ANNOUNCEMENT: INTERVIEW WITH SHANNON KIRK AND REVIEW OF METHOD 15/33

Shannon Kirk? Nope me neither. That’s probably because this lady is just on the verge of publishing her first novel Method 15/33. It’s a thriller and trust me, it’s one you do not want to miss.

I was lucky enough to get an advance reader copy through NetGalley. I am so so glad I did.

I was also lucky enough to get an interview with the lady herself in the run up to publication next week.

The interview will be published in two parts starting on Saturday 2^nd May, continuing on 3^rd May and my review on 4^th May.

Shannon was very gracious in giving an in depth interview answering questions on her life in general, her life as a lawyer and her life as a writer. Shannon will also take on “The Ten Confessions”. It is extremely interesting and inspiring interview so please come along and meet the woman behind the story. I have a feeling this will be the first of very many interviews about this book. I think it is going to be huge!

Nev.

ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT REVIEW SUBMISSIONS!!

I'm sorry to say that I am having to close the blog down to review submissions at the minute.

I have quite a backlog and don't want to keep my current submissions waiting any longer than they already have.

This will probably stay in place for the next month or two but I will announce when I have opened it up again.

Thanks for your patience.

Nev

REVIEW: John Palisano - Dust of the Dead

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Publication Date: 2^nd June 2015

Pages: 217

MY REVIEW:

I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is published by Samhain Publishing.

The only thing I have read previously by John Palisano was his short story in Widowmakers, Splinterette and his novel Nerves. I absolutely loved both of them so I was really excited to get the opportunity to review this one early with NetGalley. I can’t help but feel a little bit robbed and disappointed.

Mike has just recently started working for the Reclamation Crew in Los Angeles. It’s been 5 years since the first outbreak of the “zoms”. His job now is to work with his fellow crew members and investigate reports of “undead” that may be going through the process of coming back. Generally things have settled down and LA is getting back to normal. The undead are getting fewer.

Mike and his team have noticed a change in the zoms though. They are getting smarter. Smarter to the point of actually being intelligent and being able to interact with society. This causes new problems for the world and it doesn’t take long for a new outbreak that threatens man’s very existence again.

JOHN CONNOLLY: AN UNEXPECTED INTERVIEW AND REVIEW OF A SONG OF SHADOWS

On April 15^th this year I was lucky enough to grab myself a ticket for an evening with John Connolly, hosted by Waterstones bookstore in my hometown of Newcastle Upon Tyne. This was billed as an event where John would speak for a while and sign copies of his new book A Song of Shadows.

Now – for any fans of John Connolly this type of event would be fantastic to attend. A chance to meet the man behind the legend that is Charlie Parker. Giving that most fans consider Mr Connolly to be a writing legend himself you would half expect some big entourage and fanfare on his arrival. Nope. We were all gathered sitting waiting on the event to start with sweaty palms and expectant glances at the door, watching for a glimpse of the man himself as he arrives with his agent, publisher, hair dresser and chair puller outer, ready to entertain us mere mortals.

REVIEW: Erik Hofstatter - The Pariahs

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Creativia

Publication Date: 18^th Oct 2014

Pages: 80

MY REVIEW:

A copy of The Pariahs was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author Erik Hofstatter in exchange for an honest review. This is said review.

Erik Hofstatter – what a fantastic name. Say it again Erik Hofstatter? Ever heard of him? I hadn't although I bet many had. This my friends is the best part of being a book reviewer and having your own blog open for review submissions. Every now and again someone actually comes along and takes a gamble that you will pick their book up and read it for them. I learnt a while ago that when a well-known name comes along and asks you for a review, you jump at the chance. I have also learnt that when someone you have never heard of comes along like Mr Hofstatter, you again jump at the chance to review it. You never know when you might pick up a little gem. Like this one.

Demyan and Akilina are brother and sister. They have been born in a radiation ravaged Russia after a nuclear disaster has left many, including themselves, severely disfigured and disabled from birth. In the middle of the night they are attacked, gagged and kidnapped and wake up in a cold dark cell. Demyan sets about trying to figure out where exactly they are and how they are going to escape. His only hope is a girl called Taisiya who he can talk to through a sewer pipe in the ground. He needs to escape this hell, before they all die.

ANNOUNCEMENT: UPCOMING INTERVIEW AND REVIEW: JOHN CONNOLLY

This evening I had the immense pleasure of attending an evening with the legendary author of the Charlie Parker novels, John Connolly.

This was to launch the new Parker book, A Song of Shadows.

The evening was fantastic and I will share more of that later. John talked for about an hour about the series and then stayed behind to sign copies of the book.

When I approached him for my signing, I thought I would be bold and brave – or stupid and foolish – and ask him for an interview for the blog, on video.

He only went and agreed!!

So next week, when I finish the book, I will post my review as normal but I will also include the video of me interviewing Mr Connolly where he will be taking on The Ten Confessions! Keep a look out for the post!

Thanks.

Nev.

REVIEW: Mark Matthews - Milk-Blood

Genre: Urban Horror

Publisher: Wicked Run Press

Publication Date: 24^th June 2014

Pages: 157

MY REVIEW:

This review of Milk-Blood by Mark Matthews is the result of a copy sent to Ginger Nuts of Horror in exchange for an honest review.

As I like to do with review requests coming into Ginger Nuts, this is the first time I have read Mark Matthews. It won’t be the last but this one has left me, eh, disturbed is probably the best description.

Lilly is 10 years old. She has cyanosis. It basically makes her skin a bit blue and a bit see through. Her mom has gone. She doesn’t know where to. She doesn’t know her dad has killed her and buried her across the street. She doesn’t know her dad isn’t her dad. Jervis is a homeless man living in the derelict house across the street. The same one her mom “lives” at. Jervis has secrets too. He also has a lot of voices in his head telling him to do all sorts of nasty things. Lilly is becoming addicted to heroin. Jervis wants her to come stay with him. She has no idea why but she’ll find out soon enough.

OK. I really don’t know where to go with this. I knew this had to do with drug use. The definition of Milk-Blood after all is removing the blood containing drugs from an addict and injecting it into yourself thus getting a high. Wonderful. Sickening. Harrowing to think that people actually do this.

REVIEW: Scott M. Baker - Yeitso

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Blood Bound Books

Publication Date: 22^nd Aug 2014

Pages: 282

MY REVIEW:

Scott M. Baker is one of those authors I have seen a lot of but never read any of his stuff. It was the cover initially that drew me to this one and after reading the blurb, I requested it and got it. I’m bloody glad I did!

Los Alamos has a new Chief of Police. His name is Russell Andrews. He has recently moved here from New York with his daughter, Kiera, to get away from a nasty city and a nasty divorce. Little did he know the nasty little surprise that was coming his way instead of the quiet life he wanted.

One boy is dead and a girl is missing. It looks like they already have a suspect until it emerges that the boy was burned by an organic liquid sprayed over his body. This liquid could only have come from one thing. An insect. Problem is, the amount of liquid suggests this insect is absolutely huge. Where is it hiding? Is it alone? Russell has a race against time to find out.

If you are around the same age as me then you would have sat as a child in the 70’s possibly watching creature features on a Saturday afternoon. You know the ones? Rubber monsters, screaming women running for their lives and a Sherriff trying to solve something he knows nothing about? Brilliant weren’t they? Although there is a line in Yeitso that states “this isn’t a film from the 1950’s”, that’s exactly what it is, and it’s rather well executed.

REVIEW: Evans Light / Adam Light / Edward Lorn / Jason Parent / Gregor Xane - Dead Roses: Five Dark Tales of Twisted Love

Well folks I am very very sorry to say that this is the last instalment of the Dead Roses Special week. Some of you may be glad of that fact to get away from my ramblings but I have enjoyed myself so much with this one that I want to do it all over again! Right now!

I honestly can’t find the words to properly thank the guys for taking part in this for me. Mike, Edward, Jason, Gregor, Adam and Evans were all kind enough to take time out from their busy schedules to answer all of the questions I threw at them to put this feature together. None of them moaned or complained and were only too happy to help in any way they could. For all of this I am eternally grateful.

I have discovered that these six are all totally down to earth guys with huge hearts and a massive love for horror, writing, art and anything to do with their fans. I like to think I have made some new friends through this and hope to keep a hold of those friendships for a long long time.

All the info you need for either contacting this crew or buying their stuff is at the bottom of this page. Please please support them in their work so that we can all enjoy reading their words and appreciating their artwork for years to come.

Thank you again for visiting the blog this week. I will have some more features coming up in a week or two’s time as well as my normal reviewing in between times so please keep coming back for more Confessions of a Reviewer……and please tell your friends!!

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Corpus Press

Publication Date: 16^th March 2015

Pages: 250

MY REVIEW:

This copy of Dead Roses was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer as part of a special article on the site for the books launch and in return for an honest review. This is that review.

I have been looking forward to this one for a long long time after hearing such good stories about this group’s previous collaboration, Bad Apples: 5 Slices of Halloween Horror. I have read all but one of these authors previously and already know they can produce some very powerful short stories.

ELEANOR BY JASON PARENT

Stuart is a priest in a small West Sussex church. Someone abandons a child on the steps of the church. The little girl was extremely disfigured. Stuart took her in and kept her from harm. Fifteen years later Eleanor is growing up. She is becoming sexually aware but surely Stuart can do nothing about this? He is a priest. Eleanor just wants to be beautiful. But how can she when she always must wear a mask? She can fix this. She can make herself beautiful.

Beautifully twisted. That’s about the only way I can describe this tale. On one hand you have a priest trying to do his level best for an abandoned, disfigured young girl. God will help him with this. But why keep her hidden away for fifteen years and tell no one?

DEAD ROSES SPECIAL: BONUS EBOOK GIVEAWAY!!

Thanks to the extremely generous gentlemen of the Dead Roses crew, I have been able to add this bonus post!

I now have 4…….yes 4…..ebook copies of Dead Roses: Five Dark Tales of Twisted Love to give away, to you, the faithful people who have managed to stick with us for an entire week of specials.

Winning is easy. Well for four of you anyway. All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning one of these copies is……..confess!

If you fancy winning a copy of the book then confess to something by posting a comment at the bottom of this blog post with your confession.

Your confession can be absolutely anything (obviously within certain decency criteria). I will leave this open for the next five days to give everyone a chance to share it about and post. Once the entry is closed, my gorgeous wife Jo will peruse the entries and select the four winners. If I am not friends with you on Facebook or any other site then either add me or leave me some way of contacting you in case you win.

I only ask that you share this giveaway anywhere you can, be it social media, Goodreads or anywhere else you can think of.

Good luck!!

PS Even if you have already got yourself a copy, you can still confess to something!!

Nev.

DEAD ROSES SPECIAL: NIGHT SEVEN: GROUP INTERVIEW

In this, the last of the interviews, "boo - hiss" I hear you scream, we have a group interview.

Simple idea behind this one. All five authors were sent the exact same questions but didn't know each other’s answers. The idea was to try and put them on the spot a bit and get a bit of banter going between them when I gave them a surprise and sent them a document with all of the others' answers attached.

Guess what? These guys are just too damn nice to each other and that idea fell flat on its face.

When they saw each other’s answers and I asked them for comments they were the quietest I have ever heard any of them this past month.

The only thing I can deduce from this is that this is like one big family. It’s perfectly clear the amount of mutual respect there is among these guys and it’s fantastic for us, the readers, to see this because it can only mean more from them in the future.

It’s either that or they were just totally sick with the number of questions I threw at them over this past few weeks!

Either way, here it is, the final Dead Roses interview.

As always, grab your poison and as it’s Easter Sunday, have a huge big roast dinner followed by some chocolate and sweets……and most of all, enjoy!!

COAF - Who’s the boss in this collaboration? Who decides the order of stories and what goes and what doesn’t?

EDWARD - Evans is the boss. He put it all together, and he gets the blame.

JASON - We vote on order, and it’s majority rule. I would say Evans is the ringleader. He corralled us together and made Bad Apples, our preceding anthology, a reality. I respect each author in this book, but Evans had a vision and the will to see it through… and the thoughtfulness to include me. I am thankful for that, and have immensely enjoyed being a part of both anthologies.

GREGOR - Evans Light is the boss. We get to vote on almost every aspect of the project (like cover art, story order, etc.) but he has veto power.

ADAM - It doesn’t feel like there is a boss. I don’t recall anyone ending up disappointed in the order of the stories, or anything like that. It’s been a team-oriented project all along, and we work together well.

EVANS - This project has been a true collaboration from day one. Jason Parent gets credit for coming up with the theme, but everything after that has been a group effort – the title, the art, the range of story concepts - everything. After reading the final stories, we voted to decide the story order. Since this title is being published via The Light Brothers' Corpus Press platform (which may open to limited submissions this year), I tend to be at the center of the project to a certain extent, but my role is definitely more “facilitator” than “boss”.

If you would like to grab yourself a signed Hardcover of Dead Roses, click the link below.

BUY HERE

DEAD ROSES SPECIAL: NIGHT SIX: INTERVIEW WITH EVANS LIGHT

Welcome to night six of the Dead Roses Special week.

Tonight sees the interview with the second half of the Light brothers, Evans.

He will be answering some general questions about himself and his writing and then some specific questions about Love Lies in Eyes, his story in the book.

Of course, at the end, Evans will take on The Ten Confessions!

I have had what I would like to call a building friendship with Evans over this past year or so but still didn’t know the nitty gritty of the man himself so I was really excited to get a chance at this interview.

Get yourself your poison and as it's Saturday, order something in, your choice, and settle down for this one......most of all enjoy!

COAF - So tell everyone a bit about yourself in general?

EL - I love a good laugh as much as a good scare. I take my work very seriously, but overall I approach life as a fun endeavour. I tend to be an obsessive about things I’m interested in, and anyone who’s been paying attention knows that I’m currently obsessing about vintage horror paperbacks, of which I’m both an enthusiast and archivist.


COAF - Why writing? Why decide on that as a career?

EL - Adam and I have been entertaining each other with stories, both written and verbal, for as long as I can remember. We discovered horror around the same time in the 80’s and consumed a lot of the same fiction growing up, beginning with Poe and Hawthorne, Bradbury and Shirley Jackson, before moving on to more modern horror such as King, Koontz and beyond.

We were in our twenties before we made the decision to pursue genuine projects, and have been polishing our chops, so to speak, for quite a while. Writing for me is a parallel career, one that I hope that - along with publishing – will continue to take an increasingly prominent role in my life going forward.

DEAD ROSES SPECIAL: NIGHT FIVE: INTERVIEW WITH ADAM LIGHT

Welcome to night five of the Dead Roses Special week.

Tonight sees the interview with the first half of the Light brothers, Adam.

He will be answering some general questions about himself and his writing and then some specific questions about Panacea, his story in the book.

Of course, at the end, Adam will take on The Ten Confessions!

This is another interview I am so glad to have got. It's become very clear to me throughout this entire process that Adam Light is the quiet one of the group. In fact he is so unassuming I can't believe he puts out the writing he does.

Grab your poison and as it's Good Friday get some fish and chips in ......and most of all enjoy!!

COAF - So tell everyone a bit about yourself in general?

AL - My name is Adam Light. Thanks for inviting me to do this interview, Nev.

I was born in West Virginia, but moved around quite a bit. I’ve lived in Florida for twenty-eight years, so I’m pretty sure I can be considered an honorary native. I have big and very loving family; we’re all very close. I’m married to the best person I ever met, and she seems to think I’m an okay guy. I also have two daughters that make my world worth living in every day.

COAF - Why writing? You seem to have been blessed with an abundance of books around you growing up. Was this a factor in making you decide on that as a career?

AL - I have always loved reading and writing, and my parents fostered that love by filling the house with books of all kinds.

DEAD ROSES SPECIAL: NIGHT FOUR: INTERVIEW WITH GREGOR XANE

Welcome to night four of the Dead Roses Special week.

Tonight sees the third author interview with Gregor Xane. He will be answering some general questions about himself and his writing and then some specific questions about Loving the Goat, his story in the book.

Of course, at the end, Gregor will take on The Ten Confessions!

From what I can see this is a hard man to pin down so I’m really excited to have this interview. You will also notice that there aren't any pictures to be found of the elusive Mr Xane. He is the Sia of the book world. Not that I'm saying he wears a hat with a mop on it when he goes out or anything......or a mask like Michael Jackson.....or make-up like Kiss.....or does he?

You will also notice.....eh......he's a bit nuts....but funny nuts....not...really nuts!

Grab your poison and tonight...as it's Thursday Special night...Indian Curry all round......most of all enjoy!

COAF - So tell everyone a bit about yourself in general?

GX - I live with a talking dog named Velvet and together we manage two dozen White Castle restaurants throughout Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.

When we're not working, Velvet and I play chess, read to each other, or just plop down in front of the ol' boob tube and catch up on our daytime soaps.

COAF - Why writing? Why decide on that as a career?

GX - Shit. I don't know. Because I'm stupid? I've done the math; the prospects ain't good.

Because I'm wilfully stupid?

DEAD ROSES SPECIAL: NIGHT THREE: INTERVIEW WITH JASON PARENT

Welcome to night three of the Dead Roses Special week.

Tonight sees the second author interview with Jason Parent. He will be answering some general questions about himself and his writing and then some specific questions about Eleanor, his story in the book.

Of course, at the end, Jason will take on The Ten Confessions!

If you don’t know a lot about Jason Parent, you will know it all by the end of this.....believe me! If you come to the end of this interview and think to yourself "Am I nuts or is he nuts?" that is perfectly normal. You will not be alone!

Grab your poison and tonight a huge burger and chips (fries for you American lot).......and most of all enjoy.

COAF - So tell everyone a bit about yourself in general?

JP - What’s there to tell? Hmm… let’s see. I’m a pet-friendly, hypoallergenic, cynical bastard who thinks Teletubbies merge together like Voltron (like Power Rangers for you young ‘uns) to form the Antichrist. I also like long walks on the beach, curling up to watch a movie, and plotting to destroy the world. Sadly, 90 percent of all that is true. I mean, really? Who likes walking?