Word round the campfire is that A Career Guide to Your Job in Hell — the very excellent anthology featuring stories by Scott Phillips (Squirrel Eyes), Bob Vardeman , Vic Milan, Nathan Long, John Jos Miller, Scott Denning, the other Scott Phillips (The Ice Harvest), Brandie Tarvin and yours truly (and featuring an uproarious intro by Hollywood Don Adams) — is now available in the Kindle Lending Library! So all youse Amazon Prime members can check it out! Or buy it… or… you know… whatevs…

More to come later today. Until then, let Freddie shine his Christmas light down from Valhalla…

Then go get your 12 Days of #Creepfest on and visit some of the 40 awesome authors still singing for their Christmas supper.

Yep. Not only is today Winter Solstice, not only is it the 9th day of Christmas and t-3 days to Santa, it is also National Short Story Day… in the UK… But here’s where I assert my Canadian status as a subject of the British Crown. I’m making it INTERNATIONAL short story day, and here’s what I have in store:

First, the National Short Story Day UK site has put out a twitter challenge to write a story in 10 words. Here’s my offering:

“Quiet beginnings rumble ever forward, becoming the engine of Fate.”

Secondly, I invite y’all to check out the Lending Library on the main menu bar up there. I’m going to add some new old stories to the few that are residing there. A personal favorite, recently praised by the likes of Jason McKinney (author of Dog World, spotlighted here yesterday) is the Star Wars spoof Dark Flush of the Sith…

Today’s 12 Days of #Creepfest tidbit comes courtesy of the Madman of Madison, Tennessee, Mr Jason Mckinney. Author of Memoirs of the Walking Dead and Dog World, McKinney is one of the many superstars of the Indie Horror scene (check out his festive craziness “Jingle Hell” over at JHSked‘s site).

I asked McKinney about the genesis of Dog World, a novel that sees the end coming, not from the walking dead, but in the form of a Werewolf Apocalypse, which I thought was a most ingenious twist on the usual cannibals and zombies.

Dog World came about from a dream I had around 12 years ago. I was on a fortress wall in some desert with a group of soldiers defending against attacking werewolves.

I remember the attack was in the middle of the day and everyone was firing down on the lycan attackers. In the dream I had a belt fed machine gun and I leaned over to fire but nothing happened when I pulled the trigger. I opened up the cover to check the bolt and there wasn’t one. I tossed the useless machine gun aside and pulled out a 9mm Beretta. As I took aim the slide fell off, leaving me holding just the pistol’s frame. Then the werewolves looked up at me and began to laugh and point at my inability to do anything.

The dream inspired a short story. I worked on that short story off and on until I saw Dog Soldiers. Seeing that movie really got the gears moving. So much so that that my short story became Dog World.

Dog World is an original, exciting and fast-paced read that weaves current events, political intrigues and the terrors of war, with the shape-shifting horror we’ve all been sorely missing. It’s like a perfect storm of Tom Clancy, McCammon and The Howling. The werewolves have been relegated to the back burner as supporting characters in horror-lite stuff like Twilight and True Blood for far too long. Time to let the dogs out and howl at the moon, and Dog World is just the book to start with.

I can not recommend McKinney’s book enough, and also suggest that you check out Memoirs of the Walking Dead, which you can see an excerpt of on Jason’s site. I also suggest you follow him on The Twitters, lest ye be thrown to the wolves come judgement day… @jason_mckinney

And one happy commenter is walking out of here with a digital copy of Dog World from the Madman hisself! So get all up in it and tell us your favorite Werewolf flick and I’ll draw a name on Friday!

Til then… Peep This – you ugly, Chrismassy muhrfuhrs:

 And don’t forget to keep on Creepin’ on with these Masters of Mayhem