M.C. O'Neill's Blog, page 4

Citadel Review

I’m not scared for I’m safe inside. I’m not scared but I think I’ll hide…

Ireland has been releasing some really wonderful gems for the horror genre. One of which I most enjoyed was Alarm. True, I’m Irish and may be a bit biased in their favor, but good is good even if I was a Luxembourger.

Ciaran Foy’s film Citadel is an amazing delve into a life of poverty and madness. The unnamed city in Eire is a powerful character in and of itself.

Just to explain the milieu, nothing in this community works. From social services to the locks on your door – nothing.  The city looks as if God had picked it up – and dropped it. The bus runs once a day (no petrol for proper routes). Most buildings are condemned and boarded. Blackouts happen city-wide more frequently than Downtown Pyongyang. Police won’t show up (but paramedics will brave the town). Cars burn for days on end and one must wonder if there even is a fire/rescue service. There’s one priest left and he’s cantankerous and possibly insane.

Foy doesn’t tell us if this is in the future after peak oil or the collapse of the Euro, but Gary, Indiana looks like heaven compared to this burg. And Gary is the ultimate shit hole. Sorry, but it is. As I watched, I wondered if everybody had bugged out or if this condition was nationwide, and frankly, I believe it to be a bit of both.

Aneurin Barnard (no, it’s not Elijah Wood) portrays unemployed mailman Tommy (the post only runs once a week now) who is preparing to deliver his pregnant wife to the hospital. Due to an elevator mishap (that, of course, doesn’t work either), she is brutally beaten by a congress of chavs who inoculate her with a syringe full of God-knows-what, thus plunging her into a coma. Think Lady Sovereign from hell.

The baby survives the assault – and this kid is adorable – as such, leaving Tommy a young, single father. Without hope for employment. In the middle of Hell.

Tommy is a wimp, like most of us. He was the kind of normal guy who just wanted to work and provide, but such opportunities were stripped from him due to this collapse. This is horror in its purest form. One scene that really bugged me depicted him half-ignoring his baby as she unwittingly played in their blacked-out living room, while he sat totally bewildered. God, that was rough to watch. It made Pisma Myortvogo Chelloveka look sunny.

As things go further south, he becomes concerned that Child Services will take her away. Of course, being cash-strapped, that is on the bureau’s to-do list and this young father knows it’s only a matter of time.

Already spooked to the dangers of his neighborhood, one night, the chavs return to terrorize him and his nerves ramp to full-blown agoraphobia. His fear becomes so intense that he insulates himself and his daughter in their bathroom at one point.

This is an important feature to the film as Barnard renders this fear with such amazing skill that he is akin to the unlucky priest who gets scheduled to the night shift at Carfax Abbey. In many ways, he is. These chavs aren’t… human. Think I Am Legend meets Eraserhead.

I’m not going to push any more plot points, but like most Irish works, the focus is on human relations with oneself and with others. Joyce may have examined depression, but Foy scrutinizes panic. Panic within and from out. Tommy is so afraid that his clueless baby girl begins to cry every time he holds her as she gets hip to the fact that something is horribly wrong. To be honest, I’ve never seen cinematic fear so genuine. Hell, I’d be freaked too!

This film reminds me of the impoverished horror of Bryant Delafosse’s novel The Mall. I’d love to see Ciaran Foy direct a rendition of that book.

This nugget is more sad than scary. Very sad. You won’t be able to help but feel for Tommy and his dwindling family as the young man descends into madness and attempts to take his sanity back in a world that no longer cares.

Musical Top Ten – What’s In Your Bag?

Musical Top Ten- What’s in Your Bag? : What do you authors listen to for inspiration?

Music is, well, a muse for any artist and writers are not immune to this agent. So, with that, I wonder what you writers listen to before or while writing. Please post the video if you can find it.

1)      Recorded well before Blade Runner hit the screens, AB/7A (ABBA) by Throbbing Gristle is an effervescent cascade of electronic dreams that psyches me up before any writing session. There are no real words, so I can concentrate on my own while I tap out my romances.

2)      BBC sound engineer Chris Carter’s Beat from The Space Between (1980) is proto-electro sickness. Pure sexxx.

3)      NON – Venus and Mars. Boyd Rice is hated by many but loved by those who count. Remember: We live on a rock between Venus and Mars. Live and die in this waterfall of noise. Love is lovely. Hate is great!

4)      Ruslana – Dyka Energia. I am learning Ukie just so I can read the novels this song is promoting! Apparently they regard a transhumanist future where a young clone escapes bondage and kicks the Illuminati’s ass. You go, girl! Very uplifting – and addictive.

5)      New Order – Movement 1981- Chosen Time. “I’ve got a friend in here somewhere who can help me out.” This is beautiful music that soundtracks early-morning gloaming. Drink with hot cocoa, please.

6)      Stereolab – Noise of Carpet. Ah, collegiate memories. I hate your state of hopelessness. Motorik justice! This world WILL give you anything! (RIP Mary Hansen).

7)     Spectrum – Owsley. A tribute to the godfather of LSD. Lovely drone that blends senses into synesthesia.

8)      Crystal Castles – Air War. The only popsong I can find sung in ancient Atlantean. Elves are go!

9)      Kaskade – Move for Me. Reminiscent of driving home down Lake Shore Drive at 4 a.m. and everything is amazing under the sci-fi, milky-violet dome of our pollution. Gods bless industry. Gods bless Chicago.

10)   Three Dog Night – The Road to Shamba’la. I sometimes wake up with this song in my head. Sometimes I’m happy, sometimes I cry. When I finally find this place, I can go on.

Blog Hop: The Next Big Thing

Yes, the illustrious Lada Ray has chosen me as the Next Big Thing and I now must pass this on. It is a blogger meme for authors who are awesome. Being awesome, I am now made privy to answering these questions. Here we go!

THE NEXT BIG THING!

Q&A:

1.What is the title of your new book? What’s next? 

The current book I am publishing is The Ancients and the Angels: Archons.  It is the second addition to the Ancients and the Angels series. The first is Celestials. You’ll have to read that one before Archons. Next up after that is a survey of my short- and micro- fiction tentatively to be called Everyone Must be Crushed. It’s a Bizarro review and unlike The Ancients and the Angels, it’s not YA. Archons is due to hit the shelves in March.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I wish to wake young women up to the subversive oppression and veiled slavery that permeates the world to this day.  I hope that they can read my books and draw parallels to what is unfolding before their very eyes week by week. Tyranny creeps, but it creeps quickly. Most of the content is fueled by my knowledge of mystical, occult and esoteric topics that I’ve studied throughout my life.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

The Ancients and the Angels is fully YA, but may have some rough stuff in it. I don’t glorify it, though. It has been said these books can easily leap the gap between teens and adults, so readers of all ages will like it. My series is a blend of occult, paranormal, supernatural and, well, let’s call it “Rome-punk.”

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Nicole LaLiberte would be excellent to portray Quen’die Reyliss. I mean, c’mon, Look!

Victoria Justice would make a fine Venn’lith Mitlan.

Quen’die’s mom, Glynna IS Carice Van Houten. Nobody else.

Ed Norton as Ferd’inn?

All other cast members will be portrayed by pornstars who are hard-up for straight work.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

“INFERNAL INVASION! The bowels of Hell open wide and demonic forces attack the living on an ancient Earth not long before the dawn of mankind!“

Okay, that was two sentences, technically, but so what?

6. Is your book self-published or represented by an agency?

Novembermill is the label that pays me! Represent! It’s a small press.

7.  How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Not even a year. I’m obsessed. Fast. I drink lots of coffee too. Like POTS of it.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Being horribly unoriginal, I would say I draw from Frank Herbert, G.R.R. Martin and Gravity’s Rainbow. A little J.G. Ballard too. Lots of P.K. Dick as well, because I’m paranoid-schizophrenic and proud of it.

9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I was dating someone who said that I should write. So I did… I’m so obedient. Then, she pulled out a bullwhip and… oh,  never mind.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Sex, gore, vomit, behemoths. Oh, and elves. Everything is better with elves.

But fun for the entire family!

The Future: Near and Distant Dreams

Well, it’s been a bit of a stretch since my regularly-scheduled blogging. Aside from being compelled (obsessively so) to rave on an author spotlight for the immensely talented Lada Ray, I’ve had to take a break from Royal Manaball so that I could finish book two of my opus, The Ancients and the Angels.

Yes, folks, it is done. Prepare to see The Ancients and the Angels, Book Two: Archons hit the shelves early March. Right now, this monster is in post-production.

The saga continues! So many burning questions for my readers will be answered in this volume, yet new mysteries arise! Don’t expect a logical continuation of plot or Celestials Redux with this installment. Not gonna happen.  I don’t work that way and I thank the gods for my ADHD due to this. Do expect a more in-depth examination of the spiritual and mystical realm, yet I won’t bore you with a Theosophical diadem. Archons details a more philosophical approach to my characters and the worlds around them, yet will be pure fun.

This novel is, well, quite grim. Turns of events for Maiden Quen’die Reyliss go south here. WAY south. For younger or more sensitive readers – this addition may piss you off. Too bad. Blood, puke, gore and heartbreak abound. Book Three shall be much worse. Promise.

For the uninitiated – and there are too many of you – to my series, you’ll have to buy The Ancients and the Angels, Book One: Celestials first, or you’ll be completely confused. My stories are intricate and involve quite the investment in the lives of the myriad of characters whom I’ve rendered. I am a fan of Tolstoy, after all. That, and I’m a greedy $cumbag.

Get Celestials HERE!

So, what more is in store for M.C.? Let’s see… I’m going to have to put wee Quen’die and company back in the toybox for a bit. My next literary foray is into the realm of the bizarre. I’m penning a Bizarro book chock-full of short and micro fiction, followed by a full-length Bizarro novel. Must warn you, it’s NOT YA. Nasty, filthy and scatty things abound here. It wouldn’t surprise me if I get put on the “no-fly” list after I unleash this. Rockin’!

I can’t help it! Lately, I’ve been reading the fine works of Bizarro writers like Andersen Prunty, William Pauley III, Gina Ranalli, Sam Pink and Jeff Burk. These brave souls care not for convention, and neither do I, frankly. Never did.

Good news! I have now gained the attention of my first (well, possible) literary agent! We’ll see what becomes of this, but I never want to test the energies of the universe, so I won’t go into too much detail with that. Hatching chickens and whatnot.

Right, then. More author spotilights and reviews on the way in the coming weeks and months. Get ready for surgical examinations of Gina Ranalli, Sam Pink, and many other talents. I have also gained a personal photographer to my stable- the multi-talented Indigo Moran, CEO of Enchanted Waters Photography. Soon, you shall see what I look like! (Gods help us). No, seriously, she makes me look hot. Almost as good as KISS back when they still wore makeup. Shout it out loud!

Author Spotlight: Lada Ray

Lada Ray is a real gem ensconced within the science fiction/fantasy genre. What I really enjoy about her writing is the immense research and accuracy into the themes featured in her plots. Sure, nobody can truly understand what life in Atlantis was like thousands of years ago, but she draws upon logical inferences mixed with modern parallels that render an amazingly realistic civilization.

Don’t get me wrong, this is fantasy, and not alternative history that becomes, well, a dry history book. Expect to have fun and be entertained whilst you turn the pages (or swipe the Kindle).

I had begun my voyage into Ms. Ray’s fantasies with her excellent book Catharsis. It details the struggles of prototypical human life thousands of years ago – on another planet! You can read my five-star review of this work in this link.

Now she brings us The Earth Shifter. This novel is a companion to Catharsis and is what I could compare to Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow in theme, but it’s actually enjoyable to read and understand upon your first go-through. Much like Gravity’s Rainbow, the tale involves the concept of remote viewing and sympathetic communication. Sympathetic as in sympathetic magick a’la H.P. Blavatsky. Throw in a bit of Baron Lytton’s The Coming Race and you have The Earth Shifter. But let me add, unlike The Coming Race, Ray can actually write and is quite the wonderful wordsmith. She will not dumb-down her language for the lazy reader. Her works, all I’ve read so far, really require some study and knowledge for a writer to pull off as well as they do.

I’m not interested in giving away any plot points here, but be prepared to enter a landscape of magick, mysticism and behind-the-scenes history. Here is the book’s Goodreads page which gives you a detailed rundown of the story’s characters and other vital properties. As this is a first in a trilogy, be on the lookout for books two and three in the future.

Another companion to this epic is The Lemurians, but I cannot seem to find it on Amazon! What’s up with that? Get ready for her third companion piece, Atlantis, to be released this spring. I know I’m getting a copy!

Earlier works are her Accidental Spy series which focuses on a conspiracy-laden investigation by an amateur detective. What begin as local puzzles, unfold into international – and mystical- intrigue. I really need to get a hold of these. The books’ descriptions alone seem right up my alley.

When you read Lada Ray’s works, expect to face a litany of cool stuff. Mysticism, magick, oneironautical travel, remote viewing, the occult, secret societies and a wellspring of accurately-illustrated Russian culture.

Visit Lada’s blog for an in-depth look at her working and writing process. Here official website can be found here.

 

 

Holiday Transmission

Hi, everyone!

I just wanted to wish all of my followers and readers and favorite authors a Happy Holiday and best wishes for you this time of year. Even though this is the eve of “Mayan Day,” and as much as my works deal with the paranormal and the occult, my personal prediction is that everything is gonna be A-OK.

I have been wrong in the past, however…

-M.C.

 

Author Spotlight: James Roy Daley

Author, musician and Books of the Dead Press impresario James Roy Daley is featured this transmission.

Daley is a talent in the horror business who will one day, and soon, sweep the genre and steer it into a new direction.

When I was a little kid, I had always loved that song The Monster Mash. As corny as it may sound today, it conjured up the coolest amalgam of horror that a child of my bravery could muster. Vampires, werewolves, Franken-monsters and zombies all having a wild party – and you’re invited.

JR does the same, but there is no hokey levity to any of his yarns.

Now, I’ve read some detractors plead that he should choose a genre and stick with it, but why should he? He can take a plot that begins with a mass murder, shove it into inter-dimensional damnation and then twist it into solipsistic, gothic horror. And it works!

This mix isn’t hackneyed Freddie Versus Jason dreck, but more like the mindbending insanity of Cemetery Man.

The focal point of his horror is the resort town of Cloven Rock. I believe it’s off Lake Superior on the Canadian side, but that doesn’t matter. All of his stories somehow generate from this locale and tangentially branch from thereout.

No boogeyman is too much for this author to spin into some of the most soul-crushing renditions of terror, and if you like gore, he doesn’t skimp on the red stuff. Or the green. Or black, for that matter. I hope he never writes a pop-up book, because it would leave you covered in stinking grue by the last page.

Featured works include:

Terror Town – It’s what I consider his magnum oPUS. I capped pus, because there’s plenty of it within the pages. Good gods! If you ever wanted to know what spawned vampires, you’ll have your answer here. The worst monster is a very human serial killer. He’s so terrible that Albert Fish would be like: “Damn, dude! Chill out!” The Joker has been considered to be one of the top-five biggest baddies in literary history, but at least the Joker is loveable if you’re an anarchist. This person of interest in Terror Town is so vile that I found myself wanting to hop into my Kindle and kick this guy’s ass. Unfortunately, I would lose because he’s so damn LUCKY! And this factor makes you hate him all the more as to where you will root for the vamps overrunning the town. I mean, this book really pissed me off just for him alone and I have to give it five stars on that.

The Dead Parade – Take that Zuni fetish from Trilogy of Terror and turn it into your best friend when you have to go up against a Satanic shit-gang of amoral lunatics. Oh yeah, and the town gets destroyed in the process.

Zombie Kong – So King Kong gets zombified. It happens. As a Cloven Rock suburb is trampled by his disintegrating, pustulating corpse, a service-sector ne’er-do-well who has yet to get laid decides to take advantage of this crisis and go on a rampage. The Forty-Year-Old Virgin subverted.

I had already reviewed his novel Into Hell on an earlier post which focuses on a woman’s decent into Old Scratch’s domain. You gotta read it.

This Canuck has horror on the brain and he even writes songs about it. Here we have a talent who loves this genre and so much so that he dedicates his entire soul to it and you’ll be sure to enjoy being disgusted as much as he does when you read.

I just HAD to add this tune by the Misfits because it perfectly describes what you will experience while you try to read this mighty man’s wordsmithing -

 

I promise – All hell breaks loose in every one of this writer’s purchases.

Author Spotlight – Andersen Prunty

I am going to try this exercise out for now. Author spotlights which focus on writers I have been following. My first in the stable is Andersen Prunty.

Wow. This guy is a forerunner of the Bizarro movement. Bizarro is a writing genre which cares nothing for conformity in any way, shape or form. Expect pop culture references (BAD ones) and squids, porn, poop, failure, and heartbreak.

Prunty knows these attributes well and sculpts his tales like a post-po-mo Giacometti or a tarnished Brancusi. He fears no subject matter and no taboo is sacred.  While reading, enjoy disgusting sex, chronic alcoholism, Satanism, retardation, body odor, foul fluids and a crushing sense of oppression that you cannot pinpoint but in a nightmare.

These topics are all written with a spoonful of love. Sincere love.

Andersen hates what you hate, but are afraid to voice. Likewise, he loves what you are ashamed to lust for.

The Undead American Male, cuckolding, depression, oppression, abuse, racism, anti-racism, suicide, and hopeless plans for self-improvement are all fair game within his pages.

I’ve stated before that he is a Graham Greene of the 21st century, and I will not say that lightly. Many Bizarro authors will spin yarns that heap on piles upon piles of confusion-soaked gore and nonsense from the safety of their honeyed retreats, but Andersen Prunty is not afraid of his pain – or yours!

His books are Tex Avery cartoons that will make you cry. They are Disney productions that just may result in suicide.

This is not horror.  This is what you may feel when the lights go out and your bad day continues into Dreamland.

The best books are:

Overwhelming Urge – a survey into Prunty’s flash fiction. This tome gives you a good look at what he writes and what you can expect from some of his meatier compositions.

Fuckness – A chronicle of a poor child thrust on an adventure to save himself from a world that hates him. A  Lord of the Rings where Mount Doom is right in your backyard.

Jack and Mr. Grin – Why did you love her? Was she worth it?

Fill the Grand Canyon and Live Forever – Pick yourself up and kill the system.  Just wean yourself off Xanax and Wendy’s hamburgers first.

Zerostrata – Your family is full of shit.

Satanic Summer – Are you pitching for the right team? Is there one in the first place or do both forces serve the same foul master? You must decide for yourself by the end. Maybe you’re just gullible.

The Sorrow King  – Suicide may not be your decision. Sometimes, it’s unavoidable, but why?

Some of his books are not so heavy. Slag Attack, although steeped in subtext, is a post-apocalyptic survival romp and The Sex-Beast of Scurvy Island is a pornographic parody of porn-culture and Scooby-Doo.

Here we have an author to be reckoned with. He is able to take Bizarro and give such an inhuman movement humanity and I feel that is where he rises above so many of the writers in this stable. Take Lloyd Kauffman plus Harmony Korine and fuse him with David Lynch and Gaspar Noe. A true Breughel of the 21st century.

If you don’t know who any of these directors are – You suck!

Hallowed Review

Some older readers may remember the ABC After School Specials that would air unexpectedly during a weekday when you got home. They would be quality, full-length films featuring a drama for teens or preteens dealing with any wide variety of issues. The next day at school, all the kids would talk about them. Hallowed reminds me of one of those gems, but the darkest, strangest installment to that series ever.

With The Mall, Bryant Delafosse meticulously details the novel’s setting, while with Hallowed, the characters are built in the first half to the point that you feel you know them and care for them. Their budding romance alone is seriously worth the price of the tale.

Warning: There is a serial killer on the loose…

Paul Graves rekindles an old friendship with Claudia Wicke. Claudia left town while in grade school and returned during her Junior year back in good ol’ 2004. Always a strange one, young Claudia is now a death-obsessed goth girl, yet Paul still feels drawn to her odd ways. Soon she ropes him in with her budding interests involving forensic pathology and the two investigate the murders.

One thing I enjoy about Paul, our leading man, is that he isn’t the typical geek, bad boy, nerd, misunderstood malcontent, freak or bully magnet that is so heavily featured in high school dramas nowadays. Paul is All-American as apple pie without being Captain America.  Paul listens to his folks and gets pretty good grades, yet isn’t top of the class. He is probably like most people his age and I find that refreshing.

Like The Mall, the weird gets really weird as the second half rolls around. Delafosse takes the adventure from the grim whodunit of a killer-at-large to a supernatural plot involving the fate of the world itself. Who would have thought it was all in your own backyard? I was expecting the very nature of the terror to be one thing and I got something way out of the ballpark.

The mystery of the first half, as well as the otherworldly terror of the second, are both surgically plotted. I mean, it takes a smart writer to engineer what Delafosse does with Hallowed twice-over. Another thing I found engaging about the novel is the choice of monsters which are near and dear to my heart as I too write about them. Not going to give them away, though. You’ll have to read the book for yourself.

Hallowed is quiet horror. Not internal or isolated quiet, but more like a Bradbury for the 21st century. A neighborhood mystery that increases to an epic scale as the plot unfolds. Themes of truth, action, secrecy and conspiracy permeate the pages. Look at it this way: if they ever made a movie of the book, Don Coscarelli of Phantasm fame would be perfect to direct.

I Won the Booker Award!

Last month I won the Booker Award for The Ancients and the Angels. Not the Booker Prize, mind you, but the award for authors who refuse to live in the real world. And that’s all right by me. Why, I just had my astro-natal chart configured for my birthday and it said that my grasp on reality is being tested. I’ll buy that for a dollar.

 

Author of Catharsis, Lada Ray passed this amazing award to me and the rule is that it must be paid forward from one author to another. The recipient must also have that extra something which is outsider to garden variety literature. An element that mavericks beyond what you would normally find on the NYT Bestsellers. So, since she had already won, I suppose I can’t slap it back at her. No worries, there are are about five other authors out there as richly deserving as her. Not much more, but I think I can find five.

1) Andersen Prunty – King of Bizarro literature. If this guy wrote a grocery list, I’d buy it. He transcends much of what his fellow stablemates of this new genre release in that it still maintains a very human element. As I was once a Buckeye, I can appreciate his focus on SW-Ohio drama. Don’t laugh if you’ve never lived in Cincinnati.

2) James Roy Daley – The new king of Horror. No shit. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the future of that genre is in Canada and JR is, in my opinion, the guy to follow now that Steve King is, well – that dude should seriously retire. (So should George Romero). Read Terror Town. No, seriously – read it!

3) Bryant Delafosse – Author of The Mall, I can’t wait to read more from this guy. Warps time, milieu and can whip up an amazing premise that hooks you into the drama to come. You gotta read his stuff.

4) Andrzej Sapkowski – Author of The Witcher series. Polish fantasist who takes the time-beaten genre of low fantasy and takes it as low as you can get.

5) Maureen F. McHugh – Her anthology After the Apocalypse is a wonderful examination of what happens to people when the shit hits the fan. She thorws all kind of situations and analyzes how people, especially women, cope and deal with the stressors of life right after the lights go out.

 

So there’s the who’s-who of this wonderful award. I thank Lada Ray again for passing this on and I wish you all the best!