Gets to the heart of the question: do readers want comfort & volume, or a book with literary merit? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...

Look, just let me say NEVER ask me to do anything important while I'm on tour/promo because chances are very good it will fall off the table and then, months later when you ask if your blurb/story is ready, one of us will be very embarrassed

Reading about the supposedly intelligent people close to Epstein: in the intelligence business, your judgment is paramount. These people display, if nothing else, incredibly bad judgment. A man like Epstein wouldn't pass the sniff test & yet... That's how untouchable the elites think themselves

Sub-par thinker drags everyone else down to his level

Coming up Monday: INCARNATE cover reveal!!!!

Maybe too healthy a fire?

Just had a fabulous talk with John Sipher, one of the most experienced CIA officers of his generation. We went into the Epstein files, what they say about Epstein and Russian intelligence, how Epstein kompromat might work to influence Trump… substack.com/@phillipspob...

Undertaking the dreaded swapping of the storage closets where I'm moving all my spare copies, sewing stuff & flotsam into my office and hubs is taking over the big closet for musical equipment. Getting ready to store yarn for weaving. Sigh-we def need a bigger house

A friend gave me 25 lbs of vintage paperbacks of Japanese novels in translation. You never know what life will bring you

Insanity! I try to keep up with Viggy Parr Hampton on Tag Team of Terror youtu.be/zaYc-4J_Fmw?...

This sounds fabulous. Can't wait!

For me these days, it's not writing (tho obvs I continue to do that) as the writing industry a mess, my own place in it far from secure. No, I decided to try weaving, something I've wanted to do forever, and just making that decision makes me happy

Though I gotta say, if I'm the one you turn to for inspirational sayings, man are you in trouble

In these times of utter shittiness, it's important to have one thing that makes you happy. It can be a small thing, just something you can turn to, to remind yourself that joy still exists in you

Signed copies at Bonfire Books & Yarnery in Woodstock VA

Yet again, the waiting is the hardest part

I'm reading A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND based on a rec from @jamieford.bsky.social about the history of the KKK in America and you guys ☹️😮

Was interviewed this morning for American Gothic Studies. A fun time talking with Nicole Dittmer

ICYMI: takeaways from promoting FIEND, how book promotion has changed almakatsu.substack.com/p/book-promo...

Forcing vampires to take a really hard look in the mirror (oops...)

Love it

It is a dog-in-a-blanket kind of morning

I look forward to learning how many of you are weavers

I just pulled the trigger on a loom. I have not woven before. It's a table loom, not a giant floor loom, but whelp. Feels a little like I'm moving backward to a simpler time...

What did I learn promoting my latest novel? Takeaways for fellow writers almakatsu.substack.com/p/book-promo...

New office set up

Beck, a victim of Havana Syndrome, was not known to me but my own neuro problems while at Ft Meade, close enough time-wise, makes me wonder what NSA knew about potential problems in the building. Which they did NOT want to talk about www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/u...

Another TAKER omen: buzz around upcoming Wuthering Heights movie. WH was one of the inspirations for TAKER. Both are dark romances (TAKER=very dark) Maybe maybe maybe there's an audience for it..?

Sometimes an email from a reader is an omen. Been thinking about writing a book like my debut, THE TAKER but--it's been 15 yrs. Times change. This morning, received an email from a neurodivergent person who said the book resonates for him when nothing else does. How can that not make you feel good?

YES! YES! It happened! Thank you, subconscious

Last chance to enter to win a trio of books + swag. Enter in the comments, winner must provide US mailing address almakatsu.substack.com/p/what-i-can...

Getting to the end of a short story that’s been in my head for 2 years and still don’t know the ending. C’mon subconscious, earn your keep

News from Christopher Golden & Brian Keene: THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT is on the Stoker Award shortlist & has been nominated for an Audie award

One thing about being iced in, it's giving me time to catch up on reading. Almost done with Jennifer McMahon's next novel, STAY BURIED, coming in August. History, mystery, and a bit of a twist on the zombie novel

ICYMI: pleased to see INCARNATE in this @bloody-disgusting.com article on 2026 horror novels! Cover hasn't been released yet & I'm looking forward to sharing it with you

Btw my comment yesterday about the books coming out in 2026 that are "Succession, with demons" is an observation on how the premise resonates with writers. Here's hoping it resonates with readers, too

They won’t investigate the murders of Good or Pretti, but they’ll investigate fake 2020 election fraud. www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi...

Thank you for including INCARNATE!

I gotta say, the number of books coming out this year with literally the same description as Fiend is… gulp

I see these vacancies at various evil empires & wonder what that would be like, but I have done that dance before (trying to be an honest broker in Rumsfeld's OSD) & am too old for that nonsense

LinkedIn just sent me a vacancy announcement for a geopolitical analyst at Anthropic & OMG can only imagine the hellscape that job would be

I think we all understood ourselves much better before social media.

Go watch ANDOR again

New insights into Anthropic's use of both pirated & purchased books in building its LLMs wapo.st/4rjXAMQ

Because there's something I can't talk about, I offer up a cover reveal and a contest instead almakatsu.substack.com/p/what-i-can...

Turned in one of the antho stories I owe. Such a good feeling

Take a break from mourning the loss of our country (sigh) to read my scattered thoughts and maybe enter a contest almakatsu.substack.com/p/what-i-can...

Love that cover! And honored to have a story in here

The Bram Stoker Award preliminary list is out! Congratulations to all the nominees

Writing a story that captures my dismay with the moment we find ourselves in, in America, and trying to make it authentic and not wish fulfillment... it's turning into one of the most delicate stories I've ever written