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A word to the wise for those who are writers or plan on becoming one in the future.

For the most part, my posts on this blog have been related to my work and the work of others: reviews, updates, and promotion of my work and the work of my fellow writers.  There have been a few commentaries on my experiences in writing and I will admit there probably needs to be more.  While I am far from an expert on how to get published or just in the craft of writing, I have learned a few things along the way and continue to learn new things every day.

One thing in particular that I have learned is that there are so many people out there who genuinely care for one another in the writing community.  They may make their living writing, editing, publishing, doing formatting…or they may be doing it more as a sideline-hobby/passion/dream of making it big someday (most of us are like that, in fact), or they are fans of the different genres: horror, science fiction, fantasy, bizarro, etc who have dreams of getting more involved down the road-maybe making movies, writing, creating their own publishing company, or something else.  They pour their blood, sweat, and tears into what they do, and care about it enough to make sure they do the best job possible-not just for themselves, but for everyone else who is relying on them.  Social media has allowed pretty much everyone to share their thoughts, connect, and join in the conversation with a very wide ranging community that is all over the globe.  I’ve learned a lot from a lot of different people.  Not just about writing, but about the business side of things-what it takes to get a book out there, how to promote your work, how do you hook up with filmmakers, etc.  I’ve been lucky because I’ve associated myself with people who not only care about what they do, but they behave in a very professional manner.

But you hear stories now and again about someone who steals stories from other authors and claims them to be their own, or publishers who refuse to pay the artists for the work they put out there.  It is unfortunate, but the people who share their experiences and send out warnings pave the way for the rest of us to be able to avoid the same pitfalls, and because of that, we all are grateful to these brave souls.  Sometimes the lessons are more simple, such as avoiding getting provoked by a review of your work that you disagree with.  Tales of woe for authors abound on this front.

This brings me to the main topic of this post.  Yesterday, I saw two separate warnings posted on Facebook from two separate authors, both of which are fairly new to being published.  Quite a few people have since shared their information with everyone on Twitter and Facebook that they know, and I am joining their ranks.  As some of you know, I tend to keep my opinions to myself beyond of the topic of the writing I do or someone else’s work…and when I do comment on anything anyone else does, I do my best to be constructive and professional about it.  I have avoided more flammable topics, but for right now, I feel it’s important that I share these two tales with anyone who reads my blog.  Take away from them what you will.  It is my hope that what has happened to these two writers doesn’t have to happen to anyone else because of what they’ve shared.

The first post is from horror author Alyn Day.

http://alyndayofthedead.blogspot.com/2012/05/suffering-in-silence.html

The second is from author Mandy De Geit.

http://mandydegeit.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/when-publishing-goes-wrong-starring-undead-press/

 

I think it is fair to share these blog posts with the world, as I think it would also be fair for me to share any rebuttals that the publisher has to offer to either or both of these authors, if I hear of one in the future.  Because there is always two sides to the story, and even with the information shared above, I would be curious to see what response there may be to these accusations.  It is a shame when things like this happen.  But as so many others have said and I have as well, the fact that this information was shared makes all of us the wiser and more prepared as writers going forward with our efforts.

 

So always be alert and concerned about what is going on around you as a writer.  Find out as much as you can about a editor, a publisher, and everyone else involved in working with you before you hand your pride and joy over to them.  Just as you expect a mechanic to be trained to work on cars and a doctor to have a medical degree before you let them tell you to bend over and cough, you should know the history of who you are looking to work with in advance of agreeing to anything.  But if you do end up making a mistake (and we all have, on many different occasions), don’t hesitate to share with others, so they can learn and avoid those same mistakes.

 

Posted by  |  May 15, 2012 | Categories: My Writing Experiences, Random Thoughts | Tags: , , | 11 Comments

Review of Suzanne Robb’s “Were-Wolves, Apocalypses, and Genetic Mutations, Oh My!”

Were-Wolves, Apocalypses, and Genetic Mutations, Oh My! is a trilogy of short stories by Suzanne Robb, author of Z-Boat, a zombie novel set in the dark depths of the ocean, as well as a wide array of strange and twisty short stories with a horror and fantasy bent to them.  These three stories fit right in with what the fan’s of Robb has come to expect.  In “Welcome To The Future” she explores a near future filled with disastrous attempts at genetic manipulations to the human body.  We get to see plenty of failings and know why the whole idea of mutation is abhorred.  Along comes a teenage boy whose parents and teachers have given up on him.  He has even given up on himself until a doctor provides him with a solution to all his problems that promises to make him the smartest man in the world.  Naturally, things don’t go quite as planned, and all hell breaks loose.  In “The Moonlight Killer” we are given a story that turns the traditional werewolf tale on its ear with man-bites-wolf repercussions.  A really twisty, humorous tale with plenty of darkness to it.  Finally, in “B.I.T.E.” the reader is introduced to world on the very brink of Apocalypse, with strange beasties boiling up through the ground including massive man-eating squirrels, cobra-men, and minions…lots of minions.  That plus a mother and daughter who are bound and determined to stop the end of the world, no matter how dysfunctional they appear to be.

These stories have an interesting flavor that I would call Robb-ish, in that they not only give you some good scares, they also have some wicked dark humor to them that make you snicker while feeling a bit uncomfortable with the circumstances the characters are going through.  These are quick, entertaining reads for those of you looking for a tidy little dose of scary fun from an up and coming author.

You can find Were-Wolves, Apocalypses, and Genetic Mutations, Oh My! here: http://www.amazon.com/Were-wolves-Apocalypses-Genetic-Mutation-ebook/dp/B006SBC2UQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1336948427&sr=1-1

Posted by  |  May 13, 2012 | Categories: Other folk's stuff..., The Shorts | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A few changes on the horizon for my books…

I wanted to make a brief announcement at this time, which will be a prologue to a more important answer coming up in the not so distant future.  Instead of having some sort of big build up, I’m just going to come out and say it.  I have acquired the rights back to my three novels from the publisher, Library of the Living Dead.  This decision was made with a great deal of careful consideration on my part, and is based more on where I feel things are going for me in the future rather than anything that has happened recently, or in the past.  Let me put it another way.  Michael West, aka Dr. Pus, the owner of the Library of the Living Dead Press has been a spectacular partner for me over the past few years.  He is a man who genuinely cares for the authors who work for him and have aligned themselves with the Library.  The Library is, and always will be, a home away from home for me.  The people who have been involved with the Library’s message boards over the years, as well as the other authors, editors, and artists are all fantastic people.  So this departure is only for my books, not for me, and it will not change anything else.  It is mostly due to the fact that at present, Doc is not moving forward to publish new books as he takes a break from that for a time.  Unfortunately, time stands still for no man, and since my plan is to produce two more novels in this series, I needed to regain control of them so I can be sure they are in a home where the opportunity exists to publish the new chapters in this saga.

So for everyone out there who has purchased my books in either paper or electronic form, I thank you, as does Doc.  All three books were top sellers for the Library, which makes me very proud and sort of stunned at how well they have done.  If you have the paper versions of the three books, or want the first editions, my suggestion would be to grab them fairly soon, as they will no longer be available (at least new copies) very much longer.  The ebook version of the trilogy has already been taken down and is no longer available on Amazon.  The next time you see them, it will be very likely they will look a bit different than they do now.

As I mentioned, I will likely have another announcement to make about these books in the not so distant future, as well as where I go from here with my work.  So stayed tuned for that.

Posted by  |  May 11, 2012 | Categories: Beyond The Dark, Comes The Dark, Dark Stories, Into The Dark | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Review of Monique Snyman’s “Charming Incantations: Enticed”

Not too long ago, I was approached by an author friend of mine with a request to help promote their new fantasy novel on my blog, which I did, happily.  I tend to write reviews of horror novels, but I thought that since I am a big fan of fantasy as well I would also read her book, and not just promote it.  So here is my review of her book, which I would say fits nicely in the realm of young adult fiction, with both fantasy elements as well as a bit of horror-with werewolves and vampires playing a prominent role.

Charming Incantations: Enticed tells the story of Lisa, a young woman whose parents were tragically killed in a fire, which thrusts her into a world she never knew existed: one with supernatural creatures that expect her to do her part as the surviving heir to the human representatives on a council that works to keep the world safe from darkness.

While the story provides a prolog explaining the alliance between the six races: human, werewolf, vampire, shape-shifter, witch, and banshee, the first chapter of this tale bypasses Lisa’s initial realization of what she must do or any revelations she has that there is an entire world that has been hidden from her.  Instead, her tale begins with her knocking on the door of the meeting place of the six representatives of the six races.  There she meets the five other generals, or leaders of the armies that hold back the evil known as goblins from taking over the world.  One of them, Romulus, the leader of the werewolves, will take her in and protect her from danger until she can be trained to protect herself and take over her duties as a leader.

Lisa faces a great deal of challenges, not the least of which is the fact that she is falling hard for Romulus while she is trying to grasp this new world that surrounds her.  She fears these supernatural races but must come to terms with them all so that she can insure that her status as protector of humanity comes to pass.

This tale is part romance and part fantasy adventure.  There is magic here, and I am sure there will be passing comparisons to Twilight, but this is a tale on a far grander scale.  Lisa is learning about this new world as we learn about it, and is forced into battle even though humans are deemed the weak link in the alliance.  She cannot raise her own army of humans because the secrets of the other races must be kept, so the burden is even greater for her than for her counterparts.  In some ways, this is a coming of age tale as well, with Lisa doing her best to find her place in a world that is scary, exciting, and quite dangerous.

This is the first book of what I believe will be a series, but this story can certainly stand on its own as a tale of a young woman coming into her own in a world filled with both dangers, delight, magic, and mayhem.

Charming Incantions: Enticed can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Charming-Incantations-Enticed-Monique-Snyman/dp/0987874721/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336631184&sr=1-1

Posted by  |  May 10, 2012 | Categories: Other folk's stuff... | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Review of Jim LaVigne’s “Plaguesville, USA”

Plaguesville, USA tells a tale set in a world several years after much of the human population has been wiped out by a lethal virus.  The timeframe is in the late 2070’s, and much of the United States has turned into a desecrated land filled with survies, as they are called: gangs, small fiefdoms, cannibals, mutants, and a few people trying to maintain some sense of civilization.  We are introduced to Dr. Justin Kaes, an epidemiologist from the CDC in New Atlanta who has found himself in charge of a mission to prevent the “Sick,” as the plague has been dubbed, from reinventing itself and destroying what is left of the meager human population.  He has been sent to collect the one man who has survived the original iteration of the plague and whose blood might help them create a vaccine for whatever new iterations may come about.  He is Howard Lampert, a crusty, cranky old man of 102 who lives in Minnesota.  The story picks up after Justin and his team have picked up Mr. Lampert and are on their way to San Francisco, where there are doctors waiting who have the resources to craft the potential vaccine.  The doctor and his team’s massive RV has run out of fuel down in Oklahoma, where they are surrounded by gangs and religious zealots who also happen to be cannibals.  We are introduced to Teresa, a member of one of the local gangs, who’s interested in hitting the bricks because she has grown weary of the Blood Claws (not to mention that more than one member of the gang has tried to rape her).  She crosses paths with Justin as he and the others are trying to figure out what to do to keep moving west and the duo form an unlikely partnership.  The story tells of their adventures, which include an onslaught of virtually every post-apocalyptic danger imaginable, except perhaps for zombies, as they try to complete an almost impossible mission.

Plaguesville gives the reader a thoroughly realized post-apocalyptic world that isn’t set in our time, but over a half a century in the future.  Each chapter provides a nice little beginning blurb giving the reader a small taste of the world before the fall, with advertisements about the food, entertainment, and culture that adds additional flavor to the story.  As readers will note, this tale has an interesting arrangement with the characters.  Justin is the main character and we see the world through his eyes in many ways, but as Mr. Lampert comes from our day and age (he would be around 38 right now), it is easy to identify with him and his perspective on a bombed out, shell shocked world of plague and Mad Max sensibilities.  Justin is a doctor on a mission who finds himself attracted to the barbaric and yet incredibly enticing Teresa, and Mr. Lampert brings an old fashion sensibility to the story that is entertaining and somewhat humorous in spots, while getting dark and gruesome in others.  While Justin the voice of ethics and morality in a world with very little of such things, Lampert is the grumpy voice of reason and sanity in a world gone mad.

The story runs its cast through several different adventures-they meet the good, the bad, and the ugly that remain in the world, and there are quite a few secondary characters’ stories told that intertwine with the main cast as the tale runs toward its completion.  Again, the author has done a good job of laying out a detailed post-apocalyptic world and gives us a saga with plenty of action and adventure.  Time and again, Justin’s mission is on the brink of oblivion, but he continues to maintain hope and believe that as long as Lampert remains alive they can resolve things.  In some ways, it felt like there were almost too many near misses in the story, but it kept things moving at a fast clip.  Overall, this was a fun read, with a few gentle messages that weren’t too heavy-handed about corruption, craving for power, and man’s undeniable lust to cause his own destruction.  The growing attraction between Justin and Teresa is handled with a deft hand that made it feel believable and touching, despite the fact that these two people were worlds apart in so many ways.  If I have a criticism of this book, it would perhaps be that the story does not feel complete.  We are only introduced to the CDC team once they’ve broken down in Oklahoma and not when they set out from Atlanta, pick up Mr. Lampert, and make their way through so many other adventures leading up to that point.  Granted, the book is already a healthy 350 pages, but I felt as if there were more stories to be told.  Even with this minor complaint, this is an entertaining and robust post-apocalyptic tale with entertaining characters and a setting that was quite compelling.

Plaguesville, USA can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Plaguesville-USA-ebook/dp/B0078FN0RA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336273247&sr=8-1

Posted by  |  May 5, 2012 | Categories: Other folk's stuff... | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A fantasy anthology, for a bit of a change of pace.

Well, I’ve been doing my best to expand my writing horizons with the stories I choose to write, though many of them have been zombie tales, just like my novels.  Still, I have managed to produce other types of horror, comedy, bizarro, science fiction, western, spy/action-adventure…so it was only a matter of time before I got back to my roots and decided to dive into the realm of fantasy once again.  When I would write as a youngster, that was the type of stories I wrote: fantasy tales that transformed into fantasy adventures during my days of role playing.  It was rough stuff that I didn’t want to share with anyone else, which was okay, because publishing was not on my mind back then-it was for the pure joy of writing.  I still have some of the dust covered stories buried in a paper file, because back in those days I was using a typewriter.  Yep, in the days of yore we didn’t have the arcane sorcery of computers to save our work, we got a paper copy of it and that was pretty much the best you could do.  Fortunately, that means that none of my more atrocious early attempts at writing are circulating around on the internet.  Now as for my more recent atrocious attempts at writing…that is a different story.

Anyway, I digress.  I saw a posting perhaps six months ago calling for traditional tales of swords and sorcery in the style of the classic Conan the Barbarian stories and that potential authors should draw inspiration from paintings of Frank Frazetta, among others.  In other words, plenty of pounding base lines, thunderous orchestras, spurting blood, voluptuous maidens, heroes NOT with six packs, but with eight or ten packs at a minimum.  We were to have fun with it and flavor our tales with plenty of fearless, steely-eyed warriors who fight nasty monsters and perhaps a dark god or two, thrown in for good measure.  It was to be entitled, appropriately, Tough As Nails.

I didn’t start out with a plan to write for this anthology.  I loved the idea, and thought it would be great to dive back into the fantasy pool, as it were, but I was focused on some other projects at the time, and this one had a due date that was out past the horizon, in the new year.  So I put it at the back of my mind and as time has a tendency to do, it sped up and flew past me to where this submission call had perhaps a month left before the deadline.  I still was hesitant until the editor, someone who I have worked with before, started asking me if I planned on submitting something for the anthology.  He wanted me to do so, because he knew I loved the concept and for some odd reason he’d liked my work in the past.  So there I was, scrambling to come up with an idea.  I initially crafted the first scene, which takes place in a tavern (the classic locale for the start of many an adventure tale), and gave my story a name, just because I liked how it sounded: “The Sunken Lands.”  It sounded cool, and I knew I could wrap a quest around the idea of my hero/anti-hero needing to get to such an ominous place.

So I kept on writing, adding one scene after another, and introducing my different characters, putting them in harms way, etc.  It occurred to me about five or six thousand words into this thing that there was no way this story was going to qualify as a short that would fit within the word count guidelines set up by the editor.  At that point, I was in too deep, and told him that I planned on writing this tale whether it was acceptable for the anthology or not, since I was back in the mode of writing fantasy, with all the intricacies that go along with that, including all the behind the scenes “stuff” (that is the technical term) you have to put together to make the world you have crafted in any way believable.  This stuff usually starts with a map, then you add history, cultures, alliances and enemies, the habitats of strange creatures, what those strange creatures are, etc. etc.  And believe me, there is a lot more than that to it, but you get the idea.  Fortune smiled upon me, and the editor, Matt Nord, encouraged me to write the story to its completion and he would look at it regardless of whether it fit the size limitations he had put forth (8,000 words) or it went significantly beyond that, because he wanted to see what I had come up with.

Well, as fantasy tales have a tendency to get expansive (as anyone who has read any of the more involved fantasy series out there can testify to) and it was fast becoming clear to me that this story was in no way, shape, or form going to end up being considered a short story.  The only thing short about it would be the fact that it would be shorter than a novel by a good stretch.  But at approximately 23,000 words, this was definitely in novella territory.  Having that high a word count was the only way to effectively tell the tale in my humble opinion (for better or for worse) and also presented me with a cast of characters who could carry on in more tales of this world I had created, if I so chose.  Matt did take a look at it and I think the fact that I broke the story into two parts gave him the flexibility he needed to fit it into the book.  So despite the fact that I crafted something almost three times as long as what the editor wanted, he somehow liked what he saw and took it anyway.  Actually, he really liked it, which was great, because I wasn’t so sure, which is pretty normal for me as a writer.  I tend to never be all that sure whether what I have written is worth a damn.  I had other folks read my story before Matt ever got a look at it, naturally, and got some good constructive criticism from them, which helped shape and transform it into a sharper story than the original.  They liked it to, so I am hopeful others will as well.

Below is the cover of the book, and while I have absolutely LOVED the covers of my novels and most of the anthologies I’ve been in, the idea of something I’ve written being in a book with fantasy cover art makes me as giddy as a child.

More details to come as the book is released.  I hope some of you fantasy lovers out there will check this one out when it hits the shelves.

Posted by  |  May 3, 2012 | Categories: The Shorts | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Review of Sean Schubert’s “Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse”

Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse takes place mainly in Anchorage, and begins with a family of tourists from Minnesota who are traveling to Alaska on vacation.  The younger boy, Martin, has brought along a friend, Danny, and the family plans on spending time out in the woods at a cabin near a glacier.  Almost immediately upon arrival at the cabin, Martin, his sister Jules, and Danny discover what appears to be a dead body stuck in the melting glacier.  Thinking it is a caveman, they pose next to it, taking pictures.  When the caveman turns out to be a thawed zombie, and Martin gets bitten, the family races back to Anchorage to a hospital as Martin’s health rapidly deteriorates.  All hell breaks loose when the boy ends up dying in the hospital, gets back up, and attacks everyone around him.

Things rapidly spin out of control from there, with a plague of undead spilling outside the walls of the hospital and onto the streets of Anchorage.  Within a matter of hours, the entire city is under siege by a horde of fast moving undead devouring and infecting everyone in their path.

Throughout the course of this book, the first in a planned trilogy, we are introduced to the people that make up two main groups of survivors.  One group is led by Dr. Caldwell, who was treating Martin at the hospital, and the other lead by Neil, an office worker who witnesses one of the first zombie attacks outside of the hospital (and the two surviving children-Jules and Danny-end up with him as well).  The pages telling the story of these characters are intermingled with various graphic scenes of carnage as Anchorage is ripped to shreds and the police and military are unable to do much to stop the tide of death rushing over them.

Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse is a fun, fast-paced tale of zombie mayhem that barely gives you time to breath, and zombie fans who crave plenty of gore and undead action should enjoy it.  The main characters are well developed and give the reader a few folks to root for as well as one in particular to loathe, which keeps things interesting from start to finish.

As I always try to do, I point out areas of concern with a story, and I have a couple of them with Infection.

The first is a minor point, but one that I feel deserves mentioning.  Alaska appears in the title of the book, and as such, I expected this story to bring some unique elements to the table based on the locale.  Unfortunately, while the author knows Anchorage like the back of his hand, the city felt no different than any other place on the map.  Perhaps the sequels will insert more of the distinctive ‘flavor’ of Alaska in them that will make this story stand out more.

My second issue has to do with one particular character, a police officer.  I felt that he would have been far more intriguing character if he wasn’t a cop, but I found it hard to buy into him being an officer of the law.  From the beginning, he makes no effort to take a leadership role in a crisis situation, letting Dr. Caldwell handle that role in a non-medical crisis.  All I know is that if I were trying to flee from the impending apocalypse and I was in a group with a police officer, I would be looking to him for direction, not a doctor (even as you are racing down the halls of a hospital).  But strangely enough, no one calls him on this until well into the book, and by then, I was wondering how this guy ever passed whatever psychological test is required to become an Anchorage cop in the first place.  Again, he would have been a far more interesting character were he not a cop.

Overall, I felt that this story has the potential to be a solid zombie trilogy.  Infection doesn’t really bring anything new to the table-there are no big surprises to be had for zombie fans here-but my hope is that the author turns things up a notch in the sequels to give this story a flavor of the northlands that leaves a lasting impression.

Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse can be found here:  http://www.amazon.com/Infection-Alaskan-Apocalypse-Sean-Schubert/dp/1618680161/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335667874&sr=1-1

Posted by  |  April 28, 2012 | Categories: Other folk's stuff... | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Review of Matthew Warner’s “Blood Born”

Blood Born starts out as a horror mystery, where victims of rape in the Washington D.C. area are all impregnated and the gestation period is accelerated to the point where it is forty times faster than normal.  In other words, these women will produce a full term baby within one week.  The case is being handled by Detective Christina Randall and we are introduced to her and Margaret Connolly, the mother of one of the rape victims, who also happens to be a fertility specialist working for a local fertility clinic that also does genetic research.

As with any mystery, we are given hints and details as to the M.O. of the rapist as the due date on the first few victims draws near and it becomes clear fairly quickly that the rapist is not quite human.  The pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together, but then the book took a dramatic change.

This tale becomes an entirely different type of horror novel somewhere between a third and halfway through, where monsters run rampant, annihilating everything in their path.  The transition was jarring, to say the least, though I don’t necessarily mean that as a negative.  But be forewarned that while the mystery continues to unravel all the way up until the end of this tale, it takes a backseat to the violent and graphic action that dominates the second half of this book.

This story has a flavor of a patient zero type apocalyptic tale, with a significant build-up to the point where all hell breaks loose.  When it does break lose, the story turns on the afterburners and blasts ahead at a hundred miles an hour.  The author does a solid job working to explain the science behind the beasts in the story, though I was left with plenty more questions about them and how they would co-exist with the rest of the world.  That is the challenge with diving into the science of something like this-there are often a lot of questions that are difficult to answer vs. making the creatures in question a complete mystery.

Overall, this is a fast paced book with a lot of surprising deaths and plenty of gruesome action.  With rape being a key part of the story, it probably won’t appeal to certain chunk of audience out there, but it is a well written scientific tale of horror.  While I was expecting it to be a more subtle mystery throughout, when the gears shifted and story changed from that to an adrenaline fueled nightmare, I was able to adapt my expectations.  The author keeps things moving at a good clip throughout and this was an easy and entertaining novel to read.  I do sense that there is a distinct possibility of a sequel based on the ending, though this book can definitely be considered a stand-alone tale.

Blood Born can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Born-Matthew-Warner/dp/0979234638/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335452721&sr=1-3

Posted by  |  April 26, 2012 | Categories: Other folk's stuff... | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Review of the movie “The Divide”

The Divide is a bare bones apocalyptic tale that starts moments after the world dies.  Nuclear bombs have been dropped on Manhattan and several people living in an apartment complex rush to the fallout shelter the super has created in the basement.  The Super’s intention was to go it alone, but his tenant’s force their way in as everyone above is dying from the blasts.  Almost the entire movie takes place in this shelter with the survivors initially planning on waiting until the radiation has died down before they check things out on the surface.  They have food, water, and power, so things seem to be okay at first-the best they can be based on the circumstances-but things begin to erode and there are various struggles for power and control among the characters.

There is a nudge from the outside world as soldiers invade the shelter and disrupt the relative calm early on in the movie.  The audience is given little information on these soldiers, what is going on up above, or why they end up doing what they do to the group.  The movie’s focus is on the dynamics of the nine people in the shelter and injects external influence only in two small, somewhat confusing doses.

The name of the movie is apropos on several levels.  There is the obvious divide between the world above and world within the shelter, the multiple divides that occur with the group as it changes and morphs over the course of the movie, and the divide among viewers of this film on whether it is a realistic portrayal of people trying to survive under nearly unthinkable circumstances or is gratuitous and over the top in many ways.

This movie is a grim, dark, and dank experiment where the characters are put in a box and the audience gets to watch their humanity dissolve.  There are power struggles to control resources, trust issues, alliances formed and broken, and the continuous erosion of any sense of civility from start to finish of this film.  This story revolves around choices-how far are you willing to go, what depths are you willing to sink to…what will you do not only to survive, but to maintain control over yourself and those around you?  It pulls no punches, showing the dark, ugly side of what we all have the potential of becoming under nightmarish conditions.

The Divide is a mixed bag.  I can’t say that I bought into the Roseanna Arquette character and her rapid transformation from loving mother to willing rape victim, and some of the other characters were a stretch as far as believability, especially as the tale progressed.  I was somewhat confused by the soldiers and why it was necessary to bring them into the story-the influence they had could have been handled by the group, for the most part.  I also felt that at two hours run time, the movie could have sliced out about twenty minutes or so and still presented the same tale-it seemed to drag in places.  Even with these complaints, the movie drew me in and kept me interested as the characters warped from being normal people to survivors buried deep in a hole and knowing they will never break free of the prison they’re in.  It’s not a film that I think I will ever have the urge to watch again, but I will remember it for a long time come.

The Divide can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Divide-Lauren-German/dp/B007549W62/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335307402&sr=8-3

Posted by  |  April 24, 2012 | Categories: Other folk's stuff... | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Review of Tonia Brown’s “Railroad!: The Three Volume Omnibus”

Railroad! is a hard book to categorize.  Certainly, it would be easy to say that it is a steampunk tale of the old west, but that seems like a limiting description.  I am the first to admit that I haven’t read a tremendous amount of steampunk literature, but I would venture to say that this book has elements that make it somewhat unique in that genre, combining fantastical elements along with the technological, turning this story into something utterly unique.

Tonia Brown, the author, wrote this tale as a serialized adventure, releasing a chapter at a time online, and then releasing each of the three different volumes separately.  This book has all three volumes thus far: Rodger Dodger, The Dogs of War, and The Trouble with Waxford.  The story is told from the viewpoint of Rodger Dodger, a man curious about an ad posted that is looking for a hired gun to work aboard a steam locomotive.  The setting is the old west of the 1870s, and while Rodger has a mysterious past as a gunman, everything else about him seems rather normal.  So when he meets up with Professor Dittmeyer, Ched, and the rest of the crew of the Sleipnir, a steam powered locomotive that requires no tracks to run on, he is as baffled as we are.  And things just get stranger from there for the man with a mysterious past but a far more intriguing future as the hired gun for an wild band of adventurers.

Of course, the wondrous technology that the author describes with great delight is quite fascinating, and gave me pleasant reminders of my youth, when I used to watch repeats of ‘The Wild, Wild West.’ I do, of course, mean the classic television show starring Robert Conrad and not the atrocious movie starring Will Smith.  You will find gadgets galore here, including guns that fire multiple rounds at the same time, horseless carriages that allow one to travel at speeds near a hundred miles per hour across the desert, and trains that need no tracks to make their way from place to place.  But that is only the beginning.  The author allows us, alongside Rodger Dodger, to enter a world filled with the fantastic-with ghosts, vampires, and genetic mutants filling its pages.  As it is described within this tale, the strange, cursed, and fantastic seems to follow Professor Dittmeyer, owner and inventor of the Sleipnir Steam Locomotive, everywhere he goes.  After all, he hasn’t been banned from 90 different countries for nothing.

The characters are colorful, detailed, and fun getting to know.  And when it comes down to it, this story may be best described as a weird western steampunk story, but it is the characters that keep things interesting, and kept me glued to each page.  A well-crafted, entertaining story that is a lot of fun, Railroad! is a trippy ride.

You can find Railroad! here: http://www.amazon.com/Railroad-The-Three-Volume-Omnibus/dp/1468185543/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335136282&sr=1-9

Posted by  |  April 22, 2012 | Categories: Other folk's stuff... | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment