In today's special Storycast episode, we read The Crimson Tower from L. Stephenson's upcoming short story collection, When Strange Things Bite.

A mythical monster stalks a farming community -- A titan from the stars brings destruction to a small costal town -- A centuries old curse takes hold of a family -- A sea creature hunts a young group of trespassers -- A university professor receives a late-night visit from the dead -- A message board murder mystery is investigated -- An everyday morning takes a turn for the worse -- A sister becomes paranoid of her brother’s disease -- A young witch must gather a few risky ingredients -- A cannibal pays someone an unexpected visit -- A carpenter's daughter demands bloody satisfaction -- A psychopath fights to survive an alien invasion -- A boy is hunted by the devil -- A young boy faces his fear at the dentist.

You can preorder the collection now on Amazon. 

We kick things off with some writing and submission news. After that, we discuss a controversial topic in the reading community. We also figure out a fun way to make Goodreads reviews more legitimate. Here's a hint, it deals with users getting assigned a difficulty score based on the books they read.

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @dpwpodcast

You can check out Caleb's work at www.calebjamesk.com

We spent New Year's Eve getting drunk and talking about the greatest 50 WWE wrestlers of all time. There's also some brief literary talk. 

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @dpwpodcast

You can check out Caleb's work at www.calebjamesk.com. 

Caleb starts the episode by announcing his new favorite book. After that, we talk about how 2024 treated us regarding our writing and what publications we got. We end by discussing our writing goals for 2025. 

You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @dpwpodcast

You can check out Caleb's work at www.calebjamesk.com. 

Caleb opens the show with some writing woes. After that, we discuss all the books we've read in 2024, including our biggest disappointments and best reads of the year. 

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @dpwpodcast

You can check out Caleb's work at www.calebjamesk.com. 

We open things off with some good publishing news! After that, we settle in for a discussion about some unexpected problems authors might encounter after getting their work accepted for publication. We also talk about getting paid as a writer and when you should stop submitting to publishers that don't pay for your work. 

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @dpwpodcast

You can check out Caleb's work at www.calebjamesk.com. 

Caleb opens things up with a follow-up to an issue from last week's episode. After that, we discuss a list of Christmas horror books. But we do a terrible job!

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @dpwpodcast

You can check out Caleb's publication history at www.calebjamesk.com. 

We begin the episode by discussing Cormac McCarthy and a specific scene in his novel Suttree that depicts a young man fornicating with watermelons. 

After that, we have a much longer discussion about offending publishers and your audience. We start with what big comic book creators and movie studios have been doing wrong by alienating their core audience, how that correlates with authors on a much smaller scale, and the simple fixes that can avoid many headaches. 

Around 40 or so minutes in we finally get to the heart of the episode by discussing a specific scene (or in this case, word choice) that might derail one of Caleb's future submissions. We talk about when you should be brave and stick to your guns, and when it's important to know when to concede and make the proper changes to a work to get it published. 

You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @dpwpodcast

You can check out Caleb's work at www.calebjamesk.com 

We kick off the episode with some publishing news, a quick discussion about putting your previously published stories into your own collection, and what changes we think are acceptable from a publisher's editors. 

The actual episode begins around the 17:36 mark for those who want to jump straight to our review of Violent Advents: A Christmas Horror Anthology which features Caleb's story, Maggot Party. We digress several times in this one with one of the more interesting topics being that of contemporary authors writing in first person present tense. If you're a fan of horror anthologies, you will love this collection!

You can follow us on X, Facebook, and Instagram @dpwpodcast

You can check out Caleb's work at www.calebjamesk.com. 

We open the episode with some publishing talk. After that, a very ill Caleb does his best to talk about conspiracy novels. Things do not go well.

Follow us on X, Instagram, and Facebook @dpwpodcast

Check out Caleb's work at www.calebjamesk.com.