Bradley Convissar's Blog, page 5
July 15, 2011
Pandora's Children: The Complete Nightmares
Within 2 weeks, I am going to be releasing Pandora's Children: The Complete Nightmares, a two volume set collection all 22 of the short stories found in the five currently available Pandora's Children books as well as Book 5: speaking with the Dead, available soon.
To encourage people to purchase the omnibus editions ($2.99 each) instead of the individual books, I am going to be raising the price of the middle 3 books, Too Young To Die, Death Bleeds Into Life and The Wretched Ones to $1.99 each around July 24th.
Book 1: In the Chair and the forthcoming Book 5: Speaking with the Dead will stay at $.99 in perpetuity, and Dark Interludes will forever remain free because I want to give new readers a cheaper jumping in point.
So if you have read any of the volumes and are considering picking up others, now is the time to do so.
If you are a fan of good old psychological horror, you won't be disappointed
You can find all four currently available Pandora's Children books, as well as my 25,000 word novella Dogs of War at my author pages below.
Enjoy!
Amazon: [url]http://www.amazon.com/Bradley-Conviss...
Barnes and Nobles: [url]http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/bradl...
and Smashwords for other formats
[url]http://www.smashwords.com/profile/vie...
To encourage people to purchase the omnibus editions ($2.99 each) instead of the individual books, I am going to be raising the price of the middle 3 books, Too Young To Die, Death Bleeds Into Life and The Wretched Ones to $1.99 each around July 24th.
Book 1: In the Chair and the forthcoming Book 5: Speaking with the Dead will stay at $.99 in perpetuity, and Dark Interludes will forever remain free because I want to give new readers a cheaper jumping in point.
So if you have read any of the volumes and are considering picking up others, now is the time to do so.
If you are a fan of good old psychological horror, you won't be disappointed
You can find all four currently available Pandora's Children books, as well as my 25,000 word novella Dogs of War at my author pages below.
Enjoy!
Amazon: [url]http://www.amazon.com/Bradley-Conviss...
Barnes and Nobles: [url]http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/bradl...
and Smashwords for other formats
[url]http://www.smashwords.com/profile/vie...
June 18, 2011
June 16, 2011
What's That Smell for $200, Alex
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I am a Jeopardy junkie. I tape it every night, and my wife and I will watch the episodes in spurts. If you watch Jeopardy, you know that after the first commercial brake, halfway through the first round, Alex interviews the contestants. I always wondered what story I would tell. And this is what I settled on. Is it great? No. But it doesn't have to great, because everything is relative, and relatively speaking, most of the stories told suck. So here we go:
Have you ever woken up on a Sunday morning to frantic sound of knocking on your door? Sure you have. We all have. But most of the time its a Jehovah's Witness or another religious zealot sticking his nose in where it doesn't belong, or some kids trying to sell candy bars to pay for new wrestling unitards or cheerleading outfitsBut have you ever opened the front door early on a Sunday morning and find two men standing in biohazard suits waiting for you? Bet you haven't. But I have.
It was several weeks after 9/11, and I was living in an apartment complex in Edison, New Jersey, and everyone was paranoid. And when someone smelled something strange...
Anyway, we were given just enough time clothing and then ushered out of the house. No time to put in contact lenses or even take a piss. Thankfully I knew where my glasses were. I felt like I was an extra in the sequel to the movie Outbreak, and as my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were forced out along with every other bleary-eyed resident, I couldn't help but scan the roof for a loose monkey. I saw none, and was slightly disappointed. But I did see plenty of police cars, fire engines, and guys in funny outfitsWe were told we wouldn't be allowed back into the apartment until the mystery subtance that was discovered was fully examined, and they didn't know how long that would be. It was cold, so we left for her parents' house, stopping along the way at a CVS to use the restroom.
We returned ten hours later as dusk set in and found everything quiet. We talked to a couple of neighbors and learned the truth of the mystery liquid that was found in the entranceway to the apartment building:Curry.
Someone had spilled curry. And someone else freaked out and called the police.
Now, you have to understand, Edison, NJ has a very large Indian population, and the smell of curry is very prominent. Pervasive, even. When we moved into the apartment, the handles to all of the kitchen cabinets were covered with a thin layer of curry powder, and if I could have stripped the wallpaper, I would have, because the smell had just sunk in.
To live in Edison is to be intimate with the smell of curry.
Obviously someone was new in town, and instead of maybe asking someone what the strange smell was, he panicked and called the police.
As if someone would waste their time on a chemical attack against a small apartment building in Northern New Jersey.Dumbass.
See... not a great story, but better than the crap that most people spew on Jeopardy.
I still can't smell curry without seeing a biohazard suit in my mind's eye. Indian food has been ruined for me forever.
I am a Jeopardy junkie. I tape it every night, and my wife and I will watch the episodes in spurts. If you watch Jeopardy, you know that after the first commercial brake, halfway through the first round, Alex interviews the contestants. I always wondered what story I would tell. And this is what I settled on. Is it great? No. But it doesn't have to great, because everything is relative, and relatively speaking, most of the stories told suck. So here we go:
Have you ever woken up on a Sunday morning to frantic sound of knocking on your door? Sure you have. We all have. But most of the time its a Jehovah's Witness or another religious zealot sticking his nose in where it doesn't belong, or some kids trying to sell candy bars to pay for new wrestling unitards or cheerleading outfitsBut have you ever opened the front door early on a Sunday morning and find two men standing in biohazard suits waiting for you? Bet you haven't. But I have.
It was several weeks after 9/11, and I was living in an apartment complex in Edison, New Jersey, and everyone was paranoid. And when someone smelled something strange...
Anyway, we were given just enough time clothing and then ushered out of the house. No time to put in contact lenses or even take a piss. Thankfully I knew where my glasses were. I felt like I was an extra in the sequel to the movie Outbreak, and as my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were forced out along with every other bleary-eyed resident, I couldn't help but scan the roof for a loose monkey. I saw none, and was slightly disappointed. But I did see plenty of police cars, fire engines, and guys in funny outfitsWe were told we wouldn't be allowed back into the apartment until the mystery subtance that was discovered was fully examined, and they didn't know how long that would be. It was cold, so we left for her parents' house, stopping along the way at a CVS to use the restroom.
We returned ten hours later as dusk set in and found everything quiet. We talked to a couple of neighbors and learned the truth of the mystery liquid that was found in the entranceway to the apartment building:Curry.
Someone had spilled curry. And someone else freaked out and called the police.
Now, you have to understand, Edison, NJ has a very large Indian population, and the smell of curry is very prominent. Pervasive, even. When we moved into the apartment, the handles to all of the kitchen cabinets were covered with a thin layer of curry powder, and if I could have stripped the wallpaper, I would have, because the smell had just sunk in.
To live in Edison is to be intimate with the smell of curry.
Obviously someone was new in town, and instead of maybe asking someone what the strange smell was, he panicked and called the police.
As if someone would waste their time on a chemical attack against a small apartment building in Northern New Jersey.Dumbass.
See... not a great story, but better than the crap that most people spew on Jeopardy.
I still can't smell curry without seeing a biohazard suit in my mind's eye. Indian food has been ruined for me forever.
June 10, 2011
Castles by Benjamin X Wretlind: A disturbing coming of age story
Castles is one of those books that is tough to read. Not because of the writing, which is tight and professional, but because of the subject matter. Castles is, at its core, a coming of age story that follows a girl, Maggie, from childhood to young adulthood. It is a visceral tale on many levels, one that makes you squirm because what you are reading is so horrible, yet prevalent in the world today.
It is a stark story of abuse, rape, victimization and revenge, and there isn't necessarily a happy ending, depending on how you read the story. The only person Maggie trusted as a child, her grandmother, dies while she is still young, leaving her to the mercies of her mother, whose mood changes as the wheels of her own life turn, and the men she brings home to fill the hole in her own life. As she grows older and watches as everything that was good thing in her life dies (the boy she loses her virginity to and the dog they shared), she follows the same path as her mother, choosing relationships that are self-destructive. The difference between her and her mother, though, is that she finally listens to the words that the ghost of her grandmother (or memory, depending on how you read it) share with her. Instructions on how to clean up the mess she has made of her life. The end of the story is open ended in my opinion. Is Maggie going mad after what she has done? Is she going to continue getting into destructive situations just so she has messes to clean up? Or, now that she has cleaned up the mess that was her childhood, is she going to try and close that chapter in her life and live on?
Castles in an interesting story about abuse and family cycles and how they affect the mindset of the people involved. People on the outside looking in may say, "It's over, grow up, make something or your life." But it's never that easy, is it? Once abuse and death and murder become staples of your life, is it possible to become "normal"? Or does that way of life warp the mind enough that there is no coming back?
I enjoyed my time reading Castles (as much as anyone can enjoy reading something of this subject matter). Ben could have been more descriptive in many of his scenes, could have turned the reader's stomach more,but thankfully, he found a nice balance between giving us enough but not too much. Just because there is rape and assault doesn't mean every second has to be described in all of its violent, ugly glory. As for typos, if there were any, I didn't notice them.
So pick up Castles. It is a well written tale designed to make you feel uncomfortable. And isn't that what good horror is supposed to do?
June 8, 2011
20th Century Ghosts: A Quick Review
It's not fair. I know. Being the son of the man who lifted Horror back into the mainstream world of books.
I like Joe Hill. I loved Heart-Shaped Box. And I liked Horns a lot. And I'll buy his next novel.
But 20th Century Ghosts... well, I was expecting more.
I was expected something like: killer toys and killer machines and killed aliens and killer rats and killer children.I was expecting monsters.
I was expecting fun.
I know, it's not fair to compare his work to his father's. They are individuals with individual writing styles and different visions. But I just couldn't help but remember back to Night Shift and how much fun it was to read because of the monsters and the kookiness.
20th Century Ghosts... most, but not all, of the stories center around loss. Loss of a child, of a parent, of a sibling, of a friend. Loss of innocence. Loss of childhood. And a lot of the stories, though not all, are built around the children of broken or downright strange families. While thought provoking, I found most of the stories, well, depressing. And not really fun to read. We all remember The Mangler and Sometimes They Come Back and Children of the Corn and The Ledge and Quitters Inc. They were fun stories. Quirky and weird, and I will often go back and re-read some of those stories. I can not see myself wanting to re-read any stories from Ghosts.That's not to say that the stories are bad; they are not. They are well written. Tightly written. And they will make you think.
But for me, they border more on Literature. Now, there is nothing wrong with Literature. I just prefer something a little more fun in my horror. A lot of these stories... I felt like they were what Steinbeck would write if he had a little Poe, a little Kafka, in him.
Like I said, they weren't bad stories. Just, well, a little depressing. Some ended abruptly, leaving you scratching your head. Some went on a little too long. And some were, well, a little bizarre. Very little in the way of supernatural, mostly awful human beings driving the action.
My favorite stories were: Best New Horror, The Black Phone, The Cape and Last Breath.It's a good book, and you will enjoy if you are into serious, pensive horror.
But don't go in expecting The Mist or The Monkey or I Know What You Need, because you won't find it.You will find pensive and bizarre and serious and disturbing.
But very little that I would consider fun. Quite frankly, many of the stories felt me feeling depressed afterwards.
Agree? Disagree? Tell me what you think.
June 3, 2011
Modern Horror in Books- One Man's Opinion
This post was originally published on the Paranormal Wire, but now I am sharing it on my own blog. It's basically a discussion of the evolution of the horror genre in my eyes. This is one man's opinion- I am doing zero research- and just want to express my feelings about how written horror is perceived these days. Just a warning... I am a rambler, and not half as eloquent as I am when I write fiction. Remember, I'm just a dentist. I am sure I am going to step on some people's toes, and there are some who may say, quite imperiously, I may add: "How dare he! Who is he to decide what is good and not good in horror! He has done nothing!" All true, but it doesn't make my opinion any less valid. I am a fan and have been for two decades, I have read hundreds of books across all horror sub-genres, and I am going to talk, dammit!
My first taste of written horror came in the late eighties and early nineties when I began reading Christopher Pike books. At that time, it seemed that there was only him and RL Stine when it came to teenage horror/thriller, though I didn't read Stine. Pike is considered Thriller by most people, but some of his stuff was terrifying, and I'll put one of his feet in the horror category.
When I started high school in 1991 was when I finally put down my Hardy Boys and Choose Your Own Adventure Books and the Christopher Pike books and picked up Stephen King. I can't tell you which book I read first, but my father was a huge King fan, so I already had access to all of his books. But it wasn't just King I read... it was Dean Koontz and John Saul and Peter Straub and Clive Barker. I know that there are other authors, like Richard Matheson (I am Legend, Stir of Echoes, Hell House) who were around at the time, but I read mostly the authors previously listed. They were the commercially successful authors and they were the ones I gravitated towards. Hell, in the nineties, if you went to the horror section of Borders, there wasn't much beyond King, Koontz, Straub and Saul. Anne Rice, true, and a handful of books by Leisure Publishing, but that was it.
And what did all of these authors have in common? Compared to today's horror authors, they were like Shakespeare. These authors, again, in my opinion, concentrated on three important things in a particular order: CHARACTER, PLOT, SCARES.
I don't want to demean today's new crop of horror authors (some of them have been around for a while, though in relative obscurity), like Richard Laymon, Edward Lee, Bentley Little, and Brian Keene (to name just a few). But after reading some of their work, it seems that the order has been changed around: SCARE/GORE, PLOT, CHARACTER.
Now, I don't want to imply that there is anything wrong with this. There is a large population of horror readers that enjoy this and who am I to judge. Different strokes for different folks. I'm just not one of those people.
When I start chatting up on the Kindle Horror forums, and some of the Goodread horror forums, it seems that the genre has shifted... to zombies, to viruses, to post-apocalyptic worlds, to gore for gore's sake. And I feel that when someone says horror nowadays, they no longer mean what I think of horror. In essence, the genre has been redefined in my eyes.
When I think of horror movies of this century, I think of the SAW movies. I think of Hostile. I think of Paranormal Activity. I think of gratuitous blood and gore and violence and cheap scares as being the archetype. This is what people want out of their horror movies. But in the seventies, horror movies were much different... Jaws, The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby... I don't think these things would be considered horror by today's movie standards. Supernatural thriller, maybe. But not horror. These movies are way too subtle to be horror movies. Way to slow. Way to concerned with character.
Sometimes I wonder if Carrie or Salem's Lot came out today, would they be considered horror? Or thriller? Or suspense? Or just shoved in the general fiction shelves. Would The Stand be considered horror or literature?
Sometimes I feel that shock value is used as a crutch for lack of plot and character. Not always, but often. There is something to be said for leaving some things to the reader's imagination.
One of my favorite King books is actually one of his newer novels, Duma Key. It is 600 or 700 pages long. And the main villain doesn't make an appearance until the very end. Sure, her subtle evil influence can be felt throughout the book, and that is the joy of Stephen King: he doesn't hit you over the head. He is able to explore character and plot without throwing the bad guy in your face the entire book. That's a rarity in these days of electronics and instant gratification. It seems that a lot of readers just don't want to take the time to get engaged with a book that is more subtle and takes time to build momentum. They need to be smacked across the face right from the beginning or they're moving on to the next thing.
What is the point of this little exercise? Yes, it is personal. I've been debating ever since I began self-publishing my short stories how I want categorize them. Thriller? Suspense? Horror? Dark fiction? Some people may say that is a matter of semantics, but I do not agree. How you categorize your books affects who is going to buy them, and I am left to wonder if the people who are searching for horror are searching for the "new" horror or for the classic psychological horror. Because if they are looking for guts and gore and zombies, then they won't be looking for me. And that means maybe I have to consider re-defining what I write if I want the right people to find it.
Okay, I'm done. Leave comments if you like.
My first taste of written horror came in the late eighties and early nineties when I began reading Christopher Pike books. At that time, it seemed that there was only him and RL Stine when it came to teenage horror/thriller, though I didn't read Stine. Pike is considered Thriller by most people, but some of his stuff was terrifying, and I'll put one of his feet in the horror category.
When I started high school in 1991 was when I finally put down my Hardy Boys and Choose Your Own Adventure Books and the Christopher Pike books and picked up Stephen King. I can't tell you which book I read first, but my father was a huge King fan, so I already had access to all of his books. But it wasn't just King I read... it was Dean Koontz and John Saul and Peter Straub and Clive Barker. I know that there are other authors, like Richard Matheson (I am Legend, Stir of Echoes, Hell House) who were around at the time, but I read mostly the authors previously listed. They were the commercially successful authors and they were the ones I gravitated towards. Hell, in the nineties, if you went to the horror section of Borders, there wasn't much beyond King, Koontz, Straub and Saul. Anne Rice, true, and a handful of books by Leisure Publishing, but that was it.
And what did all of these authors have in common? Compared to today's horror authors, they were like Shakespeare. These authors, again, in my opinion, concentrated on three important things in a particular order: CHARACTER, PLOT, SCARES.
I don't want to demean today's new crop of horror authors (some of them have been around for a while, though in relative obscurity), like Richard Laymon, Edward Lee, Bentley Little, and Brian Keene (to name just a few). But after reading some of their work, it seems that the order has been changed around: SCARE/GORE, PLOT, CHARACTER.
Now, I don't want to imply that there is anything wrong with this. There is a large population of horror readers that enjoy this and who am I to judge. Different strokes for different folks. I'm just not one of those people.
When I start chatting up on the Kindle Horror forums, and some of the Goodread horror forums, it seems that the genre has shifted... to zombies, to viruses, to post-apocalyptic worlds, to gore for gore's sake. And I feel that when someone says horror nowadays, they no longer mean what I think of horror. In essence, the genre has been redefined in my eyes.
When I think of horror movies of this century, I think of the SAW movies. I think of Hostile. I think of Paranormal Activity. I think of gratuitous blood and gore and violence and cheap scares as being the archetype. This is what people want out of their horror movies. But in the seventies, horror movies were much different... Jaws, The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby... I don't think these things would be considered horror by today's movie standards. Supernatural thriller, maybe. But not horror. These movies are way too subtle to be horror movies. Way to slow. Way to concerned with character.
Sometimes I wonder if Carrie or Salem's Lot came out today, would they be considered horror? Or thriller? Or suspense? Or just shoved in the general fiction shelves. Would The Stand be considered horror or literature?
Sometimes I feel that shock value is used as a crutch for lack of plot and character. Not always, but often. There is something to be said for leaving some things to the reader's imagination.
One of my favorite King books is actually one of his newer novels, Duma Key. It is 600 or 700 pages long. And the main villain doesn't make an appearance until the very end. Sure, her subtle evil influence can be felt throughout the book, and that is the joy of Stephen King: he doesn't hit you over the head. He is able to explore character and plot without throwing the bad guy in your face the entire book. That's a rarity in these days of electronics and instant gratification. It seems that a lot of readers just don't want to take the time to get engaged with a book that is more subtle and takes time to build momentum. They need to be smacked across the face right from the beginning or they're moving on to the next thing.
What is the point of this little exercise? Yes, it is personal. I've been debating ever since I began self-publishing my short stories how I want categorize them. Thriller? Suspense? Horror? Dark fiction? Some people may say that is a matter of semantics, but I do not agree. How you categorize your books affects who is going to buy them, and I am left to wonder if the people who are searching for horror are searching for the "new" horror or for the classic psychological horror. Because if they are looking for guts and gore and zombies, then they won't be looking for me. And that means maybe I have to consider re-defining what I write if I want the right people to find it.
Okay, I'm done. Leave comments if you like.
June 1, 2011
Pandora's Children Book 4: The Wretched Ones now availa...
Pandora's Children Book 4: The Wretched Ones now available. Click the page link above for more information! 3 stories, 33,000 words, only $.99.
Pandora's Children Book 4: The Wretched Ones now availabl...
Pandora's Children Book 4: The Wretched Ones now available. Click the page link above for more information! 3 stories, 33,000 words, only $.99.
Pandora's Children Book 4: The Wretched Ones, now availab...
Pandora's Children Book 4: The Wretched Ones, now available. Click the page link above for more information! 3 stories, 33,000 words, only $.99.
May 27, 2011
Review of "The Carnival" by Lisa McCourt Hollar
Since Lisa took the time to read and review my novella "Dogs of War", I figured turn around was fair play and decided to review her most recent short story "The Carnival".
Now, in my opinion, reviewing short stories is a lot harder than reviewing a novel, for several reasons. First, you can not discuss the plot in depth because you would essentially be giving away the whole story. Why read it if you already know how it ends? And second, and more importantly, is the difference in construction and purpose. This is only my opinion, but I have always felt that, in novels, the characters must be fleshed out first and foremost, and then the story happens around them. Hell, if your characters are given enough life, sometimes they dictate the path of the story and change the author's original intentions. But with short stories, the story must come first, with the characters fitted in almost like puzzle pieces, given just enough life to carry the purpose of the story forward. When I read a novel, I want to know the people inside and out. When I read a short story, I just want to be entertained and taken on a roller coaster ride for fifteen minutes.
Anyway, back to "The Carnival". It is around 7,000 words, I think. I didn't count. The story begins at, you guessed it, a carnival. But not a normal carnival, as indicated by the names of some of the rides there. We're given a brief history of the main character, Lucy, which explains how and why she ends up at the carnival that night. Lucy is led by a clown to an area behind the scenes where she thinks she is going to be meeting her boyfriend, Thomas. Thomas is there, but not for the reason Lucy suspects, and from the moment she lays eyes on him, everything begins to fall apart as the nature and intent of the carnival and the people who run it is revealed. And that's all I'm going to say because I don't want to ruin it.
I read "The Carnival" in a single sitting, which you should want to do with a short story if it grabs you the right way. You realize what is going on about half way through the story, but its disturbing enough that you just want to know how it ends. And the ending is... well, it ends the only way it could. Too often the endings of short stories seem strained and almost forced, but not here. Lisa successfully carries the story to its only logical conclusion, and I felt satisfied.
I'm really torn over one aspect, and this is a personal decision of a writer. Remember, in short stories, every word must have purpose. There is no room for wasted words. Part of me feels that the end of the story could have been expanded. Characters are brought in for a cameo and then forgotten because their fate is not integral to the story. But since they've been introduced and they are there for a purpose, well, their fate could have been explored. But the other part of me says, hey, they were window dressing, not that important, it doesn't matter what happened to them. Their fate is not really relevant to the impact of the story, why waste the time. You'll have to decide for yourself how you feel.
As for gore, well, the story is gory towards the end but not too much so. I could eat while reading it.
So all in all, I'll give it five stars out of five because it did what it was designed to do. Grab you, keep you enthralled for twenty minutes, and then let you go feeling satisfied. A little disturbed, but satisfied. If you are a fan of horror and looking for fun read that, thankfully, doesn't include a single zombie or vampire, pick it up. You may even want to read it twice.
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