A CHUNK OF HELL

Here's the cover we're using for the bonus prequel to my upcoming novel, PITCH DARK. The story is a pulp weird tale written by one of the characters. It triggers all the events in the book. I had a great time writing it. Makes me wish I lived in the old Pulp Era. But, hey, maybe I'm living in the new one? Soon I'll have links where people can download "A Chunk of Hell" for free. Free! Free!

Used & Abused: The Color Out of Time

Michael Shea wrote one of my all-time favorite short stories, "The Autopsy." It's a smart, beautifully constructed, and frightening portrayal of alien invasion on an individual scale. He is also the author of perhaps my favorite Lovecraftian sequel, The Color Out of Time. This short novel, first published in 1984, is a continuation of Lovecraft's famous tale, "The Color Out of Space," which described the horrific effects of a meteor crash on a farm and the unleashing of a strange pervading alien intelligence. Shea's story brings the "creature down the well" into modern times. Set at a campground on the shores of a lake, above the flooded remains of the farm, the story's heroes are two retired professors and the artist sister of one of the camp's rangers. Shea brings the creeping terror with both hands. His prose is exquisite, conveying awestruck horror and gruesome violence equally well. I love this book and have reread it many times. I find an odd comfort in Lovecraft's universe of elder gods and mind-bending creatures from other dimensions. In many ways, Shea exceeds Lovecraft at his own game. Fans of horror/science fiction/fantasy will find plenty to enjoy here. "Vacationers in peril from monsters" is a horror genre cliche, but you've never read one like this. Pour yourself a whiskey, throw a log in the fireplace, and open this book. I highly recommend it.

Men's Adventure Novels: Edge #1, The Loner

When I was a kid, my father knew a retired railroad detective who was dying slowly of cancer. This detective spent his time in his basement with a huge collection of guns and knives, some of which were highly illegal. He even had a grenade launcher. Well, Dad and I would occasionally visit to shoot the bull (I didn't really say anything, I just listened). And after each trip to the basement the detective would hand me a box of paperbacks. He spent a lot of the time he had left reading. And through him I discovered my first Lawrence Block, Ed McBain, and Charles Willeford novels. But early on the books of his I loved most were the Men's Adventure Novels. The Executioner, The Destroyer, and Max Allan Collins' Nolan series were favorites. I could read one or more in a day. I felt such excitement picking a new paperback out of the box. They were, in hindsight, totally inappropriate for a kid who just hit his teens. But in another way, the timing couldn't have been more perfect. My parents wouldn't let me see an "R" rated movie, but I could read anything I got my hands on. I read my first Westerns from those boxes. And none came badder than George G. Gilman's Edge series. They were spaghetti westerns in print form. Gilman was a pseudonym for Terry Harknett, one of the Piccadilly Cowboys (a group of UK pulp western writers). The Edge books were hyperviolent and hypersexual -- just what a hyper kid needed. What I remember most was Edge's complete outsider status. Book #1 was titled The Loner. Edge was an anti-hero, a half-breed sociopath, and an existentialist man apart. Like his cinematic counterparts, he stood the genre on its head and added a layer of grit, grease, and gore. I read dozens of books from each of those series, but every time I got a new box from the detective, I'd always dig for an Edge.

Altered States

I'm a big fan of Body Horror. David Cronenberg is undoubtedly the king of the genre. He pretty much created it, and he certainly popularized it (Shivers, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, eXistenZ, etc.). I love 'em all. But director Ken Russell did a fine job in 1980 with William Hurt's film debut, Altered States. Let's start with the opening shot of Hurt floating in a steampunk-ish tank, followed by the sliding title sequence. Really cool. But I'm a sucker for a good title sequence. The sound in this movie is excellent, and quality sound really does make a horror movie. Sound builds tension. Images release the tension. Another thing I like about this movie: it's a genre blender. It's science fiction. It's horror. But it's also a love story wrapped in an adventure story. Only the adventure is inward bound. Hurt plays a brilliant scientist who drinks a hallucinogenic mushroom soup down in Mexico and experiences a mind-altering trip back to the origins of human consciousness. Peachy keen! So he takes the soup back to his Harvard lab and experiments with it in his isolation tank. Every time I see this flick, I want one of those tanks. The score of this movie is creepy. And there's a great ensemble cast including Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, and Charles Haid. The film has a gritty realistic look, which always helps when you're going to introduce a lot of weirdness. That's exactly what Altered States does. Now the movie isn't perfect. The dialogue sounds pretentious -- but hey, they're Harvard professors! And the overly serious mumbo jumbo about finding the Truth comes across as silly. But there's a really infectious energy going on here, too. I want to be a part of this pseudo-scientific research project. Luckily, the movie doesn't spend too much time explaining the science part, because that's the weak link. The atmosphere and effects are genuinely frightening. Hurt's mad scientist, determined to explore humankind's ancestral self despite the risks to his transmogrifying body, provides the thrills. It's more intriguing than a bunch of high school hotties running from a madman with an ax (not that I'm knocking madmen with axes). Altered States overreaches, but it does so with gusto and visual zest. If psychedelic fringe science run amok is your thing, revisit this classic. Get naked and devolve!

Bookclubbing, we're bookclubbing

Great news! Pitch Dark has been picked up by the Book of the Month Club, Mystery Guild, Science Fiction Book Club, and Quality Paperback Book Club.