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

New Poem in Pop Serial #3

I have a new poem in Pop Serial #3. It’s called “Ant Fat.” You can read it online here. A print edition of PS3 is also forthcoming.

Also, Matthew Vaughn reviewed Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island.

Book of the Week: Alien vs. Predator by Michael Robbins

Do you remember that movie Warriors of Virtue? It was about five anthropomorphic kangaroos battling against the forces of evil, but with some vague Asian mysticism thrown in. At least that’s what I remember.

Alien vs. Predator is one of the most exciting books of poetry I’ve encountered in a long time. Unless you are a] dead, or b] a virtuous marsupial representing one of the five elements, stop what you’re doing and go read AVP now. This book is hot.

Full review forthcoming. In the meantime, read the title poem over at The New Yorker.

Coming Soon: Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island

A bizarro twist on island horror stories such as Dagon, Zombi 2, and Brian Keene’s Castaways.

Four college seniors venture out into open waters for the tropical party weekend of a lifetime. Instead of a teenage sex fantasy, they find themselves in a nightmare of pirates, sharks, and sex-crazed monsters.

Oscar shouldn’t have stolen his stepdad’s boat, but he wanted to impress Colette, who he has been pining after since their freshman year. This vacation was the perfect time to let the romantic sparks fly. With his best friend Allen (and Colette’s friend, Jane, the bitch) tagging along, Oscar saw no way this trip could possibly suck.

His hopes die when they are hijacked by pirates. Then their boat sinks and someone gets eaten by a shark. Finally, stranded on a tropical island with an endless supply of rum, Oscar believes their epic weekend can finally begin. But the island is populated by a savage race of beautiful women. When night falls, these women transform into grotesque monsters unlike anything ever seen in fiction.

Pulp horror with a heart, Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island is the most deranged island horror story ever told.

“Ever wonder what a collaboration between Edward Lee and Richard Laymon would read like?  If you’re a hardcore horror fan, of course the answer is yes.  But have you ever wondered how that hypothetical collaboration might have turned out had someone secretly dosed them with some bad LSD at some point during the process?  Well, wonder no more, because I think it may very well have turned out like Cameron Pierce’s new book, Gargoyle Girls of Spider Island.  Or, to put it in pithy catchphrase form, ‘It’s like Lost on Acid!’  Either way, Gargoyle Girls is a trip.”

–BRYAN SMITH, author of The Killing Kind and Depraved

Reading at University Bookstore in Seattle

Tomorrow evening I’ll be reading at the University of Washington Bookstore alongside Kirsten Alene and Bruce Taylor. Nick Gucker, the extraordinary Lovecraftian artist, will be on hand composing an illustration for the crowd based on our readings. The reading starts at 7pm.

I’ll be reading from the new novel that I’m working on.

For more information, go to the reading’s  page on Facebook.