no gods for drowning

No Gods for Drowning update

As you might have seen on social media, Polis Books is closing down and its titles are going out of print. This includes No Gods for Drowning, my novel mixing dark fantasy, noir, and horror into a genre stew of serial killers, detectives, sea monsters, and bloodthirsty gods.

The audiobook from Dreamscape, narrated by the ever-talented Jodie Harris, will remain available.

There will also continue to be short stories set in the world of Aeon.

No Gods for Drowning will find a new home in time. Until then, thank you to everyone who’s taken the visit to the shores of Aeg.

“She Tasted of Good Fortune” in We’re Here + more

I’m heading to StokerCon in Pittsburgh this afternoon, but a quick update before hitting the road on two new stories.

We’re Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror is out today in ebook! All stories by queer authors, and all proceeds go to the Trevor Project, and with it releasing during Pride Month, what could be more perfect?

I have a novelette inside, “She Tasted of Good Fortune,” which takes place in the world of No Gods for Drowning and tells of curses, criminals, and a sultry deal to find a fortune teller before the night is done. It’s a standalone tale, so whether this is your first dive into the No Gods for Drowning world or you’re returning from reading the book, you’re good to go.

I’ve added a hub page for No Gods for Drowning as a series/setting, where you’ll be able to find links to the current book and novelette, as well as future books and stories as they’re announced/released.

Also if you’re attending StokerCon, I have a flash fic in the new souvenir book, The Monsters That Made Us, which isn’t available beyond the con. “The Black Lagoons of Our Eyes” is my queer love letter to The Creature from the Black Lagoon and series, and how I see myself in its titular creature. I’m delighted it can appear with many top-notch essays and stories of horror origins.

Locus Awards; Cruel Angels release date

Award news: It’s an incredible honor to learn my noir horror dark fantasy novel No Gods for Drowning is a 2023 Locus Award Finalist.

No Gods for Drowning released last year from Polis Books, and it appears alongside fantastic novels by Sarah Gailey, Gabino Iglesias, Catriona Ward, Paul Tremblay, Richard Chizmar, Stephen King, Alma Katsu, Christopher Golden, Stephanie Feldman, T. Kingfisher, and Thomas Olde Heuvelt, all nominated for the Locus Award in Best Horror Novel from 2022.

Thank you to everyone who’s supported it! 2023 Locus Awards winners will be announced in mid-June (shortly after StokerCon).

In news a little further into the summer, my upcoming Splatter Western Cruel Angels Past Sundown has a release date: July 25, 2023! The book summary has been released too, and paperback pre-orders are up at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. There’s also a synopsis of the heaven and hell awaiting within:

New Mexico Territory, 1882: She comes to the Klein ranch at sunset, a strange naked pregnant woman dragging a cavalry saber. Annette Klein and her husband have built peace between their marriage and secret relations beyond, but their serenity dies in bloodshed tonight through a cannibalistic demon and a mad preacher.

Annette barely escapes the bloodbath to the nearby town of Low’ s Bend, where she might find safety with a shotgun-toting barkeep, two no-nonsense boarding room ladies, and the gunslinging bounty hunter who’ s captured Annette’ s heart.

But hell is at her heels. If she’ s going to survive until dawn, she’ ll have to forget everything she knows about peace and mercy, and face a hollow malevolence more ancient and ruthless than she’ s ever imagined.

“Queen of the Cloven Heart,” novel mentions

Out now from Dark Matter Ink, it’s Zero Dark Thirty, an anthology gathering 30 of the darkest stories from Dark Matter Magazine’s first year. The stories are dark sci-fi and horror, and among them you’ll find my medieval vampire tale “Queen of the Cloven Heart.”

Also in regal news, Queen of Teeth had the pleasure of appearing on Sara Tantlinger’s LitReactor horror romance article “Horrormance Titles for a Macabre Valentine’s Day,” and on Lindy Ryan’s LitReactor article “Eat Your Heart Out.”

Lastly, No Gods for Drowning had the honor of appearing on the Locus Recommended Reading List alongside a marvelous curation of speculative work from 2022.

“Cross-Generational Cryptid Theory” in The Arcanist

My final short story of 2022 is up!

The Arcanist is going on permanent hiatus. I’ve had the honor of appearing there four times in the past with stories  Crones in Their Larval State,  Demons of Particular TasteJormungander’s Dance, and The Mother Stitch, with the first three reprinted in my short story collection Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy because I felt so strongly about them (and the fourth might have been there, but it came out after signing the collection with The Seventh Terrace).

So many final story of 2022 is also my final Arcanist story. I’m so glad I could be a part of its swan song with this weird post-post-apocalyptic weird familial flash fic, “Cross-Generational Cryptid Theory.” It’s free to read and listen to online, so enjoy.

In Queen of Teeth news, two items: the novel has been nominated for the This Is Horror Award for Novel of the Year 2021, so thank you everyone who voted for it. Also, the audiobook will be releasing from Tantor on December 27th, but it’s available for pre-order now.

Also exciting, No Gods for Drowning has officially made Vulture’s list of “The Best Horror Novels of 2022” alongside incredible work that came out this year. I’m honored to see my book among them.

No Gods for Drowning audiobook release

It’s release day! Dreamscape Audio presents: No Gods for Drowning in audiobook!

Jodie Harris has done such a beautiful narration of this horror/noir/dark fantasy novel, and it’s a joy to hear her give voice to Lilac, Arcadia, Alex, Cecil, and everyone else scrambling in the flooding city of Valentine. It’s up on Libro, Barnes & Noble, Audible, and elsewhere too! I love that different places offer samples from different chapters.

And in mid-November, BookRiot kindly included my space horror novella Your Mind Is a Terrible Thing on their list “Science Fiction Trouble Feature: 10 of the Best Sci-Fi Horror Books.”

“Hollywood Werewolf Conspiracy” in It Was All a Dream

I have a new story out this week, “Hollywood Werewolf Conspiracy.” Evil Dead meets The Howling in a story that’s about endings … or is it? You can find it closing out the new anthology It Was All a Dream, in which a stellar bunch of authors take on overused tropes to give them a fresh twist.

Also this month, a few of my books have wound up on some lovely lists!

No Gods for Drowning makes another list, this time on The Lineup’s “9 Chilling Supernatural Horror Books with Fresh Takes” alongside other fantastic releases, here laying out the novel’s genre stew nature.

Queen of Teeth gets another Rue Morgue shout-out in “Ten Creature Feature Books for Frightful Halloween Reading.

And Benny Rose, the Cannibal King appeared in Tor Nightfire article “10 Slasher Novels to Send Off Summer Right.

 

Release day: No Gods for Drowning

Release day is here!

So excited to finally say this, but my second novel No Gods for Drowning has been unleashed by Polis Books! This book has been growing little by little inside me over decades; to have it out in the world at last feels like mountains have shifted within. Horror, noir, and dark fantasy collide in a story of sea monsters, killers, detectives, and blood gods. You can read more below, and check it out wherever books are sold!

Paperback: Bookshop.org, Target, Indiebound; Ebook/paperback: Barnes & Noble, Amazon

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IN THE BEGINNING, MAN WAS PREY. IN THE END, THEY’LL BE PREY AGAIN.
The old gods have fled, and the monsters they had kept at bay for centuries now threaten to drown the city of Valentine, hunting mankind as in ancient times. In the midst of the chaos, a serial killer has begun ritually sacrificing victims, their bodies strewn throughout the city.
Lilac Antonis wants to stop the impending destruction of her city by summoning her mother, a blood god—even if she has to slit a few throats to do it. But evading her lover Arcadia and her friends means sneaking, lying, and even spilling the blood of people she loves.
Alex and Cecil of Ace Investigations have been tasked with hunting down the killer, but as they close in—not knowing they’re hunting their close friend Lilac—the detectives realize the gods may not have left willingly.
As flooding drags this city of cars and neon screaming into the jaws of sea demons and Arcadia struggles to save the people as captain of the evacuation team, Lilac’s ritual killings at last bear fruit, only to reveal her as a small piece in a larger plan. The gods’ protection costs far more than anyone has ever known, and Alex and Cecil are running out of time to discover the true culprit behind the gods’ disappearance before an ancient divine murder plot destroys them all.
NO GODS FOR DROWNING is part hunt for a serial killer, part noir detective story, and unlike anything you’ve ever read before.

“Glorious and visceral, No Gods For Drowning drips with evocative prose and proves Hailey Piper to be a storyteller with wonderfully sharp teeth. This book sang to me, and if you let it, it will sing to you, too.” – Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents

“Wrathful gods, drowning cities, and an ancient, bloody mystery—Piper’s novel had me from the jump. No Gods For Drowning is a superior offering.” – Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase

“Piper, a rising star in horror, is announcing her intentions to break through onto a larger stage with this confident and compelling tale that is as fun as it is thought-provoking.”Library Journal

“A roller coaster of tension! I was desperate to read on, yet terrified. A truly addictive read.” – Hannah Lynn, award-winning author of Athena’s Child

“Incredibly atmospheric detective horror. This mythology is now resident in my brain.” – Maya Deane, author of Wrath Goddess Sing
“Strange and wonderful … Look, if I have to put on a ceremonial robe and make a sacrifice to Hailey Piper to get more books like this, so be it.” – Dea Poirier, author of The Girls in the Fire

September podcasts – No Gods for Drowning

Two podcasts went up today where I had the pleasure of talking about my upcoming novel No Gods for Drowning!

Over at Queer Writers of Crime, we discussed the book against how horror and crime often walk the same roads and where they split. If you check the blog post there too, I give a little writing advice (or maybe anti-advice; you decide).

Over at Talking Scared, we explored some of the book’s themes, and then we chatted a little about Your Mind Is a Terrible Thing and its psychological space horror too.