Beware The Shadows

If you’ve been waiting to pick up one of my books, this weekend is the time. E-copies of both That Which Should Not Be and The Void are available on Amazon for just 99 cents. And if that’s not enough, ALL of Journalstone’s award winning novels–Ter0v0las, Twice Shy, Jokers Club, and The Devil of Echo Lake—are also available for 99 cents. That’s a lot of great books for less than six dollars. Buy them. What do you have to lose?

Oh, and did I say this weekend? I meant right NOW! Already got them? Send them to your friends as a gift!

You know, I was skeptical of Heart-Shaped Box at first. I give Joe Hill props for the nom de plume (he is the son of horror megastar Stephen King and Tabitha King, no writing slouch in her own right), but I still wondered if perhaps the praise he has received for his first book had more to do with his lineage than the writing itself. When I started the book, it seemed as though my first impressions might be correct, but 30 or so pages in the novel kicks into high gear and never slows down. From that point on, it’s page turner all the way.

From the book jacket:

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals . . . a used hangman’s noose . . . a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly strange, Jude can’t help but reach for his wallet.

I will “sell” my stepfather’s ghost to the highest bidder. . . .

For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man’s suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn’t afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts—of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the bandmates he betrayed. What’s one more?

But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It’s the real thing.

And suddenly the suit’s previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door . . . seated in Jude’s restored vintage Mustang . . . standing outside his window . . . staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting—with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand. . . .

Good writing must run in the genes is all I’ve got to say. Ghost stories are hard to pull off. They’ve been done a thousand times before. Ghosts aren’t all that scary compared to some other subjects of discussion, and it’s hard to kill them. But Heart-Shaped Box accomplishes the feat of dealing with every one of those problems. If you like ghost stories, then this is the book for you. And maybe you’ll learn a lesson, too. When somebody offers to sell you a ghost, just click no thanks.

Heads Up: Heart-Shaped Box has all the violence and sexually situations one might expect from such a novel, so if you aren’t into that kind of thing, you might want to look elsewhere.

4 Stars

So I am finishing up The Immortal Body, a really nice Lovecraftian novel that I think horror fans will love. Review to come. I’ve also received an early copy of Mark Matthew’s On the Lips of Children (great title). Interesting guy. You can follow him here.

Meanwhile, TWSNB II is coming along. I’m going to want some beta readers for this one, so keep that in mind for the future…

For whatever reason, “intelligent” is a word you rarely use to describe horror movies. Maybe it’s because writers think they can get away with slapping pretty much anything on a piece of paper when they are writing a screenplay. Maybe it’s because characters usually have to do some pretty stupid things to get in horrifying situations. I don’t really know the answer. And that’s why movies like Absentia are as rare as they are pleasing to watch.

I’ll let the distributors of the movie tell you what it’s all about:

Tricia’s husband has been missing for seven years. Her younger sister Callie comes to live with her as the pressure mounts to finally declare him ‘dead in absentia.’ As Tricia sifts through the wreckage and tries to move on with her life, Callie finds herself drawn to an ominous tunnel near the house. As she begins to link it to other mysterious disappearances, she comes to the realization that his presumed death might be anything but ‘natural.’ Soon it becomes clear that the ghostly force at work in the tunnel might have set its sights on Callie and Tricia too.

Absentia is character driven horror with a Lovecraftian bent. Whatever lurks in the tunnel near Tricia’s house has been around for a very long time, something we learn as Callie–who has her own dark secrets in her past–begins to investigate. The terror is, of course, somewhat limited–it’s not like the tunnel is going to move–but it portends a lot of horrifying consequences. If here, why not anywhere? Who can say what dark forces lurk just outside our doors? And where do all those people who just up and disappear go to, anyway?

Well worth the money and time, Absentia is great fun for any horror fan willing to put aside the faster pace and dumber scares of your typical scary flick fare.

4 out of 5 Stars

It’s rare that I post something on this blog that could change your life, but this is it. Two years ago, I was a guy with a finished horror manuscript and a hundred really polite rejection letters from agents and publishers. Then I entered the Journalstone Horror Contest, and the rest is history. Journalstone is a fantastic company, and there’s no better way to get their attention than this contest. Enter it, and good luck. If you decide to enter, let me know in the comments.

Happy Easter everyone!

The best way to start off this review of Graeme Reynolds’s High Moor 2: Moonstruck is with a glance back at what I had to say about the original High Moor:

I truly loved this book. Once I started to really read it, I finished the novel in a day and a half. Whenever I put it down, I found myself coming back to it almost impulsively. I haven’t been this addicted to something since I downloaded Angry Birds. Recommended without reservation to anyone who is a fan of horror or anyone that wants to be. High Moor is the kind of book that will make converts of us all.

It goes without saying that I was anticipating High Moor 2 immensely, but also with some trepidation. After such a great debut, could Reynolds keep it up? Was there any way that he could match the intensity of the original, the page-turning ferocity of its werewolves? Would we end up with a mindless retread? More werewolves, more killing, more boring? I was afraid, my friends. Well, now I’ve read the book and I have my verdict.

Not only is High Moor 2 an incredible ride worthy of my expectations, indeed, it accomplishes something truly rare—it surpasses the original.

SPOILERS AHEAD

High Moor 2 begins precisely where High Moor left off. John Simpson is in police custody, accused of brutally murdering (and eating) several people. The love of his life, Maria, is in the morgue, the authorities under the impression she is dead. Meanwhile, werewolf hunter Steven is in a coma, with the first stirrings of the beasts he has spent his life hunting surging through his blood. Meanwhile, teams of werewolves are on their way to High Moor, intent on destroying the evidence and keeping the existence of the pack a secret. And that means killing John Simpson.

END SPOILERS

One thing that is certainly the case—if you liked High Moor, you will like this book. Reynolds writes as if the last book never stopped. The style is crisp, the story doesn’t seem forced, and the action doesn’t let up. New characters are introduced with ease, and Reynolds makes us care for them almost immediately. Which just makes it all the better when werewolves start eating them. I’m going to repeat from my original review, because it is appropriate here.

The werewolves in Reynolds’s novel are of two varieties. Most can change at will, controlling the beast within while also harnessing its power. Others are “moonstruck,” able to change only upon the full moon. They are wild and vicious, and the pack werewolves hunt them down, lest they reveal their secret to the world. And let me tell you, there is a lot of hunting, a lot of fighting, and a lot of killing. No character is safe in Reynolds’s world, and that he establishes this fact early on heightens the tension in every werewolf encounter. His descriptions of the attacks are so rich and vivid that you will see them in your mind’s eye with a clarity normally reserved for movies. And it is that talent with description that may be Reynolds’s strongest suit. The man isn’t just writing a scene. He is creating a world for his characters to inhabit.

This book is amazing. It has some of the most gut wrenching scenes of horror I have ever read, and Reynolds is an absolute master of an action scene. If you haven’t read the High Moor series, don’t worry. These books are so good that I fully expect they will have a Hollywood treatment at some point in the future.

Verdict: Reynolds has knocked it out of the park. High Moor was shortlisted for a Bram Stoker Award. I wouldn’t be surprised to see High Moor 2: Moonstruck win the whole shebang.

5 Stars

I just realized that, in celebration of his new novel, Graeme Reynolds is giving away High Moor for free. Seriously guys, if you don’t have the book, you should get it now…

In the next few days, I’ll be posting my review of the highly-anticipated High Moor 2: Moonstruck. But before I do, I wanted to refresh your memory of my feelings about High Moor.  Here’s the review.

So what do you think? Does High Moor 2 live up to the hype? Or is it a huge disappointment? Stay tuned for the answer…

If you follow my blog, you know that I like to post some of my favorite music on here. I had The Lumineers before they were famous, for instance. And one of the best is Lera Lynn. In case you have forgotten her, here’s here brilliant cover of Wolf Like Me.

Now she is putting the finishing touches on her new album, and you can help. Check out Pledge Music.com. Think Kickstarter for indie music artists. Just like Kickstarter, if you give money, you get something in return. Check it out here.

The publication date for Limbus, Inc. is approaching my friends, and I want you to have a copy of the special edition. If you don’t know about the special edition, here are the details.

The Limbus, Inc. limited edition is a sewn, case-bound hardcover, that includes 60lb Creekside natural interior paper, a Corona leather-stamped case, and a 100 lb Litho Label Gloss slip cover.  It includes interior artwork from Alan M. Clark that is not a part of the regular hard cover or paperback editions.  An additional novella from Jonathan Maberry (over 8,000 bonus words) is added as well, to go along with some insights from author Anne C. Petty on the world of Limbus, Inc.

This is a numbered limited edition with approximately 250 being produced.  It will be autographed by all five authors (Jonathan Maberry, Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Brett J. Talley, Joseph Nassise and Anne C. Petty) along with the artist, Alan M. Clark.  The approximate page count is 344 pages.

Added to all that, you get an electronic copy of Limbus, Inc. for free! Now, I know a lot of you are probably pretty tempted by that offer, but I also know that it’s a tough economy out there. Times are tough, and maybe you can’t shell out fifty bucks for a single book, no matter how awesome it is.

That’s where this deal comes in.

If you buy a copy of the special edition of Limbus, Inc., simply send me a copy of the receipt you receive from Journalstone and I will kick in a copy of That Which Should Not Be or The Void–signed paperback or e-copy, your choice–for free. All I ask is for you to post an honest review of Limbus, Inc. and your free book on Goodreads or Amazon (or both). I’m limiting the print copies of the books I’ll give away to ten (I am, after all, a starving artist). But there’s no such limit on e-copies.

So what are you waiting on?

And I gotta tell you, if you liked the first one, you are going to love this one too. Put it on your to read books of 2013, folks.

So I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to check out Douglas Wynne’s rockin’ horror metal masterpiece, The Devil of Echo Lake (and seriously, if not, why not?), but this is pretty cool. It seems that Wynne has created a soundcloud page where you can listen to the music referenced in the book. Now, if that ain’t cool, I don’t know what is. Buy the  book here. Listen to the music here.

Seriously, if you haven’t pre-ordered, what are you waiting on?

Read the review here. Order here.

Here I sit, in a tavern in the Czech town of Cesky Krumlov, in front of a roaring fire on a snowy evening, writing Chapter 19 of the sequel to That Which Should Not Be, listening to some tunes. Here’s one of them.