My First Months of Leisure December

I wanted to give you a peek at the books I've gotten through the Leisure Horror Book Club. Today we'll cover December 2007.

The next two books I got from the Dorchester Horror Book Club were The Deluge by Mark Morris and Demon Eyes by L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims.


The Deluge

The Deluge
Author: Morris, Mark
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Type: Novel
Page Count: 342pp.
Pub. Date: November 27, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester Publishing
Extra: Special Article
Links: Mark Morris -- Horror and Thriller Writer

It came from nowhere. The only warning was the endless rumbling of a growing earthquake. Then the water came -- crashing, rushing water, covering everything. Destroying everything. When it stopped, all that was left was the gentle lapping of waves against the few remaining buildings rising above the surface of the sea.

Will the isolated survivors be able to rebuild their lives, their civilization, when nearly all they knew has been wiped out? It seems hopeless. But what lurks beneath the swirling water, waiting to emerge, is far worse. When the floodwaters finally recede, the true horror will be revealed.




Demon Eyes

Demon Eyes
Author: Maynard, L.H. and Sims, M.P.N.
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Page Count: 338pp.
Pub. Date: November 27, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester
Extra: First Chapter
Extra: Special Article
Links: The Official Website of Maynard-Sims
Links: Demon Eyes: The Official Website

Emma had just started her new job as personal assistant to Alex Keltner, the charismatic and powerful head of Keltner Industries. So when he asked her to attend a party he was throwing that weekend at his secluded estate, she knew better than to refuse. It would be her first party amid the extremely wealthy and powerful elite . . .

It will be a party she'll never forget . . . if she survives. At first it will be simply odd. Mysterious warnings. Strange, seductive guests. An atmosphere of lust and sexuality. Video cameras in the rooms. But as the weekend progresses, Emma will slowly learn the true nature of the guests and her mysterious host -- and the real, grotesque purpose of the party.


Evaluation of December's Selection

I fell victim to the very malaise I set this website up to combat. Because I didn't know of Mark Morris and I only know of Maynard and Sims as anthology editors, I assumed this month's offering would be the weakest of the lot. In truth, I knew nothing about these books and I judged them based on my lack of information.

In putting together this post, I did a little research and I learned some very interesting things.

Mark Morris is far from a novice author, he is a British author who has many books to his credit including two published at Dorchester/Leisure. On Dorchester's "special Feature" page, Mr. Morris has an essay about his love of the BBC television show called Survivors. He explained what the show was about and that he loved it for its unflinching depiction of "the harsh realities of life". He explained how it was those kinds of qualities he brought to The Deluge but with fewer resources and more dangers than the community on Survivors had. This is exactly what I look for in my post-apocalyptic fiction. Instead of shunning the book, I should have put it on my "to read" list.

Then I checked out L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims. They are more than just anthology editors. You can visit their website and send for a free PDF file called "Ghostly Voices and Demon Eyes" on CD with a book excerpt and over 35 stories. One way to get to know a writer or writing team is to read some of their short stories. They give you an opportunity to do just that for free. On Dorchester's "Special Feature" page for Demon Eyes they write about their philosophy of writing and how this book got started. The more I read about this book, the more I wanted to read it. Once again, add another book to my "to read" list.

Do you see now why a little knowledge can be a delightful thing?


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


This Monday I introduce the two other horror book clubs which will launch a monthly series examining the books I get from each club. See it in in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror

My First Months of Leisure November

I wanted to give you a peek at the books I've gotten through the Leisure Horror Book Club. Today we'll cover November 2007.

The next two books I got from the Leisure Horror Book Club were This Rage of Echoes by Simon Clark and Savage by Richard Laymon.


This Rage of Echoes

This Rage of Echoes
Author: Clark, Simon
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Type: Novel
Page Count: 342pp.
Pub. Date: October 30, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester Publishing
Also Pub: March 31, 2008 (Hardcover -- Robert Hale, UK)
Links: Simon Clark: Nailed by the Heart


You know the monster's face . . .

The future looked good for Mason until the night he was attacked . . . by someone who looked exactly like him. Soon he will understand that something monstrous is happening -- something that transforms ordinary people into replicas of him, duplicates driven by irresistible bloodlust.

It's the one in your mirror.

As the body count rises, Mason fights to keep one step ahead of the Echomen, the duplicates who hunt not only him but also his family and friends, and who perform gruesome experiments on their own kind. But the attacks are not as mindless as they seem. The killers have an unimaginable agenda, one straight from a fevered nightmare.




Savage


Savage
Author: Laymon, Richard
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Page Count: 448pp.
Pub. Date: October 30, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester
Original Pub: January 1993 (Trade Paperback -- Headline, UK)
Original Pub: January 1994 (Hardcover -- St Martins Press, US)
Extra: The First Chapter


Original Title: Savage: From Whitechapel to the Wild West on the Track of Jack the Ripper.

Whitechapel, November 1888: Jack the Ripper is hard at work. He's safe behind locked doors in a one-room hovel with his unfortunate victim, Mary Kelly. With no need to hurry for once, he takes his time gleefully eviscerating the young woman. He doesn't know that a fifteen-year-old boy is cowering under Mary's bed. . . .

Trevor Bentley's life would never be the same after that night. What he saw and heard would have driven many men mad. But for Trevor it was the beginning of a quest, an obsession to stop the most notorious murderer in history. The killer's trail of blood will lead Trevor from the fog-shrouded alleys of London to the streets of New York and beyond. But Trevor will not stop until he comes face to face with the ultimate horror.


Evaluation of November's Selection

Leisure Books started reprinting older classic Laymon works last year (or maybe earlier but I noticed it last year when they reprinted the ever-so-hard-to-get book The Cellar) and Savage continues that series. Richard Laymon was an American writer who had more popularity in the United Kingdom than in the United States. Simon Clark is a British writer who is publishing on both continents and gaining a following. Most of his books seem to have been published in the UK first and then later in the US but This Rage of Echoes is an exception. The US paperback came out in November while the UK hardcover was only published last month.

Richard Laymon passed away a few years ago but the website dedicated to him has been kept running next to horror writer Steve Gerlach's website. When I went to visit it, an advertisement popped up and crashed my browser. Until I find out what's going on I'm not going to add the URL for the website Richard Laymon Kills. If someone can enlighten me, please leave a comment.

In the meantime, this was an interesting month. I've read Simon Clark and enjoyed his work. This one looks particularly interesting to me. I'm not as familiar with Richard Laymon as I should be, although he was a major personality in the horror writer community and helped many fledgling writers out. He deserves a better reception in his home country and a better reception from me.



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


This Monday I introduce the two other horror book clubs which will launch a monthly series examining the books I get from each club. See it in in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror

My First Months of Leisure October

I wanted to give you a peek at the books I've gotten through the Leisure Horror Book Club. Today we'll cover October 2007.

The next two books I got from the Leisure Horror Book Club were Halloweenland by Al Sarrantonio and House Infernal by Edward Lee.


Halloweenland

Halloweenland (The Orangefield Cycle #3)
Author: Sarrantonio, Al
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Type: Novel
Page Count: 307pp.
Pub. Date: October 2, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester Publishing
Original Pub: October 2006 (Hardcover -- Cemetery Dance)
Original Title: The Baby
Extra: The First Chapter
Links: The Official Website of Al Sarrantonio

In Orangefield, Halloween is never normal -- and this year is no exception. For Orangefield is now the home of Halloweenland, a bizarre carnival run by the mysterious Mr. Dickens. No one who sees the carnival doubts that it's a very strange place, but its real secrets can hardly be imagined. Orangefield is also the home of Detective Bill Grant, who thinks he's seen it all. He's on the trail of an odd little girl, a girl who could hold the end of the universe in her hand. The trail leads Grant to Ireland, the ancient home of the Lord of the Dead, then back to Orangefield, where, on what may be the last Halloween, the ultimate battle between Life and Death takes place.



House Infernal

House Infernal (The City Infernal Saga #3)
Author: Lee, Edward
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Page Count: 369pp
Pub. Date: October 2, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester
Also Pub: February 2008 (Hardcover -- Cemetery Dance)
Extra: Author's Essay
Links: The domain of Edward Lee

A city, built with blood and bones . . .

Three things are about to join a crypt in Hell with a house on Earth . . . Nuns molested and drained of blood. A virginal student seduced by the perverse and taunted by things worse than ghosts. And six Angels, imprisoned in Hell and made pregnant by God knows what . . .

A house, built for the church, but designed by Satan . . .

When Venetia Barlow begins work at St. John's Prior House, she expects a quiet summer of drudgery and boredom. But soon she's haunted by lurid desires and visions of a city full of monsters . . . and the monsters know her name. Is the house really a place of meditation and worship, or is it a temple of abomination and the most evil secrets? Venetia will only find out, when the voice of a long-dead priest comes into her head and gives her a an unspeakable message from the howling, blood-drenched streets of Hell . . .

Horror master Edward Lee dares you to take another tour through the City of the Abyss, and to walk with him though a house of horror, a house of graves . . .

A House Infernal

Evaluation of October's Selection

Halloweenland belongs to a cycle of stories which I've found called variously The Orangefield Cycle and The Halloween Cycle. I've chosen to go with The Orangefield Cycle until and unless I find out that the official title is different.

Part One of Halloweenland is a reworking of Cemetery Dance's The Baby. Included in Halloweenland is a brief essay on the origin of the novella The Baby and how it also gave rise to the full novel Halloweenland. Writers especially will enjoy reading both to see how the story changes because due to the dictates of the length.

I have to confess, I've been collecting The City Infernal Saga and the Leisure published editions of The Orangefield Cycle so these were two books I would have sought out even without the book club. However, it was nice to have them come to me.


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

My First Months of Leisure September

I wanted to give you a peek at the books I've gotten through the Leisure Horror Book Club. Today we'll cover September 2007.

The first two books I got from the Leisure Horror Book Club were The Long Last Call by John Skipp and The Hollower by Mary SanGiovanni.




The Hollower
Author: SanGiovanni, Mary
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Type: Novel
Page Count: 368pp.
Pub. Date: August 28, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester Publishing
Book List for Mary SanGiovanni
Links: Mary SanGiovanni's Web Site

Nominated for the 2007 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.

What is the Hollower? At times it can look like a man in a black coat and a black hat. But it's definitely not a man. It's not human at all. Its sole purpose is to stalk, to torment and to drive its victims to their deaths. It can sense each victim's weaknesses, change its appearance and strike however it will hurt the most, physically . . . and mentally. Dave Kohlar is a man racked with guilt, doubt and worry. The perfect prey. He's about to learn exactly what the Hollower is -- and how it feeds.






The Long Last Call
Author: Skipp, John
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Page Count: 305pp
Pub. Date: August 28, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester
Extra: The First Chapter
Original Pub: October 31, 2006 (Hardcover -- Cemetery Dance)

It was closing time at the strip club. The bartender was cleaning up, and the girls were looking forward to calling it a night. Then he came in, a well-dressed stranger with a lot of cash to spend. A briefcase full, in fact. But this is no normal customer, and his money is a bit unusual too. Every dollar he spends stirs up a bit more hatred, a little more repressed rage in whoever he gives it to. As the night passes, the pressure builds . . . and builds, and the stranger just smiles. He knows what will come. He knows he only has to wait to see all of his blood-drenched plans fulfilled.



Evaluation of September's Selection

Horror World has a page titled The Horror World Library which has a 39 page excerpt of The Hollower among its many other goodies. You can read Brian Keene's Introduction to the book and the first part of the story. There is enough there to help you decide if The Hollower is your next "must read" or not.

Extra: Trailer for The Long Last Call

When Cemetery Dance first published a hardcover edition of The Long Last Call, they did a rather insightful interview that peaked my interest in reading the book. I'd recommend checking it out and you can also take a peak at Cemetery Dance's cover, too. John Skipp: Looking for Trouble?

All in all it was a great start for a club membership. What do you think?

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

My First Book Club

About six months ago I joined the Leisure Horror Book Club. I'd just gone to three local big chain bookstores trying to find Mr. Hands by Gary Braunbeck and Dead Sea by Brian Keene with no luck. These were huge stores and they didn't have a copy of the two books, newly published, that I wanted to read most. Because I had visited the Leisure website, I knew that they were that month's featured books on the Horror Book Club. I figured it was too late to get Dead Sea and Mr. Hands through the book club but it wasn't too late to prevent other really great books from slipping through my hands.

I joined Dorchester Publishing's Horror Book Club by filling out the online application on their website. It was easy. The waiting for the first shipment? Not so much. But finally the books arrived and I ripped open the box to find a pair of thrillers. I'd gotten the wrong shipment. I was disappointed.

I sent an e-mail to the book club's customer service and got back a response the next day: They apologized for the mistake, put the correct shipment of that month's horror books in the mail and told me I could keep the thrillers. They were very nice. And less than a week later my first batch of horror books arrived.

I've been happy with Dorchester Publishing's book club ever since.

Dorchester's Leisure imprint has been reprinting former small press novels (which are often expensive or hard to get) and brand new tales by other new and established horror authors. If you are serious about your horror and you like the idea of getting a wide variety of stories then this may be a worth while investment.

If you harbor some doubt, hang with me for a while. Over the course of this year I'll let you know what books I get. It is my hope that this series of articles will help you decide if a book club subscription is right for you and, if so, which one or ones to get.

We'll be examining the Dorchester/Leisure Horror Book Club, the Cemetery Dance Book Club and the Delirium Books Book Club -- the later I recently signed up for.


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

This Week on Dear Reader

DearReader.Com's Horror Club is offering a new title this week, one that I hadn't heard of before now, called The Mad Cook Of Pymatuning by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt. Interested? Take a look:


The Mad Cook Of Pymatuning
Author: Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 320pp.
Pub. Date: September 20, 2005
Publisher: Simon and Schuster

In this chilling novel about a 1950s boys' summer camp gone awry, the former New York Times literary critic has created a brilliant coming-of-age story with undertones reminiscent of Lord of the Flies.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt's novel is at once a fantasy, a barbed portrait of boyhood in the dawning of the Eisenhower era, and a no-holds-barred story of terror of the sort that won him praise for his previous novel, A Crooked Man.

Jerry Muller has been a regular at Camp Seneca for years. Now that he's a teenager and counselor, things don't seem quite right at his traditional summer haunt. As Jerry plunges into the mysteries around him, he finds himself growing up fast -- maybe too fast.


He's attracted to T.J., a pretty girl who might have a boyfriend but who flirts anyway, and he's shocked by the truth about his friend Oz, who's more interested in Jerry than in the likes of T.J. He sees something is strangely amiss with the husband and wife who own the camp. But above all, he's scared of the cruel game masterminded by Buck.

Of Seneca ancestry, Buck is a sinister, bigger-than-life expert on Indian lore. He is also an organizer of scary games who may just possibly be a psychopath and a killer, and in whose hands the camp's make-believe, designed to scare the kids, becomes first a savage and brutal test of strength, then, by small steps, genuinely dangerous.

As Jerry unravels the mysteries surrounding the ordinary-looking camp, he struggles to understand how "the Forbidden Woods," which have always been off-limits to campers as a kind of game and dare, have somehow become genuinely frightening -- all the more reason to discover the secrets that lie behind Camp Seneca's facade.

The story reaches its climax in a shocking scene that neither Jerry nor the reader is likely to forget. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt's new novel is a wicked, suspenseful, and deeply original tale.

It is not too late to sign up for the Dear Reader.com horror book club and get this week's e-mails with the first section of The Mad Cook Of Pymatuning. That way you can read the beginning for free and decide for yourself if you like it. And if you're joining in the middle of the week, the very first e-mail you get has instructions on how to get the e-mails you missed.

What have you got to lose? Except some sleep.

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

Confession is Good for the Undead Soul

My name is Greg Fisher and I am the Undead Rat. And as the Undead Rat, I get to explore the world of horror fiction and share what I'm learning with people over the internet and in person. Horror is a great literary passion of mine.

But . . . (here is the confession)

Horror is not the only literary passion I have. I have two others: one is a passion for Cleveland and Ohio authors. The other is a passion for comics and graphic novels.

Those of you who may remember earlier incarnations of . . . With Intent to Commit Horror will probably recall that I had pages dedicated to graphic novel series and to a couple of Cleveland authors who did not write horror novels.

In this latest version, I left out graphic novels and Ohio authors for fear of muddying the waters and I think it was a good choice. But lately I've felt the urge to talk about them.

This last Easter my lovely wife purchased a pair of domains for me to play with. . . . With Intent to Commit Horror will be my primary site and a place to find new horror fiction. However now you can drop by The Sequential Rat for a comic book and graphic novel fix or hit Ohio Writers.net for information about writers and their books in my great state of . . . wait for it . . . Ohio!

This does not mean I'll now be known as The Sequential Rat or the Ohio Rat. I'm still only The Undead Rat. I just have two more homes in which to wreck havoc.

For horror fiction use: . . . With Intent to Commit Horror

For comics and graphic novels use: The Sequential Rat

For Ohio authors use: Ohio Writers.net

For fantasy fiction use: Bestiary Dreams

Say, did I mention that I'm helping out at Bestiary Dreams too?


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

What's New for April

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

Due to some unfortunate problems with book covers disappearing, I had to fix almost every page on the website. Then I completely changed the navigation to the author and series pages because the website was growing beyond my expectations of a year ago. So every page got updated. However, the pages listed below in the Updated Booklists for April also had significant content added to them.

Booklists for April:

Authors:

John Paul Allen

Raven Bower

Tananarive Due

Jemiah Jefferson

Brandon R. Massey



Series:

The African Immortals Series
The Apparitions Series

The Dark Dreams Anthology
The Joe Kieran Series

The Laura Caxton Series

Masques Anthology Series




Themes:
I didn't get to the theme lists last month.



Updated Booklists for April:

Authors:

Brian Keene

Michael Laimo

Richard Montanari

Vicki Pettersson

Tim Waggoner

Wrath James White


Series:

Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano Thrillers

The Dresden Files
Signs of the Zodiac Series

Timmy Quinn Series

Unto Dust: Tales of Apocalypse



Horror Web Resources for April:
I didn't work on the Horror Web Resources last month



So, how am I doing so far?

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