Review: Caddo Lake

Because I signed up with Max as a reviewer for ‘Salem’s Lot, I was given advanced access to another feature film coming on that streamer on October 10. I’d heard nothing about Caddo Lake prior to that invitation and I decided to go into it cold. Didn’t even watch a trailer. Had no idea what to expect.

There’s this fractured family that lives on the shores of the eponymous lake, which was created by a dam many decades ago as part of the TVA project. The region (near the Texas/Louisiana border) is currently experiencing one of its periodic droughts, so the water level in Caddo Lake is low, making navigation problematic and even dangerous. The cypress trees produce underwater “knees,” which are are now sticking up all over the place (The exteriors were filmed on the real lake), and the dam is crumbling and at risk of collapse.

The story has two central characters: a man named Paris (Dylan O’Brien) who is currently working to remove some of the hazards that have appeared near the water’s surface, and a teenager named Ellie (Eliza Scanlen) who is staying with a friend because she’s always fighting with her caustic mother. Paris’s mother had a seizure that caused their vehicle to go off the bridge into the water, where she died. He’s obsessed about her illness, in part because he may be exhibiting some of the same symptoms. His fixation is his defining—virtually his sole—character trait.

Ellie’s dad disappeared when she was a baby and her mother (Lauren Ambrose) started a new family with Daniel (Eric Lange), who is a patient stepfather. Ellie has an 8-year-old stepsister named Anna, and it is her disappearance that drives much of this movie. When Ellie storms off in another huff after an argument with her mother, her adoring sibling tries to follow, taking a skiff into dangerous waters. A massive, days-long search ensues.

Because I didn’t even watch a trailer, I didn’t know if this was going to be a horror movie, a creature feature (there are strange noises in the muddy, forested swamp around the lake), an eco-horror movie, or a straight-forward domestic/crime drama. The fact that M. Night Shyamalan produced it should have been something of a clue.

HBO doesn’t want reviewers to reveal certain elements of the story, which makes it really hard to talk about the film. I could say “if you liked X” you might like this (and there is an X that I really what to mention, but I can’t!), but that would give it away. The biggest problem is that it takes a long time to get to the point where you go “holy shit!” The first 45 minutes are all setup and there were times when I was ready to tap out. However, after the first time I said “holy shit,” I was all in until the end.

In old text adventure games, there was a point where the computer would inform you: You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all the same, and if you didn’t drop items like breadcrumbs you’d end up hopelessly lost. Caddo Lake is a little like that. You can tie yourself up in knots trying to follow the logic of what’s happening. It does all make sense, trust me, but you might need a pen and paper to figure it out.

There are only the barest bones of characterization in the movie, although the cast is uniformly excellent when given something to chew on. Still, the film feels ponderous at times, confusing at others, and even when it gets really interesting, things come to a grinding halt so some google searches can explain to viewers what is really going on. It’s not a spectacular movie, but it has its rewards if you stick with it.

Posted in movies, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

It takes a Village (Books)

Last Sunday, I was hosted by Village Books in The Woodlands to celebrate the release of Stephen King: His Life, Work, and Influences (Young Readers’ Edition). It was a beautiful day after a run of really unpleasant weather, so there was a good chance no one would show up because people wanted to take advantage of the nice day. I joked to my wife on the way there that she might end up doubling the audience.

However, we had a good turnout. I rambled on for fifteen or twenty minutes about this, that and the other, and then I took questions, of which there were many. It was a nice discussion.

Afterward I drew the name of the winner of the gift pack (the promised simulated axe from The Shining didn’t arrive because it proved to be too unwieldy to ship so Quarto substituted a FunkoPop Carrie). I felt strangely under pressure to draw a name for someone who was present, but it didn’t turn out that way. Congratulations to the winner! Then I signed books for those in attendance

Later, I signed copies for the mail orders, of which there were many. So many, in fact, that the store ran out of copies and some mail orders will be fulfilled later this week when the new shipment arrives and I can get back there to sign them. By the way, I inquired about orders outside of the US and the shop owner told me she often shipped internationally, so if you’re in Canada or Italy or elsewhere and you’d like a signed book (be prepared for sticker shock on the shipping), contact Village Books via their website and get a quote.

One thing I realized on Sunday morning, several hours before the event, is that the preliminary pages of the book are all printed on black paper. Hmmm, I thought. How on earth am I going to sign on the title page? Then I remembered the Scream Press edition of Skeleton Crew, where King signed in silver. So off I went to the local shop and got a couple of silver Sharpies, which worked a charm.

I also did an interview on Saturday that should be posted in the near future. I’ll be sure to post the link when it’s live. It was predominantly about my short fiction, so being able to talk about my stories was a nice change of pace.

And, finally, we got our flu and new Covid vaccinations on Saturday morning, so my superpowers are back to full strength!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on It takes a Village (Books)

Publication Day 2024

Today is the day that Stephen King: His Life, Work, and Influences (Young Readers’ Edition) is unleashed upon the world. It’s available in paperback wherever books are sold and there’s also a Kindle edition.

(It’s always nice to get a signal boost from Steve)

As mentioned above, I’ll be appearing at Village Books in The Woodlands on Sunday afternoon, and you can order signed/personalized copies of the book from them for delivery, too. Be sure to specify how you would like the book personalized when you place your order. By ordering online, you’ll also be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a prize bundle consisting of:

  • One of my chapbooks
  • A pair of Pennywise socks
  • A vintage-style keychain to a room at the Overlook Hotel
  • And a foam axe (for getting out of said room)

What are people saying about the book? Very kind things!

An excellent book that will be, in short, catnip for King enthusiasts. — Michael Cart (Booklist)

Fans of Stephen King or those who simply want to learn more about him, will find a treasure chest of information and insights in these pages and that in an engaging way. — Bookworm for Kids

The author does an excellent job not only delving into King’s life but connecting life experiences that sparked ideas and even made their way into various novels over the years. — Sunhusky’s Daisy Reads

I know – without a shadow of a doubt – I would have loved this book even more had I been a young reader looking for a gateway into the world of Stephen King. — David Taylor

Packed full of exclusive photos, the Young Readers’ Edition is the ultimate book for any reader who wants to go past the stories and novels and learn more about Stephen King, which includes King’s latest works up to 2024 and the most recent events in his life, which is a plus for any fan. — Anthony W. Northrup.

This book is a brilliant read and a must-read for Stephen King fans. He is decidedly the king of horror. The book talks about his journey, childhood, struggles, influences, success and works. His story is so well narrated that it’s unputdownable. The pictures are like cherries on the top. — Kruthika P

This may be targeted for younger readers but I think any Stephen King fan would love to add this to their collection. The photos and Stephen King’s history were very enjoyable to read. — Naomi D

If this is not one of the best books written about King and his influences, then I know nothing about storytelling. — Reviewer 1394760

I highly recommend this book for all fans of Stephen King. I also recommend it for readers who think they are not fans of Stephen King as well as they will see that while King is famous for writing horror, there are plenty of non-horror books to choose from; in fact they might serve as the gateway into a new appreciation and love for the Stephen King horror genre! — Christina B


And here’s the publisher’s description:

A thrilling visual companion curated for young adults voraciously reading their way through Stephen King’s colossal corpus of creepy books.

For many young readers, when the last page of Goosebumps is turned, the first chapter of Pet Sematary begins, and a world of terror crafted by Stephen King is revealed. His novels are as fascinating as his life, and in this ultimate illustrated guidebook, young readers explore the cultural phenomenon and legacy of the King of Horror.

From scare-seeking child to impoverished university student to struggling schoolteacher to one of the best-selling—and most recognizable—authors of all time, this engrossing book reveals the evolution and influences of Stephen King’s body of work over his nearly 50-year career, and how the themes of his writing reflect the changing times and events within his life.

With tons of photos, approachable bite-size sections, and gripping details to captivate young readers, the book features:

  • An extensive look into Stephen King’s books, short stories, writings, movies, series, and other adaptations ideal for the young reader to review.
  • Exclusive memorabilia from Stephen King, including personal and professional correspondences, handwritten manuscript pages, book covers, movie stills, and a never-before-seen excerpts from his poems.
  • Personal insights and observations such as real-life settings that inspired King’s writing, the editor who discovered him, his life as a Boston Red Sox fan, and the many awards and honors he has received.
  • Motivating quotes from King from interviews over the decades.

“My childhood was pretty ordinary, except from a very early age I wanted to be scared…there was a radio program at the time called Dimension X, and my mother didn’t want me to listen to that because she felt it was too scary for me, so I would creep out of bed and go to the bedroom door and crack it open. And she loved it, so apparently, I got it from her, but I would listen at the door and then when the program was over, I’d go back to bed and quake.” —Stephen King

Young adults will covet this comprehensive yet accessible reference to their favorite horror author.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Publication Day 2024

Review: The Bang-Bang Sisters by Rio Youers

They don’t call themselves the Bang-Bang Sisters when they’re playing hard-rocking cover songs in bars and clubs across the country. For those gigs, they operate under a variety of names. They transport their gear in a van: Jessie’s lead guitar, Flo’s bass guitar, and Jessie’s sister Brea’s drums, along with the requisite microphones and amplifiers. 

Their existence as a three-woman band is also a cover, for hidden among their concert gear is an astonishing assortment of weapons: pistols, rifles, blades and martial arts tools that they use for their real paying gig as assassins for hire. As the Bang-Bang Sisters, they’re moral assassins, like Dexter of Billy Summers, the kind that only kill bad people who have escaped arrest or evaded prosecution. They get their assignments from a hacker network on the Dark Web, and they usually investigate their targets fully before executing a precision operation that has them in and out with as little muss and fuss as possible. Of course, everything doesn’t always go as planned and there is the occasional fuss. Or muss.

At the top of their TBA (to-be-assassinated) list is a serial killer who calls himself “the wren,” who operates in Reedsville, Alabama, killing with impunity. Readers are introduced to him in the book’s prologue, an idiosyncratic man who inhales oxygen through a nasal cannula and leaves bodies stuffed with feathers and haikus written in blood at the scenes of his murders. The trio of assassins is just about ready to take a break from the road and call it quits for a while—maybe even permanently—when they get a solid lead to the wren’s location. Their obsession with this killer allows them to be lured into a trap laid by a wealthy and prominent mobster who has a bone to pick with the them. One of their earliest jobs wasn’t a work-for-hire—it was personal, and Chance Kotter wants payback.

The book takes an unexpected change in direction (and it isn’t the only major surprise the novel has on offer) when the trap is sprung. Once Kotter has the women in his grasp, he doesn’t exact immediate revenge. He’s a betting man who likes a good game, so he creates an unthinkable challenge for the “sisters,” forcing them into a deadly contest by kidnapping their loved ones and setting a deadline for them to complete this terrible task. They are released into the wilds of Reedsville and forced to hunt each other until one one is left standing. Kotter invites business colleagues to attend the two-day, winner-take-all contest and place bets on the outcome.

As tight as the three women are, the situation puts them in an untenable situation. The rules are strict and seemingly unbreakable. Their locations are tracked with ankle monitors, as well as by a roving band of observers. They cannot contact the outside world for help, and the head of the local police is Kotter’s sister, so there’s no help there, either. They can’t work together. They can’t even kill themselves to put an end to the terrible contest. If their loved ones are to survive, they must play out the game to the end. And Reedsville, a dismal, impoverished and corrupt town, seems to determined to kill them any way it can. 

However, they’re extremely resourceful, feeling there must be a way to get out of the dilemma and yet willing to do whatever it takes to survive. The book is full of scenes of high-octane action, carefully orchestrated and unflinchingly violent. People are shot, stabbed, pummeled and dispatched in all manner of gory and grueling ways. The sisters—and readers—get little chance to take a breath during the next forty-eight hours of nonstop action.

Posted in books | Leave a comment

Review: Moonbound by Robin Sloan

Eleven thousand years have passed since humanity was conquered by its own creation, a group of Artificial Intelligence entities known as dragons that were sent into the galaxy to see what they could learn, who returned a year later determined to ensure that people never leave the planet again. They took up residence on the moon and masked the sky with dust, obscuring the view from the ground, turning the sky perpetually dark. All subsequent attempts at intergalactic communication are rebuffed, with extreme prejudice.

The residents of a small somewhat feudal (there is tech, though, including at least one airplane) community called Sauvage, ruled by the tyrannical Wizard Malory, believe they are the only people left on the planet. That all changes when a twelve-year-old boy named Ariel, who lives in Castle Sauvage, defies Malory’s plans.

Malory has modeled his realm after the legends of King Arthur. There’s even a sword embedded in a rock that Ariel is supposed to extract, making him the new leader in a battle against the dragons. However, Malory knows of another sword in the hands of Altissa Praxa, a deceased female soldier from the Anth period, entombed for millennia in a crashed escape pod. When he retrieves this weapon, Ariel unknowingly inhales a spec of sentient fungus designed to record human memories. It takes up residence in his psyche. (Those familiar with Sloan’s previous novel, Sourdough, will appreciate this nod to his apparent fascination with animated fungi). This entity becomes the first-person narrator of Moonbound as it gradually integrates with Ariel who, for part of the book, is unaware of its presence.

Malory is infuriated by Ariel’s defiance, so the boy flees Sauvage, venturing beyond the valley into a world completely unknown to him, embarking on a voyage of discovery. As he learns more about the reality of the world, he also grows aware of the intelligence within, which creates Eigengrau, a virtual world where Ariel can retreat to brainstorm with imaginary versions of people he knows. He also learns that a human army has been in suspended animation in outer space since the war with the dragons, awaiting a signal to awaken and rekindle the battle.

The embedded chronicler has much to learn, too. It’s been trapped in the cavern with its previous host for ten thousand years (its last memory is from a millennium in our future) so is unaware of the changes that have happened in the intervening centuries, such as the fact that animals can now talk (but there are no birds) and there aren’t any children…other than Ariel. It can be a little jarring at times to switch from the third-person narrative of Ariel’s adventures—as harrowing and fascinating as in any other quest novel—to the chronicler’s first-person version of events, but it never ceases to be fascinating and compelling.

Eventually, Ariel is joined by Durga, a teenaged female warrior who is the only one who responds to the re-activation signal. She agrees to aide Ariel in his quest if he in turn will join her in battle against the dragons. He is also aided by a network of sentient robots, a group of intelligent beavers, and even a talkative dead person. He travels through marshes, visits other towns, including one where recycled objects are the official currency, and ends up in a place with an organic computer, where debaters have to argue on behalf of the opposing viewpoint, and the answers to Ariel’s most important questions lie at the bottom of a deep pool.

Is Moonbound science fiction, fantasy, adventure, quest or coming of age? Yes to all of these and much more. It is the work of a fertile imagination who is willing to explore the vast possibilities contained in this world and beyond.

Posted in books | Leave a comment

A Beryl full of monkeys

A lot of people in our region didn’t take Hurricane Beryl seriously when it entered the Gulf of Mexico. Early indications were that it would go to Mexico (which it did) and keep going that way (which it did not). Then it looked like it would make landfall in Corpus Christi, 250 miles southwest of us. But it kept inching further east and it ultimately made a beeline for Houston and beyond, including us.

There was one early outer band on Sunday afternoon that made me sit up a little. However, we took only a few of the usual precautionary measures. I filled up one car’s gas tank. I bought a few groceries. The grocery store wasn’t the usual frenzy before a major storm, either—plenty of ice and water and toilet paper. I moved the things that might go airborne from the back yard to a more secure location. That’s it.

I heard the first rain at about 4:30 on Monday morning and it only got worse from there. My office is upstairs, and there was a steady pounding of not only rain but also of falling branches and—loudest of all—pinecones. When a pine branch loaded down with eight or ten of those things hits the roof, it makes a big bang, and we had a lot of those come down. The rain and wind (gusts up to 80 mph) were intense, among the worst I’ve seen. Previous hurricanes have passed over us during the night, so we’ve slept through the worst of them, mostly, but this was a daylight hours storm, and it was impressive. The power did its best to hang in there, but it gave up the ghost at around 10:30 or 11:00 am.

Although we do have battery-powered radios, I also have a hand-crank radio that was sent to me as part of a publicity kit for the TV series Colony a number of years ago and we kept it fully cranked while listening to classic rock and NPR. We hoped for news of when the power would be restored, but there was not much information about that. None, really.

Cell phone towers are powered by the grid, too, so when the power goes out (which it did for several million people in Houston and many thousands in our community), everything goes. You’re very lucky to be able to send a text. As for phone calls or internet…forget about it. In the afternoon, I walked to the nearby strip mall, about a mile away, doing the limbo under many fallen or falling trees and stepping around deep puddles, thinking I might be able to get some WiFi, but the power was out everywhere. I must have been in a sweet spot, though, because I was in the right place at the right time to get a call from our daughter and was able to reassure her that we were fine and for her to pass the message along to others.

We hung tight that night without A/C but the next morning I proposed we go to College Station, about 90 miles away, which hadn’t lost power. It was a tough call, leaving the house, but my boss had gone there earlier, so it seemed like a place where we could find a hotel and get some WiFi so we could work until things returned to normal. One of our pleasant surprises was the discovery that our garage door opener has a built-in battery. I was ready to MacGyver the thing open using our car and a cigarette lighter power box and an extension cord, but before I got to that, the opener started chirping because the battery was winding down. We were able to open the door, get the car out and close it again without any extra effort.

The drive was interesting. First, there was a very large tree down on one end of our street that blocked the entire road (it took them three days to remove it completely), which also, I later learned, made a dent in the roof of the owner’s car. When we reached the interstate, we had some cell phone coverage so were able to map out the best route, avoiding closures and flooded roadways.

Most of our trip was on an east/west road with plenty of traffic signals, none of which were working. There were many intersections of three or four lanes in each direction that we had to carefully navigate as if they were four-way stops. Most of the drivers knew how to sort this out, but there were a few close calls and we saw at least two fender benders from people who didn’t get the cues right. It was very slow going. The one or two places along the road that still had power were very busy because that meant the gas stations worked, so there were long queues on the side of the roadway. I was very glad I’d filled up on Sunday.

When we got to College Station, we found out there was no room in the inn. Any inn. A lot of people had the same idea as us. We were on the phone with one hotel making a reservation for their last room when someone else scooped it out from under us somehow. However, one helpful person knew of availability in a town 25 miles away, so we went there and got a room. There were plenty when we arrived, but a lot of people got the same message, so things filled up quickly thereafter.

The town was basically a crossroads between College Station and Austin and the motel was your typical roadside affair. It had two special amenities, though. One of the light switches turned on a series of strobing colored lights that lined the entire perimeter of the crown molding near the ceiling, creating a discotheque effect. I thought we got the “special” room because we were early, but it turns out all the rooms had that. When we went out to dinner later, my wife asked the waitress if there was anything fun to do in town and that stumped her, so we decided the disco lights were to make up for the lack of other entertainment. The other special feature was crickets. We only found a couple in our room, but the lobby was full of them and those suckers were loud!

I thought I was clever in thinking that I could call our house to find out if the power was on. If the answering machine picked up, I’d know we had juice. What I didn’t factor into the equation was the possibility that we could have power but no internet, which meant no phone and no answering machine. Fortunately, a couple of our neighbors let us know on Wednesday morning that the power was back, so we packed up and headed back home. The return trip was much smoother because most of the traffic signals were working. Not all, but most.

A lot of businesses in our community were still closed because they had to restock. All that food in freezers at restaurants and grocery stores had to go—a major economic impact for them. We’d cleared out our fridge and its freezer of perishables, transferring as much as we could to the deep freeze, which survived the two days without power. Our internet was still out though, and although we were promised a speedy return (9 pm Wednesday and then a less specific “within 24 hours” that remained the prediction for the next few days, it remained out until yesterday afternoon.

We gathered all the fallen limbs and made a big pile at the side of the road, just like everyone else who hadn’t decamped had already done. Remains to be seen when those will be picked up. All in all, though, we fared pretty well. Lost a bit of food, spent a night in a motel, that’s it. There are still people in Houston without power and some without running water (because the pressure dropped). Upwards of a dozen people killed, at least two by having trees fall on them while they were sitting comfortably in their houses, which to me is a dreadful way to go. Flood damage, etc. So we can’t complain for a brief inconvenience.


Without internet, we weren’t able to watch streaming platforms, so I hooked the DVD player back up and we watched some older movies: Fried Green Tomatoes (one of my wife’s favorites), Calendar Girls and The Girl with the Pearl Earring. We also watched the first episode of the Eccleston Doctor Who, which looked very dated, especially on DVD, compared to what they’re doing these days. Still, who doesn’t love Rose.

Currently reading: Memorials by Richard Chizmar and The Bang-Bang Sisters by Rio Youers.

The paperback edition of About that Snowy Evening is now available. The anthology has my story “The Heart that Fed.”

Also recently announced, my chapbook Lost (or Found) in Translation. Much like my previous chapbook for Brian Freeman’s supporters (“What’s In a Name?”), this one started life with a text message Brian sent me one day, this time asking my opinion on some of the absolutely wild translations of King’s book titles for the foreign editions. Prepare to learn more about the Stephen King books you’ve only read if you’re fluent in a bunch of languages, such as The Witch Girl, The Vampire Hour, City of Horrors, Hotel of Death, Nightmare in Room 16, Song of the End of the World, Exit to Hell, The Grim Reaper is Running, The Sphere of Darkness, Tom Gordon’s Fan Girl, Scary Car, The Legend of the Wind, The Shop that Sells Nightmares, You Can Fly When You Die, and so many others. To make this chapbook really special (and a great companion to the previous one), François Vaillancourt has contributed the chapbook’s cover, along with ten full-color interiors depicting what these King books would look like if he had been hired to illustrate the translated editions.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on A Beryl full of monkeys

All roads lead to 1984, it seems

Several weeks ago, I was contacted by Michael Small of the I Couldn’t Throw It Away podcast. Their series is a discussion about things he and his cohost, Sally Libby, rediscover. They then debate whether it’s junk to be Marie Kondo-ed or a valuable item to be kept. Michael, who was a reporter for People magazine, interviewed Peter Straub and Stephen King in 1984 about The Talisman and he recently stumbled upon the cassette tape of the full, unexpurgated recording of that session. He wanted to find someone to discuss The Talisman, so he went to ChatGPT and my name came up at the top of the list! I spent the better part of an hour chatting with them, and the episode Scary! Stephen King and Peter Straub’s lost interview is now live. In addition to Michael and Sally’s chat, they used large chunks of my interview and include the entire 1984 interview session, which is an interesting blast from the past. It’s especially nice to hear Peter’s voice again and to hear the two banter with each other and push back against some of Michael’s questions about who wrote what. Check it out—I had a great time talking with them.

The photo of Steve and Peter accompanying the podcast was taken by Jordan Hahn, beermaster and webmaster. When I mentioned Hurricane Beryl, which appears to be heading in our vicinity tomorrow, he immediately came up with Beryl Evans, the author of Charlie the Choo-Choo on one level of the Dark Tower!

The issue of SpeakUp magazine from Spain in which I am interviewed relative to the Spanish release of my King book, came out recently. It’s an interesting concept: an English print publication with high-level vocabulary to help people learn English, where they annotate certain terms and phrases.

To celebrate the release of You Like It Darker, The Losers’ Club unlocked their premiere episode of The Stephen King Archives in which the Losers dust off unpublished short stories, long-forgotten interviews, coffee-stained manuscripts, and alternate versions. I joined them to talk about 1956’s “Jhonathan and the Witchs,” 1963’s The Aftermath, and 1965’s “I Was a Teenage Grave Robber.”

In 1984, I was a graduate student at Dalhousie University, living in a dorm on the ground floor of Bronson House at Howe Hall in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I was working on my Ph. D. in chemistry and writing short stories that I never did anything with other than share them with some of my dorm neighbors. A few of those stories have been resurrected and published in recent years after heavy revisions. Yesterday, I pulled out another one of those 40-year-old stories, reread it and completely rewrote it, inspired by the guidelines to an anthology that seemed like a good fit. The original story was juvenile—I’m hoping the revised version is stronger. I have few regrets in my life, but one is that I never submitted any of my short stories back then. I would probably have broken every rule about how to do that, but I might have gotten some feedback and encouragement instead of waiting nearly two decades to start writing and submitting in earnest.

It was also in 1984 that I bought my first limited edition, which just happens to be the Donald M. Grant edition of The Talisman.

Also in 1984, I saw Beverly Hills Cop. Last night we enjoyed Axel F., which brings together most of the original cast in a new adventure. It has some of the same features as the earlier installments—lots of crashy car chases and shoot-outs, but it has the added poignance of Axel’s relationship with his now-adult daughter Jane. It’s pretty good. The only thing I missed was Axel’s contagious laugh from the original, which seems to have been a victim of time and/or age!

Once again I’m partnering with Village Books so people can order signed / personalized copies of the Young Adult version of Stephen King: His Life, Work, and Influences. I’ll also be doing an event with them at 3 pm on September 8. There was a nice review of the new edition this week.


My new/old story “The Heart that Fed” will be in About that Snowy Evening: Stories Inspired by Classic Poems, from Emily Dickinson to Walt Whitman and More, edited by Stephen Spignesi, Andrew Rausch and Keith Lansdale. My story was inspired by Ozymandias. The anthology should be available for order very soon.

Die Laughing: An Anthology of Humorous Mysteries was previously only available as a pricey hardcover. The anthology, which contains my story “The Vacuum Gang,” is now available in eBook format for under $10, which is a real steal given that it contains over forty stories.

Also on the horizon:

What have I been watching lately? I quite enjoyed Bodkin (Netflix), which is about an American podcaster forced to team up with an Irish ex-pat journalist to investigate a decades-old disappearance in a small town near Cork. I also like the dynamic of the main characters in McDonald & Dodds on Britbox. I binged through all four seasons of that. Dark Matter (Apple TV+) messed with my mind, and I’m not entirely sure I’m happy with how it ended, but it was a helluva ride. I always enjoy John Simm, so it’s good to see him back in Grace (Britbox). Tracker (CBS) is lighter fare than most streaming series, but it was pretty good. The entire BAU seems to be going off the deep end on the latest season of Criminal Minds, and I’m sticking with Presumed Innocent in hopes that they’ll do something to differentiate it from the novel and original adaptation. This version of Rusty, though…not sure I like him very much.

I read and reviewed House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias. I read The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett to my wife—an interesting late-19th century collection of vignettes about a woman spending a summer vacation in a coastal Maine community. Currently reading Moonbound by Robin Sloan, a futuristic sci-fi/fantasy with shades of Douglas Adams and inspiration from the legend of King Arthur. I also reviewed Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay.

I really liked Godzilla Minus One (Netflix). I haven’t seen all that many Godzilla films, but this one hits all the right notes, combining a strong story with great action sequences. Speaking of action, Hit Man (Netflix) is a helluva lot of fun, a tribute to stuntmen and women with lots of callbacks to the Fall Guy TV series (hey, that was also on in 1984!) and Miami Vice (ditto). The title of the new movie has a nice double meaning. I also thought Under Paris (Netflix) was campy good fun. Wonka (Max) is a decent origin story for the character. I watched two documentaries since last time: Jim Henson: The Idea Man (Disney+) and Brats (Hulu). The former is intriguing and delightful. The latter, well, I guess some people have issues they grapple with all their lives while others who had similar experiences find way to make peace with them. I ended up feeling bad for McCarthy.


Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on All roads lead to 1984, it seems

Review: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Call it “found footage adjacent.” Thirty years ago, a small group of twenty-somethings banded together to create a movie called Horror Movie. The film was never completed due to an on-set accident, but it became a cult legend after the screenplay and a few clips were released to the internet fifteen years later. The plot of the film follows the director, screenwriter and a mutual friend playing themselves as disaffected teens who enslave and torture a classmate known only as the Thin Kid. Isolating him in an abandoned school building, with his apparent consent, they are determined to turn him into a faceless monster, the kind that has populated so many classic horror films.

It’s a running joke that people claim to know someone who was on-set during production, like those who say they were at the Woodstock festival. The book’s unnamed narrator (before he’s cast, the director refers to him only as the Weird Guy), now in his fifties, who played the masked Thin Kid, is the only survivor from the cast. He originally accepted the part because he wanted to create another version of himself, but he has drifted through life in the intervening years. However, there has been growing interest in rebooting Horror Movie and the narrator has been making appearances at fan conventions to stoke this interest, signing photographs and showing off the iconic mask.

He has also signed a deal to narrate an audiobook about his experiences making the movie, the text of which forms the contemporary part of Tremblay’s novel. The book bounces back and forth between this narrative in 2023 and the events of 1993 during production of the ill-fated (and some say “cursed”) movie, with a couple of scenes from fifteen years ago. Large sections of the original screenplay, an unorthodox, highly descriptive, introspective and conversational document, fill out the novel.

There have been several false starts, but someone is finally willing to green-light and finance a big-budget movie based on the 1993 script (with a few tweaks, of course). The Thin Kid is no longer thin nor a kid, but he’s eager to take part in the production and still owns the grotesque mask. Until the end of the book, the modern part of the story isn’t very important. However, the three-decade perspective gives the narrator room to tell the story as he sees fit. He admits that his memory isn’t completely accurate or that he may have reshaped events for dramatic effect. Ultimately, readers have only his word about certain incidents, and he has a vested interest in increasing curiosity about the cult classic.

Horror Movie (the film) is grim business, as deeply disturbing as The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum, and the original production was rife with complications and disasters. The Thin Kid character is easily manipulated; so, too, is the person depicting him. In the early parts of the movie, his face is never visible to the camera. Once masked, he’s forced to strip to his underwear, exposing his lanky, gaunt body. He allows some of the sadistic elements of the script to be played out for real, and has the scars and other injuries to prove it. He’s aware that the director is manipulating him to get the performance she wants, but he passively goes along. He doesn’t get to read the entire script, only the extracts for each day’s filming, so he doesn’t know what’s coming. He lives apart from the rest of the cast and crew and agrees to remain silent while wearing the supposedly cursed mask, which further isolates and dehumanizes him. The line between the actor and the character blurs.

Over the course of the novel, Tremblay explores horror films as a genre (with references to many of the classics) and films in general, describing them as a collection of lies that add up to a truth and, while the lies themselves may be beautiful, the result could be ugly. He also has fun at the expense of Hollywood, with its pretentious producers and self-important directors. 

The book also plays with the nature of masks—the literal ones people wear as disguises and the more metaphorical ones people adopt when interacting with society. The novel—or at least its narrator—is quite pessimistic, opining that the world eventually breaks us all.

Because the original movie was filmed mostly in chronological order, Tremblay can save the best for last, including the nature of the incident that shut down production. The narrator claims that taking part in Horror Movie didn’t exactly ruin him, but it did change his life. The question is: was the change for the better? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out…

Posted in books | Leave a comment

House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

It begins with the death of a woman named Maria, killed in a drive-by shooting as she worked checking IDs outside a Puerto Rican nightclub. The reason she was killed and the ever-shifting quest to identify the shooters is what motivates this novel of revenge and retribution.

Maria was mother to Bimbo (real name Andrés), one of a group of five lifelong friends who are on the cusp of manhood, fresh graduates of high school. They are as different from each other as possible: some smart, some thick; some tall, some short; some brown, some black; some fiercely loyal, some less so; some eager to move on to better things, some resigned to remaining in the poverty and violence of the place where they grew up. 

Over the years, these friends have always had each other’s backs in difficult situations, none more so than Bimbo. Most murders on the island go unsolved, so Bimbo knows that only he can bring the culprits to rough justice. When he calls upon Gabe (the book’s main point-of-view character), Xavier, Tavo and Paul, each boy-man must now decide how committed he will be to Bimbo’s mission of vengeance. They are all familiar with violence, having delivered beatings in the past to people who committed an infraction against a member of their group, but they understand that this is on a different level. If Bimbo finds the people who shot his mother, a beating won’t be enough to even the score. The book explores loyalty in the face of mortal danger and the possibility that they will go down a dark path from which there may be no return.

There’s another Maria on the horizon, a catastrophic hurricane destined to strike the island. Puerto Ricans are familiar with the devastation these storms deliver: loss of electricity, fresh water and communication for days if not weeks on end. There are other legends associated with hurricanes: People disappearing, nameless creatures traveling through the storm, and terrifying birth defects. The storm might thwart the fivesome’s plans; on the other hand, it might provide the cover they need for their mission, which threatens to put them up against some dangerous men.

Puerto Rico is also a place of legends from myriad cultures, a concept Iglesias describes with the apt word syncretism. Catholicism is strong on the Caribbean island, but there is also a wide variety of mysticisms drawn from Africa and France. Voodoo and Santeria are two of the better known of these, but there are others, and Iglesias adds a few of his own to the mix, inventing dark deities with fearsome powers and drawing from Lovecraftian mythology as well. Although the book starts out feeling like a straight dark crime novel, anyone who’s read his previous novel, The Devil Takes You Home, will know that supernatural elements are bound to creep into the story.

As the members of the crew negotiate the dangerous path from suspect to suspect, doling out increasingly violent payback for the nightclub attack, they also cause collateral damage. Their group suffers an unbearable loss. Gabe’s mother is beaten in her home to warn him off further pursuit of the people responsible for Maria’s death. They get things wrong time and time again, and Bimbo becomes increasingly manic. Gabe’s girlfriend wants him to follow her to the mainland and extract himself from this culture of violence and, though he’s tempted, he finds it harder and harder to get away. He may hate the things Bimbo suggests but he is compelled to do them anyway.

Maria arrives, laying waste to the island’s infrastructure, raising omnipresent resentment about the way this territorial island—many of whose residents are fiercely nationalistic—is ignored and mistreated by the nation that has colonized them, treating them as second class citizens.

Iglesias grabs readers by the hand and doesn’t let go as he drags them through a trail of violence and destruction. He immerses them in Puerto Rican culture and history and forces them to bear witness to terrible acts of revenge, even when it’s clear that the teens may be going too far. Like Gabe, readers may dislike Bimbo’s chaotic plans but they will continue to read about them anyway. This is dark stuff and the main question is: if the teens succeed, what will become of them in the aftermath?

Posted in books | Leave a comment

Review: First Frost by Craig Johnson

At the end of The Longmire Defense, Sheriff Walt Longmire had made several powerful people unhappy because he exposed a decades-old embezzlement scheme worth billions. His under-sheriff, Victoria Moretti also made the surprising decision to move in with him.

The contemporary story in First Frost continues to explore the repercussions of those incidents. Walt faces a preliminary hearing to determine whether his use of force was justified, although the real reason behind his possible prosecution has deeper motivations. Unlike the TV version, where Longmire also had to defend himself against a justified killing but seemed disinterested in contributing to his defense, Johnson’s Longmire—the OG Longmire—is fully invested in the proceedings.

While he and Vic are arranging her additions to the household, Vic finds an old surfboard in the basement. As many people opine over the course of this book, Walt is too big a man to be a surfer, and it has been many decades, in fact, since he rode the waves off the California coast when he and Henry Standing Bear played football as students. The discovery, though, inspires him to reminisce about the incident in which the board was dented and what happened thereafter.

It’s May 1964, and Henry and Walt are bound for their respective calls to duty, Henry in Louisiana and Walt at Parris Island. Having graduated from college, they are no long covered by a deferment and have enlisted for the war in Vietnam. Their farewell surfing expedition takes an unexpected turn when a cargo boat gets in trouble. Walt, never one to stand by in the face of danger, immediately takes his mammoth board and paddles out to rescue any survivors of the sinking vessel, which turns out to have been carrying drugs. Walt and Henry’s presence at the scene draws the attention of the local police and of criminals who wonder if the daring duo made off with the missing drugs.

Although they’re supposed to stick around for a few days at the behest of the police, Walt and Henry head east, getting their kicks on Route 66. However, they take an unexpected detour, uncertain if they’re still in California or not, ending up in Bone Valley, the kind of small town that’s the setting for many crime stories. The kind where the residents are reticent of outsiders. The kind that has little more than a bar/cafe and a service station and yet seems to survive in a world apart from everything else. The kind that’s run by a strong-willed and domineering family and has a dark secret in its past.

Walt and Henry are stranded in town while awaiting replacement parts for Walt’s damaged truck, but no one wants them there and few people are willing to engage with them. Then strange things start to happen, including a tiny person—a child?—wearing a mask from traditional Japanese theater who only Walt seems to be aware of. Readers of the series will be familiar with Walt’s occasional flirtations with the supernatural, so it remains an open question whether this entity is real or not.

The town is also the location of a former Japanese internment camp. This isn’t the first time the Longmire franchise has explored this shameful part of our history—a season 4 episode from the TV series (“War Eagle”) covered similar ground. However, 1964 is a lot closer to the end of World War II than 2015, so the wounds are fresher and the repercussions more evident. Something terrible happened there in the not-so-distant past, and the townspeople—most particularly the powerful Everson family—don’t appreciate Walt’s determination to get to the bottom of the mystery.

The story is populated by a colorful group of secondary characters, including a man who has banished himself to the desert so long he doesn’t know about the Korean War, let alone the Vietnamese conflict, a big bruiser who goes toe-to-toe with Walt several times, an erudite yakuza and his team, and a half-Japanese woman who runs the bar and steals Henry’s heart for a while.

As Johnson explains in the book’s acknowledgements (which appear at the beginning of the text, not the end), the title is a metaphor related to how true cowboys change from their palm leaf hats to their wool felt ones at the first frost, describing this time in Walt and Henry’s lives as their first frost. This is a fascinating dive into the early days of the lifelong friendship, exploring a time when neither of them could guess what the future held in store. Plus, in the modern day (the book alternates frequently between the two time periods), Walt figures out how to save his bacon from those who would see him punished for doing his duty. This twentieth installment in the long-running series shows that there’s still a lot of gas in the tank for Walt and his friends.

Posted in books | Leave a comment