Sam Flynn's Cabinet of Curiosities - Issue #4

Right after we last spoke in December, something amazing happened: Grimdark Magazine named The Mystery of the Pale King one of the best reads of of 2024. To be listed alongside so many great fantasy and sci-fi novels in one of my favorite outlets was the gift of the holidays for me and I’d like to thank Arina of Grimdark and Queen’s Book Asylum for the honor. Her championing a newbie author like me means more than I can say.

To celebrate six months since publication, I’m running a promotional campaign for the book. If you already rated and reviewed The Mystery of the Pale King, know that I read and appreciated your thoughts! But if you have not yet, please consider rating and/or reviewing on Goodreads and Amazon (reviews can be short as a sentence) this week. An influx of reader ratings and reviews prompts the algorithm to put the book in front of more eyes. Let’s get the book trending!

Recent Events

Thank you to one of my favorite local bars Tony’s Tavern for inviting me to their booze-tastic book fair on March 1 where I got to see so many friends old and new.

More recently, this past Saturday was the spring Hocking Hills Book Fair at Fairfield County Fairgrounds in Lancaster, Ohio. It’s always a blast getting to meet readers and fellow authors and seeing the breadth of creativity on display. I’m looking forward to the next one come fall. I was also interviewed by fair host Gina McKnight of Monday Creek Publishing back in January and you can check that out here.

Book News

Biggest news of the day: The Mystery of the Pale King is getting an audiobook with narration from yours truly! Such an endeavor would be impossible for me were it not for the equipment, expertise and effort of my fellow hot dogger/audio engineer David Peoples. It’s been a year or two since high school drama club but once the rust wore off, I started to have fun with the voices. By the end of recording I was putting my whole body into it. The hope is to have it out by summer. More soon.

Looking to the future once more, the latest draft of my high fantasy/mystery novel The Darkest Fate is complete and out to agents. Querying is an anxiety-inducing process so I try to devote only the necessary attention to avoid dwelling on the uncontrollable.

Unfortunately easier said than done, as I’ve hit a bump in the road regarding to my other two current projects. I paused my “cosmic Columbo” sci-fi noir God Is Dead at about half-done to focus on the Pale King sequel Dweller in Darkness, which is about a quarter done. But progress has been slow the past month, putting pressure to meet my self-imposed deadline of end of June.

What I’m Reading

On the recommendation of none other than Alan Moore, I for the first time picked up the iconic Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake. As foundational a text in fantasy fiction as The Lord of the Rings, the books were delights in both story and prose, tragically cut short by the author’s premature death. I’m also rereading the first couple books in Wesley Chu’s War Arts Saga, The Art of Prophecy and The Art of Destiny, in preparation for the third volume come August.

I’m gonna change it up for my next books and devour some hardboiled noir, starting with My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby and She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper, both the first books from each respective titan of crime fiction of the Southern and Western variety.

I also had the pleasure of meeting and picking up books by Elm Jed and Angola Hone at the Hocking Hills Book Fair. Vinny the Vampire and Me is part of Jed’s Mafia, Murder and Mayhem (As a Rom Com) paranormal romance/urban fantasy series and The Canid Chronology: A Journey’s Beginning is a Redwall-inspired high fantasy about a redtail fox on a quest of self-discovery. Check them out!

What I’m Watching

In comedy, my wife and I picked up Abbott Elementary. It’s hard to do a show set at a school and not be cloying but they somehow manage to be both hilarious and heartfelt. Shrinking is a show I watch whenever I’m with my family for its low-key relatability.

In dramas, Severance is my current obsession, with the season 2 finale this Thursday. I described the show as “Lost-meets-The Office” to a friend and instantly got him hooked. My interest led me to watch one of the show’s primary antecedents, 1967’s The Prisoner created by and starring Patrick McGoohan. Perhaps the first serialized mystery box show ever made, its influence is felt throughout the Golden Age of TV and it holds up surprisingly well, even considering the making of it was an utter shitshow.

With the closure of my local theater, I catch less at the movies these days but I did see Captain America: Brave New World. I liked it alright but Marvel’s gargantuan past success means merely “liking” one of their films isn’t going to cut it, especially when all the film’s most interesting edges have been sanded off for the sake of being inoffensive. On the streaming side, Daredevil: Born Again seems a worthy successor to the original Netflix show, even if it and Captain America bear the clear scars of their productions also being utter shitshows.

That’s all from me! Share your comments/questions/suggestions on the newsletter to [email protected] and sign up for more updates via Patreon.

With authorly affection,

Sam