Steve Stred's Blog, page 84

GUEST POST Revisited: How two Canadian’s made me a better writer.

(** This post originally featured on One Legged Reviews, on July 12, 2019**)

“So you’ve got a direction, but not a destination?” – Biker, One Week (2008) played by Gord Downie.

Hello. My name is Steve Stred and I am Canadian. We may already be friends or acquaintances over on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. You may just be a fan of my work as a new indie author who writes dark, bleak horror. Or heck, you may even just be a fan of my reviews over on Kendall Reviews.

No matter how we met or became friends, whether in real life or through social media, you’ll more than likely know that I am a proud Canadian. I grew up in the super small, unincorporated community of Burton, British Columbia. Approximate population – 100 people. Sometimes more, sometimes less. We were roughly thirty minutes from the town of Nakusp and three hours from Kelowna. (Google it – go ahead I’ll wait. Yeah, see how small it is? Now you zoom in – see that ball field in the middle? My childhood home is the one just to the right of it. When you zoom in as far as you can and it says Burton Main Rd – our home is just to the right of ‘Rd.’ That’s my mom’s car all blurry. She still lives there.)

I loved my childhood. I spent a lot of time by myself in the woods behind our house and really learned to utilize my imagination to create different games etc. I also loved playing sports and enjoying the outdoor offerings, which has been a big inspiration on my writing. I recently revisited my hometown while at my Grandpa’s memorial and I was struck with just how many of my stories, novels, and novellas are based on places and things from there.

But I didn’t really grow up wanting to be a writer. It was a combination of two other Canadians; Gord Downie and Andrew Pyper who gave me the confidence to pursue writing.

For those who don’t know, Gord Downie was the lead singer for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. I discovered The Tragically Hip on Much Music. The song “Ahead by a Century” from the album “Trouble in the Henhouse” blew my mind. It was Canadiana through and through and haunted my brains. To this day, when I hear this song, it sticks in my head for weeks.

The Tragically Hip – Ahead by a Century







Though this came out in 1996, I didn’t explore much more of the Hip’s music until I heard “Bobcaygeon” from the album “Phantom Power” released in 1998. The lyrics to this song are few powerful and allude to a different moments in Canadian history.

The Tragically Hip – Bobcaygeon



Then in 2008, I saw a trailer for a movie that I knew I needed to see. ‘One Week’ tells the story of a man who finds out he has terminal Cancer. So he buys a bike and heads West, across Canada. He leaves behind his job, his fiancée and family and just drives West. He’s young, doesn’t have much time left and wants to find himself, discover more about himself before he passes on.

One Week Trailer



Not only is ‘One Week’ one of my all-time favourite movies, it also inspired my short story ‘Jim’ from my collection Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery. The premise of the movie and my story – where one day you simply find out you have a terminal disease and don’t have much time left really gets to me. More so now that I have a young son, but I think it’s a frightening thing that could happen. And yes I do dwell on this frequently.

Oddly enough, there is a horrible, strange connection between ‘One Week’ and Gord Downie. You see, Mr. Downie appears in the movie as Biker Guy. Joshua Jackson, yes of Dawson’s Creek and Fringe fame, plays the main character Ben. So Ben heads West and along the way runs into everyday Canadians. One such character is Biker Guy who Ben meets at a motel. That meeting leads to this interaction;

Biker Guy: “You know they’ll approve Medicinal Marijuana for Cancer treatment.”

Ben: “Why did you bring up Cancer?”

BG: “I had an ass-load once.”

Ben: “So you got treatment?”

BG: “Actually… it went away on its own.”

Ben: “Seriously?”

BG: “Nah, I’m just shitting you man. I got treatment.”

On May 24, 2016, Gord Downie was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Brain Cancer.

Now you are asking yourself – where does Andrew Pyper fall into this equation?

Great question. Let me tell you.

I’ve been reading horror/thrillers for almost 30 years, ever since my mom’s friend, our neighbour let me borrow some of her Stephen King books. I stuck to the tried and true and mostly read King for many years.

Then, in 2015 I was in a Walmart in Abbotsford, BC and I was looking through their paperback section where they typically have 2 for $15. I’ve told this story a number of times, but it really is a in key moment both my journey as a reader but also as a writer.

In the 2 for $15 section that day, I spotted ‘The Demonologist’ by Andrew Pyper and ‘The Troop’ by Nick Cutter. I read the synopsis for both and was very intrigued. I also saw that both of them were Canadian. I went into shock. I’d been a pretty sheltered horror reader for many, many years and to see that not one but two authors from Canada had books out like this, really threw me for a loop. To see a Stephen King blurb on Nick Cutter’s book and to read that Pyper’s book was an International Bestseller was amazing to my Canadian reader’s brain.

I talked about it so much my wife finally told me to go back and just buy them, so I did. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love ‘The Troop,’ but it didn’t speak to me like ‘The Demonologist’ did.

Pyper embraced being a Canadian and actively includes Canadian locations in his books. I’d never experienced it before and it left me thrilled (and my wife a bit annoyed at how much I kept talking about it.) I grabbed Pyper’s other books ‘Lost Girls’ and ‘The Damned’ next and when I began reading ‘Lost Girls’ and it was set in Northern Ontario I could have cried. I’d finally found my author.

As I started my writing journey, I knew that it was ok for me to base my stories around my childhood haunt in Burton. I try not to ever use specific locations as I like to leave some ambiguity as well as to allow the reader to use their imagination and place the location somewhere they’ve been, but all of my releases have been based on real places, real locations in and around Burton. I have a few upcoming releases that aren’t, but for the most part – anything wilderness related I’ve released – Burton.

By Andrew Pyper showing that it was ok to embrace Canadiana and use real Canadian locations I was able to write how I wanted to write. After all, if my favourite author (and bestseller) can do it, then why can’t I?

I spent the month of May celebrating my love of Pyper and it’s still ongoing, but I had the chance to interview Andrew via email. I’ll remember it forever and can’t thank him enough. I even made sure to ask him about any difficulties he’d come across from being a Canadian author and was happy to see that it wasn’t anything major. (Condensing his reply – essentially everyone thinks Canada is really far away.)

But my Gord Downie – Andrew Pyper connections don’t end there. I really respected just how much Mr. Downie spoke out about reaching people and fighting for the rights of the less fortunate. He became an advocate for Aboriginal Rights and spoke out about environmental issues frequently.

After his diagnosis The Tragically Hip announced a farewell tour, which culminated with their last performance, a home town show that was also aired live on our national television channel, the CBC. I had hoped to get tickets for me and my father in law Peter in Calgary, but sadly they sold out in minutes.

On August 20, 2016 the band performed one last time in Kingston, ON. It happened during the Summer Olympics and CBC cut through coverage off to go live and showed the entire concert commercial free. I watched it while my wife puttered around the house (we were only a week away from our son joining us at that time.) I cried pretty much from the opening song (Fifty-Mission Cap) to the last song from their encore, which you may have guessed was Ahead by a Century.

“I write every day. I walk around in silent conversation with my latest unfinished songs.”— Gord Downie, 2009.

While the quote discusses Downie’s approach to songs, it’s how I’ve always approached my stories. It’s how my brain works and functions.

As I continued writing I kept Downie’s words front of mind and my belief that is was ok for me to be a Canadian Horror Author. I wrote a blog once called “I’ll never be a bestseller… and that’s ok,” and I still stand by that sentiment. I write stories I want to read, stories that I need to tell, stories from where I’m from. I believed this because Andrew Pyper was Canadian and his books connected with me, which meant just maybe my stories might connect with others as well.

After those first three Pyper releases, the next book of his that I read was “The Wildfire Season.” The story follows a chief of a forest fire brigade. I smiled frequently while reading this book, as Pyper mentioned numerous small towns in Western Canada that I’d visited. I was also intrigued as the story itself is set in Ross River, in the Yukon, which is very rare to read Yukon based thrillers.

On October 18, 2017, I was in Peace River, Alberta for our regional clinic for work. I finished reading ‘The Wildfire Season’ as we flew up. Just before lunch that day the news began to trickle out that Gord Downie had passed away at the age of 53. As we always do in Peace River, we ate lunch at Tim Horton’s. The reason Ben decides to ‘go West,’ in the movie – a Tim Horton’s Roll-Up-the-Rim cup has it printed on the inside. When me and my colleague had finished lunch, he drove me up to an overlook so that I could see the town and the mighty Peace River. I’d never been in the town before and wanted to check it all out. As we drove up the winding road the local radio played “Ahead by a Century.” Part of their ongoing tribute to Mr. Downie that day.

Recently, I was back in Peace River for work again and wouldn’t you know – I was reading “Trade Mission,” by Pyper. This odd Canadian connection continues.

I hope one day to meet Andrew, shake his hand and thank him for inspiring me in a way I didn’t know I needed. I’ve been fortunate now to strike up a casual social media friendship with him, messaging occasionally and getting butterflies when I see that he’s taken the time to reply. I never like to feel like I’m bothering anybody, so I need to keep myself in check from not messaging him every day.

When it came time for me to really look at writing my newest release “The Stranger,” I had the confidence in myself to pursue the environmental and bigotry story lines because these two Canadians laid the foundation down for me to be confident. I thought about Gord Downie’s work with Aboriginal rights and people. I looked at Andrew Pyper’s scope of work and his dedication to not being afraid of saying he’s Canadian in a literary world populated with Best Sellers from other countries.

And I looked at myself and thought about the road I’d taken to get here.

They did it before me.

I knew I could do it.

So I did.

And I can’t thank them enough for making me believe in my Canadian-ness.

“I love this country. I love my idea of this country.” — Gord Downie, 2012

* Thanks Jim & One Legged Reviews for all your support and for inviting me to contribute a guest column!

Guest Book Review: The Only Child, reviewed by Jennifer Sullivan

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Title: The Only Child

Author: Andrew Pyper

 

I’m pleased to also offer up a guest review from my friend Jennifer Sullivan of Andrew’s fantastic book ‘The Only Child.’ Jen is a fantastic friend, fellow reviewer from Kendall Reviews and one of the few people in the book world I’ve actually met!

(I’m super jealous because Jen has actually met Andrew!)

Take it away Jen!

**

Years ago, my critique buddy, Larry Brown, convinced me to attend a book reading from an author I hadn’t heard of at the Brantford Public Library.

“He writes spooky things. You’ll like it,” Larry said, knowing my weakness for anything horror related.

The author was Andrew Pyper, the book ‘The Damned.’ Walking out of that live reading I became a Pyper fan. Not just because ‘The Damned’ sounded like something I needed to read (which it was), but because of the way the author talked about his creative process. In answering questions, he spoke as if the characters were real, as if he were transcribing memories instead of making the whole thing up. And even when his stories take a turn toward the supernatural there’s such a heightened sense of reality that I can believe in monsters.

In Pyper’s novel ‘The Only Child,’ the main character Lily believes in monsters, too. Not the mythical creatures, but the human variety. After years of working as a forensic psychiatrist it would be nearly impossible for her to downplay the evil that lives inside humanity. Yet, there’s a memory from her past, the night her mother was killed, which her scientific mind can’t quite unravel. When she meets a new patient, a man with no name, who knows more about Lily than should be possible, her quest for answers becomes more desperate.

After the man she comes to know as Michael escapes custody she chases after him in a cat-and-mouse game through Hungary, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Lily and Michael’s encounters are often brief along the way, but through conversations and letters he leaves behind she learns of his connections to Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and even Robert Louis Stevenson. At first the information seems to be the ramblings of a madman, however as pieces of Michael’s past start to come together, Lily’s doubts begin to fall away, and she reconsiders her lack of faith in non-human monsters.

‘The Only Child’ is one hell of a ride! From bringing together elements from Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, to the descriptions of the European cities, and the complexities of the character relationships, this is a novel you fall into and it consumes you to a point where you have to remind yourself the story is fiction.

As soon as I read the first line of ‘The Only Child,’ I was hooked: “She was awakened by the monster knocking at the door.” How can you read that and not want more? There’s no long preamble or unnecessary character set up, he just jumps straight into the story, grabbing the reader straight away. The rest of the novel is just as lean too, something I’ve come to expect from Pyper. He never takes the story down inconsequential tangents, nor does he interrupt the pacing for flowery descriptions or sidebar internal character thoughts. Every word on the page is there for a reason. However, the author’s exactness still manages to paint vivid mental images of the scenery and provides character introspection. It’s almost like magic.

While the plot is thrilling and the style of writing is beautiful, what I will probably remember most about ‘The Only Child’ is Lily’s character. She’s a woman conflicted with herself, which starts from the first page and intensifies through the story. Her memories of the night her mother was murdered is at the heart of her internal struggle. In keeping with the classic Gothic stories woven into the book, Lily’s fight centres around what science can prove against what life’s experiences demonstrate to be true. Being a woman of science, Lily wants to completely dismiss anything that can’t be logically explained, and as evidence mounts for the existence of the supernatural, she begins to unravel, clinging on to anything and anyone that might provide comfort. In the end though, she comes to accept that she’s known the answers all along and embraces who she really is in a final scene which still gives me shivers.

There’s so much more I could say about what I enjoyed in this book, but I don’t want to spoil anything, so suffice to say, I highly recommend ‘The Only Child.’

My rating is 4 of 5 stars.

As a brief end-note, in March of 2019, I was fortunate enough to attend the Toronto International Festival of Authors presentation called “Oh, The Horror of It All” where Andrew Pyper spoke as part of a fantastic panel. After the event I was able to chat with Pyper briefly, and he signed my copy of ‘The Only Child,’ which is a real treasure!

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If you’re ever able to attend one of his live events, don’t let the opportunity pass you by – he’s passionate about books, writing, and is an all-round wonderful person.

 

Thanks so much, Steve, for sharing Pyper-May-Nia with the world and for allowing me to celebrate our mutual love for this superb Canadian author!

**

Absolutely my pleasure, Jen! I hope to be able to meet up with you again in the future!

So, now really, what are you waiting for?!

 

Book Review Revisited – The Only Child by Andrew Pyper

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(Review 1 of 2 featured for The Only Child, with Jennifer Sullivan providing the other one today! This originally was posted to Goodreads on November 14, 2018)

Title: The Only Child

Author: Andrew Pyper

Release date: May 23, 2017

“She was awakened by the monster knocking at the door.”

With that opening line burrowing in your head, ‘The Only Child’ kicks off. What a ride.

If you follow me on Twitter, you have undoubtedly come across any number of my tweets stating how Andrew Pyper is my favourite author. I have shared this tale before, but I stumbled across Mr. Pyper’s work in Walmart of all places.

Leading up to reading ‘The Only Child’, I randomly read ‘Vlad the Impaler’ and ‘The Resurrectionist.’ In hindsight, I truly couldn’t recommend two books better to read beforehand than those.

‘The Only Child’ reads like a horror book, wrapped in a dark psychological drama, wrapped in an ongoing ‘Where in the World is Carmen Santiago?’ – action adventure. I read this in three sittings (only because I had to travel for work so saved it for the plane) and the number of phenomenal cliff-hangers in this book is amazing. You will be flipping the pages frantically, being pulled ever further into this amazing alternative history tale.

The story follows the main character Lily, haunted by the visions she sees of her mother’s death all those years ago in their tiny cabin in Alaska. Now working as a psychiatrist at a criminal centre in New York, she is assigned a curious admission. A man who tells her he is the true-life inspiration behind Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This patient tells Lily that he is over 200 hundred years old. Then the cat and mouse game begins.

One of the numerous gifts the author has is the ability to transport you to an exact location and allow you to feel the street under your feet, the buzz of surrounding traffic and people, and the smallest details that let your fingertips to actually feel the environment. His ability to use minimal words to convey maximal emotion will make you gasp time and time again.

Until reading this book, my favourite book of all-time was easily his 2006 release The Wildfire Season. Until reading this book, it was. ‘The Only Child’ transfixed me from sentence one and never let go. I found myself pausing at points and using google street view, only to find the exact description I had read was so accurate I would be smiling.

The entire book is a sprint, a trip around the world that ends with a dramatic and action-packed finale. Sometimes you can go home again, and in this case Andrew Pyper shows why you must and what secrets still lay buried.

I couldn’t recommend this book more. 5 star ratings are sometimes inadequate and in this case it falls far short of what I want to rate it.

If you haven’t read any of Andrew Pyper’s work, please, please fix that ASAP, and this would be a fantastic place to start.

Awakened by a new monster…

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(The Only Child was released in 2017)

 

“She was awakened by the monster knocking at the door.”

Up to this point, I’d read a number of Andrew’s works and loved them all. I’d not been staying on top of the ball with his most recent releases and as I became more involved in the Twitter/Instagram book world, I always found it amazing when other’s mentioned they loved Pyper’s works as well.

Look, I know, I know. Andrew is an International Bestseller, Award-winning author and millions of people have read his books.

But a part of me still considered him to be my secret author.

It was during a Twitter exchange with either Sadie Hartman or Mindi Snyder where they asked if I’d read ‘The Only Child’ to which I replied ‘of course!’

Only it took me a moment to realize, that I had not in fact read it. I had confused it with another book. Which one? No idea.

But I righted that wrong, snagged the book and then let it sit.

Part of the reason I let it sit was knowing ‘The Homecoming’ had been announced and I didn’t want to fly through this and be left without the impending announcement of more Pyper. I know, that sounds odd, especially considering there were still other releases of his that I hadn’t read yet.

A common thread that you’ll find in these retrospectives is my personal fear of ‘what if?’ I’ve said it a few times, and it’ll pop up in a few more during this month, but what if I read something and I don’t like it? If you look at the quote on the cover of ‘The Only Child’ and in fact this quote appears on a number of Mr. Pyper’s covers, it says “Pyper could be the next Stephen King.” This was from a National Post feature on him, some years back. Well, to me – Andrew is my Stephen King.

King was my introduction to the horror game, and as mentioned in the first piece I shared here about ‘The Demonologist,’ for many years was my main horror source. Hell, I only just read a Clive Barker book in the last few years. So, time and time again, I went to King and there’s very few pieces of his I haven’t enjoyed. But truth be told – I’ve never related to King on any sort of level. It’s an interesting thing to sit down and digest. And I’m not talking about the fact he’s a millionaire many times over, has 60 books out, has 25 or so adaptations of his work on the big screen. No, I’m talking about not relating to him because of where he’s from and the fact he’s almost double my age. He doesn’t write at all about Canada or Canadian locations etc.

With Pyper, I’ve found an author whom I greatly admire as a master of his craft, but also as a proud Canadian who doesn’t shy away from including that. On Friday, the piece I’ll be posting will be a re-sharing of Andrew’s embrace of Canada in his works made me a better writer, so I won’t touch on that much here.

What I’ll instead say, is that I connect with Andrew because of shared upbringings, shared experiences, that only comes from that country connection. Of the love of hearing pucks hit the end boards during warm ups before a game, of the smell the air gets before a crisp early snowfall happens, and of the idea that no matter where someone comes from, being nice is always the first option.

Before I dive a bit deeper into ‘The Only Child’ let’s pop back for one second. I’m the worlds most extroverted introvert. I love, love being on my own and just reading and writing. There was a week a few years back where my wife and son went to visit her mom in Fort McMurray. I came back from a conference and had a few days off before needing to pick them up. When I went to get them, on the 5 hour drive from Edmonton to Fort Mac, I realized I hadn’t spoken a word out loud in almost 5 days. But, people are often surprised when meeting me. How outgoing I am. I can talk to anyone, anywhere about anything at anytime. I have no filter and at group gatherings, people will often assume I’ve had a few too many, because I’m the one to willingly climb something, jump off something or jump into something. All of this is to say, that when I first messaged Andrew, he could have easily said “Thanks, take care.” But instead, he engaged and has always been gracious when I’ve contacted him.

I try not be a pest, and it’s tough, but seriously – Andrew Pyper is my Stephen King. If Stephen King was kind enough to reply, wouldn’t you say have a few questions back?

Book Review Revisited – The Wildfire Season by Andrew Pyper

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(*This review was originally posted on Goodreads on July 2, 2018)

Title: The Wildfire Season

Author: Andrew Pyper

Release date: January 1st, 2005

My new favourite book, from my favourite author!

The Wildfire Season became my new favourite book for me personally, because of the connections I found I had to this novel.

I grew up in the middle of nowhere, in a place not that different from Ross River. I grew up hunting, and my cousin Jason was a big game guide in the Yukon and Alaska.

We spent a number of summer’s on evacuation notice due to forest fires, and when my Dad’s logging job would be shut down due to fire hazard, he would work as a forest fire fighter.

I have always been drawn to books set in barren landscapes and characters that continue to fight against the odds, no matter how overwhelming they appear.

This book had everything and more for me.

If you love Mr. Pyper’s work, and haven’t checked this out yet, I highly recommend it!

And then the wildfire season arrived…

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(The Wildfire Season was published in 2005)

Alright, so up until now, I’d read ‘The Demonologist,’ ‘The Damned,’ and ‘Lost Girls.’ I still had a ways to go and while I’d loved everything Pyper had produced that my eyeballs had witnessed, I was still somehow scared to be let down. (Oddly, I still had that fear with just ‘The Guardians’ and ‘The Killing Circle’ left to read. That fear has been completely crushed now, Pyper doesn’t fail to deliver – ever.)

I was reading more and more, but my life was changing and in big upheaval. In Abbotsford, I had been managing an Orthotics Clinic while working towards my Pedorthic certification annnnnd trying to become some semblance of a world class thrower in shotput (which never happened!) I had a significant elbow injury and while trying to come to terms with no longer thrower and maybe never being competitive again, I recalled a conversation I had a few years back and took the chance. Over the next year, I lost 100 pounds and transformed from a thrower to a bobsledder. I moved to Whistler for six months and then we moved to Calgary the following October, as I tried to pursue sliding and the very, very, very small chance of making the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Come 2016, we were expecting our first child, and with my body completely breaking down, I stopped pursuing the Olympics. Our son arrived in August 2016, then in January 2017, I was told my job was ending and after going to numerous interviews, I was at a loss as to what to do next. Then, an offer was extended from a clinic in Edmonton, and in February we moved to Edmonton and I started my job, where I still work to this day.

When September of 2017 rolled around, I was struggling mentally with a lot of stuff. So, when we went camping at Crimson Lake, I made sure to bring a few books.

One such book was ‘The Wildfire Season.’ You see, when my mental state is seeing roadblocks and barriers and having trouble finding the sun, I turn to a comforting voice – and in literature, that voice is Pyper.

I started reading ‘Wildfire…’ in physical, reading 50% of the book over the few sporadic reading spots I got that week. Coincidentally, I would’ve read it all if I’d not been inspired to write draft one of my book ‘The Stranger’ while there!

I finished reading ‘Wildfire…’ on my Kindle and when I was done, I messaged Andrew and gushed about the book and how it had felt like such a connection for me. At the time, he replied kindly, while wondering if he should hit the block button, but it still boggles my mind when I look back at this book.

‘The Wildfire Season’ follows our main character, Miles who works as a forest firefighter – more specifically the crew chief. He’s haunted by his past, when he lost a crew member and lives each day with horrific scars to remind him of his decisions. He’s now fled to Ross River, Yukon. For Pyper fans, you’ll see a frequent connection with the North of Canada in many of his books, this one being firmly set there.

Pyper introduces us to a number of characters in this small town and between a raging fire descending on the town, the prospect that a ‘firebug’ may have purposefully started it and a pissed off bear deciding to exact some revenge, the reader is blessed with a psychological thriller, an eco thriller and a supernatural slow burn.

Ross River is a real place. It’s not close to anything.

That’s it at the red dot, far up on Google Maps.

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And it’s small. See, let’s zoom in!

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I grew up thirty minutes from a place about the same size as Ross River, with many of the same similarities. My dad was a logger and when needed in the summer’s, he’d fight forest fires when called upon.

Much like Ross River, we’d even lived under evacuation alert during one summer, watching with awe and fear as the fire on the other side of the Arrow Lakes jumped over to our side.

Growing up, I’d also been on hunting trips with my dad frequently. These were usually just day trips, sometimes over night excursions, but I dreamed of the life my cousin Jason had – tracking big game through the Yukon and Alaska. I’d been introduced to ‘using what the land provides’ from a young age, my grandpa having a trap line and everyone having massive gardens to grow most of our food.

All of these experiences culminated to feel like ‘The Wildfire Season’ was written specifically for ME. I know it’s an odd thing to say or even feel, but when you’ve read something that just speaks to you, the reader, then you know what I’m saying.

When I’d finished reading this, I proclaimed at that time, that this was my all-time fav read. While, I wouldn’t state that now, it’s not because the memory of this book has diminished – not at all.

It’s because I’ve read more of Pyper’s work and have continued to fall further and further into love with his writing voice and his storytelling.

Up next, I’m going to dive into reading ‘The Only Child,’ but until then, enjoy a companion review of ‘The Wildfire Season.’

 

COMMUNION Arrives and a ‘What’s Up!’

It’s been some time since I actually sat down and did a ‘what’s up’ type post!

Life has been strange, hectic, boring, surreal – so many things. But not having been at work for over a month now, the only time I truly sit down in front of the computer has been to write and to get the Pyper-May-Nia! posts formatted and scheduled!

So, this past Wednesday, May the 6th saw the arrival of ‘COMMUNION.’

Exciting right! It’s already getting some cool reviews and I even saw a physical copy someone had snagged over on Instagram! (Thank you, John!)

This is Book Two in the ‘Father of Lies Trilogy.’ Book Three is in the early stages and from what I’ve pulled forth from the depraved depths of my mind so far, prepare to be unnerved. I highly suggest you read ‘Ritual’ and ‘COMMUNION’ before part three arrives.

I also wanted to say, today is the last day to grab ‘COMMUNION’ for only $0.99. It will jump up to the astronomical price of $1.99 tomorrow! As always the ebook for ‘Ritual’ is and always will be $0.99.

Haven’t snagged ‘COMMUNION’ yet?

 

So, what else have I been up to?

Reading, writing and hanging with the family.

I haven’t even been listening to much music at all, so no songs to share, sorry!

I have however been hard at work getting this Pyper-May-Nia! stuff up and going.

So far, I’ve shared an interview;

https://stevestredauthor.wordpress.com/2020/05/01/pyper-may-nia-2/

A retrospective on ‘The Demonologist’ ;

https://stevestredauthor.wordpress.com/2020/05/04/the-book-that-opened-my-eyes-the-demonologist/

And a retrospective on both ‘The Damned’ and ‘Lost Girls’ ;

https://stevestredauthor.wordpress.com/2020/05/06/next-taste-the-damned-and-lost-girls/

Next week will feature retrospectives and reviews of ‘The Wildfire Season’ and ‘The Only Child’ as well as an essay on how Andrew Pyper made me a better writer.

Lastly, before I leave, I wanted to share some really cool news that has kind of left me stunned.

I’ve been fortunate enough to appear in Kevin J. Kennedy Publishing releases a few times now. First was in ‘100 Word Horrors 3’ and then ‘100 Word Horrors 4.’ I was then humbled to have a story selected for ‘The Horror Collection: Silver Edition’ which featured me alongside Kevin, Lex Jones, Calvin Demmer and the legend Edward Lee.

Well, recently ‘The Horror Collection: Emerald Edition’ was released and I’m still in shock that a story from myself appears in a collection with the living Horror legend himself, Ramsey Campbell!

INSANE!

If you want to check out this amazing collection;

The ebook is out now, paperback to come!

 

Alright, so that’s all I got right now.

Hope you are all well and safe!

Until we meet again,

Steve

Book Review: The Keeper of Chernobyl by Alessandro Manzetti

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Title: The Keeper of Chernobyl

Author: Alessandro Manzetti

Release date: October 19, 2019

** 2019 Bram Stoker Award Nominee**

God, what a truly bleak story.

Alessandro Manzetti is a highly accomplished author, both in fiction and in poetry, and runs an esteemed publishing press. Yet, somehow, through all of that, the general horror community at large seems to have missed this one. I say that because, at the time of writing this review, this release has four Goodread ratings and one review.

The first thing that drew me into this book was the gorgeous cover. I know gorgeous isn’t maybe the phrase you’d most commonly associate with this picture of a man caressing a flower while wearing a mask and radiation suit, while in the background an emaciated, pale, woman wearing no protective gear looks on, but it is.

The second was the synopsis.

Set in the 60’s and 70’s, as Russia went full blown, top-secret mission crazy, a scientist tells his story of working in a bunker deep under ground.

A) Everything about Chernobyl has always fascinated me. I’m not sure why, honestly, as the entire event and fall out is and was horrific. Maybe it’s because of the stark photos I saw growing up of the abandoned amusement park?

B) The secret bunker, secret experiment angle will always get me, every single time.

What I liked: While I typically don’t enjoy the journal style/epistolary style of books, this one worked perfectly. Told through the pages of the main scientist’s secret journal he kept, we get the details of ‘Project Prometheus.’ A group of intelligent individuals are gathered in the Kremlin to facilitate a program to ‘create’ new beings.

Manzetti does a great job of creating a claustrophobic feeling throughout this book, but as things go off the tracks and the government begins to eliminate scientists one by one as their projects fail, the level of tension raises much like a Geiger counter would in the exclusion zone.

The book’s third act, after they move to Chernobyl’s site, is really a thing of beauty. We start to see the main scientist’s love for his subjects grow, even as things get worse and everything hits the fan.

What I didn’t like: While the journal style did work, I think I would have loved this book even more if it had been a straight forward story. I wanted more details, more information on the events that happened.

Why you should buy this: Just a stunning, stunning book. Think ‘Frankenstein’ meets ‘Splice’ meets the horror movie ‘Chernobyl Diaries.’ Manzetti truly created a masterful story of suspense, tension and while the ‘Prometheus Project’ on its own would keep me riveted, the added unseen force of the Russian government always willing to rear up its ugly head was a bonus.

I do want to add that there is a note at the start that this was translated from Italian, which is Manzetti’s native language. I found no issues what-so-ever with the phrasing or writing, so if that is one of the reasons holding you back – don’t let it be.

This one’s going to stay with me for some time and I really, really hope more people begin to find it.

5/5

Next taste – The Damned and Lost Girls

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(Lost Girls released by Dell in 2000, The Damned released by Simon & Schuster in 2015)

Welcome back for the third post in my PYPERMAYNIA celebration.

Let’s jump into the next chapter shall we?

I’d discovered Pyper and loved ‘The Demonologist,’ and lucky for me, he had a number of releases out already. This is always such a fantastic moment, when you realize you can read more of an author you’ve just discovered!

I made a return trip to the Coles at Seven Oaks and was pleased to find two of Pyper’s releases in stock – ‘The Damned’ and ‘Lost Girls.’ I bought them both without even reading the synopsis and I vividly remember the goth clerk who worked at both Coles and HMV in the mall saying she loved ‘Lost Girls’ and it made her bawl her eyes out.

After reading the synopsis’ of both, I decided to start with ‘The Damned.’

‘The Damned’ follows Danny Orchard, bestselling author of a memoir detailing his near-death experience that claimed the life of his twin sister. Pyper doesn’t let you feel comfortable once within this book, creating a claustrophobic world. One aspect I loved was just how familiar the house where the fire happened was. It could’ve been any house, on any street, near any of us. As the book went on, it grows darker and bolder and the ending will stay with you for long after you are done reading it.

I haven’t re-read this, purely because it’s a book that has stayed so solidly in my brain since I first read it that there’s no point yet in reading it! I’d end up skimming!

If you’ve not read it, jump on this! Click the link, then head below for ‘Lost Girls.’

 

‘Lost Girls’ was a book I put off from reading. Partly it was the synopsis, partly it was the reaction the goth chick from HMV/Coles had. I’d had some great discussions with her over the few years HMV was open and I knew she was a pretty tough woman. Hell, we spent time chatting about all the crazy stuff we’d seen on Liveleak at one point.

If this book had messed her up, then I was wondering just what it would do to me.

‘Lost Girls’ is a sorrow filled, creep fest.

To know go back and examine this as Pyper’s debut is really quite stunning.

We are introduced to Attorney Crane, summoned to a small town in Ontario to piece together just what’s happened as he looks to defend a high-school teacher accused of killing two students. The town stays quiet, and Crane realizes nobody cares whether he’s there nor if the teacher is innocent or guilty.

Oddly, I loved the small tie-in’s between ‘Lost Girls’ and ‘The Guardians’ when I read it recently. The saying ‘small towns know how to forget’ is wholly accurate, and as someone who grew up in the smallest of small towns, you see it happen time and again.

This town has a secret and Pyper decides to tell us in slow-burn fashion, drawing us in chapter after chapter.

I remember being unnerved completely, every time the phone rang in the eerie hotel, how Pyper described the shadows seen in the dark streets and when we finally arrive at the ending – goth chick was right.

I was distraught.

It works so well, but left this reader regretting having binged read the book and felt the enormity crash down on my soul.

You see, Pyper writes with horror in his veins, but Canadiana in his fingertips. He crafts these characters that work at the corner stores, that bag our groceries and show up at our barbecues or tail-gate parties at the beach.

This is why I adore Pyper’s writing, it speaks to that sense of where I came from, but also what I imagine.

So, once again – have you read ‘Lost Girls.’ ?

If not, I highly suggest you check it out, but be warned – you’ll be crushed.

The Book That Opened My Eyes – The Demonologist

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The Demonologist, published by Simon & Schuster in 2013.

Before I discovered Goodreads and the Book Horror Community on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, I was an impulse buyer. A new Stephen King book – yup. A book with a cool sounding synopsis and a striking cover – yuppers. I used to spend a fair amount of time in the Coles at the Seven Oaks Mall in Abbotsford, BC looking over their painfully small horror and science fiction section, hoping to find a new to me book to snag. We’d also check out the Walmart book section, they had a fairly well stocked 2/$15 paperback section, where I grabbed books like The Martian.

I’d grown up being a devoted King fan, having borrowed every single copy that my neighbor, Patti Moody owned and voraciously read them. To me, back then, there was only one name in the horror world that I knew would bring me joy.

I’ve told this story a bajillion and one times, but one day, me and my wife were checking out the 2/$15 section and I spotted a book with the cover I’ve shared here at the top. A very simple, yet striking cover of a darkened forest and a young child. The title grabbed me immediately – how could it not, and the synopsis read like something any horror lover would gobble up. I didn’t buy it, though. I took a picture of it and the book beside it and then nagged and whined to Amanda the rest of our shopping trip about how awesome the two books looked. The other book, for reference, was The Troop by Nick Cutter.

I ended up buying both, and while my memory has faded and I no longer remember if it was during that shopping trip or a return over the next two days, but I dove into both. And while both were absolutely stunning, I was drawn to Pyper’s release more.

‘The Demonologist’ is, to me at least, at its heart, a journey of a scarred man. A man who doesn’t believe what he studies completely, but once his family becomes directly involved, he’s forced to face the truth that maybe there are other things out there, things we can’t see when our internal blinds are closed.

I remember, to this day, vivid scenes. Scenes that scared me to my core and had me question whether I’d be able to continue.

While I read this book far before my time reading and reviewing, posting to sites like Goodreads and Bookbub, I still consider this to be a 5 star read and one that I’ll need to revisit again soon.

At the time of its release, ‘The Demonologist’ was in production to become a movie, and while that seems to have been put on pause, I know I’d love to see an adaptation.

Something, specifically, that I’ll always treasure and cherish from reading and discovering this book, was that it was from A CANADIAN. I know it’s a weird thing, but yes, in Canada, we really do have a sense of commonality about fellow Canucks. When we see a new NHL player and find out he’s from our hometown, he immediately becomes a player we root for. Same goes for actors/actresses, authors, comedians, you name it. So, to have discovered a Canadian who was writing THIS type of book, blew my mind and opened a lot of doors.

Maybe a part of me was closed off and scared to allow another author to invade the space I’d created and curated for my horror reads, but Pyper was the one. His book and his writing spoke to me and opened up a new voice that I haven’t been able to put down since.

Oddly enough, with a large portion of the back story of Professor David Ullman being a man who studies ‘Paradise Lost’ it is interesting to read Andrew’s thoughts on that epic poem. I don’t know if it is still available, but I was lucky enough to snag a Kindle copy of ‘Paradise Lost’ with an essay from Andrew about the poem as well as some questions directed towards ‘The Demonologist.’ I’d highly recommend you snag it if its still out there.

So, in closing, that is why ‘The Demonologist’ means so much to me. It was almost a repeat of when you first discover a horror movie on TV late at night and you can’t believe what you’ve stumbled on. When I started reading it, I had no idea that the book would expand the possibilities for me of all that I could read, that was out there, but also that other Canadians were doing this as well.

While ‘The Demonologist’ isn’t my all-time favorite book from Andrew, it will always hold a very special place in my heart.

In fact, I was lucky enough to find an ARC of the book at a used book store last year and snagged it immediately. I still can’t believe it and I can’t believe that Andrew has been kind enough to sign both versions for me.

As I write this, I have a photo beside my laptop. You may have seen it already, but if not, here it is;

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For those who don’t know, this is a photo of Andrew’s ‘demon research books’ that he used when writing ‘The Demonologist.’ My friend, Jen (who is contributing a review of ‘The Only Child’ as well) gave it to me as a gift and it makes me smile at least a dozen times a day.

So, there. ‘The Demonologist.’

Outstanding book, but a book that will forever be my first Pyper love.

Haven’t read it?

What are you waiting for?