Hardcore Corn-ography
or Patrick's going to Iowa, etc.
In this installment:
One of Us: This Saturday
I’m Running
Abducted: Week One
Ending 2025 with The Big One
One of Us: This Saturday
Organized by Ira Rat of Filthy Loot, the event will feature some of the Midwest’s very best horror weirdos, including yours truly.
I mean, just peep this line-up of guests:
The Midwest is killing it on the horror and weird fiction front and I’m damn proud to be part of this line-up of uber-talented motherfuckers. Some new-to-me names on the list here, whose work I’m looking forward to checking out.
This will mark my first road trip convention/signing appearance, as I’ll be driving to Iowa City tomorrow morning with a suitcase full of books. And my signing pen.
If you’re in the area, please come out and say hi (and maybe buy some books). If you know someone in the area, tell them to do the same.
And if anyone has any Iowa City recs for after the show, let me know. Breakfast spot recs for Sunday very much welcomed.
I’m Running
I know, I know, I just said I was driving…to Iowa. And I am. But I’m also running…for re-election as a Trustee/Board Member of the Horror Writers Association. I took over as a Trustee this year for a member who stepped aside. It’s been a wonderful, enlightening, and uplifting experience. I’m hoping folks will allow me the chance to serve an actual full-term, continuing the work begun in this abbreviated one.
HWA members: you’ll find my candidate statement in a recent iMailer or at the link here.
I truly believe in the HWA and in what the HWA can still become. It’s been an honor serving in the time that I have, and I hope to get the chance to continue for a full-term.
Abducted: Week One
Have you gotten Abducted yet?
The book. I mean, the book, Abducted, written by yours truly and published by Dark Matter Ink.
This past Tuesday marked one week since the release of my debut sci-fi/horror novel. Typing that sentence was still just as thrilling as I hoped it’d be. It’s been so much fun seeing people post about the book on social media, share pictures of their copies, etc.
And I don’t want it to stop. If you get a copy or read the book, please share on social media, post a review, or request it from your local bookstore or library. Every little bit counts when it comes to book promotion. I am so incredibly grateful to the readers who connect with my work and vibe with the types of stories I want to tell. But I’m greedy, I want more of y’all!
So if you know anyone who’d dig a book that’s an unholy mash-up of The X-Files, Gone Girl, Fargo, 90s pro-wrestling fashion, alien abduction conspiracies, true-crime media critique, the space operatic art of Mœbius, and the bonkers final bits of Prometheus, then why not put Abducted in their hands.
Speaking of which, I will have copies of Abducted on hand to sell and sign at One of Us on Saturday.
Note: I’ll be on the look-out for crop circles on my drive to and through Iowa. You know, just in case.
Ending 2025 with The Big One
Somehow, some way, despite not having this much short fiction out this year, 2025 has been one of my most prolific years publishing-wise. I edited and published an anthology And One Day We Will Die: Strange Stories Inspired by the Music of Neutral Milk Hotel. I’ve published novellas: JK-LOL, Night of the Witch-Hunter, and The Nut House (collecting the work serialized in Cosmic Horror Monthly from a couple years back, which includes the bonus novelette The Acorn Run). And, of course, there’s the whole Abducted debut sci-fi/horror novel (available now), etc., etc. thing.
You’d think I’d be satisfied. You’d think I’d rest on my laurels.
Hell no.
Not me.
Next month, on October 7, my new action-horror novella The Big One will be released in paperback and ebook from Anuci Press. And it’s available for pre-order now.
Here’s the copy:
"Daddy's coming home."
That's the promise Hank, a widowed ambulance driver finishing up his shift in San Francisco, makes to his two kids who are trapped in the ruins of their destroyed apartment building across the Bay in Oakland, after the mother of all earthquakes-the fabled "Big One"-hits California.
Hank and two of his fellow EMTs commandeer the rescue vehicle, racing through the decimated streets in search of a way across the water to save his kids. But as the journey through the disaster's aftermath continues, the first responders come face-to-face with unsettling and disturbing occurrences beyond the expected aftershocks. Suicidal cultists and outbreaks of ultra-violence give way to squirming masses of giant tentacles rising through the ruined roadways, while mutant creatures break into fleeing vehicles in search of human flesh.
All the while, something massive rises from a millennia-long sleep inside the Earth, something gargantuan in stature, something that existed long before the known universe was born. While the world goes mad outside of and inside his ambulance, Hank remains determined to keep his promise.
But when facing unfathomable cosmic evil do love, determination, and bold action even stand a chance of saving the day?
With The Big One, the over-the-top, macho heroics of a Michael Bay action film are pitted against the ancient, maddening cosmic antagonists of Lovecraftian horror and you've got a front row seat for the battle.
It's got tentacles.
It's got explosions.
It's got exploding tentacles.
And we've even got our first endorsement from my dear friend and a hell of a writer Carson Winter:
"Patrick Barb's The Big One is an apocalyptic romp through the Bay Area, conjuring comparisons to Michael Bay's Ambulance and John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. Expect white-knuckle action, blood-soaked crazies, and tentacles to spare, all brought to maddening life by Barb's lightning pace and talent for characterization."
—Carson Winter, author of Portraits of Decay
Not too shabby, right?
And the cover…I mean, what a cover, right? It’s by horror cover artist extraordinaire Lynne Hansen and I am so, so honored to have it. Check out the full cover wrap as well. It’s a thing of beauty. Tentacular beauty.
So there you have it: pre-order my book, buy my books, vote for me (I’m for you), and come see TOMORROW for One of Us in Iowa City.
And while you’re at it, be kind. Let happiness be the emotion you put out and give back to the world. It sure as hell beats fear and hate.