Halloween is just around the corner, and when you are a Horror writer, that means you are suddenly in great demand.  Here is where you will find me this year between now and October 31.  I will be signing copies of all of my novels, short story collections, and anthologies, including my brand new Legacy of the Gods novel, Zeus’ Warriors.  Hope to see my faithful readers at one or more of these events, and have a most happy Halloween!

Saturday, October 22nd
Mooresville Public Library
220 W Harrison St
Mooresville, IN 46158
1-3pm
Phone: (317) 831-7323

Saturday, October 29th
Karen’s Book Barn
127 East Main Street
LaGrange, KY 40031
11am-4pm
Phone: (502) 222-0918

Since I’ve been asked, here is a list, as of now, of my upcoming releases/projects:

“Inner Goddess” Short Fiction appearing in The Book of the Dead (Jurassic London) October 2013.  Limited Edition (Mummified!) Hardcover now available for pre-order here!

The Legacy of the Gods Book Two: Hades’ Disciples (Seventh Star Press) December 2013/early 2014

“The Grove” Short Fiction appearing in Shroud Magazine #13 ( Shroud Publishing) TBA

Straightjacket Memories  New Short Fiction Collection!  (Seventh Star Press) TBA 2014

The Legacy of the Gods Book Three: Zeus’ Warriors (Seventh Star Press) TBA 2014

That’s the stuff I know about right now, but things are always in flux. LOL And it does not include the big announcement that keeps getting pushed back, but should be coming any day now. I will, of course, keep you all updated as things move forward or become available. And, as always, thank you all for your support!

Well, here we are again.  Another year over, and a new one just begun.  And what a year it was; filled with the highest highs and the lowest lows, with professional triumphs and personal tragedies, and the hope that 2013 will bring something better.  But before we look ahead to what the new year has in store, let’s do a bit of review…

The year started off with the release of my short story “For the River Is Wide and the Gods Are Hungry” as a digital download for $0.99 through Seventh Star Press.  This was the first time that I had ever released my work in a purely digital format.  The publisher also re-released my award-winning short story “Goodnight” in the same fashion.

March saw the release of Poseidon’s Children, the first novel in my epic Urban Fantasy series The Legacy of the Gods.  The project introduced me to a world-wide audience, and to date, it has been sold in Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain!  This was a project that I had been kicking around for many years, so it was incredibly gratifying to see so many enjoying my story and falling in love with this cast of characters who had been so close to me for so long.

Then, during my publisher’s Summer Open House, my novel Cinema of Shadows became the most downloaded Horror novel on Amazon.com!

Growing up, I can’t tell you how many times I dreamed of having a #1 book, and it was so surreal and exciting to see it actually happen.

I traveled a lot this year in support of my novels – appearing at conventions, book stores, and book fairs in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and as far south as Atlanta, Georgia.  It was great to meet my faithful readers face-to-face, to introduce my work to new people, and to get to know a lot of stars from film and television, celebrities I have been watching  and idolizing for most of my life, including Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead, Army of Darkness) and the amazing Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night).

But 2012 still wasn’t done with me yet.

October saw the release of my third Harmony, Indiana novel, Spook House.  A mash-up that featured the first meeting of Robby Miller (The Wide Game, Cinema of Shadows) and Earl L. Preston Jr. (Poseidon’s Children), the novel proved to be my best reviewed work to date,  even making its way onto some year-end lists as one or the year’s best reads!  The novel also sent me on my first virtual book tour.  For thirty days, I visited various sites from around the world, posting guest blogs, doing interviews, and just generally blown away by the overwhelming response.

And the year ended as it began, with more short story news.

“Trolling,” my tale set during the events of Poseidon’s Children, saw publication again as part of the Beast Within 3: Ocean’s Unleashed anthology.  And a new story,, my first real zombie tale, “Hell’s Hollow,” was part of the very limited Appalachian Undead anthology.  Hopefully you got your copy of that one before it went out of print!

While 2012 was the best year of my career, it was a year of personal struggles and tragedies.

Sara Larson, one of my closest and dearest friends, and a founding member of the Indiana Horror Writers, lost her long and painful battle with breast cancer.  The cancer had moved into her bones and her brain, and the year began with her in hospice care.  I visited her often, and she fought hard to stay with us, but on March 17th, she left this world behind and left a huge hole in a lot of people’s hearts.

Then, in September, cancer struck even closer to home when my wife Stephanie got the diagnosis shortly after our 20th wedding anniversary.  Thankfully, it was a slow-growing tumor that was confined to the bone in her arm.  Surgery replaced the infected bone with metal, and no chemo or radiation was needed.  As I type this, she is cancer free, but, because she can no longer physically perform the duties of her nursing job, a job she’s had as long as I’ve known her, she is also job free.  We are getting by, however, and I hope that the new year will bring good news.

Which brings us to 2013.

The new year will see the release of a special anthology, one that I’ve been editing off and on for over a year now; an anthology that will donate money to cancer research with each and every purchase.  This is, obviously, something that has a personal importance to me, and I am thrilled that it is finally coming together, and coming together so very well.  Look for an an official announcement on that one soon.  I hope we can do a lot of good with this one!

There will also be a new announcement in the Harmony, Indiana series in May, something faithful readers have been asking for for some time.  Sorry to be such a tease – there are a lot of moving parts to it, and some have yet to be set into motion – but trust me, it is something that will make a lot of people very happy, myself included.  *nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more*

Now, on to the stuff I can talk about in detail.

My short stories “The Grove” (Shroud Magazine #13) and “Unknown Caller” (Cadence in Decay) will be released during the next twelve months.  Stay tuned for exact release dates and more information as those dates draw near.

And last, but certainly not least, I will be working on the next two chapters in my Legacy of the Gods series, Hades’ Disciples and Zeus’ Warriors.  Look for the first of these two entries to be released before 2o13 ends, with the second coming out in early 2014.

So thanks to you, all my faithful readers, for your kind words and encouragement over these past twelve months, and for your continued support in 2013 and beyond.   Happy New Year!  May the future be a bright one for us all!

“It is what it is.”

That’s become my motto over the last year or so.  Bad things happen in this world, and sometimes, there’s nothing you can do to prevent them.  All you can do is try to deal with it and go on with your life as best you can.

 “It is what it is.”

 I don’t do these “West World” blogs very often.  If I’m going to write 500-1000 words, I’d rather it be toward a new story or novel rather than what I think of the latest Hollywood remake or how much I loved last night’s episode of True Blood or The Walking Dead.  After all, that’s what my faithful readers really want: more of my fiction, not  details of my everyday reality.  That’s what Twitter and Facebook are for. 

And so I try, as much as possible, to keep my private life, well… private.  Unless they are in costume, I don’t like to post pictures of my children on the internet, and I don’t talk a lot about family on Twitter and Facebook (unless, of course, they do something really funny or memorable that I can’t help but share).  But even fiction writers have to live in the real world, with real problems, and rather than post a simple status update on Facebook or a short 140 character Tweet that would leave my friends, family, and fans confused and concerned, I thought it best to get it all out in the open.  

“It is what it is.”

My wife has cancer.  I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that, but it’s a fact.  She’d been having shoulder and arm pain for some time.  At first, they thought it was due to a degenerative disc in her neck.  She went to physical therapy, complaining of shoulder pain.  “Diabetics get that,” they told her.  “We don’t know why.”  And so, she just learned to live with it…for a while.  In recent months, the pain kept her awake at night, cursing and crying.  She went to our family doctor, who promptly sent her to an orthopedic specialist.  The orthopedist did X-rays, then calmly told her, “I don’t want to alarm you, but this looks like it might be cancer.”  

Yeah, way to not alarm someone!

She was sent to an oncologist, who examined the X-ray, examined her, and didn’t think it was cancer.  He thought it was due to the degenerative disc in her neck.  And so, we breathed a sigh of relief and–

Not so fast!  They needed to order more tests…just to be sure.

And so an MRI was done.  

Inconclusive.  

And so they scheduled her for a surgical biopsy.  This was Horrorfind Weekend, which was why I had to cancel my appearance.  Instead of standing at my table, surrounded by friends and icons of Horror cinema, I sat in a hospital waiting room, surrounded by strangers and visions of real life horror.  This was two weeks ago.  Two weeks.  And no news.  No word of any kind. 

Until yesterday. 

Yesterday, we had a follow-up visit with the doctors, and they gave us the bad news.  It was cancer, but not bone cancer.  Instead, it was a slow-growing cancer that is normally found only in soft tissue.  For some unknown reason, it had taken root in the humorus of my wife’s right arm, and there it started to grow.

 “It is what it is.”

 So now we just have to deal with it and get on with our lives as best we can.  There will be surgery in the coming weeks.  They will remove a good portion of the bone in her arm and replace it with metal.  They think this is the primary site.   They think that, once it is removed, she will make a full recovery.  No chemo.  No radiation.  But they’ve ordered a few more tests.   You know…just to be sure.

 “It is what it is.”

And so, life goes on as best it can.  There are a lot of questions for the future, and not a lot of answers right now.  I am so very grateful that I have a wonderful, loving family, and the greatest friends anyone could hope for.  And I plan to still make my scheduled appearances for the rest of the year, to promote my upcoming novel, Spook House, and to write the next chapter of my Legacy of the Gods series, but first and foremost, I need to be there for my wife and my sons. 

Thank you all in advance for your understanding, for your thoughts, your prayers and your good will.  I am grateful to have so many faithful readers, and I hope that any future updates will be happy ones.

Michael West
http://www.bymichaelwest.com

Greetings, faithful readers! 

Another month has come and gone.  Hard to believe that a fourth of the year is already in the history books.  Guess the old saying about “time flies when you’re having fun” is true after all.  March, 2011, was full of  interviews, signings, and work, work, work.    So without further ado, here’s a quick recap / status update…

The month began with not one but two glowing reviews of my debut novel, The Wide Game.  The first was from Sheri Jenkins White at Xomba Horror:

Hello again, faithful readers!

Well, the old saying about time flying by when you’re having fun could not be more true.   These are truly exciting times at West Manor, full of new releases and more big announcements.  So without further ado, here’s a quick recap / status update…

The month began with the release of the book trailer for my debut novel, The Wide Game.  Produced by Darkrider Studios,  who also did the trailer for Skull Full of Kisses,  the clip perfectly captures the atmosphere and terror of the book.  I could not have been happier with it! 

I was then lucky enough to be Greg Hall’s guest on The Funky Werepig.  It was such a fun time!  We talked about the novel and I was able to hint for the first time at a big announcement.  (More on that in a minute.)

Then, on Tuesday, February 15th, The Wide Game was released by Graveside Tales Books.  As if that wasn’t wonderful enough, the Sci-Fi Guys gave the novel a glowing review.  You can now order the book here!

That same week, Dark Quest Books put the Fell Beasts anthology, featuring my short story “Sandwalkers,” up for presale.  I’m very proud of this story, and happy that my faithful readers can now order it here.

And then I got the word that another of my short stories, Blood and Silk, had been accepted for the upcoming The Beast Within 2 anthology, due out later this Summer from Graveside Tales Books!

And last, but certainly not least, I was only able to hint at it on The Funky Werepig, but late this month it was announced that I signed a three book deal with the good folks at Seventh Star Press!     The novels will all be set in the fictional town of Harmony, Indiana, and the first of them, Cinema of Shadows, will be released later this Summer.  The second novel, Spook House, will come out in 2012, and a third yet-to-be-titled book will be released in 2013. 

The novels will be available in hardcover, trade paperback, and E-book formats, and because they are all set in Harmony, Indiana, faithful readers can look for many of their favorite settings and characters from The Wide Game, and several stories in Skull Full of Kisses, to make an appearance. 

Look for more updates throughout the coming months.

And that’s about it.  February 2011 now slips into history.  But looking ahead to March, it is clear that there is much more excitement ahead! 

Stay tuned, faithful readers…

Hello, faithful readers!

2011 sure got off to a quick start here at West Manor! I was so busy with projects new and old that the month of January went by in the blink of an eye. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I do love to stay busy (sure beats the alternative!).

So, here is a quick recap / status update…

The Wide Game

My first novel, The Wide Game, will be released on February 15th by Graveside Tales Books. Last week, you all got the first look at Bob Freeman’s amazing cover art (see above). What you didn’t see, however, was what gets wrapped inside that cover. I got my first look at the formatted manuscript, and let me tell you, the good people at Graveside have put together a beautiful little package here. Writers’ works are like their children, and we all want the best for our children, don’t we? Well, with this edition of Wide Game, I got the best.

The other Wide Game-related project that has kept me busy over the last month has been the book trailer. You know me, Horror movie buff that I am, I can’t just have a simple book trailer that shows the cover art, a few blurbs, and the ordering info. No, no, no. It has to be cinematic! And to that end, Darkrider Studios and I have been trying to put together something very special. I can’t wait for you to see it!

Look for both the book and the trailer in the very near future.

Vampires Don’t Sparkle!

This month, Dark Quest Books launched Ambrotos Press, a highly selective Horror Imprint, who’s mission is to publish only the highest quality fiction in the horror genre from some of today’s most well-known authors. They also named me as the editor on a collection of gritty, horrific vampire fiction titled Vampires Don’t Sparkle!  This invitation only anthology is due out in March, 2012.

That sounds like a long time off, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not! Like I said, January went by in the blink of an eye, so the release will be here before you know it. Luckily, stories have already started coming in from some of the most exciting writers working in Horror today, so I’ve got some reading to do!

Appearances

January saw the announcement that the Master of Horror, John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, etc.) will be joining me as a guest at FandomFest this July.

I could not be more excited! Really looking forward to this show and I hope to see many of you there!

I also added a stop at Fear Fair in April. Indiana’s Scariest Haunted House is hosting Scream Break on Saturday, April 30th, and I will be there with copies of The Wide Game and other works for signing. Fear Fair served as the setting for part of our Wide Game trailer shoot, so it seems only fitting. Hope you will brave the chainsaws and come see me!

But first up on my busy 2011 schedule is a radio show and a bookstore signing.

I will be the guest of The Funky Werepig on Saturday, February 12th at 2pm. We will chat about The Wide Game, my other projects, and who knows what else. It’s the Werepig folks. Anything can happen!

And last, but certainly not least, I will be signing The Wide Game and other works at the IUPUI Campus Center Barnes & Noble (420 University Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46202 / Store telephone: (317)278-2665) on Thursday, February 24 from 11 am-1 pm. This is my first local bookstore signing, so I hope all my faithful readers in Indianapolis will help make it an event to remember!

Fell Beasts

Finally, you may remember that my short story “Sandwalkers” is featured in the upcoming Fell Beasts anthology. The book was originally due out in December, but had to be delayed due to technical issues. Well, the book is now at the printers and should be ready for ordering soon. Don’t worry, as soon as I have more info, I will post it.

Well, that’s about it for January 2011. A busy, busy month. And from the looks of it, February will be just as exciting!

Stay tuned, faithful readers, we’re just getting started…

 Stick a fork in 2010.  It’s over.  Done.  Finito.  Finished. 

Despite some personal struggles, 2010 was the best year of my professional career thus far. My first short story collection, Skull Full of Kisses, was released to amazing feedback and reviews. My first novel, The Wide Game, was picked up by Graveside Tales Books for release in 2011. I got to work with the good people at Dark Rider Studios on the book trailers for both. I received invitations to write new stories for various magazines and anthologies. And, most amazing of all, I got to tour the Midwest and meet faithful readers from all over the country.

So where do I go from here?

 Well, 2011 will see the release of the Fell Beasts anthology, featuring my short story “Sandwalkers,” sometime in January. The winter issue of Shroud magazine will feature my short story “Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite.” And, as previously mentioned, my first novel, The Wide Game, will be released on February 15th. Also coming are stories in The Beast Within 2  anthology and Appalachian Folklore: Dark Tales of Superstition and Old Wives’ Tales.  And that’s just the stuff I’ve already written. New projects for the new year include work on my first Sci-fi / Horror novel, Echoes of Aurora, continued work on my epic Urban Fantasy series, The Legacy of the Gods, and a few new short tales, including a zombie Western. And, of course, I will be out on tour in support of all my work. Look for me at Horror Hound Weekend, Mo*Con, Fandomfest, Context, and Scarefest, just to name a few (check the Schedule page for all the details as they become available).

 So thanks to you, all my faithful readers, for your kind words and encouragement in the past, and for your continued support in 2011 and beyond.  Happy New Year!  May the future be a bright one for us all!

Wishing all my faithful readers and their families the most joyous of holiday seasons!  Looking forward to big things in 2011, so check back for all the news and upcoming events in the new year!

Hello, faithful readers!   

West Manor has been a rockin’ place as of late.   In addition to preparing my novel, The Wide Game, for release on February 14, 2011, I have been hard at work on a variety of short fiction projects.   Just finished “Sandwalkers” for the upcoming Fell Beasts anthology (due out in December),  “For the River is Wide and the Gods Are Hungry” for Appalachian Folklore: Dark Tales of Superstition and Old Wives’ Tales (due out later this year from Woodland Press), and “Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite” for the January 2011 issue of Shroud.   

Right now, working on “Blood and Silk,” a short story for The Beast Within 2 anthology (due out sometime next year from Graveside Tales), and planning the annual West Manor Haunted House for Halloween night. 

And after Halloween has come and gone (*tear*), I will be heading out on the road again, appearing at Scarefest in Lexington KY,  Horror Hound Weekend in Cincinatti OH, and APEX Day (also in Lexington). 

And then, dear friends, it will be home for the holidays (and probably still writing). 

Also in the news, there has been another nice review of my short story collection, Skull Full of Kisses (this one actually compares me to O’Henry!), I’ve been working on a trailer for The Wide Game with the good and creative people at Darkrider Studios, and I just finished recording an interview for an upcoming episode of The Genre Traveler.

Like I said, folks, things have been rockin’.

So stay tuned!  As more information on these and future projects becomes available, you will read it here first!