Category Archives: horror

Agh! Bookshelf Fail!

Posted on
2

So I’ve been forever moaning about clearing out my bookshelves now that I’ve got a nice e-reader, which is my primary reading source. Unfortunately I seemed to have reached a certain point in my e-book-guzzling where the stories are sounding more and more alike to me, and I find myself either setting aside a book and then picking up another – only to set that one aside because I’m just not getting into it.

I switched over to some old books I had sitting on my bookshelves for ages – books that I’d started reading and then abandoned for whatever reason – and couldn’t get into those, either. I tried to start over with an anthology of fairy tales by Hermann Hesse, but I couldn’t get into the same frame of mind that required me to fully absorb his writing. I read Demian and Narcissus and Goldmund a while back, and while I loved them, I guess I overdid the Hesse reading and faltered when I bought the anthology. Unfortunately I still couldn’t get into it.

So I spent the last hour scouring through my bookshelves, reconnecting with old books that I read and adding some of my favorite titles to my Goodreads list. I’d love to pick them up to enjoy all over again. The others are books I bought ages ago but haven’t gotten around to reading yet, and I’ve been slapping a hand against my forehead for the oversight. They’re mostly genre fiction – either classic horror or LGBT mystery or something along those lines – and I really should dust those neglected books off and carry on with them.

I know now that I need diversity in my reading. I know that a lot of folks out there can subsist wholly on just one genre; over at Goodreads, some people are only willing to read M/M romance, for instance. That’s perfectly fine, but after over a year of doing exactly that because small e-pubs have been the main source for my e-reading, I’ve reached that saturation point, and I feel stuck in a rut and feeling pretty apathetic toward what I have that’s still unread in my e-reader.

We’ll see how this goes. At the moment, I’m trying to force myself to finish reading a steampunk novel, and after that, I’m giving my e-reader a much-deserved break. You know, like I swore I was going to do days ago.

The Woman in Black

Posted on
6

I finally saw The Woman in Black with my sisters early Wednesday evening. I’d already done my share of review-reading beforehand, and I reread Susan Hill’s novel in preparation. I’m a sucker for classic ghost stories, as you know, and this was a great opportunity for me to scratch that itch, seeing as how it’s been a dog’s age since I last watched a really good haunted house film (The Orphanage, 2007). I also come from a family of ghost story fanatics, so watching The Woman in Black with my sisters was a definite plus.

I’m putting my review under a cut because it has major spoilers. Beware.

Continue reading →

Now Available: Out of the Depths (And Some Goodies)

Posted on
6

Heads up! My short story, “Out of the Depths”, is now available from Queerteen Press in e-book format (note: short stories are only available in e-book format). In brief, it’s a horror / gothic retelling of the “Pygmalion” myth.

Blurb: It has been a year since Konstancji’s lover passed away, but rather than move on with his life, Konstancji hires one young man after another to sit for him as he obsessively works on a statue. What’s apparent is the fact that each sitter dies and is replaced with a new one, his grieving family compensated generously.

What no one’s aware of, though, is the purpose of the statue, which is the means through which Konstancji hopes to bring his beloved back from the dead.

If you purchase directly from the publisher, you’ll receive a 20% discount. Go here to buy it as well as to read an excerpt if you want to get an idea of the piece’s tone and style.

And some extra bits of news!

     

“The Knight”, a short story due out in March, is now listed at Queerteen Press. It’s a retelling of the “St. George and the Dragon” legend, and you can read the story’s description and an excerpt over here. And then there’s Mimi Attacks!, the next book in the Masks series (this is book number five), which is all about superheroes, supervillains, crazed fangirls, and a sixteen-year-old boy who always ends up with the short end of the stick. Book blurb and excerpt can be found here. Since this is a novel, it’ll be available in both print and e-book formats.

There you have it! And if you purchase a copy of “Out of the Depths”, I hope you enjoy it. :) It’s the only horror story in the collection of short fiction that I’ve contracted with Queerteen Press.