Celebrating National Metal Day!

Heavy Metal & Horror – A Match Made For Screaming!

Eleven is better – It’s one more!

Celebrating National Metal Day by watching horror movies is easy. It’s FUN, but the hardest part will be deciding what movie to watch FIRST. If you’re in a state where you’re still strongly encouraged to stay self-isolated, picking up a book and getting lost in a blend of music & madness sounds much more appealing! But – what to read? Here are a few choices…

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These are my choices for National Metal Day 🤘 What are you reading?

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We’ll be celebrating doubly hard since The Dark Defender & I Joined Forces nine years ago today.

Joined Forces 11/11/11

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If you don’t already have THE SCREAM by John Skipp & Craig Spector then this is the book you should pick up and start reading today. It’s HORROR. It’s SPLATTERPUNK. It’s ROCK AND ROLL.

^{Rock ‘n’ Roll. Hell. Two great tastes that taste great together. Long before Elvis gyrated on the Sullivan Show or the Beatles toiled the smoky red-light bars of Hamburg, music has been sowing the seeds of liberation. Or damnation. With each new generation the edge of rebellion pushed farther. Rhythms quickened. Volume increased. Lyrics coarsened. The rules continued to be broken, until it seemed that there were no rules at all.
And as waves of teens cranked it up and poured it on, parents built walls of accusation to explain their offspring’s seeming corruption. Sex and drugs, demon worship and violence are the effects. Music is the cause. Or so the self-styled guardians of morality would have us believe.
Meet The Scream. Just your average everyday mega-cult band. Their music is otherworldly. Their words are disturbing. Their message is unholy. Their fans are legion. And they’re not kidding. They’re killing. Themselves. Each other. Everyone. Their gospel screams from the lips of babes. Their backbeat has a body count. And their encore is just the warm-up act to madness beyond belief.
It emerged from a war-torn jungle, where insanity was just another word for survival. It arrived in America with an insatiable lust for power and the means to fulfill it. In the amplified roar of arena applause there beats the heart of absolute darkness}.

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As your punk rock horror hostess in this event, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to show you this ‘battle’ anthology!

• Thirteen Rounds. • Twenty Six Stories. • No Holds Barred.

Grab your guitars, turn the volume to eleven, and launch yourself into a world where heavy music rules over all!

Your teammates we will include 13 of these authors as you battle head to head for the Ultimate Title! David Owain Huges, Michelle Garza and Melissa Lawson – The Sisters of Slaughter, James H. Longmire, Dani Brown, Robert Holy, Andrew Freudenberg, Easel Pratt, Kitty Kane, Sebastian Crow, J.L. Lane, G.H. Finn, Jason Morton, Brian Barr, Michael Noe, Jim Richardson, Seth Moore, R.E. Lyons, Toneye Tyenot, William Bradley, John P. Collins Jr., Lucretia Stanhope, Brian Glossup, K. Trap Jones, Michael Fischer, and Jim Golforth.

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I love the vibe happening right now, so the 3rd place tie between THE RITUAL by Adam Neville and SHOCK ROCK edited by Jeff Gelb has just been broken! ROCK AND ROLL IS HERE TO SLAY …

The stars of shock fiction know what metalheads & moralists, punksters & preachers have known all along. Rock and roll. With its hot licks and raw glitter, has a dark side too – where the party stops and the terror begins.

Put on your headphones. Open this electrifying book. Rock to the world of horror where martyred musical super-legends return from the dead at 120 decibels… where radio stations sponsor ghastly giveaways that no living soul could want … where other-earthly pirates bootleg not records, but human souls… where people are strange … and the devil rocks all night.

THE NEW SOUND OF HORROR comes from Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, David J. Schow, Nancy A. Collins, Ronald Kelly, Don D’Ammassa, Graham Masterton, Paul Dale Anderson, Michael E. Garrett, Brian J. Hodge, R Patrick Gates, Rex Miller, Bill Mumy & Peter David,R Richard Christian Matheson, Michael Newton, Mark Verheiden, Ray Garton, John L. Byrne, Thomas Tessier, and John Shirley.

Gambler’s Appetite of Remorse by Sea Caummisar

Gambler’s Appetite of Remorse by Sea Caummisar

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

I could smell this story while reading it.

Very vivid details in this book, I almost puked – good job 👍
I’ve been staying away from the extreme gross-out stuff, so this was a fun escape from Coronageddon.
I love the cat running around in this story!

View all my reviews here.

#lazyreviews #goodreads

Mother: A Gut Wrenching Tale by The Barns Brothers / Warren Barns

CAUTION: DISTURBING THEMES CONTAINED WITHIN

 💀🍼💀🍼💀

This is a gut wrenching tale. It contains scenes of shitty things happening to decent people that will play out like a train wreck in slow motion, leaving your heart in your throat and a knot in your stomach.

5/5 Disturbing Baby Things

Today is the day.
The day that everything is about to change for Carly Richardson.
Except her babysitter already let her down and she’s about to run late for her job interview. It’s probably the worst idea in the history of bad ideas, but she’s all out of options.
She’ll have to leave Danny with her mother.

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably done something like Carly Richardson. An unexpected, but extremely important meeting pops up, and your babysitter fucks off at the last possible minute – what do you do? I took my spawn to my elderly grandma’s house. (Not the worst idea in the world, but she was in her 70’s with a bad knee.) Thankfully they were both unharmed an hour later. I think Grandma had a new wrinkle or two. Carly’s mom isn’t in her 70’s, and both her knees work fine, it’s her brain isn’t all that it used to be.
It’s only an hour or so – what could go wrong?

Brought to you by Warren Barns – the eldest, and by far most fucked up Barns Brother.

For more, check out www.thebarnsbrothers.com and www.warrenbarns.com

Buy MOTHER on Amazon, available FREE w/ KU

How well can you ever really know someone?

Mommy Dearest by Willow Rose
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

You can really get to know someone in thirty days.
– Just ask Morgan Spurlock.

The faces that people show to the world are not always the same faces that look into our eyes when no one else is around – the ones trying to melt our soul with a mere glance.
I’m speaking generally, of course.
BUT… if my now mother-in-law would have come to stay with me and The Dark Defender way back when… I seriously would have just shot myself. I’d love to tell you that we’re now best of friends all these years later – but my lies smell like a fart in a car, so I’m not even going to try. (We’re getting a lot better with our face to face time though!)

Crystal is hoping to have a very different experience.
Her soon-to-be mother-in-law is coming to stay for a whole month, and she hopes that they’ll really be able to bond during that time. So what if she is just finding out what a mama’s boy her fiance is? Why should it bother her that they don’t speak English when they’re talking around her? She is just imagining those smug, self satisfied sneers coming from Mommy Dearest across the dinner table… right?

One month. That’s enough time to learn their habits, and get used to their quirks. It might even be enough time for everyone to start showing their real selves to one another…

Good luck, Crystal!

Check out more of my reviews

MARY BLAKE: A Nasty Novelette by Sam West

WARNING!  THIS IS A VIOLENT,
BLOOD THIRSTY, AND MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE PIECE OF FICTION!

★★★★★/★★★★★

Fifteen years ago, Casey Brown and her college friends did something very, very bad to an innocent girl.

What really happened to poor Mary Blake that night?

There are whispers in the woods that surround that old abandoned house. Urban legends are repeated, and sightings of their usual suspects are sworn on – by a friend of a friend of that guy’s second cousin who knew a dude who swears they saw ‘He/She/It’ one dark, and stormy night. Bloody Mary, the Slit-Mouth Woman, Click Clack, the Slender Man… they aren’t the only boogeymen in those woods…
People say that the house is haunted by it’s original owner… The things that Mr. Jones did to his wife and two daughters went way beyond ‘slaughter’ – the depravity of his actions makes the family’s eventual slaughter a blessing.

Now, Casey’s nightmares are invading her waking life.
Mary Blake is back, and she’s not alone.
Only the truth will set her free.

You can still find MARY BLAKE, and other titles by Sam West, for #free on Amazon with your Kindle Unlimited plan – FOR NOW.

Find MARY BLAKE: A Nasty Novelette on Amazon, Goodreads, BookLikes, and LibraryThing.

Find SAM WEST on Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, and BookLikes

 

 

Fancy a #FREE download of ‘BOX: A Psychological Horror’ by Matt Shaw?

I killed a man so it is only right I am put to death…

The execution was scheduled and the last meal consumed.
The coolness of the poisons entering the blood system
slowed the heart rate and sent him on the way to Judgement.
He had paid for his crime with years on Death Row waiting for this moment –
now he would pay for them again as the judgment continued…

Matt Shaw,  author of Sick B*stards, PORN and 2016: A Year of Horror and Pain, is giving us a #FREE DOWNLOAD of this short, psychological horror.  HURRY! Limited Time Offer!!

I was Jack The Ripper (Part Two) by Michael Bray

 

 

Everybody knows of the terrible Murders which took place in Whitechapel, England in 1888. The notorious Jack the Ripper was responsible for the mutilation and murder of five women before he slipped away into the night never to be seen again. In this blend of fiction based on fact, Writer Charles Hapgood comes face to face with the a man claiming ripper himself years after the last brutal murder took place, and is intent on telling the story of how he was transformed from a regular child to the evil beast that he became.
As Hapgood hears the story unfold, his initial skepticism is challenged by his unexpected visitor’s extensive knowledge of the crimes. As Hapgood listens, he is plunged into a world of madness, squalor, abuse and manipulation when his visitor tells how his hatred for women was countered by a desire to love and be loved, and how when obsession turns to rejection, an ordinary man can go to extraordinary lengths when he feels there is no other option left but to become a monster.

In part Two, Miller continues to confide in Hapgood about the events that transformed him from man to the monster he would become, causing Hapgood to question his own morals when more shocking and tragic details of Miller’s life are told.

Mr. Bray sure did his research before putting these stories together, and I’m enjoying my visit in 1893 Whitechapel with him as my guide. Miller makes a new friend near the end of Part Two – and I can’t wait to see where the story is going to go in Part 3! Miller recognizes the man right away – you will too ::winks::

 

I was Jack The Ripper (Part Two) on Amazon, and Goodreads

Michael Bray on Amazon, and Goodreads

Check out Part One of I was Jack The Ripper

 

I Was Jack The Ripper (Part 3) will be available on Friday, June 16, 2017

XXX by Rayne Havok

Xavier: “I escaped from prison, hauling ass in a stolen car, putting space between me and that barbed wire fence- when the damn thing runs out of gas.

Luckily, I come across an old farmhouse that looks empty, even luckier, it is not.
The threats about daddy coming home don’t scare me… maybe they should have.”

↑ Yeah, Xavier… maybe they should have!!

‘XXX’ is my first book by Rayne Havok, (what a kick-ass name!). I hate to say this, but I don’t think I’d heard of her until I read Shaun Hupp’s Maniacs with Knives last week. Her blurb for Shaun was so awesome that I had to meme* it for the book’s review! Last night, as I was frantically trying to find out what happened to Tim Miller’s newest release (Snuff Film – it was missing from Amazon last night – boo!!)  (UPDATE: I JUST read that Snuff Film is banned from Amazon – is there any better advertising than that?! I compare it to the recommendation, ahem – I mean warning labels on Rx bottles.) , and I saw on Goodreads that Tim is currently reading her books. (Our circles definitely overlap. I don’t know why I haven’t read this until now.) I recognized a few other names in the reviews, too, but I was already sold. At that point I was just trying to figure out which book I wanted to read first.

Back to the story!

Like most of her books, XXX is a short story, (appx 67 pgs), so when I first started reading I thought I was in for a story that I’ve read dozens of times already… ‘escaped prisoner on the run terrorizes family in secluded house in BFE…’ . That is NOT a bad thing! I like those stories and was looking forward to seeing how this author spun it. But I was WRONG! Holy shit, what a ride. It was hard to read at a couple points – “TORTURE: NEW AND IMPROVED!! Now, with sprinkles!” 
When I was about 3/4 into the story, Rayne snuck** up behind me and whacked me in the back of the head with it! It’s a great, twisty ending – and… one that I didn’t see coming.
I’m looking forward to reading her other books. I trying to decide which one to read next – I think it’s going to be either The Embalmer, or Degenerate. Keep your eyes peeled… there’ll be more reviews to come!

P, L & N ♥
~sg

Rayne Havok ~ a little psychotic, and a little sweet.
She’s all about the bloody and gruesome, but also loves to sprinkle it with gratuitous sex.

Rayne Havok on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Amazon
XXX on Goodreads, and Amazon

 

 

Check out my review of MANIACS WITH KNIVES, with author & book links.

You can visit the Official website of TIM MILLER to have a look at SNUFF FILM, and view your buying options. Be sure to check out all of his titles while you’re there – if you haven’t done so already.

 

Just for fun…

I Googled ‘RAYNE HAVOK’ to look for an author site, and this came up –
Torrential rain causes havoc on the roads , so if you’re in the UK – watch out for floods!

* From Rayne’s review of Maniacs with Knives…

** Yes, it is a word! Sorta… 😉

 

“Interview With The Vampire” – “From Hell”

 

It’s been five years since the grisly events in Whitechapel, and the man believed responsible for the crimes, Jack the Ripper, has yet to be captured. Charles Hapgood is writing a book about the murders, and has agreed to meet with someone who has information on the case. Everything about this meeting is unusual, so when the writer invited the stranger into his home at 9:00 p.m., he is already on edge.The man introduces himself as Mr. Miller, and begins to tell Hapgood that he would like to hire him to write his memoirs. Ignoring Hapgood’s obvious irritation, and his many requests to leave, Miller finally brings the conversation back around to the murders, and Annie Chapman. He produces a piece of evidence, unknown to everyone but the investigators, and Charles Hapgood finally understands.
The man sitting in front of him is Jack the Ripper, and he has a story to tell.

We’ve heard the theories, seen the movies, and researched the case online for ourselves. We KNOW this story. Right?
Wrong.
Michael Bray takes us deeper, and gives us a voyeuristic introspective of the MAKING of the Ripper.

 

Part two of I WAS JACK THE RIPPER will be available on May 19th, 2017.

(I can’t wait until May 19th! I’m totally invested in this story, and I can’t wait for more!!)

Celebrate EASTER with The Rabbit Man, and Duncan Ralston!

How far would you go for revenge?

When a six-year-old girl is abused and left for dead by a pedophile known only as the “Rabbit Man” due to the claw marks left on her body, police follow every lead but reach only dead ends.

Hungry for justice, her grieving father abandons wife and child on a harrowing journey deep undercover into Miami’s sex offender colony under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. His purpose is simple: to find the “Rabbit Man” among them, and put him in the ground.

Months later, with no one to trust and the pedophiles he lives among growing suspicious of his actions, he learns nothing is simple where the monsters live.

Imagine sitting down to a meal consisting of all your favorite foods.  WAIT! Let’s make this even more fun and pretend it’s your last meal before your execution – (yay)!

    
At first glance, my table would make most people chuckle because my favorite foods do not complement each other well, or at all. (I’m a grown ass woman and can have ice cream and Twinkies for dinner if I want to!).

My book shelf mirrors my dinner table / last meal.
Yes… I’m all about the extreme horror. Give me a story filled with buckets of gore, sprinkled with very wrong humor, and of course a gratuitous titty (or three) thrown in, and I’m in a very happy place.
BUT… I love ALL flavors of horror. Man cannot live on ice cream alone! Nor can I live on the extreme alone. Plus, [IMHO] there are only a handful of authors who can pull if off successfully – (for MY tastes).

Why the hell am I talking about this?  I’m so glad you asked!

REVENGE is a dish best served cold.

Dunc has proven to be quite the ‘master chef’.
Reread my review of GRISTLE & BONE – I think it was my first book by Duncan Ralston, and I didn’t know him then. I was floored by the stories in that collection by an author who was unknown to me at the time, and to this day I still go through a moment of mourning when I finish one of his books, not wanting it to come to an end. If you’ve read WOOM then you know he is one of the aforementioned authors who can pull off the extreme without losing the story.

WHERE THE MONSTERS LIVE is NOT an extreme horror story, but I want you to have a little ‘heads up’. It’s not super graphic, but it will sucker punch you right in the feels. It will disturb you a bit, and up the level if you have a child of your own.
I didn’t realize I was crying until The Dark Defender woke up to ask me what was wrong, and I had tears streaming down my cheeks.

I got a sinking feeling at one point, because I thought I knew exactly how this story was going to end (we’ll talk about it once you finish). That wouldn’t have made it a suck story – but I’m happy that it didn’t go for the ‘ironic twist’, and I’m very satisfied with how it’s wrapped up – and there could be a little wiggle room JIC case the story isn’t done with us yet.

 I don’t think I need to say this, but for the record –
⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆  5/5 STARS!!  ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

Before we wrap this up, please allow me one more moment of inappropriate, and probably unjustified humor here… I cannot remember when or why this popped in my head while reading, but it did, and now it’s going to get stuck in your head, too.  #earrape #psychodad

♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
Who’s that riding into the sun,
Who’s the man with the itchy gun,
Who’s the man who kills for fun
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad…

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Now, please excuse me so I can get some food – I’m STARVING!
Peace, Love & Necrophilia  ♥
~sg

 

You can find ‘WHERE THE MONSTERS ARE’ on Amazon, and Goodreads. To check out the titles I mentioned earlier, just follow these links – GRISTLE & BONE, and WOOM.

STALKING DUNCAN RALSTON:

You can connect with Dunc via his Official Website: THE FOLD, ShadowWorkPublishing, and his author pages @ Goodreads, Amazon, BookBub, and BookLikes. Or through social media – Facebook, Twitter (@userbits), and YouTube. 

 

CELEBRATE EASTER WITH DUNCAN RALSTON!

Be sure to grab the EASTER EGGS AND BUNNY BOILERS horror anthology before Sunday! While the rest of the fam is sitting around the table chewing with their mouths open, and talking about whoever is in the bathroom at the moment, you can keep your sanity by reading about the true meaning of Easter – demented rabbits, chocolate obsessed children drowning in their own greed, serial killers, and resurrection! YAY!!