Carrie Green

One of my favorite treats during the Fall has to be the apple and pumpkin donuts that are available at your local apple orchard or corn maze/farm center.  For years, I attempted to recreate these tasty donuts, using apple sauce and canned pumpkin, but I never came close to the original flavors found at the farm stand.  Then, I discovered the secret ingredient:  apple or pumpkin butter! 

​You've seen these ubiquious jars for sale not far from jams and jellies.  The butters are thick, intense and rather sweet (although I look for brands with no added sugar) and, in truth, I never really liked them as a condiment.  Just too strong.  But, I was looking for a way to amp up apple/pumpkin flavor in my baked goods (my first experiment was for making pumpkin pancakes, I just added 1/4 of a cup of pumpkin butter and it worked great).  After my success with the pumpkin pancakes, I was inspired to try using fruit butters to make apple and pumpkin donuts!

I'm not stuck on any one brand of fruit butter, but I do like to look for those that are unsweetened as the fruit has enough sugar on its own.  Do taste test, however, as some brands are highly spiced, while others may need you to add a couple teaspoons of apple or pumpkin pie spices (ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, ginger, etc.  I'm a big fan of Penzey's Chinese Five Spice mix, if you find it).  It is optional, to add spices and it is really up to your personal taste preferences--I found my apple butter to be ready to go, but I added a teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice mix to the pumpkin donut mixture...

Note that you do not need to grease the mini donut baking machine plates as the recipe has enough oil in it to keep them from sticking.  I did use a damp paper towel to clean the machine in between each batch.  It is key to toss the hot donuts immediately with sugar; if you allow them to cool, the sugar will not stick.  I just filled a quart plastic bag with a half cup of sugar and dropped three donuts in there at a time.  A quick shake and the donuts were sufficiently coated.

I'd advise making more than you think that you need.  These donuts go fast!  Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

I’ve been a long-time fan of Christa Wojciechowski’s horror novellas, having read both SICK, PART I and SICK, PART II, so that I was excited to finally be able to pick up the last installment of this trilogy, SICK, PART III.

I was curious how John and Susan Branch’s story would play out.  This codependent couple from hell had reached a critical turning point in their relationship.  Their roles had blurred between victim and perpetrator.   

John, especially, is a tour de force character.  Think of Howard Hughes and how extreme wealth can sustain neuroses that could never survive poverty.  At times, I felt like a reading a psychological case study of an extremely disturbed patient. 

As we learned from the previous books, John is a master of manipulation, while Susan has been the dependable caretaker for his bizarre illness.  How would they go forward as their private drama is now exposed to the world?

The author answers this question with a rather realistic dive into the medical, judicial and criminal system and presents some expected and unexpected consequences.  It’s a twisty-turning journey for these two unforgettable characters. 

This is horror at its very best—intelligent and thought provoking.  Christa pokes a stick at all the dark cavities of human nature.  The same elements that I enjoyed, such as elegant descriptions and snappy dialogue, in the previous installments, were still present.  She plots without brakes, sending the reader screeching to the jump-off-the-cliff ending. 

I was actually a bit shocked, but upon further reflection, I decided that the ending was true to the evolution of the characters as witnessed throughout the trilogy.  They had grown as people, requiring some adjustment within their relationship.  Not textbook, but very entertaining!

​
Connect with Christa on her website, My Sweet Delirium. 

​Buy her books on Amazon!

I admit that I found the cover art to be repulsive, but rather than some mindless gore fest, as the image could suggest, SICK, PART I, a novella by Christa (Wojo) Wojciechowski, is an intelligent, slow burn of psychological horror writing at its very best. 

The reader is introduced to Suze Branch, a devoted and somewhat downtrodden wife, who discovers that there is more to her husband’s chronic illnesses than merely poor health or bad luck.  Through her eyes, we learn more about her husband, John, whom she first met while working as doctor’s assistant.  Her medical background has become extremely necessary during their ten year marriage as John never seems to fully recover from his various ailments. 

The writing, although in first-person (I usually prefer third-person), is outstanding.  There is absolutely the right mix of description and dialogue, conflict and resolution.  One scene, which especially stood out, was the introduction of this doomed couple’s home.  It made me recall the old gothic estates where Poe or Hawthorne set their works.  This is a modern thriller, but the foundations of this story are firmly set in traditional horror.

“Besides the main house and set farther back was a four-car garage, the domain of Old Pete, the Branch’s aging groundskeeper.  Next in line was small two-story, all brick with white trim to match the mansion.  This was the guesthouse.  At the very end of the gravel drive was the old servants’ quarters, identical to the guesthouse, though smaller and not as meticulously kept as the rest of the estate.  John said when he was a boy, he called the main house the mother duck.  The two small houses were her ducklings.  We lived in the ugly duckling.”

​These characters and this relationship will haunt me.  As a reader, you will find yourself dwelling upon the nature of sickness and how addiction or codependency may motivate a person to self-destruction.  It was a fast-paced and enjoyable read.   

But that was faint praise--you know when you've come across a book that you really love and you immediately must write a review?  That book that you've been downloading eBook after eBook, waiting to discover? Well, SICK was that book for me.  I can’t wait to read the second, SICK, PART II, and I look forward to the eventual publication of the third title, SICK, PART III!

Connect with Christa on her website, My Sweet Delirium. 

​Buy her books on Amazon!

Reading this novel made me recall the first time that I encountered Japanese horror films. Movies so genuinely creepy that they were scary, even while reading subtitles. Think back to the first time that you saw ‘Ju-on (The Grunge)’ and ‘Ringu (The Ring).’ The foreign setting, moodiness, and unique imagery of something as simple as a girl with long black hair, concealing her features; all combined to take you somewhere new and unexpected.

Mike Jones accomplishes something very similar in his ‘gothic horror’ novel, THE MOTHERS. The action moves from Liverpool, England in 1880 to an ocean journey that ends abruptly in a shipwreck and rescue on a mysterious island. Jones’ writing is vivid—like nightmare fragments that you clearly remember upon waking.

Readers will find themselves in an atmosphere of dread where monsters as shocking as the Grudge Girl or Pinhead are depicted. Like rats, on this remote island, strange, unnatural children scamper in the walls at night. Their fingers scratch at the plaster, bony hands poke through holes. Their eyes are flat and white, their skin pale. The heroine is told not to leave her room after dark, but she will, as she is deeply compelled to uncover who and what are these children. This novel is the first in ‘The Transgression Cycle’ series--two other books are currently available. I can’t wait to read them all! 

This comic horror novel with perhaps the most un-PC title ever (but, don’t let it scare you away from reading it), is genuinely hilarious!  Written by James H. Lucas, he is to be commended on not holding back any punches—er—punchlines.  It is set in Plimpton, which has “the largest prostitute population per capita in the world, hence Plimpton’s nickname:  Pimptown.”

This is not a book about social reform; it’s a parody with the most extreme of stereotypes, think of pimps as portrayed in bad 70’s TV and movies.  Be warned, gentle reader, there is also some pimp and prostitute appropriate language.  Yes, swear words.  It’s not a family comedy, but supreme slapstick on the level of early Jim Carrey films.  If physical comedy could be conveyed in words, this is it.

In short, a group of evil vampires decide to take over Pimptown, moving into the area's best hotel with their human servant.  They then proceed to go on a rampage, doing what vampires do (not sparkle or fall in love with high school girls, but kill lots of people in order to drink their blood).  It’s a delight.  Eventually, this leads to the pimps defending their territory and an epic battle between ‘bad’ and ‘badder.’ 

Fun, fun, fun!

Purchase 'Vampires In Pimptown' on Amazon here.

Visit James' website here.

Here’s the truth about the extremely popular category Young Adult, too often authors have focused on what YA doesn’t have such as sex and swear words and then assume that they have earned the YA label.  A certain amount of innocence is part of YA, but even more important is that a YA novel should explore the angst and uncertainty of being a teenager.  A successful YA novel must examine this age of self discovery that every reader has gone through (or, if younger, is about to embark upon) and provide some insight into how to survive this rite of adolescence and come out the other side as a responsible adult. 

A YA hero or heroine should tackle important questions like who am I, who do I want to be—it’s often about making life-impacting choices.  Themes that are paramount in high school such as being popular, not being popular, being loved, being smart, being pretty, being a nerd, being a bully, being poor, being rich, dealing with authority figures/adults, are front and center.  Being a teenager is all about learning how to handle life situations that you will encounter, again and again, but never quite as, traumatically, as that very first time…  Your first love, your first kiss, your first fight, your first best friend, first real enemy, and the first time that your trust is abused or rewarded…  

Mark Souza’s Zombie-saurus Rex captures all of this and more.  He presents an entertaining mash-up of Romeo and Juliet, Carrie, and every zombie movie ever filmed, then, spins all our plot and character assumptions around, giving us a fun, thrilling, joy-ride of a novel. 

Rex Morton is the new kid at his high school.  He was unfortunate enough to become infected with the Z-virus, which, while it is still fatal--you are dead--it is manageable, in that periodic servings of calf brains will keep you from munching on human brains.  Like any contagious terminal condition, there is fear of the unknown, which is not assisted by looking different.   This has resulted in several relocations and several new high schools, a routine that is beginning to wear on Rex.  Being a teenager isn’t easy.  Being a teenage zombie, well, you can imagine the challenges.

A scene that captures how well Souza’s novel explores YA themes is seen in Rex’s interaction with a school bully, who taunts him with the name ‘Zombie-saurus Rex.’  Rex keeps his cool and is able to turn the situation around, so that the bully is now in his debt.

The heroine is Ariella Klopenstein, a girl who is already bucking the accepted social norms by wearing all black.  She befriends this strange new boy, because, like him, she’s an outsider and can sympathize with his situation.  Her role in this tale is as important as Rex’s as her courage inspires others and she goes from being a misfit to a leader of her peer group.

The novel provides the reader all the classic elements of a YA novel, the first romance, the epic football game, the rebellion against authority and ends with an outstanding homecoming dance, but these scenes are tweaked with the unexpected originality and sense of humor that only Souza can supply.  Zombie fans will enjoy another take on the mythology of zombies without breaking the boundaries of content that is still suitable for young adults.  It made me recall such classic 1980’s teenage films as ‘Breakfast Club,’ ‘Footloose’ and ‘Valley Girl.’  Don’t hesitate—buy this novel for yourself and any young adults in your life!

Purchase this novel on Amazon here.
Learn more about Mark Souza at his website.

Soon after we met, my friend Adela and I bonded over horror. We loved Stephen King and Dean Koontz – especially Watchers – and we longed for someone to see horror movies with. None of our other friends (or our boyfriends at the time) liked horror. We planned our evening to see the remake of The Omen, released on June 6, 2006 (6/6/6, get it?) months in advance. We were a little disappointed; it wasn’t quite as creepy as the original. Then we went to a movie called The Hills Are Alive. It looked scary and fun and just the type of thing we would enjoy. But there was so much blood and gore in the first half an hour it turned my stomach. When one of the evildoers bit the head off a live parakeet and drank its spurting blood, Adela and I simultaneously turned to one another and said, “Want to leave?” The guys we clambered over to get out of the row laughed at us for being wimps. But to us, it wasn’t a scary movie, just a series of gross scenes.

Which raises one of the most interesting things about horror – it’s in the eye of the beholder. My favorite horror novel is Rosemary Baby by Ira Levin. The story follows Rosemary, who is married to charismatic and struggling actor, Guy Woodhouse. Guy needs one big break to catapult his career from earning a living to being a star. He makes a deal with his elderly and seemingly pleasant neighbors to literally deliver Rosemary to Satan to be impregnated. The book, even setting aside the knock-offs, practically launched a cottage industry. The famous director Roman Polanski made the 1967 novel into a movie in 1968 starring Mia Farrow. 1976 brought a movie sequel Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby starring Patty Duke. In 1997, Ira Levin’s novel sequel Son of Rosemary was released. In 2014, Rosemary's Baby became a TV 
miniseries. The original still runs in movie theaters, often in October. As I write this, it’s showing at Chicago’s Logan Theater. Another of Ira Levin's horror classics, The Stepford Wives, not only spawned two movie versions, it's become a phrase in the language. The Urban Dictionary defines a "Stepford Wife" as “a servile, compliant, submissive, spineless wife who” serves her husband's every whim. 

Whether either book would be considered horror if released today is far from certain. As the Horror Writers Association notes on its page What Is Horror Fiction, “the popularity of the modern horror film, with its endless scenes of blood and gore, has eclipsed the reality of horror fiction.” Both Rosemary's Baby and Stepford Wives rely on suspense and dramatic tension more than gore or violence (though Rosemary does at one point eat a raw chicken heart). Goodreads lists the former as Fantasy, Paranormal, and the latter as Science Fiction, Dystopian. Most of the terrible things that happen occur off screen. To me, that makes them all the more frightening, but not everyone agrees.

Personally, I love the quote from Douglas Winter included on the HWA’s page: "Horror is that which cannot be made safe -- evolving, ever-changing -- because it is about our relentless need to confront the unknown, the unknowable, and the emotion we experience when in its thrall." What draws me to the works of Ira Levin, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Carrie Green, who so kindly allowed me to commandeer her blog for a day, is just that. All explore the ultimate unknown and unknowable: what lies in the hearts of those around us, particularly those who claim to love us, and what lies in the deepest depths of our own. With or without violence and gore, that is the most horrifying territory in which to tread. 

Lisa M. Lilly is the author of the short-story collection The Tower Formerly Known as Sears and Two Other Tales of Urban Horror—the title story of which was recently made into the short film Willis Tower. Her debut novel, The Awakening, was the first of a four-book paranormal/occult thriller series about a young woman facing a cult that believes her mysterious pregnancy will trigger the Apocalypse. Book 2, The Unbelievers, was released this month. 

Visit Lisa M. Lilly’s Amazon Author page  or her website to learn more.

I'm snowed in, it's Friday the 13th, and I'm craving some take-no-prisoners horror, so that I immediately think of Alex Laybourne!  His latest release is out.  Go load up your Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or whatever mobile device that you favor, and read 'Musings Of A Hideous Mind, Volume II,' now!

US: http://amzn.com/B00H9P98Z2

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00H9P98Z2

Entering a Hideous Mind is free… leaving can be murder…

In this collection of dark and disturbingly imaginative tales we are introduced to the further hideous musings of Alex Laybourne’s mind.

From a twisted family secret that leads to dark sexual obsession and murder, to the crowning of a new ‘Hunter’ and an out of body experience with an explosive difference, these tales are design to get under the skin as well as into the mind.

Haunting and terrifying, the musings of this hideous mind will remain leave you sleeping with the light on and looking over your shoulder at every step.

Meet Alex

Born and raised in the coastal English town Lowestoft, it should come as no surprise (to those that have the misfortune of knowing this place) that I became a horror writer.

From an early age I was sent to schools which were at least 30 minutes' drive away and so spent most of my free time alone, as the friends I did have lived too far away for me to be able to hang out with them in the weekends or holidays.

I have been a writer as long as I can remember and have always had a vivid imagination. To this very day I find it all too easy to just drift away into my own mind and explore the world I create; where the conditions always seem to be just perfect for the cultivation of ideas, plots, scenes, characters and lines of dialogue

I am married and have four wonderful children; James, Logan, Ashleigh and Damon. My biggest dream for them is that they grow up, and spend their lives doing what makes them happy, whatever that is.

For people who buy my work, I hope that they enjoy what they read and that I can create something that takes them away from reality for a short time. For me, the greatest compliment I can receive is not based on rankings but by knowing that people enjoy what I produce, that they buy my work with pleasure and never once feel as though their money would have been better spent elsewhere.

Links:

Blog; http://www.alexlaybourne.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alex-Laybourne/212049612180183

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vanplank

A dead-ringer for Rick Grimes from 'The Walking Dead' and I pose at Chicago's Comic Con.

First, a shout out to the amazing crowd that attended our panel discussion, GIRLS GONE GORE, at Chicago's Comic Con.  Great comments and questions!  I had an amazing time!  I'd also like to thank my panel partner, Lisa M. Lilly, who kept our discussion lively and, last, but not least, our amazing PPT editor Lucia Currans (you rock).

For those of you who were unable to attend,  I wanted to share some of the resources that I cited (and personally used) for those of you interested in becoming eBook authors. 

First, publication is relatively easy via platforms such as MobiPocket and Smashwords.  Additionally, any question that you may have about the writing, publication or marketing process can be answered via a few of my go-to online author resources. 

These include:

•Joe Konrath (who writes horror as Jack Kilborn) has been a leading resource at http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ with his ‘A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing’ which promotes eBooks;

•Scott Nicholson was inspiring to me on my eBook publishing journey.  Check out his advice at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/writers.htm.

•R.S. Guthrie, writes great horror and is open and honest about writing and eBook marketing tactics at http://robonwriting.com/;

Good luck!

Horror authors Carrie Green and Lisa M. Lilly will be appearing as part of 'GIRLS GONE GORE!' at this year's Comic Con in Chicago event.  This is a panel discussion where the topic of horror and femininity will be discussed, the role of women in horror films and books will be touched upon; as well as how to write, publish and market horror eBooks, whatever your gender.

Carrie Green is a Marketing, Social Media and PR pro.  Her media hits include BusinessWeek, CFO, CIO, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Computerworld, Crain's Chicago Business, Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, Industry Standard, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, among many others.  Additionally, she has promoted traditionally published business books from McGraw-Hill, Jossey-Bass (Wiley) and Edward Elgar Publishing.  She is the Amazon bestselling Horror author of Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, and Sugar Is Sweet.

Lisa M. Lilly is an Author and Attorney.  Her thriller The Awakening is an Amazon occult and feminist bestseller.  The title story of her short story collection The Tower Formerly Known as Sears and Two Other Tales of Urban Horror was recently made into a short film under the name Willis Tower.  Her poems and short fiction have appeared in numerous print and on-line magazines, including Parade of Phantoms, ChickFlicks, and Hair Trigger.

'GIRLS GONE GORE!' will be held Friday, August 9th at 6pm, in Room 34 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, 5555 N. River Road, Rosemont, IL 60018 hosted by Wizard World's Chicago Comic Con.  For more information and tickets for Chicago Comic Con, click here.