Would you be interested in being my roommate?

Requirements:
1) I must know you.
2) You don’t find CPAP machines to be creepy. I do, but I have to wear one when I sleep.
3) While the odds of accidental nudity are slim, it is a possibility that you will have to be prepared to confront.
4) You don’t leave your dirty undergarments in the bathroom after your morning ablutions.

Meet the requirements? Then send me an email and we’ll talk.
jason at apexbookcompany dot com.

Anyways, I’m going to redesign the site. Update the pages. Start posting to the blog. I promise. Give me a few days.

Until then go bug the hell out of Maurice Broaddus.

Book layout/design
Proofreading
Short story critiques

I can also do fun blogging, if anyone is interested in a skill such as that. Blogging for dollars!

Rates:
Story critiques–$1 per 250 words
Proofreading — $25 per 40,000 words
Book layout/design — Varies…generally $75-$150

jason at apexbookcompany.com

My night hours…well…those will have to be shared in private conversation.

If you get a chance and live in or around Nashville, TN, then by all means check out Hypericon!

I’m going to list some reasons why you’ll enjoy this story:
1) Giant purple alien heads that explode in zero-G

Actually, that should be all the reason you need.

For ordering information just visit the M-Brane SF website.

Here’s a teaser:

November in the Romanian Alps was not a place to be. Who cared if her forefathers had bled on the same ground five hundred years ago? She had bled on toilets, in a subway car, on other people, on fields marked with satanic symbols, and none of that had counted for shit. She kicked her boot into the dry rut of road, sending a little flurry of dust and snow scattering away.

Smith had dropped her off fifty miles inside the border of Bulgaria and Romania. It was there they parted ways. She went north, into hell. He went east. No doubt he’d be looking to score some Italian tail, drinking cabernet, and saying those stupid little Italian phrases of love to whatever underaged princesses he’d find whoring themselves in the hostels. The testosterone reeked off of him, practically gagging Aspen on the helicopter ride to the dropoff point. No doubt he’d doped up on enough testosterone to get him through a whole season of love.

There was no promise of Italian love for her, just the likelihood of brutal rape and possible death.

Well, I know better.

Whatever the case, I do know this–Mo*Con is helluva a convention. Alethea Kontis brings the world’s best baklava, there are catered dinners, and you get to hang out and commiserate with famous horror authors like Brian Keene. All of this happens in the basement of a church. You have to love a horror convention that is held in the basement of a church.

If you’re within driving range of Indianapolis this weekend, do yourself a favor and pop in at Mo*Con.

Jeff Carlson.

If you follow my posts over on the Apex blog then you know how high I hold his work in esteem. From his adrenaline pumped award winning short fiction to the triumphant Plague Zone trilogy, he’s one of the best authors of dark SF in the business. He’s an extremely busy guy (he recently became an international bestselling author so he’s got publishers pressuring him for more more more books) so I figured it was a long shot to get him to read DARK FUTURES to blurb.

I asked. He said ‘Send me a printed ARC and I’ll try.’ I sent the ARC.

Today I received a great blurb. Not only did he love the book, but he also gave us this awesome blurb that will adorn the front cover of my anthology:

“Hold onto your head! Editor Jason Sizemore loads a shotgun with futuristic stories, puts the barrel against your brain and pulls the trigger… Standouts in this sf anthology include James Reilly’s “Terra Tango 3,” Jennifer Pelland’s “Personal Jesus,” and Michele Lee’s “Meat World.” These stories are cutthroat, sinister, sometimes lonely and always disturbing.”
—Jeff Carlson, international bestselling author of Plague Zone

Thank you, Jeff. I’m glad you enjoyed the book!

Now Lavie is overwhelmed trying to house and feed ten different families and he’s in a tough financial spot. Poor guy, as if getting married isn’t enough stress!

To his credit, Lavie isn’t just asking for a handout. He asked me if I would run a serial novella on the Apex website (a chapter a day for twenty days). That’s where Apex comes into play on this whole thing. Lavie has been good to Apex over the years, he’s a good guy (and friend), and who turns down a Tidhar novella? Of course I offered up Apex as his story’s platform.

I encourage you to go donate. Read chapter one of his novella. Help out a fellow writer.

Here’s a link with further details and how to donate: http://www.apexbookcompany.com/blog/2010/04/jesus-vs-the-volcano/

Yet, despite your best efforts, editor after editor believes otherwise.

Then, to complicate matters, your story is an unwieldy novelette, topping out around 12,000 words. There’s not a whole lot of markets for those.

After two years, I finally found an editor who agrees with me! Any story about a psionic-powered human agent working for an underground cooperative using her powers to explode giant purple alien heads in zero G is a winner, right? Christopher Fletcher at M-Brane SF believes so. And for that, I am delighted!

The story comes out in their June 1st issue. You can bet the farm that I’ll be pushing you to buy a copy of their e-zine to read my masterpiece.

I’m trying to land a blurb from a “big deal” author to place on the bottom front of the cover, but other than that…there you go. I like the copy design…it accentuates the artist’s work (Alex Andreyev).

The book is up for pre-order. Looks like the publisher has priced it at a NICE and affordable $14.95. Clicky here to order.

Publication date? Don’t know yet. This summer looks like a safe bet.

I like the cover. Do you?