Brian Keene's Blog, page 98

The End of the Bronze Age of Superhero Cinema?

I grew up on Bronze Age Marvel and DC comics — the name given to the era of books published in the 70s and 80s, much of which has informed the Marvel movies thus far. A lot of people my age lament the post-Bronze Age product for various reasons. Some cite the fact that the characters have changed too much from their core, while bizarrely offering the illusion of no change. Others argue it is just the opposite of that. Many decry the corporatization of comics, with creation by committee, story lines by synergy, and a greater adherence to IP farming than natural growth.

For myself, there’s just nothing there that interests me. I grew up with Peter Parker. I got bullied when he got bullied, got a job around the time he got a job, got married around the time he got married, etc. I have no interest in reading about a Peter Parker who is perpetually twenty-something and still has all his hair and whose knees and joints never hurt. I would have a great interest in reading about an almost fifty-something Peter Parker who is all of those things, and who is training a young man like Miles Morales to be his replacement.

But I digress.

Yesterday, my seven-year old and I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens again. We saw the trailer for Captain America: Civil War. He informed me that he doesn’t want to see it because the superheroes are busy fighting each other. He had the same reaction to the trailer for Batman vs. Superman. He wants his heroes fighting bad guys, rather than other heroes. And this mindset isn’t limited to my child. Soccer dad that I am, I talk to and hear from other kids his age — both boys and girls – during play dates, cub scouts, sports, etc. All of them are echoing variations of this theme. For a multitude of reasons, their interest in the upcoming superhero movies is very low. Their interest in the next Star Wars movie is very high.

I’ll be curious to see how this plays out over the next five to ten years. Are we going to see the films begin to wane in popularity as a younger generation — the iPad generation — begins to lose interest at the same time older viewers such as myself tune out as the movies begin to mine for material the same story lines we walked away from years back?

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This week’s episode of my podcast, The Horror Show with Brian Keene, is live. You can listen to it for free right here. In truth, you can listen to it anywhere in the world. All you need is a phone, television, computer, radio, or other internet-connected device.

Speaking of my podcast, author Stephen Kozeniewski — who has been a guest on my show twice in the past — posted this anecdote on my forum yesterday, and I wanted to reprint it here. He writes:

‘Brian talked today about doing his research for the podcast and I wanted to highlight that.

I’ve done a number of podcasts and interviews where the questions amount to, “So who are you and what are you doing here?”

When I went on The Horror Show, though, when Brian introduced me he covered all the bases that most hosts consider incisive lines of questioning. And then when he actually started asking questions I thought to myself, “He put a lot of effort into this!”

When you listen to the interviews, the questions never sound like they came off a canned list. Just listening to the episode with Mary SanGiovanni there was a question about the relationship between THE HOLLOWER and The Slender Man myths that sounded like it needed Cliff’s Notes. Because it wasn’t just, “Oh, do you think you inspired The Slender Man?” it was more like, “So, I’ve looked into this, and there are a couple of schools of thought, a couple of different arguments, and here’s what I think, so what do you think?”

There’s a quote from Louis Pasteur “Fortune favors the prepared mind.” What I mean is, it may seem like the show just lucks out in being fun, easy listening. But what I really think is that Brian and Dave put a lot of effort into making it seem like it just falls into place.‘

It’s true. Most shows take at least two full days of prep and research. Some, such as when we reported on the recent troubles at Samhain Publishing, take much longer. It is always, always worth it.

I’ve been told by doctors that I am slowly going blind. I also have arthritis that gets less manageable with each passing year (unless I continue to up my bourbon intake). My mind is still fast, but my fingers type slower, and that has resulted in less words per day. I am all-too-aware that a day may come when I can’t type anymore. This podcast is my exit strategy. I don’t need to be able to see or type to ask Stephen King or Jack Ketchum or Sarah Pinborough good, knowledgeable, incisive questions about their work. Thus, Dave and Coop and I put a lot of work into it behind the scenes.

So, if you’re not listening, you should start, because goddamn it, we work hard on this thing. Here are all of the shows, in order.

***

Also from the forum, user Spudders writes: “I meant to post this some time ago but wanted to give a shout out to the great customer service I received from Apex.

There was some screw up with a discount code not working but it was Apex that reached out to me unsolicited!!! Their site obviously told them I was trying to use a code which wasn’t working. I think it was Jason who contacted me, apologized, fixed the issue and then gave me a code for a future discount.

As someone who manages a major call center I am pretty tuned into customer service so for someone to reach out to me UNSOLICITED about the issue I had is pretty much at the top of the customer service experience tree.”

Apex are indeed incredible when it comes to customer service. Why not buy a book directly from their website today?

Some Thoughts On Living and Dying

I was talking privately with some fellow author friends yesterday — guys I’ve known for over twenty years now. Guys who I have representations of tattooed on my back. Those kind of friends.

Anyway, they were talking about growing older, and the changes everyone is going through, and the possibility of death. This was all inspired by the fact that another of our friends who is also our age was recovering from open heart surgery.

This is a slight permeation of what I wrote. I’ve taken out a few personal details, and changed the names of my sons (my oldest is referred to as Grunge and his little brother is referred to as Turtle), and added a few things to clarify, but the rest stays intact. I’m posting it here because I owe you a Blog entry today, and I’d like to do one that’s not just a link to other things, and also because I’m worried that my thoughts on suicide (which are voiced in tonight’s episode of my podcast) will be misconstrued/misunderstood by some listeners.

“Truth is, boys — I’m ready for it. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want it to happen. I don’t want to die. Turtle is too young to put through that, and truthfully, being his Dad? It’s the thing I’m best at and the best thing I’ve ever done.

But between Pic and Jesus and Jason and everybody else that has passed recently, the fact is — we ain’t kids anymore. Yes, anyone can die at any time, but as we get older, the odds change. As someone who has spent his life beating the odds, I’m all too aware that they’re getting more and more difficult.

With that in mind, I half expect it at anytime. When Coop showed up at the studio yesterday to record the podcast, my heart was giving me trouble. It gave me trouble throughout the broadcast. And that’s with meds, exercise, eating right, etc.

So, I’ve got my shit in order — literary estate, instructions for the rest of Jesus’s literary estate, regular will, Turtle’s college, etc.

I hope it won’t be soon. I’d like to see Turtle graduate and become whatever it is he wants to be. I’d like Grunge to make me a grandpa in a few years, if he’s ready. I’d like to get a Lifetime Achievement Award.

But if it happens, I’ll be at peace with it, because I’ve accomplished what I set out to do, and my kids love me, and my exes have forgiven me my sins. I’ve had a pretty spectacular run. I’ve had some amazing adventures. I’ve seen almost all the world. I’ve laughed and drank far from home. I’ve had more than my fair share of romantic partners (not as many as Lemmy, but its not like I was out to break a record) and have been lucky enough to have loved many and been loved by many. I’ve cheated death, I’ve been to jail, I’ve driven fast into the sunrise, walked slowly into the sunset, walked through forests and deserts and everything in between, and danced naked in a few of them, too. I’ve held babies and puppies. I’ve gotten wisdom from both the old and the young. When I was a kid, I wanted to walk on Mars, and I still do, but other than that, there’s nothing I truly desired to do that I haven’t already done. I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to write things that brought people joy. Here I am.

So, no, I don’t want to die. I may be afraid when it happens. But I’m also at peace with it if it happens. I’m at peace with the certainty that it will come. I’ve had a spectacular run. Anything from here on out is just gravy…”

The Power of Keene Compels You

We recorded a new episode of my podcast, The Horror Show with Brian Keene, yesterday. It was a news heavy broadcast, with reports on the deaths of A.R. Morlan, Angus Scrimm, and David Bowie, a look at the troubles at Spectral Press, Frank Darabont’s lawsuit against AMC, Christopher Golden’s nightmarish holiday cruise, and a bunch more. We also talked about William Hope Hodgson.

Reporting the news means doing actual fucking research — something many mainstream journalists don’t do these days, let alone genre journalists. A fine example of genre journalists who are actually doing it right is Jude Terror and Gavin Dillinger over at The Outhousers. This article is a recent example, and one of the finest pieces of comics journalism I’ve seen in some time.

Prepping for yesterday’s recording took two days of research — Saturday and Sunday, plus more fact checking on Monday morning before Dave, Coop and I went into the studio. It was worth it. The episode airs this Thursday night at 7pm.

But that’s also why you didn’t get a Blog entry yesterday.

***

At least once a week, somebody asks me to endorse something. I don’t respond to 90% of these requests, not because I’m an asshole (well yeah, I’m an asshole, but not when it comes to this). I don’t respond simply because I don’t have time. Plus, I’m always bemused at such requests, because I don’t think my endorsement on something has the same weight as, say, Stephen King’s legendary American Express commercial.

Which is why I’m always surprised when I receive anecdotes like the two I got this morning:

I talked about Brian Kirk’s first novel on here a week or so ago. He writes, “The day you shared the article that included We Are Monsters the book went from 479,000 on the Amazon sales chart to 66,000. That’s the biggest swing I’ve seen since it’s release.”

I’ve said that Jonathan Janz is an author to watch — a “next big thing” on the level of Joe Hill, Jonathan Maberry, Sarah Pinborough, or myself. He texted e this morning to let me know that a reporter who was working on a story about this summer’s release of Joe Hill’s THE FIREMAN and my own PRESSURE wanted to do a side article about him. Why? “Because Brian Keene says you’re one to watch and I trust his instincts.”

So, I dunno. Maybe I do carry a little weight. Which is why I’m available if Knob Creek, Basil Hayden’s, or Bookers would like me to endorse their brands of bourbon…

***

Long-time reader James Travis accidentally bought two Maelstrom sets (featuring THE COMPLEX, THE CRUELTY OF AUTUMN, and THE DAUGHTERS OF INANNA). If you’re interested in taking one off his hands, email him at xjamestravisx@gmail.com.

***

I’ve got my seven year-old 24/7 this week, and he’s also off school over the next four days (combination of the holiday and teacher in-service days). So probably won’t get much writing done, which means I’ll be cranky by Friday. But that also means he and I get to go see Star Wars again and play with Legos and play Minecraft and watch Exploding TNT and The Diamond Minecart, so missing four days of work ain’t so bad.

Link Rodeo

THE NAUGHTY LIST — the film adaptation of my short story “The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas”, directed by Paul Campion (THE DEVIL’S ROCK) — now has an official website which you can visit right here. Please share the link. We’re about one week away from the Kickstarter launch.

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My podcast, THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE, made the shortlist for the 2015 This Is Horror Awards. If you enjoy the show, and would like to cast your vote for it, you can do so here.

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The podcast, along with our sister podcasts THREE GUYS WITH BEARDS and BUTTERCUP OF DOOM, also made Steve Patee’s Best of 2015 list. You can see all the winners here.

Here’s a little something you don’t know. Big Steve in my novel DARK HOLLOW was named after Steve Patee.

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Ginger Nuts of Horror is one of my favorite horror websites, and a daily read. Last week, they published Kayleigh Marie Edwards’s heartfelt essay on PTSD and zombies. Click here to read it. I guarantee you’ll be glad you did.

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More required reading — The Outhousers take a look at the latest Marvel Comics creative summit, which perfectly encapsulates everything that is wrong with modern corporate comics.

Jonathan Janz AMA and An Offer Female Writers Can’t Refuse

Over on my forum, we’ve been hosting a series of AMA (Ask Me Anything) discussions with various authors. Tonight’s featured AMA guest is Jonathan Janz, unarguably one of the most popular writers of this new generator of horror authors. It takes place from 8pm to 10pm (Eastern Time). Click here to participate.

***

Speaking of the forum, always-reliable moderator Val offers this gem, found on Craigslist.

Because yeah, nothing could possibly go wrong with that, right? Ride along with a complete stranger in their tractor trailer and write? That’s not the set up for a horror novel at all.

Memos From the Sick Bed

Yesterday, Paul Legerski and Queensryche’s Scott Rockenfield hung out all day while I was dying on my sick bed, but Paul was nice enough to send me this pic with a ‘Get Well Soon’.

Thanks guys.

***

I write 365 days a year. The only time I don’t write is when I’m sick. And I haven’t been this sick in a long time. Fever, nausea, trembling like Michael J. Fox over a fracking site in Oklahoma, and congestion unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I swear, at one point, something crawled out of my nose, dripping with slime, and learned to walk on two legs like a human.

Or that may have been a fever dream.

Instead of writing, I spent the day in bed. And I spent that time in bed reviewing manuscripts for other authors, reading John M. McIlveen’s HANNAHWHERE and Joe R. Lansdale’s FENDER LIZARDS, and listening quietly to albums (Johnny Cash’s ORIGINAL SUN SOUND, Metal Church’s BLESSING IN DISGUISE, Motorhead’s NO REMORSE, and Bruce Springsteen’s promo version of BORN IN THE USA that contains “Jersey Girl”, “Pink Cadillac”, etc.) while my cat, Mad Max, spent the day asleep on my feet.

Now, that may not sound like work. Well, maybe the first bit — reviewing manuscripts for other authors — sounds like work, but listening to music and reading? That’s not work, right? Wrong. Artists, be they musicians or painters or writers or filmmakers, don’t consume entertainment like normal people. Art inspires all of mankind, but what art inspires in other artists is the desire to make more art.

So, reading the latest from John M. McIlveen and Joe R. Lansdale or listening to Johnny Cash and Metal Church on vinyl — that’s done on two levels. The upper level is a consumer, consuming that form of entertainment and enjoying it for what it is — a book or an album. But there’s an underlying level, that of an artist, who is soaking up inspiration during the experience.

Joe R. Lansdale directly inspired my novel THE LOST LEVEL (available here), my short story “Lost Canyon of the Dead”, and probably a few other things I’ve written. Johnny Cash (in conjunction with Trent Reznor) directly inspired my short stories “I Am An Exit”, “This Is Not An Exit”, “Exit Strategies”, and The Man Comes Around”. Bruce Springsteen’s music directly inspired my short story “Johnstown”.

Everything is inspiration. Everything is grist for the muse — even when we don’t think it is. Not all of it sticks. Sometimes a book is just a book, a movie is just a movie, and an album is just an album. But more often than not, art inspires other art.

I don’t yet know what the art inspired by John M. McIlveen, Joe R. Lansdale, Johnny Cash, Metal Church, Motorhead, and Bruce Springsteen channeled through a 102-degree fever and a constant influx of NyQuil will be, but I’m sure I’ll find out down the road.

***

Just went back and re-read that. I can’t tell if it will make sense to anyone else but me or not. My head is full of green NyQuil clouds, and more things have crawled out of my nose and lungs and are now shuffling across my backyard toward the river, in some sort of bizarre reverse evolutionary funeral march.

There’s probably a story idea in that hallucination.

Top Ten Books of 2015

On last night’s episode of my podcast, The Horror Show with Brian Keene, I revealed my annual Top Ten Best Books of the year, with the promise that I would also post them here, with deeper, expanded commentary on each title.

However, my temperature is currently sitting at a solid 101, and my system is rejecting everything (you haven’t vomited until you’ve vomited NyQuil), and I just don’t have it in me to write up commentary. So, if you want to know my thoughts on each title, and why I liked them, and why I picked them, listen to the podcast.

Disclaimers:

I read 109 books in 2015. You can view the entire list here.

Every year, someone asks “What would number eleven have been? What about number twelve?” So I’ve included five Honorable Mentions below.

A note regarding nepotism. I’ve been writing professionally for over 20 years. In that time, I’ve met everyone. Nepotism does not play a part in these picks. For a more detailed explanation, see here.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

15. BRUISED by Justin Holley – Purchase

14. STOLEN AWAY by Kristin Dearborn – Purchase

13. THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS by Stephen King – Purchase

12. I DO TERRIBLE THINGS by John Goodrich – Purchase

11. ELEKTROGRAD: RUSTED BLOOD by Warren Ellis – Purchase

TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2015:

(Click the covers to purchase)

[image error] 10. JAGGER by Kristopher Rufty

CreateSpace

Paperback – Kindle

Other than the trailer park left to her by her deceased daddy, Amy’s favorite treasure is Jagger, her 180-pound bullmastiff. One day while she is away, Clayton, her best friend’s scumbag boyfriend sneaks into her yard and takes the dog. His prize fighting pit bull was killed during its last match, costing a lot of bad people a lot of money. To make up for his dog’s losses, and to save his own life, Clayton enlists the help of a medical student dropout to turn Jagger into a killing machine by pumping him full of experimental drugs and muscle enhancers. Now Jagger is a monster, a beast that can’t feel pain, with an unquenchable thirst for blood. He quickly breaks out of his pen and starts making his way home, tearing apart anyone in his path on his way to the one he feels has betrayed him the most — Amy.

9. THE NIGHTMARE GIRL by Jonathan Janz

Samhain Publishing

Paperback – Kindle

Playing with fire has never been more dangerous.

When family man Joe Crawford confronts a young mother abusing her toddler, he has no idea of the chain reaction he’s setting in motion. How could he suspect the young mother is part of an ancient fire cult, a sinister group of killers that will destroy anyone who threatens one of its members? When the little boy is placed in a foster home, the fanatics begin their mission of terror.

Soon the cult leaders will summon their deadliest hunters—and a ferocious supernatural evil—to make Joe pay for what he’s done. They want Joe’s blood and the blood of his family. And they want their child back.

8. THE HATCH by Kelli Owen

Gypsy Press

Paperback – Kindle

Nick Kontis and his remaining family members have survived winter–have outlived the threat of deadly infected flies–and are heading toward presumed safety. They quickly find all exit points blocked, the perimeter burned, and learn the flies were only the beginning, as Mother Nature has stepped in to correct mankind’s mistakes.

Her weapon of choice: spiders.

With thick webs covering the spring landscape, and lack of any communication leaving them on their own to guess whether or not the spiders are as lethal as the flies they’re eating, they make a new plan. Fleeing in a new direction they run into another party of survivors. And what was once a breakdown of society becomes an exercise in rebuilding.

They’ll need to find common ground and bond with the others, before winter arrives again. Before the spiders declare victory…

[image error]7. PARADISE SKY by Joe R. Lansdale

Mulholland Books

Hardcover – Kindle – Audiobook

Young Willie is on the run, having fled his small Texas farm when an infamous local landowner murdered his father. A man named Loving takes him in and trains him in the fine arts of shooting, riding, reading, and gardening. When Loving dies, Willie re-christens himself Nat Love in tribute to his mentor, and heads west.

In Deadwood, South Dakota Territory, Nat becomes a Buffalo Soldier and is befriended by Wild Bill Hickok. After winning a famous shooting match, Nat’s peerless marksmanship and charm earn him the nickname Deadwood Dick, as well as a beautiful woman. But the hellhounds are still on his trail, and they brutally attack Nat Love’s love. Pursuing the men who have driven his wife mad, Nat heads south for a final, deadly showdown against those who would strip him of his home, his love, his freedom, and his life.

6. THE DEATH HOUSE by Sarah Pinborough

Titan Books

Hardcover – Paperback – Kindle

Toby’s life was perfectly normal… until it was unravelled by something as simple as a blood test.

Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House; an out-of-time existence far from the modern world, where he, and the others who live there, are studied by Matron and her team of nurses. They’re looking for any sign of sickness. Any sign of their wards changing. Any sign that it’s time to take them to the sanatorium.

No one returns from the sanatorium.

Living in his memories of the past, Toby spends his days fighting his fear. But then a new arrival in the house shatters the fragile peace, and everything changes.

Because everybody dies. It’s how you choose to live that counts.

5. INKSTAINS: JULY by John Urbancik

DarkFluidity

Paperback

InkStains is a random collection of stories – fiction and nonfiction of any genre – handwritten daily over the course of a year. When John Urbancik started this project, he aimed to write a story every day for a year. By hand. He found an inexpensive yet fancy fountain pen, started with a Moleskine notepad, and on 1 January 2013 set to writing. He took one mandatory day off monthly. Stories did not have to be fiction. Nonfiction, essays, reviews, memoirs – all genres – everything was open, so long as they were complete. These are the results.

4. SKULLCRACK CITY by Jeremy Robert Johnson

Lazy Fascist Press

Paperback – Kindle

Life as a corporate drone was killing S.P. Doyle, so he decided to bring down the whole corrupt system from the inside. But after discovering something monstrous in the bank’s files, he was framed for murder and trapped inside a conspiracy beyond reason.

Now Doyle’s doing his best to survive against a nightmare cabal of crooked conglomerates, DNA-doped mutants, drug-addled freak show celebs, experimental surgeons, depraved doomsday cults, and the ultra-bad mojo of a full-blown Hexadrine habit. Joined by his pet turtle Deckard, and Dara, a beautiful missionary with a murderous past, Doyle must find a way to save humankind and fight the terrible truth at the heart of…SKULLCRACK CITY.

[image error]3. LAST NIGHT AT THE BLUE ALICE by Mehitobel Wilson

Bedlam Press

Paperback – Kindle

Mollie Chandler is on the verge of joining a shadowy Order whose magical operatives, the Glymjacks, manipulate events of the past. As the only candidate for the role of Psychopomp, she must pass one final test before the job is hers. The crumbling Blue Alice has been gathering ghosts for over a hundred years. Once a grand mansion, it was converted to a rooming house in the 1920s. Tenants throughout the century since have suffered violent poltergeist attacks by a vengeful spirit, complained of a spectral woman in black who looms and leers at their every move, reported hearing music when there should be none playing, and appealed to exorcists when tormented by a judgmental demon. Mollie must use magic, ingenuity, and intuition to travel back in time to the source of each haunting, avert their circumstances, and change history. If she succeeds, she will have to give up everything she’s ever known to become a Glymjack. If she fails, Mollie will not survive – if she’s lucky. The alternatives to death are far worse. Mollie has but one night to change the histories of the dead and plot the course for her own future. She is running out of time, and into the haunted heart of the Blue Alice.

[image error]2. SLOWLY WE ROT by Bryan Smith

CreateSpace

Paperback – Kindle

Long after the zombie apocalypse wiped out most of the human race, a young man named Noah resides in a remote mountain cabin. Several years have passed since he last saw another human being. The long period of isolation and loneliness has fostered a deep despair in Noah, who also struggles with suicidal impulses. But Noah is a man who was struggling even before the end of the world, a seemingly helpless slave to his addictions. When the vindictive sister he has long believed dead unexpectedly returns, events transpire that prompt him to leave his mountain refuge and embark on a cross-country trek to find the lost love of his life. It doesn’t matter that she’s probably long dead. He just needs a purpose again and this is it. Along the way, he experiences moments of hope and profound tragedy. Soon Noah’s sanity begins to fray and his ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality starts to disintegrate. Through it all, he keeps trying to reach the one he lost long ago. And he’ll continue no matter what, even if it costs him his life, because it’s a big, empty world and this is all he has.

[image error]1. A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS by Paul Tremblay

William Morrow

Hardcover – Paperback – Kindle – Audiobook

The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.

To her parents’ despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie’s descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts’ plight. With John, Marjorie’s father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie’s younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface—and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.

Normal People’s Jobs and Sleep Patterns – with CLICKERS

I often wonder about normal people, and by normal, I mean anyone who was smart and didn’t end up working as an entertainer or an artist for a living. I wonder about their jobs. More specifically, I wonder about how their jobs relate to their sleep patterns.

Do nurses wake up at 4am thinking about a patient’s medication? Do schoolteachers wake up at 4am thinking about their lesson plans?* Do mechanics wake up at 4am with a solution to fix muffler bearings?** (Disclaimer: I don’t know if muffler bearings are a real thing or not, but my knowledge of automotive repair is slim enough that it could fit into Nickolaus Pacione’s bibliography of professional sales).

I ask because I woke up at 4am, bolting upright in bed fast enough that I startled my cat, Mad Max, who had been sleeping on my chest. He glared at me and then settled back down next to the fireplace, but I barely noticed, because the reason I’d woken so suddenly was that I’d figured out what to do with the Clickers.

CLICKERS, for new readers, was a horror novel by J.F. Gonzalez and Mark Williams. It was intended to be a homage to the “munch-out” horror novels of the Seventies and Eighties — things like James Herbert’s RATS series and Guy N. Smith’s CRABS series. Especially the latter. You can buy it in paperback or ebook here.

CLICKERS earned quite a dedicated fan-base for its time, and had the distinction of being one of horror’s first true ebooks. Unfortunately, Mark Williams passed away before it ever saw publication. When the book became popular and fans asked J.F. for another, he asked me if I’d like to take Mark’s place on the sequel.

We wrote CLICKERS II: THE NEXT WAVE together (available for purchase here). That was followed by CLICKERS III: DAGON RISING (available here) and CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES (available here). We had plans for at least two more Clickers related projects — a comic-book series called HIGH PLAINS CLICKERS (which would have been set in the Old West) and a new novel called SOUTHERN FRIED CLICKERS. Unfortunately, J.F. passed away before we ever got to write those.

I’ve talked at length on two podcast episodes (here and here) and a little bit on the forum as well (in this thread) about my reluctance to do anything more with the Clickers, and how, although J.F.’s loved ones would like to see it continue, and the fans would like to see it continue, I didn’t feel right doing one on my own.

Which is why I bolted upright this morning at 4am, with an idea in my head of how it could be done — of how I could deliver one last Clickers blow-out to the fans, and do it in a way that would be respectful of J.F. and Mark, and also in a way that would involve all of their friends and peers.

More on that later. Right now, I need coffee…

*Author Sarah Pinborough has assured me that when she was a schoolteacher, she often woke up at 4am to solve schoolteacher-related problems.

**Author Christian Jensen, who also works as an auto mechanic, has assured me that auto mechanics also get up at 4am with solutions to problems. He did not confirm if muffler bearings were a real thing, though.

Adventures in New Year’s Resolutions

Well, I made it five days before breaking the to Blog every day. I’d intended to, but my ex-wife’s roof sprung a leak, so I didn’t get a chance yesterday. I also got no writing done yesterday, either. I would have written last night, but my youngest son had his first elementary school wrestling practice. These things are all more important than writing.

Although writing is important too, since it buys things like food and gasoline and electricity.

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Folks are asking when the Kickstarter for THE NAUGHTY LIST — Paul Campion’s film adaptation of my short story “The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas” — will start. In another week or two. Can’t be more specific than that. We’re ironing out some last minute things. In the meantime, please consider adding THE NAUGHTY LIST on Twitter and Facebook.

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Fangoria has an exclusive bit of news regarding I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE DOOMSDAY, the other Christmas movie I’m involved in (as Executive Producer).

Here’s the poster.

I won’t be talking about this film much until after THE NAUGHTY LIST Kickstarter is completed (because I’m all too aware that the social media echo chamber can easily confuse the two if I’m not on point every time I say something).

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SCARES THAT CARE WEEKEND III takes place next July. I am involved with the charity and organize the author guests and programming. The team has released this official trailer (please note, I was not involved in its production, so no trolling about my appearance in it).

SCARES THAT CARE is a wonderful convention and a wonderful cause. I hope you’ll consider joining myself, Weston Ochse, Yvonne Navarro, and other author guests soon to be announced, as well as the movie guests (more of them to be announced, as well). For details, go here.

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Dave and I recorded the first new podcast episode of the year yesterday. It airs Thursday night. I reveal my picks for the Top Ten Books of 2015. Dave reveals his picks for the Top Five Albums of 2015. We also discuss Bone Tomahawk, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and remember both George Clayton Johnson and Lemmy. We also get bum rushed by some lumberjacks.

Santa Claus, Tony and Vince Are Coming to Town

The Kickstarter for THE NAUGHTY LIST is coming very soon.

THE NAUGHTY LIST is a short film, directed by Paul Campion (THE DEVIL’S ROCK), and based on my short story “The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas”.

Don’t confuse it with I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE DOOMSDAY, which is another Christmas-themed horror movie, for which I acted as Executive Producer. The two are vastly different. One is about two mob enforcers meeting Santa Claus in an encounter that goes terribly awry. The other is a post-apocalyptic tale. DOOMSDAY still has approximately eight months of post-production, so we’ll talk about that later this year.

Right now, it’s all about THE NAUGHTY LIST and running a successful Kickstarter, which means yesterday I dressed like this to make a promotional video.

The nice thing about being involved with two back-to-back Christmas-themed horror movies is that I borrowed the Santa suit from the set of one to film the promotional video for the other.

Obviously, we’ll be asking for your support when the Kickstarter launches. Until then, you can help us out by following @The_NaughtyList on Twitter and on Facebook. There is also a thread on the forum in which Paul has been posting updates and behind the scenes stuff.

Get involved.