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AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, SNAFU

SNAFU: LEVEL UP AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – MARK T BARNES

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For the last of Cohesion Press’ Author Spotlight, we’re staying in Oz and ambling over to Mark Barnes’ place for a wee chat. I know he already has the coffee and snacks ready, which totally wrecks my penchant for breaking into people’s houses and raiding their fridge. Seems I’ll have to look for something else to steal… 

So, if you kind people could keep Mark occupied while I scope out his place, that would be grand. I’ve shoved him on stage, shoved a mic into his hand, so welcome him to do the wordage thing!

Mark is a nerd, an author, a professional, an artist, and an athlete, not always in that order though proud of all of it. He’s travelled widely though still calls Australia home. At present, he runs a freelance organisational change and communications company, as well as being a professional author of off-centre fantasy with elements of grimdark, cosmic horror, and magepunk.

Born to modest, working-class beginnings, he is the eldest of five children. He developed an appetite for sports at a young age, and was a competition-level swimmer and waterpolo player until his late teens, as well as playing soccer and volleyball. Curious and creative by nature, he leaned into his studies, as well as the arts. He wrote his first short story at the age of seven, and was painting and drawing early, adding music to the mix when he went to high school, which was where he found his love for Table Top Roleplaying Games (TTORPGs) enduring to today.

He cut his teeth on Original Dungeons and Dragons (then it’s many iterations), Bushido, Traveller, The Fantasy Trip, Tunnels and Trolls, and Runequest. Each weekend saw him saddle up with his friends at gaming clubs and venies to roll the bones and create stories. Game mastering at local conventions and with friends was where his love of storytelling flourished. For decades, he focussed on creating stories in new worlds for his roleplaying campaigns before redirecting his efforts into writing short form and long form fiction.

On acceptance to Clarion South 2005, where he met some incredible writers and tutors who became new friends, he started taking writing seriously. He had short stories published in the same year as Clarion, and started work on a novel.

In 2010, he was fortunate to be signed up to the John Jarrold Literay Agency, earning a three-book deal with 47 North for The Echoes of Empire series. Echoes of Empire books were a ranked multiple times in the Amazon Top 10 Best Sellers in Fantasy, twice having all three books in the Top 10 at the same time. The Garden of Stones was nominated for the Gemmel Legend Award where it made the Top 20, and was a finalist in the final five for the Morningstar Award for Best Debut of the Year.

He continues his consulting work and is writing both fantasy and LitRPG novels and short stories.

For SNAFU: Level Up, Mark travelled deep into the ‘verse with SEED OF DESPAIR: When is a game not a game? When nobody can escape and nobody knows death is forever.

You can find Mark on Insta, as well as Facebook, and Bluesky, and Twitter/X.

Want to delve deeper into Mark’s work (doooo iiiitttt), book one of his LitRPG novel, The Mad Gods is out, as well as his fantasy-LitRPG The Cold Road. Get ‘em in your eyeballs!

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, SNAFU

SNAFU: LEVEL UP AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – LEE FRANKLIN

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After our last quick trip to the UK, we’re heading back home to Australia for Cohesion Press’ latest Author Spotlight, which is shining its light on Lee Franklin. Does she know we’re about to raid her house? Unlikely. Will that stop us? Hells no.

So, while we drag our baggage (and our sorry arses) to her place, we’ve shoved Lee up on stage to do her thang.

After a decade in the Australian Army and two deployments, Lee traded her uniform for the chaos of raising three boys. She and her Argentine husband eventually relocated to the Yorkshire moors, where she finally picked up a pen and began soaking pages in the blood of men and monsters. These days she’s back in her home town of Perth, Western Australia, surviving on coffee, running, and reading rampantly across all genres.

For SNAFU: Level Up, Lee hit all the Aussie roadkill with her tale MURRI BIODOME: Leveling Up Down Under – all for the sugar…

If you want to read more of Lee’s work, you might want to check out her military sci-fi set in the depths of the Vietnam War: Berserker – Green Hell.

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, SNAFU

SNAFU: LEVEL UP AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – BENJAMIN SPADA

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Well, well, well, look who’s here! It’s our official-not-so-official honorary Aussie Benjamin Spada, striding to Cohesion Press’ Author Spotlight stage. Are we in the US? Are we in Australia? Are we losing our minds? (Definitely ‘nah, yeah’ on the last one.)

Ben has spent a great deal of time on our shores, so we kinda adopted him. Did he want said adoption? Ummm… Do we adopt as we see fit? Absolutely. Also, we may have stamped him with a weird logo while he was sleeping. Perhaps. Maybe.

But enough about our weird adoption processes, Ben has been tapping his foot upon the stage, so it’s over to him while we raid his duffel bag for snacks.

Born and raised in California, Benjamin Spada has had a lifelong passion for storytelling. His award-winning Black Spear series of military thrillers includes FNG, The Warmaker, and Project: Darkheart. His works have been previously published in SNAFU: Dead or Alive and SNAFU: Contagion. A dedicated taco aficionado and self-described “Professor of Batmanology,” he has made a career in the United States Marine Corps. He has been a martial arts instructor and a section leader in the Wounded Warrior Battalion for our nation’s wounded, ill, and injured. Also, he has served overseas to help train foreign military allies in defense against chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Despite these grim assignments, he has carried on with equal amounts of sarcasm and stoicism.

When out of uniform, Benjamin is an avid sci-fi and horror movie fan, tattoo collector, comic enthusiast, and two-time holder of the platinum trophy in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Benjamin currently lives with his wife and their four daughters in Covington, Louisiana.

For SNAFU: Level Up, upon the sacrificial altar, Ben slapped the festeringly humorous corpse of RAGE QUIT: One man. One unbeatable final boss. A thousand ways to lose. It’s time to start cheating…

You can find Ben on Facebook and Twitter.

Want to read more of his work (get it in your eyeballs!)? The most recent Black Spear novel, Project Darkheart, is out now in print and ebook. Audiobook is being recorded and set to release early November!

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, Ramblings, SNAFU

SNAFU: LEVEL UP AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – JUSTIN COATES & PATRICK FREIVALD

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Well, lookee here! It’s a two-for! That’s right, the next in Cohesion Press’ Author Spotlight is a double-whammy with Justin Coates and Patrick Freivald penning us a tale (I’m pretty sure they fought over the pen). Which means this Author Spotlight will be a little longer than all the previous. Still, we are continuing our tour of the States with these two.

So, first up, we’re barging into Justin’s house (he said I could), shoving a mic in his face, and ushering him on stage to do his thang. <flaps hands> Go, go!

The son of a bean farmer and a chupacabra, Justin Coates accidentally joined the U.S. Army in 2008 and spent two years stumbling around Afghanistan. During and since, he’s been writing wild tales of military misadventures in horror and sci-fi, including short stories that have been adapted by Netflix’s Love, Death and Robots and a mysterious Amazon streaming show the NDAs won’t allow him to mention by name (for now). A graduate of the University of Southern California, he works as a trauma therapist and suicide prevention specialist by day (you know what he does at night). He lives in Michigan with his smokeshow wife, two feral sons, and the dumbest orange cat this side of the Sulemain Mountains. He also has a kick ass found-footage horror screenplay, and wants to know whose #@!% he needs to !#%@ to get an agent. 

While Justin sorts out his… let’s go with… sweetner? … (yeah, that works?), Patrick has now taken the stage with an entourage of bees…

Patrick Freivald is a four-time Bram Stoker Award® finalist, the author of ten novels and dozens of short stories for publications such as Weird Tales and Dark Discoveries, a high school teacher (physics, robotics, American Sign Language), and a beekeeper specializing in hot pepper infused honey. He lives in Western New York with his beautiful wife, parrots, dogs, cats, chickens, and several million stinging insects. A member of the Horror Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers, he has a soft spot for slavering monsters of all kinds.

For SNAFU: Level Up, Justin and Patrick dragged over to us the festering corpse of RESPAWN: As a team of misfits battles their way toward the grand prize of a virtual death match, there’s only one question on everyone’s mind: this game is fair, isn’t it?

Right, let’s get on to where you can find these fiends:

Justin is on Facebook (if you dare)

Patrick, you can find on Facebook and Insta.

When it comes to upcoming works, Justin apparently doesn’t have shit coming out (his words, I swear, and yes, I laughed a little… okay, a lot), while Patrick has a spooky tale for tweens coming out real soon – Mitchcraft, Vacation Magic School. Check it out!

Seriously, these two are a menace – what’s not to love?

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, SNAFU

SNAFU: LEVEL UP AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT –  LJ VISSER

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Well, look at us heading back to the land of Oz again! Of course we are, it’s home base. This time for Cohesion Press’ Author Spotlight, we’re heading south to the hub of creatives, Melbourne, to chat (and by chat, I mean crash in on) with LJ Visser.

This isn’t the first time LJ has graced our pages, and we were chuffed with his offering this time around. While he takes centre stage, we’re off to raid the fridge. Take it away, LJ! (Ooh, rhyme, how ‘bout that?)

L J Visser is a Melbourne-based author of military science fiction, horror and psychological thrillers. His work blends brutal survival, corporate secrecy, psychological tension, and the darker edges of human behaviour.

Speaking of said offering for SNAFU: Level Up, LJ placed upon the altar BLACKBOX PROTOCOL: Trapped inside a corporate black site, a soldier must survive its horrors while discovering that the most dangerous thing buried there may be inside her own mind.

You can find LJ on Facebook.

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, Ramblings, SNAFU, Writing

SNAFU: LEVEL UP AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT –  CRAIG DILOUIE

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For today’s Author Spotlight from Cohesion Press, we’re stepping out of the great land Down Under, and heading over to the North America (it’s a bitch of a drive…) to knock on Craig DiLouie’s door and invite him to the stage (and by knock, I mean hammer on that door until he lets us in – I need coffee).

While I get my caffeine-fix, I’ll turn over the mic to Craig, and have him wax lyrical about all things him and writing and books and stuff and things. Shh, caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet.

Take it away, Craig! (The talking, not the coffee.)

Craig DiLouie is a USA Today bestselling American-Canadian horror, sci-fi, and military fiction. Notable works include The Summer Fun Massacre, Episode Thirteen, and The Children of Red Peak, all published by Hachette, and Suffer the Children, published by Simon & Schuster.

For SNAFU: Level Up, Craig penned us the high-octane, holy-shit tale THE GREAT INTERDIMENSIONAL KILL RACE: a man and his crazy brother-in-law join forces in a death race across four of the most dangerous dimensions in the multiverse, hoping to win the life-saving grand prize.

You can find Craig on Facebook.

Want to read more of his work (you really should)? In November 2026, The Yule Day Slaughter—the sequel to The Summer Fun Massacre that concludes the duology—releases from Run For It, Hachette’s horror imprint. In June 2027, People with Taste, described as The Bear with cannibalism, also releases from Hachette.

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, SNAFU

SNAFU: LEVEL UP AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – INCOMING!

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That’s right, it’s that time again where I shout from the rooftops the amazing authors who make up the ToC for the year’s SNAFU. And hoo boy, it’s a hella long list.

SNAFU: LEVEL UP is the biggest edition to date, coming it at a whopping nineteen—you heard it—NINETEEN stories. That’s a weapon. I mean… if you were to use it that way. Or, you could, I don’t know, just read it? Multi-purpose!

As you can likely see from the last time I updated my blog, I am quite shit at blogging and updating. But I will skip happily over to here when it comes to shouting about Cohesion Press’ authors in our latest tome.

Level Up is due for release Halloween because we always release that date, and what better date is there for a military-horror antho to be launched into the world?

This year, SNAFU went big with LitRPG. Yep, that fun, humorous, dangerous, and alternate of worlds where gaming comes with high-stakes and usually higher death counts. Sure, there can be respawning, but you gotta die first, yeah?

AND LOOK AT THAT COVER! More amazing work by Wendy Sabercore SABERCORE ART.

So, for the next approximately nineteen days (yes, approximately – anyone who knows me knows my concept of time is guesswork at best), I will be introducing the SNAFU: LEVEL UP authors with a gameshow-flourish. An ugly flourish, sure, but we work with what we have.

In this edition, there are authors who have graced previous SNAFUs, and there are new names coming to mark their places on the pages. And like previous editions, the storytellers hail from all over the world.  Love that for us.  And for you. And them.

So, strap in, get your dice ready, your VR set, and your HUD prepped. Grab yourself a weapon on your way through – you never know who or what you’re gonna meet.

Note: the order of the Author Spotlight does not represent ToC order.

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, Reading, SNAFU

SNAFU: CONTAGION AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – ROBERT MAMMONE

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We’re Aussie-ing again with this Author Spotlight for SNAFU: Contagion – we’re like a plague (see what I did there?).  Cohesion Press is stumbling to the end of our Author Spotlight series (okay, I’m stumbling; there’s never enough caffeine), and while this isn’t the last of our authors, Robert Mammone does round out the ToC for SNAFU: Contagion.

And a cracker of a tale it is!

But I’ll let Robert introduce himself, because I think that’s likely to best for all involved… especially Robert…

Not to be confused with the Australian actor of the same name, Rob has been writing since the mid-80s, got serious in the mid-90s and was published in Doctor Who Magazine, then received an absolutely brutal (in hindsight, deserved) rejection letter soon after and went dark until 2009.  Since then, he’s been published in places like Midnight Echo, Pseudopod podcast, No Sleep Podcast, Swords and Sorceries 10, Die by the Sword 2, and had novels published with Candy Jar Books.  When he isn’t chasing his dogs around the neighbourhood, he can be found doing very little else.

As I said earlier in this piece, Robert wrote us a cracker of tale for SNAFU: Contagion –  GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG: Mercenaries bite off more than they can chew in the frontlines of the Ukraine-Russian meat grinder.

You can find Robert on Twitter.

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, Reading, SNAFU

SNAFU: CONTAGION AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – JOSH REYNOLDS

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It’s SNAFU: Contagion Author Spotlight again, and this time we’re bringing you a name you probably recognise (we’re actually bringing the whole person, not just the name… I mean, it’s not like we’ve shackled Josh or anything… <side eye>… Promise.).

Yep, I’m talking about Josh Reynolds, who has penned many a story for Cohesion Press’ SNAFU series. He’s just that good. Look, I swear we haven’t shackled him in a haunted asylum to make him write for us, don’t believe the rumours.

Now, before I make a complete idiot of myself (shh), I’ll let Josh to the introducing of Josh – he’ll do a far better job of it than me…

A professional author since 2007, Josh has over thirty novels to his name, as well as numerous short stories, novellas, and audio scripts. Born and raised in South Carolina, he now resides in Sheffield with his wife and daughter, as well as a highly excitable dog and something he hopes is a cat.

Now, I can’t say for sure that the ‘something’ Josh hopes is a cat didn’t have anything to do with the tale he penned for SNAFU: Contagion, but… THE SILENT SPAN: A soldier sent into the trenches to discover why his comrades have fallen silent, discovers something far more deadly. 

You can find Josh on Bluesky and Instagram.

Prodigious writer that he is, Josh has Return of the Monster Men ready for preorder, and Tales of Pannithor: Stand at Callenspire ready to read now.

You can also find a complete collection of his works on his website.

Seriously, check out his work!

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, Reading, Reviews, SNAFU

SNAFU: CONTAGION AUTHOR BIO – MICHAEL WEGENER

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Taking another step over the halfway mark for Cohesion Press’ Author Spotlight for SNAFU: Contagion, we’re dragging Michael Wegener with us! Michael isn’t an Aussie per se, but we’d most happily welcome him for his dark mind, dark humour, and even darker story.

With just eleven days to go until the print release of SNAFU: Contagion (Audible and ebook are already available), we’re really counting down the days and the authors we’d like you to get to know.

So, without further ado…. MICHAEL WEGENER!

Michael is a former chemist (if there is such a thing) and senior medical writer in the area of health technology assessment (because bills and stuff). Considering himself first and foremost a writer of crime/noir fiction, making his fiction debut with a short story in Mickey Finn Vol. 3: 21st Century Noir (edited by Michael Bracken) in 2022, he’s also been dabbling in horror fiction, with crime/horror hybrid stories recently published in Unnerving Magazine and the Starlite Pulp Review. He considers the all-out horror and action of his story in SNAFU: Contagion somewhat of a culmination of those recent efforts, and writing it had been such a blast, it certainly won’t be his last foray into horror. He lives in Brunswick, Germany.

I can absolutely concur that Michael is correct about the all-out horror for his SNAFU: Contagion story – BLACK HELL RISING: Two AWOL Marines discover that the hell of war is a cozy evening by the fire compared to the hell awaiting them in the desert.

You can find Michael on Instagram and Bluesky.

Michael’s upcoming publications include both crime and horror stories in Mickey Finn Vol. 6 and Schlock! Webzine.