As the “scrappy take-no-prisoners publishing brand” (snicker) rolls into a new release this Spring and a Summer/Fall tour to follow, ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING is planning to kick the teeth out of the convention circuit and initiate some new roughian brethren along the way!!

2019 marked a slew of new beginnings, starting with a re-brand of our company so soft, that most roughians didn’t even feel it on their leathered, battle-worn skins. While we were at it, we relaunched our GORE SHRIEK® RESURRECTUS line as an ongoing series to amazing success and have been working on several new projects concurrently that we are fighting against the chain to share with the “Rough and the Curious”! With several new acquisitions and releases pending, we did manage to stop the van long enough to hit a truck stop bathroom, a seedy 3rd rate drive-thru, paid a Worcester hooker to get bent, …and brought on a new permanent member of the ROUGH HOUSE ARMY!

Join us in welcoming Rough House’s newest recruit, STEVE VAN SAMSON!

**STEVE VAN SAMPSON - ROUGH HOUSE’S NEWEST DEVIANT!**

Steve met Derek Rook and Co. at last years, SCARE-A-CON New England Convention as their booths (The New England Horror Writers and Rough House Publishing, respectively) were forced to stare each other down as the likes of Tom Savini, Jason Lively and Dee Snider perused back and forth between the two. Steve, being the friendlier of the two, took a break from selling himself and his team of writers long enough to drop by and introduce himself.

Man, did he pick the WRONG TABLE!!!!!!

Little did Van Samson know that Rook was searching for a new member of the Rough House team on the sly, ….a Swiss Army Knife of a roughian, who when told we were going out to pummel some major ass under heavy return fire without the benefit of a safety net, would reply simply by asking, “Who’s car we takin’?!”

Rough House Publishing’s Owner/Artist, Derek Rook had this to say regarding his eventual decision to bring on a new team member to the coveted Rough House role, that over time he’d become extremely protective of. Said Rook of what led to his talent search:

“Rough House Publishing, LLC was originally a label I created to “shelter” my creator-owned material back when I returned from comic book retirement back in 2010. My original plan was to keep it small, manageable and largely just mine, but as luck would have it - no good deed went unpunished.” Rook said half-jokingly about the extreme highs and lows of the Comic Book and/or Entertainment industry.

With time, the idea naturally evolved with the inclusion of partners Mike “Corpse Monger” Wasion and Rook’s then girlfriend, Sarah Michelle. “There was a point when the amount of work exceeded the talent we had available and I found myself being pulled away from the drawing table more often than I was comfortable with. I was succeeding at being everything except a full time artist, which was my whole reason for existing in this industry. Something had to change.”

Over the months that followed the con, Van Samson and Rook took a few meetings and before long, groundwork was being forged for Steve to join the Rough House crew.

Steve’s one of us, people, but don’t take it from us! Here’s Steve Van Samson himself on Van Samson, giving you a little free Intel on all things Van Samson:

“Steve Van Samson is a graphic designer, artist and author of the vampires in Africa books "The Bone Eater King" and "Marrow Dust". His writing tends to be on the pulpy side--intermingling genres like horror with dark fantasy and adventure. He believes that character is king and there should always be little seeds planted between the lines, that the reader will only discover in subsequent readings.

**THE PREDATOR WORLD SERIES (BY STEVE VAN SAMPSON)**

In 2019, Steve's short story "The Terror of London" appeared in "The Final Summons" by the New England Speculative Writers. In addition the forthcoming anthology "Wicked Weird" by the New England Horror Writers, will feature another of his short stories, "A Feast of Flies". His long running column Monochrome Manor (new reviews of really old movies) appeared monthly on the now defunct movie review site Cinema Knife Fight which was run by acclaimed horror author, L. L. Soars.

Steve is also the singer of the classic heavy metal band "Enchanted Exile" (who released their second album "Bloodwork Scriptorium" in 2018) and is a founding member of the nostalgia podcast "Retro Ridoctopus". He lives in Lancaster, Massachusetts with three amazing girls and one smallish dragon.”

Steve will be immediately contributing his design and layout skills to existing and future projects, some of which you will see right here on this website. He’ll also be a large part of out sales and promotional campaigns in print and social media going forward, with some major writing projects being announced later this year. No official title has been given to his particular skill sets at this time but it’s certain that he and the rest of the Rough House clan will be hard at work, making sure you have plenty of “tangible awesome” to sink your teeth into within the next year.

“Now has NEVER been a better time to take a trip with us down the Rough House Road”, Rook threatens to the roughian public at large. “If you dug what we were up to out of the gate, you’re going to go crazy for what comes next!”

So pack your Tijuana Bibles, down a handful of Xanax (only as prescribed by an actor posing as your preferred medical professional) get your 90’s combat boots on and…

GET IN THE VAN!