R. Thomas Riley's Blog, page 3

Thoughts...

So, I just posted my "Hello to 2013" blog on my publishing front and now, I guess, this is my "Hello to 2013" personal blog.

A lot has happened over the past year, most of it good. At the moment, I'm in a good spot mentally. I've gotten to see my son more times this year, than any other, and that's helped greatly. The job has gotten better, I moved from a field position to an office position. It's the first time I've had an office job in my nearly 13 year military career. It's been an eye opening experience to see things from this side of the job. My body is certainly betraying me after carrying around 80+ pounds of gear for so long, so it's nice to do something a bit less...labor intensive.

I'm with a good person, she challenges me and keeps me interested. Those of you who know me personally, know my love life hasn't always been the best, but I'm happy, and dare I say it, content. Don't get me wrong, I come with a ton of baggage and still carry a lot of psychological scars, and I'm no where near perfect, and I still have bad days, but I'm in a good place right now.

I just published a dark erotica collection, OF FLESH AND SKIN, with co-author Lisa McCarthy and it was truly a blast to challenge my writing ability in that new area. Writing is what I do, it's what I love, even if I hate the process more days, than not, but attempting to write in this new genre has definitely made things interesting again.

Writing has always been my way of dealing with what I've gone through in my life and if you pay close enough attention, all of that bleeds over into my stories and novels. I've always tended to focus on the darker, underbelly of fiction, but I've got a feeling that this year, there may even be a few "happier" stories.

Gasp, I think I've maturing as a writer :)

The ABC's of Death Review

The ABCs of Death - I'm damn curious, so here goes with some running commentary on each segment :)






"A" is for Apocalypse by Nacho Vigalondo 

Dug this one



"B" is for Bigfoot by Adrian Garcia Bogliano

Should've been called "B" is for boobies 

Really did not like this one, very badly done, shot, and narrative was a complete car wreck 



"C" is for Cycle by Ernesto Diaz Espinoza 

Creepy vibe, interesting premise, kinda muddled just before the end, but better than "B". 



"D" is for Dogfight by Marcel Sarimento 

Loved, loved, loved this one. No dialogue at all, told completely with visual cues. Complete story, beginning, middle, end. Visually stunning, shot EXTREMELY well. 



"E" is for Exterminate by Angela Bettis 

TERRIBLE...ugh, where to start? Shot bad, story non-existent, horrible, obvious, badly done CGI. 



"F" is for Fart by Noboru Iguchi 

Umm, what did I just watch? 

Japanese school girls, Check. Japanese school girls naked making out, Check. Japanese school girls breathing each others farts...ummm check? 

Crazy Japanese? 

Not even a horror plot if you don't count one girl being sucked into the others ass... 



"G" is for Gravity by Andrew Trauki 

Worse than a high school attempt. 



"H" is for Hydro-Electric Diffusion by Thomas Cappelen Malling 

Dug this one. Excellent production values, great makeup, hilarious cartoony story line, and a nazi fox stripper. 



"I" is for Ingrown by Jorge Michel Grau 

Completely lost on this one, didn't get it. 



"J" is for Jidai-Geki by Yudai Yamaguchi 

Guess I just don't get Japanese humor? Completely pointless short, more comedy than anything. 



 "K" is for Klutz by Anders Morganthaler 

Animated piece this time...a girl fights with her own turd...umm yeah.



 "L" is for Libido by Timo Tjahjanto 

Another weird Japanese piece. Good production values, lots of gore, some uncomfortable implied pedophilia. 

These things are definitely getting weirder. 



"M" is for Miscarriage by Ti West 

Exactly what the title implies, a minute or so long piece, horrible camera used, shit production values, and a long, long shot on a toilet bowel. 

Worst of the bunch so far



"N" is for Nuptials by Banjong Pisanthanakun 

Talking parrot exposes a cheater...meh



"O" is for Orgasm by Bruno Forzani and Helene Cattet 

Another obvious one, with BDSM and multiple slow motion shots of bubbles bursting and apparently women blow bubbles when they reach climax. 

Man, just when I think these cant get any worse...



"P" is for Pressure by Simon Rumley 

Another piece w/o dialogue. A hooker with a heart of gold trying to provide for her kids, then some guy gives asks her to make a film and she gets paid to do bad things to a kitten. 

Yep, these directors are going for shock/taboo and not even trying to make a good, storytelling piece at this point. 



"Q" is for Quack by Adam Wingard 

Ironic piece about how the directors got Q and they don't know what kind of short to make, so they decide to kill a duck on screen, ends badly for them. 



"R" is for Removed by Srdjan Spasojevic 

Surreal piece. Doctors remove film strips from a guy (yeah dont ask) he finally escapes, pushes a train car and then collapses and then it rains blood. 

I guess it's supposed to a metaphor about how a director cuts a piece of himself to share with an audience and bleeds for his art? 

Or some shit 




I'm really starting to get pissed at some of these "directors" for wasting my time, a 5 yr old could make a better short film...




"S" is for Speed by Jake West 

Starts out with two chicks (who can't act AT ALL) running from a Vorhees wanna be. There's a nice hotrod car, some really bad, cheesy camera work, a flame thrower scene, and then apparently turns into a metaphor on the dangers of drug use...ummm WTF???



"T" is for Toilet by Lee Hardcastle

A claymation piece this time. About a killer toilet. 

I actually liked this one, and that's sad cause I only like it cause there's been such crap since the letter "D". 



"U" is for Unearthed by Ben Wheatley 

Now we're getting somewhere. A vampire gets killed, but it's shot from the POV of the vampire. A very unique take. Great effort.



"V" is for Vagitus by Kaare Andrews 

Sci-fi piece about a future where propagation is illegal, but you can earn a permit to have a child if you serve as an enforcement agent hunting down people who have illegal babies, includes a killer beheaded baby...what!



"W" is for WTF! by Jon Schnepp

*sigh* I'm not even going to bother addressing this one. So far, worst of the bunch and that's saying enough.



"X" is for XXL by Xavier Gens 

Fat girl gets made fun of, goes home and cuts all of the fat away, dies skinny. 

Oh you crazy French directors.



"Y" is for Young Buck by Jason Eisener 

Another one w/o dialogue, set to an 80's synth track. Old man takes young boy on a hunting trip, does bad things, boy comes back wearing a dead deer's head, impales and decapitates the man, does bad things to the head....

I kinda dug this one, it was different. 



- And to close out this mostly steaming pile of shit - 





"Z" is for Zetsumetsu by Yoshihiro Nishimura 

Let's see, where do I even start??? Another Japanese piece, seemingly very Anti-American, there's a Swastika, a chick with a 5 ft penis that has a knife that comes outta the end, there's a guy in a wheel chair that ejaculates rice, a bunch of naked men eating sushi, a girl fight with said girl with 5 ft rubber penis, penis gets sliced, somehow other chick can shoot vegetables out of her vagina, some other chick has 9/11 across her chest with the towers on one boob and a plane on the other, and she jumps up and down swing her boobs together...

As all this is going on there's a voice over about how Blacks hate White Americans and how nuclear energy is safe and yellow people are the best...no, I am NOT shitting you. 





So 4 out of 26 were worth watching, with only 2 being anywhere near good, how did this EVER get distribution?

A Serbian Film Review

NOTE: This review will contain ***Spoilers***






First off, believe the hype about this one. It is singly the most brutal, depraved, horrifying, uncomfortable (insert any other adjective or synonym) film I've watched to date. 

And yes, I watch them all. From Martyrs, Cannibal Holocaust, Irreversible, Men Behind the Sun, Audition, Antichrist, Salo, to  The Human Centipede, and a host of others, I've sought out and watched every single one. Yes, most of them deliver on what is promised, and yes, most of them are truly depraved and rest among the darkest side of horror film and cinema, in general. 

A Serbian Film, in a director of lesser skill, would've been a disaster. 


Let's talk about art first -

Art is: The creation of works of beauty or other special significance. 

Art should be designed to make the reader or viewer feel something, be it revulsion, sorrow, happiness, pain, or awe. 

In relation to cinema, there's been many attempts to claim certain hardcore, disturbing films are art, and yes, some of them truly are. Even with the violence, the gore, and the sexual depictions, there was something the director and/or writer were trying to say. Some excel at this, others, not so much. 

It's hard to shock me, as a viewer or reader. I, myself, have written some pretty graphic fiction. It made me uncomfortable, but I did it because it served the story. You see, for something that is graphic, gory, and depraved, there has to be an element of storytelling, a reason for the depictions on the screen. If there isn't, then it's nothing but shock value. 

***SPOILERS FOLLOW***





A Serbian Film delivers on all accounts. It's an engaging story line, it's beautifully shot and framed, it has a intriguing main character, and a mind fuck of an ending. Yes, everything you've heard about this film is true. Yes, there is a newborn baby rape scene. Yes, there is child rape. Yes, there is necrophilia. Yes, there is gore, and a host of other depraved acts. But at its core, it is a well made, engaging movie. It's storytelling at its zenith. There is shock value, yes, but it serves the STORY.  It’s the story of a washed-up porn star, Milos, desperate to provide for his wife and young son, and when an opportunity arises to pull in serious cash, he jumps at it. It's the story of what a man is willing to do to provide for his family. The thing that makes this story work is that Milos is an already jaded, washed up porn star, he's seen some shit, he's done some nasty shit, but when he's confronted with what the director of this new venture he's asked to partake in, he's disgusted and appalled. That's key here, for this movie, he does not do the following things (about an hour into the movie) willingly. Yes, he does them, but as the film unfolds, we see the who, the why, and the how, all this takes place and THAT'S where the storytelling skills and direction of Srdjan Spasojevic becomes readily apparent. There is true filmmaking prowess and understanding at work in this film, as difficult as it is to watch, you willingly follow this filmmaker down the dark, depraved alleys he travels. 

This film truly disturbed me, and that's saying something, but it was a fascinating watch. Yes, it's graphic and depraved, but your mind will supply even more detail than what is actually shown on screen. Yes, there is a ton shown on screen, and it's unsettling and difficult to watch, but what isn't shown on screen is what will really fuck you up. You're shown just enough and the director leaves the rest up to your imagination, as he should. 

I can't say I enjoyed A Serbian Film, but I can say I enjoyed watching an excellent filmmaker making art, as uncomfortable as that was. 

Watch at your own risk, this film will stay with you for a long time. It is truly disturbing, it is truly the height of taboo and depravity and it cannot be unseen, but it is art, and it is true art, despite the medium and method of telling. 

Erotic story collection now available!

R. Thomas Riley is best known (or hopelessly unknown, as he likes to say) for his short story collection THE MONSTER WITHIN IDEA, previous published by Hugo Nominated Apex Publications. After a decade of writing horror and dark fiction, it's time for something a bit different...
Lisa McCarthy, author of THE BUTTERFLY WALTZ, has already succeeded beautifully with a well-written, thought-provoking, wrenching study of a disintegrating marriage and the fight to save it. The sex scenes were written with skill and attention to detail, and there was hardly a wasted word in this piece.
I loved the novella and during a conversation with Lisa McCarthy, the idea of writing a series of darker, erotic fiction stories was broached. Why couldn't there be erotic stories that were well written, deeper, and thought provoking, with more than just hot sex scenes, we asked ourselves?
What started out as a seemingly harmless idea that most writers toss out there, then forget about, the idea began to ferment, take shape, and sound like a really viable idea. One conversation led to another, until we decided we would write just that type of erotic fiction ourselves.
These stories were designed to be uncomfortable, to explore the darker psychological side of sex and relationships (we're horror authors after all!), and to bring something a bit deeper to erotica. Sex, sex, sex, and more sex, with a darker, psychological tone, rambling down some fairly dark alleyways.
Sex addiction, stalkers, deviant sexual experiences, threesomes, male/male/female, even a Lovecraftian science fiction piece, it's all packed in this collection.

Simply put, OF FLESH AND SKIN is not, and was not designed, to be your typical erotica short story collection.
Purchase your copy now! 

Erotic story collection coming soon...

R. Thomas Riley is best known (or hopelessly unknown, as he likes to say) for his short story collection THE MONSTER WITHIN IDEA, previous published by Hugo Nominated Apex Publications. After a decade of writing horror and dark fiction, it's time for something a bit different...
Lisa McCarthy, author of THE BUTTERFLY WALTZ, has already succeeded beautifully with a well-written, thought-provoking, wrenching study of a disintegrating marriage and the fight to save it. The sex scenes were written with skill and attention to detail, and there was hardly a wasted word in this piece.
I loved the novella and during a conversation with Lisa McCarthy, the idea of writing a series of darker, erotic fiction stories was broached. Why couldn't there be erotic stories that was well written, deeper, and thought provoking, with more than just hot sex scenes, we asked ourselves?
What started out as a seemingly harmless idea that most writers toss out there, then forget about, the idea began to ferment, take shape, and sound like a really viable idea. One conversation led to another, until we decided we would write just that type of erotic fiction ourselves.
These stories were designed to be uncomfortable, to explore the darker side of sex and relationships (we're horror authors after all!), and to bring something a bit deeper to erotica. Sex, sex, sex, and more sex, with a darker tone, rambling down some fairly dark alleyways.
Sex addiction, stalkers, deviant sexual experiences, threesomes, male/male/female, even a Lovecraftian science fiction piece, it's all packed in this collection.

Simply put, OF FLESH AND SKIN is not, and was not designed, to be your typical erotica short story collection.

Hello, 2013!

This is probably the first time I've ever attempted to write a blog for a new year AND take a look back at the year previous. Not that I haven't thought about it, but I just never felt I had anything, really, to look back on. Personal, professional, or otherwise.

So, here goes.

On the publishing front, 2012 was a year of experimentation for me. It was the first full year, my collection, THE MONSTER WITHIN IDEA, was self published. Originally, the collection was published by Hugo Nominated publisher Apex Publications. In August of 2011, I received an email letting me know they were dropping the book from their roster. It was a bit devastating, to say the least. I was proud of that publisher and I was damn proud of having had the chops to be published by them.

Don't get me wrong, I hold no ill will towards Jason Sizemore and Apex Publications. They made a business decision, and it was nothing personal.

I retreated and licked my wounds, bitched and moaned to some close writer friends about how unfair it all was. Nearly all of them, told me to suck it up and self publish the damn thing.

I finally listened.

Here are the numbers, with Apex Publications (a little over a two year period) the book sold a grand total of 216 copies (ebook and trade paperback). Both of us beat our heads against the wall in that two year period, trying every scheme we could think of to sell the book. The book got great reviews from multiple respected bloggers and reviewers, one of the stories got an honorable mention from the esteemed Ellen Datlow for her Best Horror of the Year antho series, but it just didn't sell.

I've thought long and hard about why it didn't sell and it may have been just the wrong book for the Apex readership, seeing as they tended to publish more fantasy and hard sci-fi, rather than horror.

The first few months on Amazon Kindle, the book didn't sell very many copies. I blogged about it, begged and prodded author friends to mention the book, but it didn't start selling until I did a free giveaway promo via Kindle Select. Yes, it was a calculated move, as I wasn't too comfortable with putting the collection exclusive to Kindle and narrowing my other potential revenue streams.

That first giveaway, landed the book at #1 across all free books on Amazon and did 12, 405 downloads...and then didn't sell one single copy for the next week and a half. It didn't even generate one review, either. I came away from my first giveaway experience feeling defeated. Yes, there were potentially 12,000 readers that may have been exposed to my work, but if you've done this long enough, you realize readers that download free ebooks hardly, if ever, even read them. Do a quick google search, you'll see, they even brag about loading their kindles up and never reading the books.

So, I went back to the drawing board, so to speak. Did a ton of more research and realized the first giveaway was over a weekend. I started finding threads about doing giveaways at certain times of the month and certain days of the week. This seemed to make sense, so that's what I did.

I ran another promo, this time with some blog sites contacted to spread the word, and did a middle of the week giveaway. That giveaway ended up with nearly 20,000 downloads, and once again, landing at #1  across all free books on Amazon. This time, there were a grand total of 3 reviews generated, all 4 and 5 stars and positive. The book continued to sell after it went back to paid and sold 210 copies over the next month at $2.99. I was ecstatic. Now, I know, in the scheme of things, 210 copies selling isn't much and nothing to quit my day job over, but running the free giveaway over different days "seemed" to work. Not to mention, I'd sold more copies than I did during the entire two year period with Apex.

I did more research. Seeing a pattern here? Research, research, research. It was starting to bite into my writing time. Hours and hours of reading blog after blog, do this, do that, this is how you get a bestseller. If you're not careful you'll disappear down that rabbit hole and never emerge.

I tried one more giveaway after the sales dried up and the book didn't sell a single copy over a 2 month period. This time, I tried a new cover. I went with Elder Lemon Design, run by my good author friend Kealan Patrick Burke, again on a different time of week and time of the month. The giveaway ended with nearly 17, 000 downloads. High visibility on the free charts and got picked up by a number of bots for free kindle sites. After the free period, the book sold 50 copies at $2.99. I did something that may sound counterintuitive, I raised the price to $4.99. Yes, I did this even though the book was selling 1 or 2 books an hour. And you know what? It started selling even more. Why? Because there's a pretty big faction of readers on Amazon that actually believe that a book priced at $2.99 isn't a good book. They're actually looking for books priced higher. Yeah, go figure that one out? It seems that that $2.99 price point has become the new "free" somehow.

This year, I did my last free giveaway. There will be no more and this is a conscious decision. I've given enough copies away, for better or worse. This time I did a full 5 days and the book, once again, surged to #1 on the free charts (again doesn't mean all that much, other than visibility). The final tally was 7, 810 copies.

Then, the book started selling after the free period at $4.99 and for the first time as a self published book (or traditionally published for that matter) the book broke the top 100 of Paid sales in the Horror category. And stayed there for a few days. And borrows took off, for some reason. Was it the free period, was the book listed on some list somewhere? I really can't say for sure.

Then, like a light switch, sales flatlined. No idea why, or the reason for it. And I'm back to where I started :) So it goes, I guess, and that's my experience to date with selling on Amazon, I gave away a TON of copies, I ended up on the Top 100 in paid sales, made some dough, and then went back to obscurity.


You mileage may vary.

HUGE Permuted Press Sale!!!!

"Mayans got it wrong" sale starting tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 22-Jan 2nd). 

IF GOD DOESN'T SHOW (including another 14 eBooks in the sale) are $2.99 for Kindle and Nook. 

http://www.permutedpress.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=164

The Next Big Thing Interview

OK, here's me doing THE NEXT BIG THING, an interview meme that's being passed around the world among authors. The deal is, each author who participates answers the questions below, then spurs five of his or her fellow authors to do the same, etc., etc. So here we go! -->


https://www.facebook.com/rthomasriley/posts/2444318723476

Mania Entertainment reviews IF GOD DOESN'T SHOW

Tim Janson of Mania reviews "If God Doesn't Show" and says: "pulp fiction at its best...a freight train smashing its way through its 200 plus pages...a fast paced story filled with intrigue as well as fantastic characters....you’ll never be bored." 



Check out the full review here (scroll down to bottom of page)

Their Last Dying Acts - A short story collection

Their Last Dying Acts
My second story collection (or third depending on how you look at it) has been out for a few months now. THE MONSTER WITHIN IDEA is nearing 50,000 downloads, but THEIR LAST DYING ACTS isn't enjoying the same success. If you've read my work, this collection includes some work from THROUGH THE GLASS DARKLY and a host of new work you may not have had the chance to read. 

About the book: 
Their Last Dying Acts captures the true essence of the horror genre displaying the breadth and depth of an author’s imagination. Riley does not hold back on the horror as he leads the readers through tales that feature monsters, both the imaginary and human kind, and horrific circumstances that can occur either in the darkest corners of the night or the brightest sunny day. 

From splatterpunk to psychological, from a snapshot of real life horror to a “Twilight Zone” unreality, these stories show the genius of a writer who can adapt his writing to wherever the story takes him. With stories like, Surveillance, a gritty police story, featuring a robot who would be man--a thoughtful allegory about racism in our society, very well-disguised and Heal Thyself, a story about the use of religion as a means of deception and the old motto of "What goes around, comes around”, to No Strings Attached, a weird and thought-provoking story worthy of an episode of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone. 

Nowhere is safe in the imagination of R. Thomas Riley.


“…Captures the true essence of the horror genre.” Horrorworld

“If you like your short fiction bleak, dark and wonderful, Riley will take good care of you.” John Sunseri, author of SILENCE IN HEAVEN and others 

“Riley's style is gritty and realistic and works perfectly…” John Grover, author of CREATURES AND CRYPTS and FEMININE WILES 

“A writer that has studied his Rod Serling, channels just the right amount of Edgar Allen Poe's ghost, and taps that same Southern gothic vein that Joe R. Lansdale has been so blissfully strung out on all these years.” Matt Wallace, Author of THE NEXT FIX




Purchase your copy here - Their Last Dying Acts