Halloween Reading: Consumption Week | WINNER | AstraDaemon

The winner of the autographed copy of BIG CAT is Kensai Ed.

The second week of Halloween Reading is Devil Week, and the giveaway will be THE DEVIL'S LIST by Terry M. West, a dark supernatural thriller about a young man with a demon inside of him. The author blends folklore with horror to draw readers into a sinister circle of death.

Leave a comment on any of the Devil reviews posted October 5th Monday thru October 11th Sunday, in order to be entered in the second giveaway.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Halloween Reading: Consumption Week | Vilestone Interview | AstraDaemon

CREAM OF REVENGE SOUP by Victor Vilestone is NOT a recipe. This is a short story about a man who discovers his wife has been keeping secrets from him. He decides to take her advice and cook something organic.

The author begins with suspense, and delivers an ending so graphic and brutal, readers might want to keep a barf bag nearby. The grand finale shocked me...I don't know what I expected, but it sure as hell wasn't anything I could imagine. Vilestone has finally lived up to his name with this one.

After this story, I decided to invite him into the Lair...

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How did your writing career begin?

I first had an interest in becoming an author in the late 90’s when I purchased a typewriter and enrolled in a creative writing correspondence course. As with most things in my life though, I started but never finished. For the next two decades I dreamt of being a bestseller, sitting at my desk all day working on stories, but did very little about it. The closest I got was jotting down a ton of ideas in an old notebook and getting a few letters published in a British boxing magazine. In the spring of 2020 the dream and desire came to the forefront once again, but this time I took decisive action and haven’t looked back since.

What do you think sets your stories apart from others? What can readers expect from your creations?

They say you should write what you know about, and I think that is excellent advice. The vast majority of my characters are bang average, leading dull and predictable lives. Until the shit hits the fan, that is. Another trait to my work is I don’t believe in censorship. I’m not the most gory and disgusting author out there, far from it, but I won’t hold anything back in the name of good taste if I feel it’s appropriate to help tell the story. You only have to read about real historical events like the holocaust to realise nothing my twisted mind can spurt out into a piece of fiction can be as horrific as humanity has been in the past and still is today.

Have you ever frightened yourself with your own stories?

Every evening at around 11pm I drive to an isolated wood to walk my two dogs. The location is ten miles from town and three miles to the nearest house. When I am there it’s just me, the hounds, the stars above, my imagination and whatever lies in the darkness. I often write when walking and have stumbled into bushes and bumped against trees many times when not paying attention to where the footpaths are. Once I was writing a scene where a guy was outside in the wilderness and could hear screams in the distance. As I typed, I realised where I was and it sent a shiver down my spine. I rarely get frightened by horror books and movies (real life is a lot scarier) but on that occasion I startled myself, if only briefly.

Where did the idea for CREAM OF REVENGE SOUP come from?

I’m a massive fan of the Death Wish movie franchise starring Charles Bronson, which influenced me to write violent revenge short stories. I was in the process of researching a non-bloody way to seek vengeance for my next tale when I came across poisoning. There I discovered the Roman emperor Claudius died from suspected death cap poisoning, a mushroom which that grows in the wild throughout Europe. The controversial ending to this story certainly wasn’t planned and only occurred to me during the writing process. Initially, the antagonist Geoff was going to lie on the bed and hold his wife, waiting for the fungi he had eaten to kill him, but one thing led to another, and he thought of other ways to spend his final hours with the corpse.

Why do you choose to write within the horror genre?

I recall enjoying watching Hammer Horror films as a boy with such greats as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in starring roles. Then as a teenager I read all the Stephen King, Shaun Hutson and James Herbert books available at my local public library. I’m uncertain what attracted me to horror in the first place, but I believe our characters and interests stem from both nature and nurture. My earliest memory of writing a story outside of school lessons was when I was around eight years old. I wrote it by hand in a Star Wars notebook, and it was about a pair of siblings who had to live with their grandfather after their parents were bludgeoned to death with an axe in the woods near their home. God knows what my mum must have thought when she read it, but as I said before it was always in me.

Are you working on any new writing projects? What can fans expect from you in 2021?

I have a plethora of ideas stacking up, so as long as I don’t burn out, I should have plenty of content coming out soon. My debut novella The Jinxed Juniper Tree will be released on 9th October 2020, followed by The Letterbox in November, and a Christmas themed story in December. I feel 2021 will be an even busier year for me, starting with the release of two or three more novellas. After that, I plan to complete my first novel length work, which will be a prequel to my short story The Drain. If I get any spare time between all that lot I will send out short stories to anthologies and may even target traditional publishers to see if they are interested in one of my novellas.

Thank you for stopping by!

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Keep your eyes open for more Vilestone stories this year, after October. As always, AstraDaemon

Halloween Reading: Consumption Week | BIG CAT REPOST | AstraDaemon

Each week will have a different theme. The first week is all about consumption...being eaten...devoured. The prize will be a copy of BIG CAT, signed by Bowie Ibarra.

In order to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on one of the (Blogger) posts dated Oct 1st to Oct 4th. The comments can be about the stories, the themes or Halloween. A winner will be selected and announced on Sunday, October 4th. Unfortunately, due to postal issues, only U.S. residents will be allowed to enter.

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BIG CAT by Bowie Ibarra, author of the Down The Road series, is an entertaining suspense-thriller featuring a predator terrorizing a rural area near San Uvalde. Nothing supernatural or over the top, just a lot of unfortunate people who have forgotten their true place in the food chain.

True to his writing style, Ibarra has included some sexual content, giving the story an 80s slasher motif. However, the serial killer hunts on four legs and doesn't wear a mask. Due to the naughty bits, I don't recommend this story to anyone under the age of 14.

The rotating POV creates some intense, scream-at-the-book moments, especially with the personal drama between the main characters. Even though some of the personalities are somewhat cliché, especially the two idiot cops and the airhead named Chip, the variety keeps readers guessing about everyone's chance of surviving to the end.

The moral of the story: don't get caught with your pants down.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Halloween Reading: Consumption Week | The End of Eaters | AstraDaemon

EATERS: RESURRECTION by Michelle DePaepe is the third book in a zombie trilogy with a blend of horror and science fiction. Cheryl began this nightmare as an insurance agent, returning from a camping trip to discover a waking nightmare unfolding around her. From one book to the next, she adapted and evolved, much like the infected, but Cheryl continued to struggle between what she wanted for herself and what she wanted for her fellow survivors.

In this third and final installment, the storyline picks up moments after the escape from Sedona. The secrets of O.N.E., as well as the secrets of several main characters, are revealed across emotionally devastating scenes. Cheryl and her group hit rock bottom and lose hope, after they discover they have been betrayed and lied to by more than one person throughout their journey. Some of the remaining survivors are so traumatized, they remain broken, and the fate of the infected is one of the most disturbing outcomes I've ever read.

This book series deserves far more props than it has received, and I encourage both zombiephiles and horror fans in general to read these novels before 2020 delivers another throat punch. Seriously, if you're looking for something to set the mood for Halloween or just looking for a way to get your mind off everything else, this is the way.

As always,
AstraDaemon

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment to enter the giveaway for this week's autographed paperback.

Halloween Reading | ENTER GIVEAWAYS | AstraDaemon

To get into the Halloween mood, every week in October, the Lair will be giving away autographed copies of horror paperbacks. These are stories which have been featured as top picks in the last couple of years.

Different themes leading up to Halloween: Consumption Week, Devil Week, Wolf Week, Undead Week, and Highway to Hell Week.

In order to be entered for a giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on one of the (Blogger) posts dated Oct 1st to Oct 31st. The comments can be about the stories, the themes or Halloween. A winner will be selected from each week's comments and announced on every Sunday evening, until Halloween night, when the last winner will be selected. Unfortunately, due to postal issues this year, only U.S. residents will be able to win.

There will be a total of five October giveaways, with each corresponding to the weekly Halloween theme. There will also be daily reviews of horror novels, short stories and series, so check back often.

If you have any questions, just ask.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Halloween Reading: Consumption Week | Plentiful Bounty | AstraDaemon

Women and children have been mysteriously disappearing from Evan’s town. And now Evan may know why. He was climbing a tree in the woods when he saw a decrepit old man toss a helpless woman into the mouth of a hideous tree-like creature.

Evan knows he can’t stop the man and the creature by himself, but he also knows no one will believe a kid with such a wild story. Only his best friend, Peter, can help him confront this terrifying evil. But if they aren’t careful, they will soon be missing too.

THE TREE MAN by David Bernstein is told through the POV of a thirteen year old boy, who has witnessed something supernatural and horrific. He then decides he must have been "chosen" to stop the evil in the forest, and enlists the help of a friend. Unsurprisingly, everything goes wrong, but the boy's deadliest mistake happened before he even tried to fight the old man and the tree.

I have been a fan of Bernstein for years, and I think this is one of his very best stories. I hope the author continues to write in this style. On a side note, I also love the cover art.

As always,
AstraDaemon

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment to enter the giveaway for this week's autographed paperback.

Halloween Reading: Consumption Week | If Cthulhu Was A Pug | AstraDaemon

In an apocalyptic, depopulated city, a young man named Bhu struggles to feed his ailing dog, Lucy. Phan, the local pizza parlor owner, takes pity on Bhu and provides the meat Lucy needs so she can survive.

But what exactly is in the meat? And how far is Bhu willing to go to save his dog?

COSMIC CRUST by Alex Sherman is delightful, even with all the horrific imagery. Somehow the world dying doesn't seem so bad, knowing a guy loves his dog so much. Lucy is awesome. I'm strangely okay with this apocalypse scenario.

As always,
AstraDaemon

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment to enter the giveaway for this week's autographed paperback.