Gregor Xane's Blog, page 9

Bubba Ho-Tep by Joe R. Lansdale

This is an excellent novella. Lansdale describes the world in which this story is set with a sort of over-the-top, vivid cynicism that forces you to laugh out loud for fear of spiraling into the depths of despair. This is wholly appropriate considering this story is set in a retirement home populated with lonely and dying elderly persons who are largely treated like humanity's dirty little secret by the staff and society at large.

Sadder still are the heroes of this story, two old men who may...

THE RIGGLE TWINS is FREE on Amazon!

As I've previously announced, my novelette  The Riggle Twins  is presently on the 2014 Bram Stoker Award's preliminary ballot. To celebrate, I've decided to give the story away for FREE on Amazon through Wednesday of this week.

The Riggle Twins first appeared in last year's Bad Apples: Five Slices of Halloween Horror . Yesterday, it was announced that the same people who brought you that thing are putting out another thing next month called Dead Roses: Five Dark Tales of Twisted Love . S...

From the Creators of Bad Apples: Dead Roses: Five Dark Tales of Twisted Love

Happy Valentine's Day! 

I am pleased to announce that my newest novella, Loving the Goat, will be appear in forthcoming horror anthology Dead Roses: Five Dark Tales of Twisted Love. 

Check out the complete table of contents below:

Love Lies In Eyes by Evans Light 
Cinder Block by Edward Lorn
Eleanor by Jason Parent
Panacea by Adam Light
Loving the Goat by Gregor Xane







Release Date for hardcover, paperback, and eBook editions: 

March 16, 2015 

Signed limited edition hardcover an...

The Cipher by Kathe Koja

But what did it all mean?

If you don't like reading books where that's the question you're left with after turning the final page, this might not be the thing for you.

This book is like a Rorschach splatter, and I'm not telling you what I think it all meant to me. I'd be embarrassed, I think, to expand on the matter with anyone other than a close friend.

It's dark. It's nasty. The only good people in this story are on the periphery.

If you like body horror. If you like art house films that sho...

I'm on the 2014 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot!

I am much, much more than pleased to announce that my novelette "The Riggle Twins," which first appeared in Bad Apples: Five Slices of Halloween Horror (Corpus Press), has managed to make its way on to the 2014 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot in the Long Fiction category.

This doesn't make me or my story a nominee. To claim that distinction, "The Riggle Twins" will have to be voted on to the final ballot by Horror Writers Association (HWA) lifetime/active members.

At this time I'd like to...

Double Feature by Owen King

A tale of two assholes.

The father is a lovable asshole and the son is an unlikable asshole. This story is about their respective journeys toward not being such huge assholes.

This is a big messy book. The author throws everything he's got at this one. And most of it sticks.

Owen King is a hell of a writer. His dad (Stephen King) and his brother (Joe Hill) are great entertainers, tellers of tales designed for stadium seating, whereas Owen King is more of a writer's writer. The stuff Owen a...

Bleeding Shadows by Joe R. Lansdale

This guy by the name of Dan Schwent lent me this book, and I must say I'm mighty grateful. This is an excellent collection of short stories.

I've gotten to the point where I can't say much more about Lansdale's short fiction than 'I just love it.' I don't think I've read a bad story by the man. All of his stuff fits somewhere between 'good' and 'great.'

This is a big, fat collection of shorts that'll give you your money's worth.

Which stories did I like best?

A Visit with FriendsMr. B...

Professor Challenger: The Island of Terror by William Meikle

This novella serves as an homage and as a sequel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. In addition to literature's most famous detective, Doyle created an irascible beast of a manly adventurer known as Professor Challenger.

Here's how he's described in The Lost World:

"His appearance made me gasp. I was prepared for something strange, but not for so overpowering a personality as this. It was his size, which took one's breath away – his size and his imposing presence. His head was enor...

Revival by Stephen King

King's writing is smooth. It always has been. And now it's leaner, too. This and Doctor Sleep feel streamlined compared to his earlier stuff (not his early stuff).

This book seemed like it could have been outlined, plotted even, before King sat down to write, even though King says he doesn't do that sort of thing. I liked this book's structure. Every scene, set piece had its mirror or counterpart later on in the narrative.

King's publishers like to tout his books as being SCARY AS HELL TALES...

Mr. Tucker & Me is FREE for a limited time

As my holiday gift to you, Mr. Tucker & Me will be FREE to download from Amazon through 12/22/14.

WARNING: This short is not horror, and it's not a holiday story. It fits somewhere in the science-fiction & fantasy spectrum.

I hope you like it.

Got to Amazon and grab it!





And speaking of free, you can also grab "It Came From Hell and Smashed the Angels," if you're so inclined.