REJECTED FOR CONTENT 6: WORKPLACE RELATIONS

REJECTED FOR CONTENT 6: WORKPLACE RELATIONS

 

Ever had that one job you absolutely hated? Where the thought of getting out of bed in the morning to head off to work filled you with utter dread? Where just about anything is an option if it means being able to avoid the place?

Evil boss? Creepy, conniving co-workers? Never been a team player, and can’t stand the thought of having to work as one?
Appalling working conditions? Underpaid, underappreciated? Sick of seeing others advance while you stagnate?

What about the other side of the coin? Ever had that one job you absolutely loved? Where you couldn’t bear the thought of losing it, couldn’t imagine how you’d get by if you didn’t have it? What lengths would you go to, to ensure you kept it?

How about no job at all? The endless parade of pounding the pavement in a fruitless search for employment, with doors slamming in your face. No experience. No prospects. No future.

For the long awaited sixth volume, Rejected For Content is heading off to work.
I’m looking for tales from the workplace. Any workplace.
When good jobs go bad. When bad jobs get worse. Bastard bosses. Disturbed co-workers. Places where the most unhinged of souls would never dream of working in their wildest nightmares.

When workplace relations break down beyond fixing. Or when workplace relations strengthen, in ways that are just plain wrong.

I’m primarily after horror, but any genre is considered, as long as the piece has been, or is likely to be, rejected on the grounds of content.

For those who are no stranger to RFC, you know the drill. For anybody else, familiarity with the first five volumes just to get the gist of what we’re after is recommended, but not essential.

Get hired. Get fired. Get rejected.

There’s one month left until this closes, so get cracking with those applications (aka stories) if you have any plans to try out for a position in the most disturbing, dysfunctional, deranged workplace of all-Rejected For Content.

3k to 10k word count (flexible on both minimums and maximums-flash fiction and poetry will be considered, but since I’m primarily after stories, only a few poems etc. are likely to be accepted, so bring the best).

As this is WetWorks, extreme horror and bizarro stories are preferable, but ultimately any genre is fine provided it has been, or is likely to be, rejected on the grounds of content.
Times New Roman
12 pt
double line spacing
Deadline: August 31, 2017
Email address for submissions is blackmetaljim@hotmail.com

TRIGGERED

TRIGGERED

This was originally intended be an invite-only experiment, but I figured I’ll throw it open for anybody who might want to get involved. Let me know and I’ll add you to the group.

Triggers. Everybody has them. Some traumatic life event. A phobia. Something brought on by anxiety. Fear. Loneliness. Desperation. Desire. Rage.
It’s how we react to them, that shapes us.
Will they break us, leave us curled up and lost, helpless and hopeless? Or will they be the catalyst in making us snap? Triggered to run riot and rampage?
Everybody has triggers. Anything can set them off.
I want stories of triggers, of the reasons behind them, what triggers folks, folks who have been triggered, how they react. And the consequences when events, situations, overheard words or misconstrued actions kick off a chain reaction where anything can happen.

This is a WetWorks project, so naturally I’m primarily looking at extreme horror, though not exclusively.
10k maximum, no minimum (flash fiction and poetry are acceptable if you feel you can do the theme justice with minimal words. Bear in mind though, the large proportion of material I will be looking for will be stories, so bring the best for poems etc. Three poem limit on submissions).
Multiple story submissions are fine.
Time New Roman 12 preferred. Double spaced.
Subject matter is wide open to interpretation, there is very little that is taboo here; after all it is trigger material and the exploration of it. However, remember I’m after stories, not just gore for gore’s sake, or something deliberately intended to offend or set someone off without the presence of a solid storyline. We’re after reasons, reactions, whys and hows, and so on.
This project is an experiment, so feel free to have fun with it, see what your imaginations can dredge up.

blackmetaljim@hotmail.com

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SOME BOOKS COME WITH A TRIGGER WARNING.

THIS WHOLE BOOK WILL BE ONE BIG TRIGGER WARNING.

PROJECT 26

PROJECT 26

***SPECIAL J. Ellington Ashton ANNOUNCEMENT REVEALED***

As announced by Roma Gray

P26 – Project 26

26 books, each one representing a different letter in the alphabet, with each letter in turn represented a horror-related concept that starts with that letter.

The owner of JEA, catt dahman, challenged several JEA authors to participate in this grand project. The project consists of an assortment of anthologies, novels, and short story collections. Many of the authors involved in the anthologies did not even know about this, although they were part of a larger contest and won a huge prize (to be announced later)

Over a year in the making, the creative range and scope of this project is both awe inspiring and terrifying. We challenge you to collect them all.

Today we have four new books Backwoods Bonfire a novel by Scott Essel Pratt, Vampz Vendetta an anthology featuring multiple JEA authors and edited by John Ledger, Jurassic Jackaroo: Jasper Junction – a novel by Roma Gray and Lacrimation of the Leviathan a novel by Scott Essel Pratt

What? They’re not being released in order? Damn straight. At JEA we are rebels 😉 In two more weeks we’ll launch a few more. How many? Which letters? No one knows

As announced on Facebook by Roma Gray, J. Ellington Ashton Press have finally unveiled P26, which is of course Project 26, where all 26 letters of the alphabet are represented by either a novel, anthology, or collection in horrific fashion.

Unlike other alphabet related projects which have occurred before, this behemoth is not rolling out books in alphabetical order, instead they are going to emerge completely randomly. The first four to materialise are those mentioned in the above statement.

For my own part, I account for four of the overall letters of the twenty six, including helming two anthologies (featuring a host of excellent authors with stories tailored to suit the specific theme of each letter) and two novels (which, like Riders-Plebs 2, are both part of the same story). These two, if you’ve been paying attention on Facebook, Twitter etc. are of course, Carnival of Chaos and Festival of the Flesh.

These books revolve around a group of disgruntled ex-employees of a rustic old Carnival/circus entity who find themselves suddenly out of jobs after a sinister newcomer and his entourage buy out and take over their place of employment with grand designs on turning it into an enormous modern horror themed monster.

Their own grand visions of enacting some type of vengeance go to hell in a rush, when they make some disturbing and grotesque discoveries that suggest there is far more to the Carnival takeover than mere business.

Now they, and a whole slew of associates, innocent friends, and even the police, are going to find themselves hopelessly entangled in the hideous melange of bloodshed, perversion and savage violence of the Festival of the Flesh, the gruesome entity that lurks behind the bright, seemingly innocuous facade of the Carnival of Chaos.

Stay tuned for more information, actual synopsis’s for both books, release updates, and keep on top of all the other books comprising the project as they roll out. As announced above, four of these, including two novellas by Essel Pratt, one from Roma Gray and an anthology edited by John Ledger, have already been released.

*Warning-All the books constituting Project 26 are horror in genre, but fit under the broad blanket of horror, suitable for the vast majority of readers. Carnival and Festival on the other hand, are WetWorks oriented works, which means they dwell mostly in extreme horror realms. Be prepared for extreme violence, explicit sex, offensive material, potential triggers. If some scenes don’t disturb, you may be dead. Or gleefully perverted.

THE BOOK THAT MADE ME : JIM GOFORTH ON CLIVE BARKERS CABAL (ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR GINGER NUTS OF HORROR)

This was a piece I originally wrote back in 2014 for a series of articles being run on the exemplary horror fiction site Ginger Nuts of Horror. Unfortunately, it would appear that after several years of hard work and dedication to the horror scene, Ginger Nuts is to close. On that note, I figured I’d toss this up here if folks have any interest in checking out a little background on one of the books that had a hand in setting me off on this horror writing expedition. THE BOOK THAT MADE ME : JIM GOFORTH ON CLIVE BARKERS CABAL

Though I will constantly make reference to the late great Richard Laymon as being the chief influence and inspiration on my writing, indeed the man whose work altered and honed the way I write, after I first read ‘Darkness, Tell Us’ back in the early 90’s, it was a little earlier than that when I became hooked on horror and there were myriad motivators prior to Laymon the king. Hutson, early Koontz, McCammon and old King were pivotal to me, but when it comes down to specific books that played a massive part in entrenching me in a lifelong love with the genre, in all its mediums, three novels in particular spring immediately to mind, because they’ve stuck with me from the moment I’ve read them, been re-read over and over again, and never lose any of the horrific charm that first obsessed me with them. They are Graham Masterton’s ‘Walker’s, Thomas Page’s ‘The Spirit’ and Clive Barker’s ‘Cabal’. Since this is the book that made me, singular, I will have to narrow that down to just one and in that event I’m going to run with ‘Cabal.’ Being the kid at school who was always writing tales about phantasmagorical monsters and bizarre beasts of my own creation, ‘Cabal’s’ fantastic graveyard community of Midian was a source of immediate fascination to me, fostering an instantaneous love for these oddities and the characters who joined with them. Having a love for all things dark and all things monstrous meant ‘Cabal’ was just about the most perfect story I’d ever read at that stage of the late eighties, a young impressionable lad with a profound desire to explore these dark and twisted worlds. The characters are all deeply flawed and damaged, and the portrayal as humans existing as the real monsters of the piece is something that has always remained with me, something I like to explore in my writing as well. The atmosphere throughout the entire thing is an epic one, laden with menace, darkness, and fantasy aspects, but often conjures up more emotional moments and feelings of alienation, and Barker is a master at being able to balance everything with just the right touch of poignancy, dropping in moments of shocking violence and a nice splash of sex as well. The copy I first read was the Fontana Collins edition from 1989 featuring Craig Sheffer as Boone in his monster personality after becoming one of the Nightbreed and Anne Bobby as Lori from the Nightbreed film adaptation which came out the following year, and it also contained the curious artwork from Barker himself, appearing throughout, before chapters, at the end of chapters. I was almost as intrigued by these artworks as I was the story and they definitely enhanced the assortment of atmospheres conjured up by the narrative itself. I still own that very same copy, along with Laymon’s ‘Darkness, Tell Us’, one of the very few books I actually have the one copy I’ve maintained from the very first reading way back then and consequently its pages are yellowing and it certainly looks aged, but otherwise I keep it in pristine condition. It has stood up to so many re-readings I have lost count of how many times I’ve pored over the same pages, been immersed in the same unusual characters and drifted away to the world of Midian. It may not be Barker’s most acclaimed or widely acknowledged work, and as a relatively short piece considered a novella these days, might not be as extensively convoluted as much of his other material, but to me it remains a classic and will forever hold a place as one of those books that leave an indelible mark. It’s one of three books that made me, but for the purpose of this article, it is the book that made me.

JUST ANOTHER UPDATE

JUST ANOTHER UPDATE

In the interests of paying a little more attention to this site, I’ll be posting somewhat more regularly around here. Which means you’ll either get something semi-coherent or an utter stream of complete gibberish. For now, we’ll go with an update.

At the tail-end of last year I posted up a pretty comprehensive list of projects and books I planned to work on in 2017, including roughly twelve novels. The good news there is that two of those are just about written (another one-The Sleep, subject of my last post, of course came out in January) and will see the light of day this year. Because these two are both part of a larger project, I’m not at liberty to release anything in the way of details just yet. While I’ve had fun working on these books, they’ve monopolised a lot of time, and honestly, I’ll be glad to get that shit done and squared away. A whole bunch of different factors have meant I haven’t exactly ripped through the latter book in the way I normally would, so trying to get it done has been moderately frustrating. I dig the characters and the story, but to say I’ll be glad to see the back of it is an understatement. While I’ve been pouring what available writing time I have into trying to knock this motherfucker over, I’ve had numerous other projects sitting on the back burner, some with rapidly approaching deadlines. Fair bet there’s a few other things I’d committed to, or wanted to write for, that have had their deadlines elapse now.

Naturally I’ll announce news on these books and release details when I’m able, but for now, rest assured, at least two new books will be coming this year. Initially when I made the list detailing the various novels I had in the works, or plans to delve into, I’d envisioned having a bit more done by this time of year than I have so far, but you know, best laid plans and all that shit…

The various factors and outside aspects that have impacted on my writing time turned this latest book into something of a fucking albatross around my neck, and I’ve felt like I’ve been moving through it more sluggishly than I’d have liked when I actually do get around to doing any scribbling on it. Fortunately, the end is in sight and I can get it cleared and move on to all those other projects that are piling up like a mountain of fucking unpaid bills.

After I finally get that sorted, my first focus will be on a few short stories for various anthologies that have to get written. The bonus there is I have a story lurking insidiously around in my head for the first of those, and ideally I’d have already splattered this one out in fresh blood or what-have-you, but in trying to get the novel completed, I set myself the rule of only working on it until it’s done, so nothing else gets written until then.

Knock those antho commitments out of the way and work shall commence on any number of novels, either already started, or some new fiendish endeavours. One thing is a given. This beast will be in there somewhere…

There will be a sequel to Undead Fleshcrave: The Zombie Trigger somewhere in the mix too, but that will probably be considered sometime after Plebs 3. I did mention on Facebook at some stage that some folks might get to be in one of these two books, at least in terms of appearing as a character, or having a character named after them etc. etc. I recall a pile of people commenting on that particular status nominating themselves to be in the books, but shit, that was a fair while ago and rather than scrolling through the fuckload of posts that have saturated my timeline since then, I might need to do a refresher and see who was keen to get themselves deepsixed (maybe) in either Plebs 3 or The Zombie Trigger 2. Or maybe something else. Who knows?

In other news, the brutal juggernaut that is Rejected For Content will continue to stampede over all and sundry with no remorse, no regard and certainly no signs of slowing down. I made mention of a new disturbing entity that I have brewing which led some to question whether this was going to be something of a replacement for RFC. Short answer, no. Long answer, fuck no.

Rejected For Content has so many more stories to tell, so many dark corners and recesses to explore, and so many stones to overturn, so there’s no end in sight for that monstrosity. Again, in the interests of involving readers and fans of the series, I might throw open the potential naming or theming of Rejected For Content, to those very people. In fact I already did toss it out there to gauge reactions and see what sort of despicable shit people were keen on seeing for number 6, but nothing officially set in stone. I’ll return to that when the time is right to start building momentum for the RFC machine. So, for all those who fear that Rejected For Content was on it’s last legs, or out the door, or about to fuck off out of here, no need to worry at all. Not only is the open call for RFC6 going to be happening, but so too will something else RFC related. The latter will potentially occur before anything RFC6 does; we’ll see.

As for the other WetWorks entity I made mention of just above and on Facebook leading to those queries about RFC, well, this isn’t going to be a replacement, it’s going to be something completely different and something to run alongside Rejected For Content. I’m looking forward to divulging some information about this, but again, I’m waiting to do that until I clear some projects. I will say this though; it will be extreme, it will be controversial and without doubt it is bound to upset some folks and ruffle a few feathers. I haven’t yet decided whether it is going to be thrown open, or if it will be invite-only, but I am leaning toward the latter. Which means, as I stated on the Facebook status, that some time shortly, I will be actively seeking for collusion and involvement from suitably deranged, disturbed, extreme, perverse sanguinary scribes. I already have a mental list of folk I’m keen on asking-or should that be a list of mentals?-which is why I’m a little keener on making the project an invite-only thing. Primarily because I know that the folk I’m interested in asking to be part of it, can write the type of material I’ll be seeking. Extreme inkslingers who aren’t afraid to get dirty, bloody, offensive, yeah, you get the gist.

That isn’t to say I won’t throw it open at some later stage, we’ll wait and see how this excursion into extremity pans out. As I said, I’m anticipating that it will stir some people up, but then again, everything does these days.

Dual Depravity hasn’t been forgotten either; there will be more volumes of that forthcoming at some stage down the track, with various authors getting involved for those books, but for now, fucking projects, lots of projects. Not enough time to get everything done, and of course, me claiming to ease back on the anthos and concentrate on novels this year worked out a treat didn’t it? Committed myself to a pile of those…

Anyway, that’s enough of that. One more chapter to write on this novel and I’m done, so best I get to that.

THE SLEEP

THE SLEEP

As if I needed any more proof that I sorely neglect this WordPress site, how about this? My most recent novel came out in January, and here it is mid-May, and I haven’t mentioned shit about it over here. In my defence, I maintain an assortment of different pages and profiles, and more often than not, this is the one which gets left to rot and fester. In any case, best rectify that now.

January 2017 saw the release of my first novel for the year (there will be at least a couple more coming out this year, but those are still under wraps as far as providing details for them goes). This of course, as most people should already know (unless you use this site to keep update on news-in that case, you wouldn’t have a clue), was The Sleep.

This book is my spin on a creature feature of sorts, a monster tale, albeit written in my usual grindhouse splatterpunk style, though it probably is a little more accessible to mainstream horror fans than some of my previous works have been. That isn’t to say it has been toned down in any context, more of a case of the story not quite warranting some of the things that have appeared in prior books.

Here’s the synopsis

Obscure urban legends and monstrous myths abound all over the internet, and none are more obscure or bizarre than the one purported to haunt the strange, remote and oddly named town of Growling and its surrounds.
Here, the communities are plagued by freakish weather phenomena, aberrant lightning and something even worse that arrives in the midst of these irregular storms. Here, all denizens adhere stringently with the unwritten rules of what they all know as The Sleep. Here, the way of life for folk is dictated to by the BeastStorms.
When a group of friends, including an amateur horror film maker, an urban legend and supernatural enthusiast, a sceptic and a journalist, among others, stumble across the vague tale online, each have their own reasons for wanting to discover the veracity of the peculiar legend.
Now, they are on a road trip that’s taken them thousands of miles from their comfortable city existences and right into the domain of The Sleep. Where mistrusting, superstitious locals patrol the neighbourhoods in packs with ominous warnings for intruders and unwelcome passers-through. Where dissenters are run out of town to live as outcasts on the fringes of civilization. Where repercussions are severe for those who don’t take heed of warnings to abide by the rules of the land.
Where unholy storms unlike anything ever experienced before, dredge up something more than insane weather. Something monstrous.
Every so often, among all those many legends easily explainable, or proved to be nothing more than pure hoax, there’s one with more than a kernel of truth to it.

One like the BeastStorms.

The whole concept of this tale is one I’ve had in my head for quite some time, and it was all originally derived from one single image (the base image you see on the whole cover wrap-the old dwellings and the sky). Elements were added by cover artist Michael Fish Fisher to further enhance the aesthetics and fit the theme of the book, but the base image itself, prior to any of that, was enough to conjure up the story in my head before I even started writing it, at least in terms of the mythos, what happened when the Storms came and how people dealt with that. Like most of my work, I didn’t plan it or outline it in any way, shape or form; I had the initial characters, what their motivations were and as usual, I threw them into monstrous situations and let them see how-or if-they could come out of it. Unlike the majority of my other books, I did have some idea on how it was going to end, though even that took something of a turn along the way. In any case, here’s a few things folks have been saying about it.

“The Sleep is a combination of a novel and a horror movie which goes in gonzo directions and yet it all makes sense in the end. This is what novels are supposed to do. As horror, when the evil erupts in almost atomic bomb explosion with everyone in its sights, expect the worst for the worst is there spilling with blood, death, and decapitations. The monsters, both human and monsters, are monsters with little pity.”

“Goforth layers his novel with violence, and gore, but there’s a compelling story here. That’s what makes The Sleep so good. It’s a dark, gritty novel that reminds us that it’s the things we can’t see that are the most terrifying. When it comes to horror no one writes like Goforth. This is a guy that takes the genre back to it’s early days of true terror, and suspense, and writes like a man possessed. This is the future of horror and each novel gets him one step closer to mainstream success.”

“Jim Goforth never holds back and always packs a hell of a punch.”

“If you like horror stories and can handle gore, I highly recommend this entertaining book!”

“I have a lot of respect for the writing of Jim Goforth. He can take an action scene, draw you in, keep you gasping for breath, and turn the whole situation in another unexpected direction. This is what he does in The Sleep.“

If any of that sounds right up your alley, snag a copy of The Sleep and check it out. Feel free to drop a review off on Amazon and let me know your thoughts. Good, bad or ugly, all reviews are appreciated.

From the author of Plebs and Undead Fleshcrave: The Zombie Trigger.

Seven intrepid travellers. One obscure tale. One hell of a storm of nightmares.

Some urban legends are true.

http://smarturl.it/thesleep

Author Interview: Jim Goforth

Jim Goforth is a horror author currently based in Holbrook, Australia. Happily married with two kids and a cat, he has been writing tales of horror since the early nineties. After years of detourin…

Source: Author Interview: Jim Goforth