As I await the page proofs for Eddie LaCrosse IV (Wake of the Bloody Angel) and begin the first draft of Eddie LaCrosse V (so far, Eddie LaCrosse V), it occurred to me that every book in the series begins with two concepts, one of which is the same each time, while the other is very different. If you’re out … Read More
Review: Treasure Island (1990)
I’ve read Treasure Island many times, both for my own enjoyment and to my kids. It’s a great novel, an exciting story and a terrific basis for a film. But only one of the many film versions gets it right: 1990’s version for television, directed by Fraser Heston and starring his father Charlton and a young Christian Bale. For years this has … Read More
Review: The Wages of Fear
I’m a long-time fan of the French film Le Salaire de la peur, a.k.a. The Wages of Fear, as well at its big-budget American remake, Sorcerer. Both tell essentially the same story of losers hired to drive trucks of nitroglycerin to extinguish an oil fire, and while the details differ greatly, the ultimate thematic point remains the same: the universe doesn’t … Read More
Interview: playwright Steven Stack
Recently I attended the premiere performance of Welcome to the Neighborhood, a play written by Steven Stack. Steven also teaches acting at Forte Studios, and has written several other productions for them. Welcome to the Neighborhood is set at a teen slumber party. Chloe, the new girl, invites three friends over. As they take magazine quizzes, Chloe realizes how little … Read More
The inappropriate cannot be beautiful
(The title quote is from Frank Lloyd Wright.) Recently I’ve read two books that put me in a surprising critical and moral quandary. Both were well-written, clever novels in the “urban fantasy/paranormal romance” genre. Both featured assorted supernatural creatures (vampires, werewolves, ghosts, etc.) with which the female protagonist was emotionally and physically involved. Both involved the triumph of good over evil … Read More
Review: Heart of Iron
Ekaterina Sedia’s Heart of Iron is the latest from a novelist who embraces genre–in this case both steampunk and alternate history–but brings a full-on literary sensibility to them. This, her fifth novel, posits a Russia where the 1825 Decembrist revolution succeeded (read about that history here) and the new emperor sets about modernizing Russia with a vengeance. But people … Read More
The return of Sir Francis Colby
For Halloween, I thought I’d tell you the story behind my latest foray in the horror genre. When I decided to write my first vampire novel, Blood Groove, I had a problem. Its name was Count Dracula. As the gold standard of vampires, his cape cast a very long shadow. Every literary vampire, from Lestat to Edward Cullen, is measured … Read More
Guest blog: Alana Joli Abbott
Today’s post is by Alana Joli Abbott, a fellow contributor to Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror. Here she talks about the origin of her story, “Missing Molly.” *** One of my jobs, when I worked at the reference desk at my local public library, was to scan the local newspapers for articles about our town to clip and put … Read More
The best of Dracula
The Halloween season here means one thing, one name: Dracula. It’s time for my annual re-read of the novel, and to break out the Dracula DVDs. Because I love them all: Schreck, Lugosi, Lee, Langella, Jourdan, Palance, Kinski, Butler, even misfires like Oldman. So I thought it would be fun to pick my favorites specific aspects of Dracula cinema. For the … Read More
Interview: Tim Hall, writer of The Last Mortician
Recently Tor.com premiered The Last Mortician, a comic written by my friend Tim Hall (author of Half Empty; see my review here) and illustrated by Dean Haspiel. You can learn more about its creation in this video, but I wanted to ask Tim some specific things about the story, which will involve spoilers. So we’ll wait while you go read … Read More