Chuck Norris and the appreciation of prawns

What sort of hungry desperation drove someone to look at a prawn and put it in his mouth? If those things walked on land, even Chuck Norris would watch where he put his feet.

Coming soon: Moomins and the Comet Chase

I can hardly wait for this. First released in 2010, it just premiered at Cannes with a new voice cast. I grew up with these books, and heartily recommend them to parents. If you haven't heard of the Moomintrolls yet or 'discovered' Tove Jansson, take a look at this...

Review: Simon Kurt Unsworth's 'Quiet Houses' has more fun surprises than a barrel full of scorpions

The idea of ghosts used to terrify me when I was a kid. That was before I learned about vampires, werewolves, zombies and headmasters. After a while Caspar the Friendly Ghost came along and ruined the shuddering thrill of running through the dark to make it to bed and under the covers before the ghosts got me. Simon Kurt Unsworth's 'Quiet Houses' has helped me relive that thrill a bit, although I no longer need to shove my head under the covers.

More about civilization: tomato sauce

Everybody needs a change from their occupations, every now and then. Accountants probably inventory the contents of their paperclip boxes. Doctors probably disassemble Barbie dolls. And journalists, this I know with almost absolute certainty, produce top ten lists of things that range from 'sexiness' in male and female celebrities, to really stupid ways to die.

Vicious villanelles: wolves on two legs

Here's rhyme without reason in the form of several dark villanelles on the topic of werewolves, from Lori R. Lopez, Tracie McBride and Pierre Mare.

Africa Day: pain and the defense of love

Africa Day is supposed to celebrate the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). It can also be an event to celebrate Africa. Whatever your take on the day, positive introspection and good feelings both come with severe challenges on 25 May 2012.

The dreaded green mankini, eating eyeballs and two degrees of horror

A photo of an overweight man in a standard, green Borat mankini, with a few pubes showing, caused interesting reactions on a Facebook group recently. It's one of those viral photos that does the rounds of Facebook, collecting likes and comments, alongside the cute kitties and inspiring attitudinal quotes. It wouldn't be anything to write home about in most of Europe or the Mediterranean locations, except perhaps in winter.

Some people just don't appreciate curiosity whatsoever

Let's play this one theologically. Man is made in God's image. Man is curious. Hence, curiosity must be a Godly attribute, and so we get to 'curiosity is also next to Godliness' and is probably hanging out next to the obsessive compulsive guy washing his hands for the fourteenth time in as many minutes.

Harry Dresden and the idea of thresholds

I keep my Harry Dresden books in my 'Pulp' folder, alongside Robert E. Howard and Sax Rohmer. The Harry Dresden series rocks, sort of like a hard-boiled Harry Potter or a lowbrow 'Watch' series: vampire factions, werewolves, the fae winter and summer courts, demons, gangsters and cops. It makes great reading, good enough to postpone making supper for a bit and braving the complaints. It's a pity the whole of the whole thing was so expensive. Still, it's worth all the money.

So what does Harry Dresden add  to the various genres? The thing that grabbed me, aside from the Bob the Skull, was Jim Butcher's very conscious use of the threshold.

Review: Autumn Christian's 'They Promised Dreamless Death' and a riff on zombies

Zombies have become associated with the walking dead. They are typically video game fodder, mildly shivery at first, but once you get past the idea of dead flesh and into the swing of whatever weapon you are playing, they become a bit more entertaining. Autumn Christian's story 'They Promised Dreamless Death' gives a timely reminder that it is not always that way and that, from time to time, it also helps to think of them as or to call them the 'living dead'.

Milton Louw's 'Future Namibia' published

He says, "In this book I hope to objectively evaluate Namibia’s economic problems in terms of Namibia’s realities. I read a very interesting piece on 'Solving Africa’s Commercial Poaching Pandemic' by Ron Thomson and use his analogy below in relation to our economic problems. To begin to solve the problem we have to identify its real causes. "

Ebooks: the current frenzy and some likely outcomes

Thanks to the ebook revolution, anyone with a book, an internet computer and the patience to learn a little bit of html has the ability to publish. There are now about more than a million ebooks on Kindle, so it feels very much as if everyone is publishing. Factor in other ebook formats and it is easy to reach the conclusion that everyone and then some are publishing. This is absolutely wonderful, but it creates a new set of challenges for writers and readers.

Review: Lisa McCourt Hollar's 'Monsters!', wicked fun with sex, death and demon babies

The wonderful thing about indie self-publishing is that an author does not have to tone down to suit the widest possible demographic. Lisa McCourt Hollar's 'Monsters' is an example of this in practice. 'Monsters' is a collection of 13 short, visceral stories that immediately grabbed me by ignoring two of the major mass market horror taboos: horrifying sex and demon babies.

Review: Christine Sutton's 'The Walker', a fun short story and a culinary meditation on the taste of souls

Christine Sutton's 'The Walker', a story about a soul eater, pulls off a neat trick with a refreshing short tale that manages to zip from the present to the 1880s, ancient Egypt,  and back, while incorporating a brief meditation on the culinary drawbacks of corrupted souls in just 8 pages.

Fun with poisoned chalices: fossil fuels, nuclear and renewables

Phased renewables, for very rich environmentalists who can afford the installation and who ignore the needs of the poor, is one way to go, but that doesn't satisfy all our power needs and it pushes manufacturing costs, way, way up there.

Climate change and horror: fresh scenarios and older tropes

'Carson looked at the sarcoma on his arm. Last night it had been half an inch worth of busy. He angled the box knife and gritted his teeth. Too late for sunscreen now.'

'Blakefield's stomach churned as he watched the line of tornadoes doing a quickstep across the horizon. Would they want him as well, small as he was?'

'The djinn's smile lit up as he stepped off the plane and sucked in the diesel-scented fumes of the city.'

These are prompts for stories that still have to be told.

How to help children to enjoy reading

Many parents have a common complaint: their children don't read, resist reading or don't enjoy reading. Instead their children turn to the television or to games for amusement.  This is unsettling. Reading is one of the activities that is most likely to develop the ability to think, to be creative and to communicate. Reading is also a key requirement for doing well at school. What can parents do to help their children enjoy reading? Here are some very successful suggestions that I have tested.

How to make a great first impression with Nazi fetish gear

Clothes are a form of diplomacy. The right apparel is an emissary that conveys the message of the wearer. The burning question is can you trust the message?

My first review for 'The Writing is on the Coffee Cup'

Someone whom I think is an awesome writer gave me this review: "Books like these are the E-book Revolution's reason for existence. A mainstream publisher would never have acquired this, a collection of essays from a non-celebrity. It is difficult to succinctly describe, even more difficult to pigeon hole, and I imagine nigh-on impossible to market. And yet, without modern technology and the ever-egalitarian Amazon, the world would be deprived of this gem."

Read the rest of the review here...

(And if you have a moment, please add your own.)

Meyer, Disney and mainstream assimilation of goth culture

In the past, the various horror genres have had relatively limited readership, waxing and waning with the trends of the day, yet always pulling through on a small core of loyal readers of the genres. Readership of horror is growing again. Anne Rices' vampires, Stephanie Meyer, adult series such as 'True Blood' and lately even the Disney Channel series offering, 'My Babysitter's a Vampire', show that the occult creature is more popular than it has ever been in the last few decades. Vampires are everywhere and so is 'soft horror'.

Why Dan Brown deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature

And as far as depth goes, the book is about as deep as a saucer of milk for a rather skinny cat. There is nothing much to puzzle about or ponder. You can pick up the book and read it from cover to cover without the supervision of a person with literary leanings.

Vampires are wimping out

From stinking, crawling corpses to brooding, drippy teenagers, the vampire has been transformed. Anne Rice, Stoker and Polidori have a lot to answer for: our delicious fears have been shortchanged.

Review: Tracie Mcbride's 'Ghosts Can Bleed' brings fresh ideas to the bookshelf in ways that other writers should envy.

If you are the sort of person who waits in anticipation for the next Neil Gaiman collection, Tracie Mcbride's 'Ghosts Can Bleed' will very comfortably fill that gap, and like Neil Gaiman, you will wait in anticipation for more.

Stephen King sequel to 'The Shining' announced

According to the official Stephen King website, 'Doctor Sleep', a sequel to 'The Shining' will be published on January 15, 2013. 'Doctor Sleep' will feature an adult Dan Torrance, who was the young protagonist of 'The Shining'.

Goodbye Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak, writer and illustrator of 'Where the Wild Things Are' has passed away at the age of 83. The illustration on the classic children's book, a picture of a monster sleeping under a tree, seems to sum it up fittingly.

Review: Armand Rosamilia's 'Bones. Death. Cenote.' is something different from somewhere else

Armand Rosamilias brief collection of horror stories with a South American flavour is something fresh in a genre dominated by Eurocentric tales and tropes.

Civilization in a pot

Noodles represent a pinnacle of civilisation, even though they are woefully under-represented alongside other important things like fire, paper, movable type, computers and console gaming.

Review: Kat Yares' 'Vengeance is Mine' is a small town apocalypse with feminist flair

Kat Yares' novella 'Vengeance is Mine' sits well amongst the growing collection of feminist horror lit, but also successfully taps into the growing anger against the abuses carried out by religious movements.

Review: Joseph Nassise's 'Sharp End' is a sharp story.

War and the creatures of horror stories fit together well in Joseph Nassise's 'Sharp End', a neat opener to a coming series featuring zombies in the trenches and in flying squadrons during World War 1.

Review: Kim Newman's 'Bloody Red Baron' is more than a rip-roaring story

There isn't much need to praise the pacing and storyline of 'The Bloody Red Baron', the second volume of the 'Anno Dracula' series. Anyone who has read Kim Newman's other stories will know what they can expect, and their confidence will be rewarded.

Buffy vs. Scully and the plausible plot

Which of the two is more believable: the demoniacal plot to take over the earth or the alien plot to take over the earth? This is a trick question...

Avengers: Hulk steals the show

The hotly anticipated Avengers is here. Loki makes mischief but the Hulk steals the show.

Review: Shaun Jeffrey's 'Mutilation Machination' is a treat for experienced horror readers

Here's a secret spilled. Hardened horror readers aren't scared by what they read. Instead they seek out new ideas that expose the bare bones of reality by wielding a scalpel. Sex can be degrading. A game can easily become a violent incident. An act of kindness can be rewarded with brutality.

Soft drinks: adding fizz to development

Welcome to first break. Look at the scrum of young ones over there. It's not a schoolyard brawl, though you can be forgiven for mistaking the mob for impromptu kiddie entertainment. Actually the tuck shop just opened. See Peter. See Jane. See Peter and Jane going for the soft drinks. See Peter and Jane zoom around the playground on a sugar buzz.