Released! Sideshow P.I.: The Devil's Garden

The first time I heard of Nathaniel Lambert was when he submitted a short story to Necrotic Tissue Magazine. In his cover letter he mentioned that the story he was sending me had been rejected a few times because of too much bull fucking.

I was intrigued. The story was about a demonic bull that came up from the depths of hell, so within the context of the story, it seemed appropriate. If anything, there didn’t seem to be enough. I conditionally accepted it with the understanding that he would add more bull fucking to the story.

In those days, I met many other writers and editors on different boards like Graveside Tales and Choate Road. I spent way too much time on those boards when I should have been writing, but I’m happy to say I no longer do it. Now I waste my time on FB. But I digress. I loved Nate’s writing and told him so. Later he sent a 100-Word story to NT, which I also accepted and he eventually talked me into doing NT’s first Anthology called Malpractice.

Around that time, he also asked if I’d beta read a novel he’d written with Kevin Sweeney. I didn’t have the time, but I said hell yes. I’d just finished my own first novel Feast and I was feeling real good about it. At least until I read Sideshow P.I.: The Devil’s Garden. I thought my book was “edgy”. I still think it is a solid short novel and well worth the time to read it, but while it is good, it is actually quite traditional. It was my version of the type of stories written in the 80’s and 90’s by King and McCammon. Sideshow P.I. was in a completely different category. It was well written and smooth with a strong voice and vibrant characters. But it was a dark, rich creation in a city that I loved reading about and was glad didn’t really exits on our Earth. In short, it made my book look like it was filmed in black and white, while Sideshow was in Technicolor.

Eddy “Wolf Boy” Gnash is a great character that seems normal in comparison to his surroundings, as normal as a man can be that is covered in fur and once performed in and later ran a Freak Show can be.  He and his former band of freaks fit right in at the city of New Ramoth. He is in a rut and decides to become a private investigator. It’s just what the city needs, assuming he can survive long enough to solve the mysteries that run in the streets thicker than industrial waste.

The Devil’s Garden is book one of the Sideshow P.I. trilogy, and Stygian Publications has signed a contract with Nate and Kevin for all three. The Devil’s Garden, originally published by Graveside Tales, has just been rereleased on Amazon, here for the print and here for the Kindle version. Book two, All Fall Down, will be released early in 2015. I’ve also made a deal with a very talented artist George C. Cotronis to do covers for all three novels.

If you like books that don’t fit neatly into an industry defined genre, then do yourself a favor and read these books. Stygian Publications isn’t going to crank out a huge volume. I am focused on doing a few books per year that I truly believe in, so keep an eye out for further announcements.