Let’s talk…
It’s been a busy few months: moving to a new (wonderful) town, taking on a new (and wonderful) client, pretty much rearranging my entire life, both personal and professional, in more way than I can count or y’all care about. But all good. Literally all good.
So let’s get back to it. Let’s talk about (mostly) good books, movies, and TV shows, always leaning toward the weird — horror, suspense, supernatural thrillers, post-apoc, and the occasional ‘straight’ mystery or thriller, in every medium you can imagine, including comics and podcasts. So yeah, basically whatever I want to talk about.
And let’s try to keep it regular this time, okay? Twitter posts damn near every day, posts here a couple of times a week, and recs on stuff worth buying when that makes sense. .
Let’s have some fun…
The best damn fantasy novelist working today
Yeah, it's that simple. Joe Abercrombie has created a number of interlocking series set in a world of barbarian nations, very difficult magic, war and intrigue and -- most recently -- an industrial revolution. I could go on and on about the quality of the action, the...
Monster Hunter is far better than anybody expected
Until quite recently, movies based in worlds created first in video games have been … well, iffy at best. 'Lousy' would be more accurate. Prior to Detective Pikachu, in fact, you’d be hard-pressed to name a movie that was even half good, and some so bad you want to...
The joy of terrors of flash fiction (by my standards, anyway)
I do a fair amount of blurb-writing and marketing consultation for Monique Happy, over at moniquehappyeditorial.com. A few years back, before I got involved, she put together a couple of "themed" anthologies of her clients and colleagues, some from the late and often...
Revisiting Mike Flanagan’s Absentia
Sometimes it's worth looking back. I've been so impressed by Midnight Mass, and basically be everything Mike Flanagan has done so far, that I took a couple of hours on a quiet Friday afternoon and re-watched Absentia, his first (available) feature film made...
Half satire, half nostalgia, all inappropriate
I'm not a huge Facebook fan (who is anymore?), though I still use Messenger with clients and the occasional friend. Still, there is one group -- a strange little corner of the Intertubes called Rehabilitated Sleaze" where a number of talented artistic assassins create...
A long-forgotten zombie (ish) post-apoc (sort of) movie from Clive Barker is actually … well, good
I have no idea how I stumbled on this, but I recently found myself slightly stunned at just how interesting – far from perfect, but damned interesting – I found a forgotten TV movie from 2006 – yeah, fifteen years ago – unfortunately called The Plague, or...
Let’s talk…
It's been a busy few months: moving to a new (wonderful) town, taking on a new (and wonderful) client, pretty much rearranging my entire life, both personal and professional, in more way than I can count or y'all care about. But all good. Literally all good. So let's...
The best damn fantasy novelist working today
Yeah, it's that simple. Joe Abercrombie has created a number of interlocking series set in a world of barbarian nations, very difficult magic, war and intrigue and -- most recently -- an industrial revolution. I could go on and on about the quality of the action, the...
Monster Hunter is far better than anybody expected
Until quite recently, movies based in worlds created first in video games have been … well, iffy at best. 'Lousy' would be more accurate. Prior to Detective Pikachu, in fact, you’d be hard-pressed to name a movie that was even half good, and some so bad you want to...
The joy of terrors of flash fiction (by my standards, anyway)
I do a fair amount of blurb-writing and marketing consultation for Monique Happy, over at moniquehappyeditorial.com. A few years back, before I got involved, she put together a couple of "themed" anthologies of her clients and colleagues, some from the late and often...
Revisiting Mike Flanagan’s Absentia
Sometimes it's worth looking back. I've been so impressed by Midnight Mass, and basically be everything Mike Flanagan has done so far, that I took a couple of hours on a quiet Friday afternoon and re-watched Absentia, his first (available) feature film made more than...
Half satire, half nostalgia, all inappropriate
I'm not a huge Facebook fan (who is anymore?), though I still use Messenger with clients and the occasional friend. Still, there is one group -- a strange little corner of the Intertubes called Rehabilitated Sleaze" where a number of talented artistic assassins create...
A long-forgotten zombie (ish) post-apoc (sort of) movie from Clive Barker is actually … well, good
I have no idea how I stumbled on this, but I recently found myself slightly stunned at just how interesting – far from perfect, but damned interesting – I found a forgotten TV movie from 2006 – yeah, fifteen years ago – unfortunately called The Plague, or...
Winchester is just … a waste
I just waded through Winchester on Netflix and … I am at a loss. At a loss to explain how so much money and talent could be wasted on such an utterly uninvolving, derivative, boring ‘haunted house’ movie. This shambling, unfeeling, tedious thing has beautiful...
The Stranger is pretty good, but Harlan Coben? Meh.
Harlan Coben makes a few jillion dollars a year on his suspense novels (though 'suspense' seems like a pretty strong word for his stories. Maybe ... "tension novels"?) Generally speaking, I find they have great premises, great hooks, but tend to fizzle out a bit in...
Why doesI Am Not Okay With This feel so incestuous?
Seriously, who are they kidding? This moderately engaging Netflix mini-series smells so strongly of Carrie and IT that it makes your nose twitch. So why are the producers claiming complete astonishment at the parallels? Don't get me wrong -- it's well done. But still...