Archive for June, 2018
Okay, this has to do with a commercial product, so all you’ll see here is a video of it in use (albeit with a link to press if you scroll beneath it). But it made my day — and even if I’m not going to buy one, I can’t say I’m not tempted. It comes to us courtesy of Peter Salomon, Danielle Kaheaku, et al., via HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION on FaceBook (which subsequently deleted it!), from “The 55 Most Genius Products We’ve Found on the Internet” by Danny Murphy on BESTPRODUCTS.COM.
So get ready, don’t blame me if you never want to take a bath again, and to see something you possibly never realized you were missing press here.
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, while movies like IT and ANNABELLE: CREATION reminded moviegoers how fun it is to scream bloody murder in a darkened theater. Yet the thrills of 2017 cleared the way for 2018 to be an even bigger year for horror. These are the best horror movies of 2018 so far that will leave you screaming for more.Talk about fast! Thursday, June 14, I submitted a story to a reprint anthology for short (1500 words or less), dark science fiction, SINS AND OTHER WORLDS. As it happened I had a story I rather liked at about half that length,”The Cyclops,” about a deformed but hyper intelligent baby first published in DARK MOON DIGEST YOUNG ADULT 
HORROR in June 2013. And in fairness, the call for submissions did say responses could come in less than two weeks.
But in only two days? Sent late yesterday came the reply from Editor Eric Fomley: Thank you for sending me this. I would like to use “Cyclops” in the SINS AND OTHER WORLDS anthology. I’ll keep you in the loop as the project progresses. So, technically it was three hours and some minutes over two days if one reads the time stamps (assuming, that is, they’re for the same time zone), but that’s still pretty quick!
Also according to Editor Fomley there should be a crowdfunding campaign in the near future, for which expect news here as soon as it’s known. More money raised, after all, means more money in authors’ pockets (the project will be called off, in fact, if we can’t be paid at least an advance of $0.01 a word). Also they’re still open for new submissions, to close only when the anthology’s full — but at this rate of speed that might not be too long. So if interested in submitting yourself, details can be found here.
Good, bad, pique your interest? Alternatively do you roll your eyes and hope the movie itself will be better? Welcome back to author Dennis Cooper’s blog (see post just below) and another long list o’ goodies, this time the title sequences of more dark movies than I can count, wi
th (usually) explanations of how and why they work. Plus, of course, links to the sequences themselves.
So, how many have you seen? For reminiscence, comparing notes, or maybe finding what you’ve been missing, please to sample “The Title Sequences of 56 Mostly Horror Movies” by Dennis Cooper on DENNISCOPPERBLOG.COM, courtesy once more of Robert Dunbar via Facebook and LITERARY DARKNESS, by pressing here!
Then in today’s email I also received a list of questions from Martin Ingham regarding Martinus Publishing’s upcoming FORBIDDEN! anthology (see June 10). Attached are the interview questions that you can answer at your convenience. I’ll start running the interviews on my blog in a few weeks, and space them out as we get closer to the release date for the anthology. So, as noted before, things are chugging along pretty quickly, with more to come (including the actual interview date when it becomes known) on these pages!
Wherever you are. . . Wherever you go. . . They’re coming to get you. . . You cannot escape them. . . . Well, yes, 
there are airline screw-ups too, the expected hazards of vacation travel, but what about something out of the ordinary? Horrors to seek of your own free will?
Welcome, courtesy of Robert Dunbar via Facebook’s LITERARY DARKNESS, to Dennis Cooper’s “Halloween for Keeps: 25 Year-Round Worldwide 
Haunted and Horror Attractions” on DENNISCOOPERBLOG.COM. You can’t even wait out the summer to dodge them!
They speak for themselves, in myriad countries, myriad cities, myriad fairs and amusement parks the whole world over, the U.S., Canada, China, Finland, Italy, Spain, England and Japan . . . but also accompanied by brief 
descriptions by author Cooper, plus clickable previews, some long, some short. . . .
Some tacky, some terror-filled. . . .
If you dare . . . press here!
Things are moving fast for Martinus Publishing’s FORBIDDEN! anthology (see post just below), with a Sunday afternoon email from Editor Martin T. Ingham: I am pleased to finally announce that the anthology is nearly complete! The final stories have been compiled, and the proofing has begun! With any luck, we’ll have this book ready to release by the end of summer. So this evening I worked out some of the details then requested, making sure my biography (for publication along with the stories) was up to date, offering suggested mini-taglines (for possible back cover use) to describe the stories themselves, double checking to be sure I’d sent in a photo. And one more detail, agreeing to do an author interview, more on which will appear here when it’s ready.
A funny story: On July 22 last year I sent a tale of loss of faith titled “The Wind” to Martinus Publishing, a reprint submission to an upcoming anthology, FORBIDDEN! TALES OF REPRESSION, RESTRICTION, AND REBELLION. Sounds intriguing, yes? So much so, in fact, that exactly five months later, on December 22, having quite forgotten the first — and with a December 31 deadline fast coming — I sent another, originally published in Spring 1990 in PANDORA (and also reprinted two years later in MinRef Press’s ABORTION STORIES: FICTION ON FIRE), “Fetuscam.” And then about three weeks after that, an acceptance came for the original submission (“The Wind,” remember? cf. January 13). Oops!
Well, not to worry, the guidelines in fact allowed multiple submissions as long as sent separately. And so it goes. But then, today, from Editor/Publisher Martin T. Ingham: Thank you for sending Fetuscam to the FORBIDDEN anthology. It is a good story, and I thank you for offering it as a reprint in this collection. I believe it will be a good fit. I’ve attached the publishing agreement that you can send back when you have the chance.
Some may recall I am not a stranger to Martinus Publishing, having appeared in prior anthologies LIFE OF THE DEAD and ALTERED AMERICA, with stories titled “Girls Gone Dead” and “Avoid Seeing a Mouse,” respectively (see July 31 2016, January 20 2015, et al.), all reprints too. Martinus is a nice outfit to work with — and not only that but ALTERED AMERICA is still earning royalties (tiny by now, but the first, especially, was quite handsome for an anthology with other authors to divide the goods among). So now it looks like, with their latest, I’ll have not one but two dips into the pot if sales go well, even if somewhat by mistake.
But, harkening to the guidelines again, it isn’t forbidden.
And here it is, as promised (June 3), UK writer and blogger Jacky Dahlhaus’s Wednesday MEET THE 
AUTHOR with the interviewee for the start of June, me. Find out the answers: What do I like to do in my free time (excepting reading)? Favorite authors, and how they’ve influenced me? Pen or typewriter or computer? My favorite genre (well, you probably know that) but also why? Pseudonyms, writing styles, the moral of TOMBS? And more on both TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH and THE TEARS OF ISIS — for these and more, along with a “thank you” to Jacky from me, press here!
Mileage may definitely vary on this one. Some find “found footage” movies realistic and scary, others complain about headaches induced by shaky hand-held camerawork, while I’m probably somewhere in the middle. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, granted an excellent pre-release public relations buildup, ultimately suffered from (in my opinion) a 
danger inherent in the sub-genre: a genuinely, promisingly scary buildup dissipated by the end “reveal” — or lack thereof. Was that all it was? In the case of THE BLAIR WITCH . . . well, I shouldn’t reveal it, but it was disappointing to me. Or in the wonderfully, terrifyingly built-up Spanish film [REC], well what was it after all — could anyone actually see? Or is that just me?
Then there are ones where there’s just too much waiting (realistic, I suppose in fairness) for, again to me, too little payoff even in the buildup. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY anyone? — spooky to some perhaps, but to me, well, I have a cat. Bang! Too many “special effects” just found a, to me, too easily found possible explanation. But also there are ones that I think work well. CLOVERFIELD for instance starts perhaps too slowly, but when it gets going it becomes genuinely scary and, granted one does have to suspend disbelief, it’s fast enough that 
the ending packs a genuine punch! And for one that both packs a genuine punch, and builds up horrifyingly along the way — and is all too believable (especially if one is into conspiracy theories) — may I suggest THE BAY? Granted there may be a little cheating, the film presumably composed and edited “after the fact,” but I recommend it as possibly the best of the genre so far.* And also, in this case maybe a sort of “hybrid,” but partially “found footage,” Norway’s TROLL HUNTER is funny as well, though perhaps more fantasy than actual horror.
So that’s my opinion. Others may differ. But for a rundown on these and five more, to decide for oneself, please to peruse “11 Seriously Scary Found Footage Horror Movies ” by THE-LINE-UP.COM staff by pressing here.
*Reviewed here, I might add, on these very pages, see June 8 2015.
Comes June and with it a bright sunny afternoon, breezy and in the lower 80s and, with that, the start of the Summer Reading Season. What better way to celebrate, then, than with a new interview of . . . me, this one by UK author and blogger Jacky Dahlhaus, tentatively to go live Wednesday morning? So three days from now be prepared for more dish on TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH, a 
mention or two (it mustn’t feel left out!) of THE TEARS OF ISIS, the importance of (*ahem*) reviews to all authors, plus details on the inspiration and influence of Poe and Bradbury (with mentions here of Ginsberg and Brecht), whether I start writing with a pen or on the computer . . . well, you may have seen interviews by me before, but maybe this one will have new stuff to say too. You can’t really tell until you read it, coming up Wednesday.
And a quick second note, Ms. Dahlhaus is looking for a few more interviewees for the summer, if any other writers out there might be interested in some free publicity. But there are a few qualifications in terms of work already published, more on which can be found at her website by pressing here.
