Tag: horror community

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Coffee and Contemplation: Haunted Nights (Anthology)

For this week’s Coffee and Contemplation segment, we’re discussing an anthology of short stories from different authors. Sixteen stories focused around our favorite holiday, Halloween. Some stories even incorporate aspects of Samhain, All Souls’ Day, Día de los Muertos, and Devil’s Night. These stories include a little of everything including vengeful ghosts, trick or treating, urban legends, and jack-o’-lanterns. This is the best collection of Halloween themed stories I’ve read. Each story is a different tale. Some are suspenseful and dark. A couple have a little humor. It’s a fun collection for any time of year.

I found one story to be anti-climactic, but the rest were wonderful. Many of the stories include traditions that are not associated with the commercial Halloween. What some might call the old ways. I appreciated that some stories included the other holidays that occur around the same time as Halloween such as Día de los Muertos. The anthology felt world encompassing with the tales set in different countries and the different traditions many have never heard of. This was one of my favorite books I read in 2019. This is not light, fun reading. Some of the stories deal with the real darkness living in the human soul.

I highly recommend this book to everyone, but it is not for children.

Spooky Spider Scale (How scary was the book?): 8/10 spiders 🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️

Overall rating: 5 stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

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I’ll be at the Mad Monster Party in July

If you’re not familiar with Mad Monster Party, I suggest you check out their website. This is a horror themed convention and I’ll have a vendor table. It’s happening in Glendale, AZ on the Fourth of July weekend. They have a great list of celebrities who will be in attendance. It looks like it’ll be a lot of fun. What will I be doing there? At my vendor table, I’ll be selling copies of my book “The Morbid Museum,” a collection of short horror stories framed around a curator and museum of death.

I’ll have paperback copies and a few hardbound copies. I will also have an exclusive collection of spooky haikus available for those spooky poetry fans. “Haunting Haikus” has 23 haikus along with some images. It’s a quick read but fun. I will also have a few bookmarks for sale. These will have spooky themes like skulls, pumpkins, and witches. I’ll post some photos once I have everything collected and packaged. I’m still waiting on a few deliveries. I’ll post more details as I get them. If you’ll be in Glendale, AZ on the Fourth of July weekend, come to the Mad Monster Party, find my table, and say hi. I’m looking forward to hanging with my fellow horror enthusiasts. 

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Coffee and Contemplation: IT by Stephen King

I’m posting a little late today. Don’t hold that against me. Today’s book discussion is about “IT” by Stephen King. What can I say about this book? It came into the world around the same time I did. It was published in September of 1986. I was also “published” in September of 1986. Coincidence? I think not. But I digress. This book was long. Longer than it needed to be. While I enjoyed the back-and-forth of childhood and adulthood with the main characters, half the novel could have been left out. And the ending was anti-climactic.

I did enjoy the newest film adaptations of the book. The ending of “IT Chapter 2” was still lackluster. The first film was perfect and is still in my top ten favorite films of all time. But back to the book. Lots of scary sequences. I enjoyed most of the novel. As I mentioned earlier, several parts could have been cut out to make the overall novel stronger. Part of me also wants to know more about Pennywise before meeting the kids that eventually killed the hungry clown. It’s worth reading once. It doesn’t feel like something that needs to be read multiple times.

I do recommend this book. Definitely not for children.

Spooky Spider Scale (How scary was the book?): 8/10 spiders 🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️

Overall rating: 4 stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐