Monster Book for Girls
Edited by Terry Grimwood
Exaggerated Press, 2011
Review by Matthew Tait

Somewhat familiar with what Exaggerated Press has to offer (Terry Grimwood’s own Bloody War was one of my highlights of 2011), I approached Monster Book for Girls rather hesitantly (if not curiously). The title itself seemed to raise more questions than answers: was this a horror collection aimed primarily at a female audience? Or did this book fit somewhere more into the realm of those campy pre-war throwbacks that came filled to the brim with adventure stories, where characters cavorted the pages with sporty finesse and Hardy Boys exploits?

The answer lies somewhere in between. When the call went out for new poetry and prose inspired by those five words, the guidelines were wide open with no specific genre required. And this certainly reflects in the tales with the end result being a kaleidoscopic mish-mash that is at turns horrific yet at times mundane. But underlying it all the pertinent theme here is one of female thaumaturgy, a girl story book where the battles encompass human monsters, monsters of the imagination, and everything in between.

Highlights include the post-apocalyptic world of “Turning” by Shay Darrach. With Sarah’s ‘to-do’ List, Samantha Porter gives us a short and malign comedy with a domestic twist. Stuart Young’s “Breaking the Spell” is a revenge ditty with YA styling’s that’s droll relief from the tales that proceeded it. “Getting Warm” by Gary McMahon fits at the other end of the spectrum – a delightfully adult story where Gary explores the insights of disparate victims in the aftermath of a true crime.

And rounding off the odyssey is a novelette by another of my favorite new writers to come along in recent years: “Spiral” by David Rix. Here, David gives us what is a poignant personal journey but infused with subtle supernatural themes. Like his book Feather, the unique prose outstrips everything else, and we hear the sound of writer who is only just now gaining momentum on a world stage.

Imaginative cover illustration and probing title aside, there were times when I did find Monster Book for Girls a somewhat laborious task, often putting the book down for extended periods of time. However, the apathy here can be attributed to the book’s distinct lack of horror (something that was spelled out at the very beginning), so there were no overall surprises when encountering fiction that felt cryptic and seemed to go nowhere. More predilections came into effect with the interlaced poetry – although still cleverly adhering to the Monster theme this is a realm of writing I’ve never found overtly appealing. However, taken as a working whole editor Terry Grimwood has accomplished what he envisioned at the start: create an eclectic and intriguing meeting of literary minds and astounding interpretations.

[Editor's Note: The digigal edition of Matthew Tait's Slander Hall is available for the remainder of this month (May) for only $.99. Check it out: Slander Hall]

True Blood The Complete Fourth Season
Creator: Alan Ball
Cast: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgård
Review by Brian M. Sammons

Here’s some more hot Sookie and the vampires (hmm, that sounds like an ’80s new wave band) action from HBO for you. Look, as this is the fourth season of this very popular TV show, by now you know if you’re a fan of it or not. If you are, great, here’s some more southern gothic, romantic, supernatural melodrama for you with all the blood, sex, and memorable characters you’ve come to love. If you’re not a fan of True Blood, then this season isn’t going to change that. If you fall into that second camp, move along, there’s nothing to see here.

In essence, this is one of the easiest reviews for me to do, as I’m largely preaching to the converted if you’re still reading this. All I’ve got to do is to tell you fang bangers out there that it’s now out and you’ll go and get it. No, that’s not a disparaging remark, that’s what fans do, be they Trekkies, Twi-hards (now them I do make fun of), and big fat guys who paint their faces and go to football games. Fandom is a cult, no matter how big it is, so embrace it and be proud. And lucky for you, this new Blu-ray and DVD combo set is pure fan bait. If you like True Blood then you will want to get this. Still, it is my job to go over new Blu-ray releases, so grab your silver chains and artificial blood beverage; we’re going way down south for some vampire shenanigans.

This season was all about magic, as in a war between a coven of witches and the southern vampires goes from cold to hot in record time. Specifically the main antagonist here is the ghost of a witch who was put to the stake hundreds of years ago after being repeatedly tortured, raped, and fed upon by vampires in the Catholic Church. So you can kind of see her point when she wants to do away with all vampires. And because this witch has mucho magical mojo, she can actually do just that if given half the chance. However with this show you’re supposed to care about the blood sucking corpses, as they’re all cute, brooding, and emo, so naturally she’s painted as the bad guy with a pretty broad brush.

Just like all the previous seasons of this show, there are always a whole tangle of plot threads unspooling at the same time to make sure there’s never a dull moment and to get the impressively large supporting cast plenty of stuff to do. In addition to the Sabrina vs. Bela (as in Lugosi, not Twilight) action, you get more angry ghosts looking for dead babies, biker werewolves looking to make good, two gay male witches looking to strengthen their love, and Sookie’s wonderfully witless brother looking to take care of a whole mess of inbred, hillbilly werepanthers. Oh and the usual vampire politics, sex, comedy, sex, gory kills, and sex. You know, all the good stuff you’ve come to love about this show.

Season four of True Blood is not the show at its best, but it’s far from bad. It is, as always, a silly, sexy, if only ever slightly scary good time. I do enjoy this show despite my better judgment. It’s cotton candy for the brain with plenty of pretty for the eye. I know some serious horror fans hate this series, but I think such folks need to lighten up and just enjoy this show as the ridiculous, over the top, naughty soap opera it is. That’s how I watch it, and it never fails to give me a giggle.

Merits of the continuing adventures of Sookie and Vampire Bill aside, this new Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Copy combo set from HBO is top notch in every way. While HBO’s chief competitor in the pay TV thing (Showtime) continually puts out anemic sets for their shows with nary a special feature to be found anywhere on them, HBO has really stepped up their game and continues to impress with each release. There are six audio commentaries to be found here. Why only six, I don’t know, but they are pretty fun and informative and have a ton of the cast and crew on them, including show-runner Alan Ball, stars Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgård, Sam Trammell and more. In addition to the commentaries, there are a TON of cool extras on here. So many, in fact, that to list them all and would make this review far too long. While I’ll never say that a bad movie (or TV show) should be picked up just because the Blu-ray comes with a bunch of great extras, their lack can turn an otherwise sweet taste sour pretty darn quick. Well rest assured that here things are very sweet indeed, so much so that care should be taken that one does not overdose on them, less they fall into a diabetic coma.

So if you are waiting for the fifth season of True Blood to start up on HBO, do yourself a favor and pick up this fourth season to remind you of all the sexy supernatural shenanigans from last year. While not the best season of the bloodsucking show, it is still a load of fun that looks absolutely great on Blu-ray and comes packed with a great gaggle of great extras. Fangbangers rejoice, this BD/DVD combo set continues to deliver the bloody goods you’ve come to crave.

Cemetery Dance Publications is gearing up for this summer’s release of the limited edition of Matthew Costello’s Vacation.

Description: In the near future after a global crisis causes crops to fail and species to disappear … something even more deadly happens. Groups of humans around the world suddenly become predators, feeding off their own kind. These “Can Heads” grow to such a threat that fences, gated compounds, and SWAT-style police protection become absolutely necessary in order to live.

After a Can Head attack leaves NYPD cop Jack Murphy wounded, Jack takes his wife and kids on a much-needed vacation. Far up north, to a camp called Paterville where families can still swim and take boats out on a lake, and pretend that the world isn’t going to hell.

But the Can Heads are never far away, and nothing is quite what it seems in Paterville…

You can read Sheila M. Merritt’s review of the book here: Vacation – Book Review

And you can order directly from the publisher here: Vacation

Crossroad Press Digital Edition has released Elizabeth Massie’s collection, Naked on The Edge, as an ebook for only $3.99.

Description: Readers are thrust to the edge of darkness in this powerful collection of supernatural and psychological tales by two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning horror author, Elizabeth Massie. Isolation, alienation, desperation, loneliness, greed, rage, regret – human conditions that leave us teetering on the brink, ready to crash forward into the abyss or step backward onto safer, brighter ground. “Beneath our clothes, our bodies are naked. Beneath our skulls, our brains are naked. Beneath our hearts, our souls are naked.”

Opening with a poem, “Naked, On the Edge,” created just for this collection, the stories that follow are a terrifying, meandering journey up to the edge of all there is. A prisoner in solitary dreads his first visitor in years, a grieving parent on a camping trip faces the brutal shadows within himself, a spoiled child is denied nothing, a young home-schooled boy dreams of places beyond his trailer, a vampire follows her love though time to break his dreadful curse, a grandmother takes desperate measures to make ends meet, a girl faces her fear and curiosity about the “witch down the street,” an animal rights activist unwillingly becomes part of an experiment, a lonely and outcast child must decide whether to accept a strange new friend, a homeless woman on a beach falls in love with a handsome tourist, and a soul-buying demon discovers the truth about hell.

Contents Include

• Naked, on the Edge (Poem)
• Shadow of the Valley
• Learning to Give
• Fisherman Joe
• What Happened When Mosby Paulson Had Her Painting Reproduced on the
• Cover the Phone Book
• Forever, Amen
• No Solicitors, Curious a Quarter
• Miss Dowdy
• Crow, Cat, Cow, Child
• Someone Came and Took Them Away
• I Am Not My Smell
• As You Have Made Us

You can pick up the Kindle edition here: Naked on The Edge

Stephen King’s Battleground: A Commemoration of the Emmy-Winning Television Adaptation
Richard Christian Matheson, editor
Gauntlet Press
Hardcover, 288 pages, $75.00
Review by Sheila M. Merritt

Silence can indeed be golden. This year’s Academy Awards darling was the mostly mute movie, The Artist. In 2006, an hour-long television adaptation of a Stephen King yarn also garnered gilded trophies. “Battleground,” which was part of TNT’s series Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, is another example of a dialogue-deficient award winner. This arresting TV oddity is examined at length in Stephen King’s Battleground: A Commemoration of the Emmy-Winning Television Adaptation. There is a lot to be said about “Battleground’s” development from a King short story into its wordless small screen treatment. Editor Richard Christian Matheson, who also wrote the teleplay, wisely includes the original work in this book; allowing for a fascinating compare/contrast. The volume is primarily a compilation of interviews and essays concerning those who participated in the televised production. Their enthusiastic and thoughtful remembrances of the creative process make this tome a joy to read.

Despite some trepidation about enticing an audience with a narrative devoid of speech, the imaginative demands inherent in the project actually fueled the artistic process. Musical arrangement, for example, would by necessity play a more prominent role: It would greatly assist in conveying mood; characterization; plot. Brilliantly rising to the occasion (and subsequently winning an Emmy for his score) composer Jeff Beal carefully considered an approach to the theme: “One of the tricky, dramatic challenges of the films is getting the music, in the expositional scenes, right. In this case, we are about twenty minutes into the story before the soldiers start their attack. I thought of this music as a form of dramatic foreplay, i.e. ‘something’s coming, pay attention,’ but also not giving away too much, too soon in the music.”

The visual effects, which also received an Emmy, were an extremely important factor in engrossing the viewers. But with admirable humility, visual effects supervisor Sam Nicholson gives a shout out to the man who acted in reaction to effects he couldn’t see. He acknowledges William Hurt’s amazing performance: “He gave ‘Battleground’ emotional guidance that kept the audience involved and kept the show from turning into just another effects piece.”

Giving credit and inspiration where it is due, is prevalent in the book. And references, as well as homages, abound. The King tale bears resemblances to two well-known television horror stories. Most apparent is a Twilight Zone episode entitled “The Invaders.” The classic character study features Agnes Moorehead, left to her own devices, battling a Lilliputian assault. Again told virtually without dialogue, this is the work of Richard Christian Matheson’s legendary father: Richard Matheson. Dad also devised the tale “Amelia” which is based on his short story “Prey.” In “Amelia,” the title character is repeatedly attacked by a Zuni fetish doll. In “Battleground” the doll appears in the background as one of the protagonist’s keepsakes. This is a wink-wink moment for those in the know, but the senior Matheson’s major contribution to “Battleground” is “The Invaders.” Says producer Jeffrey Hayes: “Obviously there is an homage to it, both from Richard Christian Matheson’s side, given that he’s his father’s son, and probably, although I never discussed this with Stephen King or anybody, from Stephen King, himself, when he wrote the short story. The short story was our template and our guide. I would say it’s likely that it was an homage on both their parts.”

Richard Christian Matheson, in his introduction, distills the plot of “Battleground” as “Mouse Hunt gene-spliced with Paths of Glory into a one-hour war movie that fits in your hand.” This is a brilliant summation that sets the course of what to anticipate in Stephen King’s Battleground: A Commemoration of the Emmy-Winning Television Adaptation. In addition to essays/interviews there are also storyboards, plus the beginning pages of Jeff Beal’s score. And, according to the uncorrected proof’s blurb: “The hardcover edition of Stephen King’s Battleground contains 16 pages of color photos from the TNT archives.” Since these photos weren’t offered in the review copy of the omnibus, no comment can be made about them here. Regarding the book in general: Stephen King fans will likely be rendered speechless with delight.