Max Booth III (born July 4, 1993) is an American author, screenwriter, and publisher best known for his work in the horror field. His nonfiction writing has appeared in LitReactor, CrimeReads, the San Antonio Current, Fangoria, and Film-14. His novella We Need to Do Something is the basis for a film of the same name shot in secret during the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic. Booth also co-owns and operates Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, an independent publishing house, with his wife, Lori Michelle, and serves as the managing editor of Dark Moon Digest, a horror fiction quarterly.

Early life

Booth was born July 4th, 1993 in Lake Station, Indiana. He began writing at the age of seven as a way to cope with the death of his dog.^[1] Prior to being published, he was active on Storiesville.com, a website for aspiring writers to post their work and receive feedback; after the site became defunct, Booth began promoting his writing elsewhere, eventually publishing his first novel, Toxicity, in 2014.^[2]

Career

Following his first novel, Booth published three books between 2014 and 2016. Concurrently he founded the independent press Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing with then-girlfriend (later wife) Michelle.^[3] Booth also became the managing editor of Dark Moon Digest, a horror digest, for which Michelle serves as the editor-in-chief.^[2]

In 2019, Booth published his fifth novel, Carnivorous Lunar Activities, Fangoria's third book under their FANGORIA Presents imprint.^[4] In 2020, he published We Need to Do Something, the basis for the film of the same name, which was filmed in secret during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5] The same year, his novel Touch the Night was published by Cemetery Dance.^[6]