Nice article with thriller author Scott Nicholson over at fellow author Daniel Pyle’s site.

DP:  Can you suggest any underappreciated indie writers we all ought to be reading?

SN:  I don’t know as many “pure indies,” since most have some level of professional experience, but I think Debbi Mack, J.T. Cummins, David McAfee, David H. Burton, Simon Wood, W.D. Gagliani, Vicki Tyley, and more are deserving of wide audiences. It’s hard to believe the talented work that was unable to secure New York deals, and also makes you realize why New York’s model was failing to meet the needs of readers.

Thanks for the mention Scott!

Here’s the new cover art for the mystery/thriller Weaker Sex. Click on the image to embiggen.

Comments?

My old FX work seems to show up in the most unusual places. Here author Andrew Tudor uses my creation Big Ben from the motion picture House (1985) on the cover of his tome Monsters and Mad Scientists that supposedly “provides a systematic history of the horror movie genre, discussing individual movies in detail, while also drawing out the more general patterns in the development of the genre. It is based on an analysis of almost 1000 films.”

Since I haven’t read this book, I do not know if House was actually referenced in its pages or not. Though I don’t know what a zombie soldier has to do with “Mad Scientists,” it’ still cool to see Big Ben peering out from a book jacket.

Thanks to my buddy Scott Shortall for pointing this out.

There’s nice Kindle-centric interview with me over at fellow author David Wisehart’s site.

Before you leave his site, make sure you check out the other author interviews in the sidebar archive. Great stuff. Thanks Dave!

My interview is posted at: http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/2010/07/interview-jt-cummins.html

Make-up designer Rob Bottin kept fanatical control of the pictures taken during the creation of the effects for John Carpenter’s The Thing, so even to this day it’s rare to see behind the scenes pictures like the one posted here (click here to enlarge picture).

Judging by the shape of the photo it’s a Polaroid taken during painting to check color tones. While this creation may look soft and fleshy, it is actually made of rigid fiberglass.

Sculptors who contributed to the creation of this piece: Rob Bottin, myself, Brian Wade, Willy Whitten, Vincent Prentice. Paint: Margaret Besserra (now Prentice).

I’m still working on the “Press” page of this site, but until construction is complete, I thought it would be fun to put up a few surviving pics of old magazine covers that featured interviews with me or images.

Of course these interviews were done during my FX heyday, and many of these magazines are no longer around, but it’s still fun to time trip — even if I can’t read some of the articles. For instance; the French magazine “Cinefantastique’s Mad Movies” at left, which features a great cover image of one of my creations from “House.” Sacre bleu!

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

— Ayn Rand

Yay! Issue #2 of Grave Conditions is finally here! The issue features my story “Monsterthon” with art by Earl Geier.

Grave Conditions also contains the chilling work of Jonathan Maberry, Lavie Tidhar, Damjan Stanich, Andre Siregar, Kevin Thomas, Aric Mitchell, Daniel Chan, Michael David Thomas. 32 pages, B & W interior, digital PDF file only 99 cents! Download it now at Haunted Computer Comics.

Coming soon the print trade paperback version of Grave Conditions which collects all three digital issues (including # 2 above),  plus a bonus 12-page story by Jack Kilborn/J.A. Konrath and Frankie B. Washington. B & W interior. Release TBA. Pre-order now! $9.95 plus $3 shipping at Haunted Computer Comics.

I couldn’t wait for Halloween, so here’s something to tide over all you trick r’ treaters.

In my new, short, horror/fantasy e-novel (15,298 words approx.), Winstrom, evil forces marshal Halloween witches, ghosts, black cats, and assassin jack o’ lanterns in a quest to locate a destructive supernatural talisman entrusted to the unknowing, adult grandson of a powerful backwoods witch.

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Winstrom takes approximately two hours to read, and is available as an e-download from Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, or Smashwords for $1.99.