My Top Five Horror Books of the Year

I had sent my list of top five favorite horror books of 2015 to Ginger Nuts of Horror before learning that the site's owner had kicked me out, so rather than let it languish unpublished, I am presenting this list here.

I read a lot, and not just in the horror genre. History, literary fiction, science fiction, politics, current events: they all go into my brain's mill to be ground into thought-flour, and...um...

Well, maybe that metaphor doesn't work so well. Anyhow, here are my top five horror books of the year:

• 5) My Early Crimes by Paolo Di Orazio: This anthology of stories about children and murder was uniquely horrifying, both for the subject matter and the skill the author displayed at telling each tale. Every story worked on some level, making the reading experience a long, agonizing squirm. As the father of a little boy, I found the author’s ability to put the reader into the minds of disturbed and victimized children particularly disquieting.
• 4) Joe Coffin: Season One by Ken Preston: If you think you’re vampired out after reading the classics, Joe Coffin is a breath of fresh, coppery air.  Each character had depth, making you care about even the most worthless ones (Tom in particular): they read as real as you or me. Everything everyone did had an effect on the plot and the other characters, adding complexity to a story about a vampire outbreak in Birmingham, England.
• 3) The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker: While I wrote long paragraphs of criticism about this novel, I still very much enjoyed it; a notion that might have gotten lost in the flurry of mediocre reviews it received. Barker took a movie figure we all knew and loved, reclaimed him, and gave him a history and homeland all his own.  The Hell of The Scarlet Gospels really was Hell, and not just some nightmarish dimension. I hope and pray we’ll see more stories about Harry D’Amour, the dead, and the vastly changed world Barker created in future works.
• 2) Die Dog or Eat the Hatchet by Adam Howe: Three novellas, three visions of hard-boiled horror. The less said about the title story the better: read it with a fresh eye and you’ll thank me later…once you stop ralphing. Gator Bait really puts you into the setting, making you dirty and sweaty and hoping against hope everything will turn out all right. Damn Dirty Apes is absolutely hysterical, with lines you’ll repeat to yourself later and laugh about when nobody’s around. Howe knows his pacing, keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole read through.
• 1) Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts by Jasper Bark: Not since reading Clive Barker’s Books of Blood in the late 1980’s have I found a short story collection that’s as fresh, horrifying, and consistently imaginative as Jasper Bark’s work. They say that the greatest torturers are the most empathetic, and Bark proves this: he knows people inside and out, and is able to describe humanity’s pathos and absurdity with equal expertise. These are stories that will stay with you for a long time...perhaps forever.

I'm looking forward to 2016's crop of books!

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.

Beyond Lovecraft: Less Than One Day Left!

The picture says it all, folks:

This is it: the last push. It's not too late to invest in the Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign and become part of something extraordinary, something original, something made just for you that will have your name on it.

I've talked before about my experience with author Jasper Bark and artist Rob Moran: see for yourself why I'm such a fan of both of these skilled men. Beyond Lovecraft, a love letter to the Cthulhu Mythos, promises to be a true work of art, a book you'll look through again and again.

Art, true art, doesn't come cheap.  Remember when the special effects company behind the film Life of Pi went bankrupt despite winning an Academy Award? Our convenience-based culture is moving away from appreciating the skill and work and agony behind every piece of treasured artwork, whether it's a book, a painting, a vase, or even a graphic novel, and when we lose that, we lose artists. Artistic success is becoming a crapshoot, a function of blind luck leading to viral popularity. We can and should push back against that, and one way is by supporting independent content creators and their projects. Here is a great place to start.

Give yourself or a friend an early Christmas (or Hanukkah) present and invest in Beyond Lovecraft.

Beyond Lovecraft: Where My Money Meets My Mouth

There are 17 days left to contribute to the Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign.

I've never met Beyond Lovecraft's writer Jasper Bark except in cyberspace. He contacted me after I wrote a glowing (and deserved) review of his short story collection Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts to thank me. (As an important aside, Beyond Lovecraft's artist Rob Moran did the extraordinary chapter illustrations for Stuck on You.) 

Later, I reviewed Jasper's graphic novel Bloodfellas, which was an awesome piece of work. You'll note that Rob Moran also did the covers for Bloodfellas. 

Months later, Jasper asked me to help with the marketing and sales efforts on Beyond Lovecraft, and I was of course enthusiastic about the project: a great writer and a great artist working together on my favorite horror subgenre is definitely a match made in R'lyeh (so to speak). As a terrible cynic and rugged individualist I'm nobody's fanboy, but I knew I had to get in on the ground floor of a project like this. 

In addition to volunteering my time, I contributed to the campaign: I went for the Pickman's Model perk, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how Rob transforms me into a Lovecraftian nightmare.

Finally, I have also donated a never-before-published short story to the project titled Beneath the Ziggurat, where Lovecraftian horrors, Spanish conquistadors, and Aztec natives collide. A short excerpt is included at the bottom of this post.

At the time of this writing there are 17 days left to donate to Beyond Lovecraft. If there was ever a time to contribute, it's now. What are you waiting for? The perks alone are worth the investment. Be part of something great, something made especially for you. 

Even if you're still on the fence, please share the link to the campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/beyond-lovecraft#/ to get the word out. Thanks!

Beneath the Ziggurat

(an excerpt)

My hands shake, but that is due to age.  As my life creeps toward its end, the fear that has gripped me for decades has loosed its fingers.  See you the splashes of ink, the words that meander upon the page?  As I said, it is age.  I will die soon.  I should have no more to fear.

Matlaltemoc was the name given me on the fourth day after I emerged from my mother’s womb, shrieking as all newborns do in confusion, terror, and loss.  The date was 6 Acatl 1 Ehecatl 11 Malinalli, or, as Friar Rodrigo would have it, April 15, in the Year of Our Lord 1511.  The latter is the “correct” date, just as my name was “corrected” from Matlaltemoc to Mateo Alvarez, also thanks to Fr. Rodrigo.  I bear him no ill will.  What good would it do?  He is long dead, or worse.

For the most part the Spaniards have been good to us, we free people of Tlaxcala.  So they should: with our help, Hernán Cortés annihilated our hated enemies the Aztecs.  My father, Jaguar Warrior Itztli, died in the last siege of Tenochtitlan alongside hundreds of Tlaxcalans and at least a dozen Spaniards.  I remember little of him. 

Not long after the fall of the Aztec empire, the Franciscan friars came to save our souls.  Mictlantecuhtli , Xochiquetzal, Centeotl and all the rest of our gods were replaced with the gentle Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross for our sins.  Fr. Rodrigo stayed in my village of Panotla to build a church and teach us Spanish.  At his end, he thought that Jesus, son of a greater God, would be stronger than what we found beneath the ziggurat.  

The palsy that causes my hands to tremble has increased.  Perhaps it is fear.  Shall I tell my tale, then?  No more dissembling?

Beyond Lovecraft: Pickman's Model

Several years ago I had the distinct honor of working with Peter Fuller, arguably one of the most talented reproduction armorers alive today. Peter's a true artisan in addition to being a good man, and I'm privileged to call him a friend.

One thing he said to me is that in today's culture it's rare to own something of worth, something you use and look at and treasure that another person made just for you. Furniture, silverware, and even artwork are typically mass-produced and sold as part of a set or created to fill a stylistic niche.  We've lost our connection to the artist, to the craft and effort and sweat it takes to make something valued.

With that in mind, take a look at this short video from my friend Jasper Bark:

As perks go, this can't be beat.  At the brand-new Pickman's Model level you get a physical copy of Beyond Lovecraft, something you can hold in your shaking, horror-numbed hands as you read; an electronic copy of the same to take with you when your hard copy becomes too soaked with fear-sweat to carry; a 100 page behind-the-scenes e-book so you can truly learn what Man Was Not Meant to Know; your name inscribed on the honor roll of contributors for bragging rights; shout-outs on social media so everyone in the world knows just what kind of disturbing stuff you're into; and that most priceless thing of all: a piece of art by a true artist created just for you.

There are only ten Pickman's Model slots available, so don't wait until the last minute to see if there are any left: get yours right now.

Even if you can't afford your slot at the moment, please do what you can to support this extraordinary project by sharing the Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/beyond-lovecraft/x/12314422#/

Beyond Lovecraft Update

I've described why I'm supporting Jasper Bark and Rob Moran's Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign here, so if this is the first you've heard of it, please click the link to learn why you should get excited about the project, too.

Or, better yet, see what Jasper himself has to say.



This is where we are with funding so far:

As you can see, we're still building momentum.  To bring it home, though, we need more: more exposure, more backers, more funding.  That's where you come in.

For just $25.00 you would not only get an electronic copy of the graphic novel, but also a 100 page behind the scenes Beyond Lovecraft e-book and have your name on the honor roll of contributors to an extraordinary project.  That's a damn good deal.

For 25 bucks you can be this guy, figuratively speaking

The perks get better from there.  Check them out.

Even if you can't provide funding now, please share the campaign link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/beyond-lovecraft/x/12314422#/

Thank you, and I hope to see you browsing the shelves of the Library of Yith soon!

Beyond Lovecraft

Regular readers of my blog know that I'm a big fan of Jasper Bark, a writer of uncommon skill and character.  His short story anthology Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts and graphic novel Bloodfellas have received rare and enthusiastic five-star reviews from me and other finicky readers.

I'm thrilled to announce that Jasper's developing a brand new graphic novel titled Beyond Lovecraft.  Billed as a "grim and cosmic love letter" to the Cthulhu Mythos, it combines his writing with the extraordinary work of artist Rob Moran, who did the arresting, disturbing covers for the Bloodfellas comics.

While they've secured Markosia Comics as a publisher, Bark and Moran want to take this project to the next level.  To that end, they've started an Indiegogo campaign to raise extra funds.  This is what Jasper himself has to say about Beyond Lovecraft:

This is a great chance to contribute to a project that you'll be proud to have your name on.  The perks are very neat, ranging from Mi-Go level all the way up to Azathoth...and beyond.

One of the great freedoms of independent publishing is that it allows creators to push the boundaries of storytelling and narrative in ways traditional publishers are typically loath to attempt.  Jasper has proven that his work not just flirts with those boundaries, but expands them, taking the reader places he or she has never even dreamed of.  Think of it as the difference between an equilateral triangle and a non-Euclidean figure birthed from an obscenity living in the gulfs between the coldest, furthest stars.  Sort of.

Every little bit helps, and even if you're not in a position to donate now, please share the link to the campaign so Beyond Lovecraft can get the attention it deserves.  The campaign's goals are clear, and you'll know exactly where your hard-earned money is going.

The stars are right.  Great Cthulhu has finally risen from His house in R'lyeh.  What to know what happens next?  Click the link and get on board!

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: 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: The Scarlet Gospels, Evel Knievel, and Antarctic Aliens

During your headlong dash toward the weekend, perhaps you might spare a look back to see what you may have missed in the world of the bizarre and horrific.

• Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels has finally been released, and Ginger Nuts of Horror featured a really extraordinary series of articles relating to it, including reviews and retrospectives on both Pinhead and Harry D'Amour.  Get clicking and start reading for some excellent analysis.
• John Kenneth Muir brought us some nostalgia with Evel Knievel action figures.
• At the ever-expanding, never-relenting R'lyeh Tribune, Sean Eaton delved into Clark Ashton Smith and the Book of Eibon: "The Coming of the White Worm tells of the last adventure of Evagh, a sorcerer in the land of Mhu Thulan. Evagh is forcibly recruited by fellow wizards to join with Rlim Shaikorth on board his immense floating ice citadel, a vessel called Yikilth.  The ‘fat white worm” and his entourage travel up and down the coast of Mhu Thulan, destroying shipping and port cities with a kind of ice ray that enfrosts anything it touches."  (Sometimes, a white worm is just a white worm.  At other times, it's a penis.  Just saying.)
• At Soiled Sinema, we were treated to an in-depth review of the film Runaway Nightmare: "Like any respectable cult film, Cartel’s flick has a background history as ludicrously labyrinthine as the film itself as a work that was expected to be shot over a three week period but was ultimately stretched to three years, only to be released without the director’s knowledge in an incomplete form on VHS as one of the first ‘straight-to-video’ films after the distributor subcontracted it to another distributor called All Seasons Video. To add insult to injury and then some, the distributor not only released the work without Cartel’s knowledge, but also spliced in random shot-on-VHS nude scenes in an absurdly conspicuous way worthy of alpha-smut-peddler Lloyd Kaufman."
• Nev Murray reviewed Todd Keisling's Ugly Little Things: Volume One at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "This is a collection of four of his short stories. The stories in this book don’t follow a common theme. They are totally different styles and that to me makes it even more interesting. You get a true picture of depth of talent this man has."  Read on for in-depth analysis of each story.
• At Ghost Hunting Theories, we learned about alien bases in Antarctica: "The question is, why would Antarctica be of any importance? There is much to be said for being able to come and go as the military from an area so hard to see and get to that no one knows your business. But, might there be other things about Antarctica that makes it of importance to both Earthlings and aliens?"
• Here, I wrote about the Mad Men series finale and pointed you to a review I wrote at Ginger Nuts of Horror for Jasper Bark's extraordinary Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts.

GNoH Review: Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed Jasper Bark's collection of stories titled, Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts:

"You never forget your firsts.

Not long ago I was sitting on the sofa, reading Jasper Bark’s Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts.

My wife looked over at me and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s…it’s just so horrible,” I mumbled without looking up.  Apparently, my face had been making some pretty spectacular expressions on its own.

“Another bad book, huh.”

“No.  This one…it’s great.  Amazing.  But it’s just so...horrible.”"

You need to read this review, and then you need to run out and get the book.

Friday Links: Bark, Dick, and Torment

Let's take a long look back at what happened last week, shall we?

• At the compulsively readable R'lyeh Tribune, Sean Eaton talked about Hugh B. Cave's story The Murder Machine: "Near the climax of the story, [Michael Strange] explains the nature of his evil device to the beleaguered Dr. Dale by asking some rhetorical questions:  'You have heard of hypnotism, Dale? You have heard also of radio? Have you ever thought of combining the two?'  Dr. Strange certainly has, and the result may allow him to rule the world, beginning with London."
• The Horror Review Hole reviewed the film Torment: "Isabelle and Dunne play a recently married couple, heading off to his holiday home in the country for a little family time. Things are complicated by two things: his son (from a previous marriage, with a dead wife) being a twat to his new mother, and a home invasion visited upon them by a cult of mask wearing loonies set on stealing said twat away from his family. The first is easily worked around (via a great conversation in which daddy tells his son that, if you're lucky, mummies die, and sometimes you get two). The second: not so much."
• Christina Bergling discussed psychological horror at Terrorphoria, a great place to talk about such things: "The worst hells are created in our minds. As someone with a bit of experience in being my own worst enemy, I can attest that there is nothing quite as unrelenting and pervasive as ourselves. There is no escape from our own minds, and no one knows what will torture us more than us. I think the scariest situations are when we lose reality and turn on ourselves. There is not stopping the momentum of a mind unraveling; there is no way to find a foothold against the descent of a mind."
• John Kenneth Muir reviewed an Amazon pilot for a television adaption of Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle: "The filmmakers have worked with great skill and artistry to adapt the Hugo Award-winning 1962 novel by Philip K. Dick to a visual format. Dick’s story has been termed an “alternate history” science fiction story, meaning it ponders what might happen had history gone differently.  In this case, the Axis Power won World War II, and have since carved up America. Imperial Japan now controls the West Coast, and Nazi Germany controls the East Coast, with a “neutral zone” in the mid-west separating fiefdoms."
• At Ginger Nuts of Horror, Jim interviewed horror author Jasper Bark: "As I've been selling fiction professionally for a couple of decades, first scripts for radio and the stage, then scripts for comics, then fiction, I have to confess that four years seems like quite a short period for me. Both Joe, the editor, and I were quite definite that the stories all had to be in a similar vein, so my main concern was finding recent stories that would fit the tone and character of the collection as a whole. I think 2009/2010 marks the point at which my work, in horror at least, moved into its current trajectory, so I chose stories, written after this point, that reflected this new trajectory, and discarded those that didn't."
• Here, I reviewed two movies: Jodorowsky's Dune and Interstellar.  Most of the week I worked on a short story, a Lovecraftian effort set in 16th century Mexico.