The Pursuit (A Novella) Bk 4 of the Mind Sweeper Series by AE Jones

I cant help but love the way AEJ writes her characters, they feel so real, full bodied, passionate and I really miss them at the end of the books.

This is another novella, a short read but full of punch, storylines and it certainly moves the overall story along, but crucially fills in some missing areas.

Jean-Luc is a mystery and in the last novel we met Talia - AEJ gives a great back story to Talia and really enhanced how I felt about Jean-Luc.

There are hints of passion and erotica along the way, with a real will they wont they tension

.

The ending is well done, with some good, bad and ooooh!

Really looking forward to the next installment.

The Pursuit

Revival (Vol 1) Jane the Hippie Vampire

I always enjoy LL’s prefaces, she opens up so much about ideas, how a character came to be, the thought process and this is no exception. 

Love Beads (Book 1):

Jane is the strangest vampire I have come across in a long while, and I love her!!

One sunny afternoon she meets Randy and his weird dogs, strange job and horrific food sense.

LML treated me to a brilliant piece of mystery thriller writing with a super natural element, with just enough grossness to add a horror element.

She hints this will be a series and I do hope so.

Some fabulous in depth and textured descriptions allow you to become immersed in the story I was totally engrossed in this novella and was sad when it ended.

Jane is an intriguing character and I so wasn’t to know more about how she became what she is and what her forward plan is.

Flashbacks (Book 2):

Nice to be back with the gentle hippie vampire that is Jane.  Tongue in cheek reminder that taking drugs is bad when she “eats” a meth laden bully attempting to frighten and probably kill an old Vietnam veteran by the name of Old Man Kevin. 

During this moment of hunger and moral outrage she saves Kevin, incurring the wrath of his gang which catches up with her much later in the story.

I felt this story was much darker than the first with the horrific flashbacks to the war as told by Kevin, such a sad story. However, this allows Jane to also share sad and horrifying stories.

Whilst the ending was sad I really feel like I understand Jane a little better, and even if a vampire she is a better human than me being so kind to those she encounters after her horrible life. 

Not as much humour in this story, but still enjoy the writing.

Hair (Book 3):

Jane is ironically a vegan vampire with a knack for getting into trouble.

Needing to head to warmer climes she heads South into Bible Belt country, the weather maybe warmer but the hospitality is not; at least for an outwardly appearing teenage vagrant.

When a purple dog runs past her during a routine police stop you are already drawn back into Jane’s strange world and you can feel the magic carpet ride coming.

Whilst she knows that she must feed and she often disgusts herself with the berserker like frenzy when this occurs she knows it was not her that started to rip the Officers to pieces in the woods, even though she does not turn down an easy meal.

LML has a wonderful skill of explaining the pain that Jane feels during these feeds giving you a sense of the gnawing hunger vs the need to preserve all life.

As she hides in the forest she is found by the local Ranger, Bobby, and he kindly takes her home for dinner, although he does have his own agenda and what is actually on the menu?

His family are a strange mix of rednecks and homely parents, then LML introduces  the local fruitloop who professes to be seeing lake monsters, werewolves and vampires and you know things are about to go squiffy for poor Jane!

When said fruitloop decides to rid the world of a “stinking leech” he sets in motion a terrible chain of events, killing sprees, hidden bodies and family secret revelations. 

Whilst all this is going on LL manages to throw in some horrific flashbacks of Jane’s previous life and her “change”.

Overall another wonderful installment in the undead life of Jane. I am more intrigued by this vampire now; LL is expertly giving little hints of the true horror in Jane’s life whilst telling these little chapters in her life.  

Bonus Content: Flower Power:

Taking a rare moment to enjoy a coffee and piece of cake Jane is interrupted by a strange ghostly figure with an even stranger offer.

Via haunting memories, we are told of a horrific encounter Jane had with an astral plane travelling witch. Through varying levels of physical and mental torture including a trip to meet her long dead mother, Jane endures her recollection of meeting Holly and her stubborn sister Caitlin. 

The offer to help rid this world of this terror is too much for Jane, who herself continues to seek redemption to Heaven through good deeds.  She agrees to plunge herself back into this world to trap Holly.

This time around she faces worse mind games and even a fish tank filled with biting and hungry fish!  All is never what it seems with witches though and the ending is brutal.

Revival

Even Hell has standards: Wrath by Chantal Noordeloos

The beginning of this short story is like a slap in the face with a bloody spiked boot. 

There is brutality and the suggestions of much worse, Fatima has a sad life that is fraught with suffering.

Eventually she is “reborn” in Hell and sent to her judgement, her choice is a unique and painful one, but strangely satisfying to me as a reader.

CN writes with such extreme honesty about some difficult subjects and brings a no holds barred spotlight on to some very current realities of women living in various part of the world today.

I found Fatima to be a beautiful character that never lost sight of her inner wrath or the justice that would bring her. 

The descriptions of Hell and Lucifer were captivating, CN’s vivid writing giving pure, clean mental images.

I love this series.

Wrath

ready DEAD: End by TW Brown

The authors note followed by the mega fan comments were enough to make me cry; so I left this book for another two weeks. This is the END.

Having invested a few years in this series I have thus far, lost friends, disagreed with the author, cried, laughed, been disgusted, been horrified but always been drawn back to continue the journey, only now it’s finally, really, truly coming to an END.

Looking back, is it the writing style that I have enjoyed? The world TWB has foretold? The vivid characters? After all, I still have DEAD: “in your town” series; so lots more zombies, great characters and yucky moments. I also have That Ghoul Ava, Zomblog and the other many books that TWB has planned to enjoy.   

So what makes me so sad about the end of this book series?  I suppose I don’t want to say a final goodbye to Thalia, Billy, Jody, Catie, Dr Zahn and all the other multitude of characters that TWB has brought into my life (even the personally irritating Juan!).

Not all the stories or people have panned out as I wished they would. Catie really annoyed me, I’m not so sure Kevin would have been proud of her methods but I did like her ending. 

Thalia, sigh, I have loved this child, and been privileged to watch her grow up, so letting her go and seeing what happened to her made me cry. 

As for crying, I did lots of that in this book. Juan, Jody, Billy; saying farewell in various ways, some fizzled out, some got the happy ending and some got gruesome take outs; TWB did not shy away in making anyone safe or anything unimaginable.

As for my name sake, well, a huge lump came to my throat for her ending with the gorgeous Paddy. 

A few things were still not finished in my view of the world; what happened to Egypt? Kid zombies? Cats….. what the hell is it with zombie authors and cats!!

I did feel a little cheated at getting to 92% and then given two (ok they are great but…) first chapters of other books!

I did like all the little jibs, jabs and subtle references; very clever Mr TWB, very clever.

As a post-script TWB has now started his stand alone (but a series) of DEAD snapshots... so go take a look!


                            DEAD: End

Eye Witness Zombie Anthology

For a debut anthology for this now well established publisher/editor/author, its Amazing (yes, with a capital A!) to be able to bring all these wonderful authors together, with such differing styles and then lay them out in such a great order! Brilliant!

And THEN to add this line in the prologue "if you find an error, please feel free to email the mistake" I think shows the strength, dignity, courage and grounding this team has.... They still carry this on, several series and anthologies later. Another Amazing quality!

Why am I just getting round to writing this review now, two years after it was published and over a year (March 2012) since I bought and read it? Well, I guess I forgot! I got so excited I just marched my way through all the other anthologies, the Dead: The Ugly Beginning series and now my favourite That Ghoul Ava: Her First Adventures (Unabridged).

Love the little author bios before each story. The drawings are wonderfully intricate and the tickertape news is inspired!

Doomsday Ramblings by Tonia Brown: The gentle undertones of barbed comments, low expectation, love of a still over his wife and general disdain that this author describes shows what is obviously a terribly sad marriage in a strangely wonderful way.

Littered with humour you are lulled into the backwoods of stupidity before Ms Brown slams you with blood, gore, alcohol and general eeew.

A Soldiers Lament by Patrick D'Orazio: Told in the first person, this army lad is fed up with saving civvies rumps! 

So much action occurs in such a small space of time its hard to keep up, however, this worn out cynical solider manages to ramble on for another few blocks and pages....it always ends up the same. Did not grip me, but well written.

Childish Things by William Wood: As if a ZomPoc is not bad enough, you get trapped inside a cartoon whale! 

Or maybe you are the person who meets the whale... which has eyebrows! Funny, but sad. Great idea for a little story.

Mere Symptoms of Living by Kris Ashton: What would happen if during the ZomPoc you got locked in the bathroom.... Well now you are about to find out! 

Smirk inducing humour throughout, the inevitable ending but so well written I felt a little tear in the corner of my eye.

All in your head by Stephanie Kincaid: If you spot a zombie on the way home are you going bats? 

Should you up your medication? 

Write a reflection on the issue! 

Or just go grab a bite to eat.... Some great humour mixed with the gore.

The Nightmare by William Lederman: Great story, hated the ending... what a blinking waste of ink. Thought it was a cope out, sorry.

Run Through The Jungle by Tony Monchinski: So far the saddest tale, a great group dynamic tale.

I felt a little shaken after this one, the constant sad endings are a bit much to take after awhile.... What the heck am I saying this is a ZomPoc anthology!!! 

Does what it says on the cover!

Dredge by Nikki Sedlock: My absolute favourite story, because it's basically what I day dream about, well this was pretty much my plan! 

Im hoping for less gore and more showers tho! Will definitely be looking this author up!

One Nation Undead by Mike Harrison: OMG what a start!! Talk about gripped. 

Two believable characters which could easily flesh out a whole novel, great writing, fast but not furious, nothing in the emotion is lost. 

The ending was, well you will have to read it!

Eye in the Sky by John McCuaig: A personal favourite as set in my own country! And unique in this anthology as set in the future. Loved the little interspersed song titles, very clever.

Embedded by Andrew Black: First person writing, with some great explanations of what is going on. Lots of different tortures going on in this little story, hard to pinpoint which is the worst.

Baby Killer by Ron Harris: Brave subject, not enjoyable to read, had a hard time with this one; but nothing wrong with the writing.

Eye-Witness-Zombie

God Bomb! by Kit Power

I adored the authors note it really set the scene for the entire story with its tongue in cheek poke at God and religion but with a definite "is it/isn’t" element.

However, I did not enjoy the sex scenes as felt they were not needed as the same outcome of disgust could have been achieved with a different antagonist.

The pace is very fast in the middle and could almost hear the author narrating this to me, I did go back and reread a few pages.

At first I hated the ending as I felt it was a cop out, then I let it roll around for a few days as this story kept creeping back into my thought I enjoyed it more and implanted my own meaning into various points. I can only assume this was the authors intention with his original notes regarding asking questions.

I do think it could have been a longer book with more follower’s stories and linkage to The Book (ala IRW in Final Winter) but I believe this is Kit Powers first novel and its a clever piece of writing, with some impressive thought provoking comments.

I have enjoyed KPs short stories in the Hells Gate anthologies.

God Bomb!

Guest Blog!! TW Brown chats about.....

I stumbled across TW Brown in the autumn of 2013 at the time he was meerly a named editor in another much loved authors book series; give it a whirl I thought. I love the apocalyptic genre AND series, so imagine my delight when I discovered TWB!

I was soon suckered in and the next DEAD become something I waited for and relished. At book 10 I started to realise that this must come to an end, TWB had made it very clear that 12 was the magic number.  Yes, there were add ons, other series he was writing (Zomblog and That Ghoul Ava are amoung my favourite worlds) and bonus content BUT in two books time THIS world was ending.......

However, it seems TWB has more to give his fans (horah) and this is him (yes really!) on MY blog explaining why, how and what to expect. So, read on and enjoy!

Oh, but before I go here is his Newfoundland "pup" !!

Returning to the DEAD world

When I sat down and began writing the original DEAD series, I hoped that I would be able to put together a 4-book series. As the story unfolded before me, I realized there was so much going on…and that led to my producing 12 books (that was over 1,000,000 words!). The truth is that I could have gone on MUCH longer. There is a gigantic ten-year time jump for example. But I knew the ending, and to reach it in 12 books, I had to skip ahead.

I found that I skipped over a lot of details as I plowed ahead to that ending. Yes, I could’ve easily discarded my 12-book total announcement. However, I’d made that announcement publicly. I know of one writer that ended a series at book 6. This person went on to other projects that I was hired to edit. One day, book 7 of that series arrived in my email. I sent back a query. 

Me: “Hey, I thought you were done with this one.”

Reply: “Yeah, the other stuff isn’t making the money like “Series X” so I am gonna extend it.”

I thought that was unfair to the fan base. And while I admit this is a business, I just thought it was playing dirty. However, true to the hopes of this writer, the fans scooped up the additional books in large numbers. So, I guess that is okay. I just feel that I gave my word. I wasn’t going to be like The Who and have twenty Farewell Tours” when it came to the DEAD series as the fans knew it.

To that end, I have produced the DEAD: Snapshot—{insert town here} collection of standalone novels. To date, Portland, Oregon; Leeds, England; and Liberty, South Carolina have all received the DEAD treatment. I think the Leeds, England book is some of my best writing. It is one of the books that I truly felt good about. As a writer, I often feel my stuff is lacking.

So, all of this brings me to the real reason I am here with you today. On October 31, 2016, the DEAD world will be the setting of my new series. It begins with DEAD: Onset (Book 1 of the New DEAD series).

So, what makes this different? For one, this series will be through the eyes of one man: Evan Berry. No rotating chapters with Geeks and Vignettes; just the story of one man trying to figure out what is going on and then how to stay alive.

Evan is just a regular guy. I think that resonates more with readers than some military super-soldier packing an arsenal and having a way to rig every situation to his liking. Evan will make mistakes. Sometimes, I am betting that the readers may not like him very much. You will be inside his head, and we all know that we’ve thought things that would cause those around us to be shocked or think badly of us. You will be privy to those thoughts when they cross Evan’s mind.

The real Evan!!

What I hope to do with this series is to explore the world a bit more closely. One of my favorite twists in the mythology of the zombie is how children are different after they turn. I was inspired along this track when I was in a college psychology class. The topic of how much more active the young mind is, how open it is to learning gave me the inspiration that my child zombies would have a degree of sentience. That makes them a bit more frightening. While not actually holding on to their humanity…they are somehow different. They don’t just walk into a storm of bullets. They lurk. They wait.

Additionally, I think I was one of the early writers to explore the idea of possible immunity. That comes from Stephen King’s The Stand. The human immune system is a mystery. Some people just do not get whatever bug or virus is making the rounds. SO why shouldn’t there be those who are immune to the bite? However, once bitten, why not make that person a carrier? Imagine the schism that would eventually arise as the survivors had time to get past that first shock. And now, a person bitten but immune could infect another through fluid exchange. Think back to the hysteria and societal over-reaction to HIV and the AIDS virus. Strip away law and order, toss in those who feel they are now “The Chosen” as well as those who see the immune as dangers and abominations.

It doesn’t take long in my zombie books for zombies to become the least of people’s worries. DEAD: Onset (Book 1 of the New DEAD series) has no set number of volumes. I will write this story until I have nothing left to say. I am not in a hurry to reach an endgame. I want to suck the reader into this world and make them feel every emotion possible. Happiness, sadness, anger. I hope you enjoy it. I have said it before, but it bears repeating: I feel that every new book is my audition. 

I look forward to hearing how you feel about this book. I don’t go out seeking a flurry of 5 star reviews. It is impossible to be all things to all people, especially in the entertainment world. And I often learn things from well thought out critical reviews. If you can’t take those 1 star stingers that come every so often…you are in the wrong field. Do they feel good? No, but as long as you are seeing more love than pleas that you never take up the pen again, you should feel like you are on the right track. Let’s hope I am with my new series.

DEAD-Onset

The Cat with Cthulhu Eyes by Suzi M

SM takes the Lovecraft “monster” and twists into her own. To mix it with cats was just magic!

I felt her characters were full bodied and were given a great sense of realism. This added to the slow build up and dawning realisation of what was about to unfold, can’t give the game away can I !!

A superbly written piece and I could not help but gawp in awe at how much this authors style and talent have evolved over the years I have been following her.

A charmingly creepy story that really left me chilled.

Is that not the cutest and spookiest cover btw!

The cat with.....

Film Gutter Vol. 1 by Alex Davis

I really enjoyed the introduction of this book and how the premise for the reviews originally came about. 

Basically, this is an A-Z collection of all the film reviews done by AD over 2015 for The Ginger Nuts of Horror  blog.

I loved all the reviews being put into one place but would have liked them changed in some way for the book, you can just visit the site for the same information, that said it IS a pretty book and nice to have sat on your shelf.

I found the introductory paragraph to each review very tedious after a while, to keep rereading “so here we are again at Gutter Review” was mind numbing.

Equally I would have liked some form of retrospective update of the reviews having been collected this way. That said I did like the top ten round up at the end of the book and would have been interested seing a 2016 potential watching list.

Not sure If I should count myself lucky that I have not seen many of the films (I think maybe 2!) in this review book but now feel I can really pick out the ones I am brave enough to watch and those that really I won’t waste my life on.

I love this blog anyway but seemed to have missed this Gutter Review, probably due to the film titles…. But I have enjoyed this collective review.

Bring on 2016 and Vol.2

Film Gutter Vol. 1

Lost Film by Mark West/Lantern House by Stephen Bacon

Lantern House by Stephen Bacon:

Paul Madigan a reporter for a small local newspaper goes in search of a “long lost” film director, r Rutherford, whom he adored as a young man to interview him about his long lost, underappreciated, films. He now lives in isolation on Lantern Rock island.

Before setting off across the causeway he meets Ellie Gibson, she is there to photograph the wildlife on the island and attaches herself to Madigan like a limpet, but with all things in this story not all is as it seems.

Intrigue starts in the first paragraph as the two main characters (Paul & Ellie) are introduced and established early on.  Brilliant use of interaction and dialogue to show personality. 

During Madigan’s interviews with Mr Rutherford, the author was clever in using Ellie’s complete ignorance as a sounding board for the more intricate information given.

The descriptions of films were amazing; actually felt like I was watching them.  When Madigan is invited to a private viewing all sorts of horrors start to occur. Ghostly faces, shapes in strange places, odd sexual goings on and things popping out of projector screens. Actually that last one did make me jump.

Relentless in its bombardment of titbits for you to piece together, then the horror, the gore and final reveal which was brilliant, unique and well thought out.

Such brilliant attention to detail!

The Lost Film by Mark West:

Gabriel Bird is a Private Detective, his personality is shown early on with some great character interactions and inner dialogue.

The “Anselmo business”, often eluded to but never quite explained, its elusive nature sets the tone for the story.

The amount of research that went into the film industry is immense, it really shows, the digesting and then spitting out in an understandable fashion is impressive and I now feel as if I could do a mastermind round on it!

Nicely linked straight away to Lantern House but with a completely different feel and texture to the writing style.  It was full of humour and nostalgia – wonderful.

Foot massage erotica; I’m just going to leave that there, right in the middle.

Monochromatics; the main “horror” of the story, again never fully explained which gave my imagination all sorts to play with! Angels, demons, possessed people or just a trick of the light?

I really loved the way MW describes the mundane moments of life and makes them come alive.  Can’t wait to get stuck into more from these authors.

The Lost Film

High Moor 3: Blood Moon by Graeme Reynolds

Firstly, just look at that amazing artwork.....

Lovely dedication and great comments from the author with regards to how the trilogy made it this far and the very beginnings of why GR decided to write it.

Having listened to Chris Barnes doing the audio of books 1 & 2 I now “hear” all these wonderful characters in such brilliant 3D accents but then CB is an amazing narrator, plus he has good material to work with.

GR is OCD in his attention to detail. It really shows in every sentence of the book how thorough he is in his research. I’m sure he must have a shed full of werewolves that he has actually watched transform as everything else is so perfect.

The blood, gore and succulent organs are in full force in the book.  Some very violent and sad deaths, I truly grieved for one in particular. There are weapons, fight scenes and transformations galore; nobody can judge there to be any shying away of the grotesque – so beware!

The underlying storylines, are of course, always fantastic but would love to know more about the in between stories; how did Michael become pack alpha, why was Connie so twisted and how did Marie become so awesome. Don’t get me wondering on the weird American!

The horror yet majesty of GR werewolves is brilliant he makes clear distinctions between “turned” and moon borne, rabid and calculating field operatives.

GR is a brilliant manipulator of your worst fears from being followed in the dark to children left in a crèche, what could possibly go wrong.

As for The Daily Fail headlines had me in stitches even if the subject matter was sad.  GR also manages to cram in some really humorous moments which just really set you up for a massive “jump” like the old Twilight Zone series.

Not sure which death is worse but think Kat Yares would have been so proud of hers.

High-Moor 3: Blood-Moon

Snow by Paul Kane

I really enjoyed reading the “praise for Paul Kane” at the start of this novelette, this is unusual as I find self-promotion a bit sickly, however I was intrigued by some of the names mentioned, high praise indeed and, as it turns out, all warranted.

PK grabbed my attention with his introduction, I really do enjoy finding out how a story developed for an author, although the constant stream of name dropping had me rolling my eyes by the end.

PK is an excellent master of vivid description, he uses words beautifully to evoke the mental image of a scene. With his fast moving narrative, I was soon imbedded in the story.

Angela’s family background and history are swiftly and succinctly dealt with giving you just enough information to get a brief snapshot of her life and understand the dynamics, grinning at all the comparisons and links to the original fairy-tale.  The overall premise IS the story is Snow White. All the elements from the “original” are there but PK has brought them in to the modern world with a bang.

I loved Angela’s inner dialogue as it really pulled the story along and gave odd flashes of tongue in cheek humour.

PK was very clever in adding all the elements that were so central to the fairy tale and slotting them in so I barely noticed them until they slapped me upside the head and made me grin like an idiot.

There is just a splash of gruesome and horror as in all good fairy tales.

Overall, I really loved the way PK writes and will definitely be seeking out other titles by him to enjoy.

Snow