Category Archives: Books and Boos Press
Special extended TWL episode: Howe was the book signing?
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
I had a blast last week up at Howe Caverns for a signing of my new collection, The Shadows Behind. Rather than put up a bunch of pictures, I decided to do a special extended episode of my This Writing Life series. Enjoy!
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Malicious Monsters: The Jackalope
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
In the summer of 2011, I needed an escape. I ended up going to see my sister, who lived in Austin, in my first-ever trip to the state of Texas.
Long story short? I fell in love with Texas. In an absolute, complete, I-see-no-wrong kind of love. The smell of burnt asphalt and cactus blossom laced with a kiss of mesquite. In Hill Country, woods and mountains not much different from Connecticut, but with the occasional surprise of a cactus thrusting from a blanket of past autumn leaves. The joy of watching over a half a million bats emerge from underneath the Congress Avenue Bridge. The 108 degree heat, hot glazed pecans at the HEB, and people who will absolutely talk to a total stranger without looking at him like he has five heads.

Me at The Jackalope, a dive bar with incredible burgers on 6th Street in Austin, Texas. There’s a challenge associated with the giant jackalope that stares at you the second you walk in—you have to have a drink in your hand to climb on. It’s not easy. Trust me! To visit The Jackalope’s website, visit here: https://www.jackalopebar.com/downtown To read about my adventures at the bar when I visited in 2016, visit here: https://kristipetersenschoonover.com/2016/05/23/i-met-a-real-jackalope/
But during that brief visit, there was something much darker happening: Read the rest of this entry →
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Posted in Books and Boos Press, Deep Thoughts & Fun Stuff, horror short stories, Horror Stories, The Shadows Behind
Tags: are jackalopes real, Austin, Douglas WY, horror stories with urban legends, jackalope, Shope papilloma virus, Texas wildfires 2011, Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope, what is a jackalope
Sinister Settings: Tambora
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
We’ve all heard of massive volcanic eruptions in the past killing thousands of people and laying waste to cities and entire landscapes. Before Santa Maria, before Mt Pelee, and even before Krakatoa, there was Tambora.
Tambora is an active volcano on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia. On April 10, 1815, Read the rest of this entry →
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Posted in Books and Boos Press, Deep Thoughts & Fun Stuff, Ghost Stories, horror short stories, The Shadows Behind
Tags: active volcanos in Indonesia, can volcanoes affect weather, ghost story collections, Gillen D’Arcy Wood, Horror Stories, Immolation, inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, stories about volcanic eruptions, Sumbawa, Tambora, the Year Without a Summer, University of Rhode Island discoveries on Tambora
Happy Easter! Easter decorations can be terrifying…
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
Whether or not you celebrate this holiday, I don’t think any of us can deny that sometimes, Easter decorations—especially vintage ones—can be creepy.
Growing up, we had a rather freaky plastic Easter Bunny that lit up. I have no Read the rest of this entry →
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Sinister Settings: FORDLANDIA
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover

Riverside Avenue in Fordlandia, which was near the Tapajos River. This image was printed in Grandin’s 2010 book, FORDLANDIA.
If you’ve read my work, you know that settings are something about which I’m passionate. A unique, vibrant setting always makes for a more interesting piece.
I’d always wanted to write a story involving a place called Fordlandia—a city Henry Ford built in Brazil in the late 1920s so he could have his own supply of rubber for his manufacturing; a place that is now abandoned and overgrown. I finally got the chance when I wrote “Attempted Delivery,” which appears in my forthcoming collection, The Shadows Behind.
Never heard of Fordlandia? Lots of people haven’t (when I mention it I usually get “what the hell is that?”) There’s a reason for that. The experiment in a utopia, meant to mirror a factory town in the Midwest—complete with a school, movie theatre, dance hall, church, modern hospital and paved roads (but no alcohol or tobacco)—was an unmitigated disaster.
“The houses sucked for the environment, the food made people sick, the rubber trees wouldn’t grow or just plain died of a strange blight,” notes the marine biologist, Juliane, in my short story “Attempted Delivery.”
That’s the short version. The land was infertile, cargo had trouble reaching the city unless it was the rainy season, and Amazon wood—which Ford had hoped to sell in order to cover costs until rubber trees took hold—had no value. At one point the workers rioted. By 1945, Fordlandia was abandoned, nothing more than a broken dream.

One of the houses that remains in Fordlandia today. This is a screenshot from a 2008 Spanish documentary on the subject.
Today, there are people living in Fordlandia, Read the rest of this entry →
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Posted in Books and Boos Press, Deep Thoughts & Fun Stuff, Horror Stories, News, The Shadows Behind
Tags: abandoned jungle cities, Fitzcarraldo, Fordlandia, lost cities in Brazil, rubber plantation history, short story Attempted Delivery, stories about the jungle, Werner Herzog, what was the name of Henry Ford’s city in the Amazon
THE SHADOWS BEHIND cover reveal!
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
I’m thrilled to show off the cover for my forthcoming short story collection, The Shadows Behind, coming from Books and Boos Press on April 30, 2019! The cover’s art is by A.L. Cortez, who had some interesting things to say about its creation. You can read that on the press’ website here: https://booksandboospress.com/2019/03/21/the-shadows-behind-cover-reveal/
This collection, which is foreworded by Damnation Island author Stacy Horn, contains six long out-of-print favorites, among them “Doors” (Carpe Articulum, 2010), as well as four featured in various, esoterically-themed anthologies (which, if you didn’t buy those anthologies, you probably haven’t read).
What’s most exciting are the seven new Read the rest of this entry →
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Posted in Books and Boos Press, Ghost Stories, Horror Stories, News, Short Stories, The Shadows Behind
Tags: A.L. Cortez, book covers, Books, Books and Boos Press, Damnation Island, horror short stories, John Palisano Ghost Heart, magic realism short stories, short stories about monsters, Stacy Horn, The Shadows Behind