recent read; Wicked Tales

Wicked Tales

I still can't stop admiring the EC Comics style cover of this book. Fortunately, I can report that the book's contents more than measure up to the promise of the cover art.

I enjoyed all the stories. There is a lot of variety. Some personal favorites; "Bitemarks" by Paul McMahon - straight up horror featuring a house being consumed one giant bite at a time. "Keepsakes" by Rob Smales - you'll never see a garage sale the same way again. "The Pawnshop" by T. T. Zuma - a noir start twists into a Twilight-Zone-esque tale. Sam Gafford provides us a different point-of-view from a classic Lovecraft character in "My Brother's Keeper." And John Goodrich slips in a sword-&-sorcery tale of a Greenland Viking in "Odd Grimson, Called Half-Troll."

This a great, eclectic anthology of horror stories. The stories are strong and varied. It was a real pleasure to read. No horror fan should be without a copy!

In case you're curious, Wicked Tales is the third volume of The Journal of New England Horror Writers. Epitaphs was volume 1, and Wicked Seasons was volume 2.

Blog Tour Stop #2; Discovering H.P. Lovecraft

Out promoting A LONELY & CURIOUS COUNTRY again. This time I post about how I discovered H.P. Lovecraft's stories, and how they hooked me. Swing over to Adventures Fantastic, if you are so inclined.

DISCOVERING LOVECRAFT

(Thanks, Keith!)

recent read; Blood For The Sun

Blood For The Sun by Errick A. Nunnally

Alexander Smith is a werewolf who is ancient enough (140 years old and counting) that he is afflicted by an Alzheimer's like memory loss. Working as a police consultant is a double-edged sword. The mental stimulation helps keep his mind from deteriorating, but sudden short term forgetfulness also puts him in harm's way more than once. Brought in on a case of child murder in the projects of Boston, he soon finds himself embroiled in a supernatural plot and winds his way through the supernatural underground of the city.

I like the reality and gravity of this story. As an urban fantasy, there is nothing sparkly or whimsical about the supernatural elements. The world is grounded in ours - both decent and dark. The Alzheimer's angle is very original and thoughtfully explored.

There is a lot to find in this book, it's rich on characters, settings, supernatural elements, murder mystery plot. And they are all well-balanced, no single one overwhelms the narrative.

I look forward to more stories from Errick.

Blog Tour

Hey, I'm on tour! Blog tour, that is. Promotional jaunt for A LONELY & CURIOUS COUNTRY.

I know - I've been promoting it a bit, but Ulthar Press is a small press and I want to help the book do well.

Thanks to Jim Cornelius for allowing me a guest spot at Frontier Partisans!

THE GHOST OF ROBERT JOHNSON

A LONELY & CURIOUS COUNTRY now available via Amazon

Wow!

Ulthar Press can sure turn around a book when they mean to! :)

A LONELY & CURIOUS COUNTRY is available via Amazon already, and will be debuting at NecronomiCON in Providence, RI in a couple of weeks.

There should be a ebook version in the near future, too.

Very excited to be in this anthology and I'm looking forward to reading all the other stories!

recent read; King of the Bastards

King of the Bastards by Brian Keene and Steven Shrewsbury.

Partial cover blurb;

King of the Bastards is wild adventure across seas, beaches, and mountains full of horrifying monstrosities, dark magic, and demonic entities.

Rogan has been many things in his life as an adventurer — a barbarian, a thief, a buccaneer, a rogue, a lover, a reaver, and most recently, a king. Now, this prehistoric bane of wizards and tyrants finds himself without a kingdom, lost in a terrifying new world, and fighting for his life against pirates, zombies, and the demonic entity known as Meeble.

This is good ol' fashioned sword-&-sorcery with blood, guts and adventure.

Rogan, the 'retired' restless king of Albion is on an exploration & fishing voyage when he is beset by enemies and shipwrecked. The local natives trade his services as a warrior for their help returning him to his homeland. Recruited to dispatch a sorcerer and the sorcerer's dark god, Rogan fights far from home even as troubling news and visions show the former king that his son has been disposed from the throne back home in Albion.

Sure, Rogan is cut from the Conan cloth, but he is his own barbarian. He is more uncouth than Conan. He is a lot more ribald, and one wonders if Robert E. Howard had written in a later year, if he might not have had more sexual elements to his Conan stories like this.

This novel is short, just right for a sword-&-sorcery tale here. I got sucked in and read it in three days, which is not something I have done with a single novel in a long time.

There is plenty of room for more tales of Rogan. Although King of the Bastards is self-contained, there are plenty of threads to pick up in a direct sequel, for a start. I'd enjoy reading that story if Keene & Shrewsbury want to write it!

If you're a sword-&-sorcery fan and want to read something new, King of the Bastards will hit the spot nicely.

A LONELY AND CURIOUS COUNTRY by Ulthar Press

(I imagine) Because they are feverishly attempting to turn around this anthology for NecronomiCON in August, no one has time to update the Ulthar Press web page.

But, yesterday on their Facebook page, they announced their upcoming Lovecraftian anthology, A LONELY AND CURIOUS COUNTRY.

I have a story in the anthology!

As explained on their submission page, the title comes from "The Dunwich Horror";

 “When a traveler in north central Massachusetts takes the wrong fork at the junction of Aylesbury pike just beyond Dean's Corners he comes upon a lonely and curious country."

This is a general Lovecraftian anthology as opposed to something specific, like say, an Innsmouth anthology. I look forward to reading all the tales.

I'm very excited to be in some great company in this table-of-contents!

ANNOUNCING the contents for the upcoming Lovecraftian anthology, A LONELY AND CURIOUS COUNTRY:

The Dreamer of Nothingness Steven Prizeman
Paudie O'Brien and the Bogman Sean Farrell
Turn on, Tune in, Infiltrate, Disrupt Kenneth Heard
Down Through Black Abysses Peter Rawlik
Project Handbasket Rebecca Allred
Incense and Insensibilty Christine Morgan
Salt Water Bodies Susan Wong
Interrogation Damir Salkovic
Radical Division Jonathan Titchenal
Igawesdi Cliff Biggers
After Birth Sammons/Jenkins
Rehab Kevin Wetmore
Unsung Heroes Don Webb
The Litany of Yith Brett Davidson
The Third Oath of Dagon Robert Price
Down By the Highway Side Paul McNamee
In the Forest, with the Night Aaron French