State of the Soul

2020 is behind us and while 2021 has not yet done much in way of proving itself any different than the preceding year, I do believe a fair bit of optimism is in order moving forward. Times have been tough for us all. We’ve all had our own private struggles, to go along with a

Shadows

The sky was stark white and the wind licked at your skin like a frozen flame. Clouds edged in, dark as the abyss, and spread across the blinding naked sky like oil in water. Cold is cold, but not as cold as a midwestern winter. I have had a lot of time to think lately.

My Personal Shadow

Everyone, no matter how big or small, has a shadow. A little piece of darkness that never leaves us, following us through our lives like an obsessed puppy. For some, coexistence with their shadow is such that they are barely even aware of its presence. For others, the shadow grows far beyond the reach of

The Smoke-Kissed Air of Autumn

The cold is creeping in slowly this year. Leaves flash fiery orange and red at the end of the day, the literal color of the sunset. Autumn expressing its role as sunset of the calendar year, the last dying embers before the bitter winter shadows come howling in from beyond. I stand outside, breath visible

NATIONAL NIGHTMARE: DAY ONE

Wow. So, here we are. The beginning of the end. Last night, when I left work, I walked right over to the local liquor store and bought a case of beer. I then went to the local supermarket and bought a chimichanga. When I got home, I flipped on CNN, took a deep breath, and

31 Days = 31 Horror Reviews

Last year, I spent the month of October updating my “writingcentric” Tumblr blog with various horror short stories (read them here). This year, I thought I’d do something different. First, let me preface this by saying that Halloween is my favorite holiday and it has been since I was a child. Don’t get me wrong,

50 Years of Spider-Man

Fifty years ago this month, Marvel Comics published Amazing Fantasy #15, featuring a Stan Lee/Steve Ditko story about mild mannered teen Peter Parker. Parker was just an ordinary teenager juggling ordinary teenager problems, except he also had to juggle being a superhero: Spider-Man. After an ongoing argument with Lee, during which publisher Martin Goodman allegedly

Ray Bradbury 1920 – 2012

I logged into Twitter this morning, much like any other morning, with a yawn and a sip of coffee and a certain sort of sleepy curiosity as to what funny or horrible or tragic things I would learn, 140 characters at a time. It was soon thereafter that I read “RIP Ray Bradbury”. I gasped.

Links and Things: April 23rd 2012

(Photo: Steve Niles, care of William Forsche) The above is one of many, many incredible photos that writer Steve Niles was lucky enough to obtain. Turns out he’s had a correspondence with special effects guru William Forsche who sent him a disc containing an obscene amount of truly amazing (and super RARE) behind the scenes