Ernie Howard’s 5 picks for Horror Fiction

The other day I was reading a blog post that had the title, Top 10 Horror books of all time, and it made me a little mad. You can’t say that a group of books are the best that genre ever had to offer or ever will have to offer. Not to mention, I didn’t agree with much of the person’s picks.

So, because I am the kind of reader who likes to tell everyone good books to read. Here are my picks right now, for best horror written. These picks could change with the coming years.

5) The Hunger, by Alma Katsu

We have all heard of The Donner Party and the lovely buffet that they rolled out at their party. This is the author supernatural take on that ill-fated trip. This book is everything you’d expect from it. Cannibalism is always scary business. This is what Stephen King said about the book, “Deeply, deeply disturbing, hard to put down, not recommended reading after dark.”–Stephen King

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4) Communion: A True Story, by Whitey Strieber

I remember when I was a kid, my mom came home from the video store (when they still had those places), with this video called communion. My parents didn’t censor much from me and my sisters, so they let me watch it with them. Well, I ended up under a blanket on the living room floor for much of the movie. I read the book later in life and I think it scared me even more. If you believe that aliens have visited us or if you are still skeptical you will love this book.

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3) Song of Kali, Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons is known for his SciFi books the most, at least that is what genre I first read him in. But some of his best fiction is horror. Song of Kali is a disturbing book, that will stick in your mind for a very long time. The ending is one of those that makes you take a hard intake of air that you forget you’re holding only realizing after you get dizzy that you were holding your breath. This book is not for the faint of heart.

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2) House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski

If there was ever a book that when someone said, just give it a chance, this is it. This book starts out normal then gets weird. Before you know it you are immersed in the madness and the house has you. Yes, I said house. This isn’t a book. It is an experience.

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1) IT, by Stephen King

You knew I was going to pick this. I know everyone says that this is the scariest book. Picture this. It’s the summer of 1994. I’m seventeen years old, everyone in my house is asleep except me. I have decided to read IT. I am scared, I’m listening to every sound in the house and thinking the worse, and I am completely hooked. I read this book in two sittings. No, not one, it’s over a thousand pages! This probably one of the only books that I can read over and over and it still scares the crap out of me.

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There are my picks. Read all of these with the lights on. If you would like to check out my books, find me HERE. Happy Reading my friends!

My Newsletter for this week is out

In this newsletter we hear from Chris Fried, and what he thinks about Melody 8 Book Two, The Musical Witch of the South. And I tell you what I'm reading.

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Book Sale

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First paragraph to my new book series

This is the first paragraph of my Melody 8 series. This is going to be good. Maybe a flagship book series to let me finally write for a living. Who knows! Remember this is unedited. First draft, no one but me has seen this up until now. So have a read, and let me know what you think my friend. Pre Order this book!!!! The Link to get it is in the comments

My mother used to sing to me when I was scared at night. When shadows, in corners turned into drooling creatures who wanted to eat me. When the wind wasn’t just benign air, but a drooling demon bent on eating my soul, and my body, bit by sweet bit. I’d lay my head on her chest to feel the vibration of her singing. The song would come out in low tones and hurried breaths, and just slightly off-key. I always thought my mother’s inability to hold a perfect tune made the song better. It was as if mom had put her own touch on the song she’d chosen to sing. Her voice made pleasing chills go down my spine, and make my skin turn to goose pimples. I’d burrow deeper into the blankets smiling into my pillow. Mama would end the song and ask if I wanted to hear another one. If I was asleep she would plant a kiss on my head. The moisture and the soft smack of my mother’s lips would wake me up just enough to see her walking out of my room. Most times I wasn’t asleep, and I’d answer with a muffled yes that came deep from my pillows and blankets. Mama would answer with the same response every time. “Okay smart one.” I never knew why she called me this, and it’s funny to look back now and realize, I’d never asked her why she called me smart one. 

I loved the sound of my mother’s voice. 

All the way up to the day she was put to death because of it.

https://amzn.to/2NLXg67

Hey! Those X-Ray glasses were legit!

When I was a kid, I loved comic books. I loved the stories filled with action and accompanied by drawings that seemed to jump off the page into my wide excited eyes. As I got older, I read books without the pictures. Instead, the writing drew the pictures in my head. The stories were the same though. These stories called Pulp fiction. I read writers like Richard Matheson, and Phillip K. Dick. I read Sci-Fi Anthologies, and collections of stories by Stephen King. These writers wrote the stories I liked. They came complete with dark stairs that lead to the basement where you knew the monster lived, but still you read.

They were stories about regular people who got taught lessons in life by supernatural characters. Some of the stories were funny, and always entertaining, and some were dark and scary. These made you think about all of those weird noises you heard late at night. "What was that..." Just the wind I guess.

These "Pulp" stories were the ones that made me want to become a writer. I would read these and try to weave my own ending, trying to figure out the conclusion before I got to the end of the story. Most times I was wrong, but I got better as I got older and read more.

Pulp fiction gets the least amount of credit these days. People look at it as not serious writing. They call these stories "Twilight Zoners" A term I have never understood because the twilight zone always told the best and most entertaining stories! I don’t think you would have the smash hit Stranger Things, or the oldie but goodie Lost, if it wasn’t for the Twilight Zone.

Why do people read if they don't want to be entertained? If you are reading a book so you can give it a review, or tell your friends you read it. Just so you can sound smart in certain circles... You have missed the point of reading fiction! You will never get that time back. The time you spent reading that boring book that some critic called a tour de force!

You get older and almost feel you will be shunned by the “serious readers” if you say your favorite writer is Stephen King. Hey, I've read Infinite Jest. David Foster Wallace was a great writer, and I loved that book. But as far as storytelling goes, he couldn't hold a candle to Richard Matheson's Bid Time Return. You may know it as a movie called Somewhere in Time, starring a young Christopher Reeve, and Jane Seymour. Yes, Matheson wrote that. And he wrote many Twilight Zone episodes.

So before I get long winded, let me tell you why I wrote this. I wrote this because I have seen reviews that seemed to have missed the point. Reviews that called stories I loved, or wrote for that matter, "Twilight Zoners." To which I have to say Thank you! I'll take your three star "Twilight Zoner" Review. But what I want to know is, were you entertained? Did the story help you leave your hassle filled life just for a moment? Did you get to escape? Because that is all that matters.

Don't be the person who doesn't want to know if that Submarine in the back of the comic book really worked. You remember, the one for $6.98 plus postage.

Don't be the person who is too smart to believe those X-Ray glasses were just worthless pieces of plastic.

Be a kid! You don't have to grow up if you will simply let yourself enjoy the story you are reading without critiquing it as you go. Not everything has to be Shakespeare. Who was a great Pulp fiction writer I might add. Yes, feed your brain, but don’t forget to have fun.

I write Pulp Fiction in these Anthologies. With other “Twilight Zoner” writers, of “Twilight Zoner” stories. If you would like to read and be entertained, you can pick up the latest Tales from the Canyons of the Damned.

Maybe it will remind you what it was like to read under covers with a flashlight late at night. You remember. Your mom told you to go to bed. You dutifully laid down. She kissed you on the cheek and said good night. She closed the door, leaving just a crack, so some light would come through. You waited for her footsteps to get down the hall. Reaching under your pillow, (never under the bed), and grabbed your flash light and latest edition of Tales from the Crypt. You read for hours, getting to the part where the Mummies hand is pushing back the large stone of his dusty grave.

.

You hear a noise in your silent house… “What was that…?” Probably just the wind… 

Get Tales from the Canyons of the Damned No. 9

Confessions of a spoiled Indie Writer

Confessions of a Spoiled Indie Writer

August 14, 2016 digimmortal Leave a comment

My mother was a writer. She wrote a couple of books, and many screenplays. All of them she submitted to publishers who turned her down usually with a very impersonal rejection letter. She would get the “it’s not what we are looking for,” or “you need to put this together the right way. Meaning she didn’t send her manuscript in a box, with the pages loose leafed. Back in those days you had to jump through many hoops just get your book read.
Later in her life she actually did sell a screenplay. It was a story about two couples who are opposites, end up getting the same hotel room by mistake, and have to stay in it together. Kind of like the Odd Couple on vacation. A few years later my mom succumbed to lung Cancer.
Where am I going with this…?
I guess my point would be how spoiled I am as an indie writer. I have published many short stories, a couple books, and I have been in an anthology. Tales from the Canyons of the Damned, maybe you’ve heard of it. If you haven’t you can get it here.
I guess the whole spoiled notion came to me while I was browsing Facebook. I’m friends with many authors on there, so I get to see lots of different insights through other authors eyes. Some are doing very well for themselves, while others… not so much. And it is the later few I want to talk about, and say this. Just the sole fact that your stories are being read is a miracle by past standards. Back in the day independent writers were looked at as the ones who couldn’t cut it. They were the weirdos with weird-looking books, and they were not taken seriously.  They were the old history teacher that would sit outside of bookstores and sell half assed copies of their books out of a trunk. They were your friend that would hound you to read their book.
We are spoiled now.
There are tools to make your book look professional. There is social media to get the word out. And there is ways to connect with fellow authors to get insight, and encouragement. So… Quit whining. We live in a time when the gatekeepers have been burned at the stake! You can write what ever you want. And even if it’s not that good someone will read it. It is the greatest time to be an author. Quit feeling sorry for yourself, and get writing.
My mother never had this chance. She died just a bit to soon. But she would have taken advantage of indie publishing, and she wouldn’t have complained once. She would have loved it. Because she would have been doing something she loved anyway… Writing.

Help an indie author and share:

A World Without

My short story "A World Without is free on Amazon from now until August 18, 2014.

You can get it for free here for a limited time, or just click the image 

Rest in peace Richard Matheson

I know a lot of people are saying "who is Richard Matheson?" He was one of the most influential writers of our time. There are very few writers who can say they influenced writers such as Stephen King and Anne Rice. Stephen King named Matheson as one of his biggest influences, and Anne Rice has said Richard Matheson's short story "A dress of white silk," was one of her prime influences for her vampires. Still not impressed? Not much of a reader? More of a movie buff? Ever seen a little movie called I am Legend, starring Will Smith? Or What dreams may come, or Button, Button, a.k.a. The box, or Hell house, a.k.a. The legend of Hell House, or The twilight zone episode, where the man freaks out on a plane saying there is a man on the wing? Yup! You guessed it, all written by Richard Matheson. Even if you don't read books, you have been exposed to this man’s work. Pop culture lost a great writer yesterday, but this man will live forever with his contributions to books and movies.

Here's a list of some of this great authors work.

Movies:

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

Beat Generation (1959)

House of Usher (1960)

Master of the World (1961)

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

Burn Witch Burn (1962); a.k.a. Night of the Eagle (screenplay co-written with Charles Beaumont and George Baxt based on the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber

Tales of Terror (1962)

The Raven (1963)

The Comedy of Terrors (1963)

The Last Man on Earth (as "Logan Swanson", based on Matheson's novel I Am Legend)(1964)

Fanatic (1965)

The Young Warriors (1967)

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

De Sade (1969)

The Legend of Hell House (based on his novel) (1973)

Somewhere in Time (based on his novel) (1980)

Twilight Zone: The Movie: Fourth segment "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1983)

Jaws 3-D (1983)

Loose Cannons (1990)

The Box (2009)

Real Steel (2011)

Novels:

Someone is Bleeding (1953)

Fury on Sunday (1953)

I Am Legend (1954) filmed as The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man, I Am Omega and I Am Legend

The Shrinking Man (1956); filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man and subsequently reprinted under that title; also the basis of the film The Incredible Shrinking Woman

A Stir of Echoes (1958); filmed as Stir of Echoes

Ride the Nightmare (1959); adapted as an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and later filmed as Cold Sweat (1970 film)

The Beardless Warriors (1960); filmed as The Young Warriors

The Comedy of Terrors (1964), with Elsie Lee; filmed as The Comedy of Terrors

Hell House (1971); filmed as The Legend of Hell House

Bid Time Return (1975); filmed as Somewhere in Time and subsequently reprinted under that title

What Dreams May Come (1978); filmed as What Dreams May Come

Earthbound (Playboy Publications, 1982), as by Logan Swanson[4] — editorially abridged version; restored text published as by Richard Matheson, 1989[citation needed]

Journal of the Gun Years (1992)

The Gunfight (1993)

7 Steps to Midnight (1993)

Shadow on the Sun (1994)

Now You See It ... (1995)

The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickock (1996)

The Path: A New Look at Reality (1999)

Passion Play (2000)

Hunger and Thirst (2000)

Camp Pleasant (2001)

Abu and the 7 Marvels (2002)

Hunted Past Reason (2002)

Come Fygures, Come Shadowes (2003)

Woman (2006)

Other Kingdoms (2011)

Generations (2012)

Books of note

                                                                                                                                   

Dogs love books

Dogs love books

Hi there humans. My name’s Huey. I am the dog of my owner, Ernie, the person who normally writes this blog. That’s me on the left. I’m a handsome young dog, aren't I?

Well, I have hijacked my owners blog, because I don’t think he gives enough attention to the dogs in books. I mean what are we chopped liver… mmmmmm chopped liver….. Oh sorry! Anyway back to the subject. This blog will be a list of 5 books with dogs in them. But Huey, you say, how do you know anything about books? Well friends, I would like you to know, books are like food to me. I mean just last week, I chewed up my owners first edition Clive Barker “Cold Heart Canyon,” It was delicious.

Ok, enough about me, lets hear about these great dog friendly books….

1) Marley and Me: Life and Love with the world’s worst dog. Worlds worst dog! World’s best dog! If you ask me the humans in this story couldn't find their bone if it hit them in the tail. This dog was awesome! Think of all the adventures he took these boring loser’s on. So he ripped up the couch, and peed on the floor. A small fee for all the hilarious hi jinks this dog brought to the table.

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2) Cujo Wow! I would never challenge this dog to a rope tug… He would bite my snout off! Well as far as dog books go, this ones a classic. Ya Cujo gave a bad name to Saint Bernard’s everywhere, but he don’t hate the breed, hate Cujo. I mean what kinda dog isn’t up on his rabies shots! That poor lady and little kid. What a jerk!

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3) The Darkest Evening of the Year, By Dean Koontz This guy loves Golden retrievers. Everyone loves Golden Retrievers. Everyone say’s how smart they are, and pretty… I gotta say I don’t see it folks. I never met a Golden who could beat me in an IQ test, and I’ve known a few. But anyway, the book is good. It’s about these super smart rescued Golden Retrievers, oh and there’s humans in it too.

4) Oogy: The dog only a family could love This dog has the heart of a champion! Brings a tear to my eye just thinking about him. But I think he has been cheated! He overcomes animal cruelty, and his reward is that the humans get all the credit for “saving” him. This is a classic case of humans trying to steal a dogs thunder. Like just the other day I found a dead bird, and I put it on the porch. And immediately the girl human screamed and told me to get it out of my mouth! She was jealous that I had found this great treasure! After I dropped it, you’ll never guess what she did… She threw it away! Can you believe it!

5) Boston Terrier’s for Dummies. I mean this is an easy one, even for you K9 challenged people. If you want to learn about the best dog’s to ever live, start with this book. It tells all you dumb human’s how to care for us. You’ll learn what we like to eat (meat). You’ll learn why we are so smart (big brains). And why we are so handsome (superior breeding). By the way, That’s my uncle Ned on the cover.

So it’s been fun human’s. I just wanted to say this is dedicated to all my dogs that are locked up. And if you want to break them out click this link. The Humane Society.

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Available on Amazon for 99 cents