Looking Back...

I’m hoping you read this long enough after the deluge of pre/post New Years top 10 lists of books, movies, achievements, goals, pictures, events, etc to not add to the pile. For me, it’s always a bit exhausting when news and social feeds are inundated with lists of things you should have seen or done in the past year or things you should see and do in the coming year. What I’d like to share here are some things that inspired and refreshed me last year; things that spoke to my soul, lifted my spirits, and that I thought were pretty awesome. Most of these are art related, but I’ll throw in a few goodies from my personal life as well. These aren’t going to be listed in any particular order, though I will start with the most obvious and important item.

The Birth of Ethan

Ethan James Sweet - 2 weeks old

Annie and I welcomed our third son into the world last April. Ethan James is the happiest baby I’ve ever seen. His older brothers, Gideon and Sullivan, love him so much and it’s adorable to see the three of them playing together. It’s the best kind of challenge raising these three sweet Sweet boys.

Finally Getting Glasses

For any of you benefitting from corrective eyewear, you probably know how life changing this can be. Reading, writing, looking at my phone, and night driving had all become exhausting tasks. Putting on my first pair of corrective lenses was a life changing experience I’ve been happier and healthier for.

Okay, onto the arts:

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Return of the King

I read The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring in 2023 and was blown away by how truly excellent each book is. While I couldn’t wait to dive into the last two entries in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I’m a fan of delayed gratification and put them off for a while. Reading them last year was one of my favourite literary experiences. The books are chock-full of heart, adventure, and creativity. Even mentioning them now, I get chills recalling some of my favourite scenes. Frodo and Sam’s perilous journey through Shelob’s lair in The Two Towers, written in prose worthy of any classic horror novel, will forever be some of my favourite storytelling.

Dickinson and Shakespeare

Over the past year or so, I’ve been rediscovering my love of reading and writing poetry. While I haven’t written nearly as much of it as I would like, I have been indulging in the works some of the highest regarded poets from modern greats like Billy Collins, counter-culturalists like Charles Bukowski, and classic masters like William Wordsworth and T.S. Eliot.

I’ve always been a fan of Shakespeare, having voluntarily read most of his plays in high school, but I’d never read any of his sonnets until last year when I started on a journey to read all 154 of them. I’ve barely scratched the surface because I’m trying to absorb and understand each sonnet, as much as one can do so without a degree in classical literature. Poetry, to me, is something that really needs to be experienced and absorbed. I’m taking my time with these and have been loving the experience.

And then there’s Emily Dickinson. Believe it or not, until last year I had never read a Dickinson poem in my life (that I could recall). I have an old Dover Thrift Edition of some selected poems of hers and opened it on a whim at the beginning of my re-immersion into poetry. Something about her word economy, wit, powers of observation, and the way she interprets the world grabbed my spirit by the short hairs and demanded its attention. From seemingly simple tributes to insects, to her more introspective observations of the human condition, Dickinson had this uncanny ability to distill the world around her into a handful of expertly chosen and cunningly arranged words. And almost all of them are fun to read. I defy anyone to look at a poem of hers and not feel the urge to read it out loud.

“Barcelona” by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé

I’ve long been a casual fan of Queen, having drunkenly belted out in ear-splitting falsetto every line of “Bohemian Rhapsody” more times than I can count at the karaoke bar I frequented in my 20s and early 30s. I wouldn’t say I was ever a “dedicated” fan, but I’ve always appreciated their talent and, of course, their sound. As a lover of a great many musical genres, and as someone who spent seven years of his life as an event & wedding DJ, I was taken by the best kind of surprise when a friend posted a video (which you can find here) of Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé performing the song “Barcelona” live in Ibiza. The passion of these two virtuosoes cannot be denied. This has to be one of the best live performances in the history of music. I would never consider myself anything close to an expert, but I do love opera, and this song immediately made me a fan of María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch (aka Montserrat Caballé). The song, written by Freddie Mercury and Mike Moran, struck my heart like a tidal wave. The lyrics weave a simple narrative delivered in the most compelling way. I’ve listened to it dozens of times since first hearing it last October and the song never fails to electrify me and stir up new emotions.

James Gunn’s Superman Trailer

I can hear some of your eyes rolling, but bear with me. You don’t need to be a fan of Superman to acknowledge the character’s impact on art, society, storytelling, and more. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s creation was an atom bomb dropped on pop culture and was, at one point, considered the epitome of heroism. Largely maligned for his invulnerability and (sadly) unbelievable goodness, Superman has been a bit of a point of contention in the entertainment industry, especially as it leans toward lifting up antiheroes and villains as the good guy. There have been a lot of different versions of Supes, many recent iterations exploring a darker side of his nature. What’s immediately obvious, watching the trailer, is the intent to bring back the wholesome and admittedly campy Superman of the silver age.

Here’s why it’s on this (personal and subjective) list:

Growing up, Superman was, to me, an ideal to strive for. With all the otherworldly power and strength he possessed, he (in most iterations) remained humble and human. He could withstand the most violent of attacks but had an immediate, unhidden, and often exploited weakness for the people he was raised among. A single human death, to him, was the worst thing that could possibly happen under his watch. When Superman Returns (2006) was released, I was studying journalism in college. Guess who inspired me (partially, at least) to go into journalism in the first place? Yeah, Clark Kent. From John Williams’ classic “Superman Main Theme” playing during the title card (it’s been my ringtone for longer than I can remember) to the iconic “airplane scene” to Superman plummeting to the earth after lifting an island of kryptonite into the sky, the movie managed to capture the essence of the Superman I’d grown up with. Gunn’s version at least promises to strive for the same thing. I was swept up in literal chills when the electric guitar version of Williams’ legendary theme started playing. And, yeah, my heart leapt to see an appearance by Krypto, Superman’s super-dog.

These are things that spoke to me, blew smouldering coals in my heart into flaming life, lifted my spirit, and inspired me. What are some things that did the same for you? Obviously you don’t have to share, but it might do your heart some good to reflect upon. I think we spend too much time dwelling on what we want to change, what could be better, what we could have more of, to appreciate the things that have kept us going, filled our cups, and inspired us. And sometimes those things are hard to recognize until we put some real effort into reflecting on them.

That’s all for now, folks. Thanks for stopping in.

Much love,

-Chris

November Reads

Christmas carols are floating down the stairs to where I sit in our little living room. Across from me, our Christmas tree is lit, glowing its halogen reminder of what time of year it is. The dogs are dozing peacefully (for now), and the boys are having a bit of quiet time. It’s a quintessential Christmas-season afternoon. The outdoors are a little less on-theme; it’s unseasonably mild and raining steadily.

It’s good weather, in other words, to snuggle up with a book. Or to talk about books!

Last month I only got through about four books, mostly because I’ve been busy writing. I decided to start a new project for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which meant I was effectively juggling four projects (two novels in their rewrite / revision stage, one being prepped for audiobook release, and the new one for ‘Wrimo). This left little time for reading. Still, two of the books I read were incredible. Can’t wait to talk about them. But first…

Welcome to Nightvale by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

Welcome to Nightvale is the novel based on the podcast of the same name. I’ve never listened to the podcast, which may have impacted my enjoyment of this novel. But I don’t think so.

Nightvale, the titular town, is a bizarre and isolated community in the middle of the desert. The town is populated with strange people, and strange things happen as a matter of routine. The story is ostensibly about several residents of the town and a strange man who shows up and starts handing out mysterious notes.

At first the strangeness of the town is entertaining and speaks to some great mystery lurking underneath it. Then it becomes clear that the strangeness is largely a coat of paint overtop of an underwhelming story that might have to do with accepting responsibility and something about family. The absurd idiosyncrasies that are at first amusing, quickly become predictable beats smothering an otherwise barely coherent narrative. Anytime something remotely noteworthy is mentioned, it will be surrounded by inane absurdities.

I love bizarre stories and I’m rarely bothered by things being weird for the sake of being weird, but this one rubbed me in many of the wrong ways. Don’t take my word for gospel, though. This book is pretty darn popular and has a solid following.

Blood Rites (The Dresden Files #6) by Jim Butcher

If you’ve been following this blog for some time, you might smirk to yourself or shake your head when you read that title. The Dresden Files is sort of a guilty pleasure for me, one that I have a love/hate relationship with.

The books are far from highbrow literature, which is nothing to complain about. They follow Harry Dresden, a wizard-for-hire who operates as sort of a spell-wielding gumshoe detective. The stories are entertaining adventures filled with all manner of monsters and magic. They also contain their fair share of inconsistencies and downright cringeworthy moments.

Blood Rites follows Dresden as he attempts to stop the actresses and female production crew of a pornographic film from being murdered. Monsters, demons, vampires, and fairies all play a role in this latest adventure. Also a puppy.

I can’t bash these books because I keep going back and reading them. So I guess that speaks to their appeal. If you want to give Butcher’s Dresden Files a go, I strongly recommend starting with the first in the series.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

This year has been a great one for books, in large part because I’ve finally read some classics that have long been on my list. Early this year I read both The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring (planning on making Two Towers the first book I start in 2024) and I remember feeling glad I got to read them for the first time so late in life, but also a little salty with myself for sleeping on them. I feel the same way about Dracula, probably more given my love of horror.

Stoker’s classic vampire tale is ridiculously good. It’s packed with atmosphere, creepy settings, and truly gothic horror. Of course I already knew it inspired much of what horror is these days, but I had no idea how much. Bram Stoker really was a literary genius, at least as far as this book is concerned.

Right off the hop, we’re thrown into Dracula’s castle, following poor Jonathan Harker into his nightmare. Reading the descriptions of the castle, after being immersed in the horror genre for so long, is like stepping into the halls of a museum.

Dracula’s coming to England is truly epic. I can see now why an entire movie (The Last Voyage of the Demeter 2023) was made based on his voyage at sea. The storm described in the book is terrific.

The whole investigation of Dracula’s reign of terror is engaging and familiar. It’s become the formula for monster hunts across the horror genre.

I could rant for pages and pages about this book. It’s absolutely earned a spot in my very fluid top five books of all time, a list that will likely forever remain locked in my mind, changing to suit my mood from moment-to-moment. The challenge will be resisting reading it again in the next year.

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

Christopher Buehlman has been a favourite horror author of mine for the past couple of years, ever since I read his werewolf novel Those Across the River. And while I love his horror novels, this journey into fantasy is my favourite yet.

The Blacktongue Thief follows a—you guessed it—black-tongued thief named Kinch, an indebted member of the Taker’s Guild. Owing the guild money, he embarks on a quest along with a knight named Galva. But while Kinch’s journey is to serve the Taker’s Guild, Galva’s is much more noble.

Coming across all manner of monsters, fighting their way through cities, sewers, and mountains, and meeting tons of interesting folk along the way, Kinch and Galva’s adventure is truly epic.

Buehlman’s imagination is one of the finest out there as far as I’m concerned. From the creatures he comes up with to the characters he breathes life into, his worlds are overflowing with life and magic. The dialogue and first-person narration are snappy and often hilarious.

I’m very excited for the follow up to this one, which I believe is expected next year.

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So that’s it, like I said, just the four. Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments, on Instagram or Facebook @authorchristophersweet, or by shooting me a message using the contact page.

Thanks very much for reading!

Oh, and if you’d like to receive news about my upcoming novel The Orchid Room, head to the homepage and sign up for my monthly newsletter.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-Chris

October Reads

October, like the smoke of an extinguished candle, has vanished, leaving us with cold, emotionless November. It’s that gunky time of year when, in my corner of the world, the weather can’t decide if it wants to rain or snow.

We got our first official snowfall on the day before Halloween and, in it, I discovered something very cool. The weather was mild leading up to that day, with bugs about in full force; mosquitoes and black flies filling up on my blood to keep them warm over the winter, wasps making a last ditch attempt at finding somewhere warm to nest, and spiders gobbling up the stragglers.

I’m working in the woods a lot these days and October 30th was no exception. Wet, gross snow was falling without any of the grace that makes snow tolerable. I trudged through the trees, surveying which ones would need to come down next and which would make good firewood. As I walked, I noticed threads of spider silk dangling from many of the tree branches. Attached to these threads, as if they’d been strung on, were tiny, perfect snowflakes. It took me a moment to realize I was surrounded by these natural decorations. Everywhere I looked, strands of silk, only a few inches long and strung with snowflakes, dangled and blew in the breeze. It was one of the most magical things I’ve ever come across in nature, like something you’d see in a Disney movie.

Which isn’t a meaningful segue into the books I read last month, but here we are, ready to get down to business. It was a busy month for me in a lot of ways and I had forgotten about many of the books I read right up until I went over them in my reading history (thanks for keeping track, Goodreads). I read some surprisingly great books, and two that were disappointing. So sad, but not all words on pages can please my personal tastes and expectation.

Horrorama by C.V. Hunt (Introduction), A.S. Coomer, Lucas Magnum, Matt Harvey

This is disappointment number one. Not because I expected anything life-changing or super intelligent. In fact, I went for this book because it’s pretty up front about being none of those things. The basic premise behind this anthology is that each of its three entries is inspired by schlocky horror movies, each story readable in approximately the amount of time it would take to watch one of said horror movies.

The first story started off as a neat, if rough-around-the-edged, tale of mysterious goings-on. If there’s a thread to be followed in the story, it’s quickly lost. Maybe there was an effort to tie things together, but this story felt like a six-year-old making up a spooky story on the spot. “This happened, then this happened—oh—and then aliens! Then a monster! And murderers! And fat guys!”

And the first was the only mildly digestible tale of the bunch.

I actively try to enjoy books and movies and make every effort to give things a chance. I could tell early on that this was one of those books I should just put down and move on from, but I held out hope that the next story would redeem the one before.

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. Werewolves and cults make up the next two stories and, in the interest of not spending excess energy on things I don’t enjoy, I’ll leave it at that.

‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

This is more like it.

I think I mentioned before that I’ve been revisiting some of King’s older work, especially books I read in my younger days. This is one I think I’ll read at least a couple more times before I die, if I have my druthers.

I’ve been on a bit of a vampire kick lately, having read Let the Right One In last month and currently reading Stoker’s classic Dracula. Vampires aren’t something I typically go for in horror, but when they’re done well, they can be fertile soil for some of the best storytelling there is.

If you don’t know, and if you haven’t picked up on it already, ‘Salem’s Lot is King’s vampire book and is almost certainly one of his scariest. It tells the tale of sleepy little Jerusalem’s Lot (‘Salem’s Lot, or the Lot to its residents) and the ancient evil that moves in.

The way King wrote this book is truly masterful. As you read, you’re learning about this little town and its inhabitants, all while, just off in your peripheral vision, vampires are moving in. Then, before you know what’s happening, the vampires take over. It’s insane and terrifying.

I think there’s a remake of the movie coming out (probably by Mike Flanagan, who is making it his mission to remake every classic horror tale out there—and to do it better than the first guy) but I honestly have lost track of all the King re-adaptations and remakes that are on the horizon. I have to confess that I still haven’t seen the original film but after re-reading this book, I’m eager to.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang is the genius who wrote the short story that inspired the 2016 film Arrival. If you haven’t seen it, please do yourself a favour and watch it…twice. You’ll probably need to. The film is inspired by a story from his collection Stories of Your Life and Others, which is what I had set out to read. Exhalation was available instead, so I went for it. And I’m glad I did.

I don’t know enough about Chiang to tell whether he is a brilliant thinker or just an incredible storyteller or both. After each of the stories in Exhalation, which is a collection of short stories, Chiang provides a short note talking about where the inspiration for the story came from. In many cases, he credits the concept to some other thinker or genius. Either way, he weaves some incredibly high-concept ideas into touching, imaginative stories that make the reader think about their own life and the world around them.

The stories range from tales of time travel to stories about zookeepers for AI creatures, but they all zero in on philosophical issues, often as they relate to technology.

Fair warning: reading Ted Chiang’s work will make you think.

Agent of Chaos (The X-Files: Origins, #1) by Kami Garcia

If you know me, you probably know I’m a bit of an X-Files nerd. I’ve watched the entire series enough times through to feel slightly ashamed by it. I watch it these days for comfort more than anything, but the show is a huge influence on many of my interests. I can vividly remember watching many of the episodes as they aired, the only thing close to horror I was actually permitted to watch as a kid.

I’ve long been curious about novel tie-ins to intellectual properties that started off in other mediums. I read my first one, Batman: No Man’s Land, which I absolutely loved, last year. So when I heard about the X-Files origins books, I had to check them out.

There’s nothing brilliant or franchise-shaking in this first instalment of what I assume will be a broader series of books. It tells the tale of seventeen-year-old Fox Mulder investigating his first crime and feeling the first pulls towards a career in criminal behavioural psychology.

This book is 90% fan service. The characters familiar to fans of the show are well written and read like their on-screen personas sound. The book is filled with references that I admit I got a bit of a thrill from any time I recognized one. Beyond that, there really isn’t much to it. The story itself is a mix of procedural crime investigation and kids-on-bikes adventure.

The coolest part for me was reading about the early days of “X”, Mulder’s secret source and occasional protector in the television series. Fun book overall.

The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht

Yes. Bill Watterson. The guy responsible for Calvin & Hobbes, which aside from the above mentioned franchise may have been one of the strongest shapers of my thinking and interests. I read all the Calvin & Hobbes I could get my hands on as a kid. When I was twelve and thirteen all I wanted to do was play Calvinball or jump into my own transmogrifier. The comic was, and still is, utterly brilliant.

So when I heard Watterson was putting out a brand new, non-Calvin-and-Hobbes book, my heart rejoiced. I pre-ordered it almost a year ago and eagerly awaited it to show up on my doorstep. And it finally did, a couple of weeks ago. Ten minutes after opening it, I closed the book again, having read the entire thing and taken my time admiring the gloomy, minimalistic illustrations.

My first impression was complete disappointment. This is not the writings of the Bill Watterson who wrote some of my favourite adventures and who waxed philosophical from the mouth of a child and his imaginary tiger. This is the work of a tired, bitter person.

One review I read about this book is that it’s a big joke, a giant middle-finger to the masses, to corporate America, to our constant need to know everything and uncover every dark corner of reality we can get our mitts on. The message within is so blatant and rehashed without any spice whatsoever that it can’t be an honest attempt at whatever it’s pretending to be an attempt at.

I’m disappointed and feel a bit like I wasted my money, but that’s life. Not everything is tailor-made to please me. And I want to believe ol’ Bill (and the other guy) had something brilliant in mind when he (they) came up with this idea.

Sigh.

Noose by Brennan LaFaro

This is the third book I’ve read by LaFaro and I’ve gotta say, I like his style.

Noose is a horror-western and tells the story of Rory Daggett, a young man who was orphaned as a boy by the notorious outlaw Noose Holcomb, seeking out revenge on his parents’ killer. The book starts right in on the bloody action and doesn’t let up.

This is an imaginative novel full of black magic, weird science, and murderous berserkers. It’s short and sweet and a lot of fun.

Dark Tales for Dark Nights by Angella Cormier and Pierre C Arseneault

Writing duo Cormier and Arseneault combine their powers to bring you a collection of six tales featuring strange creatures in the night, vicious bigfoots (bigfeet…?), and Faustian competitions.

Several of these stories feature twists that I don’t want to give away, so I’ll say little here.

I will say that my favourite story of the lot is by far the first one, “Sometimes They Come at Night”, which tells the story of a man haunted by dark creatures who surround his secluded house each night. The story takes its reader down a twisted rabbit hole of terror, and provides a satisfying, clever conclusion.

Wildfire Ridge by Mary Lee Soop

Wildfire Ridge is a middle-grade novel about, you guessed it, a wildfire. It’s an adventure story about thirteen-year-old Ouzel, who finds himself trapped in the midst of a raging wildfire with seemingly no way out. This is a lovely story of heart and learning to do the right thing, delivering a solid message in an entertaining way.

The story behind how I came to read this book is one I enjoy telling. Wildfire Ridge is not a book I would normally gravitate toward. I occasionally read middle-grade fiction, usually if it’s something super unique or, more often, if I know the author. Even in those cases, the story of someone trying to escape a wildfire is not something that would typically grab my interest. So how did it come to be on my bookshelf?

I was working in the store at our campground one day this past summer when a woman came bustling through the door and demanded to know if I was “the author”. I confessed that I was while, inwardly, I was beaming at being sought out for my storytelling.

She proceeded to introduce herself as Mary Lee Soop. She told me she is also an author and that she brought me a copy of her book. Touched, flattered, and delighted to meet a fellow scribe, I insisted on returning the favour and shoved a copy of The Boy in the Canvas into her hands.

I’m very happy the book turned out to be as enjoyable as it was to meet its author. I highly recommend it for young readers. It would make a great first “chapter book” for kids interested in taking the next step in their reading journey.

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And that’s the end of that for another month. What interesting books have you read recently? Any of these? Thoughts? Let me know in the comments, by shooting me an email at chris@authorchristophersweet.com, or by hitting me up on social media. My handles on Facebook and Instagram are @authorchristophersweet and on TikTok, just to be confusing, it’s @christophersweetauthor. I don’t often use Twitter / X, but my handle on there is @thischrissweet if you feel like following me there, on the off chance I have something cool to say in 120 characters or whatever the limit is now.

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September Reads

And then it was October. That time of year we spooky folk can’t wait for. For a solid month, horror movies are prominently featured on streaming services, ghosts and ghouls adorn houses and businesses alike, and excuses are made to eat all of the candy purchased to give out to trick-or-treaters with the understanding that another box will be purchased before the big day and, when that one has been consumed, a third box of inferior candy will be bought in its place.

I got through eight books this past month, many of which were really good, and at least one that blew my socks off…

From a Buick 8 by Stephen King

This was my second time reading this book; I’ve been re-reading a lot of older Stephen King books that I first read in my younger days. By and large I’m finding that I enjoy them a second time through, in some cases even more so than the first time I read them. This one, however, was one that I did not enjoy quite as much.

From a Buick 8 is not so much a novel as it is a collection of anecdotes spread over a conversation had in a police station smoking pit. The book follows a young man named Ned whose father, a Pennsylvania police officer, is killed in a traffic stop. After his dad’s death, Ned hangs out and eventually works part time at the police station his dad worked out of. Throughout the book, the police officers at the station recount to Ned the strange happenings surrounding an odd car they found decades earlier.

The car, which resembles an old Buick Roadmaster, is the epicentre of bizarre events from things vanishing around it to nightmarish creatures appearing from within it. Many of the tales told about it revolve around Ned’s late father, who was most enthusiastic about the car’s appearance.

Thing is, even with all the strange occurrences, not much of anything happens. The car is almost a big carrot that King dangles in front of the reader, never really giving much more than a whiff, let alone a bite, to anyone whose interest it catches.

Grady Hendrix (How to Sell a Haunted House) brazenly calls this the novel in which “…King totally loses faith in the power of narrative.” I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, though I completely understand Hendrix’s argument, but this book does seem to mark a shift in the writer’s modus operandi.

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Yes, this is the same book that inspired the 2018 film starring Natalie Portman.

Annihilation follows a team of four women who are sent on the twelfth expedition into a mysterious zone known as Area X. Very little information is given about Area X except that it is an ever-growing area cut off from civilization.

The story is told through journal entries made by the Biologist of the group—the characters in this book are known only by their job title as it applies to the expedition into Area X. It doesn’t take long after the team arrives at their base camp for things to take a dark and bizarre turn.

A lot of this book, like much of Vandermeer’s work, deals with strange ecological events that are never really explained. I enjoy this kind of ambiguous storytelling, when done well and not obviously out of laziness, but I know some readers like to be rewarded with at least some answers as to why such-and-such is happening.

This book is short, puzzling, thought provoking, and rife with beautiful, weird, dreamlike imagery. If you can handle being left in the dark on a number of happenings, I don’t think you’ll regret giving this one a read.

Slattery Falls by Brennan LaFaro

Some of my favourite books are of the buddy adventure-horror sort. I’m talking about books like the John Dies at the End series by Jason Pargin and Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero. Slattery Falls, uh, falls into this category.

The book follows three friends on the paranormal investigation of a house in the titular town. Things go tits-up, and our heroes wind up fighting for their lives against a hopelessly powerful force.

There are some really good moments in this book; nicely written scary scenes and touching moments of love and friendship. It’s a short book and things move along at a good pace, so it’s not much of a time commitment. Slattery Falls is part of a trilogy and I’m looking forward to checking out the next entry.

I Found Puppets Living in My Apartment Walls by Ben Farthing

Last month I read a book called I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House. It was an absurd and harrowing tale of a father and son’s fight for survival. The author wrote another I Found… book, and it’s just as strange and equally terrifying.

I Found Puppets in My Apartment Walls is the story of Johnny, who inherits his grandfather’s apartment after his death. Grandpa was one of the stars of a kids television puppet show called R-City Street, which is very obviously a parody of Sesame Street. Grandpa operated a puppet named Smoopy and, during Johnny’s first night in the apartment, Smoopy comes shambling out of a dark corner and stands over the bed before disappearing into shadow again. Thus begins a descent into an increasingly horrific, mad world of hungry, sentient puppets.

Like Farthing’s other I Found… book, I read this one in a day. It grabs you by your fear nerve and drags you into a basement of madness and gaping puppet mouths. If you’re afraid of puppets, this book might warrant some therapy afterwards. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel

Oh boy. This was far from my favourite read of the month.

Just Like Mother follows Maeve, the former victim of a mother-centric cult. When she reconnects with her cousin, who she was in the cult with, Maeve knows that absolutely nothing can go wrong and leaps into the relationship with blind abandon. All of the red flags go over her head and she winds up fighting for her life and to escape traumatic memories of her childhood.

This book seemed to be wanting to say something, maybe about motherhood, or parenthood in general, or about the female body, or maybe about abuse.

I don’t want to give a lot of energy to dumping on something I didn’t enjoy, so I’ll just say I can not recommend this book. It has won awards though, so please don’t take mine as the final word on it.

The Moorstone Sickness by Bernard Taylor

I’ve read some great older, rather obscure horror novels over the years. The Religion by Nicholas Condé, The Great White Space by Basil Copper, and The Tribe by Bari Wood are just a few. While The Moorstone Sickness doesn’t hold a candle to any of those titles, it was a fairly enjoyable read.

The Moorstone Sickness follows Hal and Rowan to the village of Moorstone, where they hope to forget a tragic loss. While there, the couple experience unheard of levels of hospitality from the villagers. They soon learn that people enjoy Moorstone so much that they seldom leave.

Bernard Taylor creates a sense of mounting dread throughout the tale, even as Hal and Rowan go about mundane daily rituals. Even the glimpses into the more insidious goings-on are done so subtly that the reader can hardly know for sure that anything untoward is being done.

At the time of its publication, the premise of this book was probably a lot more effective. Maybe I’ve read too much speculative fiction and watched too many spooky / science fiction movies, but I saw what was going on in Moorstone pretty early on. I won’t give it away, but I think most readers will pick up on it pretty quick.

The worst part of this book was its conclusion. There is some fantastic buildup and things come to a chilling climax. Then the story just ends with the most obvious and least entertaining and enjoyable of all possible endings. It’s a bit disappointing given how cool the story itself was, but not enough to ruin the experience.

The Deep by Nick Cutter

This was another re-read for me. Not for lack of something interesting to read, more so because it popped up on my audiobook app and I was curious to know how it turned out. Also it’s a book I really enjoyed the first time around. I’ll stop justifying my reading choice now.

The Deep takes place during a mysterious pandemic colloquially known as the ‘Gets, called so because its victims quickly forget things, starting with the mundane and ending with sufferers forgetting how to perform necessarily bodily functions like eating and breathing. The world’s last hope turns to renowned scientist Clayton Nelson, who is investigating a strange discovery deep in the Marianas Trench. When communication with Clayton is lost after a final message, his brother, Luke, is sent down to fetch him. Luke soon learns that something terrible has befallen the Trieste, the deep sea research station Clayton is working in—terrible in the veins of The Thing and Event Horizon. It quickly becomes apparent that this is no pandemic novel, its horrors coming from something much more primeval and infinitely more monstrous.

This book is tough for a lot of reasons. The claustrophobic nature of the Trieste is utterly unnerving throughout. Add to that the isolation and separation from the surface, the monstrous presence aboard the station, and some of the most visceral images of gore that can be imagined, and you’ve got a cocktail not fit for the weak of constitution.

Big SPOILER - this book has the most drawn out and heart wrenching dog death I have ever read. It’s horrible and relentless.

The ending of this book caught me entirely off guard the first time I read it. The second time through makes it a little easier to handle, but it’s still completely insane, in the best sort of way.

As far as the audiobook is considered, narrator Corey Brill does a fantastic job. His vocal range goes from conversational to a truly unnerving baritone. I’d love to hear him narrate It.

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

This book blew me away. It’s one of the absolute best books I’ve read all year, if not the best.

Let the Right One In is ostensibly about a young boy’s burgeoning relationship with a young girl who turns out to be a vampire. It was turned into a Swedish film in 2008 and was adapted into an American film in 2010, under the title Let Me In.

I’d seen the American movie and thought I knew what I was getting into, but the book is its own beautiful, terrible beast. Lindqvist does a remarkable job of exploring the secret lives of adolescents and some of the horrors inherent to youth. The lives he writes of are heartbreaking and endearing with a tragic beauty that will stick with me for a long time.

The American film (I haven’t yet seen the Swedish version) eliminates some key components of the story that change the narrative dramatically. Many of these elements are upsetting and were hard to read, but make the reader helpless to fall in love with Eli and Oskar, the book’s protagonists.

Let the Right One In has to be the best modern vampire novel written since Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire.

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All in all a good month for books! Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments, by dropping me a line through the Contact page, or by hitting me up on social media: @authorchristophersweet on Instagram & Facebook, @thischrissweet on Twitter, newly on Bluesky as @christophersweet.bsky.social (I think…it’s confusing), and also finally on TikTok as @christophersweetauthor

Have an awesome month. You’ll hear from me again in November!

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PS - Did you know I’m running a Kickstarter campaign for my next novel, The Orchid Room? There are some cool rewards to be had for backers. Check out the link and support if you’re able: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/christophersweet/the-orchid-room

Thanks!

August Reads

Boy howdy, August just ripped right past us, didn’t it? I personally had a lot going on between work at the campground, keeping our little monsters alive, and a couple of signing events I took part in. If you want to hear more about that sort of stuff, sign yourself up for my monthly newsletter. You’ll get updates about what’s going on with me in my personal life, sure, but you’ll also be privy to what’s happening with various projects I have on the go, get news about upcoming and past appearances and events, and receive early access and the occasional special offer.

But you’re here to read about what I read about last month, so let’s get to it.

I somehow managed to get through six books last month. Several of them were audiobooks, which I listened to the bulk of during my trips to and from the events I was taking part in. Up first…

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

The Sun Down Motel recounts the tale of a young woman digging into the mystery of her aunt, who disappeared at around the same age many years ago. The book shifts back and forth between the points-of-view (and time periods) of the young woman and her aunt.

Honestly, this book was like Nancy Drew with ghosts. That’s the best thing I can say about it. I don’t want to spend a bunch of time poo-pooing someone else’s work, so I’ll just say this book was not for me. Lots was left unresolved, mysteries were sealed up in the least satisfying ways possible, and the only interesting characters were treated as throwaways. It was a frustrating experience.

Let’s move on from it.

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

I may have said it before, but I love Agatha Christie. I especially have a special place in my heart for the oft-prissy Hercule Poirot. Even though her Poirot stories and books are relatively predictable—at least as far as the story formula goes, if not eventually in how the mysteries are solved—I very much enjoy the banter between Poirot and his loyal assistant Hastings. The latter’s constant amazement at Poirot’s methods of investigation becomes a familiar sort of funny after the first couple of stories, like a loveable uncle who tells the lamest jokes.

Poirot Investigates is a collection of mysteries featuring the titular detective, all narrated by Hastings. The cases presented are generally lighter mysteries, solved almost as quickly as they’re presented. I can’t say any of them really stand out to me, but the book provided a couple of evenings of light-hearted, mystery-solving amusement.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

This book came highly recommended to me by a couple of bookish friends and relatives, and I’m very happy I took their suggestion. I don’t typically chase after the top “list-making” books. I’m one of those people who is often put off by excessive hype, especially when it comes to general fiction, which I would say this only barely qualifies as.

Station Eleven is one of those absurdly prescient books. Published in 2014, it tells the story of a traveling theatre group in post-apocalyptic North America. What caused the apocalypse? You guessed it: a flu-like illness very much like Covid (or like The Stand’s Captain Trips virus).

This novel jumps back and forth in time, telling stories of before and after the illness claimed the majority of the world’s population. Most of the time, this keeps things pretty interesting; as soon as things get dicey in the post-apocalyptic timeline, we’re given a reflective reprieve with some anecdotes from the pre-apocalyptic times, most of which take place in Toronto, Ontario and focus on an aging film star.

I was kept pretty entertained by most of this book, and found myself reflecting on a number of passages, especially those relating to fatherhood and the balancing of the loves of art and family. As entertaining as most of the book was, I never really felt connected to the characters and it never truly felt like there was any danger. There was danger, and (spoiler) people do die, but I was never taken to the point where I feared for a character or cared when their ticket was punched.

But that’s me being picky. In all, this was a pretty darn good book.

The Mobius Door: A Novel of Supernatural Terror by Andrew Najberg

This is more like it.

Najberg is a fellow indie author out of Tennessee who I heard about through one of the many horror-lovers groups I’m a part of online.

The Mobius Door tells the tale of a small town that becomes the focus of an otherworldly entity trying to break through from the “other side”. The story comes from multiple points-of-view from young kids to seasoned police officers, none of whom are safe from the horror threatening the town.

The terror starts on page one of this book and doesn’t let up throughout. From body-morphing horrors to doorways into a bleak unknown, this is like something dreamt up by John Carpenter, Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, and David Cronenberg.

Andrew’s next book, Gollitok, comes out November 24.

Cackle by Rachel Harrison

I don’t know what it is about Rachel Harrison’s writing that keep drawing me back to her books. This is the third of hers that I’ve read and I am no closer to understanding. Her books often (always?) feature female protagonists going through some sort of existential crisis that invariably leads them to some kind of monster, be they ghosts, werewolves, or—as in Cackle—witches. On top of that, her main characters aren’t particularly likeable.

And still, I’m drawn to them.

There’s nothing bad about her books, and her success can’t be denied. So what bugs me about them? And why do I keep coming back in spite of that apparent ire? Let me state here, in case it needs to be said, that it has nothing to do with the fact that the author and her protagonists are female. Some of my favourite books are written by women and feature women as their main characters, so shut up.

I think it’s probably that I want to not like the books because I don’t really like the main characters. But the fact is that Harrison crafts an entertaining story full of witty prose and has some pretty cool ideas. This book, for example, is full of super cool, if somewhat whimsical, magic.

Cackle tells the story of Annie, a young woman who is mourning the fact that she has just turned thirty and was broken up with by the apparent love of her life weeks before her birthday. She flees to a small town where she meets an exotic older woman who takes an immediate shine to her. It doesn’t take much to figure out right away that the older woman is a witch and soon she is grooming Annie to also be a witch.

There are some pretty cool spooky moments in this, and a lot of neat settings that should appeal to any fan of witchcraft fiction. Nothing about this book really scared me, and I kind of saw where the whole thing was going from early on, so there were no surprises, but the ride was a fun one.

I’ll likely be reading her recently released book Black Sheep before the year is up.

I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House by Ben Farthing

Yes, this book is about exactly what the title says. Yes, it is probably as bizarre as you’re thinking. And yes, it scared the hell out of me.

I Found a Circus Tent… is a very short book about a father playing in the woods with his son when they happen upon, you guessed it, a circus tent. The pair wind up becoming trapped in the tent and are then subjected to some of the most nightmarish situations a parent can find themself in with their child.

I tore through this book in a day and have been thinking about it ever since. The boy featured in the book is the same age as our oldest son and it was hard not to picture the two of us going through what the main characters of Farthing’s book are put through.

I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House was a tough, rewarding book to read and I can’t wait for the next in the series, titled—I shit you not—I Found Puppets Living in My Apartment Walls.

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So that’s it. All told, some really good books, a couple of okay ones, and one definite stinker.

Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments, or by dropping me a line through the contact page, or by hitting me up on one of the billion social media sites I feel obligated to stay active on. My Facebook and Instagram handle is @authorchristophersweet and, because some sneaky devil out there already snagged that one, my TikTok handle is @christophersweetauthor which definitely never gets confusing.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope to hear from you and that you have an awesome September!

-Chris

***PS - Want to sign up for that newsletter I was talking about? Plug your email address in here.

July Reads

Hey! I hope your summer is going well.

My own summer (inadvertent Deftones reference) has been flying past—it was May just yesterday! The campground has been busy and I’ve been hard at work on revisions for my upcoming novel, The Orchid Room, which is slated to be released early in 2024. More info and an actual publication date for that one are on their way. Because I’m some sort of masochist, I also did the first read-through of another novel that I’m hoping to release in 2024, maybe by summer. But I’ve eaten my share of crow in the past.

So for this entry, I present you with four titles subject to my musings, two of which I listened to the audiobook for. Read ‘em and weep.

The Keep by F. Paul Wilson

This book has been on my list for a long time (nine years, according to Goodreads, though I’m pretty sure that’s when I created my account). I became a fan of F. Paul Wilson’s work a decade ago or more, when I started reading his Repairman Jack series. If you haven’t read any of the RJ books, I highly recommend it. I’ll be revisiting them all again soon.

The Keep is the first of seven books in Wilson’s “Adversary Cycle”, which basically tells of the war for our world between two cosmic forces. The books include standalone novels, as well as books in the Repairman Jack series. Trying to understand the timeline and order of these books can be a confusing affair, so from here on out, I’ll try to focus on The Keep.

The book takes place in Romania during the nazi occupation and is set almost entirely in, you guessed it, a keep. The titular structure rests in a nearly sunless valley in a small Romanian village, and is made the operating base for a squad of nazi soldiers. Shortly after the nazis take over the keep, a dark presence begins to hunt them. Searching for answers, the nazis send for history professor Theodore Cuza and his daughter, Magda. Almost immediately, Cuza and his daughter are swept up in the mystery of the dark presence preying on those within the keep.

This entire book was fantastic, old-school horror from start-to-finish. I had some idea of the direction things would go, since the Repairman Jack books take place in more modern times and are tied to the Adversary Cycle, but I found myself wrapped up in the story and wondering how exactly this book would kick off a universe full of some of my most beloved novels.

Even as a standalone book, The Keep is worth checking out, especially for fans of older (80s) horror novels.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

You’ve more than likely heard of this one.

The Devil in the White City was described to me as a narrative telling of the crimes of the notorious serial killer H.H. Holmes. As a fan of horror and as someone who is fascinated by tales of true crime, I was immediately sold on it.

Unfortunately for me, that is not what the book is. The Devil in the White City would probably have interested me more if I was an architect, a gardener, or a city planner. The book primarily tells the story of Daniel Hudson Burnham, director of Chicago’s World’s Fair, with interludes to speculate on the machinations of Dr. Holmes’ mind and movements during his time in Chicago.

As an historical account of one of the biggest / most attended events in US history, this book is fantastic. As the tale of a twisted serial killer, it falls a bit short. The two stories don’t really go together. On one page, Larson lists each item on the menu at a particular event (this happens several times in the book), and on the next, he is musing on the thoughts and intentions of Holmes.

Apparently very little is actually known about the murders committed by H.H. Holmes, though his macabre hotel is fascinating.

It was neat to read about the World’s Fair and I’m glad I learned what I did about it, but the book was a bit of a slog for me overall. That said, it’s very popular and if American history, architecture, or landscaping is your thing, I recommend checking it out.

Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey

This book had been popping up on my feeds for some time now, always with comments about the satisfying 90s nostalgia throughout. Let me tell you, while the 90s vibe is enjoyable, there is so much more to this book.

Head Like a Hole is the tale of Megan Monroe and her group of friends, who are each haunted by a young woman from their shared past. As Megan and friends hunt for answers, it becomes clear that they are targets of a violent, terrifying life form.

This book checked all the right boxes for me: strange creatures, 90s setting, a group of friends solving a mystery that threatens their existence, and so much more. At times, this felt like an X-Files episode, while at others, it resembled something directed by John Carpenter.

If you like horror, add this one to your to-be-read pile.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (The Carls #2) by Hank Green

In June I stumbled across the audiobook for Hank Green’s sci-fi mystery / adventure, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, and loved it. Not only was the story original, entertaining, and well-written, the performance by Kristen Sieh was fantastic.

When the sequel popped up as a suggestion in my Libby app, I immediately downloaded it. The audiobook is very well performed, though Ms. Sieh does not do the majority of narrating—she shares the task with over half-a-dozen other performers.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor takes place something like six months after the events of the first book. It continues the story of April May, her friends, and the Carls.

This novel does a good job of explaining everything that happened in the first book and brings the short saga to a satisfying conclusion. It leans heavily on some pretty extraordinary scientific premises that feel all-too plausible.

While I didn’t love this book as much as the first, it was an entertaining and well-told adventure.

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And that’s a wrap. What’d you think? Have you read any of these? Any suggestions for what I should read next? Drop me a line or leave a comment!

And have a good day.

-Chris

June Reads

It’s still easy to forget how busy summers can get around here. Our campground opened for the season on May 15 and things get busier every week. My days are largely filled with mowing dozens of acres of grass; chopping, storing, and delivering firewood; collecting garbage; slinging beers (bar on-site); and occasionally disposing of the remains of recently-deceased rodents, birds, and small mammals. Oh, and I write when I can find / make the time.

This leaves very little time for reading. Fortunately for me, audiobooks are a thing so I’m able to supplement my eyeball reading with some earhole reading.

I read some pretty good ones this past month, including an anthology, a sci-fi classic, and a newer sci-fi. I want to remind you that my comments on each are not a review! These are just some thoughts I have on each.

K, here we go:

Illusions of Isolation by Brennan LaFaro

This is the book I’ve been looking forward to writing about the most. Brennan reached out for some readers to review his recent collection of short horror stories and was good enough to do a book swap with me. With indie authors (like myself), you never really know what you’re going to get. Fortunately this book was worth the read. I was unfamiliar with Brennan’s work when I reached out to him, but have since added the first book in his Slattery Falls series to my library.

Illusions of Isolation has something for everybody. Seriously. Brennan LaFaro has a real talent for crafting horror using a variety of devices and genres. From hauntings to demonic CEOs to post-apocalyptic wasteland warriors, he’s got you covered.

It’s hard for me to pick a favourite in this collection since each of the stories grabbed me in their own way. Gun to my head, though, I’d have to say The Last Little Piece of Civilization stands out among the rest. It’s a sci-fi / eco-horror that will long live in my memory.

Along with weaving a baker’s dozen of excellent stories, LaFaro does the reader the further consideration of including a brief note on each story on the page immediately following. I love this and plan on usurping the technique for my own anthology (which I hope to officially announce in the next year, but please be patient).

Awesome work, Brennan. Looking forward to Slattery Falls!

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls #1) by Hank Green

I discovered this gem of a modern sci-fi entirely by chance, as many great books are discovered. I was looking for an audiobook to listen to while stocking our woodshed with the first of this year’s supply of firewood, and did something in my Libby app that I’d never done before: I sorted by most popular. I was looking for a good sci-fi and a lot of the choices that came up under my preferences were the same books that are always recommended, many of which I’ve read already. I can’t even remember reading the blurb for this one, so I must have downloaded it based on the cover image alone—a faux pas, I know.

The book turned out to be fantastic. And they chose the perfect narrator in Kristen Sieh—something I’m finding is becoming more and more of a rarity in audiobooks.

The book follows twenty-something digital designer April May, who stumbles upon a ten-foot-tall transformer-like figure on the streets of New York. She names it Carl. After uploading a video in front of it, she wakes up to discover not only that her video has gone viral, but that there is a Carl in every major city in the world. And not everyone is happy to see them…

Hank Green launches straight into the action in this book and doesn’t let up. I found myself dying to know what happens next, what such-and-such could possibly mean, and who or what “the Carls” are.

This book is smart, zany, and witty. The protagonist, April May, is immediately likeable and relatable. Her poor friends provide a solid foundation of personality for her to stumble upon time and time again. I’m looking forward to the sequel!

The Donut Legion by Joe R. Lansdale

I’m a big fan of Joe Lansdale’s work. He’s written some of my favourite episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, wrote the novel that inspired the Bruce Campbell film Bubba Ho-Tep, and his novel The Thicket (which I hear is being adapted into a movie starring Peter Dinklage) is a solid western.

I went into The Donut Legion kind of blind, drawn to the UFO on the cover and the seemingly aloof title. It was getting some good buzz so I decided to make it the second audiobook I listened to last month.

The novel is a wacky romp into the world of missing persons and larger-than-life cults. It features an eclectic ensemble of characters as they search for protagonist Charlie Garner’s missing ex-wife, who appears to him in a sort of vision in the early pages. What follows is an insane game of cat-and-mouse between Charlie and his friends, and the sadistic members of the titular cult.

This was a fun, never-too-serious noir / thriller / mystery from the master of many genres. Gotta say, though, the audiobook has quite a bit to be desired, in my humble opinion. I’d recommend the physical book if you have the option.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

I’ve been yearning to read something by Asimov for a long time now. Why I haven’t sooner is the same reason I haven’t yet read any of the other hundreds of books in my to-be-read pile: because the stack keeps growing, titles sliding up and down in priority on an almost daily basis. I’m also making a habit of reading more books by indie authors, to support the community I became a tiny part of a couple of years ago. But I digress.

I, Robot is a fascinating conglomeration of anecdotal stories regarding the history of robots as they exist in Asimov’s Robot universe. Throughout the book, Asimov presents his characters with unique problems posed by the robots being used by everyday citizens as well as deep-space explorers. In general, the problems are heavily caused by and solved through Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The laws are hierarchal, in that the First Law supersedes the second, and that both of those are held above the third.

This book could be viewed as a philosophical thought experiment. As each situation is presented, it felt—to me—as if Asimov poked holes in his own laws, or created circumstances to do the same, and then set about solving the situation through sheer logic.

What moved me throughout the book is how often it is discovered that, within an apparently dire situation, the robots are not at fault. Humanity, it would seem, does not deserve robots, at least not those that operate as effectively as Asimov’s. It’s hard to argue this point without spoiling much of the book.

All in all, I loved this book and can’t wait to dive further into Asimov’s work.

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And that’s it for June's reads.

Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments, on social media, or through my contact page.

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.”
-Isaac Asimov

May Reads

Another month gone by, another pile of books consumed. May’s books include culinary musings, haunted puppets, a trip to Mars, and mythological embellishment. Read on for my thoughts on what I read this past month.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

This is one book that’s been recommended to me more than almost any other, especially as far as biographies / memoirs are concerned.

As a fan of the gonzo / beat era of literature, I immediately fell in love with Bourdain’s way of storytelling. Kitchen Confidential reads like something Hunter S. Thompson may have written had he spent his years in kitchens as opposed to newsrooms. It’s a wild ride through Bourdain’s upbringing in the often-seedy world of restaurant kitchens and backrooms. As someone who has spent a fair amount of time in such environments (though never, thankfully, in fine dining), I found myself frequently nodding in commiseration as Bourdain describes some of the shenanigans that take place in many a kitchen.

The book is highly regarded and well-written, but if you are easily grossed out and are someone who enjoys eating out, beware. Nothing in these pages really came as a surprise to me, but the uninitiated may not be happy about some of the grosser “practices” that occur in a kitchen, fine dining or otherwise.

Circe by Madeline Miller

This is ostensibly a reimagining of the story of the nymph Circe from Homer’s Odyssey. As a kid, I was obsessed with Greek mythology. When the first God of War game came out in 2005, my passion was rekindled. When, based on numerous recommendations, I got my hands on a copy of Circe, I was hoping for the same thing.

Sadly, I fall into the minority of readers who did not love this book. It starts off strong, introducing us to the precocious titular nymph getting into all sorts of mischief in the courts of Helios. While there are some very cool moments throughout, I found a lot of the story to be meandering. Almost as if a lot of the words were there to increase page-count.

What was cool about this book were the various descriptions of the mythical monsters and creatures, though I don’t think Trygon received nearly enough attention.

Don’t let my disappointment deter you from reading this! It’s a hugely popular book and like 90% of readers love it—and for the most part, there is a lot to love.

Appleseed by Matt Bell

I was not ready for how truly incredible this book is. It’s the second book by Matt Bell that I’ve read, the first being his instructive Refuse to be Done, which has been enormously helpful to my writing process. This cli-fi (I promise that’s the only time I’ll use that term) epic proves his capability as a writer of fiction. Climate-change-sci-fi isn’t something I’ll always to go out of my way to read, as it can get preachy in the wrong hands, but at no point did I feel this novel was berating me for not driving an electric car and living in a geodesic dome.

Told from three perspectives in three very different eras, Appleseed tells the story of our planet’s ecological doom. It’s a bleak tale from the start, but one filled with hope. From the very beginning, it took turns I would never have seen coming. Throughout the book, I found myself left in wonder at the imagination behind it all. There were some things I would love to have had explained a bit better in the end, but ultimately the story had me by the short-and-curlies the entire way.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

I fell in love with Grady Hendrix’s writing a number of years ago when I read his hugely entertaining novel Horrorstör, ostensibly about a haunted Ikea.

How to Sell a Haunted House walks a fine line between being amusing and scary. The title is a bit of a mislead as it is very swiftly revealed that the paranormal happenings are related to haunted puppets. Hendrix does a good job crafting some pretty creepy puppet scenes and ends with a climax straight out of your favourite 80’s horror movies, all while dealing artfully with themes of grief and loss.

It’s not the scariest or the funniest of this author’s books, but I can confidently recommend How to Sell a Haunted House to any and all lovers of horror.

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

What is it about Hannibal Lecter that makes him such an intriguing character? Is it his brilliance? His penchant for devouring human flesh? I’d argue it has more to do with the characters the author surrounds him with.

The Silence of the Lambs is one of my favourite movies. The series Hannibal is some of the most riveting and upsetting television I’ve had the pleasure of watching. Red Dragon, the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs was also a fantastic novel. In each of these tales (I haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading the final two Lecter novels) brilliant, strong, loveable, and interesting characters find themselves at the intellectual mercy of Hannibal Lecter. None of them want to deal with Lecter. None of them want to go to him for help. All are powerless—if they want to save lives—to ignore the brilliance dwelling within Lecter’s dark mind. Thus we get to see these characters reflected in the monster’s eyes, picked apart for his amusement, and toyed with as a means of passing the time. These characters, Will Graham in Red Dragon and Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, are then given the opportunity to grow, become stronger, and ultimately win the day after being confronted with the monster that is Lecter.

If you enjoyed the movie of the same name, check out The Silence of the Lambs. If you’ve never seen the movie, read the book then watch the film. If you have the time or interest for it, start with Red Dragon.

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

This was my second time reading this classic sci-fi and I’m so glad I revisited it. Imaginative and deeply philosophical, this short novel about a man’s unwilling trip to space is one that I think about a lot.

The novel ostensibly follows an academic named Ransom, who is taken prisoner aboard a spaceship headed to another planet. Once landed, he finds himself growing to love the strange planet he finds himself on and is ultimately sent on a quest that could change the course of history for the entire universe. Throughout his adventures, Ransom is forced to question the trajectory of human existence, and to scrutinize our social hierarchies.

It’s a swift read packed with imagination and adventure and sure to leave you thinking. The subsequent novels, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength are also incredible reads.

Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell

This one comes highly recommended by many in the online horror community. Often sited as being one of the scariest modern horror novels, it tells the story of a couple’s vacation at a mountain cabin and the trouble they find themselves in when something from the woods follows them home.

The first third or half of this book held me pretty fast. I flew through those initial pages, my curiosity piqued by the very creepy presence Blackwell crafts. However, I soon found myself counting how many pages I had left. Though my interest wained the further I got into the book, I really wanted to find out what happens at the end. Unfortunately, a fair amount was left unexplained or forgotten entirely and the ending felt rushed.

The author does do a pretty good job at painting some very creepy pictures. The thing stalking the main characters is, at times, truly frightening.

Ultimately, Stolen Tongues entertained me but left me wanting more. Blackwell is apparently working on a prequel, which I will absolutely be reading in hopes that some questions are answered.

—

And that’s all I’ve got for you this month. Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments or shoot me a message through the contact page.

If you want to hear more from me, or would like news and updates about upcoming work, you can sign up for my newsletter or follow me on Facebook or Instagram: @authorchristophersweet

Thanks for reading. See you next month!

-Chris

April Reads

For the last few months or so, I’ve been trying to stay diligent posting about the books I’ve read in the month previous. It’s not to act as a book reviewer, which I state here that I am absolutely not, but more to inspire and incite discussion.

These posts are necessarily brief. Since I am not posting with the intent to rate any of them, I only provide a very brief, one or two sentence long synopsis, if it can even be called that. But I like talking about books way too much to just leave it at that.

I’ll keep posting those monthly snapshots but I’d also like to go a bit more in depth, which I will do here. Again, I want to be clear, these are not reviews. These are simply my opinions of the books I’ve been reading.

Opening statements over. Commence book discussion.

Big Magic - Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

This was an inspiring and uplifting read by the author of Eat Pray Love. My sister-in-law recommended I read this one, knowing how important “creative living” is to me. I’m glad she did, as this is not a book I would have picked up on my own. Big Magic is full of encouraging wisdom from the author, complimented by interesting, often charming anecdotes. I wouldn’t say I learned anything new reading this book, but it did affirm much of what I live by and value. It’s the kind of book that I’ll highlight several passages in and will return to frequently, if only to re-read a quote or anecdote.

Sleeping in the Fire - A Collection of 9 Horrifying Tales by John Durgin

The title says it all. Most of these stories are pretty entertaining, if a little campy. There are some great concepts within, from a Flatliners-esque drug, to a carnivorous parasite from outer space, to a Gremlins-esque monster. All but a few of the stories kept me glued to the page. Durgin bravely includes one of his earliest short stories as the last entry in the book, which he states in the introduction is far from his best work. All told, solid anthology and I’m looking forward to reading more by this author!

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Blake Crouch is one of my favourite cross-genre writers. Author of the Wayward Pines trilogy, Crouch is comfortable blending science fiction with horror, often leaning more into the former. The last book I read by him, Dark Matter, was fantastic. Upgrade had a great, if not entirely original, concept that didn’t really catch fire for me the way the story in Dark Matter did. In a nutshell, the son of a once-renowned and now-disgraced geneticist has his body genetically enhanced, turning him into a sort of superhuman. The near-future America that Crouch paints is disturbingly believable. For me, it was also the most interesting part of the novel. Most of the story was predictable, especially based off of similar entries in the genre. Having read several of Crouch’s other books, it was plain to see what would befall the protagonist, how he would deal with it, what the consequences would be, and what the eventual resolution would be. Don’t get me wrong, this was still a very entertaining, fast-paced sci-fi novel. It just wasn’t my favourite from this particular author.

The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

It’s going to be hard for me not to rant here. We all know what this book is about, that it is one of the most acclaimed pieces of literature in history, that it inspired millions of people like me to run through the woods with a stick, pretending to slay orcs and fend off balrogs.

I’d never read any of Tolkien’s work before this year. Of course I’ve seen the Lord of the Rings movies a dozen times each and The Hobbit films once (which is enough), so I knew roughly what to expect from the books. I decided that this year I would at least start the Lord of the Rings literary journey. I promised myself I’d take it slow and not force my way through the books. I made that commitment to myself because I’ve been warned for much of my reading life about how “dry” and “boring” and “rambling” the books can be. How The Hobbit is a silly kids book and how the subsequent books are 90% self-indulgent historical blathering. It seems like the popular thing to do these days is to hate on Tolkien’s written work. I can count on half of one hand how many people have actually recommended I read the LotR books. I’ll forever be grateful to those two.

In January I read The Hobbit and loved it. I had to temper my enthusiasm for Fellowship after that.

“Sure The Hobbit is okay,” people would say. “But you won’t make it halfway through Fellowship before you get bored. Too many songs. Too much history. Too many…words.”

Am I ever glad I didn’t listen. Of course there’s very good reason why these books are so highly acclaimed. Fellowship of the Ring was fantastic! I’m sort of glad I saw the movies first—the books are like an expansion on a world I already know and love. If I’d read the books earlier in life, I’m sure I would have been miffed at all that had to be cut out and changed to make them into movies (changes that I know were necessary to make these screen-worthy).

To me, the songs and the history were never too much—they added flavour to the magical world Tolkien created. As a lover of poetry, I found the songs to be nice interludes in the prose. And they’re not even that long!

If you’re on the fence about Lord of the Rings in any way, I say take the chance. Embrace them. Try to enjoy them. I think that, too often, we try to find the fault in things, try to look for the cracks. It might be more fun to find beauty in the cracks, take pleasure in the journey, hear the magic in the songs. I dunno. Maybe I’m just a nerd.

Gwendy’s Magic Feather by Richard Chizmar

This is a sequel to the novella co-written by Chizmar and Stephen King, Gwendy’s Button Box. While I loved the initial entry in this trilogy, this book was a little tougher to enjoy. The story is a slow burn, which I normally enjoy. However, it sort of fizzles out instead of ending, especially when compared to Button Box. Whereas the first book was all magic blended with horror, this was a lot of following a congresswoman around in her day-to-day life with a teardrop of that old magic just to make it a tie-in. Very little would have to be lifted from this story to make it an underwhelming mystery. Here’s hoping the final entry, Gwendy’s Final Task, is a little more exciting.

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Stephen Graham Jones is one of my favourite authors these days. The guy wields prose like a bullwhip. His writing is at times manic, and always keenly observant and razor sharp. My Heart is a Chainsaw is his homage to slashers and is delivered with the self-awareness of Scream without being derivative about it. I won’t say anything more about the story to avoid spoiling anything. Suffice it to say this was definitely the best horror I read all month. Apparently it’s the first book of a blossoming trilogy—I’m looking forward to the follow ups!

That’s it for my April reads. My May reading is already off to a fun start and I’m looking forward to discussing it with you.

Have you read any of the books I listed here? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments or shoot me a message through the contact page. Or hit me up on social media. I always love talking books!

Til next time.

Six Months Later...

And we’re back!

We finished our inaugural season at the campground with our lives and limbs intact!

Sign at the entrance to our campground - logo designed by Annie Sweet

Now that the campground is closed, I can get back to my regular writing rhythm. Which isn’t to say I didn’t keep myself busy creatively over the spring and summer. I do a lot of lawn mowing in the spring and summer months, which gives me time to reflect on the projects I have on the go. During those evenings when I wasn't ready to simply shut down for the day, I even managed to get some work done on existing projects and start some new ones.

One of the most exciting things I spent my creative time doing is reading through the first draft of my second novel for the first time. A little over a hundred pages in, I’m glad to report it’s kept me interested and engaged. That may sound like it should be obvious but it can be tough to appreciate one’s own work!

I’m not going to share any details about the novel right here and now and don’t really have a print date set so we’ll all have to exercise some patience with that one.

What I can share more about is my upcoming novella, which I wrote just before the start of the camping season and have been diligently rewriting and revising. It’s a quick, fun, and sorta grotesque story about dessert and family. I think it’s pretty entertaining. The idea is to have this one out before Christmas and I’m firing on all cylinders to make that happen!

My aim is also to get back to regular blog posts here on the website as my writing muscles warm up. Maybe semi-regular posting is a more realistic commitment. So I guess that’s good news if you enjoy reading these.

Meantime, you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook - @authorchristophersweet and / or sign up for my email newsletter, which comes out with much less regularity than the blog and bestows its subscribers with early announcements about new projects and release dates ahead of all those “other” channels.

Looking for other reading material in the meantime? You can check out my new Halloween feature article in Mystery & Suspense magazine here.

Have you read The Boy in the Canvas yet? The Kindle version is only $3.99 USD / $4.99 CAD right now! Click here for a free preview of the book if you want to try before you buy.

I also want to give a shout out to my friend M Willis Wardle and congratulate him on the release of his debut novel, The Chilling Adventures of the Monster Kids. If you were ever a fan of Goosebumps, Monster Kids will be right up your alley. Join Bradley Wardwell as he takes on a new job as a dishwasher at a supposedly haunted restaurant, plots against an ancient vampire, and dodges the claws of a pack of werewolves. This book is jam-packed with monsters and is a ton of fun! Geared towards kids from age 7-12, it makes an excellent Christmas gift and a super fun read for both kids and adults.

That’s all for today. As always, don’t hesitate to drop me a line or leave a comment with your thoughts or just to say hi.

Thanks for reading and have a safe and happy Halloween!

-Chris

Spring Again

It’s been a momentous year! Hard to believe it’s already April.

In February we welcomed our second son, Sullivan Rowan, into the world and our hearts. Our crazy household just got a whole lot crazier and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Gideon, our oldest, adores his new brother and seeing the two of them together will make you believe in love if you don’t already.

And on March 1, we welcomed another kind of baby into the world; my first novel The Boy in the Canvas.

The support I received from family, friends, and complete strangers has been overwhelming. I sold way more signed editions of the book than I expected to (I would have been happy selling five) and have had some very positive reviews of the book already.

Publishing a book is very different from most other art forms. Releasing a movie, showing your artwork, displaying photography, or playing your song for someone all have the benefit of getting an immediate, or nearly immediate, reaction from your audience. Waiting for a reaction from a book audience is…gruelling.

For one thing, not all that many people read, especially compared to other entertainment forms, although, thanks to COVID, a lot more are taking it up. For another thing, books take time to get through. Even when I pick up a copy of a book I’ve been dying to read, it might sit on my shelf for a while until I’ve finished the book I’m currently reading (never mind all the books already stacked up in my to-read pile).

Waiting for reactions to a novel is an exercise in extreme patience.

And what if everyone hates it? What if it was a bad idea to publish it? What if I offend someone?

I can dwell on all of those things if I so choose. Sometimes I do.

And the thing is, it’s out there now, like it or not. Assuming it doesn’t die the swift and painful death of obscurity, feedback will keep coming in about it. I often wonder if guys like Stephen King are still hurt by criticism of their early works. Literally every major book out there has had at least one negative review—and if there’s one, there are a thousand.

Fortunately I haven’t had to face any truly negative feedback about the book yet, but I’m ready for it when it comes.

Something else I celebrated fairly recently is the completion of the first draft of my second novel, which is unnamed for now (at least as far as anyone but myself is concerned). I’m really looking forward to chiseling this one down to its purest form and I can’t wait for you to read it.

I’m also working on a novella that I hope to release before too long. It’ll likely be an ebook exclusive until it’s paired with a bunch of short stories to be compiled in a collection—more info on that down the line.

With the summer approaching and my “real job” set to start imminently, there will be less time to write, which feels a bit like having my soul shackled. I’ll continue to read and write in the downtime I’m afforded though it’ll mainly be shorter works of fiction and exercises to keep me sharp. My leisure reading will at least partially be replaced by revision reading for the new novel.

The plan is to start my third novel in the fall, while continuing to prep book number two for the presses.

And like I said, I should have a novella available in the relatively near future. I’m hoping you can get your hands on it by mid-summer. It’s a weird one.

In the meantime, if you haven’t had a chance to check out The Boy in the Canvas yet, hop on over to Amazon (or wherever you get your books) and grab yourself a copy. Then head on back here and let me know what you think.

Already read it? I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if you loved it, or even liked it, leaving a review on Goodreads or Amazon would be super cool of you.

Either way, I hope the spring is good to you. May the icy chrysalis of winter melt away and may you spread your new wings under a clear, sunny sky.

Til next time,

-Christopher Sweet

Worlds of Horror (Mystery & Suspense Magazine)

A short while ago, I was approached by an editor at Mystery & Suspense Magazine to write an article on the worlds of horror.

In lieu of an actual blog post, I present to you the link to said article: Worlds of Horror (opens in new window)

I promise I’ll get back to posting semi-regularly. My wife just gave birth to son #2 (Sullivan Rowan) and, between babies and book launches, things have been hectic.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the article!

Keep in touch!

Top Ten Reads of 2021 (with even longer list of honourable mentions)

John’s Used Books - Miramichi, NB

I hate top tens.

More specifically, I hate making top tens. I loathe to rate anything in my life against other things in the same category. Ask me what my favourite, or top ten, or even top one hundred movies are and I’ll have a panic attack.

The rational part of me knows that it's unreasonable for me to get so anxious over something so trivial. The irrational part of me, which is often the louder of the two, refuses to rank anything ever. There’s some method behind it—I know that my tastes change frequently and that I’m prone to changing interests at a whim. Astrologists would say, “That's a Gemini for you.”

“So what?” you say. “Who gives a shit if you change your mind?”

To which I offer a mild shrug.

I really don’t know. Maybe I’m afraid it’ll make a liar out of me. Maybe I’m afraid of misrepresenting the quality of something. Maybe I don’t want to have to argue over or justify my tastes. Nobody will know, or care, if I change my mind. Nobody except me.

Asking me to rate something also seems to throw me off my game. I’ve often responded to questions about my favourite movie, book, show, band, etc with answers that I later regretted giving. Because I think about these things long after the fact. I once pitched a screenplay to a producer and, around the end of the meeting, he asked me what my favourite movie is.

Crap.

I panicked. Hard. I’m not going to say what my response was, only that I floundered in a most ineloquent manner before spitting out a response that was far from the answer I would normally have given. It was a great movie that I’d named, but it was far from what I wanted to be remembered as my favourite. That meeting was over a year ago and I still think about my response.

Hell of an introduction to what looks suspiciously like a top ten list, right?

I suppose we should get down to it. What follows is a list of ten reads that I absolutely loved in 2021, out of the sixty-plus books that I read. I don’t think any of these were published in 2021, so please don’t mistake this with a list of the best books to come out in 2021. This is just what I read. And it’s not a bloody top ten list, so please stop insinuating as much.

*Books will be listed alphabetically by author’s last name to avoid any scrutiny of the order of books listed.

**Goodread links to books attached to their titles in the list

Still with me? Here goes:

Top Reads of 2021

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

This book introduced me to Christopher Buehlman as an author. If you scroll down to the runners-up, you’ll find two more of his books in that list as well, both of which I read soon after Between Two Fires, which might give you an idea of how much I loved this book.

It’s sort of a horror/fantasy set in medieval France and follows Thomas, a disgraced knight who finds himself escorting a seemingly miraculous young girl to Avignon, where she says she is destined to confront a terrifying evil. And it is pretty terrifying.

That’s all of the summary you get—click the title to be brought to the Goodreads page where you can ingest a much lengthier summation of the book. But I implore you to take my word for it and buy this one.

This book was exciting, thrilling, upsetting and downright frightening in ways I have seldom experienced in literature. Period pieces, which I suppose this could loosely be defined as, are not normally my thing but this proved to be the overwhelming exception to the rule.

Whether you’re into horror, fantasy, or historical fiction, I highly recommend this book. If you’re not into any of those genres, I suggest you give this one a try anyway.

This Body’s Not Big Enough for Both of Us by Edgar Cantero

Here’s a smidge of the synopsis provided on Goodreads, which captures some of the essence of this book much better than I could hope to do:

In a dingy office in Fisherman's Wharf, the glass panel in the door bears the names of A. Kimrean and Z. Kimrean. Private Eyes. Behind the door there is only one desk, one chair, one scrawny androgynous P.I. in a tank top and skimpy waistcoat. A.Z., as they are collectively known, are twin brother and sister. He's pure misanthropic logic, she's wild hedonistic creativity. A.Z. have been locked in mortal battle since they were in utero...which is tricky because they, very literally, share one single body…Someone is murdering the sons of the ruthless drug cartel boss known as the Lyon in the biggest baddest town in California--San Carnal. The notorious A.Z. Kimrean must go to the sin-soaked, palm-tree-lined streets of San Carnal, infiltrate the Lyon's inner circle

What can I say to follow that?

I was first introduced to Edgar Cantero’s sharp, witty, hilarious, and poignant literary abilities in his novel Meddling Kids (which I also highly recommend—it’s Scooby-Doo meets Lovecraft). His biting, sarcastic, often-meta prose has grabbed me by the septum and yanked me into the story within the first paragraph of everything I’ve read by him (that’s right, see honourable mentions).

TBNBEfBoU is a hilarious and, especially towards the end, moving noire/action novel. A.Z. Kimrean is one of my all-time favourite book characters—and that's coming from a guy who just admitted he hates listing favourites.

If you enjoy crime novels, laughing while you read, or are looking for something truly different and very special, I say give this one a go. At the very least, you have to appreciate Cantero’s writing style and ability. I think I’ve said it before, but I’d buy the novelization of this guy’s grocery list if he decided to publish such a thing.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

You may recognize Crouch’s name if you’ve ever watched the series Wayward Pines or if you’ve read the book series of the same name…or if you’ve read any of his other books. Or, perhaps, if you’re Mr. Crouch’s parent or significant other, I suppose it stands to reason you probably know him.

But how do you know that Blake Crouch is the Blake Crouch you know? This question grazes the surface of the premise behind Dark Matter.

This novel was a high-octane, edge-of-your-seat, romp through realities. It centres around Jason Dessen, a physics professor in Chicago, who wakes up in a world that is not his own. Parts of it look like his world and many aspects are indistinguishable from his own. But the people who say they are his friends are not folks he normally speaks to and his wife is, well, not his wife.

Jason fights against all odds to find his way home and, instead, finds himself pulled deeper into the reality-bending maelstrom he’s been caught up in.

I flew through this book. The action never stops. Even conversations about physics, between physicists, held my attention. For those who don’t know, I’m not a physicist.

This is a great book for folks who like their read to be quick and dirty but also fairly intelligent and maybe with a dash of sci-fi. If you were into the 90s series Sliders, you’ll dig this.

Come Closer by Sara Gran

This is one of the best possession novels I’ve ever read. As far as novels go, it’s pretty short but the pages are packed with creepy atmosphere and tension.

From Goodreads:

If everything in Amanda's life is so perfect, then why the mood swings, the obscene thoughts, the urge to harm the people she loves? What are those tapping sounds in the walls? And who's that woman following her? The mystery behind what's happening to Amanda in Come Closer is so frightening that it "ought to carry a warning to...readers."

This is one of those books that has you wondering what exactly is going on right up until the very end. Amanda’s account of what she’s going through makes you not only scared for her, but also scared with her.

Not for the faint of heart!

I highly recommend this for anyone who loves a good, short horror read (a couple of those in this list and in the runners up) and for those who enjoy a good possession story.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

I love Grady Hendrix’s work.

The first novel I read by him, Horrorstor, is one of the most memorable books I’ve read. Mr. Hendrix has the rare ability to align his writing with a certain style that is reflected in everything that he does. Whether or not its his intention, he’s one of the best managers of his own brand that I know of.

But we’re talking about The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires here.

This book was like watching Fright Night (either version) from the perspective of Mrs. Brewster, the mom. It’s an amusing and seriously frightening sendup to the toughness and superhuman capability of the under-appreciated stay-at-home mom / housewife.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires was a book I found myself unable to put down and boasts one of the most seriously frightening “hiding from the monster” scenes I’ve ever read.

This book is great for lovers of a good vampire story and those looking for something featuring modest housewives doing badass things and driving a stake through the proverbial, non-reflective glass ceiling.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

This is the first novel I’ve read by Stephen Graham Jones and, since reading it, I’ve added several of his books to my list of books I’d like to read in 2022.

The Only Good Indians tells the story of four American Indian men running, each in their own way, from an event from their past. But that’s not all they’re running from; something is pursuing them, bent on revenge for something they’ve kept hidden about that event.

I can’t begin to praise this book enough. From the terrifying tale Mr. Jones weaves to the razor-sharp edge of his writing, this novel deserves multitudes of awards.

It’s hard to say too much about what goes on in this book without spoiling a certain aspect of it. I went into it without knowing much about it and I suggest you do the same. I hope you know what I’m talking about when the time comes.

This is a great read for anyone into Native American folklore and who also like scary, gory horror. And it is gory. And upsetting. You’ve been warned.

You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann

Here’s another short little read, and a fantastic one at that. I should note this novel was originally written in German and that the translation by Ross Benjamin is expertly done.

This book sort of resembles a Lovecraftian take on The Shining though I use that comparison loosely and only to convey the spirit of the book. It’s at once the tale of a haunting, of worlds beyond our own, of obsession, and of love.

The novel follows a screenwriter and his family on vacation in the mountains of Germany, where he hopes to finish the sequel to the movie that made his career. Things quickly go crazy and the narrator soon begins to question his perception of reality. It’s such a brief novel that much more than that will only spoil a good, quick read.

I’d recommend this to anyone into paranormal / supernatural or cosmic horror but it deals with those themes so delicately that anyone who appreciates a spooky story should enjoy this book. I’m looking forward to reading more by Kehlmann in 2022.

A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

Funny enough, this is the second book in my list to have been adapted into a film starring Kevin Bacon. You Should Have Left is the other. Something to chew on.

Matheson has to be one of the most influential horror writers of his generation, with his work being turned into and inspiring dozens of films, some of which might surprise you. I Am Legend, in its multiple iterations, must be the most famous film inspired by his work but did you know he also wrote What Dreams May Come?

A Stir of Echoes has long been one of my favourite ghost movies. It’s a criminally underrated film, masterfully adapted for the screen by David Koepp, and overshadowed by the culture-smashing Sixth Sense, which came out a month ahead of it. I loved Sixth Sense and will not argue its quality or standing as one of the best ghost movies of all time, but I’ve only watched it once. Since 1999, when both films came out, I think I’ve watched A Stir of Echoes a dozen times at least.

Which is why it’s crazy that it took me until now to read the 1958 novel of the same name.

The book tells the story of Tom Wallace who, after undergoing hypnosis at a party, discovers latent psychic abilities within himself. He learns things about his friends and neighbours he doesn’t want to know and discovers a shocking secret that turns his life upside down.

Creepy and well-written, this is a fantastic read for all lovers of literature. Mystery, ghosts, romance, violence—it has all the juicy elements anyone could want in a good story.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Here’s another one I think you should go into blind. Maybe I only say that because that’s how I approached it.

There's sort of a funny and somewhat coincidental anecdote behind this one that has nothing to do with the actual book. My mom and one of my brothers like to read almost as much as I do and so books are a pretty frequent source of conversation when we’re together. At some family gathering or another, my mom and dad told me about this book they’d listened to together, recommended by my younger brother. There was some discussion about it, especially around the title (which is inexplicably changed from the original UK title of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle…go ahead and look into it but be warned: there are no answers, only headaches). When they’d finally settled on what the title of the book actually was, my parents and brother insisted that I get my hands on a copy and read it for myself, which I eventually did. Cut to perhaps six months later and I proudly walk into another family gathering and thank my brother and parents for the recommendation. They all looked at me like a condo had just been erected on my forehead. Nobody could remember talking about the book or recommending it. Furthermore, neither of my parents could even remember reading / listening to it! I tried to jog their memories by recounting the entire story for them without any luck. To this day they have no recollection of the book.

Which isn't to say it’s not an incredible read. Clearly I was in some alternate reality when the book was recommended to me. It happens.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is, on its surface, a murder mystery but there are so many more levels to it that it can’t be classified as such. I’ll say nothing more about it, only that it caught me off guard more than once. Fair warning: it’ll leave you wanting more.

The Last Astronaut by David Wellington

I’ve been reading David Wellington for about fifteen years, starting with his Monster trilogy about a zombie apocalypse. This guy has written some of my favourite zombie, vampire, and werewolf novels so it makes sense that he’s also written one of my favourite space horrors.

The Last Astronaut is about Sally Jansen, a disgraced Mission Commander and Earth’s last astronaut. When a huge, unidentified object is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth, Sally is called upon to lead a team into space to investigate.

This book is absolutely laced with creepy, deep-space atmosphere. My heart was racing for most of this book and I think I probably finished it quickly for the sake of my own health. The exploration of the alien object and all the terrifying secrets it holds have stayed with me.

Wellington’s writing moves the story along swiftly and vividly so that it feels like you’re watching a movie instead of reading a book.

Fans of horror, sci-fi, and personal stories will enjoy this book. Those who are easily frightened, and do not enjoy being frightened, will not like it so much. If you liked Ridley Scott’s Alien, you’ll love The Last Astronaut.

Runners Up

That took longer than expected. I'll try to be much briefer with the runners up. Here goes:

Those Across the River and The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman - Both fantastic books featuring werewolves and vampires respectively. I listened to The Lesser Dead narrated by the author himself—he does a fantastic job. If you’re into audiobooks, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

Post Office by Charles Bukowski - My first Bukowski book and I’m hooked. Like if Hunter S. Thompson got a job at the US Postal Service.

Found Audio by NJ Campbell - Very cool, very short book about an audio analyst and historian who comes across three mysterious audio cassette tapes.

The Wise Friend by Ramsey Campbell - Solid cosmic horror.

The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero - More fantastic, often hilarious storytelling from the talented Mr. Cantero.

Paradox Bound by Peter Clines - Fun, exciting romp through space and time.

Experimental Film by Gemma Files - A Canadian film critic searches for the source of a strange film with horrifying consequences. Sort of like The Ring but Canadian.

Dune by Frank Herbert - Caveat: I didn't actually love this one but I do respect the hell out of it. Herbert writes way ahead of his time, you wouldn’t know it was written in 1965 if the date wasn’t printed inside the cover. Lots of political speak but also a lot of profound words. And some not so profound.

Bluff by Michael Kardos - Solid, fast-paced heist/noire featuring a disgraced magician. It’s a lot of fun.

Later by Stephen King - The best book I’ve read by King in some time. Love all of his stuff but this one stands out among his modern works.

Inspection by Josh Malerman - I’ve read all but two of Malerman’s novels—working on Malorie right now, as a matter of fact. I think Inspection is one of his earliest novels. It’s highly imaginative with an ending you’ll either love or hate. The journey is a compelling one though.

Bone White by Ronald Malfi - Snowy, Alaskan nightmare fuel.

The Town by Shaun Prescott - The strangest book I read all year. Super cool if you enjoy such things. Fans of Welcome to Nightvale will like this one.

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer - Another weird one, but not as weird as the follow up, Dead Astronauts, which I can not recommend. Jeff VanderMeer is the author of the novel that inspired the film Annihilation. It’s strange, tense, and oddly moving sci-fi.

Okay - that's all I’ve got. I don’t promise that you’ll love all of these but I’m certain you’ll like at least one.

What do you think? Have you read any of these? Do you agree / disagree with what I’ve said? Should I give up all hopes of a career reviewing books? Let me know in the comments or drop me a line.

Thanks so much for reading. Have a happy, safe start to 2022!

That Which Frightens You

There is a lot of writing advice out there, much of it repeated in texts, lectures, tutorials, workshops, and the like. For the most part, you’ll hear a lot of the same lessons phrased in different ways. This can be great because it may take several different outlooks for a valuable lesson to truly stick, at least if you’re anything like me. It also means a lot of substandard or downright bad lessons are repeated, creating poor habits or, worse, issues of confidence with writers who might otherwise soar.

One of the most common, and maybe one of the most misunderstood pieces of advice is to write what you know.

On the surface this makes sense. How can you write something you don’t know, right? What about sci-fi and fantasy writers though? I won’t swear to it in court but I’m confident George R.R. Martin has never actually seen a dragon, just as I’m sure Michael Crichton never visited an island of dinosaurs, and Stephen King has never…well…take your pick.

Taken literally, write what you know is a bit of a fallacy.

What I think the advice is meant to convey, or what it should convey, is to write the truth, or what you know to be true. Don’t lie to yourself, your audience, or your characters in the context of the story. On its surface, fiction is confabulation. Many of us know however that fiction can tell deep, ancient truths. Fellowship of the Ring may be filled with literal malarkey (I say this with the utmost respect for Tolkien’s work and only to make a point) but profound truths can be gleaned from its pages.

One of the best, and toughest, pieces of writing advice I’ve been given is to write what scares you. I believe effective writers of every ilk do this in all their best works.

Let’s look at Mr. King again, inarguably the modern master of the horror genre. He may have legitimate concerns about obsessive fans, but I’m reasonably confident he doesn’t lose sleep at night for fear of waking up in Annie Wilkes’ guest bed. Nor do I believe he’s frightened of an ancient cosmic being dressed up as a clown who lives in the sewers. But perhaps he does have some real concerns about obsession, addiction, alcoholism, vulnerability, the unknown, abuse. The reason he’s such an effective writer isn’t because he makes clowns or fans or cell phones scary, but because he uses these devices to deliver deeper truths about the human condition and the state of our world.

If nothing else, writing provides an effective outlet for confronting things we may otherwise be too scared, anxious, or nervous to face. It’s a hard thing to do, writing what scares you, confronting your fears. Not only that, it’s hard to do in a manner that is relevant to other people. I have a litany of concerns and fears, especially as a husband and father, but very few of them would make an interesting story to the average reader, at least the way I might tell it. But the essence of those fears and the potential they hold is what makes them effective story devices.

If you’re not a writer, or not someone who wants other people to read what you write, journaling can be an effective way of confronting your fears. It’s not even about putting the pen to paper, but more about admitting the concern exists. It’s about acknowledging the monster under the bed, understanding why it lives there and what it feeds on, and depriving it of everything that supports its existence. That goes far beyond writing of course and more into self-analysis and actualization.

Write what scares you is not only some of the best writing advice I’ve ever received, especially as a horror author, but also some of the best life advice I’ve ever received.

As always, thanks for reading. Your likes, shares, subscriptions, and greetings are always appreciated. Please consider signing up for my newsletter if you’d like to receive news, updates, special offers, and more regarding my upcoming novel The Boy in the Canvas.

Have a great week!

Back at it

Forty-one days we’ve been here and it feels like we’re starting to hit our stride.

We’ve been working pretty steadily on a daily basis making improvements to the campground and performing general daily maintenance. Some days this means clearing brush, some days it’s chopping wood, other days it’s moving furniture. One consistency is that, at the end of the day, we all feel like we’ve accomplished something. We all earn our supper and rest comes easily because of the work we put in, with is both satisfying and validating.

I’ve yet to figure out a consistent writing time and routine but I’m back to hitting my daily word quota, which is what really counts.

The big challenge is making time for the things I’m less excited about, mainly the whole marketing and publishing process for my upcoming novel. Don’t get me wrong, I am, of course, very excited for the release of my first-ever novel. Like a lot of writers, though, I’m not super comfortable with self-promotion. Nor am I very enthusiastic about maintaining a presence on social media. Blog posts are a different story, probably because they require less finesse, less sculpting of the message. I can just let me brain go on this platform and post what comes out with relatively little editing.

Social media on the other hand, well you know how that can be. Just the word “algorithm” makes me anxious. There are so many things to consider when posting for a platform, it can be overwhelming to the point of exhaustion. Thinking of something worth posting is tough enough without having to worry about how it’s phrased, the placement of keywords, hashtags, the time of bloody day that is most conducive to receiving an optimal amount of views. It’s the way of the world, I know. But I’m allowed to whine a little bit here.

These things are integral to the process though, especially since I’m going the indie publishing route. And the rewards are rich. This past week has been full of little achievements that contribute to the whole: The Boy in the Canvas has been sent to the printers and I’ve ordered proof copies, the first of which I received this afternoon! I also received word that I’ve been approved as a Goodreads Author, something that feels almost as good as the upcoming publication of my book. And I became a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors - my very first alliance!

As they say, nothing worthwhile comes easily. I think they say that. Do they? Someone should.

More book news on the way in the weeks and months ahead. Best way to stay up to date? Sign up for my newsletter. I promise I won’t spam you.

Thanks for reading. Share, like, comment, or just say hi if it tickles your fancy. I enjoy hearing from you.

Talk soon,

-Chris

Adjustments - Part I

Oh hey. Yeah, I’m still here. It’s been a while, though, hasn’t it?

Right now I’m listening to a compilation called The Definitive Horror Music Collection - a 60-track collection of horror film scores, largely performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s one of my go-to soundtracks for writing.

In July, which was approximately a thousand years ago, I mentioned that we had a big move coming up. I believe I likened the coming change to an approaching tidal wave building in the distance. I only now understand how accurate that analogy was. Don’t get me wrong though - this has already been an amazing new chapter in our lives.

The summer was one rife with farewells, tidying up loose ends, and preparing ourselves for one of the biggest changes in our life together. The “we” I refer to includes my wife and son but I should note that my folks also came along for the journey. In fact, they facilitated the entire thing, which means they bore the brunt of the stress suffered throughout the process.

We had farewell events held on our behalf, as much as COVID restrictions allowed us to, and made appointments with our friends to say goodbye. The affairs were bittersweet, of course. On the one hand, it was an exciting move that we were very much looking forward to, and it was nice to be able to connect with friends and family who we hadn’t seen in some time. On the other hand, we were leaving them all behind. Laughs were had and tears were shed and, swifter than the wind, moving day was upon us.

I say moving day but, really, it was moving weeks. Again, I have to give my folks huge credit because they travelled across the country to our new home multiple times, bringing loads of our possessions and theirs. The idea was to make as many advance trips as possible, using a big ol’ trailer, to haul as much of our stuff up as possible, so we could avoid paying enormous costs for moving trucks to ship what amounted to three households’ worth of belongings.

The week before we were to leave was busy with last minute arrangements, packing, and a trip to Quebec to pick up a fixture for our new venture. The trip was worth it but sucked up a valuable two days of our time, a week before the move.

It’s safe to say I’ve learned a lot in the month we’ve been here but the most humbling thing was discovering how much shit we accumulate. Annie and I have always been conscious that we have too much stuff but we never really realized how bad it was until this move. Even after sending up two loads of our belongings and taking multiple loads of stuff to the dump, we were left without enough room for all of our things between two trailers and two vehicles! We had to enlist my brother-in-law, to whom I am eternally grateful, to take a truck-full of stuff we couldn't fit to the dump. Eight o’clock at night, our house had officially closed hours ago - meaning we are no longer supposed to be there, and we were sifting through our shit in the driveway, making snap decisions about what to toss and what to try to keep. I threw away a lot of things I thought were important. And, know what? I can’t even remember what 90% of it was. I miss none of it. Ok, perhaps I'm a little sore about an old guitar I had to toss but, honestly, I never played it. And it was in terrible condition. Worthless to all but my paltry sense of nostalgia.

So it was that, humbled, and with still far too much to our name, we set off on our two-day journey to the coast, where we would begin our new life.

More on that next time though - I promise I won’t be gone nearly as long this time. I have a novel to get out early next year and am only just starting to get back into the creative groove of things. Stay tuned for more info on that - sign up for my newsletter if you’d like to receive updates and offers in your inbox. Otherwise, like / follow / share if it pleases you.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for coming along with us. There’s lots to share and I’m excited to do so.

Stay well.

Twitterpated (Mar. 14, 2021)

Spring is springing, at least in my corner of the world. With just under a week left until the official first day of spring, I'm already beginning to feel the effects of the warming weather, the shining sun, the singing birds, and the awakening foliage. 

Something about the turning of the seasons makes me feel extra creative. It happens with every season; the blossoming of spring, the first hot day of summer, the changing of the leaves in autumn, and the first snowfall of winter. Of these, spring impacts me the most. I know I'm not the only one.

When the weather starts to change, I invariably think of Bambi (1942) and Friend Owl's speech about what happens to forest animals when spring arrives. "They're twitterpated," he confides to Bambi et al. The wise owl's words are of course referring to mating season and the stirring all creatures, including humans, feel in their loins when the weather changes. But it goes beyond sex.

Whose spirits aren't lifted on that first mild day after winter? The change of the season is obvious; pedestrian traffic increases, patios are put out, coats are stowed. All of a sudden folks aren't so hesitant to take their dogs for longer walks. People, in general, are in better spirits. Even these days, with all we have to deal with (I'm looking at you, COVID), it's obvious that spring weather makes us feel better in general.

Personally, I feel renewed and energized when the weather warms and spring shows its face. I want to be more active physically and look for excuses to get outside. My mind seems to thaw out as well. Not that I feel hampered emotionally or mentally by winter but there is certainly a cooling that comes with the weather. As I mentioned, I find all seasons inspiring in their own way, but spring really lights a fire under me.

These days I have a lot on my plate between being a parent, creative projects I have on the go, and general human responsibilities. When spring weather arrives, I feel ready and able to take on all of these things and more. It's little wonder we choose spring to get our major cleaning done. 

This spring season I'll be wrapping up a screenplay we hope will go into production before too long, I'll be starting a new novel, continuing to query for representation for my first novel, and will be starting on at least one new project for the screen. 

You might say spring is the official start of my creative year. I use the energy and enthusiasm of the season to start a bunch of projects to carry into summer, which is my favourite season to write during. Something about the heat makes me feel more like a writer. I picture Paul Kemp roasting on a beach in San Juan, typewriter across his lap, glass of rum sweating next to him. I imagine Barton Fink sweating in his Los Angeles hotel room. Autumn rolls around and the cooling air and the smell of the fallen leaves stir a creative melancholy in me while the Halloween season fans the flames of my horror projects. Then winter arrives and I lock myself in my office, grinding away at whatever project is on my plate, hibernating as much as life will allow me to. The first snowfall will often inspire thoughts of fantasy and science fiction settings; places like Hoth and Narnia. But by the time spring rolls around again I'm feeling a lot like Jack Torrance locked away in the Overlook.

In spring we find renewal and life. It's a season of positive change and new beginnings. With so much uncertainty these days, I hope you're able to find energy and inspiration this spring. May the longer days give you more time to spend doing what you love. May the warmer weather encourage you to get outside and experience the amazing things the world has to offer. And may the sun brighten every moment for you, especially those that are the toughest to get through.

What season inspires you the most? Are you feeling twitterpated these days? Drop me a line and let me know. Leave a comment or shoot me a message through the Contact page. You can also hit me up on Twitter if that's your thing: https://twitter.com/ThisChrisSweet

Thanks for reading and sharing!

CONJURING 101, or, Where Stories Come From, or, If It Ain't Great, Make It That Way (Feb. 7, 2021)

Listening To: Over the Garden Wall (Original Television Soundtrack) by The Blasting Company

Music is a big part of my life so I thought I'd start sharing what I'm listening to as I write. If you've never seen the Cartoon Network original animated series Over the Garden Wall, you're missing out. Doesn't matter what age you are, this show is beautiful. Created by Patrick McHale and featuring the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Melanie Lynskey, Christopher Lloyd, and more; ten short episodes tell a beautiful story in a dark fantasy setting. Moreover, the music is as fantastic, bizarre, and heartwarming as the show itself. I dare you to check it out. I think you can buy the season for less than $10 or you could borrow it from your local library.

Secrets of Conjuration
One of the hardest questions for a lot of writers to answer is "Where do your ideas come from?" 

The easiest answer to this is for the writer to wave their hand around in the air and say, "Oh, you know..." and then change the subject or walk away. Of course, this leaves the question-asker (and potential reader) deeply unsatisfied. 

For a while I thought asking that question of a writer was a little like asking magicians what the secret is behind their tricks. The more I thought about it, the more I realized nothing could be further from the truth. Magicians know exactly where their tricks come from. They practice the same movements over and over again, while at the same time perfecting their banter and ability to distract. A trick can be passed from one magician onto another. 

Many writers have no idea where their ideas come from. In fact, writing feels more like magic than magic does. Writers conjure their tricks out of thin air. They make them up as they go along. And while a story can be passed along and toldfor generations, one writer can't pass their story down to another. They could sign over the rights, sure, but we know that's not the same thing. Metaphors are made of loosely bundled string and this one unravels if taken much further.

Carl Jung would have us believe stories are in our blood, deeply encoded in our genetic makeup. I don't think he's wrong. But there's certainly more to it. Right?

Obviously there are influences in our lives that shape the stories we, as writers, tell. How those influences are used and distilled into stories differ from writer to writer. One writer might have had an experience that they feel is worth putting on paper, with or without embellishment. Another may line up story elements, almost formulaically, and put them together to form an engaging story. Still another might see a squirrel bury a nut and think to himself, "What would happen if that nut were to gain sentience, unearth itself, and hunt down the squirrel who buried it?"

Personally, I find the process of story development to be more organic, for lack of a better term. I, like many other writers, have written a story based off of a one-sentence prompt without any idea of where the story came from. It just materializes in my mind as I type or write, depending on my mood. I've been driving on the highway and had an entire story suddenly taking up valuable mental space, blocking out all other thought. In times like this, I'm grateful for modern technology like voice-recognition (Siri is a decent writing assistant). I've had dreams that have inspired story ideas, though fewer than you might think. 

Point is, they come from everywhere. I'm typically not the sort of person to have a thing happen to me and then immediately want to put it on paper. For some reason I am adamantly opposed to reality in a lot of my writing. If it happened in real life, I don't want to write about it. This may be why I lean towards horror so much.

The Refinery
What matters more than where the idea comes from is how that idea is treated. Refining is everything.

I'm frequently blown away by how some writers can take a perfectly banal situation, object, or setting and turn it into something fantastic or sinister. How many successful books has Stephen King written about a sentient or lethal (or both) car? At least two. He's really the king (pun unavoidable) of turning the everyday into the nightmarish. There are great stories, by many authors, about killer appliances, killer cockroaches, people stuck in a room, you name it. Die Hard is essentially the story of a man who wants to win his estranged wife back. Michael Crichton created a whole franchise out of the question a billion eight-year-olds have asked themselves: What if dinosaurs were alive today?

The art isn't so much in the idea itself as it is in the telling of the story, the quality of writing, the people on the journey. This isn't to say there aren't some truly unique and amazing stories out there - of course there are! But even an original, amazing story, if poorly told, can crash and burn. 

The truly great writers, the kind of writer I aspire to be, can take almost any idea and turn it into a masterpiece. They fill the setting with people we fall in love with (or hate), they make things difficult for those people, and have those people overcome those difficulties or die trying. They go through their finished work and get rid of every self-serving, unnecessary bit of prose or dialogue to ensure we, the readers, are able to enjoy, understand, and engage with the story.

Coming up with ideas is the easy part.

So maybe the question to ask writers is, "How do you refine your story into something worth my time and money?" It's a question I ask myself as a writer every time I sit down at my desk to write a new project or revise an existing one. 

Sorry if you were looking for concrete answers. I don't claim to know it all (or much) - I just enjoy the conversation. 

If you enjoyed this (or hated it), I'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment or you can reach me from the Contact page. I'd also love it if you shared this with anyone you think may find it even a little interesting. 

Thanks for stopping by. Have an awesome week!