Review of A Flame Tree Book of Horror: After Sundown

Often, when you read an anthology, some stories are good, some great, and some are so-so. The stories in After Sundown are consistently good and some reach the really creepy stage. The best stories, to me, are the ones we can relate to because we've all been there. I won't try to tell you about every one of the contributions, but the scariest to me was the last one, "Branch Line." It was two things I think we've all been subjected too: unwanted and uncomfortable sexual attention (especially when an adolescent, when we don't have experience in handling situations) and, secondly, the feeling that something, or someone, strange is following us. Stories about vampires or flesh-eating butterflies can be exciting, but they're never as creepy as something weird we've all been through.

A spellbinding, and mostly original group of stories. Thanks to Flame Tree Publishing and Netgalley for an advance reader's digital copy.

Review of Voodoo Heart

If you realize you're going to get stereotypes in Voodoo Heart, then you'll be all right with the novel. The detective is a typical police detective from the old film noir era--drinks too much, has lots of sex with various married women, drinks some more, has grumpy co-workers, drinks some more, and stays hungover.

I got hungover just reading about the copious amounts of alcohol this guy and his dates poured into their guts. 

Then you have the stereotype of New Orleans and Voodoo. It seems like you can't have a novel about The Big Easy without having voodoo as the main component. 

If you go into this story realizing it's full of stereotypes, then it's a rousing adventure full of murder and voodoo. Lots of people enjoy the muchly used hardboiled detective trope.

Some unfinished threads that didn't get tied up nicely. Where'd his grumpy co-workers vanish to? We know but we don't know. Why are men described as either fat or skinny, but women are described in graphic detail including descriptions of their breasts and public hair? 

Graphic sex including sex with a snake, inanimate objects, and supernatural beings. Graphic violence and it's aftermath. Enough drinking to make your liver look like a Brillo pad just reading about it.  But, a fast and adventurous read.

Another flash fiction win with Crystal Lake Publishing

Nothing cheers a person up like having a submission accepted or winning a contest. So, keep writing and sending stuff out! You can't be published if you keep your writing to yourself.

My flash fiction story, Cribs, won this month's Crystal Lake Publishing's contest on their Patreon page. 68 stories were entered, 18 made the finals, and mine came out on the top. Wow, I really needed that.

A little advice on writing, written by me, will be in Crystal Lake's upcoming newsletter, and the story itself will appear in a future volume of Shallow Waters, an anthology of horror flash fiction by Crystal Lake. Look for a story of mine, Thelma Takes the Devil, in Volume 4 of Shallow Waters, and two of my stories will be in upcoming volumes of Shallow Waters. Only 99 cents on Amazon. Go for it!

Review: Stoker's Wilde West

Once again authors Prusi and Hopstaken put Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde into precarious situations as vampire hunters. Outrageous you say! Of course. That's what makes it so fun. The novel is cram-packed with Old West figures such as Bass Reeves and Calamity Jane, all adding their heroics to the quest of killing vampires and closing the gate to the Realm...or is it really the gate to Hell?

There are plenty of heroic women, not wallflowers waiting for their men to come home. Mrs. Stoker is a force to be reckoned with, there are female spies and guard with the White Worm Society, an organization researching and stamping out any supernatural evil. And Calamity Jane...what more can be said?

Authors have to be brave to take on one of the most famous wits in history. Prusi and Hopstaken do a pretty good job with Oscar Wilde.   Some of their history is a little off and people who don't know won't know. Theodore Roosevelt hated being called Teddy and his friends and relatives called him TR. The book also says the brothel madam Ah Toy was kind. She was actually brutal, letting ill prostitutes die in unheated shacks with no food when they'd outlived their usefulness. She liked to sue people , too. Sued them a lot.

But, that doesn't take away from the adventure. I'm a history nerd and picky. A small gripe is that there is a lot of passive verbs in the novel. They can be tightened up.

My small gripes are not enough to keep you from reading Stoker's Wilde West. Read the first book, Stoker's Wilde to know what's going on with Bram Stoker's blood and other background story.

Holy Crap!

Okay, folks, I can't believe I haven't posted since April. I'm gonna be honest. Every once in a while I go through a severe case of depression. I withdraw into my own world, so the lockdown with coronavirus has been typical for me--life didn't change too much. I'm going to keep plugging on, try to catch up with things, and get more writing done.

Lots of writers suffer from depression. It's hard to get help when you're broke (as so many authors are) and/or live in a small town where there's not a psychologist in the entire county, but there is something to the cliche "Find your tribe." My writing critique group keeps me going, the occasional sale cheers me up. Though the lockdown my writing group keeps meeting on Zoom.

Something like that isn't the cure for everybody, but we have to keep trying. Life is too short to live it in gloom.