HORROR ADDICTS 072, MARC VALE

Horror Addicts Episode# 072
Horror Hostess: Emerian Rich
Intro Music by: Cancer Killing Gemini
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marc vale | inkubus | cancer killing gemini
Find articles at: http://www.horroraddicts.net

Click to play:

| inkubus | events | polidori awards | ha shop |
| books | daughter of the goddess lands | pusher |
| gothmazing race | heyescast | location |
| writer’s workshop | best band contest |
| cancer killing gemini | marc vale | interview |

Polidori Awards:
http://www.outofthecoffin.com/ep81/
HorrorAddicts.net Shop:
http://astore.amazon.com/horroradnet-20
Daughter of the Goddess Lands
http://sandrasaidak.com/

Heyescast:
http://www.heyescast.com
Cancer Killing Gemini:
http://www.cancerkillinggemini.com
Marc Vale:
http://www.marcvale.blogspot.com/

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/horroraddicts/HorrorAddicts072.mp3

h o s t e s s
Emerian Rich
s t a f f
Knightmist, Sapphire Neal, David Watson, Ed Pope,
Dan Shaurette, Audrey Sabin, Marc Vale
Want to be a part of the HA staff? Email horroraddicts@gmail.com
c o n t a c t / s h o w . n o t e s
http://www.horroraddicts.net
t a p i n g . s t u d i o
Quills, A Place For Writers
13 Nightmare Lane, Awen, Second Life
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Awen/168/179/23

African American Horror Writers

With February being Black History Month I thought it would be nice to do a blog post talking about African American horror writers. I knew of four writers when I started this post but managed to find  more as I was writing. I’m sure there are quite a few more out there that I missed, so if you know of any others please leave a  comment on the end of this post.

The first author I want to talk about and probably the most popular is L.A. Banks. L.A. Banks was born in Philadelphia. She has written under several different names, has written in multiple genres and has won many literary awards. L.A. Banks is the author of the Vampire Huntress series of novels and comics. There are 12 novels in this series along with one graphic novel and a YA novel. Some critics have called her work: “fresh, hip, fantastic and far superior to Buffy.” Some of her vampire novels include Minion and The Awakening.

L.A. Banks has also written a series of six werewolf novels called the Crimson Moon series. Some of the titles include Never Cry Werewolf and Left for Undead. L.A. Banks was also the co founder of The Liar’s Club, a networking group for professionals in publishing and other aspects of entertainment. Sadly L.A. Banks died of adrenal cancer in 2011. You can find out more about her career at leslieesdailebanks.com.

Next up is Maurice Broaddus, he was born in London, England but now lives in America. He graduated from Purdue University and is a senior writer for Hollywoodjesus.com. Maurice has written in several genres, his horror novels include: Devil’s Marionette and The Knights of Breton Court: King Maker. Maurice now live in Indianapolis Indiana and is part of the Indiana Horror Writers Association. You can learn more about him at mauricebroaddus.com.

The next author I want to talk about is Brandon Massey, he was born in Waukegan, Illinois in 1973 and has published three novels a year since  1999. Brandon loved watching horror movies growing up and he was a life long reader. He then decided that he wanted to start telling his own stories and became a horror writer. Some of his novels include: Thunderland and Covenant. Brandon has also edited two collections of short stories by African American Horror writers called: Dark Dreams and Voices From The Other Side: Dark Dreams 2. To learn more about Brandon Massey go to: brandonmassey.com.

Next on the list is Wrath James White. Wrath is a former MMA fighter and hard core horror author.  In 2011 Wrath wrote a book of dark poetry called Vicious Romantic which was nominated for an HWA Bram Stoker award and a movie just went into production based on his novel The Resurrectionist.  some of his other works include Succulent Prey and Population Zero. Wrath James White also has a great blog which I’ve been reading for the last 5 years where he talks about politics, religion and anything else that he finds worthy to talk about, to check it out go to wordsofwrath.blogspot.com.

Jermiah Jefferson is another author who like L.A. Banks has written a series of vampire novels. Jermiah grew up listening to disco music and watching horror movies. She also loved to daydream and read. She has written non fiction, erotica and has written four books in the Voice of Blood vampire series. Some of her works include Wounds and A Drop of Scarlet. For more information about her go to: jemiah.com.

The authors above were authors that have written more then one horror novel but there are also some authors that have only one horror novel or is a writer of horror flash fiction or poetry that I wanted to mention also. One writer that I have to mention is Octavia Butler. Octavia wrote mostly science fiction throughout her life but she did write a vampire novel called Fledgling. Another great science fiction writer that has written some novels that could be considered horror is Tananarive Due; one of her horror novels  is called Joplin’s Ghost.

Another author I want to mention here  is Angella C. Allen who edited a vampire anthology by African American Horror Writers called: Dark Thirst. I also can’t fail to mention Michael Boatman who wrote a book about monster hunters called The Revenant Road which I will be reviewing on this blog in the next week or so. Last but not least is Andre Duza who has written a book about a zombie woman out for revenge against a serial killer called Dead Bitch Army. Once again, this is an incomplete list if you know of any authors that I forgot to mention please leave a comment.

Draculas: No sparkles here

I wasn’t going to do a blog post on this book originally because I had mentioned it in a previous post and thought it would be overkill to mention it again. At that time though, I had just started reading the book and really didn’t have high expectations for it. As I got more into it, I realized that this was a really good horror novel and I needed to talk about it.

The book is Draculas and its a collaboration between 4 authors:  F. Paul Wilson who wrote The Keep and the Repairman Jack series; Jeff Strand author of Dweller and Graverobbers Wanted(No Experience Necessary); Blake Crouch, writer of Desert Places and Locked Doors and the guy who came up with the concept was Jack Kilborn (Also writes under the name J.A. Knonrath), the author of Afraid and Shaken.

Jack got the idea when he was looking at the Kindle best seller list and he noticed how many books were classic novels in the public domain. Among them we’re several different versions of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Vampires are always popular and he came up with the idea of vampires in a hospital and humans trying to survive. He didn’t have time to write the book himself so he enlisted the help of other authors to write part of the book. Each author wrote 15,000 words from the point of view of one human and one vampire.

Jack also noticed that most vampires in todays literature we’re teen heartthrobs or romantic leads and he decided he wanted to make vampires scary again. Edward (from Twilight) would run in fear if he saw the vampires in Draculas. These vampires have no feelings and are not sex symbols. They wan’t one thing from humans and that’s blood. Also the vampires in this story don’t have just 2 fangs. They have a  mouthful of 6 inch long fangs. They can also  see in total darkness and are stronger and faster then humans.

The story for Draculas is about a retired millionaire, Mortimer Moorecock, who is dying of cancer. In order to survive his disease, Mortimer has bought a skull found in Romania that is believed to have belonged to Count Dracula. When Mortimer gets the skull, he clamps its jaws on his neck and goes into convulsions. He is rushed to the hospital where he dies and rises again as a vampire.

From that point on its complete chaos with Mort killing six people in the ER. They all come back as vampires and the patients and faculty of the hospital have to escape or be turned into the living dead. The story for Draculas is simple, what makes it a good book is the characters. In addition to the doctors and nurses, you have a gun crazy sheriff, a lumberjack with a chainsaw, a married couple about to have their first child, and a vampire clown named Benny.

Benny the clown is one nasty vampire and despite the fact that he was evil, he was my favorite character in the book. Every scene he was in I found myself thinking of the theme to Killer Klowns From Outer Space. If you are afraid of clowns you may want to avoid this book because Benny is one sadistic clown. There are some scenes in the book where all he does is stand and stare at his victims which is scary in itself, but when he performs some obscene acts for a captive audience, the book gets really interesting.

Though Draculas is loaded with violence and action, what really makes it good is that the authors make you care about the protagonists. A part that had me on the edge of my seat was when a young husband has to go to the blood bank in the hospital to get blood for a transfusion to save his wife who had a hemmorage after child birth. There is also a couple of touching scenes where a divorced couple reconciles and a young couple tells each other how they feel in the face of what looks like certain death. The only part of the book that I didn’t like was that sometimes the vampires seem too much like zombies and I didn’t like that they constantly called the vampires Draculas, but they do give an explanation for that in the story.

The ending in Draculas was a perfect end to a wild ride and was a total surprise to me. Draculas is everything a horror novel should be, it has humor, plenty of gore, good characters, suspense, and a decent love story. If thats not enough to get you to want to get it, the E-book version is loaded with extras. You get three short stories, deleted scenes, and it includes all the emails that the authors sent to each other as they we’re working on the book. If you are an aspiring writer and you we’re thinking of collaborating with another author, this book gives you a good look at the creative process of co-authoring a book. The extras in the e-book are like getting the director’s cut of a movie along with commentary. This is something I would love to see more authors do for their novels. (Emz are you reading this? We want a director’s cut of Night’s Knights. Make it happen.)

Zombies, Vampires, and Cursed Skulls

I love all genres of literature but my favorite genre to read is horror. I especially like horror mixed with comedy and I’ve read three books recently that fit that category. The first book I want to talk about is The Sinister Mr. Corpse by Jeff Strand. The story is about a man named Stanley Dabernath who was a regular guy until he became the worlds first living zombie.

Stanley’s movie company, Demented Whacko’s Video is not successful. In fact he is $60,000 in debt, was recently evicted from his apartment and lives off a diet of  Ramen Noodles that he stole from the grocery store. His luck changes one day though when he is run over by a milk truck and drowns in the milk.

Death is not the end for Stanley. His body is rescued from the morgue and he gets brought back to life on national TV by Project Second Chance. Now Stanley has everything he could ever want, he has money, fame, product endorsements, action figures and he’s a hit on all the talk shows. Stanley has the life he has always dreamed of, but it comes at a price, he has to take injections to keep from rotting any more then he already has, Project Second Chance owns his body and there is a group of religious fanatics that want to prove that he’s a fake.

After two failed attempts to kill him, being hounded by the media and having a man decide to build a religion based on him; Stanley escapes project Second Chance and heads to New York to become a super hero. Things don’t go well and he gets kidnapped and held for ransom. He then finds out what happens when he doesn’t get his injections and the secret behind how Project Second Chance brought him back to life. I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t science that resurrected him.

The Sinister Mr. Corpse is an action packed horror comedy filled with twists and turns. What I enjoyed most was the dialog in the book, all of the characters had great personality and if the book had no action and was made up entirely of dialog between the characters, I would have still enjoyed it. Another part that really stuck out with me was a fight between Mr. Corpse and an assassin near the end which unexpectedly moves from drama to comedy. Despite the fact that this book is meant mainly for laughs, it does make a good point about how we should be careful about idolizing celebrities.

If you need any more influence to buy The Sinister Mr. Corpse, check out the reviews on Amazon from Jeff Strand and J.A. Konrath and after your done check out their book of humorous horror stories called Suckers. I have to say up front about Suckers, its definitely not a great work of literature, but I found myself laughing quite a bit. In the books the authors themselves describe the book as “Men have weiners, he he he.” That should tell you what your getting into if you buy it.

Some of the short stories in Suckers include A Bit of Halloween Mayhem, where a couple of people break into a haunted house on Halloween and get more then they bargained for and The Necro File which follows Detective Harry McGlade as he investigates some strange happenings in a cemetery.

The main story in Suckers was written by both authors and includes two characters that have been in some of the novels that they have written in the past. Detective Harry McGlade  is called to Florida to find a kidnapped girl. As he is breaking into the house where he believes the girl is being held, he runs into Andrew Mayhem who was only trying to bring a jar of spaghetti sauce to his wife. Afraid Mayhem will call the cops on him, Harry makes Andrew enter the house with him and discovers a house full of wannabe vampires  who want to make McGlade their lunch. If you have a strong stomach and need a good laugh, pick this book up.

The last book I wanted to mention is one I’m currently reading and since it was in the same vein (pun intended) as the others I wanted to mention it. The book is Draculas by Jeff Strand, Jack Kilborn (pen name of J.A. Konrath), F. Paul Wilson and Blake Crouch. The story is about retired millionaire Mortimer Moorecock who is dying of cancer. In order to survive his disease Mortimer has bought a skull found in Romania that is believed to have belonged to Count Dracula. When Mortimer gets the skull he clamps its jaws on his neck and goes into convulsions. He is rushed to the hospital where he dies and rises again as a vampire.

The description of this book describes it as Dawn of the Dead in a hospital but with vampires in place of zombies. These are not the kind of vampires with feelings, they’re the blood thirsty killing anti-Twilight kind. Each Author in this book took a character in the story and wrote the most intense black comedy horror story they could. If you know of any good books combining horror and comedy please leave a comment.

Upcoming Events

October 29th / Zombie Pirate Night / Toronto Canada / Live in Agincourt, come dressed as a zombie pirate and you could win some money, The club will be decorated for Halloween and there will be live music. For more information go to: theagincourt.com 

 October 30th / Terra Mota Halloween Fest / Caracas / Live music from goth bands: Subliminal Code, Psyborg Corp, Symbiotic Faith, AngerIn, Noctanbulath and many more. For more information go to: www.reverbnation.com/subliminalcode

November 5th / The Steam Punk Party of Misfortune / Venus Texas / This is the first annual cut, run and thrust Steam punk costume party. Also included is a burlesque show, a freak show, live music and a firework display. For more information go to: cutthrustandrun.net.

November 19th / Spooky Overnight Ghost Hunt/ Castle Menzies Perthshire Scottland / Join Lanshire Hauntings and a team of 6 mediums as they spend the night in a  haunted castle. You will get the chance to try the investigation equipment and chat with professional investigators. For more information go to: lanshirehauntings.co.uk.

November 26th – 27th/  Paper Asylum / Erie Pennsylvania / This is a collectors convention sponsored by Monsters Among Us who specializes in finding out of print horror magazines and comics. At the show  you’ll be able to find horror related comics, books, movie posters and old magazines such as Famous Monsters, Rue Morgue, Fangoria, Eerie Magazine and many more. For more information go to paperasylum.com.

November 25th – 27th / Darkover Con / Timonium Maryland / While this is primarily a science fiction and fantasy convention, there is going to be some horror related programming including a panal discussion on vampires in literature and why we are so fascinated by them and there will also be a day dedicated to steam punk which includes a costume and art show. For more information go to: darkovercon.org

December 3rd – 4th / Twilight Convention / Dallas Texas / Actors appearing at this convention include: Chaske Spencer and Charlie Bewley. There will also be a Volturi Vampire Ball and a Twilight parody done by the Hillywood Show. For more information go to : http://www.twilightconvention.com/cal/twilight_dallas.htm

Free Fiction Friday: The Vampire Odyssey

This weeks Free Fiction Friday book is The Vampire Odyssey by Scott Ciencin. This book was originally released in 1992 and was the first in a trilogy. Danielle Walthers was born as a half vampire, when she moves to Beverly Hills she finds that she can no longer contain her blood lust. So she prowls the streets of Los Angeles in search of blood.

I couldn’t find a lot on the plot of this book but I did find a little information on the author. Scott Ciencin worked in television production and started writing in the late 1980′s. He has written many books for children and young adults. He has written four Godzilla novels, along with books based on Dinotopia, Dungeons and Dragons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Transformers and many more.

Some of the reviews I’ve read for The Vampire Odyssey called it a gem among a sea of vampire novels and action packed with vampires who are delightfully evil. If you would like to satisfy your lust for vampires and bring this novel home, leave a comment on the blog on why you would be a good owner for this book. This is open to US residents only, Good Luck.

1990′s books

The first book I want to talk about is by one of my favorite authors, Tamara Thorne. I was first introduced to Tamara through an interview on horrorworld.org. In the interview, Tamara mentioned that for easter she was planning on painting some mice to look like Easter eggs,  so her cats could enjoy the holiday also. I liked her sense of humor and ran out and bought her book Moonfall. Moonfall was written in 1996  and is centered around Sara Hawthorne and John Lawson.

Sara Hawthorne has been away from the small town of Moonfall for a long time. She was a student at Saint Gertrude’s school for girls but left town after the suicide of her best friend. She has now returned to teach at St. Gertrude’s or St Gruesome’s as the townspeople call it; but not all is well in Moonfall. There have been quite a few unusual deaths and suicides lately and some of the bodies are being found on the grounds of  the school.

Certainly the priests and nuns at the school couldn’t be involved in the murders, or could they?  The local sheriff: John Hawthorne is investigating the murders and he has experienced some tragedy at St. Gertrude’s himself. On Halloween night as a child, 24 years ago John and his friends made an after hours trip to the school to spy on the girls. No one knows for sure what happened that night, but one of the boys was found dead at the bottom of witch falls and the rest were scarred for life.  This school may not be what everyone thinks it is, and those gargoyles around the school might not be stone after all.

Its been a long time since I’ve read Moonfall but I remember thinking  it was a little like Dario Argento’s Susperia with a few laughs and some good sex scenes thrown in just to mix it up a bit. The book also has a couple of good love stories going on and I remember liking how the witch’s masses were depicted in the book. The story deals a lot with the occult and it was interesting to see how the school mixed pagan and christian beliefs without either one overpowering the other.

The next book is by another one of my favorite authors, Richard Laymon. This one is called In The Dark and was released in 1994. Jane Kerry, the city of Donnerville’s librarian lives an average uninteresting life but that all changes when she finds an envelope containing $50 dollars and instructions saying “look homeward, angel,” signed MOG, Master of Games. Soon MOG starts to give Jane tasks to complete and keeps giving her more and more money. The tasks keep getting more crazy and more dangerous and now Jane is forever changed and obsessed with the game. Will she survive or will she fall victim to Mog’s games?

Once again I read this book years ago, but I remember enjoying watching the character of Jane change through out the book from a  normal person to a tough as nails woman who will do whatever it takes to complete Mog’s tasks and get more money. I also loved how the excitement in the books builds, you never know if Mog’s games will be dangerous or just simple and easy to give Jane a false sense of security. For instance one night Jane just has to spend an evening eating dinner with a stranger while the next night she has to find a treasure in a house where a serial killer is torturing his victims.

My favorite scene in the book  managed to make me shudder and laugh at the same time. I don’t want to give it all away but at one point Jane is being chased by a female cannibal with only one leg, holding a knife and a fork  and screaming “I’ve got the hungeries.” Richard Laymon’s books are usually very hard core and definitely not for everyone.

One thing that every Richard Laymon book that I’ve read has, is a rape scene. I’ve also seen where some people have said that Laymon hates woman because there is so much violence against women in his books. I have to disagree with the people saying that Laymon is a sexist, because if you pay attention to his stories you will see that the female characters in his books are smarter, stronger, more compassionate, more resourceful and all around better characters then the men. Also the men who commit the violence against women always end up suffering much more then the women do. I also have not read a Laymon book where the main hero wasn’t a woman.

Last but not least I want to mention Midnight Blue: The Sonja Blue Collection by Nancy Collins which was released in 1995. This book is a compilation of three novels(Sunglasses After Dark, In The Blood and Paint It Black) that follow the adventures of the living vampire Sonja Blue. Sonja was only 18 years old when she was raped and fed on by a vampire. She was left on the street to die but miraculously she survived, sort of. She becomes a vampire but she never died, making her a living vampire. Now her goal is to find the vampire that changed her, kill him and get her life back.

In Sonja’s world she not only has to deal with other vampires but she also has to battle ogres, demons and religious zealots. The thing that sets Sonja apart from every other vampire character that I’ve read about, is that she is not conflicted about who she is. She is an anti-hero, she is out to kill vampires she also hurts innocent humans in the process but doesn’t feel guilty about it.

In this book Sonja has opportunities to be happy and falls in love but because she is obsessed with revenge she doesn’t get what she truly wants. The only thing I didn’t like about Sonja Blue was how it ended, but if you want to read a fun, blood soaked vampire book then check out Midnight Blue.

Free Fiction Friday:Dracula Unbound

This Week’s Free Fiction Friday selection is Dracula Unbound by Brian Wilson Aldiss. This book was originally released in 1990. The story is that Count Dracula has a time machine that is in the form of a train. He wants to make sure that Bram Stoker never writes his novel Dracula so he sends a group of vampire assassins to the year 1896 to kill Stoker.  Things don’t go well for the vampires, a man named Joe Bodenland hijacks the train and finds Bram Stoker. The two now plan to use the train to destroy all vampires.

Brian Wilson Aldiss is generally a science fiction writer. He is from England and was heavily influenced by H.G. Wells. He is vice president of the international H.G. Wells Society, co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group and has also won two Hugo awards and one Nebula award. Some of the other books Brain has written include: Courageous New Planet, Ruins and Sanity and the Lady. He also wrote Super Toys Last All Summer Long which was the basis for Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film A.I.

The reviews I’ve read for this book say its an entertaining read but the story is a little far fetched. They also say the depiction of Bram Stoker is the best part. Another interesting item brought up in this book is that vampires are descendants of pterodactyls, have mastered time travel and want to use it to enslave the human race.

So if you want to read a tale about time traveling vampires and find out more about Bram Stoker traveling through time to destroy vampires, then this is the book for you. If you are a U.S. resident, leave a comment on the end of this post and let us know why you would be a good owner for this book. The best comment gets a copy of Dracula Unbound.

1980′s Horror Books

The first book I want to look at for the 1980s is Blood of the Impaler by Jeffrey Sackett. This book was released in 1989 and is a sequel to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it follows a twenty something bartender named Malcom Harker who is the great grandson of Jonathan and Mina Harker.  Malcom  hates going out in the day and only feels good at night, he soon finds out that he has Dracula’s blood running through his veins from when Mina was forced to suck Dracula’s blood.  The Harkers are cursed and the only thing to stop the curse is  to find Dracula’s ashes and spread them outside the vampire’s native land.

Its been several years since I’ve read Blood of The Impaler but I remember it was good enough where I found some of the other books that Jefferey Sackett wrote. Jefferey on all his books mixes history and horror. In Blood of the Impaler, he goes back and takes an in depth look at the real Vlad the impaler by having Dracula recount his own past from his childhood, to when he became ruler of Wallachia, to when he became a vampire, to his death in the book Dracula. The book also includes more diary enteries from the characters in Dracula and actually reads like Bram Stoker’s novel in places.

Blood of the Impaler gives a history lesson on the real Dracula but a lot of it also takes place in the present day. It offers up some interesting characters, some good death scenes, as well as a great battle between good and evil towards the end. This book may be hard to find now but if you enjoyed Bram Stoker’s Dracula and want to know about the vampire’s past as well as what happened to the other characters in Dracula after the end of the 1897 novel, you may want to find it.

The next book I want to mention came out in 1988 called Quarrel With The Moon by J.C. Conaway. The story follows an anthropologist who has uncovered some bones in West Virginia that look like they might be the remains of a werewolf. While investigating he also finds that the mountains are home to a clan of hillbilly werewolves who terrorize the back woods of West Virginia when the moon is full.

Also from 1988 we have Monastery by Patrick Whalen. This is a vampire tale that focuses on a couple of vampires that were trapped by the Catholic church under a Monastery located  an island 100 years ago. Two sociologists buy the Monastery and accidentally free the vampires setting the blood thirsty creatures free to feed on the innocent island residents. Luckily there is a hitman living on the island that may be able to put an end to the vampire menace. Most of the reviews for Monastery we’re positive calling the vampires true evil villains and the hero as larger then life. It was followed by a sequel called Night Thirst in 1991.

After I had finished and posted my article on 1970′s books, I was disappointed with myself because I realized that I forgot to mention one of my favorite 1970′s books: Demon Seed written by Dean Koontz in 1973. So I decided to make up for it by mentioning another great Dean Koontz book written in 1980 called The Funhouse. Ellen ran away from home one night and joined up with a traveling carnival, she eventually married the man who runs the carnival and they had a deformed child. Ellen killed the child and ran away. She now has a new family but the carnival is coming to town and her ex-husband wants to do to her children what she did to his.

When I read The Funhouse I noticed that when I got towards the end, the story seemed very familiar. When I was done I found out that the book was originally written under a pseudo name and was the novelization for the movie The Funhouse which was released in 1981 and directed by Tobe Hooper. Dean Koontz had written most of the novel before he saw the movie and only the last part of the book resembles the film. So if you have seen the movie and didn’t like it don’t let it stop you from reading the book.

I thought The Funhouse was a fun read filled with characters that have a lot of depth to them. I ended up feeling sorry for the carnival barker even though he is presented as the villain and the carnival barker’s second deformed child is much scarier in the book then the movie. The book also contains many gruesome death scenes and a great chase scene between the kids at the carnival and the people running the carnival. The Funhouse is a battle versus good and evil but what makes it an interesting book is all the shades of grey in the characters. At times you wonder who the villain really is and you see that sometimes there is a very thin line between good and evil.

The 1980′s was the golden age for horror novels, so do have a favorite 1980′s horror novel? Leave a comment on the blog and let us know.

1970′s books

When I was looking for horror books for the seventies it didn’t take long for me to come up with a list of books to talk about. The seventies and eighties were a great time for horror novels.  One of the most intriguing books I found was one written in 1972 called The Werewolf vs. Vampire Women by Arthur N Scram. This book is supposed to be an adaptation of a movie that was released  under the same name in 1971 but according to what I read, the book doesn’t follow the movie.  The book begins in a morgue where a  man called Waldo who happens to be a werewolf  is lying in a morgue on a table with a  silver bullet in him. The mortician removes the bullet and Waldo springs to life killing the mortician. Waldo the werewolf then goes out into the world and finds two female med students who are doing a masters thesis on a vampire queen named Wandessa de Nadasdy. Waldo hates vampires so he decides with the help of the female med students that he his going to find this queen and kill her. This books sound just corny enough to be entertaining.

Another book I wanted to mention was written in 1979 called The Majorettes by John Russo who was one of the co writers of Night Of The Living Dead.  This book was written at the same time that slasher movies were becoming popular. The story begins when  high school nerd Tommy Harvack who has a crush on a majorette named Nicole Hendricks, goes to meet her in the woods. Unfortunately for them they get murdered while on the rendezvous. The killer is not stopping there though, he has his sites set on killing the whole majorette squad. Can the police stop him in time? The Majorettes was originally meant to be a movie but when Russo could not get funding for it, he made it into a novel instead. A movie was finally released based on The Majorettes in 1987.

The 1970s also brought us a comic book that ran from 1972 to 1979 called Tomb of Dracula. This title was published by Marvel Comics, it was written by Marv Wolfman, drawn be Gene Colan and inked by Tom Palmer. The story for Tomb of Dracula was that Dracula was revived in the present day 1970’s and is being hunted by the decedents of the vampire hunters that once killed him. Tomb of Dracula also marked the first appearance of Blade who had his own comic series, TV series and three movies.

If your going to talk about books of the 1970′s you have to to mention the biggest horror author of all, Stephen King. King’s first novel was released in 1974 called Carrie. Carrie as you probably know tells the story of a shy girl in high school who discovers that she has telekinetic powers and uses them to take revenge on the  classmates that made fun of her.

My favorite Stephen King novel was his second novel which was released in 1975 called Salem’s Lot. Salem’s Lot follows the story of a man named Ben Mears who grew up in Salem’s Lot Massachusetts. He moved away when he was 12 but has now returned to find the town a very different place. The streets are deserted in the daytime, the town has been infected by vampires and only a few town residents are left to stop the vampires from taking over. I don’t feel that I have to say to much about Salem’s Lot here because most people reading this blog probably at least know the story from the 1979 mini series or the 2004 mini series which followed the book closely. Salem’s lot was heavily influenced by Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House which was recently mentioned in this blog.

Sticking with the subject of vampires, I feel I also need to mention Anne Rice’s Interview With A Vampire which was written in 1973 and released in 1976. The story for Interview With A Vampire follows Louis as he tells the story of his life over the last 200 years. Interview With The Vampire spawned 11 sequels that I know of and also had a movie made on it in 1994.

What’s your favorite 1970′s horror novel? Leave a comment and let us know.

Free Fiction Friday Double feature

For our Free Fiction Friday this week we have a double feature for you, first up is Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. Charlaine Harris is the creator of the Sookie Stackhouse series of vampire novels of which the HBO series True Blood is based on. Dead Until Dark is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series and was originally published in 2001.

The story for Dead Until Dark is the basis for season 1 of True Blood, but there are some differences. Such as the story is told entirely from Sookie’s point of view.  The synthetic blood is called Life Flow instead of True Blood and some of the characters are different in the TV series.

If you’re a fan of Charlaine Harris and True Blood you’re going to want to adopt this book. This version of the book has the cover that is pictured to the left and is no longer available in stores. The new version has a vampire woman licking her lips and does not look as good as the original. So if you would like this book, leave a comment on the blog and let us know why you would be a good owner for this book. This is available for US residents only.

Dead Until Dark is not the only free read we have for this week. Our second one is available for everyone and all you have to do is click the link below.  This link was talked about on episode 64 of Horror Addicts and it features some writing samples from Weston Ochse.

Weston Ochse is an Arizona based writer who has written several short stories and has won a Bram Stoker Award for long and short fiction. Some of his novels include Scarecrow Gods,  Empire of Salt and Blaze of Glory. The stories featured in the link below are from a story collection called Multiplex Fandango along with an intro by Joe Lansdale.  So if you want more information on Weston Ochse and you want to read some of his stories click the link below:

http://www.westonochse.com/dani_kollin_group_sampler.pdf

So just to recap if you would like to own a copy of Dead Until Dark and you live in the US, please leave a comment on the blog. If you want to read Multiplex Fandango click the link above.

Back From The Dead and other stories

If you check out the facebook group for horror addicts you will find an author by the name of Stuart Land. Stuart has written seventeen screenplays and four novels. He began writing in 1986 while working in the film industry as a sculptor. He worked on such movies as The Abyss, Predator, Aliens and Poltergeist 2. He also runs creative writing workshops in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Stuart has four novels available that mix horror, science fiction, and mystery.

One book by Stuart Land that really captured my interest was Back From The Dead: The True Sequel to Frankenstein. Imagine waking up in the morning and seeing on the front page of your local newspaper: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Creature Found…Alive! Frankenstein’s monster has been frozen in ice for 200 years and now he is ready to tell the tale on how and why he survived, how he lives in the modern world and what his perspective is on his origins.

Another book, taking place in the 1920′s, is Shadow House. This is a supernatural thriller about two men living in different times that share a terrible secret. In 1920 Massachusetts a murderer named PJ McAvoy believes that Aaron Molina is responsible for his family’s death so he devotes a lifetime of vengeance against this man who was born 50 years after him. Both men have paranormal abilities and can see visions of the other person. Aaron has to find out why there is a link between the two and stop PJ’s vendetta against him. This is a psychological horror story in the tradition of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

If you’re into vampires, Original Blood is a book you may enjoy. This is the tale of Zondra and Gailene, two people turned into vampires against their will. The story follows the two women as they deal with their transformation, one leads a Cinderella like lifestyle while the other one rises from a devastating background to become a powerful vampire leader.

The last book by Stuart is Epiphany which is a science fiction story based on fact. The story begins as the world is thrown into chaos as every girl reaching adolescence becomes spontaneously pregnant… and all their unfathered babies will be girls. Now all the world’s scientists, doctors, and mothers-to-be must find out what caused this and the solution to the problem before  humanity is bred out of existence.

For more information on the books of Stuart Land go to stuartland.com

Free Fiction Friday: Darkness On The Ice

This week’s homeless book in search of a home is Darkness On The Ice by Lois Tilton. Which, would have fit nicely with our 1940′s episode that just aired. This book takes place during World War 2. The Nazis are looking for a way to defeat the allies and believe that weather may be the key. They need to know exactly when bad weather will come so they can use it to their advantage.

They set up a plan to take over a weather station in Greenland but need someone there who can stand the cold and protect the weather station 24/7. The only person who can live at the station is an SS officer by the name of Wolff who happens to be a vampire. The only problem is that there is nothing for Wolff to feed on, so he starts to feed on his fellow German soldiers who fly in to work at the station.

Lois Tilton has written three other books besides this one, Vampire Winter, Written in Venom and Darkspawn. She writes mainly Science Fiction and Horror and has won a Nebula award and a Sideways Award for Alternate History. She is currently a short fiction reviewer for locusmag.com.

Darkness On Ice was released in 1993 and is currently out of print. So this book is really hard to find, if you want this book just leave a comment on the blog on why you think you would be the right owner. Some of the reviews I’ve read for this book call it well researched, suspenseful, psychologically tense and just plain great horror. You should find out for yourself though, just leave a comment and you can be the proud owner of Darkness On Ice.

Free Fiction Friday: Blood Kin

Here is our first horror book that is up for adoption. This is a used book that was originally published in 1996. Our book that is looking for a new home is Blood Kin by Ronald Kelly. Ronald Kelly was born and raised in Tennessee and has been writing horror, mystery, and speculative fiction set in the south since 1988. Some of the titles he has written include The Possession, Moon of the Werewolf, and Hell Hollow.

Blood Kin follows a family named the Cravens who thought the vampire cure that was on them ended a century ago. That all ended when a decendent of the Cravens unearths Grandpappy Josiah Craven and unleashes his thirst for blood and carnage on the citizens of Green Hollow Tennessee.

With all the townsfolk falling victims to the vampire one by one, its up to Boyd Andrews and his small band of followers to put a stop to the vampire menace and save Green Hollow. Will the Craven curse be stopped for good? Adopt this book and find out.

Some of the reviews of this book are horrifying and a lot of fun at the same time. These vampires are not whinny and moody, they are vicious and evil. If you like hard core horror with just a little humor you may enjoy this book.

To adopt this book,  just leave a comment on the blog* on why you think you will be the best owner for it and I will pick the best comment. If you’re interested in this book, make sure you comment because it is out of print and you may not find it elsewhere.  Good luck!

*This book adoption is for US residents only.

Vampires in Venice

Ever wonder where the idea of vampires came from? Are vampires a myth or are they real?

The word vampires was not widely used until the 1700′s but the legend goes back farther than that. In the late 1500′s while the plague was sweeping through Europe, it was believed that some victims were coming back from the dead and feeding on healthy people.

Just recently, proof of a vampire exorcism was unearthed in Italy. Reuters.com reported in 2009 that Italian researchers believe that they have found the remains of a female vampire in Venice Italy. The vampire skeleton was found in a mass grave of Venetian plague victims from 1576. The reason the corpse was believed to be a vampire was because it had a brick in its mouth which was believed to stop vampires in the 1500′s.  Matteo Borrini an anthropologist of the university of Venice said the discovery was made on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon. The island was used as a sanatorium for plague sufferers during the 16th century.

From the period of 1300 to 1700 not much was known about the decomposition of the human body. Gravediggers would reopen a mass grave to put a new body in and they would see a body that was bloated with gas, hair still growing and blood seeping from the mouth. Also the shroud that the corpse was buried in would be decayed by bacteria around the  mouth showing the corpse’s teeth. To the grave diggers and medical people of that time believed the bloated and bloody corpse was proof that the recently deceased was leaving its grave at night and feeding on the blood of the living.

Archeologists believe the corpse found in Venice is proof  that in medieval times a ritual was preformed to exorcise vampires by putting something in there mouth that would keep them from feeding and they would remain in their grave. The use of wooden stakes to stop a vampire didn’t start until the 1800′s.  According to medieval and religious texts, the vampire would slowly eat the shroud covering its mouth which was like mother’s milk to a vampire and led to vampires being called shroud-eaters. Once they ate through the shroud they would suck whatever remaining life force was in the corpses around them. It was also thought that vampires were also able to cast a spell from the grave that would spread the plague and make themselves more powerful.  When the vampire had enough strength she would go out to the streets and feed on the living.

The legend of the vampire has changed a lot over the years. There are stories of vampires going back to the beginning of time, previous to the 1500′s vampires were synonymous with demons. During the 1500′s they were more like witches and used spells that would drain the life force from its victims along with drinking blood. In the 1800′s vampires became more like the blood drinking creatures we know today. While this corpse found in Venice does not prove the existence of vampires it does show that people’s belief and fear in vampires goes back a long way.

Guest Blog: Mary Abshire

Hello Horror Addicts. Thanks for stopping by to read my post.

My interest in horror, sci-fic, and paranormal started when I was a young kid. One of my favorite movies is the classic version of Halloween. I can watch it repeatedly without getting bored. The music is awesome and so fitting with the movie. I do so enjoy John Carpenter’s works.

Today though, when I watch Halloween, it doesn’t frighten me. When I was younger, the idea of some psycho on the prowl during Halloween did spook me. Not so much today and I don’t know why, but I still enjoy the movie. Come on, it’s a classic.

There is one movie that scared me when I was a kid and still freaks me out. In fact, I refuse to watch it. Can you guess what it is?

It’s the Exorcist. The story of a young girl being possessed just freaks me out. Possession is real. Yeah, serial killers are real too, but at least we can fight them. Watching an innocent girl possessed just… I can’t watch. The voice, the spewing, the head turning, the jabbing of the cross, the crawling on the ceiling… No, no, no. I try to tell myself it’s just a movie with special effects. Well, yeah, but I’m betting possession is pretty close to all of that. The worst of hell in your body. No thanks, I’ll pass.

Another movie that spooked me was Event Horizon. Sam Neil is one of the best actors to play in horror movies. Again, sound effects made the movie more intense and frightening. I rarely watch the movie, yet I recommend it.

In my opinion, there are various degrees of horror. Off the top of my head, the gross, the disturbing, the special effects, the supernatural, and the down right evil.

Special effects and gross horror go hand in hand sometimes. I think of the Saw movies. They’re not frightening at all, to me. I do like them as they are creative, but they definitely are gross due to the special effects. Creepshow and the first/original Nightmare on Elm Street rank high on the gross list. I also like Death Proof and Planet Terror by Quentin Tarantino. While there isn’t much horror, I’d put those two movies on my gross list, and I love them. Love the originality of the stories.

Disturbing horror movies would include the Serpent and the Rainbow, directed by Wes Craven, and the new version of Halloween. The new version of Halloween portrays Michael as a warped kid from birth. I find it scary because what we see in the movie really happens to kids today. It’s a good movie, but disturbing. Also on my disturbing movie list is the Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal Rising. I absolutely love Hannibal Rising. You get to see Dr. Lector as a child, watch how he handles his struggles, and find out how he became the way he did. It’s an excellent movie and one of my favorites.

Supernatural: My favorite category. From the Hunger to Let the Right One In (not the American version-Let Me In) I love vampire movies. Didn’t care so much for Interview with the Vampire. It was just ok, in my opinion. Love Anne Rice books, just not the movies. One of my favorite supernatural movies is American Werewolf in London. It would fall into my gross list too. When the guy changes…OMG. Great effects and his ghostly friend is cool, though gross.

Two movies I highly recommend and love are the Orphanage and Pan’s Labyrinth produced by Guillermo del Toro. The movies have great stories, very unique, disturbing a wee bit, and have great special effects. I love watching them in Spanish.

I also enjoy apocalyptic horror movies. Struggling to survive after major catastrophes (or fighting zombies) make for great horror movies. 28 Days Later and movies like Return of the Living Dead come to mind.

Paranormal type movies are decent, though not as horrific in my opinion. I’m a long time X-Files fan. Movies with aliens or ghosts are good to watch any day of the week.

In case you haven’t noticed, I enjoy a wide range of horror movies. 1980′s horror flicks rank high on my lists. I like to think I’m very open-minded type of person, but when it comes to the down right evil movies, I have to pass. (Unless it’s Devil by M. Night Shyamalan.)

Horror movies have been a part of my life since I was a child. Did they influence me? Sure, but not in the wrong kind of way. I’m no killer. Horror flicks showed me a dark world full of mystery, pain, and challenges. There are bad guys and struggles of good versus evil. Some of the bad guys are not so bad, just misunderstood. No, I’m not talking about the killers, I’m referring to vampires. I love the bloodsuckers. And while I’m not a fan of demons, I like to write and read about them. Why? Because I love the struggle of good versus evil (the good winning of course). Instead of scaring me away, horror movies opened my mind to a world of possibilities. For all the horror producers, directors, writers, I commend you. Thank you for sharing your creativity with us.

Bio:
My name is Mary Abshire. By day, I am a government employee. At night, I am a Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Author. My interest of the paranormal started in my youth. I grew up watching sci-fi and horror shows. In my teenage years, I read Anne Rice. By my early twenties, I started writing for fun, but never pursued a writing career. Now that I am much older, I can. Love for the dark, mysterious, dangerous, and out of the ordinary is part of my soul.

The Soul Cather series that I wrote contains demons, vampires, werewolves, warlocks, and witches. Currently, three books in the series are available and a fourth is in development. You can find information about my books on my website http://www.maryabshire.com

If you want to drop me a line, I’m at:
mary.abshire@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/mary.abshire
http://www.goodreads.com/maryabshire
http://twitter.com/maryabshire

Calling All Biters

Hey Night’s Knights fans, the wait is over for the sequel to Emerian Rich’s story of vampires trying to create the perfect offspring is now being released. The first two episodes of Dusk’s Warriors is available on the iTunes feed for Night’s Knights or you can listen to them by going to emzbox.com.

Dusk’s Warriors will have music from Factory of Dreams. Some of the voice talent in the podcast besides Emerian Rich will be Ariel DaWintre, Camellia Rains,  H.E. Roulo author of Fractured Horizon, Mark Eller from the Hellhole Tavern and Mike Bennett author of Underwood and Flinch.

I’ve been looking forward to Dusk’s Warriors ever since I finished Night’s Knights. Some of the things I’m hoping for out of this podcast is more background information on Sandro and the coven of vampires he is with when he meets Severina. We do know Sandro’s origin but I wanted to know more about how he knows for sure he is serving god and what would happen if he decided to question god. I also wanted to know more about the events leading up to Artemisia’s death and I want to hear more about Timothy and why he thinks the way he does. I would like to hear more from Annabella as well.

When I first heard about Night’s Knights I wasn’t interested because I figured that I’ve read so many vampire book over time that I didn’t need to read a new one. Then the little voice in the back of my head kept saying “you like the horror addicts podcast, you liked Emerian’s short stories so your going to like Night’s Knights, come on give it a shot.” So I finally gave it a shot and listened to the podcast.

I was hooked immediately, the story was good and it worked on so many levels. There is a tragic love story (actually I counted at least 5 tragic love stories in the book, Night’s Knights would have easily fit into the Dark Love episode of horror addicts that we just had), lots of action, blood, sex, romance and a little mystery. Everything you need for a good horror story. I also enjoyed the imagery in the book.  Some of the descriptions of San Francisco early in the book made me feel like I was there without ever being there and some of the other locations such as Julien’s castle and the crypt came to life as well.

The best part of Night’s Knights though is the characters. My favorite was Kristine, I looked at her as a very nice compassionate person who is just trying to find her place in this world and I really wanted to see her have a happy ending. I also like Markham because he has such a tragic story. He has a good life but it was taken away from him and then he is given a second life as a vampire that he is never really able to adjust to. Even though he doesn’t have a very big role I also liked the character of Danny, I kind of looked at him as a male version of Kristine. (By the way Emz if your reading this, if Danny is not in Dusk’s Warriors, is there any way you can make another sequel staring Danny and call it Danny Saves the World? I think so much more could have been done with him).

Good Character development is always what I like to see in a book. So my favorite scenes in Night’s Knights isn’t the action or the romance but the parts where the characters are deciding what they are going to do next. I loved it when Kristine is looking at the pros and cons of becoming a vampire and I also loved when she says how she feels after feeding on a homeless person. Another good part was near the beginning of the book when Jespa is feeling conflicted about sleeping with Craig. Early on Jespa comes across as a tough mean person but as the book progresses you see that she is much more than that. I also enjoyed when Jimmy has his last conversation with Markham about being a vampire, you end up feeling very sorry for Markham and really admiring Jimmy.

So what were your favorite characters in Night’s Knights? What did you like or not like about Night’s Knights? What are you wanting to hear more of in Dusk’s Warriors? Leave a comment on the blog and let me know.