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“The Man in the Watch Still Visits Me at Night”

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Cover by Matthew Revert

Out September 22, 2006 from CLASH Books

House of Leaves meets David Lynch in a surreal horror novel exploring generational trauma and the monsters it breeds, from Joshua Chaplinsky, cult author of Letters to the Purple Satin Killer.

The lives of three unlikely women unfold to reveal a shared history of neglect and abuse. At the center looms the Vogel House, a facade of rotten wood and sagging eaves that plays host to a parasitic dream—the malevolent entity known as The Man in the Watch.

After spending the night in an abandoned house, Jenna Thomas returns home haunted by someone else’s past. She revisits the scene in the hopes of exorcising her dreams, only to uncover something far worse. Mrs. Vogel receives an unexpected letter from her estranged daughter. It fills the old woman with hope for the future, even though her daughter is long since dead. Meanwhile, a young woman contends with the legacy of her father while simultaneously fighting for the future of her unborn child.

The Man in the Watch Still Visits Me at Night thrusts readers into a nightmarish dead zone of overlapping realities, presided over by a malignant force that manipulates memory and delights in human suffering.

Check out this first look over at FANGORIA.COM, including an exclusive excerpt from the novel.

PRE-ORDER NOW!

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New Novel Announcement: “The Man in the Watch Still Visits Me at Night”

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The Man in the Watch Still Visits Me at Night coming October 2026 from CLASH Books.

From the author of Letters to the Purple Satin Killer comes a surreal examination of generational trauma as filtered through the lens of the modern haunted house novel.

‘Letters to the Purple Satin Killer’ is out now!

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I’ll be compiling as much press as I can here.

Get the Limited Edition signed Hardcover from THUNDERSTORM BOOKS

PODCASTS
—The ARC Party w/ Robb Olson
—Paper Cuts Live Ep. 78
—B.O. Boys Weekend Preview 9/11/2024
—The Scares That Shaped Us Ep. 27: Faces of Death
—Ruminations of Redrum
—Anna Rose Reads
—Textual Healing Season 3 Ep. 39
—Legends of Tabletop Ep. 205

INTERVIEWS
—Fangoria w/ Meredith Borders
—Bobby Miller Time
—The Madhouse Review w/ Stephanie M. Wytovich
—Pages Apart (video)
—Heather’s Bookshelf
—Gemini Sessions w/ James Jacob Hatfield

REVIEWS
—FanFiAddict
—The Horror Maven
—Publisher’s Weekly
—Heavy Feather Review
—The Library Ladies
—Stranger Sights
—The Next Best Book Blog
—Reader Views Book Review Blog
—Legends of the Tabletop
—Ghostvillehero
—Fiendfully Reading
—Volume 1 Brooklyn
—Daily Grindhouse
—Plaugelands Media (video review)
—CriminOlly (video review)
—What Lies Beneath
—Dead End Follies

GUEST POSTS
—A Brief History of the Epistolary Novel at Writers Digest
—Why the Epistolary Format Works So Well in Crime Fiction at Crime Reads
—10 Books that Influenced Letters to the Purple Satin Killer at Ginger Nuts of Horror
—My Top 5 Movies About Serial Killers (that influenced LTTPSK) at The Next Best Book Blog
—The Page 69 Test at The Next Best Book Blog
—Letters to the Purple Satin Killer Spotify Playlist
—Excerpt: A Letter from Judith Williker at Read By Dusk
—Off the Record w/ Joshua Chaplinsky: the author reads an excerpt from LTTPSK

“Playing Doctor”

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big book of blasphemy

Out now, from Necro Publishing: The Big Book of Blasphemy, featuring my story “Playing Doctor.” Super proud to be in this monster TOC. #grateful #blessed

Allie pinched the slide between her fingers and unzipped the body bag. The hook and hollow of interlocking teeth parted to reveal a familiar face, one as stoic as her own. Its cloudy blue eyes stared unseeing from within the plastic shroud. Her father had warned her, but she’d insisted on preparing the body all the same. “By myself,” she told him. He didn’t like it, but knew better than to argue…

I also just learned that an Italian version of The Big Book of Blasphemy will be published by Independent Legions in November 2020. That’s a spicy meat-a-ball!!!

promowebblasphemy[2]

Whispers in the Ear of A Dreaming Ape -Now Available!

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Joshua+Front+CoverCover by Matthew Revert

My debut short story collection, OUT NOW from CLASH Books. Thirteen weird pieces of literary genre fiction. Singularities, ciphers, and reappearing limbs. Alien messiahs and murderous medieval hydrocephalics. A dark collection that twists dreams into nightmares in an attempt to find a whisper of truth.

Order Directly from CLASH BOOKS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. LETTERS TO THE PURPLE SATIN KILLER
  2. TWICE AMPUTATED FOOT
  3. THE BLACK HOLE
  4. HOMUNCULOID
  5. MAISON D’OEUFS
  6. MUMMER’S PARADE
  7. THE HAND OF GOD
  8. SUPREME MATHEMATICS: A CIPHER
  9. WHISPERS IN THE EAR OF A DREAMING APE
  10. THE WHOLE INFERNAL MACHINE
  11. AFT LAVATORY OCCUPIED
  12. THE GOSPEL OF X
  13. NOBODY RIDES FOR FREE

“This is dark stuff, but fun, without any hipster wink of irony or cynicism. Writing stories that are simultaneously grim and good-hearted is a fucking tough line to straddle, and writing them well… let’s just say I don’t see that often. Chaplinsky walks a barbed-wire tightrope here. In short, good shit.”

—Craig Clevenger, author of The Contortionist’s Handbook

“In Whispers in the Ear of a Dreaming Ape, Joshua Chaplinsky takes readers on a wild ride through a landscape of darkness and absurdity. You may think yourself safe, but you’ll learn soon enough—no one rides for free.”  

—Kevin Kolsch, writer/director of Starry Eyes, Pet Sematary

“If you’re sick of tepid short stories that taste like watered down milk, Whispers in the Ear of a Dreaming Ape is the collection of multi-colored, bite-sized brain pan bullets that might just be the cure. Joshua Chaplinsky has an imagination both of depth and breadth, and no two stories are alike. You can practically hear the lively, fascinating, hallucinatory click of his brain throughout the book. An enjoyable read for all of us dreaming apes.”

—Autumn Christian, author of Girl Like a Bomb

“The weird tales of Joshua Chaplinsky are full of magic and surprises. Whispers In the Ear of a Dreaming Ape is one of the most original short story collections of the year. A must-read if you like your fiction smart and strange.” 

—Cameron Pierce, author of Ass Goblins of Auschwitz, Our Love Will Go the Way of the Salmon

“Spend some time in Chaplinsky’s weird and wild stories and you may want to bathe afterward, but you will have been relentlessly entertained.” 

—Kelly Thompson, Eisner nominated comics writer – Deadpool, Captain Marvel, X-men

“Ceaselessly inventive, Chaplinsky doesn’t so much work within various genres as he does pull them apart like taffy, crafting something new and previously unseen.”

—Keith Rosson, author of Smoke City, The Mercy of the Tide

REVIEWS

INTERVIEWS

GUEST POSTS

COMPANION SOUNDTRACK PLAYLIST

“Cenobio Pizzeria”

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Screen Shot 2019-08-27 at 11.56.56 AM

This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever been a part of as a writer.

TALES FROM THE CRUST: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PIZZA HORROR is out now from the lunatics at Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. It includes my pizza-menu-as-story “Cenobio Pizzeria.”

You think this is a joke? Brian Evenson has a story in this thing. So does Rob “author of The Warehouse, soon to be a major motion picture from Ron Howard” Hart. There’s even a sick-ass limited edition hardcover, that comes in its own pizza box.

10" x 10" x 1 3/4" Kraft Corrugated Pizza Box - 50/Case

So what the hell are you waiting for?

Story Collection: Whispers in the Ear of a Dreaming Ape

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whispers_dreaming_ape
Super excited to announce my debut story collection, Whispers in the Ear of a Dreaming Ape, will be published by CLASH Books this Clashtober!

Cover reveal, ToC, & kind words from people you might trust coming soon. PDFs available for review. Please share!

“Sangomas”

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I Transgress Salo Press

OUT NOW from Salo Press— I Transgress, an anthology of transgressive fiction edited by Chris Kelso. It includes my story “Sangomas”, which takes place in South Africa and is about a very different kind of heist.

Check out this insane TOC:

Laura Lee Bahr, Tom Bradley, Joshua Chaplinsky, Garrett Cook, Dennis Cooper, Samuel R. Delany, Andrew Gallix, C.V. Hunt, James Joyce, Violet LeVoit, Edward Lee, Nick Mamatas, Thomas Moore, Scott Philips, The Residents, Matthew Revert, R.G. Robertson, Michael Salerno, Lauren Sapala, Gary J. Shipley, Iain Sinclair, John Skipp

 

“Aft Lavatory Occupied”

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the_wyrd_issue_2

I’ve got a new story in The Wyrd #2. Editor Marcel Harper describes it as, “a mind and time-bending story of an altogether different kind of mile-high club.” You can check out Aft Lavatory Occupied here.

This story started with the title. I came up with it—you guessed it—on a plane. But I had no idea what the story would be about.

A while after that I came across a Stephen King anecdote. I think it was in Dans Macabre or On Writing, but don’t hold me to that. It was about this story idea he had. About a bathroom (I remember it being on a plane or in an airport) that people kept going into and never coming out of. Eventually they sent in law enforcement, then the army, but no one ever came out. Was it a portal to another dimension? He never wrote it because he had no idea how it ended.

Or something like that.

Either way, that idea inspired this story.