even the worm will turn

Release day: Song of the Tyrant Worm

The end has come.

It began in 2020 with The Worm and His Kings, continued in 2023 with Even the Worm Will Turn, and now concludes with Song of the Tyrant Worm, out today in ebook and paperback from Off Limits Press and audiobook from Tantor and available from Barnes & NobleBookshop, Amazon, Libro.FM, Audiobooks.com.

Cassie Daley drew up the gorgeous cover art, depicting the Gray Maiden against eerie cosmos.

I’ve already listened to the audiobook and Allyson Voller brings the narration to a haunting close.

This has been a long journey. I could’ve never foreseen a short story I wrote and abandoned in early 2019 would become a book, and then two books, and then a trilogy. I’m ever grateful to the readers, reviewers, booksellers, and other authors who’ve taken this story of kings and gods and New York into their hearts, as well as a massively supportive publisher who’s weathered delays from me, changes of plan, and more to bring this book into the world.

Thank you all. Now to follow the Gray Maiden beneath Manhattan one last time.

New York City, 1990: The Gray Maiden has served the almighty Worm and his faithful for her entire life. Recently that has meant abducting women off the street to find the Worm’s destined Bride, but any brutality is worth his promise of a better world to come.

Worm pre-orders + limited edition

Two bits of The Worm and His Kings news today!

First, the final book in the trilogy, Song of the Tyrant Worm, is up for Kindle pre-order alongside audio options. The paperback will go up soon, too.

In the meantime, Thunderstorm Books will be publishing The Worm and His Kings Saga, which will contain all three books in a limited edition signed hardcover. This is a collector’s item, only available until May 19th, with unique artwork by Evangeline Gallagher, who gave their dazzling touch to the eerie blend of New York City and the cosmos.

Expected ship date is July, but again, these are only available until May 19, and then they’re gone.

From the publisher:

“Long ago, in a time now dead, one note changed our world forever.”

Manhattan 1990: Monique’s girlfriend Donna has vanished without a trace. Only after the disappearances of several other impoverished women does she hear the rumors of a gray creature rising from the underground to snatch victims off the street, and Donna might be one of them. When Monique decides to give chase, she’ll plunge into a subterranean world of monsters, monarchs, cultists, and gods both beyond her understanding and closer than she thinks.

So begins the sprawling trilogy of the almighty Worm. Join Monique, Donna, the Gray Maiden, and more in desperate searches for lost lovers, dire revelations, and shattered futures, where every step brings the discomforting touch of celestial cruelty.

Hailed as a modern cosmic horror classic, exploring queerness, worship, connection, transcendence, and fate, the original novella The Worm and His Kings has been gathered here for the first time in a single volume with its sequels, Even the Worm Will Turn and Song of the Tyrant Worm. Together, they invite you down mysterious caverns within the earth, into strange histories, and out of the world you know, where you’ll come face-to-face with a darkness that stretches from the dawn of time and across the stars.

Signed by Hailey Piper

“The Ruins of Elfland,” Even the Worm Will Turn audiobook

My final (I’m pretty sure) short story of 2023 released today in The Seventh Terrace’s new anthology, Solstice in Purgatory, a flash fic snowstorm of winter holiday horror. My tale, “The Ruins of Elfland,” shows the secret cost of Christmas in a world going cold for the sake of toys.

Also, on Halloween the audiobook for Even the Worm Will Turn released from Tantor! Allyson Voller reprises her role as narrator from The Worm and His Kings to bring this sequel to audio, and she’ll be returning for the final book next year, Song of the Tyrant Worm.

Audio at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, LibroFM

Release day: Even the Worm Will Turn; announcements

Release day at last, it’s here: Even the Worm Will Turn is out today from Off Limits Press!

Four years after the events of The Worm and His Kings, Donna Ashton ekes out a life far removed from her troubled past, only to be abducted one December night by a monster in man’s skin.

Held prisoner by operatives of a clandestine research facility and drugged into a sickened state, each day brings questioning and punishment. Escape should be possible when Donna faces only mortal hands this time, but the more she sees, the worse her mind splinters with horrific understanding.

This facility has punched a hole in space and time. Within it lie secrets mankind should never know of a darkness beyond the universe, the legacy of the almighty Worm, and revelations behind Donna’s ordeal four years ago which now might get her killed.

The ebook is up on Amazon, and you can grab the paperback from Barnes and Noble, Bookshop, and Little District Books, among other indie bookstores.

And joining the release is a cool announcement: an audiobook for Even the Worm Will Turn is coming from Tantor Media in the near future! They’ll also be producing audiobooks for the third book in The Worm and His Kings series, as well as Cranberry Cove.

What’s Cranberry Cove? My just-announced supernatural crime novella releasing in early 2024 from Bad Hand Books. More details on that to come, but signed paperback pre-orders are available in limited quantity right now from the publisher.

 

Upcoming: AuthorCon 2023

AuthorCon 2023 is coming to Williamsburg, Virginia, from March 31st to April 2nd, a charity event and convention hosted by Scares That Care. I’ll be there signing books, selling books, talking horror, all kinds of cool stuff as one of the guests of honor (see the full roster over at the site, and get tickets!). Hope to see you there!

In other news, the paperback pre-order for Even the Worm Will Turn is up at Barnes & Noble. Book 2 of The Worm and His Kings series releases April 22nd from Off Limits Press!

Books announcement: The Worm and His Kings trilogy

I’m tremendously excited to announce that my 2020 queer cosmic horror novella The Worm and His Kings will be getting two sequels, each published by Off Limits Press, forming a cosmic horror trilogy of novellas!

The second book, Even the Worm Will Turn, will release in 2023. The third and final book (title to be revealed) will release in 2024. I can’t wait to share more of this cosmic horror world with you! Worm faithful, keep watching.