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"Welcome to Count Gore De Vol's Tomb of Dark Delights. I'm J. L. Comeau, horror writer and resident Tomb Keeper. I have been charged with the daunting task of sorting and cataloging the Count's vast library of horror, science fiction and fantasy. Take a torch from the wall and follow me down the stone stairway into the darkness deep beneath the Dungeon. It's cold and damp down here--perfect for the kind of reading we're going to do. Never mind the shambling figures in the shadows, they're probably just some friends of ours looking for a good book. If you click on the cover, you'll be taken to a wonderful place where you can buy the book.
Now, let's reach into the musty stacks and see what we can find..."
To learn more about the Exciting CD recording of some of J.L. Comeau's best stories, Click Here!
(Clicking on the covers gives you more information and prices from Amazon.com and other outlets.)
It's been snowing here at Count Gore's Haunted Castle, and we're all going a
bit stir-crazy…in addition to being just plain old crazy. If you've been stuck
inside with your kids due to snow or other bad weather, I have a couple of great
family-friendly fantasy novels that will make your imprisonment seem like a
vacation!
CHILDREN
OF THE DAWNLAND by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear
Although CHILDREN OF THE DAWNLAND is recommended for middle-grade readers (ages
ten and up), I found this novel thoroughly engrossing and endlessly fascinating.
Written by a husband and wife who specialize in history and archeology, this is
a stunning tale of a young girl growing up during an ecologically catastrophic
prehistoric era during which humankind emerges to form societies that eventually
lead to modern civilization. The basis for the tale is the mysterious Clovis
culture that lived in what is now the Great Lakes region of the United States
and Ontario, Canada. The Clovis people left behind scant clues to who they were
or how they lived--their intricately fashioned arrow and spear points are
virtually all that is known of them. CHILDREN OF THE DAWNLAND is a richly
imagined and painstakingly researched novel about that lost culture. As the last
great Ice Age is ending some 12,900 years ago, we meet a twelve-year-old girl
named Twig, a member of the Blue Bear Clan known as People of the Dawnland. Twig
has been having recurring dreams of a devastating ball of green fire that rains
destruction from the sky and feels she needs to warn her people of what she is
sure is an event that will come to pass. Her mother, a Spirit Dreamer, has not
seen this vision of disaster and discourages Twig, fearing that she will be seen
as strange by her clan and become a pariah. Twig must summon the courage to defy
her mother and investigate the validity of her dreams. With the help of her
closest friend, Greyhawk, and Screech Owl, a shaman who has been banished from
the Blue Bear Clan, Twig must convince her clan elders that she is a true Spirit
Dreamer even more powerful than her mother and that disaster awaits anyone who
remains in the Dawnland village. Will Twig be able persuade her clan to
undertake the long and dangerous journey to Duskland--as they must-- to avoid
extinction? Twig's quest to save her people is a heart-stopping and instructive
journey into a prehistoric culture where the challenges facing the Blue Bear
Clan are not so different than those we are facing today. If you enjoyed the
CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR series, you and your children will love CHILDREN OF THE
DAWNLAND.
THE
KINGDOM BEYOND THE WAVES by Stephen Hunt
Here is a ripping good steampunk adventure about a globe-trotting young
professor, Amelia Harsh, who has picked up her father's scholarly torch and has
become as obsessed as he with finding the lost city of Camlantis. Jules Verne
meets H. G. Wells by way of Indiana Jones when Amelia decides to plunge ahead
with her expedition despite a lack of conventional funding. Instead, she hires a
refitted U-Boat captained by a madman, crewed by freed convicts, brigands and a
group of very scary female mercenaries to take her into the wild jungle depths
in search of the legendary utopian civilization, a search that brought her
father to ruin. The pages fairly crackle with action as Amelia faces triple-eyed
flying reptiles, savage conditions and dangers at every turn. This is the second
novel in Mr. Hunt's series set in an imaginary world at the center of which is a
nation called Jackals, which in some ways approximates Victorian England.
Airships float aloft, strange mechanical contraptions and automatons fill a
landscape lit by gas lamps. To say that the ideas contained in this novel are
ambitious is to put it lightly. As Amelia and her hardened company steam into
the dark jungle, they must avoid disaster that lurks around every bend in the
river, including becoming assimilated into a bio-vegetative hive culture that
lays in wait for the unwary. Amelia's enemies are everywhere, including the
back-stabbing benefactor who caused her father's bankruptcy and subsequent
suicide. The plot of THE KINGDOM BEYOND THE WAVES has as many twists and turns
as the river Shedarkshe, where Professor Amelia Harsh discovers that her quest
is far more important that she could ever have imagined. This is solidly written
and rollicking good fun for teens and adults who enjoy wildly imaginative action
and adventure.
Readers of genre fiction come in all sizes and shapes…and ages! This week I'm
featuring a wonderful children's fantasy series entertains while helping kids
navigate the difficult issues of growing up in today's world.
CURSE
OF THE SHAMRA by Barry Hoffman
Here's a Young Adult Dark Fantasy novel with plenty of adult appeal. When the
peaceful and isolated land of the Shamra is invaded and its people enslaved, a
young Shamra girl named Dara must form a resistance to defeat the Shamra's
conquerors. Dara's quest is further complicated by the Shamra's cultural
opposition to women in leadership roles, and she must not only overcome her own
self-doubts, but those of her followers. This is a rousing adventure novel that
addresses the nature of personal responsibility and cultural prejudices while
entertaining the reader from first page to last. Get a copy for that special
young person in your life and, while you're about it, get a copy for yourself!
Barry Hoffman is donating to national elementary schools 10,000 copies of the
THE CURSE OF THE SHAMRA, which has become an exciting trilogy that addresses
young women's self-esteem issues, with the second and third installments of
Dara's fantasy-adventure to be published soon. For more information about The
Shamra Chronicles, please visit the world of Shamra at the online site at
www.ShamraChronicles.com where you'll learn more about Barry Hoffman's donation
of 10,000 copies of THE CURSE OF THE SHAMRA to elementary schools. If you would
like to purchase your very own copy of the first book in the Shamra Chronicles,
just click on the cover!
CURSE
OF THE SHAMRA: CRYSTAL CAVE STORIES by Barry Hoffman
Barry Hoffman follows up his celebrated Shamra series with new tales of the
young Shamra girl, Dara, and her adventures growing up. In these stories, we
meet Dara's mother (or is she?), and we revisit a particularly beloved character
from the original series, Dara's lifelong friend, Pilla, who accompanies Dara as
she confronts a very dangerous enemy. Kids will love the story about Tyler,
Dara's darling Bauble, who just happens to save Dara's life! There are three
delightful stories included here, as well as a fourth entry that is actually a
deleted chapter from the original novel, CURSE OF THE SHAMRA. In each these
stories, Dara makes choices and chooses paths that all children must tackle as
they pass from childhood into adulthood. The author does not preach or push the
reader, but rather explores possibilities and options with young readers.
CURSE OF THE SHAMRA: LIFE LESSONS
STORIES by Barry Hoffman
In this second group of stories from the world of the Shamra, young Dara must
face a variety of situations confronting young adults: selfishness and
inconsideration, spousal abuse, and obesity. Dara's adventures in Shamra
continue and, as she matures, her problems become bigger and more difficult to
overcome. At the end of each story in this collection, the author suggests
alternative endings, and includes a list of questions and activities for
readers, parents and teachers. Is there ever more than one solution to a
problem? Of course there is, and the author provides a number of options and
invites the reader to think about and discuss the issues presented in these
tales. A former teacher, Barry Hoffman has dedicated the Shamra Chronicles to
enriching the analytical skills of the children to read these stories. Never
preachy, always entertaining, the Shamra series provides a solid groundwork for
making sound choices while thoroughly entertaining young fantasy readers.
Be sure to visit the Shamra site at
www.ShamraChronicles.com, where you will be treated to a free short story
download!
APPARITIONS
edited by Michael Kelly
It's midwinter here in the at Count Gore's haunted castle, and there is no
better time of year to read ghost stories than on the long, cold nights of
winter. Writer/editor Michael Kelly brings together an elegant and exquisitely
entertaining collection of otherworldly excursions into shadow and darkness.
Christopher Conlon opens the anthology with a moody contemporary gothic tale, "A
Certain Slant of Light", about a past-haunted poet who awakens to grisly
evidence that she has unexpectedly given birth to...something. Joel Lane
explores the predatory nature of Venice, Italy in "High Water", followed by
Jessica Reisman's flash fiction ," Incantation", that reveals a supernatural
natural world. Guilt proves to be a fertile ground for ghosts in Paul Finch's
"Men of Old", ghost hunters find far more than they were searching for in
Patricia J. Esposito's "Finishing the Dig", murderous siblings play deadly games
in Michael R. Colangelo's "Behind the Black", and a writer's personal ghosts
emerge through her stories in Gemma Files' "The Jacaranda Smile". In Iain
Rowan's "There Stand the Dead", a young man does far more than just see dead
people, and ghosts infest a dude ranch in Barbara Roden's "Home on the Range".
Ghosts sometimes appear before death in Simon Bestwick's "The Suicide Chair",
Gary Braunbeck's tale, "Whisper My Name", is a study of supernatural and sexual
passion, and a grieving father's search for his missing daughter ends with an
unexpected discovery in Gary McMahon's "Proof". Closing the anthology is Steve
Duffy's riveting and very modern update of the classic Victorian ghost story
concerns a terrifying midnight encounter on a cold winter's night. No matter
what the weather might be in your part of the world, you will feel the chill of
APPARITIONS. Brrr.
A
LITTLE HELP FROM MY FIENDS by Michael McCarty
Stand-up comic and master collaborator Michael McCarty joins a grand roster of
high-octane horror writers for short fiction riffs on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper
album. C. Dean Anderson starts the show with a tongue-in-cheek interview with
editor Michael McCarty in the fashion of the Beatle's opening song, A Little
Help From My Friends. Monsters and mayhem storm through the anthology in the
form of vampires, robots, ghosts, zombies, demon cars, spacemen, maniacs, and
monsters. Michael McCarty's band of fiends includes horror luminaries Charlee
Jacob, Michael Louis Calvillo, Sherry Decker, Cristopher DeRose, Dave Miller,
R.L. Fox, Cindy Hulting, Ken Lillie-Paetz, Benjamin Szumskyj, Terrie Leigh Relf,
Jason Tanamor, Sandy DeLuca, and unrepentant recidivist partner in crime Mark
McLaughlin. The stories included range from bizarre to horrific to
laugh-out-loud hilarious. Zombie maestro Joe McKinney brings the proceedings to
a close with a funny and insightful personal anecdote about the first time he
listened to the Sgt. Pepper's album. A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FIENDS is an inspired
concept and an entertaining anthology of short stories. You'll dig it, man.
Have you made any New Year's resolutions, TombRats? Maybe you've decided that
this is the year you're going to write the world's scariest horror novel.
Perhaps you've promised yourself that you're going to catch up on all the great
horror films you never saw. If so, I've got just the guides you're looking for!
WRITERS
WORKSHOP OF HORROR edited by Michael Knost
Author/editor/columnist Michael Knost has pulled together a compilation of
hard-hitting advice about the craft of writing horror from the top writers in
the horror biz. Clive Barker, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Tom Monteleone,
Tom Piccirilli, Scott Nicholson and a host of other horror luminaries allow the
reader into the heart of their writing lives and offer a head start for anyone
who has ever thought about writing horror fiction. Learn how to start your story
in style from Elizabeth Massie; keep the middle of your story tight with Michael
Laimo; keep your scenes straight with Gary Braunbeck; figure out which character
should tell your story with Scott Nicholson; find out how to craft great
dialogue with Tom Monteleone; structure your tale with Michael A. Arnzen;
integrate your life into your fiction with Tom Piccirilli; find inspiration with
Michael Knost; think about writing a screenplay with Lisa Morton; and find out
which ten writer sins will get you a rejection slip every time with Brian Yount.
And more! Much, much more! So come on, horror writers! Let's write some horror!
This might just be the guidebook that gets you published in 2010! For more about
the editor, check out his website at
www.MichaelKnost.com.
THE
PLEASURE AND PAIN OF CULT HORROR FILMS: AN HISTORICAL SURVEY by Bartlomiej
Paszylk
Do you love underground cult horror films, TombRats? Can you not live through a
weekend without a hit of White Zombie, Freaks, Black Sunday, or Killer Klowns
from Outer Space? Me, neither! Luckily, I reside here at Count Gore's Haunted
Castle, where cult films are shown in the Dungeon upstairs every single week! I
do love to read about those films, too, and I found everything I wanted to know
about my cult fave films in this comprehensive volume that begins with the 1921
film The Phantom Carriage and carries the reader all the way to William
Winckler's Frankenstein vs. The Creature that debuted in 2005. Who doesn't love
the great Hammer films (my personal interpretation of "Hammer Time"), like the
gothic horror treat directed by Mario Bava, Black Sunday, starring the
quintessential Hammer Girl, Barbara Steele? But did you know that it was Bava's
directorial debut, and the film that introduced Barbara Steele as the world's
first great B-movie scream queen? It's not just old films that are
discussed--you will find newer films that you might not have seen, like 1992
Benny's Video and 2004's The Stink of Flesh. One of my very favorites, Bubba Ho-Tep,
written by East Texas horror dynamo Joe Lansdale, starring the inimitable Bruce
Campbell and directed by cult fave director Don Coscarelli, is described thus by
film reviewer Jon Brown: "How cult movie is that? Well, I'll tell you: it's cult
to the power of cult. Squared." And so it is. If you love the cult film
experience, you will adore THE PLEASURE AND PAIN OF CULT HORROR FILMS. It's
brilliant to the power of brilliant. Squared.
Horror and dark fantasy fiction comes in all sizes and flavors and, this week, TombRats, were going to dig into some toothsome terror snacks in the form of short stories. Yummy!
MASQUE
OF DREAMS by Bruce Boston
Grand Master of speculative poetry and award winning fiction writer Bruce Boston
turns his acute shaman's eye toward the universal danse macabre with this
dazzling new collection from Wildside Press, MASQUE OF DREAMS. Just as the lush
overlay of costume and decadence that 17th century ballroom entertainments
called masques brought the bleak realities of the period into clear focus by
counterpoint, the dreamlike language and otherworldly settings of these 39
stories and poems explore and lay bare dark internal landscapes of our age.
Paths lead the reader through the turbulence of 1969 Berkeley California,
nightmare country in the Mutant Rain Forest, turn-of-the-century spiritualism,
habitation of alien bodies, the sexual mores of artificial life forms, bizarre
farming techniques, a spaceship crashing into a black hole, a war of poets, the
time preceding ice wars, and a man caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare. Ranging
from hold-your-breath horrific to laugh-out-loud humorous, each entry in this
book of marvels seizes the reader's consciousness and heart at the same moment
with the truths that form the core of our shared experience. Sample grab from
the poem "The Sizing of Curses": Small curses are the
worst./Anonymous and
hard to track/as rats within the walls./Invisible until they bite/and maim the
child in its crib,/then fade like bloody smoke. Beauty and truth, this is the
essence of MASQUE OF DREAMS. Come for the multitude of shivers and unflagging
entertainment, stay for the integrity and splendor of Bruce Boston's unerring
vision. For more about the author, please visit www.BruceBoston.com.
DARK
DELICACIES III: HAUNTED edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb
Renowned writers/editors Del Howison and Jeff Gelb present the third short story
collection that bears the name of Del Howison's famous West Coast bookstore,
Dark Delicacies. HAUNTED collects brand new stories from a range of authors
known for weird fiction spanning the spectrum of speculative storytelling. U.K.
horror dynamo Simon Clark opens the festivities with his take on the infamous
Dr. Moreau's island with "Children of the Vortex", followed by a creepy bayou
haunted house story by Heather Graham. Richard Christian Matheson's "How to
Edit" is a funny look at frustrated writers, the wild frontier has never been
wilder than in Kevin J. Anderson's "Church Services", and Clive Barker offers a
clever poem considering the dichotomy of heaven and hell. Cult fave Chuck
Palahniuk's story, "Fetch", is the strangest tale about a tennis ball you will
ever read. David Morrell of Rambo fame has written a touching and clever tale
about the inner life of a writer, and Mick Garris takes a look at the extremes
to which we will go for fame and recognition. John R. Little's story, "The Slow
Haunting" is a memorable story about a twin who accidentally kills his brother
and must live with the consequences in the form of his brother's ghost. Victor
Salva's "The Wandering Unholy" is a heartstopper about Nazis who wish to fight
their war with the help of a necromancer, and both Maria Alexander and Ardath
Mayhar break new ground with monster stories that work on two totally different
planes. Each of these 21 entries is wonderfully entertaining--you won't
encounter a clinker in the bunch. DARK DELICACIES III only whets the appetite
for the next anthology in what has been a superlative series.
It's a brand new year, TombRats, and your crabby 'n' scabby old TombKeeper
has excavated some full-on terror of the most serious sort to ring in 2010.
Let's get screaming, shall we?
RAW:
BRUTALITY AS ART edited by Adam Huber
Author Kevin Lucia, who I have conveniently trapped upstairs in the Creature
Feature Vault, contributes a story to this anthology of literary mayhem entitled
"A Willing Donor", in which a young man whose twin brother has suffered horrific
burns is called upon by their family doctor to make a ghastly repayment of a
blood debt. You'll also find tales of a bizarre and deadly scavenger hunt,
butchery as music, oil paintings wrought from desire and death, artistic
perfectionism achieved through evisceration, the beauty of slaughter,
performance art splatter, a cannibalistic gourmet chef, and all manner of
graphic and gory allegories linking the most debased brutality to artistic
endeavor. These fifteen razor-edged tales slice through the meat and marrow of
contemporary uninhibited terror with unapologetic panache and vicious good
humor. Authors include Inanna Gabriel, Brandon Ford, Frank Roger, Steven L.
Shrewsbury, R. J. Cavender, L.L. Soares, Jessica Lynne Gardner, Eric Enck, James
Roy Daley, John Edward Lawson, Stephen Couch, Trever Palmer, Andrew Wolter, and
Brendan Connell. Good stuff from Snuff Books definitely not for the faint of
heart or stomach.
MAMA
FISH by Rio Youers
Shroud Publishing presents the current 2009 Bram Stoker Award frontrunner in the
category of Long Fiction, "Mama Fish", a 91-page stick of dynamite between two
covers that details the twisted relationship between two fellow oddballs adrift
in the American Nightmare. An oddly disenfranchised man in his mid-thirties
named Paul Beauchamp feels an impulse to befriend young Kelvin Fish, high school
weirdo and perennial butt of jokes. The year is 1986 and the world is all about
how you look and what you own. And coolness. Coolness is everything. Neither
Paul nor Kelvin is cool in any sense, but Paul finds himself comforted by
Kelvin's strangeness, even as they are surrounded by the digital flotsam of the
eighties. Before long, Paul finds himself being towed by Kelvin's weird gravity
toward the mysterious Mama Fish and a conclusion that he cannot even begin to
imagine. Funny, bizarre, dead-on and deeply disturbing, Rio Youers' novella is a
delightfully shocking tale of a generation lost in head-space. For more about
the author, check out his website at
www.RioYouers.com.
SHROUD
#5: THE JOURNAL OF DARK FICTION AND ART by Shroud Publishing
I am a big fan of horror magazines, and Shroud Publication's magazine, Shroud:
The Journal of Dark Fiction and Art is one of the best newcomers to the horror
trade for a long, long time. Filled with top-notch horror fiction, reviews of
books, films and games, author interviews, market news and astounding art, this
is a quarterly journal custom designed for the discerning horror fan. In this
particular issue you will find fiction from zombie maestro Kim Paffenroth, plus
stories by Michael West and John Bruni. Shroud #5 marked my first encounter--but
certainly not my last--with the cult fiction character Hiram Grange, a dark,
unrepentant urban noir anti-hero whose exploits are chronicled by a series of
dynamic authors including Kevin Lucia. An excerpt of Mr. Lucia's upcoming Hiram
Grange novel is included in Shroud #5, and a number of additional Hiram Grange
Chronicles by more great authors are included as well. Gorgeously illustrated
throughout, this is a big, meaty magazine that does the horror biz proud. Click
on the cover to order Shroud #5, or head over to
www.shroudmagazine.com
for a full subscription.
The TombKeeper has a story in this
anthology that's to benefit the "Scares That Care" Charity. For more details, just click on the cover!
To get even more information about these titles, including some of the best prices on the Internet, just click on each of the book covers and you'll be connected to 
To visit the individual writer's website, just click on any underlined name.
Become the Tomb Keeper's Apprentice!
The Tomb Keeper could use some help, and you could become her apprentice by recommending--in 25 words or less--your favorite horror, fantasy, or science fiction book currently in print. If chosen, you will be named The Tomb Keeper's Apprentice and your name and recommendation will appear on The Tomb WebPage for a period not to exceed one month. In addition, I will sneak out to you an autographed photo of Count Gore De Vol!
EMAIL YOUR RECOMMENDATION TO THE TOMBKEEPER
About the Tomb Keeper (Or, who is this person of mystery)
J. L. (Judy) Comeau is an award winning short story writer whose work has appeared internationally in major horror and dark fantasy anthologies such as the Borderlands series, Best New Horror, The Years' Best Horror, the Hot Blood series, and the Dark Voices series in the UK. She is an active member of the Horror Writer's Association, and she lives in the Washington, DC area where she also teaches short story writing. Click on FIREBIRD to read one of her most anthologized stories.
You are invited to visit the Tomb Keeper's very own website, by clicking on the eyes below!
To learn more about the Horror Writer's Association, just click on their logo!
J.
L. Comeau has enlisted actress Leanna Chamish to record several of her horrific stories on CD.To here a Real Audio sample of this exciting new release, click on the cover image below!
For more information on how to purchase this CD, Click Here!
Creature Feature © D. Dyszel 2010
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