Discover a New Writer: Brett Alexander Savory

Guest Blogging and Free Stories

The Canadian Indie magazine called Broken Pencil has enlisted Stoker Award winner Brett Alexander Savory, Editor-in-Chief of ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words to be the Indie Artist in Residence for this month's Horror issue.


During November, Mr. Savory is the guest blogger for the Broken Pencil website. The major theme of most of his posts is "Horror fiction that doesn't suck!" and he has given me a number of books I need to pick up and read. I heartily recommend you check out these posts and see if something doesn't appeal to you taste for horror, dark fantasy and excellence in writing.

The Broken Pencil Posts:

Coming soon: Horror fiction that doesn't suck!

Danielewski, O'Nan, Tremblay, Gaiman

Carroll, Davidson, Link, Barker

Savory, Kasturi, Lalumiere signing in Montreal Sadly, I am a little late with the information from this post.

Raw Dog Screaming Press, Night Shade Books, Delirium Books, and PS Publishing

And Now Free Stories:

Mr. Savory with kind permission from Shane at Delirium Books has also made his short story collection No Further Messages available as an Adobe Acrobat download on his website.

This is a rare opportunity to try out an author for free. You owe it to yourself to download No Further Messages, try a few stories and see if he doesn't click for you. Then, if he does, you can purchase the collection, his novel In and Down or one of his other books listed on his author's list.

(Originally posted on . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)

On a Personal Note

One of the nice things about having kids, besides taking up all that free time you once wasted on television shows, is that you have a ready made excuse for illness.

You don't get sick because you're getting old and your immune system is crumbling like a sugar cube doused with a cup of water. No, no, no. You got sick because your kids were exposed to the next pandemic at school and brought it home to share with family and friends.

I will try and post content this week but if I don't make it, just hold a candle light prayer vigil in my honor.

Now somebody get me my black-rabid-swine-bird plague flu shot, please.

(Originally posted in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)

In Remembrance: Ira Levin

Born: August 27, 1929
Died: November 12, 2007

Ira Levin was a novelist and playwright. Although he had many great accomplishments, including the play Deathtrap, he may be best known for a couple of important horror novels:

Rosemary's Baby

The Stepford Wives

He won the 1996 Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Horror Writers Association.

There are many tributes to Mr. Levin by writers far more eloquent than I. Here are just a few to give you a better idea of what the community of horror readers and writers has lost.

Scary Parent by Joe Schreiber

Burlesque of the Damned by Mark Henry

Hellnotes courtesy of Sheila Merritt


(Originally Posted in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror.)

More About Blogging for a Good Book

Previously . . .

The other day I introduced you to Blogging for a Good Book and talked about how it can help you find your next good horror novel. Today I want to talk about how it can help you find books of interest that are not in the horror genre.

--GASP!--

Has the Undead One gone over to the Bright Side?

An Ugly Truth

This really deserves a post of its own but here is the ugly truth: a steady diet of horror fiction and only horror fiction is the quickest way to burn out on the genre. It's not good for you. Not only will it stunt your literary growth but it will ruin your love of horror. Over time you'll grow to find horror boring and move on to thrillers, mysteries, fantasies or some other genre.

Occasionally cleansing the palate with a fine classic or a brooding piece of mainstream fiction not only broadens your literary horizons but refreshes you, which keeps the horror from growing stale. This is a warning: I nearly burnt out on horror until I began to vary my diet with fantasies and thrillers, sprinkled with a little bit of non-fiction and anything else that caught my fancy.

How Blogging for a Good Book Can Help

How, you ask, can I find something I want to read that isn't horror?

The answer is as simple as it is fun. Randomly or methodically stroll through the summaries of Blogging for a Good Book until you find one or two that catches your interest. You can use the category list on the left hand side to select the type of book you're looking for. You can use the archive list below that if you want to start with the first summaries and work your way up or start with the most recent summaries and work your way down. You can also drop in on a daily basis just to see what's new. I use all three methods.

The idea is to read or skim the summaries until something catches your attention and give it a closer read. Doing this today I found the next book I need to read: The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. I wasn't really looking for yet another book to read but I couldn't help myself. The summary made it sound so appealing.

The Undead Rat Shows You How it's Done

Here are links to summaries of books that while not horror, still caught my interest. I invite you to take a look at them. You just might find something you'd like to read.

Red Hourglass: The Lives of Predators by Gordon Grice

Last Season by Eric Blehm

Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss

The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch

Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

Read On . . . Fantasy Fiction by Neil Hollands

The Triumph of the Thriller by Patrick Anderson

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry

Go, check out Blogging for a Good Book and then, if you have a moment, come back and tell me about your experience in the comments. Did they show you a book that caught your interest? What was it?


(Originally posted on . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)

Oops - I Missed a Few

I'm way behind on my next blog post and I'm so tired I can't spell straight. I'm pushing today's post to tomorrow. However, while I was preparing to write what will be tomorrow's post, I discovered a few summaries of books that I missed yesterday. These books aren't strictly horror but they do have elements of storytelling that you find in good horror novels. If you're looking for a book to read, check out these summaries provided by the good folks at Blogging for a Good Book.

The Missing Few

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I love Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar.

Tenderness by Robert Cormier. Mr. Cormier's adult novel about a serial killer.

Scavenger by David Morrell. The story that takes place before this, Creepers, won the Stoker Award for Best Novel.

Fat White Vampire Blues by Andrew Fox. It has vampires; need I say more?


(Originally posted on . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)

Introducing Blogging for a Good Book

What is This Blog?

Since March 2007, the good folks at the Williamsburg Regional Library have been posting a brief book summary each weekday with few exceptions (author obituaries replaced the book summary for 4 such exceptions).

This is an impressive blog. Usually one staff member from the library takes a week and posts 5 short summaries, each about a book he or she enjoyed.

An Overview

These are not book reviews. They're short, insightful summaries that include information on why a reader would enjoy the book without spoiling the ending. I leave it thinking either 'yes, put this book on the reading list' or 'no, this is not for me'-a valuable when I'm looking for a new book to read on my tight schedule.

Quite the variety can be found here. Blogging for a Good Book provides summaries for fiction in all genres, including interesting non-fiction. Some entries cover kids and teen books that would also be good reads for adults. Once they even posted a week's worth of DVD movie recommendations.

A Closer Look

The blog is organized to easily find the kind of book you want to read. Just clicking on the horror category on the right hand margin yielded summaries of 3 books: World War Z by Max Brooks, Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris, and The Ruins by Scott Smith.

Two graphic novels with a bit of a horror bent were also included: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill which won the 2000 Stoker Award for Illustrated Narrative and Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence by Kevin Smith.

I also found a couple of additional horror title under the category, "Jessica's Picks", including Sunshine by Robin McKinley and The Stand (complete and uncut edition) by Stephen King.

In Summary

If you're looking for a good horror novel--or just a good book to read of any stripe--be sure to stop by this blog and browse to your heart's content. You're practically guaranteed to find a summary that will pique your interest.

(Originally posted on . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)

More on Storytellers Unplugged

A Further Introduction:

A few days ago I introduced you to Storytellers Unplugged and created a table of contents to the October stories they posted last month. This was to make it easier for you to find the free stories and read them. The idea was that by reading some authors you've never read before you might find you have an interest in reading more.

However, Storytellers Unplugged actually has more to it than that. For 11 months out of the year, some 30 authors, editors, agents and booksellers take turns posting an essay. The topics can be wide ranging from writer's block to finding an agent to dealing with unfair criticism. Usually the posts have something to do with writing in general but not always.

Who is the Audience?

The people who would be interested in adding this blog to thir list are writers and anyone else in the publishing industry or anyone who wants to be a part of the publishing industry. However, if you are an avid reader of horror, if you the kind of person who always wonders "Where do they get their ideas?" or if you like to see behind the scenes, the Storytellers Unplugged is also for you.

Still not sure if this is the blog for you? Check out these representative samples and decide for yourself. If you like what you read, then save the URL to your bookmarks and visit often. You can subscribe using RSS (see the orange box in the upper right hand corner of their website) and get a copy of the posts in your RSS Aggregate Reader daily.

The Essays:

The First Church of Words and Starry Wisdom is In Session by David Niall Wilson
David Niall Wilson, his ministry and the perils of writing to be a great writer.

It's Hard to Tell the Truth by Bev Vincent
Bev Vincent talks about that old piece of writerly advice: "Write what you know."

What Not To Do With Writer's Block by Sarah Monette
Sarah Monette tackles a mountainous problem for writers and turns it into a molehill.

Autopsy of the Mind by Robert Jones
I originally put this post with the stories, because it starts out with a story. But R. C. Jones' post is more a brief, intense and insightful look at the mind and making of a serial killer. This would be a good place to start your research.

Caveat Author by Janet Berliner
The dark side of a writer's success becomes apparent when "friends" reveal their true hearts.

Thomas Sullivan: Competition and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction by Thomas Sullivan
Taking Janet's post (see above) as a starting point, Thomas Sullivan talks about the value of competition. The lesson here is not just for writers but for everyone.

Repeat After Me: "I (You) Don't (Don't) Write (Write) Mysteries (Mysteries)" by Elizabeth Massie
Elizabeth Massie talks about being branded a mystery writer despite the truth. I saw ways this can be applicable to the horror reader as well.

Is It Really Worth It? by Brian Knight
After all the grief that writers go through to get published, to sell books to get recognized . . . they all have to ask and answer Brian Knight's question for themselves.


(Originally posted on . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)

The Lost Storytellers

Okay, I admit it. I am not perfect. Thus it was that my non-perfect undead self accidentally missed two stories from Storytellers Unplugged. In an effort to correct the situation, I will add them into the original post. However, by way of apology I am offering this public separate post.

The Lost Stories:

Storytellers Unplugged by Mort Castle. This is Mr. Castle's clever holiday offering.

On The Importance of Revising - A Horror Story by Gerard Houarner. The horror writer's version of literary journalism -- Truman Capote beware.

Okay, okay, I made my apology. Will you guys stop lobbing those holy water balloons at me? Please?

Introducing Storytellers Unplugged

You know about them don't you?

Storytellers Unplugged is a shared blog with 29 participants each taking a day of the month on which to make a post. As I understand it, 11 months out of the year they're pretty free to post whatever they want, usually something revolving around the writing and publishing business, but when October rolls around, they post stories.

As David Niall Wilson observed, when they started the group was primarily horror writers so the stories in October were horror stories. Since then people have come and gone and now there is some mix. That mix is reflected somewhat in the stories they posted last month.

Still they are free stories and a chance to try out authors you may not have heard of. If you find a story you enjoyed, why not visit your public library and read more stories by them? You might just find a new favorite author or two . . .

The Stories:

Miracles in the Night by David Niall Wilson. Philosophical horror with vampires.

Storytellers Unplugged by Mort Castle. This is Mr. Castle's clever holiday offering.

On The Importance of Revising - A Horror Story by Gerard Houarner. The horror writer's version of literary journalism -- Truman Capote beware.

Glimpses of Horror by Elizabeth Massie. Three short-short tales that really creep up on you.

Extract by Brian Hodge. A story with teeth. Also includes a link to a podcast reading.

Swimming with Sharks by Robert Jones. It's more terrifying than Cthulhu and the insanity . . . oh the insanity of it all . . .

The Gonquin Table: October Surprise . . . by Frank T. Wydra. A story about writing stories? Complete with dead people.

Trick or Treat by John B. Rosenman. This is definitely trick or treating after my own undead heart. John's novel (featuring killer angels, no less) Alien Dreams will be out in e-book format next week from Drollerie Press.

Harming Obsession by Bev Vincent. When you obsess over the possibility that you may have just harmed someone, sending you out for candy during trick or treat is exquisite torture. Includes a link to a podcast reading of the story.

That’s Hardly Possible by Justine Musk. A decidedly creepy ghost story.

Six Six Six by Matt Forbeck. Each of the three stories is exactly six words long. And read the comments as some of the other writers join in.

The Ghost Who Loved Books by Brian Knight. Instead of a short story, Mr. Knight "decided to share an original, unpublished young adult fantasy novelette, The Ghost Who Loved Books." But don't let the YA label discourage you from trying it out. It's in a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format.

Aftermath by Janet Berliner. An excellent vampire tale set in Jerusalem in 1197. Those of you who played the role-playing game Vampire: The Dark Ages will get an extra kick out of this story.

For The Autumn Queen, Where She Rests Among The Fallen by Richard Dansky. I love how Mr. Dansky opens this story: "Because autumn stories don’t necessarily have to be about Halloween."

The Long, The Short, and The Ugly by Wayne Allen Sallee. A triptych of terror with poetry . . . and a clown.

Requiem for Prey by Sarah Monette. Is she a predator with a conscious or something else?

Phase by David Niall Wilson. The final piece is a subtle story of horror, memory and a road trip.

(Originally posted in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)

What’s New for November

Each month I list the new booklists that have been added to my website . . . With Intent to Commit Horror.

Here are the new booklists for the month of November:

Authors:

John Everson
Fran Friel
Charlie Huston
Yvonne Navarro
Weston Ochse
Natasha Rhodes
Brett Alexander Savory
Mike Wall

Series:

The Cycle of the Aegis
Final Destination
The Final Impact Duology
The Joe Pitt Casebooks


What do you think?

(Originally posted in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)