Posts Tagged ‘authors’

Looking Back at 2023, Looking Forward to 2024

Posted: December 1, 2023 in Living and Life, Reflections
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Photo by Minhazur Rahman and downloaded from Vecteezy.

I do this post every year, and you guys seem to like it, so I’m doing it again. Let’s talk about 2023 and what we hope will happen in 2024.

I think everyone will agree with me that 2023 was a mixed bag. Not the rollercoaster out of hell that 2022 was, but definitely a mixed bag. Among the good things that happened, the pandemic was declared mostly over and we are getting back to some degree of normal now; my home state of Ohio voted to enshrine reproductive rights in our state constitution and legalized marijuana, which was a big deal; the Hollywood writers and actors strike were successful, allowing both groups to earn more money for their work and putting protections in against AI; an AI Safety Summit was held to discuss how nations should approach AI as it develops; Doctor Who returned with a bang (check it out, it’s awesome); and more.

Unfortunately, a lot of bad stuff happened this year as well. There was a massive train derailment in Ohio earlier this year that released a lot of chemicals into the area, and who knows how long that will take to clear up; the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, and Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, leading to a war that’s still ongoing today; anti-Semitism has risen in record numbers around the world, leaving many of my people feeling scared and alone; multiple mass shootings occurred throughout the year, leaving many dead who shouldn’t have died; the prices of gas and food have risen like crazy, which has made affording necessities more difficult than it already was; and more.

Like I said, mixed bag.

And on a personal level, 2023 was a mixed bag as well. On the down side, work was hellish this year, with multiple problems cropping up throughout the year that required my coworkers and I to work long hours and try to find ways to deal with it. We’re still working through problems, some old and some newer. Some of us, myself included, even have to go into the office three days a week before the rest of the workforce just to keep up. Oh yeah, we’re going from one just one day a week in the office to three in the new year. Another downside.

Also, I got in an accident and had to replace my car (that was awful); I had to find a new insurance company after the accident (that was annoying); my friends and I had to close Cracked Skull Press, which sucked; I underperformed at a lot of events I usually do well at; my anxiety and a bit of depression went to work on me, thanks to the Israel-Hamas conflict and the resulting anti-Semitism; and quite a few other things happened that really brought down my enjoyment.

Getting this out earlier this year was definitely a highlight of 2023.

Still, there were some good things. On the writing front, I was able to release Hannah and Other Stories, and while the reviews have been coming slower than I would like, they’ve all been very positive, and even in major publications; I also released “The Wild Hunt” in the Happy Hellidays anthology, which people have been LOVING; I got to go to StokerCon, which was a dream come true and a ton of fun; despite not doing as well at certain events as usual, I’ve been doing really well financially on the writing front, thanks in part to a grant and certain events; and I wrote what I think is some really good work, and I’m still writing some of that work.

(Some other stuff happened on this front too, but I can’t get into them until certain things are made official.)

Outside of writing, I turned thirty, and celebrated it with a blast, as well as found being thirty wasn’t as awful as I’d worried; I got to see some amazing Broadway shows and got addicted to their soundtracks (if you ever have the chance, go see SIX and Beetlejuice live); I got my full-back tattoo, which I’ve been working on since last year, finished; I had some big firsts in my condo, including my first Passover seder and first overnight guest; I made it quite far through the Face of Horror contest, and got plenty of side benefits from it as well; and a bunch of other stuff happened.

So yeah, mixed bag. But at least I can end the year saying that there was more good than bad, at least on a personal level.

So, what’s next for 2024? Well, I hope I can write, edit, and publish more stories, including finishing my mummy novel Crawler; I’d like to take a long, two-week vacation at some point and just spend it between totally lazy and writing my brains out; I look forward to traveling to some of my favorite haunted locations and maybe catching some weird shit on camera (more on that later); I hope to do more renovations to my condo as I build up my savings towards them; and perhaps, if God is kind, I can get that much closer to writing full time.

I also hope on the world stage things calm down and we can go through a year without losing any respect for humanity as a whole. But with two wars and an upcoming presidential election, I’ll call this hope a long shot.

Anyway, I hope that this post didn’t bum you out. Perhaps it gave you something to think about, or made you grateful for your 2023. Or even hopeful for 2024. I’m certainly trying to be hopeful, despite all the shit that goes on daily.

And with about 30 days left of 2023, I hope we all have a decent end to the year and enter the new year on a strong note.

How was your 2023, Followers of Fear? Anything good happen that you want to share? What about your hopes and plans for 2024? Let’s discuss.

Review: “Mimi’s Tales of Terror” by Junji Ito

Posted: November 30, 2023 in Review, Scary Stuff
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You know the drill: new Ito comes out, I read it, I write a review.

Mimi’s Tales of Terror follows Mimi, a college student who has a bad habit of encountering supernatural or strange phenomena in the course of her everyday life. The stories are adapted from Shin Mimibukuro, which from what I’ve been able to gather is some sort of anthology of urban legends and spooky stories that may or may not be connected to a series of movies and TV specials. In this volume, Ito takes those random tales and centers them around one girl, who should honestly learn how to be like the Winchesters of Supernatural.

Anyway, Ito’s work can go either way for me. Some of it is awesome, some of it is terrible, and a lot of it is average. Where did Mimi fall? I’d say above average.

Granted, the first three stories are definitely below average. Two of those stories are only a few pages long, so you wonder why they’re included or not fleshed out more. The third, about a woman in black whose height seems to change every time she leaves her apartment, had a good premise but ultimately left me unfulfilled and disappointed.

However, the rest were quite spooky. In one, Mimi moves to an apartment building next to a graveyard and witnesses some stuff that I found a little unsettling. In another, a little girl clings to her because a strange phantom follows her around and leaves ash everywhere. And then, after she and her boyfriend have a fight, Mimi joins a friend in a secret basement with a red spot on the wall that changes appearance over time. It’s all quite freaky and showcases Ito’s love of strange and macabre.

I also got a kick out of Mimi and her friends’ speech patterns. They’re written like they have American southern accents, which probably means they’re from the Kansai area of Japan. (I wouldn’t call it the Japanese equivalent of the south, even if it is in the southern part of the country, but generally people from the Kansai area in anime and manga are given southern accents when the work is brought to North America to differentiate them from folks who speak with a more Tokyo-ish/General American pattern.)

The most unsettling tale, however, is an extra at the end of the volume called “Monster Prop.” In this story, a young woman working for a haunted attraction tries to recreate a scary experience she had as a kid as a prop for the haunted house. However, doing so has some unintended and unforeseen consequences. It’s truly freaky stuff.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give Mimi’s Tales of Terror a 3.8 out of 5. If you avoid the stories that are under six pages and the one with the woman in black, you’ll probably enjoy the old school psychological horror vibe of the volume. Give it a shot and see what you think.

Worldbuilding vs. Storytelling in Horror

Posted: November 20, 2023 in Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Recently, I tried to read Goblin by Josh Malerman. For those of you who don’t know, Goblin is a collection of six novellas that all take place in the small Michigan town of Goblin, where it rains sixty percent more than anywhere else in the US, the police resemble shuffling zombies, and you don’t enter the woods if you want to come out again.

I liked the idea of it and finally got around to reading it recently. And…I was unimpressed. I got through pages quickly every time I picked it up, but the stories within were just not drawing me in. By the time I got to the fourth novella (I know, I’m a trooper), I was lagging. And finally, by the first night in Marietta, I just couldn’t finish it. I put it down, never to pick it up again.

What was the issue? Well, it was the focus on the titular town. There was too much time spent on it and not enough on the stories. On the storytelling. On the horror.

Way too many words are spent on the town’s history and geography. It feels more like a history lesson at times. In fact, the second novella is focused on a former high school history teacher who knows the town history like the back of his hand. And you get that there’s a lot of interesting history there. And you can feel Malerman’s love for the fictional town.

But all that isn’t what we picked up the book for. We came for a book with six interconnected novellas centered around a single town that will hopefully scare the shit out of us. And this emphasis on worldbuilding by the author comes at the expense of the scaring the shit out of us.

Now, every story, regardless of genre, requires some degree of worldbuilding. The horror genre is no exception. You have to establish the setting, the people, the vernacular, and all that. Sometimes this can be done with having a date at the beginning of the story or just a few hints. Other times, like with stories set in historical eras, you have to do a ton of work to build the setting, bringing to life the clothes and manners and whatnot. And in the fantasy and sci-fi genres, authors will have all sorts of complicated compendiums and charts and maps to make their made up worlds feel as real as possible.

That being said, in the horror genre, the emphasis has to be on scaring readers. So, while you can spend time building those worlds, you have to remember it’s all in subservience of telling your story and scaring those readers. Look at Alma Katsu’s historical horror novels, or my own novel The Pure World Comes. We put so much research into the eras our stories take place and spend so much time building those locations, you can almost feel the winter chill killing the Donner Party, or smell the offal in the street of Victorian London.

The Hunger is a great example of a story where the worldbuilding doesn’t overwhelm the storytelling.

But neither of us forget that this is all for the story. We never think that the location, while interesting, is more important than telling the story. And it feels like with Goblin, Malerman, for all his strengths as a writer, got those priorities mixed up. And the result were six subpar novellas that might have been decent if more time was spent trying to frighten us readers.

Honestly, I wish the book had approached Goblin’s history like King approached the history of Derry in IT. In that book, the town history, which has several chapters devoted to it, doesn’t detract for the story. For one thing, most of those chapters take place in-between the action, which doesn’t detract from the story. Second, most of those history-building chapters are presented as Mike Hanlon doing research on the town and on It, so these sections are not only part of the main story, but they add context and help us realize just how ingrained It is to Derry. In Goblin, the history is rarely related to the events of any of the novellas, which only detracts from the stories.

And finally, It always has a hand in the history of the town. Whether appearing as Pennywise or causing some disaster at the end of Its active period, It is always there, making the history of Derry the history of It.

As for Goblin…the history could be cut out of most of the novellas I read and it wouldn’t matter. In fact, it might make the stories scarier. Especially since those stories I read don’t really have anything to do with Goblin history.

This is something important to keep in mind when writing horror in a location that requires extensive worldbuilding. Yes, it’s important to bring the location to life. Yes, the history can be interesting and can be talked about throughout the story. However, that must all be done as part of the story. In service to the story. Otherwise, you’re just going to get an ode to a fictional town, and not anything really scary.

Personally, I think I would rather read IT or The Hunger again and use those lessons in my own writing.

One more thing, Followers of Fear: The Solar Press Horror Anthology Volume I, which contains my story “The Dedication of the High Priestess,” is going to be released on December 1st. Not only is this an exciting short story anthology, it also contains one of my favorite short pieces, in print for the first time (before this, it was only available in audio).

If you would like to preorder a copy, you can do so using the links below. If you like in the UK and EU, order directly from the website. If you live in the US, use Orbit DVD.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

UK/EU Orders
US Orders

Cracked Skull Press is Shutting Down

Posted: November 16, 2023 in Living and Life, short story
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Many of you know that some of my fellow Ohio horror writers and I published an anthology of Ohio horror stories last year. The book, That Which Cannot Be Undone, was published through Cracked Skull Press, a small press three of my friends and I created specifically for this project. We got the book out last October, and everybody really liked it.

Of course, after you publish your first book, whether you’re an author or a small press, everyone wants to know what you’re going to do next. And after a lot of discussion, my friends and I, not without some reluctance, decided to shutter Cracked Skull Press.

Like I said, we do this somewhat reluctantly, and it wasn’t an easy decision to make. But running a press is a lot of work. It’s basically a full-time job in and of itself, and we all already have full-time jobs in addition to writing on the side. You have to deal with distribution and quality control, taxes, responding to customers, etc. And the amount of work needed to do a second project, even if we really wanted to do one, was just too much for us to try again.

So, we’re shutting down Cracked Skull Press, with our final day being December 15th. Just one month from now. And on that day, That Which Cannot Be Undone will go out of print. Perhaps forever.

Honestly, I’m a little bummed about this. I would have liked to see this company continue onward. But I couldn’t run it alone, and we all have other stuff in our lives that require our attention. Hell, look at how many stories I’m working on as well as all the other stuff in my life, and you’ll see what I mean.

Still, I’m not coming away from this with just extra copies of TWCBU. My friends and I learned a lot from this experience of running a press and creating an anthology, and we had some fun times along the way. And hopefully we’ll be able to collaborate on other projects in the future, or at least meet up every now and again as writers and as friends.

Anyway, I wanted to get this out before too much time passed. The news is already out on Cracked Skull Press’s social media, so I’m putting it out on mine. If any of you would like to get a copy of TWCBU, I’ll post a link below. It’ll only be available till December 15th, so grab your copy now while you still have a chance. It’s a great anthology, filled with stories by Ohio horror authors (including myself), all set in Ohio and revolving around the theme that which cannot be undone. You’ll love it, and it might make a great gift for the holidays as well.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ll probably have more to say this weekend. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.

That Which Cannot Be Undone

A Much Needed Trip to Marietta

Posted: November 12, 2023 in Reflections, Tales across the US
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The Ohio river at the tip of Marietta’s downtown at sunset.

Y’all, life has been stressful lately.

You guys know I have a day job, right? Well, without getting into details, mine has gotten super busy lately, to the point where I’ve been working late nights. Consequently, I’ve been unable to do as much writing as I would like, which only stresses me out more. Plus, everything is more expensive these days, especially gas and food. All this and then some were really stressing me out, so I was in desperate need of a vacation.

Luckily, Friday was Veterans Day (thank you to all vets for your service) and my workplace gave me Friday off. And, since I was already planning on going down to Marietta for that event with Hidden Marietta, I decided to make it a weekend-long mini-vacation and have some fun.

And you know what? It was just what the doctor ordered! I just got back from Marietta a few hours ago and these past couple of days were among the most relaxing of my life.

So, if you don’t know, Marietta is the oldest town in Ohio and is located in southeast Ohio along the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers. It has a beautiful historic downtown section, the crown of which (in my opinion, anyway) is the Historic Lafayette Hotel. It’s a beautiful and historic hotel, as well as a very haunted hotel, so I like to stay there when possible.

The facade of the Lafayette.

Sadly, I didn’t experience anything paranormal (unless I dreamed it), but I stayed in a lovely little room and was able to walk around downtown and check out the shops and restaurants, something I’ve always wanted to do.

My room in the Lafayette.

I also got to visit the Mound Cemetery, which is such a cool place. It’s located in the center of Marietta’s residential district and contains graves of people who fought in the American Revolution and helped found the earliest settlements in Ohio. Being among all those people who helped shape this country from its earliest days was kind of humbling.

Entrance to Mound Cemetery
Tomb of unknown soldiers who fought in the revolution. Quite amazing to visit.

I also got to stop by the cemetery’s namesake, a giant Indian burial mound in the center of the cemetery. It rises like a small mountain, and you can actually walk up some stone steps along the side of the mound to the top, where there are a couple of benches and a raised stone denoting where a time capsule was buried. I climbed those steps and the view was breathtaking. These photos don’t do it justice, but I hope you got some of the magnificence of the mound and the surrounding cemetery.

The mound. It looks a lot more awesome and imposing in person, believe me.
The view from atop the mound. In the center, you can see the stone where the time capsule is.
Another view from atop the mound.

Pretty cool, right?

Also, there was this.

I know what you’re thinking. What was in there, how did it get out, and should we be worried? It actually reminded me of Ghoul by Brian Keene, where a ghoul is released from a tomb in an old cemetery like this one. I actually reached out to him on BlueSky about this, and he said it was either a ghoul or an incredibly powerful groundhog (new Ohio cryptid?).

Whatever caused this, both the broken-open tomb and the mound melded in my mind to create an interesting idea for a story. I would like to write it someday, though of course, there are a million things to get through before I can even consider writing it.

After that, I visited the Anchorage Mansion for the event (you can read about the last time I was there here). Sadly, unlike last time I did not experience anything paranormal beyond a few doors that opened and closed when I wasn’t looking (probably just a coincidence). A friend who was there did see a ghost, but I wasn’t in the room. I also only sold one book, which was a letdown. But I did get to see some friends, and one of them did join me for dinner afterwards, which was nice.

And then today, I had breakfast and then went to a frozen custard parlor for a snack. I then visited the Campus Martius museum, which chronicles the settlement and history of the area, and has some of the oldest buildings still in existence in Ohio on its grounds. No photos of those, but I did enjoy stopping there and I even found a gift for a friend of mine for the holidays. It was a good way to wrap up the trip before hitting the road for Columbus.

And you know what? I really needed this. As I said before, life has been really crazy lately, and this trip was super relaxing. Yeah, there were a few hiccups and those weren’t fun, but I still had a wonderful time walking around Marietta and seeing more of this beautiful town.

And I think we all need these breaks from life’s stresses every now and again. It isn’t easy to get away and may cost some money, but with the world the way it is, it’s important to take care of your physical and mental health and find time to unwind. I honestly feel like I can take on whatever this week throws at me with more ease than I would if I hadn’t taken this trip (helps that I can’t work late this week for various reasons). Perhaps I’ll even be able to stay chilled out until my next vacation, whenever that is.

I hope you get to take the time to care of yourself and enjoy a different locale as well very soon.

Have you gone anywhere for a mini-vacation lately? Where did you go and what did you do? And did it help with your stress?

One last thing, Followers of Fear: since Friday morning, thirty-two people have downloaded copies of my short story Car Chasers. This does not include how many people read it off the website itself, so the number could be even higher. Thank you all for checking it out. This is exactly the response I was hoping for, and I hope this response continues and gets more people interested in my work.

If you haven’t checked out Car Chasers but would like to, you can find it on my Book Links and Excerpts page, along with all my other work. It’s completely free to read and download, so I hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m going to try to get to bed early tonight so I’m well-rested for work tomorrow. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.

Happy Hellidays has been Released!!!

Posted: October 31, 2023 in Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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Get on your costumes! Bust out the creepy music! Prepare a parade of terrifying proportions to go through every neighborhood and distribute candy and frights it’s Halloween, the greatest day of the year!

And with that, I have a treat and a fright, all wrapped together, for all of you. Some of you may remember that a short story I wrote earlier this year, “The Wild Hunt,” was accepted for publication in a holiday horror anthology. The story follows two sisters who encounter the mythical Wild Hunt one Christmas Eve and what happens afterwards.

And yes, a Jew wrote a Christmas horror film. Talk about a variation on a theme, considering my tribe has written some of your favorite Christmas carols.

Anyway, the anthology, Happy Hellidays, was released today by Hellbound Books and is now available for purchase. And wow, what a cover! I mean, look at that thing! It’s terrifying. And no, that’s not the Ghostface from the Scream movies. The design of the masks from the movies is based on a general design that is open to use, including in horror anthology covers. Trust me, there are court cases on this.

But back on topic. I was proud of “The Wild Hunt,” but I did not think I would find a home for it with so much good Christmas horror out there, let alone that I would find a home for it in the same year I wrote the story. I’m so thankful to Hellbound Books, who were a delight to work with and whom I would work with again. And I cannot wait for people to read “The Wild Hunt” and tell me what they think.

That being said, there are plenty of great stories in the book. I read a few of them, and they were quite scary and creative. You should check them out and give them a read, and then tell all your friends to give the anthology a read. I’ll give you a link to check it out below.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m off to work on new stories and then watch scary movies while wearing a costume or two. Until next time, good night, pleasant nightmares, and Happy Halloween!

Happy Hellidays

My First New Story in a While

Posted: October 29, 2023 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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I actually wanted to write this post days ago, but you know how life gets. It gets crazy, and my life has been especially crazy lately. Still, it was nice that last week, on Wednesday, I started a new short story. And on Thursday, I finished that story. It’s been my first new work in…God, I don’t know how long.

So yeah, it’s safe to say The Great Editing has ended. However, because of that crazy life I mentioned above, I wasn’t able to start writing for several days after my last editing project. When I did, when I started working on that story, it was such a release! Like something that had been building up inside of my brain and in my fingers was released in the course of eleven-hundred words. And the next night, I wrote the rest of the story in one glorious sitting. Again, there was that sense of relief and release. Like, after so many months of editing and promotion, telling a new story that had been rattling around in my head for months was exactly what the doctor ordered.

So, how is the new story? Well, as the writer, it’s hard to tell. “White Leaves” involves the strange events occurring in an apartment complex on a chilly Halloween morning (hey, that’s coming up!). It’s also told in the second person, which is something I’ve only done once before. (If you’ve read The Quiet Game, you probably remember the story.) The reason why I did is because I read a horror story recently that was told in the second person, and it was awesome. When I formulated “White Leaves,” the idea of telling the story in the same method as that other story just seemed to make sense.

And, somehow, it’s under three thousand words, which is a surprise for me. Normally my short stories are at least seven-thousand words. I even said on my social media, “Who am I and what have I done with my normal writing style?”

Anyway, it’s weird and fun and I think my critique group is going to get a kick out of it. Perhaps, with their feedback and a bit of a polish, I’ll even be able to find a home for it that will enjoy the strange tale and what I’ve included. That would be nice.

As for my next story, I already have the idea and I’ve done the research necessary. It’ll be a Jewish horror story, so hopefully it becomes a great addition to that growing catalog. I’ll keep you guys updated on it, especially if the story gets published.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ve had a long day and I’m going into the office tomorrow, so I better wrap up my night. Especially if I want to watch a scary movie. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

One last thing, my Followers of Fear: tomorrow night, at the Bexley Public Library in Bexley, Ohio, me and my fellow Ohio horror writers will be doing a flash fiction writing workshop. If you can come by, please RSVP and show up. We’ll have a good time, we’ll write scary stories, and you’ll see my new author costume in person. Trust me, it’s awesome.

Until next time, another good night and more pleasant nightmares to you.

Halloween Flash Fiction Workshop with HWA Ohio

Review: “All Hallows” by Christopher Golden

Posted: October 21, 2023 in Review, Scary Stuff
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Around this time of year, you want to read something that practically screams jack-o-lanterns and chilly air and people running around in costumes. So, when I heard about All Hallows by Christopher Golden earlier this year, I knew this would be my audio book for October.

Taking place in the mid-1980s in Coventry, Massachusetts, the majority of the story is set on Parmenter Road and in the woods beyond. Here, Halloween is a big thing. The Barbossa’s turn the woods behind their house into a haunted attraction that attracts plenty of people every year; the Koenigs have a huge costume party for the whole neighborhood; and, of course, every kid is excited about trick or treating.

But despite the excitement in the air, there’s a dark undercurrent to it all. Marriages are coming undone, kids are feeling the tensions, teens are in a weird in-between state where they’re not quite kids and not quite adults, and a dozen other things are happening in the background. And then, in the midst of it all, strange children in old costumes are walking up and down Parmenter Road, asking for help. They say they are in trouble, that the Cunning Man is after them, and they need to hide until midnight.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a new classic in Halloween literature.

All Hallows is so well told. The first several chapters, rather than focusing on anything outright scary like other horror stories, spends its time setting up the characters and their various problems. Tony Barbossa, Vanessa Montez, Barb Sweeney, Rick Barbossa, and many more. We all get to know these characters intimately before Halloween truly gets started, and the telling is so well done, you don’t even mind that nothing scary has occurred yet.

And when the scary stuff does start, it’s almost like the beginning of a storm. At first, it’s only a few drops here and there. Then you get a nice drizzle going on, and then before you know it, there’s an all-out thunderstorm of horror, making the last couple hours of the book quite the read, with violence and great twists and scary imagery.

Also, the audio book narrators, John Butler and January LaVoy, do a great job bringing the characters to life and giving each one a unique voice.

My one gripe is that I felt the mythology behind what we’re seeing could have been explained a bit better. The delivery for some information was delivered weirdly and all at once, and for one character, I felt like not enough was given.

Overall, All Hallows by Christopher Golden is sure to become a staple for this time of year. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’m assigning a 4.7 to the novel. Grab a copy, sit back while wearing a spooky costume, and be sure to give it a read.

Events in 2023

Posted: October 12, 2023 in Living and Life, Writing
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Hey folks! Told you I’d be doing a non-Hannah or Face of Horror post at some point soon.

Anyway, it looks like I have two final events for 2023 (and that’s deliberate so I don’t tucker myself out). On October 30th, 2023, I’ll be at the Bexley Public Library with my friends in HWA Ohio for the Halloween Writing Workshop. We’ll be teaching some tips and tricks for writing flash fiction and then writing flash fiction together. It’ll be from 7 PM – 8 PM, and if you want to, you can join us! Just use the link below to RSVP.

Halloween Writing Workshop with HWA Ohio

And this is exciting, because I’ll be doing an event with Hidden Marietta in Marietta, Ohio! Yeah, I’ll be doing a reading and book signing at their location, the Anchorage Mansion. You know, the one I found was really haunted (see this post to get all the spooky details)? I’m looking forward to working that into my reading!

Anyway, it’ll be happening on Saturday, November 11. Details such as time and whether you need to RSVP prior will be announced as we get closer. And there may be someone else there doing something cool, like reiki healing or Tarot reading, so look forward to it.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m off to make dinner. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

Review: “Midnight Masquerade” by Greg Chapman

Posted: October 1, 2023 in Review, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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You might recognize Greg Chapman’s name, as he was responsible for the amazing cover for That Which Cannot Be Undone. But in addition to creating horror art and horror covers, he also writes as well. And Midnight Masquerade is his latest book, a collection of short stories with many of them taking place on or around Halloween. I received an eARC from him and gave it a read back during the summer. And with it coming out on Halloween proper, I thought I would release a review now, at the beginning of October.

So, what did I think?

Well, like most anthologies and collections, there were stories I enjoyed and others I didn’t. Of the ones I enjoyed, they were really good. The novella at the beginning of the collection, “The Last Night of October,” is a tragic tale of a man dealing with both grief and fear of mortality, wrapped up in what might be a revenge story. The stories “Octoberville” and “Vaudeville” were also good, though I thought the latter’s ending wrapped up a bit too nicely and left one or two questions.

However, a few of the stories felt like they entered a bit too abruptly, such as “Left on October Lane” and the titular story, “Midnight Masquerade.” Honestly, I would have liked to see the concept in the latter explored in a longer story, but it ended just too quickly. And the story “Happy Daze” felt like it was partly inspired by 2019’s Joker but didn’t go far enough with the concept of a party clown on a bad day. If any of these stories or a few others were maybe fleshed out a bit more, I might have enjoyed them more.

As the collection stands, Midnight Masquerade by Greg Chapman is decent reading for spooky season. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’ll give it a 3. It comes out on Halloween day, so if you enter November still craving that Halloween horror buzz, this collection might fill the need. Head to your favorite retailer to preorder a copy.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m off to summon armies of terrifying beings for a month-long party. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares! Only 30 days till Halloween, so get fucking excited!

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