St ROOSTER BOOKS KICKS OFF SUMMER WITH A MONSTER JUNE!

 We're hitting summer hard this year with a packed June, following the late May release of the author preferred edition of Jeffery X Martin's Hunting Witches.

Issue six of Stranger with Friction drops mid-month with a feature on my favorite doom/sludge metal band CROWBAR, as well as all new fiction with the theme of Dark Tourism.

 I'll have a Godless Horror exclusive new short story called "What Happened to Spider Baby Jane" dropping on June 23rd, which I'm really excited to share, since it will be my first new piece of fiction in two years (not that I haven't been busy, I've got three novellas and three screenplays in various stages of completion). 

June 28th will see the simultaneous release of Thomas R Clark's Summerhome on Godless, Nook, Kindle, paperback, and hardcover. The follow up to last year's hit, The God Provides, Summerhome is a wicked slab of terror that will leave readers reeling!

But on the 26th, we are releasing the first short story collection from Icelandic author Villimey Mist, author of the Nocturnal vampire series. As the Night Devours Us is a wildly imaginative and terrifying cycle of stories that will drop first on Godless with the paperback and Kindle to follow on July 1st.

THe LaTeST FRoM St RooSTeR BooKS: BLACK FRIDAY and ABHORRENT FAITH

Our two latest releases are now available! We've started our release of author preferred editions of Jeffery X Martin's books with his debut short story collection, Black Friday: An Elder's Keep Collection. Originally released in 2012, Black Friday introduces us to the town of Elder's Keep, a small town in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains with a fair share of dark secrets. This Appalachian Horror/neo-Southern Gothic collection is simply amazing, and St Rooster Books is so proud to present this handsome new edition!

Black Friday: An Elder's Keep Collection: Martin, Jeffery X: 9798401974860: Amazon.com: Books

Next, the sequel to last year's critical hit, Abhorrent Siren by John Baltisberger has arrived! Abhorrent Faith is a tension filled philosophical monster bloodbath that will knock you on your ass! Undead Dad Reads says, "This gem of the extreme horror literature is a fascinating, fast paced, incredible edge of your seat read that pulls the reader in a world of the most hideous, blood churning mutations including the one of faith." 

Abhorrent Faith: Baltisberger, John: 9781955745093: Amazon.com: Books

And let's not forget the latest issue of Stranger with Friction the magazine just went live this very morning! Issue five has reviews of Izzy Lee's newest short film, Eric Red and Chad Lutzke's latest novels, and new fiction from Lamont A Turner, Carter Johnson, Jeremy Lowe, and Jeremy Margaree!

STRANGER WITH FRICTION ISSUE FIVE: BOOKS, St ROOSTER, Lowe, Jeremy, Johnson, Carter, Baltisberger, John, Turner, Lamont A, Megargee, Jeremy, Murr, Tim, Murr, Stephanie T: 9798426927384: Amazon.com: Books

 

NEW SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES to ST ROOSTER BOOKS!

We're starting two subscription services at St Rooster Books! 

The first is for Stranger With Friction, our literary/horror/punk rock magazine, which drops four times a year. Our first three issues have come out really well and have received some solid reviews. We have a December issue coming to close out 2021 and then the first issue of 2022 should drop late February.

 Our second subscription service will be a lot more comprehensive; every book we release in 2022, including four issues of Stranger With Friction. We've had an amazing 2021 with the books we've released and the positive reactions from critics and readers. Subscribers will get exclusive goodies, early previews of releases, chances to win exclusive merch, and more. Part of this subscription will include seven books that I can't reveal the details on, but we're releasing six new editions of some books by one author that I LOVE and those reprints will be followed by a brand new seventh book. At this point, we have about 4-6 other new releases dropping as well, including our new anthology, which we'll be announcing an open call for in January! 

St Rooster Books 2022 releases plus a year of SWF: $130 

St Rooster Books 2022 releases: $100 

One year subscription: $40. 

Two year subscription: $70.

For details and to sign up or order any of our current and past releases direct from St Rooster, contact me at Holyrooster76@gmail.com.

THE GOD PROVIDES IS OUT NOW!

The latest book from Thomas R Clark, the author of Bella's Boys and The Death List, has just unleashed his newest, wildly imaginative, and terrifying epic through St Rooster Books and is already wracking up the 5 star reviews!

The God Provides is a splatter-folk journey through time, featuring incredible interior illustrations by Stephanie Murr, award nominated cover artist and illustrator.  

The foothills of Upstate New York are alive with something terrifying. It hunts, it tempts, it traps, and there’s no escape. Thomas R Clark re-invents Irish Mythology and takes you on a bloody, emotional, and horrific journey back through time with the tale of the McEntire clan, and the devastating secrets they hold. The author of the Splatterpunk Awards nominated Bella’s Boys: A Tale of Cosmic Horror has crafted a story that’s part The Wicker Man and part Cycle of the Werewolf, but at the same time like nothing you’ve read before.

Available through Amazon in paperback and the Kindle and through Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardcover, and The Nook. (as of posting this the B&N editions are still processing, but The Nook version works just fine.) Get your copy HERE.

reviewed; THE RIDGE by JEFFERY X MARTIN

Available July 27th, 2018

Shadow Work Publishing

For generations, the Sanford family have lived on the rural outskirts of Elders Keep. But now, Lucas Brock and his pregnant wife, Jude, have chosen to make their home among them as the first outsiders to settle onto Wednesday Ridge in a century. With the arrival of new blood, the horrific secrets the Sanfords have been hiding are coming to light. There's something on the ridge, something that should not exist. It is ancient. It is ravenous. And on the ridge, everything is prey.


It takes a lot to unsettle me these days. I have my buttons. I have particular stories I still choose to avoid. But to actually give me that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach I used to get as a kid and could see Jason Vorhees sneaking up on a camp counsellor and she's totally unaware-that dread, as a horror noobie, for what is about to befall this person if he/she doesn't turn around and run-it's so rare to feel that these days.

Well, my buddy Jeffery X Martin once again gave that feeling back to me. He did it previously with Black Friday and Hunting Witches. His newest book, The Ridge, (which drops on July 27th) had me sick with dread less than a quarter way through, and it wasn't just the Southern folk horror aspects, that are a hallmark of his work. What got me first was the story of a couple about to have their first baby. In a sense, it's a bit of a fish out of water story. Two people from the city, the husband a college professor, moving out to the country-which is about as familiar to them as the plains of Mars, and the wife being left alone with the weirdo neighbors and all the strangeness that goes along with living in the hills. Lucas and Jude love each other, they are happy together, but I can tell you from first hand experience, moving into a new area, far from friends and family, while pregnant will cause tempers to flare, will bring on stress and anxiety, and if it's only the two of you there with no one else to really talk to-all of that will come out and be directed at one another. Regardless of whether or not the love is still there, you feel trapped in an emotional bubble and the threat of it popping is ever present. That's the heart, the engine, that drives The Ridge. 

I have heard it said by many people, any good horror story must still be a good drama if you take the horror elements away. So, in the case of The Ridge, done. Five stars. Two thumbs up. What about the horror elements though? X knows how to scare you. He knows how to dig in, make your skin crawl, make you hold the book away from you just a little more...He can paint a vivid landscape of despair in your brain that's hard to wash away. Violence that rolls by slowly, so you don't mis an ounce of the pain. You feel that bone shatter and you sit with it for as long as the character has to. I think of Dennis Etchison, Stephen King in his prime, maybe a little HP Lovecraft (minus all the "cyclopean towers"), Books of Blood era Clive Barker. X is building a body of work with his Elders Keep stories that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the giants rather than just stand on their shoulders.

I tell ya, X has been inspiring me to work harder, do better, and be more since our bar days back in Knoxville, Tennessee more than twenty years ago. To see the artist he is today is nothing short of awe-inspiring. If you don't know him, I feel bad for you, but you can remedy that by following him on Twitter @JefferyXMartin  and like his Facebook page. And order The Ridge today!