An Answer for Some New Friends/Followers/Fans...

I have over 2,050 “friends” on Facebook.  Over 500 “followers” on Twitter.  And I’m assuming a few who still visit my MySpace page, although I haven’t been active there in well over a year.  Several of these fine friends/followers/ (and what I’d like to believe are FANS) have asked me about this blog.

“How come you don’t blog about your writing?” is a popular question I’m asked.

To put it simply, I like to blog about the countless books I read and films I see.  I’m not sure how much about my writing I can blog about without losing fans by putting them to sleep.  And being I’m not an emotional guy, I don’t offer too many personal rants, nor do I like to get political or religious here, as—being an independent conservative—I just don’t have time to field annoyed emails and comments.  (I wrote one heart-felt piece about my late mother a few years ago on my old blog, which seemed to be a favorite.  Check it out here: Remembering Bunny )

With that said, I was recently asked to write a guest column about writing for the NEW ENGLAND HORROR WRITERS blog.  If you’re interested, you can read it here: How Location Writing Worked for One Author

The NEXT question I’m often asked is when I’m going to have something new out.  It’s been over 2 years since my debut novel DON OF THE DEAD was published, and since then I’ve been busy shopping around my second novel, writing a third, and most recently have begun writing a novel in collaboration with author L.L. Soares.  (Don’t forget folks: I also run a small press, edit THE HORROR FICTION REVIEW monthly e-zine, work a full time day job, and have a new puppy to deal with on top of my fatherly and husbandly duties!).  But enough excuses:

I recently announced that my new novella, THE APOCALYPSE OF PETER, was sold to Damnation Books, so expect to see that around the spring of 2012 in trade paperback as well as eBook form.  It’s my bizarro/dark fantasy take on the end times that I’m hoping goes over well with a cross-genre audience.  Also, I’m thrilled to be part of the mammoth non-fiction slasher film book, BUTCHER KNIVES & BODY COUNTS, edited by Vince Liguano for Dark Scribe Press.  Along with 70+ other contributors, I look at the 1981 film NIGHTMARE, directed by Romano Scavolini, a film I’ve been raving over since seeing it on a double bill with MOTHER’S DAY back in 1982.  You can order a copy of this 490-paged doorstop right here:  Butcher Knives & Body Counts 

The adventurous among you can order the film, NIGHTMARE, just recently released in a proper DVD treatment by the folks at CODEREDDVD right here: NIGHTMARE 30th Anniversary DVD

I’ve also been invited to write for 4 horror anthologies, and I’ll have more news about those as they become available.

So…thanks to my new friends/followers/fans for the questions and interest, and feel free to visit my small press’ page ( NOVELLO PUBLISHERS  )  and keep coming back here for more reviews than you can shake a stick at!

And maybe…JUST maybe, I’ll get the itch to deliver a writing blog as the demand grows…

Yet Another COMIC GEEK UPDATE...

In the 4th issue of this 5-issue mini-series, Koji gets his father to let them try to fix a battle-worn MechaGodzilla in their war against the mob, while...

...the 6th issue of KINGDOM OF MONSTERS features the Obama-like U.S. President granting permission for an all-new MechaGodzilla to be built in Detroit in an attempt to battle the world-wide monster invasion.

I'm assuming the final issue of GANGSTERS AND GOLIATHS as well as the next KOM will be must-reads for MechaGodzilla fans...

(NOTE TO IDW: PLEASE stop with the 4-variant covers per issue---they're annoying!)

While I enjoyed DC's epic DARKEST NIGHT and BRIGHTEST DAY mini series, this 3-issue "Aftermath" was easily an attempt to milk the series' popularity a bit longer.  While interesting for SWAMP THING FANS, fans of the aforementioned series didn't miss too much.

Gwen's zombie-hunting boyfriend FINALLY discovers she's a zombie.  And while this issue acts as a catch-up for newer readers, it's still one of the most entertaining comics on the market.  The retro-looking artwork never gets old, either.

The ROAD OF KINGS series gets back to business as Conan finds himself caring for a young girl.  He takes her along on his quest, which leads them to an underground lair filled with countless over-sized creepy crawlers.  The action comes fast and furious in this satisfying installment, marred only by Mike Hawthorne's sloppy and silly-looking artwork (although I liked his renderings of the undead in the final panel's zombie attack).  Seriously, DARK HORSE...CONAN has been one of your best titles for years.  PLEASE get rid of this guy and give our favorite Cimmerian an artist worthy of the quality of the comic.

The Worm Detective...

THE BONE WORMS by Keith Minnion (2011 Cemetery Dance Publications / 156 pp / eBook)


Having recently raved over Minnion's short story collection, IT'S FOR YOU, I was happy to see one of my favorites ('Up in the Boneyard') turned into a short novel.  Minnion takes a classic horror set up (an ancient evil comes back to haunt the present day) and makes it work.


In 1921 and 1922, two young boys are affected by The Boneyard, a mystical realm that exists about twenty stories in the air over a certain section of Pittsburgh.  Flash ahead to 1983, where a series of grisly (and strange) murders have police baffled: it seems some lunatic is managing to steal his or her victims' bones while leaving the flesh behind with precision-neat slices in the skin; first responders to the crime scenes are also discovering organs and muscles neatly stacked in a separate corner of the room.  Enter Detective Sergeant Francis Lomax, a straight-up cop haunted by his father's lack of faith in him.  Francis happens to see things at each crime scene others don't, and with the help of a geeky librarian, manages to get on the tail of the killer...or killers...or thing(s).


THE BONE WORMS can be read in a sitting or two, will give those afraid of heights the willies, and supplies plenty of suspense and gut-wrenching violence.  In the hands of a lesser author, this standard plot could have easily gone south, but somehow Minnion makes it seem fresh.  Check it out.

Kung Fu Cheerleaders JUST SAY NO!

The latest installment of my column SUBURBAN GRINDHOUSE MEMORIES is now LIVE right here:

SGM Vol. 36: LOVELY BUT DEADLY (1981)

Enjoy...

Run Those Bastards Down!

THE DRIVER'S GUIDE TO HITTING PEDESTRIANS by Andersen Prunty (2011 Lazy Fascist Press / 98 pp / tp)

Prunty (a man who is happiest while napping in his tennis shoes) deilvers this collection of Bizarro short stories that range from the TRULY bizarre to the truly hysterical (and usually a combo of the two).

Among the more memorable are the epic title story, a sort-of take on DEATH RACE 2000 featuring an odd guy who spends most of his life in his van; 'Architecture' deals with a man who decides to build something truly different; 'Napper" is one of the funniest pieces here as Prunty shows off his classic Bizarro chops; 'The Balloonman's Secret' features an oddly out-of-place happy ending; I couldn't get enough of the idea behind 'Reading Manko' and neither will you if you're cool; 'Rivalry' takes neighborly scuffles to a new level, and 'Divorce' is classic Bizarro that readers either get or run away from crying.

Even the couple of semi-predictable tales fit in here and are satisfying.

While I enjoy prunty's novels, his shorts make for some good rapid-fire reading until the next one is unleashed.

My Bizarro/Apocalyptic Novella sold!

I'm thrilled to announce my 20K novella, THE APOCALYPSE OF PETER, has been sold.  More details when contracts are signed.  I've been shopping this one around for just over a year and finally found a publisher who doesn't consider it "Too weird" or "NOT weird enough."

When my happy dance ends I shall continue working on my 3rd novel as well as a new collaborative novel with the amazing L.L. Soares...

Easily One of the Best of 2011

FOR EMMY by Mary SanGiovanni (2011 Thunderstorm Books / 107 pp / tp)

Dana is Emmy's older sister, and they spend their after-school hours helping their father around his small book store.  One day Emmy goes missing from right under there noses.  With this simple premise the author takes us on a crash course of missing persons cases that branches into issues many may have never considered.  Within these short 107 pages I found more food for thought and downright eeriness than in just about all of the 60+ books I've read so far this year.

SanGiovanni's novella dealing with a missing five year-old girl did something few horror stories do (even of its ilk): it actually scared me.  And after all, isn't that what horror fiction is supposed to do?  Try reading this one alone late at night and you just might agree.  I can't recommend this one highly enough.

(NOTE: This review will also be appearing in the October Edition of THE HORROR FICTION REVIEW).

PREVIEW: Well Done Small Town Mystery

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER by M.R. Sellars (To Be Released November, 2011 by Willow Tree Press / 327 pp / hc, tp, and eBook)


Special Agent Constance Mandalay is assigned to a case in the small town of Hulis, Missouri.  She's the latest in a string of FBI agents who have spent the past seven Christmas seasons attempting to uncover a murder that occurs each year--each one identical to a brutal crime that happened at the same location back in 1975.


Agent Mandalay has her share of suspects as everyone in Hulis seems to be holding back information.  Sheriff Addison "Skip" Carmichael (who was a rookie deputy at the time of the '75 murder) seems helpful and friendly enough, but Mandalay fears he, too, isn't telling her everything he knows about the case.


This is the first novel from Sellars to feature Constance Mandalay as a main character (she has appeared in Sellars' best-selling "Rowan Gant Investigation' series), and while she's not a typical over-the-top crime-novel detective, the author does a fine job with her as a straight-shooting agent (it was actually refreshing to see a cop without heavy past or present demons or addictions for a change).  Perhaps after the odd events she has endured in this novel, Sellars now has a bit more of a dark edge to grow the character from.


IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER is a well written mystery with a paranormal slant.  The gruesome murders and child-abuse back story will keep the attention of any fan of dark fiction. It's difficult to put down and will make a satisfying, spooky ready on a cold night this coming holiday season.


I'm looking forward to more from Sellars and Special Agent Mandalay.


(This review will also be featured in the October Edition of THE HORROR FICTION REVIEW)

Beastial Beasties Beat it HARD!

BESTIAL: WEREWOLF APOCALYPSE by William D. Carl (2008 Permuted Press / 298 pp / tp)


I finally got around to reading Carl's 2008 action-packed monster novel, close to the eve of its re-release through Simon & Schuster this December, 2011.


When a bunch of hoods hold up a bank in Cincinatti, things take a wickedly bad turn when the city is attacked by werewolf-like creatures.  Head thug Rick and head bank teller Chesya manage to survive the assault inside the bank's vault.  But when they emerge the next morning, they find their city in ruins.


Across town, a teenage runaway squatter named Christian thinks he knows what's going on.  It seems one of his Johns was a wealthy Frenchman who also worked at a bio lab.  When things seem safe outside of his building, he locates the man's lab and finds a notebook that may hold some answers to the devastation.  And finally, a middle-aged housewife is on a mission to find her lost son after receiving a telephone call from him amidst the chaos (while several end-time novels use this search-for-the-missing-kid subplot, this time it's done quickly and doesn't take much space).


Despite a couple of end-of-the-world scenarious that will be familiar to fans of the subgenre, BESTIAL has a relentless pace that forced me to finish it in two sittings.  And the werewolves aren't your typical werewolves; they also show signs of being part bear and part tiger, giving them a faster, stronger, and more lethal edge.  Carl also manages to flesh out his characters while keeping the action flying at a nearly non-stop pace, making me long to see more of them in the two promised sequels.


Apocalyptic novels have saturated the horror fiction scene over the past eight years or so...but when they're as well done as BESTIAL, it's easy to see why fans keep begging for more.

She Mates . . . THEN She Terminates!

My latest edition of SUBURBAN GRINDHOUSE MEMORIES is now LIVE over at CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT.  Check out my piece on the 1989 Indonesian action-trash classic, LADY TERMINATOR!

CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT: Lady Terminator

Top Notch Crime/Horror Novella

SAMSON AND DENIAL by Robert Ford (2011 Thunderstorm Books / 126 pp / tp)


Ford's supernatural crime novella is a quick, tight read with absolutely ZERO filler.


When Sammy (a Philadelphia street kid who now owns a pawn shop) finds his brother brutally murdered at the hands of the Russian mob (who have also kidnapped his wife), he's on a mission to get her back regardless of the overwhelming odds.  Along with his huge Desert Eagle handgun, Sammy's surprise weapon turns out to be a mummified head a junkie unloaded at his shop.


With smart street-wise dialogue, brutal violence, and even an all-female underground religious cult right out of a Jodorowsky film, SAMSON AND DENIAL reads like a pulpy b-movie without the unintentional laughs; it's a serious tale that'll appeal to horror and crime fans alike.  Great stuff.

Hooper's Debut Novel is EHhhh...

MIDNIGHT MOVIE by Tobe Hooper with Alan Goldsher (2011 Three Rivers Press / 316 / tp)


There's always a roll of the eyes when a famed horror film director tries his hand at a novel (Wes Craven, anyone?).  When I heard Tobe Hooper--director of my all time favorite horror film, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE--had written one, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, especially after hearing that one of my buddies HATED it and another LOVED it.


For the first 100 pages, MIDNIGHT MOVIE had me hook, line, and sinker.  The pace was nice, the initial idea seemed great (a screening of an unseen Hooper film shot in his teenaged years somehow causes America to become a zombieland)  But right after this set-up section, the novel goes in several different directions, and I spent most of the time wondering if Hooper (and co-writer Goldsher) could bring it all together in the final act.


They do and they don't.


While I enjoyed Tobe Hooper as the protagonist (as well as the group of misfits who help him re-film his lost epic), and REALLY liked how the zombies are so in the background you hardly know they're there, there were so many other things going on I had a hard time staying focused on the story: besides the zombies, why did the screening of the film cause mass terrorist attacks and outbreaks of sexual frenzy?  And just who were carrying out these attacks?  The zombies, or some kind of splinter cells?  Is not a zombie invasion enough?  The authors seriously should've trimmed this thing down a bit (even at just over 300 pages, 75 could've easily been chopped without losing anything).


While the novel works fine as a metaphor for Hooper's views on the Hollywood system, and will make independent film makers proud of what they do, MIDNIGHT MOVIE--in the end--is a so-so offering that starts out fantastic then looses steam as it unfolds (the quick and blah conclusion doesn't help, despite some ends being decently tied up).


For Hooper fanatics only.

Why I HATE Bootlegs...

LOOKS like I got what I deserved!  I've always HATED bootlegs, but when I saw a rare blaxploitation/exorcist rip-off from 1974 titled ABBY, I simply couldn't resist.  So I gambled $10.00 and slid the GORE-GEOUS-looking DVD  into my bag.

I watched the first 45 minutes tonight when suddenly the film stops and the last 20 minutes of 1957's THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN comes on.  Then 1958's sequel WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST splashes across my TV in it's entirety, THEN the final 15 minutes of Fulci's THE GATES OF HELL (a.k.a. CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD) plays out to the disbelief and laughs of my wife and son.

May the woman who sold me this DVD at HORRORFIND have her armpits infested with the fleas of a thousand camels then get hit by a truck.

I HATE bootlegs now more than ever...

A Quick Report from HORRORFIND WEEKEND 13

While I've been attending horror conventions since 1985, this was only the second year I've been to HORRORFIND down in Gettysburg, PA.  Unlike the more famous (and crowded) cons run by FANGORIA and CHILLER THEATRE, HORRORFIND features a nice BLEND of horror film makers and actors, as well as horror writers.  Among the guest signings and picture takings, HORRORFIND has a continual flow of authors reading from their works.  This year (thanks to the honorable Brian Keene) I was placed on two reading panels, the first with the hysterically dark James Roy Daley.  We each read a couple of shorts from our humorous horror catalogs and then signed books for an hour outside the reading room where we met lots of great people.

 (That's me reading my Bentley Little tribute titled THE BOWL)

 (James Roy Daley reads his demented classic, CURSE OF THE BLIND EEL...)

(At the book signing table)

The second panel I was part of was labeled BIZARRO WORLD, and featured six authors from the Bizarro genre, including Greg Hall, Eric Mays, Andersen Prunty, Jordan Krall, William Pauley III and myself.  While I'm sort-of the new guy to the Bizarro thing, I was honored to read my Bizarro super-shorts alongside these nutjobs whose work I've been admiring for several years now.  It was easily the most original (and entertaining, IMO) panel at the convention.

(Greg Hall, Eric Mays (standing), Andersen Prunty, Jordan Krall, William Pauley III, and yours truly getting ready to test the mental capacity of the HORRORFIND crowd)

And of course, what convention is complete without excessive drinking and partying?  Saturday night was a surreal time: at the Wyndham Hotel's bar area, I discussed books and obscure films with Cemetery Dance columnist Mark Seiber and author(s) James Newman and Sheri White, as actors Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Dee Wallace, and Ken Foree ate a Dominoes Pizza right next to us.  It was also great meeting artists Macabre Noir and her crew, as well as the wonderful Kristy Jett, one of the most dedicated horror fans out there (check out her amazing t-shirt company here: FRIGHT RAGS ).

I had already met Ken Foree and Sid Haig at other conventions, so the only film celebrity I was interested in meeting was the infamous John Waters.  He appeared for a two-hour signing/photo op on Friday night before performing his stand up routine.  HORRORFIND dropped the ball with this one, though: the online ads said ANY convention attendee could meet John between 7-9PM, but after waiting online for over an hour, the convention staff informed us that a raffle to meet him was being held at the check in table---when I checked in and received my guest pass, NO ONE offered me a chance to meet him.  FURIOUS, I ran back to the hotel lobby and explained the situation.  They let me pull a tag out of a hat, and of course I received a NO, meaning I couldn't meet Mr. Waters.  BUT, my best friend in the world pulled a YES and gave it to me without hesitation...hence many favors are now owed.  There were PLENTY of people who couldn't get in, and were outside fuming...I'm wondering if they'll be back to HORRORFIND after this fiasco?

So I finally got to meet JOHN WATERS, the man responsible for corrupting me almost as much as George Romero and Mario Puzo.  He turned out to be very nice, signed my copy of his latest book ROLE MODELS, and even told me the title of my novel (Don of the Dead) was "brilliant!"  I haven't been this star-struck since I met director Herschell Gordon Lewis way back in 1991.

(Me with JOHN WATERS...life is now complete!)

I also attending a great reading by Jeremy Wagner, who read from his debut novel THE ARMAGEDDON CHORD.  Jeremy spent many years as a guitarist in death metal band BROKEN HOPE (and now plays with LUPARA), and we discovered that in the late 80s/early 90s we had actually been at many of the same shows in the NYC area.  I'm thrilled for this shredder who has now come into the literary world kicking ass and taking names...

(Jeremy Wagner explains the Egyptian element of his novel THE ARMAGEDDON CHORD)

It was also great to catch up with UK author Tim Lebbon, who I hadn't seen since the 2005 WORLD HORROR CONVENTION in NYC, as well as the usual suspects such as Mary SanGiovanni, James Moore, Kim Paffenroth, Bob Ford, Brian Keene, and Tom Monteleone, who shared a HYSTERICAL story of the time he and Harlan Ellison watched a group of scifi nerds at a convention in Texas destroy some redneck bar!  My sides still hurt from laughing over that one...

A Great time that--of course--ended way too fast.