I don't write in this blog nearly enough, but I've managed to reach 100 posts. And for this 100th post, I'm glad to be able to bring you some good news. My novelette Re-Mancipator is appearing in The Bizarro Starter Kit:Purple. Yes, I won the First Annual Ultimate Bizarro Showdown, yes I've appeared twice in The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction, yes, I've had whiskey and bacon with Carlton Mellick at 2 in the morning, but this feels like it makes me a member of the Bizarro family in a more tangible way than ever before. I am grateful to all the people in the Bizarro community that have supported me and published my work, Jeremy Needle, Jeff Burk, Rose O' Keefe, Matt Revert, Robert Frederick Hamilton, Carlton Mellick, Jonathan Moon...thanks, everybody. You guys are awesome. You helped me manifest and become real. And I'm in damn good company in this anthology. Check out who's in there:
Russell Edson – prose poems
Athena Villaverde – Clockwork Girl
David Agranoff – Punkupines of the Apocalypse
Matthew Revert – three stories
Andrew Goldfarb – comics
Jeff Burk – Cripple Wolf
Garrett Cook – Re-Mancipator
Kris Saknussemm – Sparklewheel
Cody Goodfellow – Homewreckers
Cameron Pierce – The Destroyed Room
A good lineup of cool people. Some I call friends and colleagues, some I hope to do so someday. I'm quite excited. Here's the Amazon link
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Draculas Review (previously posted on Goodreads)
DRACULAS by J.A. KonrathMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Draculas by J.A Konrath, Blake Crouch, Jeff Strand and F. Paul Wilson is something to get behind. Courage and innovation like this are in short supply. It's a bold experiment; an ebook by four noteable authors, full of special extras, telling a story from a multitude of perspectives. This is not what you expect from reputable, noteworthy authors of genre bestsellers. Draculas is an ebook that tells the story of a hospital beset by grotesque, deformed bloodsucking aberrations against nature, vampires closer to the repulsive revenants of Slavic folklore than to the byronic debonair fiends our culture has embraced. The characters are perhaps a bit cliche, but nonetheless likeable, the atmosphere cinematic, the gore the product of a Tom Savini or a Screaming Mad George. Sheer terror, splatstick and one very unsettling flesheating clown make this more than worthy of your attention. But when you add in free short fiction and interviews from the authors, you get a hell of a package, the sort of thing I hope to see more of. Support innovation and have a lot of Halloween fun doing it.
View all my reviews
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Bonechilling Bizarro
Halloween is upon us. It is getting colder, betting things are manifesting on television, people try on salacious costumes inappropriate for their age and/or body type. Death walks and he wants nothing from us but a funsize Snicker's bar. It's pretty awesome. But there's a way to make it more awesome. Are your eyes popping out of their sockets? Has your heart exploded? It's surprising, but it's true. Halloween can be better if you take a walk on the weird side.
That which should not be is innately scary to us, because it is wrong. We find ourselves regressing somewhat when faced by such things. Up is down, left is right, Sarah Palin is literate (okay, so nothing is that weird)and sometimes the road back to consensual reality is strewn with bones and bad memories. When the weird and the horrific come together, great experiences happen. Bizarro horror goes places you might not want to go but you'll be glad when you get there. Here are some titles that can gear you up for an unforgettable Halloween.
1.Apeshit by Carlton Mellick III
Something must be seriously wrong with me, because when I read this I was not shocked apalled or disgusted but surprised, enthralled and envious of Mellick's ability to make people cringe. This takes you beyond the boundaries of common decency into a naughty, naughty place. It is not the place where horror goes, but the place where fundamentalist Christians, Tipper Gore and your grandmother think it goes. For something to be not a work of horror but a work of what people too scared to look into horror think it is, is an incredible achievement.
2.Siren Promised by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Addiction, madness, violence, grit. Real person hells merge with places on the periphery of reality. It deconstructs, chills you to the bone. A thing of transcendent unapologetic hurt.
3.Carnageland by D.W Barbee
If you've been going down this list and purchasing things like an awesome Superman of calculated consumer cool and reading them, then you'll feel enlightened and when you stop twitching and writhing, you'll want a palate cleanser. Carnageland is a tweaked out ADD bastard child of Shrek and Invader Zim with plenty of gorehound fun to be had.
4.Slubglub in the Weird World of the Weeping Willows by Andrew Goldfarb
A fun existential Halloween special, richly illustrated by Bizarro polymath, huckster and Renaissance man Andrew Goldfarb. Don't pass this one up.
5. Morning is Dead by Andersen Prunty
Sort of a Lynchian take on Carnival of Souls and 50's science fiction. Hard to describe, hard to read, easy to love. Any of Prunty's books is a good bet. Smart, challenging horror excellence.
6.A Million Versions of Right by Matt Revert
Chances are, if you're human, you've felt afraid or uncomfortable with or because of your body. Body horror is usually about turning into a machine or an insect man. Seldom is it about flatulence, masturbation or any of the baser instincts going awry. A Million Versions of Right is a short story collection where these things rule the day. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be embarassed for yourself and others. Some of these stories are as funny as things get, some as scary.
7. King Scratch by Jordan Krall
Krall is a friend and collaborator of mine with the most democratic, objective sense of taste I have ever encountered. Krall's truly admirable sense of cultural objectivity takes him into strange realms and will take you there too. King Scratch is one of the darkest of these nightworlds, a sleazenoir journey where perversity, cheapness and violence rule. King Scratch is a mischievous Walpurgisnacht of a book and if you're up for it, you'll be richly rewarded with a hell of a tale.
Of course,in addition to these, if you're looking for some scary weird fiction, you could do worse than the Murderland books and Archelon Ranch. But you're here, so I'm sure you know that.
That which should not be is innately scary to us, because it is wrong. We find ourselves regressing somewhat when faced by such things. Up is down, left is right, Sarah Palin is literate (okay, so nothing is that weird)and sometimes the road back to consensual reality is strewn with bones and bad memories. When the weird and the horrific come together, great experiences happen. Bizarro horror goes places you might not want to go but you'll be glad when you get there. Here are some titles that can gear you up for an unforgettable Halloween.
1.Apeshit by Carlton Mellick III
Something must be seriously wrong with me, because when I read this I was not shocked apalled or disgusted but surprised, enthralled and envious of Mellick's ability to make people cringe. This takes you beyond the boundaries of common decency into a naughty, naughty place. It is not the place where horror goes, but the place where fundamentalist Christians, Tipper Gore and your grandmother think it goes. For something to be not a work of horror but a work of what people too scared to look into horror think it is, is an incredible achievement.
2.Siren Promised by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Addiction, madness, violence, grit. Real person hells merge with places on the periphery of reality. It deconstructs, chills you to the bone. A thing of transcendent unapologetic hurt.
3.Carnageland by D.W Barbee
If you've been going down this list and purchasing things like an awesome Superman of calculated consumer cool and reading them, then you'll feel enlightened and when you stop twitching and writhing, you'll want a palate cleanser. Carnageland is a tweaked out ADD bastard child of Shrek and Invader Zim with plenty of gorehound fun to be had.
4.Slubglub in the Weird World of the Weeping Willows by Andrew Goldfarb
A fun existential Halloween special, richly illustrated by Bizarro polymath, huckster and Renaissance man Andrew Goldfarb. Don't pass this one up.
5. Morning is Dead by Andersen Prunty
Sort of a Lynchian take on Carnival of Souls and 50's science fiction. Hard to describe, hard to read, easy to love. Any of Prunty's books is a good bet. Smart, challenging horror excellence.
6.A Million Versions of Right by Matt Revert
Chances are, if you're human, you've felt afraid or uncomfortable with or because of your body. Body horror is usually about turning into a machine or an insect man. Seldom is it about flatulence, masturbation or any of the baser instincts going awry. A Million Versions of Right is a short story collection where these things rule the day. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be embarassed for yourself and others. Some of these stories are as funny as things get, some as scary.
7. King Scratch by Jordan Krall
Krall is a friend and collaborator of mine with the most democratic, objective sense of taste I have ever encountered. Krall's truly admirable sense of cultural objectivity takes him into strange realms and will take you there too. King Scratch is one of the darkest of these nightworlds, a sleazenoir journey where perversity, cheapness and violence rule. King Scratch is a mischievous Walpurgisnacht of a book and if you're up for it, you'll be richly rewarded with a hell of a tale.
Of course,in addition to these, if you're looking for some scary weird fiction, you could do worse than the Murderland books and Archelon Ranch. But you're here, so I'm sure you know that.
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