Great News!

The Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign has reached its funding goals!

It was touch and go for a while there, but we did it. Thanks to everyone who invested, shared, linked, and liked the campaign's efforts.

In other news, it turns out that I'm no longer associated with the website Ginger Nuts of Horror.

If the construction of that sentence seems awkward, it's because I learned about my ouster from the site in an awkward fashion. Without communicating with me in any way, the site's owner, Jim Mcleod, unfriended me on Facebook, removed me from the Ginger Nuts Reviewer's Group, and deleted my account on the Ginger Nuts forums. I haven't exchanged a cross word with him or anyone on the Ginger Nuts team and have worked hard to promote the site in my free time, in addition to spending many, many unpaid hours reading and reviewing books for Ginger Nuts of Horror. Hence, this quiet "unpersoning" is baffling.

My courteous request for an explanation has gone unanswered.

At the time of this writing, my name and biography are still on the team page.

Here are some sample objections to this news, to get them out of the way:

• "Jim kicked you out because you're a ___________." Fair enough, though it would have been brave and professional for him to have told me so.
• "Jim kicked you out because you did ___________." Fair enough, though it would have been brave and professional for him to have told me so.
• "Jim kicked you out because you didn't ___________." Fair enough, though it would have been brave and professional for him to have told me so.
• "Jim's a man of great integrity!" Good for you; you've had a different experience from me. It's these experiences that make us individuals.
• "It's Jim's site; he can do whatever he wants with it." Absolutely. 

Barring any significant updates on this front, it's the last I'll discuss it here.

GNoH Book Review: The Electric

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed the novel The Electric by Andrew David Barker:

"This is an extraordinary book, a beautiful tale of loss, of teenage alienation and filmmaking and what it means to not just create art, but to want to create art."

Click the link to see if it's your cup of tea!

GNoH Movie Review: I Saw the Devil

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed the Korean horror film I Saw the Devil:

"It’s not a mere cautionary tale about the cost of vengeance, nor is it a ho-hum meditation on a man becoming the monster he hunts, but something different, something better: a story of how violence in any form can poison both the actor and the victim, no matter how justified."

Click on over to read the review, then watch the movie.  Even if you've seen it before, it's worth at least a second viewing.

Friday Links: The Yeast Men, Strange Behavior, and Mermaid in a Manhole

As you rush headlong into the weekend like a metaphorical thing doing something quite fast, look back on what you might have missed in the world of the bizarre and horrific and just plain weird:

• 1967 proved to be a very, very strange year, and Ghost Hunting Theories details why.  There's Bigfoot, UFOs, ghosts, Mothman, and more!
• Sean Eaton baked up some analysis of Lovecraft contemporary David H. Keller at his must-read, never-miss R'lyeh Tribune: "Keller’s The Yeast Men (1928) depicts an alternative universe closely parallel to our own in the early 20th century. Superficially it appears to be science fiction because of its weird pseudo-technology.  However, the paraphernalia that appear in Keller’s fiction have a different, even playful quality when compared to the devices and extrapolations invented by other pulp science fiction writers of the time." I've already made all the yeast infection jokes in my life I care to, so don't think you've got to pick up the slack here.
  
• The House of Self-Indulgence reviewed the 1981 Australian horror film Strange Behavior: "Now, I don't want to sound like a broken record. But what the fuck, guys? Strange Behavior is probably the ultimate film in the milfy lady scientists wielding syringes that contain iridescent liquid genre. Think about it. Not only is Gwen Parkinson (Fiona Lewis) a lady, she's milfy, and, judging by her lab coat, she's definitely a scientist. On top of that, it looks like she's holding a syringe in her hand, and the liquid inside said syringe has a iridescent sheen to it. So, I'll say it again, what the fuck, guys?"
• Alex Davis brought the disgusting Guinea Pig film review series to a close with Mermaid in a Manhole at Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror: "Now, if you can forgive the few leaps in logic there, that leaves us an artist obsessed with his new subject, whom he paints and paints and paints as her condition continues to worsen. As time goes by, her skin begins to blister into painful sores, which in turn become infected and infested with foul worms."  Make sure you give the Film Gutter Facebook page a like!
• Definitely check out more of the Danish pulp haul from Breakfast in the Ruins.  It's worth the clicks!
• Nev Murray reviewed the short story The Dogmen of Cedar Park at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "What I got this time was the exact same style of writing, but, and this is a big but, Ricardo Bare as honed his writing skills to perfection with this one. This is a contender for short story of the year from Confessions!"  Clearly Nev seemed to enjoy this one.
• A pressbook for Night Monster crept out of Zombo's Closet, along with many other incredible things. ZC has definitely become one of my favorite horror sites.
• The Horror Club did a comprehensive roundup of that most disquieting of horror sub-genres: home invasion horror.
• John Kenneth Muir's analysis of The Happening was better than the film itself: "For those seeking to take down the film and its director, M. Night Shyamalan, there is plenty of ammunition here by which to accomplish that task. Many folks have availed themselves of it.  And, I’ll confess, after watching the film for the first time again in seven years, I can see that it is a marked step down in quality for Shyamalan, after his earlier work. Some scenes just don’t come off well, and some scenes that should be powerful instead fall flat."  Read the whole thing: it might change your mind.
• Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of Chris James's Alchemy and wrote about the importance of properly editing and formatting your indie novel.

I'm always on the lookout for fresh material for the Friday Links, so please drop me a line if you want to be included in next week's list.  The only caveat is that it has to be fresh! Last month's blog post on using Twitter to sell your book doesn't count.

Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.

GNoH Book Review: Alchemy by Chris James

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed the novel Alchemy: A Story of Perfect Murder by Chris James:

"Set in England in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century, it tells the story of insanity, hallucinogenic drug use, death, and magic using multiple characters, shifting points of view, and trial testimony."

It's a story, and there's murder in it.  But is it perfect?  Click to find out!

GNoH Review: My Early Crimes

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed Paolo Di Orazio's short story collection My Early Crimes:

"A disturbing book on many levels, Di Orazio manages to keep its subject matter from becoming exploitive, using various styles and points of view to describe truly terrible acts."

Disturbing, yes.  But worth your valuable reading time? Click to find out!

Friday Links: Rebecca Hall, Growing up With Ghosts, and The Last Bus

It's almost time to get back to school for those of us who do such things or know people who do such things.  As you consider such things, take a long look back at the last week to see what you may have missed in the world of the bizarre, horrific, and unusual:

• Zombos' Closet of Horror burst forth and vomited out Monster Times Issue 19 from February 1973. 
• Sean Eaton brought us Schneider's theory of Hyperconstriction and Hyperexpansion at his amazingly readable R'lyeh Tribune: "The characteristics of the hyperconstricted mode include confinement, claustrophobia, diminishing life force, descent, retreat, and isolation.  Hyperconstriction directs one toward the grave—or toward the womb.  Taken to an extreme, it leads toward the experience of obliteration."
• Ginger Nuts of Horror interviewed SFX wizard Rebecca Hall: "I have always loved films ever since I can remember. I have wanted to be involved in making film. I was always arty at school always drawing faces and as I got older I started to appreciate make up and the changes it could make to your appearance so the two kind of fell together for me. I have always enjoyed horror films and thought that they always looked like the most fun to do !! As I was learning make Up I sort of discovered that I was better at the FX so from there really."
  
• Sharon Day talked about her book Growing up With Ghosts at Ghost Hunting Theories: "It all began in 1963 when my family moved into an estate in Fairfax, Virginia. Aspen Grove was built in the mid 1700s as a fort against Indians. In the 1800s, it was taken over by the North to be used as a field hospital and during the war, wrestled back as the same thing for the South. Both sides of the war agonized and died in that home. In fact, the wood floors were still stained with their blood, and the earth littered with bullets, guns, bayonets and the like."
• Morgan Freeman's step-granddaughter (I've never heard of such a thing until now) was murdered by her boyfriend, who shouted some bizarre things as he committed the brutal crime: "The perpetrator, identified by the New York Post as an ex-boyfriend, screamed "Get out, devils! I cast you out, devils! In the name of Jesus Christ, I cast you out!" as he stabbed E'Dena Hines, 33, whose grandmother was Freeman's first wife."
• It was all Duncan Bradshaw all the time at Nev Murray's Confessions of a Reviewer!! this week: "Right where do I start with this one? As I said previously I have discovered a new found love of zombie books, if they have something different. After agreeing to review this one I discovered it had a comedy element to it. Straight away my alarm bells go off. I like a certain amount of wit and humour in my books (the darker the better) but a comedy zombie book? Hmmm."
• John Kenneth Muir deconstructed 2010: The Year We Make Contact: "If Kubrick’s film took a big step back from the characters and attempted to observe the long arc of man’s development with a sense of cerebral detachment, Hyams’ film instead examines man at this juncture with passionate, colorful, up-close strokes.  When considered in such terms, 2010: The Year We Make Contact might be viewed as a pretty strong and, yes, wholly valid complement to Kubrick’s film. It is both a faithful continuation of the franchise’s overall narrative, and at the same time an apparent commentary on the visionary world envisioned by Kubrick."
• Here, I reviewed the movie The Conjuring and Paul M. Feeney's novella The Last Bus.  For those inclined to the political, I wrote a piece about conservative writers and Facebook at Liberty Island.

Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.

Friday Links: Carcosa, Donnie Darko, and The Time of the Hawklords

As the weekend hurtles toward us, let's take a long look back on the days that led up to it:

• John Kenneth Muir tackled Donnie Darko in a must-read piece: "In seeing his world end, however, Donnie experiences an epiphany.  He comes to finally recognize that 'destruction is a form of creation,' to quote the film.  His ending -- his death -- creates a new beginning for his family, his girlfriend, and the whole of the human race.  He laughs madly immediately preceding his death, because only at the end does he recognize God’s plan for him."
• Sean Eaton took us on a brief, disturbing trip to Carcosa in his invaluable, incredible R'lyeh Tribune: "Interestingly, The King in Yellow is not a history book or a procedural manual like its brothers on the shelf.  It is a dramatic work, a play. Its creator Robert W. Chambers beguiles his readers with snatches of dialogue and song, but never provides enough of the material to cause insanity or suicide in the reader—only curiosity.  His marvelous fictional work of the same name, published in 1895, is a collection of stories linked thematically around the effects of reading The King in Yellow."
  
• The pressbook for Nightmare was one of the many interesting things to come out of Zombos' Closet.
• Nev Murray reviewed Caroline Mitchell's Don't Turn Around at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "The addition of the paranormal element is a fantastic twist that keeps you glued to the story because you never really know what’s going to happen next. Jennifer doesn’t so why should you? You know the way you can guess things when the main character is still in the dark and you might scream at them to see what you see? Not with this baby you won’t. I knew who the ultimate villain in the story was from very early on. No I didn’t. I thought I did then when it became clear it wasn’t them, I finally had it sussed."  (No word on whether Der Kommissar's in town or not.)
• The Time of the Hawklords was a featured dish at Breakfast in the Ruins: "Given that Michael Moorcock knocked about with Hawkwind quite a bit on the Ladbroke Grove freak-scene of the early ‘70s (contributing spoken word recitations and slightly more nebulous ‘concepts’ to their ‘Space Ritual’ and ‘Warrior At The Edge of Time’ albums, amongst other things), it must have seemed splendidly inevitable that the prolific scribe should choose to immortalise his rock n’ roll mates in fiction at some point. However, the co-billing here of Michael Butterworth (a latter-day New Worlds contributor who went on to co-found the controversial Manchester imprint Savoy Books), together with the book’s absence from most Moorcock bibliographies, tells a slightly different story."
• At Ginger Nuts of Horror, Alex Davis watched Guinea Pig: The Devil's Experiment so you don't have to: "It was particularly made infamous when, in 1991, the second movie in the series, Flower of Flesh and Blood, was investigated by the FBI as potentially being a genuine snuff film. The sixth film in the series, Devil Woman Doctor, was also found in the collection of serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, which only added to the movies' dark reputation."
• Here, I reviewed the zombie apocalypse film Wyrmwood and pointed you to a trio of brand-new reviews of The Blessed Man and the Witch.

Illustration by Tom Sullivan, taken from Call of Cthulhu's Masks of Nyarlathotep supplement.

Adam Howe's Gator Bait

Adam Howe, author of Black Cat Mojo, has just released a novella titled Gator Bait.

I was honored to write a blurb for the book, and Ginger Nuts of Horror has published an extract from it available nowhere else online.

"Adam Howe’s Gator Bait is a steamy, disquieting piece of bayou noir that you can’t help but eat all in one sitting.  It won’t settle your stomach, but it will stay with you long after you’ve digested it."

Click the link, read the blurb and extract, and buy the novella.  At $0.99, it's a steal!

Friday Links: Pixels, Ancient Giants, and The Invaders

It's been a long, draggy sort of week, but you made it to Friday!  Let's celebrate by looking back on what happened over the last several days:

• Martin Lastrapes did a podcast with one of my favorite people in horror, the inimitable Jasper Bark.
• At the always-readable R'lyeh Tribune, Sean Eaton analyzed my favorite Lovecraft story, The Shadow Out of Time: "Its broad panorama of Earth’s existence in time and space, combined with its well-wrought depiction of the Great Old Ones and their interaction with human destiny form the basis for all kinds of interesting narrative possibilities.  Had the author survived the late 1930s, The Shadow Out of Time would have made an excellent starting place from which Lovecraft might have launched additional novel-length projects."
• The Film Connoisseur reviewed Pixels: "What this movie is though is a nostalgia bomb. If you were born in the 80’s and played video games in arcades the way I did, you will feel a shot of nostalgia in your system. I have to admit it was cool seeing a giant Pac-Man eating up taxi cabs and city streets, especially since I’m such a Pac-Man nut! It was awesome seeing a giant King Kong throwing barrels at Adam Sandler, and then there’s this scene where they simply throw as many old video game characters on the screen as they can, so you’ll see Frogger, Q-bert, Paperboy, Centipede, Galaga, Space Invaders…and that’s without counting all the other characters from 80’s pop culture that show up in the film like Max Headroom, Ronald Reagan, Madonna and Hall & Oates."
  
• In Detroit, a statue depicting Baphomet, the Prince of Darkness, was unveiled: "Ultimately, the Satanic Temple hopes to have the statue placed permanently next to a sculpture of the Ten Commandments monument now in place near a state courthouse in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, or outside Arkansas’ Statehouse in Little Rock, where a Ten Commandments monument also is planned."
• Nev Murray reviewed Adam Cesare's novel Mercy House at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "Our main characters in this book stand out big and tall for varying reasons. Harriett is nuts. There is no doubt about that. Her son Don and his wife Nikki are doing the best they can for her. She doesn’t see it like that. When the “thing” happens her level of nuttiness multiplies by a million. She goes on a horrific rampage with only one mission. Get Nikki."
• Zombos' Closet belched out an awesome pressbook from the 1959 film The Rebel Set.  
• John Kenneth Muir reached back into the 1960's to bring us that classic TV show The Invaders: "In this case, the series depicts a WASP-y figure of the establishment (David Vincent) suddenly introduced to the new America of the mid-to-late 1960s; the sub-culture or emerging counter-culture. Through his "radical" belief in an alien invasion, Vincent finds himself shunned by figures of the American ruling class (co-workers, government officials, the wealthy, and so forth) and even hunted by them (particularly the police force). These individuals now view Vincent with disdain because he has forsaken his safe "role" in white, middle-class American society for that of a prophet...a doomsayer warning of planetary emergency."
• Jim Mcleod himself reviewed the horror movie Scream Machine at his Ginger Nuts of Horror: "Scream Machine could be viewed in one of two ways, it could be looked at as a loving homage to the works of Troma, or it can be viewed as a pile of steaming shit.  I would imagine that some of it will come down to just how much you like Troma  films. However,  I don't think that the filmmakers' mothers, after drinking a potion of kindness, could view this film as anything other than a pile of steaming shit."  Read the whole thing to get the full effect.
• Ghost Hunting Theories may have found proof of ancient giants in the Grand Canyon: "We also have a legend of ancient giants being found in a cave in the Grand Canyon, hiding from a catastrophe with an inventory of all their seeds and animals and treasures by a man named Kinkaid in the early 1900s."
• Here, I talked about the new masculinity and pointed you to a review I wrote of Alan Rodgers's novel Fire.

Illustration by Tom Sullivan for Call of Cthulhu's S. Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters.

GNoH Review: Fire

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed Alan Rodgers's novel Fire:

"It’s got Biblical apocalypse, nuclear bombs, and a weird, somehow benign Beast of Revelation with magical abilities."

The novel was originally published in 1990.  Does it still hold up?  Click to find out!

GNoH Review: Bloodfellas

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed the graphic novel Bloodfellas.  Jasper Bark wrote the script, Mick Trimble did the drawing, and Aljoša Tomić colored it.

If you read no other graphic novel this year (or at any other time), this is the one you have to get.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  Click on the link, check out the review, and run, don't walk, to Amazon to pick it up.

Friday Links: Michael McDowell, Stephen Volk, and Asrovak Mikosevaar

The weekend looms.  Before it falls upon us like a rotten tree, let's take a look back at what happened during the week:

• Terrorphoria reviewed Stevie Kopas's third book in the Breadwinner Trilogy: "Far more action-oriented than previous installments, All Good Things is a fast read thanks to the non-stop battles raging through the Florida streets. As the group moves towards what should be their final destination, the atmosphere is downright oppressive and it never lets up." 
  
• At his extensively incisive R'lyeh Tribune, Sean Eaton introduced us to the concept of a mathematic conte-cruel: "The word conte-cruel has an interesting etymology involving Edgar Allan Poe, his pervasive influence on certain French authors of the mid nineteenth century, and the concept’s reintroduction to America—via Ambrose Bierce and his colleagues as well as Poe earlier—through the translated works of Baudelaire and Villiers, the latter having produced a collection of stories demonstrating the concept, Contes cruels (1883)."
• Jasper Bark introduced us to Michael McDowell in his own inimitable way at This Is Horror: "“Oh really?” I replied. “This is one of my favourite books.” I knew this even though I hadn’t read it. In fact, I knew this even though I’d never heard of the book or Calvino until I’d picked it up ten seconds before, and wouldn’t read it for another six months. I knew it the moment I came across Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman and that took me a decade to finally read. I know it about Malcolm Lowry’s Dark as the Grave Wherein my Friend is Laid and I haven’t read that yet, despite owning it for two decades."
• Ginger Nuts of Horror posted part three of its awesome interview with Stephen Volk: "I thought that you automatically have empathy with a child, so in a way it is my job to make that child vivid, plausible and multi-layered, and to avoid a “cute” kind of version of childhood, especially as young Fred is going to be depicted initially as a victim. Obviously you sympathise with a child weeping and wetting his pants in a police cell, yes, but one of the points of my story is, what is the consequence of that incident? What kind of character does that kind of (albeit well-meaning) parental abuse finally create?"
• Nev Murray interviewed Duncan Ralston at Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "It’s not quite hypergraphia, but if I don’t write for a while, I get the itch. I'm not sure where it came from; I used to prefer drawing, though I was never exceptional at it. I write for myself, and I’m glad to have found a small audience for my stories."
• Here, I wrote about the July 4 knife attack on a DC Metro train and pointed you to a review I wrote of Alessandro Manzetti's Eden Underground. 

This is a bit of an abbreviated Friday Links because I want to talk about something else that happened this week.  It has to do with abortion.  This will get political, obviously, and if you're offended, think about why.  As always, I'm happy to talk about these things, as long as we can remain civil.  Remember: arguments don't change minds.  Contemplation based on strength of information does.

I wrote a piece for Liberty Island that riffed on the blistering, searing hot take that Cracked wrote and then re-posted about the legalization of gay marriage.  My piece referred to the footage of Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services talking about the sales of human body parts acquired through abortion (among many other appalling things).  My thoughts on abortion are available for reading here.  It's impossible to overstate how horrific this footage is, from its subject matter to the vain but desperate attempts by abortion-friendly media outlets to downplay it, including so-called objective news outlets like the Associated Press.  I write dark, horrific stuff every day, and if I'm not writing it, I'm thinking about writing it.  This is far worse than anything my most depraved imaginings have attempted to portray.

In Michael Moorcock's extraordinary tetralogy of fantasy novels called The History of the Runestaff, there was one antagonist who was so over the top that you almost couldn't take him seriously.  His name was Asrovak Mikosevaar, and he was the mercenary Warlord of the Vulture Legion.  He bore a banner that said, in scarlet letters, Death to Life!  A madman for battle, he was always at the front lines.  In light of recent revelations regarding Planned Parenthood's business practices, Mikosevaar no longer seems quite so far-fetched.  Developing a culture that respects innocent human life takes hard work and requires that we all make difficult choices every day.  I'm up for the challenge.  Are you?

Illustration by Alain Gassner for Stormbringer's Perils of the Young Kingdoms supplement.

GNoH Review: Eden Underground

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed Alessandro Manzetti's poetry collection Eden Underground:

"His poetry runs the gamut from surreal meditations on the nature of Heaven to straight horror, with stops to a nightmare Eden in between."

This is the first poetry analysis I've done in about twenty years.  Does it pass muster?  More importantly, does the book pass muster?  Click to find out!

Friday Links: Ginger Wildheart, Quachil Uttaus, and Sedona Vortexes

It's Friday, so let's hit the links:

• If you do nothing else this week, check out the lobby card from Cat-Women of the Moon that Zombos' Closet unearthed.
• Quachil Uttaus was the subject of a recent piece at Sean Eaton's always-brilliant R'lyeh Tribune: "In this context, The Treader of the Dust is both eerie and sad, ably capturing the author’s state of mind at this point in his life.  More a nightmarish prose poem than a story, it seems to personify—in the entity called Quachil Uttaus—the relentless and inescapable approach of aging, deterioration and death."
• Ben Daniels of Terrorphoria fame went outside the site to tell us about two of his favorite horror films: "When someone asks me to name my favorite horror film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre always tops the list. Director Tobe Hooper’s magnum opus, TCM helped to define the genre and move it into new, frightening places. Based loosely on the true life crimes of serial killer Ed Gein, it recounts the story of five unlucky youngsters travelling to visit a gravesite in rural Texas who encounter a psychotic family. Everything about this movie is unnerving and designed to shock and challenge its audience. The majority of events take place in broad daylight, which is far more frightening than classic “bump in the night” horror because it removes the illusion of daytime being a safe place."
  
• At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, Kit Power and Jim interviewed musician Ginger Wildheart: "A great movie makes me rejoice that the genre is still alive, much like rock music. A lot of heavy music these days sounds like CGI horror to me.  Shit, it IS CGI with everything tuned and tightened by Pro Tools.  If I hear honest, slightly out of tune but righteous-as-fuck rock music it makes me feel like a kid again, when bands used to play with a true love and artistry for the style.  Horror is no different. I feel like the future is in the hands of experts when I see great new directors refusing to dilute quality for a new, younger, more mainstream audience."
• Taliesin Meets the Vampires reviewed the film Story of My Death: "The first part of the film concentrates on Casanova as he rattles around a mansion, amusing himself with his servant Pompeu (Lluís Serrat). With a delivery that might be said to be lackadaisical, Altaió’s performance is good but he is never asked to engage or challenge the audience. Casanova amuses himself with bodily functions – finding bowel movements especially amusing. We, as the audience, are almost duped into a trance like stupor that causes us to less engage and more become wrapped in the unfolding production."
• Nev Murray spent the week on a Christina Bergling kick, starting with an interview at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "Story ideas always just hit me. Either remembering some dream or just a wayward thought. Then the narrative will just start pouring over my mind, and I better just hope I have a writing implement nearby. I usually sleep with a notebook nearby when I’m sleeping. Many scenes have been scribbled in the dark, and if I’m lucky, I can decode them in the morning. Then I try to sit down and put out at least a thousand words on it a night, after the kids are in bed."
• Ghost Hunting Theories brought us weird things in the Arizona mountains: "Sedona Vortexes:   This magical red-rocked land has 4 vortexes or supposed energy areas where leylines converge and the earth creates healing energy.  I admit to visiting them and they absolutely do have something to them. As well, many believe that there suspicious underground bases in Sedona. The Airport Mountain has a vortex where it is said that earth energies converge and create an amazing and healing power."
• John Kenneth Muir was all Rocketeer, all the time this week: "Why do fans prefer modern superheroes over ones operating in the past? Perhaps it is because the superhero template is -- broadly -- similar to the Western format, only with some technological upgrades. Substitute a cool car like the Batmobile for Silver, and a man in a cape for a cowboy in a ten gallon hat, and one can detect how alike the genres truly are. In both brands of stories, singular men (or sometimes women) tackle corruption and evil, and then, largely, go on their way…until needed again."
• Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of Drew Foote's Angels to Ashes, and wrote about pooping during the Zombie Apocalypse.

Illustration by Gustaf Bjorksten for Stormbringer's Sorcerers of Pan Tang supplement.

GNoH Review: Angels to Ashes

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed Drew Foote's novel Angels to Ashes:

"When things happen in Angels to Ashes, they happen at full volume.  For example, a lance doesn’t move quickly: it moves at blistering speed.  Every single event has universe-shaking implications and consequences, which tended to blur after a while."

Is this an Apocalyptic tale worthy of the genre?  Click to find out!

Friday Links: Dieter Laser, Gun Girls, and Rotten Bodies

As we ease into the weekend, ready to celebrate America's independence from King George's tyranny, let's pause a moment to look back on what's happened in the world of the strange and the horrific:

• Ghost Hunting Theories took us to some of the scariest places on Earth, including Suicide Forest, Chernobyl, and Doll Island.
• Nev Murray reviewed Rotten Bodies: A Zombie Short Story Collection by Steven Jenkins at Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "I’ve never read Steven Jenkins before. I thought this would be a good way to introduce myself to his writing. I wasn’t wrong.  This is a collection made up of six short stories all about zombies. A genre I haven’t really been keen on over the years but I am slowly getting to like it even more."
• Anything Horror brought us some very exciting news.
  
• Sean Eaton asked the pressing question of what happens when the Host is the Ghost at his invaluably incisive R'lyeh Tribune: "Lovecraft was also a noted teetotaler, and the story contains a veiled admonition about the consequences of drinking:  the narrator falls asleep after drinking a bottle of wine with his lunch, and his ordeal begins not long after he wakes up.  But aside from these influences, the work does seem to be primarily Eddy’s in style and content.  The Ghost-Eater and several other stories by Eddy constitute some of Lovecraft’s earliest revision work. (Muriel Eddy frequently assisted Lovecraft with the typing of his manuscripts.)"
• Zombos' Closet of Horror opened up and threw out a must-see pressbook of 1957's Gun Girls.
• At Ginger Nuts of Horror, Alex Davis interviewed actor Dieter Laser: "I got an e-mail from the producer Ilona Six with the request for a meeting with writer/director Mr. Tom Six in the lobby of the Berlin Hilton. The only further notice was that the subject would be of a role as a “scientist”. So I took my British double-breasted Glen Check summer suit out of the closet to resemble as close as possible a kind of a “scientist” and went under a cloudless sky to the Berlin Hilton expecting to meet a lot of my esteemed German colleagues waiting in the lobby for auditioning. The lobby was strangely empty - no other actors waiting. Only a beautiful couple in the sunny backlight through the huge windows: Tom and Ilona! Brother and sister as I learned. Tom had seen me in the German movie “Fuehrer Ex” and wanted to offer me the leading part in his film “The Human Centipede”."
• John Kenneth Muir reviewed Chappie, a film I very much enjoyed: "Despite the film’s violence and dystopian imagery, there’s a strong element of hope underlining the often-violent Chappie. Too many science fiction films these days mindlessly accept the status quo, or cynically imagine that nothing will ever change, except for the worse. By contrast, Blomkamp’s Chappie reminds us that our everyday actions -- as parents and people -- can alter the shape of destiny, and make the world a better place for future generations."
• Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels and wrote about the politicization of the 2015 Hugo Awards.

Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.

GNoH Review: The Scarlet Gospels

Few events in horror literature have more impact than a new novel from Clive Barker, and his latest effort, The Scarlet Gospels, is no exception.  Pinhead the Cenobite vs. hard-drinking occult detective Harry D'amour in a conflict with stakes that reach from Hell itself to the future of magic on Earth: what's not to like?

This is a review for those who have already read the book, or don't mind significant spoilers.  Get to Ginger Nuts of Horror and start reading!

Friday Links: Terrors of Dracula, Ghostwatch, and Battle Royale

It's the start of summer, and there ain't no cure for the summertime blues like catching up on what's been going on in the world of the bizarre and horrific this week:

• Sean Eaton did me the honor of riffing on a recent post of mine at his unforgettably invaluable R'lyeh Tribune: "As a speech language pathologist by profession, my university training included the study of early childhood language acquisition.  This is a fascinating process inseparable from the growth of the young child’s cognitive understanding of the world.  Certain key “cognitions” appear to underlie the ability to understand and use words:  that objects continue to exist even when no longer present to the senses, that sounds and gestures can stand for objects and actions, and—around age 3 or 4—that communication need not be about actual events, but can in fact be pretend, or put to other more entertaining uses besides the merely informative, which can become tiresome after a while."
• John Kenneth Muir set his eyes on Battle Royale, analyzing it as only he is capable: "The film depicts a few-days-in-the-future Japanese society in which children are out-of-control and violent, but where, ultimately, the adults are responsible for the worsening situation because of the laws they have imposed.   In the fictional Japan of the film, specifically, a BR (Battle Royale) law (or Millennium Education Reform Act) has been enacted. It states that troublesome students can be removed from their school rooms and remanded to a remote island, where they will kill each other in a contest over a three day span."
  
• At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, George Daniel Lea dove into the Retro Zone and brought up a 1990's television show from the UK: "Consisting of on-site investigations, interviews, on-going commentary from the family affected, parapsychologists, skeptics, all presented in the familiar format of a “crime-watch” style documentary, Ghostwatch traumatised the nation with its brilliantly subtle, almost subliminal scares, by upsetting the audience's expectations and desires; their very relationship to the media in question. Not only did it present its content as factual and live, it also directly involved them in the narrative by urging them to phone in with their own accounts of the supernatural, and later as part of an unwitting mass séance created by their viewing of the show via the television."
• At Zombos' Closet of Horror, we got a rare look at Terrors of Dracula Vol. 2 Issue 3 from August of 1980.  It's racy, raunchy, and remarkable.  Put your peepers on it.
• The Film Connoisseur reviewed The Babadook: "I think the root of the films effectiveness comes from the fact that it plays with our fears of being a parent, of thinking our kids are weird somehow because of their particular child like behavior. Ever seen your kid grinding their teeth at night? Scary, but only because we don’t see ourselves doing it when we sleep. Children’s fear of imaginary monsters makes us think our kids are schizophrenic, truth is all kids are scared of imaginary things." (Also look at my review of The Babadook here.)
• William Meikle gave us a look at his past, present, and future at Nev Murray's Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "It's one of my biggest regrets that I didn't start writing until I was in my mid-thirties. Since then it's felt like I've continually been trying to catch up to where I want to be with it, and now that I'm fifty seven I can feel the pressure build as time gets ever shorter and age starts to wither both my attention span and my eyesight."
• Visiting Ghost Hunting Theories, we were treated to reports of spiritual visitors to the dying: "When my father had a heart attack in 1979, he was proclaimed dead by the paramedics for four minutes. During that time, he witnessed his dead parents, aunts, uncles, cousins from Norway he hadn't seen since he was a child. He was relaxed, happy, and smiling as they took him to the hospital. He truly visited them and every fiber of his being showed it. Days later he did die, and I have no doubt at all he went to his relatives, but before he did, he visited me at the time of his death. That kind of visitation is called 'after-death visitation.'"
• Here, I brought you from truth to fiction to truth, and pointed you to some novella reviews I wrote for Ginger Nuts of Horror.

Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.

GNoH Reviews: Legacy and Carus & Mitch

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed two novellas/long short stories.

The first was Legacy, by JG Faherty:

"It tries very, very hard to be Lovecraftian, using all the relevant phrases and names, but it does so at the expense of plot and characterization."

The second was Carus & Mitch, by Tim Major:

"It’s got some interesting characters, a bizarre and unfortunate family dynamic, a terribly grim setting, and a series of mysteries that remain unsolved."

Short books, but are they worth your limited reading time?  Click to find out!