Gerald Dean Rice's Blog, page 52
November 7, 2013
The Purge #review
Download The Purge on Amazon here.
My wife and I were excited to see this movie. We don’t get to go out too much because we don’t have a reliable babysitter. So we’d been waiting for this to come out on DVD and picked up a copy a few days ago.
The intro to the movie is disturbing. I don’t know if those were videos of real incidents the director put into the movie or if they were created specifically to illustrate what people do on Purge Day, but it definitely sets the tone for what to expect.
The Sandin family is shown as being reasonably well-off as soon as the movie begins. Detractors of Purge Day believe it’s an excuse for people to target the poor, killing them and thus reducing the unemployment rate because there are just that much fewer people looking for jobs. Others, like James Sandin, are fully on the party line, that Purge Day is the time when people can gather up all that hate that’s been lingering inside them over the last year and let it out, to release the Beast, as so many people are fond of saying.
But we immediately see that the Sandins aren’t so much different from any other average family. They have two children: a teenage daughter, burgeoning on the verge of womanhood and a son who’s still determining his identity.
Okay, here’s where the spoilers begin. I’ll try to keep them few, but there are some plot points I have a bone to pick with.
The children are annoying. Why it occurs so often that young people are written as obnoxious, self-absorbed jerks, is beyond me. Sure, teens are a little self-involved at that age, but when there are people outside who would like to kill you, you’d think that would get put on a back burner.
First, the son disarms the security to let in a homeless man who is pleading for help. His father has already explained to him that it is extremely dangerous out (which doesn’t make sense unless the boy either just moved to the US or was in a coma for every Purge Day prior). The homeless man promptly disappears into the house after the daughter’s 20-something boyfriend who has snuck back in before the security was armed and tried to shoot James so he could be with his daughter. So you can make the case that everything that happened after that point was completely the son’s fault, but absolutely no one is the slightest bit upset with him that now people outside the house want to get in and kill everyone. Neither parent so much as calls him a bad boy.
Rewinding a little bit, the daughter, upon discovering her boyfriend is inside the house decides to completely check out and stay in her room with her earbuds in when her boyfriend says he wants to talk to her father. At no other point throughout the year did he indicate wanting to have this conversation so it should have been pretty apparent what he had in mind.
So then there are people who want to kill the homeless man the son, Charles let in the house. James is busy trying to find him and has explained to his son that it’s essentially us or him to his son, but his son actively hides this man.
Meanwhile, after the shootout between Zoey’s boyfriend (the daughter) and James, Henry, the boyfriend, dies in her bedroom. Rather than running to her parents because her boyfriend did something so unbelievably horrible, she stays with him until he dies and then hides somewhere in the house.
Nonsensical things like the children hiding from their parents when there are strange hobos or murderers roaming the house, monologuing (and that includes playing around with the machete instead of chopping up the intended victim) and people who conveniently show up to smoke the bad guy just before he/she/they can kill one of the protagonists. This story was rife with cliché and I haven’t even started on the three Christ figures in the movie (father, son, Holy hobo).
***EXTRA EXTRA SPOILER BELOW***
Okay, I can’t just leave that one hanging. Jesus died so we can live, right? James Sandin died as well. If you take the first initial from his name and his son’s you have JC. He was also stabbed through the side. Oh, and guess who else was stabbed through the side—the hobo. After James Sandin shot him. And then he delivered the family from evil by smoking one of the bad guys.
Look what happened overnight!
Where the Monsters Are is #18 on Kindle! Thanks a ton to everyone who downloaded a copy. I know you all will enjoy it and I hope you come back for more.
November 6, 2013
First review for Where the Monsters Are
I love this review! If you like #horror then this may be an eBook for you. Only 99¢!
Thank you for making Where the Monsters Are #43 on #kindle
I’m glad to see this 99¢ tale starting to catch on. If you’ve bought a copy, thank you, if you haven’t, please stop by the kindle store to download a copy.
Beetlejuice-Beetlejuice-Beetlejuice-Beetlejuice!
Well, it’s not an official press release, but when it comes to anything involving the Ghost with the Most, we’ll take every little tidbit we can get.
Hollywood is getting closer to conjuring “Beetlejuice 2,” with the man behind the makeup, Michael Keaton, now chiming in. The veteran actor and criminally underutilized national treasure was approached on the street by an exhausting TMZ crew about whether or not we’ll be seeing the further big-screen adventures of the Juilliard-trained ‘bio-exorcist.’
“Is it a go, is it a green light?” pesters the TMZ reporter, to which Keaton replied, “That’s what they’re telling me.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Want something else scary and different? Download Where the Monsters Are. Only $0.99.
November 4, 2013
October 30, 2013
Dad Cries After Kid Passes Math | TIME.com
Okay, this one made me a little weepy.
Once upon a time, there was a young British kid who had a hard time with math.
Then he studied hard for his exam and got a C, and his father was so impressed with this earth-shattering feat of averageness that he wept like a baby.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/10/22/dad-weeps-with-joy-over-sons-average-report-card/
October 26, 2013
Another Review for “The Best Night of the Year” #amreading #horror #bynr
I’ll let this one speak for itself. Download a copy if you’re looking for a good #Halloween read.
I stumbled onto Gerald Dean Rice on Facebook and saw the new cover for this book and thought I’d give it a shot. Three stories just 37 pages and it’s less than a dollar.
This is a very short collection but it does make for a good introduction to Rice’s work. Each story is solid and while they aren’t gory they are in a style that reminds me of The Twilight Zone, or even Night Gallery. This is classic horror and done well.
I’m glad I stumbled onto Rice and plan on reading as much as I can from this guy. He knows how to craft a story and after I read the last one in this collection I was upset because it was over. If you love classic horror that relies more on story telling than violence and gore pick this up. You won’t be dissapointed
Read the first review here.
October 25, 2013
The Reviews are Coming in for The Best Night of the Year
This is a long one, but a good one. Thanks, Chuck Briggs! Download a copy- only 99¢!
I first encountered Gerald Dean Rice while slogging through some freebie zombie epics. As a rule, I don’t care for the genre – although I was a huge fan of George R. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” and even the Zack Snyder remake. Most of the zombie books I’ve encountered so far are just so much macho swaggering, damn the liberals, survivalist wet-dream fantasy. Not all of it, certainly. Who doesn’t like “The Walking Dead,” “World War Z” and “Sean of the Dead?” Anyway, in Gerald’s case, I came across his free read “The Thirty Minute Plan” (recommended) on Goodreads. I liked it. Sure, there was some tough guy, macho swaggering, but the macho types weren’t “told-ya-so” survivalists. They were prisoners pressed into the military by a panicked and faltering government. These were the guys marked “expendable” who somehow managed to keep their swagger and self-respect even though they’re literally at the bottom of the food chain. ” The Thirty Minute Plan” was a fast, intense and thought provoking, grim but defiant read. Not perfect, but damned good and with an unusual after resonance.
So, I made a note to keep an eye on this writer.
A couple of free reads and some flash fiction on Facebook later, my suspicions were confirmed. Gerald Dean Rice has the chops. His prose, although clean and unpretentious (the model obviously being Stephan King’s “Big Mac and Fries” metaphor. In horror, that’s GOOD. If the horror is presented in straightforward, almost documentary style, it is much more believable. That’s why Rod Serling was such a great narrator for the Twilight Zone and Orson Welles, one of the greatest figures of theatrical and cinematic history, failed at the job. Serling played it straight making what followed seem so much more real.)
Gerald is not afraid to write for popular tastes and follow trends, as witnessed by his love for zombie stories, but there is much more going on here. He ably shifts his voice and writing style to match whichever era he’s working in with his current flash fiction, “Historical Zombie” incidents. He’s also written some excellent, non-zombie dark fantasy, or as he calls it “weird fiction.” Well, as Billy Joel put it : “Dark Fantasy, Weird fiction, Quiet Horror, Splatterpunk, it’s all rock and roll to me.”
A 99 cent “dollar baby,” “The Best Night of the Year” is a collection of three of Gerald’s stories. The first one, “Mona” is a straight forward, old fashioned, hick cops in a witch house story. This looks like an earlier effort with a little bit of sloppy writing and a few too many clichés. Some of these, rightly, come from the mouths of the characters and are forgivable (people actually talk like that,) but some of it spills into the descriptive writing and should be cut back. Two or three of these are all you really need to establish character. However, the story itself is very good. You just KNOW this is going to get nasty when the redneck cops check out the suspect’s bathroom. NO problem with the descriptions here! And so, this story, although not as polished as a lot of Gerald’s work still keeps you reading and comes to a satisfying if not appetizing conclusion. Very good, old school, “Creepshow” style horror. Four stars.
The next story, the main attraction, “The Best Night of the Year” is superb. I love this kind story. The scares, weirdness and growing dread are perfectly executed, but more important is the subtext of what is going between the characters, A young father takes his kid out “trick or treating” on Halloween and allows the inevitable, weird kid/outcast/loner to tag along — in spite of his awful costume and just plain creepy personality. Anyone who has ever tried to do “the right thing” and had it blow up in his face can relate to this. Highly recommended! “The Best Night of the Year” deserves to be a classic. It sticks with you hours after you read it because the characters, the horror payoff and the underlying sense of decent humanism that somehow survives the encounter not only frightens but, oddly, uplifts. Five stars. Well done!
The final story, “Do Not Dig” is a zombie story but seems to fall outside of the whole “zombie apocalypse” sub-genre. Although it raises more questions than it answers, maybe not a bad thing, “Do Not Dig” is actually pretty good. Take a couple of gravediggers, a funeral for a very, very rich man who had a bit of a reputation for dabbling in the occult, shake well and serve chilled in an empty cemetery. Four stars.
For a buck, you can do a lot worse.
#Call for Manuscripts (Another Shark in the Water)
It’s been a while since I found one of these guys who promise to take your manuscript and publish it in eBook form.
X Publishing is requesting proposals for books to be published on iPad, Kindle, and Nook. eBook technology is changing the publishing world. iPad, Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, and Sony Reader created profitable mass markets for eBooks. We at X Publishing are here to help you take advantage of that.
We invite you to submit a query letter or manuscript for consideration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I retain the rights to my book?
Yes. You retain all print rights, which means that when your eBook gets discovered by a big publishing company, you’ll receive 100% of those royalties.
How much will you edit my manuscript?
Not too much. If your manuscript needs major edits, it probably will be rejected. We will edit for clarity and concision. You will have the opportunity to approve or reject all edits.
Do I have to pay anything?
No. If your manuscript is selected, you will pay nothing to have your book published.
How much do you sell your eBooks for?
We prefer to sell eBooks at low prices with the goal of stimulating more sales volume, profits, and royalties. We default to charging $2.99 per eBook, but are open to your preferences on pricing, especially if you have already built a target audience with which you are familiar.
How much will I earn in royalties?
The fortunate few chosen to write for traditional publishers receive around $2 in royalties for each $20 hardcover book sold, according to the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency, an agent that represents writers. Your royalties will be 230% higher than that. You’ll receive $1 for each $2.99 eBook sold.
I’m not sure if my manuscript is good enough. Should I submit?
If you’re on the fence, we suggest submitting. X Publishing can often say yes to manuscripts that traditional publishers will reject because our costs are lower.
I took out the name because I don’t want to give these guys any more press than this. Let’s break this down piece by piece. Notice at the very beginning how they are only publishing your manuscript as an eBook? That should be a warning flag right there. ePublishing is something that is super easy that anyone can do. I even wrote a book about it that retails for $2.99. Now that’s not just a plug (well, it is a plug, but I’ll come back to it in a moment).
You might be saying at this point, ‘hey, so what it’s only electronic where they publish, they’re not charging me anything’. This is very true if you mean there’s no upfront cost. But what they are charging you on the back end. Their price-point is $2.99. Now on Amazon (just about everyone follows closely what Amazon pays) the publisher will earn $2.05 per unit sold. They are pocketing 51% of that and paying you a buck. Now you may be thinking, hey, that’s actually a pretty good deal, if my book were published by a traditional publisher, I’d be making way less than that (which is true and is pointed out by these guys). But what a real publisher is giving you outweighs anything these guys have said they’d do for you.
Notice nothing is said about the creation of a cover, extensive editing services, advertising of your book, book tours, etc. All these things are what the big boys do to promote your book so it can sell. So what you are giving up in royalty percentage, you are more than gaining in units sold (ideally). But these guys are getting you on the cheap. They make no mention of promoting you, which means you are left to promote yourself. They make no mention of creating a cover for you, which means you either are going to create your own cover, pay them to create your cover, or pay someone else to create your cover. Now, there are some places you can have a cover made without spending a lot of dough (again, you can read about that in my $2.99 book) or you can wait until you’ve signed the bottom line with these guys to see which option you are left with.
Next! You do retain the rights to your work. Of course you do. You just are signing away your right to publish it yourself for a term of service. Something between 3 to 5 years. And by them saying they’ll be your publisher until an actual publisher comes along to buy the rights, that big publisher is buying the rights from them, not you. You’ve already handed over the rights to publish (you can never surrender ownership of your story–it’s a semantics trick).
The reason they don’t want to edit your manuscript is because they are looking for people to hand over their work so they can publish right now. They herd you in the right direction to get cover created and they can have your book on e-shelves in a few days time with little to no financial investment on their part.
Again, self-publishing an eBook is very simple and super-easy. I take you through the whole process in my book, and instead of paying them $1.05 per book, you can buy mine for a one-time charge of $2.99. But you can always buy anyone’s book on self-publishing in the digital age and come out way cheaper than anything these guys can do for you.
