Category: Blog

Death, Dismemberment and Dark Humor

December 1, 2023 / Mike

Why You Should Read: Joe Abercrombie

Ultimately, reading fantasy is embarking on a journey through the author’s imagination. They pull you into their own unique world and let you experience their personality through the lens of their creations. While some use their medium to create worlds of wonder, Abercrombie’s crafts a world that is brutal, gritty and unforgiving. The British writer’s First Law universe, currently spanning two trilogies, three standalones and two short story collections, is a place where darkness and depravity are commonplace, with violence and corruption lurking around every corner waiting to destroy those too foolish or unlucky enough to stumble into them. But what Abercrombie does so well and what sets him apart from his grimdark contemporaries is striking the perfect balance between the wickedness of his world and his own razor sharp wit. You laugh, cry in frustration and yell in horror, and often all in one scene, thanks to the perfectly hewn skill of this writer.

An author’s voice is always going to be his greatest weapon. The unique delivery of an author’s expression is the thing that sets his work apart; the creative flourishes, the thematic turns and twists, the character details that give life to the story. Some authors like a subtle touch, gentle embellishments to craft something which is intricate and entrancing. By contrast, Abercrombie beats his readers with a warhammer while delivering a battlecry. His authorial voice is so strong it easily makes him distinct amongst an overabundance of grimdark authors crowding the fantasy shelves. By allowing his humor to shine through he adds streaks of color to his otherwise bleak world, making his stories feel like something entirely unique. Every page bleeds with personality and draws you further and further into the story like the most charismatic of performers.

Abercrombie’s stories encompass the grand conflicts of wizards and kings spanning empires and nations, but are always driven by deeply personal tales of revenge, jealousy and pride. There is the unflinching sense of classic tragedy that hangs over every one of his works, as characters struggle to overcome their flaws and survive in an indifferent world. In this regard, there is no one better. He has mastered the art of turning his characters into real people, or as close as you’re likely to find. He takes some of the most despicable figures ever put to page and lets you get to know them so intimately you can’t help but root for them, despite knowing all their failings and ugly flaws. You become invested in their struggles and hope like hell they can somehow figure out a way to make it through the meat grinder that is their dark little universe. It’s a trick that Abercrombie pulls off time after time in his novels, and it pays off in spades.

Abercrombie is not for everyone. He is brutal in his treatment of characters and readers alike. He is not one for sentimentality or a strong sense of satisfaction. Characters fail, are maimed, die unfulfilled, while storylines diverge from the expected and twist into horrifying turns on the classic tropes. Reading First Law is like chewing bittersweet candy, it’s all sour medicine and you need a strong stomach. He also defies the tendency of many modern writers to delve into the mechanics of his magic systems and offer explanations of the intricacies of his world. His world exists solely to serve as a vehicle to present his characters and conflicts to the reader, as streamlined and functional as he can make it. But for fans, these are features, not flaws. Abercrombie crafts his story with the expert precision of a butcher carving up a carcass to deliver a serving of perfectly cut steaks. But if that’s what you’re looking for, there’s really no one better.

Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say he’s hell of a writer.

A Bloody Great Time

October 25, 2023 / Mike

Why You Should Watch: Netflix’s Castlevania

Who else remembers Castlevania? The horror-adventure platformer as old as gaming itself that reincarnated seemingly every time a new console came out. Maybe you played the original NES version back in the 80’s or tried it on one of the dozens of other iterations since? Well that game was made into a show by Netflix and it is without doubt one of their best offerings in recent memory. Deputing in 2017, Castlevania managed something often attempted but rarely managed; a good video game adaptation. The show accomplished this minor miracle by striving to maintain the essence of the games while also ensuring its story was well fleshed out and satisfying in its own right.

As a game, Castlevania was all about the ambiance. The gothic horror setting was front and center, all dark castles and foreboding dungeons with characters dressed in Victorian era outfits speaking in dramatic soliloquies. This combined with the stark violence and gore to make a unique experience which was unlike anything else, especially during its earliest days. The creators of the Castlevania television series made the wise decision to steer into the skid on this, laying on the pedal until it melds with the floorboards. Everything about the series bleeds style. The anime style is a perfect medium to portray the kinetic and brutal action that is so integral to the series, yet also allows for beautiful rendering of the horrifying monsters and eerie locations. Even for non-anime fans, it is worth a look just to see the artistry they have been able to accomplish with this series. Whoever made the call to use Powerhouse Animation Studios deserves to win all the awards forever.

But the show is so much more than a flashy showcase. The writing is absolutely to die for. Throughout its history, the games weaved a wonderfully dramatic history with a complex internal lore which evolved and changed over decades. The series managed to cut a streamlined story out of that wealth of source material, focusing on the return of Dracula and his conflict with the series’ three major protagonists, one of whom is his own half-human son. This plays no small part in the series success as Dracula, expertly voiced by veteran actor Graham McTarvish, is a showstopping standout villain, up there with some of the greats. But make no mistake, these characters are, without exception, fantastic. The heroes are witty without being grating, endearing without slipping into trite character beats, playing off villains that are genuinely menacing and present a tangible sense of competence. Every major character is blessed with a remarkable amount of personality, drive and agency, creating a narrative that feels untethered by plot contrivances or weighed down by uninspired archetypes.

The main series ended after four seasons in 2021. Thankfully, unlike so many other recent shows, the creators of Castelvania had the foresight and self-control to end the story once it had run its natural course. The result is a series which never loses its way or tries to be something it’s not. It maintains course, delivering its gruesome plot and maintaining its fantastic characterisation without compromise all the way through to the end. Fortunately for fans, due to the success of the series, a spinoff was released this year following the descendents of the main characters. Castelvania Nocturne tells its own story, yet maintains the same dark yet engaging style, fantastic character work and beautiful animation as its predecessor. Having spawned two successful Castlevania series, Netflix has done something noteworthy by injecting life into a dying genre. For that, I applaud them.

Vampires used to be terrifying. Once upon a time, vampires were one of the premier fantasy antagonists, terrorizing the pages of gothic horror novels and the silver screen. Unfortunately, due to overexposure and severe watering down in modern media, they have mostly been reduced to playing love interests or generic movie monsters. Most audiences have tired of the vampire trope and have relegated them to the bargain bin alongside other overplayed icons of the genre like zombies and kaiju. But Castlevania proves that even though vampires might never reach their rightful place as the apex predators of the horror food chain again, they still have some fight left in them. If vampires can’t be terrifying, at least they can be awesome.

A Long Time Coming

October 18, 2023 / Mike

Reflections on Writing My First Novel

What’s the longest you’ve spent working towards something you really cared about? For me, it was writing my first complete novel. If you count false starts, abandoned projects and chucking whole notebooks of half-finished manuscripts into the trash, I’ve been trying to finish a novel since I was about fifteen. That makes roughly eighteen years. Almost two decades of rewriting and reworking before I finally completed a start to finish first draft. I’ve burned through innumerable plots and characters, scrapped a dozen ideas that I was ultimately unhappy with. My stories were always too derivative or too complicated, my plots too confusing or too unusual. I knew if I let anyone see my writing I’d be laughed out of the room in a heartbeat. I just didn’t have the talent, plain and simple.

Then again, even when I did manage to write something I could stomach showing another living person, I never actually finished it. Those few first drafts that did show promise were sentenced to live on my desktop in a state of semi-purgatory. For reference, I currently have about twenty unfinished novels and short stories floating around on my harddrive. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll get to some of those some day. But until then those unfinished stories stand as a private monument to the years of unrequited effort I’ve spent grinding away at the empty page. Suffice it to say it was a very long road getting here.

But what took so long? You would think I’d have finished something before now, even if it was by accident. If you give a monkey a typewriter he’ll fix the broken clocks or however that saying goes. Unfortunately, there is no one to blame but myself. I had the time. As the father of two small children I can say with certainty that I had the time before now. I often daydream about slapping my younger self across the face for wasting so much of the stuff now that I’m scraping out my writing in the precious moments when I’m not under the tyranny of my tiny terrors. Despite being at a loss as to how my younger self wasted so many good opportunities to sit down and do the work, if I’m being honest, it just never seemed that pressing.

I always knew I wanted to write. But I also always felt there would be more time for it. I submitted a few articles over the years, but I never really tried. I never committed. Somehow, there was always an excuse. But then, a couple years ago something changed. Around the time my wife and I were expecting our first baby, come to think of it. When you become a parent, you and your spouse talk a lot. We did at least. You talk about the finances and the nursery, schools and hospitals, babysitters and daycares and how the dogs will react when you bring your new screaming bundle of joy home. But you also talk about your plans. Your dreams and your hopes and your goals and the type of parent you want to be.

We talked a lot about encouraging her to follow her dreams. About how we wanted her to be the type of person who never gave up on herself. We talked about being the best versions of ourselves for her. Around that time I remember feeling the looming weight of unfinished projects on my conscience quite a bit. It suddenly seemed like the kind of thing I would have to explain one day. It wasn’t an instant change. It still took me over two years and another kid to finish my first draft. There were still times when that trash can icon seemed more appealing than sitting down to work out the kinks in the latest chapter. But I made it. I know nothing is guaranteed. Maybe I’ll never even get it published. Maybe my first novel will fall flat. But at least I committed. If I can tell my kids I gave it my all, I can live with that.

Reliving Childhood Trauma

October 12, 2023 / Mike

Why You Should Read: Alvin Schwartz

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever read? Stephen King? Dean Koontz? Does Poe keep you up at night? Amateurs, one and all. There is one man standing head and shoulders above the rest. An author so twisted and utterly without regard for his readers mental wellbeing he should have warning labels plastered across all his books. I propose that without doubt the most terrifying author of all time is Mr. Alvin Schwartz. Who the hell is Alvin Schwartz you might ask? The man whose dark mind spawned the most horrifying collection of stories ever aimed at children, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

For anyone who managed to make it through your school’s scholastic book fair without falling prey to this man’s unhinged machinations, rest assured you spared your young minds a lifetime of trauma. Schwartz’s claim to fame involved taking urban legends, short stories and dark folklore and combining them with some of the most truly haunting artwork ever put to page to give birth to the aforementioned series of kids novels. Having read these books in my highly impressionable preteen years, I can confidently say I doubt there is any other author who has pumped more nightmare fuel into the overactive imaginations of children. Some highlights include a housewife embracing cannibalism, an unfortunate bride being locked in a trunk and spiders exploding out of a woman’s face.

To say these books were unsettling is a disservice. They were terrible, disgusting, wretched and completely irresponsible to give to children. They gave me nightmares and haunted my daydreams for years. But maybe that was because I just kept reading them. Something about these books just drew me back again and again, beckoning me with their sirens song. I knew they only led to more misery, yet I couldn’t look away. They touched something inside me, some deep part that liked the fear and the sense of danger. I was hooked.

Apparently, so were lots of kids. The series has collectively sold over seven million copies and appears on numerous children’s bestseller lists. Make no mistake, a quick google search will reveal the many failed attempts by suburbanite parent groups who have campaigned against them over the years. But despite every controversy and criticism, this series of terrifying little books has endured as a cultural phenomenon that is a touchstone for a generation who still remember their traumatic experiences with fondness. It’s almost like a little fear is good for you. Perhaps that’s why the tradition of telling ghost stories around the campfire is still so prevalent. Maybe Schwartz’s devious plot was less to incite fear in the unsuspecting youth and more to capture their attention with something a little outside the typical required reading materials. We may never know unless the man himself returns like one of the horrible characters in his terrible little books.

RIP Mr Schwartz.

Bumbling Into Blogging

October 6, 2023 / Mike

My rambling first post.

Blogging has never been my goal. In fact, it was never even on my radar as an option until very recently. After finishing the first draft of my novel, I found myself staring into the jaws of the great, looming beast that is publishing. Of course, I have my beta readers. I’ve shown my work to my friends and family over the years, but I haven’t published a single written word for the public at large since college. The idea that random people are going to read my work (maybe) is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. As I started working on revisions, I began to wonder how my carefully crafted creation would look to others. These are people I won’t be able to explain things to, people who don’t know me and might not understand my debatable sense of humor or my questionable plot decisions. Sure, I believe in my own work, but would other people? Would any agents be interested, if they were, would any publishers? What about the readers? Would anyone even care enough to give me a shot?

It occurred to me that leaping into this process with no prior experience was probably not the best idea. Therefore, I turned to the one place I knew always had all the answers; the internet. I started researching the publishing process and the industry as a whole, doing exhaustive research into bestselling books and authors, obsessing over things like analytics and sales numbers and genre keywords. Quickly, I tumbled down a rabbit hole that led to a world of seemingly insurmountable challenges and stiflingly soul-crushing statistics. The labyrinthine nature of the book publishing industry was revealed to me as the curtain was drawn harshly back. I felt the crushing weight of the immense task I was attempting settle its bulk on me all at once. I considered giving up. Who needed to be an author anyway? What was the point?

But then I had a thought. I had accomplished massively difficult things before. I had graduated college, gotten a masters degree, made it through the fire academy. Hell, I somehow managed to get my wife to marry me. How had I done those things? The same way I always did when faced with a difficult problem. Break it down into manageable bits. There’s only one way to eat an elephant as they say, one bite at a time. So I started with what I could control. Editing my book. Working on my pitches. Looking for agents. Another thing I realized I could control was get over my apprehension about publishing. I could conquer this particular hill all on my own. How does one do that? By putting themselves out there, preferably over and over again until you numb yourself to the sense of apprehension and fear of rejection.

So here I am, starting a blog. Putting my work out there for everyone to see. Sooner or later I will start submitting my novel to agents, then publishers and hopefully I will eventually get to see it wedged into the shelves of my local bookstore. But until then, I’ll keep working on getting comfortable with writing for an audience. With enough time, I’m sure I’ll start to make some progress on that elephant.

An Ode to The King of Horror

October 4, 2023 / Mike

Why You Should Read: Stephen King

Growing up as the quintessential rebellious kid who railed against anything and everything, from school, to my parents, to the government, of course found nothing but fault in the recommended reading material I was assigned by institutions of higher learning. Every book I was given by my teachers was tainted with the unmistakable scent of self-satisfied institutionalized smugness. These classics, these important pieces of literature, were nothing more than overblown relics of bygone eras, just like my teachers. I wanted to read things that were gritty, cool, unconcerned with appeasing the literary establishment. I found them. Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Keurauc, Palahniuk and Buckowski and others I thought my teachers would not approve of. I devoured these books, carried them around proudly, and, when asked about them, I would discuss the most heinous and controversial parts. I was insufferable, basically.

But through all of this, one author in particular survived the jump from the literary counterculture of my youth to more mainstream maturity of my 20’s as I eventually settled into something resembling a human being. That was the one and only, Stephen King. I first discovered the King of Horror in middle school, far too early for his subject material. But, at the time, reading his books felt like a taboo, like I was getting away with something. So of course I was hooked. I read classics like It, Tommyknockers and Carrie as a preteen, sneaking them out of my dad’s collection and the library like I was smuggling the most illicit of banned materials. As I got older, I took on some of his more ambitious projects like The Dark Tower and The Stand. I found that no matter how old I got or what stage of life I was in, I never ran out of options to return to the well for a taste of that unique blend of storytelling that only King can produce.

People will recommend King for a whole host of reasons. He is, afterall, a massively popular, bestselling author who needs no introduction from the likes of me. His advocates will bring up his groundbreaking ideas, his masterful use of suspense and his genre defining contributions to horror, praise his immersive worlds and the ambitious scope of his interconnected universe. But over the years, what I’ve come to really love about King is his perpetual place as a cultural touchstone. The massive and pervasive body of work he continues to create has developed a sort of timelessness that few other authors have ever enjoyed during their lifetimes. Hell, the man has lived to see adaptation after adaptation of the majority of his books, to the point that classics like It and Pet Semetary have already been remade during his own lifetime. He has reached a level of cultural omnipresence only approached by the likes of comic book heroes and the Simpsons.

After I moved on from the wayward literary ways of my youth, I found King crossed all sorts of social boundaries like few authors could. People from every walk of life adore his monstrous creations, they are the darlings of literary connoisseurs, artists and blue collar workers alike. Whether they read the books or watch the movies, almost everyone has found themselves drawn to something that has spawned from the depths of King’s imagination. I’ve made connections that would never have been possible without being a King fan, discussed books with people who hate reading, connected with people half my age and double it, found ways to bridge cultural divides that seemed like gaping chasms, just by being a fan. Turns out that Jack Torrance and Pennywise terrify millennials and baby boomers alike. No matter where you come from, we all cry for John Coffey and we all cheer for Andy Dufresne. I’m not here to tell you everyone will fall in love with King’s writing style. He’s not for everyone and he definitely has his detractors. There will always be those who shun King for their preconceived perceptions, seeing him as only an author of mass-market shlock and airport bookstore bestsellers. His books are weird and shocking, often challenging and frequently off putting. His style is meandering at times and he has a penchant for frustrating endings. But if you’ve never tried before, you might want to try giving the old wordslinger a shot. Read the books, watch the movies, binge the 6 hour 1994 miniseries of The Stand with national treasure Gary Sinise, whatever suits your taste. Maybe you’ll find a lifelong source of entertainment. Maybe you’ll become a fan like me. Maybe you won’t. But as an icon of American Literature, King refuses to be ignored.