Vile Things

Okay, I've been meaning to promote some of the magazines and anthologies that have been kind enough to include my short stories, so I thought I'd start with one of my favorites.

Now, I don't consider myself a writer of "extreme" horror. In fact, the phrase "extreme horror" generally makes me a little sleepy. I tend to think of poorly written stories that exist only to describe goopy acts of violence.

A quick look at the table of contents for Vile Things from Comet Press will tell you this isn't that kind of extreme horror anthology. It's extreme all right (in fact, a couple of these, like "Sepsis" and "Maggots" were so gruesome I nearly lost my lunch) but these stories have, you know, actual stories. Sure, there's corpse eating and penis severing, but there's character and humor and atmosphere and all that good stuff as well.

Here's the TOC:

The Fisherman Brian Rosenberger
Fungoid Randy Chandler
Tenant’s Rights Sean Logan
Again Ramsey Campbell
Maggots Tim Curran
Going Green Stefan Pearson
Coquettrice Angel Leigh McCoy
The Fear in the Waiting C.J. Henderson
The Worm John Bruni
Sepsis Graham Masterton
What You Wish For Garry Bushell
The Devil Lives in Jersey Z.F. Kilgore
Rat King Jeffrey Thomas
The Caterpillar C. Dennis Moore
“Poor Brother Ed” or The Man Who Visited Ralph Greco, Jr.

Being an unknown among all of those great writers, I was glad to see that my story was singled out by a number of reviewers as a favorite (okay, it was also singled out once as someone's least favorite, but it was mostly positive).

Here are a few comments:

"Tenent’s Rights is just about the funniest gross-out story I have ever read. Reading this from the perspective of a short filmmaker it was a story that immediately made me think ‘I want to make the film’."

"'Tenant's Rights' by Sean Logan will have you laughing and squirming at the same time."

"Other favorites included the cheeky Tenant’s Rights by Sean Logan, in which an off-kilter, nerdy tenant gets revenge on his playboy roommate/landlord, but with disastrous results."

A slightly shorter version of this story was also featured on the great horror fiction podcast Pseudopod, where it received a ton of great feedback from the listeners. Here's a small sample:

"I laughed outloud (frightening my family) while taking all of my underwear back to the washing machine as a precaution. Horror with more than a sprinkling of humor from the silver alchmist’s mixing bowl."

"Fantastic!!!! Best Pseudopod ever!!!"

"Seriously funny and totally gross. Loved it!!"

"Sheer comedy, I laughed and laughed."

"Oh my gosh, this creeped me out, scared me, had me scratching and all of the above. I was screaming in my car, gasping and just squealing in pain."

"This story did exactly what I imagine it was intended to do: give me screaming nightmares."

And my personal favorite:

"I liked this a lot.
Well, actually i felt sick, which i guess is sort of a compliment!"

(Long Overdue) Tequila Review: Corzo Anejo

Well, look at Mr. Fancy Schmancy. Look at me with that bottle they had to get out of the locked case. Hey, it wasn't me, it was Christmas present (my relatives are enablers).

So how’s it taste? Good. Not Chinaco good, but good. Rich and spicy. More Indian spice than the roasted nutty flavor I favor, but it’s a unique and distinctive. Almost a little buttery in texture. Some carmel in there too, but in a good way. I’m not all that experienced with Anejos, but this is the second one I’ve tried that had a strong whiskey taste. I’m wondering if that’s a common characteristic among Anejos that isn’t usualy present in Resposados. Anyway, a little overpriced for the taste, but get this one for the bottle and look all classy and stuff.

What, you still exist?

Damn, no post since May? What the hell? What happened?

You want to know what happened? Coma. That's right, I was skydiving and my shoot didn't open. I fell 10,000 feet straight onto my head and I've been in a coma ever since.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Now don't you all feel bad for suggesting that I was just to lazy to post?

Anyways, I'm out of the Fresh Blood contest. I came in third. And third prize is, you're fired. The final vote is happened now, so head on over to chizine.com to vote for your favorite. And good luck to eventual winner *he says through his tears*.

I'll be back later with some more tequila reviews. Just because I was in a coma doesn't mean I wasn't drinking tequila.