Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover of Southwest Gothic: Seven Plagues of Sa’stoh by Bladen Mercutio, the second book in the folk horror Southwest Gothic series, releasing March 20, 2027! Here’s the story:
Five thousand years ago, he was buried. Now, the Scion of War is awake—and he’s thirsty for blood.
Six months after avoiding the Harvest’s world-altering Reaping, witches Remy and Vincent are still hunting for missing legends and loved ones. What they find instead across the haunting deserts of New Mexico is a nightmare: Lucio Sa’stoh, an ancient entity with god-like power, has broken free from his tomb with a singular, bloodthirsty purpose: to slaughter his own siblings.
To stop the tyrant from tearing the world apart, Remy and Vincent must form an uneasy alliance with the enigmatic but powerful Sam and Lilith. In a realm drenched in desert sun, folklore and fading magic, stopping the wrath of a god might cost them everything they have left.
And here’s the cover by Bohemian Trash Studios!
Missed book 1? Check that out here!
Bladen is a scientist by day, rock star by night, writer in between, and someone who enjoys running only in dreams. A graduate in atmospheric sciences, they chase fire and tell the future for a day job. In addition to their work with the Southwest Gothic series, Bladen has written and recorded several varieties of sonic entertainment, including an accompanying soundtrack to the novels. A Desert Southwest native, they do their best writing in the ghost towns of the Texas borderland between the real and the unreal. Also a witch, the second law of thermodynamics is their magical ethos and they try to live everyday as though it were Halloween. Bladen likes cats, honey mustard, yelling at clouds while drinking scotchy scotch and is composed almost entirely of jokes.
L.A. Barron grew up in the dusty border lands of southern Arizona where the only escape from the heat was to write new worlds and give life to the invisible, sordid underbelly of the suburbs. Their love of escapism quickly grew into piles and piles of composition notebooks full of vampires, ghosts, and all things creepy.
Dana Hawkins is a caffeine-fueled writer of contemporary romance stories. After living in Seattle for twenty years, she recently returned to her hometown in Minnesota. She is a huge romance-genre book nerd and borderline obsessed with happy-ever-afters. As a mom of three humans and a cat who ignores her, she spends her days writing, chasing kids, neglecting her last remaining bamboo plant, and searching for the perfect coffee mug.
Kelsey B. Toney writes humorous, heartfelt stories about the hope that exists after we’ve made our most laughably bad decisions. She is the author of the USA Today Bestseller, THE UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCE OF BLEEDING ON A TUESDAY which was a NYPL and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, an ALA “RISE: A Feminist Book Project List” Top Ten Selection, an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults Top Ten Selection, and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. In past lives, Kelsey has been a teacher, recording artist, and actress—always in pursuit of connection through art and empathy. Learn more about Kelsey at kelseybtoney.com, on her podcast, or in her newsletter.
Xan van Rooyen is an award-winning autistic and non-binary storyteller from South Africa, currently living in Finland. Xan has a Master’s degree in music, and–when not teaching–enjoys conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. You can find Xan’s stories in the likes of Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Daily Science Fiction, and Galaxy’s Edge among others. They have also written several books including Waypoint Seven (Mirari Press), and My Name is Magic (Tiny Ghost Press). Xan is also part of the Sauútiverse, an African writer’s collective, with stories in the multi award-nominated anthology Mothersound as well as the forthcoming Sauúti Terrors anthology (Flame Tree Press). Xan has also had a number of non-fiction articles published, which you can find in the Locus Award winning Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction (Bloomsbury, Australia) among others. You can find Xan online here: 
Marina Baker has lived in Ventura, California their entire life, and they have been writing for the majority of that time. She is a lesbian interested in telling sapphic love stories, as she believes the romance genre could use more queer love stories. Queer love and queer joy are such a light in the stories that people tell, and she is honored to be a part of LGBTQ+ storytelling. Their hope is that young queer people can look to their writing as a source of comfort, just as they have.
Emma R. Alban is a USA Today bestselling author and screenwriter. Raised in the Hudson Valley, she now lives in Los Angeles, enjoying the eternal sunshine, ocean, and mountains. When she isn’t writing books or screenplays, she can usually be found stress baking with the AC on full blast, skiing late into the spring, singingshowtunes at the top of her lungs on the freeway, and reading anywhere there’s somewhere to lean. She is the author of Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend, You’re the Problem, It’s You, and Like in Love with You.