I was a reasonably young child when I was diagnosed with ADHD. I wasn’t one of those cases where the diagnosis was just being tossed around and applied to kids behaving as kids always have…in my case (as with many others back in the 1980s), it was a legitimate diagnosis. I was prescribed Ritalin at that time, and it did seem to do the trick–when I was in school. By the time I’d been home for a little while, I was twice as difficult to deal with as I’d been before the diagnosis and prescription. Before that, I’d been a handful–no surprise to anyone who knows me as even an acquaintance, even as an adult–after that, I was a holy fucking terror. It didn’t take long before my mother stopped me taking the Ritalin, because it was ultimately a bit of an issue. If it had been a few years later, they probably could have found some sort of scheduled dosage that might not have produced the same negative side-effects. Whatever the case may be, life goes on. Years later I was further diagnosed with passive-aggressive personality disorder, not to be mistaken with someone behaving in a passive-aggressive manner. They are two distinctly different things, though there are some commonalities in the manifestation of passive-aggressive personality disorder and an individual being a passive-aggressive asshole–but there’s no sense in going into that here. As with other personality disorders, there is no drug treatment associated with the passive-aggressive disorder–it’s a wiring issue rather than a chemical one. Passive-aggressive personality disorder frequently goes hand-in-hand with anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder (MDD), suicidal ideation, and substance abuse. You might have guessed it if you figured there’s a reason I mention all of those things in particular. You win the prize! There is no prize. Get used to disappointment. In addition to these things I’ve already mentioned, there have been strong signs of PTSD related to assorted experiences from my childhood (both as a young child and in my teen years). With all of those factors combined, I like to think I’ve turned out to be a reasonably functional adult and a productive member of society. I definitely have my issues here and there, and I can certainly still be quite difficult to deal with in even small doses (depending on the day)…but, all-in-all I’m keeping it together rather well if I do say so myself–and I do, so don’t argue with me. I wish there had been something like the neurodiversity movement when I was younger, or that it had been more well-established and well-known at that time. I spent most of my life feeling like there were things wrong with me as if I were broken or damaged in some way–and perhaps I was to some extent. I still frequently refer to myself as being precisely that. I laugh and joke about how I’m broken or damaged, dysfunctional and maladjusted…but there’s that kernel deep inside that curls up into a little fetal shape whenever I do it. It’s ok, though, I’m a bit of a masochist. The neurodiversity movement is focused on treating these (mostly high functioning) people as being nothing more than a natural (and sometimes valuable) thread of the overall tapestry of human diversity. It’s refreshing and more than a little bit liberating to be treated as if I fall into a spectrum of what can simply be called a person with a normal human brain–as preconditioned as I might be to consider it anything but normal. There are a lot of us out here. Some of us are more high functioning than and some less so, but there’s no cause to pretend that we’re somehow less than other people, regardless of where we fall on that spectrum. It takes some degree of patience to deal with some of us, myself included. Personally, I recognize how challenging I can be on a normal basis and I make concessions for that. I’m not exclusive in doing so. Most of us who fall into the neurodivergent categorization are well aware of these things and we’ve learned to cope (as best we can) and to provide a bit of leeway for others in our lives. This isn’t true for everyone, of course, as there are extreme cases, but a large number of us are just like everyone else, just with a little bit more psychological/emotional/mental baggage in tow.
For some additional reading on the Neurodiversity Movement, I’m including the following link:
This is where you can locate an increasing assortment of details for my presently available material as well as links to where you can check them out for yourself.
Don’t be a stranger!
On December 16th of 2022–my 44th birthday–Beneath the Unspoiled Wilderness was released by Madness Heart Press. This is my third novel, and my second book to take place in the same version of our world introduced in You Will Be Consumed. While the connection to the earlier novella isn’t obvious, there are future works planned that will tie them all together. Additionally, my short stories, Daemonica and Yeshua and Adonai take place in the same shared universe.
The novel is my homage to the camp slasher movies I grew up loving, with a healthy dose of cosmic horror and a whole lot of revenge added into the mix.
From Sixie-Award Winning and Splatterpunk Award-nominated author Nikolas Robinson, comes a new vision of extreme horror.
In Southwest Washington, there’s a stretch of undeveloped forest with a bloody history and a terrifying secret. When five college students set out on a camping trip, they have no way of knowing the monstrous attention they’re about to receive.
You know this story.
You know where this is going.
Or maybe you aren’t as ready as you think you are for the nightmare you’re about to witness…but no one could be prepared for the horrors that lurk beneath the unspoiled wilderness.
CW: Brutality, Sexual Violence, Gore
Like many of my titles, this can be purchased via Amazon or through http://www.godless.com and the Godless app. The links are located below:
In August of 2022, I released The Cold-Blooded Hills. It’s a cryptid monster story that caters to my love of dinosaurs and my exploration of how they might have evolved if they did manage to survive and adapt to the modern world.
Jonathan is a nature photographer, and he’s venturing off the beaten path into a small, largely untouched mountain oasis in the Nevada desert. Hoping to capture images of oncoming monsoon activity as it crosses the barren landscape, he stumbles across a hidden lake and life that should not exist–at least not anymore.
Like many of my titles, you can obtain this by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless mobile app for your device of choice. The link is below:
On June 21st of 2022, I followed up the release of Dog Days with a sequel, Dog Days: The Hunt, and the announcement that it would be the second installment of a trilogy of stories centered around the character of Lee Melvin. The character and the events are still based on my uncle and his life after the true events that inspired Dog Days.
In the snow-covered higher elevations of Montana’s Rocky Mountains, Lee is on the hunt for a black bear, armed with only his bow.
When a couple of poachers kill the wrong prey, Lee takes the law into his own hands and the snow will be pink with blood before he’s through.
I decided to do something a little bit different, and on February 23rd of 2022, I released Dog Days through the Godless platform. This is not a horror story in the same sense that my other Godless releases have been. Instead, this is based on a real-life event from when I was growing up, and you can read all about it for only seventy-five cents at the link that you’ll find below.
Based on a true story from the life of the author’s uncle, Dog Days is a tale of revenge and the horror man is capable of.
Returning home to find his house ablaze and his dogs trapped inside, Lee Melvin learns that it all has something to do with a good deed he’d done one night. Like a redneck John Wick, Lee will stop at nothing to punish the person responsible for the deaths of his two Dobermann pinschers and the harm he’s caused others.
In December of 2021, Godless promoted an AntiChristmas event, and since my birthday is December 16th, it seemed like I should definitely get in on the fun. For December of 2021, I released When You’re Here, You’re Fatalities exclusively at http://www.godless.com for only fifty cents.
Donna just started her job as a waitress at Pimento Patch only to find out the restaurant would be shutting its doors for good.
Along with a skeleton crew of slackers, she accepted the offer of full pay to work overnight cleaning the place up in preparation for the looming vacancy. Unfortunately, this particular Pimento Patch restaurant has a dark history, and a sinister presence has something in store for the five crew members on staff that night.
Prepare for the breadstick massacre, because When You’re Here, You’re Fatalities!
Taking inspiration from Italian Giallo, this short slasher takes place in a fictional version of an Olive Garden. You can check it out for yourself at the following link:
For November of 2021, I released Have You Seen Me? over at http://www.godless.com just in time for Thanksgiving!
When his teenage daughter disappears, Offi–former Officer Standish learns he will do anything to find her. In his search he will plummet to lows he’d never dreamed possible, braving trials that test the limits of his imagination and his intestinal fortitude. How far would you go to save the life of your only child?
Just in time for Thanksgiving, I’m bringing you a story that should make you hold your loved ones closer, treasuring family. I don’t want to spoil anything, because I delve into the backstory surrounding what motivated me to write this one in the Author’s Notes at the end of the story…but in the midst of this, you’ll encounter the snippet I’d set aside to share as part of the KillerCon 2021 virtual convention. Sadly, I opted not to dive right into the depravity and that decision did me no favors.
You can pick this up for yourself as of Wednesday, November 24th by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your preferred mobile device. The link is below:
Where Dreams Come True was my release for Halloween. October of 2021 was the 31 Days of Godless event at http://www.godless.com and my failed attempt at writing erotica was the Day Three release.
Amy’s expectation of a relaxing summer of housekeeping at a theme park hotel is shattered as guests and staff alike are overcome with carnal desires that cross all lines of decency. Can she escape with her sanity intact? Can she even make it out of the hotel?
If you want to know what readers have had to say, just check this out.
For only $0.50, you can pick it up for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless App on your preferred mobile device. The link is below:
May Cause Unexplained Ocular Bleeding is my newest collection of short fiction, released on August 20th, 2021 (on Godless August 18th). Almost exclusively focused on extreme horror and splatterpunk, with a bit of bizarro and nihilism thrown in for flavor, this collection contains ten stories, including the Godless Horrors hit, Horseplay.
From the gruesome, unfiltered imagination of Nikolas P. Robinson comes a collection of ten stories ranging from the brutal and bleak to the bizarre and surreal. In these pages, you’ll witness a drunk driver experiencing consequences worse than anything he could have imagined. You’ll see what happens when a beloved pet is accidentally sacrificed, opening the gates of Hell. And that is only the beginning. It gets worse from there.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Here are what better writers than I have had to say about it:
“Nikolas P. Robinson might possibly be the Neil Gaiman of extreme horror.” – Carver Pike, Splatterpunk Award nominated author of The Slaughter Box
“Imagine attending a party where—depending on which room you enter—you might get the best lay of your life, witness something unspeakable that might scar you for life, or get physically beaten within an inch of your life. That’s what reading this story collection feels like—though not necessarily in that order.” – Adrian Ludens, author of Bottled Spirits and Cobwebs
Here’s what other readers have had to say.
The title is available in digital formats through http://www.godless.com for a full $1 cheaper than you’ll find the digital title on Amazon. Just check out the following link:
What you’ll find in the pages of You Will Be Consumed is a cosmic horror, splatterpunk extravaganza that blends unsettling set pieces with dark humor. The novella was released on May 15th of 2021 through Madness Heart Press. It’s meant to introduce readers to the world of The Hungering Void, a connected sequence of novels, novellas, and short stories showcasing my fictional portrayal of our world going to hell in a very real sense. This novella serves as the first glimpse for many into the nature of gods and demons in what will be a larger fictional environment.
While investigating a series of peculiar and unsettling deaths in Denver, two deeply flawed detectives learn there might be no salvation for any of us.
What have readers had to say? I’m glad you asked. Check this out.
Other work published through Madness Heart Press can be found at the following link:
Daemonica is a stand-alone short story introducing readers to the larger story of Daemonica In Claritate, to be released at a later date.
Orphaned for the second time in her twenty-one years with the death of her older brother, Ethan, Layla Torres has been spiraling out of control. When she discovers the truth of what happened to Ethan and his friends, the secret stash of an entirely new drug in her brother’s belongings provides her with a chance for revenge. It’s a chance she’ll happily take.
You might also want to dive into depravity with my extreme horror digital short, Horseplay, available exclusively through http://www.godless.com for only $0.50 by following the link below.
This story has been included in my short story collection, May Cause Unexplained Ocular Bleeding, but you can get your hands on this delicious awfulness as a taste of what you’ll find.
A distributor of the vilest pornographic material available receives a tape that may be more than worth the price he paid to get it in his hands. What begins as documentation of one horrific pornographic act becomes something far more disturbing…but also far more interesting and valuable.
Innocence Ends, released in August of 2020, is a story of friendship and how far that friendship can be tested. The concept that forms the substrate of this novel is one that arose from a conversation with an old friend of mine, more than 20 years before the book ended up being published. We’d been discussing that certain B-movie tropes were never played as being serious, and we were sort of disappointed by that fact. You know the tropes I mean, the mad scientist with his manor atop the hillside, the group of friends trapped in a town with a sinister secret, and other such things. Snippets of scenes that would ultimately become part of Innocence Ends were posted on this blog years ago, because I’d started writing this book long before I finally sat down and finished it in late 2019 and early 2020. Two decades in the making, I’m pleased with how this one turned out.
Six lifelong friends meet together in an isolated mountain town in Northern Idaho to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a close friend’s suicide.
A week of hiking, spending time in nature, and bittersweet reunion soon takes a sinister turn as the friends find themselves fighting for their lives and struggling to survive. A seemingly tranquil community bombarded by late spring storms becomes a trap filled with monsters and threats everywhere they turn.
Terrifying secrets are revealed and the survivors are left to wonder what will be left of the world outside if they can find a way to come through the gauntlet alive.
Unspoken was the first novel I released, back in late 2011, though it was not the first I’d written. There was some small amount of experimentation taking place in the writing of this story, focusing on a protagonist that wasn’t particularly likable or relatable to most people…but hoping to elicit some sympathy for him by the time we reach our conclusion. In that, I do believe I succeeded.
Unspoken is a short, but well-paced and compelling exploration of the themes of unrequited love and the insanity that accompanies it in the midst of a world sliding into madness. A story of love, regret, and the end of the world expressed with a poetic voice and postmodern sensibilities; it could be described as being a combination between George A. Romero’s The Crazies and an amalgam of The Notebook and Love In the Time of Cholera.
The story follows Nathan, recently employed as an overnight orderly in a state mental hospital. He has found himself lucky enough to develop a friendship with Leyna, another of the overnight staff, but that friendship quickly becomes something far more intense for Nathan, a fact he chooses to keep to himself.
Suffering through the turmoil of his unspoken desire for Leyna and inured to the environment of a mental hospital and the madness that has afflicted him in his personal life, Nathan neglects to notice the signs that become more and more prevalent in the world around him, signs indicating that something terrible is taking place. As the world descends into madness, Nathan and Leyna remain at the institution, hoping that isolation might protect them from the world collapsing around them, but in the end there may be no escaping some tragedies.
Horror author David Moody described Unspoken as, “…a brave and thought-provoking piece of work filled with palpable emotions and plausible situations.”
Errata: Collected Short Fiction and Poetry was released in 2016, collecting in one volume eight short stories I’d written and released digitally as well as a collection of poetry that had been released as A Wreck In Progress a short while before Unspoken was published.
There is no connecting thread between the included stories, spanning genres from gritty crime drama to bizarro extreme horror. Topics run the gamut from the final scenes of a slasher narrative to the terrifying isolation of interstellar space. There is something for everyone, from fans of horror to those who enjoy hard science fiction.
Shane Hawk’s Anoka is a short but potent collection of short stories that range in length from flash fiction like “Soilborne” and “Orange” to longer pieces like “Wounded.” Touching on a range of topics from the alcoholism endemic within reservation communities–as those familiar with indigenous culture will already be aware of–to the epidemic of missing girls and women from tribal communities…and mingling those real-life concerns with supernatural and sometimes downright surreal narrative elements. This fictionalized version of Anoka, MN would make for a truly horrifying place to live, the implication being that horror lurks not far beneath the surface of everything there. “Wounded” and “Imitate” are perhaps my two favorite stories in this collection, and there are some similarities between the two. The stories in question focus on protagonists who are trying to make amends for the choices they’ve made earlier in their lives only to have terrifying circumstances arise. There’s a sort of morality play involved, reminding you–as the reader– that no amount of trying to make your life better will necessarily relieve you from the guilt of your past or the influences of your earlier decisions and mistakes. It’s a harsh reality, but it is reality just the same. I’m looking forward to seeing more from Shane Hawk down the line.
Have all of you dreamt of specific locations, or a singular location, so many times that you occasionally recall that place in your waking life as somewhere you momentarily believe you can return to? As if it’s somewhere you’ve actually been before?
You only finally stop thinking that way once you’ve reminded yourself that the location exists only in your dreams, though you feel like you’ve been there so many times before.
There are two locations like this for me, both of them situated in outdoor environments that bear a strong resemblance to regions of the Black Hills…or at least they feel like they’re situated somewhere in the hills.
One is a large cave system on private land that I’m able to enter by maneuvering my way along a cliff-side that others apparently don’t know about. It doesn’t keep me from trespassing, but it keeps me from being caught while doing so, as it provides me with an otherwise unknown entrance via a large grotto coming off the cliff wall. Descending from this hidden grotto is a sort of primitive staircase, something that could have been carved into the stone by an earlier culture. I’ve never followed the stairs down any further than the fissure that leads me into the cave system, but the stairs descend much deeper into darkness. The interior of the cavern is so familiar to me as to feel like I’ve been there dozens of times. In my dreams, I’ve taken other people there to experience the place in addition to making numerous trips on my own. The smells and taste of the air are so vividly recalled, as is the way sound reverberates from the walls. The chill of the water in a slow-moving underground stream that pools in a certain location where I’ve always had to strip down to traverse is as real to me as any memory.
Another location is similarly to be found along a cliff wall, this one rising up from an otherwise normal hiking trail that leads off into a narrow, mountain valley. By scrabbling along what would only be liberally described as a path up the early part of the cliffside, one can reach a small tunnel that pushes through to a sheltered cliffside on the opposite edge of what is actually a thin dagger of rock rather than a solid stretch of mountain like what is to be found in either direction to the side. From this sheltered cliff, one can see a whole different valley spreading out, far below. I’ve spent countless hours sitting there, enjoying the view, or so my memory tricks me into believing.
What’s particularly funny to me is that I rarely recall my dreams at all. And yet, when I find myself thinking of either of these two locations, sudden recollections of numerous visits come to mind from dreams I don’t even remember having.
That’s all, just a little bit of absent musing for the day.
What sort of locations do your dreams paint so vividly that you recall them in waking life as real places?
Jeremy Bates’s Run is a fast-paced, intense story with an underlying message of how we as a society have dropped the ball concerning mental health for our former military personnel. Our protagonist, Charlotte, is a prime example of Murphy’s Law being in full effect. Her parents were murdered when she was a child and then her high school sweetheart returns from a series of traumatic deployments overseas (one of which terminating in multiple lives lost by those beside him) with psychosis that pushes at the very edge of worst-case scenario PTSD. During a camping trip that was intended to help Luke find his balance, he lashes out and severely assaults two of Charlotte’s friends before attempting to harm her as well. We flash forward from there to a year later with Charlotte attempting to move on with her life, dating a new guy, and focusing on finishing school…and then Luke reappears after being released from prison. Everything takes on a staccato quality from there, as Luke becomes increasingly paranoid and violent, his instability culminating in an act of violence befitting only those we consider terrorists. It’s a short read/listen and it’s well worth taking the time to do so. The audiobook is narrated by Jenna Green, someone I consider a friend, an individual I’ve known for a great many years–since we worked together once upon a time at a local television affiliate. The quality of her narration is superb, and I’m not saying that because I’m biased. I feel entirely confident that I have recommended her to other writers who are looking for a woman to narrate their audiobooks in the future.
Thomas R. Clark has crafted an interesting tale with Bella’s Boys. It’s a little bit American Psycho, a larger bit of cosmic horror, and a lot of splatterpunk erotica. The reason I mention the novel from Bret Easton Ellis isn’t only because of the fixation on music and the almost overwhelming attention to detail associated with said music throughout the novella–but that does have something to do with it–it’s because this novella captures something of the 1990s dive bar, metalhead scene in the same way American Psycho satirized the white-collar, predatory capitalist world of the 1980s. At the same time, Bella’s Boys certainly depicts graphic acts of sex and violence (often simultaneously) with the same unrelenting and unfiltered lack of concern so many readers enjoyed from Ellis’s novel. The afterward, providing a glimpse into the author’s life and the real-life snowstorm that inspired the blizzard taking place within the novella, was a nice touch. It’s fun and entertaining to see just how much of the story was pulled from a piece of Clark’s own life. I would certainly hope none of the people trapped in the house they were trapped in during the real blizzard ended up being converted into conscious bits of fecal matter…but maybe the truth is stranger than fiction? The short story, Prey for Change, attached to the end is a tantalizing glimpse of a world that melds Viking society, werewolf mythology, and something reminiscent of the army of the dead from Game of Thrones. I would read more of that story, for sure. Since I listened to the audiobook edition of Bella’s Boys, a comment on the narration is in order. It’s almost unfortunate that the sole weakness with this edition of the book is the quality of Allyson Wentworth’s narration. This isn’t to say the narrator does a bad job of it, but there was a certain flatness to elements that seemed like they merited a bit more passion or at least spirited delivery. From what I can see, she has only narrated a couple of books thus far, and it could be due to this being the beginning of her career as an audiobook narrator. Please don’t let my personal opinion on the narration dissuade you from checking out the book in whatever format most appeals to you. I sincerely doubt even my favorite audiobook narrators were at the apex of their craft when they started.
Domus Necrophagous 