Deke spends half his time on the road. Broken-hearted over the loss of the woman he loves, everything he’s ever wanted ripped from him because someone killed her. He’s a shell, a ghost of his former self, lonely and wandering.
Then Deke meets Tiny. Tiny drives the “Soul Road”, spends his time delivering lost souls. And now Deke is traveling the same path. He finds the diner Cyclops, meets sin-eating Behemoth and the lovely Faun working the counter.
Deke’s looking for answers he may never find. Spungunion is that journey, a blue-collar horror fable, crossing Lynch and Lansdale, loss and grief, as only John Boden could tell it.
Why we’re excited about this book:
John Boden’s fiction is in a class all by itself. His stories are difficult to describe, covering all genres and conventions, and without a doubt, personal and unique. Co-runner of Shock Totem, John is the author of JEDI Summer with The Magnetic Kid, Walk the Darkness Down, Rattlesnake Kisses (with Robert Ford), Out Behind the Barn (with Chad Lutzke), Cattywampus (with Robert Ford), and Detritus in Love (with Mercedes M. Yardley). John’s short fiction has been featured in Borderlands 6, Shallow Waters Volumes. 1 & 2, and Splatterpunk Fighting Back among others. With Spungunion, John twists haunting grief with strange mythical characters, delivering a bizarre and horrifying journey you won’t soon forget.
Why John’s excited about this book:
“I’m excited about the second coming of Spungunion for a number of reasons.
First being, it’s my personal favorite of my work so far. I wrote it as a means of purging after a series of very sad events. Technically, my second solo work but the first release was terminated after three months due to an amicable parting of ways with the publisher. I’m very much hoping this edition from John Skipp’s Fungasm will create a louder boom, maybe. And I can’t tell you how amazing it is to be working with Skipp. The man is an effigy carved from passion and excitement and I’ve been a fan since I was a teenager so this is just a fan boy wet dream all around for me.
Secondly, it encompasses all the things I like to write about—sadness and grief, real people and the ways we/they navigate their days, which is very often not action-packed. Slivers of surreal weirdness that may or may not be actual. These are my favorite flavors.
Third would be the inclusion of one of the very first stories I wrote upon deciding to write for real back in 2008. It has long been a favorite among friends and now the world can check it out.
So yeah, Spungunion, it’s got truckers and death, grief and mythical creatures … and I hope you all dig it.”
Forthcoming from Fungasm Press 15 January 2019, Spungunion by John Boden is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA