A Halloween Story: Watched - YA Horror Thriller Kindle Exclusive

For a while, I've been meaning to revise a short story I wrote in the universe of the Michael August novels.

Those YA books are all set at Pembrook High, and in the original outlines there was more of a unifying thread. My editor at the time decided against recurring characters, so the tales are loosely connected. Sometimes characters from one book pass through the pages of another, but each novel stands alone.

One Halloween, around the time those were new, I wrote a short story for a newspaper's youth section.

It focused on Brianne Pratt, a creative young woman who had to deal with a stalker while planning a big Halloween bash for Pembrook High.

When Crossroad Press began reissuing the Michael August novels, I knew I wanted to revisit that story. Newspapers don't have a lot of room for word count, so the original version was brief. I wanted to expand it a bit, but other things kept getting in the way.

It bubbled up in my memory last year when a producer expressed interest in possibly adapting the Pembrook High stories into a series of TV movies in the vein of Pretty Little Liars with a little more Goosebumps flavor.

All of the Pembrook storylines came into the discussion even though New Year's Evil, with a holiday theme, would have been the first to be filmed. One thought was to have all of the stories set on holidays, so "Someone's Watching" would have fit in nicely.

Sadly, Hollywood didn't get a chance to twist and mangle the novels the way say Stanley Kubrick did The Shining. Financing was not available from the cable network to which things were pitched. They had too many other spokes spinning at the moment. Those dollars were needed as the foundation for foreign rights sales and other revenue sources that would have made everything possible.

So it goes. Figured it was a long shot.

At least I'd pulled my original story out of the file cabinet. I began expanding a little, focusing on more of Brianne's ups and downs with parents, teachers and school administrators. While forced to look over her shoulder constantly, she also had to deliver a Halloween dance that wouldn't come off as lame to students while not offending sensitive parents. And of course, the stalker just wouldn't go away.

It was fun to visit Pembrook High again and walk those halls anew. It was almost like a nostalgic trip back to a school I really attended.

The new tale is now available in a Kindle exclusive, just in time for Halloween, of course. Get it here for Kindle, and of course, if you don't own one, it can always be read online with Amazon's Cloud Reader.

Purchase here.

What's Up with The Final Girl?

The tables turn in slasher films. Bad guys may ultimately rise after defeat to leave sequel potential open, but usually there's a culmination in which someone, almost always the "final girl," stops the killing.

Carol J. Clover named the archetype in 1992 in Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, not terribly long before Kevin Williamson delivered the self-aware Scream which turned the plot tradition into a plot twist.

You know the story, the virginal, studious teenager in the character mix rises to the occasion. See: Laurie Strode in Halloween etc.

I could be wrong, but I think now the final girl may be moving in a new direction, given a shove in that direction by slasher's evolutionary cousin torture horror.

Jeremy Morris--in an essay in Thomas Fahy's The Philosophy of Horror, "The Justification of Torture- Horror: "Retribution and Sadism in Saw, Hostel, and The Devil's Rejects"--observes a "transformation of torturers and victims" as far back as Last House on the Left (1972, remade 2009) .

In that one, the parents of a  murdered young girl exact revenge in brutal fashion on her killers. In Virgin Spring, which inspired the tale, Max Von Sydow takes up a sword after exfoliating, but it's not quite as gritty as a microwave death or the biting off of  genitals of the Last House films.

The trend of victims becoming torturers, Morris notes, continues in the films mentioned in the essay's title.

A trend evolves?
The final girl type seems to be changing along similar lines. Some of the DNA from torture horror seems to have dropped into the archetype gene pool.

In a number of recent neo-slasher films the final girl's a force to be reckoned with. It's perhaps most obvious in the "Tuesday the 17th" segment of the anthology film V/H/S, directed by Glen McQuaid.

Wendy (Norma C. Quinones) leads new friends on a camping trip, gradually revealing she is the final girl from a previous outing in which campers fell prey to a slasher who can't be captured on video. That makes inspired use of the film's handheld point of view.

Wendy's now out to kill the entity. Spoiler warning: She succeeds, only to become possessed by the spirit at the open-ended tale's conclusion.

Mary Mason in American Mary from Jen and Sylvia Soska isn't a slasher victim but is the survivor of a roofied date-rape. The experience transforms her from a medical student to underground body modification surgeon who ultimately kills. The arc is tragedy, but the Soskas know horror and slasher territory well.

Mary the victim becomes the antagonist as the tale marches forward.

I haven't seen it yet, but that appears to be the direction things are headed in Anna: Scream Queen Killer. 

It's interesting to watch the edges of the box cave in and to see things take on new freshness. There's always a new twist, and it's good to be reminded. Don't mess with the final girl. 

Interesting Addendum

If this project, The Final Girls, comes about for ABC Family, it looks like final girls will be working for good by channeling their experiences into fighting evil under the guidance of Laurie Strode herself, Jamie Lee Curtis. 

Return of the Wicker Man

Someone once asked why I thought The Wicker Man was so chilling. They seemed perplexed.

It can be hard to convey the deep chill of a psychological terror film to those who watch it passively without deeper contemplation of the story implications.

I think the chill comes in part because of the "it could really happen" feel. It's not ghosts but humans at the heart of the story, but it's also that disturbing notion that there are moments and places where the rules of contemporary society don't seem to apply.

It happens in brutal terms in Deliverance as city men inadvertently tread on the territory of grim others who don't appreciate their presence.

And it happens to Edward Woodward's Sgt. Howie in subtle then increasingly barbarous terms as he prowls an island in the Hebrides where strange practices seem to be in place. The old ways.

He grows increasingly nervous that a missing girl may be the subject of a sacrifice, but there's even more horror planned for the pious policeman.

I read first of the tale in an issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine because it is a tale of mystery and detection as well as horror.

It took a long time to finally get to see it since it didn't play in many theaters. I finally got to watch via satellite some time in the '80s, though it's made the cable rounds and can be had on DVD.

It's interesting to learn that lost footage is being restored and that the true director's cut will be making the theatrical rounds again soon.

I read about it probably in 1979. It's been a long wait. 

Anna: Scream Queen Killer

Since we were just talking about slasher pics, I have news of a new horror thriller, Anna: Scream Queen Killer that's streaming on Amazon. It's from Chemical Burn, and it might be extreme.

The producers are calling it a "sexy horror exploitation film with a twist." It sounds like it might be in the vein of American Mary.

Here's the official synopsis and trailer. From here it's really up to you. (Trailer contains some nudity.)

The ultimate in actress exploitation, Scream Queen Killer takes you on a journey into the world of indie grindhouse film auditions with a mind bending twist. Anna is a young actress desperate to make it in the movies. She is invited to a series of filmed auditions, playing out various scenarios on camera. The problem is, the director is a perverted psychopath with only one thing on his mind. As Anna progresses through an ever more bizarre series of roles she slowly realizes that something is horribly wrong with this audition. Forced to strip and perform carnal acts in the name of the art, she eventually flips and takes matters into her own hands. A scenario many actresses may recognize in the industry, Scream Queen Killer is brutally realistic and superbly acted by Melanie Denholme (Lady of the Dark). How far is too far? And how far would you go to get the role?

Anna: Scream Queen Killer: She's Had Enough from Reality Films on Vimeo.

RIP Elmore Leonard

I picked up Unknown Man No. 89 by Elmore Leonard sometime in the eighties. I was a young reporter, covering the police beat on occasion and intrigued by his take on cops and criminals.

I zipped through Unknown Man about a process server who gets embroiled in crime and moved on pretty quickly to 52 Pick Up and Split Images. Great reads in that easy-going prose that took you into the minds of good guys and bad guys alike.

Gold Coast, The Switch, Swag aka Ryan's Rules, Stick. I can remember cracking them open late at night after my 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. news gig ended and reading into the wee hours.

I can vividly remember opening The Switch as the night air grew a little cooler that autumn, the window cracked just a little to let in the breeze.

On the radio, Toney Carey's "A Fine, Fine Day" about an old gangster getting out of prison after a long stretch, seemed like a perfect sound track for Leonard.

I've read many of Leonard's novels since, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Rum Punch and some of the Westerns, but there's a special chunk of my reading life that I'll always remember as Leonard time.

It seemed like he'd go on forever, churning out great stories.

RIP,  Mr. Leonard. 

Watch Instantly Watch: Donner Pass

I don't usually get enthusiastic when a horror film's premise involves a group of teens going anywhere or doing anything. It's a template that's served often and reached a fine meta place with The Cabin in the Woods and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. OK, there's the "Tuesday the 17th" segment of V/H/S also.

But I've seen it enough. I was a little sad that framework provided the underpinning for Dead Snow with its hordes of Nazi zombies.

I'm not sure why I clicked on Donner Pass as a Netflix watch instantly. The description warns it's about teenagers on a ski trip. Maybe the name Donner Pass spurred the override. That incident inspired the brilliant "A Child of the Golden West" from Dennis Etchison after all.

I was mildly curious, and the film opened with a historic scene giving an alternate version of the Donner Party's demise. George Donner went a little crazy when the wagon train became snowbound, we learn.

Flash forward to that aforementioned ski trip. Four, just four?, kids are headed to the mountain cabin belonging to the parents of the creepy Thomas (Erik Stocklin). He's a fifth wheel in a four-person party, but he's got the cabin.

A highway worker delivers the requisite warning of a person of interest in the area, and everyone forges ahead anyway.

They're soon  joined by friends of the terminally unfriendly Nicole (Adelaide Kane), upping the potential body even though Kayley (Desiree Hall) asks them to leave. She's the good girl.

People start to die. It all looks cookie cutter for a while, and then, suddenly it's not quite. Twists and a few additional ideas are woven late into the second act, and suddenly, with infighting and double crosses, everything gets more engaging than you'd expect.

Yes, it's one more slasher, one more band of dead teens, but there' just enough departure from template to keep things moving.

Of course there's cannibalism, but it's never overwhelming on the gore side, and, well, you'll find out more if you watch. I'm not pushing, but as those movies that bubble to the top of the Netflix "Now Available For Streaming" listings go, it's not a terrible hour and 26 minutes with credits.

There's some interesting music over those, a tune called High Ground by Orenda Fink.

Sid says, do whatever you want.

Favorite Short Stories: The April Witch by Ray Bradbury

Long before paranormal romance had been named, Ray Bradbury imagined his Elliott family, a clan of supernatural beings that rings a little like the Addams Family with a deeper tinge of melancholy. The tales are collected in the fix-up novel From the Dust Returned. 

I read a while back--all right it was a year ago, time flies--that a movie might be developed from the stories.

That might be fun.

The tales are filled with Bradbury's special magic, which can be at its best when sadness is acknowledged as a part of all things.

In "Homecoming," a core piece in the cycle, there's sense that once frequent reunions are becoming sporadic for the Eliotts, and bits of decorative black crepe paper flutter through subsequent stories, suggesting remnants of grander days as we learn more about the winged Uncle Einar and about the magical Cecy.

She's often pivotal to the tales but never more so than in "The April Witch." Told that the family can't marry humans without a loss of magic, the teen Cecy is devastated. She wants more than anything to be in love.

Since her abilities allow her to inhabit humans and things, she decides she'll experience love second hand.

As a leaf, she flutters into the world of Ann, a young woman in a farming community. Then, leaping into Ann, she forces a rekindling of interest with a young man named Tom.

Ann's resistant, to any romance, even to an outing, but with effort Cecy is able to override some decisions. That means a dance and enough proximity to Tom for Cecy to fall in love,  if it doesn't work for Ann.

The longing impels the story toward a culmination as poignant as Bradbury's other small masterpiece "The Foghorn."

It's fantastical, odd, eerie, offbeat and wonderful, a contemplation like no other of a "what might have been."

Monty Update

Monty is home and has had his first dose of insulin. He's eaten well today, but his back legs are wobbly. Apparently that's a common problem in cats with diabetes.

Hopefully regulating his glucose will help on that front in time.

At the moment, he's sleeping in his favorite spot, a spot that actually became a favorite perhaps at a time that his diabetes was developing. It represented a move from the sofa, long his domain.

We weren't sure what brought the change. At the time, he could still hop up onto it as he chose, so I'm not sure what the move meant. At any rate, he's comfortable.

It's good to have him home, good to be able to brush his coat and offer comfort. I'm hopeful medication and care will give him a little more time.

I've always been cognizant of the fact that the pets don't live forever, but even if you are aware of the passage of time, you can't slow it down.

Vacations pass too quickly, even though you will each day to last longer, to stretch and be all it can.

It's not just vacations. All of life ticks by faster than we'd like.

What can you do but try to stay alert to that and keep moving?

Monty's Illness

I haven't mentioned my cats much on the blog in a while. Monty, seen above looking up as a flight carrying people to DisneyWorld passes over, has been a bit sluggish of late. I took him to the vet on Tuesday, and they've determined he's developed diabetes.

He's sixteen, which, in cat years, is the same as pretty old to you and me. I was able to win his release from the pound around 1998 where he was incarcerated over what he describes as a big misunderstanding.

He remained quite robust until a couple of months ago, but then he began to slow down a little.

We had his teeth cleaned and his blood checked, wanting to make sure there were no issues with his eating. They shaved some patches on his legs looking for a vein for the IV at the time. He did not find it amusing when we called him Boots or made poodle references.

The cleaning and a round of antibiotics seemed to help for a while, but earlier this week his heart just didn't seem to be in it when he tried to steal my dinner.

This time the blood test along with some calculations by the vet of some past readings confirmed he's going to need insulin injections.

I learned to give Miss Daisy, who still abides,  sub-q fluid treatments, so I guess I'll be learning give shots as well.

He'll love me for it, I'm sure, and I know I can count on his cooperation.

Update - 8-2-13
Here's a pic of Mon at the vet. He should get to come home after one more day. The IV's really helped his coat, and he issued verbal complaints when I visited today.

Design Trends I Hate - Slide Shows

Let me put on my curmudgeon's cap and jersey for a moment, and discuss a web design and content trend I really hate. That's slide shows. They're ubiquitous it seems, and often they have information that sounds interesting. "10 Facts About Happiness," "15 Underrated Horror Films," "Best Celebrity Cellulite Solutions."

It's getting to that information that's the challenge. You can get Number 15, but moving to Number 14 is another matter, especially with the variety of devices we have to access the web.

If you're viewing the web in, oh, a browser, slide shows become time consuming.

The #$%)&*_&^%$#$%^%ing *&+#@!%^ *&^%$ button is never located conveniently to the copy. It's usually somewhere up near the address bar, and the text is somewhere down below an image.

For me it invariably means scrolling down to read the content then back up to find the button to advance. Then it's scroll down again to read.

When I was talking about this on Twitter, Robin Ashe added a good observation. There's often an ad link in the mix that looks like the button you ought to click.

Gets the website a click through and you even more delay in reading and moving on.

Add to that the fact that they're not really slide shows a lot of the time, just separate web pages THAT HAVE TO LOAD.

I know why this is all like it is. I know it's a clever scheme, nay, a conspiracy for click throughs, but it's annoying as hell.

I think I'm going to declare a moratorium on browsing web slideshows. I won't need facts on happiness then. I'll just be happy not clicking and scrolling so often.

Storage Wars Meets Area 51 - A Kickstarter

Wes Locher was an up and coming comics writer before he took a class from me, but I mention that he's a past student in the interest of full disclosure.

I wanted to share news of his Kickstarter project regardless. Yeah, he's a former student, but it also looks cool.

It's comedy sci-fi hinging on an interesting and humorous high concept. Here's the word on his Unit 44:

Oh, and contributors can earn cool rewards. 

Horror Trailer: The Caves - Killer Vikings Awake

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Got a kind note from Jack Delaney, the director of a new horror feature film called The Caves. Be warned, the trailer's a bit bloody, but it looks interesting.

Vikings awake in the present day, and they're dangerous.

The Blackhouse by Peter May - An Immersion in Character and Culture

 Once in a while you pick up a book and find it far exceeds expectations. I was intrigued reading the jacket flap of Peter May's The Blackhouse. It summarized the story of a Scotland detective called back to his childhood home in The Hebrides to investigate a murder similar to a case he's recently dealt with in Edinburgh. It sounded like an engaging procedural.

I didn't get from that how rich in character and setting the tale would be.

The Blackhouse scrutinizes the life of Fin Macleod, both in the present as he proceeds through his investigation, and in the past, through first-person remembrance.

Fin has known tragedy. He's almost plagued by tragedy. He lost his parents at a young age. He's just lost a son and seen his marriage unravel in the aftermath. He's also been party to a good deal of misery either dealt out by harsh circumstances of island life or from nature itself.

The case he's called on to investigate opens old wounds and revisits jagged relationships, many swirling around the victim, Angel Macritchie, a bully as a boy and as a man.

Macleod's past is inextricably linked to the murder. Those detailed relationships and past regrets channel him toward answers, shocks and heightened regrets.

Many are linked to the island's annual guga hunt, an almost ritualistic culling of gannets on a rock island. May, who lived in the Hebrides while film a television series there, offers a fascinating look into life and culture and the role of the hunt to island life.

The components converge in a thrilling and tortured climax in which Fin confronts present, past, himself, and, of course, the killer.

It's a well plotted mystery, a study of a man and a voyage to a unique and intriguing place. It reminds me a bit in its combinations of Jane Campion's New Zealand in Top of the Lake.

It's well worth the time to turn the pages. Has Fin been party to almost too much tragedy and has he seen too much first hand? Perhaps one red herring's a bit of a stretch, but it generally fits, and the whole is a solid, intricate work.

Happily, though it took the book a while to find a home, it's the first in a trilogy, that I hope to continue reading soon.

Peter May discusses the road to publication for The Blackhouse:

Three Graves Full - A Crime Drama

In this debut novel, Jamie Mason introduces a compelling group of characters then puts them through sometimes comic, sometimes tragic and sometimes suspenseful paces.

I suppose the central conceit requires a little buy-in from the reader, but it's not terribly hard with Mason's smooth narrative touch.

Jason Getty has killed a man and buried him in his yard. 

After a period of fretting about that circumstance, he hires a crew for lawn maintenance lest an overgrown homestead draw undue attention.

In the midst of their cleanup, they stumble on an unmarked grave.  No wait, two unmarked graves. Neither is occupied by the guy Getty buried.

It seems a pair of bodies were planted on the property before he moved in and sunk another.

Just accept it.

From there, the story unfolds in a nicely paced and quirky manner as Getty encounters a pair of decent and conscientious local cops who solve the murders in short order but find Jason acts a little suspicious.

CSI determines another death might have transpired in Jason's house, which makes them curious  and means Jason's going to need to move his former friend Harris to a new location.

Jason's the most compelling character in the cast, and the extended flashback in which we learn the circumstances of the killing he committed is engrossing. It builds empathy for his milquetoast spirit. He's a widower after all, and good intentions  entangled him with a biker and burglary ring leader, who doesn't like to be called Harris, who drove Jason first to despair then dire deeds.

When Jason starts to unearth his victim for transport prior to the police bringing in cadavar dogs, things really get complicated as the suspect for the other killings, the fiance of one of the victims and others converge on Getty's house.

Jason's faced with trying to protect himself, help one of the good cops and somehow makeing an ally of a woman he's instinctively brained with a shovel.

I think it's safe to say you haven't seen this all before. Mason really delivers a fresh voice and a fresh perspective to the crime novel.

Three Graves Full is a fast and exciting excursion, and you'll probably be surprised at how things turn out.

RIP Richard Matheson

I was sad to hear today of the passing of another of the favorite authors of my youth. Richard Matheson has gone. 

Before I could read,  The Incredible Shrinking Man aired on local television. I was under my grandmother's care on school day afternoons.

God bless my grandmama. She didn't see any harm in letting me watch a story of a man showered with a strange substance that made him smaller and smaller, until he was menaced by his house cat and a tarantula.

It was all fascinating stuff. Imagination rich and wonderful.

It was just the first of many hours with Matheson's work. I read his short stories in horror collections starting when I was 10 or eleven, but no one who's been alert the past 50 years or so has escaped Matheson.

 From Poe adaptations to Twilight Zone to Somewhere in Time, his mark is on our consciousness.

Sad to see him go.

Here's a post from a few of years ago about my fond reading of his collection Shock Waves. 

What's on the iPod - Miami Purity - Feminine Noir

I'm not sure how I missed Vicki Hendricks' dark, noirish Miami Purity (1995), often dubbed a feminine The Postman Always Rings twice, but I was happy to discover the audiobook recently. That's due to a mention in a Salon article about what to read after Gillian Flynn's brilliant  Gone Girl.

Miami is brilliant also, a steamy--in more ways than one--and grim crime excursion told by the protagonist, Sherri Parlay. She's a former stripper who's maintained a vestige of innocence in spite of her rough thirty-six years and a deceased husband. He's deceased because she clipped him with a boom box while he was being abusive.

After her husband's death and some suspicion about it by the cops, Sherri lands a job in a Miami cleaner  called Miami Purity. She's hired by the owner, Brenda Mahoney.

Before long she's discovered the owner's son, Payne,  and fallen deeply into lust for him before she learns Brenda doesn't really care for Payne having a love life.

Things spiral downward as Sherri pursues Payne anyway and catches his interest. Once she's fallen for him, she learns just how twisted his relationship with Brenda is. With the best of intentions, she smothers Brenda with a plastic bag.

Things tumble around after that like towels in a dryer as Sherri strives for a healthy relationship with Payne that, as astute readers know, just isn't going to happen.

The question is, of course, how are things going to fall apart and what's going to happen with Sherri who has an affection for drink and men?

To say more would spoil the fun of the second part of the tale, but it unwinds nicely with a fairly intricate plot and plenty of twists and surprises.

The audio version is nicely suspenseful, and it's well narrated by Linda Borg, who invests Sherri with just the right mixture of sultry and innocent.

It's profanity-laced and loaded with graphic sexual descriptions, so be warned, but it's a great, seedy crime excursion.

Extra
A blogtalk radio interview with Vicki Henricks

A Stranger in My Grave by Margaret Millar - Domestic Thrills and Murder

I read most of the Ross MacDonald Lew Archer novels when I was a kid, and in the back of the Bantam editions the "About the Author" page noted MacDonald was "... Kenneth Millar in private life." Those sections also mentioned that  his wife, Margaret Millar, was also a mystery writer. I kept an eye peeled for her work as well, but in the book stores and news stands I frequented, nary a Margaret Millar title showed up. (I've mentioned before those days before the interwebs when you were at the mercy of paperback spinners and used book stores  to find books.)

Happily I ran across an edition of A Stranger in My Grave (1960) a couple of years back, and I was reminded of that when her name kept coming up in relation to Gillian Flynn's brilliant page turner Gone Girl. 

Grave certainly feels a little like a literary cousin of Gone Girl. It's a domestic thriller that revolves around an interesting quandary from Daisy Harker, a young wife, who in 1959 or so dreams of a tombstone with her name on it, and a death date four years earlier. Dec. 2, 1955.

Someone, Daisy reckons, must have done her psychic harm on that date:

"...No interpretation is necessary. It's all quite clear. On Dec. 2, 1955, something happened to me that was so terrible it caused my death. I was psychically murdered."

Her husband Jim would rather she leave that notion alone. So would her mother, who's supported by Jim's generosity and thus has a vested interest in the couple's domestic bliss.

Daisy's determined however, and when her deadbeat father, Stan Fielding, calls for help in paying off a bail bondsman, she sees an avenue to find answers. His bail bondsman, Steve Pinata, has detective skills as well.

He agrees to reconstruct that relevant Dec. 2, and it soon becomes clear Daisy's buried a few things deep in her memory. She recalls snow-capped mountains but not the reason she left the clinic where she worked that year, and something's up with Jim and his lawyer.

Her dad Stan Fielding is up to something as well, hitching back into town to look into the world of a waitress named Juanita. She's volatile and may be connected to the man really buried in the grave Daisy dreamed about.

Swirling pieces converge and begin to make more and more sense as the pages turn.

A Stranger In My Grave is not so much a novel of detection as a tale of mystery and murder that allows events to unfold once the trigger of memory is pulled.

On the  journey, Daisy moves outside the protective parameters of Jim and her mother who have controlling agendas. The truths are twisted and startling as they are revealed.

I suppose the memory loss is a conceit that the reader is expected to accept a little too easily, and there are a few other abrupt emotional developments for characters, but ultimately Stranger offers a compelling study of family, deception, dark deeds and a domestic era that's at times appalling yet also familiar.

What's on the iPad? - Haunting Melissa

I think I maximized my viewing experience of the new app-based serial Haunting Melissa last night. I put in my ear plugs as I lay me down to sleep and I powered up the first installment. The lights were out, all else was quiet, and I was immersed.

The set up is generally familiar. We see things unfold through hand-held cameras and web chats.
The Melissa of the title is staying alone in a big, old house. There's a locked room, not sure what's in there. Voices and other strangeness abound, and Melissa and her friend begin to investigate. What could go wrong?

In spite of the familiarity, watched in total darkness, there were some eerie chills. I'm intrigued and waiting for installment two. That can be earned by a Facebook share, though I suppose future installments will come at a price. You wanna find out what happens, you must pay.

The project comes from New Edelstein, a producer on the The Ring and The Ring 2 and other projects, and it's well done. I think I will stick with it for a while.

I hope Part 2 arrives quickly. I want to see what happens next.

The 39 Steps as Improv

Improv techniques superimposed over the plot of John Buchan's 1915 spy novel made for great fun in the performance of The 39 Steps that Christine and I attended yesterday as part of the Orlando Fringe Festival. 

The trailer above gives as good a taste of what's in store as I could summarize, and it makes for an interesting blend of comedy and spy intrigue. 

Even before the show begins, performers in character collect random suggestions from the audience by way of surveys, secret messages dropped to "the man in the trench coat" and ideas written on chalk slates, the way a spy might scrawl a surreptitious detail. 

Those suggestions help direct the plot, which updates Buchan's pre-World War I story to the era of the Cuban missile crisis. Richard Hannay (or Rachel if needed) can be played by any one of the improve performers, based on a vote from the audience. 

It's all funny to be sure, but the core spy story and chase elements from the novel are  woven through the tale, and it all builds to Hannay in a desperate situation. 

I found it fresh and fun, and it was a good look at how genre gems can be given fresh life. 

The concept stems from Ryan Price of Orlando's Invisible Frisbee, and it's under the direction of Rebekah Lane. Check out the slide show of the production and more on their website. 

Ticket info if you're in Orlando.

It's Alive - by Loren D. Estleman

Somehow I missed the Valentino series from Loren D. Estleman until browsing the other day and hitting on the latest book, Alive!

Happy to be aboard.

Valentino is a film archivist for UCLA, and he becomes embroiled in murder mysteries that swirl around lost films. We're talking things like Eric Von Stronheim's Greed or, happily, the lost screen test of Bela Lugosi as the Frankenstein monster in Alive!

The screen test is real and really lost, cleared away to make storage space in a time before its importance and value were recognized at Universal Studios. But Estleman imagines a world where the footage still exists, two reels shot with Lugosi hot off the success of 1931's Dracula and targeted for a role in the next big Universal monster movie. Of course the role went to Boris Karloff, but collectors and film fans would love to see what might have been, or what went wrong.

Estleman offers up an interesting blend of film history and fiction as Valentino races to find the lost footage after he realizes it's at the core of an old friend's murder.

His pal, a washed up star with addiction issues,  has come upon the footage, but criminal elements are involved. There's also a collector who's an homage to the late great punster and editor Forrest Ackerman of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Estleman's imagined a rich world of supporting characters for Valentino including an intern who's into Steampunk and a department secretary from hell plus a fun pair of San Diego detectives. They're fun for the reader, not so fun for Valentino. The bad cop of the duo is on bad cop overdrive.

There's a nice and fairly twisty mystery plot woven through the tale, and tension builds as Valentino strives to solve the case and keep the film footage from decaying in a police evidence room.

The tale's also a fabulous look into film preservation with even a few contemplations on Steampunk's importance. Van Helsing qualifies, and Valentino's intern and friends watch with the sound turned down for the enjoyment of the production design.

All in all, it's nice mystery read and great book to pick up if you're an aficionado of Universal Horrors.

Must check out the other tales in the series as well including a collection of short stories. 

Watch Instantly Watch: Messages Deleted

It's not quite The Cabin in the Woods or Scream, but I recently ran across an interesting 2009 thriller with meta touches on Netflix.

Messages Deleted is from the pen of Larry Cohen, screenwriter for a host of memorable thrillers and B-movies including Q, Phone Booth, It's Alive and Captivity. 

Messages stars Matthew Lillard, Shaggy in the Scooby Doo films and now pretty much the voice of Shaggy in Scooby animated films. He's Joel Brandt, a screenwriting instructor and struggling screenwriter.

Things start to go awry when he discovers a message on his home answering machine from a guy with a gun to his head.

Soon, Joel's embroiled in the investigation of a string of murders that mirror movie cliches.

Of course he becomes a suspect, and of course he has to begin to unravel a puzzle that seems to tie his past to an escalating series of murders.

It has a lot of elements we've seen before, but Lillard's always interesting, and he's helped along by Deborah Kara Unger as a detective on the case and Gina Holden as a student and ally.

The body count rises, Brandt grows frantic and with the help of his student, he realizes the events seem to be reflecting a screenplay written by a former student.

Death implements of variable sorts, movie coverage talk and other mayhem unfurl before the reveal.

It's not quite stupendous, but it's an interesting exercise especially if you're a bit of a film buff.

James Spader has a Blacklist

There aren't a lot of new dramas on NBC's fall lineup. While I'm reluctant to invest time in shows that might not last, I'm intrigued by The Blacklist. It's from Joe Carnahan who did The Grey and Smokin' Aces among other.

James Spader stars as a master criminal who has a list of really bad guys. He turns himself in to the FBI with an offer to help catch the evil doers.

He gets a Clarice Starling-like agent (Annet Mahendru) to work with, but it really appeals to me a little more than Hannibal has so far.

Here's hoping it has the legs for a good run,  the trailer looks pretty cool.

Songs to Play at My Funeral

Don't let the title bring concern. The last checkup was decent, and other than some mild allergy annoyance as April slides toward May, I'm feeling pretty good.

But trouble at my undergrad alma mater's had an interesting side effect, of late. It's caused me to at least have passing contact with some friends from way back. Some of 'em look old on Facebook, I'm not gonna lie.

Seems I blinked and thirty years have passed. Not sure how that happened. It brought the notion that I'd like to choose the songs that are played when I've done the Off the Mortal Coil Shuffle. Hopefully that's not for another 30 years or at least not until the fish oil stops working.

But whenever it occurs, I'm starting the playlist. Somebody out there see that this happens, hold Christine to it.

Doesn't have to be this version, but for the sheer irony of it, I think I need a rendition of Simple Gifts, the shaker hymn. My corporate communications day gig of twelve years was at a company that used the tune as its theme song. I've mulled requesting Lord of the Dance, a later song with the same tune, but I think in needs to be the original.




The great Warren Zevon died in 2003, same year my old man passed. I knew "Werewolves of London," but a buddy in my newspaper days prompted me to purchase a Zevon album, and I've stayed a fan forever. This tune from his farewell album would be a nice touch.




I was a fan of the British series Cracker when it aired in the US in the '90s. Christine and I watched on A&E. When Fitz, the lead character, lost his mother, they played Loch Lomond at her funeral. I always liked that and found a version when I was working at the library.

In the show,  they had a choir boy singing it, but I'd settle for the version from Runrig. My roots, on both sides of my family, are in the British Isles, so it's appropriate. I'll probably come up with a few more, but that's a start.

Added Aug. 17, 2020

 

"Don't muffle your drums and play your fifes merrily,
 Play a quick march as you carry me along, 
And fire your bright muskets all over my coffin, 
Saying: There goes an unfortunate lad to his home."
                                 -- The Unfortunate Rake
                                    Folk ballad

The Reading Lessons Cover Reveal

Carole Lanham, who once featured me in her Apron Hall of Fame, asked me to share in the joy of the cover reveal on her new book The Reading Lessons. (View The Making of The Apron Pic post)

It's really beautifully done artwork as you can see above.

Sounds like a really interesting Southern novel. Here's the synopsis from the publisher, Immortal Ink,  and you can view the trailer below:

Mississippi 1920: Nine year old servant, Hadley Crump, finds himself drawn into a secret world when he is invited to join wealthy Lucinda Browning’s dirty book club. No one suspects that the bi-racial son of the cook is anything more to Lucinda than a charitable obligation, but behind closed doors, O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright. What begins as a breathless investigation into the more juicy parts of literature quickly becomes a consuming and life-long habit for two people who would not otherwise be left alone together. As lynchings erupt across the South and the serving staff is slowly cut to make way for new mechanical household conveniences, Hadley begins to understand how dangerous and precarious his situation is.

The Reading Lessons follows the lives of two people born into a world that is unforgiving as a Hangman’s knot. Divided by skin color and joined by books, Hadley and Lucinda are forced to come together in the only place that will allow it, a land of printed words and dark secrets.

It's coming Summer 2013.

Book Learning: True Crime Florida

Update

Gilbert King was awarded the Pulitzer Prize April 15, 2013, for his book Devil in the Grove 


Christine and I popped over to the University of Central Florida for the UCF Book Festival Saturday. A host of authors and vendors were on hand, and I met several local scribes.

We didn't plan carefully. We just popped over to get a taste of the events, but we managed to be browsing when a panel with true crime authors kicked off at the campus Barnes & Noble.

It was an interesting session featuring three authors who'd penned books on Florida crime.

 The diversity of local law breaking proved intriguing and rivals Louisiana's, I believe.

Craig Pittman of the Tampa Bay Times was on hand to review his account of orchid smuggling and the fallout when a rare Peruvian orchid turned up at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota.

Apparently the twists and intrigues were greater than he expected at the outset, and the characters were as colorful as the flowers involved.

I saw Adaptation once upon a time, but apparently that was just the tip of the stamen.

Pittman said the man who discovered the rare orchid asked that it be named for him, and that was like hanging out a sign that said come indict me. Raids, court cases, international incidents and more fallout followed.

A darker crime is the focus of Trout from The Orlando Sentinel's Jeff Kunerth. He actually began the book as part of a master's program, and chose to focus on teens and the issues about trying juveniles as adults.

The account focuses on a 1991 murder at a store called Trout Auto Parts. Three teens were forever linked by a murder for hire scheme that unfortunately cost the wrong man his life.

Kunerth spoke of prison interviews with the three men, now approaching middle age, and of trying to discern the truth from the various accounts.

The non-Floridian of the group was Gilbert King, author of a historic true crime account from Lake County.

Devil in the Grove explores a 1949 case that eventually brought Thurgood Marshall to Florida to face the Ku Klux Klan and other dangers swirling around rape allegations against young African American men. It was a time when orange growing was big business, a brutal Southern sheriff ruled the county with an iron hand and the Klan active and brutal.

King spoke of drives deep into rural Georgia and other research efforts including FBI files and more.

As panels do, this one made me want to read all three books, and it gave me a little more perspective on Sunshine State crime.

It really is Carl Hiaasen and John D. MacDonald country.

Eerie, Atmospheric Music Video With Horror Touches from Anima Animus Animal

Very cool, as you'd expect from a music project that's described as Electro-Industrial-Gothic Steam Punk Opera. 

The Horror Haiku Series From Seraph Films

I've been enjoying the short  flicks in Seraph Film's Horror Haiku series. They're impressive, eerie and concise with a mixture of monsters and more.

 This is the teaser. Visit their You Tube page for all entries plus some other short films. 

The White Forest

I'm intrigued by mystical Victorian novels like The Night Circus, so when I ran across The White Forest by Adam McOmber on the bookstore shelf, I couldn't pass it up.

It makes good use of the period setting while following a heroine with an intriguing magical ability. Jane Silverlake can discern the souls of objects. She can sometimes prompt objects to reveal things as well.

As the novel opens, we learn that the ability may have been passed down from her mother, who may have died as a result of the ability. Jane and her father now live together in a crumbling British estate.

Much, besides her mother's death, has transpired before page one. Jane and her friend Madeline Lee have had a lengthy friendship and near rivalry over Nathan Ashe, another neighbor who was so intrigued by Jane's ability he was driven to mystical pursuits.

We learn he joined the army in order to travel to distant shores for research in to Jane's aptitude, and upon returning to London he joined the ranks of a cult leader known as Ariston Day. While involved with Day, he disappeared.

As the novel opens, Jane and Madeline are working to find the missing Nathan, while Jane is a suspect of Vidocq, a great French detective who's on the case.

Slowly, Jane learns more about Day's cult and his minions, called Fetches, and she begins to unravel new secrets about her abilities as well.

Flashes of surreal memory portray Nathan as a stag, subject of a hunt by a mysterious red queen in the mysterious and otherworldly White Forest of the title.

Was Jane responsible for his disappearance, or is there more to the mysterious white forest of her vision?

The reveals are strange and offbeat, building to a surprising and fantastical conclusion.

I liked the novel quite a bit, though I suppose I found the entry point into the story a little abrupt. Overall, it's a complex and intriguing historical fiction with a compelling and innovative heroine.

If you enjoy Victorian gothic narratives, you may enjoy it too.

Facebook Author Page

I'm not sure exactly why, but I delayed having a Facebook author page for a long time. First I had a page devoted to Midnight Eyes only. 

A recent big blog hop and a couple of other incidents sort of necessitated I cave, so I morphed the Midnight Eyes page into a Sidney Williams books page. 

If you are of a mind to, drop by and give it a like here.


:-)

RIP Rick Hautala and David and James

Important addendum: Learn how you can help Rick's wife Holly at Christopher Golden's blog

I was on Facebook last night engaging in light conversation with friends when messages started to pop up that Rick Hautala had passed away.

My first thought was: "Can this be real? He was posting things on Facebook just the other day."

A sign of our cyber times, I suppose.

It was true, a heart attack, and a sadness settled over me. Dave B. Silva, writer and editor of The Horror Show passed away recently, and James Herbert died this week. Significant losses for the horror community.

I don't remember exactly how my phone conversation with Rick came about back in the day, but, probably by letter, we agreed to a time for me to call him not long after my first book had sold. I think he was in the midst of his move to Warner Books after Night Stone and Little Brothers and several other successes that made him "that other horror writer from Maine."

It was a Friday night. Friday was my day off when I was a reporter. I worked Sundays.

I dialed him up at an agreed-upon time, and we talked long into that evening, and he never complained or "needed to get off the phone."

He told me the ins and outs of dealing with Zebra/Kensington.

He told me tales of hologram book covers that were a big marketing deal in those days.

He told me of wrangles over book revisions and standing strong in plot point arguments with editors.

He gave me advice about appearing at conventions: Just try to say something funny while on a panel so people remember you. 

Like all those moments you remember from long ago when something makes them suddenly poignant and relevant anew, it seems like yesterday.

RIP Rick Hautala (1949-2013)

"An Evening With Patrick Stewart" in Orlando

For great coverage of Patrick Stewart's Orlando Shakespeare appearance, here's a great article about him describing his biggest onstage flub and more. This post is more about how I got to go to that show. 

To put things in perspective, I first heard the name Jean Luc Picard more than 25 years ago. I was at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair, attending a panel about the then-dubious Star Trek revival. David Gerrold was a guest, and he sketched out the characters on the new Enterprise including the planned French captain. That was a good while before we had to join Star Trek: The Next Generation in progress when college football ran over.

So flash forward to a couple of weeks ago, and I browsed a catalog for Megacon that Jennie Jarvis had left on Roland Mann's desk and noticed Patrick Stewart was a guest. I thought that was interesting, but it's been a busy year with a move and beginning teaching and the like, and I've been to a lot of cons.

I mentioned it to Christine, who discovered The Next Generation through me and Patrick Stewart because of that and is not generally a science fiction fan. She came to appreciate and respect TNG and  we watched while we were dating.

So, I'm thinking, it's been a busy year, and I've been to a lot of cons in my life, maybe I'll just pass on attending a con even though it would be a lot of fun.

Then Christine noticed Patrick Stewart would be appearing at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater with Megacon's blessings.

Say,  I thought, that'd be a little different. Figured we'd never get tickets.

I didn't realize quite how big a Patrick Stewart fan Christine still is. When the second hand clicked past 11:59 a.m. on the day tickets went on sale, she was dialing the box office. Calls before noon would not be honored.

She got an all circuits are busy tone.

She redialed and got it again.

She dialed again and got that Close Encounters of the Third Kind-sounding tone that says the number you're calling is in an alternate universe.

She dialed again and it started ringing.

She got cut off before there was an answer.

Not gonna happen, I figured.

She kept dialing. I went back to reading student writing assignments.

Again, again, again with the re-dial. Then she got an answering machine and left a message.

"Guess we don't get anything," she said, walking back into the den, dejectedly.

"Shouldn't get our hopes up," she said.

We began to get back to the daily routine.

Then the phone rang. Christine took the call and I listened to garbled speech in the next room for a while. Figured it was the "So sorry, we can't accommodate you" call

Until she came bounding into the room, jumped up and down about as many times as she'd hit redial and told me we had front row seats. Wow.

Proved to be a fun evening. The house was packed. Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis slipped in, and Sir Patrick answered questions and discussed his career in The Royal Shakespeare Company, his realized dream of playing Othello as a white mercenary and what a hottie Helen Mirren was in the Royal Shakespeare days. He also discussed his biggest stage mistake, which he made twice in same-day performances of King Lear.

We got a mention of David Suchet, who Christine idolizes as much as Sir Patrick for his portrayal of Poirot, and some tales of X-Men, TNG and working with Ian McKellan.

It was worth the effort and it was a great introduction to Orlando Shakespeare. I  hope to go back, especially for their planned performance of Dracula.

Veronica Mars Attacks

It was probably my tweet of the link last night that helped put the Veronica Mars movie over the top in its Kickstarter campaign.

Personally, I'd love to see a Veronica Mars movie. kickstarter.com/projects/55991…
— Sidney_Williams (@Sidney_Williams) March 13, 2013

But seriously, The Hollywood Reporter has, well, reported that the effort met it's goal of raising $2 million in less than a day.

I've always been hopeful that the rumored movie would get off the ground, because I was a big fan of the series, created by Rob Thomas. He's clearly a fan of the private eye genre and the mystery genre in general.

Veronica, played by Kristen Bell, was a teen private eye more in the mold of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe than Nancy Drew. Elements of Agatha Christie crept into stories as well.

I got some eye rolls recently from students as I tried to convince them of the show's quality. I guess I felt a little vindicated reading this morning's headline. It's always fun to see a fresh take on noir and private eyes.

Guess we'll see how the film turns out in a year or so.

Silent Night, Bloody Night - Seminal Slasher Fluid

The Trailer

 

A prototype
If you look in the right places, you find footnotes which observe Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972) seems to be the earliest incarnation of the slasher film as we know it today.

There are other influences, to be certain, dating back to the Grand Guignol, but take a gander at the flick, and you'll see it certainly looks like the cookie cutter that shaped many films to follow.

Penned in part by Jeffrey Konvitz who'd go on to write the post-Exorcist demonic thriller The Sentinel,  the film seems to be on the crest of a cultural wave. Unlike other films that quickly followed, including Black Christmas (1974), it's about adults and not teens, but otherwise the familiar ingredients are present.

Since it wasn't released until 1974 and probably not widely seen in its day, it's fun to speculate on whether  it was directly influential or if it just somehow detected the same cultural elements and tributaries from earlier cinema that flowed forward to films like Halloween. Watch before the spoilers begin below.

Our Feature Presentation 

Overview
Not only does the film feature a host of slasher tropes. It revolves around the horror staple, an old dark house, Butler House, to be precise.

It's around 1970 as the story opens,  but we learn Wilfred Butler apparently flamed out on the doorstep 20 years earlier. That's from narrator and cult film favorite Mary Woronov as Diane Adams, the mayor's daughter, who's looking back on more recent carnage.

That was touched off, she recalls, with the escape of a mental patient who pounds through scenes with POV shots and heavy breathing reminiscent of Jason's shssss, shssss, shssss approach in Friday the 13th.

The escape coincides with the arrival of above-the-title star Partick O'Neil as the lawyer for Wilfred Butler's grandson, Jeffrey (James Patterson. No not that James Patterson.)

Jeff's finally willing to sell Butler House at the fire sale 1970 price of $50,000. The town fathers including a mute John Carradine, all of whom arrived in town during the Depression, are happy to buy with designs on tearing the place down. Who wants an old dark house around dragging down everyone's mood?

Before the papers can be signed on Christmas Eve, fitting the holiday trope into the mix, the adulterous O'Neil and his supermodel girlfriend, Astrid Heeren, are axed in the flick's bloodiest on-screen deaths, just like scores of promiscuous teens to follow in later films. There's even a scene of a Bible and crucifix being placed near the bodies to add symbolic weight.

It's also reminiscent at once of seeming protagonist Detective Arbogast's death on the stairs in Psycho and future surprise deaths of name stars doing day work.

Then founding fathers, and one mother, start to die soon while Jeff meets and seeks the help of Diane.

After they drive around in the cold and the dark a while, a lost diary, severed hands, strange  phone calls and more tropes follow until Jeff finally reaches Butler House and begins to read Wilfred's rambling account of what happened to his daughter and Jeff's mother.

There's family baggage to say the least, and a wonderfully creepy sepia flashback with bleeding blackshadows explains all on the way to the conclusion that makes Diane a prototype Final Girl years before Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode out-lasted less studious classmates.

There are moments that stretch credulity and others that might have had more explanation in the script, but  the overall effect is a bit grim, delightfully shudder-inducing and better than you'd expect.

Since the film got mostly drive-in release before building a cult following on VHS, it's a bit appropriate to watch it as a grainy and scratchy old theatrical print and get in-the-moment of forty years ago and contemplate a subgenre's course. It's also fun to contemplate what's going to happen at the end when the bulldozer collides with the thick, underpinning building blocks O'Neil's character alluded to shortly before his demise.

And again with higher definition
I suppose it's  appropriate that like every other '70s and early-'80s slasher, this one's getting a remake. Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming looks fairly faithful, though it also seems to include a Santa everyone thinks is in the original  because it sounds like Silent Night, Deadly Night.

The Remake trailer

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop - More on Louisiana Thriller Midnight Eyes and Five Bloggers to View

Hello, all. Welcome back to the blog hop. I hope you'll take time to visit the five bloggers linked below, following the Q&A. Thanks to Roland Mann for tagging me.

1: What is the title of your book? 

It's Midnight Eyes.

Originally, it was Dark Eyes, but I published a story by that name focusing on totally different subject matter  by another author in my podcast. The title was perfect for that short story, so I thought something different might be in order for my tale.

2: Where did the idea come from for the book? 

I find there's not one single idea for a book but actually a series of ideas. It's inspired loosely by one true story and fueled by facts about a rare psychological disorder. It also draws on my experiences working as a newspaper reporter and often covering the police beat.

3: What genre does your book come under? 

Thriller with horror elements or serial killer thriller, though it's got some mystery elements. It's Seven territory, I suppose.

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? 

Oh, wow. I've been trying to convince some producers it would make a great film, especially since it's set in Louisiana where there are nice economic incentives for production companies.

I'm not a casting expert but maybe Ryan Gossling for my criminologist Wayland Hood. There's a good role for an older actor as the hero's sheriff father. Could Kurt Russell be Ryan Gossling's dad?

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? 

When a series of brutal murders plague his Louisiana jurisdiction, Sheriff Ty Hood has to turn to the last person he wants for help, his ex-FBI agent son.

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency? 

I was reped by an agent once who was more devoted to romance. It was published by Crossroad Press. It's a very active independent with titles by Clive Barker, Jack Ketchum, Tom Piccirilli and many more. First Crossroad brought out my previously published books, and then this one. I wrote it as part of what was supposed to be a segue from horror to thriller once upon a time, but it missed one wave or another in the markets.  I put it away, but this seemed like a good time to rewrite it and bring it forward.

 7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? 

Probably six or eight months. The rewrite took four to six.

 8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? 

Well, I hate to compare, though I just did it above, didn't I? It's in the Silence of the Lambs mold. It's not as dark as I Was Dora Suarez, but it moves into some grim territory. There's, I think, an interesting action sequence at the end. That came about because I was working as a reference librarian at the time I was first writing it. A man came in for information on a topic, and as I read about it, I thought: this would make a great ending for a book.

 9: Who or what inspired you to write this book? 

It came on the heels of my newspaper experience, and there's a lot of that in the book. I lived and observed a lot covering the crime beat. This is all of that, how cops work, how cops and reporters clash, how editors drive reporters. There's a lot wrong with the media today, but a lot of people have the wrong conception about reporters. No one's perfect in this story, and the focus is more on the cops, but there's a taste of cop and media clashes, and a taste of how cooperation can work.

 10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? 

It's a mystery and a thriller, so there's a plot that has some questions in the mix. One positive reviewer gave me a lecture on the mystery side of the coin, but I like the way the story hangs together.

Now jump to some more authors with interesting books to discuss. 

Alphabetical by first name:

Avery Debow
Charles Gramlich
Dave Jeffrey
M.F. Korn
Wayne Allen Sallee

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

If you're dropping by my blog for the first time today, welcome. You probably were led to my dark little corner of the web by Roland Man and The Next Big Thing Blog Hop.

I’d like to thank him for tagging me to participate. Click the link below to find out about his book, Buying Time and more.

http://rolandmann.wordpress.com/

I'm a writer mostly of scary stories with some mysteries mixed in. I've written novels, short stories, comics, audio dramas and also print ads, commercials and web copy.

A recent book
My book Midnight Eyes is a thriller with mystery and horror elements, and it was recently released in an audiobook edition.

It's one of a number of books of mine old and new that are now available from Crossroad Press. I'll talk more about it in a post next week.

I've also written young adult horror under the name Michael August, and one of  those titles, New Year's Evil, was optioned recently by a big Hollywood producer whose credits include the series Tales From the Dark Side.

I don't know yet if that's going to be turned into a TV-movie as hoped. I'm led to understand heartache is frequent in Hollywood, but it at least opened the door to a few more conversations for me with Hollywood folks, and as a result I'm finishing up a screenplay based on a short story of mine that originally appeared in Cemetery Dance magazine. We'll see how that goes.

I hope you'll drop back by next week for my Q&A and a list of more cool blogs to visit.

Biblioholic's Book Shelf - A Challenging Book, The Man With Three Eyes

Ran across this while browsing a little bookshop this afternoon. It's a 1955 UK edition that seems to be part of The  Challenge Series For Boys and Girls from The Children's Press of London and Glasgow.

This is one of the original titles the series apparently mixed in with reprints of classics such as The Swiss Family Robinson.

The book style resembles Western Publishing editions from the U.S., though it's slightly smaller in size than those.

I paid $5 for it.  

What's on the iPod? - 14 By Peter Clines

To say too much about this intriguing and Stoker-nominated novel would deprive readers or listeners of  a great deal of pleasure. It's a tale of discovery, and  it's really about the journey as much as about where it's going.

The protagonist, Nate Tucker, a data entry clerk, moves in to an impressively low-rent Los Angeles apartment. It's too good to be true of course. Even before he moves in, he is told there's something a little off about the building.

That becomes apparent when he learns there are mutant roaches in his kitchen as well as a high-end black light that picks up things that can't be seen by the naked eye.

Mysterious markings under the paint, the truth about Apartment 14 all hint at a strange and dark purpose, but why is it rented out at all?

Nate and a small band of fellow tenants set out to find answers, and soon it's an obsession.

A large portion of the book is about connecting the dots and defying the building manager, who's apparently a stooge for the keepers of the Kavach building, where no two apartments are alike, and there's something in the walls.

With a tantalizing setup, it's easy for a story to disappoint, but Clines weaves in great clues as the story builds to a nail-biting climax that generally proves satisfying.

This actually represents a great updated example of an identified strand of horror literature, but I won't say way kind of __-ian fiction it is. Just trust me, it's a blast.

Louisiana Thriller Midnight Eyes - Audiobook Now Available

I was pleased to learn this week that the audiobook for my Louisiana-based thriller Midnight Eyes is now available.

It's narrated by A.C. Fellner, and you can get a great sample listen via the Amazon listing.

If you're not an Audible subscriber, you could actually get it free with their 30-day-trial offer, which you already know about if you've ever listened to a podcast.

 This book began as a dream I had once upon a time. In the dream, I imagined an FBI profiler walking down a hillside in his hometown to view a brutal crime scene. It was actually a nightmare I guess.

Somehow, in that dream, I knew that Wayland Hood was the son of the local sheriff, that he was an expert on serial killers and that the killings were some of the worst anyone involved had ever seen.

I tried to write it not long after that, but things didn't come together.

A few years later, after working a while as a reporter, covering crime scenes, talking to cops and watching how cops and reporters interacted, the dream came back to me.

The nucleus of a couple of real murder cases began to converge, and Wayland became a former FBI agent called back into service to help his estranged father.

The dream re-emerged. Investigators converged at a crime scene on the banks of the Red River, and Wayland walked down that hill to help out.

Also available on iTunes.

An eerie vibe - The East - Official Trailer

I get a pleasantly eerie vibe from this trailer for The East, a new thriller with Alexander Skarsgard.

I think it kind of suggests there's always a way to find a fresh take on a genre. The plot involves an undercover operative falling for the leader of an eco-terrorist group.

We've seen that plotline before, of course. Betrayed with Debra Winger comes to mind. But harnessing our familiarity with the activities of Anonymous and other elements of our current moment, it looks new, tense and exciting.

Definitely on my "To See" list.

Pause and Play: Watching V/H/S/

V/H/S is on a lot of 2012 Best Horror lists, but I perceive about as many people dislike its shaky handheld collection of tales as enjoy it. I've wanted to see it since the buzz developed, but I didn't catch it at the local indy theater.

I had to wait for its Netflix watch-instantly debut, a factor that has to be considered. There is no universal movie-viewing experience these days. There are too many  ways to view a movie, and so, your results may vary.

I wound up watching on my Kindle over a couple of nights.

Tablet viewing in chapter form of handheld storytelling may be the best way to experience what's supposed to be less than ideal amateur photography.

Late-night, in the dark tablet viewing of low budget horror fare may also be ideal.

With all of those qualifications, know that I liked V/H/S quite a bit. Its two-hour length wasn't a factor. The fact that it didn't offer Cinemascope landscapes was irrelevant.

I found chilling moments and interesting horrific ideas.

My favorite tale is "Amateur Night" in which a group of fraternity thugs set out to record their sexual conquests with hidden-camera glasses. Things don't work out as planned, of course. I won't reveal too much, but it's an interesting variation on the type-of-story-I-won't-name.

My second favorite is "10/31/98." Let's just say spoiler warning here, because I want to note it's a new take on "The Howling Man." Instead of a weary hiker on a walking tour who encounters strange monks, it's a group of fraternity thugs decked out in Halloween costumes who encounter amateur exorcists in a house where there's supposed to be a costume party. As things start to go horribly wrong, all hell breaks loose, and it's visually cool. As cool as "The Howling Man" transformation? Maybe not quite, but still, pretty cool. The hills may have eyes, but the freakin' walls have arms.

Speaking of fresh takes, I think "Tuesday the 17th" comes as close to doing something fresh with the slasher subgenre as anything could hope to. It's an interesting blend of video format and slasher template, and it's pretty eerie. It ain't Jason in those woods.

While those are my faves, I also liked the eeriness of "Second Honeymoon" and "The Sick Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Younger" has a cool title and some decent jump scares.

Perfect, nah, but interesting and, for me, it had its chills.