My HWA-nominated novel, Ash Wednesday, has just been released as an ebook and unabridged audiobook (read by *me* — you think this old ham is going to let someone else read his work?) from David Niall Wilson’s Crossroad Press.
Released in 1987 to excellent reviews, it’s one of the few works to have its own entry in “Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia.” This edition also contains the final chapter that was edited out of the first edition, so is complete for the first time.
The ebook, priced at $2.99, is available for all e-reader formats — Kindle, Nook, iPad, what have you — here:
http://tinyurl.com/2aklbr7
The audiobook, nearly 11 hours long, is available as an MP3 download for $12.99 here, so you can listen on your computer, iPhone, iPad, iPod, or anything on which you can play MP3s (and the ebook is included free with the audiobook):
http://tinyurl.com/2a5jsr7
Here are a few excerpts from reviews…
“In a genre that spawns imitation Stephen King almost as fast as King himself produces the real thing, Chet Williamson has done something powerful and new. You will be haunted by this book.” — Orson Scott Card, Magazine of F&SF
“A rich, carefully constructed novel about the ravages of guilt and about the real horror of life…grim, unrelenting, and compelling.” — Michael Morrison, Fantasy Review
“A riveting, descriptive account of the effect the dead have on the living…both thought-provoking and entertaining. I couldn’t put the book down.” Betty Saputo, Rave Reviews
“A strong if necessarily macabre and uncomfortable tale of moral import.” — Fritz Leiber
“Excellently written, painstakingly plotted, and thoroughly believable. A masterfully skillful book.” — Peter Crowther
“The jacket copy claims ‘Ash Wednesday is a powerful, literate work of fiction that addresses the fantastic and human character — one of those rare works of horror literature, such as Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House or Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, that transcends genre.’ Wow — a jacket quote that doesn’t lie!” — The Horror Show
“Disturbing, challenging, and anything but reassuring. A cold hard look at the everyday terrors of death, ghosts, and madness. A haunting vision of purgatory on earth.” — Ramsey Campbell
“Ash Wednesday is enough of a book to stand on its own without the intrusion of the supernatural. Yet its haunting image of the mute, motionless spirits that inhabit a small town remains lodged in the mind like a bullet in the brain. Chet Williamson has written a disturbingly memorable novel.” — Les Daniels
If you decide to read and/or listen, I hope you’ll enjoy the book and my performance! This is only the first of a number of my novels that will appear online from Crossroad Press. Please let me know what you think!