This week I returned to Tor.com to take another look at their original short fiction. “A Forest, or a Tree” by Tegan Moore caught my eye—I mean, how could it not, with that frightful (in a good way) illustration. You can read the short story for free here…
This short story was a fun ride, following a group of girls hiking in the woods. Predictably, one of the girls falls sick and spooky things start happening: the GPS equipment is malfunctioning, a creature is spotted in the woods, one of the girls starts hearing strange noises, et cetera. It’s a story everyone’s seen a million times before, but there’s a reason for that: it’s a universally spooky tale that takes hold of your imagination.
I do think that the author tried to incorporate a bit too many threads into the story. There’s a barely-explored racial element, as well as a shallow conversation about memes and copypasta serving as modern myth. The story also ends pretty abruptly just as circumstances have changed and events are coming to a head—I wanted a more fulfilling conclusion. There were also some small niggling details that brought me out of the story—a character saying twice that her friend needs to stop reading so many “subreddits,” for example (instead of “Reddit posts,” which is how any actual Reddit user would phrase this). So these things bring the story down to three stars for me, but I still found it a fun read.
Anyone with me that cover design has gotten way, way better in the last ten years? Maybe it’s a controversial opinion, but I’m pretty sure that the books of yesteryear never looked so pretty. Walk into a library or a bookstore and it’s like being in a candy shop, every book on the shelves some varied, enticing flavor.
But I’m sure none of us can deny that, just as there are trends in titles (“bone” books, ahem), there are also definite trends in cover design. For example, once you’ve noticed the white-uppercase-sans-serif-with-stuff-over-it trend, you’ll never unsee it…
So I thought I’d put together a little gallery of books where the covers are pretty damn similar. Not saying these covers look exactly the same or that plagiarism is involved—just that they are similar enough that I’ve taken notice.
So these covers are definitely different, but the illustration style coupled with the color palette similarities have basically mushed these into the same book in my mind. I love, love, love this flat line-art style, but it is starting to be pretty overdone.
Pretty sure I legit thought these were the same book for a couple weeks. The crouching-on-the-rooftop-in-silhouette pose and the twilight background are too similar for my poor brain. XD
I guess every designer got the memo that black/gold snake books are legit a thing now.
I mean, do I really need to say anything about this one? Not like I would confuse the two, but come on, the similarities are so obvious.
What trends in cover design have you noticed? Any favorite or hated trends? Leave a comment below!
The premise of “Universal Horror” is a group of friends playing a drinking game on Halloween, where a little mummy trick-or-treater is coming around to the house a few too many times for comfort. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time connecting with this story—the whole thing felt a bit detached. I think that can partially be chalked up to the age and life situation of the characters. They’re grappling with some life changes and don’t seem to know how to handle them—break-ups, “getting old” (we’re talking thirty here), the question of whether or not to have a child. And while they’re trying to come to terms with all the important life stuff, the author is also heaping on a long-kept secret, not to mention the requisite dash of horror. It’s a lot of different threads all smushed together, and I didn’t find that any of the elements were strong on their own or in tandem.
Also, as a woman who’s twenty-nine, I’m not huge on stories about people in my age bracket coming to terms with the fact that they’re proper adults now. So many of these characters strike me as weak, nihilistic, and mopey—maybe that’s why I’m such a fan of YA. 😛 So this story is sadly not my favorite of Nightmare Magazine’s offerings.
Illustration courtesy of Ally Grosvenor, as always.
The fourteenth chapter of The Gold in the Dark is out! New chapters, complete with brilliant chapter illustrations courtesy of Ally Grosvenor, release every other Sunday at 11 AM EST.
For this week in writing updates I’ve been drafting Beauty and the Beast and Aliens, which has been quite fun. It’s definitely on the softer side of sci-fi, maybe even veering towards science-fantasy territory, a genre that I love and would love to see more of! It’s been really interesting conceptualizing the aliens in terms of their “human-ness,” since there’s going to be a strong romance element—how alien can you make a love interest before things get too weird? I want to push the boundaries as far as I can, but don’t want to get into gross-out territory—tentacles, etc.
Also, if you’re looking to pick up a copy of Specterthis is a good day to do it! (If this is the first you’re hearing of Specter, I’ve thrown the cover and blurb down below. Pitch: Stranger Things with a ghostly twist!) It’s on free promotion over at Kobo, and today is the very last day before the price goes up, so go grab a copy! Also, can I just take a second to say thanks to all the nice people at Kobo? It’s such a supportive company to indie authors—they have a podcast, respond very helpfully to emails, and offer authors all these ways to easily promote their books at low cost. Thanks, Kobo. 🙂
All right, that’s it for writing updates. Have a good rest of your weekend and enjoy Chapter Fourteen. ❤
Blurb
Horror aficionado Lanie Adams should be thrilled when two eighties-era ghosts materialize in her bedroom. Yet after a fainting incident unbecoming of a horror nerd, she would rather her haunting just go away—the ghosts’ distorted, waterlogged voices and ice-cold auras are more terrifying than any movie. Enlisting the help of Ryan, an entirely-too-cute stoner, she makes it her mission to put the spirits stalking her to rest.
Some sleuthing reveals that their sleepy Connecticut town is host to a shadowy, decades-old conspiracy. If Lanie wants to say a final goodbye to her ghosts, she’ll need to keep digging. But it’s important to tread carefully. The culprit is still in town—and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.
Specter is available for purchase at any book retailer or from Hidden Bower Press. Even independent bookstores should be able to preorder Specter—and you can even request your local library order a physical or ebook copy! I love libraries, so making the book available everywhere was important to me in my publishing decisions. So please consider picking up a copy or adding it to your Goodreads TBR!
And we’re back! It was nice to take a couple weeks vacation from Short Tuesday, but I’m excited to return and dive into more weird short stories. First up is “In a Cavern, in a Canyon” by Laird Barron, courtesy of the excellent Nightmare Magazine. You can read the short story for free here…
Let’s first set the mood. The title of this story is actually the opening verse of the classic song “Oh My Darling Clementine”—one of those earworm childhood songs where you know the chorus intimately but have only a vague sense that there are other verses as well. Oh, how I love horror that draws on old tunes to set an eerie tone! You think I’m joking, but I’m dead serious—this is one of Stephen King’s oldest tricks in the book (har har), and it’s the reason why “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” features heavily in one chapter in Specter.
This is not a mood piece masquerading as a short story, but an actual full-fledged work, hallelujah. The story follows a middle-aged woman who has an obsession with search-and-rescue hunts and proceeds to track the eerie events in her childhood that led to her developing that interest. The Alaskan, working-class setting works perfectly for the story; everything feels very grounded in reality until the point when the weird shows up to say boo. So many of the short stories I read have this floaty, mood-driven tone where you know things are going to happen and nothing will really be explained. And sometimes that kind of works, but more often it drives me a little bananas; I crave a bit of grounded realism as a story base, and that is what the author delivers here.
I’m going to leave it at that, since this is the kind of short story you should really let unfold for you, with no spoilers. I loved it and am excited to read more from this author. If you are at all a fan of creepypasta and Lovecraftian elements, then this is a short story not to miss.
It’s no secret to my friends and family that I love weird stuff. Serial killers, horror, conspiracy theories, cults—all these things fascinate me in equal amounts. I was the kid who devoured the Goosebumps series at a too-tender age, then graduated straight on to Stephen King. You know how Mr. Ollivander says to Harry that “the wand chooses the wizard”? That’s kind of how I feel about horror and the weird—just like how some people are natural thrill seekers, I think there are some people with a predilection for this stuff. The weird chooses you.
So I thought I’d throw together a post about my favorite weird and horror bits and bobs. My personal taste tends toward a slow build narrative, occasional hyper-violence, surrealism, and some narrative ambiguity. I’m no expert, but out of the thousands of hours I’ve spent consuming this stuff, I’ll go on record saying that everything listed below is really deserving of praise.
Books
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Yeah, yeah, the show on Netflix is pretty cool, but the book is better. This is an atmospheric and psychological masterpiece about a haunted house. Definitely pick up a copy—it’s not a lengthy book, so technically it won’t take you long, but you might find yourself wanting to take frequent breaks to escape the chilling atmosphere of the house.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Another piece of literature about a house. How spooky can a house that is a bit bigger inside than outside be, you might ask? Well. WELL. This is a book you need to read in hard copy—the book’s bizarre formatting is simply incompatible with ebooks. At least do a quick flip-through in the book store to see what I’m talking about—you won’t be disappointed.
Anything by Haruki Murakami
I’m a big Murakami fan, to say the least. I haven’t read everything by him, but I’ll get there eventually. There’s something about Murakami’s matter-of-fact tone that really connects with me. His most acclaimed book is The Wind-Up BirdChronicle, for good reason, but really anything by him is great—as far as I’m concerned, he is the undisputed master of magical realism.
The Interface Series by _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9
So this isn’t a book yet. The author is an anonymous Reddit user, who posted the entire work in non sequitur comments. There was some talk that this was a major inspiration for Stranger Things—I don’t believe this theory myself due to the lengthy production timeline needed for producing a show like Stranger Things, but I think it’s worth noting that the two are similar… though the Interface Series is weirder. Want to know more about flesh interfaces? You can get started reading for free here.
The Downside Trilogy by S. L. Grey
The South African duo S. L. Grey has gained a bit more notoriety for their recent novel The Apartment, but I remain a steadfast fan of the Downside Trilogy, in particular the first book The Mall. It has a lot to do with my abiding love for Silent Hill 3, which also prominently features a mall… But these books stand on their own, and the worldbuilding is excellent.
Movies
Creep 1 and 2
I’d seen Creep floating around on Netflix for a while before I buckled down to watch it. Somehow I didn’t expect much. Oh, how wrong I was. This is the franchise for anyone who’s ever gotten leery about meeting people off the Internet. Mark Duplass’s acting in both the first and second film are phenomenal—here’s hoping for a third movie. I just can’t get enough of the MC.
Alien
Yeah, yeah, a lot of people like to claim that the sequel, Aliens, is better, but for me it veers off too much into action territory. I much prefer the more atmospheric and slower-paced Alien; it creeps along until all hell breaks loose. I also have to appreciate that this is the movie that inspired Blake Snyder’s “save the cat” writing philosophy—just a fun little tidbit.
Rosemary’s Baby
This is a tough movie for me to recommend, since I struggle a bit with Roman Polanski being the director. Nevertheless, I’ve watched Rosemary’s Baby numerous times and love it for the pacing, the characters, the pregnancy theme, and the atmosphere. Riley Sager’s new novel Lock Every Door draws heavily from Rosemary’s Baby, and I couldn’t be happier about that.
Silent Hill
I don’t care what people say about the film version of the Silent Hill franchise; this movie is fantastic. It preserves the Silent Hill atmosphere, keeps in the baddies we all love like Pyramid Head and the nurses, and has a comprehensive plot with a satisfying ending. Not even The Babadook could achieve that last bit. (Fighting words, I know.)
The Ring
I have vivid memories of taking a community college Japanese class, where for the last two classes the teacher abandoned any sort of curriculum and instead put on The Ring. On VHS tape. In a dark room with no windows. On one of those old, flickering CRT TVs. Yeah, it was terrifying, and it took me a couple years after that singular viewing experience before I could watch The Ring again. This was basically the seminal horror film of my generation, and it will remain one of the top three horror films of all time for me.
Psycho
Hitchcock produced a lot of masterpieces, but this is my favorite of the bunch by far, enough so that it even made a brief appearance in Specter. Pyscho’s music and shower scene are classic, and the whole movie is beautifully shot; the black and white adds so much atmospherically.
Funny Games (original Austrian version)
This is a polarizing movie for its infamous breaking of the fourth wall; a loooooooot of people hate this movie. But for me, as someone who really enjoys dissecting the horror genre, the director’s commentary on the audience’s twisted relationship with horror films is fantastic. If you like home invasion flicks and philosophical subtext, definitely give this a watch.
Games
Silent Hill 1-3
These are the only games on the list that I have not played myself, but have only watched being streamed. If I’d had access to these games growing up I would definitely have played them, but we were a PC family, not a console family, so I never got the chance. (Mom definitely would have balked at all that blood and gore, too. 😉 ) Anyway, something about the Silent Hill atmosphere really connects with me—all that fog and the twisted mutants.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
This game made a name for itself with the game design decision that the MC is not able to fight back against the monsters hunting him in a sprawling, creepy castle. Additionally, you have to stay on top of the MC’s sanity meter, meaning that the more scared your character is, the more you’ll suffer manifestations of that fear, including teeth grinding, visual and auditory hallucinations, etc. It’s a deliciously terrifying game, and though the plot could leave something to be desired, the concept, execution, and level design of the game more than carries it to greatness.
Outlast 1 and Whistleblower DLC
Outlast took the helpless MC concept from Amnesia and ran with it in a modern-day setting. The premise is that the MC is a journalist investigating a psychiatric facility; some levels are so dark that they can only be navigated with a night vision camera, and your battery runs out fast. I unfortunately can’t get on board with the second in the series, which struck me as more of a jump scare running simulator, but Outlast and the Whistleblower DLC were horror game perfection. A warning: these games above all others here are not suitable for anybody squeamish. There are some parts of Whistleblower that are beyond gross.
Doki Doki Literature Club
I don’t really want to give anything away about this game, since one spoiler can ruin the experience… but just know that this game is not the adorable anime dating sim that it appears to be! 😉 I also love all the analysis videos about this game online; here’s hoping some of them are correct and Team Salvato will be releasing some sort of connected material for this game.
TV
Twin Peaks
Ah, Twin Peaks… there is something so charming and relaxing about David Lynch’s surreal creation. The soap opera characters are what make the show, though I also love the tinge of magical realism. I literally remember watching this the first time feeling like I was high; that is how off-kilter this show is, but in the best way possible. In what other show could you have an accidental llama steal the scene?
Alan Resnick
I’m pretty sure it was the fantastic Night Mind who introduced me to Alan Resnick’s work. I’m including Resnick in this section because he does work for Adult Swim, producing those late night segments that you remember the next day as something akin to a fever dream. Some people may recognize Resnick from way back in the day as the creator of the web series alantutorial. Anyway, his work is markedly surreal and unsettling. Watch Unedited Footage of a Bear, then if you’re feeling up for it, dive into the convoluted puzzle that is This House Has People in It.
And… that’s… it! I’m sure I’ve left out some of my favorite weird/horror stuff, but this is a pretty good sampling of what I’ll vouch for as good. Are you a horror fan? Do you enjoy surreal or “weird” media? Leave your recommendations down below!
Illustration courtesy of Ally Grosvenor, as always.
The thirteenth chapter of The Gold in the Dark is out! New chapters, complete with brilliant chapter illustrations courtesy of Ally Grosvenor, release every other Sunday at 11 AM EST.
This week in writing updates has been the book launch for Specter, combined with new beginnings as I picked up my new WIP (the Beauty and the Beast and aliens book) once more. It feels great to be drafting again, and I’m trying to push myself to work on the manuscript every day. My goal is to have this next book out a year from Specter‘s launch, which would be July 7th of next year. The even loftier goal is to have it out sooner… but I don’t want to jinx things. I’ve set a timetable for myself like this:
We’ll see if I can pull it off. 😉 Anyway, that’s all for writing updates this week. I’m leaving the blurb for Specter down below, so if this is the first you’re hearing about it, please check it out! And have a good rest of your weekend and enjoy Chapter Thirteen. ❤
Blurb
Horror aficionado Lanie Adams should be thrilled when two eighties-era ghosts materialize in her bedroom. Yet after a fainting incident unbecoming of a horror nerd, she would rather her haunting just go away—the ghosts’ distorted, waterlogged voices and ice-cold auras are more terrifying than any movie. Enlisting the help of Ryan, an entirely-too-cute stoner, she makes it her mission to put the spirits stalking her to rest.
Some sleuthing reveals that their sleepy Connecticut town is host to a shadowy, decades-old conspiracy. If Lanie wants to say a final goodbye to her ghosts, she’ll need to keep digging. But it’s important to tread carefully. The culprit is still in town—and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.
Specter is available for purchase at any book retailer or from Hidden Bower Press. Even independent bookstores should be able to preorder Specter—and you can even request your local library order a physical or ebook copy! I love libraries, so making the book available everywhere was important to me in my publishing decisions. So please consider picking up a copy or adding it to your Goodreads TBR!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sending me a free advanced reader copy of this book for an honest review. The Escape Room debuts July 30th.
Escape rooms—barely a thing five years ago, it turns out that friends and families really like to feel like they’re participating in a warm, friendly, Saw-like experience. (I kid—escape rooms are pretty awesome.) So it makes sense that having swept like wildfire across the globe, escape rooms have also infiltrated the subscription box business, graced the silver screen, and, at last, crawled their way into publishing.
The premise of the book is great—a bunch of investment bankers are lured to an elevator escape room, only to find out that the corporate team-building exercise they were promised is not what it appears to be. Yet great premises don’t necessarily make great books. A skillful writer could do a lot here, but the writing got in the way of the story at every turn. Each page was filled with wooden language and plodding narration. This is a real “I did X. Then I did Y. Then I did Z” experience, to the extent that there are actually a surprisingly small amount of detailed scenes in the book, given how zoomed-out our literary camera lens is. And when we do get some details, they always seem like the wrong thing. I don’t know how many descriptions of expensive investment banker wardrobes there were in this book, but it had to be… ten? Twenty? Fifty? Meanwhile, all you want is more cool escape room details, but it felt like there were only five clues to the whole room. For the vast majority of their time in the escape room the bankers just sit there, waiting to be let out.
I will say that I appreciated the back-and-forth POV chapter switches from first to third. The third person sections follow the entrapped bankers, while the first person sections track a rookie investment banker’s experience a few years prior. This variety of POV switching is a bold narrative choice, and with a more honed and experienced voice this could have worked beautifully—but because of the distant point of view, stiff language, constant head-hopping, and lack of escape room intrigue, I found myself dreading the third-person sections.
So I appreciate what this book wanted to be, and I’ll eagerly read a different thriller with an escape room premise. But Goldin’s take on escape rooms unfortunately missed the mark, so I have a difficult time recommending it.
Those here at KJG Enterprises need a bit of a break for the next couple weeks following the crazy fun but also just generally crazy release of Specter. Reviews and personal posts will be going up, but Short Tuesday is on a short break. We’ll be up and running again in a couple weeks. 😉
I can hardly believe I just typed that title—”Specter debuts today.” It’s been a surreal journey from the start of this book to the end, and I mean that word—journey—in the most real way. At the start of it all, Specter was a concept that had been rattling around in my head for a while, but it took a flash of inspiration from some helpful muse for me to understand that the ghosts in the story weren’t supposed to be from the Victorian era, but rather from the 1980s. That realization, coupled with the knowledge that the book would be comparable to Stranger Things, pushed me to abandon a different manuscript at thirty thousand words. I didn’t want to miss the cultural moment caused by the juggernaut that is Netflix’s lovable TV show, and so I set myself a goal: have the book out by the timethe next season debuted.
A lot happened along the way. I made a career switch. My husband and I moved house. I became entirely disenchanted with traditional publishing and decided to go the indie route. A family member suffered a major injury.
But I’m on the other side of everything, everyone is happy and healthy, and Specter, beautiful and glowing, is ready for the world. 🙂
I’m going to skip the marketing spiel right now—I already covered all that in Friday’s post. If you’re wanting to check out the blurb, take a look at some five-star reviews, or read the first chapter, then head on over there. But what I will say is that Specter is a story with a whole lot of heart. I’m a slow writer as a general rule, but this story, Lanie’s story, demanded to be told, and it poured out of me. I’m extremely proud of this book, and I hope everyone who reads it enjoys it.
So please consider buying a copy—especially if you’re the type of person who’s ever gone back up the basement stairs a little too quickly, imagining someone is about to grab for your ankles. Or if you’re the type who loves a realistic heroine who takes matters into her own hands and becomes a badass along the way. Or if you’ve ever looked out into the woods and wondered exactly what kind of secrets might be hidden out there.
That’s who Specter is for. I hope you enjoy it. ❤ ❤ ❤
Katie Jane Gallagher 