I am writing today about my client, up-and-coming writer Tamika Thompson. She has two books coming out shortly with two different publishers. One is a horror collection and one is a horror novella.

The novella, out October 31, 2022, is called Salamander Justice and it was originally published by Madness Heart Press in 2020. Unfortunately it was early pandemic and things got lost in the shuffle. They are re-releasing it with a new, better cover and an updated edit and that is coming out later this month. Here's the cover copy for this quick read:

Veda is a successful public relations director who recently relocated to Kauai where she is grieving the murder of her ex-boyfriend Michael. Sam is a self-proclaimed vegan-pacifist who is searching for his life’s purpose despite being supported by his wealthy family. The salamanders that populate the Hawaiian island, that sneak into homes, and scurry across footpaths are simply an afterthought.

Believing that Veda is “the one,” Sam introduces her to his family in the hopes that he can turn their friendship into something more, but his plan is thwarted when Veda becomes smitten with his older brother Adam. Strange occurrences befall the trio on the anniversary of Michael’s murder, and as Veda chooses Adam, and as Sam becomes increasingly resentful, the love triangle spirals into a jealousy and anger so strong they begin to question reality.

Is the human-like salamander that Veda sees real or imagined? Is the leathery, yellow stripe growing on Sam's chest just in his head? Salamander Justice asks, Which creatures deserve to live? The answer will prove to be deadly.

The collection, to be published in January 2023 by Unnerving Press, is called Unshod, Cackling, and Naked. The themes in this collection are deeply personal and represent people--Black people in particular--throwing off the expectations of society in various ways. Here's the cover copy:

A beauty pageant veteran appeases her mother by competing for one final crown, only to find herself trapped in a hand-sewn gown that cuts into her flesh. A journalist falls deeply in love with a mysterious woman but discovers his beloved can vanish and reappear hours later in the same spot, as if no time has passed at all. A cash-strapped college student agrees to work in a shop window as a mannequin but quickly learns she’s not free to break her pose. And what happens when the family pet decides it no longer wants to have “owners?”

In the grim and often horrific thirteen tales collected here, beauty is violent, and love and hate are the same feeling, laid bare by unbridled obsession. Entering worlds both strange and quotidian, and spanning horror landscapes both speculative and real, Unshod, Cackling, and Naked asks who among us is worthy of love and who deserves to die?

About the Author

Tamika Thompson is a writer, producer, and journalist. She is the author of Unshod, Cackling, and Naked (Unnerving Books, 2023) and Salamander Justice (Madness Heart Press, 2022). She is co-creator of the artist collective POC United and fiction editor for the group’s award-winning anthology, Graffiti.

Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in several speculative fiction anthologies as well as in Interzone, Prairie Schooner, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Thompson also has producing credits at Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, as well as with NBC and ABC News.

She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia
University and a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Southern California. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find her
online at www.tamikathompson.com.

Press Release Courtesy of:
Beverly Bambury | Publicist
http://beverlybambury.com