Mister Frank
The Unusual Blog Space of writer, Frank J Edler.
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Coming Soon - Haunted Hamburger House by Frank J. Edler
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
You Love Horror Comedies, You Just Don't Realize It (Saturday the 14th)
Friday, December 30, 2022
A Year in Reading 2022
It's time to reflect on my year of reading for 2022. It has become my annual tradition to spotlight my notable reads for the past year. It's a fun way to reflect on the best material I've had the honor of reading instead of making some inaccurate, ever-changing, or controversial ranked list.
And now, my most notable reads of 2022:
- Boondock Butcher by Chuck Buda (2021) La Cigolli Press: Chuck Buda's latest horror situated in the rural mountains of Tennessee. This reads like the bastard child of Edward Lee and Richard Laymon. Its gritty, extreme, gore fueled and just backwoods enough to lose a tooth while reading it. This is Chuck Buda's best horror to date. Wash it all down with a sweet tea.
- Talia by Daniel Volpe (2021) Independently Published: Last year, Daniel Volpe made my list with Billy Silver. This year, its Talia, a prequel to Billy Silver and every bit as visceral and disgusting. Maybe even more so. While it is connect to Billy Silver, the story takes on a whole different flavor from its predecessor. This is a tale of revenge wrapped in cringe and filth. Read if you dare.
- The Ballad of TERROR TINY TIM & Other Tales of Unkindness by Douglas Hackle (2022) Independantly Published: If Douglas Hackle writes a book, there's a really good chance you're going to find it on my year end list. Like this, Hackle's supposed last hurrah (though rumors are there maybe one or two more before he hangs it up for good.) This is a collection of odd, absurdist stories as on Douglas Hackle can tell them. These stories are weird but also, smart. Hackle practically dares his readers to see the brilliance of his work hidden in the miasma of silly preposterousness he weaves in words, both coherent and incoherent. Pick up TERROR TINY TIM... if you dare!
- Moonfellows by Danger Slater (2022) Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing: As with Douglas Hackle, so too will Danger Slater almost certainly appear on my year end list anytime he publishes new work. And such is the case with the uber-moody, MOONFELLOWS. You know that old timey movie where a rocket ship is launced to the moon and then the grainy, choopy image of a man with his face painted like the moon, harrumph's when said rocket pierces him in the eye? And
also, you know that similarly toned but more modern, yet still goes for the old-timey asthetic Smashing Pumpkins music video for the song Tonight? Yeah well this story are those two things, but its a Danger Slater book. So unique. Its party alternative history, part fantasy, part absurdist sci-fi, part bizarro, and part literary fiction. In the end, what it is is all good. Read it. For mankind.
- Southern Fried and Horrified by Ronald Kelly (2022) Stygian Sky Media: I'm nearly embarrassed to admit that this is the first book by Ronald Kelly that I've ever read. That's because this is the non-fictional account of Ronald Kelly's storied writing career from breaking into publishing as just before the industry collapse at the dawn of digital publishing and the comeback he made to once again find himself among horror fiction's elite in a new golden age of dark fiction books. The story is full of the southern charm it promises and is feel good even through the darkest time. You likely won't find another book 'on writing' quite like it. If you were to twist my arm and force me to rank these books, this one would easily be my number one read of 2022. Time for me to read some Ronald Kelly fiction in the coming year!
- Honorable mentions for 2021 include:
- PARADISE CLUB by Tim Meyer, a book who's path was dictated by his Patreon contributors
- ZODIAC by Tom Duffy, the debut novel with a wickedly sinister concept. A serial killer is forced out of retirement
- THE TRIANGLE OF BELIEF by Brian Keene, a non-fiction offering by one of horror's greats that connects the dots between belief, faith, maturity and writing.
- TOLLBOOTH by Bud Smith. Too many people are sleeping on Bud Smith's work. This is the second book that I've read by him and it is exceptional, accessable fiction of the every man. This is what I like to call 'blue-collar fiction.' Do yourself a favor and check it, or anything, by Bud Smith out.
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Your Invited to a Birthday Bash!
Reg E. Rat’s is full of fun and games for the whole family. It’s also filled with maniac animatronics, a questionable food menu and, somewhere in the back, the zaniest medical staff imaginable.
Spend a hellacious afternoon with Reg E. Rat and friends. You’re gonna have a bloody good
time!
“Frank J. Edler, the deranged mind behind BRATS IN HELL, and DEATH GETS A BOOK, is back with his most insane and hilarious book to date. REG E. RAT'S BIRTHDAY FUN CENTER & SAME DAY OUTPATIENT CARE FACILITY is batshit crazy—full of animatronic monsters, a giant humanoid rat and brutal kill scenes. Birthday parties will never be the same. Enjoy the pizza!” — Daniel J. Volpe, author of LEFT TO YOU
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Haunted Hamburger House on the Open Seas
I've been talking a lot about NFTs lately. And it all culminates with this, the ultimate NFT release of Haunted Hamburger House on the OpenSea platform. You can check it out right here.
The OpenSea mint of Haunted Hamburger House features an eerie 3-D rendering of the inside of the Haunted Hamburger House, which if you pay close enough attention, you will find a lot of paranormal activity happening. Additionally you will unlock access to the digital book files of Haunted Hamburger House in addition to the audiobook recording, narrated by the fantastic voice talent of Ron Gabaldon.
All of that for less that the equivalent of $20 US dollars is an insanely great deal! And don't forget, you get true ownership of the product when purchasing an NFT. And the added benefit of resale value.
This is not a one-of-a-kind or small run minting. The publisher, D&T NFTs, NFT project, D&T Book Club of Horror, seeks to normalize the purchase of books via NFTs. They are working to offer the NFTs on as many user friendly, accessible platforms as possible. The future of book purchasing is here and you can get in on the ground floor.
This is the future, not just of books, but the whole world. Let Haunted Hamburger House be your gateway to what's next.
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Start an NFT Bookshelf
I'd like to make a case for NFT books. Not just because I have an NFT book available for purchase right now but because I believe NFT books are the future of digital reading. Granted, right now, the learning curve is steeper than it should be for mass market appeal but I'm hoping to find a few intrepid believers to step forward and be a part of the future, now.
The best argument for switching your preferred digital library to NFTs is simply ownership. Right now, when you purchase eBooks from any of the big retailers (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc.) you are not truly purchasing the book. What you are doing is unlocking access to the digital files that said retailer owns in exchange for a fee. They can tell you you own the book all you want but read the fine print. If any one of those retailers folds up, your books are gone. If any one of those retailers decided that after you've plunked your hard earned money down on those books that those books do not meet their content guidelines or the author/rights holder has misbehaved, those books will disappear. No returns, no refunds, no exchanges.
You don't truly own your books on Kindle, Nook and Kobo. Any books you purchase on those platforms are not yours. Bottom line.
Then, there is resale value. We know that when we purchase a paperback or hardcover book, we can lend it to a friend, treasure it on a bookshelf or even place it in a little free library for the enjoyment of a random stranger. And, of course, if you're lucky enough to have a used book store or consignment shop around you, you can always sell it to them for some pocket change. Even today, there are platforms like Pango Books and even Amazon where you can resell you're used books on the secondary market.
You can't resell your eBooks though. Best you can do is make them available to lend out to your friends on Kindle. But when you purchase an NFT book, you purchase honest-to-goodness ownership. And with ownership comes the ability to resell. Best of all, with an NFT book is that there is no such thing as 'used'. A digital book is always as new as the day it was first minted (minting is crypto-speak for made available to purchase). Now, depending on how many copies or versions of an NFT book are created will determine its resale value.
When you think of NFTs now, you probably think about digital art work. The image of a cartoon monkey in various outfits, against different backgrounds and sporting different accoutrements likely comes to mind. Each of those monkeys have varying degrees of commonality. Just like trading cards. A lot of trading card images are printed at a high rate of frequency (the commons), some at a lesser rate of frequency (the uncommons), some are printed with a very low degree of commonality (the rares) and in some cases, the ultra-rare, one-of-a-kind card could be made available. Like any market, the price is dictated by the supply and demand. The NFT market is no different. I can choose to print one million copies of my NFT book or I can choose to go Wu-Tang style and print only one NFT copy of the book. So the book will be priced for purchase accordingly and you can resell the book accordingly based on availability of the book in the market.
But, you can resell it. No matter what. If a lot of copies of the book are still available to purchase, you can elect to undercut the market and resell the book at a cut rate. If there were a thousand copies of the book minted and all of them have sold out, then, even though there are a lot of copies out there, none of them are available on the open market any longer and you can resell the book at a premium to those who want but no longer can purchase it from the minter. And, those prized, one-of-a-kind NFT books, well we already know how those go on the secondary market.
What's more, if you are a writer or publisher, you also stand to gain from the resale of NFT books. That's not the case with traditional used book markets. The authors and publishers only get one bite at that apple. Secondary sales go to the owner of the book only. Not necessarily so with NFTs. NFT's come with what are known as 'smart contracts' which are digital stipulations tied to ever NFT. Since NFTs reside on a blockchain, ownership is tracked digitally over a lifetime. Royalties can be written into the smart contract on all future exchanges of ownership of a given NFT. In other words, the creators continue to get royalties in perpetuity on every sale of the book. That's a win all around and an opportunity that has not existed in the world until now.
Haunted Hamburger House: An NFT Book available now |
Those are only a small handful of reasons to start building your NFT bookshelf up starting right now. Ownership, true ownership. That is a thing that has frustrated eBook readers since their inception. Even if you do retain ownership of eBook files, storage is on you. If your laptop, or tablet or phone take a crap, the file is lost forever. NFT books exist on the blockchain. Until the world explodes and the entire infrastructure of the internet is obliterated, your book will always be available to you in some way. Think about it, you could burn your NFT book and still own a perfectly good copy of it the next day. You'll just have to go to Amazon to buy a new tablet. That's okay, Amazon is going to need the business after everyone pulls out of Kindle for NFTs.