Made it into Third Wednesday with my poem, “Drug House!” Sometimes a bad thing can at least be inspirational for one to create a good thing!
Courtship of the Sewer King – story up on Zero Flash
Wow! Cool stuff! Definitely makes me want to read more. Thanks for sharing and also for your encouragement. It definitely makes a difference! Maybe I should try writing in some of those too.
My flash fiction story “Courtship of the Sewer King” (click title for link) is available on the Zero Fiction April Entries Page (may need to scroll down to find it- search for “Casey” should do the trick). Zero Flash is a speculative fiction site and runs month flash fiction contests (300 words or less) for different themes. April 2017’s theme is simply “Horror”. Easy enough, right?
My story is a companion piece that I wrote for writing friend Max Shephard’s newsletter that I titled “The Red Girls”. This creepy 100 word drabble (available on the internet at the Drabble.wordpress.com) was begging for more exploration of its unstable, violent world. Of course, ‘the sewer king’ ends up begging for more as well; perhaps I’ll have to add yet another piece to this dark flash fiction-ary puzzle.
Also, glad to also submit something to Zero Flash, brainchild of David J…
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Hudson River Asylum
This looks like the kind of place where some serious shit could go down! Hey, let’s stay overnight. what’s the worse that could happen?
The Conversation by Paul Delvaux, 1944
There is something mystical about paintings like this with skeletons and live(whole) people. Seems like straight essence or soul conversations. I have a more more modern original done by a local artist over my writing desk.
Hellnotes Review of “SHADES” by Joseph Rubas- Cool Old School Horror!
Shades – Dark Tales of Supernatural Horror
Joseph Rubas
Parallel Universe Publications
January 6, 2017
Reviewed by Brian James Lewis
This an excellent book by an author who surprised me in a positive way. Joseph Rubas’ writing reads like that of an older, more seasoned professional even though he is pretty young guy. It feels a little like he is channeling the writers of the old horror pulps in the 22 stories that make up Shades. Think of a young Richard Matheson and early episodes of The Twilight Zone and you’ll have the vibe. Good stuff!
Things kick off with the, it-could-happen-to-you horror of “Passing the Buck.” A pleasant young woman is waiting for a friend at the mall when her life changes horribly and very finally. All because she tried to help. Anybody asks you to help them put a box in their car, you tell ’em to take a hike! Another cool and classic story is “The Warlock.” Some teenagers think they’re smart when they intentionally burn down the house of the local warlock, Kenyard Mays. “Ha-ha! We’ll show that creepy old man who’s boss in this town!” is what these stupid lads think, but they just screwed with the wrong guy. See, even though the burned up body of Mays is found in the leveled home, he’s not in it, thanks to his book of evil magic spells that allow him to shapeshift and switch bodies at will. Soon all the kids who “killed” Mays die horrible deaths, as do their parents and siblings. A local sheriff tries to shut the warlock down by destroying his spell book, but it’s way too late for that. As the story ends, we see that Keynard Mays’ reign of terror is just beginning.
Unlike many collections, Shades is really a different experience and a different kind of horror with each tale. Some people prefer to read books that are just zombie stories, or just vampires, or serial killers. That’s cool, everyone should read what they like. I like variety and the feeling that you’re not even reading the same book by the same author anymore. Joseph Rubas gives us that. From “AOKIGAHARA,” which is about a ghost forest in Tokyo, Japan that is full of the corpses of people who committed suicide, to “The Lake House,” a house rented by a writer in the New England area of the good old U.S.A. What is supposed to be a peaceful retreat turns into a nightmare! Well, the two locations do share one thing. They both want you dead so that they can consume you and absorb you into their very structure.
A few of the pieces are only a page long. “CHOMO” is one of these short shorts, but it still packs a punch. I sure hope that all child molesters DO go to the kind of Hell that Rubas shows us!
All in all, this is a cool read that is available in both trade paperback or as an e-book, and I highly encourage you to pick up a copy today! Shades – Dark Tales of Supernatural Horror can be read in short bites or you can binge out and read it cover to cover, just don’t miss out!
#NGHW News: Interview with Contestant Timothy G Huguenin
I like the interview because it shows that most of us are real people, not serial killers with pen names! Totally agree how once you get your characters upright and moving about, they can really surprise you with their actions! I live in the city near garages, bus hubs, trains, and neighbors who communicate by shouting into each others faces, so I have to have music to drown them out. I have found that instrumental jazz and blues works well because it creates flow. Go Team Tim!
Get to know the contestants of the Next Great Horror Writer Contest!
What do you love about horror?
Part of that has to do with the themes that can be dealt with in horror in a unique way, like death, the afterlife, the supernatural, evil, the darkness in human nature. It is true that I like to read and write horror to explore those themes, even though I don’t usually like stories that are simplistic and overly moralistic (I do love complex layers of meaning when you don’t notice until you really start mulling over the story after reading). I keep that answer ready for most people who ask because it’s easy to understand and package even if one isn’t really drawn to the horror aesthetic.
But honestly, I mostly like spooky, creepy books, for the same reason I like vanilla ice cream over chocolate, even though my dad thinks…
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LOOK What Just Arrived in the Mail! Timothy G. Huguenin’s New Novel “Little One” !
Some days it’s actually fun to open the mailbox! Thank you sir, will review ASAP!
Review Of VISCERA by Jessica B. Bell from Sirens Call Publications
VISCERA
Jessica B. Bell
October 3 2016
Sirens Call Publications
Reviewed by Brian James Lewis
If you like horror and love weird, you are going to want this collection of scary, creepy, funkiness from Jessica B. Bell! For those of us who are looking for maximum bang for the buck, Viscera is the answer to your prayers. This collection is HUGE! I mean, seriously, this review is only going to be a taste of the delights that await you upon purchase of this awesome collection. The book opens with the famous Stephen Crane quote about the beast eating its own bitter heart, which to me, is usually a signal that some great reading lies ahead. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the unique titles and the writing that went with them. Unfortunately, since JournalStone has such a wide reach, we’ve had to censor ourselves a bit so that we can reach all of our readers in their comfort zone, so don’t be mad if we can’t write something exact. We want you to have the widest market possible.
Let’s get to the stories, shall we? “Morbo’s Threat” is a fun and slightly terrifying tale about how magicians get the animals they use in their act. In the weird vein we have some twisted takes on the whole princess and prince deal. What if a girl desperate for love goes to the pond and starts kissing frogs to find her prince, only to find she really digs frogs? Then you’d have You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs. If the reverse happened, you might have You Can Take the Boy Out of the Swamp… Good stuff! The collection begins with “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before” which feels like total old-school horror. Explorers in the jungle contract illnesses and are saved by natives, only to contract an even more serious disease which is fatal and has bizarre symptoms. I felt like I was reading an Edgar Rice Burroughs piece! Until the joke at the end.
Werewolves…Hey, been there, done that! Right? WRONG! Try “Territorial Pissings” on for size. It is not the same old boring jive. This story is irreverent and funny to twisted people like us. To picture in your head what the author is describing is entertaining to say the least. There are also larger pieces like “The Best Medicine” where technology and medicine, that big pharmacological machine, screws the world up on a major scale. Apocalyptic, frightening, and tugs at the heart strings until you scream. Maybe the most scary thing is, how can we be sure that’s not happening right now? We can’t!
There are also very short pieces like “Banshee” which also features the beautiful and frightening sketch of a banshee by Nika Davitashvili which I really love. She is beautiful, with needle-sharp teeth and screaming curses. My favorite illustration in Viscera! I would frame it and hang it on my wall if I could!
The last story I’m mentioning in this review is “Paraxogenisis,” which is one badass horror tale about a very unusual birthing during which the husband dies and an interesting baby is born. I’ve tried, but I can’t forget it!
Once again, this collection shows off the benefits of being published by an independent press. Unless you’re a huge star writer, you can’t do this kind of thing with big presses that have to answer to uptight corporate heads that just don’t get it. Viscera feels so fresh, startling, and oddly delicious, that you might just miss your train in the morning. Or you could maybe read it on the train as well! Just don’t miss your stop.
- Viscera – Book Review – March 27, 2017
GO CHUCK BERRY! a poem in celebration of a Rock and Roll legend
GO CHUCK BERRY! 3/18/17-Poem by Brian James Lewis damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com
Duck walking in a white suit
making that guitar do what he meant
Rhythm pumping like the pistons
in a V-8 motor going full tilt
Maybe showing us that
white men couldn’t play shit
or maybe not. Chuck was
a lean, black, question mark
His cruelly handsome face could
smile or give a tight lipped smirk
not to mention that sneer or
those expressive rolling eyes
That liked to wink at us
or run up and down the thighs
of a hot blonde in a too-tight skirt
because our brown eyed handsome man
Had an appetite for the flesh
no different from any other musician
He just got caught at it while Elvis
and Jerry Lee could sneak by
Don’t waste time asking why he
had to hide in the Chess basement
At least he wasn’t a lie or fake
with people to run damage control
Chuck Berry was real Rock n Roll
blazing a trail for many to follow
Love him or hate him but know
he wasn’t there to take your shit
Crow Shine Review On Horror Review Now!
CROW SHINE
Alan Baxter
November 11, 2016
Ticonderoga Publications
Reviewed by Brian James Lewis
This collection of intense speculative fiction from Alan Baxter is definitely one of a kind. Reason being, that Crow Shine is filled with all kinds of different stories that are not connected very much setting-wise, but are strongly connected by the concepts underneath them. What Baxter’s stories, and the novella length The Darkest Shade of Grey illustrate is that it is not always smart to take things at face value. There are a lot of forces controlling the world around us and while they are close by, it takes a little digging or sometimes a bad mistake to reveal them. Also, many of the people who seem lowest on the totem pole to our uneducated eyes are often the most powerful. Those of us who think we’re smart and know what we’re doing are often messing ourselves instead. A good example of this is Beat of the Pale Wing when the mobsters who are using the demon/entity to clean up their dirty jobs and abusing their power by hurting those that love them get schooled by a stronger, more passionate woman who turns the force they’ve been exploiting back on them.
The Darkest Shade of Grey shows us that angels are not just the gentle and peaceful creatures depicted on Christmas cards and in gift stores. Sometimes they operate like “company men” and have to handle a “problem” just like mafia hit men. They’re not so saintly after all! Tiny Lives is a beautifully sad story about a father who is sacrificing his life to save his youngest daughter by making toys that are alive. I took away some social commentary there too. The story showed that while many of the wealthy people were happy to spend a large amount of money on amazing toys, no one seemed very interested in paying for a life-saving surgery. So this selfless father had to sell his life in order for his daughter to live. Just kind of brings to mind some of the U.S.’s mega-rich families like the Kardashians or Trumps who make news when they buy a five thousand dollar outfit of see-thru clothing for Kim to wear (again) to display her expensively altered self, but not on a replacement kidney for a little child.
Crow Shine’s title story is a great mix of old and new. A young man learning to play classic acoustic blues guitar like Robert Johnson from his grandfather gets a horrible shock when the old man dies suddenly in a fire caused by his moonshine still. At first Clyde grieves, then he rebuilds and remakes the shine that his grandpa refused to let him have because it was “his curse.” Something Clyde just interprets as his grandfather was a bit of a boozer. So he’s real proud of himself when he’s able to cook up a batch of this magical brew. His companion for all this is an ancient old crow who seems to have a connection to it. The shine does more than just give a person a buzz. It gives the maker the ability to steal life force from other humans. Clyde kills his girlfriend via shine and blues playing because he takes too much of her away until she’s gone. That brings him to his senses and he tries to destroy the dangerous set up. But Crow stops him and sets things up to wait for the next customer. Very cool riff on the whole making a deal with the devil at the crossroads thing that is part of the delta blues legends.
There are nineteen stories in Crow Shine which means this review has barely scratched the surface of the treasure within this excellent book that I highly recommend this to all our readers! All the stories are strong and the variety is amazing but stays on target. This will be a pleasure that you will read for years to come. Remember, things move fast these days, so grab a copy or buy an e-book of Crow Shine while it’s available.
- Crow Shine – Book Review – March 10, 2017
- Burning Down Paradise – Book Review – February 27, 2017
- The Ripper’s Time – Book Review – February 17, 2017
- Shadow Out of the Sky by Brick Marlin – Book Review – January 17, 2017
- Clockwork Universe by John W. Dennehy – Book Review – January 10, 2017
- Hive by Alex Smith – Book Review – December 30, 2016
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