Doomsday 2025! Coming down to its final minutes as of this post, the 24-hour Edgar Allan Poe livestreaming readathon was held at the beautiful Lord Baltimore Hotel in downtown Baltimore. TJ and I finished our slots and earlier as the event started yesterday, the second third readers. What a blast.
She was stellar fielding “Alone” and “Hop Frog” and it was my honor taking on “Annabel Lee” and “Berenice.” Thank you to the National Edgar Allan Poe Theatre for inviting us to participate in this prestigious event and also for the rad swag, which I am making good use of this morning as I tackle the proofs for Bringing in the Creeps.
I can officially announce June 20, 2025 as the release date for Bringing in the Creeps! Keep your eyes peeled for it on the market and at anuci-press.com.
From the morbid mind of Ray Van Horn, Jr. comes the sequel to his horror compilation, Behind the Shadows. Van Horn dares you to step inside the degenerate crevices and chasms of Bringing in the Creeps. 11 more tales of decade-spanning delirium housing monstrosities, murder and assorted depravity. Where the unholy returns from the dead for another run, where murder is raised beneath the neon glow of an 80s arcade, where the Evil Dead raids a punk rock show, where an unimaginable abomination rises from a reservoir and where a persecuted teenager finds gory revenge delivered him from the stars. These are the grotesque misdeeds of ghouls, monsters, freaks, werewolves and repulsive death dealers. Ray Van Horn, Jr. is bringing in the creeps. Going forth with the weeping and the sowing of carnage on high.
This weekend! My wife, TJ Perkins and I will be readers at the 2025 Doomsday livestreaming readathon noon to noon on May 17th and 18th. 24 hours of the works of Edgar Allan Poe hosted by the Poe Theatre. Come see us at the Lord Baltimore Hotel in downtown Bmore or hop aboard the livestream here at Facebook.
TJ will be reading Poe’s “Alone” and “Hop Frog” on Saturday the 17th from 12:00 to 12:30 pm. I have “Annabel Lee” and the sinister “Berenice” shortly after her on Saturday from 1:00 to 1:30 pm. Doomsday 2025 will be held at Poe’s Magic Theatre on the mezzanine level of Lord Baltimore Hotel, which is located at 20 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.
Quoth the macabre master, “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.”
This is 55, almost. Older, grayer, but still with all original parts, so far, lol. Happy to be doing what my body gives me, though we have had to come to an understanding this past year. I am strong, reasonably cut, though sore and more tired than I want to be. My heart soars for being able to pursue my ongoing fitness campaign best of all.
I am deeply in love with my wife, proud of my family and friends, especially our hard working kids and my son who finally, “gets it” about life as he prepares for his life in the army. All that we’ve been through, I am so very proud to see where he is heading.
This time next year, TJ’s and my life will change dramatically as we open a new chapter of our own where we aim to cultivate who we are supposed to be in a new home and location. We have everything to look forward to.
I have tremendous joy, but like anyone else, I have my moments of lingering in the doldrums. Right now, as a matter of fact. I love the metal band Deftones so much, because that bombast and Chino Moreno’s incomparable screeching says how I feel at my most confident, but also at my most sullen. When I am deathly quiet, you can most assuredly bet the sound in my head is the Deftones.
I am valued in my position as a real estate title examiner. I have done it for almost 30 years and my brothers and sisters who have slugged in these trenches will attest it takes its toll. It’s given me a way to survive, and for that, I have zero regrets.
The biggest struggle I face other than the minutiae of the cost of living and jockeying amidst the good people and the bad of the world, is feeling voiceless on the quest to be heard with my writing. Funny how that base teen emotion never really goes away. You still want to be heard, you still want to belong, if even to a selected demographic that makes you feel most like you. It’s not just a hustle, this writing business. It’s life. It’s life defining. The California no’s to reach outs and networking stings. The outright no’s sear the soul, no matter how you steel yourself for it. It’s part of the game, period. Thus, the yeses become ferocious wins. I write about this very thing to tragic results in my story, “Lucky Burns” from my new horror collection, Bringing in the Creeps.
I still find myself lamenting my unexpected exit from music and film journalism, but I am so grateful for those 16 years where I slept 3 to 4 hours a night working a day job and covering concerts, doing interviews and media reviews in the evenings and weekends. I had status. I had cred. It was intoxicating being with Blabbermouth and going to pick up my credentials at shows and hearing people say, “Blabbermouth’s in the house!” then watching the bands knock themselves out onstage to make an impression.
I never take that feeling for granted. I know it so deeply, trying to make an impression in everything I do. It means everything to me to translate that success to my horror fiction. After receiving the manuscript for my next novel back from my editor, I have learned new things and hope that evolves me even further. I look forward to growing in year 55, as much as I flog myself and scream Deftones munitions inside my head.
I am grateful, more than anything, to my wife, family, friends, the divine, employers, editors, publishers, readers and fans. I have made many choices in my 55 years I am proud of, a few not so much. The rest have been pragmatic learning experiences and testing of the waters to see what I am capable of and who wants to be a part of my mission. There is where I am infinitely blessed.
In the 1990s while working at the comic shop, I gravitated toward DC Comics and the independents (Image had just launched in the mother of all initiatives in the industry), and over the years, I’ve had a healthy balance between DC and Marvel. I will say I kept a heavy lean on DC during the New 52 and Rebirth rebrands, so it’s damned difficult to pick my top 5, even if Batman remains my all-time favorite superhero ever and Gail Simone’s reboot of Batgirl brought me back to comics after a five- or six-year layoff. Flash deserves to be here, so do the Green Lanterns Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Kyle Radner, the latter being the bravest thing anyone ever attempted in comics at the time to bring inclusivity as a gay GL. Aquaman’s the bitch of the DCU, but I’ve always loved him. Wish I had him in the top 5. Catwoman, no-brainer. Should’ve been in here. Superman and the JLA. I know, you’re going, c’mon, man! Nightwing. Hardware from DC’s affiliate line of heroes all of color, Milestone Comics.
I’m not going to include the Vertigo comics, which technically falls under the DC umbrella, but anyone who knows this stuff knows Vertigo deserves its own separate canon and break off as horror and mature audience comics. I’m a giant fan of the Vertigo books, but to get to the core of my favorite DC characters, here we go:
I’ve been a comic book guy for most of my life, Marvel Team-Up # 72 from 1978 featuring Spiderman and Iron Man being my first contact comic. My folks got it to occupy me for a 3 hour trip to Ocean City back then and boy, did it ever. I read that sucker five times down, three more on the way home. HOOKED forever. I worked comic book retail for a short time in the early 1990s with my buddy, Brad Owings, funny enough, my boss at the time. Here I present my Top 5 all-time favorite Marvel characters, a lifetime spent with these heroes. I will later present my top 5 from their Distinguished Competition.
One: Moon Knight
Two: Black Panther
Three: Spiderman
Four: Daredevil
Five: Storm
Behind them, the Captains, America and Marvel (Carol Danvers era)
Roads Lesser Traveled 