Help Me Make A Horrifying Cover For My Next Book!
My Kickstarter Project
Hope everyone is doing well!
Normally, I don’t message you on Ninja Nomad, my non-fiction Substack, for my horror fiction news. But I’ve got a big project I’d like to let everyone know about. If you are subscribed to both this newsletter and my horror one, you’ll see this email twice (apologies for that).
My next book, “Dead Roots of the Earth”, is finished! Just have a few minor edits to do, and, I need to pay for the cover to get designed. If all goes well, I'll release it mid-September of this year.
To make that happen, I have an ask of you.
I am doing a Kickstarter to help raise funds to cover the artwork. The artist is Boris Groh—check his stuff here.
If I can’t make my project goal ($1,000) by July 31st, I won’t be able to collect what I’ve raised so far, and the book will be pushed back to later this year. I am 40% of the way there as of now.
If you’re interested in supporting me, or know someone who might be, check it out here: CLICK HERE FOR KICKSTARTER.
If everyone reading this email were to donate $1 only, I’d reach my goal!
Rewards for giving are on the website, but in brief here:
note: I will pay for all shipping costs anywhere in the world (minus Antarctica, apologies to my penguin fanbase).
$1-$14: copy of the eBook and your name in the “thank you” section of the book.
$40: signed paperback.
$100: signed hardcover.
$200 be a side character in a short horror story I will publish in a collection in January 2026.
$310: be the main character in a story I will publish in a collection in January 2026—I take requests for how to kill you off ;)
Thanks for reading! If this project is a success, the cover will be done by August 10th, and I’ll show you all here first.
In the future I will be doing non-fiction travel memoir books as well, so keep an eye out for those!
Best,
Shawn
Story Synopsis For Dead Roots
The fourth book in the Black Sun series of Japanese folk horror.
The earth is shaking. Animals are going insane. Something underground is hungry.
Noah Paulson lost his wife 5 years ago. No leads, no body, no idea what happened to her. He spends his days in Japan in a limbo of inaction, paralyzed by grief. But when a hole opens up in his neighbor’s home, and a voice calls to him from the dark, he sets out to an isolated mining town to get answers. What comes to the surface is an evil whose hunger never ends. Noah must delve deep into the earth if he wishes to not only survive, but find the truth behind his wife's disappearance.
This book is for anyone who loves folk horror, Japanese culture, creepy monsters, cosmic deities, a slow creeping burn in the beginning and balls to the wall insanity at the end.