Category: horror

Teaser Tuesday 2/26/2013: “Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum”

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

This week’s freebie book is Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum, a novel that I would (so far) characterize as “Grave Encounters” meets The Little Stranger meets my own Night Watchman (though without the gore). Two teams of ghost hunters — one of which is led by a man who has his own ghost following him around — investigate a Chicago-area haunted asylum, site of numerous suspicious arson fires and wandering apparitions. What could possibly go wrong?

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Teaser Tuesday 11/6/2012: “Apocalypse Z”.

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

So I’ve been a bit remiss the last couple of weeks with Teaser Tuesday posts. Busy busy busy, you know, plus the stuff I’ve been reading has been mostly freebie Halloween short stories that I downloaded toward the end of October, and not really conducive to teaserification. But this month I have another real, live book, Apocalpyse Z. Hmm, what could a book with a title like that be about?

In some refugee camps in neighboring republics, they’re reporting new cases of what they insist is an especially virulent strain of the West Nile virus. But media sources are calling it Ebola.

Hmm. West Nile, Ebola; potato, rotten tomato that oozes nasty red juice all over everything. But hey, whatever gets you the most clicks, media sources! Interestingly, this book is translated from the Spanish and takes place in Spain, making it the first foreign zombie novel I’ve read. (Although I’ve seen one or two Italian zombie movies, and sort of wish I hadn’t.)

And, of course, here’s today’s teaser from The War of the Ravels. I’m rewriting this part of it pretty much completely, so it’s been rather slow going, but things are shaping up!

She soon realized she was wandering through unfamiliar territory, and moved closer to the buildings on the left—which, she thought, was the direction in which the harbor gate would be found—hoping to spot a building she recognized, or maybe find a sign or a person to tell her which way to go. Not that she had much hope of either; no one was out on this sinister night, and as far as she could tell, Abacar did not believe in “You Are Here” kiosks.

Just imagine how much easier going the mines of Moria would have been with “You Are Here” kiosks scattered around! Or, even better, “You Are Here And The Balrog Is There” …

Teaser Tuesday 10/10/2012: “Feed”

~ James Viscosi ~ Leave a comment

So right now I’m reading Feed, a — wait for it! — not-quite-post-apocalyptic zombie book set in a future America in which people never leave the safety of their homes, preferring to communicate and interact via the Internet, where one is less likely to get attacked by the undead. (Getting attacked by trolls is, of course, still a risk.) The main characters are a trio of bloggers who follow a presidential candidate on the campaign trail, reporting on the stops and events and trying not to get eaten.

My father has always had just one piece of advice about zombies and ammunition, one he’s drilled into my head enough times that it’s managed to stick: When you have one bullet left and there’s no visible way out of the shit you’re standing in, save it for yourself.

Dads are always ready with the good advice! (A certain character from “Deep Rising” may wish he had learned this particular lesson.) Let’s not forget a couple of other important ones, like “Cardio” and “Double-Tap”.

And of course, here’s a little teaser from the upcoming conclusion of Shards:

One did not leave the husks of swatted flies lying about one’s kitchen, especially when expecting visitors. Untelleh would come to the castle once she had been restored from her exile, and it would hardly do to receive her atop a pile of slaughtered Rittandics, like some sort of barbarian despot.

Teaser Tuesday: “The Bleeding Season”

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

This week I picked up The Bleeding Season by Greg Gifune. At $2.99 for the Kindle edition (just like a certain other author’s books …) it was definitely the right price after a couple of expensive car repairs.

Some may remember that Greg Gifune was the editor of a magazine called “The Edge” that, way back when, published one of my short stories, “Singletrack“, in which wildlife is disturbed during a biking trip in the Adirondacks, to deleterious effect.

The pizza place downstairs didn’t open for another couple hours, so none of the smells that normally invaded the apartment (no matter what we did to try and cover them) had seeped up through the floor yet. I sat there groggily for a moment, noticed it was still overcast and cloudy but the rain had stopped and the apartment was quiet.

I’m still trying to figure out why one would want to cover up the smells of a pizza place. Meanwhile, here is this week’s supplemental teaser, from “The War of the Ravels”:

After a few moments of silence, Nebandalex said: “Surely whoever is responsible for making sure someone is sitting in the throne would understand if you told them you needed to save the city from ruin, and that their schedule would have to wait.”

“I see you are not familiar with the workings of a court,” Arran Blackhawk said.

Teaser Tuesday 8/28/2012: Seed

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

So this week I’m reading the horror novel Seed by Ania Ahlborn. I got it for free from the Amazon Kindle lending library, which is kind of good, because I don’t like it very much; I don’t believe the characters, don’t care for the dialogue, and the excessive use of brand and pop culture references keeps making me feel like I’m reading a particularly weird article in an issue of “People” while waiting to get a haircut or something. I haven’t decided to put it down yet, but I have switched into “skim” mode. Anyway, here’s the teaser!

On a regular summer afternoon, while Jack sat slumped on the couch watching Scooby Doo on the cheap JVC, a rage slithered into his blood just as it had in the cemetery. Gilda was in the kitchen frying up cheap skirt steaks she’d picked up at the Thriftway.

Really, it’s all right to just call it a “television”. And there are other words besides “cheap” to describe something inexpensive. (If I had gone another sentence or two, “cheap” would have put in yet another appearance, this time in reference to vegetable oil; in its persistence, “cheap” is not unlike the demonic entity that follows Our Hero from Georgia to Louisiana.) Oh well. All I spent on it was the opportunity cost of using up my free book for August, so it’s okay.

Moving on, here are a couple of lines from the current page of The War of the Ravels:

She fished in her pocket, pulled out the little badge Arran Blackhawk had given her, showed it to Cynidece. “This is who I’m meeting.”
“You’re meeting a badge?”

Readers of Shards may recall a certain badge that an unofficial deputy displayed a little too proudly toward the end of the book; the badge mentioned here is, in fact, the same one as that. Like demonic entities and the word “cheap”, it gets around.

Teaser Tuesday: 8/14/2012

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This week’s Teaser Tuesday is from Ghost Stories of an Antiquary:  Part 2 by M.R. James.  James was writing stories of ghosts (and the occasional eldritch abomination) around the turn of the previous century, and has been cited as an influence by (among others) H.P. Lovecraft.  He also, as previously alluded, figures prominently in one of the Merrily Watkins books, which is what prompted me to pick up his stories.  The Kindle editions of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary are currently available for the quite reasonable price of $0.00.

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Teaser Tuesday: 7/31/2012

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

It’s time for another Teaser Tuesday! I’m still in the middle of the Merrily Watkins mystery The Secrets of Pain. (I didn’t get a lot of reading done this week). Here, Merrily is visiting a bed and breakfast looking for clues to a mysterious death, as one does when one is the first female exorcist in England …

Liz took Merrily upstairs, where there were five bedrooms off the landing, the doors of all of them hanging open. A scent of fresh linen and a light musk from a dish of potpourri on a window sill.

At least it’s fresh linen rather than a face of crumpled linen this time.

And, of course, here’s todays bonus teaser from The War of the Ravels:

It was about the width of her hand, and taller than she was, with three horizontal openings at various spots along its length. If she could make herself thin enough, she could sidle through it, drop to the courtyard on the other side, and find her way out from there.

Like Wallis Simpson said, you can never be too rich or too thin. Especially when you’re trying to escape though an arrow slit.

Not So Random Rejection: Northern Frights

~ James Viscosi ~ 3 Comments

I’ve been hoping to pull this rejection out for a while, as it’s one of my favorites, but I haven’t. So I took matters into my own hands and went looking for it:

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Review: “Bubba Ho Tep”

~ James Viscosi ~ 4 Comments

So a couple weeks ago, while I was laid up with that kidney stone, I spent a lot of time watching movies and trying not to curl up into a fetal position. One of the movies I watched — re-watched, actually — was “Bubba Ho Tep”, an adaptation of a novella by Joe R. Lansdale (which I happen to own) starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley and Ossie Davis as John F. Kennedy. Yes, THAT John F. Kennedy. Oh, and there’s also a soul-sucking mummy.

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Scenes-Of-The-Month: “The Wolf” and “Dragon Stones”

~ James Viscosi ~ 2 Comments

Well, the votes are in and we have another tie this month between The Wolf and Dragon Stones. It’s been a while since that happened, and it’s been so long since The Wolf last put in an appearance that I don’t remember where we left off. I think I said there were werewolf hijinx coming up, didn’t I? Let’s find out.

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