin’ Granpappy.  I guess it never occurred to either Mama or Daddy that we was just a couple o’ rube kids, barely outta elementary school.  If we did find Granpappy and he didn’t wanna come back home it wasn’t like we could make him.  There wasn’t any guarantee that he’d even know who the hell we was.

     But he came.  He always did.  Like a scolded puppy, he’d follow us back home, and sit there while Daddy chewed him out.  The look he’d get on his face when we did find him (usually he’d be just a few hundred yards from our back door, just walkin’ through the woods, lookin’ up at the birds in the trees or maybe sniffin’ some wild forest flower), it used to break my heart.  He’d sit on his bed with tears in his eyes while Daddy hollered at him:  “I mean, for Chrissake, Pop, what if you wandered off too far and we never did find you?  What do you think we’d do then?  You’d be dead, and I might even end up in prison.  You think I wanna go to prison ‘cause of you?”

     Granpappy’s lip would quiver, and judgin’ by the expression on his wrinkled old face he woulda liked that just fine.  He woulda preferred to be dead.  He didn’t know much, but he had to know that nobody really wanted him around.

     It was damned pitiful.  And I guess that’s what made him walk off in the first place.  Not his feeble old brain.  But a brain that knew that he’d be better off someplace else, where he wasn’t a nuisance to anyone.

     Now it's your turn -- I'm tagging you, Ray Garton, Mark Gunnells, Sheri White, Jason Brannon, and Ron Kelly.    :)

     Have fun!

A Conversation With Kevin Woods, Director of HOLY ROLLERS

HOLY ROLLERS: The Movie . . . Wanna Be a Part of It?

Exciting times ahead! 

I'm pleased to announce that my story "Holy Rollers" (originally published by DarkTales Publications, and since available in People Are Strange) has been optioned for film.  I've always felt that this one would translate perfectly to film, and now it's gonna be a reality!  Pretty cool, huh?

What's even cooler about this whole thing:  You can be a part of it!  Check out the Holy Rollers page over on IndieGoGo, and please think about donating a few bucks to help this film happen.  Perks include free books, signed scripts, all kinds of different stuff . . . up to an actual part in the movie!


http://www.indiegogo.com/holyrollers


BTW:  If you've never read "Holy Rollers", it's available for free on the official website for a limited time:  http://www.holyrollersthefilm.info/


Enjoy!

COMING SOON

"New" E-Book: "THE CHURCH OF DEAD LANGUAGES"

Missed my collaborative (with Jason Brannon) novelette The Church of Dead Languages the first time around?  It was originally published as a (very) limited edition chapbook, so chances are you've never even heard of it.

     Well, now you can read the story HorrorWorld called "a terrifying vision of Hell" on your Kindle . . . .

     Order here:  http://www.amazon.com/Church-Dead-Languages-ebook/dp/B009GQZ1IA/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348708509&sr=1-2&keywords=The+church+of+dead+languages#_


     Enjoy!