David Dubrow's Blog, page 37

Voices of the Damned at The Slaughtered Bird

At The Slaughtered Bird, I reviewed ‘s short story collection Voices of the Damned:

Wilde explores a breadth of themes that go beyond the standard tropes of sex and death, of torment and delight, of holiness and profanity, taking us to new, disturbing realms of imagination that we haven’t seen since Clive Barker’s visionary Books of Blood.

Yes, but is it any good? Click to find out!

Friday Links: Wilson’s Woman, The Mutilator, and Upsidedown Cross

To quote Conan, enough talk! Let’s get to the Friday Links:

The Horrors of It All showed us the truth about Wilson’s Woman, and it’s more tragic and terrible than can be believed.
“Scratchy” Pete Ellott reviewed the movie Upsidedown Cross at The Slaughtered Bird : “At a running time of 96 minutes, this one plays out a familiar story…but with a difference that keeps it fresh and intriguing. Aided greatly by superb performances from the two leads – the very gorgeous Erin Russ and a part so well suited to David Yow you would swear it was written especially for him.”
Demons are infesting hair products in Memphis, Tennessee: “It may sound bizarre, but some people believe virgin hair from India may be possessed during a ritual called tonsuring, the cutting of hair for religious reasons, or sacrifices to idol Gods. “The bible has no reference to demonic possession of things or objects,” said Dr. Bill Adkins, pastor at Greater Imani Cathedral of Faith. Dr. Adkins is doubtful demons would possess weaves and wigs.”
Sean Eaton spread his wings a bit at his must-read R’lyeh Tribune by discussing Ross Smeltzer’s 2016 book The Mark of the Shadow Grove: “A recurring observation in the text is that ‘the way of things’ is towards death, decay and a kind of vegetable regeneration.  The author’s description of the surrounding countryside, of crumbling stone fences and farmhouses succumbing to vines, moss and fungi emphasizes this theme of decay, the passage of time, and the impermanence of human ambition.”
Ghost Hunting Theories took us to The Valley of the Headless Men: “The local Dene Tribe named the region for “the people over there.”  The “people” being some remote mountain folks called Naha who were evil giants who attacked their villages and behead people. These giants were said to wield weapons never seen before (a theme the Paiutes also utilized in describing the Hav-Musuvs of Death Valley). “
All sorts of fascinating things rolled out of Zombos’ Closet this week, including Mexican lobby cards of The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse and Blacula . It’s been a good week, so get into that Closet! So to speak.
An exorcist pulled seven demons out of an 11-year-old girl: “This distressing video is said to show the moment a possessed 11-year-old girl was freed from the grip of seven demons. The video clip was first posted on the Facebook group called “God’s Words – the Bible” by Petko Asenov. He describes himself as a Commissioner for the Roma, one of the EU’s largest minority groups, in Bulgaria.”
For vampire fans, Taliesin listed his top ten favorite vampire films at his eponymous Taliesin Meets the Vampires .
Nev Murray’s had a busy week at his Confessions of a Reviewer!! , but one stand-out is his review of David Bernstein’s A Mixed Bag of Blood: ” A mixed bag it certainly is. I’m not so sure about this one. I’m not totally sold on the short stories from Mr Bernstein. There is no denying he has a fantastic imagination and comes up with some really interesting concepts for stories. They just felt a little bit rushed to me. Almost like he had this fantastic idea which could have been a full novel but then had to be squeezed into a short.” *
Hayes Hudson’s House of Horror brought us a blast from the past with the 1984 film The Mutilator: “Now the first thing you might notice when you watch this film is the acting.  I have to admit it is pretty atrocious.  Even by bad 80’s horror movie acting standards!  Ha!  But, I don’t think that will keep you from enjoying this film by any means.  It has too much going for it.  We all know what we are here for and that is the great kills and gore, so I’m happy to say that this film delivers on both of those aspects.  One thing I love about 80’s films are the practical gore effects.”
Here, I told you about my Leap Day sale for The Blessed Man and the Witch , and pointed you to an interview I did with The Review Board . Also, I reviewed RM Huffman’s Sweet Tooth Omnibus at The Slaughtered Bird .

Illustration by Kevin Ramos for Call of Cthulhu’s Spawn of Azathoth supplement.

*I wanted to give my cyber-buddy Nev Murray an extra shout-out today. As I’ve said in multiple places and at multiple times, book reviewing is a can of worms: it’s difficult, often thankless, and you invariably puncture a fragile ego here and there if you don’t praise a particular book sufficiently. Nev is the hardest-working book reviewer I know. He spends countless hours supporting not just the horror genre, but independent publishing, both of which rely on the support of tireless fans like him to survive in an ever-growing pool of entertainment choices. He’s been an inspiration and great encouragement to me in my writing career, and I can’t thank him enough for what he’s done.

And he does it all for free. Nobody pays him a dime.

It’s an honor and pleasure to count him as a friend. Check out his site, read some reviews, and if he’s enticed you into picking up a book he’s recommended (or hasn’t recommended, as the case may be), get it through his Amazon link to thank him for the work he’s done.

Interviewed by the Review Board!

The Review Board, a popular book review site, gave me the honor of their March 2016 Author Spotlight feature. This includes an interview with yours truly:

Do you have any particular writing processes or rituals? Favourite music to listen to … that kind of thing?

I’m a morning person, and I do my best work in the earliest part of the day. I find that music distracts me, so I like for things to be quiet when I write. In the outlining and note-taking stage when I’m trying to develop an idea I walk around the house and talk it out. So yes, I talk to myself at times, but it works. It’s why in the early stages of a book I can’t work at a Starbucks or library or somewhere else public: they’d think I was crazy.

Well, maybe I am crazy.

The Review Board was kind enough to review The Blessed Man and the Witch in August of 2015.

Read the interview here.

Case of the Leap Day Monday Book Sale!

As you’ve no doubt surmised, it’s not just Monday, but it’s also Leap Day, an occurrence that I’ve been reliably informed only happens once every 4,444 years.

To celebrate this amazing, once-in-a-lifetime collision of Gregorian calendar and planetary rotation, my publisher has lowered the price of The Blessed Man and the Witch to only $0.99 today, February 29, only!

If you’re still on the fence, here’s the blurb:

Armageddon is at hand, and there’s no guarantee that Heaven will be the victor. Hell is clawing at the edges of the Pit, and its demonically possessed agents are right now gathering powerful artifacts as weapons of war. Are you ready for the End Times?

Hector Shaw isn’t. A former soldier suffering from PTSD, he’s been recruited to work for a clandestine security company under bizarre circumstances. What do they really want him for? Siobhan Dempsey isn’t ready, either. Her life is thrown into chaos when she finds that she can do magick. Real magick. Why now, and why her?
 
Connecting multiple characters and building to a shattering climax, this is the first novel in a trilogy of angels, demons, and the occult, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. 

Even if that doesn’t quite grab you, go to the Amazon page and click the “Look inside” image. We offer a try before you buy feature, allowing you to read the first few chapters free of charge.

 

Called “a fascinating blend of ancient religion and modern times,” The Blessed Man and the Witch at $0.99 is an extraordinary deal, and will only last through midnight! Pick up your copy today.

Friday Links: Stomping Ground, Whale God, and a Haunted Bible

You asked, and the universe provided: it’s finally Friday! Let’s take a look back on what’s happened in the world of the bizarre, the unusual, the horrific this week:

The Horrors of It All brought us two comic books: Haunted Love #1 and Haunted Horror #21.
Nev Murray made an open call for confessors at his invaluable Confessions of a Reviewer!! : “If you are an author and would like to take part in [Confessions of My Past, Present, and Future], then please see the guidelines for it below and email me at confessionsofareviewer@gmail.com to let me know. Also, for the first time ever, I am throwing the floor open to ANY of you who would like to take part. Yup, that’s right, you don’t have to be a published author to send a submission in for this. If you love books and reading and always have and always will, I want to hear from you.”
In Tablet , we learned a bit about demonology in the Talmud: “And how did Solomon get his hands on the shamir? We learn from the Gemara that he did so by kidnapping Ashmedai: Solomon tricked the demon into drinking wine, and when he got drunk the king subdued him with a magic chain that bore the name of God.”
The pressbook for the 1935 film The Roaring West fell out of Zombos’ Closet .
Ruined Head reviewed the 1969 novel Satan’s Coast: “A tepid thriller, Satan’s Coast distinguishes itself from other genre entries through its heroine’s self-awareness of conventions [or maybe she’s just a good detective rather than an avid reader of romance paperbacks]. After witnessing a few mysterious lights and a boat offshore, Nell immediately deduces what, in other Gothic romances, is often revealed in the denouement as the source of mysterious doings in similar old castle locations—namely, a smuggling operation.”
At his incisively interesting R’lyeh Tribune , Sean Eaton brought his excellent series on the theme of basements in Lovecraftian-era horror to a close with an analysis of the subway as an urban basement: “But the revelation that “cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers” are active beneath the streets of New York—reported in the first few paragraphs of the story—is not the primary horror in Far Below.  The ghouls were evidently present even before the arrival of white men on Manhattan, and their history is intermingled with that of the great city, with disturbing incidents sprinkled throughout legend and folklore—“Even some of Washington Irving’s writings have a nasty twist to them, if you once realize it!””
A haunted Bible was recently put on eBay: “An antique Bible that is believed to be possessed by spirits that pulled a woman down the stairs has been put up for sale on eBay. The Bible has been listed on the auction site by a man, named only as Fred, who keeps it in an empty room in a church because he is so fearful of the bad luck the book might bring in to his home.”
LastBoneStands reviewed the 2014 Bigfoot movie Stomping Ground at The Slaughtered Bird : “The story relies on the tension that builds up between the characters. Ben is a fish out of water, his only lifeline being Annie. He doesn’t know the area or the people, and certainly knows nothing of hiking and camping in the backwoods of North Carolina. Ben is also a skeptic where Bigfoot is concerned, often mocking the others for their belief, and at times becoming frustrated that he seems to be the only one that doesn’t think the creature exists.”
Scott at AnythingHorror gave us a list of his favorite witch-themed horror films.
Cool Ass Cinema brought us Japan’s answer to Moby Dick: “Daiei Studios had enjoyed international recognition in the 1950s with award-winning pictures such as Kurosawa’s RASHOMON (1950), but it was the company’s 1960s output that is easily their most popular. Wedged in between Art House films, tense samurai epics and entertaining monster movies are a few pictures that combined all three of those styles; WHALE GOD is one such production.”
Here, I interviewed author and youth pastor Valicity Garris , and described the experience of being kicked off the staff of Ginger Nuts of Horror for expressing, in my own space, opinions that millions and millions and millions of other people share.*

Illustration by Tom Sullivan for Call of Cthulhu’s The Great Old Ones supplement.

 

 

* It turns out that Jim Mcleod intends to use his gigantic influence in the world of speculative fiction to somehow poison the publishing well for me in revenge for, um, me telling the truth. As he’s no gatekeeper for anything except his own bailiwick, it’s a telling, if rather sad goal, and I welcome the effort.

One thing that Jim Mcleod and his toadying SJW fans at Ginger Nuts of Horror need to realize is that I consider their scorn to be a badge of honor. They can clutch their pearls and squeal in disgust at what I say all day long, but that only strengthens me. Who wants to be admired by unethical, virtue-signaling bullies? If they believe something, all I have to do is take the opposite position and I know I’m on the right side. I stand behind everything I’ve written here.

I know I’m supposed to just drop it, that I should shut up and go away. Accusations of me whining are rich coming from the cowards who snipe and name-call from the safety of a keyboard; not one of them would have the courage to call me a Nazi to my face. And they know it. They’re scared, a charge proven by the pusillanimous way they’ve come after me. I’ve got a thousand better things to do with my time than deal with this petty drama, but how can I tell my son that he’ll have to stand up to bullies if I don’t do it myself?

There’s a psychological game women play called “Let’s you and him fight.” In it, a woman maneuvers two potential suitors into fighting over her. Sometimes she picks the winner to sleep with, sometimes she just gets a sexual charge out of watching two men go at it. Personally, I’d be embarrassed to be the woman in this game, but I know of one lurking, fragile drama queen who can’t wait to go running to his buddies after he reads my material so he can go, “See what he said? See? Go after him, guys!”

It’s pretty damned pathetic, isn’t it? To get your rocks off like that. To peek through a keyhole, get vexed, and then whip up a little outrage club.

You go, girl. Go tell them what I said.

Interview With Valicity Garris

I quite enjoyed Valicity Garris’s novel Cross Academy; my review is available here. Ms. Garris was kind enough to let me interview her about her life, writing, and what’s in store for the Cross Academy universe.

If there is one theme or concept you’d like readers to take away from Cross Academy, what would it be?

I’m not sure if there is a single word for it, but one theme/concept I would like readers to take away from my book would be to see things from more than one perspective. Cross Academy deals a lot with the Christian faith and many of the characters question God because of their circumstances. I really wanted readers to see that God has a plan in motion for everything, even though we can’t see it we just have to keep pushing through.

On your Rebel Christian blog you enthusiastically and eloquently discuss your faith, but you keep the presence of God in Cross Academy to a minimum. Was this a deliberate choice, and why?

Yes, it was a deliberate choice. The Rebel Christian is something I write for my youth group at my local church so it would naturally have more scriptural references and Christian principles than my book.

Cross Academy, on the other hand, incorporates Christianity as more of a theme than the basis for the entire story. I dealt with demons, spiritual powers, prayer, and other aspects from my faith but the mention of Jesus or God was very minimal. That’s because most members of the main cast don’t actually have a very close relationship with God. I wanted this story to show their journey as they grew closer to the Lord. They still have a lot of growing to do and as they develop, the presence of God will most definitely increase.

What’s next for the characters and world of Cross Academy?

Next I would like to explore the dark side of things. It creeps people out when I say this but I would love to dive deeper into the demonology of the book. I want to explore the demonic characters a little more and make their presence as something more than the ‘bad guy’. I think that will be tricky but I want to at least try.

You’ve cited C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as your favorite writers. Tell us about their influence on your writing.

I very much enjoyed their writing but I have to say their books didn’t so much influence my writing as they did my perseverance. I faced a lot of rejection and struggle with Cross Academy, I really had to put on a thick layer of skin when I ventured into the publishing realm. But I’d read that C.S. Lewis received nearly 100 rejection letters before he was published. J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t face so much of a struggle as Lewis but his journey as a writer wasn’t easy sailing either.

They are amazing Christian writers but above all, their success stories encouraged me to never give up.

Your love of anime is clear in the action and characters of Cross Academy. What are your favorite anime series? Are there any you would recommend as being similar in style or theme to Cross Academy?

Oh I absolutely love anime. I’m so glad you asked this question because this is something I never get to talk about. I’ve seen hundreds of shows but my five favorite series are Code Geass, Death Note, Kuroko’s Basketball, Dragonball Z, and Aldnoah.Zero.

As far as any anime that would be similar to Cross Academy, well, in terms of theme, the first one that comes to mind would be the famed Attack on Titan. There is a real struggle between humanity and the evil creatures called ‘Titans’ in the series. That struggle against extinction is definitely a strong comparison to what the cast of Cross Academy face with the antagonistic demons.

When it comes to style, I’d like to say there is no comparison! But I believe the action, the fighting, and the supernatural abilities can best be compared to the sequences of the show Naruto. There aren’t any hand signs but I think the big battles would be on par with that show.

What do you like most about being a youth pastor? What do you like least?

What I like most and least is being around other Christians my age. Seeing their growth and development in the Lord is something that can’t be described. But I also feel that it’s tough for young adult Christians to look at me, someone their exact same age, and believe that I’m competent enough to lead them in Christ.

Humans in general are used to being taught and lead by someone older than them, so I think my youth group sometimes struggles to accept me. I do the best I can and it is challenging at times but I know that God put me here for a reason, so I keep going every day.

What does your family think of your writing career, particularly the genre?

They are very supportive. My mother is my biggest fan, of course. I went to college for Psychology so there were some expectations for grad school but my family has been there for me 100%.

As far as the genre goes, I think they’re very happy with it. Christian and Dark Fantasy don’t sound like they belong in the same sentence but my family welcomes the way I portray my faith.

As an indie author, what do you think is the biggest challenge facing small-press and self-published authors?

I think being taken seriously is one of the biggest things that we face. Many reviewers have told me that I’m good ‘for a self-published author’ and it makes me think, are there two types of authors? Two types of ‘good’? For whatever reason, there is a certain stigma that comes with being self-published, as if it’s a last resort rather than a legitimate choice. I would like to be seen as the same kind of author as anyone else is. Just someone who likes to write and wants to share that writing with others.

Once you’ve finished the Cross Academy series, what other genres do you think you’ll write in?

Well the most recent manuscript I finished is a YA contemporary novel. I originally had an interest in that genre but I was overtaken by Cross Academy. I think contemporary fiction is something I will always write but my ideas with fantasy will take precedence.

You can reach Valicity Garris through her website The Rebel Christian. She’s also on Twitter, and her handle is @ValicityGarris.

For more information about her novel Cross Academy, click here.

Red Flags and Ginger Nuts of Horror

For about eight months I was a staff writer for a horror website called Ginger Nuts of Horror. I spent many long, unpaid hours reading books and writing reviews of those books, sharing the site’s social media posts, and generally supporting the site and its writers. And then I was kicked off the staff for expressing, on my own social media outlets, the same political opinions that millions and millions and millions of other people have. You probably share many of those opinions.

When he kicked me out, site owner Jim Mcleod didn’t tell me, “Look, man, I disagree with your political beliefs, so you’ve got to go. You’re out.” That would require courage. Instead, he simply ousted me from the various accounts and processes available to writers of the site, ignored my courteous request for an explanation, and hoped that I would quietly disappear. It’s not the first time he’s engaged in this pusillanimous unpersoning process, and it will no doubt not be the last. Leftists love purges.

Whenever anything unfortunate happens, my go-to thought is, “Well, it’s bad that it happened, but it would be worse if you didn’t learn anything from it.” There’s value in failure, in setback, in even a stubbed toe. Getting kicked off of Ginger Nuts of Horror rates at around the stubbed toe level on the Life’s Setbacks Meter, but it’s worth discussing because you can learn from my mistakes.

My biggest mistake was ignoring the red flags. Those red flags, the feelings in your gut that tell you something’s wrong: they’re there to protect you. Red flags never disappear: we just paper over them and tell ourselves that they’re unimportant, or even worse, not really there. A good example in my case is when Jim Mcleod posted on social media, “If you share memes from places with titles like RIGHT WING……please be advised that you will receive an automatic unfriending[.]” While I’m not one to do such a terrible, proscribed thing myself, I am a right-winger. Still, I ignored the (literal) writing on the wall, and as such allowed myself to be put in the position of getting purged. What made this bizarre social media post even more unfortunate was the number of people who approved of it through Likes and comments, many of whom are writers themselves. Imagine how they feel about those readers who don’t share their politics.

Another red flag was the site owner’s enemies list: he has a digital list of people who are considered persona non grata for reasons that range from the personally petty to the virtually nonexistent. The irony of someone who hates the right wing so much having a Nixonian enemies list was not lost on me; I kept a screenshot of it for amusement’s sake. Nevertheless, I ignored the character-defining importance of this red flag, which I shouldn’t have.

The third and last of the important red flags I papered over was the prevalence of leftist social commentary on the site under the guise of book and movie analysis. The lack of ideological balance wasn’t troubling; this wasn’t a news site, after all. The inclusion, however, of social justice boilerplate into the discussion of genre fiction bothered me, and I foolishly ignored it.

When it comes to red flags, the important lessons to take away are:

1) When they tell you they don’t like people like you, take them seriously. Even if they don’t know you. Life’s too short to work for people who don’t like you. Don’t feel like you have to hide who you are to please people who don’t like you.

2) O’Sullivan’s Law has yet to be broken. Radio Free Europe’s John O’Sullivan famously said, “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.” If they’re not left-wing already.

3) Your forbearance is weakness. You don’t get plaudits for keeping quiet when you disagree. Not swinging the bat every time someone throws the ball used to be a prized quality, a sign of manners and reserve, but no longer. Silence equals consent. Speak up for yourself and your beliefs.

4) The work you did with them, the work you did for them doesn’t matter: what matters is that you have the right opinions. And if you happen to have the wrong opinions, you’d better keep quiet if you know what’s good for you.

See, to the SJW, your differing opinion is HATE. And hate of any kind can’t be tolerated…unless they hate you, which is justified because you’re hateful. That I kept my hateful political opinions carefully separate from the writing I did for Ginger Nuts of Horror didn’t matter, because I had the temerity to have such hateful opinions and express them in my own space.

This of course begs the question: if Jim Mcleod didn’t bother telling you why he kicked you out, how do you know it’s because you’re a conservative?

I always knew. Always. What else could it be? I had never disagreed in public or private with site owner Jim Mcleod or any of the other site’s writers on any issue at all, but I did express my thoughts about current events on my social sites. Like this, for example, which I suspect was the beginning of the end for me. (The linked Facebook post was a reaction to comments made by pacifist, left-wing media personalities in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.) What really confirmed it was when Jim Mcleod, in a subsequent social media posting aimed specifically at me, called me a Nazi.

Consider that for a moment: I spent hours of my time contributing to his site for no pay, asking for nothing at all, and, from the safety of a computer keyboard hundreds of miles away he called me a Nazi. We’ll ignore the appalling torture of logic that would cause someone to refer to a Jewish man like myself as a Nazi; I can only assume he’s not familiar with actual Nazis, in which case it might be valuable to put him in touch with those kinsmen of mine who have had personal experience with Nazism. Those, that is, who weren’t murdered in concentration camps by real Nazis.

I understand that name-calling, especially nasty name-calling, is the hallmark of the SJW; in many respects the Nazi label no different from a toddler calling someone a “poopyhead,” and has the same quality of thought behind it. Still, it’s troubling: by referring to everyone or everything you disagree with Nazis or Nazism, it robs meaning from the term and serves to mitigate the horrors of the Holocaust. It’s a soft form of Holocaust denial.

I know it’s a small thing, and spats like this don’t end a career. They don’t even harm it. If they didn’t make you, they can’t break you. Just don’t ignore the red flags like I did. Know who you’re working with. Even if you don’t hate them, Social Justice Warriors hate you. Anyone who calls you a Nazi is full of hate. It doesn’t matter that you don’t put ideological constraints on who you should associate with: they do. If you don’t share their politics, you’re the hateful one.

To quote Milo Yiannopolous, “[H]ere’s the dirty secret about social justice warriors: nothing bad happens when you tell them to go fuck themselves.”

Make sure you say it first, is all.

Friday Links: Master of the World, Ghanaian Exorcists, and Born in Ink

For us here in the states, it was a short week because of President’s Day. That doesn’t mean, however, that lots of things weren’t happening in the world of the bizarre, unusual, and even horrific. So yeah, that means things did happen, double negative notwithstanding. What were those things that happened? Check ’em out!

Holly Evans gave us a teaser of her brand-new urban fantasy series Born in Ink: “An all engulfing darkness filled my mental landscape, it threatened to choke and devour me, yet nothing emerged from it. Taking another deep breath I pushed through the viscous black that filled every inch of the space around me, nothing appeared. Frustration grew after what felt like an eternity of pushing and fighting the memories. There was nothing but black.”
Hayes Hudson’s House of Horror reviewed the Eli Roth film The Green Inferno: “Mr. Roth brings back true horror with this latest project.   If you are tired of all the PG-13 horror films coming out lately, you will be glad to finally see a true, rated R horror film.   The film definitely earns it’s R rating.   There is some extremely graphic gore in this film, as you would expect with a cannibal film.”
Sean Eaton gave us some family history in part three of his series on the theme of basements in horror at his trenchantly erudite R’lyeh Tribune : “It was by way of my most immediate ancestor—my dad—that I first learned about H.P. Lovecraft.  As a youngster I stumbled upon The Colour Out of Space (1927)—which involves considerable staring down into the depths of a bottomless well.  The story appeared in an ancient anthology of science fiction and horror I found on the slowest shelf of my father’s wall of books.  I consumed and re-consumed portions of this poisonous, oddly coloured fruit whenever my parents were not immediately nearby.”
A poltergeist is throwing shisha pipes around a bar in Moscow: “The bar’s owners were so worried they called in the Russian capital’s version of real-life ghostbusters, Laboratoriya Nepozannogo – or the Lab of Unknown. Spooky psychometric tests found powerful magnetic readings inside the bar, indicating a strong spectral presence, said the experts.”
At The Slaughtered Bird , the Blue Took reviewed the 2015 short film Whisper: “Jo Lewis’ Whisper reads as a short in the mould of Trainspotting and The Basketball Diaries – a gritty, grimy 11 minutes of cold-turkeying and dark discomfort – when, in fact, that assumption couldn’t be much further from the truth.”
If you’re interested in government propaganda about Social Security stuffed into a comic book, Jon’s Random Acts of Geekery has it for you in the form of 1958’s effort, Smash-Up at Big Rock!
Nev Murray posted the winning entries of the Confessions Birthday Writing Competition at his Confessions of a Reviewer!! : “Well this post is all about the four winners. Jo and I would like to thank absolutely everyone who entered. Jo thought it would be easy to pick a winner. It wasn’t. She thought the level of talent shown was immense and found it very difficult to eventually pick a winner so went for four, in different categories.”
Ghost Hunting Theories brought us giant skulls from around the world: “The practice of one misshaping a child’s head to be elongated was thought to somehow honor gods, but what if it was made to appear more like the giants who were thought to be gods – ahead of the other man upon the earth, early settlers of the planet…. What if the dominant culture had elongated heads and was superior? Would people rush to look like one of them?”
Islamic Ghanaian exorcists claim that beautiful women who wear revealing clothing are more likely to be possessed by demons : “Mallam Luthfi Jamal-Baba and Mallam Mohammad, exorcists based in Ghana, West Africa, say gorgeous women who wear revealing clothes are asking for trouble from supernatural body snatchers. The pair claim the only way for lookers to stay safe from Satan’s cronies is to wrap up as much as possible.”
Zombos’ Closet disgorged the pressbook of the 1961 movie Master of the World, starring Vincent Price. The cover alone, with a maniacally-grinning Price lifting his arms, is worth at least a click.
Here, I reviewed Valicity Garris’ novel Cross Academy and the 2013 movie I’ll Follow You Down .

Illustration by Tom Sullivan for Call of Cthulhu’s Cthulhu Now supplement.

Movie Review: I’ll Follow You Down

I’ll Follow You Down is a profoundly affecting film that raises a number of philosophical questions that resonate long after it’s over. In it, Gabriel, a physicist with a wife and a small child, goes missing during a business trip. Years later, his family learns that his disappearance was a profoundly unnatural occurrence, one that they might be able to…correct.

The performances were quite good, particularly Haley Joel Osment as Erol, Gabriel’s son. He does a tremendous job as a conflicted slacker-genius, adding depth to a role that might have come off as hackneyed in a lesser talent’s hands. Gillian Anderson as his mother played a tragic figure: brittle, doomed, and sorrowful. Victor Garber and Susanna Fournier rounded out the cast as grandfather and love interest, respectively. While Rufus Sewell as Gabriel didn’t have a lot of screen time, he was his usual, watchable self, and it’s always refreshing to see him outside of the antagonist role.

The question of fate over free will loomed large over the script: the events of the movie seemed to inexorably push Erol toward fixing his father’s mistake, despite a later decision to move away from it and live the life he has instead of the one he was supposed to have. Fournier as Erol’s girlfriend Grace sets up a terrible dilemma for him, one that can’t help but tear him in two.

Because this is a story about people and family instead of gadgets and science, you won’t find a lot of special effects. The mechanism used to look for Gabriel isn’t as important as the journey itself. It might even qualify as a family movie except for a repeated expletive and a shocking act of violence at the end that has you reeling until the credits roll.

Can one choose work over family, or is the question itself a false choice? Are we living the lives we’re supposed to, or should we fix them if given the chance?

Hard to say. Go see the film and think about it. 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Cross Academy by Valicity Garris

Valicity Garris’s Cross Academy is an exciting, dystopian novel filled with world-shaking battles, behind-the-scenes scheming, and enduring friendship presented in a style heavily influenced by anime. While most of the characters are quite young, including teenage protagonist Fox Fire, this doesn’t read as a Young Adult novel, and readers of all ages can find something to like in it.

A demon apocalypse has destroyed the Earth, leaving humanity in tatters: primitive tribes eke out an existence behind concentric rings of walls that tend to keep the haves from the have-nots as much as they keep demons out. Faith in God is all but unheard of except for a few whispers until a terrible cataclysm puts Fox and the surviving villagers behind the much more secure walls of Cross Academy, the last remnants of a technological civilization devoted to fighting the demons.

Ms. Garris’s love for anime shines through in not just the diverse names of her characters (Diaz, Hosenke, Izzy, Vehenort), but the frequent combat that features shapeshifting weapons, punishing blasts of water, and hook-swords going up against half-human spiders, trolls, and hordes of SynApes that have to be seen to be believed. Her descriptive style paints a vivid picture, putting you right in the center of the action.

Each character has his or her own unique personality, which adds depth to the story while maintaining the theme. They’re often forced to make terrible decisions under extreme circumstances, and the outcomes of those decisions weigh heavily later on.

It’s clear that the author is gearing up for more stories in the Cross Academy universe, despite that this is a complete tale on its own. I look forward to the next one, and hope the wait won’t be too long.