Category Jason Harris

Jan 16 2012

NEHW Members at Annual Author’s Night

Four NEHW Members to Appear at Winery’s Annual Author’s Night

by Jason Harris

The second annual Author’s Night at the Zorvino Vineyards in New Hampshire on Jan. 20 features four New England Horror Writers’ members, who will be signing their books, at the event.

The members are Tracy Carbone, Roxanne Dent, Karen Dent, John M. Mcllveen, and Scott Goudsward.

There will be copies of the first NEHW anthology, Epitaphs, which was released last October and debuted at Anthocon in November, will be available at the event. The anthology was edited by Carbone and features stories by Roxanne Dent, Mcllveen, and Goudsward.

According to the vineyards’ website, there will be over 75 New England authors at this charity event that goes from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. This event will be “partnering with five New Hampshire Schools to help bring the joy of reading to all.” This year’s participating beneficiaries are the Timberlane District Elementary Schools. Each school, Pollard School (Plaistow), Atkinson Academy, Danville Elementary, Sandown Central, and Sandown North, will be holding a raffle, where the money generated will go towards reading in the classroom, the website said.

Everyone who signs up for the event on Zorvino’s website will be entered into a chance to win a “Private Wine Tasting and Tour For Up To 20 People,” which includes a cheese and cracker platter and a tour of their facility. Just sign up online, print your ticket and bring it to the book signing to be entered.

The event is free and there will be a cash bar at the event. The winery will be open all night for complimentary wine tasting as well. The vineyard wants people to be aware to bring cash since the authors won’t have access to a credit card machine.

For a list of the authors attending the event and their websites, check out Zorvino’s website. The vineyard is located at 226 Main St. in Sandown, New Hampshire.

Jan 11 2012

Pictures from the Steampunk Bizarre Exhibit

Pictures from the Steampunk Bizarre Exhibit

by Jason Harris

The 2011 Steampunk Bizarre Exhibit at the Mark Twain House and Museum ends Sunday, Jan. 15 with a showing of Stream Driven: The Movie, and a panel of artists talking about their work being shown in the exhibit from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free and refreshments will be provided. Musician Eli August will be performing during this event as well.

A brochure at the event describes Steampunk as “an art movement inspired by great literature writers such as Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Mary Shelley to name a few.”

The exhibit is curated by local Connecticut artist Joey Marsocci, proprietor of Dr. Grymm Laboratories to bring together 21 international Steampunk artists of all styles and mediums to celebrate one of the greatest writers and ‘inventors’ of time travel, Mark Twain,” the brochure said.

According to the Mark Twain House and museum website, “Dr. Grymm and the gang will offer one last chance to socialize among brass bolts, bubbling brain tanks, fantasy paintings, fantastic weaponry and backpack-borne Tom Sawyer fence-painting gear, all inspired by quotations from America’s bad boy author — you have to see it to believe it.”

The website quotes Steampunk aficionado Miss Kitty that “Steampunk is the future as imagined through the eyes of the past. It is mechanical gears and boilers, dirtiness mixed with the shininess of brass and copper with the deep red of cherrywood. It is a time for tea and gadgets, airships and ether.”

Mark Twain made out of Legos

"Fish Boy"

"Steampunk Zombies"

"Catherinette Rings - Canada"

Steampunk Boba Fett

"The Edgar Allen Poe Nightmare Inducer"

"Game Changer"

"Rumination"

For more information, check out the Mark Twain House and Musuem website.

Jan 10 2012

The HWA Announces 2012 Recipients for Lifetime Achievement

The HWA Announces 2012 Recipients for Lifetime Achievement

by Jason Harris

The Horror Writers Association has announced the 2012 recipients of its Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Rick Hautala (photo courtesy of his Facebook page)

The two recipients of the award are NEHW member Rick Hautala and Joe R. Lansdale.

Hautala and Lansdale join previous recipients such as Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, John Carpenter, Thomas Harris (no relation), Anne Rice, Charles L. Grant, Harlan Ellison, and Ramsey Campbell to name a just a few of the people who have been honored with this award.

Hautala, who recently had his first novel, Moondeath, rereleased by Evil Jester Press and is in the NEHW’s first anthology, Epitaphs, released last year, said that receiving the award was “unexpected.”

Lansdale’s novel, All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky and the e-book, Bullets and Fire, were released last year. His newest book, Edge of Dark Water, comes out March 25.

“Truthfully, I am more humbled than excited by it,” Hautala said. “There are so many other writers who, I think, are much more deserving. I feel like Carrie White at the prom.”

Lansdale “was surprised” and “maybe even shocked” when he heard about the honor, he said.

Joe R. Lansdale (photo courtesy of his Facebook page)

“It’s an honor to be given this award along with Rick,” Lansdale said.

According to the HWA website, “the Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious of all awards presented by the HWA. It does not merely honor the superior achievement embodied in a single work. Instead, it is an acknowledgement of superior achievement in an entire career.”

A committee chooses the recipients for the lifetime achievement award instead of it being voted on by the entire associations’ active membership, the website said. By having an committee, it “prevents unseemly competition” and the “impression that there are any losers in this category.”

Hautala said, he will “accept the award with humility and — yes, a measure of pride.”

He feels better “sharing the stage with Lansdale, who has been a great friend” for many years.

“As Harlan Ellison says: ’Becoming a writer is easy. It’s staying a writer that’s hard.’ So this award should be an inspiration to young and aspiring writers everywhere … If you stick around long enough, eventually they have to notice you.” Hautala said.

Lansdale agrees with Hautala’s sentiment about having to be noticed when “you have been around long enough.”

“… I like to think we’ve contributed to the field of horror and dark suspense, and that there’s someone out there who became a fan, or writer of horror, because of something I wrote, or something Rick wrote,” Lansdale said. “Again, it’s a great and respected honor.”

Jan 2 2012

Author Promotes His Book and Some Blogs

Author Promotes His Book and Some Blogs

by Jason Harris

The New Year is here. Have you started doing your New Year’s resolution or has it already fallen to the wayside? If you are still struggling with staying with your resolution then here is a link to an article on the Tipb website mentioning a few apps like Evernote and Weight Watchers mobile to help with those resolutions.

If you are looking for blogs to follow as one of your resolutions, NEHW member Rob Watts has a few suggestions of blogs to follow in an entry on his site. One of those suggestions is this site. I do thank him for the mention.

Recently, Watts was on the Sci-fi Saturday Night program discussing his book Huldufolk, Iceland, Cedar Grove and his Traffic Lights Soundtrack album.

His novel, Huldufolk, is a horror story set in both Iceland and Massachusetts and was published by Ocean View Press. According to the program’s website, Watts is also “a musician and songwriter for The Traffic Lights, an Icelandic Trance band whose music is integral to the book.”

You can download the podcast here: http://www.scifisaturdaynight.com/?p=5273.

Watts has also written album reviews and conducted interviews with musicians which can be found on the Ocean View Press website.

Jan 1 2012

Author’s First Novel Being Rereleased by Evil Jester Press

Author’s First Novel Being Rereleased by Evil Jester Press
by Jason Harris

NEHW member Rick Hautula’s classic horror novel, Moondeath, is being rereleased by Evil Jester Press on Jan. 2. Publisher Charles Day said the novel has a new cover by “renown artist” Glen Chadbourne and the introduction was written by Christopher Golden.

Evil Jester Press’s Executive Editor Peter Giglio said on the Goodreads’ website that this was Hautala’s first book and was originally published in 1980. Moondeath is a werewolf and witchcraft tale set in Cooper Falls, New Hampshire, a small New England town, he said.

Stephen King said in 1980 that Hautala’s novel was “One of the best horror novels I’ve read in the last two years!,” Giglio said on Goodreads.

Click on Amazon to order the book.

Click on Evil Jester Press for more information about them and their books.

Dec 31 2011

2012 New Year’s Resolutions for Writers

2012 New Year’s Resolutions for Writers

by Jason Harris

The last day of 2011, the day people start thinking of their New Years’ resolutions. Do you remember what you wanted to do last year? There will be the usual resolutions of people wanting to lose weight by dieting or exercising or a combination of both. There may be people out there wishing for a new job, a better job, or even looking for advancement at their current job. What will you as a writer want to do in the New Year?

Here are a few resolutions:

1. Spend less time on Facebook/Twitter or both

2. Write more

3. Be more productive

4. Respond/talk to fans

5. Drink less

6. Smoke less

7. Read more books, blogs, etc.

8. Promote yourself more

9. Don’t procrastinate

I know I plan on reading more in 2012. It has been a long time since I was reading on a regular basis. This last week I have read more than I have in a very long time, which is sad. One of my reading goals in the New Year will be to read more books and stories written by NEHW members. This will help me to promote their work when they are participating in NEHW events.

I will see everyone in 2012.

Dec 29 2011

Discovering Shock Totem

Discovering Shock Totem

By Jason Harris

Shock Totem: Volume 1

I recently read the first issue of Shock Totem: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted. I had picked up the first four issues at the NEHW booth at the Hebron Harvest Fair in September.

The magazine was first published in 2009 and Publisher K. Allen Wood explains in the editorial how the magazine was created and the different names they had for the magazine before settling on Shock Totem.  It’s a lot better than Papercut Stigmata or Bleeding Penis Pens.

Volume one includes stories about vengeance meted out by childhood toys (“The Music Box”). Author T.I. Morganfield captures the magic of those special toys a person has as they grow up. As you read about Snowflake, you can’t help but think about a darker version of Toy Story. Morganfield even mentions in the “Howling Through the Keyhole” section of the magazine that he took the conflict between the toys in the Pixar movie in a “darker direction.”

In “Murder for Beginners,” the reader is lost as the story begins with a woman holding a shovel as she stands over the body of a dead man. As the tale continues, you find out there is another woman with her. By the end of this interesting story, the reader finds out about these two women plus what connections they have to the guy they are standing over. You are not lost by the end of the story. What Mercedes M. Yardley does with her tale is keep the reader interested and reading. Who wants to stop reading after a story begins with two women standing over a dead body? At that point, you want to know why they killed him or even if they killed him. There are so many questions the reader wants to find the answers to, and Yardley answers those questions.

Baseball fans will enjoy David Niall Wilson’s story, “Slider.” It involves a tale of a ball that has a bloody and cursed history. You don’t even have to enjoy the game of baseball to become engrossed in the story about the death of pitcher Jeb Rabinowicz.

One other story I will mention is Kurt Newton’s “Thirty-Two Scenes from a Dead Hooker’s Mouth,” which tells the story of a prostitute’s life from her death to her birth. It will remind you of the movie Memento, which inspired Newton when he wrote this story. He states, “knowing the outcome of events doesn’t necessarily remove the mystery.”

Shock Totem has a section “Strange Goods and Other Oddities,” which deals with reviews of books, movies, music, and more written by the magazine’s staff. This section reminds me of a similar section within the pages of Fangoria magazine.

The magazine also offers interviews with authors and artists in the horror community such as John Skipp and William Ollie. Those interviews make one want to go to the nearest bookstore and find the books these authors were discussing in these articles.

The “Howling Through the Keyhole” section is great if you want a peek into the writer’s mind. Well, that is if the writer wants to give you a glimpse into their dark playground. Each author has a little blurb about their story and the inspiration behind their story.

I am looking forward to reading the other volumes of the magazine that I own. Click on Amazon or Shock Totem to go to either site to buy any issue of the magazine. The issues are available in print and digital formats except for the Holiday issue, which is only available as an e-book.

Dec 28 2011

What to Get After Receiving a New Phone or iPad

What to Get After Receiving a New Phone or iPad

by Jason Harris

It’s been a few days since Christmas. What do you do if you received a phone or iPad as a gift? You should buy a case to protect your new present. I know how a person can be rough on their gadgets especially a phone. You clip it to your belt or throw it into a purse or pocket. You definitely don’t want to do that without your phone being in a case.

You may be wondering why this entry about cases is on this blog. It’s important to protect your devices. I have used both my iPhone and iPad in my professional life.  A phone isn’t the best device to write something on, but if it is the only thing available then you have to do what you have to do to get an assignment in on time. If you depend on your devices for your job, you don’t want something happening to them.

The Defender series

The cases I have used for both my Apple devices are an Otterbox Defender case. These cases are made to protect your device from a lot of different every day accidents that can befall a device. I have dropped my iPhone many times and nothing has ever happened to it. Only the case has been scrapped up by these falls. I feel comfortable letting a child handle my iPhone or iPad since they are protected.

There are two reasons I recommend Otterbox products. They get the job done and the companies customer service is up there in my book with Apple’s customer service.

A few weeks ago, I had to contact Otterbox because my wife’s iPhone case was broken. She hadn’t dropped it or anything, but the case was cracked. I knew she hadn’t dropped it since most of the time her phone is in her purse. It’s not clipped to her belt like I have mine. I chalked it up to a defect in the case. I contacted the company and they asked for a four digit number on the inside of the case. All I saw was a one digit number so I emailed the customer service person who emailed me. I decided to include a few pictures of her case to go with my message about not seeing the numbers. The next email I received was one telling me that a new case was going to be shipped to me.

The reason I equate the customer service at Otterbox to Apple’s customer service because there were no hassles. I had an issue and they took care of it just like what Apple has done for me in the past.

Dec 27 2011

NEHW Authors in Charity Anthology to Benefit HWA President

NEHW Authors in Charity Anthology to Benefit HWA President

by Jason Harris

Daniel Keohane and Nate Kenyon, both NEHW members, have stories in the new collection, Rage Against the Night.

Keohane’s zombie story, “Two Fish to Feed the Masses” is appearing in “an amazing charity anthology,” he said.

Kenyon’s story is called “Keeping Watch.”

All the proceeds from Rage Against the Night will go to the Rocky Wood, an author and current President of the Horror Writers Association, who is battling motor neurone disease.

According to the Wikipedia website, “motor neurone diseases (or motor neuron diseases) (MND) are a group of neurological disorders that selectively affect motor neurones, the cells that control voluntary muscle activity including speaking, walking, breathing, swallowing and general movement of the body. They are generally progressive in nature, and can cause progressive disability and death.”

Amazon states the stories in this anthology detail the brave men and women who stand up to “the darkness, stare it right in the eye, and give it the finger.” These people are under the onslaught of supernatural evil and their good acts can seem insignificant.

The anthology was edited by Shane Jiyaiya Cummings and also features stories by Stephen King, Peter Straub, Jonathan Maberry, Ramsey Campbell, F. Paul Wilson, Nancy Holder and Scott Nicholson to name only a few of the authors in this charity collection.

Vincent’s story, “The View from the Top” is reprinted in this anthology, he said on his website. As of right now, it is only available in e-book format, but there will be a print copy in January, Vincent said.

The e-book is $3.99 through Amazon.

Dec 5 2011

Dane Cook Talks about His New Movie and His Inspirations

by Jason Harris

photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Actor and Comedian Dane Cook wanted to “share emotion and pain” he has experienced in his life in his new film, Answers to Nothing, which opened in theaters along with being available on video on demand this past Friday.

“With my comedy, I want to share my joy and positive experiences,” Cook said. “The main point of comedy though is people coming to laugh and enjoy themselves. What attracted me to this film is that I could relate to personal experiences in a different way. I can empathize with certain aspects of my character’s life.”

According to press materials, the film is “set against the backdrop of a missing girl case, lost souls throughout Los Angeles search for meaning and redemption and affect each other in ways they don’t always see. Ryan (Cook) and Kate (Elizabeth Mitchell) are in a strained marriage. They are trying to have a baby, but instead of bringing them closer together the difficulties are tearing them apart. Two strangers, sharing a home, they each lead private lives unbeknownst to each other. Ryan, grew up listening to the impossible romantic story of his grandparents’ courtship, but isn’t even sure he believes in love. He hates his mother for believing that his father is coming back, even though he left her 10 years ago, and he hates himself for following in his father’s steps of infidelity.”

Cook believes his character is “distancing himself from people and his emotions” even as his character is a confident therapist. He does believe his character is a “complex individual, but it is behavior we all do.”

“We show up every day to work and put on our game face, but people don’t know personal life circumstances,” Cook said.

As he filmed this movie, Cook didn’t want to let his fans down.

Being able to view his personal experiences in a different way attracted him to Answers to Nothing, Cook said. The film allowed him to tackle different philosophies, he said.

“You get to play pretend, but also share important moments in your own life.”

Actors are not always connected to their characters, Cook said.

“I understand some of the behaviors in feeling detached,” Cook said. “I lost both of my parents to cancer and when you experience something like that, you really hold onto those moments and hope you can grow from them … ”

The film, Mr. Brooks, led Cook to receive his role in his new film and his career grew from that, he said. Answers to Nothing director Matthew Leutwyler saw him in the film.

Cook made an audition tape for Mr. Brooks and received a call from Kevin Costner, who directed the film. Cook was told by Costner that was what they were looking for, he said.

There are people in Hollywood that Cook would love to work with.

Cook would love to work with Woody Allen, Jason Reitman, and Diablo Cody.

“I have met with Jason a few times and would love to play in his world,” Cook said.

He has met with Steven Spielberg, which he considers “one of the most poignant moments of his career.” Spielberg gave him some words of wisdom which has guided him in his life.

“I auditioned for [Spielberg] and got incredible feedback,” Cook said. “He is a big inspiration.”

He grew up loving comedic actors especially Gene Wilder.

“I really have a great respect for comedians that take on challenging roles, like Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple, Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting,” Cook said. “I know the pain that many comics have living within us. I love to see the way they can reach comedic audiences and then also [reach] those dramatic audiences and make them cry their eyes out.”

He thinks it’s great when a comedic performer can make people laugh and cry. He thinks “it’s magic” when that happens.

“I’d love to be able to do some of what I did in Answers to Nothing and some of what I did in My Best Friend’s Girl and create a character rich in all things good and bad that exist in us.”

Cook said if the role doesn’t come about, he may write it.

Cook has two independent films coming out next year that he hopes audiences will find. He is also working on a comedy for NBC for the 2012 television season. They are Detention and Guns, Girls, and Gambling. Detention is “a mash-up genre movie — it’s a horror, coming of age film” and Guns, Girls and Gambling stars Gary Oldman as an Elvis impersonator.

“I really look forward to people seeing that one,” Cook said about Guns, Girls and Gambling. It’s sort of a heist action film.”