Review: Moonlit Daydreams

Moonlit Daydreams
by
Rebecca Carter
Available through Amazon in trade paperback or Kindle e-book, Lulu in paperback, on Smashwords as an e-book, and on Barnes & Noble's website as a Nook e-book.

Good evening constant reader. In a nutshell, if you like off the beaten path, into the darkened woods stories, that are short, to the point and visceral, exposing an interesting mind at work, then this book is for you.


Rebecca Carter has carved out a nice little niche for herself in the story telling world.
She spins five tales of oddness, that seem to begin out of no where, and end up right where she wanted you the reader, to be.

Story first is "Of the Children", a fevre dream of a story, about a scientist and her creation gone horribly wrong.
You see, Dr. Shaver and her science figured out how to make raptors ultra intelligent, and they were used to replace our military. Yes, you read that right. Raptors...as in the dinosaur, not the bird. Then came the outbreak...and chaos as the entire world is affected...and infected...including the raptors. And the raptors are smart enough to know they were used and are coming home to their creator.

Story second is "Hunger". We are the silent observer to Sarah's workaday world of frustration - working customer support is always fun, but there's something not quite right about Sarah. We follow her through a night out, and an incident which results in Sarah getting sick and having to resort to pig's blood and milk to feel better.
An unfortunate tale...where Mike meets Sarah and will wish he never had. Sarah isn't like everyone else - she's a vampire.

Story the third is "Midnight Strolls", where we the reader get to accompany Honna out on her prowls for prey. We have kidnapping and brutality from the female perspective, and it gets quite twisted and nasty. It seems chloroform is a girl's best friend...as well as a taser, shackles, knives, and that perennial favorite, duct tape. Oh and did I mention the gas soaked cotton balls down the throat?
I could go on, but you really should read this nasty nice piece of work for yourself.

Story the fourth is "Love", where one man's show of love, true love and caring, is one woman's one way ticket.

Story the fifth is "Special", the tale of one "special" young woman and her painful transformation into a werewolf. Think the transformation scene in the film An American Werewolf in London, times 10. Carter's detail makes you feel precisely what's happening.

Five little gems, short and to the point, but full of good writing. It's like you happened to stop by and pause a moment and look into the lives of these characters at very precise points in time and what points they are.
These are fully realized shorts, don't misunderstand. But if these are the sprouts from the seeds of Carter's imagination, good grief, imagine what the forest would be like!

For more on Rebecca Carter:
Rebecca Carter on Facebook

13 Questions with...Chet Williamson

 
1. You’re hosting a dinner party. What is the menu, and do you cook it yourself, or do you call a caterer?

I’m a lousy cook, so I’d either ask my wife to prepare the meal, or have it catered. And I have to confess to not being much of a foodie. But if the sky were the limit, I’d probably tailor a menu around one of the menus of The Zodiac Club, a private dining club that was the inspiration for my cannibalistic story in Al Sarrantonio’s anthology, 999, but non-cannibalistic, of course…

2. What is your beverage of choice?

Water lately, but I love craft beers and good wine.

3. Physical book Vs an E-Reader. Your preference and why?

I don’t own an e-reader, and really have no desire for one. If I traveled more, it would be convenient, but I love the feel of a real book in my hands. Also, I don’t feel that I own anything when I buy an e-book anymore than I own something when I buy an MP3 sound file. But a physical CD or a physical book? There you’ve got something!

4. What kinds of books make up your personal library?

Oh man. I have a house filled with books, and though I try to glean, it’s tough. Looking at my shelves here in my office, I see one shelf of books on Shakespeare, Thomas Harris’s novels, the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, another long row of books on & by Lovecraft, a large section on Yeats (I’ve been working on a play about him for ages), a shelf full of Andrew Vachss’s and Joe Lansdale’s novels, a ton of reference books, some Philip Roth, Robert B. Parker, early Fedogan & Bremer books…it just goes on and on. I have literally several hundred boxes in the basement (with two humidifiers running constantly). Right now I’m reading Terrill Lee Lankford’s novels – Lee directed the Christmas With the Dead film I was in this summer, in which I get eaten by zombies.

5. How and when did you catch the writing bug?

I loved to tell stories when I was a kid (the stock boy in my grandfather’s little two-aisle grocery store used to tell me Poe stories in the scary store cellar), but I didn’t start writing seriously until my twenties, and came to it as the result of being an actor. I started writing shows, and when I realized I was writing full-scale stories I graduated to short stories and finally novels. I picked horror because that’s what I’d loved reading ever since I picked up issue # 5 of Famous Monsters of Filmland and those great Ballantine paperback horror anthologies published in the early 60’s.

6. What is your writing routine?

Not nearly as disciplined as it used to be. In the olden times when I worked on clay tablets, I would set myself a page count every day, and not go to bed until I was finished. As I get older, it’s hard to find material that I consider worth working on, so I’m much more slapdash now, and as a result I write less.

7. If you ever encounter writer’s block, what steps do you take to get past it?

I encounter writer’s block nearly every day, primarily a self-doubt that what I’m doing is worthwhile. I just stumble on, hoping that something will appear, and it usually does.

8. Do you have a hidden talent?

I’m a fairly decent classically trained singer, and do a lot of theatre. I’ve been having some voice problems as the result of having screamed too damn hard while being chowed down on by zombies this summer, but I’m hoping that will clear up soon. Might take some extreme measures, but those are the risks of the business.

9. What was your best subject in school?

English, of course. Except for diagramming sentences…

10. As in any entertainment, there are current trends. How much do these “current trends” influence what you write?

Not much. I’ve found that if you try to write according to trends, by the time your work comes out the trend is over.

11. Mac or PC?

PC. I started with a Tandy 1200HD in 1986 and have been PC ever since. The only Apple items I have are my 120-gig iPod and my iPhone.

12. Where do your ideas come from?

God, I wish I knew. I’d make them come more quickly. Usually, though, it’s from something I’ve seen or experienced, so I need to get out and travel more. Occasionally it’s from something I read in the papers or see on the news. There was a very small story in the newspaper just the other day that struck me deeply, and I think I’ll be able to get something out of that.

13 What advice would you pass on to an aspiring author?

Write for yourself, first and foremost. If the work isn’t commercially successful, then at least you’ve enjoyed the process. The markets are more difficult now than they’ve ever been. E-books have changed everything. Along with the positive aspect of making your work more accessible, there’s also the negative aspect that everyone’s work is accessible as well. There’s so much more competition out there for the e-book dollar that it’s ridiculous, and it’s incredibly easy for one writer, no matter how good his work, to become lost amid the mass of work that’s available. Unless you’re a brand name, we’re all part of the long tail, and that amounts to smaller sales and readership, and less money. You have to be more of a publicist than a writer these days, and everyone’s doing the same thing. How to get your head above the waves that are engulfing us all? If I knew, I’d do it. And on that somewhat pessimistic note, I close. Happy writing anyway!

Review: Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday
by
Chet Williamson
Available through Amazon in hard cover, mass market paperback or Kindle edition & chetwilliamson.com as an e-book or audio book (read by the author), and on Smashwords as an e-book.


A brief word of introduction: Chet Williamson is no stranger to horror fiction. As such he is what I would consider an established author with a readership. He did me the courtesy of speaking to me on Facebook (he and Joe R. Lansdale, to be precise), and through the conversation, it became apparent I needed to read Ash Wednesday ASAP. I ordered it off Amazon and read it in 3 days. 
3 days.
I never read a book in 3 days.
But I did with this one. I read it while waiting in the car, while in the tub, while waiting for something to cook in the kitchen. When I had a spare moment, I was reading.
Get your hands on a copy of Ash Wednesday and see how a horror novel is written.


"Goddamn, Chet." 
I thought this more than once while reading this novel, about a town called Merridale, and the bizarre thing that happens there. 

One night, all the dead of Merridale show up, glowing blue, where they died. If it was crossing the street and getting hit by a car, if it was sitting in the den watching TV, if it was in the hospital - where ever they took their last breath, and in what ever state that was, that's where and how they appear. For no discernible reason. 

How the denizens of the town handle this phenomenon is vast and varied. 
And if you think the dead coming back as zombies is scary, you ain't read nothing yet. No, these dead don't do anything, per se. But the chain reactions they start are quite enough. People lose their faith and their sanity. Some become greedy, some become cowardly. In some, long buried histories come raging to the fore to finally be exposed to the light of day. 

And I quote: "He closed the ten-yard gap then, walking dreamlike to the banquet table to gorge himself on the physical evidence of his guilt. The guilt opened now, like a bloom fully mature, its five blue petals gleaming in the sun..." 
Chet Williamson writes brilliant prose like the above example, turning something odd into one of the most brutal things to happen to a community. 

They don't write them like this very often. 
Mr. Williamson needs to write more like this. A lot.


For more on Chet Williamson:
Chet Williamson
Chet Williamson on Wikipedia
Chet Williamson on Twitter
Chet Williamson on Facebook

13 Questions with...Guido Henkel

1. You’re hosting a dinner party. What is the menu, and do you cook it yourself, or do you call a caterer?

My wife is a phenomenal cook – and I mean, we are seriously talking Iron Chef cooking level here – so she usually cooks herself to treat guests. I know, that you weren’t interested in my wife cooking, but since I don’t cook a whole lot, I thought it is the next best response.

2. What is your beverage of choice?

Usually, nothing but water. I’ve sworn off soda altogether. I do like a beer and a glass of good wine here and there, especially to go with the right food or the right company.

3. Physical book Vs an E-Reader. Your preference and why?

Ever since I got a Kindle abut 3 years ago, I have slowly drifted more and more towards reading eBooks. If find the experience every bit as pleasant and noticed that I am actually reading faster on the Kindle than on paper. It also has changed my reading habits, as I am reading more independent authors than I did ever before. In addition, I like the fact that the eBooks don’t take up any space in the house. Don’t get me wrong, I do like to have a nice hardcover or paperback version of certain books here and there, but do I really need to have every book I read sitting around on a shelf?I still do read a good deal of paperbacks and hardcovers, as they still find their way into my library, though, as I visit bookstores or writers conventions.

4. What kinds of books make up your personal library?

I like to read a lot of historical fiction, so much of my library consists of period books, ranging in various genres. Some are adventures, others mysteries or period thrillers. In addition I do like to read a good contemporary thriller here and there. I used to read a lot of fantasy but for some reason have lost interest in the genre almost entirely in the past few years. Although I write mostly in the horror genre, interestingly enough, I do not read a whole lot of horror. Occasionally, yes, but not excessively so. I am very selective when it comes to horror and read mostly the material that friends of mine write in that genre, because I want to keep up with their work.

5. How and when did you catch the writing bug?

I’ve always had an affinity to the written word and started writing in my late teens. Not in book form, though, but for computer games. I used to write text adventure games for a number of years, which are like interactive stories in which the player controls the flow of the story by typing command sentences like “Turn over the corpse and look under it” into the computer. After that I moved on to writing fiction for computer role playing games — all stuff that is very detailed and intricate – non-linear, as you have to cover countless eventualities depending on the player’s actions.I always wanted to write linear fiction, as in books, where I could control the experience from beginning to end. It was not until about 3 years ago, however, that I finally decided to give it an honest try. “Demon’s Night,” the first of my Jason Dark supernatural mysteries was the result. I had so much fun doing it that I just kept on writing ever since.

6. What is your writing routine?

I wish I had one. I really do. I try to write at least 1,000 words a day , but unfortunately, my life is filled with so many things that sometimes I simply do not find the time or energy to write at all.I also outline a lot. I found that outlining and planning my scenes out in detail helps me stay focussed and pulls me through a project without getting frazzled and sidetracked.

7. If you ever encounter writer’s block, what steps do you take to get past it?

To be honest, I think there is no such thing as writer’s block, per se. It is my firm belief that what most people refer to as writer’s block is really just a result of improper preparation. I noticed that in myself. There were times when I did not know where my story was supposed to go. I had not nailed down a scene completely, and as a result I would keep pushing it ahead of me, avoiding to actually write it. I was afraid to make a decision, to commit to something, anything, and as a result I stopped writing and kept procrastinating for endless periods. This happened to me a few times and I noticed that this kind of “block” always happened for the same reason. I did not know what to write. As soon as I sat down and planned out my stories properly from beginning to end, down to a scene level, I was able to avoid these blocks altogether. This way, there is always something to write. Even if I don’t feel like continuing where I left off, because of my planning, I can easily jump to some other scene that excites me at the time.This kind of ability to write out of order is critical, I think, to keep you going. At least, it is for me.Many writers recommend to watch a movie, do something different, get your mind off. While this might be true when you burn out – which is different than a block in my opinion – I don’t think it is a solution for a block. It is just a different sort of procrastination that won’t get words on the paper.Writing requires discipline and the disciplined writer will sit himself in a chair and write – block or no block. There’s always something to write or edit or revise.Now, I have to be perfectly honest here. Though I am saying of this with all this conviction, I wish I could apply myself to these standards sometimes. I guess sometimes it is just easier to procrastinate. :) 

8. Do you have a hidden talent?

I am not sure I have any hidden talents left. I explored most of them quite openly. I wrote, designed and programmed computer and video games for many years. In that industry I explored many of my skills. I programmed in countless programming languages, down to hexadecimal machine code, I wrote stories for the games, I created artwork and graphics for them, I wrote the music, I acquired business acumen running my own companies, the array is endless. It was a well of experience, really.I am a musician also, I used to play in heavy metals bands and I have written and recorded full orchestral scores.I have a knack for languages – to a degree – and speak German, English, French, Spanish, and understand Italian and some Vietnamese. And I am proficient in Latin – or at least I used to be when I learned it back in high school and college.And now I’m a writer… so I’m not sure what else is left. Perhaps the fact that I don’t discuss politics or religion in public are my real hidden talents.

9. What was your best subject in school?

I majored in English and Math, both my strongest subjects, and interestingly, both have continued to be exceedingly important to me. Math because of all the computer games programming I did over the years, and English because here I am, writing books in English. To put that in perspective, perhaps I should point out that English is not my native language. German is. I moved to the US about 15 years ago.

10. As in any entertainment, there are current trends. How much do these “current trends” influence what you write?

They do not influence me at all. I write what I want to write. Always have. It has always made me an underdog in anything I did. I’ve always created outside the mainstream. My games have always been catering to a core audience. I was never interested in making something that was popular at the time. It has always been more gratifying for me to blaze my own trail. It is very risky and I’ve been flailed with commercial failures throughout my career, but there is something immensely rewarding in doing what you really want to do, as opposed to what others expect you to do. My Jason Dark books are the perfect example for this also. I am writing long fiction in a gothic horror genre and package it in the softbound magazine format of traditional dime novels. I mean, in this market, you can’t get any more exotic and old-school than this. And I’m paying the price for it, clearly. It might have been easier for me to find an audience if I had written contemporary paranormal romances instead and made them into paperback books, selling them for $9.99 apiece.I did not want that. I wanted a print version that costs only $2.99 and that is not possible with current paperback and print-on-demand technologies. I thought it might attract readers, making the stories more accessible, but I’ve been proven wrong all along. Instead of setting my books apart in a good way – as in getting noticed for being unique and different – I find that instead they are almost shunned, because people don’t really seem to know what to make of it. 

11. Mac or PC?

150% Mac. I don’t even let any Microsoft software near my computer. I’m a hardcore Mac-head. I abandoned the PC about 4 or 5 years ago because I got sick and tired of all the problems and the fact that nothing in Windows works. Never looked back once. The Mac has easily tripled my productivity. Better software, cheaper software, more robust software, better hardware, better performance, better responsiveness, better usability. What’s there not to like? I gladly pay a little more upfront for that kind of luxury and peace of mind.

12. Where do your ideas come from?

Anything can really inspire me. Oftentimes I will just look at a painting and a scene will pop into my mind that could make the basis for a story. Sometimes it is music where a line of the lyrics might inspire me and turn into such a picture in my head. At other times it’s a photograph or a movie scene, and sometimes it is just something someone will say and I ask myself, “What if…?”Literally anything can inspire me and draw these kinds of mental images from me that I constantly use as elements in stories or as entire book premises.
13 What advice would you pass on to an aspiring author?

Your writing is never as good as you think, and it is never as bad as you think. All writers that I know have moments were they are in love with their writing, and moments where they feel it is all just a dump of crap. It is the one thing all writers have in common, I believe, so don’t worry if you feel the same way sometimes. Just keep at it, write your heart out, edit and revise, and polish it. If you do that, in the end you will inevitably have a piece of writing that you will be proud of, because you put your mind and heart into it and you worked hard on it. You gave it your best shot, and that is what it is all about.

Review: (Sin)ful

(Sin)ful
by
Lucy Grayson
Self-published, available from: Lucy Grayson

Review by Dan Breen

Sin(ful) – Swords, sorcery and… Citroens?

(Sin)ful is an oddment. I was introduced to this book via a friend on Facebook, and thought, why not? Having bought and downloaded this book, my only regret is that I left it so long before reading it.

(Sin)ful is set in a contemporary fantasy Earth. Magic is real and the world as we know it is joined by two extra lands, one the home of the Kiasakis, and the other, home to the Elementals, two extra near human races and hereditary mortal enemies, one a clear warrior race, and the other, more ethereal and mystic, (as you read the book you’ll come to understand them better), and set in a society pretty much parallel with our own.

(Sin)ful follows Animay Wolfheart, an Elemental, and heir to the Shadow estate, and Luicius Dranco, a Kiasaki warrior, two people thrown together by their employer, Tom, a human wizard of “interesting” moral fibre for his own personal gain.

While there feels to be an element of a “coming of age” story about this, the back plot, the political sophistication of the back story, the intelligent use of action and drama devices to create a story arc, (this is the first in a projected series), place it beyond such easy pigeon holing. It’s an intelligent, well crafted first book, and doesn’t feel like the 400 page epic that it is. I also found it difficult to put down, which is never a bad sign.

So who would I recommend this to? If you remember the Shadowrun RPG, if you like Anne McCaffrey, William Gibson, or just something different to the norm and consider yourself too intelligent for the Tw*****t series, then this is for you.


For more on Lucy Grayson:
Lucy Grayson Weekly

13 Questions with...Tim Marquitz

1. You’re hosting a dinner party. What is the menu, and do you cook it yourself, or do you call a caterer?

I would probably cook it myself because I'm cheap. The menu would likely be some variation of spicy chicken with lots of cheese because I'm a white trash cook.

2. What is your beverage of choice?
Coca Cola. The damn stuff is addictive.

3. Physical book Vs an E-Reader. Your preference and why?
I much prefer a physical book, but I love the convenience of my eReader. There's no way to compare being able to store 1,500 plus books on a small device. It allows me to read based on my mood and not throw my back out.

4. What kinds of books make up your personal library?
Horror and dark fantasy in overwhelming amounts. Lots of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Jim Butcher, and Brian Keene.

5. How and when did you catch the writing bug?
I've always liked to write, but I never took it too seriously until around 1995. I started working out some ideas I had and was really disappointed in how bad they were. I carried on intermittently until probably about five years ago when I pulled my head loose and figured out what I was doing.

6. What is your writing routine?
I don't have one. I write when I have time and feel like it. While I push myself to do it regularly, I write when it feels good to do it.

7. If you ever encounter writer’s block, what steps do you take to get past it?
Because I outline my work, any sense of writer's block I might get happens before I even start to write. I just continue to plot and scheme and everything seems to fall into place.

8. Do you have a hidden talent?
Avoiding difficult questions.

9. What was your best subject in school?
English, which probably isn't much of a surprise. I'd say lunch was a close second.

10. As in any entertainment, there are current trends. How much do these “current trends” influence what you write?
Not at all. They influence how I market my work, but the story has to be what it is. I don't write to trends and I don't worry about what's popular beyond the marketing approach.

11. Mac or PC?
Definitely PC.

12. Where do your ideas come from?
The Idea Fairy.

13 What advice would you pass on to an aspiring author?
Practice. Until a writer can overcome their concern about the mechanics of writing, they'll never write to their most creative.

Review: Theater of Vampires, Volume 2 of Jason Dark Ghost Hunter

Theater of Vampires
Volume 2 in the Jason Dark, Ghost Hunter series
by
Guido Henkel
Available through Jason Dark - Ghost Hunter, Amazon in both print and Kindle editions, and Barnes & Noble in e-book for the Nook

If you like pulp horror in a quick and easy, enjoyable read, then this series is for you.

Jason Dark is a ghost hunter...and a vampire hunter...and a demon hunter...and a hunter of all things supernatural.  He is aided and abetted by his faithful assistant Siu Lin and his housekeeper Lady Wellesley.

Our story begins with the advent of Jason's friend Max.  Their reunion is a happy one, with a pleasant dinner with Jason's assistant Siu Lin in attendance.  Talk is turned to the new play being performed, rumoured to be in the Grand Guignol style, called Theater of Vampires.  Max persuades Jason to attend a performance and that's where our story begins to take off.  Jason suspects there is more than meets the eye to the performers of this harrowing stage show and sets out to investigate.  His suspicions are confirmed when Max is violently, and literally wrenched out of Jason's home by a vampire kidnapping.

Written in a pulp fiction style, there are lurid descriptions of blood letting, pale, red-eyed vampires with preternatural abilities, ambushes, confrontations, captures, rescues, action,...it's all here.
The story only runs 61 pages.  I found it entertaining, both for it's subject matter and the style in which it is written.  Some of it seems grand and a tad over the top dramatically speaking, but that's a hall mark of pulp fiction to begin with.  I spent an entertaining evening reading this, enjoying a genre I hadn't previously read too much of.  Pulp writing is a dying art these days to a degree, but Henkel writes with a sure pen, creating the shadowy streets of London in the winter, the dark and mysterious theater and the threatening vampires with ease.  I felt transported to Jason's side, be it as he dined with Max, attended the play, worked in his laboratory, took to the dark street, and entered the theater to engage in a showdown with the vampires.

There's a fair amount of blood in this tale, enough to satisfy the gore hound.  I liked the lab work Jason employed, a nod to the wit of Sherlock Holmes I suspect.  The pacing is sound, and the characters are brought to convincing life.

For a quick, atmospheric tale of the supernatural, this series is a winner.  There are 10 volumes currently available, with Jason taking on demons, witches, ghostly Kinghts Templar, a real doctor Frankenstein, wraiths, curses, and wrathful goddesses, to name but a few of the terrors he meets.

In January of 2011, Henkel was invited by Fangoria magazine to write an exclusive serial novel for their magazine, beginning with issue #302, entitled Food for the Dead.  Quite an honor, indeed.

For more on Guido Henkel;
Jason Dark on Facebook
Jason Dark, Ghost Hunter