That there? That’s two of the best living writers of small press horror and bizarro fiction, respectively. Brian Keene and Carlton Mellick. Grand Master of horror and the father of bizarro.
Trouble is, there’s barely a small press left. These two make up a sizable chunk of the whole pie. They’re the show. They steer the ship. Like it or not, they ARE small press horror and bizarro fiction.
And the ship is sinking. The small press has been infiltrated by the SJW cult. A cancer of culture. Progressivism demands forward movement of the host body. A walk of death for any subculture that heeds the whispers of the twisted matriarch of social justice.
This conversation took place at possibly the last BizarroCon ever. A conversation between maybe the only two people left with the power to rip the SJW parasite off the host body and return the small press to a place of health and prosperity.
These two men possess the talent, wisdom, industry clout and fanbase to turn the cultural tide away from “Yasss Kweeeeen!” male feminism, Trump derangement syndrome and transgender tokenism which sell nothing and alienate the real horror fanbase, back toward a merit-based focus on talent and excellence.
But that requires risk.
Our heroes Brian and Carlton would have to risk it all. Their social standing. Their reputations. Their financial stability. They would have to face SJW cultist shame swarms on social media. Unfair and biased criticism of their fiction. Lies and slander about their personal lives.
They’d have to risk losing decades-long friendships and relationships with those they believed to be true allies. They’d face the possibility of career ruin.
But the nasty truth? That’s all coming for them whether they continue to self-flagelate and pander to progressivism in the case of Brian or utterly ignore this grave social illness in the case of Carlton.
They are successful straight white males and no straight white male goes unpunished when the SJW cult assimilates a subculture.
Their reckoning is coming. But if they choose to attack first? If they deal the metaphorical death-blow to the tendrils of progressivism that even now wrap around their throats?
A small press renaissance awaits ALL writers of small press horror and bizarro fiction. There has always been and always will be an audience for dark and weird fiction. They’ve just been told for the past decade that they’re the wrong skin color, the wrong gender, the wrong political affiliation or the wrong sexuality.
Brian and Carlton can win that audience back. But it might cost them everything. Are they brave enough to do the right thing?