The Time Has Come and the Time is Now

It’s here! The Kickstarter for the deluxe edition of Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings is now live from Strix Publishing! Including all ten stories from the original printing, my hard-to-find story “A Night for Mothing” which originally appeared in The Mothman Files back in 2011 and has never before been reprinted, and a brand new story about kids, graveyards, undertakers, and Halloween night called “Goblins,” along with author’s notes by yours truly and a brand-new introduction by Nathan Ballingrud.

When Never Bet the Devil unexpectedly went out of print last year, I wanted to get it back into print without just dumping it unceremoniously onto ebook or something, but I also knew that if I was going to release another edition, I wanted to make sure it was something special enough that people who had already bought the previous printing from Evileye Books wouldn’t feel like they were being cheated when they put down their hard-earned money for this one, too. That’s why Strix and I put together this Kickstarter, to bring Never Bet the Devil back into print in a deluxe edition that’s worthy of the name.

For me, that started with artist M.S. Corley. I first encountered Mike’s work in some fan-art covers he did for book series like Harry Potter, and we quickly became fast friends. I think he’s one of the best artists and best cover designers in the business, and I’m proud to have introduced him to the guys at Valancourt Books, where he’s done a whole pile of breathtaking covers. Fans of Gardinel’s Real Estate, the chapbook that Mike and I did together, already have an idea of what he’s capable of.

When I started talking with Strix about re-releasing Never Bet the Devil, I already knew that Mike was my first and only choice to do the new cover and interior illustrations. If you’re already familiar with Mike’s work, then you already know why. If not, head over to the Kickstarter page to get just a taste of what he’s done with the interior illustrations and cover design for this new edition of Never Bet the Devil.

Aside from that, Strix Publishing puts out beautiful books. This edition of Never Bet the Devil will be hardcover, cloth-bound, and gold foil stamped. Plus, if by some chance the Kickstarter funds with some to spare, we’ve got some exciting stretch goals waiting in the wings including more stories and other goodies! So if you’ve been waiting for Never Bet the Devil to come back into print, or if you recently picked up my second collection Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts from Word Horde or my essay collection Monsters from the Vault from Innsmouth Free Press and want to see where I got started, this is the definitive edition of my debut collection, and now’s you chance to get it at the cheapest price it’s ever going to be.

New to Never Bet the Devil or my writing? You can read fan-favorite story “Black Hill,” which was previously published in Historical Lovecraft and reprinted in Ross Lockhart’s Book of Cthulhu 2 online right now! Or listen to it in audio form at Pseudopod!

[Edited to add: And just as I posted this, I got the email from my publisher letting me know that Kickstarter had officially selected Never Bet the Devil as one of its “Projects We Love,” which is pretty exciting for me!]