An Interview about Blood Hunter and Gnelfs

Sonya Clark was kind enough to offer me an opportunity to discuss the e-book release of Blood Hunter and Gnelfs recently.

The interview is now posted on her site.

Sonya is the author of a fantasy novella called Bring on the Night that's now available as an e-book.

I really enjoyed recalling the origins of both novels and talking about writing even a little about my reporting days.

Drop by and see it if you can.

I Was Dora Suarez: Poignant, Brutal Thriller

Books on cult fiction and many reviews warn about the late Derek Raymond's I Was Dora Suarez, an entry in his Factory series of police procedurals. They seek to alert readers to scenes and references not for the faint of heart nor weak of stomach.

The novel includes all of the shocking references that get spotlighted including the possibly mythical felching, but they're milder than reviews would lead you to believe, and they are there either in character or serve to represent the profane, brutal world in which the unnamed narrator, a police detective sergeant, and the unfortunate Dora Suarez reside.

Raymond strives to find beauty in darkness and decay and paints the backdrop in willfully extreme tones.

Narrator hero and victim
The narrator's tough, just back to police work after what amounts to a suspension, and is prone to violence. He's satisfied with his rank and has no desire for advancement, but the discovery of the book's brutal opening deaths sets him an investigation that will rattle him like no other.

In an almost third-person narrative, that opening describes the dual murder of Dora Suarez and her unfortunate landlady who is thrown through a massive clock.  

Soon the detective is uncovering layers to Dora's life, and a look into her diary makes him understand her soul even as he delves into those darkest corners to which she was exposed.

Deep fascination
His fascination with Dora and her freshly washed hair at the time of her discovery is deepened by his exploration of her thoughts and dreams. Dora is damaged, but her spirit is unquestionably human.

Discoveries drive obsession as the detective and a partner intensify their search for her murderer.

The book drags in a few passages, but those are easily surpassed, and the ending, as the detective closes in on the hideously monstrous culprit provide an intense payoff both on a genre entertainment level and emotionally.

I Was Dora Suarez may not be for those tender-hearted souls who can't take tough fiction, but for those who can face a dark tale with a heart and soul, it's an interesting excursion.

I understand other entries in the Factory series eschew procedural conventions in interesting ways, and so I'm looking forward to sampling more Raymond, as I continue a quest for reading that straddles the literary and genre universes.

Guest Blogging on The Road

I'm literally guest blogging on The Road today. It's a brief meditation on Cormac McCarthy's subtle use of horror in the novel.

Check it out over at Elder Signs Press.

What's On the iPod/iPhone?: Big Finish's (Sherlock) Holmes and the Ripper

I was pleasantly surprised recently to discover:

a.) The Big Finish Podcast 

b.) That Big Finish is doing Sherlock Holmes stories

c.) You can now download from the Big Finish website

d.) Downloads are less expensive than CDs

I've been under a rock two years, so I'm still catching up on a lot of things.

 Of course when I gained all this knowledge, starting with the podcast, a natural choice for a birthday gift request was "Holmes and the Ripper," an installment based on a stage play by Brian Clemens of The Avengers fame and scores of other TV shows and movies.

The story's core stems from the conspiracy theorized in Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution by Stephen Knight, so it bears similarities to From Hell, the Jack the Ripper miniseries and the earlier Holmes flick Murder By Decree. Chronologically, release-wise, the play falls it the middle. It pre-dates From Hell and the graphic novel on which it's based but followed 1979's Decree by about nine years.

I suppose the conspiracy is too delicious dramatically to be abandoned, even though it's widely discredited.

Familiarity with the source material doesn't minimize the enjoyment of the production, because it's gloriously and freshly executed with a full cast, incredible music and a music suite track that's a dark mind ride unto itself.

Nicholas Briggs is wonderful as  Holmes, pining over Irene Adler--The Woman--yet  up to the challenge of conspirators and mystics in pursuit of the truth behind the Whitechapel killings. Interesting use is made of Scotland Yard Commissioner Robert Anderson, who, I believe, gets a lot of examination in Ripperology.

"Holmes and the Ripper" manages action, chills and excitement, sparking the imagination with its brilliant mixture of sounds and pauses. It's a great starting point for the Big Finish universe.

A note on the download - The download is not like an Audible or iTunes audiobook. You receive the CD tracks in a zip file, which means importing to iTunes and making a playlist. It's relatively painless.

The Red Tree - A Study In Quiet Horror

Now and then a novel comes along that's so subtly eerie it generates fear that seems to affect your central nervous system. The Haunting of Hill House is that way, as are some of the novels of Charles L. Grant.

To me, The Red Tree achieves similar results, with its sense of unease and its gradual, ambiguous journey into the supernatural. It's a true don't-read-this-too-late-at-night experience.

As I followed Sarah Crowe, the protagonist and chief narrator, through her strange experiences, the little creaks and groans of my house, and the sounds of insects or pine needles thumping the window made me look twice or turn on an extra light.

It's the kind of terror that's hard to achieve, but The Red Tree author Caitlin R. Kiernan does it so well Crowe's journal seems like the real chronicle of experiences--both mundane and incredible--hammered out on a battered manual typewriter.

Crowe, we learn early, is from a small Alabama town, but she's more recently lived in Atlanta and achieved a degree of  literary success . The death of her lover, Amanda, has driven her to an ancient house in Rhode Island. There, in the basement, she finds not just that old typewriter but also a manuscript by the house's former resident, a suicide.

While she's supposed to be writing a contracted novel, Crowe begins to delve into the abandoned manuscript and to peruse the red oak on her rental property, subject of the dead author's narrative which explores the tree's myth and twisty tales of New England legend. The tree, for hundreds of years, has exerted a strange influence, and the interspersed passages from the abandoned manuscript add wonderful eeriness.

Rustin Parr's been here
The tree is tied to bizarre ritual killings, strange disappearances and stories of shape shifting, all of which enthrall Crowe even as she begins a troubled affair with the house's new upstairs tenant, a beautiful young artist fleeing her own troubles in Los Angeles.

As strange experiences for both of them escalate, lines between the strange and the surreal blur and Crowe slowly reveals the truths behind her flight from the South, and questions about whether or not she's a reliable narrator build.

Don't come to the book expecting visceral, brutal horror. Come expecting soft chills that become shudders and eventually rattle and shake you. It's whispering horror with one of the best explorations of writer's block I've read since The Lime Works.

Also available in a Kindle Edition

Teaser For Dennis - Monster Film Short

Dennis is a new monster film short written by Phil Duncan and directed by Kyle Aldrich. They're a couple of my MFA classmates.

The official teaser is now live, and you can get a taste of the style and, uh,  flavor. It really is a masterful script, clever and with a lot of depth.


The Official Dennis Teaser from Phil Duncan on Vimeo.

You can "Like" the offiical Dennis page on Facebook for more information, updates on release dates etc.

A lesson in self promotion

I hate self promotion.

I'm a shy, retiring and modest type, so I don't like having to proclaim my own virtues, but for the new e-book editions of my novels, such as Blood Hunter and the upcoming Gnelfs, I'm mustering my courage and tenacity and doing interviews and what I can to get the word out.

It's pretty much a necessity. I've noticed about a million books out there. Most are written by James Patterson, but not all, so you've kinda gotta wave your arms and shout.

All of this is making me recall a lesson in self promotion I got at the opening session of a science fiction convention a few years ago.

John Steakley, author of Vampire$ was there. Maybe he was toastmaster, I don't recall precisely. But a microphone was handy, and The Scary Book graphic novel was just out at the time, so that's what got a mention when I was introduced.

"What was the name of that again?" Steakley asked, picking up a mic.

"The Scary Book," I answered when he tipped the mic toward me.

"The Scary Book, you say?"

"That's right."

"I don't think they heard you in the back. What was it? The Scary Book?"

"Yes, The Scary Book."

I was probably a little red by then.

"OK, The Scary Book."

He enlisted someone else to say the title, and this went on for a while. When it all wound down, and the mic was no longer in front of us, Steakley leaned in and said: "That's what you gotta do. Just keep mentioning your title."

So if you pass me somewhere in the various corners of the web, and I'm mentioning Blood Hunter, or the upcoming e-edition of Gnelfs, you'll know that's what I'm up to.

For those of you who don't own Kindles, by the way, Blood Hunter is available in .pdf and other handy formats on the publisher's website. That's Crossroad Press. Just click here.

And if you're a writer, remember Mr. Steakley's advice, because in most fan circles if you mention Armor or Vampire$, they know who you're talking about.

A brief interview with me

A brief interview with me is up on Kip Poe's blog. It's a discussion on writing habits.

You can check it out here.

Kip has a book of short horror fiction called Closing My Eyes Helps Me See Clearly that's available as an e-book.

Gordon Lightfoot Gold

A few weeks ago Christine thumbed  the newspaper and noticed Gordon Lightfoot's tour was swinging into our region. We've checked his schedule occasionally since we're both fans, but there'd never been a convenient date and location.  

Until now. He was making a stop in Hot Springs, AR. 

My parents honeymooned in Hot Springs, back in the first great age of car trip vacations, and it was an occasional stop years later when I came along, and we hit tourist venues across the Southeast. (In Biloxi, MS,  you used to be able to buy a conch shell with a Last Supper miniature inside.) 

Christine and I took a long weekend in Hot Springs 15 years ago,  but we actually live a little closer now, with access to a route that doesn't zig-zag quite as much like the trip from Central Louisiana up through Central Arkansas.

So, we juggled work schedules and bought tickets and were in the audience Monday night when Gordon walked on stage in a red velvet jacket.

It brought a flood of memories. Gord's gold was on the radio the first summer I really began to listen to music and could recite the Top 40 from memory as played on K Dixie radio.

"Sundown" and "Carefree Highway" were the soundtrack for that summer punctuated by mowing lawns and installing black light in my bedroom.  

The troubadour's voice isn't quite as strong as it was in the seventies, but it was still a thrill to see him live, and to travel through his repertoire from "Don Quixote" to the more recent "A Painter Passing Through." 

Tunes from "East of Midnight" took me back to a late night eighties drive, heading home from a visit to my cousin in Monroe, LA.

Mid-set, when he did a "Sundown" rendition that had Bic lighters ignited, I was back under the AC in my parent's house, watching my black light gleam off the abstract poster I'd crafted on aluminum foil with fluorescent crayons I'd scored at a five and dime called Wacker's.

The baritone was as it used to be for "Sundown" and "Carefree Highway." " They sounded like they did on the album," and "Edmund Fitzgerald" brought a tear like it always does. 

Then there was a moment, as he strummed his 12-string, completely immersed in his music, delivering magic, that made now and then one.

It was 1974, and 1985 and 1998, and  "the thing that I call livin' is just bein' satisfied."

It was quite a night.

Ouroboros - A New Book That Intrigues Me

They really had me at "small coastal town," when the announcement from Dark Regions press hit my in-box.

Ouroboros, co-written by Michael Kelly and Carol Weekes, is coming out in trade paper soon, and it's going on my wish list.  

It's set in said small coastal town, and revolves around  "an ancient force" that  "stirs, drawn by the cumulative power of life and death, grief and sorrow, and ultimately, endless love."

Coastal towns, those post-card-familiar places, have always seemed perfect for tales of fright. Maybe it's because one of the first scary stories that captured my imagination was "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," title story in a Scholastic book club collection, though Captain Company in the back of Famous Monsters of Filmland had teased me with H.P. Lovecraft
titles for some time before that.


It was OK with my parents to order from TAB, The Teen Age Book Club, if not from Famous Monsters back pages.

Dark Regions reports Ouroboros  is the tale of Tom Christiansen whose wife of 35-yearshas passed away. As he grieves, the lines blur between real and unreal, and a strange, pale girl shows up in his back yard.

Sounds like a perfect autumn read, so maybe I'll get it for my birthday

A Writing Prompt Idea

When I did a creative writing teaching practicum last fall, I was always in search of writing prompts. I pulled story starters from writing textbooks and magazines, and I looked around for other ideas to stimulate creativity and imagination. I didn’t have a room full of speculative fiction writers, but one of my more successful prompts involved a surreal painting.

In the middle of one class, I sprung the picture on them and gave them a half hour to create a story. Character studies and other imaginative efforts developed from the image of a woman adjusting a seascape from which real water spilled onto her hardwood floor.

Now that I’m out of school and assimilating into a more normal existence, I’m gradually finding the strength to think about writing new things. With that in mind, I found a way, sort of, to duplicate the prompt exercise for myself.

I’m harnessing settings on my laptop, though I guess  technology’s not really required. 

My computer allows for the cycling of desktop wallpaper, so that’s easiest for me. With scores of great wallpaper sites just a Google search away, I’ve snagged a number of images randomly and stored them.

With my wallpaper set for a 15 minute refresh, whenever I’m weary of editing or stuck, I can minimize and see what’s waiting behind Word. I’ve got one shot of a girl with blue lips and crumbling features that gives me a jolt every time she's there.

We’ll see what comes of it, but so far it's been a nice way of self-inspiring in what’s a pretty solitary game. Writing, above all, is a game with the self, one of motivation and energy.

The qualifier
I think it’s important to use imagery only as springboard and not just to interpret or imitate the visual artist’s work, but letting pictures raise questions as cornerstones seems interesting and promising for getting unstuck if not for generating a full blown story or narrative.

The idea is to force synapses to connect in new ways.

I’d say it’s not limited to surreal images, though I like their effect.

Nature scenes, old photographs for steampunk inspiration and anything you might find on a Google image search could prove useful.

It doesn't have to be a surprise on the desktop if your computer doesn't have the random feature, though a screensaver slide show that kicks in when you're idle might me a good idea. Otherwise it just needs to be something slightly unexpected so you're not anticipating.

Save several images in a folder and click one. Print several and select from a bag or envelope and see where things go. Or just shuffle the stack.

It might even make for an interesting exercise to get started each day, just to get the electrical pulses inpopping.

A few sites:

• Wallpaper Abyss
• Deviant Art
• Dark Art from Smashing Magazine
• Mike Bonnell

Pulp Abounds - New Pulp Fiction

A press release from a friend of a friend announces the release of a new pulp-style thriller with a  little bit o' Lovecraft, The Green Lama - Unbound by Adam Lance Garcia.

The synopsis provided reads:

"When Jethro Dumont’s friend, Jean Farrell, disappears on the small Greek island of Samothrace, he and associates fly off to rescue her.   Upon their arrival, they discover the forces of evil have gathered in this out of the way place in search of the Jade Tablet and the unholy grimoire known as the Necronomicon.  It is the book of rituals that will allow the Nazis and their allies to call forth the Great Old Ones, led by the demon god, Cthulhu. 

Now it is up to the Master of the Mystic Arts, the Green Lama, to uncover the mysteries of those ancient rites and thwart the powers of chaos.  But before he can do so, he will have to use all the unique skills at his command at the same time rely on the bravery and loyalty of his friends.  THE GREEN LAMA – UNBOUND  is a non-stop pulp thriller that explores the Green Lama’s past, detailing for the very first time elements of his origin never made known before."

Looks like fun for readers who enjoy the high energy style of Doc Savage and The Shadow plus the Cthulhu mythos, and it's part of a larger line of books from the specialty press Cornerstone, all with similar slam-bang themes. 

Interestingly, they seem to be utilizing the Lulu print-on-demand service for publishing and distribution. 

This new era keeps expanding in interesting ways. I've run across some small press magazines utilizing Lulu, but this the first instance I've seen of an established publisher harnessing it, though I'm sure there are others.

The Return of Blood Hunter

Blood Hunter e-edition

Just a few thoughts as a new edition of my third novel rolls out.

Almost every writer with a slightly darker tone has probably read Stephen King's Danse Macabre. I did, even before I turned from a desire to mimic Ross MacDonald and Raymond Chandler.

It was certainly in the back of my mind when I settled down to write Blood Hunter. In DM, King categorizes monster archetypes, and shape shifters get a good deal of attention.

Blood Hunter is my werewolf novel, after a fashion. Or it's my shape shifter novel.

It incorporates European legends of the werewolf into its internal mythology. Though the monsters in the story aren't wolves, they do reflect the beast within.

Blood Hunter then.

It seemed like appropriate territory coming on the heels of my vampire novel, Night Brothers, and it melds a few threads of mystery and thriller fiction.

I don't know that I set out to do that consciously as much as it reflected the kinds of things I liked as a young reader. Chandler, Ludlum, King, Koontz.

I wrote purely from intuition and instinctively in those days, driven by those books I'd read and enjoyed and fueled also by a feeling that the world was losing a sense of mercy and compassion. I tried to weave that notion into the tale.

I don't want to sound lofty, however. Blood Hunter was written as entertainment first, and I strived for action, twists and shocks.

Splatterpunk was on everyone's lips in those days, pushing things to extremes, so I wasn't given to restraint.

The New Version and Secret Origins
In the foreword to the new ebook version, I note the story started as a screenplay. When I was a young reporter--I wrote late at night, casting about for the stories I wanted to tell and the medium as well.

For a while I tried screenplays, and an early one was called Ghouls. This was before Edward Lee's Ghouls, which led me to submit to Pinnacle Books.

In my screenplay, a reporter and photographer had an automobile break down near a strange sugar plantation. They sought shelter at the plantation's main house where a grim father and his sheltered daughter resided. Awaiting help, the journalists got to know the daughter better and began to uncover the dark secrets her father concealed. People got eaten by monsters too.

I expanded the story a little after talking with my editor of the day, setting up an investigation and shifting genders and motivations a little for the main characters.

Re-editing the text for the new edition from Crossroad Press after almost 20 years afforded about as cold a reading as is possible. It was kind of fun to get reacquainted with the imagination of my youth.

Then and now
Is Blood Hunter the book I'd write today? Not quite, but when I received the electronic manuscript, I tweaked mostly the prose of a young man hunched feverishly over a Commodore 64, striving to tell a fast paced tale and meet a deadline.

Crossroad Press publisher David Niall Wilson and I talked about possibly giving the book a new title, returning to one of the suggestions the original publisher passed over or coming up with something new. Spirit of the Beast came to mind.

But I decided no.  Let it stand. And let the characters run.

Monsters are in those woods on the wonderful and moody new cover by David Dodd.

I'm Younger Than That Now

Roland Man sent me the link to this video, and Christopher Mills--who's in it too--posted it on his blog as well, but in case you haven't seen it, check it out. It's from Coast Con in Biloxi back in the day.

CoastCon was a busy spot for Southern fandom, and dropping in was always a blast.

I'm interviewed at about 4:02 or so, and they did a great shot of my book Blood Hunter.

I can remember the guys setting up the shot and doing the interview, but I'd never seen it until yesterday. It aired after I left town. I think I still look about the same, right?

Netflix Noir

With cable/satellite channels increasingly becoming an interchangeable array of pointless reality programming, Netflix is increasingly my refuge when I find sofa time. Wait five minutes, and some films below might become unavailable, but as I write this, Netflix "Watch Instantly" has an array of film noir classics available for streaming.

Laura: One of my favorites, a true mystery with clever plot twists, based on a novel by Vera Caspary. Dana Andrews, who'd later cope with dark runes in the horror classic Night of the Demon, is the detective hero looking into the murder of the title character played by Gene Tierney. An also pre-horror Vincent Price rounds out the cast.

Experiment in Terror: A late-era noir and FBI procedural based on the novel by The Gordons, who also penned That Darn Cat. It's directed by Blake Edwards. Glen Ford is The Gordons' recurring Agent Rip Ripley, out to help bank teller Lee Remick thwart a psycho's push to force her help in embezzlement.

Elevator to the Gallows: French noir from Louis Malle, this is James M. Cain, Jim Thompson-style crime drama with the focus on scheming lovers and the slow unraveling of their perfect murder.

Gilda: Source of the iconic, Rita Hayworth hair-tossing moment, this is grand-style thriller with a young Glen Ford looking like Jake Gyllenhaal. Set in South America the tale revolves around double crosses in a casino and around a tungston mine.

The Dark Corner: Lucy before she was loved is secretary to a wrongly accused private eye. They have to solve a murder together before they can move on with their lives.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers: Van Heflin's the good guy. Barbara Stanwick's the femme fatale, and Kirk Douglas is a crooked D.A. When Heflin returns to the town, his potential knowledge of a years-old crime stirs trouble and complicates his romance with good-girl-with-a-criminal record Lizabeth Scott.

I Wake Up Screaming: Worthy for the camera work alone, Victor Mature and Betty Grable cope with a tough cop and a bum rap.

For the rental que: Detour, signature noir unfortunately requiring a disk from Netflix though free on archive.org. Directed by The Black Cat's brilliant Edward G. Ulmer on a real shoe string, this stars Tom Neal as a traveller with a sad tale of a dark encounter with misunderstanding and an exploitive blackmailer.

Breaking Radio Silence From Down in the Hole

I received an e-mail yesterday from my master's program. How would I like my name to appear on my diploma?

And the angels sang.

Seems like a good time to break radio silence, or blog lethargy.

A few things could still go wrong, but I think that's a guide with a candle at the end of the tunnel and not the express train.

A few other things are looking positive also, so while life's never perfect, it's nice to lean back for a moment this weekend and draw a deep breath, even as beyond all the times insist on being interesting.

I wish I could find the exact quote, but Alexander Solschenizyn once wrote of looking at apple trees after a rain.

As long as there are moments like that, he noted, it's possible to go on and persevere a little longer.

Amen.

Blogosphering

OK, I'm kinda back. Stewart Sternberg, whose The Ravening everyone should already have on pre-order, gigged me a bit a while back about repurposing Twitter tweets, but I've been a little swamped of late, and I did want to preserve some of those thoughts.

Hopefully I'll be back to the blogosphere full steam soon and fresh with ideas and energy. I've just been busy with school, work, and well that's about it, but that's been plenty.

For those of you who still have me in your RSS feed, let me get a few things on record on things nerd. I've managed to keep up with a few things in spite of the swamping.

Iron Man 2: liked it but the critics aren't really 100 percent wrong.

V: Like it, glad it survived, sorry it had to be between it and FlashForward which I liked marginally better.

Lost: Looking forward to the finale. Is The Source the same thing that's in the suitcase in Pulp Fiction or that box Mike Hammer had in Kiss Me Deadly?

Inception: Looks interesting and I like Christopher Nolan.

Reading: The Outside Man by Richard North Patterson.

Next Up: I Was Dora Suarez by Derek Raymond. Wish me well.

Miss Daisy is hanging in.

A Few of My Favorite Tweets

Before they're lost, I thought I'd save for posterity--or the life of blogspot--a few of the tweets that have erupted from my brain over the past few weeks:

My body's vertical, but my brain's still horizontal.

If John Krasinski is cast as Captain America, I'm trying to imagine him rolling his eyes in response to Nick Fury.

When did reconciliation become so divisive?

What is the deal with Facebook's news feed? I just wished happy travels to somebody who's back already.

I'm pretty sure the coyote I'm looking at isn't as scared of me as I am of him.

Die unneeded sentences. Die!

The one rule that's really set in concrete at our house is "No Brando Impressions."

Spartacus: Blood and Sand = Original Spartacus + Red Shoe Diaries x 300.

Apple is introducing a new device for activists. It's called the iMad.

I'm having a nosebleed. I may be unstuck in time. How'd they fix that on Lost?

Passive sentences do vex me.

Not 'aints no more.

"Select theaters" usually means nowhere near you.

A lot of warnings tell you caffeine will make you more tired later, but I live in the now!

My fortune cookie today read: "A peaceful mind is a source of power." Good sentiment, especially today.

Keyser Söze is rumored to be using an iSlate. (Note: That's what everyone thought the iPad was going to be called when rumors were flying.)

Why do they call them car coats? I have a heater in the car. I need my coat when I get OUT of my car.

You are not in Kansas anymore. This is Pandora. Please select a song or artist to create your playlist.

You can call me Sid if you're feeling monosyllabic.

I drink so much green tea I should be invincible by now. Wait, I think I just saw a demonic monkey.

Found Art

Below is material from what may seem an esoteric exercise from my last MFA residency, but I kind of liked what came out of it. This is actually just a part of the whole process, which involved the insertion of some other text between sections.

When all of it's said and done the process winds up being a bit of a psychological exercise that mines your thoughts about your writing. It really provides insight. I was amazed.

Our assignment was to seek out signs or words in our environment then write a few lines about each. Made me notice things I was walking past, for sure.

Outside the process, as a mixture of found art and text, this is what came about:

Waiting, unseen

To be of

Waiting underfoot

Notice

Service underground

Walk this way

Give me a hand

Give me feet

Give me a heart

The way you're supposed to be going is behind you

The way your are going is ahead

Gate keepers say turn back

Something says keep going.

New Horror Podcast Episode - A tale by Martel Sardina

We have a new episode of Fear on Demand live. I guess an "at last" should be added. I was so fried after the past academic semester that I found it hard to lift a finger for most of December.

Happily, now that it's time to start writing school again, I have an episode ready and a couple of more I can launch down the road in timely publication fashion.

This episode features a tale called "The Color of My Wounds" by Martel Sardina, who has several Twilight Tales publications, making her contribution a nice fit for FOD. Wayne Sallee who is a dear friend of mine and who contributed a story to Episode 2 of FOD, is a Twilight Tales alum as well, and many other Twilight Tales contributors are friends or friends of friends.

All writers who put pen to the darker genres share a certain kinship, and more roads lead to the Chicago Mafia of horror writers than many people realize.

Anyway drop by the FOD blog or search for it on iTunes and stay tuned for some more chilling tales in the near future.

You might also want to check out David Byrd, The Blue Jeans Guy, who lent his voice to Martel.