The Keeper of the Key is on NetGalley

Hi, everyone. Hope you’re all doing well and staying reasonably cool this summer. Halloween stuff is already finding its way to stores, and I’m really annoyed that the place where our Spirit Halloween store used to be has been taken over by some stupid fitness franchise. Grrr.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Which Oscar-winning filmmaker got an early break working on Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead? The answer is at the end of this newsletter.

THE KEEPER OF THE KEY NOW AVAILABLE ON NETGALLEY: If you are a reviewer and would like an early look at The Keeper of the Key, good news: the ARC is now available for request on NetGalley. I’m grateful for the early reviews rolling in and for all the likes left for Cho-Hyun Kim’s stunning cover. (120 cover likes the last time I checked!)

https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/446715

The book also got a great blurb from Stoker-nominated author Meghan Arcuri:

Many thanks, Meghan!

WHAT I’M WATCHING: We really didn’t need a third cat. We talked about how Leo and Lotus seemed to have a reasonably good balance going; they weren’t best friends, but any antagonistic behavior between them seemed to be more playful than real.

So this weekend, we ended up adopting a third cat. Meet Simon:

He’s around four months old and a major ball of energy. Although we’re trying to abide by the general rule of keeping him in the guest room for several days before allowing him to explore the rest of the house, I’m pretty sure he has his own ideas about how that’s going to work. He’s already met his brothers, and so far they don’t seem to mind his presence all that much.

WHAT I’M READING: I just finished reading an advanced copy of the novella The Mystery of the Pale King for a blurb. Author Sam Flynn is a fellow Ohio University and Futurescapes grad, and I’m grateful he thought of me for a blurb because this is a great story. It’s a grimdark fantasy with plenty of horror overtones, and it wove elements of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death and Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow into an exploration of religious cults and hero worship. Preorder here: https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Pale-King-Sam-Flynn-ebook/dp/B0D1SFXLJ2

REVIEWS, REVIEWS, REVIEWS: If you have read any of my work, either my standalone books or anthologies I’ve appeared in, please leave an honest review on your site of choice. Yay, nay, or meh, they all matter.

TRIVIA ANSWER: Before he and his brother Ethan started making films like Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, Joel Coen was an assistant editor on The Evil Dead. And Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell has appeared in a couple of Coen Brothers films.

Thanks so much for reading, and if you know anyone who might be interested in my work, please feel free to pass this along to them.

Stay spooky and safe,
Nicole