Jul 19 2013

‘Red 2’ Keeps the Action Going and The Laughs Coming

By Jason Harris

I didn’t care for Red when it was first released almost three years ago. I’m not sure why. I recently watched it again in anticipation of seeing Red 2, and this time around I enjoyed it and would like to own it. It is now a favorite action movie of mine, as is Red 2.

Red 2 opens up with Frank (Bruce Willis) and Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) shopping at a Costco. Frank doesn’t seem any worse for wear after running from the Moldovan Army at the end of Red. He excitedly comes up to Sarah with bulk bargain items. The look on Sarah’s face seethes with boredom. She wants action. This is shown by her enthusiasm when Marvin (John Malkovich) shows up to tell him that Interpol is after him because of Nightshade, a Cold War project to sneak a nuclear weapon into Russia. Frank wants nothing to do with Marvin or his information so he sends him away, much to the chagrin of Sarah.

Even after Marvin’s car explodes and he is presumably dead, Frank still wants to play things safe. With the Red movies, you can never be sure what to expect. Frank isn’t sure Marvin’s dead, and he tests his theory a few times at Marvin’s funeral. These moments are funny and cringe-worthy since you and Frank are thinking the same thing. Is Marvin really dead? I won’t spoil it for you.

It’s not long after the funeral that Frank is living up to his RED (retired, extremely dangerous) designation.

Helen Mirren’s Victoria is back. She’s given a contract by MI6 to kill Frank. There is a moment where it looks like she will fulfill that contract, but before long they are all together trying to stop world destruction.

Anthony Hopkins portrays baddie Bailey. It’s not Hopkins’ best performance since it didn’t seem to be even. This problem could lie in the writing, though. One moment, he’s crazy or just acting like a loon. The next minute he’s fine then he starts to slip back towards crazy. It was an off-putting performance.

The movie’s writers, Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber, took a page from The Fast and the Furious movies with the character of Han Cho Bai (Byung-hun Lee). The audience is introduced to Han before he is contracted to kill Frank. Han is a cool character whom you want to survive and be in Red 3. This can’t happen if Frank and Han remain enemies. By the end of the movie, Frank and Han are working together. Hopefully there will be a third movie where we see more of Han.

The Red series could be considered Bruce Willis’ Expendables series (which he is in, but not in a starring role). Red is high on action and excitement, and there is definitely enough gas in the tank for a third movie.

Jul 18 2013

Author Talks about First Novel and Writing

By Jason Harris

Gordon Anthony Bean recently published his first novel, Dawn of Broken Glass. It was released in June.

He has written two other novels, but shelved them since they didn’t feel right to him. He plans to revisit them at a future date.

“Dawn of Broken Glass felt like a great story with fully developed [and] believable characters that the reader could identify with, so I decided this was the book I wanted to publish first,” Bean said.

Dawn of Broken Glass tells the story of Michael Carson, who witnesses the brutal and senseless slaughter of his family during Kristallnacht in the early days of World War II. The loss of his family has left him with deep emotional scars, and feelings of anger and hatred which become all-consuming to the young man. Years later, he seeks his revenge. Along with the mysterious Jason Froemmer, Carson begins a mission to eradicate the bloodlines of each soldier who partook in his family’s slaughter so many years earlier.

Bean wrote it over eighteen months. He spent the better part of a year doing multiple revisions on plot, characters, and writing style.

Bean is working on Bloodlines, a sequel to his first published short story, “From a Whisper to a Dream.” This story was published in the anthology, Sinister Landscapes, published by Pixie Dust Press. He does have a second short story, “Out of the Corner of His Eye,” in the Grinning Skull Press anthology, From Beyond the Grave.

“One interesting tidbit about my writing is that the stories are all interconnected. In my second novel, there will be an appearance of a central character from Dawn of Broken Glass. Basically, I’m creating a wholly contained universe where all my stories take place on the same earth,” Bean said.

His primary career is in finance, but he wants it to be writing.

“I’m trying to get my writing career to take off and hopefully be able to one day devote myself to it full-time.”

He has been writing his entire life. “In elementary school, I had a short story published in our school’s spring journal. In high school, my creative writing teacher told me that of all the students she ever had, she felt that I was best suited to be a writer.”

He belongs to the New England Horror Writers organization. He hopes to get exposure for his writing through the NEHW. This is what he hopes would happen with belonging to any writer’s organization.

“What I hope the NEHW or any other group would be able to do is help give exposure to this novel and future novels,” Bean said.

Bean has received good writing advice in his life, he said.

“The best I remember getting was to write for myself. Like most writers, I love to write. I am a huge horror fan and if I can leave a lasting imprint on a reader through my work, it’s all worthwhile.”

Besides writing, he enjoys reading. Michael Moorcock and Robert Heinlein were two early favorites and Clive Barker, who he loved when he was a teenager. He reads Christopher Golden, Brian Lumley, F. Paul Wilson, Joe Lansdale, Edward Lee, Jonathan Maberry, Dan Simmons, Richard Matheson, Douglas Preston & Lee Child now. His tastes vary, he said.

Jul 13 2013

Director Talks about ‘Dirty Wars’: Part One

By Jason Harris

Dirty Wars, which was released in June, follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, author of the international bestseller Blackwater, into the heart of America’s covert wars. He travels from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond.

“The war on terror is the most important story of our generation,” said Rick Rowley, director of Dirty Wars. “It’s the reason why I became a war reporter a decade ago, because this is the longest war of our history. We passionately believe the American people have a right and a responsibility to know about the wars being fought in their names around the world.”

This global war on terror has killed thousands and thousands of people, including American servicemen, he said. It has also cost billions of dollars.

“It’s unfolding mostly in the shadows without any public knowledge or without any meaningful congressional oversight,” Rowley said.

Rowley and Scahill wanted to make a film that would bring the war out of the shadows and into the light of public discussion, he said. He wants people to have a conversation about the war, what the United States is doing in the world and what’s becoming of us as a nation, he said.

There were dangers for Rowley and Scahill while they were filming.

“It wasn’t safe for us to travel around with a big crew, so it was just Jeremy and I traveling together,” Rowley said.

Jeremy was the interviewer and on-air talent, while Rowley was the behind-the-scenes person responsible for filming, sound and doing any other production function required of him, he said.

“In each country, we figured out a different way to work and to keep us safe.”

They grew their beards out, dressed in local clothing and drove around in a beat-up Toyota in Afghanistan, he said. They had to feel out the edge of how far they could safely go outside of Kabul.

“We had to go out and came back before the sun set, because the Taliban take control of the roads at sunset.”

Their calculations were wrong occasionally, which is shown in Dirty Wars when they were trying to return to Kabul, Rowley said. There was an ambush, which caused them to be stuck on the road after sunset. They ended up hiding out in a room nearby until sunrise when they could travel safely again, he said.

There plan was to fly below the radar in Afghanistan, but in Somalia it wasn’t a possibility.

“The only way for us to move around was with security,” Rowley said about filming in Somalia. “We never liked the high security because it changes the way you operate in a country.”

In Somalia, they had to drive around with twelve soldiers armed with machine guns, a decoy vehicle and motorcycles riding with the convoy, he said.

“I have never been in a city as dangerous as Somalia. It really is a surreal place.”

They were there filming at the height of the battle between the local insurgency and the African Union. The insurgents weren’t accurate with their weapons past 100 meters, Rowley said.

“We felt relatively safe in that you had to be very unlucky to get hit.”

Jeremy did tell him that he saw the insurgents spraying bullets trying to hit him after seeing a white guy with the warlord, Rowley said.

“Luckily, I didn’t see it or I would have changed the way I was working there.”

Rowley did recount a story that one of the warlord’s troops told him about another journalist who was shot and killed in the exact same spot they were filming at.

The entire filmmaking process took about three years. The film cost between $300,000 and $400,000. It was financed by a number of different foundations, Rowley said.

“It’s a film that wouldn’t have been commissioned by a television network.”

This movie could have only been made with help from the nonprofit sector because of the risks and the scope of the investigation, he said.

Dirty Wars opened at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT on Friday, July 12. The theater is located at 56 Arbor Street. Director Rick Rowley will be attending the 2:15 p.m. screening at RAW today, which is hosted by the ACLU of Connecticut with Medea Benjamin of Code Pink

Jun 13 2013

A Conversation with Author Adam Cesare

By Jason Harris

1. You have written a novel, novella, and a short story collection. What are you working on now?

Next up will be another full-length novel. That one will be from Samhain (they put out Video Night, as well) and it’s my take on the satanic cult subgenre. All the longer pieces I’ve written have all been set in specific periods (the 1980s, 1960s, etc.) I didn’t want to become known as the “throwback” horror guy, so The Summer Job is set in our time. The characters have iPhones. I’m all done with that one and right now I’m working on a novella for a to-be-named publisher. I’m super excited about both of these.

2. On Amazon, it has you credited with Bound by Jade (the Fourth Sam Truman Mystery). Is this true and were you involved with any of the other mysteries in the series? I only ask since you don’t have this book listed on your website.

There are a couple of posts about it on the site, but I think they’ve been pushed off the front page over the last few months. It should be on the website; I’m just the world’s worst webmaster, so it’s not up there. I’ll fix that.

The series was created by writer/publisher Ed Kurtz. Sam’s a disgraced P.I. who just happens to get the city’s strangest cases (the books are supernatural noirs). I didn’t write the first three, but they all share the same character. The series is something special and I’m very proud of my entry. They’re dirt cheap, so everyone should give the Sam Truman books a try.

My installment is a novella called Bound by Jade. It can stand on its own, but reading the whole series is the best way to go.

3. You have written about movies in Tribesmen and Video Night. Would you say, you have been influenced by movies? What movies have influenced you?

Yeah. Even from a young age, movies were my everything. Not to get lame with the “write what you know” adage, but I use the world of film as a jumping off point in those books. Video Night is based on the phenomenon of watching movies, especially the social aspect of that, while Tribesmen is more about making movies and what goes in (and shouldn’t go in) to getting what you need on camera.

The Summer Job doesn’t explicitly connect to the world of film, but it is my attempt to write in the genre of folk horror. To the best of my understanding, folk horror is predominately a film term and it describes the subgenre that films like The Wicker Man, Blood on Satan’s Claw and Kill List belong in. Those are all British films, and I am nowhere near British enough to try and write about the location, so mine’s a New England folk horror story.

4. You were a film studies major in college. What made you decide on that degree?

I studied both English and Film. When you’re a film studies major (as opposed to a film production major) the two fields of study are actually very similar. They’re both a lot of reading, writing, and analytical thinking. That kind of stuff interests me and I think that being a critical consumer of media (no matter if it’s Re-animator or The Canterbury Tales) makes you a better writer.

5. What did you envision doing with your life with a Film Studies degree?

I went to grad school for a year and picked up a Masters in Education. So I’m qualified to teach, which is also something I find worthwhile/enriching.

6. Who are some of your favorite writers?

Oh boy. This is one of those questions I could spend all night on. For horror, let’s go with Aaron Dries, Sarah Langan, Laird Barron, Stephen Graham Jones, Shane McKenzie, and Jeff Strand.

7. Who are you reading at the moment?

I’ve got Joe Hill’s latest, NOS4A2 almost finished. I’m right now in the process of choosing what goes next. I try to put my genre consumption on rotation, so since I’m just finishing reading something that’s horror I’ve got three different genres all vying for the title: N.K. Jemisin’s The Killing Moon (fantasy, I think), James S.A. Corey’s Abaddon’s Gate (science fiction) and Duane Swiercynski’s third Charlie Hardie book, Point & Shoot (crime).

8. You have a blurb from Jeff Strand for Tribesmen. How did you feel when you received that blurb? Did you seek him out for one?

Jeff and I had only met once very briefly before I asked him to take a look at the book, so I was really surprised how nice he was about the whole thing. His blurb is amazing and now that I’ve seen him a couple more times at conventions, he and his wife (author Lynne Hansen) are two of my favorite people.

9. Would you like to see Tribesmen or Video Night made into a movie?

Yes, please.

10. If they were made into a movie, who would you like to see direct it and why?

Some aspects of the books would probably have to change either way, but I like to think that they’re both pretty adaptation-friendly.

Lexi Alexander would be a good choice for Video Night, in my opinion. She knows how to work with actors and gore in equal measure as evidenced by the criminally underrated Punisher: War Zone.

The dynamic directing-duo of John Skipp and Andrew Kasch would be my choice for Tribesmen. They’ve done some incredible short work that’s both hilarious and disgusting. They would get the tone EXACTLY.

I mean. There are no films in the works or anything, so why don’t we throw P.T. Anderson and Kathryn Bigelow and [Martin] Scorsese in the running?

11. What made you stay in Boston after college?

I love it. It’s been my home for seven years. It’s a movie-loving town, for one thing. The Coolidge and the Brattle are two of the best theaters in the country and they’re both walking distance from me.

12. Are there any plans to put Bone Meal Broth out in paperback? What inspired that collection of work?

I had the rights back to a bunch of stories that had been previously published, so I picked out the best of them and put out a short (20,000 word) collection. I’m quite proud of it, but I’m not sure it’ll ever be in paperback. It’s the only time I’ve self-published something and I really enjoyed the experience. Maybe in a few years I’ll bump up the word count by adding some stories to the roster and then find a publisher that would tangle with it.

13. What has your nonfiction work been about?

It’s all film essays. I’ve written guest posts for a few blogs and my articles have seen print in Paracinema Magazine. They’re amazing, by the way, if you haven’t read that magazine I highly recommend it.

14. Your work has been featured in Shroud and Fangoria. How did it feel being in Fangoria, a horror magazine that I think every person who is or has been into reading/watching horror has read?

That was just a quick book review I wrote freelance for them, but it got my name on the contributor page and I thought I would faint. For the whole month I was going to newsstands, thumbing to my page and giggling like a madman.

15. You had a blog, Brain Tremors. I love that name by the way. Why choose that name? Did the name come to you right away? Is there history behind the name?

Yeah, Brain Tremors. That was my old page, but I still use the banner over at www.adamcesare.com. I kind of knew what I wanted the insignia to look like, and what’s creepier than an involuntary shaking of the brain?

16. What would be your advice for wannabe writers?

Ha. I’m too low-level to be handing out advice. My advice would be to take writing advice from Joe Lansdale, as he hands it out occasionally on his Twitter/Facebook feed.

One thing that does bug me is the idea of an “aspiring” writer. There are a lot of people on twitter that label themselves that way. Fake it till you make it, guys and gals. There’s no room on the internet for low self-esteem, it’s too full of cat pictures and lackluster writing advice.

May 3 2013

Do You Know about Books & Boos?

Books & Boos is a bookstore that opened last year on Nov. 20. It’s located in Colchester, CT and is owned by Stacey and Jason Harris.

The bookstore offers previously read books, of which they have over 5,000. Not all of them are at the store, so if you don’t see something be sure to ask since they may have it in storage. Along with the previously read books, they have new books. The new books include ones by local authors who live in Connecticut and throughout New England. Some of the titles are Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole and Bad Apple by Kristi Petersen Schoonover, The Authority of Outhouse/Backhouse/Privy Building by Georg Papp, Sr., Die, You Bastard! Die! by Jan Kozlowski, Beware the Hawk by A.J. O’Connell, and From Schoolboy to Soldier by Quincy S. Abbot, to name just a few of the books by local authors.

The bookstore also sells unusual novelties like black cats made from reused flatware and zombie gnomes. No one’s garden is complete without a zombie gnome.

Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe by Amanda Doughty

There are also paintings for sale including a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe created with ink and coffee by Amanda Doughty, an artist living in Norwich, Connecticut. Another Poe design by her has been placed on a gray t-shirt, which is being sold at the bookstore.

You can find Books & Boos at 514 Westchester Road in Colchester, Connecticut or online here. They also have a Facebook page and Twitter page.

Apr 25 2013

Welcome!

Hello,

My name is Jason Harris. You may have noticed the website change from the New England Horror Writers to Jason Harris Promotions. All the entries from the former NEHW site are still available here. All entries like this one, nehwnews.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/the-epitaph-28-jan-2013/, get redirected to this site. The NEHW has decided to go back to it’s former website on Blogspot, which can be found by clicking here.

I created Jason Harris Promotions because I believe in promoting people, events, and other things and getting the word out. It’s tough out there and getting tougher to get noticed. There are so many things drawing people’s attention. Let me help you get the word out about your book, convention, craft fair, business, or anything else you want the world to know about. Contact me at jasonharrispromotions@gmail.com and let me help you.

Apr 16 2013

Boston Comic Con Happening as Planned

by Jason Harris

After the Boston Marathon bombings yesterday that left three people died and more than 170 people injured, the organizers of Boston Comic Con have said the convention is still going on this coming weekend, which is being held at the Hynes Convention Center, located at 900 Boylston St. The convention center isn’t that far from where the bombs went off.

Since a previous entry on April 3 about the convention, there have been some updates about guests. Jon Bernthal (“Shane Walsh”) from the hit television series The Walking Dead, has cancelled due to his filming schedule.

This morning it was announced that rock n’ roll icon Marky Ramone of The Ramones will be attending the convention.

Apr 14 2013

Pictures from this Weekend’s Author Events

by Jason Harris

On Saturday, Annie’s Book Stop in Worcester hosted A Dark Carnival of Authors, an event to remember Rick Hautala, who passed away in March. The authors who read were Eric Dimbleby, Jennifer Pelland, K.A. Laity, Jessie Olson, Errick Nunnally, Rose Mambert, Frank Raymond Michaels, Morven Westfield, Inanna Arthen, John McIlveen, TJ May, and Kristi Petersen Schoonover.

The event’s reading room.

Author Eric Dimbleby (taken with flash-on).

Author Eric Dimbleby (picture without flash). The author liked this one because of the way it captures the atmosphere of a reading of dark fiction.

Author Frank Raymond Michaels.

Author Erin Thorne read at The Book Shop in Somerville, Massachusetts on Saturday.

Apr 4 2013

Visiting ‘Jurassic Park’ in 3D

Visiting Jurassic Park in 3D

by Jason Harris

It has been 20 years since Steven Spielberg brought Jurassic Park to audiences. It’s a film that holds up well, which isn’t surprising since a lot of Spielberg’s movies do. E.T. and Jaws are two movies that come to mind.

This Friday a new Jurassic Park is arriving in theaters. This one is in 3D though. It’s perfect timing for Universal Studios since they are working on a fourth one, which should come out in 2014.

If you haven’t seen this movie, which is based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, here’s a brief synopsis. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), the CEO of InGen, created a park populated by dinosaurs. There’s an accident at his Jurassic Park, which causes his investors to insist on an inspection by experts Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), who are joined by “rock star” Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). All hell breaks loose because of corporate espionage and everyone is trying to survive when the dinosaurs get loose throughout the park.

I have never been a fan of 3D movies since my eyesight is bad and the 3D effect never seems to work for me. It also could have been the 3D glasses too. When I saw the movie at an IMAX theater during a screening the other night, they had glasses that were flush against my face. These worked quite well. A few times during the movie, I actually thought there was something in front of me. One time it was only a tree branch in the movie. The 3D effect also brings out things in the movie’s background, which may have been over looked in previous viewings. It also makes you feel like what’s happening is only a few feet in front of you.

It’s great seeing this movie on the silver screen. And it’s even better seeing it in 3D.

Mar 9 2013

Taking a Ride with ‘The Trip’

Taking a Ride with The Trip

by Jason Harris

The Trip by Tim Morgan tells the story of three teenagers who decide to travel by bicycle from their hometown of Billerica, MA. to Seattle, WA. after their graduation. On their trip, the Mumbai virus wreaks havoc on the world and their trip. It causes Dave, Meghan, and Chris to turn around and go home because they wanted to be with their families.

The virus causes people to become sick, die, and then become zombies. The zombies are not the slow moving kind, either. You would think that people on a bike wouldn’t be able to outride even one running zombie, let alone hundreds. It’s easy to overlook this fact because you care for these characters and hope they make it home.

Morgan starts each chapter with a news report about the virus and its spread. The chapters go back and forth between them trying to get home and planning for their trip while finishing their senior year in high school. The book starts with Meghan’s blog entry. She has a laptop and a solar panel to charge it while she’s on the road. Throughout The Trip, she is updating her blog and hoping her family or someone is reading it.

The Trip was interesting and kept me turning the pages. Any book that leaves you wanting more is always a good book.

By Jason Harris

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Boston Comic Con Happening as Planned

by Jason Harris

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Pictures from this Weekend’s Author Events

by Jason Harris

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Visiting Jurassic Park in 3D

by Jason Harris

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Taking a Ride with The Trip

by Jason Harris

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