Happy Halloween - A "Treater" for you all

Here's the short story I said I was going to post. I entered it in a YA Halloween writing contest on Absolute Write. Didn't win anything but it was fun to write. It's a pretty big deviation, stylistically, from what I normally write but it was still fun to experiment. So enjoy and I hope your Halloween was spooktacular!

Jack looked into the pillowcase. A sugar high yelled back. The lady in the doorway smiled. You’re too old. Jack looked at his friends. No they weren’t.

‘Thanks.’

He stumbled to the street. He opened the sack again. Everything was twitching. The Twizzlers had a hole in it. Something was growling.

The pillowcase started swinging. It whapped Jack in the leg. He already lagged behind. No one could see his candy spazzing.

The pillowcase wigged out more. The snarling got louder. Jack cringed thinking of hugging it to his body. He couldn’t let his friends see.

Little candy bars jerked and twitched against his stomach. Each poke made his guts flop. Jack shivered. The wet on his neck made the cold worse.

Jack looked behind him. Then in front. The streets were darker. Porch lights were shut off. There were fewer houses to turn to. Jack’s friends still laughed and shoved. Jack shivered.

Pain dug across Jack’s stomach. He sucked in cold air getting colder. It hurt his teeth. He looked down and moved the pillowcase. There was a spot of blood on the sack. The one on his t-shirt oozed bigger.

Home was a green sign on the corner. It flashed at Jack. He beelined down the street. The pillowcase still squirmed. His friends didn’t notice.

Every house was dark. It wrapped around him as he zipped by. It slowed him down. His porch light was on. Ugly orange mums were out. His gut churned.

The curb grabbed his toe. The shadows pulled the sack out of his arms. The dewy grass yanked his knees down. The wet soaked through his jeans. The cold got colder.

A gust blew. Snickers skin slapped his face. The pillowcase was in front of Jack. The shadows gnawed half of it. It bled Milky Ways on the grass. It was still.

Jack’s heart knocked at his ribcage. It pulled at his throat. It beat in his ears.

The blood spot on the sack glared back. Jack touched his finger to his stomach. He cringed. He looked down. He pulled the t-shirt up. The gouge stared back. It was polluted with t-shirt fuzz.

The pillowcase was still.

Jack’s street was stagnant. The shadows stole the noise.

Something poked his calf. Jack swat. He looked at his leg. It was nothing.

Something poked his back. Jack hit. The sting echoed. His hand was heavy. He looked. It was nothing.

Nothing pricked up his arm. He couldn’t look. The back of his neck tore. Pain played dancing stars in his eyes. Skin popped. Little daggers ripped. Nothing was out of breath. Nothing snarled in Jack’s ear.

Nothing stopped Jack’s scream. Jack’s face hit the ground. Babe Ruth crinkled. She caught his fall. Ugly orange mums were out. Jack’s porch light was on.

Jack’s porch light went off.

My Favorite Pumpkin

While I didn't get a pumpkin this year (I honestly have no idea why, I just realized a few days ago that I didn't have one and completely brain farted on the date, duh), I spent literally hours carving this one last year. I took the cheap route and found a stencil online that I liked and since I didn't feel like paying for it, I printed it out and drew it myself. Fun times!

The flesh of the pumpkin was close to two inches thick so it was a bitch to carve the thing. I kept having to take breaks because I was working the muscles in my hands so hard and by the time I was done, I had blisters, some of them popped. But I was really happy with the results so I think they were worth it! And at least last year we had some trick-or-treaters to see it. We didn't get any this year. Thus is the curse of living on a main road with no sidewalks. We're not exactly a prime trick-or-treating area. I used to live in a couple, but not anymore. Boo.

The Ghost at the Camp

A town over from where I grew up (and from where I live now), there's an old cemetery down a dirt road and at the end of that road is an abandoned sleep away/day camp. When I was in high school, we went down to that road at night and totally freaked ourselves out with stories of the Green Lady in the cemetery and the supposed mass murder that happened at the camp however many years ago (which was the reason why it was closed, of course). There was a rumor that the ghosts moved around the supposed killer's rusty truck that was still there so when you went there, it was in a different place every time you saw it.

Of course, this makes for excellent story-telling and a pulse-pumping Friday night. But the murder story wasn't true, I found out years later. Green Lady, well, that's a different story. But the camp, when I went there during the day to take pictures, I still thought it was all true, as a 16 year old is wont to do.

My dad gave me a new 35 millimeter camera for Christmas so me, him and my best friend went out there because I wanted to take some pictures. During the day. It was still illegal to drive down that road but the police don't really take notice of anything like that during the day. They just care about the punks at night. It is a private road, after all.

So I took some pictures of the graveyard (with its nubs for stones and single standing gravestone that's said to be the Green Lady's and she takes care of it) and the creepy, rundown camp at the end of the street and developed the film. Nothing special, really, except for one photo with this white flash in a window of one of the bunk houses. I couldn't tell what it was and it was on the negative as well but I didn't think twice about it for about a year.

Until I took a photography class the following year. That picture kept nagging me so I decided to blow it up and find out what was in the frame. I blew it up and blew it up and blew it up . . . and freaked the fuck out.

This wasn't an orb. It was a person. A pure white woman (not as in skin tone but instead of a black silhouette, it was white) and it was obvious by the way she was standing she was in a corseted bustle dress. She was standing in the window of the bunk house. There was nothing in that window when I took the picture and I took multiple pictures of that same bunk house. Just that one frame was affected. And in hindsight with multiple years of photo and negative processing behind me, there's no way anything could have happened to those negatives in the developing stage that would coincidentally affect that single photo frame and create the shape of a woman without doing anything else to any of the other frames. Not even close.

I often dream of people from older times without faces and this white silhouette reminded me of those dreams. I wish I still had my test strips but they, along with the drawer I had them stuck in, suffered water damage when my basement flooded two and a half years ago. Needless to say, I was pissed. I think I just ended up throwing it out because the water ruined the image. I was pissed.

So while no mass murder ever happened at that camp, I'm convinced something happened on those grounds many years before. Why else would this woman be walking around in a bunk house wearing a bustle dress? The connection isn't there but I'm sure if I did my research a little better, I could find something with that land. So no mass orbs this time. Just a full on figure. It still gives me tinglies.

Ghosts in the Lourve?

In the spirit of Halloween, today I'll be sharing some paranormal stuff that's happened to me, some with visual evidence. I'll even share a story that I wrote for a Halloween contest on a writing forum I'm on. But first, spookiness in the Lourve.

Back in 2006 I spent six months in Europe as a study abroad student (something I recommend EVERYONE do) and I traveled all over Europe. I made a short overnight stop in Paris because it wasn't high up on my to-visit list (it just never really appealed to me). So the following day after my one night, I was wandering around because I had a lot of time to blow before I caught my train so I took the Metro from my hostel to the Lourve which is like "central downtown" Paris in terms of things to see and such.

Not too many tourists know that there is a Metro stop underground at the Lourve. Most just go to the glass pyramid and wait in the huge line that forms up there. If you go underground, it's like getting a fast pass. While I didn't actually go in the Lourve (I didn't have that much time to spare and I did want to walk around a little more), I took some pictures of the underground lobby. Down there they have an inverted glass pyramid that sits right below the big entrance one above ground and a bunch of carvings and statues all over the place. It's one decent-sized room and you can stand in the middle, spin in a circle and see all of it.

So first I took a picture of the inverted pyramid because it was just so cool-looking. Then I turned around and started taking pictures of the statues and reliefs. I looked down at the camera's screen and it was filled with orbs. I figured some dust had kicked up or something. I wasn't too far from the Metro tracks, even though something like that would have shown up in the first picture too since it was the same room, but that had to be it, even though I couldn't actually see any dust. So I took another picture. Same thing. I walked to the other side of the room to get some statues. Ditto.

Mind, the picture of the pyramid was crystal clear and these carvings are in the same room. If you're looking at the pyramid, all you have to do is turn around and you can see the carvings. So how can dust be on one side of the room and not on the other?

Now let me just say I'm not a big believer in orbs, especially nowadays because our cameras are getting so high tech and are capable of picking up so much definition around us that it's only natural, for a 10 megapixel camera to pick up some particles that we wouldn't otherwise see. But this I just couldn't explain. Nothing was wrong with my camera. One side of the room had clear pictures, the other didn't. The room might have been 20 by 20. Maybe. Once I went outside, the pictures were clear.

Here, look (these are sequential) -


The inverted pyramid. As you can tell, it's pretty big but the room isn't that huge. It's big but not like auditorium big or anything like that. And the picture is clear. Nothing funny, just people heads and glass. Then I turn around to get some pictures of the carvings.


WTF? Dust storm? Yeah, I'm a little confused at this point since all I did was turn around. the inverted pyramid is at my back right now, nothing separating it from me and the rest of this room. Just space. So I try to take another picture.

Great. What the hell's going on? Let's try it again . . .

Ok, I'm head-desking at this point. How about a completely different shot?

Mother's ass! Why can't I get a clear shot of these things?

The first picture I took after emerging from underground. Nice and crystal clear. So what the hell happened?

What do you think? How would you explain an open room and being able to get a clear picture on one side and not on the other. Is it the place or the things I was trying to get pictures of? Would this freak you out?

Fright Fest - The Birds

Alfred Hitchcock was a genius, but you don't need me telling you that. You already knew, right?

The Birds is one of the most terrifying movies ever made if for only one thing - no music. What kind of suspense can you have when you can tell what's going to happen by the tempo of the music? Hitchcock felt the same way. So he took it out altogether. No creepy music leading up to spooky parts that you still jump at any way. Nothing. But. Silence. You don't know what's coming or when. You are just as scared at the people in the movie because those movie lives don't have a soundtrack either. They're hiding out but they can't tell what's going to happen by the sound of the music. Why should you?

Another insanely scary element of this movie - animals acting freaky. And not just, "hey, Fido's getting a little twitchy" but hordes of animals are staring at you and, quite probably, plotting your death. I mean, what would you do if you walked outside your door and blanketing your roof were hundreds of birds? On the power lines, birds. On the lawn, birds. On your car, birds. They're everywhere and you have no idea why and you have no idea what they're going to do.

Until they start attacking. Indiscriminately. And with animals, there isn't a motive, there are no specifics. There's just pure, unadulterated instinct and you're seriously FUBAR because there are way more of them than there are of you. And they peck. To death.

This movie will have you looking at birds in a whole different light. And, really, animals in general. Because who's to say something like that can't happen? Why not? Nature's already pissed at us for what we're doing to the planet. Like the animals won't turn on us next, huh? And what are you going to do? Go duck hunting? The, uh, pecking order (har har) has violently changed and humans are no longer the top beasts in the food chain. Now we're the animals and what we originally knew as animals are the ones hunting us for sport.

If you don't find that extremely freaky, I don't know what'll scare you.

I couldn't find a short original trailer for the movie so this is a fan-made one. Pretty good, actually.

Vampire Beach by Alex Duval

Omnibus featuring Bloodlust and Initiation, both first published in 2006.

Jason Freeman is stoked when his family relocates to DeVere Heights, Malibu. The kids at his posh new high school are surprisingly friendly, and pretty soon Jason's part of the in-crowd. He even gets to meet the hot-but-unattainable girl.

Then, the morning after one off-the-hook party, a girl washes up on the beach dead. There's no explanation - except a suspicious-looking bite mark on her body.

Now Jason has to admit that what you don't want to know can hurt you. And when an old friend pays him a visit, they have no idea that they're about to put themselves in mortal danger. Literally. (book back blurb)

How are you put in mortal danger theoretically? That irked me.

Anyway, I've had this book for about 10 months, I'm just getting to it now and I just realized, when I picked it up to read it, that it was an omnibus. I had no idea. Gotta love my observant self.

So we have rich kids. In Malibu. The new kid that gets accepted. Rich kids have fangs. New kid gets tossed in the middle of it. How freakin' ORIGINAL. See, when I see the words 'beach' and 'vampire' together, my mind immediately goes to The Lost Boys so when I finally picked this up (after some puttering around, I kept going to Barnes and Noble, picking it up and putting it back down) and bought it, I was half-expecting something somewhat similar. Oh silly me. I should have known this wasn't going to trend towards the good.

What a yawn fest. Seriously. Jason wants Sienna but can't have her because she's his buddy's chick but none of the other girls entice him. That is the damn focus for 2/3rds of the first book. Internal back and forth and back and forth - oh god she's so beautiful but I shouldn't want to kiss her because she's Brad's chick but I want her but I can't but I can't help myself but I have to . . . SHUT THE FUCK UP! Talk about getting totally hung up. On both books, no less.

Also in both books, absolutely nothing going on except parties and pretty people for two-thirds of them. Anything worth reading is all shoved and resolved within the last third of the book. Thank god they both only took me an hour to read each. I might have had to stick this thing in a punkin' and to some chunkin'.

The pretty, popular crowd, aka the vampires, weren't your typical rich kids. They were actually down to earth and normal, which was nice and refreshing. That refreshing quality also made them boring as shit. And they're vampires. WTF? Jason is the typical new kid without too much awkwardness, unless he's around Sienna. And he's around her a lot. They accept him but he's the cool kid for being friends with the pretty people AND guys like Adam who's a movie geek that never had an in before now. Add in the bratty sister and the overly concerned parents and you're good to ride the cliche mobile down the trope highway.

Adam had the funny lines. Jason is not a compelling character at all. The events of both books really happen around him as opposed to to him. He just ends up getting himself involved because he's the main character and he'd be even more boring than he already is if he didn't. Sienna turns out to be a little on the slutty side because what would the books be without some teenage romance angst? Dani is your typical younger sister that's as one dimensional as the page I read her on. Who else? The popular guys . . . Zach . . . cardboard. Jason's friend from Michigan, Tyler, twitchy and was pretty much the only one with potential but the author likes rapid fire and clean-cut resolution so that didn't play out like it could have. Am I missing anything? Doubt it.

Oh right. The nice vampires. That don't kill people. And can go out during the day. And donate to charity. That exist because it's a hereditary trait . . . JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. They weren't just emasculated. They didn't even have vaginas. They were just downright eunichs, neuters that needed to get back to their damn bridge game or something. Seriously. Can we cycle back in REAL vampires please? WTF is the point in being this all-powerful supernatural being if you can't even use any of it? And have to go to high school? WTF is with vampires and high school? It was cool with the original Buffy. It was still cool with the series. By now it's so tapped out that that ass is raw. Can we let it heal, please? For the sake of vampire balls? Vampires used to be something to fear. Now they're something to snuggle. *yak*

I think a little more time could have been spent tightening the plot, not to mention editing out all of the typos, than rushing two books out in a year. Quantity over quality, huh?

I'd recommend these for a beach read but, in all honesty, I don't even think they're worth that. They're just not exciting or compelling or even all that interesting to be honest. The second book definitely had more potential than the first but I'll be damned if I read yet another book where I have to wait 120 pages before anything of interest starts to happen. I guess if you feel so inclined to reading them, they'll literally only take about an hour to finish each. Dense is not the word I would use to describe these books. But really, I wouldn't waste that hour. You could be doing better things, like raking leaves.

The Parliament of Blood by Justin Richards

First published in 2008.

George Archer, Liz Oldfield and Eddie Hopkins have made a rather unfortunate discovery: vampires actually exist, and they really do feed on human blood. Using a labyrinth of tunnels beneath Victorian London, these sinister creatures are intent on destroying the human race, and they'll start by taking over the most powerful place in London - the Houses of Parliament.

Through their research on ancient mysteries and a secret London gentleman's club, George, Liz and Eddie come up with a plan to beat the vampires at their own game. And they'd better do it soon, before they become the vampires' next meal . . . (book flap blurb)

What an awesome book. Really. Now here's a guy that knows how to play with the lore, not ass rape it.

First off, I was surprised by how British it was. Usually with British books, when we get them, they're Americanized. Like the Harry Potter books. Most of the British colloquialisms were removed apparently because we wouldn't get it. But this one appeared relatively untouched. There are even 'ou' spellings, British punctuation and everything. I liked it. It didn't insult my intelligence (because, really, Americanizing is pretty insulting) and it made the read feel that much more authentic.

While I pretty much raced through it, I felt it did meander a bit at times. The dawdling at the work house, for instance. I felt too much time was spent there in comparison to the relevance of the place to the greater plot. Yeah, it's a little wordy but I've read worse and even though there were a few too many words, it still remained interesting and I wanted to keep reading. That's really what matters, right?

Out of all the characters, I felt the closest to Eddie. I felt like he was the one character where we were really able to get into his head and his feelings and understand them. Plus he's a snarky little shit and I just really liked that. Sir William's a pretty cool dude. I wouldn't mind working with him. George was a bit of a stiff, especially for someone his age, but he proved useful and not nearly as anal-retentive as he first appeared. I think I liked Liz the least. That's not to say I didn't like her but I felt she didn't really add much to the overall story. I was neither here nor there about her but really just meh.

Plus I felt her "big role" would have been easily found out by the vampires. That was the only part of the book that I had a hard time believing in. By the time we get to that point in the book, we know what the vampires are capable of, what their powers are and so on. Considering that knowledge and the situation, I didn't find her situation plausible and I think they would have ripped open her neck for playing them. But that's just my opinion.

Now the lore part, totally awesome. Richards has all the basic constructs of vampires; fangs, light sensitivity (not combustion level but sensitive), blood drinking, plus he even went with the water fear and the connection to home soil. I loved that part, how they keep their soil on them. Very smart! The Great Lie, though, was quite possibly the best part. It twists the lore just enough that it still maintains its integrity but creates for something new and interesting and YES! I don't want to give it away but let me just say that it takes a "standard" part of the lore that's in favor of the vampires and turns it right against them. Very awesome. And then there's the hibernation bit of it as well. That was another one of the parts of this book's lore that I loved the most, vampires switching places in order to not inundate the planet. No wonder there was discord!

I loved all of the twists this book had to offer, especially with Liz's father. He was such a dynamic character, and one of my favorites, even though he didn't appear much in the book. He was such a strong presence that from the moment he was introduced, even when he wasn't in scene, his presence permeated the pages. Really, no wonder the Reverend wanted to keep Liz away from the theater. While the reason, to me anyway, was pretty obvious as soon as it was introduced, the way it came to light, and then dark, was totally cool.

This is an excellent, and creepy, book about vampires. It makes them a little more realistic, a little sexy but very dangerous and very undead. You can't become a vampire until you die and then you get to claw your way out of your grave. It's probably one of the most traditional pieces of vampire lore and one that I liked the best. It gives them the juxtaposition of being appealing but at the same time truly the abominations that they are. They are undead, as they should be. People shouldn't want to be that but there's a side with a draw that, for some, is irresistible.

Read this book. Now. The vampires will appreciate it.

Added to the Halloween Pumpkin Pot!

Yes! There's more! But I expect there'll be only one more addition after this one. I can only imagine what it's going to cost to ship this thing!


DVDs

Sleepy Hollow (How much better of a Halloween movie can you get? And Johnny Depp . . . hello?)
The Lost Boys (Right. Like you didn't know I was going to slip this one in there, huh? How can I give away vampire DVDs and not give away TLB?)

To see all the rest of the awesome stuff you can win, check out the contest post!

The Vampire's Promise by Caroline B. Cooney

3 books in one consisting of Deadly Offers (originally The Cheerleader), Evil Returns (originally The Return of the Vampire) and Fatal Bargain (originally The Vampire's Promise) - Published in 1991, 1992 and 1993, respectively

There's a vampire living in the creepy old tower at the bottom of the hill, but he's not your usual creature of the night. This vampire makes promises and grants wishes . . . for a price.

When he offers Althea, Devnee, and Lacey the things they want most, the girls must decide how much they are willing to pay.

Simple arrangements, evil consequences. The girls will learn to be careful what they wish for . . . but they'll learn it the hard way. (book back blurb)

That blurb is a bit of a misnomer because Lacey doesn't fit into that. Her situation's entirely different and is actually the polar opposite of the other two girls. But I'll get back to that in a moment.

Normally I review these compilation books separately because they are separate books but it just would have been redundant, even for a series so a 3 books in 1 review is what you're going to get.

The first two, Deadly Offer and Evil Returns are pretty much the same story, just with different names. Both girls are considered plain, boring and invisible. I think under any other circumstances they would have been considered just normal girls but these books are about severe stereotypes. You get one mould and that's what you fit into. So you have the plain Janes that want nothing more than to be pretty and popular and loved and not dull.

They both live in this old Victorian mansion and a vampire lives in between these inside and outside shutters in the tower room of the house (I'll come back to the vampire in a moment). He bleeds into their lives, offers them wishes, or really answers wishes, in return for a life. In order to get you have to give. They wish for popularity and smarts and friends and boyfriends and in return the people that were once popular get tapped by the vampire and, essentially, trade places with the Janes.

In the end the Janes feel guilty, rescind their wishes and feel that it's better to be plain and normal and boring and win people over the old fashion way instead of sucking the life from those that have what you want in order to achieve it. Nice, happy, resolved endings.

Seriously, those two books were the exact same thing. So much so that I thought it was a waste of my time to read the second one but I kept reading thinking that maybe something different would happen, you know? No. The exact same storyline with the exact same characters, just with different names.

The third book, Fatal Bargain, was the redemption. It was completely different than the other two. Whereas the first two had the extreme stereotypes (the jocks, the pretty girls, the plain girls, the popular people), this one had more balance. People weren't shunned but at the same time you were able to get into their heads and see what they were thinking about everyone else around them. They all fit their own moulds but the walls weren't so high that they couldn't climb out of them. The characters actually had depth. They had dimensions and at the end of the story they were something more than paper dolls.

What I didn't get was the insistence that Lacey was an airhead. It was said a fair amount of times but her actions didn't reflect those words. She ended up being the strongest out of the entire group and when I said she didn't fit the mould of the other two, Althea and Devnee, she never made any wishes. That was never the situation in this story.

The other two girls lived in that house with their families but in the last book, the house was abandoned and the kids were partying in it. They had woken up the vampire and he wasn't in a wishing mood. He gave them the option of sacrificing one for him to feed on so the rest could leave. That was it. No pretty looks or popularity to be given. Lacey didn't make any wishes. None of them did.

The writing was very stagnant from one book to the next. I preferred the third on all levels only because of the variety from the last one. It was more multidimensional and fulfilled the horror motif better than the other two.

There were some gaps in the plot, like Althea and living in the house. Her parents never made an appearance. In fact, it kept sounding like she lived in that house by herself. That really bothered me.

In all three books, the vampire had the same descriptions. Considering these were limited points of view, it read to me like all these kids saw this vampire with the same eyes. In every single book, the vampire's skin was the color of mushrooms. Would they really all make that same observation?

And in the last book, the vampire declares that if someone sacrifices themselves for the group, he cannot take them as a victim. It appeared that that applied to one character but when another did the same exact thing, it didn't obviously to serve the plot. Hole much?

And the writing was updated, which irked me. It's as if the new generation wouldn't understand the terms used in the early 90s. It really hit me that it'd been updated was when I caught the mention of the word DVDs. Not in 1991 they weren't. I mean, was that necessary? Is a VHS tape that much of an anomaly to teens today?

And for the vampire, I went both ways with him. First, I honestly don't think this was a standard blood-drinking vampire. His victims, when he was done with them, were all exceptionally tired which led me believe that he was a more psychical vampire that drained energies as opposed to blood. A very different take that I really liked.

There was nothing sexy about him, which is also a nice twist. He's decay and rot and swamp and everything you'd think death would be. His cape is woven of the souls of the people he's killed. He's intangible and tangible all at the same time depending on the strength of his power and he can seep into you if you allow your wishes to be brought to fruition. He's a disease that penetrates the mind and seeps into your soul. Very creepy and very different. I liked it.

What I didn't get, though, was that he occupied the shutters in the tower. I had a hard time picturing that. The idea was that if the shutters were ever opened, it would unleash the vampire so to prevent that, there were shutters both inside and outside the windows. I just didn't get it. In the last book we see just where the vampire resides and by that book it's clear that he is confined to the tower until someone releases him. I don't think it centers around the shutters as much as the first book intoned.

So, the bottom line is that the last book, Fatal Bargain, is the best out of all of them. It has the most depth, it's the creepiest, the least superficial and the most well-rounded. The other two, pick one, read it and move on. The writing, to me anyway, culminates in that final book. The first two were just way too similar and stocked with cardboard characters for my liking.

But all three of them get bonus points for the creep of a vampire. It's not something I see often, a vampire in this form, and it makes me like it even more. He's portrayed as the evil, disgusting piece of rot he actually is and it makes the character that much more spine-chilling.

Added to the Halloween Pumpkin Pot!

Okay, I just have to say I'm watching 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s on VH1 and I am having some wicked flashbacks. I love it! Now onto the goodies!


My dog's feet are not included! And we have -

Books

Scary Stories Treasury by Alvin Schwartz which includes Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones (quite possibly some of the creepiest stories and drawings ever)
Soulstice by Simon Holt, the second book in The Devouring series

DVDs

Ginger Snaps (a wicked awesome werewolf movie from Canada)
Near Dark (like I've said, the only viable vampires without fangs, all hail Severen)

To see all the other awesome stuff you can win, check out the contest post!

Dracula: The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt

Pub date - October 13, 2009

The Un-Dead begins in 1912, twenty-five years after Dracula "crumbled into dust." Van Helsing's protégé, Dr. Jack Seward, is now a disgraced morphine addict obsessed with stamping out evil across Europe. Meanwhile, an unknowing Quincey Harker, the grown son of Jonathan and Mina, leaves law school for the London stage, only to stumble upon the troubled production of "Dracula," directed and produced by Bram Stoker himself.

The play plunges Quincey into the world of his parents' terrible secrets, but before he can confront them he experiences evil in a way he had never imagined. One by one, the band of heroes that defeated Dracula a quarter-century ago is being hunted down. Could it be that Dracula somehow survived their attack and is seeking revenge? Or is their another force at work whose relentless purpose is to destroy anything and anyone associated with Dracula? (from bn.com)

The Un-Dead is a mash-up of chapters cut from Bram Stoker's original manuscript and parts added by his great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker (pronounced like acre) and Dracula historian, Ian Holt. So it's not wholly written by these two. Stoker's original manuscript was much longer but was cut down by his publisher. Of course, the currently alive Stoke and Holt took some liberties with the original manuscript and filled out the gaps the previously unpublished parts left out.

It's been quite a while since I've read the original Dracula so my basis for comparison's off. I remembered enough to be able to pick up the story immediately without any confusion but, even if you're slightly unfamiliar with Dracula, this new one does go into some backstory of the original characters so you're not wholly lost. Your best best, however, is to read and know the original Dracula, know what those characters went through, why they ended up the way they did. It'll make this sequel all the more richer.

I've seen reviews in a few places on this book that weren't all that glowing. Kind of meh. As a fan of Dracula and vampires in general, I was actually very entertained by this book. Sure, it was a little out there. Some of the circumstances had me questioning if they actually fit in with the time of the original (since that's when it was written and the new stuff was supposed to blend) but at the end of the day, I enjoyed it.

I really liked (and this is rather depraved) the total ruin that befell all of the band after the assault on Dracula's castle. That's what this book focuses on the most, is how these characters are living their lives, what's happened to them and how it all feeds directly into the events of the story. Mina and Jonathan's marriage is held together by Scotch tape, basically, Dr. Seward's reputation is that of a lunatic from one of this own asylums and Holmwood is in a sham marriage because his real love, Lucy Westenra, died 25 years prior. Van Helsing is as he was expected: a mangy old man that's still hell-bent on immortalizing himself as a supreme vampire hunter and defending the world against the likes of Dracula. It's no surprise that that very notion is his downfall.

The addition of this new character, Quincey Harker, the son of Mina and Jonathan, is the catalyst for the entire story. He's the one that sets everything in motion, that brings everything to the point it ends up. The actions of most of the characters are made in order to protect Quincey from the truth. Oh how much that comes around to bite them in the ass. Why can't parents just talk to their children?

I'm not sure how I felt about this second presence that was added right from the very beginning whose rage fuels the apocalyptic events of the story. I liked her history and it plays well into the truth mythology (as oxymoronic as that is) of this character but I'm not sure how I liked it. It was alright and it created for some great action but I think it could have been done differently.

I also saw the situation with Quincey's actor idol coming from the second he stepped onto the page. There was just something about his name that I knew was off and played into his character. Turns out I was right. I could have lived without how this idol and Quincey are tied together though. That could have been done differently and have had the same effect on Quincey's character. Plus, we really don't see his reaction and how he deals with that knowledge once it's out there. It just pretty much ends. The thing is, I don't think we're going to get more, either. At least not family-sanctioned anyway, but it leaves doors open.

The Titanic is also brought in at the very end. Personally I felt that was a little contrived. The current authors did it because Bram Stoker died only days after the Titanic sank so it was kind of an homage but in terms of the story, I don't think it fit. It leaves you with the question of did he or didn't he? which is kind of annoying, especially since we're probably not going to see anything else after this book. I mean, why not just stick 'em on a regular ship and have the ending be a little more solidly open-ended than that? That kind of irked me, actually.

After a while you can start to pick up what's Stoker's original manuscript and what was added but there's still some confusion as to what was written when. I take issue with the sheer amount of sexuality in this one. I know it was present in the original but it was bordering on gratuitous on this one that seemed to overstay its original Victorian moral. Maybe it was written up a bit in order to play to a more current society. Whatever it was, it didn't blend as good into this storyline as it did into the original.

But I liked all of the history. Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt definitely put much more work into research than their predecessor and it showed. I always enjoy historical accuracy. And while they took liberties with the dates of the original manuscript, it fit in with the events of this one and, in the end, it all played together nicely. I liked the notion that, with hindsight, Dracula was "real" and taken from the lives of "real" people. I really liked that twist, especially when the "characters" started correcting book!Stoker's "mistakes." Very keen!

Is it as good as the original? Of course not. But it was entertaining. It was a mix of the modern need for action with the Victorian weight of the original. History and present day played a delicate balancing game that sometimes tipped over but would always seem to rescue itself. I think it's a good sequel to its original. It definitely could have been a hell of a lot worse and yeah, it could have been better but I'm glad we got what we got. It was good. I was entertained. The book itself did its job with no real complaint. Now I want to go back and re-read the original just to make comparisons which might alter my opinion of this one but I don't think by much. Regardless, I still didn't want to put the book down.

The duality of pitting really evil against the lesser of two evils is something that you see a lot of in the current vampire market but the evil here takes it so much further. It's so much more ruthless and nihilistic and sadistic than much of what's out there now. And the reason for the crusade is chilling and therein lies the real fear. But you can only fight evil with evil, right?

Vampire Hotness!

This article from Entertainment Weekly highlights their idea of the 14 hottest male vampires. For most of it, I must agree. I don't know how that knob with the dead wombat on his head ended up on the list. He's not even a vampire. But I just wanted to re-highlight some of my favorites from that list, plus one.

Angel

OMFG, *drool*. I never watched his show but you can bet your ass I watched Buffy when it first came out (you know, when it was still good). Needless to say, I'm a Bones fan now. He was the brooding, woe-is-me vampire before they were even cool. Now they're just a pain in the ass and I might have to bring Angelus back out so he can lay the smack down on the current pussies. Damn. Whatever shall I do? Where's the whipped cream?


David

This guy's the ultimate badass. He's just so evil and smarmy that you can't help but drool over him. There are so many of us out there that are attracted to the bad boy. Well, you can't get any badder. And you won't see this biker boy in any high school class room. Aside from the fact that he'd ignite in the sunlight like the good vampire he is, he'd shamelessly slaughter the high school nerds around him. Like he gives a shit about any of them. *snerk*


Lestat

The good Lestat, not the Stewart Townsend Lestat that was all sorts of wrong. I'm talking the Tom Cruise before we actually knew he was crazy. This had to be one of the sexiest roles he ever played. Lestat is such a selfish motherfucker. A lot of people I know prefer Louis. Even when I was 11 and reading Interview with the Vampire, I wanted to tell Louis to get a tan. I couldn't stand his whining. I loved Lestat and I loved Tom Cruise in this role. He just drips bastard that I'm ready, willing and able to lick up.


I'm a have to add one . . .

Dracula

Gary Oldman version. Dude, you people thought Sirius was sexy? Add fangs and a Romanian accent and well, if I went into detail, I'd have to put the Blogger warning up and I really don't want to do that. Despite the weird hair, the way he acts with Mina would so pwn Etard and his stalker tendencies. That knob should take notes. And talk about a versatile boyfriend! He can be young, old, a bat and a wolf all rolled into one! Seriously . . . one of the sexiest vampires ever.

And notice how these are all vampires worth their fucking salt? Hmmmm? And they're MEN! If they were capable and not frozen in time by immortality or shaved by production, they could grow chest hair. 'Nuff said.

Added to the Halloween Pumpkin Pot!

Even more! This is a tealight holder from Partylight. If you don't know what Partylight is, it's one of those companies where you have home parties, like Tupperware or Pampered Chef except this is with candles and accessories. Yay for my mom being a consultant!

This tealight holder is black with those trees and eyes etched into it. It stands about 3 or 4 inches high and I'm including 6 Halloween Nights tealights with it, 3 in orange and 3 in black. It's a woodsy, sweet scent. Very nice and moody.

To see what else you can win if you enter, head on over to the main contest post!

Added to the Halloween Pumpkin Pot!

More stuff! I have even more stuff in the mail. Wheeeeeeeee!

Halloween Pez dispenser and fillers
Bag of Candy Corn
Glow Sticks
2 Horror Pens (Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees)

Yeah, I had to make a trip to Walgreens today so I picked some stuff up. If you want to see what else you can win, hit up the main contest post!

The Awesomeness of Vampires from a Guy Who Knows What He's Talking About

Joe Garden, author of The New Vampire's Handbook and Onion editor, spoke with AMCtv.com about his opinion on vampires, the coolest, the baddest, the best and the ultimate ridiculousness of sparkling vampires. I think I've "met" my soul mate. I urge you to read the entire article. It won't take you long. But I'll reproduce the best part of it: Mr. Garden's top ten vampire deaths. Awesome!

Q: Can you share your Top Ten Vampire Deaths?

A: (WARNING: CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS)

10. Sheriff Eben Oleson in 30 Days of Night -- With hours to go until sunrise, the Sheriff chooses to become a vampire to fight the hoard. When he defeats the leader, he faces the rising sun rather than to slip further into vampirism.

9. Dracula in Dracula Has Risen From the Grave -- A pointy cross sticks falls and sticks in the ground, and Dracula coincidentally falls onto that cross. And gasps. And struggles. And gurgles. Then he is prayed over for 40 seconds, whereupon he weeps tears of blood and expires.

8. Longshadow in True Blood -- Finally, after eight episodes, we see how vampires die. Turns out it's quite a sloppy process.

7. Sarah Roberts in The Hunger -- Once she realizes what she's become, the latest victim of vampire Miriam slits her own jugular with an ankh knife, setting off a chain of events in which all of Miriam's discarded lovers come back for revenge.

6. Homer in Near Dark -- The sight of the young boy/old vampire burning to death in the sunlight while running after the human girl he chose to make his bride is disturbing. Running and burning. Running and burning.

5. Prince Mamuwalde in Blacula -- With nothing to live for following the death of his beloved, the noble prince forces himself to walk up the stairs and into the sunlight, leaving behind a smoking, maggoty corpse.

4. Claudia in Interview With a Vampire -- As with Homer, it's unsettling to see the young-looking companion of Louis and Lestat burned to death by other vampires.

3. Max from The Lost Boys -- "One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach: All the damn vampires."

2. Amilyn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- Is this an homage to No. 9? Only Paul Rubens could make a hilariously protracted vampire death work like he did.

1. Count Orlok in Nosferatu -- The shot of Count Orolk fading into oblivion after being trapped in the morning sun is forever etched in my brain.

Fright Fest - Bram Stoker's Dracula

This is where it all started for mainstream vampire love, people. In the 19th century. This is the ultimate paranormal romance before there was even such a sub-genre. If little Miss Bella can slaughter her one true love at the end of the book, she wouldn't even be half of the woman Mina is. But again it would still benefit us because then Bella would impale herself on Edward's stake because she couldn't live without him. Slaughter away!

It's been a while since I've read the original and I'm reading the sequel now and, quite the contrary to the reviews I've been reading, I'm really liking it. It's kind of out there and, after a while you can tell where Stoker's writing stops and the recent authors' pick up (the book is an amalgam of Stoker's own writings that were cut from the original manuscript and add-ins from Dacre Stoker, his great-grand nephew and Ian Holt, a Dracula historian, if you will) but it's still launching me through all 400-something pages of the book.

Then there's the 1991 movie. Awesome. Aside from the fact that Keanu "Ted 'Theodore' Logan" Keeves was cast as Jonathan Harker (WTF was Coppola thinking there? was there no one better to play an English solicitor? really?), it really doesn't have any flaws. I mean, Gary Oldman . . . hello? Again, it's been a while since I've read the original so I can't compare the movie to the book but I can tell you they'll both boatloads of awesome.

We have genuine horror, the vampire in all its dastardly forms and ways, and we have the tortured love angle that does not end happily. It's terrifying and engrossing and painful all at the same time. If you haven't seen it, go rent it. Now. If you haven't read it, you're not a real vampire fan until you do. So go read it. Now.

Added to the Halloween Pumpkin Pot!

This one's from my pile -


Except my cover looks like this one -


I just wanted you all to be able to read what was on the cover. Says the same thing. Just mine doesn't have the creepy children up front.

The Little Big Book of Chills and Thrills edited by Lena Tabori and Natasha Tabori Fried

Check out the rest of the stuff you can win over at the contest post! Click the banner to be transported -

Added to the Halloween Pumpkin Pot!

Oh yeah. I went shopping. My bank account is chagrining right now. But dudes, consider all this fun stuff added to the winner's pot for my Halloween contest. One lucky winner will get all of this, plus what's already listed. Posting a picture or writing a short story doesn't look like so much work now, does it? :)

Here's what we got--

Stuff--

A bag of gummy brains and fangs (seriously, how could I pass that one up?)
A Skelanimals keychain of Kit

DVDs--

Hocus Pocus (while not horror, quite possibly one of my favorite Halloween movies ever, I even bought myself a copy because I only have a VHS)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original grainy one that scares the shit out of you because you can't see what's going on)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the original move the series was based on, because it kicks total ass)

Books--

The Vampire Survival Guide by Scott Bowen (yeah, I bought a copy of this for myself too)
The Werewolf's Guide to Life by Rich Duncan and Bob Powers
Zombies for Zombies by David P. Murphy
Goosebumps - Monster Blood Collection by RL Stine
Goosebumps - Welcome to Dead House by RL Stine
The Monster Book of Zombies edited by Stephen Jones
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The New Vampire's Handbook by The Vampire Miles Proctor (OMFG it cranks on Twilight and Twimoms! Ha! Yeah, snagged a copy for myself.)
Ghosts of Fear Street - Hide and Shriek and Who's Been Sleeping in My Grave? by RL Stine

Is that kick ass or what? And I'm not done. It's only the third! So be sure and check back often and make sure to get all your entries in by midnight on October 31st!

To see the rest of the list of stuff to win, check out the original post--

Bites <3's Halloween!

Ok, if you couldn't tell I'm a crazy Halloween fan. Like whoa, crazy. It's my favorite time of the year and I just love all of the spooky feelings that come along with it. And the candy isn't half bad either. :) So expect to see me reading and reviewing a lot more horror this month (I have some backlog to get through so it won't be pure horror, unfortunately) and I plan on doing some horror-related posts, showing trailers to my favorite horror movies and a bunch of other spooky things! Wheeeeeee! I can't wait!

The other thing that's going on is that this post doubles as a MASSIVE Halloween giveaway post! And I mean massive. Throughout the month I'm going to be adding stuff to the trick or treat bag and one lone winner will get it all! Awesome, right? So let's get right down to business.


In the pumpkin pot so far*--

Books--

The Devouring by Simon Holt
Thirst, Number 1 by Christopher Pike (three books in one, The Last Vampire 1-3)
A Teddy Scares mini comic book with a mini Teddy Scares teddy bear (linked so you know what it is)
The Vampire Survival Guide by Scott Bowen
The Werewolf's Guide to Life by Rich Duncan and Bob Powers
Zombies for Zombies by David P. Murphy
Goosebumps - Monster Blood Collection by RL Stine
Goosebumps - Welcome to Dead House by RL Stine
The Monster Book of Zombies edited by Stephen Jones
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The New Vampire's Handbook by The Vampire Miles Proctor
Ghosts of Fear Street - Hide and Shriek and Who's Been Sleeping in My Grave? by RL Stine
The Little Big Book of Chills and Thrills edited by Lena Tabori and Natasha Tabori Fried
Scary Stories Treasury by Alvin Schwartz
Soulstice by Simon Holt

DVDs--

Hocus Pocus
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the original movie the series was based on)
Ginger Snaps
Near Dark
Sleepy Hollow (Johnny Depp version)
The Lost Boys

Stuff--

A bag of gummy brains and fangs
A Skelanimals keychain of Kit
Halloween Pez dispenser and fillers
Bag of Candy Corn
Glow Sticks
2 Horror Pens (Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees)
Eerie lights tealight holder with 6 Halloween Nights tealights
Halloween goodie bag

*Check back often because I'll constantly be adding not only books but DVDs and random Halloween goodness!

What youse gots to do--

If you think the winner of this epic contest is going to win by posting an email alone, you're out of your mind. You guys are going to have to work for this one! In order to just get an entry, you have to post a comment with your email PLUS one of the following--

• Give me a picture of you in a Halloween costume, at any age, it can be recent or a nice embarrassing one from when you were 2, whatever will do (and no half-assed costumes either! meaning so "sociopaths" in normal clothes, boo)
• Write me a scary story, no more than 1000 words (and I mean scary! none of that high school vampire boys falling in love with plain Janes, how dull!)
• Draw/paint/sketch me a spooky Halloween scene (non-digital, get your hands dirty, man!)
• Make me an eerie Halloween graphic (must be digital, using your program of choice)
• Make something up! This one needs to get approved by me in order to be accepted but if you can come up with something to fill in a gap I have, go for it!

You MUST do one of the above in order to be considered for entry. You don't do it, you don't get entered. Period.

If you don't feel comfortable posting a link or story or whatever in the comments, then email me your entry but please note that everything I get sent will be posted on my blog! I want to share your horror with everyone so you go in knowing it'll get posted. If you don't want it posted, say so, otherwise I'll think you do and I will all of a sudden become deaf to any complaining.

On top of this big ass contest, I'll have winners in each category - best costume, best story, best drawing, best graphic and best miscellaneous - all determined by me. No random generators in this sub-category! Just an added bonus for some added prizes. :) (The grand prize winner will be exempt from winning the "best of" portion.)

Extra Entries

Gotta have those, right?

+10 for each extra requirement you do (say you send me a photo and write me a story, you get your entry plus 10 extra points, send in a drawing with all of that, +20, up to an extra 40 points dig?)

+10 for posting my Bites <3's Halloween banner on your blog for the month of October with a link to this contest

+3 for just linking to my contest (unlimited here, that's 3 points for each link you do, link away!)

+5 for already following

+3 for new followers

+3 for telling me your favorite horror movie and/or book and/or TV show

+5 for writing an actual blog post about this

+10 for telling me the scariest thing that's ever happened to you

+3 for telling me how you found out about this contest

+10 for having referred someone that signed up for the contest (meaning you can't just say you referred someone, that person actually must complete the requirements to enter the contest)

I may add more as my sieve of a brain thinks of them so you must, must, must check back often! Not just for that but to see all the fun stuff I'll be adding to the pot!

Just one last reminder - your entry WILL NOT count unless you complete one of the 5 requirements listed above. Do all the extra entries you want, it won't matter. Complete the requirement or your tally gets disqualified. I told you all you'll have to work for this one and I mean it!

If any of this is at all unclear or you have any questions, speak up! I'll answer.

Contest is open to US residents only and ends at midnight, EST on October 31st. Good luck!