Gregor Xane's Blog, page 10

When We Join Jesus in Hell by Lee Thompson

The title of this thing is one of the best titles ever conceived of for a work of horror fiction. Frankly, that was 99% of why I bought this book. I didn't read the ad copy for it or any reviews. I just liked the title and knew the author had a good reputation.

All right.

Now, this isn't a long piece, so I can't say much about it without spoiling it for folks. I'll just say four things:

1) It quickly rose to a level of 'holy fuck!' that I wasn't quite ready for (which, of course, in hindsight...

The Walls of Madness by Craig Saunders

This novella is about the right length to explore a schizophrenic man's fixations, obsessions, hallucinations, and his inability to cope with the real world we all share or the nightmare world that exists only (presumably) inside his head. We're also presented with some glimpses of the early childhood origins of the symbols and themes that inhabit this man's hellish world.

And the book doesn't go much beyond what I've relayed above. Does it need to? No, I don't think so. To me, it seems that...

My Top 10 Reads from the Last 12 Months

Of all the books I've read in the past twelve months, these are my favorites.

Note: None of these books were published in 2014 (or in December, 2013).

10. The Drive-In (Series) by Joe R. Lansdale
I especially like Lansdale's wackier stuff like Zeppelins West and Flaming London. The Drive-In is almost as wacky as those books. However, it's not an absurd pastiche. Instead, it's an homage to B-movie horror flicks (obviously). I found this to be a highly entertaining read, once I got past the dreadf...

The Hanover Block is now available in paperback

The paperback edition of The Hanover Block is now available.

You can get it here.

If you order the paperback, the Kindle Edition is FREE.*

And, of course, you can still buy just the Kindle Edition or read it through Kindle Unlimited.

If you read it, I hope you like it.

And I'd also like to say thank you! to everyone who's already bought a copy. I most sincerely appreciate your support.

Paperback / Kindle Edition



*Offer available only through Amazon's Matchbook program. See Amazon for details.

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

I often find Ray Bradbury's writing a bit precious. At some point in his career it seems to me that he became more concerned with being a GREAT AUTHOR than simply telling a great story. And, yes, I felt that way sometimes while listening to The Halloween Tree.

BUT...

And that's a rather large 'BUT.'

But, with The Halloween Tree he did manage to pull off the gorgeous poetic prose, the grand imagery, while telling a wonderful story. I don't use the word 'wonderful' often in a serious manner, but...

The Ape Man's Brother by Joe R. Lansdale

I like Lansdale's gritty westerns, his crazy horror stories, his extreme noir, and his literary stuff. But, man, do I really love his wackier stories.

This is Lansdale writing in wacky mode. Like much of his crazy shit, it's a literary pastiche with lots of crude humor and outlandish situations.

Makes me smile just to think about it.

Joe R. Lansdale is a national treasure.

Read this book!

Deadlift by Craig Saunders

I liked this. The taut storytelling, the stripped-down prose style. It read like not a word was wasted.

Deadlift's a cool noir tale with a unique central conceit that, on its own, would have made for a pretty fine read, but Saunders mixes in a little something extra that takes this up another level for me.

I didn't much care for the ending, but I would imagine that I'd be in the minority in this regard.

Recommended.

Read this book!

Fog Warning by Edward Lorn

Edward Lorn's not afraid. That's the scariest thing about reading his stuff. He's got no problem going into that dark basement without a flashlight, and you just know that it makes him so damned giddy to drag you down those rickety stairs right along with him.

He loves taking flawed people, real people, and putting them through the wringer. But I think he especially likes the wringer.

I'm pretty sure Mr. Lorn has his pockets stuffed with blank fortune cookie slips and whenever a harrowing mom...

Pick a bad apple from the bunch!

Click the pic to pick-n-choose!

The Hanover Block Released!

The Kindle Edition of my new novella, The Hanover Block, is now available.

You may order it now, if you please.

It's also available for $0.00 to  Kindle Unlimited  subscribers.

What's it about?

Living in the long shadow of a tragic accident, Marion struggles through his solitary suburban life. He's resigned himself to a static existence, to living and dying in a world where every house looks exactly the same. Then he notices changes in his neighborhood. Tool sheds and playhouses are cropping up all over, hastily constructed and set at odd angles. The nutjob down the road builds an outhouse in the middle of his front yard, and the guy right next door is erecting two geodesic climbing domes, one nested inside the other.

People are doing strange things on their lawns.