SHOW-OFF AND TELL #38 - Dead Roses: Five Dark Tales of Twisted Love

#38 in my showing off section is a book that I got last year and to this day it remains one of my all-time favourite books. This goes both for the content between the covers and the actual cover itself.

Dead Roses: Five Dark Tales of Twisted Love.

This little beauty is from the crowd I call the Bad Apples Crew. Evans Light, Adam Light, Edward Lorn, Jason Parent and Gregor Xane.

When this one came out I was just launching Confessions. I came up with this crazy idea of doing a week long stint of interviews and along with the review, managed to pull it off. I have to honestly say that it was probably a bit rough round the edges but it worked and was the fore bearer of all that has come since.

The cover on this one was done by Mike Tenebrae and is still one of my all-time favourite covers.

This is my copy:

REVIEW: Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror

Genre: Horror / Collection

Publisher: Corpus Press

Publication Date: Sept 2016

Pages: 242

REVIEWED BY NEV

A copy of Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the publishers, Corpus Press, in exchange for an honest review. This is said review.

This is the final line from my review of Bad Apples 2: Six Slices of Halloween Horror:

If there is a Bad Apples 3 next year, do we get seven slices?

Turns out I was right! Only thing I can say to that is whoo hoo!

So if you have never read Bad Apples 1 or 2, you have missed a treat, and what are you waiting for? Reviews are at the bottom of the page so go read them and then go buy them.

This is the time of year that if you are lucky enough to get an email in your inbox from Evans Light, the chances are it is with an ARC for Bad Apples. This has become somewhat of a tradition for this book to be released at this time of year so you can go pick it up and add it to your reading list for Halloween. It gets bigger and better every year. It has the same five faces that these collections always have in Evans Light, Adam Light, Edward Lorn, Jason Parent and Gregor Xane. This year though we are given an extra treat with the addition of Mark Matthews, John McNee and Craig Saunders. The only one I have never read before from this lot is Mr McNee so I am super excited to see what he has in store.

I could give much more of an introduction but I can’t wait to get reading, so this is what I thought:

CONFESSIONS OF A REVIEWER TOP FIVE 2015: THE OVERALL TOP FIVE!

Welcome back to the Confessions of a Reviewer’s top five lists!

This is it! The overall top five books of 2015!

Now, if you have been following the posts through the week, you will obviously know that more than five made it through to the top five. So, that left me with a dilemma. Do I now do a top seven, or stick with a top five and bin a couple?

I decided to do neither. I had to be totally honest about how I felt about these books. There were a couple of positions where I just could not split books. I decided therefore, to go with my heart and below is what I came up with.

This list is basically my favourite books of the year. I have had a wonderful year in terms of reading and I have been lucky enough to read some of these before anyone else had a chance to, and for that I am eternally grateful.

I urge you to buy any of these books if you have not already. You will be supporting some great authors and giving them encouragement to continue with their writing and keep us entertained for years to come.

This list is made up of books I have read this year so the books may not necessarily have been published this year.

So let’s get to it and don’t forget to buy buy buy!

CONFESSIONS OF A REVIEWER TOP FIVE 2015: THE ANTHOLOGIES!

So to the Confessions of a Reviewer’s top five lists proper!

I am kicking things off tonight with The Anthologies. Now I am doing things a little bit different. My definition of an anthology for this list is a collection of short stories or novellas by different authors in one book. This means some of them may have five stories in them and some may have twenty.

This list is made up of books I have read this year so the books may not necessarily have been published this year.

I have judged these books purely on the basis of how much they entertained me on a collective basis. The books will be listed first, with links to reviews and links you can use to buy them. At the bottom of the page you will find all the info you need on the authors or presses that produced the books.

Obviously a couple of them have so many contributors that it would take me forever to list them all so I have listed details for the presses.

So let’s get to it and don’t forget to buy buy buy!

SHOW-OFF AND TELL #11 - Evans Light / Adam Light / Edward Lorn / Jason Parent / Gregor Xane - Bad Apples: Five Slices of Halloween Horror

#11 in this feature is another book sent to me by Evans Light in our trade off. To be fair though I definitely reckon I got the better deal in the trade!

Bad Apples: Five Slices of Halloween Horror is a wonderful collection of stories, perfect for the best time of the year. It contains five tales that will totally creep you out and get you in the perfect Halloween mood.

The variety in this book is superb with offerings from Evans Light, Adam Light, Edward Lorn, Jason Parent and Gregor Xane. If you haven’t read anything by these guys yet then Bad Apples is a perfect way to introduce yourself to their writing styles.

This is my copy.

REVIEW: Evans Light / Adam Light / Edward Lorn / Jason Parent / Gregor Xane / Kealan Patrick Burke - Bad Apples 2: Six Slices of Halloween Horror

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Corpus Press

Publication Date: 4^th Oct 2015

Pages: 260

MY REVIEW:

A copy of Bad Apples 2: Six Slices of Halloween Horror was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the authors in exchange for an honest review. This is said review.

OK so I read the original Bad Apples: Five Slices of Halloween Horror yesterday after having it on my Kindle for a year and not getting round to reading it. My bad. It was the first time in Confessions history that a collection or anthology got five stars across the board.

Do you reckon they can do it twice on the trot? Let’s find out!

HALLOWEEKEND BY EDWARD LORN

Dean Laymon owns a very special house. It’s worth millions of dollars, but its history and its contents are worth much more than that to Dean.

It’s called the “Horror House”. Every Halloween people flock to the house to wander through its floors and rooms with the hope of it scaring them more than it did last year. Joe and Richard are two such kids. They are cousins but more importantly friends and they go every year.

The house is full of animatronics. There is something about them though that people don’t realise. They live. They need to be fed candy or they will not be happy. What would happen if Dean wasn’t there to do that? Joe, Richard and everyone else are about to find out.

REVIEW: Evans Light / Adam Light / Edward Lorn / Jason Parent / Gregor Xane - Bad Apples: Five Slices of Halloween Horror

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Corpus Press

Publication Date: 14^th Sept 2014

Pages: 225

MY REVIEW:

So it’s my turn to confess. I have had this on my Kindle since it was released last year and have never gotten around to reading it. I am slapping the back of my hand as I type. Know how difficult that is?

As Bad Apples 2 is now out I thought this would be the time to read and review the original and the sequel. This is my review of Bad Apples: Five Slices of Halloween Horror. Tomorrow night I will publish my review of Bad Apples 2: Six Slices of Halloween Horror.

I have read stuff by all these guys, both individually and also in one of their other collections, Dead Roses: Five Dark Tales of Twisted Love. In case you missed it (how dare you), I did a week long Confessions special full of interviews with the crew (see here) and a review of the book itself (see here).

So to the review itself. Was it worth the year long wait?

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 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?

ANNOUNCEMENT: DEAD ROSES SPECIAL STARTING 30TH MARCH

Any idea how hard it's been to keep this secret?

I know I have shared this with a couple of people already, but I am very very VERY proud to announce that starting next Monday 30th March I will be running a special feature on the new collaboration, Dead Roses: Five Dark Tales of Twisted Love from Evans Light, Adam Light, Gregor Xane, Jason Parent and Edward Lorn.

Included in this one are individual interviews with all five authors and a group interview about their writing together. 

Kicking it all off I have an exclusive interview with Mike Tenebrae, the man responsible for the cover art on the book, about his talents as an artist and his involvement in this project.

This is a huge feature for the blog and has taken quite a bit of work to put together so please put the date in your diary and join me next week to find out all you need to know about these guys and the book itself.

Thanks.

Nev.