Saturday, June 23, 2007
Another Place to Get DE:TGD
Larry Roberts has put together a fine online bookstore that will continue to flourish as Shocklines closes down.
And when you're over there, you can also get a copy of Deadneck Hootenanny.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
My New Blog
But I'm also still a nut about comics, pulps, old paperbacks and other such nonsense, which now seems a little out of place here, so I've started a new blog.
Check out I Was A Bronze Age Boy.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Legends of the Mountain State
Monday, June 11, 2007
The Big Book Anouncement
Bone Songs will include both previously published stories and several original pieces, including a brand-new novella.
Here’s what one writer says about the collection:
"With Bone Songs, Mark Justice has given us a genuine gift; by turns funny, horrifying, heartbreaking, and just plain weird, this is a real showcase collection, and a feast for readers. You never know from one tale to the next what he's going to hit you with, and it's that very unpredictability that makes this book so much more than the mere sum of its often-brilliant parts. Justice has a keen and unflinching eye for the telling details of human (and un-human) behavior, and a poet's economy with words. There is not a wasted syllable to be found between these covers, and at times I felt as if I were being given a writing lesson. I cannot imagine anyone reading powerhouse stories such as "Black Wings" and the hands-down masterpiece "Father's Day" without feeling envious that they didn't write them. I expected this collection to be good; I didn't expect it to knock my socks off and leave me so wrung out. This is what short fiction should be but too often isn't. If you don't get this collection, your life is going to be all the poorer for it -- and I've never said that about a book before."
--Gary A. Braunbeck, winner of the Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award, and author of Destinations Unknown and Mr. Hands
Thanks to Shane and Greg at Delirium for making this happen.
More details when they're available.
Pod of Horror #35
* Jeff Strand reveals the secrets of being funny, and dishes about three new books.
* Kevin Eastman tells us how he got rich with The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles AND why he brought Highlander back as anime.
* Nanci brings on the horror news in The Call of Kalanta.
* And we FINALLY have a Tomb of Trivia Winner.
Pod of Horror is hosted by Mark Justice. Download it at I-Tunes or direct to your desktop at.
And be sure to drop by the Justice & Wilbanks message board.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Sunday, June 03, 2007
West Virginia is Scary
- Thomas F. Monteleone
- Tim Waggoner
- Kealan Patrick Burke
- Scott Nicholson
- Joseph Nassise
- Bev Vincent
- Mark Justice
- Geoffrey C. Fuller
- Michael Hughes
- Jude-Marie Green
- Brian J. Hatcher
- Trent Walters
- Marta Murvosh
Monday, May 28, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
DE:TGD Getting Closer

I finished up my part of the signing sheets for Dead Earth: The Green Dawn this past week (and if you want a harsh reminder of how horrible your handwriting is, just sign your name a couple of thousand times). Cover artist Glenn Chadbourne signed before me. I boxed up the sig sheets and shipped them off to Gary A. Bruanbeck, who wrote the introduction to the book. He, in turn, will pass them along to co-author David T. Wilbanks. Once Diamond Dave mails them across the pond to Pete Crowther at PS Publishing, the presses should roll and the book should finally be released.
In case you'd like to preorder the book, here are the links at Shocklines.com:
Jacketed hardcover
Trade hardcover

***
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Pod of Horror #34: Corbin Bernsen, Lucy Snyder

Pod of Horror #34 is headed to your computer, screaming like Paris Hilton being led to jail. This time around:
* We talk to the talented Lucy Snyder about the genre-hopping stories and poems in SPARKS AND SHADOWS.
* Gary A. Braunbeck reads a story co-written with Snyder.
* Actor Corbin Bernsen discusses his work on Masters of Horror.
* The Call of Kalanta has enough news to choke Rosie O’Donnell.
* Scott Bradley is back with a double helping of reviews.
* Free books if you can answer The Tomb of Trivia.
Pod of Horror is hosted by Mark Justice. Download it at I-Tunes or direct to your desktop.
And be sure to drop by the Justice & Wilbanks message board.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
DEADNECK HOOTENANNY Chat/We're #2
(I'm told some browser mays need a plug-in to join the chat. If you plan to join us, perhaps you could head over there a bit early and make sure you can get to the chat room.)
If you'd like to order a copy, what are you waiting for? it's only ten bucks.
That's a quarter tank of gas.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Join The Hootenanny
Deadneck Hootenanny is now available for pre-order from Novello Publishers. The introduction is by novelist Scott Nicholson. The afterward by Dark Discoveries editor James Beach. Legendary artist Bob Eggelton provided the cover (and I love that lonely pickup truck on the hill).
Are you looking for a grim and gritty story that explores the darkest corners of depravity?
This ain't it.
If, however, you want to read something that will make Pabst Blue Ribbon squirt out of your nose -- even if you're not drinking -- then Deadneck Hootenanny is the book for you.
You'll get good ol' boys and zombies in a side-splitting tale of the Apocalypse, and it's only ten bucks.
You can place your order here.
Thanks for looking.
UPDATED 5/11/07: The book is now available at Shocklines, too.
UPDATED 5/21/07: Larry Roberts is now carrying DH in the Bloodletting Press Book Store.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Deck Disasters, Deadnecks and Dinosaurs
On one side of our deck are three steps that lead down to the backyard. I had already been down these a few times that day to retrieve items from our storage building. On my last trip of the day one foot slipped on a soapy spot and I went airborne. My wife told me later that as I flew from the top step my feet actually went higher than my head, a move worthy of America’s Funniest Home Videos. I landed with a crack and a blinding bolt of pain as my lower back collided with the bottom step. For a moment –okay, a couple of moments – I lay there thinking I probably wouldn’t be able to walk again. My wife was saying something but I couldn’t hear her. The buzzing in my head blocked out most everything else.
Finally, I stood up. The left side of my back throbbed mercilessly, but I could almost stand completely upright.
“I’m okay,” I said. I don’t think Norma believed me, since she was crying (and the expression on her face reminded me of the way the villagers in the old Universal movies stared at the Frankenstein monster).
“Really. I’m fine,” I repeated, even as I realized I couldn’t lift my left arm higher than my shoulder. I must have jammed it up when I tried to break my fall.
“We’re going to the hospital,” she said.
“I don’t need to go,” I said, in a typical male response. “I’ll rub some dirt on it. I’ll be okay.” Even as the words left my mouth the pain spread over to the right side of my back and down both legs. I imagined my vertebra, cracked apart, the gap widening as I stood there denying I was hurting.
Norma grabbed her car keys. “We’re leaving now.”
“Okay,” I said. See how a real man stands his ground?
The emergency room visit went as well as could be expected. A security guard pointed out to the crowded waiting room that I was the guy on the radio, which is just the kid of attention you want when you’re hunched over like a osteoporotic octogenarian. The whole x-ray procedure felt like I was being interrogated during The Inquisition. By the time I saw a doctor, the pain was so great I didn’t even notice the foot long needle used to administer my tetanus shot.
The bottom line: no breaks. A massive contusion. Expect a lot of pain for a while.
I spent three days on the couch, watching approximately 117 Law and Order reruns. Then it was time to go back to work. I had an interview scheduled with Edward Lee. Brian Keene was coming into the studio. I had a new episode of Pod of Horror to put together. So I loaded up on the pain pills and hit the road.
Now, I’m much better. Most of the pain is gone, though I seem to be left with an odd swelling which feels like a boney ridge along my lower back, and a huge purple, black and blue bruise across most of the area. All in all, it could have been much worse, so I’m not complaining. And a special shout out to the makers of modern pharmecuticals. I haven’t taken any for several days, but they were nice when I needed them.
Here’s the lesson, my friends: household chores are deadly. Avoid them at all costs.
Deadneck Hootenanny should be up for pre-order any minute now. I’ll post a link as soon as it’s ready. Bob Eggleton’s pen and ink cover is a perfect combination of the horrific and the humorous, hopefully just as the book itself. I can’t wait for everybody to see it.
Soldiers and dinosaurs. Was there ever a better combination for boys with hyperactive imaginations?
DC Comics knew this. For a few years in the 1960s, they produced a number of episodes in Star Spangled War Stories that become known under the umbrella title of The War That Time Forgot.
It wasn’t an easy title to find at the two drug stories I used for my comics fix, but I occasionally came across an issue and read it until the pages fell out. Because, again, soldiers and dinosaurs. Need I say more?
Now, DC has reprinted over 500 pages of the series in a nice cheaply priced trade paperback.
In reading it, I’m surprised at how short the stories are, and how much action was packed in those pages. Now, a 12-pager would be expanded to six issues. It would take three artists to tell the story because nobody can keep a monthly schedule anymore. The last two issues would come out months late.
It was amazing how little explanation was needed to satisfy the 10-year-old reader in 1963. In the very first story, “Island of the Armored Giants!”, a marine, upon seeing a Tyrannosaurus Rex pop up from a large crevasse, says, “The earthquake must have opened the underground tomb these monsters were in for millions of years – maybe in a state of suspended animation – brought them back to life!”
‘Nuff said, brutha. Let’s get back to the shootin’.
These stories are big, goofy fun, healthy nostalgia and a pleasurable distraction from the news. I’m going to parcel them out to savor over a few weeks.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Pod of Horror #33
* Hardcore horror legend Edward Lee speaks!
* Witness the premiere of horror’s nexus of news...The Call of Kalanta!
* Scott Nicholson talks about creating Appalachian chillers and raising goats!
* Scott Bradley gets his review on!
* And win free books in The Tomb of Trivia!
Pod of Horror is hosted by Mark Justice. Download it at I-Tunes or direct to your desktop.
And be sure to drop by the Justice & Wilbanks message board.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
A Hootenanny of Blurbage
The dead are coming back to eat you...then they'll drink beer and watch NASCAR.
Deadneck Hootenanny, this summer from Novello Publishers
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Pod of Horror #32
* Farewell to Wilbanks. PoH listeners speak out about Dave’s departure.
* James Newman dishes on writing, THE WICKED and upcoming projects.
* Steve Savile clues us in on Dr. Who, winter in Stockholm and how making a woman cry can get your novel published.
* Nanci Kalanta tell us about Horror World’s April update and what really went on at WHC.
* Scott Bradley makes a triumphant return as Reviewmaster General.
* There’s a new Tomb of Trivia clue.
Pod of Horror is hosted by Mark Justice. Download it at I-Tunes or direct to your desktop.
And be sure to drop by the Justice & Wilbanks message board.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
A New Story
It's not up at Shocklines yet, but you can order it at the Raw Dog Screaming Press site.
Why should you order it? It's got a story by Tom Piccirilli, damnit! Here's the full lineup:
Fiction:
When Sussurus Stirs • Jeremy Robert Johnson
These Hands, Those Feet, This Heart • Mark Patrick Lynch
Regarding Dead Things on the Side of the Road • Benjamin X. Wretlind
The Love Parade • Cody Goodfellow
Playaway • Gary Fry
Little Fishy • Mark Justice
Questionnaire • Paul Finch
Red Soil • Robert Dunbar
Beneath the Husband • D. Harlan Wilson
New Pad • MP Johnson
All is Calm • Ronald Damien Malfi
Something in the Way • Gary McMahon
Wings of an Angel • Mark Zirbel
Pregnant Pause • John Platt
Somethnig has Goen Very Wrong • Kendall Evans
A Haunt of Hammers • Michael Kelly
Watching • Jeremy C. Shipp
Blue • Tom Piccirilli
Poetry:
Not the Reaper • Michael A. Arnzen
Communion • Joy Marchand
The Great Man’s Apology • Steve Rasnic Tem
The Spider King • K.S. Hardy
The Reading • Cathy Buburuz
Taking Down the Nativity • Kurt Newton
Femme à La Carte • Jamison Landry
A Message for the Loved Unknown • Charlee Jacob
As a King Weeps • Jeffrey A. Stadt
Paper • Donna Lynch
Sunday, April 01, 2007
"State Your Opinion"
Now, the station didn't really need a news director. The disc jockies read five minutes of news at the top of every hour, news culled from the AP wire machines. What the station did need was an evening disc jockey. So this guy played records from 6-11 P.M. -- a chore he detested -- and from 11 to Midnight he hosted a news talk show.
Imagine you're a news director, given the opportunity to discuss local, regional and national issues five nights a week. Would you prepare a list of topics each night? Would you invite politicians to debate their positions? Would you at least offer up a theme for each show?
Not Big-Headed News Director Disc Jockey (hereafter BHNDDJ). After the reading of the 11:00 P.M. news, he would announce that the phone lines were open. There were no call screeners. The station didn't have a delay system. BHNDDJ would answer the phone on the air, welcome the caller to the talk show, then intone in his reed-thin eastern Kentucky accent, "State your opinion."
The caller would start talking about whatever was on his or her mind -- leash laws, the president, Kentucky basketball -- and BHNDDJ would stand up and leave the room.
That's right. The host of the show would walk to the outer office to check the AP wire while the caller was on the air.
It turns out that BHNDDJ had a very short attention span. He also was more fond of being able to say he hosted a talk show than he was at actually, you know, doing the show.
It didn't tale long for listeners to catch on. After BHNDDJ left the room, callers would engage in long profanity-filled rants on marijuana legalization, bestiality and UFOs. It was kind of like an early version of the Art Bell show, if directed by Clerks Kevin Smith.
It probably won't shock you to learn that the BHNDDJ talk show was short lived.
All this is leading up to an invitation to drop by the message board and State Your Opinion. Things have been pretty active there lately and the gang likes talking about books, movies comics and writing.
Play nice. And if your head is too big for your body, I don't want to know about it.

