The Horror Writers Association released their 2022 Bram Stoker Awards ® Preliminary Ballot, and Marge Simon and I are pleased to announce that Sifting the Ashes (released by Crystal Lake Publishing) made the list for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection. This does not mean the book is nominated, but it is still an honor to be considered. We put everything we had into this book.
Over a hundred individual and collaborative poems explore what it takes to survive after all is suddenly taken. Combined life experiences of love, loss, and personal tragedy sift what’s salvageable from the aftermath of fire, searching through the layers of ash for lessons about death, cremation, and the various stages of grief. What might be found in the remains after all is lost?
Horror Writers Association voting members may request a free PDF by emailing written@nettirw.com.
To celebrate the Shirley Jackson Award nomination for A Rose / Arose from Psychotropic Dragon, Written Backwards is offering a sampling of writing by Michael Bailey for free from October 19th thru the 23rd. All we ask is to leave a review on Amazon.com and/or Goodreads. Click the covers below. Have you read these collections already? We’d love a review!
PSYCHOTROPIC DRAGON is the third composite novel (technically a fiction collection) by Michael Bailey. Part short novel, part novella, part novelette, with a few short stories and fables in between, Psychotropic Dragon is a mind-bending composite narrative about Julie Stipes and her experience with the street drug Drakein-5. The psychotropic eye drops blur reality, sending her through a horrific journey of self-discovery and recovery. Each act in this ensemble is further brought to life with illustrations by Daniele Serra, Glenn Chadbourne, L.A. Spooner, and Ty Scheuerman.
THE IMPOSSIBLE WEIGHT OF LIFE, an autobiographical collection of speculative fiction and poetry by Michael Bailey. contains Bram Stoker Award-nominated short stories such as “I Will Be the Reflection Until the End” and “Time Is a Face on the Water,” but also never-before-published mind-benders created during his “highly-medicated” state of recovery, including a story about memory loss called “Fragments of Br_an,” (composed on a typewriter that no longer exists, now ash), “Emergence of the Colorless,” a statement about the beginning of the end of prejudice, and the far future “Oll Korrect,” in which artificial intelligence is used to explore humankind. As for poetry, there are favorites such as “Loosed Earth” and “Shades of Red,” but many new poems to help with balance, including “Hurt People Hurt People,” “Night Rainbows,” and “Paper Earth.”
OVERSIGHT, a themed collection of two novelettes and a short story by Michael Bailey. Includes “Darkroom” and “SAD Face” (novelettes), and “Fade to Black” (short story).
Now through August 26th, Psychotropic Dragon by Michael Bailey is free to read on Kindle. All that’s asked is to leave a review when finished.
“Addictive, scary, and at times, mind-blowing.” – Jack Ketchum
“A staggering achievement.” – Gary A. Braunbeck
PSYCHOTROPIC DRAGON is the third composite novel (technically a fiction collection) by Michael Bailey. Part short novel, part novella, part novelette, with a few short stories and fables in between, Psychotropic Dragon is a mind-bending composite narrative about Julie Stipes and her experience with the street drug Drakein-5. The psychotropic eye drops blur reality, sending her through a horrific journey of self-discovery and recovery. Each act in this ensemble is further brought to life with illustrations by Daniele Serra, Glenn Chadbourne, L.A. Spooner, and Ty Scheuerman.
Now though December 27th, Psychotropic Dragon by Michael Bailey is on sale for Kindle: $1.99 in the US, and £1.99 in the UK.
PSYCHOTROPIC DRAGON is the third composite novel (technically a fiction collection) by Michael Bailey. Part short novel, part novella, part novelette, with a few short stories and fables in between, Psychotropic Dragon is a mind-bending composite narrative about Julie Stipes and her experience with the street drug Drakein-5. The psychotropic eye drops blur reality, sending her through a horrific journey of self-discovery and recovery. Each act in this ensemble is further brought to life with illustrations by Daniele Serra, Glenn Chadbourne, L.A. Spooner, and Ty Scheuerman.
Surprise book launch! 15 years in the making, Psychotropic Dragon is finally going to print.
Available September 28thin hardcover, trade paperback, and eBook.
Part short novel, part novella, part novelette, with a few short stories and fables in between, Psychotropic Dragon is a mind-bending composite narrative about Julie Stipes and her experience with the street drug Drakein-5. The psychotropic eye drops blur reality, sending her through a horrific journey of self-discovery and recovery. Each act in this ensemble is further brought to life with illustrations by Daniele Serra, Glenn Chadbourne, L.A. Spooner & Ty Scheuerman.
The book is dedicated to John Skipp for helping first spark this monster to life, and to Josh Malerman for the inspiration to finish it.
Some praise:
“Like the drug he’s invented, Michael Bailey’s Psychotropic Dragon is addictive, scary, and at times, mind-blowing. But it’s the human element that keeps you turning the pages, the wounds to the psyche which we recognize immediately. The human element … and a fierce narrative style.” – Jack Ketchum (miss you, my friend, and sorry this took too long)“
After the publication of Palindrome Hannah, I did not think it possible that Michael Bailey could ever top that mind-bender of a novel. I was wrong. Psychotropic Dragon, from its perception-altering structure to its gut-wrenching and deeply moving and frightening narrative, makes recent cross-genres look like they were written by a three-year-old. Did I say ‘cross genre’? My bad. This phantasmagorical show-stopper of a book defies categorization. It is, in the truest sense of the word, unique, something all too rare in publishing today. Beautifully written, stunningly illustrated, and guaranteed to blow your mind (not to mention scare the bejeezus out of you). A staggering achievement.” – Gary A. Braunbeck“
If you try to hold on too tightly to the narrative, you might get hurt. My advice is to let it sweep you up. And to read it twice, or more. Psychotropic Dragon is a modern classic you will want to return to again and again.” – Chris Larsen
My most recent collection, The Impossible Weight of Life, is on sale for less than a buck on @AmazonKindle in the US and UK. Snag it here: https://amzn.to/2XIuQBA (US), or here: https://amzn.to/2XGiR7F (UK). This is me, flipped upside-down, dissected, and put on display.
An autobiographical collection of speculative fiction and poetry by Michael Bailey. Contains Bram Stoker Award-nominated short stories such as “I Will Be the Reflection Until the End” and “Time Is a Face on the Water,” but also never-before-published mind-benders created during his “highly-medicated” state of recovery, including a story about memory loss called “Fragments of Br_an,” (composed on a typewriter that no longer exists, now ash), “Emergence of the Colorless,” a statement about the beginning of the end of prejudice, and the far future “Oll Korrect,” in which artificial intelligence is used to explore humankind. As for poetry, there are favorites such as “Loosed Earth” and “Shades of Red,” but many new poems to help with balance, including “Hurt People Hurt People,” “Night Rainbows,” and “Paper Earth.”
Midnight Dec. 24th through midnight Dec. 28th, the following are available as free downloads for Amazon Kindle. This is a sampling of work by Michael Bailey: short fiction & poetry (including illustrations by Daniele Serra), a composite novel, and themed long fiction. Fill up your Kindle. They’re free!
Trade paperback and hardcover editions are also available.
INKBLOTS AND BLOOD SPOTS, a painfully beautiful collection of short stories and poetry by Michael Bailey that reaches deep into the imagination, breaking hearts and boundaries along the way. Features an introduction by Douglas E. Winter, and illustrations and cover artwork by Daniele Serra;. This book was originally published by Villipede Publications. This second edition is now published by Written Backwards.
PHOENIX ROSE, a composite novel. Michael Bailey returns to the strange town of Brenden, Washington to expand the events of Palindrome Hannah. A family is torn apart after a horse foaling goes terribly wrong; a sickly man recounts getting mauled by his neighbor’s dog; an undead priest is reborn into the world a hundred-fifty years after his untimely death; two brothers run for their lives through a dead field of wheat. Holding all of this together is a young boy named Todd, whose survival pivots on the balance of life and death, and a deranged mental patient with a burnt rose tattoo, whose reality is paradoxical. Cover artwork by Michael Ian Bateson.
OVERSIGHT, a themed collection of two novelettes and a short story by Michael Bailey. Includes “Darkroom” and “SAD Face” (novelettes), and “Fade to Black” (short story).
Starting midnight on Friday the 13th (November 13, 2020) through midnight the 20th, The Impossible Weight of Life eBook is on sale at Amazon for only $1.99 in the US, and £1.99 in the UK. Also available in hardcover and trade paperback.
This time around, after an imbalanced world temporarily destroyed his vestibular system and flipped life upside-down (thanks to an extended bout of a strange condition called Bilateral Loss of Labyrinthine Function), literally burned to the ground during California wildfires, then became threatened after rising from the ashes by acts of school violence, a flood, further fire evacuations, prolonged power outages, multiple uprootings, social injustice, political unrest, and finally a global pandemic, he decided it’s time to bend the boundaries of the written word once more, in case, you know, the world rolls itself off the giant scale that balances life and death to end things once and for all.
This collection contains Bram Stoker Award-nominated short stories such as “I Will Be the Reflection Until the End” and “Time Is a Face on the Water,” but also never-before-published mind-benders created during his “highly-medicated” state of recovery, including a story about memory loss called “Fragments of Br_an,” (composed on a typewriter that no longer exists, now ash), “Emergence of the Colorless,” a statement about the beginning of the end of prejudice, and the far future “Oll Korrect,” in which artificial intelligence is used to explore humankind. As for poetry, there are favorites such as “Loosed Earth” and “Shades of Red,” but many new poems to help with balance, including “Hurt People Hurt People,” “Night Rainbows,” and “Paper Earth.”
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