BOUND FOR EVIL is now shipping. This hardcover collection promises to be one of the nicest books produced by a specialty press in quite some time. I’m proud to announce that my short story "Mechanix" appears along side tales by Ramsey Campbell, Jeffrey Thomas, H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, and Angeline Hawkes, among many others.

Based on the theme of evil books, BOUND FOR EVIL is a fine piece of work; it is leather bound, gold foil stamped, smythe sewn, and a staggering 800 pages with two dozen interior illustrations by Allen Koszowski. Collectors won’t be disappointed with this package, except maybe for my bio, which I probably should have written sober. Click this link to visit the Dead Letter Press blogspot for up-to-date information on this and other DLP titles. Order directly from DLP and receive a free limited-edition chapbook, not offered for individual sale.

I’m supposed to be working, but I’ve just gotta say something about this movie.

Angie and I sat down and watched DEADWOOD PARK last night. Actually, we watched the end of it, because we’d watched the first half the previous night until the DVD player died. The old DVD player absolutely refused to play past the 59:19 mark. After confirming that the disc was okay, I spent all day yesterday feeling unresolved wondering what the hell was going to happen at the end of this movie. I went to Wal-Mart over lunchtime, bought a new DVD player, and as soon as I got home from class last night, I ripped it out of the box, unloaded and moved the bookcase so I could plug in the new player, reloaded the bookcase, pushed everything back into place and promptly put in DEADWOOD PARK.

A brief synopsis from the website: The small community of Eidolon Crossing once boasted a flourishing economy and great prosperity, fueled by Dogwood Park, an amusement park at the edge of town.

Then the child murders began.

When the first child’s corpse was discovered at Dogwood Park, the town knew they had been pulled into a horrible nightmare. As more murdered children were unearthed on the amusement park property, attendance began to decline. Finally, the macabre publicity shut the park down entirely. Dogwood Park was abandoned. The old amusement park became known as "Deadwood Park" by the locals. Eidolon Crossing quickly withered into poverty.

Over the course of 35 years, 26 children disappeared at the hands of the elusive murderer. In 1979, Jake Richardson’s little brother Francis was the last of the children to be abducted. Jake and his parents moved away from Eidolon Crossing shortly thereafter. Now an adult, Jake is drawn back to Eidolon Crossing, the town where his brother was taken from him. The spirits of the many murdered children begin to contact Jake. He glimpses them in the shadows of his house. He hears them whisper in the darkness of the surrounding farmland. Jake is led back to abandoned Deadwood Park. Here, somewhere in this decaying amusement park, is the path that leads to the killer’s identity. It becomes Jake’s mission to solve the mysteries of this sinister, blood-soaked town.

I have to say this is one of the best indie horror movies that I’ve seen in a long time. While the acting from some of the extras was wooden at times, William Clifton did a great job in the leading role. The story was engaging and literally had me on the edge of my seat wanting to know what came next (hence the mad rush to get a new DVD player!). Director Eric Stanze has done some stunning cinematography work here; the old house, the church, and the amusement park are haunting. For that matter everything about the town of Eidolon Crossing is downright eerie. One thing that struck me as very effective was the use of sound -- you could hear the smallest titter across a wooden floor, the slightest creak of the old house settling into the earth. There were some genuinely scary moments in this film. Thick with atmosphere and suspense, DEADWOOD PARK is an intelligent creepfest sure to please the most hardened horror fan. It was a real pleasure to watch this movie. Kudos to the crew at Wicked Pixel. Well done.

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As a post script, I’d encourage folks to visit the Wicked Pixel Cinema website and click around. Their booth was directly across from ours at Texas Frightmare Weekend. I recognized the name of their site since, back in 1999, they used to publish fiction online at a time when I published primarily in webzines. Small world, eh? Anyway, it was great talking to these guys, and checking out a couple of their movies. They’ve really come a long way from their 1995 release SAVAGE HARVEST, and I expect there’ll be greater things to come.

So, it turns out that Plano, TX has the absolute best stores for both horror movies and death/black metal. I had no idea. I mean, all these years I’ve been lamenting the disappearance of Forbidden Books & Video in downtown Dallas, because they had the greatest selection of exploitation horror films in town. At least, as far as I knew. Then, one day over lunch break I cruised up to Fry’s Electronics to pick up a wireless network adapter and decided I’d slip through the movie section. I was stunned -- they’ve got just about everything a die-hard B-horror fan could ever want. From Herschell Gordon Lewis films to Something Weird video boxed sets; from Italian horror kings Bava, Argento, and Fulci, to obscure American 80’s indie releases. I swear I hit the treasure trove.

Then, today, I was feeling kind of under the weather (still recovering from the con crud), but we wanted to get out of the house for a while. Usually we’ll head to the big Half Price Bookstore on Northwest Highway, but we discussed the size of our book collection and thought we’d just take a leisurely drive through old town Wylie. Well, next thing you know my intrepid (or is that hapless?) fellow adventurer, the brave Angeline and I are driving down Farm Road 544, only to discover that it becomes Plano Parkway and dumps us off on 75 near Collin Creek Mall. She found a new antique mall on the east side of Central, and I ... heh-heh, well I found my new favorite CD store, CD Warehouse.



Their metal section -- and yes it was an entire section -- had just about everything that I was looking for and was willing to buy in one shot. The haul for today is pictured above. This officially replaces three heavily worn cassettes and adds a couple of discs I hadn’t picked up yet. Special thanks to Angie, who made this a guilt-free purchase! (They don’t make ’em like her anymore. Sorry fellas, she’s all mine.)

I’m very pleased. For anyone out there who’s looking for great places in the North Dallas/Richardson/Plano area to buy new horror films or death/black/thrash metal, please support these guys so they keep stocking all this cool shit!

HORROR FILMS
Fry’s Electronics
700 E Plano Pkwy
Plano, TX 75074
(214) 291-6000
Get Directions

BLACK/DEATH METAL & CLASSIC THRASH
CD Warehouse
1017 N Central Expy
Plano, TX 75075
(972) 509-9135
Get Directions

Angeline and I attended our first official horror convention this weekend, February 21-24, 2008 in Grapevine, Texas. The organizers of Texas Frightmare Weekend were gracious enough to have local HWA members added to the guest roster, providing some much appreciated exposure for our work. We’ve been to several local sci-fi conventions, but they’ve mostly been literary events, and they in no way prepared us for this. Maybe Horrorfind Weekend is comparable, but since it’s all the way up there in Yankee territory, we’ve never attended. I don’t know how many people showed up for this thing, but they came in droves like the German Wehrmacht; it was a blitzkrieg of horror fandom the likes of which I’m sure hasn’t been seen in our area in a very long time.

We arrived Friday morning around 10 a.m., and shortly met up with Steve Wedel and Lee Thomas. For some reason I had it in my mind that the dealers room was opening at 11 a.m., but it didn’t really open until 5 p.m. Anyway, it worked out okay, since it gave us time to grab some lunch and head over to Grapevine Mills mall, where Angeline wanted to do a bit of shopping. On our way back to the hotel were given the first indication of what was in store for the DFW Hilton Executive Conference Center; a mob of zombies gathering in the parking lot of Saltwater Willy’s, preparing for the Zombie Walk. Folks from all over the nation had shown up to be splashed with blood and walk in a huge mob along Grapevine Mills Drive from the mall to the convention center, chased by zombie hunters in a 4x4 hearse.

Once the vendors room opened up we headed down and took our places. Our table was right next to Bersals Chop of Horrors, and directly across the way from the guys from Wicked Pixel Cinema. I recognized their name because the website they used to run eight or nine years ago used to publish fiction back when I was published mostly in webzines. I had a good conversation with one of their producers, Scott Muck, and director Eric Stanze, and picked up a couple of their flicks to check out, Deadwood Park and Savage Harvest.

There was a pretty steady flow of interested parties checking out our books and asking questions about HWA, writing, and publishing. We met with Joe McKinney, author of Dead City, who came up from San Antonio, and Gabrielle Faust, doing interviews for FearZone. We sold a good number of books and handed out mucho promo materials. I frequently get restless planting my butt at the table, so I intermittently made the rounds to all of the independent filmmaker’s booths, shaking hands and passing out cards and seeing what they had to offer. I learned a few things about the indie movie industry talking to these guys, and discovered that they run up against many of the same problems as do writers in the small press. Granted, the movie audience is much wider, but the nature of people involved is the same. Our panel on Sunday was great -- I admit being a little intimidated having to follow Tom Savini, Ken Foree, and the like in this huge room, but Noel with TFW did a great job helping us get started, and about 30 people attended with questions and comments. I even got a chance to plug the infamous Zombie Moon screenplay, co-written by me and my good friend Matt Owens back in 1999. Sadly, it remains the worst zombie movie (n)ever made. I also got a chance to briefly meet Eve Blaack, of The Hackers Source (who’ll be publishing one of my stories in their next issue, by the way).

Despite our pleasure at being guests at such an event, and having so much fun talking to friends new and old, the absolutely best part of the weekend -- my absolutely greatest most bestest and glowingest moment -- was meeting George Romero.

In addition to such guests as Elvira, Malcolm McDowell, and Tom Savini, the entire cast and crew of Night of the Living Dead was present, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the film that started it all. It was cool to see everyone and how they had changed, but there was no question that the only person whose autograph I was willing to pay for was the man himself, George A. Romero. Creepshow and Dawn of the Dead are easily in my top ten favorite horror films of all time, and the impact they made on me was significant. In fact, although I had been writing fantasy and war stories from a very young age, it was only after walking home in the dark, through the darkened back lot of the Circle Super after seeing Creepshow 2 at the tiny local theater, that I was inspired to write my first horror story -- imaginatively entitled The Pit. Okay, so it was a plotless rip-off the The Crate, but it was all for fun back then -- and to gross out my creative writing class when it came my turn to read aloud.

I waited until Sunday morning, thinking the lines would be less imposing. On Saturday, his line wrapped all the way around the convention ballroom, and this place was huge. Since we were guests, I was able to get in line along with all the early admission folks on Sunday. It still took about an hour or so to get through, but certainly few other things are so worth waiting for.

I’d made some idle conversation with the two guys in front of me in line; one of them met Romero at a convention in Canada and had a photograph with them together that he was going to get signed. It turned out that the kid in line in front of me is attending Tom Savini’s special effects school. He gushed to the director about how Dawn of the Dead changed his life, and I had to admire how Mr. Romero reacted. No matter how many times he must have heard this from countless fans, he took it right to heart and seemed genuinely touched. He told the kid if he ever made it up into his neighborhood to let him know. Then he gave the kid his e-mail address and said, "if you give this to anybody, I’ll kill you."

Once it was my chance to talk to the man, I had him sign a photograph for my sister, my Creepshow mini-poster, and my clamshell cover insert for the 1977 version of Dawn of the Dead. As soon as I laid the clamshell insert in front of him he said, with good-natured disgust (if there is such a thing), "VHS!" We laughed about it, and I proceeded to tell him about my closet full of horror films on VHS, so many of which I can’t find on DVD. We talked about some of the films of the 80’s, and the kids in front of me hung around to join in the conversation and graciously took this picture of me with the man himself. I thanked him heartily for all of his work, and slipped him a copy of Then Comes the Child, with my personal inscription, "For George Romero -- Thanks for all the scares!" I hope he reads it and enjoys, if no other reason than to repay him in some small way for all the hours of enjoyment he’d given me.

When I came back to the table clutching my signed Romero goods, Angie claims I looked like a giddy schoolboy. I admit I couldn’t stop grinning. I was on a high for the rest of the day, absolutely on a cloud. It was a dream come true to be sure. All those years ago, laying on the floor of our old house in Woodland Park, looking up at that grainy VHS picture of gut-munching zombies, I never would have thought it possible to shake hands with the guy who’d been so influential in my teenage years. For me, it’s probably second only to meeting Stephen King, which I guess is unlikely at best.

All in all, this was the best weekend we’ve had in recent memory. Saturday night we met Bill Lindblad, Jen Orosel, and Tom Monteleone for dinner. This is the second time that Angeline and I have met Mr. Monteleone, and I only wish he’d been at a convention that didn’t conflict with TFW so we could have had more chances to talk. I admire him as a long-standing figure in the genre, and can’t help but respect his straightforward style and impressive body of work. We considered going back with them to ConDFW for some parties, but both Angeline and I were wiped out, so we just headed home.

The weekend left me drained. The lack of sleep, lack of food, and excessive handshaking allowed a low-grade bug to catch up with me. Plus, I’d written two final exam essays for history class and crammed algebra homework into every spare moment the previous week. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic experience, and one we look forward to repeating next year. Sincere thanks to Loyd and everyone at Texas Frightmare Weekend for their hard work and for making us feel wanted and at home. I can’t say enough about how appreciative we are for their invitations, and how excited we are to be part of the next event. Based on what we saw this year, Texas Frightmare Weekend has every right to the claim that they are the premier horror convention of the southwest.

Now, back to recovery....

Just a reminder that Texas Frightmare Weekend is this weekend. Angie and I will be there as guests with some fellow scribes from HWA and FearZone. For more information, click the banner. Hope to see you there!

Time for the mush. Some of you are really going to hate this. I don’t much care. This is, after all, the Innernetz, and you have the option to look away at any time.

I love my wife. In fact, I have never been so in love with a person as I am with her. Dare I say that she is the wind beneath my wings, and use every cliche’ in the book to describe the way that she inspires and energizes me and shines light into all the dark corners of my life? Cliche’s are not enough. Without Angeline, I would be nothing. Once, it was my only desire to be a successful writer of fiction, and only that -- I was convinced -- would bring me joy. But the day we were married, all of that seemed virtually unimportant. It became secondary to being in love, to taking care of her, to being all that I could in the way of provider, lover, and friend. Funny how the one thing that carried me through the darkest times in my life was suddenly revealed as nothing more than a life preserver, something that merely kept me afloat until God aligned our destinies and I awoke to what life was really about.

Everyday, I count myself fortunate to have this, something some people never experience in a lifetime. A sweeping powerful love that is loyal, kind, and generous. A love that overcomes strife, pushes through the pain, and carries us each day to the height of human experience. I have never been so happy. I love her more each day. Every day is Valentine’s Day for us; we don’t need some greeting card holiday to remind us how to treat each other. I wish everyone could have what we have. The world would certainly be a better place.

The photo above is one that Rhonda Eudaly took of us at the FenCon party just a few weeks ago. Just seeing her smile like that warms my heart, because I have seen her pain, and that’s sometimes too much to bear. But today is a good day, because we’re on the road to getting her the right treatments; the new medications that Dr. Sparks prescribed have so far (two days now) have given her some much-needed respite. Thankfully, the pain meds for the day are not narcotics, but anti-imflammatories, the pure form of the stuff that they use to make Aleve, so she doesn’t have to endure the drug-induced haze which she hates. We’re hoping that this is the solution. Yesterday, she said she felt like she was in somebody else’s body she felt so good, so perhaps someone up there is not only hearing, but -- in part -- answering my prayers.

So, here’s to my wife, the greatest love of my life. I love you, bebe, and happy Valentine’s Day. I can’t wait for our night out on the town! :-)