Joe R. Lansdale: Champion Mojo Storyteller
Been a fan of Joe's since I stumbled upon him way back in the late '80s/early '90s when I read his seminal short-story collection By Bizarre Hands.
I cannot recollect how I "discovered" Joe, but his weird twist on the horror genre was refreshing (reminded me of when I stumbled upon Clive Barker's Books of Blood in 1985). He championed this strange PoMo Southern Gothic slant that was unheralded at the time.
His story "The Night They Missed The Horror Show" is nuts.
He has become somewhat more "mainstream" thanks to his Hap & Leonard novels (of which some were turned into a Sundance Channel series).
Started in on his short story collection Fist Full of Stories today and noticed that he has a new Hap/Leonard novel out, a new stand-alone novel dropping next year, and the conclusion to his Ned the Seal trilogy dropping next year, too, so I'm on a mini-kick.
Highly recommended and worth checking out if you dig modern horror, westerns, and twisted takes on detective stories. Also if you dig the works of Hiaasen and Leonard and Vachss.
Joe normally posts a new, free story on his website every Thursday, which is a great way to get into his stuff:
http://www.joerlansdale.com/stories.html
