10/13/2006: "Shocklines"

Hi All,

Another brief post, having nothing to do with anything book-related---at least, not my books. At least, not really.

As some of you know, I started out writing horror stories under a pseudonym. Quite honestly, I always thought my career track---if I was ever going to have one---would have taken me down that route. And who knows? In the end, it may well do so. In any case, a lot of horror presses are small: one-to-five men/women operations who put out really wonderful books with smaller print runs. My first publisher, Necro, is one of these; another I've worked with is Delirium. They're great presses, put out great books, but their titles are harder to find, as big distributors don't often work with small presses.

This is where Shocklines comes in. Shocklines is a wonderful online retailer, purveyor of all things horror. The owner, Matt Schwartz, is one of the good guys in all of book publishing: a tireless supporter of the genre and of writers, an honest-to-god shirt-off-his-back kind of guy. It's a rough living selling horror online (it's a rough living almost anywhere in the writing/publishing industry, unless you happen to be in that fortunate one percent, which neither Matt nor I are in), but he does it because he loves it, and he does it incredibly well. He's been great about carrying my non-horror books, as well, and extended that offer without my ever asking. In short, he's good people.

So, if you ever have a hankering for some hard-to-find, speical collector's edition, or autographed books---Matt's got signed books by all the genre biggies---I can't recommend his biz any more. Visit him at:

www.shocklines.com

if you get a minute.

All best, Craig.