David Dubrow's Blog, page 48

From Truth to Fiction to Truth

This is a true story.  The names have been changed to protect the innocent...and shield the guilty.  I am at least partly culpable for what happened, and it is a sin I will bear until the end of my days.
     When I picked my four-year-old son up from preschool on a Friday some time ago, his teacher said, "Yesterday, one of the students hurt Ms. Francine's finger.  When she came in today, it was all black and swollen, so I suggested she go to the hospital to have it X-rayed."
     Ms. Francine is a classroom assistant.
     I replied, "Yeah, sounds like it might be broken or something, if it looked that bad.  I hope she's all right."
     His preschool teacher agreed.  I took my son's hand and we walked out.     On the car ride home, I asked my son, "Who broke Ms. Francine's finger?"     He immediately replied, "Bobby did it."     "Really?"     "Yeah.  He grabbed it and twisted it."
     "No he didn't."
     "Yes he did," my son insisted.     I thought about this for a moment and said, "You wouldn't do anything like that, would you?  That would hurt someone."     "No," my son said.  "Are we having McDonald's tonight?"     "Nope.  Spaghetti."
     I wasn't sure what to believe.  Little kids make up things all the time, especially to fill in gaps of information.  So later that weekend, I would try to trip him up by saying things like, "I can't believe Billy broke Ms. Francine's finger," and he would always correct me and say, "No, Bobby did it!"
     "Wow, that's awful that Wilhemina broke Ms. Francine's finger like that."     "No she didn't!  Bobby did!"
     He was very consistent about who did it.  So later I asked, "What did Ms. Francine do when Bobby broke her finger?"     "She screamed, ' STOP! '"      "No she didn't.  She wouldn't scream like that."     "Yes she did."
     He was also consistent on this point, though I found his credibility somewhat questionable.  Especially because later he told me that Bobby had bit and squeezed Ms. Francine's finger, which I was certain wasn't true.  
     Over the next few days it became a joke at our household, as such absurd things tend to do: out of the blue I'd ask him to tell me what Ms. Francine did when Benny broke her finger, and he'd first correct me that Bobby had done it and then scream at the top of his lungs in an absurdly high-pitched voice, "STOP!"  Not that we didn't feel bad for Ms. Francine, but we do have routines that we enjoy.
     I imagined that if my son had grabbed and twisted a teacher's finger hard enough to break it, if we didn't get kicked out of that school, I would take him out of it anyway.  Accidental injury or not, Bobby's parents must have felt awful about it.  I still didn't believe that it was anything other than accidental.
     A few days later I saw Ms. Francine when I went to pick up my son from preschool.  Not only did she not have a splint on her finger, it didn't look the least bit swollen at all.  I asked her how her finger was doing, and she expressed surprise that I knew anything about it at all.  
     The real story, you see, was that Bobby ran over to give Ms. Francine a hug, and she just jammed her finger at the impact.  No grabbing, no squeezing, no biting, no break.  No screaming, "STOP!"

     (Interestingly, my wife thought that Ms. Francine screaming, "STOP!" was very credible.)

     I'm to blame, in part, for how the story got fictionalized: I had asked my son, "Who broke her finger?" rather than something more neutral like, "I heard Ms. Francine's finger got hurt.  Do you know what happened?"  So in this case, I led the witness by assuming the finger was broken.  My son filled in the rest with fictional biting, squeezing, and shrieking.  I never could get him to tell me how much of the non-event he actually witnessed.

     Nevertheless, he was correct that Bobby was involved.  Under intense questioning, he stuck to his guns.  Even with the fictional stuff.

Friday Links: Joe Dante, Horrifying Sounds, and Exorcising Mexico

In the run-up to the beginning of summer, what's been going on in the land of the strange, surreal, bizarre, and horrific?

This stuff, that's what:
At Ginger Nuts of Horror, Jim Mcleod reviewed Hollywood legend Joe Dante: "Well the appeal of making a low budget film is that there is not so much money riding on it and if we can make a big blockbuster film there are many, many cooks and many people looking over your shoulder because it’s a tremendous amount of money and it is such a responsibility and they want the movie to be as popular as possible and so very often people just try and cut the edges off any make it a bit more (inaudible)everyone will love it, and when you are making a low budget film you don’t really have that problem because you are in and out so fast that it’s like a boulder rolling downhill, there’s really nothing you can do except get it out of the way as you don’t have a lot of time to meddle with the process."A most interesting lobby card was presented to us at Zombos' Closet of Horrors.Nev Murray reviewed The Spartak Trigger at his Confessions of a Reviewer!! : "Okay, I had a few problems with this book. Problem number one – how to classify it. Which genre to put it in to. I still have no idea. A thriller? A techno thriller? A – I don’t know really. It’s so mixed up." A mass exorcism was held in Mexico: "Under the guidance of Pope Francis, the Catholic Church took the unusual step of trying to banish demons from an entire country when they held a mass exorcism in Mexico.  Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez and Archbishop Emeritus of Guadalajara presided over a mass exorcism held in Mexico, as Spanish Priest Father José Antonio conducted the ritual himself."Terrorphoria gave us a eulogy for Silent Hills: "Nobody knows if Silent Hills would have been incredible, but in the nature of all cancelled projects that look excellent on paper, it was clearly going to be the best, most amazing game that ever existed or ever would."John Kenneth Muir expertly deconstructed The Lazarus Effect the way only he can: "The whole movie looks like it has been terminally re-jiggered with, so that it consists, simply, of story set-up and then a series of brutal, but not terribly original murder scenes.  Accordingly,  The Lazarus Effect  is the worst new horror movie I’ve seen since  The Pyramid  (2014), one of remarkable promise and utterly terrible, scattershot execution."Sean Eaton offered his views on the recent dust-up with the English scientist making a joke that upset all the wrong people, and in his inimitable way, connected it to a Lovecraft collaboration in his trenchantly trenchant R'lyeh Tribune: "The female lab partner in Ashes does not cry when criticized, but the narrator does fall madly in love with her and her with him. “That girl took to chemistry as a duck takes to water!” he remarks, worshipfully.  But the poor woman is later gagged, tied up and locked inside a big mahogany chest by the maniacal Professor Van Allister, a brilliant chemist, (but probably not a member of The Royal Society)."Ghost Hunting Theories collected video of horrifying sounds with no clear origin.  I touched on this phenomenon in The Blessed Man and the Witch .Here, I solved the mansplaining problem and warned you about Ghanghatas.Illustration by Tom Sullivan for Call of Cthulhu's S. Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters .

No, Ghanghata, No!

I got this in my email:


Paying for a review is extremely stupid and nobody should do it unless, perhaps, it's a Kirkus review, but Ghanghata here isn't Kirkus.  Ghanghata is disgusting by soliciting filthy lucre for a book review.  Do not pay Ghanghata.  Do not communicate with the Ghanghatas of the world.  Once Ghanghata slime gets on you, it never washes off.  You will always be the writer who paid a Ghanghata to write nice things about your book.  
Just say no to Ghanghata.

Mansplaining Problem Solved

A lot of people thought that the If Jane Austen Got Feedback from Some Guy in a Writing Workshop piece was just the balls*.  It's been linked, relinked, commented upon, and generally well-loved.

The comments on the piece were where it lived for me.  Notably, there was some outrage over the inherent "mansplaining" in the piece.  Yes, it was satire, but when readers take it seriously enough to express negative feelings about it, it's not just a knock-knock joke.  It deserves a little analysis.

If you use the term "mansplaining" unironically, you will not enjoy the remainder of this post.

To avoid the mansplaining problem, the solution is to simply segregate your choice of interlocutors so that you, as a confident woman, won't have to listen to the mansplaining.  Whenever presenting a piece for feedback, simply say, "Men need not apply."  It's okay to do that.  No men, no mansplaining.  (You can change the term "Men" here to "Guys" or, if you're so inclined, "Dudebros" to really make an impact.)  If the 21st century has taught us anything, it's that it isn't the value of the information presented that matters, but the gender, race, age, and political viewpoint of the presenter.  Choose who you communicate with wisely, and speak your truth as bravely as you can manage.

Failing that, there are publishers who will cater to you.  It's all good.

What follows will be some offensive mansplaining about related issues.  This is your trigger warning.
My years of employment in the publishing industry have taught me something that should be self-evident to anyone who has worked in or run a business, but is not because the truth is ugly and shitty and hurtful: businesses exist to make money.  This is especially true for publishers.  The vast, vast, vast majority of them care about how much money they can make from publishing your book, and that's it.  Very little else matters.  Including your gender.  And your color.  And your sexual orientation.  These qualities are only important insofar as they affect marketing.  If publishers aren't publishing your books, it's because they don't think they can sell your books.

Isn't the demand for a carve-out to cater to your particular needs an admission that you can't succeed any other way?  Do you really want any success you might achieve to be directly attributed to some kind of affirmative action for writers?  Don't you want to compete?

Extra bonus content about writing workshops:
I did writing workshops as an undergrad decades ago, and I won't do them again.  The best way to get better at something isn't to submit your work to a committee, but to do it over and over again until you've done it right.  That doesn't mean you should publish every piece of deathless prose you ever write: it means that you need to do a lot of reading and writing and critiquing and self-critiquing before you achieve competence as a writer.  That's just the beginning: do you really want to be just competent?  You really do have to read.  A lot.  And you have to do it with both eyes open and find out what you like about what you've read and figure out why you liked it and examine it to determine why it worked so well and how you can do it yourself in your own way.  Over and over and over again.  Some of it's unconscious, some of it isn't.  Cultivate mindfulness in reading.  Then do the same for writing.  Easy-peasy.  Anyone can do it, right?

*"The balls" is a dudebro (that is, male) term for something that is impressive.  As in, "Yo, that patriarchal way you mansplained your position to that chick who asked you a question was the balls!"

Friday Links: Carnac Stones, Evil Games, and The Last Bus

While we mourn the death and celebrate the life of horror movie icon Christopher Lee, let's take a look at what else happened this week:
Zombos' Closet brought us  The Monster Times Issue #38  from January 1975.Lovecraft eZine talked about the show Supernatural and what we might expect from Season 11: "In many Lovecraftian and/or cosmic horror stories, ancient forces existed long before humans ever evolved. For one reason or another (depending on the story) they left or were forced away. I’m simplifying here, but the terror lies in the realization that these forces are coming back at some point, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. At best, we can only delay it. And compared to these forces or gods, we are insects." In the Philippines, some prison inmates may have become possessed by demons after seeing a picture of a coconut crab: "Fr. Francis Lucas, director of the Catholic Media Network, explained that one should be careful to distinguish something as possession or simply a figment of one’s imagination. There are different forms of possession which, Lucas said, can happen when one lacks faith or experiences extreme depression. “The devil is real. Totoo yan. Hindi yan kathang isip. Hindi yan meron lang malas, may ganito. Tunay na tunay yan. Buhay na buhay yan. So they try to attack us and to get our souls,” Lucas explained."Nev Murray reviewed Evil Games by Angela Marsons on his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "Angela Marsons. Remember who told you this name first (well on this blog anyway). This lady is going to be up there at the top of the best seller’s lists for many many years. As I write this review both books are hovering around the top ten in many Amazon lists. You want a crime book to get your teeth into? You want a thriller to get your teeth into? Angela Marsons."Ghost Hunting Theories told us about the Carnac Stones: "The Carnac Stones near the village of Carnac in Brittany, France, includes a huge array of megaliths; some dolmens, many with alignments. It is considered the largest such collection in the world."At the uncannily incisive R'lyeh Tribune, Sean Eaton lifted weights and deconstructed the film The Happening: "Wahlberg’s character, who occasionally intones the steps of the scientific method as if it were a secular prayer, gradually pieces together the terrifying truth.  Plant life—trees, grasses, shrubs, houseplants and so forth—are emitting a specialized neurotoxin into the air which drives human beings to kill themselves.  The presence of the neurotoxin is announced by a helpful and convenient breeze that stirs the tops of trees and blades of grass as a prelude to mayhem and carnage."If you're going to read a tribute to Sir Christopher Lee, read John Kenneth Muir's .Crowded Quarantine Publications acquired Paul M Feeney's novella The Last Bus.From the Depths of DVD Hell reviewed Jodorowsky's Dune : "For those familiar with Jodorowsky already,  they will be unsurprised that despite being older he is still as crazy as ever as he practically fizzles with enthusiasm for the project even though at the time of its collapse it left him questioning if he would direct again." (Check out my review of the movie here.)Here, I shared some thoughts about how I review books and gave you tips on how to find a suitable Zombie Redoubt on the go.Illustration by Tim Callender for Call of Cthulhu's Arkham Unveiled supplement.

Zombie Redoubts on the Go

The first book I wrote was The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse .  I wrote it under the pseudonym F. Kim O'Neill, because I thought that survival skills and zombie-killing techniques would be more credible if they came from a fictional military veteran than a real-life goofball like myself.  Despite my past and present goofball status, my book is still the most realistic primer available on surviving a Zombie Apocalypse, bar none.

Since the book was published in December 2010, I've written some shorter pieces on zombie apocalypse survival skills.  What follows is a rewrite of an earlier piece.

Zombie Redoubts on the Go

In The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse , I described methods to turn your house or apartment into a Zombie Redoubt: a place of refuge that can be readily defended during a Zombie Apocalypse.  If, for whatever reason, you can’t or won’t take those steps to make your home more zombie-resistant (almost no place on Earth is completely zombie-proof), then you will want to read on.  Even if you have stocked up your Zombie Redoubt with weapons, supplies, and water, the longer you stay in one place, the more likely it is that you’ll meet wandering, hungry undead.  Every fight can be your last, be it from bad luck, a jammed gun, or an overwhelming number of enemies.  Eventually you’re going to have to move out of your Zombie Redoubt and find a new place to live.

Whether you’re looking for a place to sleep for the night or a home for a few weeks, identifying a suitable  Zombie Redoubt on the go should include the following factors:
That Prius May Save the Environment, but It Won’t Save Your Life: If you use an abandoned car as a temporary hotel and are surprised by zombies, you’re in a very bad position.  Inside an automobile there’s little room to dodge attacks or access a weapon (let alone swing one), and the entire top half of the thing is made out of glass that a determined undead attacker will eventually break.  You’re also very easily surrounded in a car, and it can be extremely difficult to get out of one in a hurry.  More Than One Exit: Any place you go into should have at least two means of egress: the one you entered and one other that leads to a ground floor exit.  If you’re running from zombies and lock yourself into a structure that only has one exit, you’re just delaying the inevitable. Sooner or later you’re going to have to get out and deal with the problem that brought you there in the first place.  Of course, you can’t always immediately tell if the building you plan to hole up in has a second way out, so before you commit to staying for any length of time, do a thorough sweep of the first floor and test any exits you might see: that back fire door may be locked or rusted shut.  The Visible Man: Places like libraries, schools, supermarkets, convenience stores, and other retail establishments may have things like free food, water, and books, but they also have very large windows and glass fronts.  This glass may be zombie-proof, but it also provides both living and undead enemies with an unobstructed view of the interior of the building.  If zombies see you in there, they will never leave.  Sure, you can try to block all the windows, but with what?  Will it block all light?  Did you leave yourself enough peepholes to see what’s going on outside?  Use these kinds of places as resupply stops and very temporary shelters, not homes.Knock Knock, Who’s There: Depending on the size of the structure you’ve entered, you will want to make certain that you’re alone in it.  If it’s an office building, secure all ground floor methods of entry or egress to keep upstairs tenants from sneaking up on you.  Just because the building doesn’t have power, it doesn’t mean you can’t be surprised by undead in the elevator shaft, for example.  If it’s a house or smaller structure, go room to room on a search for enemies before relaxing.  During the Zombie Apocalypse most surprises you’ll experience will turn out to be nasty ones, not birthday parties. Minimize the chances of being surprised.Squatter’s Rights: Be prepared to face down other scavenging humans in your quest for shelter, but unless your intent is to kill everyone you see, you may want to avoid places that show obvious signs of habitation.  If you’ve managed to survive the first few weeks of the Zombie Apocalypse, you’re a tougher customer than you used to be.  The problem is, so is everyone else.  You don’t know what that scruffy-looking guy and his wall-eyed girlfriend in the abandoned 7-11 had to go through to survive.  With thousands of hungry undead seeking your brains, do you really want to fight everybody?  There’s probably a suitable place to crash down the street.Practice assessing places as Zombie Redoubts on the go before the Zombie Apocalypse. Take a casual look around the next time you’re in an unfamiliar building.  Identify the exits, check out how much glass is out front, and give it a general look-see.  Imagine yourself having to sleep there with minimal creature comforts.  You’ll be surprised at what you discover.

Illustration by Carlos Machuca for The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse .

Book Reviewing Thoughts

On the heels of the latest example of an author behaving badly, I wanted to share a few thoughts about book reviewing.  (Note that this Dylan Saccoccio character has since deleted his ludicrous complaints about the negative reviews he's received, which shows a certain amount of shame, if not integrity.  Screenshots of them are available here.)

I'm really quite lucky to review books for Ginger Nuts of Horror.  It's a terrific horror site, and it's a privilege to work alongside really smart people dedicated to celebrating the best of my favorite literary genre: horror.  I write reviews for three reasons:To participate in conversations about the stuff that interests me.To help indie authors succeed, especially the good ones.To get my own name as an author out there, develop relationships, and provide good content.So far, it's been all upside.  I've met great people, I've read some great books, and I've had a great time.  It's great to contribute and become part of the community.  Great x 4.
I'd love to give every book I read 5 stars.  But I won't, because most books aren't 5-star books.  I know how it sucks to not get that A+ rating, that 5-star review, but goddammit, if you want 5 stars, write a 5-star book.  Fix the grammar.  Make sure your formatting's perfect.  Write well.  Entertain me.  There's no way to distill the subjectivity of a book review into a scientific formula, but you've got to make it hard for me to knock off a star for sloppiness.  I want you to succeed, I really do.  Believe it or not, I'm on your side.
It's a can of worms to be an author and a reviewer.  If I review your book and you review mine, there's that quid pro quo ghost that always haunts the proceedings.  On the other hand, Stephen King gets to read and review Clive Barker's stuff if he wants to, right?  Where else would we get the "What Clive Barker does makes us look like we've been asleep for ten years" quote from?  Not that I'm comparing myself to either of these men, of course.  So there's that mess.  And the mess of not liking something that plenty of other people like.  Writers hone in on criticism, even mild criticism, and many of us tend not to forget slights, perceived or otherwise.  You didn't think my use of the decrepit plumbing supply store as a metaphor for Francine's miscarriage of the twins was effective enough to carry the narrative through the third act?  Fuck you!  Who wants to make enemies in such a small world?
I just might not like your book because I don't like it, and that's all.  Sometimes it is just me, and I don't like it, and you're just going to have to deal with it, and it sucks to be you.  Some of the reviews I didn't get for The Blessed Man and the Witch were when the reviewers emailed me to say that they didn't like it partway through and didn't want to give it a negative review.  In those cases, I thanked them very kindly for their consideration and moved on.  What I didn't do was go with my id and say,

"Oh, okay.  I mean, I know you're a fucking imbecile who's more comfortable at a Dick and Jane level of reading, judging from the dozens of trashy bullshit novels you've given 5-star ratings to, but it's okay.  You idiot.  Sincerely, Dave.  P.S. You're a fucking moron.  Sorry I left that out."  
As much as I would have liked to.  Even to the nice lady who told me that my book would be better suited for teenage boys to read.  When I thought about it, I actually appreciated that these reviewers didn't want to post a bad review of my work.  That's really nice.

But not everybody has to do that.  And not everybody will.  And as an author, you're going to have to figure out how to deal with it in a way that doesn't involve a tantrum.

I bow to no one in my dislike for Goodreads; I've said many times that it's full of animated gif-loving sociopaths who relish writing negative reviews and encourage others to pile on.  Not everyone on Goodreads does this, but there are book reviewing rock stars out there who are popular for destroying books, and Goodreads is a platform that encourages this.  Plenty of Goodreaders will low-rate a book not because they've read it, but because they don't like the blurb, their friends didn't like it, or they're just having aches and pains "down there" and need to lash out.  It's been said many times that it's for readers, not writers, and I agree.  Writers should avoid Goodreads at all costs.  You'll note that the vast majority of public accounts of writers behaving badly occur on Goodreads.  So just don't participate.  Have a passive presence on Goodreads at most.

There are certain elements of book reviewing that involve turning subjective art into objective qualifications: proper grammar, formatting, consistency (if he stubbed out his cigarette a sentence ago and takes a drag from it in the next sentence, that's a consistency problem).  After that, it gets fuzzy.  That's where the difficulty of book reviewing lives: in the fuzzy areas.

Ultimately, I love reading and I'm glad to help other writers by reviewing their work.  Especially if it's good.  Does it feel like a punch to the gut to get a bad review?  Of course.  It's terribly demoralizing, especially when you're starting out.  The key is to keep at it and reach that point where you don't care about reviews of any kind.  

Friday Links: Matthew Mungle, The Violet Crow, and Amorphous Horrors

As you slouch toward the weekend, rough beast that you are, take a look at what's happened in the strange and horrific this past week:
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, Ishbelle Bee talked about her newly-published novel The Singular and Extraordinary Tale of Mirror & Goliath: "The plot, in a nutshell: a little girl is locked inside a grandfather clock. She is rescued by a policeman who becomes her supernatural guardian. The Lord of the Underworld orders his assassin son, Mr Loveheart, to hunt her down because he wants to eat her and absorb her powers. The book is played out in Victorian England, Egypt and the Underworld and reveals a variety of unusual and colourful characters, including fraudulent psychics, mesmerists, Jack the Ripper and bewildered Scotland Yard detectives." The Lovecraft eZine  brought us exciting news about Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu: "In 1975 Chaosium started out as a quirky boutique game company. We were all about creativity, artistry and craftsmanship. With every game we provided you with new realms of imagination and entertainment. Over the last few years we forgot that, and lost our way."Michael Sheldon's novel The Violet Crow was published through Amazon.Sean Eaton took on the amorphous in his disturbingly delightful R'lyeh Tribune: "Amoebic monsters are not always indiscriminate and insatiable predators, though.  In some horror fiction, they act in the service of an oppressed or beleaguered child.  Perhaps they are a manifestation of repressed rage and hurt, and transform these energies into a shifting, shadowy form that acts much as the microorganism does."Cool Ass Cinema interviewed special effects makeup artist Matthew Mungle: "Joe Blasco was my greatest influence when I started attending his school in 1978 but before I met him it was Dick Smith and John Chambers for their amazing body of work and dedication to the craft."Nev Murray reviewed Keith Deininger's Within at Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "I have only ever read Ghosts of Eden by Keith Deininger before. Although I enjoyed it, I struggled with it a bit. Felt like I had been on a weird “trip” when I had read it. Due to this experience I went at Within a little bit on the cautious side. I knew I liked his writing. I was just a bit freaked out with the previous one. I needn’t have worried."A noted Jamaican pastor warned of the perils of Charlie Charlie: "Errol Rattray told OBSERVER ONLINE Friday that the game should be taken very seriously, as it may release demonic elements causing the individuals who play the game to become possessed."John Kenneth Muir deconstructed the 2008 film Doomsday for our edification: "An extremely gory and violent film, Doomsday proves impressive in terms of its stunts and action sequences, but it also features some narrative blind alleys. The result is movie of intermittent success, of some highs and a few lows.  It’s fun recognizing all the influences and ingredients when they appear on screen, and Doomsday never fails to rivet the attention."Here, I pointed you to a review of The Blessed Man and the Witch by the inestimable Nev Murray and a review I wrote for Mark All's novel Death Metal.Illustration by Tom Sullivan from Call of Cthulhu's supplement S. Petersen's Field Guide to Creatures from the Dreamlands .

Friday Links:Matthew Mungle, The Violet Crow, and Amorphous Horrors

As you slouch toward the weekend, rough beast that you are, take a look at what's happened in the strange and horrific this past week:
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, Ishbelle Bee talked about her newly-published novel The Singular and Extraordinary Tale of Mirror & Goliath: "The plot, in a nutshell: a little girl is locked inside a grandfather clock. She is rescued by a policeman who becomes her supernatural guardian. The Lord of the Underworld orders his assassin son, Mr Loveheart, to hunt her down because he wants to eat her and absorb her powers. The book is played out in Victorian England, Egypt and the Underworld and reveals a variety of unusual and colourful characters, including fraudulent psychics, mesmerists, Jack the Ripper and bewildered Scotland Yard detectives." The Lovecraft eZine  brought us exciting news about Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu: "In 1975 Chaosium started out as a quirky boutique game company. We were all about creativity, artistry and craftsmanship. With every game we provided you with new realms of imagination and entertainment. Over the last few years we forgot that, and lost our way."Michael Sheldon's novel The Violet Crow was published through Amazon.Sean Eaton took on the amorphous in his disturbingly delightful R'lyeh Tribune: "Amoebic monsters are not always indiscriminate and insatiable predators, though.  In some horror fiction, they act in the service of an oppressed or beleaguered child.  Perhaps they are a manifestation of repressed rage and hurt, and transform these energies into a shifting, shadowy form that acts much as the microorganism does."Cool Ass Cinema interviewed special effects makeup artist Matthew Mungle: "Joe Blasco was my greatest influence when I started attending his school in 1978 but before I met him it was Dick Smith and John Chambers for their amazing body of work and dedication to the craft."Nev Murray reviewed Keith Deininger's Within at Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "I have only ever read Ghosts of Eden by Keith Deininger before. Although I enjoyed it, I struggled with it a bit. Felt like I had been on a weird “trip” when I had read it. Due to this experience I went at Within a little bit on the cautious side. I knew I liked his writing. I was just a bit freaked out with the previous one. I needn’t have worried."A noted Jamaican pastor warned of the perils of Charlie Charlie: "Errol Rattray told OBSERVER ONLINE Friday that the game should be taken very seriously, as it may release demonic elements causing the individuals who play the game to become possessed."John Kenneth Muir deconstructed the 2008 film Doomsday for our edification: "An extremely gory and violent film, Doomsday proves impressive in terms of its stunts and action sequences, but it also features some narrative blind alleys. The result is movie of intermittent success, of some highs and a few lows.  It’s fun recognizing all the influences and ingredients when they appear on screen, and Doomsday never fails to rivet the attention."Here, I pointed you to a review of The Blessed Man and the Witch by the inestimable Nev Murray and a review I wrote for Mark All's novel Death Metal.Illustration by Tom Sullivan from Call of Cthulhu's supplement S. Petersen's Field Guide to Creatures from the Dreamlands .

GNoH Review: Death Metal

At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed the horror novel Death Metal:

"In many respects, it’s like a primer on what to do and what not to do if you want to be a successful musician, but it doesn’t read that way.  One thing you definitely don’t want to do is let any undead keyboardists into the band."


Is this a tune you want to listen to, or does it sound a plangent note?  Click to find out!