Beware The Shadows

I don’t think they liked it, though who can say? Nice to see they dug up a picture of me at the Kentucky Derby, though. Check it out here if you can read Cyrillic.

It had to happen eventually, and now it has. After two years and 108 reviews, That Which Should Not Be has finally received its first one star review on Amazon. I present it here in its entirety. From June Savard:

I could’nt even get into this book, I just took it off my reader, so I really can’t tell you more.

Now, I could complain about all that’s wrong with this review. But I’m not going to do that. As I said, this is a time to celebrate. 69 five star reviews. 29 four star reviews. 6 three star reviews. 3 two star reviews. And 1 lonely one star review. How lucky I am.

A big thank you to all of you who have read and reviewed That Which Should Not Be. It’s been truly an honor to write for you. Even you, one star.

Tonight I’ll be hanging out at the Daily Dish in Silver Spring, Maryland–one of the best restaurants in the DC Area–for a Halloween Reading and Book Signing. I’ll be reading from That Which Should Not Be and Haunted Tuscaloosa, answering questions, signing and selling books, and generally having a spooky time with everyone involved. To make things even better,Flying Dog Brewery out of Frederick, Maryland will be sponsoring the event, and they are featuring their Halloween themed brews, The Truth, The Fear, and the Belgian Devil!

In other words, it’s going to be one awesome night. I hope that everyone in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area can make it out, and I hope that you will support my friends at the Daily Dish and Flying Dog.

The Daily Dish is located at 8301 Grubb Road, Silver Spring, MD, 20910. Call them at 301.588.6300

The fun starts at 6:00 PM!

The .99 cent sale on Kindle and Nook versions of That Which Should Not Be ends tomorrow, so buy now!

Something a little different this week…

October. The greatest month of the year. And the perfect time to read some classic horror. Below is a reading list for those of you who seek the dark places of the world. Beware the shadows!

1. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny–The definitive horror novel for the month of October, the criminally underrated A Night in the Lonesome October tells the story of Jack and his loyal dog snuff as they seek to prevent the return of the Great Old Ones on Halloween Night. In the process, they have to deal with Vampires, Frankenstein, Werewolves, Witches and the like. The book is written in 31 chapters, one for every day of the month. Oh, and did I mention it’s all told from the perspective of the dog? Truly one of my top ten favorite books of any genre, this is a book you need to read.

2. High Moor by Graeme Reynolds — There are numerous reasons to love this book, but let’s start with the literary ones. High Moor takes the tired, metrosexualized werewolf genre and injects desperately needed excitement, violence, horror, and heart. High Moor is a page-turner of the highest quality, and when you finish it you will immediately buy High Moor 2: Moonstruck, and then you will wish High Moor 3 was already available. But there’s another reason to love High Moor. Graeme Reynolds is an example for unpublished authors all over. He believed in High Moor so he embarked on the treacherous world of self-publication, and he did it the right way, paying for an editor and a professional cover design. I’m just waiting on the movie. Read my review here.

3. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson — You can’t have Halloween without a haunted house, and there is no greater story about a haunted house than Shirley Jackson’s classic story of isolation, alienation, and good old fashioned ghosts. Just check out this first line–“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

4. The Mourning House by Ronald Malfi — Another story of a haunted house, The Mourning House is the shortest entry on this list. It is also one of the best. In life, there are times when one comes upon a work of art that is so stunning, so brilliant, and so fantastic that the mind struggles to accept that it is real. So is Ronald Malfi’s Mourning House. For years, I have searched for a piece of storytelling, a novel, a short-story, a movie, a television show, that could chill me. That could reach down in my soul and twist it. That could make me shudder and break out in goosebumps. Something I could savor every moment of and enjoy at some deep, transcendent level. It’s a rare thing, a piece of fiction like that. But “Mourning House” accomplished it. I loved this story. I loved every word, every syllable. I found myself reading it line-by-line, both afraid and excited to scroll down and see what was next.

5. Verland: The Transformation by B.E. Scully — Verland is by no means a perfect book, but it is one of the best vampire stories to emerge in the last few years. Scully has an eye for detail, perfectly describing her settings without drowning the reader in the sort of overindulgent excess that plagues so many books. Scully’s characters are as deeply fleshed out as her scenery. These are people with flaws and strengths that the reader will believe in. There’s also little of the convenient stupidity that is a staple of horror–no one runs up the stairs when they should run out the front door. All and all, a great choice if you are in the mood for vamps, though if you haven’t read Dracula, do yourself a favor and go for it.

All three of my novels–That Which Should Not Be, The Void, and Limbus, Inc.–are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble for .99 each until October 6! So if I am worth less than a cup of coffee to you, buy my books today! Amazon links to each are below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005RR20RM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005RR20RM&linkCode=as2&tag=thsithshnobe-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008IUV4UY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008IUV4UY&linkCode=as2&tag=thsithshnobe-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CHMIYP2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00CHMIYP2&linkCode=as2&tag=thsithshnobe-20

On Thursday, October 17, I’ll be hanging out at the Daily Dish in Silver Spring, Maryland–one of the best restaurants in the DC Area–for a Halloween Reading and Book Signing! I’ll be reading from That Which Should Not Be and Haunted Tuscaloosa, answering questions, signing and selling books, and generally having a spooky time with everyone involved. To make things even better, Flying Dog Brewery out of Frederick, Maryland will be sponsoring the event, and they are featuring their Halloween themed brews, The Truth, The Fear, and the Belgian Devil!

In other words, it’s going to be one awesome night. I hope that everyone in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area can make it out, and I hope that you will support my friends at the Daily Dish and Flying Dog.

The Daily Dish is located at 8301 Grubb Road, Silver Spring, MD, 20910. Call them at 301.588.6300

The fun starts at 6:00 PM!

Last week, I spent a couple nights at the 9:30 Club, the premier spot in Washington, D.C. for new music. The 9:30 Club itself is a more than serviceable venue, comparable, to those who know, to the Work/Play Theatre in Birmingham or The Royale in Boston. But while the 9:30 Club has undeniable character, it is as sparse as they come, lacking the assortment of tables, booths, and general seating that those other two venues can boast. In short, the 9:30 Club is designed to simply pack as many people into its two and a half stories as possible. Still, it is better than many of the venues I’ve visited, just don’t expect much (and the food service is lacking as well, so eat ahead of time).

But I digress. I spent two consecutive nights at the 9:30 Club—September 11 and 12—last week, first to see Shakey Graves and Shovels and Rope. Shakey Graves was the main attraction for me at least, and he did not disappoint. A true one man band, Shakey Graves plays the guitar while singing and playing a heel-operated kick drum. I don’t know how he does it, but it creates some pretty memorable tracks, like the one below, “Roll The Bones.”

Shovels and Rope wasn’t bad either. A duo that reminded me of the immensely successful Civil Wars, the blue grass team of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst played a brand of traditional country music that we haven’t heard in a very long time. Lacking all of the pop music ostentation that has poisoned country music radio, I can only hope that Shovels and Rope can gain enough of a following to have some meaningful impact.

Wednesday’s concert was just a trial run for the big show on Thursday night, featuring Sylvan Esso opening up for Volcano Choir. Let’s get Sylvan Esso out of the way. I can only describe them as muted dubstep with a female lead singer who sounded like she should be in a coffee shop. The music wasn’t bad, but their stage presence leaves something to be desired. Think tripped out hippies dancing on a stage and playing a mixing board like it’s a real instrument.

But really, we weren’t there for Sylvan Esso. We were there for Volcano Choir. If you haven’t heard of them, Volcano Choir is the latest project by Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon, in collaboration with the band Collections of Colonies of Bees. Volcano Choir released an experimental album—I’m pretty sure they recorded it without ever being in the room together—called Unmap. While nothing to write home about, Unmap apparently spurred enough creative energy to bring the band together to record a proper release—Repave.

So how was the concert? Honestly, I find it difficult to review. If one were able to separate Volcano Choir from its lineage, then the concert would be an unmitigated success. Repave is an excellent album—perhaps the best indie release of the year—and its signature single, “Byegone,” is as good as anything Bon Iver ever produced.

Ah, but there’s the rub. It is impossible to separate Volcano Choir from Bon Iver, front-manned as it is by Justin Vernon. That is not to say that Vernon doesn’t try. During the entirety of the concert, he never addressed the crowd, not once. To make matters even more awkward, his lead guitarist regularly did, presenting himself as the representative of Volcano Choir. But Justin Vernon, front-and-center behind what appeared to be a carpeted lectern, could not escape us. He could not simply slink into the background.

When Justin Vernon sings the song “Byegone” and, acting out every part of the lyric with his hands, points to himself during the line, “I’m a legend,” the crowd goes nuts. Because Justin Vernon, two-time Grammy winner that he is, is a legend. And even as we sang along to Volcano Choir songs, I have to think that everyone in the sold out audience—many of whom presumably would not have been present were there no Bon Iver—held out hope that at some point Justin Vernon would approach the mike and say, “Now let’s play some covers,” and let loose with a “Holocene” or a “Skinny Love” or a “Perth.”

But that didn’t happen. Instead, we tried to appreciate Volcano Choir for what it was. The crowd was deeply respectful. The words Bon Iver were never shouted. No one called out a request for Vernon’s old stuff, which he is apparently abandoning. They simply listened—for barely an hour since Volcano Choir has very little music beyond Repave—and then went on their way, all of us just a little bit disappointed.

And the whole thing made me wonder. What does the artist owe, if anything? How should Vernon balance his responsibilities with a new band with his responsibilities to his fans? Let me know what you think it the comments, but first enjoy this cut from Repave, “Byegone.”

People ask me this often, so I thought I’d share my latest reading list!

1. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner–This may come as a surprise to some, but I’ve never read any Faulkner, so I am working my way through this one. It’s…different.

2. Front Porch by Greg Bastianelli–Greg was kind enough to send me an early copy of the follow up to his darkly wonderful Jokers Club. I’ve talked about this book a lot, but I’ll reiterate that it is one of the more underrated books I have read in the last few years.

3. Special Dead by Patrick Freivald–The sequel to the best zombie novel I’ve every read, Twice Shy, I’ve actually put off reading this book because I want to be able to savor it. I’ll be getting to it soon, particularly before Bram Stoker voting closes.

4. Steel Breeze by Douglas Wynne–Another follow up to another fantastic first novel–this time The Devil of Echo Lake—Steel Breeze is one of the best reviewed books I have seen. Can’t wait to read it.

I’ve been a fan of Fearnet since it launched back in 2006, and the Lord only knows how many of their movies I’ve watched while writing horror novels. So it was nice to see Journalstone, my fantastic publisher, get some Fearnet love. And the fact that they mentioned That Which Should Not Be was even better.  Check out the article here.

Check it out here.

http://dravenames.blogspot.com/2013/09/wanna-bet-brett-j-talley-biggest-aha.html