CLANS PLAYLIST

CLANS PLAYLIST

As I mentioned in my last post, I already had a playlist for Clans sorted and ready to roll, so here it is. Given it’s a relatively short book in comparison to some of mine, this playlist is something of an extended one-it’s a fair bet you’d finish reading the book before the playlist ended if you actually read in accompaniment to all the songs listed here.

Nonetheless, all of these tracks here have their reasons for being included, and I could have added more, but I think fifty is quite enough. As the story focuses largely on the two rival warring Clans, the Punks and the Metalheads, all the songs comprising this soundtrack, as it were, are drawn from those genres. A little bit of crossover and merging of said genres in spots, but for the most part-two sets of songs with boots firmly placed in their respective territories.

These are songs that are mentioned throughout, or serve as chapter titles, or have much to do with the storylines themselves, or, if you have a keen eye, are mentioned in dialogue or narrative without actually being referred to as songs. Let’s see if you can spot any others, since there are a couple not on the playlist here that do pop up throughout.

Anyway, this isn’t a post to ramble on, it just exists as a playlist to accompany the recently released Clans. It’s not done too badly for my first book of the year (I’m going with that despite the fact it came out on December 31 2019, rather than January 1, 2020-forgot I live in the future here and happen to be one day ahead of Amazon), hitting number one in Australia, and number one in Hot New Releases in both the US and UK.

It’s not horror, and there will be several other works I plan on dabbling in that will also stray away from that particular genre, but don’t start thinking I’m stepping away from horror. No chance of that. I’m currently working on two projects (with a third in mind as well) that are firmly entrenched in horror. Whether they will be novellas or novels remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain. I plan to be much more active in terms of writing this year, with hopefully several more releases than I managed in 2019.

And with that said, here’s the Clans playlist. Play that motherfucker loud while you delve into the world of Mantas and its musical clans, and more specifically the Metalheads and the Punks.

1. Territory-Sepultura
2. Everyone I love is Dead-Type O Negative
3. Over the Wall-Testament
4. Arise-Sepultura
5. In the Glare of the Moon-Dead Silent Slumber
6. Concrete Apple-Cadaverous Clan
7. Cesspools in Eden-Dead Kennedys
8. Friends Like You-Sick of it All
9. Last Caress-Misfits
10. New Rose-The Damned
11. Torsofucked-Flayed Disciple
12. Fucking Hostile-Pantera
13. Bad Apples-Guns n Roses
14. Rise Above-Black Flag
15. Youth Gone Wild-Skid Row
16. Paranoid-Black Sabbath
17. Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)-Buzzcocks
18. Over the Edge-LA Guns
19. Troops of Tomorrow-The Exploited
20. Transilvanian Hunger-Darkthrone
21. Search and Destroy-The Stooges
22. Raw Power-The Stooges
23. Smash it Up-The Damned
24. Complete Control-The Clash
25. Dusk and Her Embrace-Cradle of Filth
26. Sleeping My Day Away-D.A.D
27. Metal Thrashing Mad-Anthrax
28. Rust in Peace…Polaris-Megadeth
29. The Wolfpack-Satyricon
30. Solid Gold Beating-December Wolves
31. Hammer Smashed Face-Cannibal Corpse
32. Pretty Vacant-Sex Pistols
33. Fuck Armageddon, This is Hell-Bad Religion
34. Chapel of Ghouls-Morbid Angel
35. Angel of Death-Slayer
36. March of the S.O.D-Stormtroopers of Death
37. A Call For Blood-Hatebreed
38. Delusion and Anger-Broken Bones
39. Peace Sells-Megadeth
40. Crystal Mountain-Death
41. Crazy Train-Ozzy Osbourne
42. Screaming For Vengeance-Judas Priest
43. Against the Grain-Bad Religion
44. Cowboys of Hell-Pantera
45. War Ensemble-Slayer
46. Let’s Have a War-Fear
47. Extreme Aggression-Kreator
48. Bottled Violence-Minor Threat
49. Bullet in the Head-Rage Against the Machine
50. Leads to Utopia/The Old Man’s Dream-Old Man’s Child

Welcome to Mantas. A city unlike any other under the sun. One entirely free of discrimination based on race, creed, sexual preference, ethnicity, religion or anything else in between.
One where the only segregation that exists is based upon musical preference. One where whatever type of music each city denizen swears allegiance to defines where they dwell and which group of people they belong with, and these musical passions are their religions, their beliefs, their cultures.
It should be a Utopian existence. It should be ideal. It isn’t.
This is a city beset by violence, plagued by divides. Run by warring factions, split by constant differences.
One ruled by Clans.
And while there is perpetual conflict raging between Clans Mantas-wide , nowhere is quite as volatile as the eternal battle being waged in the inner city where two warring factions hold court.
The Metalheads. The Punks.

https://smarturl.it/clansbook

CLANS

CLANS

Finally, after doing pretty much jackshit in the way of writing for the back half of 2019, bar a short story here and there (two to be precise-one for Matt Shaw’s Next Door anthology and a 100 word piece for Kevin Kennedy’s ongoing 100 Word Horrors anthology series) I’ve got another book out.

Technically it was supposed to come out on the first of the year (January 1, 2020), but of course, since I live in the future over here in Australia, it was approved by Amazon faster than I expected and was released December 31, 2019. That wasn’t really the plan at all; I’d have rather put fucking 2019 in the rear-view mirror and been able to kick off the new year with a new release, but whatever…

In any case, the book, as most of you would be well aware by now, is Clans.

The story itself will not be entirely new to some people, though I’d imagine not too many will have encountered it before. What it is, is a novella length expansion of a short story originally written for a little read battle anthology Punk Vs Metal.

In its inception the whole idea of Punk Vs Metal was a cool one, and I was pretty excited to be involved in it, and the notion came up when a whole slew of battle anthos were happening. Ultimately though, due to a vast assortment of fuckery and issues with the thing, I ended up hating that fucking book. It was meant to be one of those books where a bunch of judges vote on punk stories pitted against metal stories, and eventually one team would come out victorious, proving which was the best music genre as explored via horror tales. Endless delays on that, alongside line-up changes, people having to drop out, finding replacements, edits delays and all kinds of other shit just soured the whole thing, so I just took all control of it, did all edits, nixed the idea of having judges at all and got the fucking thing out of my hair.

That experience would rank as my least favourite one in working with anthologies, particularly those of the battle variety, and helped in me steering clear of doing anything in the way of running anthos for the foreseeable future. Submitting stories to other anthologies I will continue to do, at least intermittently, but I’ll definitely be picky as fuck as to which ones they’ll be. There are a select few I’d be down for any time-anything put together by Matt Shaw, always-but for the most part I’ll just be concentrating on my own work.

Anyway, the one thing I derived from the whole Punk Vs Metal clusterfuck was the notion for Clans. Due to word limit restraints the tale had to be fairly concise, so even though I was happy with the way it turned out, I always figured I could expand it into more. Whether that meant making it novella length, or even longer, or perhaps even turning it into a series wasn’t clear, but ultimately I turned that particular story in to a novella sized piece. I could, and potentially still will, do much more with the universe I created there, and the ideologies  that exist in there.

Another important point to remember; this tale is not horror at all. Yeah, there are a few horrific parts that crop up here and there, but the genre itself would probably be more aligned with urban than horror, so to most people who read my shit, that might be different, though to me it isn’t. I was dabbling with a whole bunch of different genres way, way back in the mists of time before I decided horror was where I wanted to dwell, and tales revolving around urban settings, disenchanted, reckless city youth and whatnot were things I frequently wrote about.

Further to that, not only is it not horror, but at the heart of it, Clans is some kind of twisted Romeo and Juliet shit, a love story. It’s also got a shitload of other stuff, messages and so forth woven through the narrative, but that’s up to the individual reader to discern what that is all about. It also has a fuckload of heavy metal and punk rock references threaded throughout, and again, that’s up to keen-eyed readers who appreciate those forms of music to spot them.

Clans is set in a fictional city (most would know that almost all of my cities, towns, locations, in any of my books or stories are always places of my own creation), Mantas. It’s a city that is free of all kinds of the usual discriminations that plague all others world-wide. It is ruled by segregation though, and that segregation has to do with each resident’s musical allegiance. And where your musical preferences lie determine where you reside, who you live with, which group you form part of. Which Clan you belong in.

If you dig metal, you’re a metalhead, dwelling in the inner city with the Metal Clan. If you’re into punk rock, then you’re a Punk, existing amongst those of your own kind.

Which brings us to the core of this tale. Since it was initially written for the Punk Vs Metal antho, the main Clans to feature in here are, of course, Metal and Punk, and the ongoing war between these two factions. Yes, in reality, I’m well aware that such wars don’t really exist any more-not really since around the 80s or so, but hey, remember…fiction here. Metaphors, you get the gist.

This is where the notion of spinning the whole thing out into an ongoing series is brewing, because naturally, punk and metal are certainly not the only two of the clans that share the city of Mantas. There are many, many more, several of which are mentioned in Clans, but don’t play any major part. That’s not to say they won’t some time down the track. We’ll wait and see, but I like the world created here, so there’s a big chance I will expand it even further. Metal is my preferred choice of music, but that doesn’t essentially mean the Metal Clan would be first and foremost in every story/novella/novel/whatever I chose to explore. I might delve into the Rap Vs Dance  feud that is mentioned in this book. Again, before you suggest, that shit isn’t really a thing, suspend your disbelief. Fiction. Fucking fiction.

Mantas is a world where the only divides that exist are between warring groups of musical Clans, so that’s where most key stories are going to spring.

Anyway, enough of that shit. Time to go and check it out, if you haven’t already.

By the way, probably not a great deal, but Clans has also been my first number one bestseller, if one can call it that. It hit number one in Australia, and has also hit the number one new release spot in a few places, which is pretty cool. It doesn’t mean a shitload to me, but it is still interesting to see considering I was essentially out of the game for a good half of last year, so to have the first book I drop in quite some time rack up a good rank in a day or so after release is a good feeling.

Especially considering it isn’t really a new book per se, just an expansion of an existing (and not very widely read) story, one that adds a little more history and back story, and fleshes out characters a fraction more than an antho short tale would allow.

Also (and admit it, you knew this was coming), since this is a tale that revolves very heavily around music, stay tuned for a playlist coming very, very soon. Already got one ready to roll-an extensive one of course, since all the songs that crop up throughout, either clearly referred to, or woven into the fabric of the narrative would take longer to listen to than actually reading the book-so that will be going up some time after this does.

Welcome to Mantas. A city unlike any other under the sun. A city not beset with any discrimination bar that between musical preferences. A city ruled by Clans.

https://smarturl.it/clansbook

 

 

 

GREATER EXTREMES PLAYLIST

GREATER EXTREMES PLAYLIST

 

Jesus Christ, you say, the book’s only just come out and this guy’s already got a playlist knocked up for it.

Well, to be fair, the playlist was pretty much already largely compiled, simultaneously with putting the book together, so there’s that. In any case, without too much preamble, I shall present the recommended playlist to accompany the reading of Greater Extremes. As always, it’s pretty heavy on the metal-that’s what I write to mostly (not exclusively) and these are the kinds of songs applicable to events, mentions, situations occurring in the various stories. If you haven’t read the book-and since it just came out I’d be doubting you have-you’ll most likely be able to get some notions about what’s contained in the stories just from this list.. Yeah, there are a fair few supernatural elements cropping up in this one. If Extremes was heavy on human monsters and the hideous deeds done by folk to one another, and More Extremes was rather musical in theme for several stories, this beast here is the one that ventures into monstrous realms of the other kind.

There are werewolves, there are vampires (none of the watered down shifter stuff running rampant in fiction and infiltrating horror book charts, and that sort of thing), the undead are here, ghosts (not obvious ones-well spotted if you can pick exactly where they appear), demons, creatures of my own creation and so forth.

However, enough of that. I said I’d get into this without much preamble, and here I go dribbling shit. So, fuck that..here’s the playlist.

Check it out, check out the book.

Vampyria-Siebenburgen

Bloodsuckers-Judas Priest

To the Wolves at My Door-Soulfallen

The Wolfpack-Satyricon

Return of the Vampire-Mercyful Fate

Wolf Moon-Type O Negative

The Howling-Within Temptation

Thrown to the Wolves-Death Angel

Oracle-Diabolical

Them Bones-Alice in Chains

Bones-Baest

Pyromancer-Sahg

The Fun Lovin’ Criminal-Fun Lovin’ Criminals

Insect-Spiral Architect

Locust-Machine Head

Sewer Dwellers-Fornication

Betrayal-Master

Undead Rising-Sepulcration

Swarm of Zombies-Facebreaker

Sometimes They Come Back-Sadist

Big Truck-Coal Chamber

Rusty Cage-Soundgarden

No Way Out-Dope

Last Stop to Nowhere-Septicflesh

Now, Diabolical-Satyricon

Snowblind-Black Sabbath

I Don’t Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)-Marilyn Manson

I See Demons-Book of Black Earth

Came Back Haunted-Nine Inch Nails

Pour Some Sugar on Me-Def Leppard

Girls, Girls, Girls-Motley Crue

Crown of the Kings-Keep of Kalessin

From the dark, unhinged recesses of Jim Goforth’s mind, emerges another gruesome collective of stories delving into extreme realms.
The world is full of monstrous people, monstrous things, monstrous deeds.
What happens when you become involved, hopelessly ensnared in a nightmare world from which there is no escape?
What happens when a lifetime of bad decisions comes back to haunt you?
What happens when you are pushed into the darkest of corners, when the world you thought you knew becomes something else? Something horrifying, something ugly?
The latest volume in the Extremes series assembles more horror tales that wallow in filth and fear, in perversion and pain, monstrosity and mayhem.
All manner of things can drive a person to extremes. And beyond.
You can go to Extremes; you can even go to More Extremes. Now and then, Greater Extremes are called for.

https://smarturl.it/greaterextremes

 

 

 

 

 

GREATER EXTREMES

GREATER EXTREMES

After what feels like an eternity, I’m finally on the scoreboard for the year. And by that, I mean I’ve finally released my first book for 2019. Comparing this year’s output to last year’s where I had no less than six books out (not counting anthologies and the like I was involved in) demonstrates just how little time I’ve actually had to work on projects, despite the vast amount of them that keep stacking up.

Anyway, a mere seven months into the year and I’m finally able to get something out there.

 

Greater Extremes, the latest in the Extremes series of horror tales (yeah, some of them actually border on novella length, but most folks would know that by now) went live on Amazon yesterday. In comparison to More Extremes which took an eternity to get through review and be published, due to random factors which elude me at the moment, this beast went through pretty much straight away.

This is the longest of the trio released so far (yes, there will be more) though it follows the same template as the previous two with eight stories comprising the work. It just so happens that three of the stories-as mentioned above-tend to venture near novella length-novellette? Or some such shit.

A couple of them are reprints, but are drawn from niche books which didn’t hit an enormous audience, as was the case with the reprints in More Extremes, and one of these first appeared in a short-lived book that is no longer in print.

The rest however, and the vast majority of the book, are all new. One story (which reintroduces a few characters who first appeared in With Tooth and Claw, way back in early 2015) was originally written for an anthology project that never ended up getting off the ground, and was ultimately cancelled, hence its appearance here.

In addition, there are two tales which tie in to previous novels of mine, acting as bridging stories between those and the upcoming sequels. As I state in the introduction, I’ll let the audience figure out which particular novels those stories are attached to-though one is pretty damn obvious; that won’t be hard picking that one. These two don’t exactly have what one might call definitive endings; they are a fraction ambiguous or open-ended. I wouldn’t say cliffhanger or any kind of shit like that, but given what purpose they serve, they are left with a certain ‘to be continued’ feel. The less obvious story, which will most likely only be picked up by folks who have actually read the majority of my novels, is also not the only story I currently have in that particular universe. There is another written, destined for another project, which hopefully will start seeing a little more movement in the near future. That’s not something in my control, so we’ll see how work goes on that book. I don’t think I can reveal anything about that at this point in time, so I’ll just sit back and observe how the activity goes in it all coming together.

In any case, I’ve decided doing those tie-in things is going to be a feature of all future Extremes releases. Not only will they be a showcase for more of my extreme horror tales (which of course doesn’t always necessarily equate to blood and gore etc.) but they will have bits and pieces, if not whole stories, that link to other books of mine. More Extremes didn’t go as far as featuring a whole piece related to any existing work, but eagle-eyed readers may have spotted the Plebs reference in one of the stories there hinting at possible events or new characters or what-have-you surfacing in future books in the Plebs world. I’d be curious to know if anybody who has read More Extremes actually did catch that, and can identify the correct story. If you haven’t yet checked out More Extremes, maybe you will catch a potential clue about upcoming Plebs happenings. As for Greater Extremes, you will definitely get clues and whatnot of new characters and other information related to upcoming sequels, but given it hasn’t been out twenty four hours yet I don’t think too many folks will have read any of it yet.

Speaking of which, best you go check it out now.

From the dark, unhinged recesses of Jim Goforth’s mind, emerges another gruesome collective of stories delving into extreme realms.
The world is full of monstrous people, monstrous things, monstrous deeds.
What happens when you become involved, hopelessly ensnared in a nightmare world from which there is no escape?
What happens when a lifetime of bad decisions comes back to haunt you?
What happens when you are pushed into the darkest of corners, when the world you thought you knew becomes something else? Something horrifying, something ugly?
The latest volume in the Extremes series assembles more horror tales that wallow in filth and fear, in perversion and pain, monstrosity and mayhem.
All manner of things can drive a person to extremes. And beyond.
You can go to Extremes; you can even go to More Extremes. Now and then, Greater Extremes are called for.

https://smarturl.it/greaterextremes

 

Havoc Vulture playlist

HAVOC VULTURE PLAYLIST

Even though I should be finishing up Greater Extremes I figured I’d take a few minutes out to knock up a playlist for black metal horror novella Havoc Vulture, because, why the hell not? Besides, being such a music-heavy piece, revolving around metal fans, a band and whatnot, it stands to reason that it should have a playlist of some description.

Like the playlists I made for other books, the songs contained within are either mentioned (or the bands are), play some part, are appropriate to the material or serve as scene setters.

Unlike the other playlists, I didn’t exactly set them out in any specific order, though for the most part the songs listed run parallel to the story itself. I probably could have crammed in a whole bunch more considering the majority of tracks here are drawn from my favourite music genre, but in the interests of not overwhelming what is just a novella with a playlist more suited to a thousand page novel or some such shit, I’ll keep it trimmed down to twenty, listed below. Feel free to crank these particular tunes while you’re reading the story.

Burzum-Burzum

Freezing Moon-Mayhem

Havoc Vulture-Satyricon

Chased Through the Woods by a Rapist-Waking the Cadaver

Fucked Up and Ready to Die-Darkthrone

Fucking Hostile-Pantera

Tyrants-Immortal

Expendable Youth-Slayer

Beneath the Remains-Sepultura

Into the Cold Voids of Eternity-Naglfar

The Dark Rivers of the Heart-Limbonic Art

The Possession-King Diamond

Unchain My Heart-Gorgoroth

Wolves-Marduk

A Fine Day to Die-Emperor

A Witch is Born-Gehenna

Desecration of the Holy Kingdom-Black Witchery

Atrocity March-Revenge

Stellar Master Elite-Thorns

Out in the Haunted Woods-Ancient

There’s another point of interest regarding this book I’d be curious to know people’s opinions about. If you are reading Havoc Vulture, have already read it, plan to read it etc. etc. I’d like you to report back to me with your side of the YA debate.

As I’ve made mention in a variety of other posts, both here, Facebook and wherever, there are two distinct schools of thought regarding just what in fiction is considered YA (young adult). In this case I’m talking horror, but of course the divide occurs across all genres.

The issue is this. One side considers any work YA if the protagonist(s), chief characters and so forth are themselves young adults. Children, teenagers and so forth. That’s the only basis they use. Not content, not anything, merely the age.

The other side-and this is the side I’m on-considers YA work to fit into that category via the content of the material. Therefore, sex and violence and all those kinds of more adult-oriented materials are perfectly legit to be included, but are not extreme, excessive, explicit, you get the picture.

Havoc Vulture is driven largely by a cast of characters who are all sixteen years of age. There are older individuals, there are appearances by adults, but all of these are either secondary characters or very minor characters. The protagonists are all essentially young adults.

Therefore, by the former school of thought regarding what constitutes YA in fiction, Havoc Vulture would fit squarely in that bracket. However, the content in said book is anything but young adult in terms of the levels of violence, subversive activity, and other elements.

I certainly wouldn’t be driving it towards a young adult audience or marketing it as such, but maybe I should be, if the majority of folks tend to think young adult is anything where the characters themselves are young adults. Granted, there are probably plenty of cautionary messages and things of that nature that could be pulled from the story itself to act as warning to young adults, but trying to push it as a YA horror? Nah, I don’t think so.

Anyway, that’s up to you readers to decide. Check out this playlist, then check out the book itself, have a read and let me know if you consider Havoc Vulture to be in any way, shape or form, a young adult suitable book. If so, well shit, I’m pushing for it to be included in school reading.

Freedom’s Way doesn’t see many heavy metal concerts. Certainly not those of the black metal persuasion.
Which is why sixteen year old Reid Torrance and his friends are overjoyed beyond belief with the news that infamous black metal band, Vulture, are coming to perform in their town.
Reid and friends are diehard black metal fanatics, and everything they know about the notorious genre they learned from Reid’s big brother, Gav.
Unfortunately, Gav won’t be on hand to witness the famed Vulture show. Gav’s in prison, locked up for a string of crimes that will see him behind bars for a long time.
And now it looks like Reid and co. won’t be attending the performance either. Freedom’s Way’s powers-that-be, and morally strict, won’t abide by a corrupt musical presence in their town, and are quick to stamp out this foolish notion, and crush dreams to dust.
However, a group of older black metal fans are privy to other knowledge. The banned concert will be going ahead, regardless, and for a price they’re willing to take Reid and friends along to the unsanctioned musical mayhem, to be held at a secret location far from the prying eyes of town authority figures.
Maybe Reid should have paid more attention to his initial misgivings.
An evening of illicit entertainment is about to become far more than that for this group of metal-loving teenagers. It’s about to spiral into a vortex of unimaginable terror, where histories are laid bare and events few of them dreamed possible are going to unfold in a nightmarish chain.
Careful what you wish for. You might not be prepared for the horror unleashed when you finally get it.

http://smarturl.it/havocvulture

 

2018 WRITING WRAP

2018 WRITING WRAP

This is basically an extended version of a Facebook post I put up earlier, which I figured I’d add here too, with a little more in it.

At the start of the year, some folks might recall me setting myself something of a challenge, which was to try and release either a book a month or the equivalent of that. At that time, aside from writing, editing etc. I wasn’t working full-time, so time was in abundance, albeit never enough to get everything written I want. That’s just a standard state of affairs, regardless of how much time I might appear to have. Always too many ideas, be they for short stories, or novels, or short stories I wish to expand into novels or any number of things. I always work on multiple projects at any given time, and even so, I’m still being bombarded with ideas. Some are good, some are terrible, others tend to grow on me, but if they warrant writing or they need to be written they usually stick around until they get written.

In any case, that challenge did not come to fruition. Barely a month or so after setting that bold, and foolhardy, challenge, I was back working full-time, and time was no longer a commodity I had a lot of. After being out of full-time work for a few years, I must say I got used to the idea of having so much time in which I could get things written, and of course, in that time, I did get plenty written. Which is why, seemingly inundated with what should be enough time to either get new things written, polish up old projects, or compile stories into collections etc. etc. I threw myself under the bus by setting myself a challenge that would have probably only ever been met had circumstances and situations not changed in any way. But, naturally, they did, and after a few years out of full-time work I was right back into it. Consequently, as per usual, I didn’t get everything written I wanted, or planned to. Still, several of my earlier books were written while working another job full-time-Plebs was written in snippets on lunch breaks, sitting in parks and all kinds of things (Stay tuned for a post some time down the track which is going to explore a whole bunch of trivia and things you might not have known about various books, including Plebs and others)-so it’s not impossible to get things done; they just get done a little slower than they otherwise might. So after getting a new book out early in the year, things definitely slowed down throughout coming months. I was still writing, putting books together, working on an assortment of projects, but not with as much time as was afforded to me earlier on.

I did however get some books out there.

Harvester’s Trade, an all new novella revolving around a group of dangerous, violent convicts being transported to an unknown location by bus was my first release, and it came out while I was still swamped with plenty of time to set foolish challenges and work on new material. Then there was Disquiet: An Assemblage of the Unnerving. This one was a collection comprised of several of my lesser known stories and tales which were drawn from niche anthologies or books which didn’t particularly have a wide readership. Some works in here were quite restrained and dare I say, tame by my standards, while others were probably a little more what most folks familiar with my work would be expecting.

Extremes came along next, and this one is pretty much exactly what its name would suggest. This is a collection of some of my most extreme horror tales, again from myriad anthologies. The difference between this and Disquiet is that several of the stories contained within this book were originally published in books that were pretty big, featured some of the biggest names in the game, and hit a much broader audience than the works featured in Disquiet. Nonetheless, Extremes, despite being comprised solely of reprints still remains to this day my biggest, and fastest selling book. Page reads in Kindle Unlimited for this have also been pretty insane and continue to carry on that way. There are a lot of stories in here which were a hell of a lot of fun to write and while they might rank as some of my favourites in that regard, I wouldn’t necessarily say they are all the best of my work. Still, I have my own opinions on why this book in particular is so popular-some I’ve explored in earlier blog posts, some I plan to explore in a future post. Stay tuned for that.

Havoc Vulture followed Extremes, and unlike the two previous books this one was all new, a novella that originally started life as something else, as many of my books end up. The initial plan for this was for it to be a short story in a collection of tales which would all draw their names from some of my favourite black metal songs. The themes or subject matter or what-have-you contained within those stories wouldn’t essentially have anything to do with the song itself-for example, I planned to write one entitled Blizzard Beasts from the Immortal track (and album of the same name) which is pretty self-explanatory. Scary motherfucking beasts in the snow with a bunch of fools trapped in a cabin or some such shit. Instead, Havoc Vulture (which for those who don’t know, is a song from my favourite band Satyricon’s album Rebel Extravaganza) turned into more, a novella to be precise. Based around a bunch of sixteen year old black metal fanatics in a small country town who are first thrilled to discover an infamous band is coming to play a show in their town, and then distraught to find the powers that be in the town have stamped all over the idea of that happening. This one tossed up a conundrum regarding what various sub-genres of fiction and so forth can be construed as. I made mention of the fact that there are two schools of thought on what is considered young adult fiction. One suggests it is the material, topics, subject matter and so forth-things which are targeted directly at a young adult audience which makes a book YA. Another school of thought-and this is where I tend to disagree-is that if the main characters or protagonists of a particular book are teenagers or children or of a young adult age then that in itself makes a work YA. As I mentioned I strongly disagree with that notion for multiple reasons, but it’s something I’ve already covered elsewhere, and have no plans to reiterate it here.

After that I put out From the Vault, which was something entirely different for me, or at least for what most readers would expect from me. This was neither a novel nor a collection of short stories, nor was it by any stretch of the imagination new, at least not to me. This one was a collection of roughly fifty poems which I originally wrote way back in the nineties as song lyrics. These were drawn from a collection of hundreds I wrote way back then, and followed no theme whatsoever aside from the fact that most of them were works which explored darker themes. Essentially, the pieces here signify the very start of me blending horror and heavy metal, something I continue to do regularly (check out Havoc Vulture, Undead Fleshcrave, numerous other works for some prime examples of that). Not all of these poems/songs/what-have-you were horror, in fact many of them were not. However several were, and they serve as some of the earlier forays into horror from me. At this time I’d also written a couple of horror novels, but did little more with them aside from writing them. Anyway, that book acts as a nice little trip down memory lane, and also provides a bit of insight into the history of some of my writing.

What would end up being my final release for the year was More Extremes, which again, is pretty much what its name indicates. More extreme horror tales, following in the footsteps of Extremes, and setting up a series which at this stage is open-ended. It could become just three books, it could span beyond ten. Who knows? For now, it’s just the two of them, though I already have numerous stories and ideas for the next installment, largely because several of the tales I planned to be in More Extremes didn’t end up in there.  I had intended to have eight tales in here, with an even split of reprints and new material, but of course since I was now working on stories amidst full-time work and numerous other activities which cut my writing time down drastically, it was taking longer than I anticipated for the book to come together. As a result I replaced one of the unfinished new stories with a much older piece, in fact a longer story from a book that is now no longer in print in order to get the book out before the year elapsed. Ultimately, with the inclusion of that tale, alongside a couple of others which were remarkably musically themed, More Extremes ended up quite heavy on the horror fused with metal I made reference to before. That was unintentional, but it worked out well given the fact I decided to dedicate the book to a good friend of mine who passed away earlier in the year, who was a massive metal and horror aficionado (also a metal musician with a hand in horror movies. RIP brother Killjoy.So while the end result wasn’t an even split, there are still several all new stories included in More Extremes, and you can rest assured that the next volume will be largely, if not completely, made up of all new stories.

I also put together Triggered, and Punk Vs Metal (with Michael Fish Fisher handling most of the editing for the punk side and the creation of the book’s cover), and wrote a few stories for various other anthologies, but since none of those were specifically just my work, they can’t be counted in the release of my books. Still, despite not hitting the original planned number, and knowing as soon as I was back at work, that I never would, I’m still pretty stoked to get the books out that I did. Now I have something of a head-start on next year, but again, we’ll wait and see how much of what I want to get out actually gets out. Stay tuned for these upcoming projects which will be coming out in no particular order. Murder Academy, The Forgotten, Greater Extremes, Clans (which is an expansion of my story in Punk Vs Metal. It has a few horrific moments, but genre-wise it isn’t intended to be horror at all. It’s actually more urban and is quite a lot like a long-running story I started writing when I was a teenager, and plan to revisit as a series some time down the track-probably sooner rather than later), and several others. Follow-ups to numerous novels as well as a crossover novel combining characters from at least two other works are also in the plans, but as mentioned above…time. We’ll see what happens. Anyway, links to the books that did come out are located just below. Check ’em out, leave ’em a review, good, bad, or ugly, and stay posted for new books coming in 2019.

If you spend your life doing bad things, sometimes bad things are going to come for you. Ten dangerous criminals are just about to find that out.

http://smarturl.it/harvesterstrade

 

Don’t play in the woods after a storm, don’t assume you’re safe inside your comfortable family home, and whatever you do, don’t hold a giant party without inviting the locals.

That fear you’re starting to feel isn’t irrational, it’s real.

Terrible things are going to happen.

http://smarturl.it/disquiet

 

Assembled together for the very first time are several of Jim Goforth’s most extreme horror stories to date, though not merely extreme in terms of content and themes. These tales delve into the great pains taken when souls are confronted with situations that require a severe response, plumbing the depths of depravity, perversion, brutality, horror, and fear.

Horrific events can unfold when people are prepared, or forced, to go to extremes.

http://smarturl.it/extremes

 

Freedom’s Way doesn’t see many heavy metal concerts. Certainly not those of the black metal persuasion.

There’s a good reason why they tried to stop this one.

Vulture are coming, whether they’re welcome or not.

http://smarturl.it/havocvulture

 

 

Words from the past. From the dark. From the vault.

http://smarturl.it/fromthevaultdark

 

 

Sometimes, people are pushed to their absolute limits, made to go to extremes. Sometimes it’s not enough.
Sometimes, they have to go to more extremes.

http://smarturl.it/moreextremes

 

 

 

CARNIVAL OF CHAOS/FESTIVAL OF THE FLESH PLAYLIST

 

CARNIVAL OF CHAOS/FESTIVAL OF THE FLESH PLAYLIST

The last time I posted here I made mention of the fact that I had a playlist all sorted for Carnival of Chaos and Festival of the Flesh. Therefore, in the interests of shining a bit of light on those particular books, here is aforementioned playlist. Well, after a bit of standard rambling.

For whatever reason, these books (which are of course the same story spread over two volumes) have slipped a little under the radar in comparison to several of my other books. I suspect it might have a bit to do with the fact they first emerged as part of the Project 26 thing where 26 books came out with each one representing a letter of the alphabet. These included novels, anthologies, collections, novellas etc. and while this project was an ambitious one, it also turned out to be a little confusing for people. Consequently, Carnival and Festival, which were never originally intended for that project, but as standalone novel(s) on their own, I offered up because the alliteration in the titles went well with the whole alphabet notion. Nonetheless, various circumstances have several of the books from P26 being unpublished or released or what-have-you, so Carnival and Festival are now separate from that, so why not push them a little, because, why the hell not?

Little known fact. I started writing the stories that would become these books back around the same time I started writing Plebs. Neither they nor Plebs were originally written with titles, and they were all intended to be just short stories, novellas at most. As it turned out, Plebs became a six hundred page monster, and Carnival/Festival even longer, so much so that it needed to be split into two separate entities-the Carnival, of course, and the Festival. Just on the off chance folks hadn’t yet cottoned on (the whole numbering thing of Project 26 muddied the waters a little and had a few people scratching their heads over which to read first) to the fact that these books need to be read in order for the story to make any sense, Carnival comes first, followed by Festival which is the culmination of the massive, sprawling story.

Anyway, as most would know by now, Plebs gained the upper hand in getting written first, and ultimately published a long time before Carnival/Festival were either finished or published. Nonetheless, those stories were eventually completed, quite some time after the initial concept occurred. Years down the track in fact, which was also the case with Plebs, with a re-reading of what I had written already re-igniting the desire to complete the tale. These are characters that I love as much as those in the Plebs series, and ones that have been around just as long. And if you thought Plebs was brutal, bloody, violent and so forth, but haven’t yet encountered Carnival/Festival, rest assured both of these books tend to make Plebs look a little tame. Definitely not works for the faint-hearted at all, so if you dig the thought of getting yourself well and truly blood-drenched and bathed in depravity, dive in.

But, enough of that, here are those playlists, one for Carnival of Chaos and one for Festival of the Flesh.

As is to be expected, there are a lot of metal tracks here, some brutal, uncompromising extreme metal to suit various components of the stories and some of the pretty heinous subject matter, but not exclusively. Compared to some of the other playlists I’ve whacked up here, these ones are pretty eclectic, spanning from the usual platter of heavy metal in numerous sub-genres to rap, rock, sixties tunes, even some dance going on here. And yeah, you’ll probably notice one or two tracks by Insane Clown Posse in here, and be all, what the fuck? Well, those fuckers have made a fortune writing tracks and albums about Carnivals and whatnot, and I genuinely don’t mind some of their songs, so in keeping with the themes of the books, they slot in here juxtaposed nicely against some of the other fare on offer.

Anyway, enough gibberish. Get in and check it all out, and if you haven’t yet Carnival of Chaos and Festival of the Flesh, go and rectify that situation right now. And if you have, perhaps re-reading them with the enhanced experience of these playlists cranking in accompaniment, then that would be a good idea too.

 

CARNIVAL OF CHAOS

Black Seeds of Vengeance-Nile

The Discipline of Revenge-Cannibal Corpse

Carnival of Lies-Obsession

Loyalty-American Head Charge

Knife Party-Deftones

Twist of Cain-Danzig

Tonight in Flames-Cradle of Filth

Stuck in the Middle With You-Stealer’s Wheel

Planet Caravan-Black Sabbath

Money-Pink Floyd

Dead Bodies Everywhere-Korn

Dog’s Out-DMX

Sledgehammer-Peter Gabriel

Bulls on Parade-Rage Against the Machine

Go With the Flow-Queens of the Stone Age

The Lonely Bull-Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

The Hunt-Sepultura

Dreamhouse-Deafheaven

In Your Nightmares- KidCrusher

The Wild Hunt-Watain

Carnival-Project Pitchfork

Southern Comfort-X-Method

Tequila-The Champs

Jump in the Fire-Metallica

Sweet Leaf-Black Sabbath

Halls of Illusions-Insane Clown Posse

Blood Red-Slayer

Loco-Coal Chamber

Up All Night-Slaughter

Take Me Away-Insane Clown Posse

Hunting Humans-The Misfits

Blessed by Gore-Avulsed

Cannibal Crave-Broken Hope

Just One Fix-Ministry

Fuel For Hatred-Satyricon

Blades of Steel-Imperious Rex

Mirror, Mirror-Candlemass

Rain-The Cult

Let’s Fuck-Dope

Carnival of Rust-Shining

Freakshow-Skillet

Hounds At Ya Back-Destroyer 666

Part one of an ultra-violent, splatterpunk, visceral expedition into a world of revenge, pain, perversion and bloody death. Come along and snare a ticket to this carnival, but proceed with caution. Survival is not guaranteed.

http://smarturl.it/carnivalofchaos

 

FESTIVAL OF THE FLESH

Total War-War

The Fight Song-Marilyn Manson

Hammer Smashed Face-Cannibal Corpse

Strength Beyond Strength-Pantera

Return to Serenity-Testament

Scratch My Back-Roxx Gang

Sex Action-L.A. Guns

Closer-Nine Inch Nails

Kings of the Carnival Creation-Dimmu Borgir

Murderer’s Row-Power Trip

Creepshow-Skid Row

Festival of the Flesh-Blessedbethyname

Carnival is Forever-Decapitated

Random Acts of Senseless Violence-Anthrax

This Shit Will Fuck You Up-Combichrist

Death Machine-Myrkskog

Rid You of Your Flesh-LIK

Eaten-Bloodbath

Feast of Flesh-Exmortus

Everyone Leaves-Mortiis

The Flesh and the Power it Holds-Death

Mercy, Severity-Mudvayne

Fear of the Dark-Iron Maiden

Violent Demise-Body Count

Hung on a Hook-Alice in Chains

Code of the Slashers-Cannibal Corpse

Covered in Blood-Insan0

Maze of Torment-Morbid Angel

Divine Art of Torture-Necrophagia

How You Gonna Reason with a Pyscho?-Insane Poetry

Sixpounder-Children of Bodom

Lords of Depravity-Sodom

The Perverted Beast-Darkane

Dead and Dripping-Cryptopsy

Justifiable Homicide-Dying Fetus

Heroines-Diablo Swing Orchestra

Carnival of Souls-Savage Messiah

Only One-Slipknot

Everyone I love is Dead-Type O Negative

Crashing Down-Trail of Tears

Hidden within a seemingly innocuous horror-themed carnival exists something far more disturbing. Where those with dollars and depraved desires find everything they seek catered for.

Peel away the bright, colourful facade of the carnival and you’ll find the hideous heart that is the Festival of Flesh.

http://smarturl.it/festivaloftheflesh