William Malmborg

Amazon Recommends - Night School (1981)

2012-02-26T11:10:00.000-06:00

Amazon has made several more excellent slasher DVD recommendations for me to purchase, one of which is titled Night School. Until seeing this recommendation, I had never actually heard about this early 80’s slasher flick, yet now, having come face to face with it, really, really, REALLY want to see it. The movie cover, Amazon description and the trailer I found on YouTube all cemented this desire. I’m not sure why, but this one just looks like the type of slasher film I will enjoy.

Amazon Description:

“They work by day, take a full schedule of classes all night and somehow find time for study and an occasional date. Women in the evening curriculum at Boston's distinguished Wendell College do a lot to get ahead in life. But there's someone who will go to even greater heights. Someone will do anything to get a head. A killer whose m.o. is the ritualistic decapitation of victims makes terror a required course at Night School, directed by Kenneth Hughes (Casino Royale) and starring Rachel Ward (The Thorn Birds; After Dark, My Sweet) in her screen debut. Leonard Mann plays the homicide lieutenant assigned to the puzzling case. He has hunches, not clues. Suspects, not evidence. And a rising body count. Finals are coming early this year at Wendell. And for those who don't make the grade, heads will roll.”

Trailer via YouTube:

Unfortunately, it does seem like this one is going to be a bit of a tough find for me. Blockbuster, whose DVD by mail service I subscribe to, does not have it, nor does the online used section of a video store I frequent. In fact, the only location where I have found the DVD for sale is on Amazon itself, and while I really want to see it, I’m not willing to spend almost thirty dollars for it. If it was a movie I had seen before and couldn’t live with out, then yeah, I probably would, but one that I’ve only been able to speculate about, not a chance. I also have no experience with renting videos from Amazon through their streaming On Demand service, and given my really poor Internet connection, this isn’t something I was to try. So, it looks like I may be out of luck for the time being, which leaves me with my final question: anyone out there ever see this one, and if so, what did you think?

Blood Related by William Cook

2012-02-23T10:30:00.000-06:00

Nurture or nature? Anyone involved in such a debate would probably have a hard time pinning an answer to this question when concerning the Cunningham twins Charlie and Caleb. Brought up by abusive parents, one of whom is a savage serial killer that often encouraged his children to take part in his horrible crimes; one could easily argue that the two were nurtured into the monsters they eventually become. At the same time it’s hard to say nature didn’t play a part because how else could one explain the generational bloodlust the Cunningham family displays, bloodlust that seems to have begun with Charlie and Caleb’s grandfather? Whatever the cause, the result is a pair of psychotic serial killers who show no empathy for their fellow human beings; serial killers who actually view themselves as separated and on a higher plane of existence than mankind and thus entitled to do whatever they wish to them.

As noted above, it begins early on for the twins, usually with over the top physical punishments that would easily knock any sense of goodness from within the mind of a growing child. After that came the introduction to murder as their father brought female victims back to the basement and allowed his children to watch and sometimes take part in the torture and eventual slaying of the captive or captives. However, the act of murder was not limited to the basement or even the house. Lacking any control on his impulses, their father will also sometimes commit murder while the family is out and about, a situation that then calls for disposable of evidence and the cleaning up of the crime scene. Such moments are a ‘hands on’ learning experience for Caleb and Charlie, one that will prove invaluable later in life as each matures into individual serial killers. Of course this isn’t to say suspicion isn’t leveled on the father. The local police -- and one man in particular -- are pretty sure the father is responsible for the crimes, ones that eventually become attributed to a killer known as the Dockside Ripper. Being able to nail him down as the Dockside Ripper, however, isn’t easy, which in turn allows the body count, and the education of two budding serial killers, to grow.

Of the twins, Caleb seems the most level headed, which in turn makes him the scarier of the two when it comes to the two serial killers. That said, Caleb does have some impulse control issues just like his father, which sometimes causes close calls with the police. At one point it also puts him in conflict with his brother due to the slaying of a young woman that Charlie wanted to keep alive, his desire to cause chaos and the eventual breakdown of civilization leading to a different type of torture and murder than what Caleb usually takes part it. The question is will the two be able to work together to the end that Charlie wants, while also allowing for Caleb’s desires to be realized, or will the two come into such conflict that they destroy each other. Also, will the detective obsessed with their family and the savagery it displays be able to put an end to their reign of terror, or will he just become another victim?

Mostly told from the point of view of Caleb, but also occasionally from some of the other individuals within the story, Blood Related by William Cook is a wonderfully twisted tale of two serial killers who have no redeeming value whatsoever, yet are somehow fun to read about. In fact, not only are they fun to read about, but at times you find yourself actually rooting for them, which can be very unsettling. Equally unsettling is the disgust one starts to feel toward the father and Charlie, yet not toward Caleb despite his being just as ruthless as the other two. Adding to the story and its authentic feel were the newspaper accounts, books segments, and clinical observations layered throughout the story, all of which had the feel of being real documents one would find in such media forms. Having seen and used these types of documents in the real world when studying such subjects in school, I can honestly say the author nailed it when penning his own, and had I read them as part of a case-study I would have assumed them to be genuine. I also would have been horrified to know that two such killers had done the things they did for as long as they did, and that a family had had produced three generations of serial killers.

Needless to say, I found Blood Related to be an excellent read, one by an author who hopefully will be releasing more works in the near future. Until then readers will have to keep their bloodlust sated with the tale of Caleb Cunningham and his twin brother Charlie. I promise, if this type of story is your thing you will not be disappointed.

Amazon Suggests – Mardi Gras Massacre (1978)

2012-02-21T15:46:00.001-06:00

Any other horror fan get this movie suggested to them by Amazon today? If not then maybe it was just a coincidence based on the types of films I have been looking up and adding to my future purchase wish list. Whichever is the case I’m glad Amazon brought this movie to my attention despite how bad it sounds. After all, who doesn’t love a cheesy B grade slasher flick (though from the looks of it, and based on what others have said all across the web, B may be too good a rating for this)? Now I just wish I actually had the DVD is person because I never before watched a Mardi Gras themed slasher film, especially not on Mardi Gras day itself. How cool would that be? The only thing better would be a girl I could toss beads too, but apparently my credit card was declined when setting up the call girl so that option was out.

Here are two descriptions if you’re interested. I was, which is why I looked them up.

Amazon Description: MARDI GRAS MASSACRE is a nasty horror film that centers in New Orleans as a killer picks up prostitutes and sacrifices them to the Wind Gods. This nut stops at nothing to make his killing as he pulls out the hearts from his victim. Only two rogue cops are hot on the trail as they go to the seedy side of Bourbon Street to find him. Banned in U.K. for being too violent, now it can be seem on DVD un-CUT!

Wikipedia Description: In New Orleans a serial killer wearing a welder's mask strikes during the Mardi Gras festival. He goes into a bar and asks for the "most evil" prostitute he can find. He then takes her to a basement where he ties her up and cuts off her limbs and genitals. He then kills more prostitutes to get their hearts to sacrifice to an ancient Aztec goddess. A policeman who uses a prostitute as a lover and source of information then hunts down the killer based on her tips.

Finally, the IMDB rating. A whopping 3.7 out of 10. Not bad. I have enjoyed worse.

NOTE: I wanted to add the trailer but whoever uploaded it to YouTube disabled the embedding so you'll just have to go there yourself if interested.

I Just Couldn’t Finish Them

2012-02-19T14:20:00.001-06:00

The last couple of weeks have been incredibly frustrating when it comes to reading and enjoying some of the old out of print horror titles that dominate my bookshelf. I don’t know happened, but the last several novels I have attempted to read (not counting the book I’m currently reading, which is a wonderfully twisted tale about serial killers titled Blood Related by William Cook) have just been impossible for me to get through. Making this even more bizarre is that they have all been by authors I love, ones that I have read several times each, my eyes barely able to stray away from the page because they were so good. This time around my eyes wanted to do everything but look at the page, the journey back into the world of the novel being one that seemed daunting rather than appealing. With one, just getting to page two hundred was a struggle because the characters seemed so out of touch with reality that I just couldn’t allow the scenes to unfold in my head. With another, the events of the novel were so cliché to the depictions of an exorcism that I wanted to just go back to The Exorcist and read it instead. Adding to the frustration is the sense of failure that arrives in putting a book back on the shelf unfinished. I don’t know if others ever experience this, but it is something I just can’t stand. Thankfully, it looks like this odd occurrence is coming to an end. Blood Related by William Cook is turning out to be a great read, and had it not been for my cats always jumping in my lap when I sit down with the computer to read it (it’s a Kindle novel and I don’t own a Kindle, just a laptop with the app on it), I would have had it finished it within a day or two. After this I’m not sure what I will read next. So many wonderful looking used horror paperbacks are sitting on my shelf, but I don’t want a repeat of what just occurred. Instead I may re-read the first four books of The Dark Tower saga by Stephen King as a way of refreshing myself for Wind Through the Keyhole in April.

Note: Since I didn’t finish the books I won’t be reviewing them here. Writing negative reviews is something I really don’t like to do anyway with books (though I have done some in the past), and since I wouldn’t want to inadvertently turn people away from the other works by these authors it just seems best to simply let the disappointment fade away.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Trailer

2012-02-15T11:38:00.000-06:00

As some of you may remember, I got to work as an extra on this film in the Spring of 2011 down in Covington, Louisiana. It was a really cool experience. Eye opening as well, for I will never again look at a movie without remembering how much work actually goes into each shot. My time working on the film was about a week, yet the screen time of those shots will probably be something like fifteen to twenty minutes, if that. They were long days too. Every morning we would be on set before sunrise and usually wouldn't be back at the hotel until around eight that night, which, even when being treated as well as we were, is exhausting.

Now, of course, I can't wait to see the results of that work, though I have to admit, the historian in me may cringe a few times while watching it. Then again, if its entertaining and gets people somewhat interested in history I'm all for it. Plus I love being able to say I worked on the same set as Tim Burton.

My Amazon Kindle Publishing Experience: January 2012

2012-02-13T13:07:00.001-06:00

I’m a little late with this monthly report I have been doing on my Amazon Kindle Publishing Experience, the reason being I got kind of stressed out in the beginning of February at the sudden lack of sales my novels saw. I really have no idea what could have caused a sudden ‘no one is buying any of my books’ scare for those first couple of days, but if I was forced to guess I would say it probably had something to do with the sudden and overwhelming availability of free books on Amazon. Success, especially reported upon success, causes others to follow suit, and during the month of January many authors were reporting impressive sales figures following the limited time free listing of their kindle titles (something that Amazon has only recently allowed self published authors to do). I was not above testing this out, and sure enough, my titles saw a very impressive jump in sales following the free period. Each title also spent quite a bit of time in several top 100 lists in the UK, and in the case of my novel TEXT MESSAGE, which has been struggling ever since its release, reached its all time best sales ranking in the

On February first things changed. I went from averaging between thirty to sixty sales a day to averaging zero sales a day, which is something that has never happened to me since the release of my first novel JIMMY back in July (unless I missed a no sale day when out of town for a week in August). Looking at each Amazon page for my novels provided a clue as to why this might have been occurring – seventy five percent of the books listed in the ‘what other customers bought’ section had a price of $0.00. Adding to my suspicion were the comments from readers all across the web expressing amazement at how many free books they had downloaded in recent days. One reader actually claimed to have downloaded sixty books during their lunch break from work, which really startled me because even if he read one book a week all year, which is a lot for most people, he would never finish all the titles he had gotten. Fortunately, my sales did return. Even better, JIMMY has made it back onto several top 100 lists in the UK, and, for the most part, has stayed within the 10,000 sales ranking in the US. Both have also continued to receive mostly positive reviews from Amazon customers, and from readers on various websites (here is one of my favorites posted on the Goodreads website for TEXT MESSAGE). Needless to say seeing reviews like these makes my day. I’m sure many other writers feel the same way.

So, what are my thoughts on listing books for free? My answer: I don’t know. Early in January listing a book for free could have an amazing effect on sales. Now, given the sheer volume of books that are being listed for free at any one time, who knows? I for one have already made the decision that once my time in the Kindle Prime library thing is complete I will not allow my books to be listed in it again, thus I will not be able to list my books for free on Amazon. My reason for this is simple, why limit myself to one avenue of sales? In addition, I’m guessing there has been a huge drop in titles available on other e-book sites due to Amazon’s conditions for joining the library thing, so it would be silly for me to not take advantage of that. Truth be told, I’m kicking myself for not thinking about this sooner (like before I signed up for the Kindle Prime thing). Some of my business class professors would probably be sharing in the kicking if I told them about my failure to think about this before my decision. Of course, this isn't to say I wouldn't have followed the same path, I just probably should have taken a little more time to think about it.

Now, for those of you wondering how January actually went, let me just simply say it was my best month ever in the history of my writing career (which has spanned twelve years). The only thing topping the excitement I felt during this month was the excitement I felt back in 2002 when I received my first ever acceptance letter from a magazine (Black Petals Magazine accepted my story ‘Red Pickup’ in April of 2002). Nothing short of having a major book deal from a publisher will ever top that, though; and yes, even though I’ve gone the e-book route with some titles, I would still like to go the traditional route with other titles (maybe even these e-book ones if publishers are interested). I know many in the self-publishing / independent publishing world says doing that would be stupid, but I frankly don’t share the same disgust of the traditional publishing world that they do (some publishers, yes, but the entire industry, no). Until then, however, I will not shy away from making my titles available independently through the electronic marketplace. One thing I’m still not sure about is whether or not I will make my titles available in print without the aid of a traditional publisher. Many people have been asking me to do this, but I’m still undecided on it. The reasons are many and a bit complicated, so I won’t get into it here.

January was a good month. Hopefully, I will be able to say the same in a few weeks as February comes to an end. I also hope I will never again go through a period of no sales like I did during the first few days of February. A drop in sales is one thing, I can handle and expect that from time to time, but no sales on any titles for several days . . . that is just scary.

Stephen King's Most Frightening Book: Guest Post: The Stand

2012-02-10T10:01:00.000-06:00

What’s the most frightening book Stephen King has ever written? Today's answer to this fun question is brought to us by Colin Corlett who hails from Northumberland, UK where he enjoys writing about the countryside on his site www.northumberland-tales.com.

Let’s talk about horror and Stephen King. We are so used to seeing these words side by side that often we miss the fact that there are different kinds of horror and that they are not all equal. I see four main types within Stephen King’s books:

It’s behind you horror. This is the fear of the unknown and the feeling that it is coming to get you. Think of The Shining and you have it in a nutshell. A world made more terrifying because it is seen through the eyes of a small boy.

Supernatural horror. You know damn well what it is that is coming to get you and it isn’t nice at all. Think of Salem’s lot or Pet Sematary. This is horror for grownups who have strayed somewhere they shouldn’t be. This is what Stephen King does best.

The evil that people do horrors. Think of Misery and how this pales against the cumulation of evils across the centuries. Whilst the first two types above are “outside” this is different. Here we have the fear of strangers and not wanting to leave your village in case you meet Annie Wilkes.

Now all the three types above can terrify you. I am proud that I read The Shining, but I couldn’t manage Pet Sematary. You see I am the kind of guy who would literally hide behind the sofa with the sound muted or would skip the “bad pages”, read the conclusion and then come back to the pages I had missed. So no hero then but what is the 4^th kind of horror?

Well this is where it gets interesting, this is where you stop hiding and start to think. For you see I am talking about The Stand.

Oh that book, nothing too frightening there you say?

But here I beg to differ for we are starting to stray into some very old ideas and they are not nice at all.

There comes a time, for some of us, when we have to make a choice. One road to the left and one to right, which should you follow and all the time you know that the wrong choice will lead to damnation. In The Stand the choices are clear, just two and they are diametrically opposed. Couldn’t be more simple could it and you know that you would make the right choice.

Well maybe you will but you see there is also the thought that you don’t have free will, that the choice is predestined and for all that you want to travel to Denver you just might end up in Vegas and unable to resist.

Here we are starting to enter the thoughts and beliefs of the Calvinists. Two of their central pillars of faith are:

Unconditional election. God has already chosen who will come to him and who will be left behind.

Irresistible Grace. Once God has chosen you then his Grace will find a way to rescue you.

Does this start to sound familiar? Are we straying into the story line of The Stand?

So this is the fourth “horror”. The fear that you will be found wanting. The fear that God has decided and you are not on his team. In many ways the terrors of the books listed above do indeed fade. The ghosts and vampires dissolve into memory and how many of you will really read those books time and again?

One of the enduring memories from The Stand is the clarity with which Stephen King creates the characters. You can imagine yourself in their shoes, walking through a beautiful but empty American countryside. You can face the challenges secure in the knowledge that you were right. But how many of us think of those in Las Vegas with Randall Flagg? How many of those people were there through small coincidences or one bad choice?

I sometimes wonder if we all have an inner need to believe in a story, to learn from what has happened to those who went before and to say “There but for the Grace of God”. How shall we prove this? Well let’s look at the Stephen King books mentioned here and see where they rank on the Amazon best sellers list, in descending order:

Pet Sematary: 313,512

The Shining: 60,586

Misery : 45,392

Salem’s Lot: 17,070

The Stand: 4,120

To me that is proof enough of the enduring allure of The Stand.

What other books has Stephen King written which address this issue? Well to me The Dead Zone starts to encroach on this territory. It is a great story based around the old conundrum of “if you knew what Hitler would do would you have killed him back in the 1930’s?” God has chosen John Smith, he is shown to be right time and again and just in case Johnny tries to renege well then he knows that is will soon be dead has little to lose by doing God’s work. A more concise examination of some of the issues seen in The Stand and perhaps no coincidence that it is at 24,494 on the Amazon best sellers list.

In conclusion there were many Stephen King books which frightened me more but for enduring fear, the kind which stays with you and nibbles around your conscience I can’t think of any better than The Stand. That is why a book which I first read 25 years ago is still on my bookshelf without dust on its cover.

A Thought By William: I have to say, I've never really looked at The Stand or any other Stephen King novel in quite this way before. Taking this viewpoint, however, does bring about a scary thought. What if decisions about us, ones that we can't control, have been made? What if we are just puppets in a bigger plan that doesn't really take into consideration the choices we want, or wish, to make. Such was the reality for many of the characters within The Stand.

My Laptop Buying Ordeal

2012-02-09T14:04:00.002-06:00

Is it just me or do retail employees seem a lot less enthused and helpful these days? I’ve noticed this at several different places lately and given my experience working such jobs, I just can’t imagine managers allowing it to the extent I’m witnessing. Yesterday while shopping for my new laptop was the worst of these experiences by far. It was so bad that I actually considered the possibility that I was on some hidden camera show for a moment. It occurred at the electronic store Fry’s, which is located near my parent’s house in the city of Downers Grove. I needed a laptop that would allow me to write and update things to the internet when at the library, something my really old laptop of nearly six years was no longer allowing me to do (it would only turn on half the time). After about fifteen minutes of browsing with my brother I had settled on the one I wanted. Price was the biggest factor. I make a living from my writing, but just barely, and until I knock down some credit card debt that has been acquired in recent months, I’m not really comfortable making really big purchases. Thankfully I didn’t need a super high-tech laptop for games and movies, so finding something in the four hundred to five hundred dollar price range was very doable.

So, laptop selected I walked up to a group of employees who were all standing around a main computer and mentioned that I wanted to buy a laptop – not look at a laptop and then go back and forth on whether or I really wanted it, but BUY IT. A nice easy sale. The response: empty headed stares. Thinking maybe I had accidentally spoken in my home planet language I repeated myself in English. Again, several empty headed stares, though this time they did look back and forth amongst themselves. A third inquiry got the job done. A young man steppedforward and mumbled a “which one do you want?” question. I pointed to the laptop and he selected the card and brought it to the main machine. “Oh,” he then said after spending a minute there, “we don’t have that one anymore.”

GAH! This same thing happened the last time I was there looking for a printer. Why is it on display if they don’t have it?

Keeping my cool I was about to tell him I had a second choice in mind, one that was a bit more expensive but still within my price range when he informed me they did have a few of the one I wanted that had been returned. “They are cheaper too since they were opened,” he said. My brother than informed me that they had probably been Christmas gifts that were eventually returned due to the poor gaming quality which sounded fine with me. I did, however, ask if anything was wrong with them and was assured they were all in good working order.

Five minutes passed, during which I felt pretty happy thinking I was not only getting a decent laptop, but one at a cheaper price than I initially planned for. But then he came back empty handed.

“Um, I can’t find them,” he said.

Wait, what? Out loud I asked, “Are you sure you have them in this store?”

He assured me they did but then told me he didn’t know where they were. At this point I’m thinking: then go get someone to help. Rather than suggest it I just told him to go get the other laptop I had picked out.

Another five minutes began to pass. During this time I realized how absurd his inability to find the first laptop was and walked up to the group of employees who were still standing by the main computer, all of whom gave me an odd look. Pushing the look aside I asked them if maybe someone could go help the young man find the laptop I wanted. The reply, “No, probably not,
it’s a mess back there.”

Seriously, that was the response I was given. My brother and I didn’t even know what to say. Making it worse the young man started to return with my laptop and while doing that another employee – I’m thinking his supervisor – started to inform him that he hadn’t finished with something from earlier. Thankfully he was not detoured and brought the laptop forward. Before buying it, however, I asked if he could check again on the first laptop. He did and this time he found one, but, alas, it was broken.

Anyone else feel there was something completely wrong with that experience?

Used Bookstore Find - Alone with the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell

2012-02-05T13:15:00.001-06:00

Despite having more novels, anthologies, and short story collections than I could possibly read in a lifetime -- especially a lifetime like mine which was likely shorted a bit by some of my early Crohn’s disease complications -- I still frequently visit and buy things from used bookstores with little hesitation. The reason for this is simple; I’m a sucker for books, especially ones that are priced lower than fast food value meal selections (until you add up everything in my arms and then I could have gotten a nice steak dinner as some fancy restaurant for less). Anthologies and short story collections are even more addicting, because, while there might be some debate as to which novels I want to buy that day due to the knowledge that they will be spaced out by the chunks of time it requires to read them, there is no debate when it comes to the time required to read short stories because one can dip in and out of such collected works over the course of a year or more and never feel lost. In and out, a story here, a story there, either from the same collection or different collections, and in time one will finish everything within the covers of one, but at a far slower pace than it takes to read a novel -- unless the stories are so good that one drops everything to read them back to back (I’ve done this a few times, but only when between novels). So, there I was, browsing the cluttered shelves of the used bookstore by my parents house, hands grabbing books as if they were free, when my eyes stumbled upon Alone with the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell.

I hate to say it, but Ramsey Campbell is one of those authors I have always wanted to read but never have. This wasn’t a conscious choice, but instead it just kind of happened, my hands never picking up one of his novels while at the forgotten bookstores of my youth simply because I always seemed to be in there for a different title or titles. Chances are, given the really poor horror selection of the bookstores I used to frequent, his works weren’t even on the shelf, or at least weren’t easily visible while browsing (the standard selection always seemed to be, in their entirety King and Koontz, and randomly, a few works by Andrews, Barker, Keene, Laymon, Lumley, McCammon, Simmons, Wilson, and, toward the end of the stores existence, trade edition zombie novels by the dozen). They might have also put his books elsewhere. I’ll never forget the day I went in looking for an Anne Rice book, this being after I had read a gift copy of Interview with a Vampire during high school and realized I enjoyed it, but being unable to find her selection amongst the horror titles. It wasn’t until I asked for help that I was pointed to the literature section, which had nearly two whole shelves dedicated to her. Anyway, in interest of not getting too far off topic, I never did manage to read a Ramsey Campbell book, something which I now plan to rectify. I shall start with this short story collection, but I will not wait to finish it before ordering some of his titles from Amazon. Before jumping into that, however, I would like to know if anyone has any suggestions. It will be a few days before I can actually sign onto a web connection that I trust enough to put credit card information into (my parents house), so hopefully by then I will have a list to go off of. If not I will just select titles at random, which, given all the great things I have heard, will probably be just as effective. Still, I always enjoy being given suggestions due to the wonderful reads it has provided me with in the past.

Stephen King's Most Frightening Book: Guest Post: 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King (1975): Because The Night Belongs to Us

2012-02-03T10:00:00.001-06:00

What’s the most frightening book Stephen King has ever written? Today's answer to this fun question is brought to us by Will Errickson, the writer behind the wonderful blog Too Much Horror Fiction, who has allowed me the honor of re-posting his wonderful piece that originally appeared on his blog in May of 2010.

To this day, Stephen King's second novel, 'Salem's Lot, is one of only two or three works of horror fiction that, upon first read, instilled in me a palpable sense of fear and trembling not simply for the characters but for myself as well. Over a quarter of a century later I can still feel the chilling vice that clamped around my scalp, recall how my stomach flared hot and sick and how the goose-flesh quickened along my arms, neck and shoulders, as if someone were behind me. I was up way too late on a school night, alone in my teenage room and I was afraid to look outside. But why would I want to look outside that late at night? In that I know I am not alone.

But I wonder, is that feeling even possible today? Is it because I was a not-so-experienced horror fiction reader at the time I read 'Salem's Lot? That I had yet to experience Lovecraft and Straub and Machen and Blackwood and Jackson and Leiber? Or was it that King so effortlessly wrote about simple fears of wrongness and malevolence in a common world that is perhaps inured to such things that I couldn't help but respond as if I myself were in danger? Honestly I don't even read horror (or watch horror films) to be scared anymore. Sometimes I wish I could recapture that feeling.

King has said this novel was his attempt at bringing Dracula - one of the few other books to physically frighten me, in the middle of 8th grade study hall - to the modern age, at imagining how this Old World villain would fit into a New World environment. Would the master vampire, in all his darkest wisdom, choose to arrive in New York City or Boston, or would he perhaps choose a quiet, near-forgotten rural town far from any outsider's concern? King felt the latter would provide the best cover and placed upon 'Salem's Lot the curse of the undead through cultivated Mr. Straker (I cannot see anyone else but James Mason in my head) who prepares the way (where have I heard that before?) for the dread Kurt Barlow, vampire king. Their locus is the black and shuttered Marsten House, which overlooks (where have I heard that before?) the Lot; the distasteful and perhaps satanic owner of said house Mr. Barlow had illicit communications with decades before the novel begins. The town has its secrets, King informs us, but it keeps secrets even from itself:

They know that Hubie Marsten killed his wife, but they don't know what he made her do first, or how it was with them in that sun-sticky kitchen in the moments before he blew her head in, with the smell of honeysuckle hanging in the hot air like the gagging sweetness of an uncovered charnel pit. They don't know that she begged him to do it.

This was the first novel of King's in which he employed a rich panoply of everyday men and women, giving them believable backgrounds, interior lives, conflicting desires, and fears that finally make themselves manifest just past midnight. While no one would mistake King's depictions of such for those of an Updike, a Cheever, a Carver, his characters don't have the preciousness of those who populate more, ahem, lit'ry fiction. Ben Mears, the protagonist, is the first in a long line of King stand-ins, young writers obsessed with childhood fears who struggle to move past them. Mears grew up in the Lot, left it, and now after the accidental death of his wife and the nightmare of what happened to him inside the abandoned Marsten House have drawn him back again, he wonders aloud if it could be anything like Hill House in that famous book by Shirley Jackson. Oh it is, it is that and more. And worse.

Although I've owned the hardcover of the book since high school, I found this '70s paperback recently; I'd forgotten how simple it was. I like that you can barely see Stephen King's name on the cover (didn't even appear on the first Signet paperback printing), so obviously this edition was published before he was a name-brand author. The androgynous, angelic face looks like it's carved from stone, or maybe forged in iron; it reminds me of the Jacob Marley doorknocker from "A Christmas Carol." And blood so subtle, just a drop, just a drop to hint at the immortal terrors within, those terrors that millions know and have never forgotten, but they are terrors that sound strangely like a child laughing, laughing right outside your upstairs bedroom window, long after the sun has gone down on the final night of your life... or on the first night of your new one.

A Quick Thought by William: 'Salem's Lot has always held a special place on my bookshelf, not just because it was a wonderful read, but also because it was my first Stephen King read. To this day I will never forget the comment the guy at the cash register made when I brought the book up to purchase. "Best damn vampire book ever!" Being so young the swear caught me off guard, yet it also made me realize I was probably holding something special, something that I would remember for a long time.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

2012-02-01T12:41:00.002-06:00

Have you ever felt dirty after watching a movie? Not physically dirty, but mentally dirty. I feel this way from time to time, usually after watching movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer. The subject matter of such films is part of it, but not the overall reason. Instead the biggest reason I feel dirty after watching these is due to the look of the film. Both these movies have a rough almost grainy bleakness being projected that, when coupled with the disturbing elements within the tale, just soils the mind. The Hills Have Eyes, which I watched for the first time last night, managed this ‘dirty after viewing’ feeling as well. In fact, the soiled sensation was so powerful that I just had no choice but to jump into the shower afterward, my mind needing the physical bombardment of hot water against my flesh to symbiotically cleanse the movie from my pores. I also texted my brother and told him we had to buy a copy of this one so we could watch it together in the future, though not right away. After viewing a movie like this I always have to put some space between it and the next viewing. The other two movies I mentioned above and the amount of times I have viewed them are perfect examples of this. Despite being listed amongst my all time favorite movies I have only watched them three times apiece during the last decade. Mentally this is all I can handle. Also, this one will never be on the favorites list, so my futures viewings of it will be even more distanced from each other.

The Hills Have Eyes is the tale of the Carter family and the mistake they make in attempting a detour on their trip to California in order to see an old abandoned silver mine. Well, ‘supposedly abandoned’ is probably a better way of describing the mine because a group does live in the area. Ignoring the warning by an old weather-beaten gas station owner, the family soon finds themselves stranded near the hills where the mine is located, a freak accident with the map having caused the vehicle to go off road. Realizing they are miles away from civilization, and that chances are good no one will pass by that area to help, the father of the family heads back to the gas station while the son-in-law goes further down the road. What none of them realize is they are being watched from the hills by a savage cannibalistic family, one who has been on the verge of starvation for a long time and will do anything to bring some meat home from the stranded family. Caught off guard by the savages, but able to repel them -- though not without some losses -- the Carter’s do everything they can to set up a defensive perimeter around their car and trailer. Unfortunately the baby of the family was taken in the first raid, and fearing for its safety a rescue attempt is made. Will it and the defensive perimeter succeed, or will the Carter family soon find themselves the main course of a long awaited meal in the desert hills. Only time will tell.

Disturbing and somewhat shocking in its depictions (though not overly so in my opinion) The Hills Have Eyes is a decent little horror movie that has the ability to startle audiences. Unfortunately one thing it lacks is sympathy for the victims. I may be unique in this thought, but I couldn’t wait for several members of the family to die, not because I’m sick and twisted, but because I just couldn’t stand them. Everything they did just seemed ridiculous and, at times, overly stupid. The hysterics many of them displayed were also mind numbing. The worst by far, however, was the mother of the family. Now, maybe at the time of this films creation that was the norm for women in her position, but to me she seemed a ready-made helpless victim, which is something I just can’t stand. Fortunately, given how horrible and grotesque the hill people were I had no choice but to root for the Carter family. Given the actions of the crazy hill people, I not only wanted the Carter family to win, I wanted them to brutalize their attackers. I wanted them to make them regret everything they ever did even though such regret in people like that probably isn’t possible. All in all, not a bad movie, but at the same time not one I will watch over and over again, not when I felt so detached and disgusted by just about every character on screen.

Stephen King’s Most Frightening Book: Still Accepting Guest Posts

2012-01-29T09:55:00.004-06:00

The other day I received an email from a fellow horror blogger and Stephen King fan asking if I was still interested in receiving guest posts focusing on what one felt Stephen King’s Most Frightening Book was. The answer: YES. I would love to get more guest posts on this topic. In fact, I have only received one so far, which kind of surprised me given how popular such a subject is in many of the online forums and groups I belong too. I also want to reassure people that no criticism will arrive based on their book choice. I may comment on the selected title (see an example of this on the guest post here), but I won’t criticize the choice. I also don’t think any of the readers who comment on the post will criticize the choice either, but if they do, well, that’s just silly. So, if you are interested in sending me a guest post on the topic above please do so. All I ask is that they be either a word attachment, or embedded in the email sent to me. I also ask that the email have the subject Guest Post: Stephen King so it doesn’t get marked as spam, and that it be sent to wlmalmborg@gmail.com. One other thing, I’m still without internet in my apartment so it may take a day or two for me to respond to the email, and another day or two to post it. Hopefully this situation will change in the near future. If interested here is a link to the original blog post that sparked this topic and my asking for guest posts

Does The E-book Crowd Prefer Shorter Books?

2012-01-25T11:31:00.000-06:00

Let me start this quick post by stating that I have no idea what the answer to my title question is, nor do I know of any research that has gone into looking at this. Instead I’m just speculating on the question based on what I’ve seen in customer reviews from people on Amazon, some of which I noticed with my novel JIMMY. The customer reviews, while positive and while claiming enjoyment, sometimes stated that the reader felt the book was too long. Now, if they had disliked the book I could understand such a comment because any book that one doesn’t enjoy will seem long, however, to like a book but then to still state this throws me for a loop. Equally puzzling is that my novel JIMMY, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is actually on the shorter end of book length when it comes to what is considered standard in the traditional publishing world (88,000 words). In fact, one of the reasons the editor at Dorchester wanted me to rewrite the book before an offer of publication was given toward it was due to it being nearly ten thousand words below their minimum novel publishing length (at that time it was 72,000 words I believe). JIMMY is also not alone when it comes to receiving customer comments like this. Several times now I have stumbled upon such statements while browsing through possible Kindle buys, yet when I look at the file size of the book in question, and do a little calculation in my head, I come to realize the book is quite small. Because of this I wonder if e-book readers now prefer shorter works of fiction? I also wonder if novelist will be able to get away with offering shorter works under the NOVEL category without worry of customers feeling misled? I would never actually do this, but if I offered a piece of fiction that was only 25,000 - 40,000 words long as a novel rather than a novella, would people realize and complain about the mislabeling, or view it as a novel? Also, do you think not having a book size judgment from seeing a printed copy of the novel before reading it plays a part in deciding whether or not the story was told at the right length? For instance, if one goes and picks up a printed copy of Stephen King’s IT right away they are going to understand that it is a long book and therefore will go into reading it with this knowledge in their head. However, if they go into reading an e-book of the same length that they have never before heard anything about and have never seen in print, will they eventually think it too long even if they liked the story simply based on the fact that they were unprepared for this going in? On the flip side would anyone ever actually state that a novel like JIMMY or any other novel of that length were too long had they first seen it in a print edition and realized it was a tiny little thing that was just shy of 300 pages? I have no answer for this, but it is something I would be interested in knowing.

Facebook, Yes; Twitter, No

2012-01-24T11:01:00.001-06:00

Something interesting has been occurring these last few months, that being a huge increase in notices in my email inbox about people having joined my Twitter account. I even saw someone mention in a customer review on Amazon (see it here) who said they were going to start following me on Twitter so they could know when my next book would be released. The thing is, I don’t Twitter. I tried, but it just isn’t something I ever got the hang of. Instead, I use Facebook, and my profile can be found here. Please feel free to send me a friend request if you wish to follow me there and communicate. I welcome them all. Just be warned, I have several very interesting groups of people that I’m friends with, the two biggest being Civil War Reenactors and Crohn’s Disease Patients. All of the people within these groups are very friendly, but I feel the need to issue a warning so that when you see a post that says something like ‘that was an amazing death this weekend’ or ‘would you recommend eating more yogurt or less yogurt during a never ending week of gastrological distress’ you aren’t caught of guard. Also don’t be surprised if you ever see a post where friends are talking about me having green urine every now and then, or ticks on the dick. Both topics seems to come up from time to time amongst my Civil War Reenactor friends because during one major event in 2011 I tried taking a new combination of vitamins that turned my urine green for a while and mistakenly told them about it, and during another major event I ended up with two deer ticks on the very tip of my penis and was screaming at them to help me get them off (instead they took pictures of me hunched over -- after spraying their own crotches with heavy duty bug killer). Of course my writing is also a huge topic and something I post about regularly. I also created a Facebook Page for each of my Kindle projects, all of which are linked on my main profile page. At the moment none of them are very active, but I think that may change.

Puppet Master by Barry T. Hawkins

2012-01-21T10:40:00.002-06:00

A serial killer preying upon children. Few things in life have the ability to send shockwaves of terror through a community. Even those without children, and therefore an odd sense of certainty that the crimes won’t hit them personally, would probably be hard-pressed not to feel a sense of anguish over the situation. Such things are just too heartbreaking for people to go unaffected by them. Add in a gruesome nature to the crimes and things get even more horrifying, especially for those that have to investigate the crimes. After all, it is one thing to learn about the taking of child in the daily news, but it is another to be on the front lines of that crime. Seeing the results of a failed recovery of a child, one who might still be alive if the task of investigating the disappearance had played out differently, followed by the understanding that the small mutilated body beneath the sheet could be replicated over and over again in the coming days and weeks is beyond most people’s ability to comprehend. Imagine coming home from a work day like that.

Gil Beach, a New York City Homicide Detective, doesn’t have to imagine it because he is living it. A child killer is preying upon the children in his jurisdiction -- and occasionally short adults who he mistakenly believes to be children -- and it is Gil Beach’s job to stop him. Nothing seems to be shedding light on the crimes, however, until finally a clue points to the art of ventriloquism. Realizing such abilities may be a talent of the killer, and slowly but surely piecing together the disgusting reason for finding headless bodies, Gil Beach dives into the world of the ventriloquist. As intended this line of investigation gets him close to the killer, but unfortunately it also allows the killer, who already wants Gil Beach dead for a very different and odd reason, to uncover information about him -- information that could prove a weakness. Add in the intelligence of the killer and the frightening ability to change their voice so they can impersonate other people on the phone, and Gil Beach might soon find himself standing over the sheet covered bodies of his loved ones, their features having been brutally disfigured by the wood carving knife one uses to create the ventriloquist dummy.

Puppet Master by Barry T. Hawkins was an exciting, but incredibly disturbing read, especially during the scenes that take on the point of view of the killer who has no remorse whatsoever for the brutal crimes being committed. Equally disturbing are the moments when the killer reminisces about his past and the abuse that unfolded while in the care of those who should have protected him. The only downside to the book, in my opinion, was the overly detailed background information that was often narrated to the reader as characters were introduced. Don’t get me wrong, I love back story and learning who the characters are and what shaped them into the person on display, but such information should be layered into the story in a way that doesn’t impede upon the forward momentum of the tale itself. Thankfully this is the only real flaw of the book in my opinion, a book that I would highly recommend to horror fans, especially if they are the type that enjoys going in pursuit of an incredibly sick and twisted killer whose only purpose in life seems to be to cause others misery. Equally enjoyable is the information one gets on the art of ventriloquism, which, in my opinion, is a very creepy yet incredibly fascinating form of entertainment.

Random Update

2012-01-18T18:02:00.001-06:00

Things have been a bit quiet here so I thought I’d post a few words so everyone knows I’m still around. As for the lack of posts I blame a struggle with a novel I was working on that was tentatively titled NIKKI’S SECRET. It’s a project I actually started working on a year ago before getting started on the rewriting of a 2007 novel titled TEXT MESSAGE that I thought showed promise but needed some work. Once finished with that rewriting (I saved maybe ten to twenty percent of the book and rewrote the rest), I went back to NIKKI’S SECRET but couldn’t really get into it for an unknown reason. Then the holidays hit and I decided to take a two week break from it. After that things began going smoothly, and then, well, not so smoothly. I have no idea why but nearly two hundred pages in, and with a clear vision of where the novel will go, I can’t move the story forward. Because of this, and because of my distaste for staring at a blank screen for several hours every morning I decided to switch gears and start work on a detective novel that has been bouncing around within my head. This was last Sunday. Now I’m a little over fifty pages into the novel and loving every minute of it. Hopefully this will continue. Hopefully it will also make it easier for me to write posts on the novels I have read so far this year but haven’t written about yet; those novels being Puppet Master by Barry T. Hawkins, Watchers in the Woods by William W. Johnstone, and The X-Files: Antibodies by Kevin J. Anderson. I also want to start writing posts about the movies I’ve been watching, a list which has grown pretty large thanks to the amazing gift my brother gave me for Christmas (a streaming player for my TV and an external hard drive with nearly fifty B horror movies on it). Oh, I’ve also been watching about three to four X-Files episodes every night while waiting to fall asleep (The X-Files is my solution to insomnia).

In other news I’m happy to report that my novel TEXT MESSAGE made two top 100 lists in the UK last Friday and has pretty much stayed on both since then (it fell off the top horror list on Sunday but bounced back onto it on Monday). This, in addition to my novel JIMMY being listed as a top ten read for 2011 by the Ric’s Reviews website, and the continued steady sales of all my kindle works has made for an enjoyable month thus far (its nice to know I’ll be able to pay my rent and food expensive for the next few months). Actually, I had my first ever success celebration the other day, one that saw me making myself a delicious hamburger helper meal, and my cats two small personal hamburger patties. I followed that up with a trip to the candy store where I bought some chocolate covered oranges, which I love, and then considered, but ultimately decided against, the purchase of some much needed bookshelves. Hearing this, my parents ordered me to come out to them the next day and have a real dinner celebration at a restaurant, which was wonderful.

So, there you have it. That is what I have been doing these last two weeks. Oh, I’ve also started making plans for having an artwork header created for this blog. Last month I removed the header that displayed a picture of some of my magazine publications because it was showing up blurry for unknown reasons.

The Pet by Charles L. Grant

2012-01-08T12:30:00.002-06:00

Senior year of high school, it can be a very trying time for a young person. So many decisions have to be made, decisions that many adults try to input their own thoughts into even though it isn’t their life that is taking shape. Then there is the stress of relationships, and the seemingly contradictory attitude the public has of such things when at that age. On one hand everyone makes those involved feel like adults, especially when prom starts to near. Stories of romance fills the air and the inevitable swooning over how perfect the couples look together followed by the silly touchtone idea of high school sweethearts getting married and living the perfect life for ever. On the other hand the adults fear the fact that the young people’s bodies are in an adult state and might have biological urges. Their answer to this is one of simple suppression followed by threats and silence, none of which works and just makes life that much more difficult for the growing teens.

In The Pet by Charles L. Grant Don Boyd faces these struggles and more, the fact that his father, Norman, is the principle of the school he attends pushing the stress factor to a level that no one should be asked to handle. Making it worse is that the teachers are threatening to strike and are taking out their anger toward Norman Boyd’s refusal to support them on Don. Tests that he should pass with flying colors are scored at a level that drastically lower his grades, and whenever some sort of prank happens within the school the teachers target him as a culprit -- something his classmates know about and use against him when conducting their own pranks. One teacher is even having an affair with his mother, which in turn makes the home life stressful because he can tell his parents marriage is about to fall apart. They refuse to talk about this with him, and even punish him for bringing it up. They also don’t support his choice in future career goals -- he wants to be a veterinarian -- and do everything within their power to dissuade him from it. Topping off all this, a serial killer named Tanker Falwick, dubbed The Howler by the media, has come to town.

Thinking himself to be a werewolf due to his fascination with the moon -- and an odd sense that it protects him when full -- Tanker Falwick wanders the streets of Ashford, New Jersey with little hesitation, and kills without much planning or care. Falwick is not a werewolf, however, nor is he invincible. Don Boyd proves this when he himself is targeted during a nightly stroll. The question is, did Don really do all the damage that Falwick body sustained in the attack, or is there something out there watching and waiting to protect Don? If so how far will this protection go? Will it simply stop those who want to do him physical harm, or will it also target those that are doing psychological harm? If the latter how will it judge the psychological harm and whether or not it needs to put an end to those that are causing it? For instance, if Don begins to have mental struggles over the unspoken message behind a girl’s words, will it view that as a type of psychological harm that needs to be ended? If so the bodies this creature will produce will far exceed the amount of bodies Falwick could, because everyday ones mind is bombarded by issues that could cause distress.

The Pet was my first venture outside of Charles L. Grants’s Oxrun Station novels, and I must say, aside from a bit of a slow start, the book was spectacular and makes me want to seek out everything Grant has written. All the elements within it just felt so real, especially the inner struggles that the teen high school students faced. Ten years have passed since my days within such hallways and classrooms, yet several times I felt myself put back into those situations, my mind able to remember what it was like with great clarity once the sentences initiated such memories. I also was able to recall the mental anguish one faces as they try to prove to the world that they are an adult, yet still are viewed as a kid, and the fine line one must walk. The horror of the novel was perfectly handled as well, both it is real life ‘this could happen’ moments and its supernatural moments. The only thing that was lacking in my opinion was an explanation for why things were happening. How was this creature able to be a part of this world? Nothing was really discussed in this matter and if it was suggested or hinted at it was done in a way that didn’t work because I completely missed it. Aside from that, however, this was an excellent read and one that every fan of horror should seek out.

TEXT MESSAGE Free For Five Days

2012-01-07T09:19:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that my kindle novel TEXT MESSAGE will be free on Amazon for the next five days. After that it will go back to its price of 3.99 per download. If you're a fan of horror and suspense, and like ruthless serial killers that show no remorse whatsoever, you might want to give this one a try. Also, if interested, here are two reviews that have been posted about the novel: Midnite Media and Ric's Reviews.

JIMMY a Top Ten Read of 2011

2012-01-06T14:20:00.003-06:00

Just a quick little update here to let everyone know that my novel JIMMY made the Top Ten Reads of 2011 list on the Ric's Reviews website. Needless to say I'm really happy and honored to see JIMMY on such a list. I also really enjoyed the review that was posted about JIMMY last fall. Like most authors I sent out several copies of JIMMY to bloggers and websites hoping to gather some feedback. Ric's Reviews was not one of those sites, however, simply because I never had seen it before. Instead I discovered the review one day when doing a Google search to see if anyone was saying anything about the book. Since then it has been a site I check every couple of days, and not only because they enjoyed my book. It is a great site, one that fans of movie and book review sites should visit often.

The Difference Between A Fiction Anthology and Collection

2012-01-03T10:57:00.002-06:00

I may be wrong but I have always felt that the difference between a fiction anthology and fiction collection is this: an anthology is a selection of stories by different authors chosen by an editor, and a fiction collection is a selection of stories by a single author chosen by the author and editor. Is this correct? A debate about this was sparked on the Amazon Kindle boards; one that I didn’t get involved in, yet still found my interest piqued upon seeing the thread (I don’t really comment on the Amazon Kindle boards anymore because I have found them to be pretty much clogged up with self published or ‘independent’ authors publicizing their own works, which drives me crazy because it isn’t the right way to go about making a name for yourself). Anyway, a Google search didn’t really provide the answer I was looking for, so I thought I’d share the question here. I also thought I would share some examples of each using some of my favorite anthologies and collections.

Anthology Examples:

Outsiders edited by Nancy Holder and Nancy Kilpatrick

Christmas of 2005. That’s when I received this anthology of original horror tales. As always it was a gift from my mother, one that I pretty much gobbled up before the month of January was complete. If memory serves me correctly the stories within were pretty shocking and gruesome, yet also incredibly readable and, to me, enjoyable. That said I don’t really remember any examples of stories in particular that stood out to me, but that isn’t due to any fault of the stories themselves. Instead it’s simply because I’ve read so much since then. 2006 was also a very intense year for me given the surgery I under went, and my marriage. Somehow it was also one of my most prolific publishing years, and the year that saw my first story acceptance for an anthology, that being the Love and Sacrifice Anthology published by Zen Films. Anyhow, Outsiders is an anthology I would highly recommend to fans of horror fiction. It is also one I plan on re-reading in the near future so I can familiarize myself with the stories once again and, hopefully, relive the pleasure they gave me back in January of 2006.

Horror Library: Volume One by Cutting Block Press

I have to admit, one of the reasons for my first buying of this anthology, and subsequent Horror Library anthologies by Cutting Block Press, is because of how close I used to come to having stories accepted into them, the rejection letters by editor RJ Cavender always very positive and encouraging. Sadly I never did break into print with these anthologies back when I was submitting regularly, but hopefully that will change in the future as I once again begin to pen short stories. In the meantime I always enjoy reading the anthologies Cutting Block Press puts out and try my best to order them whenever my funds will allow. Horror fiction fans should always keep their eyes out for these volumes, the stories within representing some of the best modern horror fiction to be published.

Dark Delicacies edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb

When it comes to short story anthologies and collections I rarely read all the stories within them back to back. Instead I usually pace myself and read one or two stories after completing the reading of a novel, my mind not really to dive into another longer piece of fiction right away. With Dark Delicacies this wasn’t the case. I read the entire collection in one sitting. It occurred when I was working as a security guard. My assignment at that time was to guard a parking lot at a factory, one where the owners’ cars were seeing quite a bit of vandalism due to disgruntled employees -- the factory was moving to Mexico. On Labor Day of that year the factory was closed, but I still had to watch the parking lot since the factory hadn’t specified my not being there for that fourteen hour shift Knowing I would be bored I brought a dozen different anthologies to bide my time, but only ended up reading Dark Delicacies. The stories within were simply amazing. One by one I read them all, my shift passing by quickly as the stories filled my mind. A more enjoyable day of work I have never had. Even better I was paid double time since it was a holiday, all to read the stories within this fine anthology. Since then I have bought each volume issued, though my favorite is still the first one. This isn’t to say the others are lacking in any way. They are all great and should be read by anyone claiming to be a horror fiction fan.

Collection Examples:

Night Shift by Stephen King

Of all the collections of short fiction I have ever read Night Shift by Stephen King has to be my favorite. The stories within that collection are simply amazing, as is the story behind the creation of them. Being a writer myself I am always fascinated by the ‘behind the scenes’ elements that make up other writers lives, and having ready many biographies about Stephen King, I just can’t help but be impressed by the determination the young writer displayed in the penning of these tales. The knowledge that each story often provided some much needed money to the King household as they struggled paycheck to paycheck also amazes me. Of the stories within I think my favorite would be “Children of the Corn” followed closely by “Graveyard Shift”, “Quitters, Inc”, “Sometimes They Come Back”, and “Trucks”. The others are wonderful too; however, it is the ones listed here that I find myself reading over and over again. They are also the ones I wish I could find in original form, my Stephen King collection desperation wanting the old men’s magazines he published most of these in. Such a quest is not easily accomplished, though and will be a long time in achieving.

The Barrens and Others by F. Paul Wilson

If I were to ever make a list of my all time favorite single author short story collections The Barrens and Others by F. Paul Wilson would have to be near the top. A gift from my parents during Christmas of 2009, I read the first seven stories pretty much back to back in the days following the holiday, and continue to read the story introductions over and over again. As noted above in the Night Shift paragraph I love reading about writers, and with this collection (and his other two Soft and Others and Aftershock and Others) F. Paul Wilson included tons of information about what was going on in his life and career at the time of writing each story. I love stuff like that and never tire of reading it. Of the stories my favorite within this collection is “A Day in the Life” featuring Repairman Jack. I’ve always said Repairman Jack is one of the coolest fictional characters ever, so any story that focuses on him always goes right to the top in terms of enjoyment for me. After that it’s a tie between “Feelings”, “Tenants”, and “The Barrens”, all three of which I have read several times. If forced to choose one of those three, however, I would settle on “Feelings” simple because the last line of the story was perfect. That’s all I can say without ruining it though. One needs to read the tale to understand.

Twisted by Jeffery Deaver

In addition to horror I love mystery and suspense tales, especially if they actually catch me off guard. With the stories in Twisted by Jeffery Deaver I was caught off guard several times. I was also blown away with the writing abilities shown within each tale, an ability that caused me to sit and read the entire collection in one day (all while waiting for my copy of 11/22/63 by Stephen King to arrive in the mail -- so, needless to say a very enjoyable week as far as reading material went). Every story within the collection was impressive; however, the one that stood above all the rest in my opinion was “Triangle”. Never before have I been so utterly fooled by a story. The entire time I was convinced I knew why the killer was going about the murder he wanted to commit, but then, the last few lines completely twisted everything around. After that I just starred in amazement for a long time, my mind needing time to process what I had just read. Then I called my Mom and told her she had to read the story as soon as possible, that’s how good it was. Jeffery Deaver does have another collection of stories I plan on reading soon, one that is appropriately titled More Twisted. I can’t wait to get my hands on that one and hope the stories within are as impressive as the ones in Twisted. I’m also looking forward to reading his novels.

There we have it, my thoughts on the difference between an anthology and a collection, and three examples of each. Now, by no means should one think that these are the only anthologies and collections I like. If I had enough bookshelves for all my books two entire shelves would be set aside just for the anthologies I have collected over the years. I also always buy and read every collection put out by the authors I enjoy. Listing all of them would have been too much. Chances are this post is already too long and very few readers will make it this far. Such is the reading trend when it comes to things posted online. For those who have made it this far I have just one more thing to say: if you are a fan of horror fiction and are looking for new authors to read, go out and buy some new anthologies because the stories within can be a great introduction to authors you may never have heard of before.

My Amazon Publishing Experience: December 2011

2012-01-02T10:53:00.000-06:00

Looking back at my posts for each month of my Amazon Kindle adventure I see a trend. Every month the sales on my first novel JIMMY got better and better. With December that trend came to an end. This isn’t to say the month was a bad one, because it wasn’t. In fact, I made more money this month with my novels than any of the previous months due to having three works out and a price change on two of them, but over all sales were down. I believe the holidays were to blame, mostly because there was a trend in the decline of sales as Christmas neared. With JIMMY it went like this: fifteen to twenty sales a day on average in the beginning of the month; ten to fifteen sales a day on average in the middle of the month, and five to ten sales a day on average in the week leading up to Christmas. Once Christmas hit, however, the sales jumped back up, most likely due to the Kindle being a popular gift. Now I just hope they stay steady, or, better, yet, begin that upward climb again month to month to month.

The up and down sales pattern of JIMMY was only one aspect to the month of December. As many of you probably know I released my third Kindle project on December 21; that project being a collection of short stories titled SCRAPING THE BONE. Releasing a collection was something I knew I was going to do fairly quickly into my Kindle adventure because it seemed silly to have all these stories just sitting in a folder on my desktop, especially considering the praise many of the stories received from editors and, when some of them were originally published, from reviewers and readers (“Code Blue” published by Zen Films in the anthology titled Love and Sacrifice comes to mind, as does “Jacob’s Gift” published by Black Petals in the fall of 2004 -- both were included in SCRAPING THE BONE). At one point it was actually going to be my second release on the Kindle, but then my rewriting of TEXT MESSAGE, which was originally written in 2007, just exploded in late August and September. Thinking it would be better to release another novel rather than a collection, I got TEXT MESSAGE ready for an October publication, my thinking being that I would release something every two months, and that SCRAPING THE BONE would come in December. TEXT MESSAGE got pushed back, however, due to some cover art issues. For a while this led to think that pushing SCRAPING THE BONE back would be a good idea as well, but then I once again thought why have it sit on my desktop when it was ready to go? Thus, the reason TEXT MESSAGE and SCRAPING THE BONE came out pretty much back to back.

December also saw my new price plan put into place. It was a plan I came up with a while ago, one that would see novels priced between $2.99 and $4.99, novellas at $1.99 to $2.99, and collections at $0.99 to $1.99. Each price is based on the label and length of the project. Novels, which typically are categorized as anything above 80,000 words, will always be somewhere in the $2.99 to $4.99. Novellas which are anything below 80,000 words will be priced depending on if they are over or below the 50,000 word mark. Collections will be priced based on whether or not they are above or below the 25,000 word mark. To me these prices seem fair, both for readers and for myself. I do, after all, need to make a living from my writing, so pricing everything at $0.99 or $1.99 is just not realistic. At the same time I have always felt it is crazy to ask someone to pay hard copy prices on something that isn’t a hard copy, so my work, as long as I’m in control of it, will never cost the same as a hard copy work printed by a publisher.

Now, for those of you who may be wondering how TEXT MESSAGE is doing, the answer is, fair leaning upward a bit. Unlike JIMMY it isn’t yet a book that has been selling consistently in the top 10,000 on the Kindle, but for the most part it has stayed in the top 50,000. The only exception to this was during the week of Christmas. Everything suffered that week. Thankfully the feedback on TEXT MESSAGE has been positive (several friend requests on Facebook came my way from people who read it and liked it). It also received its first review from the Midnite Media website. Hopefully more will follow as it goes into it second full month of being available. With JIMMY it took three months before it really took off. Now it will be interesting to see if TEXT MESSAGE and SCRAPING THE BONE follow the same type of patturn.

What Book Should I Start The New Year With?

2012-01-01T10:13:00.005-06:00

Christmas morning was pretty exciting for this horror fan. First my little brother gave me a streaming video player for my TV, and an external hard drive with fifty B horror movies and several seasons of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on it. Second my parents had nearly thirty used horror novels waiting beneath the Christmas tree when I woke up, my mother having used an Amazon wishlist that I had created during the fall to easily order a selection of titles she knew I would enjoy. Now, however, I have a dilemma: I don’t know which book to read first. I’ve narrowed it down to five choices, my fingers pretty much choosing a title from each of the authors I opened. Here they are:

The Pet by Charles L. Grant:

My introduction to Charles L. Grant was with his first Oxrun Station novel The Hour of the Oxrun Dead, and while I wasn’t really all that impressed by the book I decided to read more by the author due to all the praise he has received over the years by other authors that I love. Given the enjoyment I have now gotten from his works, all of them Oxrun Station novels, I’m glad I decided to continue reading him. I have also grown curious about his other stand alone tales, all of which I have heard great things about. The Pet is one of those stand alone tales (if everything I have read about it is correct). Because of this, and because of the description on the back which sounds exciting, I am eager to read it. I would also love to get my hands on some of the anthologies he edited and am looking forward to diving into the two The X-Files novels he penned: Goblins and Whirlwind. The only downside to enjoying Grant’s work is the knowledge that there is a limited selection of titles, therefore I am pacing myself.

Torment by Stephen R. George:

My first experience with the novels of Stephen R. George was with the title Nightscape, which I loved. After that I read Grandma’s Little Darling, which, sadly, didn’t really work for me (I loved the first half but found the second half lacking). One less than satisfactory read is not enough for me to call it quits with an author, however, especially after enjoying one of their books; therefore I added every Stephen R. George book I could find to that Amazon list. Four of those titles were waiting for me come Christmas morning: Torment, Bloody Valentine, Brain Child, and Dark Miracle. Of those four Bloody Valentine is the one I am the most eager to read, but, given the title, I’ve decided to hold off on it until February. From there I narrowed down the next three choices to Torment both because the description on the back sounds intriguing and because I really like the cover. I know, I know, don’t judge a book by its cover. I think it’s time we all admit that we do this. If readers didn’t there wouldn’t be countless examples of authors who have had failed novels suddenly spring to life once the cover art was changed.

The Monastery by J.N Williamson

Many, many years ago while in high school I read a J.N. Williamson novel in pretty much one sitting, yet for the life of me can not remember what the title was. I also don’t remember what the novel was about, not because it was unmemorable, but because I was reading two to three books a week back then. Actually I was reading so many books that some of my teachers told my parents I was reading too much. In this day an age I’m guessing that the amount of times a teacher has made such a complaint can be counted on one hand. Anyway, I’ve always wanted to read more J.N. Williamson novels but never really came across any in the used bookstore I frequent, and always forgot to search his name was making a mass order from Amazon. With The Monastery all this will change. Even if I don’t enjoy this one -- though based on the description and what others have said about it I think I will -- more of his titles will be appearing on my bookshelf in 2012. By the way, if anyone has any suggestions on titles by J.N. Williamson that I should look for, please speak up. I love seeking out suggestions by readers of this blog.

Watchers in the Woods by William W. Johnstone

Believe it or not most of the titles I received on Christmas morning were from an author I have never before read: William W. Johnstone. I also have never really heard much about him in the blogging world or from other horror novel fans. At some point, however, I must have added all of his books to that Amazon wishlist because nine of them were waiting to be opened that morning. I’m sure the covers had something to do with this. When adding books to an Amazon wishlist one is given several suggestions based on what other people have bought. Needless to say most of those suggestions are by the same author as the one being added, and given how eye catching the covers were (to me at least) I must have just checked them all off. Now I just hope I like the writing within those covers. If not I will still read them all, but I’d rather do this with enjoyment than with disappointment. Who wouldn’t? Of all the William W. Johnstone novels I received Watchers in the Woods had the most intriguing description -- I always love stories about campers in the woods being stalked -- thus I selected it a first read of 2012 contender. Anyone out there ever read any of the novels by this author? If so which ones would you recommend?

Puppet Master by Barry T. Hawkins

Like the author above I have never before read anything by Barry T. Hawkins. Unlike the author above I only received one novel by this author, that being Puppet Master. I have no memory of adding this novel to the wishlist, nor any memories of reading anything about the book or this author in the blogging world. At some point the cover must have caught my attention, however, so I added it. Even if that wasn’t the case the cover certainly caught my attention on Christmas morning and therefore it has ended up in the choices of first reads for 2012. Another reason for it ending up in this selection is the title. As mentioned during my review of Child’s Play by Andrew Neiderman last year, I love finding novels that have the same title as classic horror movies, especially when the book and movie have nothing to do with each other. Having read the description, Puppet Master falls into that category. Now I just hope I like it better than the novel Child’s Play. As always if anyone has read this book or this author please feel free to share your experiences either as a comment below or as a guest post. Both are always welcome.

So, there you have it. Of the near thirty used horror novels I received on Christmas morning, these are the five titles I have narrowed my selection down to. I have no idea which one to read first. Not listed within the authors above were also several F. Paul Wilson and Joe R. Lansdale novels. Both of those authors fall into my favorite authors category, but were not added above because I have already decided upon the time and place where I will read those novels. Many thanks for helping me decide, if anyone comes forward. If no one does I will just randomly select a title once I finish with the non-horror novel I am currently reading.

Seed of Evil by Edmund Plante

2011-12-30T10:50:00.003-06:00

Imagine taking a guy home from a bar to a quiet apartment where, once sex begins, he turns into a hideous creature whose penis becomes so big that it begins ripping apart your insides, a sudden cold ejaculation mixing with the warm blood that oozes within. Then imagine waking up in a hospital and finding out that the police have nothing to go on, the man / beast having somehow disappeared from the apartment without a trace. Then imagine realizing you were pregnant and that the growing child is the result of that horrible night. What would you do?

Patty Thompson, a divorced mother of two, decides to keep the baby, her catholic upbringing and disgust with abortion pretty much making the decision for her. Protests are made, the most adamant coming from her own mother who, having seen the man beast ravaging her daughter, fears what the child could be. Patty doesn’t give in, however, and soon delivers a seemingly healthy normal baby boy. Normal the baby is not, however, and right away Patty realizes she will never be able to love him. It isn’t just the memories of his conception that plague her. Something about the baby isn’t right. It is his eyes. Every time he looks at her Patty can sense intelligence in them. She also always feels an odd love and warmth oozing from him when she holds him, but a cold rage and bitterness directed toward her whenever she has him taken away. Never before has she experienced anything like this with a newborn. Even so her determination to be a mother to the baby eventually overcomes the fear she harbors, and amid the continued protests from her mother she brings him home to be part of the family.

Richard is the baby’s name and within him a war rages. On one side is the evil of his father who was obviously not human; on the other is the kindness and compassion of his mother. Unfortunately this inner war has consequences, especially when someone triggers a rage within Richard that gives power to the evil side. When this happens people get hurt and sometimes, if Richard is unable to get control back, die. In some households this easily triggered rage wouldn’t be a problem due to the love and compassion everyone treats each other with. In the Thomson household it is a problem, the open hostility shown toward Richard by his grandmother and older brother constantly providing the fuel the evil side needs. It also spurs a desire to find his father, so at the age of five Richard leaves his mother’s family behind. Eight years later he returns, a decision on the life he wants to live having been made. The question is will his mother’s family be able to provide him with what he craves or will they once again cause the rage to boil over to the point where Richard can not control his actions?

Seed of Evil by Edmund Plante is one of the best horror novels I read this year. Its brutal yet gripping tale never let up and kept one guessing as to what the eventual conclusion of the story would be. The characters also felt real. With Patty you could constantly sense the struggle taking place inside of her on whether or not she wanted to love Richard, the horror of his birth and of the events that unfold around him butting up against the fact that he is her son and should have a mother’s love. Equally compelling is the struggle Richard faces, especially after returning from living with his horrible father for eight years. His character could so easily have been cliché, yet Edmund Plante gives him such depth that it is impossible not to feel empathy toward him. At one point I even began hoping that things would work out despite all the horror he had caused. The reason for this was my realization that he wasn’t to blame for his state of being. One also couldn’t really put blame on Patty for the turmoil she felt toward him, not after what she went through during his conception, though one does have to ask why she never considered setting him up for adoption. Had she done this all the terror her family faced might have been adverted. Or maybe it wouldn’t have been. Maybe Richard would still have found his way to them, his desire to be loved by the mother that gave birth to him guiding his actions.

Now, lastly, I would like to set something straight concerning this book and Edmund Plante’s later book Garden of Evil, which I read last month. Given the two titles one can’t help but wonder if the two books are connected in someway, especially if one reads Garden of Evil first because there are many questions one may have as to the origins of things within the book that are never answered within it. Doing a search online gives the answer of YES thanks to several websites that list the two books as belonging to a two book series, the order being Seed of Evil followed by Garden of Evil. Unfortantly these sites are incorrect. The two books are not connected in any way and anyone who lists them as being connected obviously didn’t bother to read them and just concluded it based on the titles.

My Haunted Apartment - Footsteps

2011-12-27T10:44:00.000-06:00

As many of you may know the various events that used to spook me within my apartment in DeKalb seemed to have stopped a while back, something which made me wonder if the haunting here had ended. Things were so quiet for so long that I actually didn’t even think about it all that much, my mind only drifting that way when my friends or blog followers would ask me questions about it, or when I was awakened in the middle of the night by something that I couldn’t put my finger on. Last night this all changed. My downstairs neighbors were the reason for this. They knew I was gone for a week, my empty parking spot in the house driveway proof of this. What they didn’t know were the details of my time away, our paths not crossing enough for me to tell them what my plans were going to be on a daily basis. While I was gone, however, things had occurred at my place that caused them to ask me a question upon my return, that question being whether or not I had had someone staying at my apartment during my absense, someone that would have been watching my cats for me. My answer was no, I had brought the cats with me to my parents house. Hearing this they asked me if everything was as I had left it, meaning, had I been robbed while gone. Again the answer was no, I hadn’t been robbed. Everything was as I had left it. “Well, that’s weird,” they finally said, “because someone was up there while you were gone.”

For those of you who don’t know, my apartment is in an old house that was divided up into apartments. Each floor is its own apartment. Such setups are pretty common in college towns. My neighbors live on the first floor, and I live on the second floor. When home we can hear each other pretty well because there isn’t much separating us when it comes to the floor beneath my feet (in normal apartment buildings there is usually some attempt at creating a setup that will muffle sound, but not in houses that were built before World War II). Anyway, almost every night while I was away my neighbors heard someone walking around in my apartment. Sometimes these footsteps woke them up even, which made them curious on whether or not someone was actually staying there with the cats or just coming and going at odd times -- their car apparently parked somewhere unseen. Upon hearing all this I informed them that the cats had come with me to my parent’s house for the holidays so there was no reason for anyone to be up there. Naturally this left them speechless.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. After I moved in last year the people that lived downstairs at the time told me that I was right, my cats could be pretty noisy at night when playing because they had heard them several times, their tiny paws running back and forth across the floor. The thing was the cats were still living at my parent’s house at that time because I wasn’t going to be bringing them into the house until my weekends away for that reenacting season were complete (I had informed them of the potential for noise, however, just so they would know). Making that even creepier was that these noises of something running back and forth across the floor had occurred while I was sleeping, which meant something may have been walking around within reach of my bed. Anyone who claims not to be chilled when in such a situation is lying.

Silent Night, Bloody Night (1973)

2011-12-24T09:01:00.002-06:00

Watching a new holiday themed horror flick in the days leading up to Christmas has become a new tradition in the Malmborg household, though one that only two to three members of the family actually take part in. Normally this movie watching event takes place sometime between the twentieth and twenty-second because on the twenty-third the family watches a special episode of The X-Files. This year the horror movie had to follow the viewing of The X-Files due to it only having arrived that morning. Silent Night, Bloody Night, released in 1973, was the movie of choice. My little brother and I stumbled upon it while browsing websites last week, our realization that we were not going to be able to find a copy of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) or Don’t Open Till Christmas (1984) in time having spurred us into a holiday horror movie seeking frenzy (we really want to see those two movies for some reason, but completely struck out this year). From what we read about Silent Night, Bloody Night, it was supposed to be a pretty good little holiday horror flick -- a forgotten horror gem is what many said on the various ‘buy it here’ websites -- one that had a impenetrable mystery and creepy vide throughout. Both terms were pretty accurate, and could honestly have made for a great viewing if it weren’t for the ridiculous plot twist at the end, and the expressionless voicing of the lines by several of the actors.

Silent Night, Bloody Night is the tale of a house that has a dark past, one whose mysterious owner wants to sell to the town officials so they can finally wipe the landscape clear of the horrid structure. The owner’s name is Jeffery Butler. He is the grandson of a man who was burned to death many years earlier after returning to the house after an odd absence that no one fully understood. Having never actually seen the house, and not really wanting anything to do with it it, Jeffery sends a lawyer to sell the place on his behalf, his asking price incredibly low so that the town will hopefully take it without much thought. Even with the low price, however, the town officials hesitate, a strange unspoken concern about the place obviously present within them. Waiting for their reply the lawyer and his girlfriend go stay at the house, their lives quickly cut short by an ax carrying stranger who was already within the house. After that the town officials are lured to the house one by one by a mysterious caller from within, one who seems to want vengeance on these officials, the motive unknown. For some reason Jeffery also decides to head to the house despite his desire to sell it through a lawyer. Hooked up with a girl whose house he pretty much walked into, the two start to investigate the strange events taking place at the house, the reasons behind them quickly coming to light as Jeffery reads the diary of his grandfather. With that everything comes together and the final bit of horror is unleashed.

Ridiculous plot twist and expressionless acting aside, the movie did have a creepy unsettling vibe running throughout it. Sadly this wasn’t enough to make the movie a worthwhile viewing. It was just too slow, and watching the actors go through their lines made it feel like one was viewing a simple read through of the script rather than the final product. Seriously, there was no expression whatsoever when it came to the dialogue between the characters. Everyone just talked at each other while staring straight ahead, which, while creepy, was also annoying. Another creepy, yet annoying feature was what my brother called the ‘wax museum’ scenes. These moments were found throughout the film and featured actors who didn’t move at all, almost as if the audience was looking at a photograph rather than actual film. Now, I’ve heard some reviewers compliment his because it added a level of madness to the people, one that went well with the twist in the story. To me, though, the twist was so ridiculous and unbelievable, that it made those ‘wax museum’ scenes pointless. In the end this is a movie I would only recommend to those who want to see everything that is out there in terms of holiday horror, one that I hope they won’t spend too much money on because it most likely won’t be something that will be watched over and over again.