Is this the Golden Age of Horror?

Just throwing this out there cuz it's what I do. Writing horror that is, among other things. Why? I just seem to be good at it? 

So..."What is Modern Horror?" Horror Writer's Association Panel at Long Beach Comic Con 2014.

Rocky Wood, Pres. HWA 2014

That being noted, I'd also like to say that we (Horror Writer's Association) have recently lost our President Rocky Wood after a long fight with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), also known as ALS and Lou Gehrig’s disease. Rocky passed away on 1 December 2014. Rocky Wood on Wikipedia.

Stephen King had this to say in the Author's Note to Doctor Sleep: "Rocky Wood was my go-to guy for all things Shining, providing me with names and dates I had either forgotten or plain got wrong. He also provided reams of info on every recreational vehicle and camper under the sun (the coolest was Rose's EarthCruiser). The Rock knows my work better than I do myself. Look him up on the web sometime. He's got it going on."

So out of respect I'm including this link above to comments by a friend of his as someone who shared his thoughts about Rocky. I only got to interact with him on a few occasions, but he was always very helpful and such a really nice guy.

Okay then...I've been trying to post less political blogs and post more writing based ones. I've given away free ebooks recently and lowered the price on my Death of Heaven book through the holidays. 

This will be another in that vein. 
I'm just sick of some of the things going on politically in our nation and the world. Though admittedly there are some good things going on, the bad ones just seem to hold precedence as they hold more of need to be addressed. But they will be there and in the holidays I want to take a step aside from all that.

I will say this on the report about the US using torture after 9/11, that came out recently. Using torture is wrong, it's not who we should be or who we should be projecting as who we are. It needs to be addressed and never sunk to again. The more we are treated poorly the more we need not to be that way. If America is to be an example of what is good, I think we need to be, good.

So, on this horror thing. 

They say that the "Hostel" type films were taking things over in 2005 when that film came out. It bled over into novels and covered the horror genre for a while. Everyone seemed to think that is what horror was. Some authors see horror not as a genre but an atmosphere to a story. For years libraries didn't even have a horror section and you'd find horror in the science fiction section, typically where you'd also find speculative fiction. 

The Hostel form of horror has been slacking off and now some are beginning to call this the Golden Age of Horror as it comes into its own to be seen for what it is. 

Writing horror, in my mind, is not just about the slash and burn type stories but exploring the dark sides of the human experience in life. It's how a turn of events can change things just enough that they go horrible wrong. Or how disease can become far more disturbing with just a little nudge in the right direction. It is the mind, losing itself. It's people's good intentions taking a turn down a dark alley and finding something that simply doesn't belong. And sometimes yes, it's just your worst nightmare scenario.

Hopefully these are all done in ways that are entertaining, that take the reader from their real life so that when they return, their life feels just that much better for their not being in that story after all. It should be cathartic, entertaining, and in some way hopefully, educational. Otherwise it's just gratuitous and granted, that too can be fun. But that is not all of what horror is about.

If you look at my first book, Anthology of Evil, there really isn't that much of the slash and burn kind of horror in it. I wanted to try and get people back to realizing that there is horror in detail and not just gross movement, not just in murder and mayhem type stories. Most of these stories in the book are also available as standalone ebooks and I also have some audiobooks available but from this book, only The Mea Culpa Document of London is available to listen to.

Here's a run down of the stories in Anthology of Evil:

• In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear - Sci Fi / Dystopian / Horror. A world famous doctor is contacted by his late son's best friend and tries to help him. But things go worse and worse until a defective mindset is foisted upon the world. There is no blood or gore in this, it is all conceptual and in fact at the end the protagonist doesn't even realize how his mind has changed which is even more horrible.
• Gumdrop City - Horror / based on True Crime. This is a story I learned about in my university abnormal psychology class. It's the story of a father ruminating about his life, pretty much destroyed after his wife's death. He comes to realize that his young daughter is late coming home. In his considerations, he comes to realize they do have a neighbor who might be a prime candidate for his daughter's disappearance, fanning the flames of his fears. This has some violence at the end of the story but really, it's incidental, as the actual horror involved has already happened and the horrible effect on the father comes after the fact. By the way, I am also working up a screenplay on this one that I had worked on with a Hollywood producer. 
• Quantum History - Sci Fi / Humor. This isn't true horror and is actually a humor driven piece, but the idea that an experiment that happens clear across the country could affect someone in their bedroom in this way, while they sleep is really pretty frightening in the end. And yet, no violence.
• The London Mea Culpa Document - Lead in to the next story, the deceit here is that this is an excerpt from a published journal leading into an actual ancient document that details an actual event. Some of the horror is listed in the "non-fiction" side of this fiction piece.
• The Mea Culpa Document - Pure Medieval Horror. This being the story was led into by the previous introduction, it is the story of an Inquisition torturer who sees himself as a "good man". There is really very little violence in this story even though it mostly takes place in a torture chamber in a dungeon. The true horror here is a coming of age tale. A man realizing that he and his mentor may not be as pure as he once believed. It is a devastating discovery, much as many can go through in their lives as they age and grow wisdom only to realize that something they did in their youth, wasn't as benign as they once thought. 
• Poor Lord Ritchie's Answer (To A Question He Knever Knew) - Medieval / Horror / Surreal. This is the story of a Medieval Lord. A tale of his degeneration into possible madness. His is a sad story of inbreeding and attempted murder. There are a few scenes of violence but again, the true horror of the piece lay in the situation, how it is perceived by the protagonist, and in what it has done to him, his family, his love. This story was chosen by actor Rutger Hauer in a contest back in 2004 because he said he likes stories with "heart"..
• Sarah - Horror / Surreal. Actually, there is no gore or violence in this tale at all (save for one fowl moment) but the horror here is in what disease can do to a person's mind. That mixed up with how a well intentioned family can push someone they love into the back of their lives, even when the person lives with them. This is all juxtaposed with, well, I'll let that alone for now.
• The Fall - Horror. Nothing gory, just misplaced love juxtaposed with insanity.
• Japheth, Ishvi and The Light - Horror / Zombies. Okay, this sub-genre almost requires violence and at least some gore. 
• Andrew - Novella - Horror / Paranormal / Sci Fi. A little bit of everything but mostly about a child's mind being stretched way beyond normal limits by his parents and life events. By the way, I am currently re-editing this story as well as the entire book. 

Horror isn't just blood and gore, it's not just pain and death. It's also dread, fear, expectation and a clear understanding that someone thinks they have a clear understanding and yet they don't or, they are totally 180 degrees off from reality, like a pilot flying upside down, disregarding the instruments that simply can't be right! .And yet, they are.

When you have a string of stories as with the Hostel or Saw franchises, eventually you need to pull back and zero back in, doing a kind of sensate focus (as Masters and Johnson put it), only for your genre sensibilities. 

My story, In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear is a prime example of that pulling back. There isn't really any violence or gore in this story, but to me it's one of the most terrifying stories in this book. Perhaps because it's the one story that is in many ways, closest to reality. 

On the surface In Memory feels like there isn't that much going on. But by the end, you  consider the possibilities and what they have done and it's pretty damn horrible. Not to mention that by that point, the one who was so against things has fallen into step as if nothing has happened and the entire world too is falling into the deceit. You'll notice how, isn't it odd how Canada and Mexico, the two nations closest to the US, seem to be backing away in fear, and yet it's the further away nations who want in on the party.

If this is the Golden Age of Horror, it's nice to be starting out (sort of) during this period. It offers horror writers some hope. Hope for the future of horror, hope for their writings, maybe some recognition and appreciation down the line and a hope that more people will come to appreciate the more refined nature of what has been a fringe genre for well over a hundred years. 

Liked Interstellar? Consider reading Expedition of the Arcturus

I keep doing this. I write a story and publish it, then a film comes along on a similar topic. At least I seem to be staying abreast of the Zeitgeist of what's interesting.

I wrote and released "Simon's Beautiful Thought" sometime before the film "She" was released. That film was in the works for about ten years though so I'm not claiming anything here other than that I see a relevant and current topic and I like to write about it. I consistently come up with stories prior to film's being heard about or released.

By the way, if you haven't read my story about Simon yet, it's a good story to check out, and it's always free. It will give you the idea however, of whether it's worth checking out my other works and I suppose, it gives you a good perspective on whether or not I can write. Though it is one of my more general audience, tamer tales of in this case, science fiction.

ebook version cover

I'm happy to say that coming up with timely stories has happened again with the release of Christopher and Jonathan Nolan's, "Interstellar", by way of my short story, Expedition of the Arcturus (also available as an audiobook I should add). It's a quick but fun read.

audiobook cover version

I produced and narrated the audiobook myself. It was an interesting and lengthy process requiring some degree of technical expertise on the recording and production end. So far I've produced three of them. Arcturus, The Conqueror Worm, which is the first full chapter of my book, Death of Heaven, and The Mea Culpa Document of London, a medieval tale of horror and regret by a Judge of the Inquisition and a Witch Hunter.

The Arcturus story was first released on PerihelionSF.com, a first rate, "hard" sci fi kind of an online magazine, where stories on the magazine are free to read online. I highly suggest, if you love good sci fi, to definitely check them out and support them. Let your friends know.

I also reported on an incredible documentary for PerihelionSF titled, Chasing Ice (page down a bit there to see it; there were originally two parts and there is only one left on the magazine archive now. For the entire article including the Q&A with a team member after the film and with photos, you can download my pdf of the article from my web site. I highly recommend watching this documentary, for the visuals if not for the reality it portrays and the warnings it offers.

I am also currently working on a new sci fi story for the magazine called, Rapture.

Expedition of the Arcturus, is a story about Earth's first generational spaceship sent to find a new home for humanity because of an impending global disaster. This isn't your clean, straightforward kind of story however, but it's not a bloody mess either. So if you like SF and not gore, this is a good story. Sam (the publisher) is strict about sci fi and not horror.

There is something else going on under the surface on Arcturus, however.

Told in reverse timeline, we are at first introduced to some of the crew of the spaceship Arcturus at the end of their journey. Then we step backward through time as we come to know more of them and about them and their situation until finally, we see how it all began and start to understand why things turned out how they did.

The title of the story came from a book I read years ago, A Voyage to Arcturus by Scottish author David Lindsey, published in 1920. A fascinating tale considered by some to be one of the top 100 greatest books of all time.

I'm not trying to compare my story to Lindsey's in quality or story, it was just a tribute to a book I had greatly enjoyed and appreciated, and I wanted to pay tribute to the author and his tale. Much like I did with my first published story of social horror, In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear in Anthology of Evil, 2012, which we have begun a re-edit on, and was a tribute to Isaac Asimov's first autobiography, In Memory, Yet Green, as I mentioned in last week's blog.

My Arcturus tale is a straight forward sci fi story. If you want something closer to David Lindsey's, you'd have to check out my book, Death of Heaven. Or perhaps the story I'm current writing on Wattpad, The Unwritten, a free and curious tale involving backwoods incestuous, serial killers, scientists in another universe and, a demon spawn's repeated attempts to literally escape from Hell.

I put all parts of The Unwritten into a Word doc and so far it comes to, 41 pages and 23,286 words with more to come. The gory, grisly scenes I had been talking about the last half of November (in case anyone reading this remembers or knew about that), those scenes are finally written and now available on there. That scene, part sixteen, grew into three parts and went on for a ways; but hey, when you have ten people tearing one another apart, well....it took some space. As well as some time to plot out where everyone was standing and what they were doing.

Regarding Arcturus, people wonder sometimes if a story written in a reversed timeline was originally written in a straightforward, linear fashion, then cut and pasted regressively into form. Maybe some are. But I wrote this story of earth's first generational spaceship, a ship where people live and love, procreate and die during the course of their seventy-five year mission as it is and how you would read it now.

I wanted to open with some action. In coming up with the opening I thought it might be interesting to show the end of the mission, first. From there, came the thought to write it backward. I decided on the time frames to leap backward through, and then I wrote it that way, then repeated the process until the final and first scene played out in the end. It was a fun though somewhat melancholy story to write and I wasn't sure if Sam (the publisher at PerihelionSF.com) would like it or not.

See, originally I had written and sent him another story. About twenty years ago, I had come up with an idea for a story. Quite different than the story that played out and was eventually published, the original had a scientist who invented a new technology, trying to sell it off to avoid being killed for it. It involved spies and intrigue but it just didn't work out for me in the end for some reason. That story was about a new technology, something no one saw coming, and which may just be coming someday.

There have been advances recently actually leading toward that. It was also a technology first shown in the neo-noir dystopian sci fi film, Blade Runner, which they are now gearing up to producing a sequel to. I'm hoping that Ridley Scott gets to direct, but that's still up in the air. Interesting side note many people don't know, there are sequels to the first novelization of the original film (Blade Runner The Edge of Human (book 2), Replicant Night (book 3), Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon), all by K.W. Jeter.

According to Wikipedia: "These official and authorized sequels were written by Dick's friend, K. W. Jeter. They continue the story of Rick Deckard and attempt to reconcile many of the differences between the novel and the film."

The Blade Runner story originally being from a Philip K. Dick book: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and having little to do with the film, really. I had posted in newsgroups back in the late 1980s that I was working on a sequel screenplay to the original film and got several death threats from around the country. I wished them all the best and indicated I lived in Seattle at the time if they wanted to come visit. No one took me up on the offer. However two people did offer to help me with the screenplay, which I never got around to completing, though I did map out a story line.

The story I was getting around to mentioning using the new technology, was EarVu and  the story is about a technology that could blow the social structures of the world because of what would ensue from it's utilization.

Consider what would happen if you could take an audio tape, any audio tape, play it through a machine and then be able to watch a 3D video of whatever was going on in the environment surrounding the microphone(s) at the time of recording. Of course, that's not just what happens in this story, not by a long shot.

Getting back to my Expedition of the Arcturus...

Check out my own story on my version of Earth's first generational space ship, if you get a chance. And see, Interstellar, as from what I hear, it's a definite yes on a film to go see.

Cheers! And a very merry Holiday season to you all, all around the world!

Where'd Russia go?

I really seem to have lost my readers in Russia.

I have consistently had Russian readers on my blog for some time. It saddens me that just because Putin is what he is and I said it plainly and simply, that I lost readers that I never meant to lose. Trust me, if I thought our own President Obama were a bad guy, I'd say so. When George Bush was in office before him, I had plenty to say about him and his cronies.

I respect the Russian people, always have.

I just don't think they deserve someone like Putin who is stuck in the dark ages from his formative years in the KGB and his education enjoying sucking off the teat of old KBG masters a bit too much.

Admittedly, I don't have much respect for the little bastard. If that's a problem or if they are concerned about repercussions in reading a fair account of their cheap man's faux knock off lame example of a minor Napoleon figure who wormed his way to the head of a large, one time super power nation, well, I understand.

I shall endeavor in the future to be more circumspect in calling him appropriate things like, "маленькая сука". or a three legged egotistical female canine; that is to say, a President cum dictator, come to office repeatedly by underhanded means, probably a murderer or murder architect, having affected a national environment on the world stage wherein the good people of the world question his actions that just scream for his replacement with a fool or lesser so, even a Texas or Florida governor type.

Though again, Russians deserve so much better. But then, so do the American people.

Perhaps better a fool than a devil.

And besides, Pussy Riot doesn't like him....

Cyber Monday Special - Mind of a Writer, the Evolution of a Story... Andrew

Welcome to CyberMonday! Today I have for you a blog about the evolution of a story.

Once a short story, now a novella, it is called, "Andrew". Want a free download of it? If you wait, you can have the re-edited version, but it might take a while, we're working on it now. Or you can have both! Either way.

Currently I am re-editing it with my editor, Ilene Giambastiani. If you are interested in reading it as it is now, here is a coupon ( GN32P ) good through this week. If you contact me later after we re-released it, just let me know you read this blog, I will give you a coupon for a free copy of the new version at that time. But stick with me, there's more coming.

This, is a story that has had big ramifications for me.

"Andrew", cover by Gosling called "Andrew's Final Vision"

This is the story of that tale....

Before we get started however, allow me to invite you to read my ongoing story on Wattpad titled, The Unwritten. A mixture between old fashioned horror, sci fi and biblical nightmares, I doubt you've ever read anything quite like it. But then, that's my forte. The odd, the unusual, the macabre and the horrifying.

Okay now, let's get on with it....

In 1983 I was a senior in the Psychology Department at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, up near the Canadian border. I was taking my first university fiction writing class. Finding that I had enough credits to get a double major if I took another two or three quarters of classes, I decided I would settle for a minor in Creative Writing .

I took Fiction 101 as my first class toward that minor. I wanted to force myself to actually write a story, beginning, middle and end, as I had written quite a few interesting stories with no endings, much to the frustration of my friends.

Our professor in Fiction 101 tasked us to write a story, make enough copies for all in class, then everyone would read the stories for the next day, the night before, and the writer would read the story in class. We would then round table and critique it.

There were some interesting stories, but mostly as I remembered it, there being more females than males in the class, there was a high degree of romance based stories. The Assistant Editor of our school magazine wrote a story but I found it rather dry, though well written. Then it came to my day. I wrote a story that I titled, "When Fades The Shadows" (later titled, "Andrew").

After I read it in class, I discovered two things. They all liked my story. Our Professor hated it. Perhaps partly because I was overplaying my hand, writing beyond my capabilities, but also because he didn't like how melodramatic it was. He especially mentioned a scene in the TV room when five year old Andrew envisions a horror all around him in the room.

Cover art by Marvin Hayes

I was voted along with another, to write one extra story than the others in class to be read on finals day, as we had no finals in that class.

Also available as an audio book

My stories were, "Mea Culpa" (which I've expanded now and have included in my collection of short stories, "Anthology of Evil" and as a standalone ebook); and, Sarah (same situation), about a woman with Alzheimer's disease and based upon the story of a coed's grandmother that she told me right after Abnormal Psych class one day at Western Washington University.

Cover art by Marvin Hayes

Over the years I fooled around with Andrew and it grew and changed. But the core of the story is the same. A child who is very advanced, who has parents who were into using their child as an experiment, did everything in their power to push his intellectual capabilities to their extreme limits and beyond. This is juxtaposed with his adult pursuits and an ending for Andrew that is really just a new beginning.

Years later, I had an opportunity to put my stories into a collection of my works but it was over 1,000 pages. So I made one volume ("Anthology of Evil") with the stories in it that I couldn't fit into a more novel like book I titled, "Death of Heaven" (for more see, DeathOfHeaven.com). Here is a coupon for this book, good through December 7th: RM89D - feel free to share this with your friends and their friends.

Here is what one reviewer had to say about it:

"[Death of Heaven] ... has a Books of Blood vibe [referring to Clive Barker's seminal book series], which really works well. It's in these tales that the author's writing ability shines. He demonstrates a lovely turn of phrase and some of the writing is almost poetic in its beauty.
Michael Brookes - Author & Reviewer

All that from two tiny little stories. Well, little stories with massive story lines. Story lines big enough to evolve into an epic science fiction horror story.

To create that book, I also took another short story I wrote on a lark at midnight one night on a single page, single spaced and then turned it in to my Psychology professor the next day. He then made copies and passed them out to all his classes so that I walked in the next day and received an unexpected handout of a purple inked, mimeographed copy of my own short story, "Perception", which is now included in the back of "Death of Heaven".

Between those two stories, in 2012, "Death of Heaven", was born.

I finally got an editor, end of 2013 and she agreed to work on Death of Heaven with me. We republished that on my birthday August 30, 2014. Because that book meant so much to me and the reviews were so good,

Cover art by Marvin Hayes

I realized I should try to re-edit all my stories in my first book. In that book was my first ever published story, "In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear" and the last story was "Andrew", the lead in to my next book, Death of Heaven". I just thought that Andrew and In Memory, both, especially, deserved to be properly cleaned up and re-released finally.

So now I am working on the re-edit of Andrew, my first short story written for Fiction 101 at my university in 1983. Now a novella, it is the basis in part for my book, Death of Heaven, along with another story titled, "Perception".

I had originally labored so hard over this first story while both fear and trepidation watched over each shoulder as I concocted this story that brought such great irritation to my writing Professor and yet such awe and fascination from my fellow students on that day that it was read in class for the first time.

Now after so long, so much tinkering with it over decades, after publishing it and now working on it with my editor (thanks Ilene Giambastiani), it is so very strange indeed to be thinking once again on those words burned so long into my mind. I find myself once again struggling to find the rightness in the morass of meaning and words that it is or maybe, has become.

The words are there and like a sculpture chiseling at stone, I'm trying hard to find the art that has been set in stone for so very long. It's a process of birth and death, joy and sorrow, of rebirth and, like a phoenix rising, honing it down to a deft flame of time and tale into an appropriate foundation for what a vast story that has come of it since it was originally conceived and shared.

Here is the original version presented to my class that day in 1983, the first published version released in 2012 and the newest version, so you can see how it has changed over the years. In these three snippets, you can see how I was writing in the beginning, how I had gotten to be after several decades had passed, and finally how I am now after several very intensive years of writing in the public eye.

Original version of Andrew:

When Fades The Shadows (1983)
"Invisible movements. Billowing, cotton-like breaths of pressure descended gently from on high. "Appearing to be only a breeze, the molecules conveyed along ever so imperfectly, the breeze gathered unto It any and all particulate matter; whatever was accessible to it; thereby hiding somewhat, It's violent loneliness. The gregarious animation of those particle's, was forced plastically, and yet...gently...tenderly, even perhaps, affectionately. One whispering sigh of wistful ardor, slowly succoring up to the clean, bright, and powerful Lifeforce of...a child; listlessly sitting within the confines of a window frame.
"An owl, sensing something amiss, swooped serenely into the midst of the Entity's presence. She then stumbled, surprised, in mid-flight. Never had she ever come across anything with such purpose, and yet, almost completely hidden within Nature."

Then I published it in a book, Anthology of Evil and after that as a standalone ebook novella.

Andrew (2012)

"Invisible movements of a honeysuckle fragrance; billowing, cotton-like Breaths of gentle Pressure cautiously descended into the suburban neighborhood from on high. It hesitated, looked down into the white, picket-fenced yard, and pondered on Its achievement. Appearing as a mere cool dry, fall breeze, the molecules conveyed along ever so— imperfectly; it gathered unto Itself any and all, particulate matter in proximity. In fact, whatever was accessible to It, hiding somewhat in a loneliness of vast and violent proportions.

"The gregarious animation of those particles was forced plastically and yet— gently, tenderly, perhaps even affectionately, up against a window. A whispering sigh of wistful Ardor that slowly succored up to the glass and the clean bright, powerful Lifeforce of— a little child. Listlessly, the boy sat on the window bench, one leg bent partially beneath him, looking out the window. He shifted his feet allowing them both to dangle loosely at the ends of his legs.

"Sadly, he remained crowded within the white rectangular confines of the untattered window frame, vacantly staring off into the yard beyond the panes of glass, bearing forth no remembered regrets.

"Trailing the breeze at a distance was an owl."

As I said, I am now re-editing it with the help of my editor, Ilene.

Today as I write this it is November 30, 2014. I wrote the following and including this version of the first few paragraphs, in an email to Ilene.

"Here are the first three paragraphs, of Andrew, reworked. It took me all week to get up the strength to work on this, though I had the week off from my day job. I was a bit hungover from a great time on Thanksgiving. Today, I think this sudden cold change in the weather is messing me up and I feel pretty lousy. But bucking it up, I finally tried to work on this, but after only three paragraphs, I feel artistically and emotionally drained.
"You know, I wrote this living with Monica in college and I wonder how much of that is tied up in this. In working on this, aside from the poetic nature of my attempts in writing this originally, to expand myself artistically and creatively, this is like reliving my college years, including a long term, intense and failed relationship and memory of how much has happened since with two more failed marriages, living alone, and so intensely wanting to quit my job in IT work, being where I am now and also where I'm headed to.
"What a chump, right? I do find working on this story much harder than anything else I've worked on, and not because of the difficulty of the piece, though that is some of it, but for all the emotional reasons. SO here is today's pass: "

Andrew (2014)
"Invisible movements of a honeysuckle fragrance; billowing, cotton-like Breaths of gentle Pressure cautiously descend into the suburban neighborhood from on high. It hesitated. Looking down into the white fenced yard it pondered this achievement, concealed somewhat in a solitude of vast and violent proportions.
"Appearing as no more than a cool, fall breeze, airborne particulates of all kinds were gathered unto it and carried along ever so lightly into the picket fenced perimeter. The gregarious animation of those particles was forced plastically and yet— gently, tenderly, perhaps even affectionately, up against a window. A whispering sigh of wistful Ardor slowly succored up to the glass and the clean bright, powerful life force of— a little child.
"The young boy sat on a window bench, listless on the warm side of the glass, one leg bent partially beneath him as he gazed out. Shifting somewhat he unfolded his slightly numb leg, allowing both feet to dangle freely. He remained sadly crowded within the white rectangular confines of the untattered window frame, vacantly staring off into the yard beyond ancient panes of glass, bearing forth no remembered regrets.
"At a distance an owl trailed the entity, sensing something amiss."

And well... that is where we have gotten to so far and there is much more to come. It may get another run through of these passages as I've not yet heard back from my editor. We will continue to edit and re-edit until "Andrew" finally becomes the story it could always have been.

Once we finish, I'll repost this blog and update it.

Stop by my web site for information on any of my other writings. at JZMurdock.com.

Cheers! And have a great holiday season!

Price Lowered on Horror book Death of Heaven for the Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I wish you all to have a great fun time with friends and family tomorrow for 2014!

For the holidays and through New Year's, I have lowered the price for the ebook version of my epic book, Death of Heaven to $3.99. Furthermore, good one day only through Thanksgiving Day, I am giving it away for Free. Just go to Smashwords to download it in your favorite ebook format and use the coupon: RE62U 

A video trailer for the book is on my YouTube channel.

Cover art by Marvin Hayes

Death of Heaven is available on either Smashwords or Amazon (or in print on Amazon), depending on where you would like to pick it up. It is available on Kobo and elsewhere.

If you've already picked up a copy, I'm currently writing a new book online titled, The Unwritten, on Wattpad. It's interesting access for a readers from the perspective of watching an author write a story and seeing how it develops. From time to time I have to go back and tone up or down a second and then continue on.

"The Unwritten", is a story about a degenerate clan of murderers in the backwoods, mixed up with manipulations by scientists in another universe altogether, and scenes literally in Hell itself, this is a bizarre story that pushes the limits of the usual horror tale. Eventually I will edit it up properly, package it and make it available as a book. What's it about? Backwoods horror, sci fi in another universe altogether, and what it's like literally to live in Hell. Those three very different things come together in a story about fear and curiosity.

Death of Heaven is the story of two friends since childhood who have lost touch. At first they were childhood neighbors and then best friends. Until they suffer through a most traumatic experience together at the age of twelve when they become brothers through an event that changes their lives forever.

They lose track of one another after high school and go their separate ways. Eventually they are brought back together when one of them breaks down and puts a call out for the only other human who could possibly understand him. Moving in together, they learn that they have been affected by their shared childhood experience in ways that are now letting them know about the most horrendous event ever to have befallen humankind.

For one of them has been receiving stories of people throughout history, through the many years since they have been apart. The other, had retired from covert ops work and has his own demons to deal with. Which is why he takes in his friend, to give him a place to recuperate after this recent trauma and so that perhaps they can help one another. He comes to realize that his friend really isn't struggling with insanity, but with something no human has ever had to deal with.

They are being given stories of actual events throughout history. Stories that are unknown, that go back to the beginning of time on Earth and involve beings who are powerful beyond all belief. These are beings who have tried repeatedly to communicate with humankind but are so powerful that it always goes badly, for the humans. Only these two friends have been able to survive one of these communications and perhaps only they, will have the knowledge of what is about to happen and why.

They are being warned about something that could potentially destroy all life on earth. In their helplessness, they realize their only recourse is to try to document what they are learning, in the small possibility that civilization does somehow survive. So they persevere documenting these stories up until it is too late and finally the end is upon them.

And then it happens....and all Hell breaks loose.

Death of Heaven 

Two friends since childhood alone watch as the

end of the world as we know it comes upon them.

This isn't the long expected Apocalypse.

It’s something far more sinister….

Horror on a galactic scale that offers no sanctuary! 

Available on either Smashwords or Amazon 

Available on Kobo and elsewhere.

#ebook #horror 

Bob Marley brand pot to be sold legally in the US next year

Yes, according to USA Today Bob Marley brand pot is to be sold legally in the US next year. It hias been sanctioned by his heirs and will be the first global brand of pot. Good news. From the article:

"My dad would be so happy to see people understanding the healing power of the herb," Miami-based Cedella Marley said in a company statement. She's the eldest daughter of the music legend who died of cancer in 1981 and is Jamaica's most iconic figure.

But there's even better news here in America.

Good bye finally to the war on drugs and good riddance to you.

May you die the most painful death possible. Now, it needs to be made official by the government. Kill the ineffective D.A.R.E. program, a bastardized child of the War on Drugs. Although the link indicates how ineffective the program has been (including "Keeping it Real" program), a new version of the Keeping it Real program allegedly shows some progress. I do believe that children need to be presented with the facts, honestly, and not just propaganda.

Government needs to restrain it's easy urges to lie and twist what is true in order to achieve their agenda. There are other issues involved there than just drug use that goes into kids trusting the government later in life as adults.

We do need to keep children from drugs and alcohol until their mid twenties, as science has shown their brains are still developing until then. That however, is pretty much a lost cause. We need intelligent damage control, not enforced abstinence. We do need to try and curb their usage as long as possible, at least past high school if it could be done (it can't mostly), but we also need to be honest with children as each generation is better informed than the previous and we need to stay current with that.

The officially sanctioned war on drugs and Americans, especially has affected minorities and led to overcrowded jails and generations of broken minority families.

Finally the legacy of alcohol prohibition with its roots in religion going back to Puritanism, the Temperance Movement, evangelical Protestant churches, Harry Anslinger (who had to find jobs for his agents one prohibition was over and found pot the golden ticket), and Richard Nixon (who turned his back on his own commission calling for decriminalization of pot), is dying its much too long overdue death.

So, what is the fight going to be, what is the next abuse on Americans by our government to tend to, and what or who do we need to rid ourselves of now? First, I'm against war, war on anything or anyone. Especially disingenuous wars that damage people rather than correct bad situations. War is to kill people, not incarcerate them. So let's stop with the Wars. Let's stop with having Czars on anything. We still however, have issues we need to deal with. Mindsets than need to go away. Political groups who are counterproductive in America.

Ask yourselves, who are our biggest abusers of facts, reality, who abuses their elective governing, who abuses gerrymandering the most, pushes election abuses of almost non exist fraudulent voters (no, those are actually few and far between), who consistently oppresses women and women's rights, minorities, attempts to kill empathetic or compassionate government legislation, who has consistently twisted national economic legislation in knots that is mostly devastating to building our country back up, who are the supporters of big money and elevating corporate concerns over US citizens (which runs into election campaign financing which we need to assume as citizens and stop big money let Americans pay for elections from now on and not allow them to any longer be bought by big money), and this list goes on and on.

Could it be that conservatives and Republicans are who we are fighting against in an invisible war on America and Americans who aren't the top 3%? Could it be their disingenuous proselytizing and disinformation has made them invisible to the average citizen (yes you if you support them) for what they are doing so that most people cannot see their abuses, even though they are right out in front of us?

What does that say about the Americans who support them? Perhaps very little, but it certainly speaks a great deal to the power of the old Soviet mechanisms of disinformation and shifting responsibility onto anyone but themselves, and their supporters are either benefiting monetarily as the top 3% do, or they are too lazy or uneducated to find out or be able to find out, what is really happening and so they continue to support those who are really against their best interests.

Maybe like in the old film, Wild in the Streets, we just need to get Congress high so they can see to start doing what is right against blindingly following political theories that are no in the best interesting of the majority of American citizens, and actually, the entire world.

I am bravely and finally coming out against stupidity.

John Cleese, C.B.E., on Real Time With Bill Maher last night, agreed with Bill when he said that John was against stupidity.

Here is a prime example of stupidity when a senator wrongly uses a snowball to disprove climate change and another senator rightly uses science to disprove the disprover. The degree of idiocy in our government and in some religious groups is patently unbelievable. Anyone who thinks God does not equal science, needs mental healthcare. Examples are the couple who let not one but two of their children die because...God.

Yet another mistaken belief that prayer is more powerful than medicine. Look dim bulb, if God gave you a brain isn't it a sin not to use it, not to help yourself since... heaven helps those who help themselves. Right?

In case you are yourself too stupid to know the definition of 'stupidity', Merriam and her friend Webster have most recently defined it as:

Slow of mind or obtuse; given to unintelligent decisions or acts, that is, acting in an unintelligent or careless manner; perhaps lacking intelligence or reason, that is to say, brutish; or, dulled in feeling or sensation, and that is to say, torpid, as in still stupid from a sedative, much like our Republican friends in Congress; or, possibly marked by or resulting from unreasoned thinking or acting, that is, senseless as in a stupid decision, ibid.; or, lacking interest or point, as in voting in yet again for a Republican congress, even though they are the ones to have dumbed our nation down and have broken things in a repeated manner and that voting in of them is again a stupid event and well, stupid and again, and therefore too, ibid.

Laying that aside for the time being, I would now like to take the brave stance here today to myself come out against stupidity as I too am against it and I was labeled as stupid as a child, so I believe that gives me a great degree of veracity on the subject.

I've also been married now (up to this point), 3.5 times and so I believe that also gives me a great deal of veracity on the subject of stupidity and as well in the process of being stupid, perchance with a "par excellence" attached to that one.

Granted I've not been married as many times as some others we all know of (Groucho Marx was also married three times, .5 times less than myself, but then he was a genius and not stupid at all, and made a living making fun of the stupid).

I've deemed to see fit to find situations that were exceedingly ridiculous (either for myself or the women involved, but in that, you'd have to query them as I cannot speak for their own stupidity, only my own, and I think it unfair to ask me to indicate stupidity that is attached to my involvement other than in my direct and considered actions, I'll thank you very much).

And so my smart friends (and stupid acquaintances, and you, yes indeed you, know who you are, or then again allow me to properly correct myself yet again, as I am just too sure that you really are too stupid to know who you are, though most of you in that category apparently are conservatives and that can give us some direction, at least according to John Stewart Mill who as we all know (except again for you stupid folk) said..."I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative. I believe that to be so obvious and undeniable a fact that I hardly think any honorable Gentleman will question it."

That is to say, as I was just saying, that I am finally and forcefully coming out with John Cleese, C.B.E., against stupidity. He's in good company.

Thank you kindly for your time.