Alex C. Telander's Blog, page 25
October 24, 2015
A Free Halloween Fright for You: “Blood is the Life”
Blood is the Life
by
Alex C. Telander
The boy had not eaten in days. His skin was pale, an indication of his sickness; his eyes were sunken into deep hollows, his cheekbones clearly visible beneath his stretched skin. His hair was thick and black, matted with clumps of dirt. His mouth was practically non-existent, just a thin line scythed into his face. He was just over five feet eight inches tall, though his frame was hunched over, due to his weakness. Each step he took resulted in a streak of white pain that coursed through his body like a bolt of lightning, as he dragged his frail form along. His mind no longer functioned properly, hallucinations appearing before him everywhere: one minute the street was congested with fat, sweaty people, noisy and uncouth; the next, it was entirely deserted, except for the rats that crawled along the gutters, searching for scraps of food.
Then the boy saw the Tall Man, dressed all in black, with a top hat, approaching him. The Man held a cane in hand, swinging by his side, its handle of shiny gold, which reflected the blanched light of the dim streetlights. He slowed down as he came closer to the boy. The boy looked up at the Man’s face and saw him staring right back at him. He was an old man, somewhere in his seventies; there were deep lines etched into his haggard face, but amongst all this tired and used flesh there was anger. The Man’s lips were drawn tight, dimpling his white cheeks in an evil way. The boy looked into the Man’s eyes and gasped at the viciousness within them. They were of no enchanting color, just a cold heartless black, absent of happiness, unable to conceive of compassion or love.
As the Man came closer, he began slowly lifting the cane above his head, his arm quivering because of his crippling arthritis. The air was icy-cool, steam permeating between the Man’s lips as he prepared himself for the beating. Now the boy became scared . . . he hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I d-did nothing w-wrong . . . it wasn’t m-me,” the boy cried, shivering with fright and cold; he wore only rags.
“You know it was all your fault, you retched troll!” the Man answered in a low, quiet-but clear voice that pierced the goose-pimpled skin of the boy like hot needles.
The boy began crying, tears streaming down his face, creating canals through the dirt on his cheeks; they never reached his dry mouth, but froze onto his cold flesh. The Man stopped just three feet from the boy. The cane was now high above his head. The boy watched as the Man moved his arm in the first strike.
Just as the cane was about to crunch onto the boy’s head and split his skull open, he screamed.
The apparition disappeared.
The boy looked up . . . the Man was gone. It had all been a hallucination.
The boy continued towing his body along the street. Then he heard the smash of a bottle in the alley to the left of him. He turned and hauled himself into the alleyway. There was an unidentifiable lump on the floor. It grunted at the boy kicked it; it was a useless bum. The boy looked up the alley to the right of him, it was a dead-end; to the left him, from where he’d come, it was silent, gloomy and devoid of life. The boy looked down at the dirty thing. His small hands reached out: one seized the man’s dirty greasy hair, getting a tight grip on the chunks of grime; with his other hand he seized the drunkard’s shoulder, clinging, like an eagle’s sharp talons, digging into the flesh. He pulled the shoulder and head in opposite directions, exposing the supple white throat.
The man began grunting and groaning, wondering what was happening. The boy bent down towards the hobo’s throat; he opened his mouth, brandishing two long sharp pearly-white fangs. The teeth sunk smoothly into the soft pliable flesh; blood dribbled from the two incisions. The boy began sucking noisily, his craving for blood increasing by the second, his sickness being cured, his hunger satiated, his strength regained.
Warmth began returning to his body.
When the boy had finished, he let the body slip to the floor, dead; he stood tall and strong, replenished. A trail of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, and a long lascivious tongue slithered out and licked it up before it could drip to the floor.
Originally written way back when in 1995.
October 22, 2015
Some Scary Halloween Reads Featuring Some Reviews and a Free Short Story
To start gearing up for Halloween which is now just around the corner, below are my usual Halloween recommended reads you might want to check out to get some crawling up your spine. Here’s a link to a Halloween story I wrote some years ago, and on Saturday I’ll be putting up another scary short featuring lots of blood, just how you like it.
FOR ADULTS —
FOR KIDS (OR ADULTS) —
October 20, 2015
Book News: More Lisbeth Salander, Taking a Readcation, Spooky Books & More!
Literary Pumpkins
Here are some truly awesome book-related Jack O’Lanterns.
Scary Book Award
And continuing with the theme we have 11 examples of some truly scary book art.
Copperfield’s News
It’s great to hear that the independent bookstore chain I’ve worked at for a number of years (at two stores) is doing well and opening its 8th store!
October 16, 2015
“System: With His Face in the Sun” by Jon A. Davidson (CreateSpace, 2015)
The key to good science fiction is that it doesn’t just have to be set in the future with some cool tech and characters questioning the status quo, it also has to be believable. Jon A. Davidson’s debut novel, System: With His Face in the Sun, the first in a planned trilogy, does exactly this: taking our current tech and knowledge and pushing it further into the future in a logical way that makes everything totally believable and seemingly inevitable.
We are at a point in the future where the world has changed. The System now controls everything; think of it as a sentient Internet that tells you what to do. Almost everyone on the planet is connected to the System through their CommCuffs, and the System lets you know how to get anywhere, what you should be doing to make yourself feel better, and whether your marriage is worth it. The seas rose, and things went to hell, so the System was developed to fix things, which it did, shrinking the population through some secret, not so liked means, and making the world a much better place to live. Now everyone lives their lives guided by the System, and, while it’s not illegal to disagree with what the System tells you, you might disappear from society if you disagree too much, because the System is never wrong.
Wallace Blair thinks everything is going just right in his life. He has a wonderful wife he loves very much, a job he really enjoys that makes him be creative and somewhat individual, a unique facet in the world of the System, as well as two kids and a lovely home. And then one day the System lets him know through his CommCuff that he and his wife are in Transition, meaning their marriage is about to end. Wallace doesn’t accept this, knowing he’s perfectly happy in his marriage, but the System is never wrong. His wife fully believes their marriage is over once she gets the same announcement on her CommCuff, and this begins a long and interesting journey for Wallace. He confronts Arthur, his father, who is a highly-ranked worker in the System, about why this is all happening to him.
The trail leads him to discovering his grandfather, Edward, apparently isn’t in a care home with dementia, but living hidden away in an abandoned town in Spain, completely disconnected from the System. When Wallace eventually finds his grandfather, he learns a lot about why the man chose to keep his life secret, and upon returning to London, everything changes for him, as the System comes for him.
For a self-published work, System is a surprisingly well-edited and copy-edited work of fiction. While there is a couple of typos and the occasional grammatical error, the flow and voice feel like something published by a big publishing house. The science is interesting and believable, and the book never really slows down, as the reader is hooked in wondering where it will go next. The reasoning and reveal at the heart of System is just as entertaining and enthralling as any other work of good dystopian science fiction. It can best be described as The Matrixmeets 1984.
Originally written on June 20, 2015 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of System: With His Face in the Sun from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
October 13, 2015
Book News: Guillermo del Toro Faves, Kindle Troubles, and Two-Hour Reads
Guillermo del Toro’s Favorites: We all know that Guillermo del Toro has a dark and twisted mind, so here are some of his favorite books.
September’s Most Popular: Book Riot’s most popular books for September.
Kindles Out at Waterstones: Due to declining sales, the British bookstore chain Waterstones has decided to yank its Kindle readers.
Bonuses for Booksellers via Patterson: Bestselling author James Patterson continues to want to give his money to people who help people read more books. Now he is giving money to booksellers.
October Books: Book Riot’s recommended books to watch for in October.
YA Winter Books: Here are the 77 YA books coming out between October and December this year.
Short Books: Here are some books you can read in two hours (and some you can’t).
October 8, 2015
Olague: In the Beginning There Was . . .
The long horror book that is Olague has begun. I first started having the inklings and little ideas two years ago, a few months before my son was born while doing my daily jog. The ideas grew bigger and became brainstorming sessions and that’s when I knew it was going to be a book.
Two years down the road, with lots more brainstorming, research, and writing down ideas, on Monday I started writing the prologue; 2350 words later on Tuesday I finished the prologue. I’d forgotten that when you’re writing something long, like a book or novella, as opposed to a short story, characters assert themselves a lot more strongly and pretty much take over. I’d had an idea in my mind for the voice of the character and the feel I wanted the prologue to start with, and as I started putting the words on the screen, Patricia, my character, started being herself and telling the story how she wanted to tell it. It’s a weird feeling and the important thing is to realize what is happening and not just scrap what’s coming out because you’re not happy with it. It’s your character coming to life and no matter how much you might want to control what they say and think, they’re going to do it their way or not all.
This is my first novel using Scrivener for plotting and writing a novel and so far it’s been an absolute delight. It’s like having an entire filing cabinet in one easy program on your computer. I can easily access various pages of notes all organized by what they are referencing, whether it be a chapter, a part of the book, or the overall manuscript. All the research notes are there. I’ve had to invent a town and create a map for said town (surprisingly named Olague) and I can have photos in there under locations for easy access and zooming available if necessary. It keeps word counts and allows you to view multiple screens at the same time, so I can be looking at research or a character sheet while working on a chapter. There are really no limits to what you can do with Scrivener it seems.
I also like to keep “word meters” when working on a novel, and I’ve added one to the right hand column on Bookbanter. I got the counter from Sarra’s Word Meter, and it looks like this:
250K is my estimated word count for the book, obviously, and I have this niggling feeling in the back of my mind that it may surpass that. Depends on how the novel goes.
For now, the prologue is in the books (so to speak), next is an interlude chapter, and then Chapter One!
October 6, 2015
Book News: Unusual Bookstores, Bookish Musical Wish List, Martin’s Red Planet Obsession & More!
80’s Nostalgia
It’s another anniversary for The Princess Bride, so here are some great 80’s nostalgia books.
Books for Syria
An impressive charity event from Waterstones to help people in Syria.
Censorship Quotes
This last week was Banned Books week and here are some thought-provoking censorship quotes.
October 1, 2015
Olague: A New Road Taken
Next week, with the regular season of baseball for 2015 coming to an, I’ll be starting a new novel. I haven’t worked on writing a book in a few years. The last time was with White Horse (still in early editing stages) when I wrote “The End” on November 5th, 2011. I’ve had this book growing in size and complexity for over two years now and I’m ready to start putting some actual words down.
I knew early on that I was going to have to invent a location for the book and soon settled on the name of the town and the book: Olague. Below you’ll find my detailed map of the town I’ve created located between Petaluma and Novato. It’s going to be fun putting some created people in this invented place that I’ve been playing around in my head for a long time now.
Any posts on the subject of this novel will be under the keyword Olague.
So here goes!
September 29, 2015
Book News: Banned Books, Doctor Moreau Returns, Reading Potter-esque & More!
Banned Books
It’s banned books week and hears your URL HQ for everything books that people don’t want you to read.
Genre Kryptonite
Check out this list of books for those horror books that stray over into dark humor.
Bookish Beer Shirts
You wouldn’t think books and beer go together, at least not that easily. Where he are some T-shirts that say otherwise.
September 26, 2015
“Aurora” by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit, 2015)
Kim Stanley Robinson, bestselling author of the Mars Trilogy, dazzled readers and fans with his previous book about space, 2312, putting a whole new spin on humanity’s future in the cosmos. In his new novel, Aurora, he takes the idea of a colony spaceship traveling to a distant planet to colonize it and what happens. Of course, with Robinson, nothing is ever straight forward and lots of strange and unpredictable things occur.
There is a ship traveling through space and time that has been doing so for centuries. The ship is massive and is featured on the cover of the book: a central core that becomes known as the “spine” with two great rings. The ship in many ways is its own planet, with different “lands” or “countries” and thousands of people all different and unique. The ship is on its way to the Tau Ceti system where there is a new place the 2,122 travelers hope to call home. The ship has been traveling for 160 years, generations have been born, grown up, grown old, and died on the ship. Now, the current generation will reach the ship’s final destination.
The book mainly focuses around a family: Devi, the mother is essentially the ship’s “engineer”; Badim, the father; and our main character, Freya, the daughter. The book opens when Freya is a teenager and having issues with her controlling mother. The ship is still some years away from Tau Ceti, and Freya decides she’s had enough of home and sets out to see the many areas of the great ship. What began as a short and simple journey becomes a multi-year pilgrimage. She travels all over ship, interviewing and talking with many, many different people. She eventually becomes the most renowned inhabitant on the entire ship; during her journey she also learns a lot about her mother and what an important member and woman she has been to the ship and its people.
The ship eventually reaches Aurora and a substantial landing party is sent down to investigate. One of the member’s has her suit penetrated in a fall and her skin is broken, blood flowing, but there appears little wrong with her. She is kept in quarantine for a few days and develops a cold; then she asphyxiates and dies. Then the rest of the landing party become stick. Some commit suicide, while others die in the same strange way. The colonizers now have a decision to make: do they stay in Tau Ceti and try to colonize another nearby planet or moon, do they continue working on trying to adapt and survive on lethally hazardous Aurora, or do they turn the ship around and head back home?
Robinson posits a fascinatingly brilliant theory in Aurora: humanity has specifically evolved to survive on Planet Earth, wherever they hope to travel to in the universe they will be landing on a planet or moon where they have not evolved and face high risk to become sick and infected, much as colonizers and explorers of the past infected indigenous peoples with viruses and diseases that the native people had never experienced before, though in this case its the planet infecting the arriving invaders.
In Aurora, Robinson never holds back on his characters, letting them lead and tell the story. The story goes down avenues readers would never expect it to, and the author explains how it comes out the other side. Like Neal Stephenson’s recent Seveneves, Aurora is a fascinating story about humanity’s drive to explore and discover, and to survive at any cost.
Originally written on August 27th, 2015 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of Aurora from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
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