STEVE CARROLL WRITES

The world as we know it has ceased to exist. It has been   over a decade since the visitors first appeared. Though nature still   flourishes, humankind has been crushed and placed under the merciless genocidal   campaign of alien intelligence. Technology   has been ravaged by electro-magnetic   pulses. Humans are forced to wear oxygen converters that conceal their exhaled   breath, by which they can be located and destroyed. They now exist either in isolated   solitude or in fortified communes. The   sky is filled is giant discs that emit   howls as they communicate with each other while on the earth’s surface giant creatures   constantly seek the remnants of humanity to rend and tear apart in the claws   and teeth. Our main character, only ever referred to as “the woman,”   has chosen the life of isolated solitude, serving as a motorcycle   courier,   carrying messages back and forth between the communes (Comms), whe...

Those of us of a certain age have fond memories of the   heyday of the VHS movie rental market. There was nothing like going to the   local video rental   store on a Friday night and perusing the walls and shelves   trying to decide what movies we would watch into the wee hours. For many of us,   horror   movies were at the top of that list and in the 80s and 90s there was no   shortage of them to choose from. They typically starred unknown actors and we   didn’t care. I’m pretty sure Kevin Lucia is a kindred spirit to me in this   regard. The first clue to that conclusion is found in his novella,  Joey Leonard’s Last Horror Movie Marathon , which I reviewed a few months ago. That tale revolved around the closing of a video store and the protagonist whose life is upended by watching a certain cosmically-haunted videotape. The second clue is the fact that Lucia’s first full-length novel, The Horror at Pleasan...

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of Nick Robert’s newest book, a collection of short stories entitled, It Haunts the Mind and Other Stories , published by Crystal Lake Publishing . I also recently conducted an interview with Nick which can be found here . Having read his previous novel, The Exorcist’s House , which I enjoyed (review forthcoming), I was eager to sample his short stories. In my experience some authors excel at longer prose forms and some excel at short tales. I’m happy to report that Nick Roberts deftly handles both. It Haunts the Mind and Other Stories features a total of 15 stories that run the gamut from in-your-face grisly horror to genuine chill-inducing subtle innuendo; from weird fiction to hard-boiled noir; and even a touch of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, all culminating with a possession tale set in the world of The Exorcist’s House .  In truth, all of the stories in this collection connect to each other to a certain degree on two different fronts....

Nick Roberts exploded onto the literary horror scene in 2020 with the publication of his debut horror novel, Anathema , which went on to win the 2020-2021 Horror Authors Guild Award for Debut Novel of the Year .  His second novel, The Exorcist's House, was released in 2022 by Crystal Lake Publishing to great acclaim. His newest release, a collection of short stories titled It Haunts the Mind and Other Stories was just released (also by Crystal Lake). Look for a review of that collection and The Exorcist's House on this site very soon. Now, on to my conversation with Nick Roberts, English teacher by day, horror author by night... When did you first feel the writing bug? I’ve always had this creative drive. As early as kindergarten, I started drawing vicious monsters and then progressed by giving them dialogue bubbles. I eventually abandoned the artwork in favor of the stories, and by junior high/high school, I wrote short stories, screenplays, and even filmed my own shitty...

The following column was originally printed in Justin Marriott's Paperback Fanatic 46 , which was published in January of 2023. You can buy a copy of it here . The Horror! The Horror! Men's Adventure Meets Horror I've always been a sucker for a good genre mashup. Give me some   sci-fi in my spy thrillers, or a serving of steampunk in my crime noir, or throw   some   heist elements into my sword and sorcery, and definitely mix some Kung Fu into  my westerns. When done well, a new kind of genre is created as a   result of the   mashup. The 70s and 80s saw the proliferation of the men’s adventure novels   overtake the paperback marketplace as every major (and   minor) publisher tried to   capitalize on the popularity of  The   Executioner ,  The Destroyer ,  The Penetrator , and all their various   imitators. Soon we had   imitations of the imitations, ad infinitum. So, a new   angle was sought and for a handfu...

I discovered   Felix Blackwell through a Facebook group dedicated to readers of horror   fiction. Apparently, this novel started life as a series of short   stories   posted on the NoSleep Forum on Reddit . NoSleep is a forum where authors can   share stories for free to over 11 million readers. Using his   fiancé’s real-life   sleep disorder as inspiration, Blackwell wrote these series of stories, ironically   titled “ My Romantic Cabin Getaway .” The stories  went   viral, proving to be so popular that he fleshed it out into a full-length   novel that has already been optioned for a motion picture adaptation. Stolen Tongues is at its core a haunting/possession novel.   In quite the meta touch, Blackwell has not only written the book in first   person, but has further   placed himself into the plot by name, making himself   the main protagonist. Felix and his fiancé, Faye, go to her family’s long-held mountai...