C.L. McCollum is Writing Trailer Park Cryptids Book 2

Name a cover of a song that you love more than the original.

Johnny Cash's "Hurt" breaks my heart in the best way every time.

youtu.be/8AHCfZTRGiI?...

An image of a rustic bookshelf with a jackalope plushie in front of stacks of THE HOUSE WHERE DEATH LIVES edited by Alex Land featuring a story by C.L. McCollum and novel 13 COUNTY ROAD 666 by C.L. McCollum

I’m not saying this plushie is the inspo for a character in TRAILER PARK CRYPTIDS Book 2, but I’m not saying it’s NOT 😉 I’m hard at work drafting the book, but you can get the first in the series, 13 COUNTY ROAD 666, now wherever books are sold! falstaffbooks.myshopify.com/products/13-... #booksky

They're one of my fave author(s - it's a married duo lol) and they've DEFINITELY leveled up just with the preview!

Image of the cover of the free extended preview version of THIS KINGDOM WILL NOT KILL ME by Ilona Andrews.

Not saying I'm obsessed, just saying I #amreading the extended preview for this damned gorgeous book over and over and over until it releases on 3/31/26. Seriously @ilonaandrews.bsky.social, if just the preview is this good, this book is going to RUIN me.

#fridayreads
#thiskingdomwillnotkillme

Seems like some other publishing people need to see this.

I write even the boring parts without chatgpt.

So should you. Stop killing the planet and your peers' careers for laziness' sake.

Professional author photo of C.L. McCollum, a brown eyed brunette wearing glasses.

the book cover image for 13 COUNTY ROAD 666 by C.L. McCollum which is Trailer Park Cryptids book 1.

The first page of 13 COUNTY ROAD 666 by C.L. McCollum

author * first page * cover

13 COUNTRY ROAD 666, a queer trailer park urban fantasy featuring a disaster bi property manager trying to keep her supernatural tenants alive.

Author photo by Carissa Rizan of Crowded Table Photography
Cover by Melissa McArthur

If you ever feel like your self-promos are "cringe," just remember that Neil Gaiman used his first statement addressing the multiple credible accusations of sexual assault against him to try to get everyone hyped for his new book.

I see you out here making excuses for the fucking ecology-wrecking slopaganda plagiarism machines, it's a block. Especially if you're trying to say we "need" them. We don't fucking need that theftvomit shite, go bleat elsewhere.

A background of a full moon over a treeline with #firstlinechallenge over a screen shot of the first line of 13 COUNTY ROAD 666 by C.L. McCollum: "The werewolf from the next row over and five trailers down had slipped his lease again, howling bloody murder and knocking over the neighbors' trash cans."

Been a while since I've seen the #FirstLineChallenge go around, so why not start it up again? ;)

Here's the first line from my queer trailer park urban fantasy, 13 COUNTY ROAD 666 from Falstaff Books falstaffbooks.myshopify.com/products/13-...

Drop your novel's first line in the comments!
#booksky

A picture with the text "Roses are red. Loaves are bread." followed by a screenshotted quote from 13 COUNTY ROAD 666: "Iris is watching the body to make sure she stays dead."

A picture with the text "Roses are red. Wet dirt is mud." followed by a screenshotted quote from 13 COUNTY ROAD 666: "Harvey shrugged, unrepentant and utterly covered in blood."

And the final 2 of this trend for 13 COUNTY ROAD 666!

#bookquotes #booksky #amreading

A picture with the text "Roses are red. Violets are blue" followed by a screenshotted quote from 13 COUNTY ROAD 666: "Mel, you're the last person to know if someone was hitting on you."

A picture with the text "Roses are red. Books have pages." followed by a screenshotted quote from 13 COUNTY ROAD 666: "I haven't gotten to do an exorcism in ages!"

A picture with the text "Roses are red. Talk is cheap." followed by a screenshotted quote from 13 COUNTY ROAD 666: "Full moons weren't meant for a good night's sleep."

Oh look a bandwagon! I had WAY too much fun with this trend (3 of 5)

13 COUNTY ROAD 666 is Book One of the Trailer Park Cryptids series, a queer trailer park urban fantasy romp, out now from @falstaffbooks.bsky.social.

falstaffbooks.myshopify.com/products/13-...

#booksky #authorsky #lgbtqbooks

Oh those are LOVELY.

They're so. Damned. Cute!

Right??? I don't often go full magpie and buy a book solely for the cover, but this one nabbed me HARD. So far I have zero regrets lol

A selfie of me sitting in front of my bookshelves holding the hardcover copy of UNDER THE OAK TREE.

Time for another #FridayReads post to give y’all a glimpse at what I #amreading this week! Lately I’ve been in a manga/graphic novel mood & this one is GORGEOUS. Seriously, between the stunning cover and color interior, I am in love. Have any of y’all checked out UNDER THE OAK TREE yet? #booksky

A reading challenge bingo card for BeattheBacklist with 3 of the squares filled in with book cover images.

Time for the January update for @beatthebacklist.com! Only 3 books read w/1 DNF.
1) The Inheritance - Ilona Andrews "temporarily contemporary"
2) Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves - Meg Long "we're going on an adventure, Charlie!"
3) The London Seance Society - Sarah Penner "blast from the past"

So yeah, three reasons I do NOT want you to buy my book.

Wishing everyone participating in the strike and the accompanying protests as much safety as possible.

1) I do not want you to buy my book today, January 30th during the nationwide strike and economic blackout or during any future economic blackouts.
2) I do not want you to buy my book from Amazon.
3) I do NOT want you to buy my book if you are a bigot. Period. End of story.

Today, I’m asking you NOT to buy my book. No, really.

The vid won’t post here, but you can head over to my insta for expanded versions on my 3 reasons below:

#booksky #strike #authorsky

Goes to show that not every book will be for me even in my fave genres. Not like I'm lacking for books to read in any case given the 100+ish physical books on my TBR mountain. So yeah. An early 2026 reminder that life's too short NOT to DNF a book when I have this many lolsob. #booksky #amreading

TFW I finally make it to an ARC on my massive TBR backlist pile I was really looking forward to & I bounce off the MC's voice almost immediately. I think I've barely finished the 1st chapter & it's already a DNF. Le sigh. It even had epistolary sections! This should have been EXTREMELY my jam!

Thanks so much! And awesome - I hope you enjoy it! And it was a total surprise. I was just googling the book to see if it had been pirated (as one does) and saw it pop up on a site I didn't recognize - sure enough it was a nomination page lololol

A spooky moodboard/collage for 13 COUNTY ROAD 666 featuring several horror-ish images along with a picture of a full moon being held in a hand and an RV.

Fun news! I just discovered 13 COUNTY ROAD 666 was nominated for an Indie Ink Award! Judging is already in process (oops) & finalists will be announced sometime this month. But in the meantime, you can snag a copy here: falstaffbooks.myshopify.com/products/13-...
#booksky #authorsky #indieauthor

Head's up my South East Asian friendos - there's a pitch event coming up in May! Mark your calendars if you'll have a novel ready to query!

I want to do a thread on "Small Press Red Flags" brought to you by years in the trenches combined with some issues I’m seeing pop up again in writer circles.

Note: an isolated incident might not be a red flag, but cumulative flags are always worth examination.

First off: Let’s talk about money.

Everyone should be submitting this to Apple and Google.

Close-up of snowflakes on a night sky background overlaid with the words "Good morning! Stop calling yourself an "aspiring" writer If you write, you're a writer. It's as simple as that"

Good morning! This is your friendly reminder to stop calling yourself an "aspiring" writer

If you write, you're a writer. It's as simple as that

I have a rather large bill I need to pay. About 1k.

The good news? I have rather nice goods to sell. So.

I will be showing some Rather Nice Goods shortly here.

“Be kind, be involved, believe in your art,” he said. “At a time when people tell you art is not important, that is always the prelude to fascism. When they tell you it doesn’t matter, when they tell you a fucking app can do art you say, if it’s that important, why the fuck do they want it so bad? The answer is because they think they can debase everything that makes us a little better, a little more human. And that, in my book, and in my life, includes monsters.”

Love this from Guillermo del Toro

What I think gets lost in the writing to market discussion is the definition of the market.
There are 2 markets:
1. the general market of readers. Who is the biggest pool that spends money and what do they read
2. your ideal readers and what they like about YOUR work in particular.

2/