Welcome to India!

My first visit to India was amazing! I went to six different schools and talked to the students about monsters. What a cool job I have!

All the students were excited, creative, and cool.

They created their own monsters. Some were funny. Some were crazy. Some were scary. But they were all awesome!

They asked lots of interested questions and had a lot of opinions to share. (Apparently, mummies are very popular with these kids. Who knew?)

And of course, they had a lot of ideas to share. Color me impressed!

And I can't wait to go back again!

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Another Monster for Karma to Fight

Congratulations to another winning monster! Melania did a great job with her monster Jelly Freeze. It was so hard to judge this contest, but Jelly Freeze was one of my personal favorites! And look at that poem! It's hilarious.

Here are some more great creatures:

Funny, scary, cute, and creepy. Monsters come in all different flavors.

The Problem with Monsters (Besides Them Eating You)

Varsha Seshan is a critic and blogger in India. She just posted a really inciteful piece called "The Problem with Monster Stereotypes in Literature" and it really sums up my feelings about monsters (especially in young adult literature).

One of my big reasons for creating the Karma Tandin: Monster Hunter series was to challenge the assumptions about good vs. evil. I wanted to create a village full of monsters that are a bit more complex than just MONSTER = BAD. My monsters are real characters with real quirks and personalities. They're different and they're dangerous, but that doesn't mean they're irredeemable. They're young and old, male and female, ugly and beautiful. And they're complicated.

In my first book, the monster is a book-loving librarian that just happens to hide a mutant shark face under her human head. In the second, a school bully becomes a decomposing zombie that learns the hard way what it feels like to be the victim of bullying. In the third book, well... stay tuned, but it will involve an "evil twin" with a bit more complexity than you'd expect.

Especially in kidlit, writers have the responsibility to expand the definition of "monster." The world isn't a simple, black-and-white place, and monster characters shouldn't easily fit into any category. That's more-or-less the mission statement of the Karma Tandin series, and Varsha's article really captures that. Give it a read.

Karma Arrives in Bhutan!

Karma Fights a Monster is hot off the presses. Check it out.

(And as always, my students in Bhutan are super smiley.)

Wedding in Kazakhstan

This was a Kazakhstan/American wedding in the mountains just outside Almaty, Kazakhstan.

I danced all night. Badly.

And I'm so happy for the lucky couple.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! NEW SERIES!

All my writing experience has prepared me for this. After publishing a bunch of horror shorts for anthologies big and small, and after reading and rereading every Goosebumps book until my eyes turned fuzzy, I've finally started my own middle grade horror series!

Karma Tandin: Monster Hunter is a series of funny, exciting, spooky adventures about a twelve-year-old monster hunter who battles wild creatures throughout Bhutan. The first in the series, Karma Fights a Monster, just hit stands and it is wild! I am so proud of this story (and all the stories to come). Check out our hero as he contends with his school librarian who may or may not be a shark monster. (Spoiler: She is.)

Seriously, guys, this is my passion project, and it's so, so cool to share it with you all. What's even cooler is that I get to write about Bhutan, my favorite place in the world. If you like monsters (and who doesn't), then you'll love Karma!

Welcome to SAN CICARO

San Cicaro is a coastal resort town in California where strange things happen every day. I was lucky enough to be included in this travel companion. I wrote all about a local landmark called Missy's Diner. Come check it out or (better yet) visit San Cicaro yourself. 

Startling Monsters

"When I started reading it, I hoped there would be ‘real’ monsters, not allegorical or imagined monsters. I was not disappointed. The monsters in the book startled me, and it was wonderful."

Another happy, monster-loving customer. Check out Varsha Seshan's review of my latest middle grade horror book, Karma Fights a Monster.

Plus: more awesome fan art for the Karma series. This is Bibi-Da-Bi, a color-sucking monster created by Aditeya Goyal (age 11).

Duckbill Books

My new series Karma Tandin: Monster Hunter got a nice shout-out from Indian children's author and editor Sayoni Basu. I've worked with her closely over at Duckbill Books, and I'm always amazed by the amount of good, positive, funny, exciting work they release.

An Everyman Superhero

"Karma is a protagonist that every child can easily identify with. He is not shown to be a superhero of sorts, though he is the famed monster hunter. He is as ‘human’ as any of the readers reading the book. Excellent story, capturing plot and loads of good humour…"

Karma Fights a Monster is fresh off the presses, and already we've been getting some good reviews. This one comes courtesy of the Booked for Life blog. I'm so happy that my little story of a monster-hunting twelve-year-old is really connecting with readers. 

And of course, here is another monster submission to add to the collection. This one is by Aadya,  a four (!) year old monster hunter from India. Jigiliboo is a fierce creature from an enchanted forest. Better watch out!

Karma Gets a Review!

"Through this monster story, Purcell has tried to introduce the issues that kids face in their lives and how everyone has to struggle against their worst impulses. His cool, shark monster represents something that we can all understand and relate to — teachers and their ways."

Amen.

Our first review is in! Ministry of Magik (which is a very cool blog) gave us their thoughts on Karma Fights a Monster. I'm so glad that Karma's wacky adventures are finally catching on with people. I've had this story (and this series) kicking around in my head for over two years now, and it's so exciting to hear the reactions.

And, to further celebrate this occasion, I'd like to share a piece of fan art from our monster design contest. Here it is:

This was made by Ria Melanie (age 10). Clever, spooky, and very cool, Jelly Freeze is a monster that I wish I'd thought of myself. Great job!

NO SLEEP PODCAST

WARNING: This is a horror fiction podcast. It is intended for mature adults, not the faint of heart. Join us at your own risk...

NoSleep Podcast is terrifying. If you haven't checked it out yet, do so at your own risk. This latest season is killer. I'll keep you posted for when my new horror story "Defaced Currency" becomes available. It's bizarre, and the first story since Bentley Little's "The Washingtonians" to make our wooden-toothed first president scary again.

Make a Monster! Enter the Contest!

Paper Mill, Uzbekistan

Zara and I got to visit a really cool paper-making factory in Samarkand, Uzbekistan!

Cereal Commercial Goes Murderous

So I wrote a story about a fictional character in a cereal commercial who suddenly realizes that she's in a cereal commercial. She goes crazy and tries to murder the other characters.

It's probably one of the weirdest things I've ever written, and it's a total blast. I'm really proud of this strange creation.

Anyway, most publishers wouldn't touch a story this openly strange, but the good folks at The Pretty Trees Podcast are also very strange people, and they included it in their latest episode. Please check it out, along with two other stories that are totally great.

The Singing Dune, Kazakhstan

And yes, it really does sing.

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

I actually heart Samarkand (not Sam), but the stranger we asked to take the photo didn't understand how photography works.

Where Am I?

Guess where I am. I'll give you two clues.

Clue #1: This is definitely not Kazakhstan.

Clue #2: That first clue was a lie.

Happ(il)y New Year

Happy New Year, everyone! And don't we all deserve a happy ending to one of the craziest years of the century?

Personally, I've been through a lot. I was on a stamp (!) thanks to my awesome friends over at the Bhutan ministry. I moved, deciding to relocate from the beautiful Himalayas to the even snowier, even more beautiful mountains of Kazakhstan.

And I've been steadily writing. My two story collections (We Are Bhutan and Scary Stories from Bhutan) are selling like hotcakes. And it's so cool to help my students become Amazon best-selling writers. How crazy is that?

But today, I wanted to highlight the book that started me on this journey, the one I originally wrote for the 3-Day Novel Contest. After being a finalist in that crazy, grueling event, I rewrote Happily Destroyed about a dozen times. Each time, it got longer and crazier. If you haven't checked it out yet, do so. That would be a nice New Years gift: reading a book about robot dragons, parallel dimensions, and singing villagers.

So This Is Christmas...

And what have you done?

Another year older.

And you still haven’t read my killer Santa story in Deathlehem Revisited.

Shame on you. It’s the perfect reading material for when you’re curled up in front of the yule log. Or when you’re sitting next to the Christmas tree, shotgun in your lap, waiting for Krampus to show up. You know, typical holiday stuff.

Heart Mind Store

If you didn’t catch all my excited Facebook posts last week (and I can understand why, because things have been a bit cluttered on social media lately), I was one of the lucky winners over at the Heart Mind Store. What does that mean, exactly?

Well, it means that I finally won something! All those years of avoiding ladders and not breaking windows has finally paid off. Let’s all take a moment to savor that.

More importantly, though, I got a very cool shout-out on the Heart Mind Store site. Head over there and you can see a nifty, little author spotlight. And while you’re at it, check out the other featured authors. We’re a pretty eclectic bunch.

Scary Stories from Bhutan

Howdy! I'm a black-necked crane. I'm the official mascot for Scary Stories from Bhutan, the brand new anthology written entirely by the students of central Bhutan. I'm quite excited for you to check out their writing. They're all super talented kids.

And while we're at it, you can always say hi to my good friend, the Himalayan black bear, whose book We Are Bhutan is also available.

Cool stuff.

Oh. I almost forgot. You can check out our own blog. We have a bunch of cool stuff available over there. 

Five More Days!!!!!!

That’s right! Five more days until Scary Stories from Bhutan escapes from the haunted corners of your local library. Just a reminder: Each story in the collection was written by a different high school student in central Bhutan. Also, each story in the collection will rattle your bones and chill your blood. You know, the usual.

A Bundle of Madness

Do you like HP Lovecraft? Do you like ghostly hitchhikers and fish creatures and ancient, tentacled gods who watch over us from space? Yeah. Me too.

That’s why it was such a pleasure to be included in the Lovecraftian anthology That Ain’t Right. The stories were spooky, retro, and surprising. Honestly, my story (“Passenger”) was one of the coolest things I’ve ever written. I’m really proud of it.

Now, the crazy cultists from Miskatonic Valley have decided to bundle that book with post-apocalyptic craziness, architectural horror, and a whole bunch of other random scarefests. Get the bundle, and you’ll have hours and hours of reading materials, dozens of creatures, and a whole lot of insane protagonists. It’s pretty awesome, is all I’m saying.

Magical Creatures... Take a Look!

Unicorns are beautiful creatures… until they disembowel you with that horn.

Mermaids are the gorgeous women of the sea… before they try to drown you, of course.

Leprechauns are charming little Irishmen… except when they rip out your gold teeth while you sleep.

Mythical creatures often have two sides, both enchanting and terrifying. I’m so stoked to be a part of a new anthology called Menagerie de Mythique. It’s a collection of short fiction about magical creatures, and it does a really cool job of straddling the line between wonder and danger.

My short, “Drains to the Ocean,” is definitely in the latter category. I did a creepy, little mix-and-match between Ewoks and CHUDs. (Don’t know what a CHUD is? That’s probably for the best.) Anyway, this anthology is lighting it up on Amazon right now, so check it out. How often do you feel enchanted and terrified at the same time?

Diggin' Up Frankenstein

Buzzing electricity.

Reanimated flesh.

A yellow eye slowly opening.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has given pop culture some of its most iconic horror images and ideas. For the last two hundred years, her work impacted all types of books, movies, songs, and TV shows. It’s been reinvented so many times that people forget what is and what is not in the book itself.

Flipping through the book today, modern readers may be surprised by the lack of any flat-headed, green-skinned monster. They might expect something very different from the short, ambiguous descriptions of the laboratory or the long, drawn-out scenes in the Arctic. These ideas have evolved so much in the last two centuries that vast chunks of the novel are near-unrecognizable to those who grew up on the Universal films or, say, Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein.

What better time, then, to rediscover what started it all? 2018 is the bicentennial anniversary of the story’s first printing, so why not check it out before the end of the year? Even better, why not check out the glossy, beautifully printed, fully illustrated version? I was lucky enough to have my art featured in this collection, and I absolutely love how the text and illustrations work together to both recreate and reinvent the story.

The art doesn’t just capture the events of the iconic novel, it filters those events through two centuries of adaptations. It’s a coffee table book with all the original text intact, but it also riffs on that text in ways that even surprised me.

Now, this is a big project with a big price tag to match, but I really stand by it. The thing is gorgeous. And just like the monster itself, it’s pieced together from dozens of different sources, mixed and matched in a way that makes everything come alive.

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

Happy Halloween, boils and ghouls! It’s that time of year again. Time to slide on your Haunted Mask, pop Hocus Pocus into the VCR, and eat about a pound-and-a-half of candy corn before you realize that candy corn is genuinely disgusting.

That’s right. It’s October, the season of the witch, the time when spirits walk among us and hopeless mortals spend way too much money on pumpkin spice lattes.

A couple years ago, I wrote a YA horror story about two brothers, a zombie, and one memorable night of trick-or-treating. If you want to get spooked, it’s still upon Amazon. And if you don’t want to be spooked, then BOO to you. You don’t deserve any candy corn.

We Are Bhutan

We finally published the book here in Bhutan and it's selling like hotcakes! 

We Are Bhutan

Hi, everybody! My name is Karma, and I'm a Himalayan black bear. I'm so excited that my very first book just came out! It's a short story collection written by high school students in Bhutan. If you're at all interested in our little kingdom in the mountains, you should check it out! You'll have a bear-y good time!