Mark McLaughlin's Blog: Revenge of the B-Movie Monster, page 6

Three Books of Lovecraftian Horror

Three Companion Paperbacks of Lovecraftian Horror
by Mark McLaughlin & Michael Sheehan, Jr.
Unearthly fantasy and horror tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, crawling with eldritch creatures.


CITY OF LIVING SHADOWS & More Lovecraftian Tales
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1687570779
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1687570779
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

THE HOUSE OF THE OCELOT & More Lovecraftian Nightmares
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1795518367/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1795518367/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS: 24 Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1791560520/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1791560520/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Visit www.BMovieMonster.com for more information on books by Mark McLaughlin and Michael Sheehan, Jr.

THE HOUSE OF THE OCELOT & More Lovecraftian Nightmares

The House Of The Ocelot & More Lovecraftian Nightmares

THE HOUSE OF THE OCELOT & More Lovecraftian Nightmares by Mark McLaughlin & Michael Sheehan, Jr.
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1795518367/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1795518367/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

THE HOUSE OF THE OCELOT presents tales of Lovecraftian fantasy and horror. Most of these adventures have only been available so far on Kindle. This paperback collection is a companion volume to HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS: 24 TALES OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, and has been released for readers who prefer holding books, as opposed to devices.

Stories in this collection include “The House Of The Ocelot,” “Queen Of The Vultures,” “The Foul One Lives To Destroy: A Tale Of The Dreamlands,” “Shoggoth Apocalypse,” “The Glorious Return Of Herbert West,” “The Last Witch-House,” “Stainless Steel Sarcophagus,” and many more.

The collection also includes the epic poem, “The Arrival Of Our New Master: A Lovecraftian Armageddon.” People believe that wealthy Caliban Storm offers the guidance that the world has needed for so long. But in truth, there is something very wrong with handsome young Caliban. He is in fact an avatar of Nyarlathotep, a malevolent deity also known as the Crawling Chaos....

Read "The Power Of Azalareon" from HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS

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"The Power Of Azalareon" is a story from HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS: 24 Tales Of The Cthulhu Mythos by Mark McLaughlin & Michael Sheehan, Jr. I've posted it at http://www.BMovieMonster.com as a sample story from the book. Feel free to visit the website and read the story. Also, look at the index on the right side of the website to see other recent posts you might enjoy. :-)

HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS is available as a 248-page paperback on Amazon.com:
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1791560520/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1791560520/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Read "The Gateway to Carcosa" from HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS

At my website, you'll find "The Gateway to Carcosa," a story from the Lovecraftian fiction collection, HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS. Visit www.BMovieMonster.com -- and while you're there, check out the 'Recent Posts' column on the right side for other articles you might enjoy. Thanks!

New Paperback – Empress Of The Living Dead: 25 Tales Of Horror & The Bizarre

Empress Of The Living Dead

Empress Of The Living Dead: 25 Tales Of Horror & The Bizarre by Mark McLaughlin
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1798060434/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1798060434/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

EMPRESS OF THE LIVING DEAD collects 25 stories of horror and dark fantasy by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Mark McLaughlin. These stories are compiled in a paperback edition from three previous Kindle collections by McLaughlin - FOREIGN TONGUE, DRUNK ON THE WINE THAT POURS FROM MY WICKED EYES, and MAGIC CANNOT DIE. "Empress Of The Living Dead," a tale of cult movies and zombies, completes this collection.

The stories in this book abound with monsters, supernatural beings, aliens, practitioners of magic, kaiju, tentacled creatures and more. Stories in the collection include "Empress Of The Living Dead," "Cold-Blooded," "The Vainglorious Simulacrum Of Mungha Sorcyllamia: A Weird Romance," "Foreign Tongue," "The Astonishing Secret Of The King Of The Cats," "Zombies Are Forever," "Silky, Slinky, Fabulous - To Die For," "The Prince Of Dreadful Magick," "Why Cosmo Used To Wear A Lab Smock Every Halloween," "The Nightmare Quadrant: The Legacy Of Alphonse Sweetwater-DuBois," and many more.

McLaughlin is the author of HIDEOUS FACES, BEAUTIFUL SKULLS and BEST LITTLE WITCH-HOUSE IN ARKHAM, among other horror collections. With Michael Sheehan, Jr., he has co-authored the Lovecraftian paperbacks, THE HOUSE OF THE OCELOT and HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS, as well as the Kindle collections, THE ABOMINATIONS OF NEPHREN-KA, THE HORROR IN THE WATER TOWER, THE BLASPHEMY IN THE CANOPIC JAR, SHOGGOTH APOCALYPSE, THE RELIC IN THE EGYPTIAN GALLERY, THE CREATURE IN THE WAXWORKS, THE TESTAMENT OF CTHULHU, and STAINLESS STEEL SARCOPHAGUS.

Top 10 Accidental Comedies

For once, I'll chat about movies for a moment, instead of books. Hey, somebody had to write those movies, right? :-)

Every now and then, a movie comes along that was clearly meant to be a riveting, thrilling drama – but somewhere along the line, its creators went overboard and the movie inadvertently shifted into a comedic gear. That’s what I call an accidental comedy – a type of movie I dearly love. On my blog, I’ve listed what I consider to be the top 10 accidental comedies of all time (FYI, some are horror movies). To read the article, visit https://bmoviemonster.com/ -- thanks!

Writing Secrets Revealed: 15 Tips To Improve The Quality Of Your Work

by Mark McLaughlin

Many lists of writing tips will tell you: Don’t try to be a perfectionist. Just get the words out of your head and onto the page. If you can, you’re doing great!

A perky, anyone-can-do-it tip like that may sound wonderful, but it has a serious downside. Certainly, it’s important to be able to share all your great ideas and get those words typed into a document. But, you should still try to be a perfectionist, editing your work until it is the best it can be. Don’t sign off on the work before it’s really finished.

After all, one expects all professionals to strive to be perfectionists. No one wants to hear their accountant say, “That’s close enough! Those figures are probably okay.” No one wants to be the patient of a heart surgeon who says, “That’ll do for now. Just sew her up so we can move on to the next patient!”

A lot of people think writing is easy, and anyone can do the job. Sure, most people can do it, but not all can do it well. It takes time, talent and dedication to develop any skill to an effective, professional level.

I’ve worked with many interns with different employers over the years, and there would be times when I’d ask an intern to edit his or her work – and the intern would say that edits weren’t necessary, because they’d finished writing the project. As far as they were concerned, their work was done. They didn’t see any reason to spend more time with it.

Apparently, somewhere along the line, they’d fallen under the impression that once they’d stopped typing, the work was “good enough.” I assure you, they didn’t get that impression from me. I would then explain in detail what needed to be fixed, and happily, they would always agree that the edits would approve the work.

With all that in mind, you may be wondering what you can do to improve the quality of your work. Here are 15 tips to get you started. These tips were created with the process of writing stories in mind, but many can also help with writing in general, whether the work in question is fiction or nonfiction.

1. Realize that perfection is impossible, but strive for it anyway. If you assume that what you are doing is the absolute best, how can you ever improve?

2. Don’t describe your fictional world down to the last detail. People tend to skim over excess descriptive text. Do your best to describe any person, place or thing quickly and accurately. Cover the most crucial details first and work in smaller details later, if necessary.

3. When characters have something to say, stick with ‘said’ – not enthused, declared, exclaimed, or worst of all, ejaculated. ‘Replied’ (if a character is answering a question) and ‘stated’ can work, but use them sparingly.

4. Avoid using adverbs with ‘said,’ like ‘he said angrily.’ The mood of the speaker should be made clear by the words being said.

5. The word ‘that’ is often overused. Do a search in Word on ‘that’ and take out uses of the word that can be removed without hurting the flow of the sentence.

6. The word ‘got’ is overused, too, in a generic/multipurpose way. ‘She got out of the car,’ ‘he got some groceries’ … see what I mean? Try to use a more specific word.

7. Make sure a character’s vocabulary is appropriate for their age, upbringing and educational level. A character’s voice defines them. For example, a very young child who isn’t academically gifted probably wouldn’t use words like ‘macabre,’ ‘poignant’ and ‘problematic.’

8. This one is closely related to the previous tip. Make sure your characters have different vocabularies and idioms, since they are unique individuals. It can help to read your stories aloud to yourself, to make sure your characters have different voices.

9. Stick with one point of view in a short story. It shouldn’t shift during the narrative. Otherwise, the reader can become confused, trying to figure out who is telling the story.

10. Don’t introduce new characters late in the story. It’s lazy writing, to have a new character step into a story at the last minute to straighten out matters and bring about a satisfactory ending.

11. If you use an acronym, don’t assume that every reader will be familiar with it. In news releases, spell out what the letters stand for on the first mention of the acronym. In fiction, try to avoid acronyms unless they are extremely well-known, like CPR or DVD.

12. Minor characters don’t need a lot of description. For example, if a waiter comes to the restaurant table on page 11 and is only in the story for one paragraph, we don’t need to know that he grew up in rural Vermont and is now attending night classes so he can become a lawyer someday.

13. Don’t fall in love with your own writing. If you write something clever in a story and then decide that this passage should be cut out, don’t hesitate to remove it. Perhaps you can use that clever wordage in a different story someday.

14. As I mentioned earlier, don’t assume the work is finished the minute you type the last word. That’s only your first draft. You’ll want to go over it again, and perhaps a second or third time, to make sure you haven’t overlooked anything.

15. Don’t depend on self-publishing – especially if you are a new writer. If professional editors never see your work, you will never benefit from their guidance. I have worked in self-publishing, but only after years of working with many editors and developing a substantial readership.

Remember, with each story, you are creating a fictional universe. Work hard to create a believable, entertaining universe that readers will want to visit again and again.

At The Mustache Of Madness: Revisiting “The Dunwich Horror”

by Mark McLaughlin

It can’t be easy, trying to make a movie out of an H.P. Lovecraft story.

If you’re a fan of his work, you might wonder why there aren’t more Lovecraftian movies. After all, his stories are all so thrilling and imaginative….

But, there are some technical issues to consider. Personally, I delight in everything that Lovecraft ever wrote, but I do realize he was writing for the printed page – not the big screen.

For one thing, most of his stories feature hybrid deities whose bizarre forms could easily confuse movie viewers. People who aren’t familiar with these creatures might think, “What’s the deal with that big fat lizard-guy with the tentacle-beard and bat-wings? Is he a demon, an alien, a mutant, a deep-sea creature or what? Why is he always asleep at the bottom of the ocean? What’s so scary about that?”

Lovecraft’s creatures carry a considerable amount of back-story, which can be imparted in a story with relative ease. But it can be tricky, trying to convey all that exposition in a movie. I suppose you could give the hero an assistant who asks a lot of questions, like any one of Dr. Who’s companions. Still, that can get tiresome before long.

How do you casually explain, on-screen, the basics of a character as wildly convoluted as Nyarlathotep? “Well, you see, he’s sort of a shape-changing demon from another dimension. He’s known as the Crawling Chaos, though I’ve never seen him crawling around. When he visits Earth, he likes to dress up as a young Egyptian pharaoh. No one really knows why.”

Also, Lovecraft’s deities/creatures are often divided up into groups that don’t sound all that different. There are the Great Ones, the Outer Gods, the Great Old Ones, the Elder Gods, and the Elder Things. Okay, most of them are really old and/or great … yeah, we get it. The real question is, who gave these groups those names? They sure didn’t name themselves. For example, the Elder Things were huge, winged aliens with heads shaped like starfish. They would’ve been more likely to call themselves the Huge Things, the Winged Things, or the Starfish-Headed Things, instead of just referring to how long they’ve been around.

American International Pictures released the Lovecraft tale, “The Dunwich Horror,” as a movie back in 1970, and it’s clear they had to make a lot of hard decisions about how closely they would adhere to the original plot.

In the written story, the lead character, Wilbur Whateley, was the hybrid son of a human woman and the cosmic entity Yog-Sothoth. Wilbur was a freakishly tall, misshapen humanoid with a riotous conglomeration of unearthly limbs and organs. Obviously that would have been an expensive challenge for the production company’s make-up department.

That’s probably why they hired a handsome hunk, Dean Stockwell, for the part … that, and the fact that he was far more visually appealing than some transdimensional body-part casserole. Of course, they did want him to look somewhat sinister, so they gave him a sinister mustache. It really was an awesomely thick mustache … a veritable mustache of madness. I suspect they also made his hair curlier, and his eyebrows bushier, to make him look randy and satyresque.

The original story didn’t have a romantic interest, which is no surprise to Lovecraft readers. Fiction-wise, romance was not Lovecraft’s strong suit. Love – and women, for that matter – rarely figured into any of his plots. That must be why Sandra Dee was brought into the film. A nationally released movie without an element of romance isn’t going to get very far.

The print version of “The Dunwich Horror” made readers wonder whether or not ancient monstrosities would take over the Earth and destroy humanity. The movie version made viewers wonder whether or not Nancy, the perky coed played by Sandra Dee, would finally lose her virginity to Arkham’s handsome mystic outcast.

One of my favorite moments in the movie comes shortly after the distinguished Dr. Armitage asks Nancy, who helps out in Miskatonic University’s library, to take care in putting away the priceless Necronomicon. Nancy agrees, but in no time at all, she allows Wilbur Whateley to browse through the ancient grimoire because he has “great eyes.” I’m glad she’s not in charge of national security….

Later, in the movie’s saucy ritual scenes, one cannot help but notice that Wilbur has propped up the Necronomicon on Nancy’s luscious body. At one point, he even has to part her legs a bit to get a better look at … the book, presumably.

We’re entering spoiler territory now, so please, don’t read on if you plan on watching the movie and would like to be surprised.

Certainly the movie’s most dramatic scene is when Wilbur and Dr. Armitage have their final face-off at the pagan altar site. Out of the blue, they begin to jabber occult phrases at each other that sound like words being hollered backwards. Apparently, the good doctor is better at jabbering, and has learned a higher quality of backward buzzwords. His occult cries cause Wilbur to burst into flames, and the defeated lad falls screaming off a nearby cliff.

At that moment, Wilbur’s supernatural, snake-tressed twin brother decides to make the scene. But by then, Wilbur has perished, the magic has dissipated, so the twin must depart for some Yog-Sothothian limbo. I was hoping that the twin would look like a giant mustache, composed of thousands of slender tentacles, but I suppose such an expensive effect would have been beyond the production’s budget.

Will there ever come a day when Lovecraftian movies are as popular as superhero movies? Probably not. Like I said: For most viewers, they’d require too much explanation. Lovecraft’s fictional world is filled with otherworldly concepts and pseudo-scientific mysteries, and that’s the way it should be. He wished to generate a profound sense of cosmic awe, leaving readers with more questions than mere words could ever answer.

The movie “The Dunwich Horror” is certainly enjoyable, but it doesn’t capture the dark, brooding brilliance of Lovecraft’s story. At least it presents many of the written tale’s marvelous concepts and inventive plot points … and really, that’s good enough. Hopefully, many of the folks who have seen the movie have found and enjoyed the source material, ushering new devotees into Lovecraft’s literary domain.

THE HOUSE OF THE OCELOT and HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS

Two new paperbacks are now available from the writing team of Mark McLaughlin and Michael Sheehan, Jr. The stories in these books were inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers.

THE HOUSE OF THE OCELOT & More Lovecraftian Nightmares
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1795518367/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1795518367/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS: 24 Tales Of The Cthulhu Mythos
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1791560520/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1791560520/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

THE HOUSE OF THE OCELOT presents tales of Lovecraftian fantasy and horror, as well as an epic poem regarding the return of Nyarlathotep to the modern world. Most of these adventures have only been available so far on Kindle. This paperback collection is a companion volume to HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS, and has been released for readers who prefer holding books, as opposed to devices.

Stories in this collection include “The House Of The Ocelot,” “Queen Of The Vultures,” “The Foul One Lives To Destroy: A Tale Of The Dreamlands,” “Shoggoth Apocalypse,” “The Glorious Return Of Herbert West,” “The Last Witch-House,” “Stainless Steel Sarcophagus,” and many more.

The collection also includes the epic poem, “The Arrival Of Our New Master: A Lovecraftian Armageddon.” People believe that Caliban Storm, son of wealthy Bernard Storm, offers the wisdom and guidance that the world has needed for so long. But in truth, there is something very wrong with handsome young Caliban. He is in fact an avatar of Nyarlathotep, a malevolent deity also known as the Crawling Chaos….

HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS presents 24 stories of Lovecraftian fantasy and horror. Learn the unholy secrets of such malevolent beings as Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Azalareon, Mother Hydra, the King in Yellow, and Yagdolak. Discover the blasphemous activities of the Tillinghast and Delapore families … wicked Mrs. Veng and her horrendous tenant, Dr. Brandywine … and the unspeakable, mutated son of King Tutankhamun.

Stories in this collection include “Deathless Bride Of The Crawling Chaos,” “The Abominations Of Nephren-Ka,” “Coins From Y’ha-nthlei,” “The Blasphemy In The Canopic Jar,” “The Curse Of The Tillinghasts,” “The Colossus In The Catacombs,” “The Nightmare In Delapore Tower,” “The Thing From Beyond The Living Door,” “The Gateway To Carcosa,” “The Testament Of Cthulhu” and many more.

The stories and poetry in these two collections were selected from nine Kindle collections previously released by McLaughlin and Sheehan: THE ARRIVAL OF OUR NEW MASTER, STAINLESS STEEL SARCOPHAGUS, THE TESTAMENT OF CTHULHU, THE CREATURE IN THE WAXWORKS, THE RELIC IN THE EGYPTIAN GALLERY, SHOGGOTH APOCALYPSE, THE BLASPHEMY IN THE CANOPIC JAR, THE HORROR IN THE WATER TOWER, and THE ABOMINATIONS OF NEPHREN-KA.

THE TESTAMENT OF CTHULHU: Tales Of Weird Fantasy & Horror

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THE TESTAMENT OF CTHULHU: Tales Of Weird Fantasy & Horror by Mark McLaughlin & Michael Sheehan, Jr. FREE on Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DBX631N/

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

THE TESTAMENT OF CTHULHU features five stories of weird horror in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers. In "Sea-Green Gown With Gold Buttons," a tale of THE KING IN YELLOW, a beautiful drag queen is caught in a web of evil upon falling in love with a citizen of Carcosa. A grotesque deity exacts an unspeakably complete vengeance in "The Foul One Lives To Destroy." In "The Testament Of Cthulhu," an ailing traveler visits a community with a hideous secret ... a secret that might be the answer to his complex medical problems. "The Ambassador From Ulthar" tells of a young man who cannot escape his fate after injuring a denizen of the Dreamlands. While escaping from an abusive relationship, an aspiring writer encounters an unlikely ally in "The Sea-Spider." Mark McLaughlin is the author of BEST LITTLE WITCH-HOUSE IN ARKHAM and MAGIC CANNOT DIE, and Michael Sheehan, Jr. has co-authored THE ABOMINATIONS OF NEPHREN-KA, THE HORROR IN THE WATER TOWER, THE BLASPHEMY IN THE CANOPIC JAR, SHOGGOTH APOCALYPSE, THE RELIC IN THE EGYPTIAN GALLERY, and THE CREATURE IN THE WAXWORKS with McLaughlin.