With the contract received, I can finally announce that my novel 'What Do Monsters Fear?' will release via Post Mortem Press in 2017. A huge thank you to Eric Beebe for taking a chance on this one. If all goes to plan, I'll have both this and Brain Dead Blues available at next year's Scares That Care in Virginia, so, circumstances permitting, drop by and grab a copy. Thanks again to everyone for their continued support.

This past weekend I got to host a Skype Q&A with Brian Keene and Paul Tremblay live in Dublin. The fans had an absolute blast, and I'm happy that modern age technology allows such events to happen. We also had guest appearances from Kealan Patrick Burke, Alan M. Clark, Jeff Strand, the absolutely hilarious Bob Ford, Christopher Golden, Jonathan Janz and Mary SanGiovanni... What a night. Announced during the Q&A (and also in Keene's newletter) was the following:

"Matt Hayward is the first official acceptance for the forthcoming CLICKERS FOREVER anthology. He wrote a fantastic story that J.F. Gonzalez would have loved. (I should also note, the CLICKERS FOREVER antho isn't *just* about Clickers. It will delve into all of Gonzalez's work. For example, I've assigned Nick Mamatas to revisit THE CORPORATION, etc.)"

Writing within the Clickers universe has been a dream come true, and I'm delighted to be part of the project. 2017 looks to be a good year.

I gave an interview to Joe Mynhardt of Crystal Lake Publishing recently about my upcoming story in Tales From The Lake Vol. 3. Joe and his entire team over at CLP are doing some of the best work in the industry at the minute, and if you haven't already, I urge you to check 'em out. You can support their work on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/clp and by doing so, you'll get to read my interview. The interview isn't the reason to back them on Patreon, though; you should back them because they're a very unique, strong, and necessary voice in the industry. One I'm proud to work with.
Tales from the Lake Vol. 3 releases 26th August 2016
https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Lake-Vol-3-Allan-Gunnells-ebook/dp/B01KBTEKKA

I'm humbled by Bryan Smith and Kealan Patrick Burke's kind words about my debut collection, BRAIN DEAD BLUES. Both of these guys have been an inspiration to me, and to now call them my friends means an awful lot. The collection (coming 2017 on Sinister Grin Press) still doesn't have artwork, so instead, here's a photo of Matthew McConaughey trying to plow me down in a tank when I was a child.

"In BRAIN DEAD BLUES, Matt Hayward shows that he is one of horror's most distinctive new voices. This collection is full of evocative storytelling, vivid characterizations, and fresh takes on old tropes. Do yourself a favor and read it." - Bryan Smith, author of DEPRAVED and SLOWLY WE ROT

“Not content to conquer the rock music world, Matt Hayward has now turned his attention to dark fiction, and how much richer we all are as a result. BRAIN DEAD BLUES is everything you’d expect from a rock star turned horror writer, documenting not only facets of the music world but also the darkness that can result from obsessions both creative and violent. I have long been a fan of both the music and the man behind it. Now I’m a fan of his writing too.” - Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE TURTLE BOY, KIN, and SOUR CANDY

Coming 26th August: Tales From The Lake Vol. 3, featuring my new short story Rodent In The Red Room. I don't usually do extreme stuff, but this one was out there. Crystal Lake Publishing are putting out some of the best releases in the business (including stories by Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell and many more), and I'm very proud to work with them. Available in paperback and Kindle.

Kealan and I recently sat down to chat about horror on the Soundcheck Podcast. Besides the fact that our brains were like your grandmother's porridge after we drank copious amounts of beer the night before, it was a pretty cool conversation. You can find the link below:
EPISODE #06 - Kealan Patrick Burke

LISTEN NOW: https://soundcloud.com/the…/episode-006-kealan-patrick-burke

Or on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/…/pod…/the-soundcheck/id1087035902…

After a Q&A session for his novel KIN, (a very hungover) Bram Stoker Award Winning author Kealan Patrick Burke sits down with (a very hungover) Matt to recap the night, talk his return to Ireland, and explore Irish mythology.

NOTE: We had an issue with a cable that resulted in clicking, popping, and Matt's mic dipping in volume. Regardless, we hope it doesn't affect your enjoyment of the show.

With the contract signed, I can finally announce that my short story collection 'Brain Dead Blues' will be released with Sinister Grin Press in 2017. Sinister Grin have put out works by many of my favourite authors, and I'm very proud to join their roster. I'll have more updates as they come, but here's some words from Kealan Patrick Burke:

"“Not content to conquer the rock music world, Matt Hayward has now turned his attention to dark fiction, and how much richer we all are as a result... Everything you’d expect from a rock star turned horror writer, documenting not only facets of the music world but also the darkness that can result from obsessions both creative and violent. I have long been a fan of both the music and the man behind it. Now I’m a fan of his writing too.” - Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE TURTLE BOY, KIN, and SOUR CANDY

Today I sold a story to Crystal Lake Publishing for their upcoming anthology Tales From The Lake Vol. 3. The story is titled Rodent In The Red Room and contains a character who's been knocking about inside my head for the past few months now. His name's Benjamin, he's a drifter, he's Irish, and he has many more experiences ahead of him, that's all I'll say for now. The story itself is a little bit of a tribute to Edward Lee and the more extreme side of horror in general, something I've never explored before but am happy I did. I hope you'll enjoy it.