OSJ Posted March 24, 2018 Share Posted March 24, 2018 You know I can't resist rubbing it in... Glen's book is really fucking good (of course that's pretty much to be expected...) I assume that you already have this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 Grrrrrrrrr... no. *kicks self again* I just dropped fifty plus on records. That should have probably went to Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 Slice finished with a whimper. It just wasn't Slob. Fun fact: Rex Miller lived his entire life (I presume, considering he was born and died there according to Wiki) in the hometown of my grandmother and grandfather, Sikeston, MO. Taboo 3 came in the mail so now it's time to do some serious reading Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Hey hey! I never get into this section of the board anymore. So far I'm on Taboo 5 and have ordered 6 (the Michael Zulli adaption of Ramsey Campbell's "Again" is only slightly less horrifying than the print version). Lost Angels by Schow is going strong and all the stories share some thematic twists, which I feel are probably leading up to the last story; this one has a lot of sex, loss, and disappearing people. Aaaaand I was gonna grab DJSturbia from him but he wanted $40+shipping and I got hit with a big bill and a rush of other payments -- AGAIN (heh) -- so had to put him on the back burner. Please, gubment check, come in... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 This section of the board needs you, bro. Otherwise it would just be J.T. and me showing off how erudite we are and we do that anyway. ;-) I've just been finishing up the latest collection by William Browning Spencer, a perfect author for those on a tight budget to collect, he averages a collection very ten years and a novel in about the same time frame, so basically you have to buy one book every five years. But what books they are! I don't know that I'd call them horror, though they do get pretty dark and riff on the Cthulhu thing, but he's more like a darker James Blaylock, just fucking weird ass shit. I just love his stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 21, 2018 Share Posted April 21, 2018 Lost Angels ended on a surprisingly warm and nostalgic note. It was nice of Dave to flip the script. Now I guess it's back to Sartre, Taboo and the new issue of the great, longstanding Finnish metal fanzine Isten coming in the mail for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 21, 2018 Share Posted April 21, 2018 I just received the one Scott Thomas collection that I had unaccountably missed earlier, so that's what I'll be reading as soon Friday night fights is over with, (I might rewatch NJPW as Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre jr was really outstanding), anyway, no one does the classic ghost story better than Scott Thomas and this is an early collection, but he started at a pretty high level and went up from there so should be cool. I'm working on a retrospective collection of Scott's stuff for 2021 and damn, it's hard to make choices, there's just so much exceptional material. Probably the horror genre's best kept secret and that's a damn shame as he should be a household name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobholly138 Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 Trying to figure out which of the 5 Bentley Little novels I got that I am gonna read. Got them all in that huge haul of horror fiction I got last year. Never read much from Mr Little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 7 hours ago, bobholly138 said: Trying to figure out which of the 5 Bentley Little novels I got that I am gonna read. Got them all in that huge haul of horror fiction I got last year. Never read much from Mr Little. At novel length there is a sameness to his work that you may find annoying, on the other hand, it might appeal. If I'm in the mood for Little at long form, I know what I'm going to be getting, it's like my late buddy Dick Laymon, it's not going to be great literature, but it is going to be a hell of a ride. This probably doesn't help at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobholly138 Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 9 hours ago, OSJ said: At novel length there is a sameness to his work that you may find annoying, on the other hand, it might appeal. If I'm in the mood for Little at long form, I know what I'm going to be getting, it's like my late buddy Dick Laymon, it's not going to be great literature, but it is going to be a hell of a ride. This probably doesn't help at all. I think one of the books is a collection of short stories and novellas from Little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 1 minute ago, bobholly138 said: I think one of the books is a collection of short stories and novellas from Little. That would be the cleverly titled The Collection. Notable for the creepiest bit of world-building I've ever encountered in "The Woods Be Dark" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobholly138 Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 Just now, OSJ said: That would be the cleverly titled The Collection. Notable for the creepiest bit of world-building I've ever encountered in "The Woods Be Dark" Yep that is it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 Just now, bobholly138 said: Yep that is it. Enjoy, my brother! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 John, you're gonna be proud of me: I ponied up $45 to Dave for DJSturbia. Told him I'd grab it and kept my word. After this and getting his Wild Hairs comp (I grew up on the Raving and Drooling articles in Fangoria so have to have that) I must move on to another author, any specific recommendations? Christ, thinking about it, I haven't even read any Bloch (please don't kill me, and PLEASE don't tell Dave I said that)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 8 hours ago, Curt McGirt said: John, you're gonna be proud of me: I ponied up $45 to Dave for DJSturbia. Told him I'd grab it and kept my word. After this and getting his Wild Hairs comp (I grew up on the Raving and Drooling articles in Fangoria so have to have that) I must move on to another author, any specific recommendations? Christ, thinking about it, I haven't even read any Bloch (please don't kill me, and PLEASE don't tell Dave I said that)... Well, while Robert Bloch was sort of my touchstone into weird fiction, (when I was around eleven, I picked up a paperback entitled Best of Bloch and Bradbury; I certainly knew who Bradbury was, but had no clue about this Bloch fellow. The title was of course, completely misleading, while far from the best, it was a bunch of early Weird Tales offerings from both men, but for pre-teen me, this was the goods! One Bloch story mentioned Lovecraft and I was off and running and have never been the same since. Now here's the bad news, in the case of Bloch what passed for witty in the 1940s through the rest of his career now just seems corny. The trouble with Bloch is you could always see the author chuckling to himself at just how funny he thought he was. His work has aged very, very badly IMO, Dave Schow will probably disagree, but there ya go. Two guy the same age that have come to completely different conclusions about one of their childhood idols. I think Dave (if he's honest about it) probably likes the idea of and the person of Robert Bloch more than he likes the body of work. And allow me to say that when I was in my late twenties I took a fucking bus from Seattle to Vancouver B.C. just to meet Robert Bloch and I wasn't disappointed, a funnier, more gracious and charming man has never lived. Specific recs? How about some folks that you can get in trade paperback without breaking the bank ('cause I know you spend a bundle on tunes as well). Here we go: Richard Gavin, Gemma Files, Kaaron Warren, Scott Thomas, D.P. Watt, John Llewellyn Probert! How's that for starters? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Recorded for prosperity good sir, and thank you! I'll probably take some time tomorrow digging through what the net gives me of these authors and let you know what my first opinions are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 On 4/28/2018 at 10:04 AM, Curt McGirt said: Recorded for prosperity good sir, and thank you! I'll probably take some time tomorrow digging through what the net gives me of these authors and let you know what my first opinions are. Probert also has a bunch of his film essays on his site, he's pretty much the British version of Dave Schow when it comes to horror films. Higher praise than that I can't think of. As for the other folks I suggested: Richard Gavin: Atmospheric with a capitol "A". Think Clark Ashton Smith's "Genius Loci" as an example; no one else can convey the sense of other-worldly wrongness in a place quite like Richard. Gemma Files: Simply stated a writer's writer. Stunningly original and like no one else. Kaaron Warren: An Australian version of Gemma Files. You can get her massive collection, Dead Sea Fruit for around twenty bucks, and until my Centipede Press retrospective comes out in a couple of years, it's the the Kaaron Warren book to have. D.P. Watt: A blend of Thomas Ligotti and some strange alien mentality that has no human comparison. Wait, I've got it... Ligotti, T.M. Wright, Clark Ashton Smith AND the weird alien mentality. Yeah, that would do it. That the man is so prolific with his weirdness is more than a bit unsettling. However, we've become friends and he's quite normal when you get to talk with him. Whereas judging strictly on his writing, you have a vision of an individual under close watch by a keeper. Scott Thomas: Probably the best regional ghost story writer since Russel Kirk and August Derleth. He does for New England what they did for Minnesota and Wisconsin, and I'd argue that he does it even better. Pretty much a collection every two years since 2001, and in his case, pick one, any one will do. They're all excellent and until (once again) I get to do a massive retrospective (slated for 2021/2022 from Centipede Press) one needs make do with any of his existing collections, if you press me as to which is the best, I really can't answer that as the guy started at a very high level and stayed there. Reading his earliest work you get the feel that this is an author who has been at it for years. Just highly polished from the get-go. I think all of these fine folk have sample stories on the 'net for you to check out. Also, though I've sang her praises previously, in case you missed it, don't fail to seek out stories by Alyssa Wong, I believe that she has everything she's written posted on-line, and the closest comparison that I can think of for weird blend of fantasy/horror/sf would be Caitlin R. Kiernan and that's pretty damn high praise. Lastly, there's this collection, Darkness, My Old Friend by some chap name of "Pelan" which I hear tell is pretty good. Our own J.T. has promised to post a review of same one of these days... Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 30, 2018 Share Posted April 30, 2018 Unless that is just Shameless Self Promotion you're getting senile, I already have a signed copy of your book in the back room haha. And J.T. better review it! In any case, that looks to be a murderer's row of writers and I will dive on them after I finish up the Taboo #6 staring at me and what I'm already waiting on. Thanx again bud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 30, 2018 Share Posted April 30, 2018 1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said: Unless that is just Shameless Self Promotion you're getting senile, I already have a signed copy of your book in the back room haha. And J.T. better review it! In any case, that looks to be a murderer's row of writers and I will dive on them after I finish up the Taboo #6 staring at me and what I'm already waiting on. Thanx again bud Shameless self-promotion of course! There are many lurkers here who never post anything but probably take our references into consideration when book shopping, or at least I hope so. Also I'm not-too-subtly prodding J.T. to post his thoughts on the collection. Fun fact regarding your book collection: there are less than forty signed copies of DMOF in existence. The editor for Fedogan & Bremer brought over a box full of copies for me to sign on his last visit and IIRC they come packed 24 to the case, so other than those copies (most of which sold at Windy City Pulp & Paperback Convention), I've signed barely over a dozen copies and not to try and sound self-important, getting stuff signed by me has become rather difficult since I went from a guy that attended around seven or eight conventions a year to being home-bound and unable to travel. Basically, the only way you get stuff signed by me these days is via the mail or dropping by for a visit (the latter being encouraged for anyone that happens to be travelling through the Southwest.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 On 4/30/2018 at 2:24 AM, OSJ said: Also I'm not-too-subtly prodding J.T. to post his thoughts on the collection. I am on my latest re-read of Curley's Tale. I will post a full review very soon. I bothered to take notes this time around. Oh, and Stephen King's new novel, The Outsider, fucking rules so far. I will admit to being rather uncomfortable with the subject matter, but King's streamlined writing style is much appreciated. Either he is getting better at getting his point across without being ridiculously verbose, or he's got a new badass editor. King seems more inspired than ever that he's got his new Mr. Mercedes universe to populate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 1 hour ago, J.T. said: I am on my latest re-read of Curley's Tale. I will post a full review very soon. I bothered to take notes this time around. Oh, and Stephen King's new novel, The Outsider, fucking rules so far. I will admit to being rather uncomfortable with the subject matter, but King's streamlined writing style is much appreciated. Either he is getting better at getting his point across without being ridiculously verbose, or he's got a new badass editor. King seems more inspired than ever that he's got his new Mr. Mercedes universe to populate. As I've always said of King, he can exert control and write tight when he wants to. "The Mist" is a perfect example of this and I could easily list a dozen other novellas and novelettes where he shows tremendous restraint and just gets his points across. Unfortunately, many years ago NY publishers seized on the idea that "fat" meant value and encouraged authors to expand 300 page stories to 500 pages or more. King (and Peter Straub) are two of the best at doing this, in King's case it's a simple formula, waste three or four chapters talking about a minor character and then kill them off. Just like that you've added 90 pages to your book, helped satisfy the gore quotient and made everyone happy except the discerning reader that realizes that they just got dryfucked by the author. Glad to hear the the good King is back. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 My highschool English teacher maintained that King was an excellent short-story writer who inflated his tales into novels for money. This was in the 90s. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 2 minutes ago, Control said: My highschool English teacher maintained that King was an excellent short-story writer who inflated his tales into novels for money. This was in the 90s. Your teacher was spot on. A few years ago when someone on a another board was decrying King as a worthless hack as opposed to my contention that he has a legit claim to be one of the five greatest American authors of his lifetime, I made up a fictional (sadly) two-volume "Best of Stephen King" short stories with twenty-five tales in each book. Book one was horror, book two was mainstream stuff. I'd love it if either collection actually existed, but that's how good King can be, fifty stories off the top of my head and I'm hardly a King fanboy, (in fact, my collection of King is pretty damn pathetic by any standards that you care to apply), I have more wordage by hundreds of other authors than I do King. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 Status of this changed on the website from pre-order to "in-stock". Don't miss it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 It's funny how once upon a time King had to actually cut like four hundred pages from The Stand to get it published. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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