I Travel by Night – Robert McCammon

 horror fiction, Robert McCammon  Comments Off
May 132013
 


Back in the Eighties, Robert McCammon was one of my favorite horror authors. I didn't read every one of his novels, but I read quite a few of them. My favorite is still THE WOLF'S HOUR, a hugely entertaining werewolf/World War II espionage yarn. He also published a fine collection of short fiction called BLUE WORLD, which contains the novella "Night Calls the Green Falcon", one of my favorite stories in any genre.

But then McCammon retired for a number of years, despite being fairly young, and when he started writing again about half a dozen years ago, he made his comeback with a pair of huge historical mysteries set in colonial America. An odd choice, to be sure, but I can certainly respect an author writing what he wants to write, if he has the luxury of doing so. I haven't read those big mysteries yet – their sheer size is pretty daunting to me – but I will one of these days.

McCammon has started writing horror again, though, and his latest, I TRAVEL BY NIGHT, is right up my alley. It's a short novel, which I like, and it has a great concept: what if Paladin was a vampire?

Well, not Paladin, exactly, but the year is 1886 and Trevor Lawson is a "gentleman adventurer" who lives in a fancy hotel in New Orleans and carries business cards that read ALL MATTERS HANDLED – I TRAVEL BY NIGHT. Close enough for me. In this opening yarn, Lawson is hired by a wealthy politician to recover the man's kidnapped teenage daughter. In what comes as no surprise, the job ties in with Lawson's personal quest to find the beautiful female vampire who turned him during the Civil War, in the aftermath of the battle of Shiloh. (I wrote a whole novel about Shiloh and never realized there were vampires hanging around the battlefield. But it makes sense.)

The trail leads Lawson to an abandoned, rotting town in the Louisiana swamp. Along the way there are some good action scenes leading up to a harrowing showdown. Throw in a beautiful young woman who's a deadly sharpshooter, and this is exactly my kind of stuff. McCammon writes in a somewhat more lush style than what I usually read (a polite way of saying he's a little long-winded at times), but he does it so well that it's not a distraction.

I TRAVEL BY NIGHT, which is available as both a hardback and an e-book, is great fun from start to finish. Clearly it's intended to be the first in a series, and that's welcome news as far as I'm concerned. I'll read as many of them as McCammon wants to write and am already looking forward to the next one.

Take the Long Way Home – Brian Keene

 Brian Keene, horror fiction  Comments Off
May 012013
 

In this short novel, the narrator and three of his friends and co-workers are on their way home in their carpool when what seems to be the blast of a giant trumpet causes millions of people worldwide to vanish suddenly. The world rapidly descends into chaos and violence as the narrator tries to get home and be reunited with his wife. That's right, it's the Rapture, but this is no LEFT BEHIND. Instead it's a story of survival that reminded me in many ways of Lee Goldberg's great novel THE WALK.

TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME is the first thing I've read by well-regarded horror author Brian Keene. It's fast-paced, well-written, and the characters are compelling, especially the narrator, Steve. I enjoyed it and probably will read more by Keene. I'm pretty sure I have several of his paperbacks on my shelves.

Cover Design: TEARS OF BLOOD by James Chambers

 horror fiction, My Projects  Comments Off
Mar 122013
 
I'm a bit late in posting about this (sorry, Jim!), but the second volume in my pal James Chambers' Corpse Fauna cycle, Tears Of Blood, is now on sale from Dullahan Press, an imprint of Dark Quest Books. Jim explains:
This is (volume two) of the four-volume Corpse Fauna series, which will complete a story cycle which I began writing in 1997. Although some of the Corpse Fauna stories were previously published, these new editions will present them in revised and greatly expanded versions with new stories to be published for the first time.
Jim is a exceptional horror writer. He and I were both editors and writers for Tekno*Comix back in the 90s, and collaborated together on several projects, including our Shadow House comic book series. Tears Of Blood, as well as its predecessor, The Dead Bear Witness, presents a fantastic, terrifyingly original take on the zombie apocalypse genre, and come highly recommended.

By the way, as with the first volume, I designed the cover dress, which features an illustration by the great Glen Ostrander. The plan is for me to lay out and design the covers for the remaining volumes as well.

You can order the book from Amazon here:  Tears of Blood

Helmet Head – Mike Baron

 horror fiction, Mike Baron  Comments Off
Oct 112012
 

I don't read many horror novels, but I enjoy a good one now and then, and Mike Baron's HELMET HEAD certainly falls into that category. I've read many a good comic book written by Baron, but this is the first novel of his that I've read.

If you want action, you'll definitely find it in this yarn about a cop and a motorcycle gang joining forces to battle a demon biker with a big-ass sword who's been murdering people on the rural roads of southern Illinois for years. Helmet Head is considered to be a legend among bikers, but the characters in this book discover that he's all too real.

As in all good books, though, not everything is as it first seems. There's more to Helmet Head, the character, than you might think, and the story goes in directions I didn't expect at all. Not only that, while most of the action takes place over the course of a few hours, Baron also delves into the back-stories of his characters and makes them real. This is one of those books where you don't know who's going to live and who's going to die, and if you try to guess you'll stand a good chance of being wrong. That creates a lot of suspense and makes for an effective ending.

HELMET HEAD is, as they say, not for the squeamish, but it's fast, well-written, and very entertaining. If you like horror fiction with a lot of action, you should definitely check it out.

Devlin and Johnny Forever – Peter Brandvold

 e-books, horror fiction, new releases, Peter Brandvold  Comments Off
Aug 132012
 


Peter Brandvold is best known for his Westerns under his own name and as Frank Leslie, but in DEVLIN AND JOHNNY FOREVER, his latest e-book short story from Mean Pete Press, he ventures not only into the current time but also into the horror genre. College student Devlin Mason has retreated to her family's cabin in the woods to get over her breakup with her abusive former boyfriend Johnny. Unfortunately, Johnny shows up looking for her, and since he's pretty much a psycho, things don't look too good for Devlin.

 How things play out, though, is maybe not what the reader expects. There are a couple of quiet moments, but mostly this story is full-throttle action and generates a lot of suspense along the way. The cliché about a story not being for the faint of heart is certainly true here. I thoroughly enjoy Brandvold's Westerns, but if he wants to continue exploring horror or other genres, you can bet I'll be right there to see what he comes up with.

Cover Design: THE DEAD BEAR WITNESS by James Chambers

 Graphic Design, horror fiction  Comments Off
Mar 222012
 
The first volume in my pal James Chambers' Corpse Fauna cycle, The Dead Bear Witness, is now on sale from Dullahan Press, an imprint of Dark Quest Books. As Jim explains:
This is volume one of the four-volume Corpse Fauna series, which will complete a story cycle which I began writing in 1997. Although some of the Corpse Fauna stories were previously published, these new editions will present them in revised and greatly expanded versions with new stories to be published for the first time.
Jim is a terrific horror writer. He and I were both editors and writers for Tekno*Comix back in the 90s, and collaborated together on several projects, including our Shadow House comic book series. The Dead Bear Witness is a fantastic, terrifyingly fresh take on the zombie genre, and highly recommended.

By the way, I designed the cover above, which features an illustration by the great Glen Ostrander. The plan is for me to layout and design the covers for the remaining three volumes as well.

You can order the book from Amazon here: Dead Bear Witness

Check Out: Filtered Future, The Land of Oz, and Other Dark Tales of Science Fiction and Horror – Brett Weiss

 Brett Weiss, horror fiction, science fiction  Comments Off
Feb 012012
 


My friend Brett Weiss has a new short story collection out from Amazon. Take a look:


Written by Brett Weiss, a frequent contributor to such magazines as Fangoria and Filmfax, this eclectic short story collection pulls no punches, taking readers down a rabbit hole of fear, wonder and imagination. From the Orwellian “Filtered Future” and “What Do They Do While We Sleep?” to the deadly dark “Strange Children” and “Wormboy,” Filtered Future, The Land of Oz and Other Dark Tales of Science Fiction and Horror will keep anyone with a taste for the bizarre reading late into the night (and the next night and the next).

Other stories in this collection include: “I Have No TV, and I Must Watch” (a Harlan Ellison homage/parody); “Washed in the Blood” (a seriously warped religious yarn); “The Land of Oz” (about an early ’80s arcade); “The Creation Proclamation” (an amusing evolutionary tale); and “The Lady Loves Dancing” (introducing a morbidly obese woman’s “Little Helpers”).

Bonus features include a poem (“A New Kind of Light”), an interview with legendary horror novelist Bentley Little and introductions to each story. More than 34,000 words in all.

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