In the interest of full disclosure, let me say right off the bat that I've written an award-winning short story and a novel with David Nickle.  I consider him one of the finest horror writers around, and in combination we've crafted some pretty weird stuff; but by temperament David's always been a short fiction writer.  His best pieces are small, intricately-crafted, and often disturbing glimpses of humanity's dark side.  Now, he's finally collected some of them into a book you can buy.  The book is Monstrous Affections.

David's work is by turns horrific, touching, and wickedly funny--sometimes all at the same time.  (Consider a vampire-as-special-needs-kid story where the poor misunderstood vampire toddler is swarmed by righteous preschoolers and--well, you can imagine.)  David's got a blog you can check out, The Devil's Exercise Yard, which is lots of fun, and of course you can still find copies of the novel we wrote together, The Claus Effect, which is basically a James Bond thriller with Santa Claus as the super-villain.

Monstrous Affections is available now for pre-order from the Horror Mall (as warm and cuddly a website as you can imagine).  The book will be released on Halloween of 2009; but by ordering it now, you send a strong signal to the publisher and other interested parties that you're interested in David's work.  And, if you later forget that you've put in the order, you'll have a pleasant little surprise in your mailbox around Halloween (and it won't be a stick or somebody's left ear!  Although, who knows, you might get that too).

About ten years ago, David Nickle and I collaborated on a comic adventure entitled The Claus Effect.  This was a first novel for both of us, and it did very well.  But, you know, you expect that over time these things fade.  So imagine my surprise and delight when David told me the other day that there's a considerable stack of Claus Effects available in downtown Toronto--specifically at the modestly-named World's Biggest Bookstore just north of the Eaton Centre.  This is both excellent news and fantastic timing, since TCE is, after all, a Santa Claus story--albeit a Santa Claus who's psychotic and bent on world destruction.  David and I had tons of fun writing this little epic, and now's your chance to read it in all its cynical glory.

Sometimes, books last.  Ten years on the shelves is pretty good.