James Newman is a talented writer of horror and suspense (Midnight Rain, The Wicked, Ugly as Sin), and last week, while he was having a picnic with his family, the world literally fell in on him.
According to a post on horror writer Brian Keene’s blog, he was sitting at a picnic table with his family when, as his wife Glenda reports, “we heard wood cracking and looked up to find a massive limb falling. I knew Jamie and Jake were out of the way because they were on the other side of the table but the limb must have hit something and turned and hit James which knocked him to the ground. He immediately started screaming with arm and back pain.”
The result: four fractured vertebrae (thankfully no paralysis), and a left arm fractured in four places that will need surgical repair in the next couple of days. He’s been fitted with back grace, and his arm is oing to require pates, screws, and re-breaking the ulna. And now he has to struggle with the pain, pain medications, and the awful side effects of pain medication, some of which are as nightmarish as the pain itself.
We should do something to help – his fellow writers, sure, but also the fans of this unique subgenre who probably understand more about tragedy and pain that your normal run-of-the-mill reader (that’s why we like this stuff to begin with). Organizing fund-raisers takes time; benefit anthologies even longer. So probably the best way you can help at the moment – putting a little cash in his account and spreading the word about his work, for long-term benefit – is to buy one more more of his books.
We’re going to personally recommend Animosity, his newest, for a couple-three reasons. For one, it’s damn good. Go here to read a sample from Animosty on Amazon, and you’ll get just a taste. For another, there’s also a certain irony buried in this particular book, in that the ‘hero’ of Animosity is a horror writer himself, who has tragedy in his own life. (Though he’s a tad more, um, emphatic in his reaction than James might be.) And thirdly – and this is emphatically not just a pitch for the publisher – buying the Kindle or print edition of Animosity will get the money to James faster, because Permuted Press pays out royalties more quickly and more frequently than most companies of its kind.
Look, buy any of his stuff – or all of it. And spread the word that not only is he a talented storyteller, he’s also in – again, quite literally – a world of hurt, and it’s time for us to step up.
After all, we should try to keep the horror we all enjoy stuffed inside the book and movies we love, and not let it leak out into the real world. If we can help it.
