And then there was G.

First I want to wish you all a happy Easter. May the Easter Bunny bring you many eggs full of candies and new publications. =)

Here are the selections for the day.

Movie.

Grave Encounters (2011)
Directed by The Vicious Brothers


Plot: Lance Preston and the crew of "Grave Encounters", a ghost-hunting reality television show, are shooting an episode inside the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, where unexplained phenomena has been reported for years. All in the name of good television, they voluntarily lock themselves inside the building for the night and begin a paranormal investigation, capturing everything on camera. They quickly realize the building is more than just haunted - it is alive - and it has no intention of ever letting them leave. They find themselves lost in a labyrinth maze of endless hallways and corridors, terrorized by the ghosts of the former patients. They soon begin to question their sanity, slipping deeper and deeper into the depths of madness, ultimately discovering the truth behind the hospital's dark past...and taping what turns out to be their final episode.

Review: HOLY COW. This movie knocked my socks off. Another found footage film, and in the best Blair Witch style, the movie is claustrophobic and atmospheric. A perfect selection for a stormy dark night. If you like shows like Ghost Hunters, My Ghost Story, of Ghost Adventures, this will make your blood run cold.

Book.

Ghost Stories by MR James.
Published by Penguin in 1931.

Blurb: M. R. James is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. One of James' most important achievements was to redefine the ghost story for the new century by dispensing with many of the formal gothic trappings of his predecessors, and replacing them with more realistic contemporary settings.
According to James, a story must "put the reader into the position of saying to himself: 'If I'm not careful, something of this kind may happen to me!'"


Review: MR James is not very famous in America, however he was quite a figure of his times. He was an English medieval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), as well as of Eton College (1918–1936). Beyond his social stature and fame at the time, the reason why he is mostly remembered these days is his ghost stories, regarded as among the best in the genre. James redefined the ghost story by abandoning the formal Gothic clichés of the time and using more realistic settings. His endurance would surely come as a surprise to him but the fact that he can still scare you from your iPad is prove that he is one of the best.


Thanks for commenting! I'll visit you all soon.

A to Z Challenge. Letter F.

Let's not beat around the bushes. I know what you want, what you came here for, so here it is: Letter F.

Movie.

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)
Directed by Roger Corman


Plot: After a long journey, Philip arrives at the Usher mansion seeking his loved one, Madeline. Upon arriving, however, he discovers that Madeline and her brother Roderick Usher have been afflicted with a mysterious malady: Roderick's senses have become painfully acute, while Madeline has become catatonic. That evening, Roderick tells his guest of an old Usher family curse: any time there has been more than one Usher child, all of the siblings have gone insane and died horrible deaths. As the days wear on, the effects of the curse reach their terrifying climax.

Review: I know this is really going old school but House of Usher is a very special movie to me. I watched it on my early teen years when I was innocent and impressionable. Not only it scared me good, it introduced me to one of my favorite actors of all time, the talented and quite dapper Vincent Prince. It also made me curious enough about Poe's stories that I actually took to read them. So, this is more of a sentimental choose for me. However, the movie is extraordinary. The adaptation is fantastic, as it effectively transfers the gothic ambiance of the piece, its eeriness, and its scares. The acting, of course, makes the movie because with like so many gothic books, it is all about the characters. So do watch this movie. I know, it's black and white, but consider this: it won't hurt your eyes as much if you watch it with the lights off. Oh, WAIT! I just found out you can find it in Technicolor, hurray!!

Book.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.
Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers in 2009.

Blurb: In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?


Review: Apocalyptic YA stories are all the rage these days and since there have been a lot of comments from those of you who are not fans of hard core horror, I thought Carrie Ryan's book might be a good option for you. In The Forest of Hands and Teeth (a trilogy, by the way) there's a bit for every taste. There are zombies, grim happenings, scares, gloom, love, and action. The characters are well crafted and you feel for them. The main character, a young girl, is strong and believes in herself but is bounded by love to her family and friends, and moral obligations to the people of the village. She's not all-powerful but she's not whiny and in need of a prince. If you liked the movie The Village, you'll find this an interesting book, just remember that this is a trilogy and the ending will not be too 'definitive'.


Remember to leave your suggestions for me!

A to Z Challenge. Letter E.

For letter E I decided to try a movie from a sub genre that has been very popular lately, the found-footage. This type of movies are usually less graphic and tend to be low budget with not many effects but effective scare scenes. Of course the most famous are The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. Both of them made big bucks and are fan favorites. I for one, love them, though there are a lot of detractors to the style. But no, I didn't choose one that you already know, that was the goal of the whole challenge, remember? Instead I chose a small production that barely got noted but that's pretty impacting.

Now, for the book I went with a classic you all know but, I'm willing to bet, most of you haven't read.

With you, the selections of the day.

Movie.

Exhibit A (2007)
Directed by Dom Rotheroe



Plot: Exhibit A tells the timely story of a normal family disintegrating under financial pressure, eventually driven to the unimaginable. All is not as it seems as the King family go about their day-to-day lives oblivious of the horror to come. Dad Andy (Bradley Cole) is nursing a secret that ultimately leads to terrible consequences for them all. We witness these chilling events unfold through daughter Judith's video camera, which subsequently becomes Exhibit A.

Review: Technically a thriller, this is an extraordinary, award winning, indy movie that is worth every second of the 89 minutes you'll invest in watching it. The story is conveyed in the natural form of family home videos, so the wobbly camera angles and moves are there but they won't make you sick unless you are very sensitive, in which case you are not a fan of the found footage sub genre. However, also in keeping with this style of movies, the less you know about it, the better for your enjoyment, so lets leave it at this: Watch it!

Book.

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.
Published by Corgi Books in 1971.

Blurb: (Is this really necessary? Ok, fine.) When originally published, "The Exorcist" became not only a bestselling literary phenomenon, but one of the most frightening and controversial novels ever written. (When the author adapted his book to the screen two years later, it then became one of the most terrifying movies ever made.) The deceptively simple story focuses on Regan, the 11-year-old daughter of a movie actress residing in Washington, D.C. When the child is apparently possessed by an ancient demon, it's up to a small group of overwhelmed yet determined humans to somehow rescue Regan from this unspeakable fate. Purposefully raw and profane, this novel still has the extraordinary ability to literally shock us into forgetting that it is "just a story." "The Exorcist" remains a truly unforgettable reading experience. It's sequel, "Legion", was published in 1983.

Review: Why did I choose this one, you wonder? Well, because most of the time you hear all about the movie and most people have watched it and thought they didn't need to read the book. The movie was incredibly well adapted, I'll say that, but the book still retains a raw power over the reader that will make you experience a big range of emotions, not only fear. I also was pleasantly surprised by the depth of Father Karras' character. We suffer through his battle with his faith and feel his lose as the story develops. I even cried at the ending. This is a very complex book that deserves a lot more credit than living in the shadow of a superb movie. Do yourself a favor, don't skip it.

For more amazing A to Z blogs click here.

Insecure Writer's to the Rescue

Today is a great day for having an intervention on myself, I'm lucky it is the first wednesday of the month. Those of you who have visited before know I'm usually positive and try to be uplifting in my posts but today I'm feeling down and I just want to let it all come out of my chest.

Yesterday I received a rejection letter from Shock Totem making it five rejection mails hanging on my inbox for two different stories. I know, I'm a wimp. Many people go through years of rejection before hitting the gold vein. I know, but it just does't help. I've been thinking hard about my career as a writer and I only have a short story published in an anthology and a novel. Not much to call it a career. My family keeps trying to make me feel better by stressing how many writers out there wished to have at least one pieced published, and I'm really happy and proud of that, but I can't hide behind my only two successes. I need to have more. I need to write more, I need to be better, and I need to have more time.

In two years I've written eight stories, two of them are out there being constantly rejected and the other six need a lot of work to be really finished. That's all I've done and I can't help but feel it is way too little. I've been concentrating so much on my blog trying to connect with other writers and readers, but now that I think about it, I don't really have much to offer. How depressing.

Don't worry too much for me though. I'm not one to sulk forever and I'm giving me until today for feeling sorry for myself. Then I'll start looking for new places where I can submit. But, when do you know a piece is dead? When do you know it will never happen for that specific story and move on? Those questions torture me and as off now I'm thinking of sending those stories to a couple more places. If they get rejected again, then that's it. I'm pulling the plug on them and moving to the next stories.

I've also decided that I won't dedicate as much time to blogging. When april is gone and with it the craziness of the A to Z challenge, I'll dedicate much more time to reviewing for Dark River Press (that means, to read more) and to finish my second novel. Those are my priorities and I have to concentrate on that or I will never be anything more than a two-time-published author.

I hope your month is going a lot better than mine and I hope next month I will be the happy-go-lucky gal I'm used to be. In the meantime, thanks for reading and caring.

To get awesome advise from other fellow insecure writers click here.

A to Z Challenge. D...

We're halfway through our first week and I'm enjoying myself! I thought I might feel a bit overwhelmed but I think I did a lot of preparation and that is helping me get better organized. I've visited a few of the other participating blogs and I've found great ideas and interesting postings that I will follow throughout the whole moth. I hope you are feeling as good as me!


For D-day I have more recommendations for you, but also some great news for the fans of the Hellraiser series.


Just a day ago I was taking about the Books of Blood by Clive Barker and the amount of movies these stories have spawn. Among them I mentioned the Rawhead Rex movie. Well, since then it has been brought to my attention that Clive Barker was not content with the treatment his story received on that movie and has, for a long time now, tried to distance himself from the production. However, that same novella will be now reprinted as part of the latest Post Mortem Press anthology, "Torn Realities". If any of you are recurrent followers, you know that's the same house that published my novel "Perpetual Night". How cool is that? My book and one of the groundbreaking fathers of horror will be under the same roof. Man, I can't wait for a Post Mortem Press party!!


Now, for the Hellraiser news. That same author, Clive Barker, on that same very special collection, Books of Blood, included a story where the Cenobites were introduced for the first time, hence giving birth to the Hellraiser movies we all know and love. Well, Sonar Entertainment is giving Pinhead the television treatment and as off now, a TV show is in the works. This is sure to make the earth rumble with all the die-hard fans who will rush to their TV sets. For more info, follow this link.


Now, lets go on with the show. The pics for D-day are:


Movie.


Dead End (2003)

Directed by Jean-Bamptist Andrea


Plot: For the past 20 years, Frank Harrington has grudgingly driven his family to celebrate Christmas with his mother-in-law. This year, he takes a shortcut that turns to be the biggest mistake of his life. The nightmare begins. A mysterious woman in white wanders through the forest, leaving death in her wake. A terrifying black car - its driver invisible - carries the victims into the heart of the night. Every road sign points to a destination they never reach. The survivors succumb to panic, to madness; deeply buried secrets burst to the surface, and Christmas turns into a living hell.


Review: Dead End is creepy as hell. Another often dismissed small movie that packs a big punch; it is atmospheric, strange, and will capture you from scene one. Its dry humor a la Evil Dead but without over the top antics brings a good balance to the otherwise very tense setting and its clever final twist adds a new dimension to the story. It will make you weary of dark, lonely roads for sure!


For some reason the embedded code isn't working but you can watch the trailer here.


Book.


Drood by Dan Simmons.
Published by Little, Brown and Company in 2009.


Blurb: On June 9, 1865 while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity--is hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever. 
Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying? 

Just as he did in "The Terror", Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".

Review: Drood is written as narrated by Wilkie Collins in the form of a Victorian memoir to be read 125 years after his death. Collins is addicted to drugs and finds himself slipping further and further into his addiction as the novel proceeds, thus becoming the perfect unreliable narrator and giving the novel a great twist. Are the events real or are they the twisted imaginings of an opium addict? Heavily on the side of a mystery, Drood is a historical fiction novel that combines great elements of mystery, suspense, and horror.   This is a fantastic read for those who don't enjoy ghosts stories or truly terrifying books but appreciate atmospheric, intelligent ones.


I love reading your opinions, so don't forget to comment and leave your own suggestions for me! Have a great D-day and keep alphablogging.

A to Z Challenge. C...

For C-Day a classic movie and another classic but fairly unknown book. I present to you:

Movie.

The Changeling (1980)
Directed by Peter Medak.

Plot: When composer John Russell (George C. Scott) loses his wife and daughter in a car wreck, he seeks solace by renting a secluded estate outside Seattle. But the mansion is haunted by the presence of a child who died there more than 80 years ago. Now, Russell must find out who that child was and why there seems to be a cover-up now.

Review: This is another quiet movie that doesn't pack the gore nor shock value we are so used to nowadays. It is atmospheric and the tension builds up relentlessly, leaving the viewer feeling pleasantly uncomfortable through out the whole movie. Those interested in more than jump-value in a ghost story will appreciate the beauty of the story driving this piece, as well as the very well done creepy scares that'll keep you holding a pillow close to your face. Truly a classic.

Book.

Conjure Wife by Frietz Leiber.
Published in 1943 by Unknown Words.

Blurb: Professor Norman Saylor considered magic nothing more than superstition. Then he learned that his wife was a practicing sorceress. But he still refuses to accept the truth: that in the secret occult warfare that governs our lives, magic is a matter of life and death; and that unbeknownst to men, every woman knows it.

Review: I'm in the process of reading this book and so far I find it very well written, interesting, and intelligent. The professor is a Psycologist in fact and the author uses this to establish the pragmatic nature of his main character. Then, of course, there's a clear change of gears when it is the wife we're talking about. I love how the language plays such a clue piece in setting the mind frame for the reader. I still have half book ahead of me, but so far I can recommend it happily. I'll be sure to be back and do a complete review once all is said and done.

Hope you are enjoying this as much as I am. Remember to hop around to get more A to Z awesomeness.

A to Z Challenge. B...

Day 2 and time for B recommendations...

Movie.

Borderland (2007)

Directed by Zev Berman.

Plot: Loosely based on a case occurred on 1989 in a northern Mexican town close to the American border where a group of drug dealers killed at least twenty people for the sole purpose of using their bodies in satanic rituals. When they kidnapped and killed Mark Kirloy, a student who disappeared in march 1989 during spring break, the story became so big, it lead to the capture of their leader and dismantlement of the group. In the movie three college students, Phil, Ed, and Henry, take a road trip into Mexico for a week of drinking and carefree fun only to have Phil find himself captive of a group of satanic Mexican drug smugglers.


Review: Though the movie does not depict the real turn of events, it follows the line our imagination goes when one reads about a group of drug smugglers and satanists killing people to offer them to the devil in exchange for power and money. The movie is very disturbing. There is no paranormal monster anywhere, no ghosts, nor any cameo from demons of any kind. The evil in the movie comes totally as courtesy of the humans committing despicable acts of violence with the possible excuse of being crazy. In that sense this film works perfectly as the viewer can perceive the frail mental state of the one calling the shots, as the desperation of the young group of friends trying to escape the unbelievable situation they put themselves into. This movie is not for everyone but let me assure you, it will scare you silly.


Book.


I just couldn't make my mind, so I will point to two amazing books that every lover or horror has to read.


1. Books of Blood by Clive Barker.
    Published in 1985 by Berkley Books.


Blurb: There are six books in total, each simply subtitled Volume 1 through to Volume 6, and were subsequently re-published in two omnibus editions containing three volumes each. Each volume contains four or five stories. With the publication of the first volume, Barker became an overnight sensation, hailed by Stephen King as "the future of horror". The book won both the British and the World Fantasy Awards. Several of the stories have been adapted into movies, "Rawhead Rex" (1986); "Candyman" (based on "The Forbidden" in 1992); "Lord of Illusions" (Based on "The Last Illusion"in); "Quicksilver Highway" (based on "The Body Politic" in 1997); "The Midnight Meat Train" (2008); "The Book of Blood" (in 2008, which combined "Book Of Blood" and "On Jerusalem Street"), and "Dread" (2009).


Review: This is another book that's waiting for me atop my huge pile of TBR but it doesn't matter where you read about it, it has nothing but four and five stars, and with so many amazing movies being based on these stories, one can't wait to jump at the chance of holding in one's hands a piece of contemporary horror history.




2. Best Ghosts Stories by Algernon Blackwood.
    Published in 1973 by Dover Publications.


Blurb: "If a ghost is seen, what is it interests me less than than what sees it?" Thus Algernon Blackwood describes his fascination with human beings' ability to sense invisible powers and stirrings in the universe, a fascination he developed most famously in his stories about mystical, ineffable encounters with nature. This collection, selected by renowned scholar of the supernatural, E. F. Bleiler, is an excellent sample of Blackwood's work, including 12 of his best ghost stories and a crime story as well. Blackwood is acknowledged today as the author who made the ghost story into a respectable literary form.


Review: Sadly, Algernon Blackwood is a name most of us haven't heard at all. He definitively set the groundwork that made the horror genre what it is today and his stories should be a must for every self-respecting horror buff. Now, don't expect blood and gore, these stories are the complete opposite of Clive Barker's in that they are subtle, quiet, and atmospheric but nonetheless eerie. Algernon Blackwood presents a good opportunity for those who are not used to or do not enjoy extremely frightening reading, however they will stay with you for a long time.


Hope you enjoy today's selections! Keep the comments and suggestions coming, I'll do my best to accommodate them all. Have a great B-Day and remember to keep hopping!!