Dark Entities by David Dunwoody

Dark Entities
by David Dunwoody
Dark Regions Press, 2009
ISBN: 1-888993-65-0
Trade Paperback
112 pages
Horror


Meet David Dunwoody’s Dark Entities. They crawl across, under and over each page. They’ll get into your head; you’ll feel them in your gut. And if you have any empathy for your fellow man, you’ll be greatly disturbed.

Dunwoody writes a tight, effective and mesmerizing short story. His chosen genre is HORROR, and he isn’t playing around. Not only does Dunwoody frighten and disturb, he’s damned good at it. If you’re looking for something new in horror fiction, Dark Regions Press presents New Voices of Horror 1, Dark Entities by David Dunwoody.

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In The Clay

Detective Kaufman accidently finds a severed finger inside a decorative clay pot. When he tracks the pot back to its maker, he isn’t prepared for what he finds… A King without a face, a lot full of dead people who aren’t really people and a truth he just can’t accept.


Brownlee’s Blue Flame

Death is patient. It/he/she lives in an endless cave rimmed with billions of candles. One goes out, and he marks its passing by snuffing the wick. A new candle bursts into flame—a new life. But then something strange happens, something unique, unknown. This troubles Death enough that
he steps into the world of the living for the first time in hundreds of years. But the answers found lead to more questions and the suggestion of a time to end all times. Read on my friends and watch as death has an identity crisis. It’s a thing of dark and disturbing beauty.


The Ambrosia Supper Club

Vetta likes her job as a hostess at The Ambrosia Supper Club. She also likes her strange Boss, Mr. Clith. It’s too bad, really, because tonight is the last for both Clith and the Club. You see, a party of ten with no reservation insists they’ll be stopping by for dinner, and they won’t take no for an answer. Despite all her efforts to dissuade, the men show up and have their expected meal. I would suggest that life will never be the same for Vetta.


Minotaur

As instinctively as a child steps on the ant crossing his path, so does the hunter search for you in your evening cornfields. He is the Minotaur waiting at the end of the maze, and you will not believe what you see.


Hell’s Razor

The Devil is Sue’s constant companion. They’re like a couple of old friends risen from forced proximity. Until Mom, Dad and her 18th birthday have passed away. Then the truth will out. And Sue won’t like it at all. But who would have guessed the Devil would like it a lot less?


Sunset

Tanner, a man caught up in a fight for his life (his wife wants a divorce), has built a wonderful boat and has headed out to sea on holiday with his two boys and the disgruntled wife. But as is often the case, our troubles travel with us. He can’t even get his wife to enjoy a sunset with him.

While visiting an island he knows, Tanner runs into an old friend. He’s so pleased with the chance meeting and so burdened by the obvious failure of his reconciliation attempt with his wife, Tanner misses the casual but serious warning uttered by his friend: which, paraphrased, urges him to stay away from uncharted islands in the area.

Tanner finds out–the hard way–that there are things much worse than a failed marriage.


A Carrion To Wounded Souls

Twilight Man’s mind was shattered due to a nasty head injury. Before that he was just a serial rapist and murderer. Come take a ride with insanity… Is the mind-vulture hovering close by real or imagined?


Birthright

A unique vision of Hell on the brink of civil war–all because one fallen angel wants to go home.


The Abbot and The Dragon

Mankind done in by its endless quest for knowledge. Now, in a post apocalyptic world, a doomed man stumbles across the recorded and completely meaningless truth.


New Eyes

A self-blinded man who’s life has been spent without purpose might just have found a reprieve, a small bit to play. It depends on whether or not he and death can work out a deal. Oh, I didn’t tell you? The man can now see death and spirits of pestilence and…


The Run

They came to the little island between Athens and Crete to run. Some of the best in the world. And it was because they were runners that they escaped the first attack. But Rafe knows something the others don’t. The things that came out of the sea aren’t of the sea, and they aren’t killing people because they’re hungry for food. No, what the monsters want is much more horrifying. Abe knows it for a fact. Because he’s number one on their hit list…


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

Serpent’s Tooth by Toni V. Sweeney

Serpent’s Tooth
by Toni V. Sweeney
Published by Class Act Books, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-935048-55-8
and 978-1-935048-55-4
eBook and Print
335 pages
Romance and Horror

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The year is 2009. Melissa Powers, a forty-something Librarian from the Southern U.S., is on a cruise to help her recover from the recent loss of her mother. On the first day of her vacation, an enigmatic and gorgeous man begins to follow Melissa around the ship. She’s not sure how to take such obvious interest, but its not long before choice is taken away from Melissa.

Meet Travis Brandt, a man full of secrets, including the fact that he’s attracted to Melissa because she reminds him of his former wife. The reader wants to like Travis, especially as he quickly wins Melissa’s heart with his potent charisma. But it’s not just secrets with this man; there are also many lies.

Melissa is as bright as she is beautiful and immediately begins to unravel the enigma Travis represents. Her first discovery? Travis Brandt is none other than the man known as Hildebrant, a movie and singing star who disappeared 20 years ago and has been legally declared dead. The man owned the box office, and his band Serpent’s Tooth was sitting atop the world of music, but he just walked away from it all.

A former fan of Hildebrant and head over heels in love with Travis, Melissa spends the entire cruise with him, then after an agreed upon waiting period of about 3 months she marries the mysterious fellow. Whisked away to an isolated ranch in Nebraska, Melissa struggles to adapt to a completely alien lifestyle. She also continues to catch Travis in lies… He doesn’t want children, but he loves being around them. He has a strange scar on one hand that he explains away in yet another lie. He doesn’t tell Melissa he has an adult, adopted child until after they are married.

Yet the man obviously adores his new wife. We also want to be happy for Melissa, but the reader is made more and more aware of Travis’ dark past through an ongoing series of flashbacks that reveal the evil of his life, just as Melissa, herself, moves closer and closer to the truth.

Finally, all is revealed to both the reader and Melissa. We struggle to understand what Travis has done and what the cost may be to Melissa and her—surprise!—newly expected baby. Surely, Travis, Melissa and their child will be able to overcome the terrible secret hidden in Hildebrant’s past. Or is that just wishful thinking?

Serpent’s Tooth is an interesting mix of romance and horror. The slow and steady build-up to the terrifying conclusion of the book is a daring experiment and quite typical of Toni V. Sweeney. She’s an author who doesn’t seem afraid of anything. Every book and short story I’ve read by this author is so different from what has come before, you just can’t say this is a writer of romance or horror or even humour. It’s harder yet to determine her specific voice. This says a lot for Sweeney’s talent and her approach to writing. I fully expect bigger and better works to come.

The only thing I can criticize is there seemed to be some typographic issues with the text (for example: “putting on the black lacpe eignoir lying on a nearby chair”). Nothing serious, nor did it mar my reading experience. I mention it only because the problem is easy to spot and, thus, should have been caught during proofing.

To conclude: the more I read Toni V. Sweeney, the more I like her work. This is an author who is learning and developing at a speedy rate. Try Serpent’s Tooth. It’s unique and, I think, worth reading: it will surely make romance enthusiasts uncomfortable, and it will show horror fans that slice and dice just doesn’t stand up to understated and/or realistic horror.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

Still Life by Joy Fielding

Still Life
by Joy Fielding
Seal Books,
February 2009
ISBN: 978–1-4000-2578-7
Mass Market Paperback
363 pages
Thriller/Horror

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Casey Marshall has it all: beauty, millions, a job she loves, good friends and a perfect husband. Yes, Casey has it all, until the afternoon she’s run down by a truck traveling at 50 miles per hour. Nearly every bone in her body is broken and Casey ends up on life-support, in a coma.

It’s a tragic story with a long, lingering end we’ve all heard of before. Except that Casey isn’t brain dead. She can hear. And with therapy and time, her body begins to regain some of its functions. First, Casey is able to breathe on her own, then her sense of smell begins to return, as does the ability to make the smallest of movements.

Doesn’t sound much like a thriller or a horror story, does it? Well… have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall so you could listen in on private conversations undetected? Casey is that fly. And what she learns, she doesn’t like…

Someone tried to kill her. Her self-destructive and completely unreliable sister has  motive. So does her husband. Maybe even one of her two best friends is the culprit; it’s easy to believe the worst, especially when Casey discovers the woman’s deep, dark secret.

Day after day, for months, Casey listens to the conversations of all the people in her life as they each cross paths with the other in Casey’s hospital room, none of them believing that Casey can hear them. Until the person behind the murder attempt begins to suspect Casey may not just recover, but that she’s much farther along that pathway than anyone suspects.

Casey now begins a battle for her life. She knows who tried to kill her, and she knows it’s just a matter of time before the murderer finds an opportunity to finish the job. Add in a nurses aid who mistreats Casey when they are alone and who is doing her best to seduce Casey’s husband, and you have a lot of tension springing off the page.

Joy Fielding’s Still Life is kind of a leisurely yet disturbing read. When Casey’s situation is outlined, many a reader is going to remember the conversations they’ve had about this very subject: an active mind trapped in an unresponsive body. “Just put me out of my misery,” is a comment I’ve heard many times. This is a scenario straight out of our nightmares. Then there’s the fear we could be mistreated or taken advantage of by our caretakers: we’ve all seen the commercials about abuse of the elderly; I, personally, have witnessed the abuse of people with developmental handicaps. When you can’t speak for yourself, who will? And is this person who you thought he or she was?

Fielding asks these questions and many more, treating us to a disturbing thriller (something I call horror) about who lives behind the faces of the people of our lives. She even—gently—asks who are you behind your mask?

Still Life is the perfect follow-up to the kind of character studies (facelifts, I call them) she treated us to in Heartstopper.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

Reviewer’s Note: readers may notice that this week both my novel review site and this horror blog offer up my opinion on books targeting juveniles and/or young adults, although the authors of Daniel X claim their book is for people from 10 to 110. I just want to reassure you–this is an adult site. However, I review everything I read and have decided this is where I want to showcase the books. Enjoy!


The Dangerous Days Of Daniel X
by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
Little, Brown and Company
July 21, 2008
ISBN: 9780316002929
Hardcover
238 pages
Science Fiction/Horror/
For Children and Young Adults

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James Patterson, bestselling author of  The Alex Cross series, has joined talents with Michael Ledwidge to produce a novel for young people. The cover claims the book is suitable for readers from 10 to 110, but based on what my own children enjoy, I would say The Dangerous Days of Daniel X is perfect for preteens.

Written in a lighthearted, don’t you dare take me seriously manner, Daniel X could just as easily have been a comic book or a graphic novel. Falling solidly into the science fiction genre, I’m still going to consider the book as horror—because of my belief that the market for this piece of fiction is children, as well as young adults.

What is The Dangerous Days Of Daniel X about? Why slimy, gruesome, brain-sucking aliens, of course. The premise is simple… Nasty aliens have found earth and are in the process of preparing it for colonization (bad for us). Nice aliens, Daniel X and his parents and friends, are trying to eliminate the nasty aliens (good for us).

However, in the hands of the sparse prose Patterson is so well known for, and with chapters just a few pages long that, each for the most part, represent a new scene or battle, this book simply roars along. I started reading and when I set the book down to take a small break, I was surprised to find I was only 30 pages from the end of the story. Damned if I didn’t enjoy the whole experience. I guess I’m still a kid at heart.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

Under The Dome by Stephen King

Under The Dome
by Stephen King
Scribner, Nov 2009
ISBN: 9781439148501
Hardcover
1088 pages
Horror

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Dale “Barbie”  Barbara has had enough of Chester’s Mill. With little more than the clothes on his back he’s trying to hitch a ride to anywhere else. But his wish is not to be. An invisible barrier, which turns out to be a dome of immense proportions, drops into place before him; and directly in front of a twin engine Seneca aircraft, which crashes into the dome, strewing shredded metal and body parts on the outer side of the barrier; and directly on top of a woodchuck, slicing the animal in half.

It’s October 21 and the mayhem has just begun. Cars, a pulp-truck and countless birds also find high speed deaths as they run themselves up against the dome. Amidst the horrors caused by the dome, a young man with a brain tumour becomes a murderer. His father, Big Jim Rennie, one of the town’s select-men, “praise God,” decides he’s the fellow to take control of the strange situation Chester’s Mill has found itself in: after all, with his town basically seceded from the rest of the world, a god fearing man who knows how to get things done is exactly what’s needed.

Within days this small town in Maine becomes a pressure cooker with no relief valve… As Rennie, ever the opportunist, purposely winds people up and devises situations intended to make the town turn to him for guidance. He doesn’t mind sacrificing a few for the sake of the town… As Barbie is catapulted into a position that places him in direct opposition to Rennie, and requires him to play a part in polarizing townspeople into factions, a them or us kind of mentality… As every single inhabitant is forcibly confronted with his or her true self—good, bad or indifferent…

Join Stephen King as he allows you to view the virtual destruction of an entire town, one person and situation at a time, just as if you were an all knowing and invisible observer. Some of these people, realizing there will be no rain or fresh air or replenishment of food and other supplies, search for answers as to the origin and nature of the dome. The average inhabitants of The Mill just watch and wait for the government to break them out. But as they deal with their ever more frightening reality, each of them begins to unravel in their own way—even select-man Rennie.

Under the Dome is disturbing if not heartbreaking. Stephen King has taken off his gloves for this story. Anyone, whether we empathize with them or not, will behave according to their nature and meet their destiny irregardless of what we feel for them. Bad guys have good moments; good girls have bad ideas. Those we come to care about may die in an instant, while others turn to choices as disturbing as anything King has ever written. People who should, perhaps, be put down like one would put down a dying animal live on to do nightmarish things.

I groaned at the prospect of having to read a 1088 page horror novel in just a few days. But believe me when I say the whining ended very quickly. Under The Dome is further proof, if not the culmination, of a change in King’s writing that probably began with Lisey’s Story (2006). Many people have blamed King’s evolvement into a different kind of author on his tragic, near-death accident in 1999, and I’m sure it played a part. Personally, I have the sense that King is simply bringing maturity (and perhaps reflection) to his new works. Why on earth would anyone expect him to be writing the same way or about the same topics he dealt with 20 or 30 years ago? It makes sense that he now spends time commenting on such things as religion and small-town politics. Readers should also feel no surprise that his monsters are becoming more and more human with each book and story. This is a man who almost retired several years ago. How can you not expect him to be reflective? And, given his brilliance as a story teller (I still maintain he’s the best we have), it’s a wonderful thing to see his changes displayed so completely by his characters.

Under The Dome is a fantastic accomplishment. To not only hold a story of this magnitude together for over a 1,000 pages, but to have it positively race? Unbelievable. To pull me into a doomed town and keep me watching the horrors unfold (knowing no character is safe)? Genius. Many reviewers are saying this may be his best work since The Stand (1978).

This is a novel that reminds me strongly of an old story called The Nets of Space by Emil Petaja (1969) and, to a certain extent, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1953). There are also similarities to King’s own The Mist (1980). Unfortunately, if you haven’t read these books, explaining why they have certain likenesses to Under The Dome would be to introduce fundamental spoilers. Let’s just say that Under The Dome shows us exactly how and why the “masks” come off regular, every day people, and it also suggests that if people feel completely isolated, cut off, or beyond reprimand, then it doesn’t matter to them whether aberrant behaviour is observed or not.

A friend of mine wanted me to let her know if I thought reading Under The Dome was worth the time investment. If you like horror and/or a fascinating story no one else could possibly tell, then my answer is a resounding “Yes.”


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

Dead Eye: Pennies for The Ferryman

Dead Eye: Pennies for the Ferryman
Jim Bernheimer
Gryphonwood Press, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-9795738-8-0
258 pages
eBook/Print
Paranormal/humour

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Meet Mike Ross, who if it wasn’t for bad luck wouldn’t have any luck at all. He’s been forcibly retired from the army thanks to a roadside bomb and some defective parts, namely a mangled leg, the loss of hearing in one ear and a cornea transplant. These days, Mike, 23 years old, still lives with mom and is attending college.

Did I mention that Mike also sees ghosts with his repaired eye? And he can talk to them, befriend them, fight with them, hurt and be hurt by them. Mike can even kill a ghost: it seems he’s what’s known as a ferryman, someone with the ability to assist ghosts (pleasantly or forcibly) to cross over to the other side (of the symbolic river Styx).

And are there ghosts! It would seem that an entire shadow culture exists parasitically on the living and on other ghosts. There are friendly ghosts, murderous ghosts, political ghosts, mobster ghosts, even ghosts with the ability to possess the living.

As a ferryman, both ghosts and people expect Mike to help them with their problems. Mike’s issue with his new powers, and the obligations which seem to go with them, is that he has more problems of his own than he can handle. Why should he also take on the problems of the dead, most of whom can’t pay him for his troubles?

Follow “Dead Eye” Mike in his comical, anti-hero pursuit of a normal life in a world gone completely mad. This is one ghost story that won’t scare you—unless you’re afraid to laugh out loud from whatever corner or niche you find to sit and read about Mike’s antics.

I enjoyed Dead Eye. It’s different: unpretentious, fun and interesting. Jim Bernheimer put a lot of thought and effort into his unique version of the world of ghosts, and I think the novel works well as a whole.

Unfortunately, I believe some people are going to find Mike Ross a little too flippant to be convincing and the book a little too light for the paranormal genre. There were a number of times I felt the scenes would have played better if the danger felt more real. I also became tired of Mike playing down his abilities, then coming through as being unstoppable. Bernheimer’s choice(s) didn’t ring true in these instances. Now, the last few comments may just be my own personal tastes showing through, yet there is one set of problems with the novel the author should think long and hard about: there were countless grammatical errors a good editor or proof reader should have caught, specifically a tendency to mix tenses within paragraphs. There’s way too much of this kind of thing coming out of small publishing houses today. If we (yes, I’m a small publisher) want to be taken seriously, then we better damn well make sure our books are just as well written and error free as the Top 25 novels in any bookstore.

Keep on writing Mr. Bernheimer: you can spin a yarn with the best of them. All you need now is to demand editing of the same calibre.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

Bloody Passion by Laura Tolomei

Bloody Passion
Laura Tolomei
eXtasy Books
Oct 31, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-55487-417-0
eBook
158 Pages
Dark Fantasy, Gay, Horror, Ménage, Paranormal, Shape Shifting, Halloween, m/f, m/m, m/m/m

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Cedric was brought to a Druid for training when he was just a boy. “…he has dark connections,” claimed his mother. Perhaps, but these did not show through until one day, many years later, when his mentor abruptly left their village, claiming the darkness around Cedric and that which would certainly follow was too great to be overcome.

Sure enough, a creature of the night arrives and begins to steal the village’s animals as prey. The resultant hiring of a hunter and the friendship between he (Rory), the Druid (Cedric) and a young man named Newlyn, seals the fate of all involved.

One beast is killed, only to release an even greater and more evil monster. To capture this one, Cedric must solve the puzzle of a terrible nightmare that has plagued him for years, one he intuitively knows will reveal things better left buried.

In Bloody Passion Laura Tolomei has written a tight short story about the true, mixed nature of man, and what can happen if that nature is not controlled or put to work for the forces of good. I say short story, because the rest of her novel is filled with page after page of explicit male on male sex and an occasional m/m/m or m/f/m Ménage à trois.

This brings me to the critical portion of my review. First, Laura has/had no way of knowing I have publicly stated I will read no further works from eXtasy books. She sent me the book for review because we are internet friends. Having agreed in advance to the review, I will complete it.

There are the two issues I have with eXtasy books: Regarding the first book I read from this company, they stated quite clearly they were not taking editorial responsibility for the work being published; second, the sex was so much more prevalent than story, that I felt the story was nothing but a structure on which to hang the erotica. I went so far as to say there was an uncomfortable similarity to pornography.

Laura’s book? First of all, the editorial disclaimer does not appear in this book. Second, the overall calibre of writing is very good, although I did pick up on several misspelled, missing and misused words that a competent proofreader should have caught. The mistakes did not affect my reading experience. Third, while I feel there was again a disproportionate amount of sex to story, the work felt like a legitimate piece of fiction.

Bloody Passion went beyond my comfort zone for M/M erotica, but the book kept me engaged from start to finish. Laura Tolomei writes this type of fiction with a sure hand and obvious skill. If sizzling hot m/m erotica interests you, then I would say Bloody Passion will reward you for your time.


Copyright: © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009

Something Different For Stephen King Fans

Just After Sunset
by Stephen King
Pocket Books
October 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4165-8665-4
539 Pages
Mass Market Paperback
Horror/Collection

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Stephen King’s latest offering of short stories, Just After Sunset, disappointed me when I first read it. I was expecting to be drawn into some horrendous places and to have any number of heroes sacrificed to the writing Gods. Didn’t happen. In fact some of the stories have what, considering this is Stephen King we’re talking about, I would call happy endings.

So, I read the story notes at the back, and I reworked each story. Turns out, for this offering, Mr. King has decided to do away with fairly straightforward horror and offer us stories with meaning. I find that King not only poses some interesting questions, but he suggests some unusual answers. My verdict after revisiting Just After Sunset? A thoughtful, mature and sometimes freaky collection he should be proud of.

Willa – I didn’t like this ghost story, possibly because I just finished a similar story by a different author. Both deal with emotions after death, obviously offering up the assumption that some part of us goes on living after our bodies die. Stephen King’s story suggests that love and compassion and loyalty could all carry over with the soul. Such happenings could lead to interesting situations when it comes time for each individual to cross over. Willa presents us with one of these.

The Gingerbread Girl – A story reminiscent of Duma Key, The Gingerbread Girl gives us a woman trying to literally run away from the tragic death of her baby and a marriage she no longer wants. Having moved into her father’s place on one of Florida’s many keys, Janet has complete freedom to run as much and often as she wishes. Deep down she knows this will be the place that heals her. She’s right, but not in the way she thinks. Because Janet is about to stumble upon a murder, and the murderer, who is very good at what he does, easily adds her to the equation, so to speak. What Janet learns from her captor is frightening enough to bring her back to life–if she can beat him at his own game.

Harvey’s Dream – Janet is analyzing her life and husband of thirty years. It’s not a pleasant set of thoughts. How could she know that in a few minutes she would give everything she has to return those boring, petty thoughts. You see, her husband, Harvey has had a dream. And as Harvey relates the dream, Janet is drawn into a very real nightmare she cannot stop.

Rest Stop – A frightening situation proves to an author that “under the right circumstances, anyone could end up anywhere, doing anything.” He also realizes this means there are endless stories he can write using his favourite character. How does this transformation come about? The author has to call on his alter ego, his pen name, for the strength and hardness of character to deal with the problem at hand. The results are surprising.

Stationary Bike – Richard Sifkitz creates art for dollars. Advertising, commissions, whatever. So imagine his surprise when he suddenly finds himself painting purely for himself. What brings on the change? High cholesterol, too much weight and his commitment to ride his exercise bike every day. Life is good… except there’s something weird going on with his paintings. Also reminiscent of Duma Key, Stationary Bike looks at art as a doorway into some very strange and dangerous places.

The Things They Left Behind – A man suffering from survivor guilt after 9/11 discovers that there is much about the world he doesn’t understand. Yet, his questioning in the face of quiet terror finally leads him past what seems to be a demonic (or at least a very hurtful) game to an answer so simple and beautiful it changes his and the lives of many others forever.

Graduation Afternoon – The rules regarding the pettiness and bigotry of the well-positioned in society continue to operate as a family watches (in brilliant detail) the end of their world, just as their guest (from the wrong side of several million dollars) turns to her own form of country simplicity and takes her usual pragmatic look forward. Are we really such rigid creatures of habit?

N. – Standing stones have long been associated with ancient ritual, power, magic and even as portals to other worlds. Stephen King bundles all these suppositions into one very strange tale about people who spend their lives keeping our world the beautiful place it is. This is a long piece that deals with the concept of reality as a very thin barrier between what we know and the endless, horrifying possibilities that await a chance to come on in.

The Cat From Hell – The best hit man in the business matches his skills against a strange cat in a battle that leaves the loser surprised, out of business and an empty shell of his/its former self.

The New York Times At Special Bargain Rates – An offer that won’t be repeated, just like the strange phone call Anne gets on the day of her husband’s funeral. What would you say or do if your husband of 30 years, dead for two days, called you on his cell phone, in which the battery is dying? Stephen King imagines for us.

Mute – The hitch-hiker: we’ve heard and seen every variation of this story, right? Not a chance! In Mute, Stephen King brings us an amazing, original and damned scary story of generousity and retribution, all wrapped up with a big red bow these kinds of pieces call the moral of the story. His bottom line? You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into when you pick up a hitch-hiker.

Ayana – Godless miracles that carry a strange price tag. Ayana is a commentary on what and how we label things we don’t understand, evoking the name of God or whispering about magic (as examples) when sometimes things… just… are.

A Very Tight Place – Stephen King has been spending part of each year in Florida for a number of years now. As you might expect, The Keys have become a risky place to visit or live. In A Very Tight Place an aging day trader learns (via one of King’s most gruesome settings) that getting along with one’s neighbour is much more than a friendly suggestion.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

The Penny Dreadful Company

Over the past month or so, I’ve been reviewing short stories published as chapbooks by a company called Ghostwriter Publications. Located in England, the company specializes in the supernatural and pulp fiction. Their offerings can be purchased online at www.thepennydreadfulcompany.com for a reasonable price. According to publisher, Neil Jackson, “The Penny Dreadful Collection is a return to a  time when dark tales of the macabre were sold for little more than 1d. We now offer a series of collectible works by some of the best genre writers today. Each book is usually a single story (sometimes even a small collection) and although they won’t be the same price as in the 1800’s, they will not break the bank. Most of the individual books are available to purchase from the low price of £1.25 (GB)/$2.00 (US) but never more than £1.75(GB)/$2.80 plus postage & packaging (£1.00/$2.80).”

I’ve found many of the stories to be entertaining and well written. This week’s selection, the last of the chapbooks in my possession, may not be as good, in my mind, as some I’ve already reviewed, but the chapbooks definitely meet Ghostwriter Publications’ mandate.


Madonna Park, © Rhys Hughes 2009, features six stories that are more like dark jokes than scary stories. They are so completely different from what is on the market these days that I’m not sure how I feel about them. If you consider that Ghostwriter Publications is trying to bring us back to a form of the good-old-days of pulp magazines, then the stories serve their purpose: they’re short, entertaining, different, sometimes corny or completely over the top. On the other hand Madonna Park, as a collection of short stories, just doesn’t compete by today’s standards. If you were asking whether or not to purchase, my inclination would be to say you’ll have to decide if you want modern and weighty or throwback and unique.


Bleeding Ink and Haunted, © Scott Nicholson 2009, are a little more mainstream. One offers a gritty and jaded look at the world of newspaper publishing in the guise of a zombie story. The other is obviously a ghost story. In fact, you’ll probably figure out what’s going on in just a few paragraphs. But there’s something about this tale, the flavour, the atmosphere, an itch you’ve just got to scratch, that keeps you going to the end. Might just be good writing!

As a collection, the several Ghostwriter Publications Chapbooks I’ve read have left me with the hope that publisher Neil Jackson’s grand experiment pays off. The small publishing houses of today have the ability to bring us reasonably priced, good quality stories untouched by the cookie cutters of big business. Give them a try next time you’re looking for reading material.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009

Tuatha and The Seven Sisters Moon

Tuatha and the Seven Sisters Moon
by Dayna Von Thaer
B.A.S.E.D. Press
October 31, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-615-32271-1
407 pgs (ARC), 425 pgs (Salem Edition), 418 pgs (Paperback)
Fantasy/Paranormal/thriller

Buy now at Amazon.com


The Seven Sisters are a star cluster called the Pleiades and are officially considered part of the constellation of Taurus the Bull. The names of the stars in this famous cluster are derived from Greek mythology and are as follows: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maiai, Taygete, Celaeno and Alcyone, along with their parents Atlas and Pleione (see the inset photograph). Dana Von Thaer’s new book, Tuatha and The Seven Sister’s Moon, begins as the sisters align with Earth’s moon on the eve of the Irish harvest celebration known as Samhain (Our Halloween). This is a portent of incredible importance.

According to legend, on Samhain the border between our world of the living and the Otherworld (the world of the dead) thins, and it becomes possible for the dead to reach back through the veil. With the seven sisters also in play, one knows deep in the bones that things are going to get a lot hairier than on a normal harvest evening. And we aren’t wrong: Von Thaer soon shows us one of the dead crossing over—a being of tremendous importance, for it is none other than The Dagda, once a ruler of a mythic tribe of Ancient Ireland, the Tuatha De Danann. In truth, The Dagda is better known as an ancient Irish god named the “Good God” or the “All-father.” And he’s been temporarily dead for two thousand years.

In Irish Mythology, Dagda was at one time The King of the Tuatha, and had incredible powers. Von Thaer has some fun with this legend, stealing fabled characteristics and life events to make the Dagda real to her readers. Also, rather than holding to the traditional view of the Otherworld, she claims it as the homeland of the Tuatha.

As the much diminished Dagda, known as Aodh, arises, an Irish witch of great power named Dru loses her lover, Ty. Further off, in  Paris, Katerina, a Russian dancer, defects.

Now destiny puts on his racing shoes. You see, Ty is the God of War and Fertility, and he’s gotten himself killed. But as it was foretold he would give Dru a child, something has obviously gone terribly wrong. While grieving, Dru meets and befriends Aodh. But the new friendship isn’t strong enough to erase her grief, so Dru heads off alone and somehow ends up the captive lover of a Daemon named Kas (I believe he, too, exists in the Otherworld, that each of these powerful beings somehow create their own little, self-contained worlds within the larger Otherworld.). Then, through the machinations of a famous singer and, of course, destiny, Katrina and Aodh meet and fall in love. But what finally awakens the power of The Dagda is Dru escaping from Kas by allowing Katrina to take her place. Aodh is enraged. Kas, when threatened by Aodh, responds by immediately torturing and disfiguring the dancer. And so on…

Read Tuatha and The Seven Sisters Moon to find out what’s in store for all of these larger-than-life characters—including the apparently dead Ty.

I believe I could pick up an unmarked manuscript and know if it was written by Dana Von Thaer; she writes with a voice distinctly her own. In a day of carbon copy books (I just finished reading the same story published by two different houses and written by two different contemporary authors) it’s refreshing to dig in to a story and find yourself thinking “I’ve never read anything like this.”

Von Thaer is also an author unafraid to throw herself out there. She unabashedly steals material from several different myths, throws it all into her imagination and comes out with an entertaining romp filled with humour and happy surprises. Yes, there are dark or horrific aspects to Von Thaer’s work… Her Daemon is a brutal, sadistic rapist. People we care about suffer or die. But I can’t call her work horror or even dark fantasy. If I had to be very specific, I would call Tuatha and The Seven Sisters Moon a fantasy thriller or a Modern Irish Myth.

The version of Tuatha I have is 407 pages long. The author’s use of short, easy to read sentences makes the book seem half that length. Her descriptive abilities are also to be lauded: each time I picked up the book I was immediately drawn back into Von Thaer’s world.

A couple of issues do bother me.

First, the book is produced by Von Thaer’s own company B.A.S.E.D. Press. I can’t tell you what the finished product is like, but my version needs either a line edit or a good proof read. The author writes well enough that her errors stand out. I’m hoping someone picked up on them before she went to press.

Second, there are a lot of questions this book leaves unanswered. Either the book needs to be longer, so as to give the author room to address these issues, or it requires a sharp pencil and an editor unafraid of leaving some hefty chunks of story on the floor. Allow me to elaborate…

I couldn’t write this review without doing a couple of hours of research. The author doesn’t explain the mythology she uses. To me, this says she expects the reader to not care (yet, it’s her job to make us care). Or, perhaps, she expects the reader to be curious enough to research the Irish/Celtic and Greek mythology behind her characters and the place they live (the Underworld). The average reader isn’t going to do this. They’re paying to be entertained—not put to work.

Questions about mythology aside, Von Thaer also leaves huge story threads undeveloped or simply snipped off. For example: the whole Daemon situation is weird. The background we are given doesn’t seem to tie into anything else in the book, and this includes the brief history the author gives about the Daemon’s wife. The origins of the setting in this part of the book are barely touched upon (that’s why I make the guess previously  mentioned). And, personally, I’m unable to figure out exactly how and why Dru and Katrina end up in the Daemon’s domain.

Summary? A terrific effort from a new author, I think Tuatha and The Seven Sisters Moon will give you your money’s worth with respect to entertainment. Just be prepared to be left wondering about any number of things: Tuatha and The Seven Sisters Moon gives us an entertaining alternate world, but it also keeps many of that world’s secrets to itself.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009