Gregor Xane's Blog, page 17

Taking Jezebel by Patrick Kelly

"It rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you're in the presence of someone who can write, but it only takes a sentence to know you're dealing with someone who can't."

That's a quote from this article by screenwriter Josh Olson. (The spirit of that article has nothing to do with this review, by the way.) Upon starting Taking Jezebel it was readily apparent that Patrick Kelly can write, and very well. But the deeper I got into the book, the more I noticed that Kelly is a writer who al...

The Drive-In 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 dreadful John Hughes-style breakfast scene with the protagonist's wise-cracking and flirty parents, that is.

The Drive-In's way over-the-top in its depiction of humanity crumbling in a nightmare worl...

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

The writing in Hammett's Maltese Falcon seemed to get more fluid as it went along. It started out stilted and choppy. I also wasn't particularly keen on his predilection for cataloging every single item of clothing every character was wearing. Another thing that I found strange was his choice to describe in user-manual detail exactly how, step-by-step, Sam Spade rolls a cigarette. This happened early in the book and killed the forward movement of the narrative for me.

But I read on because I...

A Long Walk Down a Dark Alley by J.D. Brink

This micro-collection of shorts by J.D. Brink contains two supernatural noir tales, a science-fiction hard-boiled detective story, and a fairly run-of-the mill vampire story that doesn't quite fit. If the vampire story were an episode of a cable television horror anthology series, it's only redeeming quality would be the obligatory gratuitous nudity.

The noir/hard-boiled stuff is pretty good though. I especially liked the SF piece "Eating in the Underworld," which features a sex-bot custom-bu...

The Cthulhu Child by David Brian

David Brian is a classy writer. He's actually got style and sophistication. Even when he's telling us about death, dementia, and cannibalism, he does it with good manners. This is not to say that what he's writing isn't sufficiently macabre or horrific. Brian just delivers a dab of refinement with his monsters.

The stories in this little collection are all good little horror pieces, with one notable exception (and this was a great story, just not horror per se). But, sadly, the stories taken...

Pivot by L.C. Barlow

Here's a list of five (5) things about this book that'll turn some folks off:

1) It's written in first person. (I'm not sure why this is such a turn-off for a lot of folks, but it is.)
2) The action flips back and forth in time throughout the narrative.
3) The narrator/protagonist commits numerous horrendous acts.
4) This book is filled with intimate accounts of extreme violence (some involving animals and children).
5) You will find some typos in this book. (More on this later.)

If you like liter...

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

Titus Groan is considered by many to be a masterpiece of the literature of the fantastic. I don't think that I can argue with that assessment. However, I can say that it's a masterpiece that I certainly wasn't pleased to be reading for much of the time I was doing so. The primary reason for this was that I felt that it was overly descriptive, tediously so. And I think of myself as someone who has a high tolerance for fictional works that others deem too descriptive.

Below you'll find a passag...

Tuesday Tease!

Michael Brookes, author of Conversations in the Abyss (among many others) and book reviewer/promoter extraordinaire, is running an exclusive excerpt from Six Dead Spots on his Tuesday Tease feature today.

To read the excerpt, head over to his website The Cult of Me.

If what you've read catches your fancy, remember you can grab an eBook copy of Six Dead Spots at the discounted price of $1 this week as part of the Smashwords "Read An E-Book Week" promotional event.

Six Dead Spots for $1 at Sm...

Read An E-Book Week!

Smashwords is now holding their annual promotional event called Read An E-Book Week. It runs from Sunday, March 2 through Sunday, March 8. A slew of publishers and author-publishers are offering their wares for free or at steep discounts for this event.

I'll be participating this time around and my horror novella Six Dead Spots will be available throughout the week for just one lousy buck. Please note, my book is available on Smashwords in ePub format only. But it is DRM-free, so if you're a K...

No, not more writing advice!

There is a glut of advice for writers on the Internet. So, why am I adding to the landfill of 'how-tos' and 'helpful hints?'

Because Meghan over at THe GaL iN THe BLue MaSK told me to. She's obviously unstable (she's a writer) and probably a little bit dangerous. So, I thought it'd be wise to just do it and avoid any nasty repercussions.

If you're at all interested, you can find this thing she made me write in a section of her website called Between the Bindings.

My contribution is entitled...