Tag Archives: horror

With Two Cats and a Flood

NC flood

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

“Our house, is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats and a flood…”

He stopped singing the old song and listened to the water coursing down the street.

“Sure, I’ve been stuck on the floor days, your food has run out, and no one can get here to help, but we have each other.”

Chloe and Spike had been sitting on the coffee table staring at him for hours. He’d fallen out of his wheelchair and his usual attendant couldn’t get to the house.

The cats looked hungry and as he said, the food had run out.

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2024: A Year in Review

2024

It’s close enough to the New Year for me to post my annual “year in review” comments. 2024 has been pretty good as far as he number of stories I’ve had published.

It started out with my short story “I Don’t Want To Be Human” appearing in the Cloaked Press anthology Spring Into SciFi 2024. This tale goes back to my roots in terms of sapient robots, AI, while flying in the face of the common trope that all humanoid robots want to be like people.

Next up, I’m particularly proud of the 16-part science fiction serial I wrote for Starry Eyed Press called Our Legacy, The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure. It’s currently on Amazon’s Kindle Vella platform, but Vella is going away (you still have time to read it). The folks at Starry Eyed say they’ll republish my work in book form, hopefully in the coming year. I’ll let you know.

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Book Review of Jim Butcher’s “Grave Peril” (2001)

grave peril

© James Pyles

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I just finished reading Jim Butcher’s fantasy/horror novel Grave Peril, book number three in the Dresden Files series.

Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard listed in the Chicago phone book. He’s like a private detective, but the mysteries he’s called to solve always involve the supernatural and usually something very, very nasty.

While he’s on retainer with the Chicago P.D. “Special Crimes” unit, he often goes out on his own when something deadly threatens the community, or often himself and those he knows and loves.

“Grave Peril” started differently than the previous two books I’ve read. Harry was in the middle of confronting a hostile ghost with a very unlikely ally, Christian and Knight Michael Carpenter (the last name is especially cheesy given his faith).

Something has stirred up the spirit world and weakened the barrier between our reality and the Nevernever, the realm of ghosts, demons, fairies, and darkness. Ghosts are being brutally tormented by a mysterious “Nightmare,” something from Harry’s past. He and Michael confront the spirit of a maniacal nurse from Chicago’s 19th century in the maternity ward of Cook County General, and unless Harry and Michael can stop her, she will murder scores of newborn infants.

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Movie Review of “Lifeforce” (1985)

Mathilda May as “Space Girl” in “Lifeforce” (1985)

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The 1985 movie Lifeforce was on my “to watch” list more out of curiosity than anything else. I knew it wouldn’t be a great movie, but I wasn’t prepared for how bad it was.

Whatever the producers spent their money on, it wasn’t special or visual effects. The spaceship “Churchill” was a 1980s NASA space shuttle with ridiculously long solar panels. That was made even more silly since the spacecraft was nuclear powered.

The crew is on a joint UK/USA mission to come into contact with Halley’s Comet which visits the inner solar system about once every seventy-five years.

There were tons of technical errors I won’t get into but in the first five minutes, I regretted spending three dollars and change to stream this turkey.

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My Microfiction Story “Stewie’s Mom” Accepted Into the Anthology “Hex”

hex

Promotional image for the Black Hare Press anthology “Hex.”

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A few weeks back, I saw a prompt over on the Black Hare Press Facebook page inviting people to contribute a 200-word story based on the word “Hex.”

I figured “what the heck” and carved out “Stewie’s Mom.”

I guess I missed the part about there being a competition with five prizes. No, I didn’t win (always a bridesmaid), but my story was accepted into the upcoming anthology “Hex”.

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Read “Olivia Comes Home” Now at SciFanSat

11

Cover art for SciFanSat issue 11

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Issue 11 of SciFanSat featuring my short story is now available. Read the current issue in viewer, as a PDF, or an ePub.

Although my name isn’t mentioned o the cover or the main page, I did get a nice email this morning listing the seventeen published authors as:

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My Flash Fiction Horror Piece “Olivia Comes Home” to be Published by SciFanSat

11

Cover art for issue 11 of the SciFanSat e-zine

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My flash fiction horror tale “Olivia Comes Home” has been accepted for publication at the SciFanSat monthly e-zine due to be published online on Saturday, June 29th, 2024, in their eleventh issue (the cover for the tenth issue is above).

This is a wee story with a word count of 545 and follows a goth girl named Olivia who is trying to find someplace where she will be accepted.

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Film Review of “Godzilla Minus One” (2023)

minus one

Promotional art or the 2023 film “Godzilla Minus One.”

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Yesterday, I heard that Godzilla Minus One (2023) was on Netflix starting June 1st. I don’t have Netflix, but I checked and it was available to rent and stream elsewhere so I watched it last night. Lucky me.

This was one of the very few movies I wanted to see in the theater. From the start, it received terrific reviews and was an authentic blockbuster made with the fraction of the budget Hollywood spends on most of their crap.

On top of all that, it won eight awards including an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, an Asian Film Award for Best Sound, and Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Film and Best Actor (Ryunosuke Kamiki). This one hit it out of the park. But would it live up to the hype?

Yes, it did.

The movie wasn’t what I expected. I knew it was a period piece, set in Japan at the end of World War Two, but not much more.

Oh, Spoiler Alert: If you didn’t see it in the theater and haven’t streamed it yet and you want to be surprised, stop reading here.

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Kickstarter for “Zehlreg A. Grindstone’s Spectacular Western Oddity Emporium” Launches Tomorrow!

zagIf you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Remember when I said that my western/horror short story “Blood Trail” was accepted for publication by End of the World Pubishing?

Well, the kickstarter starts tomorrow morning, Friday, May 31st!

According to the publisher, the final word count will be around 125K, which is huge. Also, reaching for the stars, they also want to raise enough for an audiobook as well.

Go to the Zehlreg A. Grindstone’s Spectacular Western Oddity Emporium kickstarter page. If necessary, create an account (I had to go through about a dozen captchas just to make mine).

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Revenge of the Geek Show

binks

PHOTO PROMPT © Mr. Binks

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Willard looked up from beneath the discarded canvas at the base of the ride. He heard the squeals of the happy rubes spinning and twisting, hoping they’d vomit.

The sound of tinny calliope music, the sickening smell of cotton candy, or someone gorging another cheap hotdog with mustard filled him with nothing but hate. Big Luther said he still got nostalgic, but his brain rotted long ago.

Will nodded to the others, each one in their hidden positions. Just at ten, when the crowds were wildest and the carny lights blotted out the stars of heaven, they’d begin the slaughter.

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