Lucid Dreams and Saturn Skies The Life and Writing of Andrew Kincaid

Tag Archives: Short Stories

The Twilight Zone (Original Series)

July 2, 2012 2:04 pm / 2 Comments /
The Twilight Zone was a Sci-fi/horror/Thriller anthology series created by Rod Serling in 1959. It is considered by many a classic piece of television, and iconic in the horror genre

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
—Rod Serling

The Twilight Zone is a classic piece of television, and it really set the benchmark by which any sci-fi or horror television series (especially if they are anthologies) are judged against.  Probably right now the iconic theme is in your head–even people who have never watched the show have likely heard it, it’s imitated so often.

It used to be that you might catch a few episodes here and there on the Sci-Fi Channel (I refuse to call it SyFy because…really?)  but now what with Netflix and Hulu it’s much easier to find.  Over the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of watching seasons 1-5 (minus season 4, for some reason) on Netflix.  I’d seen a few episodes here and there during Sci-Fi marathons, including a few classic episodes such as “Time Enough At Last”, where Burgess Meredith (better known as Rocky’s manager in the first three Rocky movies) plays a man who likes to read, and after a nuclear war finally finds the time, and “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” where a young William Shatner sees a terrible creature on the wings of a plane.

Seeing those classics, I knew I like The Twilight Zone and I was excited to get to experience the rest of the series.  I was impressed by how edgy the show was, given the time period in which it was made.  It featured a lot of scathing social commentary, using sci-fi/horror themes to illustrate (and conceal from censors) its point.  “Monsters on Maple Street” is a perfect example of The Twilight Zone as social commentary.  It is about a neighborhood in a small town that sees strange lights and hears word that aliens have come down in human form.  Paranoia takes over, and soon the neighborhood devolves into panic and violence.  Another such episode whose name I can’t recall centers around a family who has a bomb shelter in a neighborhood of people who did not.  The authorities come over the airwaves with the warning that a nuclear attack is under way, and what once looked like a neighborhood straight out of a Norman Rockwell becomes a place of fear, panic, and the animal instinct to survive at all costs.

Not every episode of The Twilight Zone is quite so weighty.  Many are moralistic fables, many of which are intended to be humorous.  One hallmark of the series is the ironic, often horrific twist featured in nearly every episode.  The Twilight Zone beat M. Night (What a Twist!) Shymalan to the punch by fifty years, and more often than not this show does it better than ole Shymalan ever could, outside of The Sixth Sense that is.  Not every episode is great–like any anthology, the stories can be a bit hit or miss–but when The Twilight Zone gets it right, well, there’s a reason it’s considered classic television.

Posted in: Abnormal Psychology, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World, Reviews, TV Show Reviews, Weird Science / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

May 21, 2012 3:46 pm / 1 Comment /

Full Dark, No Stars is an anthology consisting of four stories by Stephen KingI’ve said it before and I will say it again: some of Stephen King’s best works are his shortest.  It was with that in mind that I picked up Full Dark, No Stars sometime last year, but it sat on my bookshelf since.  Now that I basically have nothing but time on my hands–being both a graduate and unemployed–I finally got a chance to read it.  Let me tell you, it was certainly worth the wait.

Full Dark, No Stars is an anthology consisting of four novellas, each one dealing with the theme of retribution.  1922 is the first of the bunch.  It is set in Hemingford Home, Nebraska, and it follows a father and a son who commit a terrible crime motivated by greed and pride.  Their crime does not go unavenged–it is a Stephen King story after all–and things go from dark to pitch black really quick.  I’m thinking 1922 is my favorite story of the bunch, although they’re all good.

Next up in King’s collection of horrors is Big Driver, where a mystery writer gets a great deal more than she bargained for after a speaking engagement when she runs into the titular Big Driver on a lonely stretch of road.  If 1922 was brutal, Big Driver takes things to another level; I found some parts difficult to read, fair warning.

The next story, Fair Extension, was the weakest of the bunch in my mind.  A man with cancer comes across a mysterious stand near an airport, where a strange man sells “extensions”.  It’s less gory than the preceding novellas, but in its own way it is still rather gruesome.  I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s just say that jealousy can get the better of anyone, even the best of men.

The final story in the collection was A Good Marriage.  A house wife learns the hard way that sometimes, monsters can lurk behind even the kindest of faces.  That, and that you can never truly know the inner workings of another person, no matter how close you become to them.  I should add that this story is very much inspired by true events; King himself says as much during the epilogue.

King was very much in the Bachman state of mind when he wrote Full Dark, No Stars; that is to say, normally King’s works end on something of an up note, but not here.  The title is apt as these are four of the darkest pieces King has published under his own name.  They’re true as well, as true as fiction can get at any rate.  If you want to see the master of horror at his best, give Full Dark, No Stars a look.  You won’t regret it.


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Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre by HP Lovecraft

April 30, 2012 6:47 pm / 10 Comments /

Eldritch Tale is a collection of stories by HP Lovecraft, compiled as a companion piece to the NecronomiconIn recent years I have become quite the fan of H.P. Lovecraft, a fact to which anyone who has read my writing can attest.  When I was in the process of writing many of the stories in On Dark Paths, I was reading a mammoth collection of Lovecraft stories entitled The Necronomicon.  The sheer weirdness and cosmic horror of Lovecraft’s tales captured my imagination, and left me hungry for more.  So, when I heard about Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre, naturally I became excited.

Eldritch Tales was compiled as a companion collection to The Necronomicon, and it contains several lesser known tales and Lovecraft’s weird poetry.  This book is far from a definitive collection of Lovecraft’s work, and truly it can’t stand on its own but rather should be read as a supplement toThe Necronomicon.

Like any short story collection, Eldritch Tales was a mixed bag in terms of quality.  Many stories were merely okay, a few were intriguing, and a few were simply bad.  A great many of the stories, especially in the first half of the collection, began to feel repititive.  Many of these dealt with dreams, one of Lovecraft’s favorite topics.  N0rmally such stories are interesting, but after a certain point they became the same old same old – each one featured a wanderer visiting strange cities in his dreams.  It seems each one visited the same set of cities because Lovecraft described each dreamscape in nearly identical ways, although his signature verbosity is always entertaining to read, if only to see what massive words he manages to inject into his prose.  More than once, I found myself Googling a word with which  I wasn’t familiar.  While the quality of Lovecraft’s stories may be variable, they’re always good for a vocabulary lesson!

Few of the stories really stuck out to me in terms of quality – in fact, I honestly had a difficult time thinking of a story that stood head and shoulders above the others.  ‘The Electric Executioner’ was an interesting story, involving a madman who invents a unique way to execute prisoners.  ‘The Beast in the Cave’ was also interesting, although I could have sworn I read it in another collection of Lovecraft’s works – which one, I can’t recall.

While few of the stories stuck out in terms of their quality, what truly stood out to me was just how awful Lovecraft’s poetry was (Note: I am not an avid reader of poetry, so take my criticism with a grain of salt).  I think Lovecraft attempted to emulate his hero, Edgar Allen Poe, with his poetry, but it did not work out terribly well.  I found myself skimming through most of ‘The Fungi of Yuggoth’, the primary collection of weird poems in the book (there were more sprinkled throughout, it’s just this was the longest).  It seemed to me like Lovecraft tried to hard; indeed, some of his rhymes definitely were stretches.

And then, a few of his poems were all done in what was meant to be archaic English, which made them all but impossible to read.  At least one of the prose stories was written in a similar fashion, as was some of the dialog in a smattering of other stories.  I find that to be one of my biggest pet peeves about Lovecraft’s works – as if his often arcane prose isn’t tough enough to decipher, he’ll lapse into old English on top of it!

Fans of H.P. Lovecraft’s works will enjoy Eldritch Tales, although if you have not read it already, I would recommend looking at The Necronomicon first, as it is by far the better volume.


Posted in: Abnormal Psychology, Book Reviews, Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World, Reviews, Weird Science / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

from the farther side of beyond (a collection of novellas to keep you up at night) by Peggy Randall-Martin

February 20, 2012 8:24 am / Leave a Comment /

from the farther side of beyond (a collection of novellas to keep you up at night) by Peggy Randall-MartinI remember coming across old reruns of The Twilight Zone back in my middle/high school days.  The Sci-Fi Channel (now the SyFy Channel – not sure the reasoning behind the change of spelling but whatever) used to run all day marathons of the Rod Serling classic every so often, and when they did I would snap them up.  I remember being amazed at the time that an old black and white television show could tell stories that were not only good, but that could truly mess with your head.  The effects may have been dated, but the sheer weirdness was timeless.

From the farther side of beyond (a collection of novellas to keep you up at night) by Peggy Randall-Martin exudes that same feeling of wonderful weirdness as those old episodes of The Twilight Zone that entertained me as a kid.  This collection contains six fictional works and one true story of a very odd happening in the author’s life.

While said stories didn’t keep me up at night – being a horror author myself I’m pretty hardened to all but the spookiest of spook stories – I was impressed by both the strangeness and the execution of the stories contained in this collection.  Peggy’s prose is crisp and her dialogue snappy.  Her character’s are believable and likable, and they seem to spring to life from the pages.  The only gripe I had about the writing was a very small one that didn’t detract much from the stories themselves – there were times it felt like I was head hopping.  That is to say, there were times when it seemed that the point of view shifted abruptly from one person to another.  However, most times when I thought that happened, I read a little further only to see there was a good reason for it, as it was either intended to reveal or conceal something about the story that couldn’t really have been expressed any other way.

And as for the whole concealment thing – often, when the big reveal came, I didn’t see it coming.  This wasn’t due to any lack in the author’s ability – in fact, I would say it’s a testament to her skill.  Her stories kept you guessing right up until the end, and when the reveal did come the utter strangeness of the scenario smacked you straight upside the head, much the same as the very best episodes of The Twilight Zone.

You might remember that I mentioned how one story in this collection was a recollection of a strange event in the author’s own life, called “For Whom the Phone Rings”.  The event happened back in 1999, and in her description of the story she challenges “If it had happened to you, would you have answered the phone?”  Now, despite the content of this blog, I tend to view myself as a skeptic when it comes to the paranormal.  That isn’t to say I don’t believe – I want to believe, as Agent Mulder on The X-Files would say.  That being said, I can’t think of any reasonable explanation for the occurrence that Peggy describes in her book.  Would I have answered the phone?  Having not had the experience, I can sit here and try to say I would, but I think I’d answer differently had I actually experienced what she did!

All in all, I found from the farther side of beyond an enjoyable read.  It isn’t strictly a horror collection – more of a paranormal thriller – but I would recommend it for horror and non-horror fans alike.

Get in touch with Peggy Randall-Martin and check out more of her books here.  And check out from the farther side of beyond (a collection of stories to keep you up at night) here.


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999

January 9, 2012 3:37 pm / 1 Comment /
999 is a collection of short stories edited by Al Sarrantino. Stephen King, William Peter Blatty, and Neil Gaimen among others contributed stories for the anthology.

A collection of 29 stories by some of the best in the business.

As most of you probably know by now, I’m a fan of horror.  I have found in my explorations of the genre that something about horror lends itself to the short story format.  It’s a bit like the story of Goldilocks – not too hot, not too cold, but juuust right.  Or in this case, not too short, not too long, but juuust the right length to keep up the intensity and suspense.  Sometimes a horror novel can be too long – one complaint often lodged against Stephen King is that his stories end long before the book does.  Sometimes a good story can end way too soon, leaving the reader unsatisfied.  But every now and then you find a story that hits it just right, be it a novel, novella, or novelette.

999, edited by Al Sarrantinio, has a mix of stories that more often than not hits it just right.  Several authors including heavy hitters like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and William Peter Blatty (the author of The Exorcist) are represented in the anthology.   The stories within vary widely in content – from ghost stories to zombies to monsters to tales of love gone wrong.

Like any short story anthology, the book was a bit hit or miss here and there.  More often than not I enjoyed the stories, but now and then one fell flat.  Especially one called Des Saucisses, Sans Doute – it was supposed to be “funny” but I thought it was just disgusting.  And the Neil Gaiman story called Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story was…interesting…but certainly not my favorite in the book.   And I was surprised to find that William Peter Blatty’s Elsewhere has so far disappointed – I haven’t yet finished it.  Something about his writing style – possibly the gratuitous use of adverbs or the fact that few if any of the character’s are likable – has put me off of his haunted house story.  Still, there is enough intrigue there that I keep plugging away at it, bit by bit.  I’m getting the feeling that something awful is going to happen that will justify my continued faith in the story – that or it will all collapse into a miserable mess and turn out to be the worst of the bunch. Either or.

Now that I’ve all but turned you off of the book for the badness within, let me point out some high points.  Stephen King’s story was good – as his novellas usually are.  It was called The Road Virus Heads North and it involved a very peculiar painting.  The Catfish Gal Blues by Nancy A. Collins was a fun story of magic, greed, and jealousy set along the Mississippi River.  The Grave by P.D Cacek was a delightfully creepy look into the mind of a dowdy Kindergarten librarian who lives with her mother – I highly recommend this story if you like things that screw with your head.  Another favorite of mine was Mad Dog Summer, where an old man recollects a summer of horror from his childhood.  I seriously couldn’t put it down–Joe R. Landsdale did a wonderful job with this novella and I’d highly recommend horror fans take a look at this one.

999 is an older collection – published back in 1999 – but the stories still hold the same power they had thirteen years ago.  Horror fans would do well to have this book in there collection.  There are some low points, but the high points more than make up for the lack.  I only listed my favorites here – there are other wonderful pieces in this anthology that I don’t have the time nor space to talk about.  Give it a look–you won’t regret it.  Well, until the nightmares begin anyway…


Posted in: Book Reviews, Ghost Stories, Killers and Serial Killers, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World, Reviews / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Different Seasons by Stephen King

January 2, 2012 6:56 pm / 3 Comments /
Different Seasons by Stephen King is a collection of four novellas by one of America's most prominent authors. The stories aren't technically horror stories, but they contain horror elements. Out of the four stories, three have been made into movies.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Seriously.

Every now and then you pick up a book that is a game changer.  It changes how you view your genre of choice, fiction, and if you happen to be a writer it changes how you view your craft.

I’ve read a few such books in my lifetime, and Different Seasons is another entry onto that list.  It was a book of four novellas written by Stephen King way back in 1982, and it inspired two of the most famous and well regarded movies in the last thirty odd years.  I would imagine that you’ve watched them, or if you haven’t then you’ve at least heard of them – Stand By Me (based off of “The Body“) and The Shawshank Redemption (based off of Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption).

Each of those movies are worthy of their own reviews on this blog, but suffice it to say you will be doing yourself a great disservice by missing out on them.  The novellas that inspired the movies are at least as good as the films they spawned, if not better.  The Body follows a group of four boys from a small town in Maine who go on a trek to see a dead body, while Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption follows a banker who is sent to prison for his wife’s murder.

The remaining two stories are The Apt Pupil and The Breathing Method.  The Apt Pupil follows a precocious teenager and a former Nazi concentration camp supervisor who fall into a mutually parasitic relationship that goes to appalling heights.  This story really screws with your head – it explores the depths of evil a human being can fall into, whether they’re compelled to by their state or by mere curiosity.  There was also a movie inspired by this story – also called The Apt Pupil – which I can’t comment on because I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.  I hadn’t heard about it until a friend mentioned it to me, so it seems it wasn’t as well received as the other two movies Different Seasons spawned (I was amazed that one book could spawn three movies. That has to be some kind of a record).

Oh and The Breathing Method was a story within a story about a group of men who would get together in a mysterious apartment building and tell stories of the bizarre.  The Breathing Method concerned itself with a very…let’s call it unorthodox…childbirth.  I have to say it was one of the strangest stories I’ve ever read, although it was my least favorite of the four in the book.

Different Seasons was and is a masterpiece by one of the masters of modern American fiction.  It was one of those rare moments when everything good about a great book came together all at once to make something truly special.  This book is a work of art, and well worth a read for anyone, even those who aren’t fans of horror or Stephen King (actually it isn’t technically a book of horror stories…it sort of transcends classification).  Give it a read – you won’t be sorry!


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Creepshow 2

December 19, 2011 12:41 pm / 3 Comments /
Creepshow 2 is a horror anthology from 1987 directed by George Romero. It featured three short films based upon works by Stephen King

Creepy skeletal guy? Looks legit!

Creepshow was a a fun movie–all kinds of EC comic goodness translated into movie form (note to self–try to find some of the old EC comics.  They look like they’d be a fun read).  Especially good was Stephen King’s performance in “The Lonely Death of Jordy Verrill”, where he literally brought to life one of his own characters.

So, when I heard about Creepshow 2 and I heard it was a very “special” movie, I had to watch it.  And I really had to watch it when I saw that it was on the instant queue on Netflix.  I have to say that it didn’t disappoint–it was the cheesy, goofy fun I’d expected from a sequel to Creepshow.

The movie consisted of three stories set within a frame story about a little boy who gets his issue of Creepshow and then gets attacked by bullies.  Each of the three stories are supposed to be comics within the book the kid got (mind you, the comics were flung at him from the back of a cube truck by a demonic looking old guy–a legitimate source of horror comic goodness if there ever was one).

I should stop here and point out that each of the three stories were written by Stephen King, and boy does it show.  I’ve noticed that oftentimes, especially if King is involved directly in the project, the characters in his stories are played exactly as they are written.  And it doesn’t usually translate very well–they turn out to be really, really cheesy.  Something about his characters, who really come to life on the page, become just goofy when they’re put on film.  For some examples of what I mean, compare movies where King was involved to movies based on his stories that actually did well critically and at the box office.  For example, compare Thinner, The Stand, IT, and Creepshow 2 to The Shining, Misery, 1408, and Stand By Me.  The difference is night and day, let me tell you (although the first three are fun, don’t get me wrong).

Anyway, back to Creepshow 2.  The first story in the movie is called “Old Chief Woodenhead”, about a wooden Native American statue who wreaks vengeance against a trio of hoodlums who rob a quaint general store in a dying Western town.  I couldn’t help but laugh at the statue when it came to life–it was just so goofy looking.

Story number two is called “the Raft” and it involves a group of four college kids (one who insisted on wearing a horrible yellow mankini, which truth be told was the most horrifying image in the entire movie) who go to a lake to swim and engage in general college kid shenanigans (i.e. smoke dope and have sex) but wind up being attacked by something that looks like a giant floating trash bag that dissolves its prey using slimy looking digestive fluids.  One of the funniest moments, I thought, was when the yellow mankini guy claimed he didn’t believe in oil slicks because he hadn’t seen one.  It’s so ludicrous and silly, but that little gem of dialogue fits perfectly with the feel of the entire movie.

This is what you call a “mood-killer”.

There was another moment that was kind of…disconcerting.  It had nothing to do with the slimy trash bag critter; instead, it involved the nerdy pre-med student and the Eighties pretty brunette girl.  She falls asleep and the pre-med kid starts feeling her up and sucking her nipples.  The scene was way too rapey for me and I found it pretty disturbing–although the next moment when the monster dissolved her face got things moving away from it pretty quickly.

And, last but not least, we come to “The Hitchhiker”, where an extremely Eighties business lady is on her way home from a tryst with a man-whore and she runs down a hitchhiker on the side of the road.  The hitchhiker comes back for revenge, constantly groaning “Thanks for the ride lady!” as he doggedly endures the horrific amount of punishment Eighties business lady inflicts on him.  This one is just silly, even sillier than the last two.  The hitchhiker is the least threatening Revenant I’ve ever seen, and his repeated groans of “Thanks for the ride lady!” are more funny than frightening.  Then, that’s probably the point isn’t it?

I’d recommend Creepshow 2 for anyone who likes B horror movies, is a fan of Stephen King or George Romero, and for anyone who is a fan of Eighties cheese.  This is a very “special” movie and a must watch for any horror fan.


Posted in: Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Movie Reviews, Our Weird World, Reviews / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

An Excerpt from Warleader – A Blood and Tears Short Story By Joshua P. Simon

December 9, 2011 3:31 pm / Leave a Comment /

An Excerpt from Warleader - A Blood and Tears Short Story By Joshua P. SimonMost of you regular readers know that I write horror, but you may not know (if you missed Wednesday’s post)  that my first love, in terms of literature, was fantasy.  So, when Joshua P. Simon, who as you will see is a fantasy author, approached me about a guest post featuring an excerpt from one of his short stories, I thought it’d be a pretty cool thing to do.  He’s a great guy and I like his writing style, so I thought you guys might like to see his work.  And without further ado, I’ll shut up and let Joshua show his stuff:

***

I currently write epic fantasy.  So you might ask, why does this guy want to do a guest post on a horror writer’s blog? Well for one, I’m a fan of Andrew’s work, having read and enjoyed both of his short story collections.  Two, since I follow Andrew on twitter, I know he is a fan of the fantasy genre. Also, my writing tends to have some darker elements to it as characters struggle through both physical and mental stresses (sometimes in a gruesome manner).  Therefore, I feel like my stories may appeal to horror fans who read outside of that genre.

I currently have two published works.  One is a short story titled Warleader.  The other is my first novel titled Rise and Fall which I released on December 1st 2011.

The short story acts as a prequel and introduction to one of three main plot threads in my book and introduces several of those characters.  I thought it would be good to include an excerpt from Warleader in this post.

First, here is the description of Warleader:

As a young warrior in the elite Kifzo army of his father’s tribe, Tobin lives a life consumed by the relentless training demands of his uncle. Despite his best intentions and hard work, he struggles to cope with his father’s indifference toward him and his brother’s outright hatred.

A chance opportunity may change all of that. Tobin’s father gives him, his brother and three other young Kifzo each a small squad to lead on a key mission. The squad leader who succeeds will be named Warleader and will command the entire tribe’s army. Tobin sees this as his best chance to step out of the shadow of his brother and earn the respect and recognition he’s always desired.

Warleader is a short story of approximately 9,200 words. It is a prequel to the epic fantasy Rise and Fall: Book One of the Blood and Tears Trilogy. A free excerpt of Chapter 1 of Rise and Fall is included in the purchase of Warleader.

And here is the excerpt:

A wad of spit struck Tobin’s cheek as he stumbled backward. The back of his free hand came up and wiped away the insult. An echo of jeers sounded around the practice circle. One of the loudest voices came from the big Kifzo warrior named Durahn. “It looks like he may cry this time.”

Tobin clenched his jaw and worked the grip of the practice sword with his hand. He had just begun to gain an advantage against his brother, when Kaz caught him off guard and spat at him. Both he and Kaz had stepped back to compose themselves but their eyes never left the other’s face. It would be like him to cheat, Tobin thought.

Tobin watched sweat roll down the black skin of Kaz’s face. His brother sneered across at him as the two circled. “Are you going to cry, brother?” Kaz used the word “brother” as a curse. Tobin ignored the question. He focused on the subtle movements of his brother as he tried to determine where Kaz’s next attack might come from.

“Like you’re any better, Kaz? I would have ended this long ago,” said Durahn, turning his taunts toward Kaz. The brash fifteen year old tried to get the other young Kifzo warriors to join him in ridiculing Kaz just as they had all been heckling Tobin. However, most of the warriors respected Kaz or at least feared him enough not to add their voices to Durahn’s.

Only in the last month had Tobin been able to gain the support of a few of his fellow Kifzo. His rapid improvement with the sword, followed by proving himself a capable squad leader, helped his cause. Tobin’s skills had improved so much that sparring sessions with Kaz were no longer the lopsided matches that they once were.

In a blur, Kaz came at him, moving to his left just as Tobin knew he would. But the attack had been feigned and Kaz pivoted and brought his practice sword around at the last moment to strike at the right side of Tobin’s head. Tobin hadn’t expected the move, but he quickly shifted and met his brother’s blade with his own. The two wooden weapons clacked off each other. A flurry of slashes and thrusts followed. Shuffling backward and kicking up dirt with each step, Tobin swore to himself for not being more ready for Kaz’s deception. Kaz pressed the attack while Tobin fought to keep his balance. Tobin saw Kaz over-commit to his next strike and he quickly ducked under it. Tobin came up leading with the top of his head, slamming it under Kaz’s chin. Kaz reeled back and Tobin saw the look of surprise in his brother’s eyes.

As the two separated briefly, Tobin heard his Uncle Cef’s voice call out. “Point to Tobin. The match is over.”

“The match is not over!” snapped Kaz, spitting blood. “We cannot end the match until one of us has reached five.” Shouts of agreement from the other young warriors followed.

Cef stomped to Kaz’s side and grabbed him by the arm to wrench him close. “I say when a match is over, not you. Your father has summoned me to discuss matters of the tribe. I was going to give the Kifzo a rest and cut off training early but it would seem that you all have too much energy remaining.” Cef released Kaz’s arm and looked out at the young Kifzo warriors. Most were smart enough to put their heads down before Cef’s piercing stare caught them. Tobin saw his uncle look out over the training yard and then down toward the shore on the outskirts of the village. “Ten laps around the training ground and then a mile swim in the ocean. Only then may you return to the barracks for dinner and rest.”

Kaz wisely held his tongue until their uncle had left the yard. He shouldered past Tobin. “This isn’t over, brother.”

Tobin watched him go with a sigh. I didn’t expect it to be.

The other Kifzo began lining up for their run. Just as they were setting off, Tobin met the eyes of a few of his fellow warriors.

Is that respect? Several gave him a slight nod. At least something good came of this.

Tobin’s wandering thoughts about gaining the respect of the others were interrupted by Durahn and another warrior named Charq boasting about sneaking out to visit one of the village’s whores. Tobin glanced over his shoulder and saw many of the Kifzo hanging on their every word, even laughing when the two warriors talked about slapping the woman around afterward. Put off by such talk, Tobin scowled and faced forward. He saw Kaz frown in Durahn and Charq’s direction before distancing himself from the group. After hearing another cruel remark, Tobin picked up his own pace.

* * *

Tobin crouched near the side of an open window, hugging the wall as he listened to his father and uncle discuss the matters of their tribe.

While the other young Kifzo warriors slept in the barracks, Tobin snuck out once again in hopes the night air would clear his head. His walks would usually take him through the training ground or even around the outskirts of the city, but tonight he had wandered into the heart of Juanoq, to his father’s home.

He inched closer to the window’s opening and peered around the frame.

“A villager reported that they saw him sneaking away earlier tonight. I had his home searched and found it empty,” said Tobin’s father, Bazraki.

“Why would he do this now?” asked Cef.

Bazraki grunted. “I cannot guess the man’s thoughts. He hasn’t been the same since his family died in that fire months ago.” There was a pause. “When he started to openly question my decisions in front of others, I suspected his loyalty was turning. I’ve been too busy with other matters to act sooner.”

“I can send some men from the army…” started Tobin’s uncle.

Bazraki cut him off. “No. As much as I hate to admit it, Suran had influence over some of our regular soldiers. I won’t risk them being lenient toward him. I intend to use the Kifzo. They are our elite forces and this is the perfect opportunity to determine who among them will be Warleader.”

Tobin’s eyes widened and his heart raced in excitement.

“They’re still too young. They aren’t ready,” said Cef.

“I have greater trust in their ability to succeed at this task than the regular warriors.”

“Now isn’t the time to decide who will be Warleader. We’re still years away from entering into any real battle. This is not what I had in mind for the Testing.”

“This is the perfect chance to gauge their worthiness on something of importance,” said Bazraki. “A Warleader must be determined now. The sooner the others grow accustomed to Kaz’s command, the better.”

“And what if Kaz does not win the Testing?” asked Cef.

Bazraki snorted and puffed his barrel chest out. “Why wouldn’t he?”

“There are several others who’ve excelled in training.”

“Durahn?” Bazraki asked as he brought his hand up to rub at his chin.

Cef nodded. “He’s one.”

“Kaz will best him. None of the other candidates are any real challenge.”

“Even Tobin? His squads have beaten Kaz’s several times this past month on the training ground and he’s rapidly improving each day.”

Tobin felt a rush of pride at the recognition. Such a compliment was a rare thing from his uncle.

Bazraki shrugged. “Kaz will defeat him. My son is meant to lead my army.”

“Is Tobin not also your son?” asked Cef.

There was a long pause as Tobin saw the two men stare at each other. “Enough of this back and forth,” snapped Bazraki.

Any joy Tobin felt from his uncle’s comment was washed away by the lack of acknowledgement from his father.

“The Testing will be tomorrow,” continued Bazraki. “See that it happens. And make sure one of the candidates is Nedan. He has no real chance of succeeding, but it will appease his father if we include him.”

Tobin pushed away from the wall and with shoulders hunched skulked off into the night.

As he passed several of his father’s patrolling guardsmen, he slipped away from their watchful eyes with ease. At the edge of the village, behind a half constructed building, he found a seat atop a pile of grey granite, still warm from the heat of the day. He looked around at the work still needed on the building and sighed.

As part of their physical training, the Kifzo were tasked with building much of the small city his father ruled over. Bazraki was an ambitious man. It was his desire that Juanoq would one day be the capital of not only the Blue Island Clan but also the greatest city in Hesh.

With the other island tribes constantly opposing Bazraki’s plans, Tobin knew his father’s patience would only last so long.

His uncle had taught the Kifzo during training that their purpose would be to defend the Blue Island Clan. Though Tobin never shared his thoughts with anyone, he knew that his father would also have no qualms about attacking the other island tribes if it meant bringing the Blue Island Clan under one ruler. And to do that he needs a Warleader to lead his army.

Tobin’s dreams of becoming Warleader began at the age of five when his mother died. Training to be a Kifzo in his father’s elite army was the only life that he could remember. As usual, those brief thoughts of his mother caused him to reflect on his remaining family.

Tobin’s uncle was a hard man, but Cef would still give him occasional praise and recognition. Those small acts of kindness did much to counteract the constant ridicule and abuse Tobin received from Kaz. Tobin wished he knew why Kaz hated him, but at least he got some sort of reaction from his brother. His father, on the other hand, was completely indifferent to his second son. Bazraki neither showed signs of love or hate, and Tobin could never understand why.

He would not even recognize me as his son.

He looked out into the clear, starry night. It was quiet except for the occasional chirping of insects and the faint lapping of the ocean’s waves. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists.

The Testing will begin tomorrow. “I will make you proud, Father,” Tobin whispered.

An image of Kaz’s hateful stare flashed in his mind. Tobin opened his eyes. “And perhaps you will show me respect as well, brother.”

* * *

If you liked the excerpt, I hope you will consider checking out the rest of the story at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords.  It is only $.99.  Don’t worry, the darker elements I mentioned above show up as the story progresses.

For more information on me and my current works, please also feel free to visit my blog at www.joshuapsimon.blogspot.com.

Thanks for the opportunity and hospitality, Andrew!

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“Nightmares & Dreamscapes” by Stephen King

December 5, 2011 8:08 pm / Leave a Comment /

This isn’t the first time I’ve read Nightmares & Dreamscapes, but it is the first time I’ve read it in its entirety. When I first cracked it open a few years ago, I wasn’t a big fan of the short story format.  It took starting my own short stories and discovering HP Lovecraft and his wonderfully weird world to really pique my interest in this type of literature, and since then I’ve really taken a liking to it.

This renewed interest lead me to take another crack at Nightmares & Dreamscapes.  King is pretty famous for his work in the “long-story” format.  “Long-story” meaning a novella, a story that’s too short in word count to be a novel but too long to be a short story.  His novels can run a little overly long, but his shorter stuff is often right on the mark. Not always, but often.

That was the way with this collection as well.  I found the earlier stories in the work to be the best.  I enjoyed “Dolan’s Cadillac”, a revenge story featuring a teacher, a gangster, and a really big hole in the ground.  “Suffer the Little Children” was the third story in the collection, a nice Twilight Zone – esque story with Stephen King’s uniquely gory touch. It involves a teacher who starts to lose control of her class bit by bit, when the children begin to act very oddly.  The climax of the story will stick with you for a very long time, let me tell you.  “The Night Flier” is darkly humorous in its own way, featuring a vampire with a single engine plane.  Stephen King answers some questions about vampiric bodily functions in his own unique way…I won’t reveal how but it’s pretty entertaining.

I felt the quality of the stories started to go downhill after “Chattery Teeth”, a story where some novelty store teeth quite literally take on a life of their own.  “Dedication” was…weird. And kind of slow.  The next few were kind of hit or miss, although I did enjoy “Home Delivery” because it was an interesting take on the zombie sub-genre, and worth a look to any zombie lovers out there.  The next story was a “weird small town” archetypal story that kind of felt like another episode of the Twilight Zone.  It was followed by “My Pretty Pony” which wasn’t so much a story as a scene.  It didn’t really go anywhere, and I was pretty disappointed by it.

Later in the book there were a couple of others like “My Pretty Pony”, ones that didn’t quite fit King’s typical works.  At least they were actual stories.  One was a kind of gangster thriller that was mildly entertaining.  A couple were detective stories, one a Sherlock Holmes case where Watson takes the lead and another involving a hard-boiled private eye who quite literally meets his maker.  They were okay – well written but not really my cup of tea.

The last two entries in the collection were non-fiction works about baseball or some such.  I honestly didn’t read either because baseball bores me to tears.  Once I had to do a book report on a prominent historical figure in Ohio.  I picked Cy Young, because I didn’t know anything about him and I live in his alleged hometown (just so you know, he wasn’t born here).  The biography I picked to read was only 110 pages long, and it literally took me three weeks to read it because it was so BORING.

Oh and I got so wrapped up in the horrible memories of that book that I almost forgot something about the one I’m reviewing–there was a screen play in there that I didn’t read…the format was just way too unfamiliar and I couldn’t get into it.

So, what was my overall impression you ask, Constant Reader (to steal a phrase from King)? Overall I enjoyed it.  But as is typical of King, it was hit or miss.  There were some really good stories in there, and some stories that were well written but still just fell flat.  At times it felt a bit self indulgent,especially the baseball junk and the screenplay.  I would say that if you like King’s works, you’ll like this book.  If you haven’t read much King, but you like horror and especially short stories, give it a look.  You might be surprised.  And you’ll learn an interesting bit about vampire physiology to boot!


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Just After Sunset by Stephen King

September 12, 2011 7:40 am / 5 Comments /
Just After Sunset by Stephen King is a collection of novellas and short stories by the horror master. It is not his best work, but there are some solid stories therein.

A collection of novellas by the genre’s best.

As some of you may or may not know, I write horror.  For the moment I write novellas and short stories exclusively (although one of these days I intend to write a novel) and I draw a lot of inspiration from the great novellas of H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King.

I’ve been on the hunt lately for collections of King’s short stories, and thus I came across a fairly recent one called Just After Sunset.  If I could sum up my feelings toward the book in a few words, it would be “Eh, it wasn’t bad.”

In many more words, I felt the quality of the stories was pretty hit or miss.  Some of them weren’t so much stories as they were narratives or in one case what amounted to a single scene that might have been the beginning of a longer story.

The first story in the book was “Willa” which was well written (of course, it IS King we’re talking about here) but I felt it didn’t really go anywhere.  It was nifty in its own way, but at the same time seemed to drag.  I liked the next story, called “The Gingerbread Girl”.  There was a nice use of symbolism relating to the action of the story and its title, and the story itself grabbed me from start to finish.  It involves a lonely stretch of beach, a McMansion, and a psychopath.  It’s definitely a story that’s worth a look, and I would say it’s King at his best.

The next few stories are largely forgettable: “Stationary Bike” is kind of interesting, but at the same time like “Willa” there were stretches it didn’t feel like it was going anywhere.  “The Things They Left Behind” is also mildly interesting, maybe even more so now as it involves the 9/11 attacks, but like the others in this particular cluster of stories it isn’t the greatest.

By about the middle of the book, after “Graduation Afternoon which was little more than a scene, my interest was starting to flag.  I started “N.” nevertheless, deciding that I’d hang on and give one more story a chance.  “N.” and the next story, “The Cat From Hell” turned out to be the two best stories in the book.

“N.” is a kind of shout out to H.P. Lovecraft (who had a very strong influence on King’s work) and involves a strange circle of stones and a severe case of OCD…that’s contagious.  Kind of.  It’s an interesting story that fans of Lovecraft will eat up like candy.  “The Cat From Hell” is pure old school King, and it’s about a hit man who is asked to perform quite the unusual hit.  Some of the stuff in this story literally made me cringe, especially the ending. It isn’t for the faint of heart, and it might make you give your fuzzy feline friends a wary look!

The next three stories are merely okay.  The last story in the book is called “A Very Tight Place” and is one of the best stories in the book.  It’s pure gross out claustrophobia, and a very entertaining read.  If you ever wondered (with a cringe and the taste of bile in your throat) what it would be liked to be trapped in a turned over port-o-john, King will tell you in graphic detail.

Finally, King closes the book with notes about the creation of each story.  It’s interesting to see the thoughts of the master as he conceived of and wrote each story.  It isn’t something he normally does, so it’s definitely worth a look.

Overall, Just After Sunset isn’t one of King’s best books.  Most of the stories are fairly forgettable.  But, King being King, when he’s good he’s good.  The few stories in here that I really liked I count as some of his best.  I think that fans of short horror and especially fans of King ought to give this collection a look.  It might be a little hit or miss, but even the misses are solidly written and at least worth a look for the quality of the descriptions and characterizations.


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