Matt Roberts's Blog, page 5

Planning For Halloween

Are you planning for Halloween yet? Well, I am. I got an email this morning telling me that I have been selected as one of thirteen individuals to write for 13 Stories Til Halloween this year!

I’m so totally stoked. They’ve only been around a couple of years but they always entertain. And now I’ll be a part of their family, which makes me happy. The coolest thing about this year is, they’re going to have a theme and every writer will be contributing to one big story (from what I understand, I could be wrong). So I don’t actually have to think of a story just yet. I’ll get a prompt and then I’ll be let loose to run with it.

The closer we get to Halloween the more excited I’ll be (I am every year anyway around that time)! I hope you will join me over there this year in reading some creepy camp fire style stories to give you the chills! Do you hear the cheesy ghost moans yet?

The Abandoned Factory

Hey there folks, I recently passed by a place that I wanted to share with you. Sadly I don’t have any pictures of the place but I will soon hopefully. If I don’t get arrested for trespassing in the process.

You see, I take my wife to work and pick her up when she’s done. Even on the highway it’s a half hour drive in either direction. And quite frankly, I’m not a highway kinda guy. I enjoy driving and seeing things as I drive. People on the highway are in too much of a hurry (except that one person in the fast lane doing 20). I can’t enjoy myself on the highway and in recent years I’ve spent too much time on highways and have ruined my love of driving. Gas prices don’t help.

So when I take my wife to work and have to turn right around and come home, I get bored with the drive. So I’ve taken to finding new ways to come home. I basically know the area and all of the areas from point A to point B so finding new ways to come home means little more than “taking the long way.”

That was fun for a while but then that got to be a bore. I knew those areas and driving through them was no fun. I longed for the days of old when I used to get together with a friend or two and drive around, sometimes all night long, coming home just as the sun started to come up on the horizon. Those were the best days of my life. Not a care in the world, no destination… just driving around trying to get lost so we could not only find our way back to civilization, but to discover new things. And the country was always a hot spot for our driving adventures.

Well, a few years ago when I had to pick my wife up from work I had made my way to the main highway I always seem to take and found it to be horribly backed up with traffic. Never mind getting to my wife on time, I didn’t want to deal with sitting on the highway. There are no stop signs or red lights on the highway, so why is the traffic always stopped? I never understood it, and I don’t like it. If I’m spending $4 on a gallon of gas, I don’t want to waste it by sitting motionless.

So that day I decided to go on a little adventure and try to get to my wife’s work by going a way I had never gone before. The main road I had to take I knew just barely, to a point, but once I passed that point I was in undiscovered territory. The road followed the highway all the way up to her job but at some point I lost sight of the highway and had no idea when I should turn to get to her work.

After I had traveled far enough on it I decided I should probably find a road and turn, so I did. I discovered even more awesomeness, but I was lost, which for me wasn’t a problem. I had enough gas and at that point I still had time to find her.

Eventually that day I found my wife’s work, made it on time, and I had a nice little adventure. That was a few years ago.

Well recently I decided it was time to go on another adventure to break up the monotony of my daily drives. I decided I was going to find the path I took that day, only the opposite way, and go home that way. The only problem was, I couldn’t remember it. At all.

Instead I went the way I THOUGHT I had gone and I found a new way to go home. And these last couple of nights I have gone that way only to find variations of it and I have discovered some really cool places, most of them in the country. My love for driving around at night, in the country, lost, has come back.

The coolest thing I discovered, which is why I brought all of this up, is a really cool, old factory. Leaving from my wife’s work I made my way down this road through the little town that sits next to her work and once you get through that you go down this very curvy road. At one point you literally have to stop so that you can stay in your lane as you turn. It’s awesome. And the road on either side is surrounded by woods and the unknown. At night it makes for a wonderful scene.

As you get through the curves you come to a straightened part of the road and in the dark, just up ahead, you can see jutting out from the top of the tree line two old towers. They look out of place in this vast forest of darkness.

The road, in this straightened out part, is a bridge that goes over a river that cuts its way through the woods that surround you. In the dark you can only imagine it’s there because you can’t see it, even with a full moon overhead. The darkness takes control of everything here.

Those towers are just a silhouette in the darkness, against a night sky. You can make out their shape but you can’t see their color or the physical shape they’re in. I can only imagine they’re showing their age just as the buildings are that they belong to.

As you drive over the bridge you find yourself at another sharp turn and then there you are, in the middle of the woods with just one street light illuminating the area, and poorly. It definitely sets the mood, as if that was its intended purpose.

The buildings are old and dilapidated. At one time they housed a mill, or a plant of some kind where maybe a hundred workers would come to do their jobs and put in their overtime. As you drive by you see no main entry way, no “front door” area, just a place to drive back into the center of the buildings where the loading docks might be.

Overall, the building, or buildings, isn’t big and doesn’t take up a lot of space. They’re completely surrounded by the woods and on one side the river that flows past. There’s nothing else around except for a small gravel parking area across the street. And that one street light.

No signs show the former name of the building or business. There aren’t even any “stay out” signs hanging anywhere that I could see. All of the windows, if there are any, are boarded up. Yet tonight as I drove past for the third time I noticed back in the center of the complex a big box truck that looked newer, as if it were there waiting on a load to fill it so it could go on a delivery. I wondered if someone decided to park there for the night to sleep undisturbed so that tomorrow they could continue their journey, or if the place actually is still in operation on some level.

I can’t help but feel as I pass by that I am being watched by someone or something inside the building. But each time I drive by, I do so slowly so that I can take as much of it in as I pass by before it’s gone. And it’s always gone in a hurry, as there isn’t much to the building that sits right alongside the road.

One day, maybe tomorrow, I plan on stopping and taking some pictures. It’s a really cool place and its location in the woods makes it seem like a perfect find, a perfect treasure just for me. Even though that road is actually a well traveled road, I feel as if that place was left there for only me to find. I love it, and I can’t wait to see it in the day light.

EDIT: Before I even got to post this I decided to do a Google Street View of the place and I was in luck. I have all of my questions answered, and some pictures to show you! This place is amazing to me. And I don’t have to take my own pictures and risk being arrested or deported (because it’s that serious obviously).

I discovered cars in the parking areas, so maybe it is still in operation to some degree. Of course the Street View is from a few years ago so maybe that’s changed. I also discovered a bike trail that rides right alongside the place, and also a guy named Mark had gone by and taken some of his own pictures of the place and they turned out nicely, but they are basically what I’m showing you, so I didn’t use his. I also discovered the windows are not boarded up, but broken in true old abandoned building fashion. I’d like to thank Google for the pictures I took from their Street View. You can click the pictures to enlarge them.

Crossing the river you can see the two towers sticking up through the trees. This looks awesome at night.

The bike trail is to the right.

The small gravel parking area across the street.

This is where I saw the box truck parked, back in that area.

The place is for lease? I might have to look into that.

This is the spot where I feel watched.

What an awesome place. The location of it is what makes this place so cool. I’ve seen plenty of buildings just like this one all over my city, but none are sitting in the middle of the woods next to a river away from everything else. I’d love to walk through this place and see the inside.

Anyway, just thought I’d share this with all of you! I hope you find this as cool as I did. Are there any awesome places like this near you that creep you out?

2 AM Photo: The Ending

Originally when I wrote 2 AM Photo, I had left off the ending and asked you, the readers, to give me the details as to what happened next. I got a few good ideas (not nearly as many as I was hoping for, cough cough) but ultimately had to write down what it was that I thought happened at the end. I then promised at the end of that story that I would eventually give you the ending.

My original idea was to include the story in a book of short stories I’m working on, and make you get that to find out what happened at the end. But there’s no telling when, or if, that’s ever going to come out and still to this day I’m being asked what happened at the end. So I figured I made you wait long enough.

Go to the story and reread it if you like, or just scroll to the bottom and read the end! And of course, let me know what you think!

[Interview] Alexandra Sokoloff Discusses Misogyny, Screenwriting, Theater and More!

Alexandra Sokoloff has been working to leave readers breathless for years now. The woman has released some high quality work and shows absolutely zero sign of slowing. Rather, if anything, Sokoloff has really hit her stride as of late. With some heavy industry nods already under her belt, and a growing fan base in tow, Sokoloff marches through the marshes of fiction delivering clean, straight forward stories that most genre fans are likely to gravitate to. She’s a damn fine writer (check out our coverage of Unseen here and Book of Shadows right here), plain and simple. She also happens to be one those rare good people as well. She’s warm, friendly and easy to talk to. Fortunately for us, she had the time to make a theoretical discussion a reality.

Our very own Drake Morgan managed to track Sokoloff down, and she was kind enough to isolate a few minutes of her day in order to tackle some questions. Check put the interview below, in which Alexandra discusses everything from misogyny, to screenwriting, to theater and more!

[Interview] Alexandra Sokoloff Discusses Misogyny, Screenwriting, Theater and More!

Cool interview with one of my favorite authors! Check it out!

I Need Your Help

Hey gang, I have a special request from all 200+ of you. Go here and read the issue and then if you could, please help out. It’s not asking for much. It’s just that a certain website, BroMyGod.com likes to steal other people’s work and use it as their own without so much as giving proper credit to those who created the work (which is obviously what stealing is). And as an artist to some degree, I find it disgusting. I also happen to know that most, if not all of you, are also artists in some way. Think about how you would feel if someone stole your work and claimed it as their own. You’d be pissed, right?

Well, we’re pissed. All of us who were affected by this. And you should be pissed too. Because it could have just as easily been your work they stole.

So please, go here and read what happened and if you could spare a minute or two of your day, please help out. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all!

Also, if you happen to know someone who visits BroMyGod.com, please let them know just what kind of a site it is, and what kind of low life scum runs it.

Update

Hey folks, sorry for the long delay in things going on around here. Life has a way of doing that, doesn’t it? Taking what you like to do and flipping it inside out…

I’ve had the worst case of writer’s block I’ve ever had for the last few months and it’s really getting me down. I’m doing my best to get over it, I just really don’t know how. I’ve never had it this bad before.

In any case, all is well, I’m just not writing. Which sucks, because I have so much to work on. In any case, I haven’t forgotten about this place, or you, for that matter. I thank you all for being patient (and not bombing me with “where the hell are you” comments) and just really hanging out and being groovy. So thanks for that.

I hope to have updates soon, I just don’t know how soon. I’m currently still dealing with the block, but it’s fading, I can tell.

2 AM Photo

It was nearly one-thirty in the morning when Dave Aulman laid down next to his wife in bed. Suzy was on her side facing away from him, snoring her cute little snores. Dave covered himself with the blankets and faced his wife. He rubbed on her arm with his hand and in her sleep she responded by touching his hand with hers. Dave smiled and turned over.

Dave looked out into the darkness of the room, looking at all of the familiar shapes and shadows, produced by the faint light coming in through the windows. There was a street light that always produced the shadows, but tonight there was also a clear sky and a full moon. The room was lit up nicely in a pale white light.

Suzy continued snoring her cute little snores and Dave listened to them, getting lost in them. They weren’t annoying like a man’s snores. They were hypnotic, and they often helped to put him to sleep. Unfortunately for Dave, that wasn’t going to happen so easily tonight.

Dave had a few things running through his mind. He knew his company was laying off people, some who had been there longer than he had. He had been worried since the first round of layoffs happened two weeks prior and had been exploring other options since. The options he had, weren’t very good.

Their oldest child, Angel was about to graduate from high school and was going to become a Freshman at their local college in the fall. Sure they had money saved for her books and those other little things that her scholarship wouldn’t cover, but where would that leave them if he couldn’t find work? Suzy’s job was going well, but it wouldn’t be enough.

Dave lay awake, thinking of all the things that were going on, those extra little things that made those few big things stand out even more. Oil change for the car, renewing of plates and license coming up in a few months, groceries, gas prices going up. All of the necessities of life were racking his brain when he knew they shouldn’t be. But he couldn’t help it.

After laying in bed for what seemed to be forever, Dave finally succumbed to sleep. His eyes closed, blocking out the misty white room, and his thoughts took a time out. He was feeling calm and peaceful as the sleep slowly made its way through his body.

He wasn’t sure if he had been out completely yet or not, or if he had been out long if he had fallen fully asleep when his cell phone vibrated on the stand next to his side of the bed. He opened his eyes and could still feel the comfort of being almost asleep all throughout his body. He could see the room was lit up a little more by the new message on his cell phone screen.

Dave reached out and grabbed the phone, still unable to think of who it might be at that time of night. His screen showcased two messages to him, the time, which he now could see was just after two in the morning, and one telling him he had a new text message.

He flipped his phone open and clicked a button. The message opened up and it was nothing more than a photo. A photo of the front of his house.

From:
Time: 2:01a
Date: 2/25/13

Dave swung his legs out of bed and sat up, staring at the picture. The sleep his body had felt was gone and replaced with adrenaline. Next to him Suzy sirred. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, just go back to sleep.”

Suzy could see the light from his cell phone shining and she also sat up. “Dave, what is it?”

“I’m not sure, I just…” He shook his head and held the phone up over his shoulder so his wife could see it. “I don’t know. Just came to me from an unknown number.”

“What the…” she said, fear showing itself in her voice. “Should we call the cops?”

Dave lowered the phone and looked at the info on the message again. From: He shook his head. “Yeah, but let me see if I can see anyone outside.

He got up from bed and walked over to his window. Without getting too close to it, he didn’t want whoever was outside to see him looking, he glanced out. Even though it was well lit outside, what with the street light and the full moon, he still wasn’t able to see anyone.

“Well?” Suzy said. She had brought her knees up to her chest and she was hugging them.

“I don’t see anyone, but they could be hiding anywhere out there.” Dave walked back around to his side of the bed and slipped his house shoes on.

“Where are you going?” Suzy demanded quietly, panicked.

“To the office to call the cops. I’m not going to use my cell phone. What if somehow this person is tracking it?”

Dave wasn’t sure if that sort of thing could be done, or at the very least if that sort of thing could be done by just anyone.

He crept down the hall past his daughter’s door. Angel was still awake, the light from her room barely coming out from underneath her door, and she was listening to some music. It wasn’t loud enough that he could hear it from his room, but standing outside her door he could tell it was one of the boy bands she liked. Not his thing.

He continued down the hall to the office and went in, just a spare bedroom they turned into a make-shift office, and he refused to turn on a light. He picked up the house phone, one of three they had in the house, and called their local police station. He told the dispatcher what was going on and gave her his address. She told him they would send someone out. He thanked her and hung up.

Dave went back into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed.

“So, what did they say?” Suzy asked.

“They said they’ll send someone over.”

“Well what should we do?” Suzy was almost pleading for an answer, and Dave could hear it. He just didn’t have one for her.

“I don’t know hon, just relax, try to go back to sleep and maybe the cops will find someone to arrest.”

Just then his phone vibrated in his hand. “Uh…” he started and Suzy jumped up on her knees behind him and looked over his shoulder at the phone in his hand. “One New Text Message” was brightly displayed on the screen.

Dave opened his phone and punched the button that took him directly to the message. It was another picture, this time a much closer shot at the front of their house, as if whoever it was had been standing in the middle of their yard.

Dave jumped up from the bed, nearly knocking his wife over and he ran to the window. Nobody could be seen. “This is bullshit” he said, pacing the room and staring at his phone. “It’s still showing that it’s coming from nobody.”

“Will you sit down on the bed? No need to get freaked out over this…” Suzy said, completely freaked out.

“I can’t. Someone’s messing with us and I’m not having this. Not with you and Angel in the house.”

“God, we should get a dog.”

“I wanted to get a dog but you said no!”

“I know…” Suzy said frustrated, again hugging her knees.

Dave went to the window and carefully peeked out. He knew if the light from outside hit him he could be seen, and he didn’t want that. What he wanted was to see who was messing with him, but that wasn’t happening. Nobody was outside at all, none that he could see anyway.

“I’m going downstairs to look out another window, maybe from the side of the house I’ll be able to see someone.”

“You’re not leaving me alone up here!” Suzy insisted.

“Like hell, what are you going to do down there? If anything you’ll be closer to the person. Just stay up here and stay in bed. If you like, watch out the window for the cops, they should be coming by any minute now.”

Suzy huffed but didn’t move. Dave walked out of the room. As he passed by Angel’s room again he thought of filling her in on what was going on, but he didn’t want two freaked out women in the house, so he decided against it. He went to the steps and began walking down them. He laughed to himself at the thought that his daughter would probably be cooler in this situation than his wife was.

As he walked down the stairs he realized the lights were on in the downstairs hallway and in the living room. They left them on every night for safety. He realized now that it really didn’t matter.

Dave made his way to the back of the house where the lights weren’t on and he looked out of a family room window. In the darkness he could see very little so he settled for going to the back door and checking the locks. Once he checked those he made his way to the front door and despite being visible, he had to make sure those locks were locked just the same, which they were.

Satisfied for the moment, he went back upstairs and into his bedroom.

“Well?” Suzy asked just as he walked in.

“Well, nothing. I made sure the doors were locked, which they are, and I couldn’t see anything at all. Have the cops come by yet?”

Just then his phone vibrated again. “Shit.” He opened it and looked at the picture. It was of his front door. And he could be seen through the door’s windows checking the locks. “Holy shit!”

“What? What?” Suzy jumped up from the bed and ran around it to him, grabbing his hand and looking at the phone. “Oh my god!”

A moment later Angel was standing in their door. “What’s going on guys?”

“Nothing honey, just go back to bed” Suzy practically yelled at her.

“Yeah, that’s convincing.” Angel turned and started back to her room.

“Honey,” Dave called out, “stay away from your window.”

“Why?” Angel said, almost with excitement in her voice.

Dave wanted to laugh again at his daughter’s reaction. It was what he expected. She was adventurous, and she obviously got that from him. “Just do it. I’ll tell you later. Swear to me you won’t even so much as look out it.”

The excitement was gone. “Yeah, okay. Sure dad.”

“And honey, stay in your room, keep the door shut and don’t open it until we say you can.”

“Oh my god dad, what’s going on?”

Suzy grabbed Dave’s arm. “Let her stay in here with us, please.”

Angel walked to them and her mother hugged her.

Dave’s phone went off again. He looked at his family and back at his phone. He checked the message and it was a picture of the inside of his house. He could feel the blood leaving his face and he felt as if he would pass out. The fear quickly left as an anger rose. Nobody came into his house uninvited. The safety of him and his family came first, and he would be damned if someone were to threaten that.

“To hell with it” he said and he dialed the police from his cell phone. He told the operator that whoever it was just sent him a picture of the inside of his house. He also told of the other pictures and how he had a gun and would shoot whoever was in the house. The operator told him that if he must, then he must. She also told him that an officer drove by and saw nobody, but that she would get him to go back to their house if Dave wanted him to. He said he did and hung up the phone.

He went to his night stand and pulled out his pistol. He quickly went to the closet and pulled out a shoe box. From the box he pulled out a fully loaded clip and he inserted it into the pistol. “Stay here.”

Dave walked out of the room and slowly went down the hall, which was now completely lit up from his daughter’s open door. The music was louder now and Dave grimaced at it.

He got to the staircase and looked down it. He saw nobody and heard nothing. He slowly made his way down the steps and as soon as he could, he peeked into the downstairs hallway. Nobody could be seen or heard. He finished going down the steps and looked around. Still nothing.

Dave slowly made his way through the house and he found absolutely nothing, nobody was there, and he was starting to really freak out. Quickly he ran up the steps and into his bedroom, shutting the door firmly behind him.

“I didn’t see or hear anybody while I was down there. The front door is still locked. I have no idea what’s going on, but I swear if I find out who’s doing this…” His phone vibrated again.

Dave flipped it open so hard he thought he was going to throw it across the room on accident. The new message was taken at the bottom of his stairs and it showed the top of his stairs, with him at the top heading back to his bedroom.

By this point Angel had already been filled in by her mom and both of them began to react frantically to the picture. Dave tried his best to calm them down and they finally listened. “The officer should be here any minute and he’ll help us out. Don’t worry.”

As if it were planned, the door bell rang and the three of them jumped.

“Stay here, I’ll go let him in” Dave instructed. “And make sure this door stays shut while I’m gone.”

Dave opened the bedroom door and looked out. In the hall he saw no one, so he left the bedroom and pulled the door shut behind him.

Leading with his pistol, Dave made his way down the hall, pointing the gun into each open room he went by, checking them all out thoroughly. The doorbell rang again.

Again Dave made his way downstairs just as carefully as the last time until he finally found himself at the door. On the other side of it standing on the brightly lit porch was the officer. Dave opened the door and let the officer know he had a gun.

“Yes sir, they informed me. Have you gotten any more messages?”

“I have and they’re from inside the house, only I checked and found nobody here.” Dave looked at the officer with panic in his eyes and he whispered, “Please help us.”

The officer entered the home and, with his gun drawn, began walking around the downstairs. Dave went the other way, hoping to catch someone in the middle. Just as the two met in the dining room, Dave’s phone went off again. The officer watched him as he opened the phone and checked the message. The picture was of his wife and daughter staring out the window. Both had their backs to the camera, and the person taking the picture. Dammit, he thought to himself, I told them to keep the door shut.

The blood left Dave’s face and he felt faint. Whoever was in the house was in his room with his wife and daughter. But how did they get in there? Why did his wife and daughter not see or hear the person? Why wasn’t there a scream from either of them?

“Go!” the officer whispered loudly at Dave, scaring him out of his thoughts. Dave snapped his phone shut and the two ran through the house to the stairs which Dave felt he couldn’t climb fast enough.

At the end of the hall Dave kicked open his bedroom door and ran in followed by the officer, guns drawn…

This was a Creative Writing Prompt from Daily Post.

So readers, what happens next?

EDIT: I got a nice response from everyone wanting an ending as I thought I would, and I actually do have an ending, but to be fair I wrote the ending after I posted this story. It finally came to me, the one I should use, so I wrote it out and it turned out to be perfect for the story. I’ll share that ending with everyone soon! Keep a look out on my Twitter feed and my Facebook page for the announcement as to when that’s going to happen! Until then, I’m STILL looking for YOUR endings! Let me know what you think! If I like your ending good enough, I’ll write it too!

They Can’t Say No

This past National Novel Writing Month I churned out a new novel titled “They Can’t Say No” and I was going to post an excerpt from it here like I did last year with the “Hand One Is Dealt” excerpt, except I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do with it. You see, this is a different kind of story for me. It’s not necessarily horror. It’s more along the lines of sci/fi erotica. Yes, there are sex scenes in it. A lot of them.

What I didn’t know what to do with it was, I didn’t know if I should publish it under my name or a pen name, because it’s erotica. However, I think I would have been found out eventually and then where would I be? So I’m just going to put it out as me and have that be that.

Writing sex scenes turned out to be very easy for me and once that aspect of the story came up, I flew through them without hesitation. Not only did it help to pad the story with material, but it also helped to boost my word count up to the 50,000 word mark that I needed by the end of November, somewhere around November 17th. I was done with my 50K novel halfway through the month. I think it was Elysabeth Williams who challenged me to write another 50K before the end of the month, but by that point I was spent. No pun intended. Besides, I didn’t see where else I could go with the story.

With that said, I don’t have an excerpt ready yet for you, but I will post one soon. However, here’s a synopsis of what the story is about.

Working Cover

David is a genius. He’s always been the nerdy type, creating robots, video game systems, computers, all from scratch. He studies molecules and atoms for fun. He also studies the female body. Since he is such a nerd he seems to have a hard time finding true love, so he spends a lot of his time online visiting porn sites.

One day he decides to create a camera that would take pictures and extract the DNA of the subject in the picture and then clone them at will. He suddenly starts having all the sex he wants with the women he wants, except with their clones and not the real them.

David runs into his neighbor and becomes friends with him. Fred starts teaching David a new way of life. How to enjoy sports, beer, even marijuana. In turn, David gets his new pal laid. As it turns out, Fred is a gambler and he hits it big one night while gambling online. The two decide to take a road trip.

They go to gamble in a real casino, while high, and they wind up hitting it big. In the meantime, David has found the hots for a new woman, a real woman, who comes to clean his apartment for him. He falls in love, but shortly after discovers the police hauling her away.

Through traveling, smoking pot and getting into a lot of interesting incidents, David and Fred live the life while looking for true love. David has to make a choice, go after a real woman, or live happily ever after with one of his clones who is programmed to love him back.

I did in this story what Erin Morgenstern, author of “The Night Circus” did in her story. I ran out of places to go with my characters, so I started putting them in different situations, and the story came from that. What you read in this story is almost all on-the-fly stuff, not planned at all. And it worked for me.

I’m happy with how the story turned out but I’m currently wondering if I should change the ending. I have two in mind, the one I gave it and another that takes the story to a different place. We shall see. In any case, it’s being edited now and will be published shortly after. I plan on releasing a paper version of it first, with the e-book coming sometime after that.

Book Review: The Electrifying Exploits of the English Three

I’ve been lucky enough to meet a bunch of awesome writers on Facebook. We now have a sort of circle that we hang out in and we all love to talk about writing and reading. Amongst those friends I have met is the wonderfully delightful Elysabeth Williams. Her book, The Electrifying Exploits of the English Three is a wonderful read from beginning to end.

This was my first experience with steampunk, other than the Wild Wild West of course. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From the back cover:

Can three women stop the destruction of the tower bridge?

Eliza, Miriam, and Jillian are friends by fate, employment, and society. In the London of 1894, they receive a directive from their mysterious boss to investigate and stop the Countess Wilmont’s plot to destroy the newly erect Tower Bridge. Delving into a secret world of masterful training in martial arts, curious new technologies and weaponry, the women are armed and very dangerous. Their investigation reveals a terrible truth about two of their husbands, and along the way they meet three men who will change their world and show them that gentlemen aren’t always what they seem.

Though it sounds a bit like Charlie’s Angels, this is a great story with a lot of action, great writing and wit, and even love. Plenty of love. That’s the woman coming out in Mrs. Williams. While this reads like a “chick book” full of love and hope, it also has plenty in it to keep a man interested, such as sex, language and violence.

Personally, I loved the story and was easily enthralled in it. A real page turner, I’d strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read.

5 of 5 stars

Book Review: The Doll

I spent some time on Amazon’s Kindle list of free ebooks to see if I could find something worth reading. I picked two out of the hundred or so I looked through. Most of them were love stories, I’m guessing since it was Valentine’s Day when I did my search. This was one of the two I picked out.

The story is about a woman and her daughter who go to the Island of the Dolls in Mexico. When they get off of their boat and walk amongst the dolls hanging from the trees, their tour guide tells them of the legend, how a girl had drowned in the water there and people began hanging dolls in the trees to make her happy. There was just one man who lived there but he was found floating in the water, drowned, near the same place where the little girl had died.

He also warned everyone to not touch any of the dolls as that brings about bad luck. One man touched a doll. The lady is freaked out at all the dolls but her daughter loves them and wishes she could have this one in particular.

Later the woman finds out the man who had touched one of the dolls had drowned in his pool while fully clothed. And then odd things start happening to the daughter. The mom then finds out the daughter had stolen the doll she wanted and brought it home with her.

The mom takes the doll back to the island and puts it back in its place only to have something creepy happen to her.

I liked the story and the ending, but it was a little predictable. And the fact that it was a short story left much to be desired, like more story and background. There was also an issue with scenes changing on a whim with nothing separating them. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was going on just because the scene change lost me.

Overall it was a decent, quick read which only took about a half hour to get through. If you’d like a quick little read before bed, check this out. Otherwise, don’t expect much else from it.

I gave it 3 of 5 stars.