AND JUST LIKE THAT, THE BAD LUCK STREAK ENDED!

Regular readers of this blog know what the title is referring to, but for those who don't, permit me a brief recap. Basically, I've been receiving more rejections than a Trump staffer in Washington, D.C. looking for a date. That wasn't a slam, by the way. It's a documented fact.

I realized early in February of this year that part of the reason for the high number of rejections was based on when the stories had been submitted. Most of them were sent to their prospective anthologies in the closing few months of 2018, so naturally the editors would want to clean their slate as early in the New Year as possible. Unfortunately, the decisions they made did not swing in my favor.

It wasn't as if I had nothing being published this year, but the rapidity with which I received the rejections felt like a bombardment. Today, that all came to a screeching halt thanks to The Horror Zine editor Jeani Rector. I have published stories with her before. Two were published and can still be read on the website here and here, and in two published volumes here and here.

Describing my story as "creepy and odd," she found it a good fit for her online, award-winning zine.
More on that as it materializes.

Good news for you cheapskates out there...it will be free to read!

"Halloween 2018" A Review.

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John Carpenter's original two "Halloween" movies were my first immersion into genuine non-supernatural horror. I can't remember if I read the novelization of the first movie first or after seeing the film, but the story stuck with me in ways other inferior movies such as "Friday the 13th" and its endless supply of decreasingly coherent sequels did not. "Halloween" had a single mastermind behind its concept and execution, from story to casting to direction to even the music. It is auteur horror at its finest.

The sequel, co-written by Carpenter, continued the story by setting it on the same night and providing new revelations about Michael Meyers and Laurie Stroud that the director has admitted not being overly pleased with. Carpenter is notoriously candid and, I think, hard on himself. The second movie may have lacked the uniqueness of its predecessor but it was a solid follow-up, especially thanks to the expanding of Donald Pleasance's character Loomis.

This latest film has decided to dump the events of the second film and its subsequent non-Carpenter produced sequels, some of which weren't bad. In this direct sequel to the original, Michael Meyers was apparently captured after Dr. Loomis shot him and has spent forty years in a mental institution typically silent and seemingly unresponsive. When a pair of podcasting "journalists" show up to try and interview him, it is only when he sees his iconic William Shatner mask that he shows even the slightest glimmer of a reaction.

Sadly, Donald Pleasance passed away in the mid-Nineties, so the weight once again fall on the shoulders of Jamie Lee Curtis just as it did in "Halloween H20," the first attempt to make a direct follow-up to the original. That film reeked of crass commercialism. Its sequel was such a ridiculous farce that even Carpenter has expressed befuddlement at its existence. So, how does this new one fare?

Better, for sure. For one thing, there's an obvious and genuine love for the source material on the parts of the filmmakers, an infectious enthusiasm that makes even the less successful elements of the film more palatable.

The story is solid. Laurie Stroud never got over the attempt on her life or the deaths of her friends. Since the events of the second movie never took place, she has become a rather tragic, sad character similar in almost every way to Sarah Connor in the second "Terminator" film. Laurie has spent decades learning how to fortify her home and protect herself for what she considers the inevitability of Michael's return. Her relationship with her daughter is strained and her granddaughter just wishes she would move on in life.

Curtis portrays the present-day Laurie Stroud brilliantly, somehow reminding us of the innocent girl in the original while creating a whole new character. Wil Patton is also great as the police officer who stopped Loomis from killing Michael all those years ago. There's even a new doctor who was Loomis' student but his take on Michael Meyers is very different from his mentor's. In fact, he's involved in a plot twist that shouldn't work. But it does. In fact, most of the movie works.

The minor quibbles I have are mostly technical. For instance, the cringe-worthy teen dialogue/characters really show how well Carpenter wrote the scene where Laurie and her friends are walking home from school in the first film. There's also a scene where Laurie and Michael are going to face each other that stretches on to the point where the supposed "scare" is more a relief that the plot is once again in motion. There are also some rather clumsy references to the other films, including Laurie referring to Michael as "The Shape" and the attempt to recapture the creepiness of Michael's original escape from the mental institution. There's also the ditching of plot points from "Halloween II" that really fleshed out the story. But those facts didn't diminish my enjoyment.

The gore is a bit much but that's too be expected. I usually find excessive gore to be cheap and lazy, an easy way to horrify without actually creating true horror. And while the filmmakers do tow the line, they never cross it.

I do think a sequel would be a bad idea but since this movie broke box office records for a female-led horror movie's opening weekend (who the hell keeps these stats???) it's obvious they will ruin a great conclusion with another film.

Still, while this one is the only one, it's a great follow-up.

Some Reviews of my stuff with links.

It's been a while since I discussed my own work on this blog. Much has happened to prevent me from doing much writing this year, most notably a wife battling cancer and a pretty demanding yet rewarding work schedule split between two libraries. However, I still occasionally look at my Amazon author page and sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by a positive mention.

Here are a few:

The Good Fight (Superhero vs. Monster Anthology)- The Hero Disease by Christopher Nadeau – An insightful look at the superhero in all of us when the world’s last superhero, Vanishing Act, must battle an unbeatable foe.

The Best of the Horror Zine: The Early Years- And, finally, Christopher Nadeau gave us "Never Say Treat" about Halloween becoming something much darker and terrifying.
Picking four favorites was a difficult task. I enjoyed the entire book.

Not in the Brochure: Tales of a Disappointing Apocalypse- "On the Eighth Day", by Christopher Nadeau. Something about Nadeau's stories makes me cheer the blood baths and laugh in all the wrong places. I love that.

"The Best of The Horror Zine: The Early Years" Now Available!!!

Collecting all the best work from those of us who appeared in the earlier issues of the highly respected e-zine, this one is chockfull of not-so-yummy badness!

Click here to order.

Feedback on my short story, "Always Say Treat."

The story mentioned above, which started as a Yahoo assignment and then became a featured story read on Suspense Magazine's Halloween-themed radio broadcast in October 2010, was published by the Horror Zine for its April 2011 issue, in which I was featured writer.

I posted this on the Static Movement Press message boards since they have accepted four of my short stories for their anthologies and received positive feedback from some of the member-writers there:

"Great story, lots of suspense and a surreal mood. I like the original rhyme as well; it's haunting."

"Really good story! Original and fresh. Those children really freaked me out"

I also posted the link to the Pill Hill Press boards since I have a story coming out in one of their anthologies as well and received positive feedback:

"Nice, well done! "

"VERY creepy story -- I love the opening (draws you in and builds suspense right from the beginning)"

Go ahead and click the hyperlink and tell me what YOU thought, too.