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Review: Savage Species Part 1: Night Terrors by Jonathan Janz

Reblogged from Reads -- Rants -- Ramblings:

Savage Species Part 1: Night Terrors by Jonathan Janz

Savage Species is a new serial novel by Jonathan Janz that is being released by Samhain Publishing. There are five parts being released every two weeks starting June 4, 2013. This review covers only part 1, Night Terrors.

Night Terrors starts off with a flashback scene about Shane Dulin, who was helping build a walking bridge at a new state park that was getting ready to open.

Read more… 500 more words

Brand-New Review of the FREE First Installment of Savage Species!

 

Savage Species: Night Terrors available now for FREE!

Let’s begin with the cover, shall we?

My Girl Charly

The lady in the above picture is Charly (pronounced like Snoopy’s owner) Florence (pronounced like the city…or the mom from The Brady Bunch). I’m very partial to her. She’s one of the three most important character in my serial horror novel Savage Species. In the FREE first installment (available right here) of Savage Species, Charly’s world—which is already difficult due to her heel of a husband—is plunged into nightmare. How and when that happens in Night Terrors I’ll let you discover. But when it does, Charly and her new friend Sam Bledsoe (a friend on whom she has a big crush) will have to summon all their strength and courage to overcome evil.

In the other half of the story…well, here’s the Samhain Horror synopsis:

“Jesse thinks he’s caught a break when he, the girl of his dreams, and her friend are assigned by their newspaper to cover the opening weekend of the Peaceful Valley Nature Preserve, a sprawling, isolated state park. But the construction of the park has stirred an evil that has lain dormant for nearly a century, and the three young people—as well as every man, woman, and child unlucky enough to be attending the grand opening—are about to encounter the most horrific creatures to ever walk the earth. A species so ferocious that Peaceful Valley is about to be plunged into a nightmare of bloodshed and damnation.”

Folks, early word on this novel and its free first installment has been incredible. Here are just a few of the raves:

Andrew Monge, a moderator at the Horror Drive-In had this to say: “The story reminded me of Monteleone’s NIGHT THINGS, which also deals with horrible creatures that are released from Indian grounds. The main difference I see so far is that while Montelone’s creatures were kind of kept in the shadows until later in the novel, Janz wastes no time unleashing his monsters upon the unsuspecting populace of Peaceful Valley. And trust me, folks…..these things are *nasty*.”

Dreadful Tales said of Savage Species, “Janz has prepared a brutally ferocious banquet which opens with such a welter of savage violence that those with an appetite for bloody, shrieking terror will find it hard to wait for the next course [...] as the reader is thrust into a maelstrom of fantastic and dreadful, slavering terror. This hard, biting horror which grips from the get go and will leave you trembling in anticipation for the next enthrallment.”

Publisher’s Weekly says, “Fans of old-school splatterpunk horror—Janz cites Richard Laymon as an influence, and it shows—will find much to relish.”

And Michael R. Collings, writing for Hellnotes said, “Which leads to the monster—monsters, actually, since by the end of Night Terrors there are hordes of them, each more vicious and ferocious than the last. They are actually quite fascinating. Think a huge Bigfoot crossed with Rick Hautala’s secretive and voracious Little Brothers; the improbably leaping Yeti from the Syfy channel’s 2008 offering, Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon, crossed with H.G. Wells’ Morlocks (at least as envisioned by George Pal in the 1960s The Time Machine); 1980s beach movies crossed with contemporary tales of urban horrors; ancient tribal legends come horrifyingly to life crossed with inept bureaucrats seeking to squeeze a profit out of a landscape that has apparently been uniquely empty of human life for centuries.

These monsters have two goals—to eat as many people as possible in as gory a manner as possible; and to rape nubile young women who are, conveniently enough, running through the forest in űber-skimpy bikinis. When they final reveal themselves, they fulfill both goals efficiently and graphically.”

So there you have it. I truly hope you all download the free first installment. I also hope you spread the word to as many people as possible.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy Charly, Sam, Jessie, and Emma as much as I do.

 

 

Does Romance Matter in Horror? See What Author Jonathan Janz Has to Say, Plus Info on New Savage Species Serial

Reblogged from Oh, for the HOOK of a BOOK!:

Samhain Publishing: Horror is blazing new trails for themselves by serializing their first original novel, Savage Species.  In five installments, with new installments coming every two weeks, you'll get a terrifying read that will propel you to the next. An introduction to Savage Species is amazingly awaiting you, as the first section, Night Terrors, is being offered absolutely free (over 100 pages of awesome reading), no strings attached....just nightmares! 

Read more… 1,271 more words

Why Love Matters...Even in a Blood-Soaked Tale of Terror

SAVAGE SPECIES Begins in One Week…

…on June 4th to be exact. At 12:01 a.m. the first installment of my new—and Samhain Horror’s first-ever—serial novel will be released for FREE! Have you pre-ordered your free hundred-and-ten pages of horror yet? If not, here are just a couple of the places you can get it:

Amazon

Samhain Horror

Free, Peeps! FREE! Let’s spread the word!

Folks, I think you all are really going to enjoy this one. And I hope you all check out Savage Species: Night Terrors on Tuesday.

 

 

Weekend Round-Up, YEE-HAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Okay, that was the most obnoxious blog post title I’ve ever composed, but I’m going to leave it because I’m proud of my cowboy heritage and the sequined chaps in my top drawer.

Was that out loud?

Free, Peeps! FREE! Let’s spread the word!

Anywho, lots of good stuff to catch you up on from the week, starting with Dark Mark and Dreadful Tales and a rootin’ tootin’ review of my upcoming serial novel SAVAGE SPECIES (You’re praying I won’t carry this cowboy metaphor through to the end of the post, aren’t you? Okay, I’ll stop with the yippee-ki-yays and the ornery cusses as long as you promise to download the FREE first installment of SAVAGE SPECIES, NIGHT TERRORS. Okay? And if you have already pre-ordered it, tell ten friends about it. Or six. Or I’ll come at you with my lasso and my strident ululations. And you don’t want that).

Oh. The review: http://dreadfultales.com/2013/05/16/savage-species-by-jonathan-janz/

Home of Dark Mark, Meli, and Other Twisted-but-Cool Folks

Secondly, I’ve announced it elsewhere (including the above article), so I might as well say it here too. I’m writing a sequel to THE SORROWS. It’s called CASTLE OF SORROWS and picks up where the last novel left off (which I guess is what most sequels do, huh?). I’m not going to go on about it because I don’t like to talk much about works-in-progress (including the new trilogy I’ve begun and the young adult project I’ve done some work on). Let’s just say I’m pumped about CASTLE OF SORROWS and leave it at that.

Gabriel Gets a Sequel!

Moving on…

Outstanding fellow Samhain Horror author Russell James had this to say about my recently-released novel THE DARKEST LULLABY: “This haunting, horrific book will stick with you long after you turn the last page. Through deft prose and illuminating description, Jonathan Janz creates this story of a couple trapped physically and psychically in a farm house in the midst of the forests of rural Indiana.” And one more: “DARKEST LULLABY hits every horror high note with perfect pitch.” Here’s Russell’s Goodreads review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/599453786

And lastly, author M.R. Gott was kind enough to read and review my sophomore novel HOUSE OF SKIN. See what M.R. had to say right here.

And that’s it for now. I’ll see you soon, pardn…friends. And remember that free download. If you don’t, you might just hear spurs janglin’ up your sidewalk tonight!

 

A Post-Mother’s Day Thought

Last Wednesday I took my daughters (five and two) to a buffet-style restaurant. A fiftyish woman saw me carrying my two-year-old and holding my five-year-old daughter’s hand and asked, “Mommy’s night off?”

I told her my wife was having a date with my son and that the two were just enjoying some time together. The woman gave me a rather admiring look and said, “You must be some husband to do that.”

My initial internal response was Wow, thanks! After all, who doesn’t like being complimented? But in the days and nights since then I’ve started to think more about it.

A Wholesome Holiday Family Film

Let’s put the shoe on the other foot. My wife is with my daughters, and they run into the same woman. First of all, does the woman give them a second glance? Nope. Secondly, if the woman does notice them, it would only be because my wife and daughters are the three most gorgeous girls in the universe. But the woman surely wouldn’t make it a point to tell me wife what a great mother she was, would she? Of course not. Because it’s just assumed that a woman should be a great mom.

See why this is bothering me?

The problem isn’t the woman we ran into at the restaurant. She was well-intentioned and very nice. The problem is a society that regards an involved father as some sort of glorious aberration. No, I’m not saying that all women are saintly because there are plenty of entitled, unappreciative women out there. And no, I’m not ripping all men, because I know a great many awesome dads who care deeply and are just as involved in their kids’ lives as anyone could be.

But there aren’t enough of them.

You want a societal problem? It ain’t violent movies or PEDs in professional sports.

It’s low expectations for fathers.

So now that Mother’s Day has come and gone, here’s a proposal to all the fathers reading this: Let’s be involved with our kids all year long and encourage other dads to do the same. Let’s make a father spending quality time with his kids such a common sight that no one notices it anymore.

That’s all. Have a great night, folks.

 

Travis Coble Slaughters the Critics

If you read this…

“I’m a mom. A reader. A reviewer. I have no professional publishing experience whatsoever. Yet I can almost guarantee that if Jonathan Janz decided to take Travis Coble and feature him in a full-length novel (or two or three…) – he would be making a very sound career move AND would earn himself a spot on this reader’s coveted “Must-Read” list! Reminiscent of Texas Chainsaw Massacre done literary-style, The Clearing of Travis Coble is a must-read for horror fans!”

…would you be interested in dropping a buck on a horror story? Maybe, maybe not? Then how about this…

“The suspense is subtle at first. It creeps up on you slowly and you become aware of something nasty coming soon. I swear I would have screamed if someone had spoken while I was reading the ending.”

Available now from Untreed Reads

Still not convinced? How about this one…

“For the shorter length, the author does a remarkable job of deepening several characters, kind of like holding a diamond up to the sunlight and turning it around and around looking at the various facets. Also the plotting here has the kick of a boomerang, when the thrower doesn’t think to get out of its way.”

…or this?

“Some of the most refreshing usage of vocabulary that I have seen in a long time. Excellent super creepy horror story, with an ending that you might think you see coming, but with a surprising twist.”

Enough. I’ll stop besieging you with blurbs and links. If you want to read this twisted tale, you can buy it right here.

Just don’t expect a happy ending.

THE HUNTER (Parker #1): An Ode to Richard Stark

You know, Donald Westlake and I have a lot in common. We both write under a pen name. Both of our novels feature moments of shocking violence. We both…write under pen names.

Okay, so maybe we aren’t so alike after all. But man, could that guy write.

I’ve been hearing about the Parker books for years (quick recap for the uninitiated—Westlake is the author’s real name, Stark is the pseudonym, Parker is the character), but for whatever reason I never checked them out.

Until a few weeks ago when I read Parker #1: The Hunter. And, as I’ve found several times over the past couple years (with J.K. Rowling, with Preston and Child, with George R.R. Martin‘s Fevre Dream, to name just a few), the reality is even more impressive than the hype.

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“I want him in my hands.”

The plot is as simple and old as any ever told—criminals plan a crime; afterward, there’s a double-cross (actually, a triple-cross); one man—Parker—is left for dead. But he isn’t dead. He’s alive and hungry for vengeance. Simple, right? So what is it, you ask, that makes Stark/Westlake so good?

Let me choose one moment from the novel to explain why this book worked so well for me and why I’ll be reading many Stark/Westlake novels in the future. But let me say one more thing first…

It’s sometimes said that there are three types of protagonists: positive, negative, and anti-heroes. With a negative lead, we might root for him, but we might feel bad for doing so because if society were to follow his lead, we’d all be in big trouble. Parker is a negative lead, but (based on this book, at least) negative doesn’t even begin to capture his amoral iciness.

Wonderful Artwork!

The moment in The Hunter that perfectly demonstrates how accomplished a writer Stark is (gotta start saying “Stark”—the “Stark/Westlake” thing was driving me nuts; you too, huh?) involves Parker tying a woman up and gagging her. This woman, keep in mind, is a completely innocent bystander. But she represents a potential obstacle to the attainment of Parker’s goal, which is killing the man who double-crossed him. Parker binds and gags her and leaves her in her office to momentarily put aside an obstacle. Parker goes to a different room to eye the building he’s staking out, but his potential victim doesn’t show. When he goes back to the office in which the woman is bound and gagged, he finds her eyes bugging out and her face an unnaturally livid color.

She’s dead. He has inadvertently killed her. She apparently experienced some sort of respiratory or allergic medical event, and she died a horrible death, probably by suffocation. Parker’s reaction?

Mild annoyance. It bothers him that she now represents a potential hitch in his plans. What if, Parker wonders, this complicates things for him? What if this prevents him from killing his adversary?

Unspeakably cold, right?

So if you’ve never read Stark you’re shaking your head and saying, “What a sick, depraved character. What a sick, depraved book. What a sick, depraved writer to come up with such filth!” Okay, you’re probably not saying that because if you’re visiting this blog, you already know that effective fiction can get really, really dark. And yeah, Parker’s attitude is unconscionable, at least if we were to transfer it to our world.

But we’re not in our world; we’re in Stark’s. See, it’s an impossible phenomenon for me to describe, but maybe this’ll come close: Parker reminds us how primitive human beings can be. Parker is a mirror held up to our basest nature. When he kills a bad guy, we celebrate. We might not be proud of our reaction, but that inner beast is part of us whether we like it or not.

“Okay, Mr. Armchair Psychoanalyst,” you say, “then what about the suffocated secretary?”

What about her? the Stark fan asks. Parker didn’t mean to kill her, nor did he enjoy the fact of her death.

“But…but…,” you splutter, “he KILLED a woman and didn’t feel any remorse!”

The Stark fan’s answer? That’s how Parker rolls. An answer almost as cold and unfeeling as Parker himself.

“That doesn’t cut it,” you say. “You can’t root for a hero without a conscience.”

But the Parker fan knows that, while a conscience is an important trait for a human being, it’s not necessarily required for a great protagonist. Not when the protagonist is Parker.

Because Parker is determined. Man, is he determined. And we admire that. He’s also uncompromising. He lives by a code, and he sticks to that code regardless of the dangers of doing so. Parker is powerful—especially his hands. Stark fixates on and waxes poetic about Parker’s hands the way Tarantino lingers on women’s feet. It’s fetishistic, to be sure, and it’s mesmerizing. We want to know what Parker will do with those hands. But we don’t know what he’ll do with them, which is another thing we love about Parker. He’s unpredictable. And smart. To steal a phrase from Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting, he’s wicked smart.

The (Dark) Magic Man

I’ll stop now. If you’re not convinced by now to read Stark’s ferocious hero, you’ll never be convinced. You’re likely still hung up on that poor secretary. Truth be told, I am too, else I wouldn’t be writing about her.

But I’m also going back for more Parker.

Wish me luck.

New Interview with Me (All Sorts of Goodies in This One, My Friends!)

Good evening. This interview was posted on April 8th, so it’s not new. But none of you have probably read it. Why not? Because I didn’t mention it until tonight. Why didn’t I? Because I’m a loser.

It’s COMING…

So in this interview (conducted by the very cool writer M.R. Gott) I talk about all sorts of awesome stuff. Just a few topics that are covered: Stephen King, ‘Salem’s Lot, Jack Ketchum, Me, Brian Keene, Special Agent Pendergast, George R.R. Martin‘s Fevre Dream, Me, Joe R. Lansdale, my books, Jack Ketchum’s Red, Peter Straub‘s Ghost Story, scary women, Mr. Majestyk, Tim Lebbon, Me, Roland Deschain, Lord Byron, and my upcoming serial novel SAVAGE SPECIES.

Here’s an excerpt:

Q: Your work Savage Species is going to be released this summer in serialized form.  How did this project come together?

A: Ah, this is one I’m incredibly excited about. I had written about, oh, sixty percent of the book when my agent Louise Fury told me that she’d had a conversation over dinner with Don D’Auria (my amazing editor at Samhain), and two other people at or near the top of the Samhain Publishing company hierarchy. At that dinner the idea of a serialized horror novel materialized…

To read the rest, you’ll have to click the link!

Anyway, M.R. Gott asked some outstanding questions. I really enjoyed the interview, and I hope you do, too. Here ya go!

 

 

“Dying to Meet You”: A Guest Post by Hunter Shea

As you read this, know that I’m one day closer to my death.

I’m dying, little by little, day by day.

Then again, so are you. It’s as inevitable as death in Alaska. Or something with taxes. Or Wesley Snipes.

Of all the uncertainties that we face in our lives, from wondering where you’ll get your next job to hoping that cute girl in accounting won’t call HR if you ask her out, there is only one thing that’s a surefire, foregone conclusion. We’re all going tits-up one day.

When the 2012 mania was in full swing and I talked to people who actually believed that the world was going to end, I told them I looked forward to the apocalypse. You see, with my way of thinking, it’s better to slip off this plane with billions of people than alone while mowing my lawn. I honestly felt that some of these folks wanted the Mayans to be right. My New Year’s vow was to spend less time talking to them.

I’m amazed by how little we devote to contemplating our death. I used to study with a Buddhist monk. I’ve never been more relaxed in my life than when I was in his presence. He once gave me a meditation contemplative to use and I’ll never forget it. As I let my breathing flow, I would say, over and over, “I could die today.” It was really powerful and took my mind to some strange, but enlightening places.

Most people want to live while they’re alive because there’s plenty of time to think about death when you’re shaking hands with rigor mortis. Me, I have to know more. I want to see what’s waiting for us on the other side. I’m loving life, but I’m damn interested in what happens when life has played itself out. Ballgame over. Or is it?

This explains my fascination with ghosts. Of all the supernatural experiences recorded throughout human history, none is more prevalent and far reaching as sightings of ghosts, or spirits, or phantoms. What are they? Who are they? Are they proof of an afterlife, or an extension of the untapped powers of the living mind? Or glimpses of very much alive people caught in an inter-dimensional slip?

I don’t know. I’ve seen ghosts. We have one living in our house. He’s as much a part of the family as our vindictive cat. But I have no idea what he actually is. I just know that he shows up from time to time, only scaring my wife once when he wouldn’t let her pass by him in the kitchen. It’s creepy when you say it out loud, but when you live it, you get used to it. He’s far less annoying than my neighbors who think  10:00 at night is a great time to start a house party that will go on until the sun comes up – or the cops arrive.

So, I write about ghosts. I get invited to come to haunted places. I’ll even tag along with a professional paranormal team this year. Maybe I’ll find my answers. Maybe I’ll just find more questions. And maybe my neighbors will move. Dare to dream.

My latest novel, Sinister Entity, is, naturally, about ghosts. Or more specifically, about a 19 year old ghost hunter named Jessica who’s taken up the family business and still has a lot to learn. If you’re into ghosts, poltergeists and doppelgangers, take the plunge. Jessica’s quest is very much my own. She’s just a hell of a lot cooler than me.

*You can purchase Hunter’s brand-new nightmare Sinister Entity at the above link or right here at the Samhain store. I haven’t read this one yet, but based on how fantastic Forest of Shadows and Evil Eternal were, I’m betting this one’s gonna rock too.

**Hunter wrote this post prior to the Waco blast last week. The original line above read “death in Texas,” but I didn’t want anyone to think Hunter was alluding to that event. So I changed it to Alaska. Which isn’t a saying that I’m aware of and doesn’t have the same ring to it. I’m sorry to any offended Alaskans.