What up readers, listeners, and followers in all capacities.
Thank you so much for being here for another monthly letter from Clay Vermulm Fiction. Without you fine folks, I could never do what I do for a living and it’s the greatest blessing of my life.
So, what exactly have I been doing? What do I plan on doing next?
Astute questions... allow me to answer via the usual format.
Writing Updates
In terms of writing, things are largely progressing on the same fronts. As such, this section of the updates will be relatively short. For those of you new to the letter, you can find more in-depth updates on what I’m doing by going back to last month’s update post, or you can simply hear the summary here and count that as good since all of these projects are long and on-going and thus, won’t be released for a bit.
#1. Upcoming Releases
-Beneath the Rain Shadow (the collection).
Exciting news here! Tamara and I, after much discussion, have decided to set a release deadline of May 2025 for our collection Beneath the Rain Shadow. If you’ve been here a bit, you already know about this collection, but for those newbies, Beneath the Rain Shadow is a collection of Pacific Northwest horror stories written by me and my highly talented collaborator and friend Tamara Kaye Sellman. This collection has been tons of fun to create as we are also doing a podcast (by the same name) which documents the writing process of each story.
The collection itself will be six stories from each of us and it will be the length of a novel by the time it’s finished! So that’s super exciting, as I can now confirm that I’ll have TWO NEW BOOKS by Spring 2025 :).
More about BTRS is below in the Podcast section :).
-Camp Crypticon Seattle 2026
After the warm reception and relative success of the first iteration of Camp Crypticon Seattle this year, I’ve been brought back on as editor-in-chief of the Crypticon Seattle writing contest and the resulting anthology, Camp Crypticon Seattle!
I’m so happy that I get to contribute to this convention in such a meaningful way, as it has had a major impact on my life and is the centerpiece convention for all horror in Seattle right now!
Last year’s anthology turned out amazing. We invited some pros and got amazing stories, our contest winners submitted some of the best short horror I’ve read in a long time, and the anthology continues to garner interest at each selling event I attend (I’ve sold out of two cases since the convention).
All in all, the 2025 edition of this collection turned out better than I ever could have imagined and I can’t wait to run it back next year with an even better marketing plan and a bit more lead time for crafting the narrative flow of the anthology.
On that note, if you are a writer, keep an eye on this newsletter for the submission call to the contest! It’ll be coming in the Fall. The entry fee is $10 and the top three placers in the contest get tickets to the convention plus a modest cash prize which comes out to a 250 dollar value, at the end of the day. I’d love to see some of that creepy short-form fiction in my inbox when the time comes!
-Magazines
You folks may or may not know this, but I also write for a couple of different magazines, all of which feature me relatively heavily in their most recent issues. In case you’re interested, I’ve linked them here:
Signature Montana: Arts and Culture magazine from my home state! My articles in their most recent edition are a feature with The Lucky Valentines, a husband/wife folk duo from Fort Benton who have started to make a big splash on the indie music scene, and Ferrin’s Furniture, a Great Falls Montana landmark; this four-story furniture store resides in an old motel, is run by a sixth generation family business owner, and has been around since the early 1800’s.
Providence Forum: My Alma Mater magazine from the University of Providence. I write LOTS of articles for them. Often it is centered around the college itself, including features on sports teams, architectural developments, fundraisers, etc. But occasionally, I also get the privilege of writing a historical feature on the Sisters of Providence themselves, which involves interviewing the higher-ups in the prestigious organization for which the college is named. Those are always lots of fun! Recently I wrote an article on Blessed Emilie Gamelin (founder of the Sisters of Providence) and Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart (pioneering Sister who first successfully brought Providence to the American Northwest).
True Northwest: Arts and Culture from Washington State. This magazine was founded by Melissa Feltzer just two years ago and has since blown up quite a bit! We can now be found throughout Snohomish, Skagit, and King County in various bookstores, coffee shops, and newsstands. I’m honored to be on the ground floor of this excellently produced and poignant publication :). My most recent feature was on Greg Marks, a Tacoma-based filmmaker who rose from the depravity of drug addiction and homelessness to forge a successful creative career in the Evergreen State. He’s currently working on a wrestling film titled Westbrook with LOTS of big wrestling names attached. It’s going to be amazing! I recommend checking out the article if you’re interested in that sort of thing :).
#2. Projects in the Works
No fun updates on #Vanlife (my co-written horror novel with SK Ehra about a Vanlifer who encounters a social media-based, malevolent, paranormal entity) or Voices from the Cold (the sequel to my debut novella Crevasse). All I can say about those two projects is that I’m still working on them!
Voices is on its final developmental edit, after which, I’ll be focusing forward with a publishing plan, while Vanlife is still in the first stage of the drafting process. Presently, we are about 100 pages deep with an estimated 200 pages to go! Thanks for being patient on these big projects. I promise the time we’re putting into them will make them well worth the wait :).
Podcast Updates
#1. Fermented Fiction: We have 28 guests for SSN 3!
I could not be more excited for this next season of Fermented Fiction, my friends. After attending Stokercon this year and having the privilege of sitting a couple of panels about podcasting and audio storytelling, I was approached by some truly amazing guest offers from the horror community. Everyone who talked to me at that convention has now booked a spot on the show! Between those new guests and recurring guests from the past, I’m honored to announce that we’ve filled EVERY SINGLE SLOT for the entire 2024-2025 season :).
Considering this show was started as a fun thing to do with my brother and was initially recorded out of my bedroom closet, it’s amazing to see the lineup of guests we have now garnered for our fun little debate game podcast. I can’t wait to share them all with you guys! On that note, we have some cool announcements regarding show structure too:
Season 3 will be entirely live! We will start recording in October of this year and all listeners will now have the opportunity to join us on air for every episode. It should be lots of fun!
PS. If you like to listen on your own time, the show will still be uploaded every Saturday in audio format to all the regular podcasting platforms, so fear not!
I’m not going to announce our guest lineup until we get closer to our recording dates, but trust me, you won’t want to miss a single episode this season!
Want to learn more about this podcast? You’re in luck. All our episodes are now uploaded to this substack. Just head to my main page and check out some episodes!
#2. Beneath the Rain Shadow
Not only is this an upcoming short story collection, but it’s also an ongoing podcast, right now!
Tamara and I host this show to educate readers, fellow writers, and any other listeners who like a ‘behind the curtain’ peek at the writing and editing process. Each month we bring a new story, written based on a prompt from the previous month, and critique the stories live on the show!
This has been a very fun project for us, as it allows us to create some cool, informative content while also writing new work and sharing some of our artistic lives with anyone who cares to listen.
Episode 7 of 12 drops later today, so I encourage you to have a listen! If you haven’t listened to the show yet, I recommend going back to episodes 1-3 as we do a substantial amount of higher explanation and concept building in those earlier episodes, whereas now, we just get down to business.
There are other things I could update you on, but they are a ways out, so I won’t overburden you with all the stuff I’m getting up to :). I’ll save some for the next few letters!
Personal Updates
Big changes have happened in my personal life this year. Chief among them, my wife and I moved into a brand new house! With that, we’ve moved out to Port Angeles, WA, which is where I’ve wanted to live ever since moving to Washington initially nearly 10 years back. We’re over the moon for our new property and this week we reached a major landmark for the move: we brought our cat over the water and got her moved into the house!
It was a harrowing journey for the ol’ Ellie Bellie, but she made it, and her adjustment to the new house has been remarkably painless. When we moved last time, she spent the first two weeks hiding in our bedroom under the covers and scarcely emerged (only to eat and poop, and even then…). This time around, it’s only day four and she’s already walking the house, hanging with us on the couch, and screaming at bikers as they cruise by the window.
I also want to give my amazing wife some HUGE props for doing something truly, truly badass. One month back, she ran a Half-Ironman (70.3-mile triathlon) right here near our new home around Lake Crescent and down towards Port Angeles. She came through the challenge with flying colors, always in high spirits, and accomplished her mission of honoring her father who passed away one year ago to the day of the event.
I’m so very proud of her accomplishment and honored that I got to be a part of it! For my part, I coordinated the crew. Special thanks to our wonderful friends who came out to provide support, water, food, and pacing (running, biking, and swimming with her to help her stay motivated and keep pace).
It was an awesome day of hanging with friends and supporting my wife as she took on this huge task in honor of Bruce (her father). Thank you, Katie, Corey, Conrad, Sarah, and Kat for helping us make this happen. You guys are the best friends we could ever hope to have. Congrats to my beautiful, athletic, and badass wife. Bruce, we love you, we miss you. Rest in peace, daddio.
Finally, a periodic life event of mine is coming around the corner. Every year I head home to help my family harvest. My mother and father run a 9,000-acre wheat and barley farm back in Montana.
I grew up on this farm and it’s a tremendous task to keep everything in motion. For my part, I drive the combine every harvest. We’re looking at a month to a month and a half of 16-hour days every day as harvest is a race to the finish.
It’s always super hectic, extremely busy and stressful, and fraught with demonstrations of the truth behind Murphy’s Law. Still, it’s always a great way to reconnect with my family, with my home, and with the spirit of humble, hard work from which I was brought up and that helps me in everything I do today.
So, as always, I’m looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. Perhaps the hardest thing about this time is how impossible it becomes to accomplish all my ongoing writing tasks… Wish me luck ya’ll!