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  • Best Reads of the First Third of 2020

    So far I've tackled 31 books, though I've been doing a bunch of rereading this year, so I'll just tackle the really good books I'd read for the first time. Listed in order of most recently finished. Loads of underwater action and creepy good stuff. Great monster. Accessible writing. Totally engaging. Outside the expected mosaic collection of stories. Comedic. Horrific. Sexy. Sometimes totally bonkers. Really fantastic. Totally hit the spot. Great story. Great pacing. Great voice. Block rocked this one, start to finish. Outrageous. Funny. Engrossing. Surprising. I don't know, could anybody be more reliable than Westlake? Is it possible? This book is magic. An engaging, mysterious story, all the way through. Totally awesome. Is you were teaching a class on suspense writing, my guess you'd use this book as an example of skirting a plotting masterpiece. Totally fantastic. Lightning pacing. Endearing characters. Great, relatable hook. Incredible story. Painful. Endearing. Fantastic, accessible writing. This one gets thick and the weaving of the situation left me spinning by the end. Almost story with a perfect conclusion. Brilliantly written. Totally deserving of all the praise it's gotten and will get in the future. I hope when they make the movie, they cast Natasha Lyonne as the doctor.

  • Cool Stuff From February

    SAVAGE BEASTS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE came out in February, so that's cool, if you want to check it out, go to Amazon. I also experienced some pretty great entertainment in February. For the Valentine’s weekend, my wife and I went over to Vancouver Island to check out The Ministry of Grace at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria. It was excellent. It was an early showing (maybe the first general audience showing?), but the cast was totally tight and on point. Great writing and design, and I’m a sucker for the theme of Christianity as a means to moneygrubbing matched alongside nasty holy men. The extra edge of racism being mocked and laughed at by its victims is always appealing to me, guess I just like hardened characters, they’re refreshing. Felt much shorter than it was and that’s a huge win for a fidgety dude like myself. Excellent. Next up comes the books: DjinnPatrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara was fantastic. Had a great balance of childish voice and biting circumstances. Packed a major wallop. My Sister, the Serial killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite tickled me in all the right ways. Funny and smart, but carried an underlying edge. The layers to the flawed narrator made for extra fun on afterthought. Where are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark came next. She died in January and I’d read two of her books, almost meant to check out more. One of the ones I'd read before was an early book and the other being a later book. The early one was great, the later one was definitely geared to an older generation (over and over a young couple didn’t agree but had to defer decisions to the wise elderly people in the book, wildly unrealistic, but perfectly suited for the right audience) so I mostly grinned my way through. Where are the Children? was the book that got it all started for her and holy shit, no wonder. It ticks every suspenseful mystery novel box and does so with a bang. The reveals were grand. The suspense was palpable. The writing was quick and accessible. Awesome book. I didn’t read it in February (I read it a few years ago, will revisit), but I found a special edition copy of Under the Dome by Stephen King, complete with art cards, for only $7.50 CAD (after my trade-in credits, which covered the other $7.50), still in its cellophane! Pretty jazzed about that one. Lastly, I get to something that held a tremendous bit of weight for me. The Shining is my favorite book and my favorite movie. Probably it’s the elements that fit and drum up so many relatable vibes: screaming dad, losers at capitalism, addiction trouble, and frosty isolation. When I first heard there was going to be a Doctor Sleep movie, I was like okay, cool, will check it out eventually. Then I was watching the trailer and was like, looks pretty cool, but then end came and that familiar horn rang out. I just about lost my fucking mind, I shit you not. I watched it twice and then no more because I didn’t want to pick up anything spoilery (I’ve read the book, but movies are different). Here in town, the theatre is run by some old heads who love cartoons and musicals. Since I’ve been here, I’ve only been aware of two horror movies showing (It: Chapter One and A Quiet Place). So I watched for news of Doctor Sleep, but it never came. Fast forward X number of months and the Blu-ray is out and I have it in my hands and I pop it into my Xbox and I sit and, whether I admit it or not, my entire universe is riding on this being done right. See, I don’t like many things and as far as entertainment goes. The only thing I can revisit over and over with any regularity is The Shining (annual reread and two-to-three viewings of the movie per year). I do watch the Rocky movies at Christmas and make it through the Friday the 13th movies once every two years, but there are stretches in both those series where I’m just being dutiful (could skip Rocky 3,4,5 and could skip Friday 3,5,7,8,9,10) and I’m never totally compelled to watch any of them the way I am The Shining. So Doctor Sleep starts and for once, it’s finally a thinking fan who’s making a movie from source material. Someone who respects the story and that some weirdos NEED this movie to be done right. Mike Flanagan employs those tense Kubrick-film horns and carries the suspense from the opening, and it is rare magic because we know the characters and the situation, we know so much that nothing’s wasted, it’s all bite. The story progresses and the worlds of King and Kubrick collide in that perfect melody that overwhelms in all the right ways. When it was finished, I could hardly believe it. It was perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Mike Flanagan conquered a virtually impossible mountain and I am awed every time I think about it. Infuckingcredible. #Books #Horror #Suspense #DoctorSleep #StephenKing #MikeFlanagan

  • Cool Stuff From January

    January was busy, is always busy, and I think that goes for just about everyone, so I didn't catch many new-to-me movies, and of the ones I saw, none blew me away, but some other stuff happened. The Journal of Black Ivy published my short story about dimensional disturbances and hitting the gym for New Years resolutions. You can read that one for free, just click on the link below. https://signalhorizon.com/the-change-room-by-eddie-generous/ Next cool thing is actually three things. I sold two short stories and a novella. The novella will likely be out this month (February) based on how things typically go with Severed Press. It's called Savage Beasts of the Arctic Circle. I'm pretty excited, RAWR, my last book with them, sold waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than any book I've published (Severed, Unnerving, anything). The shorts' tables of contents haven't been announced yet, so...I won't say. Third cool thing is a pretty awesome deal for me. It's a more serious novella: a cosmic horror, sci-fi, and cli-fi genre blend built on the groundwork Arthur Machen laid with The Great God Pan. It's with a new-to-me publisher, so hopefully it sells and I don't look like an asshole. Check it out at the link below. https://omniumgatherumedia.com/plantation-pan I guess finally, I read two absolute knockout books in January (I read seven total, I think, but two of which were revisits, so I'll leave those alone). The first was My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. Totally strange and fun and masterfully written. So engaging. The second was called The Murder List by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Absolute page-turning legal thriller with a fantastically unpredictable ending that managed to hold onto total plausibility given tidbits hidden in the busy foreshadows. Both are 100% worth looking into, no matter your preferred genre. Lastly, in January I reached a pretty big milestone. It wasn't until about six or seven hundred rejections that I could see them as any kind of positive, and once I got into the nine hundreds, I was really focused on that big fourth digit. Well...I hit it, one thousand rejections, and the final coming from F&SF, on a Christmas story called Little Candies Behind Little Doors. I guess I just keep pushing to the next one thousand. That's it for my personal stuff (the Rewind or Die releases began in January, too, but that's Unnerving), hopefully I have more good stuff to come in February. #Horror #Books #Reading #Writing

  • PLANTATION PAN Now Available!

    Release day. Plantation Pan, a novella by me, published by Omnium Gatherum Books, available now in paperback and eBook. A cosmic horror and science fiction sequel to Arthur Machen’s masterpiece, The Great God Pan. Centuries after Earth has become uninhabitable, the planet has rejuvenated. The Union, the organization governing the diaspora, sends a team to the mother planet with hopes of resuming life on the homeland. For months, activity on Plantation Earth has been irregular and The Union has been receiving strange transmissions, until finally, they’ve lost contact altogether. The Union recruits Lay Watt to be a member of the second team to go the planet’s surface. Lay finds that the close-knit crew considers her an outsider. This is a dangerous state of affairs as the team wades through humanity’s ruins to seek out the ancient source of the current disaster. As they explore, a figure on the periphery of their dreams stalks the edges of their reality and threatens to destroy all they know to be true. AMAZON

  • New Year's Resolutions

    I’d waited to pop this up on the blog because I’ve never made a New Year’s resolution—not that I can remember, maybe when I was a little kid?—and I wanted to feel pretty firm on likely success. I guess in that way it’s not really a resolution, just more of the same but with my blogging about it for accountability. Plus I want to keep myself focused on the first ever long-game goal I’d ever really considered (thought of it a few months ago and deemed it doable, so I'll go for it). Ray Bradbury published about 600 short stories. He lived in a time when people read sometimes. Read because a couple TV stations ain’t Netflix. Read because attention spans (even with flash stories) stretched beyond TikTok clips. Read because the general public hadn’t forgotten how much entertainment comes from the written word. (Bradbury cheated a bit, making chapters of novels standalone, or get close enough to standalone, but that’s beside the point.) So I’d like to publish more 600 shorts in my life. In horror, so long as I don’t undervalue my work too far, I can maybe manage ten short story sales a year (I don’t foresee ever getting into the IN crowd, but I no longer care about impressing the horror establishment surrounding shorts, turns out there’s no great benefit…few more bucks, but it doesn't appear to turn into any kind of career success), meaning I’ll have to self-publish collections. Doesn’t bother me to do so, since, by my estimation, I can do a passable job of book production and artwork. So here we reach my first goals for 2020: Write thirty short stories Publish at least two collections Write more the 250,000 words total Next, we get to longer fiction. Over the last few years, I’ve written as many novels as novellas. I’ve sold one novel and five novellas. I have nine passable novel manuscripts finished (probably some could use dusting off and tightening up) and another five that would need a total overhaul before I’d even show one of my cats (I’ve dragged two finished manuscripts to the trash icon as well, practice words). I am going to try my damndest to keep from writing a novel in 2020. Maybe that sounds backward, like novel writing is supposed to be difficult, and it is, if you haven’t done it before. But what’s a thousand words a day once you’ve figured it out? An hour and a half of work? I know not finishing things is a sickness many face, and for some it becomes beneficial to their goals, but I don’t understand it at…where was I? Oh yeah, goals. No new novels in 2020, if I can keep the big ideas from visiting, but I’ll still want books out, lots of them. So for the next goal: Write four novellas The next point is only vaguely writing/editing/arting related. I have two round parents. Over the years, I’ve gone up and down in weight, pretty drastically at times. Lately, it’s only been up—think maybe age is starting to get to my ability to burn. Also, Unnerving has me sitting at my desk more than ever. In December, a 24-hour gym opened in my town and I joined, decided I liked it, and have gone for an hour or more every day since December 6th. It’s done a fairly good job of fighting the roundness, so far. Next goal: Hit the gym at least 336 times in 2020 (that’s taking a whole month off! Leap year!) Now, there’s also the things out of my control, things people often mistake for goals (I know that because I used to; out of your control, not a goal, it’s a hope). I’d like to keep selling stories. I’d like to make a better effort at pushing my books in meaningful ways (a hope, because I have to figure out what increases sales without spending a ton; the simplest, seemingly obvious, done to death answers don’t actually work). Stay off Twitter a bit, talk about wasting time, but maybe blog more. Focus on the things I like, ignore the shit I don’t. Try to keeping helping down (easy to help up when it feels like something might come back), but somehow avoid those who don’t deserve my time. Last year I worked 357 days, this year I’m going to try to take more than ten days off, do nothing at all those days. I’d like to read more books than last year (103). I’d like to hit the road and do something in-person (hopefully Trump hasn’t gone full dictator by the end of the year and the people show the necessary will to correct the issue that is him, and I can again visit America again, where the cons are). Think that’s it. Am I missing something? Have some ideas for me to try?

  • Daily Short Story Diary - Week 52

    Day 357 Dec 22, 2019 A MATTER OF PRINCIPAL by Max Allan Collins A Century of Great Suspense Stories – 2001 (story originally published in 1989, and then expanded upon for the novel The Last Quarry) Crime – 11 Pages This Quarry fellow is one rough and tough customer. This story is interesting and fun in that while Quarry is a professional type, he rides on a whim and takes a shot at an easy payday. The situation is obvious quickly, but that doesn’t really harm the reward. Biting. Harsh. Smooth writing. **** Day 358 Dec 23, 2019 ANY OTHER by Jac Jemc Tiny Crimes – 2018 Crime – 4 Pages There’s a fun little twist to close out this one after a mystery that’s curious, but ultimately unimportant, and not just to the story. There’s a sale of something and what’s up for sale is a mystery, but it’s obviously not a life, or beating, or anything that matters beyond the buyer, so kind of blah. *** Day 359 Dec 24, 2019 A MOTHER’S BLOOD by Ray Cluley Probably Monsters – 2015 (story originally published in This Is Horror, 2012) General – 5 Pages This one’s a melodramatic play on postpartum depression. Nothing happens. It’s all about how sad this woman is and how sad her carnal urges make her once the deed is done. ** Day 360 Dec 25, 2019 TIME by Stephen Graham Jones States of Grace – 2014 General – 2 Pages Yee, Christmas, I guess. These stories, though teeny, really do have some power. It’s the humanity, I think. Perfect score for this one because it took me back to a specific ride and an exhibitionist type of girl I used to know. ***** Day 361 Dec 26, 2019 COMPSER by Judy Budnitz Flying Leap – 1998 (story originally appeared in Story Magazine, 1996) General – 7 Pages As with all the other stories in this collection, it’s well written and weird. The edge is a bit dull with this one, however. Not much human about the composer himself, aside that he misses his mother when she’s passed. The finale has a touch of fun to it, but mostly this one’s only okay. *** Day 362 Dec 27, 2019 CIGARETTE GIRL by James M. Cain A Century of Great Suspense Stories – 2001 (story originally published in Manhunt, 1953) Crime – 11 Pages In these old stories, women just about fall for any sort of man who happens upon their vicinity. Dames, helpless against the allure of charms involved in being the protagonist of a story. Happens a bit here. The story has a cool angle, but mostly it moves in a straight line. Not so suspenseful. *** Day 363 Dec 28, 2019 ‘TIS THE SEASON by Stephen Graham Jones States of Grace – 2014 General – 1 Page I love the fuck up characters in SGJ’s stuff, because they’re so relatable. Little things always going wrong, like in real life when you’re trying to make lemonade from that ancient concentrate bottle at the back of the fridge. *****

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