Tag: writing

WHILE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME DOES SHORTEN OUR DAYS, IT ALSO PRODUCES THE PERFECT AMBIANCE FOR READING TIM McWHORTER’S FANTASTIC SHORT HORROR COLLECTION “LET THERE BE DARK”

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LET THERE BE DARK
Tim McWhorter
01/16/2024 2nd Edition
Manta Press, Ltd.
Reviewed by Brian “Skull” Lewis

Hello Horror Fans! It’s your old pal Skull with Let There Be Dark, a seriously awesome collection of short horror stories by Tim McWhorter, that grabs your attention from the start and doesn’t let go until the last word of the final story. A cool thing about this collection is the use of unique locations such as a drugstore bathroom, a Japanese hot spring spa, and a Colorado mountainside. There are also some places you would expect weird shit to go down, but even then, McWhorter stretches your imagination and refuses to take the easy road and that’s exactly what this reviewer likes. Let’s get in there!

Let’s kick things off with Skull Session, because anything with skulls involved kinda gets my attention. If you’re into Horror in all its forms, you’re probably familiar with shops or sites selling oddities that run the gamut from antique weaponry to 3 headed pig fetuses in glass jars of formaldehyde. A lot of people with big bucks dig this stuff and are willing to lay down a lot of green for it. BUT it must be real deal or at least convincing. No one cares how you get the item they just want a real Viking skull with a sword injury and if you screw up, things can go south in hurry. The owners of INFERNALES hope that what Jorn is bringing them today is legit. Otherwise, they’ll have to improvise with what’s on hand…

Speaking of dangerous, big money situations, let’s hop into a stolen Chevy with Tony Malone for The Company You Keep. Tony usually drives a Mercedes, but it’s in the shop after a major accident that just happened to include the boss’ main squeeze. That’s a real bad thing because Vincent Delmonico is a powerful mob boss who doesn’t take mistakes lightly. Getting fired by this guy means you’ll never work anywhere again. So Tony is grateful for this chance at redemption. Well, probably that’s what it is. All he knows for sure is that he and mob enforcer, Visili Prek, are driving out into the middle of nowhere with the plan of retrieving something of great importance. Much is decided that night between a pair of derelict drive-in movie screens with performances worthy of an Oscar. Does Tony keep his job? Who’s the annoyed movie critic and why? Your old pal Skull encourages you to buy the book and find out!

Tim McWhorter is magician who knows how to take words and crystallize them into fear. No Saints Here is an excellent example of this that takes readers on a crazy rollercoaster ride of emotions where every detail counts. We meet Clancy the oversexed handyman and witness his dastardly deeds, but it’s up to us to decide if he’s the absolutely worst person in the story. McWhorter builds tension and raises the stakes by turning the unplanned twosome into a terrifying threesome, which suddenly left turns into a what-the-fuck-foursome with surprises all around. Pow! Things are looking pretty bad for Clancy, especially when a fifth person, who’s definitely not looking for a quintet, walks into the crazy scene…

LET THERE BE DARK-Collected Stories by Tim McWhorter earns 5 Scary Stars and a place on The Skull Cave’s “Wall of Fame”! Like an unstoppable train, the hits keep on coming with stories like The Bridge that explores an urban legend, Rope Burns that summons the spirits of angry witches to an unlikely spot, and Pigs which discourages one from stopping at random farms in the middle of nowhere in search of cheap lodging. Let There Be Dark delivers real feel horror regardless of the format you purchase it in and there are multiples. The recent 2nd Edition published by Manta Press is available in digital format only at this time. If you’d rather read a physical copy of this excellent collection, the original 1st Edition is still available in tradebackfrom Hydra Publications. Both of which are easy to find on Amazon.com and most likely your favorite bookseller as well. That is the current info as of this writing. Whichever format you choose, be prepared to make an evening of it, because you won’t be able to read just one story.

Thanks for spending a few minutes with your old pal Skull. If you enjoyed this review, please take a few minutes to share it and consider following me on WordPress at: www.damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com or Twitter/X @skullsnflames76 or Facebook at: www.facebook.com/DamagedSkullWriterandReviewer

I’m sure you’ll want to get in touch with/follow Tim McWhorter! Some good ways to do that are to visit him at: www.timmcwhorter.com Or say howdy on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Tim-McWhorter-author Don’t forget twitter/X @Tim_McWhorter

Stay safe and keep reading independent Horror!

About your reviewer:

Brian James Lewis/Your old pal Skull is a disabled writer, poet, and book reviewer with PTSD whose work has appeared in Trajectory Journal, Mythic Picnic, The Awakenings Review, and multiple horror anthologies. Please visit him at: www.damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com, X/Twitter @skullsnflames76, or https://facebook.com/DamagedSkullWriterandReviewer

PROUD TO HAVE MY MENTAL HEALTH POETRY IN THE AWAKENINGS REVIEW-A PLACE OF HOPE, UNDERSTANDING AND NEW BEGINNINGS

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Happy National Poetry Month everybody! To celebrate, I’d like to share a few of my poems that were published in THE AWAKENINGS REVIEW,a cool publication that features the work of poets, writers, and artists living with mental illness or having a firsthand connection to it. Many of you know that I deal with chronic pain, PTSD, and was recently diagnosed with ADHD. Writing, especially poetry, is one of the ways I deal with those issues. It helps me breathe and express myself without creating more damage.

While I’d already written a lot of poems about my situation, THE AWAKENINGS REVIEW prefers work that shows personal growth and the writer moving forward with their lives. This can be subtle, because in real life that is often what recovery looks like. Chronic mental health issues never just disappear. They’re not colds or indigestion. Our brains are way too complicated and oddly smart for easy solutions. Even when we’re able to make improvements, there are triggers that can set us off seemingly out of nowhere.

That doesn’t mean we should ever stop trying to improve our lives and I got an opportunity to do that when I was finally approved for spinal surgery last year. Over a decade of broken, dislocated, and degenerating vertebrae had kept me prisoner, stealing my physical life at what should’ve been my peak. Instead, I ended up in a wheelchair and became a twisted factory of rage, hate, and self-loathing. My body was constantly screaming in pain, so I took a lot of medication in hopes of feeling better. But it mostly brought a slew of side effects that really messed me up.

These poems were written after the surgery. “Cracks” was written shortly after coming home from the hospital, while “Hole” was written about 9 months later. I’d graduated from physical therapy and the cheerful bi-weekly sessions were over. Nothing was being required of me, so I slowly stopped doing what I was supposed to. Remember how I said the brain is a sneaky saboteur, ready to hijack our bodies when we’re not paying attention? Bingo!

I went back to eating crap food, not doing much, and even stopped writing. Even though it’s been kind of upsetting, I’m lucky to have healthcare people who told me I was going down the wrong road. Our brains try to trip us up, “hey you don’t want to do this, it’s gonna hurt. Just sit back down on the couch and eat some more garbage.” Nope, fuck that voice and mindset. I’m not going down without a fight, and I hope that reading these poems helps you take a similar approach. Living a decent life is a lot like marriage: it takes significant amount of effort, but the results are worth it. There’s no big red “That was easy!” button to fix everything instantly, but once you make it a little way up out of that hole you’re stuck in, you’ll feel something you haven’t enjoyed for. a while. You’ll be proud of yourself.

Thanks for taking a few minutes to check this out! If you’d like to submit your own work to THE AWAKENINGS REVIEW, or support their work by ordering a copy, head on over to: www.AwakeningsProject.org   to check them out.

FANS OF HORROR CINEMA AND LIT WILL FIND A LOT TO LOVE IN “DEMO REELS AND ARTHOUSE MADNESS” A COLLECTION OF DARK VERSE BY AWARD-WINNING WRITER VINCE A. LIAGUNO

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DEMO REELS and ARTHOUSE MADNESS
Vince A. Liaguno
2/25/2025
Raw Dog Screaming Press
Reviewed by Brian “Skull” Lewis

Hey there horror fans, it’s your old pal Skull returning from the grave to clue you in about a most excellent collection of dark verse from Bram Stoker Award winner, Vince A. Liaguno! Just released by Raw Dog Screaming Press, Demo Reels and Arthouse Madness is a rollercoaster that’s ready to take readers on a wild ride through the dark side. So, buckle up buttercup, and hang on tight!

This a great collection of diverse dark verse that delivers a funky movie house vibe with its fan letter to horror flicks. “Summer Camp, Parts I and II” is a great example of this with playful verse about all the crazy goings on at camps we’re familiar with through the magic of cinema. “Epoch Rewound” transmits images of the 1980’s into our heads, the ones now referred to as “Pop Culture” but to those of us who were there, we were just walking though the endless malls, using lots of hair spray, and playing Trivial Pursuit. Many of the poems in Demo Reels and Arthouse Madness are about deep topics, but Liaguno presents them artfully, mixing in clips of pretty things to camouflage the horror chattering across dusty screens in musty abandoned theaters.

“Chatroom Hustler” opens the show by launching us into the dark side of online sex. “Ghosts of the Disco” transports us to the 1980’s dance clubs of NYC pumping with the sparkling, simmering, sexy intoxication of being out in a safe space. Unfortunately, the hot sweaty sex gives way to paralyzing fear and chilling terror in the 90’s. There’s a killer on the loose that’s silent and deadly. It doesn’t discriminate, but many neighbors do. This poem is followed by the sad and sweet, “Awaiting You” where a lover waits for their missing partner as the place they’re waiting is slowly revealed.

“Maternity Ward” is a poem that hit me like a well-aimed kidney punch and I’m pretty sure there are many readers like me who will read it and feel a sharp “click!” as it locks into place. Liaguno achieves the perfect blend of abstract and specific, so that he can be telling your story, too, of a parent you wanted to love and feel loved by. Instead, we ended up tossed along the wayside, only to be greedily snatched back up again by someone who refused to let us go and be ourselves. They often said, “I’m only trying to help/protect you!” but didn’t know how or were twisted by previous life experiences and maimed us instead.

Did you ever play the license plate game as a kid? Your family’s on a road trip and the adults tried to keep us busy by having us look for plates from each of the 50 states. New York and Pennsylvania are pretty easy, Louisiana a lot harder, and whoever sees an Alaska plate gets a candy bar! Liaguno plays a similar but much darker game with us in his poem “Missing Adults” where every license plate is a clue along with the back of a milk carton description. Winning this game is not for the faint of heart because connecting the clues brings about a chilling conclusion you can’t unsee once it’s in your head.

So, there is your peek into the darkness, my friends! Damaged Skull Writer and Reviewer’s rating of Demo Reels and Arthouse Madness-a collection of dark verse by Vince A. Liaguno is a blazing FIVE STARS. This is a fabulously cool collection that showcases Liaguno’s ability to mix big handfuls of pop icon imagery into his work without it seeming forced. You come upon it as you’re reading along, feeling that tingle of recognition, but not seeing the whole picture yet. So, we continue walking down that dark city street until everything hits us with the fizzing pop of celluloid burning and a brilliant flash of the marquee lights, changing everything forever.

To purchase Demo Reels and Arthouse Madness, please visit Raw Dog Screaming Press at: www.RawDogScreaming.com They have a lot of excellent titles available, including: Fever Dreams of a Parasite by Pedro Iniguez, and Beyond The Bounds of Infinity a diverse Lovecraftian horror anthology edited by Vaughn A. Jackson and Stephanie Pearre, which is amazing. Check out my review!

To learn more about award-winning poet, writer, anthologist and editor Vince A. Liaguno, please check out his site: www.vinceliaguno.com and be sure to dig the mind-blowing book trailer featured there! Vince is also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/vinceliaguno , Instagram@vinceliaguno, Goodreads, and Twitter/X

About your reviewer:

When darkness falls Brian James Lewis transforms into his undead alter ego, Skull, and burns the midnight oil reading and reviewing recent arrivals to his lair, the Skullcave. You can catch up with him on social media at: https://facebook.com/DamagedSkullWriterandReviewer where he’d really appreciate some follows to get more exposure for Indy horror writers and presses!

You can also find him on: X/Twitter@skullsnflames76

And we’re also on Goodreads and leave reviews on Amazon under the mortal’s name Brian James Lewis

Until next time, be well, stay safe, and keep reading independent horror!

Vince A. Liaguno

IF YOU LIKE THE OLD WEST AND OLD MAGIC, “GOBLINS & GUNSLINGERS-FRESH BLOOD” BY IVAN K. CONWAY SHOULD BE ON YOUR FANTASY READING LIST!

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GOBLINS & GUNSLINGERS-FRESH BLOOD
Ivan K. Conway
TBR 7/10/2024
Prince of Harts Publishing
Reviewed by Brian “Skull” Lewis

Well, howdy pardners! It’s your old pal Skull with an interesting twist on the classic Western. The action happens in the old west and there are quite a few swaggering gunslingers ready to slap leather at the drop of a hat. There are plenty of saloons and houses of ill repute, too. What’s different is the folks out there doing battle. In Goblins & Gunslingers-Fresh Blood by Ivan K. Conway, magical creatures and various mixtures thereof jingle their spurs down dusty streets. Humans are present, but in the minority. You’re much more likely to see a goblinoid, elf, ogre, or even a vampire in a cleric’s getup including a wide brimmed hat to keep the sun at bay. They use a wide variety of weapons from pepperbox pistols to machetes and enchanted swords, all the way to magic.

Not one to dilly-dally, Conway sets us down right in the middle of the fray, using retrospective musings to fill us in on main protagonist, Helen Providence. Unfortunately, she’s got a bit of a drinking problem after an intensely difficult life that led to the loss of both her parents. At one time, she was considered a war hero, but now she leads a rough and ready posse of bounty hunters across places with names like Dustbin, Flamefield, and Carnage Canyon. Tethered to a powerful person named Mr. Balm, they must capture others in debt and give him their souls to reduce their own debts and the loss of their very being. But they’re not the only bounty hunters out there and things can get mighty tricky real fast if you’re not careful in these parts. Because, just like our current day, there is a serious amount of racial hatred out there with too many folks looking to exact vigilante justice. Best strategy is to keep your face covered by that classic western bandana and hat to avoid trouble. However, it’s kind of hard to keep covert in this spell slingin’, machete swingin’ crew! But you didn’t pick up this book to be bored, now did ya?

Damaged Skull Writer & Reviewer gives Goblins & Gunslingers-Fresh Blood by Ivan K. Conway a solid 4 STAR REVIEW! There’s action galore with a lot of positive elements like female empowerment, breaking out of the usual hail of bullets by using things like magic, enchanted swords, and smarts to handle trouble. The characters and scenery are interesting and memorable with enough conflict to keep things moving. Things get a little bit cluttered in a few spots, but it’s definitely worth the effort to continue. More details are revealed as the story progresses which leads to greater clarity for readers. I will also admit that your old pal Skull might not have a deep knowledge about magical beings and their abilities, which might have slowed my progress. Overall, a fun, fast paced read that I’d recommend to everybody. If you dig the old west and old magic, the Goblins & Gunslingers series of books was written for you!

Looking for more information about Ivan K. Conway? You can find him on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and also follow him on Amazon.com where you can preorder this book for $1.00 in Kindle format and/or purchase his previous novel. Goblins & Gunslingers-Bad Blood. As always, thanks for visiting your old pal Skull at Damaged Skull Writer and Reviewer! Please consider following us at www.damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com to see what’s next.

About my mortal:

Brian James Lewis is a disabled poet and writer with PTSD who finds writing to be vastly important to his recovery. Working class to the bone, he writes inclusive, real-world prose and poetry that hits home. Brian’s work has appeared in anthologies from Smoking Pen Press, No Bad Books, and HellBound Books. He’s also appeared in online publications like The Sunlight Press, the Hook of A Book Poetry Project, and The Sirens Call e-Zine. Besides writing, Brian enjoys bringing old typewriters back to life, including a Royal KMM formerly owned by Rod Serling. Visit him at: www.damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com for news and independent book reviews, or on X/twitter@skullsnflames76