The fourth entry in Moncrieff’s fantastic GhostWriters series arrives at the top of my TBR and this made for some perfect timing. I knew I wanted this book to be my #LadiesFirst22 read. The Ladies of Horror Fiction do a really, really great job of increasing the scope of awareness of all of the amazing women writing dark fiction, and each year, they ask you start the year off reading a woman’s book first. I’ve long been a massive fan of Moncrieff’s and after visiting China, Italy and then Egypt, I was excited to see this series move to Romania, home of Dracula and the (supposedly) most haunted forest in the world; Hoia Baciu.
One thing I was really keen to see with this one, was the separation of Jackson and Kate. They work really well together as a team, but this book starts off with only Jackson arriving in Romania, there to attend a writing retreat. How would he hold his own against odd occurrences? Admirably, it turns out.
What I liked: The story starts out with us learning, that after the events in Egypt, Kate needs some time and they decide to give each other a little space. She stays in the US while Jackson heads to Romania, looking to make some actual progress on his writing, instead of just being a blogger.
Moncrieff starts the book out as a take on the classic “fish out of water” narrative. The rest of the group are all horror writers, fiction writers. The man teaching the course is an arrogant jerk and Jackson feels like he’s constantly singled out or that he doesn’t belong.
Soon, though, an attendee goes missing and as weird things occur, Jackson realizes he’s in over his head. He reaches out to Kate and we find out that she’s been waiting for him to contact her – she’s been sensing doom.
From here, Moncrieff adds another layer of intrigue with Kate meeting a formidable foe and the attendee’s (including Jackson) starting to lose their memory. It makes for a great plot point, especially when Hoia Baciu becomes involved. The location adds a number of real and perceived obstacles and the story ramps up to a really engaging and ultimately satisfying conclusion.
What I didn’t like: I think I’ve said this same thing in my reviews of books 1, 2 and 3 but I hate Jackson’s jealousy and his overreactions each and every time something occurs between Kate and another male. It really does make me roll my eyes and grow frustrated with this character trait.
Why you should buy this: If you’ve read any of the first three books, you’ll know what you’re in store for. Moncrieff does a fantastic job of continuously keeping this series feeling fresh. If you’re looking for a dark fiction series that is motivated by pacing, thrills and intrigue and less on gore and extreme events, this would be absolutely perfect for you.
This entry in the series was seriously great and I’ll need to get my butt in gear to get to book five now!
I’m going to state a few things up front here, just to get them out of the way. This is mainly for those who’ve still not read this one, or are on the fence.
The first – I’ve not watched the series. I’ve heard great things, but I’ve not had time to get to watching it and frankly, I wanted to read this first. The second – yes, Holly Gibney is in this. The third – I enjoy Holly. I know she’s become a polarizing figure for King fans (I also really enjoyed the Bill Hodges Trilogy), but knowing Holly is in this was fine for me. Either her appearance would work or it wouldn’t and I wouldn’t know that until I’d read it for myself.
Lastly, I will say, I’ve been a massive King fan since my neighbour, Patty, lent me some of her collection back when I was 9 or 10. I know people enjoy ripping him about things, and consider him almost untouchable, but (and not that he needs little Steve to be sticking up for him) without King, a lot of what we read today wouldn’t be as popular as it is and we’d see horror in general struggle for recognition even more than it typically does. Alright, I’ll get off my soapbox ha!
‘The Outsider’ intrigued me from the get go. A horrible crime occurs. A suspect is quickly and easily identified. But he has an iron clad alibi, backed up by colleagues and even video. But as the story unfolds, we get a glimmer of something else, something slinking along and King works his magic like only he does.
What I liked: The reality is, King is one of those writers who just sucks you in immediately and his writing voice is so familiar, so ingrained and comforting that the pages fly by. It also helps that he frequently tells fantastic stories.
The first third or so of this book could’ve been its own stand-alone, stunning read. A who-done-it about a local baseball coach wrongly arrested and the community fracturing because of this. It had me hooked and seeing both sides – the detective and prosecutor working the case, as well as the coach and his lawyer working against the reality that this coach, Terry, is now considered guilty in the eyes of everyone, was phenomenal. I was hooked and pulled along.
But what King does best, and what constant readers (sorry, had to!) know, is that within his releases, there are normally two to three storylines. And when chaos breaks out as Terry is brought to the courthouse for his arraignment, King starts to really unfurl and get us seeing more about these other pieces.
I loved how we were led along and ultimately arriving down in Texas. When Holly was contacted and she looked into events seemingly unrelated, but ultimately were key to the story, it opened up another plot line and these all converged as we go all the way down to a finale that happens deep underground at the Marysville Hole.
For me, personally, the ending was spot on, I loved the throwback of something from the Hodges trilogy and it was great to see how this outsider became unhinged and reactionary. It has hints of ‘IT’ all over it and maybe it is related. After all, it does ask Holly if she’s seen others of its kind and we do know how much King loves to relate to his own worlds.
What I didn’t like: It’s funny, because I’m actually struggling to find something that really annoyed me or that I’d think others reading this might be put off by. Obviously, you may not be a Holly fan, but otherwise, if you’re a King fan, who just loves to read his books and not try and pick them apart, I think you’ll be pleasantly rewarded.
Why you should buy this: If you’re a constant reader, you probably already own this, and if you’re not, you’ve most likely heard of this one. Either way, if you’ve not read it yet, this book is a fast-paced thriller that takes a hard supernatural turn and is made better by that turn, even considering prior to that, it is phenomenal. This is a 600 page book that’ll zip by and the secondary characters all have purpose and work well to keep the story all together.
Another amazing book by Stephen King, and now I’ll be able to dive into ‘If It Bleeds’ knowing that one of those novellas is a bit of a sequel to this one.
And here we are! First review of this new year – 2022. And you know what? It’s a review of my final read of 2021! Even better – it’s a book written by one of the best out there (Lee) and a new author to me (Eigener) who I’ll definite be grabbing her novel that features some of the characters in here.
Interestingly (and I’ve made this known before), I’m not a big vampire fiction fan. At times I find it to be a lot of the same and fairly predictable. I’ve only read Lee’s first book of the Gabriel Davenport series (which is related to this) but absolutely loved the take she had on this subgenre. Also – from what I gather from this novelette) Eigener tackles her characters with flair and flashes of darkness, which has my interest big time.
I will say – it is stated at the start of this – that this takes place after Lee’s trilogy and Eigener’s debut. As I mentioned, I’ve only read the first of Lee’s series, but I couldn’t hold off on reading this, and wanted to show my support to these two awesome ladies. I can see a few instances where maybe there is some spoilers at play, but I suspect overall those might be minor.
What I liked: The story follows a meeting in an old mansion/castle of sorts, between Lee and Eigener’s characters. They’ve all heard of each other and are interested in how the others live, survive and function. Especially considering one of them has lived on their own for centuries.
One part of the vampire lore/vampire fiction that I’ve always loved is the moving chess pieces that seems to be their psyche. Each posturing, strutting and boasting about their kills and their decadence. This occurs to a minor, minor amount within, but mostly, it was a story about two vampires who mutually admire each other and discover a little bit more about themselves. It was a fascinating psychological look, instead of your typical slash and fangs. Additionally, one thing I loved was how they touched upon vampires fluid sexuality but left it at that. It was a nice thing to see that in a shorter page count precious real estate wasn’t taken up by unnecessary sex. I don’t say that as a prude or against any of that, but I felt it offered a really unique, humanizing aspect of these typical killing creatures.
Lastly, the ending of this was sublime, touching and even a bit melancholy. As the two come to accept their reality and their place within the world and where they see themselves going. I really liked how it set up things for potential follow-ups.
What I didn’t like: These two authors really made most of the shorter word count, but the one thing I wish I would’ve had a little bit more of was a more solid description of the location. Now, I say that knowing I didn’t read the prior entries, but the setting was fascinating and I wanted more.
Why you should buy this: Well – you don’t have to buy it! It’s offered as a free ebook if you sign up for either Beverley or Nicole’s email list (which I’ll include the links below). But why should you read this? They’ve crafted a fast-paced, introspective look at two very different types of these undead creatures and it works very, very well. A seamless crafting between these two authors and the story works phenomenally.
Title: The Uninvited Words – Tales of Horror and Dark Fantasy Volume I (The Uninvited Words Collection, #1)
Author: S. Kovax
Release date: November 11th, 2021
If you’ve read any of my reviews over the last few years, you’ll often see me describe how a book came onto my radar. In the case of this collection, it may very well be the most innocent of all of them!
Recently, the amazing Gemma Amor had tweeted that she knew times had been tough. She asked people to offer a vent and she’d give advice/give them some cheers and genuinely give them a boost. It was through that Twitter thread that I saw S. Kovax reply that they’d released their first book and was having trouble getting it onto people’s radar’s. Most reviewers seem to be closed (I’m technically closed… not that seems to stop me from taking books on) and it can be tough to get your first release in front of people. I saw his reply, went to the Zon and bought a copy and let him know that I’d get to it asap. At the time of my buying it (and I don’t think I had anything to do with this at all FYI) there were sadly no reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. When I went to get the link on Amazon for this review, I saw that reviews were popping up! That’s so amazing. I’m confident Gemma’s boost got some eyes on this book, as it really does deserve to be read.
What I liked: The majority of stories in here, for me at least, were home runs, which can be very tough in a collection, and more so in a debut collection. Kovax does mention that some of these have been previously published, but I am unsure of how many are previously and how many are new to this release.
No matter, the stories within cover a wide variety of topics and each one is told with gusto.
The stories that connect with me most were;
The Uninvited Words – this follows reporter Janice as she gets a sneak preview of a new haunted/horror amusement park. Her brother’s sick, so she has her phone on a video call so he can see. This one starts off being interesting and then turns into a full on gore fest.
Pyromancer – a story I typically wouldn’t dive too far into due to it being epistolary (which I’m not really a fan of) but it worked well. This was a nightmarish story that follows some dark, dark events.
What Crawls Beneath – similar in feel to Gran’s ‘Come Closer’ we follow Samantha who believes slugs are overtaking her apartment each night. It might be true, it might be a medical condition. Kovax does a great job of making both a possibility until the very end.
Don’t Call Me Father – a really dark, brutal story about an exorcism. I’ll leave it at that, but you should be able to get a good feel for what’s instore by the title and subject matter.
The Horror of Bologorsk – a novella to close it out, if you know me, you know I love all things dark fiction set in Russia. This follows some horrific events in an isolated location and Kovax does a fantastic job of making you squirm.
Kovax writes solid, solid stories. Each one had something special, something that connected and pulls you along and that was great to discover.
What I didn’t like: There were a few stories that just weren’t my cup of tea. Another epistolary told story that didn’t catch me as hard as ‘Pyromancer’ which made for a slow time. As with every collection it’ll always be up to each reader and how they connect.
Why you should buy this: Well, it’s December 29th, so if you have any Amazon gift cards kicking around that you haven’t blown through yet, might I suggest you snag this one? Otherwise, if you’ve been looking for a fresh collection of dark fiction recently, might I offer this option for you? The stories were all really well done, the characters were engaging and the pacing was pitch perfect.
Great job, from a new dark fiction author I’ll definitely be watching for when his next release arrives.
Huge thanks to Pete Mesling for sending me a digital ARC. When he announced this one, I was super pumped and reached out to him right away.
I’ve only read a short story collection by Mesling previously, and was rewarded with some outstanding stories. Mesling is a veteran writer, so I was keen to see what he’d craft diving into a world that felt like a combination of ‘The Thief of Always’ and ‘The Graveyard Book.’
What I liked: The story follows a familiar premise where a new store in town opens and our main character, Gilbert, is given a concoction called ‘Away Putty.’ This putty has the power to open up a portal to another place. Gilbert is greatly intrigued. Merryville, his home, is anything but, and he longs to see people happy and smiling. To Gilbert’s surprise, the putty works, a portal is opened and accompanied by his new friend, Sarah and her toy she also got at the store, they cross over.
It’s from here that Mesling really shines and focuses the story on the idea of just what kids curiosity can cause. They ask questions, some innocent, some pointed. They meet strange creatures, some nice, some terrible, and at the end of the day, they learn the power of friendship and why Merryville isn’t merry anymore.
The story really was an amalgamation of a number of 80’s fantasy movies/books and it worked really well to see how Mesling was able to highlight key parts and fit them into his own story.
What I didn’t like: There were moments that were ultimately overly predictable, but that comes with the territory of me being 40 and this book written for a younger audience. It still worked well to push the narrative, but those twists and turns were things I saw coming well before they occurred.
Why you should buy this: This would be an excellent ‘gateway’ story for any young readers in your house, that could introduce them to fantasy and dark fiction. I would even suggest, this would make for a great buddy read if you have any 10-13 year old’s who are just getting into this type of work.
If you don’t have kids and want to just dive into something that’ll make you smile and make you feel nostalgic in places, this would be an excellent book to do just that.
When this one was announced, this book had me intrigued.
Over the course of maybe 12-20 months or so, there was a rush on kids with supernatural abilities. Most likely encouraged or activated by Stranger Things, we saw a number of shows, movies and books release that had this phenomenal as the central plot point.
I, personally, enjoyed some and found others to be a miss. But overall, it wasn’t a subgenre that I specifically sought out.
Jackson’s release ‘Touched by Shadows’ was one that I did seek out, and with the height of the subgenre seemingly past by, I was excited to see what different take Vaughn would offer.
What I liked: The story follows Oumou, a young African American child, who escapes the lab she’s being held captive in. While fleeing, she runs into a young girl, Amanda, and the two instantly become friends. Oumou is taken in by Amanda’s parents, as they try and figure out where she came from, but the stark reality of where they live rears its ugly head.
Jackson also brings in a fantastic antagonist, a demon looking to take possession of a body that won’t burn up, and is seeking Oumou for that purpose. This added a second layer of tension throughout. We have the racist-town angle that grew in scope and volume, as the young Oumou tries to understand the ‘why’ of these strangers hating her and wanting to kill her, as well as the growing dread that this ‘thing’ is growing closer and will soon strike.
The characters work really well together and when we get to the finale, we see each of them raise up and sacrifice to get to the ultimate end goal of survival.
What I didn’t like: There were a few moments that I found questionable, but the most prominent one involved the police dog and the reporter. Minor, minor spoiler, but as the reporter flees an event, the police dog tracks him. The dog latches onto his arm. The man continues to walk with the dog (and by now I think we’ve all seen videos at least of how rough and violent a police dog takes people down) and then goes into a cellar and suddenly him and the dog becomes best friends. It came off as completely unrealistic,
Why you should buy this: The story is crisp and the pacing frantic. It was a fast read and had some great characters that you want to root for and see them succeed. The villain was fantastic and it would be great to see Jackson return to this world and continue telling Oumou’s story.
Hey, it’s me, Steve, guy who reads and reviews literally everything. EVEN. THOUGH. I’M. CLOSED. FOR. REVIEWS. HAHAHA, ahhhh… yeah.
But you know what? Every once in a while, someone reaches out to me (for me, who knows (insert shrugging emoji!)) to ask if I’d take a go at their book. Now, I’m a Kindle reader. I wish I had the ability to currently read physical books, I absolutely was until my son arrived and I read while he falls asleep beside me, thus physical books are not an option. Can’t have a bright light and pages crinkling while he’s trying to sleep. One thing I’ve found is that my Kindle, for whatever reason, HATES PDF’s. Like, with a passion.
Yesterday, Peter Danielsson reached out to me on Twitter, asking if I’d be at all keen to check out his new book and if I was able, offer a review. I don’t want this to come off as arrogant or ego-driven, or anything, but for me, personally, I don’t care how many followers you have on Twitter or anything like that. What I do care about is ‘does this book sound cool?’ Or, ‘would I enjoy reading this?’
So, I rocked over to Peter’s Twitter account, saw his fantastic artwork, and went to his website to investigate the book. After all of that, I asked if he had a mobi, and he unfortunately said “No, sadly due to the illustrations, it was pdf only.’ Ok, ok. This book looked so friggin’ intriguing that I asked him to send it and I’d figure it out on my end.
What I liked: ‘The Year Under the Machine’ is heartbreaking bleak and brutal. Told with single page chapters, minimal words and stunning abstract-ish paintings/illustrations, we are told the story of Him and Her (names are never given) as they try and survive after an ‘alien’ arrival.
Danielsson crafted an extraordinary world with an antagonist that sends fear coursing through your veins. This is earth, but different. And above the people is something that has arrived and stays there. We don’t learn anything about them and the story is all the better for it. All we ever learn is that people randomly disappear, assumed to be ‘beamed’ up onto this vessel, if that’s what it is.
I really loved how much emotion and dread Danielsson infused this with and how each chapter, while succinct, painted such a vivid and harrowing picture. This really had the feeling of a droning, industrial metal song, one that builds and builds and builds, leading us all to the inevitable crescendo which we know occurs directly before the end, before everything fades out into static.
That comparison leads me to mention the artwork/illustrations. I have zero art training, couldn’t tell you if this was abstract or some other form (apologies to all who know those things!) but wow was it vicious. It reminded me a lot of the artwork that ‘The Downward Spiral’ from Nine Inch Nails had when the CD was released back in 1994.
The artwork, combined with the narrative worked so well together and had me spellbound, allowing me to fall into this horrific event and reading this in a fast, anxiety-inducing sitting.
What I didn’t like: I personally loved this book, but one thing I wish it did have was the personification of the characters, simply so I could relate a little bit more. It does work really well with just Him and Her characters, but at the same time there were a few chapters were it took me a second to realize who it was that the POV was featured.
Why you should buy this: I honestly don’t know how many copies are available, as Peter as them for sale through his website, so if this sounds up your alley, I suggest emailing him ASAP. I’m not sure if a wider release is planned, but fingers crossed. I know I’ll be reaching out and purchasing a physical copy immediately.
This story was so well done, so cinematic that I hope this finds its way into the world of film.
I asked on Twitter if I should do a year in review and was surprised to see folks convey interest in wanting me to do a wrap up!
Well, to those who wanted it – here we go! For those who didn’t – jog on and all!
Where to start?
Let’s begin with… hmmm… the personal life!
How about we start with the “bigger” trips.
Personal Life:
As with all of us, COVID-19 has put a dampener on attending things, going places and doing activities. We decided this year to not really look into booking anything major, but to find things that we could do and enjoy that would have a solid chance of not being cancelled, while allowing us to be safe.
For Easter, we went out to B.C. to visit with my sister, brother-in-law and my two nephews. They are a pretty self-contained group, so we all agreed to make sure everyone was healthy before we went. It was a blast and it was great seeing Grandma Helena in Castlegar as well.
When July rolled around, we got to do something that had been previously cancelled due to Covid. Back in 2020, we’d booked a trip to Drumheller and Calgary. We wanted to surprise Auryn, as the last time we’d been to Drumheller, Amanda was about 7 months pregnant with Auryn! But, alas, right after I booked everything, Covid hit and we had to cancel.
So, in July, we went out to Discovery Wildlife Park near Innisfail. We’d been before and Auryn was so excited to see the animals again. What he didn’t know was that we were going to drive from there to Drumheller after. He was suspicious as we drove, but soon fell asleep. Then, when we came around a corner and the sign that says ‘Welcome to Drumheller’ appeared with a big dino beside it, he was over the moon! He called it Dino-Town the entire time we were there (and still asks when we’re going back). He also didn’t know that we had another surprise for him – my sister, brother in law and two nephews met us there!
We went to the World’s Largest Dinosaur and then the following day we went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. It is such a cool place to visit. When we were there, we started to go around it a second time, when things flashed and the power went out! We were plunged into darkness and it made for a memorable moment that Auryn still talks about! This trip also happened to coincide with my 40th birthday, so that was a fun way to celebrate getting SOOOOO MUCH OLDER!
A little over a month later, Auryn’s 5th birthday arrived and to celebrate that, we went down to Calgary to do the second half of our previously cancelled plans. We went to the Calgary Zoo, which was fantastic. We go to our Zoo all the time and Auryn loves animals so much, so it was great to go to a different Zoo and learn about more animals and the roles Zoo’s can play in conservation.
So, that was the bigger trips we took. But we also did a ton of fun, local things!
We have a Zoo membership to the Edmonton Valley Zoo and go frequently throughout the year. I’d estimate this year we went at least a dozen times, if not more. This also included their Halloween event and Zoominescence, when the Zoo is lit up for Christmas!
As well, we have a membership to Jurassic Forest, a really cool place about 45 minutes north of us near Gibbons. It’s a neat place with animatronic dinosaurs and a boardwalk that weaves through it. We get there 5-6 times each year and it was great to see them add a few new cool dino’s before the season ended.
Also, my mother in law and father in law got a new seasonal camping lot, near Wandering River. If you’ve read my novel ‘The Stranger,’ you’ll recognize that name as the one character. But Wandering River is a real place, roughly 2.5 hours north of us. We got up there a few times to camp, which was great. Auryn got to meet a new friend who shared his love of all things Godzilla and we got to get out into nature even more.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Edmonton has a ton of green spaces and walking areas, especially throughout the river valley, but it is also nice to leave the city and visit places such as Clifford E. Lee Nature Conservatory and Chickakoo Lake.
In July, we went to the very cool ‘Expedition Dinosaur’ Exhibit at our Telus World of Science. It was really fun and Auryn has a blast with all things dino!
In August, we did something that we hadn’t done in A LONG LONG time. This was planned as part of Auryn’s Birthday Celebration, and on August 28th we went to a theatre in St. Albert to watch the Paw Patrol Movie. Auryn wasn’t too fond of how loud it was, but once we got over that hump, he had a blast!
And in September – Auryn started Kindergarten! It has taken some time, but he finally does love school and has made a ton of friends! I love getting to hear about how each day was.
The last thing I’ll mention, is this year, on March 21st, our beloved dog, OJ passed away. We adopted OJ when he was two. Back then, my wife and I were confident we’d never have children. We’d been told previously we couldn’t and we were fine with that. OJ came to us at the perfect time. He was such an adorable, loveable chrome-dome from day one and we helped him through all of his quirks and fears (he had a lot!). For those who know already, you’ll be aware of what happened, but for those who don’t – about a year after we got OJ, he suffered a spinal stroke. One night, he grew super restless. We quickly saw that he couldn’t use his back legs. We rushed him to an emergency vet clinic and after an MRI he was diagnosed with FCE – Fibrocartilaginous Embolism. This occurs when a section of the spine ‘dies’ or is impaired. With OJ, it meant he lost function in his back legs and he was bed ridden for a week with a catheter. We started Aqua Therapy with him as soon as the catheter was out and roughly six weeks after starting therapy he was starting to walk on his own again.
Sadly, this injury was a huge strain on ‘Mr. Old Man.’ His body aged rapidly and on the morning of March 21st, my wife and I both knew that he couldn’t go on and that he didn’t want to go on.
Our lives are certainly emptier without him in it. Auryn loved his dog so much, and we still talk about OJ all of the time. The plan is to adopt another bully in the spring, once the winter weather leaves and we can spend plenty of time with our new fur pup outside.
Book Promo:
I’m going to call this next section – Book Promo. This isn’t about my releases at all, but about what I did that was above and beyond regular reading and reviewing.
So, let’s go alllll the way back to February.
On February 17th, my interview with the amazing Adam Nevill went live on Kendall Reviews. The response was out of this world. I couldn’t believe it. It was a wonderful interview, with Adam delivering some top-notch and thorough answers. I can’t thank him enough.
A month later, on March 17th, my interview with Ronald Malfi went live. Ronald is a super nice guy and a phenomenal writer, so it was great to pick his brain about ‘Come With Me.’
On May 5th, I was able to tick off a bucket list highlight, and I interviewed Andrew Pyper live on Instagram. I had started the year off with doing Pyper Previews, where every Tuesday, I’d post about one of his books, the different versions of them etc and share about each book. For the previous three years I’d done a ‘Pyper-May-Nia’ celebration of his work in May, so the Pyper Preview’s all led up to this interview. Of course, me being a knob, I didn’t figure out how to save the video… (But more on that later!)
On July 28th, I was able to attend my first ‘Author’s Night’ as an author, not a spectator, when I was one of four authors featured at Daisy Chain Book Store. This was a really great event, where we each did a brief reading of our work, answered questions and got to sign some copies.
August 17th saw the launch of something I was really excited to share and it was something I’d been working on behind the scenes for some time. It began as something I was doing on my own, researching and collecting links/releases etc of all of Andrew Pyper’s work. I finally worked up enough courage to directly ask him if I could officially launch an archive of his work, and he kindly said yes. So, on August 17th, 2021, The Official Andrew Pyper Archives launched. As a super fan, I’m very proud of the research and information available, as well as the links etc that allow you to go back and learn about the writing of the books. You can visit that site here – theandrewpyperarchives.ca
As part of launching the archives (and partly due to my dumbassery with the Instagram live video), Andrew agreed to do another interview, but this time I was going to do it through Youtube and record it. To make sure I didn’t mess up, I wanted to interview somebody before hand, which led me to asking my friend, editor and co-author of The Navajo Nightmare, David Sodergren, if he’d be up to be interviewed as a guinea pig.
On August 31st, I bombarded him with ruthless and brutal questions, which he volleyed back like the veteran he is!
And that led to me sitting down and formally interviewing Andrew Pyper for the second time on September 28th (I’m so sorry, Andrew!). This was an almost two hour chat about his career, books, writing and the archives itself. This was a very candid interview and like the first one, truly an honor.
Writing:
On the writing front, I would say the highlight was seeing my novella ‘The Window In the Ground’ appear on the HWA Bram Stoker Award’s Preliminary Ballot for ‘Long Fiction.’ Blown away that it made it to that level and really something I’ll always cherish. I don’t write for any other reason than the joy of writing, but when something gets recognized, that’s always so very cool.
Workshops:
I’ve never attended any writing workshops before. I did take Creative Writing electives in High School and College, but that was about the extent of my writing ‘education.’
That changed, when I saw that an author whose work I love dearly (Hint Hint Andrew Pyper) was announced as hosting a virtual workshop on the art of crafting an idea into a novel and then pitching that novel. On March 6th, I attended the workshop and not only was it a blast and gave me some insight into how Andrew creates his novels (which for a super fan was amazing!), but it helped me in a number of ways. It had me rethink my approach to writing, as well as helped me work through three novels that I was struggling to connect the dots in a few spots. One of those (Mastodon) has been announced already, which I’ll discuss about more in a bit and the other two I’ll share info about as well.
Podcasts:
I had the pleasure of appearing on four different podcasts this year. I typically try and limit my podcast availability as I work very hard to keep my writing stuff to my breaks and lunch time at work, but I do get a few weekend ones in each year (which has convinced David Sodergren that I live in my vehicle).
Much like most years since I started really focusing on writing, 2021 was a busy year for myself for releases.
Up first – ‘The Future In the Sky.’ This was released on March 1st, and is part one of the Empyrean Saga. This novella tells the story of Lizzie, living on a ship that orbits the Earth. Classes are chosen for either Salvation or Eradication. Eradication is straightforward. Salvation on the other hand… The students have to jump from the ship, plunge towards the surface of the planet and try and catch an orb that is launched towards them, an orb that contains their future within.
Universal Link;
mybook.to/futuresky
My second release of the year was the novel ‘The Navajo Nightmare’ which was co-written with David Sodergren. David and I had written the early drafts of this back in 2020 when Covid hit and we were stuck at home for some time. This was such a fun Horror-Western mashup that focused on vengeance and stopping an evil entity.
Universal Link;
mybook.to/navajonightmare
Following ‘Navajo,’ I finished up the Father of Lies Series. On June 1st, the third chapter in the series released with the novella ‘Sacrament’ finishing the Trilogy. On July 21st, I released the omnibus ‘Father of Lies: The Complete Series’ which had a foreword from the talented Sonora Taylor, all three novella’s, a bonus novelette, an essay from cover artist Mason McDonald and an extended essay from myself discussing the writing of the series!
Sacrament Universal Link;
mybook.to/sacrament
Father of Lies: The Complete Series Universal Link;
mybook.to/fatheroflies
My final, “official” release of 2021 was the novel ‘Incarnate.’ Incarnate was a blast to write and followed a family in the late 70’s as they went to stay at a supposed haunted house, only to discover that it is instead possessed by a demonic entity. People seem to really be digging this one!
Universal Link;
mybook.to/Incarnate2
Now, I said final “official” release because, as most of you may have seen, I’ve announced my next novel, which is arriving January 28th, 2022. It is up for ebook pre-order now and features an amazing cover by the talented Francois Vaillancourt. This one was a book I wrote originally in 2020 during my time at home, but became stuck in a few place. The workshop I attended unstuck it, haha! ‘Mastodon’ follows our main character, as he hikes into the Canadian Rockies to try and find his father.
Universal Link;
mybook.to/mastodon
Anthologies:
2021 was also a busy year for anthology involvement. I was more focused on my own writing, so didn’t submit too many stories, but was very kindly invited to a number of releases, which I made sure to carve out time to submit.
April 7th, saw the release of the anthology ‘He Has Stayed Too Long.’ This was a massive undertaking by Don Gillette, where he had 30 people band together to each write a chapter and make a single story. I had a blast with my chapter, and I think more people should check this one out.
July 25th, I had a story released in The Ruby edition of Kevin J. Kennedy’s ongoing ‘Horror Collection’ series. I’ve been lucky enough to have a number of my stories selected, so it was nice to be in a release of his once again.
October 3rd, saw the release of A.A. Medina’s short story collection ‘God Forbid.’ A.A. amazingly reached out and asked if I’d write a foreword for it. No brainer. Medina is a great author and a fantastic cover designer.
On October 27th, the third edition of the Books of Horror Community Anthology was released. Two editions were actually released due to the volume of stories, and my story featured in the first part, aka the ‘black’ edition.
November was a busy month, with two anthologies out that I was lucky enough to feature in.
The first was another Kevin J. Kennedy anthology, this time it was ‘The Best of Indie Horror: Christmas Edition.’ This released on November 15th.
And, just 15 days later, on November 30th, the stunning anthology ‘A Silent Dystopia’ was released. This anthology features stories set in the world created by Dave Jeffery and his ‘A Quiet Apocalypse’ series.
Alright, so we’ve got to this point.
Let’s finish this off with what I’m working on, or Work In Progress.
WIP;
As many of you know, I’m always on the go with different projects in various forms of completion.
At the time of writing this, I’ll be shutting down the writing for the rest of 2021, other than posting some reviews, but otherwise – here’s what I’m immediately working on.
Mastodon. I mean this is a given haha! Preorders are already open. This will be available in ebook, paperback and hardcover.
Books 2 and 3 in the Empyrean Saga. Books 2 and 3 are ‘done.’ I’m working on 4 and 5 and want to make sure continuity lines up so that everything makes sense and there are no odd story issues. I’m still on the fence about whether I’ll release books 2 and 3 together, individually in different months or if I’ll actually just release books 2-5 all at one time so people can blast through this series.
456 Blatchford Drive. A novel I’ve been working on for some time, I’ve finally made some plotting progress and will be working on finishing this off in January and February. If all goes to plan, I would expect this to arrive in the summer. We’ll see. At one point I was thinking of doing this as an extremely limited release, as in 10 hardcovers and 20 paperbacks total. Still like the intrigue of that.
Cathedral of the Skinned. The second book in the Sermons of Sorrow series, this would be the sequel to Piece of Me, but not a direct sequel. It would pick up roughly 500 years after the events of book one, but would be heavily influenced by it. I like dark fantasy/horror mashups and this one had some struggles. But now things are flowing and I’m ready to get this completed.
Untitled Novel. I have an untitled novel that I’ve finished working on. At the moment, I’m not wanting to reveal the title, or the synopsis, but let’s just say, it’s super dark, bleak and takes place in the woods in the snow. Lol. You’re welcome. I actually hope to have this one out next year as well.
Wagon Buddy 3 – I teased this a little bit, but I have been casually working on cobbling together the parts to a third Wagon Buddy story. I’m not going to share too much, but if you’ve followed Scott’s journey up to this point – there are still things left unexplored. If anything, this would arrive in 2023.
Anthology story – this one’s a fun one and set in somebody else’s world. Four of us have come together to have a blast and write these stories and I’m sure hoping this works out and see’s the light of day.
There we go. Phew. That’s a lot eh? In the past, I’d also share what my top albums etc of the year were, but this year I listened to very few albums as I was focused on writing and re-listening to the same album or songs on repeat, that I can’t really suggest even a top ten!
I’ll close here. To anyone who has read this Year in Review this far – thank you. I hope 2022 fills you with happiness, joy and we begin to see some solid light at the end of the Covid tunnel.
Jack Olsen was a leading crime fiction and non-fiction writer in his time. His name alone was enough to garner interest in a story some may not care about otherwise, and back in 1969, when he wrote ‘Night of the Grizzlies’ it drew national attention on the incident that had occurred back in the summer of 1967.
I bring that up, to say – thankfully, thankfully – this book didn’t sway people enough to have them head out into the woods to try and kill each and every bear. Bears themselves are already dealing with over-hunting issues, as well as population crowding as humans continue to push into and build on their lands.
While this book hasn’t aged well, especially when you consider how poorly the reports were taken into consideration by the authorities and Rangers, but also with how humans acted around the bears. Sure, it was a different time, but it’s frustrating to read an account regarding people heading into the wilderness so poorly prepared.
What I liked: The book follows the escalation over the summer as bears become humanized and programmed to come to the same place each day, so that they can scavenge on garbage being thrown into the forest from a Chalet. The humans crowd around and watch the spectacle and not surprisingly, one night, two women are brutally attacked while they camp.
I did enjoy the re-telling of the night in question. While things leading up to the events were dumbfounding and completely neglectful that these bears were first groomed to come eat for the tourists, Olsen does a great job of keeping things fairly even and stable, limiting anything that reads like embellishment or over-dramatization.
What I didn’t like: Taking into the book’s year of publication is key with this release. There is a lot of ‘extra’ stuff at the beginning and throughout. Long descriptions of the mountains and weather and each character has a detailed background which only appears to be necessary for a few of them. As an example – it’s pertinent to know someone has outdoor medical training. It’s not if someone grew up somewhere else, went to school and never went hiking. It would’ve been easy enough to say – this character, though, had no previous wilderness experience.
As well, on the factual side – this book wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for so much incompetence and mishandling leading up to the events. And those aspects, are so incredibly frustrating to read and to know they directly caused loss of life.
Why you should buy this: If you like outdoor/wilderness non-fiction reads, this book is solid and definitely goes through the how’s and why’s of these events happening through the pen of a masterful writer. It may not be a read you’ll want to check out if you’re a seasoned outdoors lover, as you’ll become hugely frustrated.
For those looking for a gripping back-woods story, this one will do the trick.
Ahhh, everyone’s favorite recluse, ole Uncle Carl has returned and this time he’s decided to share a former screenplay of his that involves a subject I really love – the Amazon.
Over the years, I’ve watched a number of ‘lost in the jungle’ movies and read a number of books, and one thing that’ll never change and that’ll always draw me in – the Amazon (and the jungle) are untamable, unhospitable worlds, where if the Indigenous tribes don’t get you, any number of animals will. And if you manage to stay clear of all of that – the lack of most people’s abilities to find water and food will ultimately get you.
The cult classic ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ surely kicked off this fascination – I may be completely wrong, but personally for me, it did – and it is in that vein that Carl John Lee brings us back to 1978.
What I liked: The story starts off focusing on a Christian Missionary group trying to locate the Sharayomo tribe, to bring them bibles and teach them about their faith. Things go sideways immediately and thus leads us into the crux or meat of the story (pun intended).
The story follows Dick and his much younger wife, Mona, who are preparing to spend Christmas with Dick’s grown daughters, Joanna and Emily. Dick has fled to the darkest corners of the Amazon, living in a fortified mansion, as he continues to lead a life off the books. Joanna is joined by her horrible boyfriend, Teddy, while Emily is joined by her husband, Rod.
Carl John Lee has created a really engaging group of characters here and it speaks to his ability and mastery of prose that he can make these people come alive so quickly and efficiently. Case in point – Rod. Here’s his character description loosely – from California, tanned, dark mustache, dark curly hair, muscular, currently a surgeon, but a former porn star, known for his mighty uh… surgical tool. You immediately picture someone in your mind, and for me this guy sounded like the spitting image of Tom Selleck (although I can’t speak on Magnum PI’s surgical tool!).
The action here is fast and furious and Lee does a great job of even adding a few splashes of humor – light and dark. To use Rod as an example again (and how great is that name!), we get to a point where he is trying to swing like a pendulum out of a window to knock loose a beam. While doing this he chuckles, because his porn nickname was ‘The Pendulum’ due to the way a part of his anatomy moved while he walked.
The ending of this is fantastic and speaks to the nature of these stories – where you hope and root for someone to survive, no matter the horror and damage they see and incur. In fact, there’s a line at the end of a chapter, close to the end of the book that says – ‘The last to live.’ Damn, that would’ve made for a fantastic title to this novel.
What I didn’t like: There are trigger warnings a plenty in this one, but the one that I think gets focused on most (I mean other than the horrific gore and violence) is the relationship abuse. This occurs between Teddy and Joanna and while it works well to really build up Joanna’s character arc, it takes some time before things get ‘sorted.’ I personally wished it would’ve happened sooner!
Why you should buy this: Look, I’m going to shoot straight here. I love Carl John Lee’s books and he’s a fantastic writer (and artist – he actually did the cover for my novel Incarnate) but I think he’s criminally overlooked. If this was a release by a bigger, more known name, I suspect this would be a best seller and one we’d see all over Instagram. I wish I had more clout or power to beg people to go buy this, but I’m a realist.
This book has everything fans of dark fiction want – tension, dread, great characters, survive-at-all-costs plot and some of the most brutal decapitations and death’s you’ll ever read.
This was outstanding and I hope one that really does launch Carl John Lee into becoming a ‘must-read’ author by so many more people.
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