Brief Update

 Hello readers and casual fans! Just wanted to give you guys a somewhat horror-adjacent update on my life. I'll be making a few blog posts soon, but I'm trying to transition into full-time writing and have a ko-fi now (which you can see in that little coffee cup button on the left of the page).

Currently, I'm posting bits and pieces of my story bible for 'Bad Humors', a novel I'm hoping to finish before summer. If you'd like to follow the progress, check out the story, or just support me for the heck of it - - please visit my ko-fi page where I'll be posting all those juicy little tidbits.

If you were wondering what the novel will be about, by the way, it's a foray into my own flavor of Gothic horror. Victoria Moore, the servant on a dying estate, becomes the unwilling victim and companion to a vampiric nobleman who wishes to destroy and rebuild the manor she lives in piece by piece.

Book of the Week: House of Leaves

To quote my boyfriend this week, as I haven't finished the novel yet and feel like everyone needs to check this one out, 

"House of Leaves is a must read for any horror fan. What initially started for me as a slow burn quickly turned into a page-turner that reminded me of what made me such a huge fan of the genre in the first place. It transported me back to a time before I had consumed enough horror to predict all the tricks and tropes, when every page flip was exciting and every moment was tense and uncertain. The fear of the unknown is a staple of all good horror from the grand cosmic horror down to your classic murder mystery, and no book encapsulates that primal fear more than House of Leaves. 

It takes every chance it can to remove you from your comfort zone, from pages that need to be read upside down or out of order and everything in between. What initially seems like a gimmick at first glance becomes much more as you become truly engrossed. After maddeningly flipping back and forth through pages you eventually become completely unaware of how far along in the book you even are, you begin to feel lost, and it’s at that moment where House of Leaves is at its best. It’s a truly unique experience that can make you feel like you are a part of the horror just as much as the characters on the page."

- Ryan Bustos

Book(s) of the Week: “The Screwtape Letters”

For those of you familiar with the 'Chronicles of Narnia', but nothing else of C.S. Lewis...you are missing out. This particular work is of a much darker fare than a Jesus Allegory. Quite an interesting little read you can probably get through in less than a day if you're in a reading mood, this book is...something that has stuck with me for many years.

It's the story (or really the letters) written by an older demon to his nephew advising him how best to corrupt a man and lead the soul to hell. Not to reveal the end, but it's quite an interesting little perspective on the concept of demons and human damnation. A little dark, but not so heavy-handed that it would give one nightmares. A good read or perhaps...initiation into the world of horror or epistolary works.

Book of the week: “The Essential Dracula: The Difinitive Annotated Edition”

The Essential Dracula: The Definitive Annotated Edition, By Leonard Wolf

(Obviously the actual novel bit is by Bram Stoker)

Get me drunk enough, and there are a few things you’ll commonly see me do: talk with an Irish accent (even though I am in no way related to anyone Irish), spout random French words from my old high school French class, and complain that nobody has ever properly given Dracula it’s due on the big screen. What does this have to do with my favorite edition of Dracula I’ve ever read? Well, I’ll tell you.

It is not easy to write an annotated book without getting heavy-handed, or filling the novel with footnotes that just aren’t necessary or interesting. A lot of times, annotated books just break down to defining a word a moderate reader might not understand, like ‘superfluous’ or ‘clatu virata nicto’. Somehow, Mr. Wolf managed to inject an interesting or useful note into practically every page. The footnotes themselves actually add to Dracula, rather than taking away from it.

In reading this edition, I felt like I had come to know more about the time period, the novel, and Bram Stoker himself. What’s more, since there’s just so MUCH information, reading it again has still left me feeling like I learned something new every time. It also convinces me a little bit more each time I read this edition, that a film has never been made which could compare to the book. Yes, I understand movies rarely are anywhere near as good as the books they’re based on, but you’d think after 50+ tries, someone would have nailed it in the past 90 years.

I recommend this for those of us who love Dracula, and for those of us who love history. There’s an earlier edition with lots of pretty pictures and illustrations thrown in too, but I haven’t gotten my hand on a copy yet. Ultimately, I think if anyone actually decided to do true justice to the story of Dracula in a film, they would reap the most benefit from reading this edition. Thank you, Mr. Wolf, for this wonderful read.

Book of the Week: Gil's All Fright Diner

I'm sure you've heard the incredibly over-done phrase 'don't judge a book by it's cover'. Granted, this usually isn't actually referring to books, but people. I have the habit of judging a lot of books by their covers, and these are literal books, not 'people/books'. I'll walk through a library or book store for about an hour, glancing at the the colors, the size, the style of text, and finally...if the book has passed the first 3 tests...the full cover. That's how I discovered this, and someone who would become one of my favorite modern authors. A. Lee Martinez's awesome book, 'Gil's All Fright Diner'.

You've got a burly werewolf, a scrawny vampire, an asian goth teen satanist, a lonely ghost, and...a diner that proves to be the portal to hell. I really don't know what else you could want in literary art. But more than just the basic plot, there's a style to Martinez that shines in this book. He's a lot like Christopher Moore, but without that subtle bitter undertone.

Amusing Sci-fi and Horror has a lot of trouble when it comes to a perfect story. You basically have to keep people on the edge of their seats AND laughing their heads off at the same time. This one? This one does it. I didn't know what was coming, my seasoned horror glands were sated in a pleasant way, and I genuinely laughed a few times.

My final bit of advice: Judge books by their covers. Constantly. That way, you can find cool stuff like this with minimal effort.