I’m honored and excited to be hosting a live Zoom launch party for the debut novel by J.R. Blanes, Portraits of Decay. All are invited to come and join us!
There’ll be discussion, readings from the book, and plenty of gruesome fun to be had.
Add it to your Halloween fun for this month: Tuesday, October 21st at 8 PM ET.
REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM LINK HERE
“Portraits of Decay is at once haunting, provocative, and full of New Orleans mystery, where envy and greed make people more horrific than monsters. Blanes has concocted a spellbinding tale that will chill you to the core, as if your body sunk to the bottom of a Louisiana swamp.”
Christa Wojciechowski
Author of Sick and The Sculptor Series
“Taking the paranoia and intimacy of Come Closer and pairing it with the visceral horror of A Head Full of Ghosts, Portraits of Decay is an immersive, haunting, original novel. Could not put it down.”
Richard Thomas
Author of Incarnate
Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller Award finalist
REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM LINK HERE
Portraits of Decay
Up-and-coming young artist Jefferson Fontenot has everything going for him: The hot New Orleans art scene has noticed him, and he’s finally found his true love, Nevaeh Parker.
But Fontenot’s bright future hides a darkness known as Gemma Landry—the artist’s lover and art scene influencer. Gemma believes Jefferson’s talent holds the key to her seizing control of the popular Carondelet Street Gallery. But when Gemma discovers Jefferson’s infidelity, she enslaves the artist with a poison she acquired from swamp-dwelling witch Mirlande St. Pierre.
Now trapped in a rotting body and plagued by hellish visions, Jefferson finds himself reduced to a zombie-like servant for his unhinged ex, while Nevaeh is forced to embrace her past, hoping to save the man she loves. As the dark curse courses through Jefferson’s veins, everyone involved soon discovers—in the most brutal of fashions—the terror that awaits when you cross Gemma Landry.
Preorder from Ruadan Books (Available 10/21/2025)
About J.R. Blanes
Hailing from Northern Indiana, J.R. Blanes became obsessed with the twisted and macabre from a very young age.
He is the author of multiple short horror stories, appearing via Wicked Shadow Press, Hiraeth Publishing, Dark Horses Magazine, the NoSleep Podcast, Tales to Terrify and more.
His debut novel, the New Orleans-inspired Portraits of Decay, is soon to be published through Ruadán Books.
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!
~Christa