Category Archives: Featured Articles

5 books, 5 minutes, 500 words or less: Volume 2

Once again, I find myself falling far behind on my book reviews.  I wish it wasn’t so – but 5 months of wishing hasn’t changed anything, so I’ve come to a conclusion.  It’s time for another installment of “5 books, 5 minutes, 500 words or less” (you can read the first installment here).  Let’s review the rules – I’ll review 5 books, with each review clocking in at 100 words or less, that hopefully you can read in 5 minutes or less.  (I guess that’s really kind of self evident, based on the title, huh?)  Think of it as speed dating for bok reviews.  It’s much harder than it sounds, constraining my brilliance and formidable insights to only 100 words per book, but it’s a great exercise in efficiency.  Hope you enjoy!

Review – “Entombed” by Brian Keene

I’m a Brian Keene fan.  No getting around it.  As I remarked in a previous review – “His writing is like an ice-cold beer on a hot day – it goes down smooth and always satisfies.” He’s on my must have list – I’ll pre-order each new release on Amazon, I’ll comb the specialty stores for out of print anthologies, and I’ll shell out the dinero for each small press limited edition. (My only regret is that I missed out on the “lifetime subscriptions” he offered last year.  Oh well, you can’t win them all…).  So, when I heard his latest release “Entombed” would finally be available, but only as a limited edition from Camelot Books, I fired up ye olde Internet and placed my order (you can still snag a copy here).  I’m happy to say copy #151 now has a home on my living room bookshelf.  It was money well spent.  Well spent indeed.

My interview with Lavinia Ludow, author of “alt.punk”

I’ve said before, one of the reasons I enjoy this blog so much is the opportunity it affords me to meet and interact with authors and artists.  One of the people I’ve had the pleasure to chat with is Lavinia Ludlow, author of “alt.punk”.  (If you haven’t had a chance to read my review of “alt.punk” – you can find it here.)  It’s one of the more engaging interviews I’ve done – Lavinia really made herself emotional accessible in her answers.  We talked about the process of editing the novel and getting it published, some of my criticisms of the book, what the future holds for her, and – of course – the impending zombie apocalypse.  Enjoy!

Review – “The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses” by Ty Drago

I’ve read an underground bunker full of zombie books in my day: some of them good – many of them dreadful.  Many of them have blindly followed the path set down by George Romero in “Night of the Living Dead” – slow shambling zombies intent on eating brains – without even attempting to advance the genre.  Many of them have been nothing more than poorly written scenes of blood and gore strung together by tenuous plotlines and cardboard thin characters.  Nary a one of them has been for young adult readers.  I’m happy to say, “The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses” is none of those things.

I challenge you to walk the aisles of your favorite bookstore today without tripping over the mountains of young adult Vampire books that have flooded the market. Good vampires, bad vampires, teenaged vampires, tragically misunderstood vampires – it’s all a bit much.  What has been missing is a serious (and seriously good) young adult zombie novel to even the odds a bit.  Ty Drago has delivered just that with “The Undertakers”.

Review – “alt.punk” by Lavinia Ludlow

I waited a good while to write this review after I finished “alt.punk”.  I needed time to process it, to tuck it away and let my subconscious work on it for a while.  It was a tough call to make – my inclination is to dive straight in to a review while the experience of reading the book is still fresh in my mind.  I take notes as I read; I jot down ideas for the review and highlight passages I want to revisit; things that resonated with me.  When I first finished “alt.punk”, I crafted the following to sum up my thoughts:

“The story didn’t so much end as it simply bled out, lying in a pool of it’s own vomit on the cheap linoleum bathroom floor of a mobile home.”

I still like the visceral imagery of that critique – but as I contemplated the book more, I realized it would have been a gross disservice to the story to leave that as my final word.  In many ways, I found myself mirroring the comfortable acceptance of first impressions that plagued a few of the characters in the book.  So, I took a step back and gave the tale time to marinate.

Star Wars + Zombies = Coolness

I may very well have found the coolest movie posters on the face of the earth.  Posters so ingenious, so original, so inspired, I almost can’t believe they’re real.  These are the posters I’ve been waiting for almost my entire adult life.  What are they?  Simple – they are a fusion of two of my favorite things:  “Star Wars” and zombies.  The only problem is, now that I have them, my wife won’t let me hang them up in the house.

I’ve been a huge “Star Wars” fan for as long as I can remember.  My earliest memories of first grade include bringing “Star Wars” figures to school and having battles with my friends on the playground.  As I grew older, I began to collect “Star Wars” posters.  Original posters from the releases of each movie in each trilogy, international releases, alternate one-sheets, teaser posters – I even have an original “Revenge of the Jedi” poster (released before Lucas change ‘Revenge’ to ‘Return’).  I thought I had the best “Star Wars” posters I could find.  Then I heard about a series of Star Wars zombie posters from artist Matt Busch and that all changed.

Review – “Twenty-One” by Corey Smith

If you haven’t heard of Corey Smith before – well, let me introduce you to him.  He’s a native of northern Georgia, a former schoolteacher, a father, a husband, and a musician.  He’s also someone you will be hearing a lot more about this year – starting with the release of the first single, “Twenty-One”, off his upcoming album “The Broken Record”.

After many years of releasing his music independently (and selling over 150,000 albums in the process), Corey recently joined forces with Average Joes Entertainment.  He is slated to release “The Broken Record” in June. Corey has said the new record is a comprehensive look at how he has changed over the years – a blend of old songs and new songs, woven together to “hopefully convey a message about life”.  That blend of old and new perfectly describes “Twenty-One”.

My interview with Carolyn McCray, author of “30 Pieces of Silver”

If you are a fan of historical thrillers and haven’t read “30 Pieces of Silver” by Carolyn McCray – well, you need to fix that.  It’s one of the more entertaining and original takes on the genre I’ve read in a long while (you can find my review of it here).

I was lucky enough to have the chance to chat with Carolyn recently.  We covered everything from how she approaches writing, her experience in self-publishing, the shocking ending to the book, and – of course – the impending zombie apocalypse.  Enjoy!

American Idol, Season 10: Top 9 Results – “A mistake is one thing, but a lack of passion is unforgivable.”

I’m just going to get it out of the way up front – tonight was shocking.  Very shocking.  Almost as shocking as Casey being voted out and then being saved by the judges.  The difference?  There was no judges’ save tonight.  The last person left standing with Ryan was out of the competition, and heading home.  Who was it?  Were the bottom three the right ones?  How did Constantine sound?  All these questions answered, and more – after the break.

American Idol, Season 10: Top 9 Performances – “That’s the second prettiest bust I’ve kissed all day.”

The theme for Idol this week was the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.  The funny thing was – there were precious few rock and roll songs performed on the show.  That’s not to say there were bad songs this week.  The Rock and Roll Halle Of Fame cuts a broad swath through music in America, and the contestants took full advantage of the breadth of music available to them.

After Ripley’s guy brought the judges out, they ran a montage setting up the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  For the first time I can remember, Ryan didn’t narrate the set-up piece.  They wisely decided to let Steven do the set-up.  It was a little disconcerting to see him posing next to a wax replica of his head – made even more interesting when he kissed it and said, “That’s the second prettiest bust I’ve kissed all day.”

There were two celebrities involved this week.  Gwen Stefani was brought in to style the ladies in her new fashion line (more on that later), and wil.i.am joined Jimmy Iovine to help with the song prep (much more on that later – but can we all agree that one time on the show was too much for him this year; three times is just ridiculous.  What can he really help them with – autotune etiquette?)