With just three weeks until the launch of A Penny For Your Thoughts, I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to review an ARC. Bob Ford and myself are extremely excited for readers to sink their teeth into this one. Coming 1st June via Poltergeist Press:

"...A Penny For Your Thoughts is a smooth, easy, engaging read, and if I had but one wish it’d be for more Ford and Hayward collaborations." - Michael Patrick Hicks, High Fever Books

"Incredible story. Well-written, great plot twists, and characters that make you want to dive into the pages to help them. Put this on top of your must-read list for 2019. It's THAT good." - Tim Meyer, author of Kill Hill Carnage and The Switch House

"Matt Hayward and Robert Ford blend together so beautifully, you'd think they'd been collaborating for years... and hope they do it again." - Kelli Owen, author of Six Days and Teeth

"...this book drew me in and made me laugh. Made me cry with happiness and sadness. Made my heart race with anxiety. And kept me guessing until the very end. This is a must read and is solidly in my top 10 books for 2019. You’re going to love it." - Tracy Robinson Reviews

"A Penny For You Thoughts gave me that Twilight Zone vibe. I love that feeling the reader gets when the writers are just "in the zone". This is a story which is humorous, dark, bittersweet, and despite its outlandish plot, it somehow manages to be completely believable."-- Frank Errington Reviews

"A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS is a well-crafted tale. Every single story promise is paid off in spades. Every character shines. Every page pulls the reader deeper into Joe’s personal noir nightmare. The story contains hits of humor, which somehow make the emotional cuts even deeper. This new spin on the old adage “be careful what you wish for” is a wild and scary thrill ride." - Suz Jay Reviews

"While still being a completely modern story, this book has the vibe of a great mass-market horror novel from back in the day. A solid premise, great characters, and a twist into the supernatural that worked on every level—it was magical, it offered laughs, and then it was downright scary." - Ouija Doodle Reads

Delighted to announce my new novel with Robert Ford, A Penny For Your Thoughts, is up for preorder right now HERE. The book launches 01st June via Poltergeist Press as a hardback, paperback, and eBook. Read the full synopsis below (artwork by Ben Baldwin)

“Fresh from a stretch in prison, Joe Openshaw is living at home with his father and trying to get his life together again. He has let go of old habits, especially the ones that turned him into an addict and helped land him in prison.
On a hike along the Lowback Trail, Joe stumbles on one of the town’s oldest secrets—buried long ago, if not forgotten.
It’s an unusual but safe enough treasure—a jar of old pennies. What interests Joe isn’t the pennies themselves, but the pieces of paper taped to every coin—a child’s handwritten wish on each one.
When the first few wishes come true, they are simple things. Fun. Harmless.
Except as time goes on, Joe realizes they aren’t really wishes at all…
they’re exchanges, and the bill was racking up.

Nothing is free in life.

Sooner or later, you always pay.”

Wrath James White and Brian Keene, founders of the Splatterpunk Awards, which recognize superior achievement in the sub-genres of Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror, are pleased to announce the nominees for the second annual awards, honoring works published in 2018.

The awards will be presented during a ceremony at the 2019 Killercon Convention, taking place August 16th through the 18th in Austin, Texas. For more information, click here.

BRAIN DEAD BLUES, THE FAITHFUL, and PRACTITIONERS — 3 titles now in hardback from Poltergeist Press. Available to order online or at your favorite bookstore:

Delighted to see that Welcome To The Show made The 2018 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot. When I came up with the concept, I had no idea it’d be as well-received as it has been. Thank you to the authors, Doug Murano, Joe Mynhardt and Crystal Lake. And a huge congrats to everyone who made the Preliminaries.

Delighted to share that my second solo novel, THE FAITHFUL, releases today on Sinister Grin Press. You can read the synopsis and a short interview with cover artist Matt Davis HERE. And you can buy it now right HERE.​

At the Mountains of Madness meets They Live! in a new novel from Matt Hayward, the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of What Do Monsters Fear?

​After comedian Leo Cartwright performs his farewell comedy show in New York City, a young man ailed by cerebral palsy confides in him about odd dreams and a place he calls No Man’s Land. Leo thinks nothing of it until the man, Christopher Tate, winds up dead, along with a cryptic note taped to the comedian’s RV window: See you soon, Funnyman.

Leo sets out to find the truth about Christopher’s dreams to an odd town named Elswich. Shown to Leo in a dream by a mysterious man named Jarrad Prescott, the town prays to an Otherworldly god named Aypep and give their bodies to host his children in return for eternal life in the Otherworld.

It’s a wish granted through sacrifice…

“Hayward bleeds onto the page…” – Brian Keene, author of The Rising and Ghoul

“… the future of the horror genre is changing hands, and there is a whole new brew of writers assuming the task. Matt Hayward leading that pack.” – Edward Lee, author of The Bighead and White Trash Gothic

ORDER HERE

Rachel Autumn Deering and I have been waiting to announce this. PESTILENT, our first collaborative novel together, will launch in 2019. I can't give much away beyond the cover, but that speaks for itself...

Delighted to announce that I'll be at Belfast Horror Con, 27th October. I'll have a lot for sale (WHAT DO MONSTERS FEAR?, PRACTITIONERS, BRAIN DEAD BLUES, WELCOME TO THE SHOW), and will be happy to sign anything. I'll also be launching my brand new novel THE FAITHFUL. Stop by and say hi. Tickets are available now right HERE.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW launched earlier this month, you can pick it up right now HERE. The anthology shattered my expectations, smashing the Amazon charts and holding its position alongside some of the greatest releases in the genre. Being my first anthology, I wanted to do my publisher proud, I wanted to do my editor proud, and I wanted to do the authors proud. I think I've done that, and we have the readers to thank. 

Welcome To The Show panel: Mary SanGiovanni, Brian Keene, Kelli Owen, Patrick Lacey, Matt Hayward. Not pictured: Somer Canon, Glenn Rolfe, Adam Cesare, Matt Serafini

WELCOME TO THE SHOW features 17 of today's hottest authors of dark fiction as they tell the horrifying (fictional) history of the legendary San Francisco music venue, The Shantyman.
With all-new short stories by Brian Keene, John Skipp, Robert Ford, Max Booth III, Glenn Rolfe, Matt Hayward, Mary SanGiovanni, Bryan Smith, Matt Serafini, Kelli Owen, Jonathan Janz, Patrick Lacey, Adam Cesare, Alan M Clark, Somer Canon, Rachel Autumn Deering and Jeff Strand. Compiled by Bram Stoker Award-nominated author Matt Hayward. Edited by Bram Stoker Award-winning editor Doug Murano. Brought to you by Crystal Lake Publishing.