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Apokrupha Newsletter April 2024

Hello everyone! it has been a busy month here! so let’s start with the release! 

Dominoes

by John Boden

Print on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dominoes-John-Boden/dp/B0CZ3Q5WY2/

Originally published by our old friends, Shock Totem back in 2013, we are so excited to have this book back in print. This dark, but beautiful tale of the coming apocalypse is illustrated by Yannick Bouchard.

This is one you’ll want on your bookshelves, but don’t take our word for it: 

There’s a level of wordsmithing happening with John that is unparalleled. Images that are shocking and beautiful, and you see the way he has arranged his words and they are these intricate configurations that are just….wow.

— Kristi DeMeester, Author of BENEATH and SUCH A PRETTY SMILE

Gorgeous. Stunning. Bizarre and strange. It’s literary and visual porn, that’s what it is. Not a lot of people will “get it”. But I don’t think it’s to be got. It’s to be experienced.

— Mercedes Murdock Yardley, Author of DARLING and BEAUTIFUL SORROWS

I’ve long been in awe of John Boden’s capacity for distilling profound dread into a single line. Reading this book is like watching someone who has not only pulled back the veil separating our world from the nightmares, but burned it, stomped out the embers, and pissed on the ashes. If I ever had a piece of advice to give, it would be “Don’t let John Boden into your head.”?

— Bracken MacLeod, Author of CLOSING COSTS and STRANDED

Cons Galore!

Two cons, back to back in April. Authorcon III in Williamsburg and Creature Feature Weekend in Gettysburg. Both were fantastic weekends of books, writers and horror. While I may be biased, I recommend adding both to your calendars for next year. 

Also I collected a lot of cards, bookmarks and web URLs to add more blogs to the Sunday Morning Horror News… Expect a large update next month. 

Two more events planned for the year: 

  • Horror on Main
  • Authorcon IV (St Louis)

We hope to see some of you there! 

Coming SOON!

We’ve been working on something for those of you who want to try out this blackout poetry thing. Keep an eye on Jessica McHugh’s Instagram for a sneak peek. 0_0

Final Thoughts

It was a busy month, back to back cons is a lot. I got home from Authorcon, opened my suit case and dumped clothes into the washer. Pulled them from the dryer and put them back in the suit case. It was fun, but I am also glad I don’t do it often. 

We did get a new addition to our table at Creature Feature. 

Follow Along!

Subscribe by email, or follow us on the Fediverse: 

@newsletter@apokrupha.com

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Apokrupha Newsletter February 2024

This month we have some news about the news! Jessica McHugh makes the Stoker ballot and an announcement about a poetry collection by John Boden! 

Quiet Ways I Destroy You

Is on the Stoker ballet! 

Released in 2023, this is the third collection of blackout poetry by Jessica McHugh, and by far the most ambitious. At 155 pieces based on Little Women this book is a tome of poetry, art and photography. 

Comes with a free set of paper dolls! (Not appropriate for children…)

Get it in print and ebook!

and congradulations to everyone on the Stoker ballet this year, it is an amazing list of titles!

Amazon – Bookshop – Kindle – Kobo

(And if you think that covers by Lynne Hansen is amazing, wait to you see the photography by B. Saunders inside)

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

The Sunday Morning Horror News is here! 

http://SundayMorningHorrorNews.com

To often the news is coming by at the speed of social media. Miss a post? Was it lost in the river, or a ‘friendly’ refresh from your app? 

The Sunday Morning Horror News is a site designed to help slow down some. Bringing you news every Sunday morning from all over the web. 

This is an aggregator of blog RSS feeds. What does that mean? It means it goes and gets the recent posts from all over the horror internet, and brings them together for an easy read. 

You can subscribe via your own RSS reader as well! Or even better, go to the bottom and grab the links and follow them directly. 

No ads. No trackers. No auto-play anything. And it is even open source, because we are those kinds of nerds here. 

My Eyes Are Just Holograms

We are going to publish a book of poems by John Boden, entitled My Eyes Are Just Holograms

Dark and emotional, Boden has a way with words hard to explain. And I can’t wait to show off these poems. 

We will have more to announce later this year with covers and pre-orders, but we are so excited we needed to share. 

Final Words

As a teaser for the future, I want to say I’ve been working on two titles that will be out this year that are not yet ready for a full announcement, but I cannot wait to show them to you. 

Maybe spend some time finding your favorite pens, just in case. 

Planned Appearances

Here are the events you’ll find an Apokrupha booth this year. This will be updated as we add onto it! 

  • April 19–21 2024 – Creature Feature Weekend, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
  • April 12–14 2024 – AuthorCon III, Williamsburg, Virginia
  • June 28–30 2024 – Horror on Main, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
  • October 4–6 2024 – AuthorCon IV, St Louis, Missouri
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Strange Nests is out now in Print – Again!

A relaunch of Strange Nests by Jessica McHugh, a book of Blackout Poetry inspired by The Secret Garden. Out now in paperback available all over, get your hands on this beautiful and dark collection of art and poems.

and in expanded eBook Distribution!

About Strange Nests

the secret about dying arrived scrawny. it’s growing stronger & fatter though & whispers,
“go mad.”

Beyond ancient gates, among thorny overgrowth and carnivorous blooms, a raven called Death waits tirelessly for its chance to roost within us. Using scraps of love, remorse, anger, and pain, it weaves. With erasure, memory, and discovery, it binds. And from the garden of wounds that grows within our broken hearts, it builds Strange Nests.

In the follow-up to her Bram Stoker and Elgin Award nominated collection, A Complex Accident of Life, Jessica McHugh uses poetry, design, and illustration to unearth the horrific, consumptive, and transformative nature of grief from the pages of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, The Secret Garden.

Jessica McHugh

Jessica McHugh is a novelist, poet, and internationally-produced playwright running amok in the fields of horror, sci-fi, young adult, and wherever else her peculiar mind leads. She’s had twenty-four books published in twelve years, including her bizarro romp, “The Green Kangaroos,” her YA series, “The Darla Decker Diaries,” and her blackout poetry collection, “A Complex Accident of Life.”

Please visit McHughniverse.com for more samples of the McHughniverse.

As well as both A Complex Accident of Life and Home Birth both published by Apokrupha!

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A Complex Accident of Life

Poetry has come to the McHughniverse.

Buy it today!

I am a vessel of dauntless courage and severe evil.

My joy will endeavor, my rage possess.

Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Jessica McHugh’s debut poetry collection, A Complex Accident of Life, combines visual art and text to create 52 pieces of Gothic blackout poetry exploring the intense passion, enigmatic nature, and transformative pleasure of life, viewed through the kaleidoscopic lens of a female horror artist.

Cover by Lynne Hansen! ( LynneHansenArt.com )

Out now on ebook here in our store and Kindle and PRINT

Advanced Praise for A Complex Accident of Life

Full of color and stunning imagery, Jessica McHugh takes Mary Shelley’s classic and finds new depth and meaning within. A Complex Accident of Life is indeed a vessel of dauntless courage, inspiring and hopeful.”

—doungjai gam, author of glass slipper dreams, shattered

In A Complex Accident of Life, Jessica McHugh strikingly combines different modes of art to create a truly unique collection. This remix of a beloved work through blackout poetry shows a lot of care in every selected word and the arrangement within each piece. I enjoyed the visuals just as much as the poems themselves. True spirit, passion, and creativity live within every piece; the book is not only an exquisite tribute to Mary Shelley, but also cleverly showcases McHugh’s own beautiful poetic talent. Highly recommended! 

—Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland

Renegade alchemist Jessica McHugh revives Mary Shelley even while vivisecting her mind and reassembling the anatomy of her ideas, remaking her as a hauntingly beautiful structure of undead words and lively art. Unlike others working in the medium of blackout poetry McHugh deploys a wide array of both visual strategies and approaches to composition, rendering “A Complex Accident of Life” compelling and compulsively re-readable. 

—John Edward Lawson, author of Bibliophobia

Jessica McHugh

Jessica McHugh is a novelist, poet, and internationally-produced playwright running amok in the fields of horror, sci-fi, young adult, and wherever else her peculiar mind leads. She’s had twenty-four books published in twelve years, including her bizarro romp, “The Green Kangaroos,” her YA series, “The Darla Decker Diaries,” and her blackout poetry collection, “A Complex Accident of Life.” 

Please visit JessicaMcHughBooks.com for more samples of the McHughniverse.