Rick Claypool's Blog

Hey guess what.

My new novel SKULL SLIME TENTACLE WITCH WAR comes out TODAY!

It’s available on Amazon and I have signed copies you can purchase from me directly.

Also: X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine just published an interview with me about the book. I think I’m gonna get Rebecca Gransden’s opening paragraph carved into my grave stone:

Anarchic weirdism triumphs in Skull Slime Tentacle Witch War (Anxiety Press, 2024). Rick Claypool’s wild novel unveils new visions of absurd abandon, wrapped up in a hyperreal rush of cartoonish wonder. As a whirlpool of body horror kitsch drenched in neon trash nightmares, Claypool’s demented sensibility evokes creature feature mayhem and B-movie unruliness. Never did slime glow so good.

YOUR SKULL SLIME SUMMER BEGINS TODAY!

My new novel SKULL SLIME TENTACLE WITCH WAR doesn’t technically come out (via Anxiety Press) until July 9.

HOWEVER.

I've got a special heap available for pre-order AND some metal af promo shirts I designed using my original art for the book.

For all the details, check out my Absurdist Horror newsletter (and consider signing up for news and future updates).

https://absurdisthorror.substack.com/...

xoxox

Rick

Tentacle Head's publisher Bear Creek Press collapsed a few months ago. The situation was a whole shitty, disappointing thing that I won't go into here. It sucked a lot for me but it sucked waaay way more for others whose books were about to come out.

I honestly didn't even intend for Tentacle Head to become a book in the first place. But now it is! Or was, with brilliant illustrations by Sarah Allen Reed, who perfectly captured the Cronenbergian Moominland vibe I was going for.

Now there are only a few physical copies of the printed Bear Creek edition left. All are signed and for sale by the lovely people of Providence, Rhode Island's Lovecraft Arts & Sciences book shop.

A freshly reformatted ebook version is now available here for free.

I'm moving on to the next thing. Though if things go the way I'm working on getting them to go, this won't be the last you hear of Tentacle Head.

oh hey, you can now toss Tentacle Head a few stars on here if you're so inclined https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

now available exclusively from Bear Creek Press: https://bearcreekpress.bigcartel.com/...

My new book TENTACLE HEAD is now available for pre-order from Bear Creek Press: https://bearcreekpress.bigcartel.com/...

Here's what people are saying:

"Like The Little Prince reimagined by David Cronenberg, TENTACLE HEAD is a weird and wild beast. It's full of goo and gore, but beneath the ooze beats a great big human heart." - Lincoln Michel, author of The Body Scout

"Equal parts grotesque and poignant, TENTACLE HEAD is a twisted story of family and friendship in a fungus-strewn nightmare world." - Erica Satifka, author of How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters

"A child’s imagination can be far more cruel and gloom-ridden than most would like to admit. In his nightmarish children’s book for adults, Claypool spins juvenile phantasmagoria into a parable with no moral; a striking and wholly unique tale of apocalypse and survivor’s guilt." - BR Yeager, author of Negative Space

In a post-apocalyptic world ruled by tentacled invaders, a working class dad struggles to ensure his family's survival -- and faces the wrath of a boss whose subservience to the inhuman rulers has turned him against humanity itself.

My new book, THE MOLD FARMER, is out! Buy it here

Here's what some fantastic authors are saying about my latest:

Think you've got a bad job? Take consolation that you're not scraping mold for a living, that you don't have any tentacles in your head, and that you're not sewing tents from the discarded skins of the creatures who've taken your world over. A wonderfully odd novella with a profoundly human core.

-Brian Evenson, author of Song for the Unraveling of the World and The Warren



At its best, Rick Claypool's work makes the disturbing and surreal feel believable. The true horror in this book isn't the alien overlords, but the alarmingly relatable journey of a man navigating a world he will never understand, willing to stoop ever lower just to get by.

-Daniel McCloskey, author of Cloud Town and A Film About Billy



Claypool's post-apocalyptic novella draws readers into a world that's compellingly surreal, darkly imaginative, and just not... quite right.

-Premee Mohamed, author of A Broken Darkness and Beneath the Rising



A character struggling between the twin horrors of alien in-vasion and economic degradation, I found Rick Claypool's Mold Farmer a voice that held me in its grip. Full-on body horror merges with the most human of concerns-family, and how to protect it-to produce a fascinating, frightening tale.

-Aliya Whiteley, author of The Loosening Skin and The Beauty