All Guts, All Glory is slated for a September 2026 release date. While my debut novel, Below, is slated to follow suit as a reprint, my novella, All Guts, All Glory, is all-new and action-packed to the finish.
We mustn’t give away spoilers, but we can offer teasers that will be certain to attract readers. All Guts, All Glory features a loveable queer character, and what makes him different from your garden variety transgressive story is his likeability. So much has been said about the popularity of unlikeable characters in transgressive horror, calculated to help the average queer person relate, but All Guts, All Glory merges the traditional story-telling element of a likeable protagonist that is easy to root for and the madness and violence that follows when a queer character is oppressed and vilified.
It’s one of the hallmarks of All Guts, All Glory and enables audiences aside from troubled queers to come to the party. Truly, lead character, Alain, is not without his issues, even though his descent into violence and seeming deprivation are spawned legitimately by his subjugation at the hands of hateful homophobes, Niño and Kuya Ricardo.
The setting is a pig farm in Bulacan province in the Philippines, where Alain, impossibly poor and unable to seek better employment elsewhere, works as a pig farm attendant under his watchful Uncle Ed. Here, the reader finds out Alain is in love with the landowner’s son, Ramon, and the feeling is mutual. This presents complications…how a romance like it can survive the socioeconomic implications, for one. Here in the Philippines, relationships between two parties from different worlds are hardly ever consummated.
This leads to a showdown that includes the iron-fist of one Kuya Ricardo, Ramon’s father and chief landowner, and fellow caretaker, Niño, who refuses to leave Alain be. In fact, Kuya Ric seems to hate Alain especially, but what if he were to find out that lowly pig caretaker Alain is having a tryst with his own son? Hmmm…
When Philippine mythos merges with a contemporary horror story celebrating the most marginalized members of society, a tale like All Guts, All Glory materializes. Philippine mythos characters emerge from the Wonderful World of Horrors carnie show that takes the country by storm, but Alain is conflicted, albeit impressed. Will he join the artisans in their quest for worldwide popularity, making audiences everywhere puke in disgust and shock? Or will he seek vengeance against those who’d abused him—his promise?
It all winds down as the protagonist meets his assailants in the wackiest, most horrific event to take the nation thus far. LGBTQ people of all types are certain to gravitate to Alain’s story, and even straight audiences will find it easy to follow him to his certain fate. This is the “transgressive” queer horror novella destined to bring factions together, one that will unify and heal different groups of people the way problematic characters will only succeed to alienate.
So, mark your calendars for September of 2026. Watch out for cover reveals and other announcements along the way.
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