REVIEW: Mark Matthews - All Smoke Rises: Milk-Blood Redux

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Wicked Run Press

Publication Date: 8^th Feb 2016

Pages: 151

MY REVIEW:

A copy of All Smoke Rises: Milk Blood Redux was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author, Mark Matthews, in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This book is published by Wicked Run Press.

I have only read one other thing by Mark Matthews. It was the first part to this story, Milk-Blood. I found it harrowing and disturbing to say the least and to be honest, had no idea what to write in the review for it and sat staring at a blank screen for ages before it came to me. Mark contacted me to see if I fancied a go at the sequel. I thought this was incredibly brave of him to do considering my last review was a bit odd.

It wasn’t a scathing negative review but after just reading it back, it didn’t make much sense either. You can read the review here. Offering me a second pop at his work wasn’t an opening I was expecting so how could I refuse?

Let’s see what I thought of this one.

Lilly’s story has been told in Milk-Blood. But is it just a story. The person who wrote it has just broken into your house and left Lilly’s body in your kitchen along with the manuscript for the story.

You must read it and decide for yourself what needs to be done with Lilly’s body.

Like many of the decisions made for Lilly during her life, this is one you cannot take lightly.

OK. This review is going to be a bit different. I think I said that at the start of the review of book one. I’m not going to give you characters. There are quite a few involved in this story but to give you any insight to their make-up would give you some sort of feel for them and I do not want to do that. I’m not going to give you the plot. Trying to do that in a review would be both confusing and, well, to be honest, bad of me to try and do because the execution of the story in this one is like nothing else I have ever read.

So what can I tell you? Well the first thing that I should highlight to you is that this story is probably one of, if not themost harrowing, horrific and thought provoking urban horror stories you will ever read. For so many different reasons.

This isn’t a monster horror story. Well, not in the thing from the swamp style anyway. I suppose it shows the monsters that are inside all of us off to perfection. It’s not a slasher horror story. Well, not in a Jason or Freddy style but again it does show what some people are capable of doing with a weapon in their hand. It’s not a jump out of your seat horror story. Well, not in a BOO sort of way but again you will jump out of your seat and squirm in it quite a lot at some of the sickening goings on in it.

Can you see where I’m going with this? It is all of the above rolled into a story with only human characters in it, caught up in a world of drug abuse and all the other bad things that go along with it. Health issues. Wealth issues. Mental health issues. The list goes on.

This story will certainly pull at your heart strings. Some of it you may think, I’m not sure that would actually happen, but Mr Matthews has worked in this area for a number of years and should know his stuff. Some of it you may think is, a bit unnecessary. It can be graphic at times and a bit sickening. Horror fans like gore and blood and guts but when it is presented to you in such a realistic way then, that’s when it seems more real and in your face. That’s when you think to yourself, hang on a minute, this is bloody scary stuff.

This story is written in such a way that it could be one hundred percent true. It could be one person’s memory of actual events. That is how it is supposed to come across and believe me, it does. It does switch between characters telling different parts at different times and a couple of those times I got a bit confused as to who said what, but thankfully it didn’t spoil anything for me.

I don’t know what else to say about this story. If you like horror you will like this book. It will probably prove to be scarier than most things you have ever read in the genre. Purely and simply because it could be real.

Mark Matthews completely sucks you into the world he is writing about. You can almost touch it. You can almost taste it. You can most definitely smell it. This is writing of the highest quality. To make you totally lose yourself in a story as dark as this and believe every word of it is no mean feat.

I think I get this world he lives in now. I certainly understand it a little bit better.

It scares the hell out of me though!

To summarise: Urban horror at the top of its game. Brutal and graphic at times, this is definitely not for the feint hearted. As with Milk-Blood, All Smoke Riseswill stay with me for a very long time.

General rating:

★★★★★ deserves no less.

Horror rating:

★★★★★ horrific.

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy All Smoke Rises or any other books from Mark. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Book Synopsis:

Ten-year-old Lilly is the victim of a terrible house fire and a wretched family. Her father is an addict with mental illness, her mother was murdered and then buried across the street, and her uncle got her addicted to heroin.

Lilly’s tragic story has been told in the book ALL SMOKE RISES, and it may be true, for the author has broken into your house, and placed Lilly's body on your kitchen counter. He demands you read the manuscript, before cutting his own wrists and bleeding out on your floor.

Now you have decisions to make, for Lilly's body may not be dead, and her family is coming for her.

Mark Matthews has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Michigan, and is a licensed professional counselor who has worked in mental health and substance abuse treatment for over 20 years. His novel MILK-BLOOD, along with its companion short story, The Damage Done, have been optioned for a full length feature film. ALL SMOKE RISES: MILK-BLOOD REDUX is the sequel and will be available in February of 2016.

He is the author of On the Lips of Children, from Books of the Dead Press, which was nominated as a semi-finalist for the 2014 Best Kindle Book Awards. Matthews has run 13 marathons, and has two running based books, The Jade Rabbit and Chasing the Dragon, also available on amazon. He lives near Detroit with his wife and two daughters. All of his books are based on true settings.

And for more about Mark, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page

SHOW-OFF AND TELL #26 - John Connolly - Signed Stuff

#26 in the Show-Off and Tell feature is one that is a little bit different. It’s a couple of signed invites from John Connolly. There is a bit of a story behind this one.

It was April 2014 and the new John Connolly book was due out. He was doing a book signing, in my current home town of Newcastle. This would be the first opportunity I would have to meet the man himself, so decided to go along.

I decided to take along my then bolshie thirteen-year-old son, really just to give him something to do on a dreary Saturday afternoon.

When we got to Waterstones where the signing was taking place, I was a bundle of nerves. I was actually going to be in the same room as one of my absolute heroes, and I couldn’t cope. My son was very nonplussed at this and extremely embarrassed. The lady from Waterstones was getting everyone in the queue for the signing. She came to us and asked where my book was. I apologised and said I didn’t have one. She told me I would have to leave if I didn’t buy the book to get signed.

I had no money on me, and no bank cards or credit cards to pay for the book. I looked at my son and he was gutted, for me. He could see the tears welling in my eyes at the fact my chance of meeting my hero had gone.

We left Waterstones and went across the road for a coffee. I at least had some cash to treat him to a Starbucks, just not a book for my hero to sign for me.

I sent a text to my wife to tell her what had happened and her being her, got straight on to John’s publicist to see if they could sort something. She was in America and could do nothing but tell us to go back and try again. I didn’t have the heart. I was gutted and embarrassed and just wanted to go home and lie down in a darkened room.

As we left the Starbucks, my bolshie thirteen-year-old son veered off in the direction of Waterstones again. I was shouting over to him to come with me back to the car so we could just go home. He completely ignored me and kept walking to the shop. He disappeared inside the shop and then came out two minutes later waving at me to come forward.

When I walked over to the shop door, there was Mr Connolly, standing just inside, with the lady who had told me to leave. There was no one else there and it looked like he was getting ready to leave. My son gave me some weird hand signals that I couldn’t really understand and then I saw him make his way towards the nasty lady that threw us out. He was asking her if she could tell him if they had a book he wanted. It was something he had completely made up so she didn’t know and would have to go look it up on the computer. She excused herself from John, and my son turned and gave me a wink. He distracted her and I went in for the kill.

It turned out that Mr Connolly, or John as I like to call him, was an absolute gentleman. When I started to speak to him, my mouth went totally dry and the sweat was running down my back. I couldn’t string two words together. As there was no one else in the shop we started to chat. And we chatted. And we chatted some more. With us both being from Ireland, we got to talking about the old homeland and the differences between there and where we were. We spoke about books. I asked him what was going to happen with Charlie Parker and he told me feck off. No, seriously, he did. He wouldn’t give anything away at all.

We spoke for about twenty-five minutes about all sorts of rubbish before he politely told me he had to go to catch a train. Because I didn’t have the money to buy the book I asked him if he would sign something for me. He straight away grabbed a flyer.

This is it:

Shortly after that, my bolshie son and the exasperated lady that originally threw us out came along, and she finally twigged at what was going on. By this stage there was nothing she could do really so I just blew her a raspberry.

But John was not done. He started a conversation with my son Alex then, asking if he had read his books for kids about Samuel Johnson. Alex rather shyly told him no but he would certainly read them if I got them for him. John thought this was a great idea, went into his bag and pulled out a load of badges and gave them to Alex. He then told him the next time he met him, he would check if he had read the books and signed this for him. I think he meant it when he said he would check.

One more momentous thing happened that day. We got our picture taken with him. Can you guess who had to take the picture?

Yeah, the nasty bitch that threw us out!

John Connolly was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1968 and has, at various points in his life, worked as a journalist, a barman, a local government official, a waiter and a dogsbody at Harrods department store in London. He studied English in Trinity College, Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University, subsequently spending five years working as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper, to which he continues to contribute.

His first novel, Every Dead Thing, was published in 1999, and introduced the character of Charlie Parker, a former policeman hunting the killer of his wife and daughter. Dark Hollow followed in 2000. The third Parker novel, The Killing Kind, was published in 2001, with The White Road following in 2002. In 2003, John published his fifth novel—and first stand-alone book—Bad Men. In 2004, Nocturnes, a collection of novellas and short stories, was added to the list, and 2005 marked the publication of the fifth Charlie Parker novel, The Black Angel. John's seventh novel, The Book of Lost Things, a story about fairy stories and the power that books have to shape our world and our imaginations, was published in September 2006, followed by the next Parker novel, The Unquiet, in 2007, The Reapers, in 2008 The Lovers, in 2009, and The Whisperers, the ninth Charlie Parker novel, in 2010. The tenth Charlie Parker novel, The Burning Soul, was published in 2011, to be followed in 2012 by The Wrath of Angels. The Wolf in Winter, the twelfth Parker novel, was published in April 2014 in the UK and in October 2014 in the US. 2015 saw the publication of A Song of Shadows, the 13th Parker novel, and Night Music: Nocturnes Volume 2, the second collection of short stories. The 14th Parker novel, A Time of Torment, will be published in April 2016 in the UK and in July 2016 in the US.

In 2009, John published The Gates, his first novel for young adults. A sequel was published in 2011 as Hell's Bells in the UK and The Infernals in the United States; the third in the Samuel Johnson trilogy, The Creeps, was published in 2013 in the UK and in 2014 in the US. DreamWorks Studios acquired the Samuel Johnson trilogy in 2015 for development as a possible franchise.

Books to Die For, a nonfiction anthology co-edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke, won the 2013 Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards for Best Critical/Biographical Book of the year.

With his partner, Jennifer Ridyard, John published Conquest, the first book in the Chronicles of the Invaders series for teenaged readers, in 2013. The second book in that series, Empire, followed in 2015, and the third, Dominion, will be out in February 2016 in the UK and in May 2016 in the US.

John Connolly is based in Dublin but divides his time between his native city and the United States, where the Charlie Parker mysteries are set.

And for more about John, visit his site, or find him on social media:

Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads - Amazon Page

REVIEW: Ray Garton - Vortex

Genre: Horror

Publisher: RGB Publishing

Publication Date: 13^th March 2016

Pages: 114

MY REVIEW:

A copy of Vortex,was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author, Ray Garton, in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This book is published by RGB Publishing.

Someone tipped me off to this story coming on Facebook and to the fact that Mr Garton was looking for some reviewers to pick this up and give it a little whirl. I have read a couple of other things from Ray Garton. His short story, The Guy Down the Street in Widowmakers, and A Flat and Dreary Monday Night in Cut Corners Volume 2, (review here) from Sinister Grin Press.

I absolutely loved them so jumped at the chance of reading Vortex. This book was originally published 2014 by Cemetery Dance in a limited edition and has just become available on EBook. Judge for yourself from the review whether you should pick it up or not.

Karen and Gavin are private investigators. They are hired by famous horror author, Martin Burgess to have a look around Mt Shasta. A mysterious mountain surrounded by stories of all things spiritual and even some evil. There is supposed to be an ancient race living underground.

It all sounds like rubbish but Martin has money to burn and Karen and Gavin want to earn it.

When they actually do discover some strange goings on, they soon come to realise that maybe all the money in the world isn’t worth it after all.

Maybe someone does live under the mountain.

Right, let’s talk characters. Main ones would be Karen and Gavin. Two private investigators that met after being brought together by Burgess. They live far apart and only work together when Burgess has a job for them. They secretly have a thing for each other but it never develops. They are really good at their job. You only see them for a while in this novella but you instantly like them. They are hardworking, smart and seem to have a lot of hidden talents still to be revealed.

Burgess himself seems a likeable fella. A successful author with money to burn, he seems to like getting involved in mysteries and trying to dig out the truth. Crystal is his girlfriend. At first you would think she was in it for the money but she seems ok. Gertie and Penny and Pyk are all other mainish characters but to tell you about them would give things away and as always I’m not prepared to do that. Same goes for the characters on the evil side. You just have to read and learn.

The plot? It’s old skool. A mysterious mountain with mysterious goings on that are all kept secret. People disappearing. People becoming rich for no reason. Strange vehicles in and out of town. Everyone turning a blind eye. This has all the ingredients for an old time sci-fi horror film of times gone by. It has a certain atmosphere about it that gives you a wonderful picture in your imagination. I’m thinking War of the Worlds, (the original 1953 version, not that Tom Cruise rubbish), I’m thinking Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’m thinking Twilight Zone. I could go on and on but this is the fantastic atmosphere you can expect from this story.

Although not what I would call original in its style, it is just superb. Ray Garton has written this book in such a way that the story, as well as being a horror, is exciting. It’s exhilarating and full of tension. It’s very fast paced, packing a lot into the story in a short time. You get to know the characters so well by a quarter way through the book. In a novella this is some going. You know exactly who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Nothing complicated at all.

Just good clean fun and scares.

At this point I am not aware whether the characters of Karen and Gavin have featured in other stories, or are likely to in the future. I sincerely hope they have and will be. They are brilliant, and I get the impression that Mr Garton would have a box full of stories and adventures for them.

Loved it, loved it, loved it.

To summarise: grab some snacks, a couple of drinks, lock the door and close the blinds. When you start to read this little sci-fi horror mystery, you will not want to be disturbed.

Highest Possible Recommendation.

General rating:

★★★★★ couldn't give any less!

Horror rating:

★★★★★ and again!

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy Vortex or any other books from Ray. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Book Synopsis:

Karen Moffett and Gavin Keoph have investigated vampires in Los Angeles in Night Life and werewolves on the northern California coast in Bestial, but this time they face something utterly baffling . . . and deadly.

Blockbuster horror novelist Martin Burgess has money to burn and enjoys spending it to find out if the paranormal things he writes about are real. He hires Moffett and Keoph again and sends them to California’s Mt. Shasta. Long believed by spiritual seekers and New Agers to be a “vortex” of magnetic and spiritual energies, Mt. Shasta is a mystical locale, allegedly the site of alien visitations, paranormal apparitions, bizarre physical phenomena, and even Lemurians, an ancient race of little people from Atlantis believed to be living inside the mountain.

Strange things are happening in the small town at the foot of the mountain, things that have remained invisible to most, but not all, of the residents — things that have caught the attention of Martin Burgess and his small army of computer geeks and conspiracy theorists.

Skeptical of the New Age mumbo-jumbo, Moffett and Keoph encounter an extraordinary, hungry creature that is being used to malevolent ends by a powerful and cruel enemy. Uncovering the mysterious secret in Mt. Shasta is one thing — staying alive long enough to share it with anyone is another.

Ray Garton is the author of several books, including horror novels such as LIVE GIRLS (which has a movie in the works), CRUCIFAX, E4 AUTUMN, and THE FOLKS; thrillers like TRADE SECRETS and SHACKLED; and numerous short stories and novellas. He's also written a number of movie and television tie-ins for young readers. He lives with his wife, Dawn, in California.

Since I was eight years old, all I've wanted to be was a writer, and since 1984, I have been fortunate enough to spend my life writing full time. I've written over 60 books -- novels and novellas in the horror and suspense genres, collections of short stories, movie novelizations and TV tie-ins -- with more in the works. 

My readers have made it possible for me to indulge my love of writing and I get a tremendous amount of joy out of communicating with them, which I've been able to do on various social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.

And for more about Ray, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Confessions is on holiday but will be back

Tuesday 29th March!!

COVER REVEAL: Motorman - Robert E. Dunn

One of the many things that I love about having Confessions of a Reviewer is getting the opportunity to meet and interact with new people in the writing world.

This happened very recently when I made a new acquaintance in writer, Robert E. Dunn. Now, I am sorry to admit, I didn’t know much about Robert before we virtually met but things have changed quite dramatically in that department over this past few months.

Robert has been a tireless supporter of Confessions, retweeting every single one of my Tweets on Twitter and sharing all the posts on Facebook. For this, I thank you sir. Support like yours means a lot to me.

So, time to give something back? Well, yeah, but I don’t really think of this as giving something back to Robert. I feel like he is giving to Confessions once again.

He asked if I would like to involved in the cover reveal for his new novella coming out in May. He won the stupid question of the day award that day.

So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you the cover for the new novella from Robert E. Dunn, Motorman.

I have to admit to falling in love with this cover the very first time I opened the picture that was sent to me. The artwork is fantastic.

If you want to know more about the artist, Erik Wilson you can find him here:

Erik Wilson

This new novella will be released on 21^stMay by Necro Publications so make sure you note that in your diary. I will hopefully have a review up around that time as well but watch out for more details coming on a book tour.

Book Synopsis:

MOTORMAN is a fun and gruesome little novella. Think of it as a Frankenstein story with V8 power. Then add aliens and a few murders.

After running from some terrible actions that left his junkyard home destroyed and two people dead, Johnny Burris ends up in the Ozark hills looking for refuge. When mysterious, blue glowing objects in the night sky lead him into a community of automotive obsessed misfits, he thinks he's found home. In the little bit of nowhere, Missouri, the cars are all chromed and the engines built to race. So are the people.

Johnny slowly discovers that everyone in his new home has been altered with machine parts and the energy of the flying blue streaks that led him there. When it becomes clear that he is being groomed to become the new Dr./mechanic to the community, Johnny rebels and tries to run taking the one, unaltered girl with him. But the people, and the girl, turn out to be even more than he imagined. When he crashes in his escape, he becomes one of them by being bonded with a 1969 Camaro. The constant hum of the engine is the only thing that keeps him alive. His whole world becomes the one choice, live as a monster, making monsters, or die like a man. If he chooses to die, who will he take with him?

Robert Dunn (1960) was an Army brat born in Alabama and finally settled in Nixa, Missouri. A graduate of Drury College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications/Film he also earned a second major in Philosophy with a minor in Religion and carried an emphasis in Theatre. This course of study left him qualified only to be a televangelist.

An award winning film/video producer and writer, he has written scripts for or directed every kind of production from local 30-second television commercial spots to documentary productions and travelogues.

A writer of blognovels and contributor to various fiction websites his work has also included the book length prose poem, Uncle Sam, the collection of short stories, Motorman and Other Stories and novel, Behind the Darkness.

Mr. Dunn now resides in Kansas City where he continues to write genre fiction and experiment with mixed media art projects using hand drawn and painted elements combined through digital paint and compositing.

And for more about Robert, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page

Reading Issues

The editor of Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly got confused last month and pulled an article from the blog (instead of the cloud folder I created for him) and published Being Customer Hostile in the March issue of MMM. For starters, this was a pretty old essay (2007), written after the disappointing turnout for the last World Round in Duluth. The month after MMM's editor pulled this one from the blog to use in my monthly "Geezer with A Grudge" column, Victor Wanchena (MMM's publisher" wrote this in his own magazine:

Letter From A Reader
Dear MMM, 

 I read Thomas Day's Geezer with a Grudge column "Being Customer Hostile" last month and was surprised by his lack of understanding of the sport of Observed Trials. For someone as "experienced" as Thomas his whining about having to walk to a section, read a map, or needing to have a basic understanding of the competition he was watching was both funny (in a sad way) and another example of his apparently faltering mind. 

In previous columns Thomas has bemoaned the laziness of the American rider, but now the one time he's asked to walk as a spectator he is outraged. He thinks the rules and set up of the events is designed to make it intentionally difficult for spectators but offers no evidence of that other than his poor understanding of the sport. And then he decends into one complaing after another for some undecipherable reason. His sweeping generazations about the sport, the riders, and the spectators only reveals his ignorance. 

 I ask the question, why is Thomas really mad at Trials. Is he intimidated by a sport he isn't competing in? Is he looking to pick a fight with the most obscure group of riders he can find so he can act tough, but doesn't get buried in hate male? Or is he just trolling becauses he knows the publisher of MMM is a long time trials rider" 

Victor Wanchena 
Concerned Reader

So, I wrote back:


Dude, 

 There must be something about the work you do that makes you read between the lines and misinterpret. Bruce snagged that one from my blog , which is where all of my slag stuff (and previously published stuff) goes. I'd written that bit about trials not long after the last world round in Duluth and I was really disappointed, again, at the lousy turnout and general level of confusion spectators experienced. I hadn't looked at that one since I wrote it and scheduled it, about 5 years in advance, for the blog. I have no idea why Bruce went to the blog for material. I have a slush pile of stuff specifically written in MMM on the Dropbox folder. It's nothing new, of course. In the US, observed trials can't draw flies and some of that is due to the fact that promoters, participants, and other so-called "interested parties" don't seem to give much attention to spectators, especially non-off road savy spectators.

Here's what I wrote about my experience, "I walked by more than a few frustrated spectators on the Saturday event who were patiently waiting for riders who wouldn’t come for another 24 hours. When I mentioned them to one of the checkers, he muttered something about 'fuckin’ rubes' and went back to examining his navel until the first batch of riders arrived. When I walked my dog back to the stranded spectators and told them the real section was just a couple hundred yards down the trail, they decided it would be more productive to head back to the Aerostich rally and watch a few of the presentations in the air conditioned chalet. To be honest, I had some of the same inclinations after waiting for an hour and a half for the expert and pro riders to get to sections 4 & 5. I’ve been putting up with the rock and roll star character of observed trials for 40 years and the prim donna attitude toward spectators still gets to me. (Just like waiting until 9:15 for an 8:00 show to start will remind me of why I rarely spend much money to watch a rock show in my impatient old age.)"

If that reads to you like "the one time he's asked to walk as a spectator he is outraged," I'm not going to expect you to get me at all when I'm really outraged. I was walking and riding sections when you still assumed "trials" were what put people in jail. Hell, you might have still been in diapers in 1974, when I bought my first official trials bike. At that particular event, I was lugging 40 pounds of HiDef video camera and audio recording gear with me. That won't happen again. Any day now, walking will become something I don't much because with a fake hip and another going away, a bum foot, one heart attack in the bag and lousy genetics putting more in my future, and my 70th birthday on the horizon, don't expect big miles out of me ever again. I quit backpacking, permanently, three years ago and we'll see if tent camping is still something I do this year. I don't write between the lines, so anything you think is implied in my words is self-generated. Personally, I'd have been more outraged at the attitude of the civil-servant-attituded checker who didn't give a shit that spectators couldn't figure out how to see anything but the B-team. I don't know if you paid any attention to that last world round, but it was a big money loser for the organization.

Some of the inspiration for that essay came from a video taped interview I did with Martin Belair a couple of years after Honda had withdrawn his Honda Montesa trials distributorship. I learned more about the US trials disorganization in that interview than I wanted to know. Not long after that, he left trials, supposedly, for good and asked if I'd take down the MMM interview from both my blog and MMM's site (I didn't) and that I not air his portion of the trials Motorcycling Minnesota program I was editing (I decided to can the project). In case you're still confused, I had no problem reading the map, figuring out the rules (that the observers too often ignore), or sorting out the schedule but I couldn't figure out from your "sweeping generalizations" about my essay what the hell you were talkiing about. I can not figure out why you would pretend to be a "Concerned Reader" and not actually read the magazine you own. Could it be a "faltering mind" issue?

I went to every US and World event in Duluth and when I lived in California and Colorado I saw another couple of world rounds and several US rounds. Back in the 70's I had the world's worst trials bike, a Suzuki RL250, and I was an active member of the MWTA for several years. I love the sport, but the difference between a US event and a rest-of-the-world event is night and day. Being pissed off at spectators who can't figure out the maze of weirdness that is characteristic of our events probably won't fix much of that.

Thomas Day
Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly Magazine
The Rider's Digest Magazine
http://geezerwithagrudge.com
thomas@motorbyte.com

Could be my last MMM article, but at my age I'm experiencing a whole lot of "lasts" this year. Every year, I think a little more about what sort of convertible I'll buy when the motorcycles are gone and I have extra garage space. Weirdly, between the MMM and Rider's Digest backlog and the dozens of weird things I've still got in the queue, I'll be posting stuff on this blog until late 2017 if I kick the bucket tomorrow.

Victor has done a weird disconnected rant about one of my articles he's picked for publication before, so maybe we've about run our course for this Geezer thing in MMM. It's been a good run, since my first article What Are We Riding For? in October of 1999. The last time he threatened to tear up my yard with his blimpmobile KTM for some damn misreading of my column. It's getting a little weird and life is weird enough without searching for it.

Likewise, this might be my last year teaching MSF classes, after last year's fascia plantar fiasco that cost me about 3/4 of my planned teaching season. The foot is better, but it's not back anywhere near good and I have no expectations that it will be ever again. My patience with the whole teaching thing is waning and pain isn't helping things. This year, I've booked 4 classes instead of my usual 16-20. We'll see if I can get through that few.

One one of the above-50F weekend days this month, I went to the Red Wing MSF range and ran through the exercises a few times. I was ok, not great but competent. The practice gave me some time to think about what would make me quit riding. Or, more to the point, a decent, reasonably safe, measure with which I can use to decide it's tine to quit. The day I flub one of the exercises in the Basic Rider Course is the day I give it up. The BRC and the state's motorcycle exam are so far from the benchmark of rider competence that those tests and exercises should be used as an absolute dead minimum cutoff for riding. If I struggle with those minimal skill requirements, I'm not competent to ride on the streets. Your mileage may vary, but mine won't.

The MMM version of the article is here, http://mnmotorcycle.com/march-2016-geezer-with-a-grudge-being-customer-hostile/. Maybe Victor's just fishing for comments?

SHOW-OFF AND TELL #25 - J.R. Park - Upon Waking

#25, can you believe we have reached the quarter century already?

This week’s big show-off is a book I read recently that still brings tears to my eyes. Upon Waking by Justin Park.

This was my first foray into the writing world of Mr Park. I had sampled his wares, so to speak, as one third of the wonderful Sinister Horror Company, with the production of such beauties as, The Black Room Manuscripts: Vol 1. If you like anthologies, this is one for you. Super stories and all proceeds go to charity

Also watch out for Vol 2coming soon with another fantastic line up.

So, back to Upon Waking. Why did it bring tears to my eyes?

Number one was this beautiful hard backed copy that appeared out of nowhere. I was so grateful to Justin for this one.

This is my copy:

Number two reason for bringing tears to my eyes was the story itself. You can read my review via the links at the bottom of the page but be prepared. Mr Park demonstrates that even though he is a really decent chap, when he writes stuff, he is one of the sickest individuals I know of.

Pain. Pain is why you will have tears in your eyes when you read it.

To read my review of The Black Room Manuscripts: Vol 1 see here.

To read my review of Upon Waking, see here.

To buy Upon Waking, visit here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

J. R. Park is a writer of Horror Fiction based in Bristol, UK.

Regularly citing Guy N Smith as an influence and inspiration, it was an interview with the said author in Darkside Magazine that was the catalyst for Park to begin his career in literature.

He writes his books as if they were video nasties beamed straight from the golden era of exploitation cinema.

And for more about Justin, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page

REVIEW: Kyle M. Scott - Consumed Volume 2: A Horror Anthology

Genre: Horror / Collection

Publisher: Kyle M. Scott

Publication Date: 28^th Nov 2015

Pages: 163

MY REVIEW:

A copy of Consumed Volume 2: A Horror Anthology was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author, Kyle M. Scott, in exchange for an honest review. This is said review.

Kyle M. Scott is another name I have seen around a lot but never read. It wasn’t until this anthology was sent to me that I realised I already have another title featuring him on my Kindle. The nature of an ever growing to be read pile is that, sometimes, you never know who you have and who you don’t have.

After discovering the other title and who else was involved in it, I had a little bit more interest in this one. You know what it’s like when you read someone new. A little bit of trepidation when you step into the unknown realms of reading someone you are not familiar with, and know not what to expect.

As I always say though, a short story collection is a great way to pick up a feel for the way someone writes.

Here goes!

STRIPPERS

Kris and Lee are currently sitting enjoying a mixture of drugs and drink. It seems to be their entertainment of choice. Lee suggests going to a strip club but Kris is not really interested, until Lee reiterates the tickets are for a one off show with beautiful women never to be seen again. Plus, the genius who supplied the first class weed they were smoking also supplied the tickets.

Kris agrees to go and they set off for the once in a lifetime show. It could turn out to be the end of their lifetime.

I don’t know what I was expecting from a story entitled Strippers. I got some of what I was expecting. Strippers. Strippers with a difference though.

This is horrific. What a way to open a collection. If ever you wanted a horror story with blood and literal guts, then this is it.

I like Mr Scott’s writing style a lot. Blunt and almost blasé, he doesn’t mince around with his words. Straight to the point and graphic. Sometimes a little too graphic for my liking but good all the same.

Looking forward to the rest of this collection now.

★★★★ for general.

★★★★★ for horror.

ROOM 7

Edward Slater owns a hotel. He prides himself on accepting all manner of guests, from Senators to virtual street bums. When Curt and Sheila arrive demanding sleep after a long journey, Edward takes them under his wing and promises them a night of exquisite sleeping pleasure in his best room. Room 7.

They should have kept driving.

And again this is totally not what I was expecting in this story. This all started as a nice story about an attentive, if a bit eccentric, host, doing his best to make sure his guests feel like kings and queens when they check in. All to be twisted on its head in both the most bizarre and brutal ways imaginable.

I am slowly starting to realise that I should expect nothing but the bloodiest of words to literally flow across the page from Mr Scott.

He has a definite knack for taking the most unassuming people and turning them into absolute monsters.

★★★★ for general.

★★★★ for horror.

MR MOUSTACHE

Butch is a man’s man. Butch by name, butch by nature. Lisa is his girlfriend and soon to be mother of his child. A boy. Their relationship is not ideal and Butch isn’t exactly the nicest of people. Especially where Lisa is concerned. He likes Freddy Mercury. He has a moustache just like his.

He has no time for Lisa and even less when she whinges about the baby kicking like it is now. It kicks good. He wonders if his steroids have anything to do with that? He’ll soon find out.

This is horrific but very funny at the same time. I think this was written more tongue in cheek than anything but it really works.

Kyle Scott has a way of making you like his characters even when they are vile. Butch is horrible but I couldn’t help but laugh at him and feel sorry for him in the end.

Again brutal and gory, but funny into the bargain.

★★★★★ for general.

★★★★★ for horror.

PARTY CRASHER

Max and Mary are having a birthday party for their son, Paul. Paul can have anything he wants for his birthday. His dad is a billionaire. He doesn't want this clown though. He's not very good.

Max and Mary don't think the clown is much good either. They think he's drunk.

Everyone should be scared of clowns.

These stories are getting better and better. This one was brilliant. A mixture of a horror with a bit of Arnie thrown in.

The build-up of tension in this one is superb. It is horrific as well as tense so has you reading with one eye closed, holding your breath, before you throw up.

Great stuff.

★★★★★ for general.

★★★★★ for horror.

DEDICATION

Andy has taken on a job working the door at a night club. He doesn't like it and neither is he cut out for it but he needs the cash.

His first night on the job, he has to work with his boss Gemmel. A hulk of a man with undying dedication to his job.  Even in the face of untold adversity.

Another one that went in a totally different direction than I ever would have thought. This, again is an exercise in how to build tension and have you crapping your pants.

When you read this collection you will utter “I didn’t see that coming” more than once.

Dedication is good. Everyone should have it. There are exceptions though.

★★★★★ for general.

★★★★★ for horror.

WHEN ALL THE LIGHTS GO OUT

Lennon’s boss has just committed suicide. Lennon is considering it himself. After all, the lights have gone out and the world has ended. Or has it?

He just has to take care of the others first.

In terms of short stories to finish an anthology or collection, Kyle M. Scott can just drop that mic and walk off the stage in the cockiest of ways staring everyone in the eyes while challenging them to beat that one.

This story is up there in my top five list……..ever.

It is dark and depressive and horrific but told in such a simple way that it triples its effectiveness. Nothing is over described. Nothing is gratuitous. It is all just perfection for the type of tale it is.

This is sublime.

Nothing else to say. This story is superb.

★★★★★ for general.

★★★★★ for horror.

So there you have it. Another short story collection but my first experience of Kyle M. Scott. Going by this little beauty it will not be my last either.

What you have here are six tales that, at times, could not be more different. You have strippers and clowns and bouncers and babies. You have laughs and sexy stuff and blood and guts. You have more blood and guts. You have tension. A lot of tension. That tension invariably leads to horror.

The horror is of many types. In your face, body bits flying everywhere, horror. Slow build up while you can hear the horror coming, horror. You know it’s coming, but just not from where, horror. And in When The Lights Go Out, you have horror of the most supreme form that will stay with you for a long long time. I have read that story three times today. It is wonderful.

To summarise: it’s horror shorts that you need to read. Just buy it. Seriously.

Highest possible recommendation!

When I review a collection, I score each story and then the overall score is the sum of the individuals divided by the number of stories. All very scientific…… not…….but this one comes out as:

General rating:

★★★★.6 yeah I'm a picky git but honest with it.

Horror rating:

★★★★.8 as above.

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy Consumed Volume 2, or any other books from Kyle. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Book Synopsis:

From the best-selling Author of Devil's Day and Protection, comes the second volume in the critically acclaimed Consumed series. Hard-core horror, social satire and the blackest of humour once again merge in this collection of tales set to offend, amuse and horrify, often all at the same time.

This volume features the following tales...

Strippers

Room 7 - Previously available in Carnage: Extreme Horror

Mr Moustache

Party Crasher - Previously available in Floppy Shoes Apocalypse

Dedication

When All The Lights Go Out

Crack open a bottle of wine, turn the lights down low and don your wet-suit.

Things are about to get bloody..

Kyle M. Scott is a horror author hailing from the dark and desolate wastelands of Glasgow, Scotland. He spent his formative years immersed in the world of horror, devouring the genre in all its forms. A rabid fan of the underground authors whose work paved the way for a more visceral, hard-hitting style of horror, Kyle's love of extreme gore and boundary-pushing fiction could only lead him down one path.

Kyle currently has four works available. Volume 1 and 2 of the 'Consumed' series - a collection of dark fiction that melds extreme horror with the blackest wit - and the full-length love letter to 80's splatter and monster movies, 'Devil's Day'. His second novel, 'Aftertaste', pushed the boundaries of depravity to raw and shocking levels, combining social satire, suspense and a heavy dose of graphic horror.

In his relatively short career, his works have made him a favourite among readers with a taste for fearless, provocative fiction that evokes the classic works of those who shaped modern horror.

Among his many influences, he cites Richard Laymon, Edward Lee and Jack Ketchum as the writers who sealed his fate.

At present, he is working on the extreme horror novel, Hell's Auxiliary.

Kyle currently resides in Glasgow with his long suffering partner, an arrogant cat, and an imagination that keeps him up all night contemplating therapy.

And for more about Kyle, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page