Lost in Cat Brain Land #7 on ‘favorite books of 2012′

Michael Kazepis/Carey announced his favorite reads of 2012. Lost in Cat Brain Land came in at #7, just behind John Barth’s Lost in the Funhouse, Sam Pink’s Frowns Need Friends Too, and Roberto Bolaño’s Antwerp. It’s a great all-around list, with several books that I consider essential reading, the type of books that eat you alive and compel you to tattoo SATAN across your back. Go read everything on the list. Kazepis has good taste.

Cat Brain Land saves lives

“Mr. Pierce,

I feel compelled to let you in on something you inadvertently caused to happen today.

First, I woke up with an overwhelming desire to re-read your short story, “Cat Brain Land.”

I have recently gone through a rough break up that was unhappily punctuated by the death of my pet rat, Michael Jackson (he was black and white).

When I read the line in your story: “I was standing in the doorway of a breakdown with a dead cat and soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend pushing at my back” I let out a rather loud guffaw, and screamed “Holy Fucking SHIT!” very loudly, which led to my upstairs neighbor pounding on the floor, which led to me dropping the book on my shoes, which I noticed were both untied.

So, thank you. Your writing saved my life today, as tripping on shoelaces can easily lead to my being impaled grotesquely upon something, like a stray railroad spike or fencepost.”

-an email received from Dustin Reade

New Story in Dark Discoveries

I have a story in the latest issue of Dark Discoveries. It’s a surreal nunsploitation piece titled “Sisters of the Severed Tongue.” Dark Discoveries is one of my favorite horror magazines and I’m really happy to be appearing in it. The issue also contains fiction by Lisa Morton, interviews with Joe R. Lansdale and Ellen Datlow, and more.

Now Available: The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade

I spent nearly two years tracking down the very best bizarro fiction out there. The book is finally out, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

A feeling has been tearing up the underground of the fiction world. It’s a nightmare reflection of the society you inhabit, a surreal explosion of pop, punk, and the post-apocalypse. Over the last decade, Bizarro Fiction has changed the definition of avant garde, it’s abolished the traditional prose of yesterday and established a new precedent for awesome. Collected in this anthology is some of the best weird fiction from the past decade. Award-winning writers, cult prodigies and burgeoning talents all collected together in one place. This is what you’ve done with the last ten years of your life.

With stories by:

D. Harlan Wilson, Alissa Nutting, Joe R. Lansdale, Carlton Mellick III, Kevin L. Donihe, Blake Butler, Ryan Boudinot, Vincent Sakowski, Cody Goodfellow, Amelia Gray, Robert Devereaux, Mykle Hansen, Athena Villaverde, Matthew Revert, Garrett Cook, Roy Kesey, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Aimee Bender, Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia, Jeremy C. Shipp, Andersen Prunty, Jedediah Berry, Andrea Kneeland, Kurt Dinan, David Agranoff, Ben Loory, Kris Saknussemm, Stephen Graham Jones, Bentley Little, David W. Barbee, and Tom Piccirilli.

Published by Eraserhead Press.

Click here to order The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade.

Die You Doughnut Bastards and how you can give me a mohawk

My eighth book, Die You Doughnut Bastards, is now available. It’s a collection of stories, poems, and illustrations. I started writing it during a marathon in Voodoo Doughnut Too in 2009. Then they kicked me out and I had to walk the five miles home in the cold and dark. Now when I see doughnuts, I want to kill them.

If DYDB receives 50 reviews by Thanksgiving, I’m getting a mohawk, and YOU get to vote on the color. You can review it on Amazon, your blog, or for any print publication or website. One review gets you one vote. Gold, pink, green, black, and everything in between. All colors are fair game. Help me make this very important life decision. Help yourself by reading more sad stories.

Here’s the back cover description:

The bacon storm is rolling in. We hear the grease and sugar beat against the roof and windows. The doughnut people are attacking. We press close together, forgetting for a moment that we hate each other.

In Die You Doughnut Bastards, amputees, lonely young people, and talking animals struggle for survival against the freakish whims of nature. A typewriter made of fetuses is the source of woe for an expecting couple. A girl with a glass jaw hides an otherworldly secret. A demonic loner goes to a birthday party in Hell. You’ll encounter a killer in a marsupial mask, a prison for anorexics, haunted pancakes, and a songwriter with a cult following.

Surreal prose poems give way to personal accounts of alienation and modern love. Vegetarian narwhals are sold at the supermarket. And in a city that might be your own, zombie doughnuts are rising up. Kill yourself before they kill you. Or just kill yourself.

Featuring original illustrations in the style of Daniel Johnston, Die You Doughnut Bastards is the latest way to drown, brought to you by Wonderland Book Award-winning author Cameron Pierce.

Coming in October: Die You Doughnut Bastards

Gargoyle Girls reviewed in Rue Morgue, Cthulhu reviewed at Innsmouth Free Press

Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island was reviewed in the latest issue of Rue Morgue, which has been my favorite horror publication for many years. Here’s what they said about it: “If you were to take everything horror writers typically shy away from and mush it into one streamlined novel, you might get something like splatterpunk adventure tale Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island. Expect to see gruesome shark attacks, pirate hijackings and plenty of multi-vaginal tentacle monsters during your travels, while action, sex, and laughs compete for page space. Seriously.”

A huge thanks to Jessa Sobczuk for that review.

Also, Nathaniel Katz wrote an in-depth review of Cthulhu Comes to the Vampire Kingdom for Innsmouth Free Press. You can read that here.

In the past few weeks, I’ve had a new story published (“Crayfish House” at Small Doggies Magazine) and five poems were published by New Wave Vomit.