Just a quick note of delight regarding a new edition of my last book – and, if I’m be believed, my very last book of fiction – an extremely intimate, heartfelt and intense collection of short stories, short screenplays, and essays called Don’t Push the Button.
This week, the deliciously dark Italian publisher Independent Legions is releasing a beautiful Italian translation of the book, available from the link below!
www.independentlegions.com/store/p419/dontpushthebutton.html
Of course, this was originally published in English, through the wonderful indie juggernaut Clash Books. (“We put the lit in literature!”) With a wonderful intro by Josh Malerman (Bird Box) , an extra introduction by the equally wonderful writer/director Lucky McKee (May), and a stunning cover by Matthew Revert, it’s the capstone of my career as a horror author. My swan song, as it were. And definitely my most personally soul-baring work (unless you count this Substack column right here!)
As such, it means a lot to me. And I think you might like it, too!
https://www.clashbooks.com/new-products-2/l9zyvzw5pcgtd221ig4b8il1mjkj4f
Some other beautiful geniuses weighed in on it, as well, just in case you need persuading. (I’d much rather have them toot my horn than be reduced to tooting it myself!)
“John Skipp has never, ever been afraid to walk in the dark: he knows that's where all light shines hardest. Walk with him, trust his vision and his voice. Push the button.” -- Kathe Koja, author of The Cipher
“A genie of fire-eating brilliance. In his virtuoso trove, Don’t Push the Button, John Skipp’s X-Acto gaze slays artifice, heals with true, golden heart. No fathom can resist his maestro dives.” -- Richard Christian Matheson, author of Dystopia
"Don’t Push the Button is a beautiful, bluesy, angry, affectionate howl of a book. It wants to tear you apart to show you what's wonderful deep inside of all of us. A wild, unpredictable portrait of a bright, burning mind, it showcases Skipp's radical range, dark-hearted humor, and enormous empathy. There's a grace and honesty to these stories that moved me, and made me grateful that John Skipp will always choose to push those buttons." --Jeremy Robert Johnson, author of Skullcrack City
“Don't Push the Button proves John Skipp doesn't know how to quit, and thank God he doesn't because we're all better for it. An electric collection that showcases the passion, strain, grief, and impulses of what it means to be human. These stories get dirty. They get political. They get uncomfortable. Sometimes they just make you laugh. And all the while they shine through with John Skipp's acid-god light and his love for us all, even at our worst. Even when we push his buttons.” -- Autumn Christian, author of Girl Like a Bomb
“As writers age, we refine our craft to compensate for a creeping disengagement with the world outside our heads. John Skipp has been working against that curve all his life, tearing down fusty literary conventions and bringing the raw realness with a wrecking ball. Don’t Push the Button hits with the urgency of a ransom note and the hard-won wisdom of a prizefighter’s face. To see so unflinchingly into the dark corners of life and still give a shit is less a gift than a miracle, but Skipp wraps that gift in his own skin and he’s giving it to you. Open it!” -- Cody Goodfellow, author of Unamerica
“John Skipp is still splatterpunk, knocking your teeth out to a hard and heavy beat. But he's also a goddamn hippie trying to levitate the Pentagon with the power of his words and as you read him, sometimes you could swear it's working. In the war to keep our hearts alive in this heart-breaking world, Don't Push the Button is the essential treatise of our pal in the trenches.” -- Laura Lee Bahr, author of Haunt
This concludes my little mini-celebration. BUY MY NICE BOOK, ALREADY!!! (And the other ones, too! ) THANKS!!!