Unveiling the Unique and the Unusual

Hey Flinch fans! We’re back from Pulpfest 2026, where we sold a boatload of books, reconnected with some old friends and made a few new ones too. Among the high points of the four-day affair in Pittsburgh was our annual Flinch Fest presentation, where we dropped the news about our upcoming anthology and revealed its cover to the Pulpfest faithful.

Freeform Flinch: Tales of the Unique and the Unusual is just what the title suggest—a collection of ten stories that veer off the well-traveled paths and into unknown territory where the guidelines and guardrails that define specific genres no longer apply.

An excerpt from the back cover copy tells the tale:

“Within these pages you’ll find familiar genres—crime, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, adventure—but from voices and pens that will likely surprise you, and maybe make you think twice about what those genres truly are and what they encompass. To freeform is to untether oneself—as a writer or reader, or both – from preexisting notions of what storytelling should be and where it should go. The tales in this tome take that exercise in experimentation and dial it to eleven!”

Jim Beard and John Bruening, your resident Flinch Books masterminds, are among the contributors to this eclectic collection. They’re joined by eight other shining lights on the modern-day pulp landscape: Glen Held, Terrance Layhew, Craig McDonald, Robert J. Mendenhall, Charles F. Millhouse, Will Murray, Duane Spurlock, and Dayton Ward. Every one of these talented scribes sidesteps convention, each in their own way, and makes a fearless foray into uncharted territory.

It all comes wrapped in a compelling package. Adam Benet Shaw, a longtime Flinch collaborator, provided the surreal and intriguing cover illustration. Maggie Ryel—Flinch’s secret weapon for more than a decade—created the logo, designed the cover and worked her magic with the interior page formatting.

The journey into the unique and the unusual gets under way soon. Watch this space for more details and get on board when Freeform Flinch goes on sale (print and ebook) this fall!