From the Desk of William Pauley III
We made it! 50 issues of the Doom Fiction Newsletter! Man, am I exhausted… but I’m not slowing down. Not. At. All. As I mentioned in last week’s issue, I have huge plans for the coming months. I actually have so much in the works that this entire newsletter will be filled to the brim with major announcements!
But before I get into it, I just want to say thank you, once again, for subscribing and supporting all I do. My heart is bursting with gratitude. Thank you all so much. Truly.
I promise, the best is yet to come.
Now let’s see how deep this rabbit hole goes…
60 Vibrations
April is National Poetry Month, so I thought I’d celebrate by digging into my old notebooks and reading some of my old poems. Here’s a taste of what those posts will be like:
I’ll be posting two of these poems a day (8am/8pm) throughout the entirety of April. 60 in total. Half of these poems will be available to free subscribers, and paid subscribers will have access to all 60. These posts will not be emailed! No worries… I have no intention of blowing up your inboxes! Instead, I will send out a single email on Sundays that contains all the poems I posted the prior week, that way you won’t miss anything.
Psychedelic Summer
Starting in May and going all the way through to the end of August, we’ll be diving headfirst into Psychedelic Summer!
Here’s what you can expect:
the free subscriber experience:
Weekly flash fiction stories (w/ optional audio narration)
the paid subscriber experience:
Weekly flash fiction stories (w/ optional audio narration)
GOLEM (an 11-part serialized novella)
Commentary tracks on GOLEM, Staticmouth/Bloodbuzz, & Automated Daydreaming
the VIP subscriber experience:
Weekly flash fiction stories (w/ optional audio narration)
GOLEM - an 11-part serialized novella (w/ optional audio narration)
Commentary tracks on GOLEM, Staticmouth/Bloodbuzz, & Automated Daydreaming
Video deep dives into old notebooks where we’ll be exploring unused story ideas, early drafts, abandoned projects, grocery lists, and much, much more! (I actually haven’t looked at these notebooks for YEARS. Some for a decade or more! So, I kind of don’t know what to expect myself! Should be fun!)
ALSO, I’ve recorded a special conversation between author Zachary T. Owen and myself about the origins of NAKED BRUNCH (GOLEM)! That conversation will go live on May 3rd!
Here’s the back cover synopsis:
A bad batch of newborns are terrorizing the self-proclaimed "utopian" city of Stains. They cause enough of a fuss to catch the attention of the dreaded President Meat Bag, who traces the unruly behavior back to an incident involving a bucket of fried chicken. Now that he's found the culprit, HEADS ARE GONNA ROLL!
To punish the newborns, Meat Bag puts them all on Shit Duty, a program meant to reform troubled citizens via a series of humiliating tasks. It's here where our beloved protagonist first falls in love.
However, much to his mother's chagrin, the girl he's become smitten with is a good for nothing "outsider" who's been banished from the city. She thinks this outsider is a terrible influence on her young, impressionable son, and begs him to keep her at a distance. But if he's learned anything in his short time on earth, it's that all the things he's been told is good and important...kinda sucks.
Will our newborn give in to his mother's wishes and take his father's recently vacated position in the town's creamed corn factory? Or will he take love by the hand and start a revolution?
You already fucking know.
DOOM U
The VIP subscription tier exists for folks who are curious about my writing processes. They’ve read first drafts, seen my story notes, doodles, plot outlines, and have seen me breathe life into old stories that were once unworthy of publication.
Now, with the introduction of DOOM U, they’ll also have access to special writing exercises that can help them create their own unique stories! Every lesson is designed to build upon the last, so that by the end of the course, you will have created a complete story!
Of course, this is not your typical writing class. This is DOOM FICTION. These lessons are meant to bend your mind, to change your way of thinking, to help bring out your inner weird. To do that, in each lesson, you’ll encounter a Psycho Billy Challenge that will turn your story on its head, forcing it to go into a totally unknown and unexpected place.
These lessons have been a long time in the making, and I can’t wait to share them with you—and to read all you come up with! (Sharing is not a requirement, but is welcomed if you’d like to get feedback from me and other subscribers!)
The first lesson drops on March 27th!
CHILDREN OF THE CONSTANT HUM
I have a brand new short story dropping in April called CHILDREN OF THE CONSTANT HUM! VIP subscribers will get to read my progress as I write it (they’ve already read the outline here) and all paid subscribers will be able to read the final draft on April 18th!
STATICMOUTH/BLOODBUZZ
I have a new short story collection dropping in July 2024! It’s called STATICMOUTH/BLOODBUZZ and will contain the stories: Prelude to a Dream, Bloody Holly, Strange Weather, Children of the Constant Hum, and Transfiguration B.C.
Here’s the full cover spread:
55 DREAMS I NEVER HAD
Faithful readers of the newsletter may be excited to know the “Seven Dreams I Never Had” segment (featured in previous issues) is now a collection of poetry! My first since 2007’s The.Living.Daylights! The book will contain 55 poems in total, describing every dream I’ve never had.
Look for it to drop sometime in September 2024!
Mr. Malin & the Night
Mr. Malin & the Night is the first novella I ever wrote. It was originally published in 2006 and almost immediately taken out of print. It resurfaced in 2016, when publisher Carrion Blue 555 kindly offered to do a beautiful 10 year anniversary edition. It is currently out of print, and has been for several years—HOWEVER later this year, paid subscribers will have the option to read this in both digital and audiobook formats! I may even do a very limited print edition as well, for collectors of physical books. We’ll see.
Spring Sale
From now until March 25th, you can snag an annual paid subscription to DOOM FICTION for 33% off! This discount does not apply to monthly or VIP subscriptions, sorry! Also, the discount is only available by clicking the button below. Thank you for supporting DOOM FICTION!
As a paid subscriber, you’ll have instant access to everything on these pages:
STORIES /// POETRY /// NOVELS, NOVELLAS, & COLLECTIONS /// AUDIOBOOKS
As a VIP subscriber, you’ll have instant access to everything on the above pages, and everything found here:
o o o o o
(a film by William Pauley III)
Several years ago, I wrote a film—a film that was, sadly, never made. It’s an original story that was not based on any of my short fiction or novels… a psychological dream-like thriller with paranormal and magical realism elements thrown in to keep it all a little DOOM-y.
It’s called o o o o o (you know, as in the sound a ghost makes!).
It’s a ghost story.
It’s a haunted house story.
It’s a mental health story.
If any of you have connections over at A24, feel free to share it with those folks. They’d do right by it.
Anyway, paid subscribers can download my script below.
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