Tuesday, October 30, 2012

WINNERS -- HOWLOWEEN BLOG HOP CONTEST

THE WINNERS ARE

 
 
cheralyn
 
Shadow
 
 
You have the choice of the Silhouette of Darkness e-book or the signed copy of On the Verge of Madness.
 
 
Congratulations and thanks to all who stopped by.

There are two days left in the Coffin Hop Contest -- click the link below to enter:


http://georgewilhite.blogspot.com/2012/10/welcome-to-my-coffin-hop-page-2-days.html
 



My Guest Spot at LISA L. GREER's blog: Q & A with George Wilhite

George Wilhite, author of On the Verge of Madness, talks about self-publisher vs. working with a publisher.

Wilhite has been an aficionado of the horror genre since his youth, discovering Poe and Lovecraft at an early age while also spending many summer nights at drive-in theaters watching the contemporary scene unfold. His stories have been published in numerous anthologies, genre magazines and web sites. He also serves as editor of Static Movement anthologies and reviews books for The Horror Review web site. He can find out more about him at: www.authorsden.com/georgewilhite.

READ THE INTERVIEW HERE:

http://lisalgreer.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/q-a-with-george-wilhite/

Monday, October 22, 2012

SPEND HALLOWEEN WITH COFFIN HOP MEET NEW AUTHORS AND WIN GREAT PRIZES!



COFFIN HOP MAIN PAGE

LINK TO COFFIN HOP AUTHOR PAGES


Welcome to my Coffin Hop post and contest. You can enter here to win one of four prizes:



1)  “Collector’s EP” (electronic preview)  of the upcoming Coffin Hop: Death By Drive-In anthology.This will be fulfilled by our host, The Coffin Hop. Click HERE for more information.


2) A signed copy of my 2008 self-published horror collection On the Verge of Madness--more information is provided below.







3) An electronic copy of my new e-book release Silhouette of Darkness--also described below.










4) A Print Copy of HAUNTED by Pill Hill Press. 42 stories of haunted places, including the original version of my ghost story,"The Blues in A minor," now collected in Silhouette of Darkness. For more information, see this book's Amazon Page here: HAUNTED

Rules to the contest are at the end of this post.


HALLOWEEN is near, and this month I have posted some horrifying and fun stories and poems contributed by some very special guests. SEE MY PREVIOUS POSTS BELOW FOR THEIR STORIES AND POEMS

My self-publishing debut, On the Verge of Madness, includes "Masque Profane." Halloween will never be the same for Rhonda after the events she narrates in this story. It all begins with the arrival of a mysterious letter she tries to discard:

Walking down the driveway with renewed vigor, the subject of Jeff’s mysterious mail was all but forgotten. However, fate intervened when I reached the street to begin my walk. In that moment, I just happened to look at the garbage can Jeff had dragged out for its weekly collection. I was only scanning to my right, but then focused for an instant on the item that was lying atop the heap of that week’s waste—the letter.

In that instant, I felt paralyzed, as though my entire existence was wrapped around this one moment of confusion, enlarged and agonizingly prolonged in time. My heart palpitated and my temples throbbed as the unsolved mystery of that infernal letter weighed down upon me again. As I stared at the curious border once more, those same strange hieroglyphs noted the day before became reanimated, dancing about to an unknown and unhallowed rhythm, and I then heard a voice calling out to me, softly and seductively, as my name formed again upon the envelope.

That whispering and inviting voice caused me to impulsively remove the envelope from the trash. Another voice within me told me not to do this. I was invading Jeff’s privacy. But then the other, more convincing voice, reminded me that if Jeff wanted the envelope’s contents kept private he would not have disposed of it so carelessly. I opened it and inside was an invitation that read:

Masque Profane
Halloween Night
Same Time and Place
Regrets Only Need Respond.

Below that simple message was a strange image that resembled--of all things I can think of to describe it--some kind of Tiki one buys from Hawaii as a gift to that person that already has everything. While that was the first worldly referent that crossed my mind, this figure seemed far more sinister than that as I stared at, evil perhaps. Its face was twisted in a grotesque expression, and the longer I looked upon it the more profane and hateful it seemed, as though capable of an intense violation of my being from some hellish place that existed on the other side of that thin piece of cardboard.

As I felt the envelope slip from my hand, I realized it was possible after all to know a person for three years and still not know their deepest secrets.



To find out more, check out On the Verge of Madness.










NOW AVAILABLE FROM MUSA PUBLISHING:





Buy Direct from Publisher
When the Blight overwhelms the earth, humanity's only defense is to stay awake from dusk until dawn. Tonight, Sean will learn how lethal insomnia is in this new world.
In "Fatal Insomnia" and other stories in Silhouette of Darkness, author George Wilhite explores the horror in unusual places.
Enter this dark realm and experience first-hand “a writer that makes a much-needed contribution to this genre, giving us weird fiction/neo-pulp fiction fans something to sink our teeth into that brings to mind that lost age of fiction.” (Bitten by Books)

BUY LINKS:

Direct from Publisher
Amazon Kindle
Smashwords

Follow this book on Goodreads

Excerpt from “Fatal Insomnia”

Sean had seen the monstrosity once, more than a year ago, out of the corner of his eye as he ran for shelter, but when The Blight appeared in the doorway, even he was not prepared for it.

The Blight was a whirlwind, its original vortex obscured by all the victims sucked into it, forced to become elements of its profane evolution. In the doorway, a mass of human flesh swirled in a grotesque dance. Some entire bodies were visible, but most of the souls harvested by The Blight were reduced to severed limbs, organs, eyeballs, faces frozen in living death.

Tank, that indestructible, no fear badass, stood silent and pale, his mouth and eyes gaping open.

The Blight bellowed, sounding like a hundred elephants trumpeting.
It hurled Tank backwards. The house rattled with intense violence. Soaked in sweat, heart pounding, Sean saw in Paula and Jed’s expressions the same fear he was sensing. Would this be the night The Blight would rip our house to shreds?

A new horror appeared in the doorway. From within the whirlwind emerged a black scaly appendage. Sean gaped in revulsion. The Blight’s tongue? The others stood a few paces behind Tank.
The tongue-like tentacle snaked around Tank’s ankle.

“We have to do something!” Sean crept towards the door.

Jed walked forward as well.

Each step was a struggle due to the wind gusting through the doorway. Sean was glad Paula stayed behind. Someone might as well survive if Jed and I just offered ourselves up to this thing.

The Blight made a sucking sound. Dark gelatin oozed from the appendage, covering Tank. Sean retched as the stench of rotten meat filled the room. Tank dissolved, his blood oozing all over the floor.

An instant later, what was left of Tank was whisked into the night.

AND NOW---THE RULES OF THE COFFIN HOP CONTEST:

Anyone can enter the contest by doing two things:

1) Post a comment on the blog. You can leave me feedback on the blog itself (much welcome since I am new to this venture), comment on your experience with Coffin Hop, or say something about your Halloween experiences.

2) Follow this blog by ENTERING YOUR EMAIL in the "FOLLOW BY EMAIL" BOX at the top of the blog. If you are already a follower and/or a friend on Facbook, mention that in your blog comment.

The contest begins at Midnight, October 24, 2012 and ends at Midnight October 31, 2012.

Three random winners will be chosen from those who followed the rules above.

1) First I will choose the winner of the Coffin Hop "Collector's EP." This winner is also eligible to win my free books. This prize will be fulfilled by the administrators of the main page of the Coffin Hop in electronic format.

2) I will then choose the winners of my contest.

The first two winners can choose either the signed print copy of On the Verge of Madness or an electronic copy of my new ebook release Silhouette of Darkness.

The final winner chosen will win the print copy of Haunted by Pill Hill Press.

Please be sure to provide your email address in your comment so I can contact you.

You will need to provide a shipping address for any print book won. If you an e-book, it can be provided in PDF, e-pub (Nook) or Kindle formats.

The winners will be announced on this blog and my facebook page on November 1, 2012.

Thanks for participating and good luck!


LINK BACK TO COFFIN HOP MAIN PAGE

LINK BACK TO COFFIN HOP AUTHOR PAGES

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE COFFIN HOP STORE

Pick up all of your ghastly goods, creepy clothing, sinister swag and macabre merch. for Coffin Hop, the  #1 Indie Horror Author online event. 100+ Masters of Horror! 7 Days of Terror! Proceeds go towards the costs of producing the COFFIN HOP 2012: DEATH BY DRIVE-IN anthology. The proceeds of the anthology (and excess profits from this store) will be donated to www.readingtree.org.

Today I am featured at "Halloween Haunts" at the Horror Writers Association Blog


That year’s Halloween party was a tremendous success — drinks flowed and the mix tapes pounded our favorite tracks by the giants of eighties rock and the more obscure artists our group of twenty-somethings had discovered.
The police had been by once, asking us to quiet down and please remove the fake body hanging in the tree in the front yard, but the body in the bathtub remained a success throughout the night. It fooled many of the partiers more than once.
Then, someone had the bright idea to get out a damn Ouija board.

READ THE REST: http://www.horror.org/blog/?p=2758

Friday, October 19, 2012

CELEBRATING HALLOWEEN MONTH with Guest Poet David S. Pointer



 Halloween Menu Beyond

Those afterlife
flashlights upholstered
in bone, animal hide or
alien flesh really lit
up the eternal food
trail like fluorescent
zombie boil, snacks,
served on authentic
headstone platters or
airship circuit boards
on short space notice


Untitled


coiled albino snake
guards casket treats
of door knocking vamp



About the Author: David Scott Pointer has published poems for over twenty years. He has a recent steam punk themed collection “Sinister Splashplay” published by “Virgogray Press” and available at www.lulu.com. He will also have work included in “Indiana Science Fiction 2012” anthology to be sold atwww.amazon.com. Moreover, a collection of political poetry is forthcoming from “Brian Wrixon Books in Canada available through “Blurb Books.” and he has work in many “Static Movement” titles also sold at www.amazon.com.


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Penumbra eMag: Why We Love Dread--Great Article on the subject!

Penumbra eMag: Why We Love Dread: by Karen Heuler Hitchcock knew that anticipation of a bomb’s explosion created more tension than the explosion itself. We are seduced by e...

CELEBRATING HALLOWEEN MONTH with another poem by Ken L. Jones





Lines Written Concerning A Midnight Visitation
Ken L. Jones

There’s something creeping
Round the room in my pipe smoke
Something cold and sly 
It is not sinister but curious
And I sense that it was once alive
It touches me with tendrils 
That have not gender
As if to question my flesh
And I sense in its presence questions
 Ah yes and a few regrets 
It’s no more than a memory
That has refused to die
It has no concept to
Move on to and so
On the winds it flies
I am not troubled but tolerant
 For I am a knowledgeable man
And I sense no malice in its intent 
Only a need for me to understand
It tells its story to me
It is one I know so well
It believes in neither 
Hell nor Heaven
And so on the Earth it must dwell
I offer it my sympathy 
I condole it with my advice 
Then it departs as quickly as it arrived 
Leaving the air like ice. 

 

Ken L. Jones has been writing professionally for several decades. Although he has written everything from Donald Duck comic books to putting words in the mouth of Freddy Krueger in the movies he likes to think of himself first last and always as a poet. Currently he is working on a short horror movie with his son and sometimes collaborator Kevin for horror director David Todd Ocvirk. When not doing that he is also writing an insane amount of horror and other types of genre short stories and novellas and is editing three or four huge collections of his never ending flow of poetry including a volume of his much published horror work Blood Is Red which will be his second solo book of horror poetry.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

CELBRATING HALLOWEEN MONTH with More David S. Pointer Poetry



 
 
 
Midnight Meal Ideas
David S. Pointer

Head like a Halloween
prop, she serves us
witches’ brew that
turns out to be a
medical waste milk-
shake concoction, and
a zombie kidnapping
ring leader wants to
barter for stem cell
meat bits for his kids,
costumed, who pieced
together outfits from a
local body parts bin
showing how flesh
can enliven the dead



SOME "SPEC-HAIKU"
David S. Pointer

***
alien zombies
trick or meat eat
in butcher shop aisle


***
priest eye candy
devil horn soup
cloned earthling eats all





About the Author: David Scott Pointer has published poems for over twenty years. He has a recent steam punk themed collection “Sinister Splashplay” published by “Virgogray Press” and available at www.lulu.com. He will also have work included in “Indiana Science Fiction 2012” anthology to be sold  www.amazon.com. Moreover, a collection of political poetry is forthcoming from “Brian Wrixon Books in Canada available through “Blurb Books.” and he has work in many “Static Movement” titles also sold at www.amazon.com.

Monday, October 15, 2012

CELBRATING HALLOWEEN MONTH with Guest Dorothy Davies' story "When Our Graves Are Cold"

 
When Our Graves Are Cold

Dorothy Davies
 
    
When our graves are cold what do we do? 
What should we do? 
Lie still and shiver, causing the rotting flesh to fall even faster from our chilled bones or should we get up and dance around, get some friction going?
 
Ah, but then the rotting flesh would fall even faster, tangle around our bony feet and trip us up. What a sight that would be!  Part skeletons a-dancing around the graveyard, dropping gobbets of flesh everywhere, falling cranium over tibia and landing with an undignified thump on the newly turned earth.  Well, you know that the earth takes a long time to settle itself after someone kicks it out of the earth’s crust to make room for the coffin, then throws it all back in again in the hope it will level itself out after a few months. About the length of time it takes to install a lying gravestone, that is.  Grass cutting is an ever-present need in a graveyard and graves that do not settle are liable to be skirted, leaving the swaying grass to nod toward the headstone and draw attention to the recent passing. Recent, that is, compared with the rest of them, the old ones, illegible through lichen and years of rain, snow, frost and neglect, through the slightly newer ones, not so much lichen, a little less rain, snow, frost but the same neglect ...
           
The thoughts are bitter this night. As bitter as the frost which cuts deep into the fleshless bones and chills the satin of the coffin.  As bitter as the tears which fell when the coffin was interred, and as bitter as the words which were uttered across the coffin from those who sought only that which was left behind.  Inheritance.  Death and inheritance.  Linked forever in the minds of those who remain, those whose beds are not as cold as the graves in which we lie, face up, staring at the lid, wondering what to do with the idle hours.
           
We have gone.  We have relinquished all control over tax matters, bank problems, fuel prices and everything else that plagues the world.  And yes, those ancient gravestones indicate people who feel the same.  Tax matters, bank problems and fuel prices have dogged the country for centuries.  Fuel? Animal feed, the animals themselves, the cost of transport, the cost of stagecoaches, you name it we have endured it, now no more.  It is as much a relief as the ability to dance with bony clattering over the cold graves, no need for clothes, no need for food or drink or medication.  Freedom!  Of a kind. 
           
We have gone but we remain.  A memory, a leaf on the family tree, a line on the order of service, a tear when a favourite hymn or song is sung if we are fortunate.  A fading figure in an old photograph.  We have gone but, as with everything, a part remains.  Even as the leaves fall and rot into the ground to provide sustenance for plants and the trees themselves, so we fell and our flesh rotted and went into the ground which enriches the growth in the graveyard, feeding the worms and burrowing things. They do not attack the bones.  The bones are intact, left unattacked, to dance around the stones which lie tip tumbled and faceless and wordless and sometimes lying and we would wish the truth had been told about us.  That we were bold and adventurous, that we were lovers and procreators, that we were movers and shakers – instead of husband, father, grandfather, whatever.  We know that. We know what we were, the world knows what we were, the world doesn’t know what we did whilst becoming husband, father, grandfather and all the other words inscribed at cost by the chiselling whistling stonemason at his bench, tap tapping away at the stone which would, in time, be defaced by lichens, rain, frost, snow and indifference.

When the flesh is gone, when the rotting is through and the bones are clean and sharp as new blades, ah, then we can rise up and dance.

 
           
We ask the most common question of all when we dance, bones clacking and resonating across the cold stone, what do living people think we do when we are in our coffins?  Do they think we sleep, rest, think, feel, sorrow?
           
 The answer we give is that they do not think, because they do not want to think what we might be doing. Do not want to think that they might open their door one night after the sound of castanets is heard on the doorstep and find our grinning skeleton there, demanding entrance, do not want to think we have come to wreak vengeance for inheritances stolen, destroyed, unshared, do not want to think.  We are dead. We are in our graves. There we are expected to stay, to be good corpses and allow the world to carry on its business without us.
          
  But we get bored, us fleshless wind clad people.  We get bored and restless and even if you had donated us a book or a paper, how long would that last in eternity?
           
And so we rise up with a clatter and shout of jubilation and dance the freedom dance across the unsettled graves, leaving footprints that are never seen, terrifying the wildlife that would otherwise venture into this memory laden cold portion of land, until those creatures run and the unsettled graves become more settled.
           
And when the dawn reaches out to tug away the curtain of darkness, we return to our narrow homes and stare once more at the coffin lids so that we do not upset those who might, just might, come visiting with flowers and tears.
           
And who go home to warm beds and warm homes and do not wonder what we do when our graves are cold.
           
One day they just might find out...
           

Dorothy Davies is a writer, medium and editor who lives on the haunted Isle of Wight, a small island off the south coast of England. She is proud to say she has been accepted into a goodly number of Static Movement anthologies and has the honour of editing quite a few as well.  Her stories tend to be a bit warped round the edges... as people will find if they purchase her anthology I Bid You Welcome... available from Createspace.

Click on the link below to read my interview with her last June on this blog:

INTERVIEW WITH DOROTHY DAVIES, AUTHOR AND MEDIUM
 
 
 
 
Click on the links benath Dorothy's other books below for more information.
 
 


 
 
 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Musa Publishing: Step Inside the Brain of George Wilhite

Musa Publishing: Step Inside the Brain of George Wilhite: Welcome, George. Tell us about yourself. I grew up in one of the great eras of the horror genre. Hammer Horror was in full swing in my boyh...

Saturday, October 13, 2012

CELBRATING HALLOWEEN MONTH with Guest Poet David S. Pointer





Haunted House Attractions
Fluid accumulation
inside the monster’s
sac-like cavity where
he kept all his candy
was leaking, I told
him about it, and he
started pulling out
all his intrabdominal
pus biscuits and those
wrapped chocolate bits,
as we entered the big
lobby where everyone
knew the biggest bone
was a femur baseball
bat. Everyone needed
a ticket to see those
butterfly-shaped cranial
bones get boiled into
showtime potato chips
as we settled in for the
old ghost moan matinee
projected onto a gigantic
gothic mirror, auditorium
filled with red steel tractor
seats in a cinema cemetery


And an Untitled Spec-Haiku

fossilized candy
reconstituted tricks
same bloodcurdling night
About the Author: David Scott Pointer has published poems for over twenty years. He has a recent steam punk themed collection “Sinister Splashplay” published by “Virgogray Press” and available at www.lulu.com. He will also have work included in “Indiana Science Fiction 2012” anthology to be sold at www.amazon.com. Moreover, a collection of political poetry is forthcoming from “Brian Wrixon Books in Canada available through “Blurb Books.” and he has work in many “Static Movement” titles also sold at www.amazon.com.


Thursday, October 11, 2012

CELEBRATING HALLOWEEN MONTH: "Halloween's Time" by Guest Ken L. Jones

 

















Halloween’s Time
Ken L. Jones

When autumn leaves start to fall
When things are ripening on the vine
When there’s just a hint of chill upon the wind
Then you will know
It’s almost Halloween’s time

When you look at an old bed sheet
And realize it could disguise
You as a ghost
When it’s scary stories
You want to hear
At bedtime most


When penny candy
Is on your mind
Then you will know that
It’s almost Halloween’s Time

When broom sticks seem
Like they should fly
When the moon
Is orange in
A rain filled sky
When every shadow
Seems a spirit spry
Then you will know
It’s almost Halloween’s time

When black cats hiss
On your backyard fence
Causing nightmares
That almost convince
But at the breakfast table
All seems fine
Then you will know
It’s almost Halloween’s time

When lightening cracks
And thunder moans
And cardboard cutouts of monsters
Decorate every home
When pumpkins
Start to need a face
And mischievous pranks
Through your thoughts do race
And every creaking floorboard
Is a banshee’s whine
Then you will know
It’s almost Halloween’s Time.

 

Ken L. Jones has been writing professionally for several decades. Although he has written everything from Donald Duck comic books to putting words in the mouth of Freddy Krueger in the movies he likes to think of himself first last and always as a poet. Currently he is working on a short horror movie with his son and sometimes collaborator Kevin for horror director David Todd Ocvirk. When not doing that he is also writing an insane amount of horror and other types of genre short stories and novellas and is editing three or four huge collections of his never ending flow of poetry including a volume of his much published horror work Blood Is Red which will be his second solo book of horror poetry.

Monday, October 8, 2012

MONSTERS ABOUND IN MY NEW HORROR COLLECTION SILHOUETTE OF DARKNESS


My childhood was immersed in reruns of old monster movies and other creepy stuff from the Fifties and Sixties. I remember staying up late on Saturday nights (if I could stay awake) with my Dad, watching Bob Wilkins hosting “Creature Features” in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those great old films knew how to scare us without relying on gore and exploitation.


I write all kinds of horror but particularly like to create work that harkens back to those early days of monster cinema without overtly stealing their tropes. Readers of my fiction know I write very few vampires, werewolves, and other traditional monsters. While these creatures make an occasional appearance, I tend to create my own original monsters, or at least my own hybrids or mutations of what has come before.


Buy from Publisher in all e-book formats

In Silhouette of Darkness, my new e-book release from Musa Publishing, you will find these “Creature Features”:

Fatal Insomnia

The central idea of this story began with the characters, not the monster. I wanted to write a story in one setting, with a few characters who were isolated together for some time, and going slowly mad. I would pick up their story far down the road, on the night that everything went to Hell.

I wrote about three siblings and their best friend living in a farmhouse, and after sketching them a bit I decided that, for some still unknown reason, they were forced to stay awake all night and sleep during the day. Their normal circadian rhythms disrupted, this was the pressure that drove them to the breaking point.

The monster of this story, The Blight, took shape from this central idea. I wanted the creature to be a bizarre construction of unknown origin. The knowledge that one must stay awake all night to avoid being its victim came from experience with it, not because anyone understood exactly what was going on.

I hope you agree The Blight is worthy of comparison to some of the stranger monster movies of old, and perhaps even a nod to one of my favorite masters of the horror, H. P. Lovecraft.


Jerrod’s Brood

I remember being very creeped out by the film “Willard.” Watching it now, it seems a bit corny, but the whole notion of a loser like Willard communing with rats and becoming their master is still disturbing. I wanted to take another loser and “bless” him (or curse him, depending on your viewpoint) with a brood of his own, creatures that seem to appear from nowhere but bond to him immediately.

Read this story to find out where life takes this poor soul on this fateful night.

Ashton Howard’ Dark Process

Carnivals are fun but they can also be a bit scary, right? Whether it’s the Bradbury classic “Something Wicked this Way Comes,” the clown in “It,” or some of the characters in the B-movies exploiting the carnie life, at one time or another we have all mused about the possibility that all may not be as merry with carnivals and circuses as they appear on the surface.

I wanted to take the idea of the freak show and give it a bit of a horror twist. What if there are no actual “freaks of nature,” but instead an evil mad scientist is creating them?

Read this short story and learn secret behind the sideshow “Ashton Howard’s Tent of Oddities.”

These are just three of the creatures I created in the dark tales found in Silhouette of Darkness.



STILL CAN’T GET ENOUGH MONSTERS?

CHECK OUT MY FLASH FICTION ANTHOLOGY, MONSTER GALLERY

Buy from Amazon

As editor of this collection, I simply put out a call for flash fiction featuring monsters. No more specific conditions on content. I received hundreds of tales of wondrous and horrible creatures, some humorous, others poignant, many quite disturbing.

The end result is 93 flash fiction stories of every type of monster imaginable by these great writers.

Jeffrey Thomas, author of the Punktown series and many other stories and novels, provided a wonderful introduction on the subject at hand.
Check it out at the Amazon purchase link below the cover image.


So if you like monsters, you need look no further Silhouette of Darkness and Monster Gallery. What are you waiting for?

As always, if you check out either or both of these books, I would be most greateful if you left your thoughts in comments on Goodreads, Amazon, or any other review forum.

Follow my blog by entering your email on the sidebar or through Google Friends Connect to learn more about my own writing as well as that of my guests.

AND THE WINNER IS.....

Thanks to all who stopped by, commented and followed this blog during Musa's Anniversary Blog Hop. The randomly chosen winner of the a free copy of  my ebook  Silhouette of Darkness is Sharon Stogner. Congratulations, Sharon. I hope you enjoy it.
 
 Be sure to visit the main site at: http://musapublishingbloghops.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html  for the winners of the Kindle Fire and Musa swag.