"The town is burning...

30 Days of Night by Gypsy-Savina (DeviantArt)

...there's carnage everywhere."

"30 Days of Night" by Steven Niles (Compilation published 2008)...A Cinful Review...

I've always loved comics, and I'm a graphic novel snob meaning I only like to read the good stuff. I grew up smothering my eyes in  X-Men, Spider Man and many other comics too numerous to name. Lenore (Little Dead Girl) by Roman Dirge is one of my new favorites. I expect a lot from a comic or a graphic novel, and I'm envious of those who can team up and create a piece of work that results in a fun read. Naturally, I was anxious to devour this bit of horror. It was new for me, and ultimately refreshing. The fact that Clive Barker endorsed it in the intro only added blood to the fire.

The story starts out with one of my greatest nightmares...being stuck somewhere in an environment of intractable cold, on the eve of thirty days of darkness. The images are bleak, and I made it worse by reading this novel at 2AM during one of my insufferable bouts of insomnia. 

It's a petty item to point out at first, but one of the things that bothered me (as I planned my commentary) was that the first few pages had no page numbers. Bear with me because I'm hand counting as I go along...

Page 6: People are reporting their cell phones missing, and there's an image of a burnt pile of cellphones on the page.  I found myself wondering..."How the hell did people report missing cellphones if they didn't have a phone?" Maybe all of them had landlines too, but I think about Barrow, Alaska (so remote) and I consider my own phone bills and my conservationist attitude toward my hard earned dollars...and I wondered that many folks out there had both a landline and a cellphone. At my home (in California) our family all carry cell phones and we quit having a hardline. It was too expensive to have both, and the only people who called the landline were soliciters, so...

(Of course, the dates in the novel say the story occurred in 2001. Back in 2001, I barely knew what a cell phone was. It wasn't until 2004, when I moved from Japan back to the U.S., that I finally owned a cell, so having both back then is likely.)

 Later, call me petty, but on page 37, Niles writes, "Endless night, and an endless supply of blood and meat". The idea of vampires finding a place where there was 30 days of night was brilliant. Then the fact that the boss vamp showed up and claimed how idiotic the blood feast was, and how it compromised their mythological existence, was even more brilliant. The reality of the population of Barrow, however, was overlooked. In 2001, Barrow's entire population was listed as 4,581.  This hardly makes the blood and meat "endless", although Niles writes later that the population was only 462 (a big difference in number). He also mentions that people leave before the winter. I had a hard time believing over 4,000 people would vacate their home for that time period.  And, logically, one would think the blood suckers would like to go back to a place like Barrow in the future and have another red-cell banquet, so killing everyone just didn't make sense. 

Be that as it may (suspending my disbelief there....)...I found the protagonist's (Eben's) solution to taking on the vampires, interesting. After he turned himself into a vampire, he was still able to control himself well enough to fight for the humans, destroy the head honcho and not munch on his wife. In the end, it was a sappy love story, as Eben sacrificed himself on the first day of light because he couldn't endure not being with his mate. Ashes to ashes, and you know the rest.

Reading the back cover,  it's obvious this story continues on and now I'm curious about this series and would like to read more. Another thing that bothered me was, I had no sense of what part the Louisiana folks played. A mother sent her son to Barrow to get some video recording, he dies just after sending the video feed, and we never learn the link between the Louisiana folks and the vampires. I'm guessing that info comes later in other episodes. 

Overall, I loved reading this piece and the artwork was awesome. The monochromatic color with the exception of scarlet (maybe a yellow or green here and there) was an eerie touch. And Robbie Robbin's artwork was raw, rough and unrefined. The stark color increased the overall feeling of cold and brutality. One visual problem (for me) was that with my poor eyesight I had a hard time reading the 'vampire' script and I would have appreciated larger text. I found myself wishing I could read this in an 'enhanced' form online or in an e-book where I could enlarge the photos and the print. The entire time I read through the story, I kept thinking a graphic novel like this would be fun in an e-enhanced version. (Music for the background, maybe even a voice-over for the text.) Gotta admit I just bought the DVD and can't wait to see how it compares to the print.

In conclusion, high praise for "30 Days of Night" and now that I've finished the book at almost 4AM, I'm sure I'll have a couple of hours of fitful dozing before the sun rises. And when the sun rises, well, it's then that I'm sure I'll sleep like the dead.

~Cin

30 Days of Night by milxart (deviantArt)

"Fear was for those who still had a chance of life:

...he had none."
(Clive Barker, Books of Blood: Rawhead Rex. 1998

Rawhead Rex wallpaper by mercy1313 (DeviantArt)

I have a bias toward Clive Barker. He's a mastermind writer that can do no wrong in my warped opinion (Let us not talk of 'Abarat', for that would be a lengthy discussion...)

Clive Barker has a unique penchant for story telling, and Rawhead Rex highlights his talent beautifully.

( I wanted to see the film for comparison, but the DVD on Amazon it sells for $94.99 used. That's right. $94.99. Used. Needless to say, I didn't pay to see it.)

Still, what an excellent story! I grew up on a farm and so I empathized with the trials and tribulations of the first character, Thomas. This was a man who found rocks, boulders and other soil impediments in the good earth and cleared them away with the (hopeful) goal of planting fruitful seed. As I read, I felt Thomas Garrow's desire to get this huge rock out of the fertile soil bed. His persistence won out over the troublesome boulder. Alas, persistence does not solely reap rewards. Thomas found that out first hand.

The POV switch Barker inserted as Rawhead rose from his prison, was spectacular. I felt as if I WERE  Rawhead, smelling the sky...drinking in a world of sensations I'd been deprived of for eons. Then I was Thomas again, bewildered, amazed... then dropped on my head... dead.

Barker does some things in this piece that writers are told never to do in a story (short or long). He switches POV often, and he introduces multiple characters who have little in common except the thread of their existence in the town of Zeal. All of those things, and he uses the word grimace (or a form of it) at least four times in the short story (OMG: What would author Tim Esaias say? There are no gargoyles in this prose. SHU'ers  you know what I'm talkin 'bout.) A sin in writing, for those of us taught by those who are great.

Regardless of the grimaces, and Barker doing all of the things we are taught NOT to do as new writers...he is the master of the macabre. His language, his 'page turner' ensemble of words is fantastical. I couldn't help but love each grossly detailed, sickening and twisted moment.  Clive Barker is, perhaps, the best (non-personal) writing instructor I've ever had. His is the work I study. His is the prose I most want to capture the idealism behind. He is frank, honest, visual and forthright. He is the mixed martial artist of the writer's arena, practicing with no holds barred. An aberration of the mat, and an opponent never to take for granted. If I were in front of him, I would bow low but I would never, never take my eyes off of him.

Did I find it hard to believe that the 'Venus of Willendorf' was the arch-enemy, the nemesis of Rawhead Rex? It was a bit of a stretch, but the story played on ancient history, and I loved the gender battle. In addition to the story-line, Barker wracked the limits of human endurance in the reader. An innocent  young girl dies, and an intellectual boy (writers might feel for because of his introverted self) dies as well. Granted we don't have enough time to fall in love with the boy too much...still...he was only a child), and we get to see the perspective of Rawhead as he revels in his own renewed greatness. He is God once more. We feel the beast's thirst, we hunger for dominance, we understand the confusion of a different world that meets us after centuries of burial in a prison in the ground. The world is strange. It has changed. And even with the last breath (and final urination), we are convinced that Rawhead's reign has not ended. That he will be back. As the female energy is omnipresent, so is the male, and like a male organ gone temporarily flaccid Rawhead Rex will rise again. All he needs is time.

Rawhead Rex Poster
 by Sibbs00000 (DeviantArt)

"Where were all the Arnold Schwarzeneggers...

Artwork: Spider by eat01234

...when you really needed them?" 

~Sarah Pinborough (2011). Breeding Ground

Breeding Ground was a surprising read in many ways. It had an interesting story premise, which reminded me of Matheson's "I am Legend" only crawlier. I enjoyed much of the writing, particularly at the beginning, although I felt some of the novel dragged at bit in the middle. Despite that, Sarah Pinborough has an excellent writing voice and many scenes in the story were superb. For some reason, however, this story took a longer time for me to read than other novels I'd read recently. I can't quite put my finger on why. I didn't have that 'I can't put this book down' sensation that I'd had previously with Richard Matheson's stories, or novels by Clive Barker. 

Although Pinborough wrote this story with the kind of monsters I have an affinity for, something in construction of the work and in the prose (in different places) was lacking at times. At the very beginning, I didn't buy off on Matthew Edge's '...I can't tell you how this all happened...' premise, where this horrible 'disease' is suddenly taking over the women of the world. And then to read later that Dr Whitehead, the scientist, says that the disease came about from genetically modified food, was a mental turn off. I think I could have bought it if I'd seen/read some indication of it earlier...but to just have the idea dumped on me in Chapter 16 was a bit much.  And it was inconsistent. Matthew Edge acts as if he had no idea what happened in the Prologue, but then we find out it's humans who created the aberration. I wanted to see the genetic experiment somewhere, to feel it happening, to understand and know about it  instead of having it placed in my lap midway through the novel.

Genius moments for Pinborough were the initial descriptions of the women gaining weight and the subtle changes going on, coupled with the female transformations. I adored reading about Chloe's physical and mental changes, and the overtly gross verbiage of birthing her baby and eating half of it (Why only half, I wondered), but after that things didn't get interesting for me until the battle with the widows at the boy scout hut. Then the amputation of Dave's arm and their finding safety/shelter at Hanstone Park were excellent. The story concept itself, along with the dialogue, was well done. 

Still, there were overly extended/unnecessarily long run-on sentences in this piece that could have been chopped in two to make the story better. It made me think about my own writing and how I need to cut down on lengthy prose. And in some places there were  sentences that I couldn't believe an editor let slide. Take this sentence for example:

 "Another pang of loneliness and heartache stabbed inside, and I hoped that there would be a time when I felt safe and secure enough to allow some time for all the grief inside to come out and then allow me to keep her close inside."

The word "inside" is used three times in the above sentence, and reading it let me see how mistakes like this can pull a reader out of the story and make it less enjoyable. It was definite food for thought.

At one point Pinborough describes the human rules of their small group trying to survive:

"We were like scavengers now—the morality of taking what wasn’t ours no longer applied."

 
I thought the above phrase was a great line to describe how their social order, the norm of things, had decayed and was replaced with a different philosophy  of existing.  She does this one more time toward the end of the book:

"We’d all reached the conclusion that this was what had to be done, and we needed to see it through together. A new order had taken hold and our old laws no longer applied. I think this was the first day that we accepted that."
 

 Overall, I thought the work Pinborough did on this was brilliant. She kept tension throughout the story, and the conflict she wove into it was almost continuous. The worst part for me was (honestly) the ending. Unlike Matheson's "I am Legend," (which I frequently compared this story too because the overall concept was the same) this novel ends on a non-conclusive but hopeful note. Perhaps Matt and Rebecca (and the unborn baby) make it somewhere and survive. Perhaps George and Chester arrive at their destination unharmed. 

But the entire premise of the book makes their survival unlikely. The ending wasn't satisfying for me and I can't describe why. It was like a thread hanging from a web...not part of the symmetrical construction, and not completely free. In the end, I wanted to be convinced that mankind would prevail, that this new world order would diminish. I wanted to believe that the human species would go on despite a massive global anomaly. But how long does it take before an anomaly becomes the norm? How long does it take before the web of life that has changed world structure is no longer something terrible and unexplainable, but is instead, a new breeding ground for the acceptable? One thing is for sure... change bites.

~Cin

 

Spider Witch by GENZOMAN

"He looked up with the accredited expression for...

...the Asking of Painful Questions."  (The Funeral by Richard Matheson)

Artwork: Funeral by DerRiedl

     After reading "I am Legend," I expected this short story to deal with the monstrous case of the vampire again, and it didn't disappoint. I didn't find this a surprising read, but it was highly entertaining. What made the piece most enjoyable was Matheson's extraordinary use of language and the way he moved from a sedate and serious situation to one of almost perposterous chaos. One moment, there's a barely pulsatile funeral master ready to guide a bereaved customer into the forest of grief and out again with lighter pockets, and in another moment his quarry disappears out a window flapping his wings. This story rapidly stepped across the pictorial line of a believable (albeit macabre) every day situation and leaped a dark chasm to embrace the fantastical and chaotic mosaic of the undead.

     Yes, I'm a sap for Matheson I suppose. Some of his language is overly flowery and some people might consider it borderline purple prose...but his combination of words is set on the page so masterfully that I can't help but read his work over and over again. I've never read any other piece of prose that described a man's eyes as 'liver-colored,' (and having done autopsy, I know what a fresh human one looks like) and I adored the pet names Morton Silkline used for his traditional bereaved-one's process. The "Grieved One's Chair" and "The Asking of Painful Questions" were priceless phrases that gave me a huge amount of insight into Silkline's character and day-to-day life.

     I did wonder at the end if Morton might make it to the realm of the undead himself, since he was considered (potentially) tasty...but then I was pleased and thoroughly enjoyed the ending. Successful businesses are tough because they demand a lot of the business-person. The greater the pay, the greater the difficulty (in one way or another). Whether it be fame and the loss of freedom that comes with it, or serving a clientele that is demanding and that others find less desirous...business is business and each coin exacts a toll in...all circumstances. 

     Live long and prosper.

     ~Cin

Artwork: Her Own Funeral by vinegar

"I'll kill every mother’s son of you...

...before I’ll give in!" 

(I am Legend. Richard Mathson, 1954)

 (Artwork obtained from DeviantArt: Infected 05)

***

    No one weaves a story like Mathson. His word choice, the chilling phrases he uses to create his setting...his novels are those I crave to read. Works of prose like his are the reason I read until 3AM knowing I have to get up at 5AM for work.

    Like those lusty naked vampires in Chapter 3, I was ready to drink his blood as I read through the pages. The story was completely compelling, but not just the story...it was the language used to tell the story. Sure, I'd seen the movie. I'd never read the novel. I found the written work much more enjoyable (and completely different), and I felt myself grab on to the pace of the story during the early fight scenes, my eyes rapidly scanning the lines while my own pulse quickened with anxiety and anticipation for Robert Neville. I was afraid for his life, despite the fact he was immune to the vampire bite.

"The wound had healed cleanly. But then, he hadn’t been overly concerned about that. Time had more than proved to him that he was immune to their infection." (I Am Legend, Richard Matheson)

 The following are a couple of my favorite quotes in chapter 3 that I think highlighted the very premise of the book:

 "The strength of the vampire is that no one will believe in him.”

(I Am Legend, p. 28, Richard Matheson)

"And before science had caught up with the legend, the legend had swallowed science and everything.

(I Am Legend, p. 29, Richard Matheson)

***

    While reading I feel compelled to say, I didn't take the main character as a 'whiskey sour' kinda guy. I thought whiskey straight up or scotch or rum at first. Nothing so...complicated. Later Matheson just describes Robert as drinking 'whiskey', but the initial whiskey sour bothered me...like a guy would have all of the ingredients to make one (and maybe he did) or take the time. And what KIND of whiskey was Neville  drinking?  I would like to have known. I, perhaps, would have thought of Matheson, and dear old Richard every time I gulped a namesake shot. I guess that flagrantly shows my mindset when I read.

    What I truly enjoyed about the book was the language Matheson used, his brilliant scene setting and his own unique writing style. The story line was fantastic, the scientific reasoning behind the vampire plague plausible, and many of the little scientific details Matheson wove into the story were fun to read from a medical point of view. I'm a forensic nurse and nurse practitioner/midwife by trade.

     Minor distractors in the prose that were irritating... those things we are taught in writing NOT to do this day and age. Phrases like writing out 'he thought', and no italics on the thought, and some overuse of some adverbs bugged me. Other than that, I thought the work was excellent.

     Story items that bothered me: on page 86 (Kindle edition) Richard discovers (after painstakingly teaching himself medicine and how to use a microscope) that the vampires are created due to an infection ('vampiris' he calls the bacteria) which makes me wonder if it were that simple all along, then why wasn't it discovered by scientists sooner? He also mentions setting 'milk' out for the dog, which I found incredible at first, after 8-11 months of the plague. But then I rationalized as I read. Perhaps he had 'dried' milk and had to reconstitute it. Maybe he had a freezer large enough to freeze some milk. Perhaps some of the milk he drank was canned. I felt better after musing. Then I was suspicious as I wondered how Richard still had drinkable running water, and later I cursed Matheson for killing the dog in chapter thirteen. Cruel, cruel writer!

     An inconsistency bothered me in chapter eighteen, when Richard found Ruth, and later she supposedly took a bath. If her 'tan' was makeup, did she somehow bring some makeup with her? How did she still have makeup on her legs after the bath?

     And so it went, my emotional and clinical reading roller-coaster, until the last. I loved the science that Matheson/Richard took time to learn. I loved reading about the mutation of the vampire race. And I cried at Richard's final realization that he was the last of his kind as he took the pills that helped end his life. And at 1:49AM on January 14th, I finished reading "I Am Legend." The early hour a testimony to how riveting the story was in my brain that I couldn't stop reading; my wet cheeks a mental and physical response to the realization that while all things change...

...compassion is timeless.

~Cin

(I Am Legend From DeViant Art: by patrickbrown)

"There is nothing on which it is so hard as...

...poverty, and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth." ~Ebenezer Scrooge (Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843)

A Christmas Carol: Reviewed

 Ghost of Christmas Past by ftongl:

Some of my fellow writers/critiquers have read this story several times. I'm not sure I ever read it in its entirety. I think I only ever saw the various films or plays based on the novel. So, perhaps unlike many of my friends who have read tale this before, I took particular joy in soaking up the prose.     

While the language and writing of the period were difficult (and sometimes cumbersome) to read, I found the prose very visual. I think if I had not seen the films and/or the plays, this story would have played out in my mind much like the many renditions of it were portrayed.

The descriptions of Scrooge, Jacob Marley on the face of the door knocker, the exclamation 'humbug', and the description of Marley's ghost wrapped in chains and various cash-boxes were consistent all around. I found it pleasant to read what I'd 'seen' before, in part, because of the consistency the story and the films carried along with them.

Some things I noted that differed from the movies/plays:

Scrooge took his evening meal in a Tavern and not at home. I used to wonder about this as I watched the movies because I couldn't fathom Scrooge fixing dinner for himself, cleaning his own dishes or paying for a maid to clean his home. And I didn't know that he lived in Jacob Marley's old home. Cinema made it look as if Scrooge lived in a large wealthy house (albeit austere) but the book leads the reader to believe he had a modest residence.

I found it interesting that at the beginning of the book, Bob Cratchit's name was not used. In film, and in plays, his name is used to define and describe the character but at the beginning of the story it is not used, almost as if to emphasize how little Ebenezer cared to focus on the 'personal' of life of others.

As the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge out to where he had once been a boy, Charles Dickens takes a moment to describe the numerous smells that Ebenezer encountered which I thought was brilliant. Film does not portray this, but it is significant because our human memories are strongly linked to the sense of smell.

The Cratchit house and events were more elaborately described in the novel, and the descriptions of the miners and the men at sea were additional pieces I'd not seen/heard before. And the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is initially titled a Phantom, which is an eerie name to use for the spectral figure compared to what I've heard the Spirit called before.

Ghost of Christmas Present by shaungwen

These are just a few examples, but I do want to say that although the writing is a reflection of the timeperiod, and sometimes difficult to follow, I thought the overall text was extremely well written. Dickens placed very clear images in my head with most of his paragraphs/descriptions, and I was amazed how he did this with (seemingly) very little effort.

I didn't expect to enjoy this book. So many films, so many plays, led me to think I would find the narrative boring or uninteresting. But the novel was far from my expectations.  Tiny Tim made me cry, my heart went out to Ebenezer despite his 'humbug' self, and in the end I realized that it is never too late for any of us to change as long as we have our very last breath to take in this world.

So, whether we believe in god, or a goddess, or take refuge in the Buddha, or whether we follow a prophet or simply hug our own humanity...our compassion toward each other can be found inside ourselves whenever we choose to see it. And whenever we open our eyes to a brand new day, we are given the opportunity to change and make change. It is only 'choice' that keeps us from growing, or allows us to reach out and grasp a new beginning.

And so that is what it means to me when Tim says, "God bless us, everyone!" 

~Cin

Ghost of Christmas Past by verreaux

"We came, we saw...

...we kicked its ass! (Dr. Peter Venkman/Ghostbusters)

Ghostbusters (1984): Film Review 

 

     In 1984, I was serving the second of what would eventually be many years in the U.S. Navy. My childhood was fairly subdued. My brother and I grew up largely sheltered from the inappropriate evils of the world such as Saturday Night Live T.V. and Monty Python films. When I went to see the movie (I believe I was in Millington Tennessee at the time) I found Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd extremely entertaining even though I had no idea who they were.  For the day and age in which it was made, Ghostbusters included what I thought was fun computer technology and special effects...and I'm a sucker for special effects. Couple the effects with my love of bizarre story lines (the Giant Stay-PuftMarshmallow Man really reeled me in) and I was hooked.

    I sat down in front of the T.V. a few nights ago and watched the movie again, per our assignment.  I noted how far our computer graphics and special effects have come in just over twenty years.  I still enjoyed the movie, although my enjoyment was on a more primitive level. Instead of extolling the virtues of the excellent special effects on the screen, I merely sat back and enjoyed the non-sensical story.  And I did enjoy it, I am afraid to say.  I'm sure many of you readers will call me nuts. 

     Why did I enjoy it? Well, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd by themselves are quite entertaining, not to mention Rick Moranis has a stupid lovable quality about him that I enjoy hating. I had a good time watching the various ghosts as they popped up and seeing how they got sucked up into the 'ghost' trap of a vacuum cleaner. It reminded me of how much I used to go after spiders hanging from the corner of the ceiling in our living room in order to clear them from the house. (Now, I'm usually a bit more humane and escort them out). 

And I am a sucker for the slapstick, horror-bizarro story tale.  I mean seriously; a giant marshmallow man, a keymaster, a gatekeeper, a refrigerator that holds the palace of Zuul inside and a vacuum cleaner trapper-thing that cleans up ghosts?  What is NOT to love about this story?

Oh, yes, I realize it IS a cheezy flick. But the cheese is what made it fun for me. 

Would I watch the film again, right now, this minute? Not unless I had to. There are too many movies, theater plays, Broadway shows and T.V. series I've yet to watch and Ghostbusters doesn't rate on my top ten "really wanna see that film again" chart. Still, it was a fun 'blast from the past' and my son enjoyed taking time to watch the movie with me.  Family hours well spent with some laughter, some discussions on how my son used to love to make 'slime/goo' in the kitchen and then some firm remonstrations for him to never do it again while he protested that he thought it was the perfect time to create more. 

Good times. Good times. Boo!

~Cin

"Mamma, do angels...

...talk?" (Missy. The Amityville Horror (1977) by Jay Anson)

A Review of "The Amityville Horror"

     I'd seen the movie, and I was hoping for an interesting read as I picked up this novel and started reading through the pages.  The novel, I thought, was supposed to be fiction. It wasn't until after I completed reading it that I found out the controversy behind it. Reflecting on it, whether intended or not, the controversy was genius. The story was touted by the author, and by George and Kathy Lutz. to be true.  And although the accounts in the novel are lauded as a hoax for various reasons, both George and Kathy maintained they were true, and passed a polygraph to the fact.

     Am I convinced one way or another? No. Do I believe everything happened that was written in the book? No.  Is some of it plausible? I believe so. Yes. And it is from this starting point that I will discuss my opinion of the novel.

     In most novels I read, when I'm in critiquing mode, I read from two basic vantage points.  The first reader in me looks at 'structure' of the manuscript. Entrance into the story, design of the story, and things like tense, grammar, focus, etc.

     The second reader in me wants to be entertained.  And I ask myself as I'm reading, "Is this story enjoyable? Do I like the pictures, sounds, smells, touches that the prose invokes (or not)?"  So in essence, one vantage point is very technical/objective and one is very visceral/subjective.

     The story began with a prologue, which I felt could have been cut completely. I didn't find it interesting. The first chapter of the book was written in a very 'telling' mode. There was no real action, and the author used the entire first chapter to provide the reader with backstory. (I would like to add here that on my paperback copy, this story is still listed as "non-fiction.")  I kept thinking while I read the beginning of this story that the prose read like a newspaper account. It was lackluster. Dull. In addition, the wording and the overall descriptions were bare bones plain. Almost parochial. Nothing in the paragraphs 'wow'd' me.

     Throughout the novel, I also noted a lot of passive voice and 'tense' changes from active present to passive past, which was jarring and extremely inconsistent.  

 (Arwork by RionaSL @ DeviantArt.com)

     What I did enjoy in the story were the changes back and forth between characters.  George, Kathy, Father Mancuso and the Detective all had different points of view, which broke the tale up and made it more interesting to read. Still, I noticed there was very little conversation/dialogue in the paragraphs, and a ton of 'telling'/'reporting' that seemed to go on instead weaving an enjoyable story.  The narrative method made for a different sound and pace than I was used to.  I can't say it was totally unlikable.  I can only say it was okay.

      The descriptions of the paranormal experiences that occurred at the house were an odd mix of every paranormal encounter I'd ever heard described, plus some demonology and some typical ghost haunting descriptions thrown in for good measure.  It was an odd menagerie of things that incorporated cliche' paranormal accounts with bizarre descriptions such as the demon eyed pig.   

     Because I thought the novel was a work of fiction at first (I hadn't noticed the non-fiction label or heard about the hoax yet),  I took accepted the story as part of the writer's creative mind, and went with the flow.  Red pig eyes, red rooms that caused a person to puke, ceramic lions baring their teeth, flies in winter in the sewing room window...my mind went "Okay, that's interesting..." and I moved on.

     Overall, I can't say I hated this book. But I can't say I really liked it either.  In present day terms it was "meh." I investigated Jay Anson's background (deceased) and found that he'd primarily done documentaries in his career.  He wrote only one other novel after Amityville, which was a fiction piece titled "666."  I'm not sure if I would read it or not. Reviews of the book say it is a similar story to Amityville only definitely labeled as fiction this time.  Other reviewers praise the novel and say they loved every minute of it, but they also loved Amityville, so it's still hard to say if I'd bother picking it up.  Perhaps if it were in front of me, and it was a rainy day, and there were no other reading materials in the house.

     One thing bothers me about this book, and the origin of the story.  I find myself wondering why the town of Amityville doesn't embrace the effects of the ghostly tale, and expound upon the tourist business the house could have brought in. I wonder why the owners didn't choose to open it up for paying tours now and then, and embellish the 'legend' of Amityville for an economic advantage. Something in me finds the idea that the extra traffic bothering people in the neighborhood, and the reluctance of the Historical Society to discuss the topic, a bit odd. We ARE in America, where almost every red blooded American who can capitalize on sensationalism, tourism, (and lots of other isms), DOES.  And yet, not this community. Why? It's a question that naggles at me even now, and perhaps I may have to travel to there one day to find out.

~Cin

(Artwork found on DeviantArt.com.  by elizom.)

    

Ghost Hunting 101: Treading First Haunts in Local Areas

 "The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts."
Italo Calvino

There are few adventures for a writer as satisfying as exploring the environment where their novel takes place. In some cases, as in writing a novel that includes the paranormal and local ghost stories, the writer’s adventure can be a lovely undertaking full of both mystery and suspense. In the spirit of investigating local haunts, I chose to go on a reconnaissance mission of my own and visit some of the most famed ghosty places of Ventura California in person. The places I visited were: Scary Dairy; Cemetery Park, The Pierpont Inn and The Landmark 78/Candlelight Restaurant.

Before this excursion, I'd never considered going ghost hunting. It was my "Readings in the Genre" novels, and stories of the paranormal that made me wonder what kind of ghosts haunted my own back yard. I decided to go on a quest to find out.

Scary Dairy

        Scary Dairy is located near University Drive in Camarillo, California, near the California State University of Channel Islands.  It’s in an odd hilly region just a few miles from the ocean and close to Point Mugu Navy Base, and it's surrounded by some agricultural fields on one side. There are no main buildings in sight, and the area is devoid of anything that appears urban.
            Scary Dairy is located near what was once the Camarillo State Hospital, a mental institution and it was supposedly a dairy farm and/or a slaughter house. After the place burned down a few years ago, it was renamed “Scary Dairy” by the locals. It’s rumored that a number of murders occurred on the grounds, but now it seems to be more like a place for University plebes and graffiti artists to hang out.

            I traveled there Saturday morning (September 17th) with my daughter. It was my second attempt to find the place. Luckily, on our first pass near the main University road, there was a gate that was open which I hadn’t noticed before.  We turned down the dirt road, and passed a group of people flying model planes and helicopters at the Model Airplane Landing Strip, then rounded a bend of trees, and there stood a dilapidated barn and a low white structure just beyond that.

            It probably didn’t help that we visited during daylight hours, although the sky was gray and overcast, but the place didn’t seem very scary. It had more of an artistic feel to it.  The falling, rotting barn was missing several metal panels, but on almost every bit of wood and aluminum sheeting still attached to the frame, there were a number of interesting pieces of graffiti artwork.

            When we traveled into the main building, large holes in the walls and burnt wooden beams above made the place just a bit eerie. There were concrete troughs, such as those that might have been used for feeding cattle. I imagine if I’d been out there alone at night I might have found the experience quite unsettling, but my daughter and I took pictures and talked with a photographer that was there taking shots of the building. It was obvious from some of the artwork that local fraternities and sororities used this place occasionally, but as I looked out on the strangely vacant hills that surrounded the structure I could only imagine what types of nefarious activities might have once occurred here. I've added some pics below for you to get a feel of the place.

Cemetery Park

      On October 1st (Saturday), I decided to go on a longer haunting exploration, and hit three regularly haunted places during the weekend. When I made the hotel reservation, my husband said the local adventure sounded like fun, and so he accompanied me on my tour.

      We stopped at Cemetery Memorial Park on the way, a place I'd only heard of a few months ago. I'd heard, and read that the City of Ventura converted this cemetery into a local park, and that they left the bodies remaining interred in the ground. I couldn't believe such a story at first. Who in their right mind would turn a cemetery into a recreation area? But as you take time to read the sign below, you'll understand that's just what the city did.

      I'd read in a couple of posts that this park was haunted regularly by a teenage boy who hung himself from a tree. I wondered if perhaps cemeteries themselves are not filled with ghostly spirits, but perhaps only places where troubled spirits meet their end are haunted. The idea gave me pause and dispelled some assumptions.

Leopold Gisler (no disrespect intended) has the name of an awesome potential character to be used

in a novel. I do hope Leopold won't mind the use of his name. He died young, and perhaps I can

lengthen his life a little.

James Sumner was the recipient of the Medal of Honor, for participation as a U.S. Calvary Memberin the Indian Wars. Something in me found it eerie to see the upside-down five pointed star inside the

shape of the Pentagon we all know very well in Washington D.C..

 

Here is a name of a deceased child (I assume, because there is no date but one), and perhaps the best name I came across in all of the Park headstones. I have decided "Tennessee Hobson" will one day be a character in a book I write. That way, he'll live forever.

 

Pierpont Inn

      When my husband and I arrived at the Pierpont Inn, we were amazed at how many weddings and local functions this little place hosts.  When we stepped into the common area, we were told there was one wedding reception and a retirement party in progress.  The hotel has a fairly large lobby, a couple of gas fireplaces, and a nice little grassy area adequate for weddings, retirement parties and the like.

      

Our room was number 403.  And for some reason, it was the only room that night that would not get Internet Access.  We checked into the room and headed out to the restaurant (Landmark 78...see below) for dinner.  In the process I took several pictures, but when I went back to check my camera, some of the photos I thought I had taken were no longer on the camera.  After we returned from dinner, we went to bed.  I woke up at 1AM, and couldn't get back to sleep.  I went out to the grassy area near the main building, found a seat with my computer listened to an audio book.  2AM.  3AM. 4AM.  Nothing. Only the slight movement of the wind caressed the nearby palm trees.  4:35AM.  I got a little excited.  I saw a shadowy movement float across the sidewalk and then out scuttled the larges possum I'd ever seen.  It moved almost silently, skulking alongside the building in search of leftover retirement party treats.  I was a little disappointed, but I'd had a lovely morning ghost hunting and looking for signs and symptoms of the paranormal.  It still doesn't explain what happened to the pictures on my camera.

The Landmark 78/ Candlelight Restaurant

     The Landmark 78, once known as the old Victorian Carlo Hain house, is considered Ventura California’s number one haunted restaurant. Situated in the heart of the city of Ventura, on Santa Clara Avenue, it serves as a popular steak house, as well as a late night party area for local youth.  

     In addition to it's current uses, it is also known as the ghostly abode of a woman named “Rosa” who reportedly committed suicide by hanging herself in the room that is now the women’s restroom.  If Rosa saw the color that the bathroom was now, it's no wonder she haunts the place probably hoping for the assistance of a good interior designer.  I learned from one of the waitresses that sightings of Rose first began in 1969, and she is often seen standing on the stairs next to the old fireplace wearing either a pink or green-blue dress.

       At first brush, my husband Jim and I had trouble finding the restaurant. It is parked behind a tall thick hedge of bushes that block out the view of the building. The two story building is constructed rather oddly, with a garish number of angles both outside and inside the house that lend to its creepy feeling when walking near it or in various rooms.  

      We were escorted to a table near a gas fire and I chose the spot where I could observe the staircase.  Before my meal, I toured the bathroom, and took several pictures.  Unfortunately Rosa never did appear.  But I did have an odd feeling of being watched.  It may have just been the waitress looking at me, hoping she'd get a big tip.  In the entire building we were one of two couples having dinner that night.  A Saturday night.  Incredible.

     Dinner came, and it was delicious, and I found myself wondering why such a nice place remained empty for the most part.  The owner only opened the restaurant Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.  And late evenings were for youth parties and dancing on the weekends.  The rest of the time, the building remained closed.

    Jim and I finished our meal, and did a later night tour of the building which had two very weird staircases going up one side of the building and down the other, like one was used by servants and the other used by visitors and the owners.  The back patio area was transformed into a spectacle of candlight which would drive any Fire Marshall to a high pitched frenzy, but which (I must admit) was extremely enchanting.

 

     One place I still want to go is the Victorian Rose Inn.  It's a church that was converted into a Bed and Breakfast.  Stories say a woman once hung herself from the balcony area in the church. Other stories say she plummeted to her death from the balcony. The B&B stays relatively full most of the time, and it is difficult to get booking during weekends or holidays.  But I plan to go there soon for another adventure.

     In conclusion, I've found ghost hunting quite enjoyable, although I did it this time as an amateur choosing to only 'visit' places known to be haunted. If I had the opportunity, would I go back late at night with flashlights and dousing rods and other implements of tracking ghosts?  I might.  But I don't believe ghosts only haunt our world in the dark.  They are there day or night, roaming the borders between our world and theirs...hoping for some sense of peace, freedom and relief of their pain along the way.  As for me, I hope that they find what they're looking for...as long as they're not looking for me.

~Cin

"How can they talk about their death...

...if they don't know they are, indeed, dead?" ~Elaine (Grave's End, 2001)

Perhaps I have a special fondness for this book because the author belongs to the nursing profession, and as a fellow "Florence Nightingalian" I feel a deep sense of admiration for what she's written.  Never mind that her experience took from 1982 to 2001 to get written down and published. Regardless of the time it took, I still found it a fascinating read.  It was like watching "Paranormal Activity" on paper, only much deeper, completely richer.

Elaine's frank descriptions about finding the house that she hoped would bring her marriage together, and then going through the frustrations of realizing it was a failed hope... on top of living in house that became progressively more supernaturally active, was exquisitely compelling. This story is described as a true story, and I have no doubt that much of it is true from the point of view of the author.  I do have to wonder if there were parts that were embellished, or exaggerated in order to make the story more interesting to the reader, but what made it enticing was not only the haunting but the life toils and troubles that Elaine went through with her family during this time.

Most adults that struggle to be parents, and who have children in their early or late teens can empathize with what Elaine described in her novel. Add to this, Elaine's commitment toward independence in a career and profession after being dependent on her husband for so long, and the story pulls at the heart strings of the reader and coaxes the page traveler to keep turning the paper.  :)

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and I'm not at a point in my life right now where I can be poetic or write deep meaningful prose about it. What I liked was the story's frankness. It's blunt honesty.  It was written just as if I'd picked up a diary of a scared woman living in a haunted house and started reading.  I was able to feel her thoughts, her worries, her concerns...even though they weren't ones I would have agreed with or chosen.  (I'd have let the professor in to study my family and do the interviews...what the hell?)  Still, reading on and learning about Elaine and her family and how they finally discovered the secret of the house and resolved how to live with it... was not only a good read, but was deeply satisfying. I would recommend this novel to anyone who would like a quick and honest read on something paranormal. It might reach beyond their expectations with little balls of light.

~Q

"And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world...

...without me in it." ~Susie  (The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold)

I didn't want to like this novel. When I saw "The Lovely Bones" on the horror genre reading list, every nucleus in my body rebelled against it.  It was a novel I'd heard young girls gushing over in the college parks and on the Metro in DC when I was riding home from work. I filed it into my mental bin of gooey literary novels...the kind I despise reading because everyone else does...because it's the "in" thing to do.  Not because it's good, but because it's a talking point, one of the things the "in crowd" of society does.  It's the thing to talk about at parties, and other social functions.  And I hate social functions almost as much as I hate the "in crowd" and so I eschewed this novel, and was mapping my path of projectile vomit before having to read the mandated pages.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, because I can't decide which) what I received from this story was...unexpected.  I hate that Scott Johnson made me read this novel. I also hate that I enjoyed it so very immensely, and that it turned me into one of those gooey eyed girls in the park and/or on the Metro.  This novel was, in a sense, a ghost story...but it was so much more than that on many levels.  It's a novel that stands out like a sore thumb among the other novels we've read because it's so visceral, so real, so emotionally packed.

Alice Sebold reaches the reader through a young teenage girl Susie, who is raped and then murdered by a neighbor who lives nearby. We see Suzie's brief life flicker out, and then watch life unfold around her after her death... and she see's what happens in the world without her.  It was a unique perspective to read in, feeling like all the while I was sitting with Suzie listening to her thoughts/emotions, seeing what she was seeing.  What I enjoyed most about Sebold's writing was that it was fresh, unencumbered by unnecessary words. It was believable from the perspective of a young teenage girl because the narrative and the dialogue wasn't too complex and the intimacy of tender youth wasn't covered up by excessive verbosity.  :)

While this book may not rate among my favorite for this semester's readings ("The Shining" has got it so far...) I have to rate it as the most emotionally fulfilling and draining.  Something in the pages drew sorrow out from the pores of my body, made me cry at how unfair both life and death can be, and helped me realize how desperately simple and loving our humanity is...even in death.  For that, I'll both curse and give thanks to Scott Johnson for the experience, although I will still hide the novel from my bookshelf and try not to let my lower lip tremble when someone mentions it. 

 

Bones - 1 by ~mjranum-stock

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