Movie Night: The Silent City

A group of soldiers come under fire from what appears to be a dead sniper. Anyone remember Gunnar from Rogue Trooper? Seven slightly violent moments from Dr Documentary.

Insert horizontal slut upside groove B with grey widget perpendicular.

The world is full of people who do things by the book, meager souls who cannot see delight in the potential. Like Paul Kruger's rumoured denial of the existence of the giraffe because it wasn't in the Bible, they are blinded to wonders and the future, since none of it has been written down on paper.

Lack of emotion for the Boston bombing

Violence spreads like a virus. We have seen it with shootings. We have seen it with bombings. It happens all over the world, and the phenomenon is inevitable in the USA as well. There is no point in being shocked.

Movie Night: Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty

One word. 'Wicked'! Six minutes from Brown Bag Films. Another word. 'Brilliant'.

Movie Night: Cargo

Here's something thought-provoking and sad for parents. If you knew you were about to turn into a zombie, what would you do about your infant? Seven minutes from Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke.

The pleasures of strange news

For a start, perhaps these silly stories are a good way of maintaining the collective sanity. Who wants to read a serious news story about yet another hike in the price of crude when you can skip all the stress and go straight to the story about a burglar who tried to open an account while he was in the process of committing a robbery?

Zen verbiage and a recommendation

Right now, I am frustrated by a lot of what I read. The current horror genre décor has a Zen-like quality, somewhere between Ray Bradbury (no disrespect intended) and the interior decoration of one of those swanky restaurants that serve haute cuisine on exquisitely presented plates but ultimately a beggar's banquet with only three bite sized morsels that would not even satisfy a starving Ethiopian.

It leaves me quite frustrated as I enjoy words, and really don't want to have to fill in imagery and thoughts for the writer who omits them to please editorial fashion. (I'm a bit of a lazy reader.) As far as this new 'quiet horror' thing goes, it leaves me wishing Robert Aickman were still alive and writing.

That being said, I recently got a copy of Cemetery Dance with a view to submitting something, and the mix and style is just about perfect, so I'm going to recommend it if you also want a bit more verbiage and good variety. Here's a link...

Hagfish slime, and the quality of recent inventions

I'm adding emoticons to my list of very important inventions. I'm sure historians can't be bothered with the emotional quality of communication, but I really think they are incredibly important.

Movie Night: Evacuation

Fear the men in white with the funny guns that go 'pop'. People have to flee a city as baddies hunt them down. 21 minutes of found footage and unrelenting grimness from Micah Mahaffey.

Aunt Amelia at Dinner

My story, 'Aunt Amelia at Dinner' has been published by the rather cool, Red Asylum. Download the free PDF magazine here...