Hey, friends. Lots of big stuff happening lately. The Sorrows continues to kick butt (including a new and awesome review from the very cool Gef Fox at the Wag the Fox blog). I booked a spot on an Indianapolis radio show in June. And thanks to Mark Justice I’ll be appearing on the next Pod of Horror episode along with Joe R. Lansdale.

Yep, that was a name drop. An unadulterated, shameless name drop.

But can you blame me? Joe R. Lansdale, people. JOE R. LANSDALE. His Ownself. The man responsible for too many of my favorite books to count. The East Texas guru of fiction who wrote The Bottoms (which deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as To Kill a Mockingbird). The genius behind The Nightrunners, Act of Love, and Hap and Leonard.

HAP AND FREAKING LEONARD!!!

Okay, I’ll stop now.

Because there’s something else huge on the horizon.

It’s called HOUSE OF SKIN. It’s my second novel, and it’s going to drop in ten days. You know, I always wanted to announce that something was about to drop. I figured it would feel pretty cool to say. However, having now said it, I feel like I’ve debased myself. Let’s move on, please, before I feel any worse…

Here’s the gorgeous Angela Waters cover:

And here’s the short synopsis:

“Myles Carver is dead. But his estate, Watermere, lives on, waiting for a new Carver to move in. Myles’s wife, Annabel, is dead too, but she is also waiting, lying in her grave in the woods. For nearly half a century she was responsible for a nightmarish reign of terror, and she’s not prepared to stop now. She is hungry to live again…and her unsuspecting nephew, Paul, will be the key.

Julia Merrow has a secret almost as dark as Watermere’s. But when she and Paul fall in love they think their problems might be over. How can they know what Fate—and Annabel—have in store for them? Who could imagine that what was once a moldering corpse in a forest grave is growing stronger every day, eager to take her rightful place amongst the horrors of Watermere?”

HOUSE OF SKIN will be available on June 5th. You can pre-order here, here, or here. Or anywhere else with good literary taste. And after you buy that one, why not pick up Joe R. Lansdale’s new novel, Edge of Dark Water? It’s my next read, so if you buy it we can have our own little book club. I promise not to talk about anything dropping (except my jaw dropping at being on the same show as, well, you know).

(Addendum: I’ll be on the same show as Joe R. Lansdale—not in the same segment. If I actually sat in the same booth with Joe R. Lansdale, I’d be too awestruck to talk.)