The Twenty-Third Dispatch
Welcome to the twenty-third issue of C.J. Dotson’s Dreadful Dispatch—and the first issue after my debut novel officially came out!
The last month has been such a whirlwind that working on anything non-novel-related has felt like a big struggle, and there’s still more activity coming up, so I am a touch behind on putting out this issue. (Okay I’m like half a month behind on putting out this issue, but the important thing is that I didn’t forget!)
News
I hardly know where to start!
I have had my first few author events, kicking it off with an incredibly fun time at The Lucky 13 Saloon in Brooklyn, NYC, hosted by The Brooklyn Horror Society and The Twisted Spine Book Store. The bar was such a vibe and literally every single person I met that night was fully delightful. It was a fantastic time!
My official book launch party was held at the Fairlawn, Ohio, Barnes & Noble and the turnout—including, of course, my family and friends who I don’t get to see often now that I live out of state—was great, the Q&A session was fun, and it was a lovely time that made my heart happy.
I had a signing at the Pittsford, NY, B&N a few days later and I’m not sure I’ve ever been in such a pretty Barnes & Noble.
Most recently I took an absolutely gorgeous five-hour drive through the Adirondacks and had a super fun event at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, NH, with Book Riot’s Liberty Hardy.
It's been a month of super fun adventures, with more coming up!
If you’d like to meet up with me on any of those adventures, including a live virtual chat with Cynthia Pelayo on May 1st, then go check out my upcoming events at www.cjdotsonauthor.com/events/upcoming-events
I’ve also recorded a few podcast interviews, with a few more on the way! The first of them was with Unfortunately… Podcast, on season 1, episode 10, and was a very fun chat!
Coming up:
Keep an eye out for more coming up on Bloody Good Reads, the Folktown Podcast, and The Folklore Podcast! I’ll update when the episodes I’ll be on go live.
The Writing
I’m super excited to have recently finished copyedits on my next book, THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, a dual timeline haunted house novel coming out in April of 2026. This was the first horror manuscript I ever wrote, and at the end of last year and beginning of this year I completed some pretty heavy revisions on it, so going back and reading through it again after a couple of months—my first re-read since finishing those revisions—has felt really good. I can’t wait to share this next book with everyone!
I’ve been working on a few short stories and on my next novel-length manuscript, and generally now that the leadup to debuting is behind me and I’m starting to get the hang of doing author events, I’m beginning to find my writing flow once again (which is a relief, because not being able to write as much as I am used to has not been a very good feeling).
Bravery
One of my favorite things about horror as a genre is that it challenges the idea that bravery means never being afraid—an idea I’m happy to say I think is starting to fade. Mostly I love speculative stories, both in books and in television/movies, but I also have a big ol’ soft spot for action flicks (some of them are so outlandish that they border on the speculative anyway, and I just love it). Now, there are always exceptions, but for the most part I’ve found that in sci fi, in fantasy, in action movies, the idea of bravery is often presented too easily. The heroes go into dangerous situations when it is the right thing to do because they are good, or because they are vengeful, or even because they are purely reckless.
It's mostly in horror that we see the heroes going into dangerous situations when it is the right thing to do, but full of qualms and scared shitless and doing it anyway.
Which means, in my opinion, it’s mostly in horror that we see characters displaying true bravery.
So let’s talk about the most obvious example I can think of: Courage the Cowardly Dog (a show I didn’t appreciate enough when it first aired, tbh).
It’s a kids’ show from the late 90s – early 00s, so of course it’s formulaic as heck, but it’s still weird and eerie and super fun. Courage lives with his elderly humans, sunshiney Muriel Bagge and grumpy Eustace Bagge, in a little house in the middle of nowhere, and in every episode something strange and menacing happens to them. Each time some new horrible thing comes to their little home, Courage knows something’s wrong from the jump and, amid fits of gibbering terror, he tries to warn his humans. When they never, ever heed his warnings and something terrible happens (or is at risk of happening) to them, it’s up to Courage to save Muriel and Eustace. Again.
And in every episode, he does it. In excesses of terror, conveyed not only by the constant screaming but also by animations that occasionally seemed over-the-top at the time even for a cartoon, he throws himself into ridiculously dangerous, disgusting, and frightening situations to rescue his humans. Even Eustace, who goes out of his way to be as unkind to Courage as he possibly can at almost every available opportunity.
Courage doesn’t stride in with grim stoicism to save the day. In a screaming panic, he flails, eyes bugging out, hiding and hesitant and afraid, but when push comes to shove he’s always running into the danger to save the Bagges. He doesn’t even try to pretend he’s not scared. He’s openly terrified, but he does it anyway.
Courage the Cowardly Dog is braver than Superman.
And of course this is a very unsubtle example because it is a show for children, but I feel like that kind of begs the question: why is it almost exclusively in children’s media that we find this theme? And not just in horror; in children’s media you can find this theme explored much more broadly, in more genres: look at Naruto in season one, or Peso Penguin from the Octonauts, for example. Adult media, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have a problem portraying a character, say, struggling internally or even fighting with someone else over whether the actions they’re taking actually are the correct choices, but showing a grown adult in the throes of mortal terror, not hiding it, not pushing it aside, and doing the scary thing anyway? We don’t get a lot of that for adult media.
Where we do find most of it is in horror. And of course this isn’t universal (nothing is really universal, but particularly so in a genre with so many very distinct subgenres); there are plenty of horror stories in which the character doesn’t really have enough agency to decide whether they’re going to be the kind of brave I’m talking about. And there are good examples of stories from other genres where this kind of bravery is showcased, but those stories often seem like the exception rather than the rule.
I think that embracing the idea that bravery doesn’t mean acting without fear, but acting despite fear, is important right now. I think it’s part of why, in uncertain times, horror as a genre is more widely consumed and more highly regarded. Horror does the best job of conveying true courage.
Pet Pics
The pet pics section of my newsletter is going on a temporary hiatus until I can figure out why my phone won’t reliably upload pictures anywhere.
Coming Next Time
We had five winners for my signed hardcover giveaway! Some of the winners have agreed to let me publish their winning stories in the next issue of the Dispatch, so keep an eye out here for those!
That’s All, Folks!
Starting in May the newsletter will hopefully begin to include horror recommendations and fun stuff like that again—now that debut month is ending I’m finding my stride again in my writing, like I mentioned before, and also in terms of having a little bit of free time here and there for reading and watching and playing things again.
In the meantime, if you dig the newsletter and haven’t yet subscribed, do that!
I randomly picked up your novel "THE CUT" at my local Barnes & Noble, and immediately fell in love with the book. I finished it tonight. You are a talented storyteller. Definitely looking forward to more of your work!