Today I am 28 years old, which means I failed to maintain membership with the 27 Club. A sick, honest part of me is a little disappointed, as I’ve been promising my family since I was a teenager that I would die at 27. Although, in a way, I guess I sort of did die—if you’re a frequent listener of my podcast, GHOULISH, then you probably already know about the special 100th episode that went live late last night/early this morning titled “The Death of Max Booth III”.

From the episode description:

In the 100th episode of GHOULISH, Max Booth III is murdered with a poisoned egg—potentially by a previous guest of the podcast. Andrew Hilbert takes over hosting duties and investigates the crime by analyzing over 30 eulogies sent in following the news of Max’s death. Did one of these psychotic sons of bitches kill him? Listen and find out.

Featuring Jon Lovitz, Kelby Losack, Cynthia Pelayo, Todd Keisling, Miguel Villa, Zach Chapman, Josh Malerman, Jessica Leonard, Lucas Mangum, Joshua Chaplinsky, Jessica McHugh, Sarah Read, Stephen Graham Jones, Betty Rocksteady, W. P. Johnson, Alan Baxter, B.R. Yeager, John Baltisberger, John Wayne Comunale, Brian Asman, Danger Slater, Frank Edler, Zachary Ashford, Michael Allen Rose, Hailey Piper, David Leo Rice, Armand Rosamilia, Jay Wilburn, Tony McMillen, Jonathan Raab, Briana Morgan, Lisa Quigley, Bob Pastorella, Michael David Wilson, and Lori Michelle.

You can listen to it by clicking HERE.

Also, of recent interest for all you GHOULISH fans, the last couple episodes included interviews with Jeff VanderMeer and Chuck Tingle.

I am not sure what else to add here. I’ve been very busy with many different projects, hence the lack of updates lately. The movie I wrote, We Need to Do Something, recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Fest in New York. Lori and I flew out for the premiere. It was both of our first times visiting the state. I think the reaction to the movie has been mostly okay so far. Some people like it far more than others, but the same thing can be said about the book. IFC Midnight will be releasing the movie in the US on September 3rd, in theaters and VOD. There will also be a physical media release, although I don’t think it’s been officially announced yet, so don’t tell anybody I told you that.

I did finish a new crime novel at the end of December called Casanova Curbstomp, but the longer I sit on it the longer I’m convinced it’s actually not very good, so it might just be a trunk novel for the time being. Maybe in the future I’ll figure out a way to make it not suck, or maybe it’ll never see the light of day. Who knows!

I’m 65,000 words into another novel called Maggots Screaming, and I am far more confident with how that one’s going. I started it in July 2020, so my goal is to finish it before the end of the month. 12 months is already too long to spend on a first draft. It makes me paranoid I’ll never finish anything of worth again, which is a stupid trap to fall into. It’s also an easy trap to fall into.

I’m also incredibly busy with Perpetual Motion Machine projects. Lots of editing to do that I’m behind on thanks to how much traveling we’ve been doing lately (for the movie). I’m not complaining, just explaining what’s been going on in my life. Right now I’m playing a game of catch-up, which is a game I imagine I’ll be playing until I die for real and not just in a podcast.

Happy Fourth of July. I hope you shoot a bottle rocket out of your ass to celebrate. Trust me. It feels awesome.