Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Coming Soon - Haunted Hamburger House by Frank J. Edler

 




Get ready for eerie chills and unworldly thrills from D&T Publications, HAUNTED HAMBURGER HOUSE by Frank J. Edler! This wild and wacky paranormal adventure gets an early drop on Godless.com Thursday, October 12th before its official release on Amazon Kindle and Paperback on Thursday, October 26th. The book will also be available to purchase personalized and direct at frankedler.com soon thereafter.

What's it all about? In the heart of the New Mexican desert, lost along old HWY 66 sits a forgotten hamburger joint of a bygone era. A young real estate agent is trying to sell the property before the unforgiving sands claim the building, but within its withering walls, eerie energy is creeping about, chasing away would-be buyers! Enter the Not Normal Investigators, a rag-tag team of paranormal sleuths dispatched to uncover the source of this disturbing energy for their reality tv show. The answers they find are out of this world.

This story was not only inspired by the plethora of ghost hunter and paranormal investigation shows on the Discover, History and Travel cable networks but also, independent paranormal investigators doing their thing without fancy production budgets on YouTube and other streaming platforms. Love or hate these types of shows, you know you can turn away from them. Are ghosts real? Is it all simply some Hollywood magic? Or, is it ...something else? HAUNTED HAMBURGER HOUSE answers all those questions and more.

"If you love or hate ghost hunter shows, Frank Edler's HAUNTED HAMBURGER HOUSE is the book you didn't know you've been waiting for." -Jay Wilburn, author of CURSE OF THE RATMAN



HAUNTED HAMBURGER HOUSE was originally released as an experimental NFTbook in October of 2022. It can still be purchased in that ground breaking format on OpenSea. The NFTbook comes with true ebook ownership, dynamic animated book art and unabridged audiobook edition of HAUNTED HAMBURGER HOUSE, narrated by Ron Gabaldon.

Just in time for spooky season, grab your copy of HAUNTED HAMBURGER HOUSE, the outrageous haunted house story that takes place in an abandoned burger join in the middle of the New Mexican desert. 



Tuesday, June 13, 2023

You Love Horror Comedies, You Just Don't Realize It (Saturday the 14th)

 


Don't scoff. You love horror comedies. You do, admit it. Maybe you don't even realize it. Perhaps you don't recognize a horror comedy when you see one. It could be that you haven't found the right fit for your tastes. Could it be you're afraid you might lose your horror cred if you laughed at the macabre. I'm here to tell you, you can admit it: Horror Comedy is great!

Of course dark, brooding, eerie, moody horror is your thing. Nobody is going to take that from you. No need to point your chin up at the occasional funny movie that plays in your sandbox. They can co-exist in blood-soaked harmony. No harm, no foul. Take a break. Have a laugh and then get back to all the brooding and bludgeoning. That's what life is all about.

You already like at least one horror comedy flick. I guarantee it. Almost certainly you've enjoyed Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, a movie that has the best time having fun with all the tropes you love. Then there's What We Do In The Shadows, pairing classic horror movie monsters with the reality television format. There are the mainstream ones that you might not even realize qualify as horror comedy like Gremlins, Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice. The Addams Family and The Munsters, too! Perhaps the modern granddaddy of the horror comedy movies, Shaun of the Dead? Its an out and out lampoon of the tried and true zombie horror movie we've been watching since Romero set the ghouls out to get Barbara.

Speaking of granddaddies, have you heard of one of my favorite horror comedies of all time? Saturday the 14th. It was released way back in 1981 starring Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss and features a young (and still balding) Jeffrey Tambor along with the likes of Stacy Keach and Michael Berryman to name a few.


Saturday the 14th is a spoof of sorts. But, not on the movie named for the day before this flick. This is more of a fun homage to classic Hollywood horror monsters. A typical suburbanite family inherits their dead uncle's house. The house contains an evil book of magic unbeknownst to the family but totally beknownst to the vampire (Tambor) who want to run the family off and get his hands on the book himself. Of course, the son find the book before Dracula. When he opens it up and starts reading the pages inside he sets loose a panteon of movie monsters on the unsuspecting family (and on Dracula Tambor). There's a werewolf and a mummy. There's a creature of a dark lagoon (or in this case, a bathtub.) There's even an exterminator named, you guessed it, Van Helsing, who's hired to get rid of the bats in the attic.



Saturday the 14th shows its age. But, its not a movie that needs its good looks to prevail. This is a movie about having fun with movie monsters. When I first watched this as a kid, there were parts that scared the bejesus out of me but it was the laughs that kept me glued to the TV and got me through it. This is the movie that made me love horror. And yes, its a horror comedy that made me love horror. See, horror comedy is horror.


You're not going to discover this as a kid. But you should still check it out. As of the the release of this blog, you can find Saturday the 14th streaming free on Tubi, Peacock, Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video. There's no excuse not to check it out.

And if you find you love horror comedy like I do, why not check out my horror comedy books, inspired by movies like Saturday the 14th. You can find them on Amazon, Kindle & Kindle Unlimited. Or you can buy signed paperback copies direct through my web site at frankedler.com. Use the coupon code: BUY3 at checkout to get any three books for $30. 






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.







I like to spotlight the books that I connected with most in a given year instead of ranking them. I read twenty six books this year, twelve less than last year. The is a reason for the dramatic decrease in books I read this year. It was my intention to focus on reading longer length books that have been sitting on my shelf this year. I didn't want to find myself reading short books just to reach my Goodreads reading goal so I set the bar lower (25) to afford myself more time to read longer books. And it worked.

The following are the books that have left an impact for one reason or another. They are presented in chronological order as I read throughout the year. I hope you will be inspired to check out any on this list that you haven't and discover those you wouldn't have ever considered.

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.
There you have it. Due to the curtailed amount of books I've read overall this year, I've made a comparable amount of notable books to spotlight this year as well. This year, three books of the twenty-six I read earned my elusive 5-star rating.  That's one more five star book with twelve less books read. Quantity went down, quality went up. 

Next year I will endeavor to read at least thirty books. I liked having the time to allow myself to read longer works but I was also a bit frustrated by the really longer books. I'll try to find a happier medium this year. I'm kind of getting frustrated dictating my book journey by reading goals I set for myself on Goodreads. But, its also fun to set those goals. Bottom line, I'm going to keep reading and you should too.

You can check out the complete list of the books I read in 2021 on Goodreads.
You can check out my notable books read from 2021 HERE.

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Your Invited to a Birthday Bash!

 


Now available in hardcover, paperback and eBook, from D&T Publishing: Reg E. Rat's Birthday Fun Center and Same Day Outpatient Care Facility. A bloody tale about the horrors of attending children's birthday parties.

For Mortimer, there are only two things in life to fear: kidney stones and children’s birthday parties. For his son, Ichabod, its bullies and lame birthday presents. The father and son duo are about to spend an afternoon facing their worst fears at the quirkiest place on Earth: Reg E. Rat’s Birthday Fun Center.

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
 




Now available at Amazon (hardcover, paperback and Kindle eBook) & Barnes & Noble (paperback only)

Grab your copy today and party with The Rat!


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.




Thursday, October 27, 2022

Open For Business

Want book mail? Wanna stick it to the man? Want to but more than just a book? Well  I can help you out with all of those things. And it's easier than ever to do.

All you have to do is visit https://frankedler.com for you one-stop-shop for all things Mr. Frank. I've combined my online book store with my blog feed and Insta posts into one seemless experience.

ALL books at frankedler.com are just $12 each and 3 for $30 (Use Code BUY3 at checkout). All books can be signed and personalized and always come with bookmarks and stickers!


Everyone loves finding book mail at their door. Experience the thrill of doing box opening videos on YouTube, Insta or TikTok. Share all the cool books you're going to be reading. Douse them with all that FOMO. Not being the cool kid on the block with titles like DEATH GETS A BOOK, BRATS IN HELL and EXPLODING BEARS sucks. Order your Mr. Frank books today at http://frankedler.com 

Don't give Amazon all your money. Buy books direct from Mr. Frank. You can't get signed books at the big box stores. But you can at frankedler.com Everyone wins when you buy direct from the author.