A Far Out Fantastic Site

  Author Shannon Lawrence. (Photo Credit: Shannon Lawrence) Today I have the pleasure of interviewing guest author Shannon Lawrence! Shannon has published stories in more than 50 anthologies and magazines, and in her own collections. She’s a regular contributor to the Insecure Writer's Support Group monthly blog hop with her blog, “The Warrior Muse” , and co-hosts the podcast, "Mystery, Monsters & Mayhem". Shannon has an upcoming horror/dark fantasy novel, "Wendigo Nights", which features a Native American spirit. My own knowledge of the Wendigo myth mostly comes from a story in Alvin Schwartz's "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark", a children’s book of scary folk tales that a movie was based on back in 2019. The story from that book, "The Wendigo", involves an invisible creature that drags its victims until they burn up into ashes. However, Shannon's book features a variant of the mythical creature which she talks about here. So,...

Ever since "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" released last weekend, there’s been a lot of media hype about it being Marvel's “first horror movie”. Well, to those people who have been saying that, I have news: it's not Marvel's first horror movie, 2007’s "Ghost Rider" is. It's not even Marvel's second horror movie if you count the 2011 “Ghost Rider” sequel and 2020’s “The New Mutants”. There’s actually been some debate whether the sequel to 2011’s “Doctor Strange” is horror to begin with.  Do I consider “Doctor Strange 2” a horror film? Well, if it isn’t, it at least comes pretty close to being one. Doctor Strange is a character who already had roots in the horror genre. However, director Sam Raimi adds to the movie’s dark elements with his style of directing, a style that has been influenced by many of H.P. Lovecraft's story concepts. It’s a style that he used in his Lovecraftian horror movies that he was already well known for su...

Credit: Pixabay.com I have some lightning news flashes on the releases, including re-releases, of dark fantasy and horror novels. But first, in case you missed it, my second post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) is up. So you can view it here .   The IWSG is a network of author-bloggers who discuss the challenges of writing and how to deal with them. Even if you aren’t a writer, the posts that IWSG puts out can give you some fascinating insight on what goes into our work. This is especially a plus if you are an avid reader who digs behind-the-scenes! So check it out if you haven’t already. And now for literary lightning news flashes on releases of some dark fantasy and horror novels . . . Pan’s Labyrinth Novel Adaptation The 2006 Oscar-winning film, Pan’s Labyrinth , is being adapted into a novel according to / Film . The film’s director, Guillermo del Toro (the Hellboy movies) is collaborating with best-selling author Corne...

Credit: Wizard World I apologise for missing last week’s post. I was busy with a special writing project that was due any day and so I didn’t have time to post anything except to my Facebook page. You can visit my Facebook page for any updates in between blog posts.  I promised you a fuller report of Wizard World Comic Con Sacramento in my last post and so that’s what I have here for you today. However, I don’t have enough time to go over all three days of the con in one post, so I’m going to break up the coverage into three parts. The con offered a lot of great events such as cosplays and panels on comic book creation, including art and writing. I’m not a costumer but I just dug seeing the people who are and that go way, way out with their apparel! And that’s a great thing. To see what I mean, check out the photos in my last post if you haven’t done so yet.  But my favourite part about sci fi and fantasy conventions is talking to the other artists an...

 Warning:  This post may contain content or links to content considered to be obscene/objectionable by some viewers. I know I said I would try to have a review of Sleepy Hollow for you last time, but I haven't gotten a chance to write it. I wanted to watch the second episode first and, like the first one, I taped it but haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet. I'd like to talk about where the series seems to be going and in order to do that I feel that it's best to watch at least one episode beyond that of the debut. So I'll have a review of it here next week. The good news is that for those of you who are like me and prefer the full reading experience by turning real pages in a bound book, the print version of Fool's Illusion is now available at Amazon . In fact, I updated my promotional bookmarks for its print release today and will have several of them at tomorrow's Super Sac-Con . So if you're in the area you might want to consider drop...

  Warning:  This post may contain content or links to content considered to be obscene/objectionable by some viewers. The Fool's Illusion is finally here! It is in digital format, and so you can get it on Kindle for free until 11:59 tonight (Pacific Standard Time) only! That is that it will be available for free until one minute before the witching hour (midnight) tonight, after that it turns back into a rott'in money-costing jack-o-lantern. (Okay, so money's not all that rotten, but we can all use free stuff, right?) So get your free e-copy of The Fool's Illusion now! Speaking about rott'in jack-o-lanterns, I just saw the debut episode of Fox's  Sleepy Hollow last night. (I taped it on good ol' fashioned video tape because your busy author doesn't have time to watch it in real time.) I was paradoxically impressed. Kind of like I was with Abrams' Star Trek , which in fact one of the writers for his Star Trek , Roberto Orci, is...

Here's my final concept sketch of the cover illustration for The Fool's Illusion with the lettering. Thanks to those people who gave me their feedback so far, much of it very positive (including Facebook likes). Feel free to give me feedback on this finished version in the comments box below. Again, never mind the Linux Penguin in the background, that's Larry Ewing's that accidently got in there. (Please see last week's post .) I'm aware of the title coming too close to the right edge. I will center it correctly on the final drawing, of course. I may move the byline (my name) closer to the title since it appears to be too isolated from it. Because the title looks to be drowned out a little by the illustration, I may enlarge it or may move it closer to the illustration. Again, please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments box. Please include any of your own personal suggestions you may have. It doesn't mean I'll use them, but I would...

Photo Credit: Alan Light/Wikimedia Commons  It's been a sad week for many of us sci fi/fantasy fans since one of the greatest writers ever in the two genres passed away this past Tuesday--Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury was one of the first science fiction writers who I seriously read. The very first novel by him that I purchased and read was The Martian Chronicles when I was a senior in high school. From then on I was hooked. I've read and collected nearly all his books of fiction and although I haven't read as much of his nonfiction books, the few that I did are totally awsome! Other fiction of his that I've read have been, Fahrenheit 451 , the second book that I read, and The Toynbee Convector which I bought the summer immediately after my high school graduation and just before I entered my freshman year of college. Later I collected and read The October Country , a collection of his dark fiction, his dark fantasy novel Something Wicked This Way Comes , The Illu...

Warning:  This post may contain content or links to content considered to be obscene by some viewers. Hello, everybody! At the poll for the lettering style for my upcoming short fiction collection, The Fool's Illusion , it looks like "Twisted Roman" won by 4 to 0 votes!  So "Twisted Roman" style it will be for the title on the cover.  "Twisted Roman" style lettering for The Fool's Illusion book cover title Thank you all for voting.  It helps me determine which will be the more efficient lettering style for you readers and lovers of books out there.  I don't want to just make myself happy with massive sales, but I want to make you readers (and you know who you are) happy with your reading experience and that includes the cover of the book when and if (which I hope many of you will!) you select my book to purchase.  Do you want an idea of what my book will cover (e.g. themes, genres and subgenres)?  Then the links below may inter...

I said several weeks ago that I would post the cover illustration for my book of short fiction that I plan to release in April. Well, I haven't got the cover illustration done yet because I haven't got the lettering for the book's title,  The Fool's Illusion , on the illustration yet. But I do have two sketches of the letter design for the the title which are posted below. Take a look at them and then vote for your favorite at the poll provided in the top right margin. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to finish the lettering for the full title in the second sketch, but hopefully you'll have an idea for the style that I'm using on that one which is '70s psychedelic ("illusion" and "hallucination" come pretty close to being synonymous although they are not). Just so you can fit the letter styles into context a little better, you can read about my upcoming book and an excerpt from the title story at HorrorAddicts .com. Vote soon...

Warning: Contains material that some readers may consider offensive and/or objectionable. Hey, everybody! I told you I would have Part Two to my short story that I posted for you the last time and so I do! I hope you're enjoying it. If you missed that one, you can read it here . If you want to read more of my short fiction I may be posting some in a blog at HorrorAddicts.net 's very first online horror con which will occur in November. I'll try to update you on this con as much as possible, but you can also go to HorrorAddicts.net yourself for updates if you'd like. And while you're at it, you may as well read some of the interesting blog entries by other bloggers there who have a lot of neat things to say about the dark genres of literature, film, television, music and in some cases even video games! Speaking about video games, there are also a few music videos there. Many of these are of music genres such as dark alternative rock, goth metal, and even some horror...

Well, everybody, finally it's all taken care of. I finally got the software reinstalled that I needed along with some compatibility software that was required in order to post the final part to my short story. I know many of you waited for this for a long time, and I apologise for the long delay. But since I'm back on track pretty much, I'll have a new blog entry here each Wednesday again, occasionally others on additional days of the week. You may want to skim through the two earlier parts of the story, Parts I and II , so you can fit this final installment into context better and more easily. As I said, it's been a long time. Until next week . . . The Puppet Show (Part III) by Steven Rose, Jr. # The wind never came back. There was no moon nor any stars that night. None of the lights in Woodvale ever came on. While Manuel wandered blindly throughout the blackness of the town hoping to run into a relative or acquaintance (but never even running into a stranger), he sli...

I want to apologize once again for this late posting of the second part to my story. It was supposed to have posted yesterday on top of already posting late. I actually did set it to post and the program indicated that it was up on the blog displaying to the public. However, as I said, I've been having problems with my laptop. But I think the real problem may be with extra online traffic due to holiday online shoppers. And I don't blame anybody who shops online when you can buy things at much lower prices than in the actual stores; the recession may be declining but, unfortunately, many of us are still feeling the after effects of it. Hopefully that will all change soon. Hope is an essential theme this time of year and so that's what we have to remember to do, is hope for the best. But here is part two of my short story, "The Puppet Show". The final part will come next week, and unless there will be a problem with New Year's Eve online traffic or such, ...