Eric Lahti - Teller of Fabulous Tales

A couple of weeks ago I was digging through job postings when I came across an oddball. There was a company that wanted people who could write code. Okay, no worries, that’s normal. In any language and they didn’t care which one. That’s a bit strange. Actually, it’s extremely strange. Companies that hire software developers usually have products they want supported and it’s exceedingly rare when…

And lo, like the sound of a chorus of angels belching ripped across the sky, this blog is back up and running with new wacky hijinks. I’ve got my scotch, my nicotine gum, and VNV nation all ready to go. Expect hilarity to ensue. Up first, a review of Gevera Bert Piedmont’s delightfully twisted Fat Monster published by Nightmare Press. Some of you might remember I reviewed another one of…

I’ll be back doing book reviews and random nonsense again shortly. My short hiatus turned into a couple of years.

Damyanti Biswas drops us in the middle of a wild, wonderful, and unpredictable tale of crime, retribution, and the ugly things we don't like to think about.

Okay, so let’s get this out of the way up front before anyone accuses me of, uh, something or other: I’ve known Damyanti for a while now. At least in the way of Internet folk knowing other Internet folk. But, other than that bar fight in Myanmar, we’ve never met face-to-face. So, there. Haters can accuse me of playing favorites all they want but all I’m going to them is, “Neener, neener, you’re…

Suzanne Berget drops one hell of a 1st scif-novel in our laps and lets it run free over our imaginations.

When H.G. Wells wrote The Island of Dr. Moreau back in 1896, it was considered scandalous. A sharp stick in the eye of God followed by swift kick to His nuts. It was, in many ways, an exploration of what it really means to be human and only in later years was its true genius discovered, put on display, and paraded around like furry bread and circuses. Blasphemous though it might have been, it…

For those of you who missed out, I reviewed another of Dr. Spillard’s books – The Evening Lands – back in ’21. The Evening Lands was a great read, focusing on the nature of good and evil and Verity’s guardian devil. Verity is back in The Twisted Grain, the new psych thriller from across the pond. This time, Spillard injects a bit of eco-disaster into the mix. Now, the jury is largely out on the…

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Kind of an auspicious day for a book review. I never had much family drama over the holidays, but I do know of people whose families were, shall we say, dysfunctional. So, when your drunk uncle is ranting and screaming racist epithets at the mashed potatoes and you desperately need an escape hatch, turn to a good book. Speaking of which, how about a timeless romance for your Thanksgiving…

Let me get this out of the way and say I’ve know Mike for quite some time. We were both in theater in college although he was much more in theater than I was. I was largely just a hanger-on who did the occasional acting role, did grunt work building a set or two, and got hit in the arm with a flying piece of wood that left a scar that’s kind of visible to this day. I performed one of Mike’s early…

Ah, high school. Those lovely days when your clique defined you, the classes bored you to tears, and people framed you for murder. The salad days, as they say. Now, my high school days are long, long behind me. Like previous millennium kind of far back. Which, granted, wasn’t that long ago, but it still makes me feel cool to tell you young punks I left high school when there were still 19s in…

There’s kind of this notion in society that things and people are either all bad or all good. It’s a simplistic view of the world that ignores the nuance of reality. Even in the cases where the villain is working ostensibly for good causes, we tend to sweep their vile crimes under the rug and pretend they were good all along. Never mind the trail of corpses that got us to this point, they get…

#bookreview #zombies everywhere in Robyn Watts' terrifyingly intimate tale of survival

Let’s talk zombies. They’re the perennial bogeymen of the apocalypse, an unstoppable force that devours everything in its path, moaning disease on two legs – provided the legs haven’t rotted off anyway. The first pop-culture zombie invasion started way back in 1919 in a largely-forgotten French silent movie called J’accuse that featured romance and the rising dead of World War I. The big daddy of…

#BookReview @EricMalikyte drops us into a weird, wonderful, and truly wicked #cyberpunk world where reality is augmented in terrifying ways.

Years ago, I had a buddy at an old job who actually had a set of Google Glasses. Remember those? Eyeglasses with a HUD that could display extra information like emails and videos and stuff like that. They were kind of a trip and, in their own way, kind of disruptive. This guy would be walking and talking and would suddenly stop what he was doing, fiddle with his glasses, and then move on like…

L.L. Gray breathes some life into a fun #urbanfantasy tale where nothing is exactly as it seems and you don't know who to trust.

No matter what happens, I will always think the Urban Fantasy genre is worthy of respect. Building a sci-fi or fantasy world whole cloth is a blast, no doubt about it. But taking our world and adding elements to it – bizarre and extraordinary elements – and making it feel real takes a deft brush. Now, granted, New Orleans has always had a touch of the bizarre and extraordinary, but not to the…

@Author_PCorrell takes us on a fantastic journey through a fantastic Japanese fable where the onmyouji ply their trade, kappa snatch travelers, and the tengu might help you. This week on my #wordpress #blog

The urban fantasy world is rife with stories of young people with untapped potential. Frankly, it’s a trope I really enjoy, so I can’t diss anyone who makes use of it. Besides, even the Good Book (not Starship Troopers, the other one) said there is nothing new under the sun. And, let’s face it, that book was written a long, long time ago and has been riffed on a lot over the years. So, you’ve got…

Good job, kind sir. Allow me to buy you a pint.