ANNOUNCING THE CRYPTOPOLIS HALLOWEEN SALE!!!

To commemorate this most devilish of all holidays, I'm opening up the legendary Guffey Vault for a limited time only. I'm selling signed copies of CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES for only $20.00! Shipping and handling is included in the price (if you're located in the United States, that is). I'll write whatever you want in the book, within unreason. Offer applies while supplies last! If you're interested, feel free to contact me via my email address: cryptoscatology@gmail.com.  

As All Hallows' Eve descends upon us once again, why not take this opportunity to curl up with a tome that PUBLISHERS WEEKLY describes as "not for the faint of heart"? I invite you to imbibe a few of the mind-distorting, poisonous treats hidden between the ominous covers of my debut short story collection, CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES, released by Lethe Press in 2024. The peculiar tales in this volume have been compared to the works of Jorge Luis Borges, William S. Burroughs, Samuel R. Delany, Franz Kafka, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert Anton Wilson! If you'd like to experience precisely what these critics are talking about, consider buying a copy of CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES just in time for Halloween!  

One of the tales in CRYPTOPOLIS, "Initiation," was recently adapted by StarShipSofa! If you want to hear Doni Nicoll-Duir's evocative reading of "Initiation," click HERE!

You can hear me talking about the secret origins of CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES on several different podcasts and radio shows including Tarek Al-Ubaidi's CROPfm, Seriah Azkath's WHERE DID THE ROAD GO?, Solaris Blueraven's HYPERSPACE, Matthew Hopewell's THE AP STRANGE SHOW, and Chris Mathieu's FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE NEWS.

Here's what a pack of raving maniacs have to say about CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES...

PRAISE FOR CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES: 

"The stories in Cryptopolis feel like the bloody, star-filled lovechildren of Burroughs and Delany, with each tale ostensibly one part of a greater whole; abstract limbs and organs tethered together by strained flesh. Cryptopolis will take readers on a hallucinogenic journey through worlds fractured by time and place—slipping through liminal dimensions with seamless abandon to unveil unsettling illusions and heartbreaking realities—and totally worth the trip."

--Philip Fracassi, author of Boys in the Valley

 

"If you're tired of the same wines and you're curious about the vintage only just whispered about, have a deep draught of Robert Guffey's Cryptopolis. You don't have to descend with Fortunato to the deepest cellars to find this bottle of Amontillado. Here it is! If Poe collaborated with Robert Anton Wilson...if Borges had a lovechild with Lovecraft, which was subsequently adopted by Kafka...you might get Cryptopolis. I think too that Clark Ashton Smith would admire this collection. Written with the obsessive precision of a mysterious staircase descending into the abyss, Cryptopolis will take you to strange epiphanies..."  

 

--John Shirley, author of The Feverish Stars

 

"Once upon a time, weird and speculative fiction had an underground full of stories that were not written as calling cards or as film treatments or as extended internet memes. Guffey's tales resist genre gentrification; they move into your mind to turn it into a punk house squat!" 

--Nick Mamatas, author of Move Under Ground and The Second Shooter

 

 "In Cryptopolis & Other Stories, Guffey's free-ranging intellect meshes wonderfully with his command of the language."

 

--John Oakes, author of The Fast

 

"Guffey brings together 25 horror shorts that swing wildly between terrifying mindtrips and gritty realism. Throughout, Guffey’s blunt prose lends a sense of normalcy to the fantastic as his cast of losers from all walks of life face the cruelties of their existence—sexual violence, drugs, war, parenthood, and poverty [...]. Though not for the faint of heart, this bizarre and over-the-top collection is sure to thrill devotees of weird fiction."

--Publishers Weekly   

"Cryptopolis may end up being a gateway drug into Robert Guffey’s work. I don’t use that term spuriously. So many of Guffey’s stories in Cryptopolis have a hard-bitten edge and gritty feel to them that I could see him crafting a metatext about an author whose books are physically addictive. Across the collection’s twenty-five stories and vignettes, Guffey displays a range of interests and foci with such depth and heart that I wouldn’t be surprised if he became one of my favorite modern writers [...].

"Affect, the experience of emotional response, seems to be at issue in every one of Guffey’s offerings. From the opening eponymous story (which is the only outright Lovecraftian story in the collection), with its resonances of love as a torturous paralytic, to the last, 'Esthra, Shadows, Glass, Silence,' a parable of alternate lives and lost possibilities, the emotional response drawn from the reader appears to be the crux of every piece. These stories are engines designed to make the reader feel."

--Géza A. G. Reilly, Dead Reckonings

 "If you want a walk on the wild side, and I mean WILD, Robert Guffey’s fiction delivers that and more. It’s as if you’re lying in the grass in a park on a calm summer afternoon, you look up, and a creature you can’t even describe is looking at you. He starts talking in an even voice. But his words are chopping reality to pieces, and when he puts the pieces back together again, and you see the new picture, you feel a need to call the police. But then you realize you’re in a new place where the last people you want to talk to are the cops. What do you do now? You’re on your own. You better have strong resources. Very strong." 

 --Jon Rappoport, author of The Secret Behind Secret Societies

THE GUARDIAN on the Recent Acquisition of a "Havana Syndrome-style Device"

From Shaun Walker's 10-10-26 GUARDIAN report entitled "Why the Mystery Over Havana Syndrome Refuses to Die":

Perhaps the most significant piece of evidence to emerge recently has been the alleged US government acquisition of a “Havana syndrome-style device” in an undercover operation. First reported by the independent journalist Sasha Ingber this year, two sources confirmed to the Guardian that a device had been acquired and brought to the US in late 2024 for testing, after a purchase from a dark-web seller.

[Michael] Rey and [Oriana] Zill’s book [The Havana Syndrome] recounts a meeting with a person who claimed to be part of the undercover team that acquired the device. The source told them the device was “man-portable”, shot non-thermal pulsed microwaves and was acquired from “a complex Russian illicit network”.

It was not believed to have been used in a Havana syndrome incident, but testing on animals has reportedly shown it may cause similar symptoms to AHIs ["Anomalous Health Incidents"], which could prove that building such a device is scientifically possible.

That would make the case for a weapon being involved in some incidents more plausible, and would also raise new and worrying questions. If such weapons have proliferated to the extent that one can be bought on the dark web, how many devices could be out there and who may have access to them? Could AHIs thus have not one perpetrator, but many? And is there a future in which such weapons become a widespread element of warfare? “We know the technology has reached a level that enables it to be used in weaponisable ways,” said [James] Giordano. “I see that as a clear and present threat.”

For those who have had symptoms for years, the acquisition of the device and the rescinded intelligence assessments provide some hope that, one day, they will receive official confirmation that they were targeted by a foreign adversary. For many of them, the lack of recognition at home has angered them more than the attack itself...

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

If you find Walker's news report intriguing, I highly recommend checking out Steven Snider's comprehensive rundown of the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Havana Syndrome Conference. Snider, host of THE FARM PODCAST, attended the event earlier this year. There are many fascinating revelations to be found here. In fact, Part Two is especially informative.

Click HERE for THE FARM: "Who's Afraid of Havana Syndrome? Part 1 (2-16-26).

Click HERE for THE FARM: "Who's Afraid of Havana Syndrome? Part 2 (2-17-26).

HAPPY 144th BIRTHDAY, BELA LUGOSI!

 Several of my books, stories, and articles revolve around the legacy of Bela Lugosi. For example, my most recently published short story, "They Creep in the Dark," can be found in EXPERIMENTAL FILES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF TALES INSPIRED BY "EXPERIMENTAL FILM" BY GEMMA FILES (published by Weird Fiction Quarterly), an all-new collection of cinematic horror stories edited by Elizabeth Mitchell and Sarah Walker. This hefty anthology also includes hand-made illustrations drawn by Gemma Files herself.Lugosiphiles will appreciate the peculiar connections between this tale and William Beaudine's cult classic 1943 horror film, THE APE MAN. (Please note that all profit generated by this anthology will be donated to autism research efforts.) You can buy your copy of EXPERIMENTAL FILES right HERE!  

Mitchell and Walker's cinema-centric anthology pairs well with my latest nonfiction book, HOLLYWOOD HAUNTS THE WORLD: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CINEMA OF OCCULTED TABOOS (2025), in the sense that both obsessively explore the profound mysteries hidden within the esoteric language of popular films, including a number of key Lugosi vehicles such as Robert Florey's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932) and Joseph H. Lewis' INVISIBLE GHOST (1941).

You might also want to check out my Rondo Award-nominated novel BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD (2021), the ideal read for Spooky Season! A five-star Amazon review described BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD as "perfect reading for October." Who am I to disagree?  

And if you're not completely Lugosied out by that point, why not check out the Rondo Award-nominated nonfiction book I co-authored with Gary D. Rhodes, BELA LUGOSI AND THE MONOGRAM NINE (2019)? This is an in-depth analysis of the nine Poverty Row films in which Lugosi starred during World War II. You can hear Gary and I discussing this book at great length during the October 22, 2019 episode of Roejen Razorwire's PROJECT ARCHIVIST.

As if all that weren't enough, Gary Rhodes will be delivering a Halloween-centric lecture at Manly P. Hall's Philosophical Research Society on the night of October 28th. (Hall was, of course, one of Lugosi's closest friends for decades. In fact, Hall appears as a character in BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD.) This lecture will focus on Gary's most recent book, WEIRDUMENTARY. You can buy the tickets right HERE.

By the way, you can hear Gary and I chatting about WEIRDUMENTARY (and related matters) on the 7-26-25 episode of Seriah Azkath's WHERE DID THE ROAD GO? Here's Seriah's description of the episode...

This is a fun conversation with Gary Rhodes, and I invited one of his best friends, Robert Guffey, to join us! 

Weirdumentary: Ancient Aliens, Fallacious Prophecies, and Mysterious Monsters from 1970s Documentaries is a 2025 book by Gary D. Rhodes that explores the genre of pseudo-documentaries from the 1970s, such as Chariots of the Gods and The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, which popularized topics like ancient aliens, prophecies, and cryptids. The book provides a history of these films, individual entries on over 45 movies, and features images from the era, making it a resource for fans of pop culture, cinema, and the paranormal. 

You can listen to the entire WHERE DID THE ROAD GO? interview on YouTube...

The Silver Revolver: The Odyssey of an Existentialist Cowboy in the Barren Wastelands of the 21st Century

Earlier this morning, PUNK NOIR MAGAZINE published my review of John Shirley's latest novel, THE SILVER REVOLVER  (Rough Edge Press, 2025).  The first two paragraphs follow:

Some people will tell you that the pulp era is long dead, but John Shirley seems to be single-handedly attempting to keep the spirit of that adventurous age alive and well. Indeed, Shirley might be the preeminent pulp writer of the twenty-first century. Of course, I’m using “pulp” in the very best sense of the word. Certain uptight academics associate the word “pulp” with the most lowbrow fiction of the Great Depression, a time when cheaply produced magazines filled with lurid shocks were churned out by a factory system populated with workhorse scriveners scrambling to earn a penny a word by creating rote entertainment for the masses. Though the field was no doubt overpopulated by penny-a-worders who cared more about collecting a paycheck than crafting immortal prose, there were those rare, ambitious dreamers like Ray Bradbury, Raymond Chandler, Philip K. Dick, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Elmore Leonard, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Donald Westlake, and Cornell Woolrich who contributed influential, foundational literature to the pulp age.

There was a time when a professional writer could remain solvent only by becoming a master of various forms and producing as many words as possible. Perhaps more so than any veteran storyteller living today, John Shirley has evolved into a literary chameleon who appears to be equally comfortable in almost any genre imaginable. In the past six years, he’s published hard science fiction novels (Stormland and SubOribital 7), short horror fiction (The Feverish Stars), fantasy novels (A Sorcerer of Atlantis), westerns (Axle Bust Creek, Gunmetal Mountain, and Blood in Sweet River), and even collections of poetry (The Voice of the Burning House and Ghost Confessions). I’m familiar with dilettantes in academia who equate a high literary output with lackadaisical writing, but such criticism does not apply to Shirley’s legendary career. His 1980 book, City Come A-Walkin’, is widely regarded as the first true cyberpunk novel; his 1998 book, Black Butterflies, won the coveted Stoker Award for Best Story Collection; and his 2023 book, Gunmetal Mountain, won the Spur Award for Best Western Novel. Fortunately for his readers, Shirley appears to be nowhere near finished hopping from genre to genre...

To read the entire book review, click HERE. 

Reports from Trumplandia: Greene v. Trump

1) From Tara Suter's 10-11-26 THE HILL article entitled  "Greene Calls Trump ‘America Last’ in Scathing Attack":

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) slammed President Trump on Sunday, continuing a feud between the president and his former supporter, who called him "America last."

Greene on Sunday posted a screenshot of an email from what appeared to be Trump's campaign, with a line in the message reading "Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor, did I do something wrong?"

"So yes, actually you did do something wrong President Trump, let's first start with your broken campaign promises. You protected your pedophile rapists friends instead of women who were raped when they were just teenage girls and you STILL REFUSE to release the Epstein files," Greene said in her post on the social platform X.

"You started an unprovoked war with Iran that the vast majority of Americans do NOT support. You killed hundreds of children at a school in Iran and innocent people and are responsible for 21 U.S. service members deaths and 865 wounded," she added.

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

2) From Natalia Mittelstadt's 10-15-26 CBS12.com article entitled "Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Trump Admin 'Pretending' to Prepare to Deport Rep. Ilhan Omar":

Former Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said that the Trump administration is "pretending" to prepare to deport Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar amid inflation and the Iran war.

"Me and Ilhan Omar are far apart policy wise. I’m pro life, she’s pro abortion. I’m pro [Second Amendment], she’s pro gun control. And on and on," Greene posted on X on Wednesday.

"But can someone tell me how pretending to get ready to deport Ilhan Omar is going to bring gas down under $2, make health insurance freaking affordable, make a family’s weekly grocery bill make sense, and stop sending our beloved military off to fight for another f-cking foreign war???" she continued.

"People are so sick and tired of the bullsh-t. When you dumb mf’ers at the WH actually release the Epstein files and lock up the pedophiles and rapists you all hang out with, then we will start paying attention."

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

STRAIGHT FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION, THE UPSIDE DOWN MAGICIAN HAS ARRIVED!

In November of 2025, I posted a sneak preview of my debut comic book, THE UPSIDE DOWN MAGICIAN #1, created in collaboration with Nadim Mahi-Bahi, a supernaturally talented artist based in Canada. After some unexpected delays (many of them involving Trump's mad tariffs), THE UPSIDE DOWN MAGICIAN #1 is at last available for the world to see! 

THE UPSIDE DOWN MAGICIAN is an ongoing comic book series about ultraterrestrial paintings, sentient houses, Hieronymus Bosch, government agents, secret societies, and many other concepts that are currently beyond human comprehension. Though Nadim and I printed up a few preview copies last year for Expozine in Montreal, the first issue only went on sale for the general public a couple of weeks ago, which means you can be one of the first human beings on Earth to feast your eyes on this visual extravaganza. Here's your chance to get in on the ground floor of a brand new comic book that is both wonderful and strange!

If you want to see the special preview I posted late last year, simply click on the video below...

You can buy a copy of issue #1 directly from Nadim's website by clicking right HERE! 

THE INVISIBLE MAN HAS A SPECIAL HALLOWEEN MESSAGE FOR THE MASSES!

In honor of Halloween Month and the recent launching of my very own publishing imprint, CryptoScat Press, Dr. Jack Griffin (AKA the Invisible Man) would like to take this opportunity to vigorously reiterate his enthusiastic endorsement for my books, DEAD MONKEY RUM and CHAMELEO: A STRANGE BUT TRUE STORY OF INVISIBLE SPIES, HEROIN ADDICTION, AND HOMELAND SECURITY.

Dr. Griffin on CHAMELEO: "The mere act of reading CHAMELEO gives one power! Power, I said! Power to walk into the gold vaults of the nations, into the secrets of kings, into the Holy of Holies... power to make multitudes run squealing in terror at the touch of one's invisible little finger! Even the moon is frightened of the secrets contained within CHAMELEO... frightened to death! The whole world's frightened to death of CHAMELEO! Buy your copy TODAY! HA HA HA HA HA!"

Dr. Griffin on DEAD MONKEY RUM: "When I'm relaxing in the privacy of my secret laboratory after wreaking havoc against the frightened multitudes, I enjoy whiling away the hours by reading exciting South Sea adventures about talking monkeys and stolen Tiki idols, and Robert Guffey's latest novel, DEAD MONKEY RUM, hits the sweet spot!"

 

Here are various alarming images of Dr. Griffin wandering around the Southern California landscape in between causing indiscriminate acts of chaos during the long, fearful nights leading up to All Hallows' Eve...