A Few Books and Novellas I've Read this Year

I'm always trying to read more. Being a slow reader and having sparse leisure time, I have to find that happy medium between reading and writing. At times all I want to do is write on my work-in-progress, but I understand how important it is to read, though I don't read as varied a selection as I would like. I'm working on it. I tend to stick with horror because I dig the macabre, man! I read a mystery here and there and even a sci-fi book, but horror is where the heart is at.  Here are a few books I have read in 2013. I don't do many reviews because I'm terrible at it, so a quick little blurb for each one should suffice.

Mute by Jeffrey Hale

This book will be released soon from Grand Mal Press. I read an advanced copy and thought it was a great departure into the post apocalypse without the use (and sadly these days over-use) of zombies. Nope, Jeffery's vision of the bitter end starts with a whole new breed of creature, and it's a real doozie.








Infinity House by Shane McKenzie

This is a novella that probably holds the place in record books for most maggots in a piece of fiction. But that's not the whole of the story. There's much more than all the maggots, but you can't get them out of your mind after reading Infinity House. This is a refreshing (if that word can be used to describe nastiness) piece of horror in an urban setting reminiscent of the move People Under the Stairs. I am very much looking forward to more of Shane's work.






The Freakshow by Bryan Smith

The Freakshow has been around for a while, one of Bryan's Leisure titles. I bought the e-book version and gave it a spin in January. Good stuff! I have only read three or four Smith novels and I always find them to be solid and oftentimes disturbing. This one was no different. I like the idea of a freakshow, but I wasn't expecting the calibre of madness that is The Freakshow. I look forward to reading Kayla Undead later this year.







Whisonant by Mark Allan Gunnells

This was one half of a novella double from Sideshow Press and marked my first taste of the writings of Mark Allen Gunnells. Easily read in one sitting, this mysterious horror story was a very satisfying journey that did not go where I thought it would. You gotta love that. There's nothing more disappointing than predicting the ending of a story.  Just when you think you have this one figured out, that's when a bomb is dropped on your head. Very clever read. I look forward to more of Mark's work in the future.


I'm currently over one-hundred pages into Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box and loving it.

Happy reading!

It's been too long...

...Since I posted here. Shame on me.

I am always thinking about which direction to take my writing, which publishers to contact and submit to, and what the future holds. In the end, it's all about sitting down in front of the ole laptop and punching keys to form words and string them together into sentences that, over a period of time, will create a story. Once the story is edited, chopped up, edited again, and scanned for annoying typos, well, then it's ready for submission. That's all I can do.

Or is it?

I have been spending more time writing in these two months of 2013 than on-line. I wrote a 67K word first draft in about 30 days, which is a record for me. In the tail end of 2012 and the first week or so of this year I wrote a 55K short novel that I'm now editing and revising as I write my next novella. Multitasking is a great and necessary thing.

I neglect my blog from time to time and I hate myself for that. I know I should keep the blog and facebook current, but I find that I would rather write stories than blog posts. At work I think of good subjects, but by the time I get home, eat dinner, spend time with the family, all I want to do is write stories. I want to rectify this and post on here at least once a week. Can I manage that? I suppose we'll see.

Cheers!