Author Archives: Brian B Baker

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About Brian B Baker

I write horror stories, review books, and talk about depression, and how I get through all of it.

Changing Things

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This is a cross post from my Substack, where I’ll be posting more often.

I’ve been away from this place for a couple of months. I’ve been sorting things out in my head. It’s about deciding what way I’d like to take my writing.

It’s been a long time coming to get to this point. I love writing. I love writing what I enjoy reading. Let’s skip the BS and get to the nitty gritty.

Hello, I’m Brian. I’ve published horror novellas, short stories, and I have a story in the Utah Horror Writer’s Anthology for 2025.

I love horror stories. I love the darkness of the story. I love watching the movies and reading the books. But I’ve found my love of another genre, thrillers, has more pull with my writing and with who I am.

I watched a lot of horror as a kid. I was left alone often as a kid, as were most Gen X kids. I spent that time watching horror movies. I have the fondest of memories of watching Scanners for the first time only for my father to tell me not to watch it again. I did anyway.

I didn’t read horror until I was older. Horror books didn’t interest me. The movies always did. The first horror book I read was Four Past Midnight by Stephen King. I liked the stories in it but it didn’t hold my attention like other stories.

I spent quite a bit of time at the bookstore. My parents divorced when I was in third grade and I dove into books.

I owe my love of books to my father. He took my sister and I to the bookstore on his weekends. We’d get home and sit for a few hours and read, then dinner, and whatever movies we’d picked up at the video store.

I used to fault my father for only letting me read what he read. I read Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising in sixth grade and move of Tom’s books afterward.

I have fond memories of those books and I read many in that same genre.

My father didn’t let me read what I wanted to read. It always had to be the Tom Clancy style books.

I hated not reading what I wanted and took to hiding books in my closet, comics too.

I’m looking at 50 in few weeks. I love reading and watching horror but find that I’m not that good a writing them. My horror stories have sold less than my thriller, Disunion By Force. Which has sold 46 paperback copies and 51 digital copies.

Disunion is my best seller and it’s not even close. I’ve sold copies in Australia, France, Serbia, UK, Norway, New Zealand, and Germany, besides what I’ve sold in The States.

I’ve sold copies of my horror mainly in The States, but a few overseas.

I’ve realized that my thrillers are more popular and because of that I won’t be writing horror for a while. It’s less about sales and more about enjoyment and the process. Writing horror feels difficult. I’ve taken time off because I struggle writing horror.

My thriller writing comes easily. I’m able to outline, choreograph a beat sheet for an entire novel in a matter of days, but horror doesn’t come that way.

Every day feels like a challenge. Every time at the writing desk is hard.

I recently returned to a thriller novel I put away only to bust out 2,000 words without blinking. I’ve never been able to do that with anything horror related.

I love the horror community online. They’ve helped me figure out where I should put my focus.

I have plans for the next couple of years. I’ll be submitting my current project to agents. I’ve never submitted my thriller novels so I’m leery of it. I have plans for them regardless. I have 4-5 novels on deck in the next few years. I’ll be working on them.

If I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.

Gears are changing

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As with everything, writing changes.

I’ve kept a close eye on the sales of my books through this year. I’ve sold 21 copies of my books this year. Most of them are in Ebooks, but it’s not the number but which books are selling better than others.

My thriller, Disunion By Force, sold more copies than my horror novel and while it’s close, the various places its sold around the world is the most interesting thing. I’ve sold copies in places I never thought I would. India is one of the newest places.

I’ll continue to write horror, but only short form. I work better with short form horror than I do with long form. I’m able to get the conciseness of it down while long form feels like a slog.

As for thrillers, I’ll be writing those in long form. I have two that I’ve started but put away for one reason or another, mostly because of I’ve doubted myself. The writing holds up with those thrillers. I have one at 39k that I’ll be working on through the end of the year.

After discussions with my wife, I’ll be focusing on the thrillers, though I have a story coming out in November for the Utah Horror Writers yearly anthology. You can help with the Kickstarter.

I will continue to review books. I am considering a pseudonym for my thriller novels. I had one before and will probably use that going forward.

I have to head to work and I hope you enjoy your day.

Review for Staircase In The Woods by Chuck Wendig

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As I’ve said in my other reviews, I try to find a common thread in them. I want to connect to the stories personally. Sometimes, I can do that easily; sometimes, I can’t.

Chuck Wending is a favorite author. Wanderer’s is a book that my wife and I devoured in a week for me and a few weeks for her. It got us through lockdown in 2020 and everything that year threw at us. It’s a big book about a virus.

Utah experienced a lot of growth in the 1980s. New subdivisions sprouted up overnight, and many were left unattended for days. They became playgrounds for my friends and me.

Half-finished staircases lead to empty floors—kitchens without their floorings.

Among all of this was a staircase that was by itself. It was like that for a month or more. I don’t know why they stopped building. It’s a finished house, but forty years ago, it was a monolith that we’d jump off of. We’d launch our bikes and come down hard on our seats.

While reading Staircase in the Woods, I thought of those days of freedom—of being us, with no parents to avoid, and me and my friends having fun.

I received a copy from the publisher because I reviewed Josh Malerman’s Incidents Around The House. I thank the publisher for trusting me with a book that will be released in April 2025.

This book begins with events that happened years before. We discover the incidents leading to the event and how they changed the group.

We learn a lot of dark things as these friends look for one of their own who vanished years before on a staircase in the woods. One of them decides they need to find out what happened.

SPOILERS INCOMING

I try not to do spoilers in novels; it’s nearly impossible with this book.

They get through a portal similar to the one their friend vanished in. They soon discover the world inside the portal is different. It’s dark, disturbing, and nightmarish, giving me feelings of House of Leaves throughout the reading. The Navidson Record is in place throughout the story, or it felt that way to this writer.

It’s a story about discovering the darker parts of yourself. Confronting those parts, those shadows, the things you’d rather not talk about. The childhood lost because of abuse, both mental and physical.

The book finds its footing quickly when we enter the portals, and the characters move through the world. At once, they adjust and modify their way through. In the book’s latter pages, it’s a dangerous game of cat and mouse as they search for a way out.

When we reach the end, each character has learned more about themselves and their friends.

This is Chuck’s darkest, most visceral, and messed up book I’ve read.

It’s also one of my favorites. I’m looking forward to the world reading this one and discussing it and the characters’ experiences.

It’s made me look at what I’ve been able to let go of, what I continue to hold on to, and whether it’s healthy to do so.

There will be discussions about what occurs in this book. They will cover many topics.

I loved this book, and I’m thankful the publisher gave me a copy. Thank you to Random House and Kay Popple for the offer.

Review for Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman

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Every parent thinks about what they’d do if they lost their kid. When they’re babies, we worry about whether they’re breathing in their cribs. When they’re toddlers, they get quiet in their rooms. We run to their room, and they’re usually asleep in a pile of toys or stuffed animals.

We lose sight of them when they get older, and we walk around the store. All the thoughts run through our heads. When they get to be teenagers and start driving or hanging out with friends, hell, in America, we worry about them not coming home at the end of the day because of a shooting.

That latter part is an everyday worry for me.

: SPOILERS AHEAD :

In Clay’s story, he takes the idea of losing your kid to violence and does a masterful job of following Glenn, our protagonist, through the stages of his life. Also, through the stages of grief.

Glenn feels the police have failed him and his son in discovering how he was killed.

His boy was left in a dirty, empty lot as a teenager.

Over the years, Glenn has done research and called whichever detective was assigned to the cold case, but he had a breakthrough when his wife urged him to join a writer’s group.

Glenn writes a story about his son’s death and how he believes it happened.

When he presents the story to the writer’s group, it begins a fracture in a community he believes hid the truth of what happened to his son. Glenn learns he didn’t know his son as well as he thought.

The heartwrenching ending for this book is brilliant, and I believe it captures the book well.

Glenn is looking for one last connection to his son. He finds it in writing the book but also in learning the truth about his son’s death.

It’s a magnificent ending, and as with all of Clay’s books, it will pull on your emotions.

I finished this book at work, and while it was a slow day behind the bar, I had to keep myself from crying.

We all think about how we’d handle the loss of our kids. Clay orchestrates a great story about loss, grief, and understanding that once our kids get older and have their own lives, we don’t know who they are.

We try to understand them as they grow older, and the best we can do is be there for them as they move through the world. Listening to them is essential.

I cried a lot…

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When I woke up I read the news. Somehow I knew it was going to be bad. I’m not sure how I knew, but it was there. I tossed and turned the night before. Sleep came in fits and I wondered how it could happen.

When my youngest asked, I told them what happened. They were afraid. Afraid for themselves, their friends, and I suppose their brother as well.

The world changed, or at least this country did. It wasn’t overnight. It’s always been here. But it hid in the darker places. Now it was in the open again. Now the hate had a purpose. Now the rage was higher. The bigotry and racism had a name. It was given purchase that we offered it like a ragdoll in a dollar store.

Hold them close. Keep them safe. Don’t let the darkness muddy their light.

The light is where we should be but the darkness is coming. It’s finding its way through to take the last of us. It’s in the dark we must come and hide. At least for a little while.

There’s going to be darkness for a while. It’s going to be as bad as we’ve been told. As bad as we’ve believed. Don’t let it darken their souls. Don’t allow it to change who they are. Protect them and keep them safe.

Today, is another day. Tomorrow is something else.