F.C. Schaefer's Blog

I like a good vampire story, same for dark fantasy, or almost any fantasy for that matter, and because it appeared to be a mashup of a couple of genres I read, Jay Kristoff’s EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE ended up under my Christmas tree last year. It also helped that the book came highly recommended by some people whose opinions I value. And I am not afraid of a lengthy tome, as this book comes in at more than 700 pages (for my paperback). It certainly could have been edited down to quite a few pages less, but like many fantasy writers, Kristoff does like to build his world extensively.

One definite thing about EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE is that it literally puts the “dark” in dark fantasy, as it is set in a European medieval style society where there has not been a sunrise in 27 years, as the direct daylight has been blocked by a permanent cloud cover, the reason why is only speculated at, but many believe is supernatural in origin, and thus requiring a supernatural salvation. In this world, vampires are free to go about uninhibited by nature, and are waging a war against humanity, one that the latter is slowly losing. The main character is Gabriel de Leon, a silversaint, making him a member of a holy brotherhood dedicated to fighting the blood suckers. These silversaints are recruited from the offspring of vampire fathers and human women, and possess some of the traits of the former, including a desire for mortal blood. Give Kristoff credit for tweaking the vampire myth in a way that adds something to his story. The book is told through two parallel stories, one through the eyes of a teenage Gabriel as he enters the brotherhood as a novice and has to prove himself to some very tough mentors, while also meeting Astrid, who will be the love of his life, this despite a rule against silversaints marrying and carrying on their cursed bloodline. The second story is told by an older Gabriel, who has been kicked out of the order for getting Astrid pregnant and then marrying her, as he seeks to protect a character named Dior, who just might be the Holy Grail that will end the permanent twilight. Kristoff borrows from Anne Rice here, in that the story is framed by Gabriel as he tells both tales to Jean-Francois Chastain, a vampire historian after Gabriel has been taken prisoner.

I liked this book a lot, as I am a sucker (pun intended) for a good vampire story, and though I pointed out that Kristoff is wordy in his world building, he does a good job of it. There is a lot of cut and paste from medieval history and other fantasy novels, but it feels pretty seamless. The land where most of the action takes place in is clearly modeled on France (a lot of French names and terms are used), and there is a state religion modeled very closely on Christianity. Kristoff liberally borrows a lot of fantasy tropes, including the young novice who must endure a lot of rough treatment from his mentors and a bullying fellow novice as well (shades of Harry Potter), and a forbidden library filled with ancient books and scrolls where knowledge vital to the hero’s origin might be found. There is a mystery in the main character’s background: who is the vampire that fathered Gabriel? Throw in a couple of plot twists and a Big Reveal or two and you have a story. Kristoff makes his vampires very menacing, something essential to making this kind of horror novel work. Danton Voss and his sister, Laure, are monsters right out of a great nightmare, and their father, Fabien, is even worse. His appearance in the book, which constitutes a major scene, is a master class in horror writing. My favorite part of the story is when a young Gabriel has to gather a makeshift army of nuns, monks, and blacksmiths to throw back an invading vampire army coming through an unguarded mountain pass. It’s another fantasy trope, but done very well.

A number of reviewers online have taken Kristoff to task for his language and for what they consider to be his misogyny toward his female characters. I think some of them are being way overly sensitive, while others just have an agenda against certain types of storytelling, mainly having to do with the “male gaze.” They are certainly entitled to their opinion, but I think Kristoff was trying to create a gritty and down and dirty world modeled very closely on medieval history much in the manner of George R.R. Martin and his GAME OF THRONES. And in that real world, as in the fantasy one, women, to put it mildly, often did not get treated well. As it is, EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but also, that is how it should be. This fantasy and horror fan certainly enjoyed it, and because it is the first book in a trilogy, I am looking forward to finishing the series.


My latest book, WORLD WAR NIXON: An Alternate History of the 1970s, is available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/45HEw34

Get started on my horror trilogy at BIG CRIMSON 1: THERE'S A NEW VAMPIRE IN TOWN, found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E
and on Smashwords at: https://bit.ly/3kIfrAb

My alternate history novel ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m
and on Smashwords at: http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH

Find CADEN IS COMING: A Southern Vampire Epic on Wattpad at: https://w.tt/3ESmQXK

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As a die-hard Constant Reader of Stephen King, a copy of THE BACHMAN BOOKS has long had a prized place on my bookshelf. That compilation of his best works published under the pen name of Richard Bachman had some pretty hardcore stories in it, but maybe the most hardcore was THE LONG WALK, a dystopian tale set in an America where it is implied that WWII lasted into the 1960s, and the country sustained such damage that martial law was declared and the military took over. It’s an America where young men compete in an endurance marathon, created to raise national morale and productivity, where the winner is literally the last man standing. Because the economy is in a permanent depression and with opportunities so meager, the youth of the country gladly take a 100 to 1 shot at winning the prize: having any wish granted by the government, not to mention unlimited wealth. This “long walk” has become a national event, with crowds gathered by the side of the highway to cheer on the young walkers, and to be there to watch when one of them fails to maintain the minimum speed of four mph, does not resume it after two warnings, and then gets a bullet to the head on the spot by way of one of the accompanying soldiers, riding along beside them in a personal carrier. King’s book, written in the late’60s while a college student, and published in 1979, is very much a thing of the Vietnam era, with its images of young men sent to be slaughtered by their own military after being selected in a lottery, while a complicit public watched. King clearly wrote this story when the My Lai massacre and Kent State were still fresh memories.

So nearly a half century later, we get a film adaptation of THE LONG WALK, directed by Frances Lawrence, who also directed some of the HUNGER GAMES adaptations. There are a number of changes from the book, mainly that the walking speed is reduced to three mph rather than four, which is understandable since the latter is nearly jogging speed, and the actors wouldn’t be able to act, they’d just run. And the number of participants has been lowered to 50, a change no doubt dictated by the film’s budget. Gone also are the crowds that lined the highway in the book because that would have meant hiring a bunch of extras. That takes away an aspect of the story from the book that played well: the bloodlust and complicity of the average citizen in a state sanctioned act of barbarism. But the film also adds some things missing from King’s original story that really makes THE LONG WALK worth seeing, namely the bonding and deep friendships that form between these young men while they walk along together as their bodies begin to tire, cramp up, and break down as mile after mile passes, and one by one, their numbers grow less. Stephen King has a well-deserved reputation for writing horror, but has proven himself quite able to create stories built around deep friendships, see STAND BY ME and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION as examples. Not to mention an ability to create believable and sympathetic young characters. I really got invested in Ray Garraty and Peter McVries, along with Stebbins and Barkovich and Hank Olson, and genuinely feared for them, knowing that in the end, only one could possibly survive. Give great credit to Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Charlie Plummer, and Ben Wang for giving terrific performances. Make no mistake, this is still a brutal film, with extremely violent and disturbing deaths, and it also touches on the more gross aspects of King’s story dealing with what happens when you have to perform a bodily function but can’t stop walking and lack the privacy to do it. Also like the story, the film is vague about what exactly transpired to create this American dystopia, alluding to a destructive war 19 years in the past. The automobiles used in the film resemble those we see in reruns of the Andy Griffith Show, so it could be assumed that a limited nuclear war occurred in the early or mid-60s, and the events of the film take place in a very alternate 1980s America. One of the major changes the film makes from the book is the ending. As far as the book was concerned, I think King came up with a great premise, but didn’t know how to end it. The film version’s climax is an improvement, though not everyone will agree. And Mark Hamill as The Major, the military dictator who presides over the race, is allowed to overact in the extreme, something he has a penchant to do. At least Hamill comes off better here than in his last appearance as Luke Skywalker.

I’ve always been a sucker for a story where most of the characters are taken out one by one, like AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, SAHARA, or PREDATOR, and I would count THE LONG WALK as firmly in that sub-genre. I think the producers were correct to keep the budget low as possible, as THE LONG WALK surely remains a hard sell to many audiences, thus limiting its commercial appeal. Unlike Kubrick’s THE SHINING, Tobe Hooper’s made-for-TV miniseries SALEM’S LOT, or Frank Darabont’s THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, the film made from THE LONG WALK will likely not make it to the top of anyone’s list of favorite Stephen King films. But like MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (which I like, but acknowledge that THE LONG WALK is superior to), it’s surely destined to find an audience beyond the movie theater. It has a heart that wasn’t there on the page of King’s book, and I think it will connect.

My latest book, WORLD WAR NIXON: An Alternate History of the 1970s, is available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/45HEw34

Get started on my horror trilogy at BIG CRIMSON 1: THERE'S A NEW VAMPIRE IN TOWN, found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E
and on Smashwords at: https://bit.ly/3kIfrAb

My alternate history novel ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m
and on Smashwords at: http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH

Find CADEN IS COMING: A Southern Vampire Epic on Wattpad at: https://w.tt/3ESmQXK

Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
https://bit.ly/47dOR5N

Visit my Amazon author's page at: https://amzn.to/3nK6Yxv

I always try and avoid early reviews for superhero and comic book films, preferring to go in cold and without any preconceived notions. That is what I did for James Gunn’s eagerly awaited reboot of the SUPERMAN franchise, and I’m glad I did. I liked Gunn’s work on the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY franchise, but a little less so for THE SUICIDE SQUAD, and I will hand Gunn this, he knows how to make a comic book film, often fully embracing the goofiness of the Silver Age of comics. His films aren’t grim and gritty, nor are they comments on what a burden it is to be a super hero, or what a curse it is to have super powers. He may deal with serious themes, but he never lets us forget that being a super human, or a metahuman in the DC universe, can be a lot of fun. James Gunn knows why we read comics.

What I liked about SUPERMAN:

As far as I’m concerned, the best thing Gunn does is that the film jumps right into the middle of a DCU where super heroes and super villains are common place, and totally dispenses with the origin story. Clark Kent already works at The Daily Planet, and Lois Lane is already Superman’s girlfriend with full knowledge of his alter ego as a reporter. Other heroes like Guy Gardner’s Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mister Terrific, exist and fight giant monsters, or whatever super menace that rears its head. This is how you do it.

David Corenswet is an excellent Superman, and a very good Clark Kent (who is not in the story that much), even if Gunn did write a few scenes early on that make him look whiny. Corenswet makes a good guy interesting, not always easy to do. Rachel Brosnahan is a worthy successor to the other great actresses who have played Lois Lane. Lois is smart and tough, but she is not turned into another insufferable girl boss who is smarter than everyone else. That’s become a tired cliché.

A good comic book movie rises and falls on its Big Bad, and Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor more than fills the bill. This Luthor, an insecure and megalomaniacal tech billionaire (sound familiar?), is truly evil. A petty man out to destroy a heroic and brave one because he can never be the latter is a good take on one of comic’s most famous and durable villains. This Luthor has a particularly cunning and cruel plan to enrich himself at so many others’ expense, and there is not a trace of Gene Hackman’s wily used car salesman persona in Hoult’s performance, and that is a good thing. Hackman was fine in his day, but Hoult’s performance is thoroughly grounded in the here and the now, and his comeback to Superman in the finale confrontation is a great villain’s justification. Too many bad guys turn out to be misunderstood, or victims of trauma, and it has become a tired trope.

James Gunn has a real knack for taking C-list characters and making them stars in his films. That is what he did in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and THE SUICIDE SQUAD, and he does it again here with Nathan Fillon’s Guy Gardner, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, and Maria Gabriela de Faria as The Engineer. It’s a case of putting the right actor in the right part, and letting them shine onscreen. Gathegi nearly steals every scene he is in, and Fillon is just right for playing Guy Gardner as the jerk he is in the comics. And Skyler Gisondo is a standout as Jimmy Olsen, who in this film, has a more important role in the story than just comic relief.

Somehow, they made Krypto, the Super Dog, work in this story, he’s one of the best things in the movie.

The pacing, for the most part, is pretty good, except for some static scenes early on, such as when Lois “interviews” Superman. That scene veers uncomfortably close to cringe inducing. The film is a brisk two hours and some small change, and the throw the viewer into the deep end at the start works well. Gunn, who wrote the screenplay, keeps things moving, and builds momentum by letting us know Lex Luthor’s devious plan, and why Superman is particularly vulnerable to it. And the film really delivers on the action, whether it is super heroes fighting a kaiju, or Superman throwing down with Luthor’s Raptors in the sky. We want to see Superman throwing down and using all of his power and might against a super threat, that is really what we buy are tickets to see. Superman has that in spades in the third act, and again, that is how you do a comic book film.

But there are some things that didn’t work for me in James Gunn’s SUPERMAN:

A clone? Really? I don’t have as big a problem with that trope as some, but it feels hacky to go there this early in the reboot. Supergirl? Sorry, but she has always been a lame character as far as I’m concerned. Wendell Pierce, a good actor, has too little to do as Perry White. It has been pointed out by others that Neva Howell, who plays Ma Kent, sounds like a character on Hee-Haw, and I have to agree.

But the biggest problem with this new SUPERMAN is the tweaking Gunn did to the back story of Jor El, played by Bradley Cooper in a cameo. This really goes against the grain set down by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster way back in 1938, and I think longtime Superman fans are really going to have a problem with it. For me, it is not as egregious as that scene in MAN OF STEEL where Clark Kent stands back and lets his father die in a tornado (though he clearly had enough time to rescue him), but it feels so unnecessary here. I kept expecting it to be corrected in the finale, but it never happens.

Is this Superman too “woke?” Well, he is if you are a supporter of Vladimir Putin type tyrants, as one of the secondary villains clearly is modeled on, or who believe the future belongs to techno billionaires with God complexes, and the fate of the rest of humanity is to live in their shadows.

We’ve come a long way since Richard Donner directed Christopher Reeve in that truly awesome first big screen appearance of Superman. That film is justifiably legendary, and beloved. And the road since then has often been filled with contention and disappointment. It is too early to tell where James Gunn’s interpretation falls, but my first impression is very positive. Where should the series go from here if there happens to be a sequel leading to a franchise reboot? How about tackling Braniac and the shrunken city of Kandor, it’s never been done on the big screen before, and I’d like to see James Gunn try his hand at it.

Get started on my horror trilogy at BIG CRIMSON 1: THERE'S A NEW VAMPIRE IN TOWN, found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E
and on Smashwords at: https://bit.ly/3kIfrAb

My alternate history novel ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m
and on Smashwords at: http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH

Find CADEN IS COMING: A Southern Vampire Epic on Wattpad at: https://w.tt/3ESmQXK

Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
https://bit.ly/47dOR5N

Visit my Amazon author's page at: https://amzn.to/3nK6Yxv

I am a sucker for a good apocalyptic end of civilization story, and I’ve been known to enjoy a YA book or two even if I am very far outside their target demographic. That is why I picked up Erik J. Brown’s ALL THAT’S LEFT IN THE WORLD. The story is set in an America ravaged by a super flu virus that has wiped out most of the population. This is a pretty standard dystopian trope, probably best executed by Stephen King in his legendary epic horror novel, THE STAND, which, incidentally, is one of my favorite books of all time. ALL THAT’S LEFT IN THE WORLD is pretty PG-13 compared to that classic, no surprise since it is a YA novel, and I did not expect the grim and gritty horror of King’s work, or that of Justin Cronin’s THE PASSAGE. But one thing Brown’s book and those others have in common is that they center the story on the survivors and their attempt to navigate in a world where everything has changed, and where they must struggle to stay alive after life has lost much of its value.

Brown’s protagonists are Andrew and Jamie, two teenage boys who have somehow survived an apocalyptic pandemic and have been thrown together. The book starts out in New England and then follows them on a journey south in search of other survivors and safety. Andrew and Jamie are basically good kids who have lost everyone closest to them, and have had to do what was necessary to survive, especially Andrew, who feels particular guilt over some actions he had to take to defend himself from other survivors. Andrew is gay, and immediately feels an attraction to Jamie, who is a little slower to come around to his feelings for Andrew. Theirs is a very slow burn romance at the start, even though there is no longer a society or authority to disapprove of their mutual feelings. That is until the two boys encounter a community of survivors in the Carolinas that have some very definite ideas on how civilization should be rebuilt. A desperate situation forces the truth to be spoken out loud at last.

Romances, gay or otherwise, are usually not my thing, but I enjoyed this book a lot. I thought Brown’s take on an apocalyptic pandemic rang pretty true, stating that it took many months for the super flu to completely decimate America. In his notes, Brown states that he wrote most of the book before covid, and only slightly touched up the story before publication after the worst of the pandemic had passed. But some things, like a character commenting that the government didn’t take the virus seriously early enough at first and insisted that life go on as normal even as the infection rates and deaths increased, sound very similar to some bad history we all lived through. The book is told through the POVs of the two main characters, with each chapter alternating between Andrew and Jamie. It’s a good device for the reader to get to know, and to come to like the both of them, they prove to be good company for the duration. I give Brown credit for knowing the I-95 corridor of the east coast very well, and gets a lot of details and locations right. He knows how to raise the stakes appropriately, and get us invested in the fates of his protagonists. And he does know the tropes of this genre well. As any long time fan of THE WALKING DEAD knows, beware of any community of survivors that appear too good to be true, and in this book that is the people of Fort Caroline, who do appear to be heavy with MAGA types, though Brown wisely doesn’t get too deep into contemporary politics. One of the things I would fault Brown for is that he simply lets his antagonists lose interest at one point, and just give up and go home after pursuing Andrew and Jamie nearly to Florida. Did Brown not have a more compelling way to resolve a tense plot development? Stephen King would have settled for nothing less than a bloodbath, and for that reason I’m calling this book THE STAND LITE.

But that is fine for a YA novel, I didn’t expect anything otherwise. Andrew and Jamie’s romance remains pretty chaste for the most part. No doubt Moms for Liberty would hate this book, but no one is making them read it anyway. ALL THAT’S LEFT IN THE WORLD satisfied my expectations, exceeding them in a lot of ways, and there is a sequel titled, THE ONLY LIGHT LEFT BURNING, which I will definitely check out to see what happens next to Andrew and Jamie.

Get started on my horror trilogy at BIG CRIMSON 1: THERE'S A NEW VAMPIRE IN TOWN, found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E
and on Smashwords at: https://bit.ly/3kIfrAb

My alternate history novel ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m
and on Smashwords at: http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH

Find CADEN IS COMING: A Southern Vampire Epic on Wattpad at: https://w.tt/3ESmQXK

Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
https://bit.ly/47dOR5N

Visit my Amazon author's page at: https://amzn.to/3nK6Yxv

In my horror novel, CADEN IS COMING: A SOUTHERN VAMPIRE NOVEL, things take a turn when a group of mortal humans find themselves besieged in a rural gentlemen’s club by a clan of vampires, out to get revenge on those responsible breaking into and robbing the Georgia home of their Maker, making off with a most valuable history of the vampire clans in America. Now they have come to get the book back, the trapped mortals have had to fight for their lives as the night grows long, with a number of them not surviving their encounter with the Undead. Then it is turns out that one among them was a vampire all along. Lylah, a hostess with a soft touch the club’s patrons cannot resist is revealed to a blood drinker, and she takes the opportunity to enlighten the cowering mortals about her past, and just how she set foot on the Dark Road of the Endless Night.

An excerpt from Caden is Coming: A Southern Vampire Epic:


“Not in the least,” Lylah answered. “My Maker was Ramon Santana and his clan was from some little bumfuck watering hole down in New Mexico, a place so forsaken they wouldn’t test A-bombs there, nothing but dust, and lizards, and cactus. No place for a city gal like me, I wanted my bright lights back. Not in any way did I want to be part of Ramon’s harem, where I was supposed to spend the decades being all dutiful and coy.”

“So how did you get out?” Ellison asked.

“Found a lovely little red haired girl to take my place, she was barely sixteen and I saved her from a life of having to work behind the counter in her family’s general store outside Santa Fe. Ramon had a thing for gringo gals and what was more gringo than a carrot-topped Irish lass with milky skin.”

“How did you talk her into joining a vampire clan?” Frank could not imagine anybody doing such a thing on their own volition.

Lylah gave him a throaty laugh before she replied. “I didn’t talk her into anything. Just hog tied the little bitch and threw her in the trunk of an old Packard I’d stolen. All I had to do was toss her on the ground at Ramon’s feet and it was love at first sight, at least on his part. He was so grateful that he agreed to give me my freedom on the spot. By the time the sun set the next day, the little redhead was getting her new fangs wet for the first time and I was on the road back to Vegas.”

“Why didn’t you just run away?” Elisa sounded horrified. “Why kidnap that poor girl away from her family like that? She must have had parents that loved her.”

Lylah rolled her eyes. “Run away? Like you ran away from Betty Jean? Not an option in my world, little girl. I don’t have time to explain the way things work in the clans, but let me put it this way, you don’t just walk out on your Maker. Do that and every single night walker in every other clan on the face of the Earth is duty bound to cut your head off. And believe me, a night walker can’t exist very long without help and shelter from their kind, even if you’re a gypsy like me. It’s just that simple.”

It was that simple, Frank thought, as simple as five human beings standing around at four in the morning having a conversation with a vampire. “Back to Vegas?” he said. “Is that where you lived when you were….” He let the question die when he realized how lame it sounded.

“I was serving drinks in a casino when I was turned to the Dark Road. Vegas, then as now, attracts all kinds, and by ‘all kinds,’ I mean this kind.” She bared her teeth and pointed at her fangs. “I went back to a hotel room with a certain high roller just before dawn one morning in 1949 and never saw the sun come up again. That high roller was Ramon, he liked the modern world in small doses and came to Vegas once or twice a year, but he was still a Conquistador at heart.”

“Las Vegas Vampires, it sounds like a straight to Blockbuster DVD,” Ellison observed.

“She’s being modest,” Spivey chimed in. “Lylah hasn’t told you that she started out at the Flamingo Hotel and casino back in ‘46. Bugsy Siegel himself hired her as a hat check girl.”

“That’s true,” Lylah said with pride. “But I only worked for him for a year before he got those three 30.30 rounds in his head at Virginia Hill’s house. Guess he shouldn’t have told Lucky Luciano to go to hell at that meeting in Havana.”

This cannot be real, Frank thought. These creatures have spent the entire night trying to kill us all and we’re talking to one about the glory days in Vegas.

“If you worked in Vegas,” Elisa asked, “how did you end up in the middle of nowhere?”

“I’m true to the name,” Lylah said. “A gypsy never stays too long in one spot. I spent most of five decades moving from one hotel to the other, always the best. The Ambassador in Los Angeles, the Palmer House in Chicago, the Overlook in Colorado, The Roosevelt in New Orleans and of course the Ritz-Carlton in the Big Apple. I knew them all and their counterparts in every big city from one end of this country to the other. Me and some other gypsies would get together for marathon poker games, and order room service and snack on the bus boy that brought it up to the room. As long as you flash enough green, the management will pretty much let you do whatever the hell you want, stay as long as you want, and look the other way. I got damn good with the cards, made some decent scratch and made some indecent problems for myself. And in the latter case I really do mean ‘made’ literally. Got smitten with a JD down in Florida in ‘59, it didn’t end well.”

“What’s a JD?” Elisa asked.

“Juvenile Delinquent,” Lylah answered. “And he looked just like Ricky Nelson. It was love at first sight…at least on my part. But here’s the thing, you can suck the blood out of them but not the attitude. Despite all I did for him, he refused to show me the proper gratitude and respect for turning him to the Dark Road. After all I did for him, the little punk ass paid me back by starting the rumor that I was a cheat with the cards. I barely got out of New Orleans with my head still attached after the little rat went to the Supreme Lord and Maker in the Big Easy with his dirty little lies. Had to lay low after that, give up the good life and fancy hotels, not an easy thing to do after 50 years. I was reduced to slinging drinks in a bar in Camden, New Jersey. One night Ernest walked in and offered me a job in the club he was opening down here in the Old Dominion.”


Find CADEN IS COMING: A Southern Vampire Epic on Wattpad at: https://w.tt/3ESmQXK

This Constant Reader tries to never miss a Stephen King book, he’s been a part of my summer reading for decades. So after getting HOLLY for Christmas (joke in there somewhere), I cracked its cover as soon as the heat and humidity settled right in before the solstice. But this book’s reputation did precede it, as it seems to be one of King’s most polarizing recent efforts. One bone fans seemed to pick was that it was yet another Holly Gibney book, featuring an emotionally repressed single woman, first introduced in the MR. MERCEDES trilogy, who has blossomed in middle age by becoming a private investigator. To put it simply, it seems King is much more of a fan of his creation than many of his Constant Readers, who are less enamored with Holly Gibney then he. The other big criticism of the book, set mostly during the summer of 2021, is that it is too “political.”

The plot of HOLLY is pure procedural—up to a point. As the second wave of the Covid epidemic (which has touched Holly personally) rolls across the country, she reluctantly takes on the case of a missing young woman in an Ohio college town. With little to go on, Holly does what she can, and bit by bit, begins to put together clues that point to a number of other similar disappearances, and the very real possibility that there may be a serial killer operating behind the scenes. As the case progresses, subplots develop concerning Holly’s late mother and the estate she left behind, along with the returning Jerome and Barbara Robinson, both of whom are enjoying some literary success, especially the latter, who is being mentored by an elderly poetess. The pacing stays on point pretty much, and if you are not into some of the subplots, King does not dwell on them too much at any one time. My paperback copy clocks in at 446 pages, the chapters are not too long, and there are frequent shifts in the POV among characters, including the Big Bads.

The main thing HOLLY has going for it is that King has really come up with a great pair of villains that light a fire under the narrative. Rodney and Emily Harris are a married pair of retired college professors well into their golden years, and both of them psychotically insane. Beset by the ravages of old age, they think they have come up with a way to cheat the clock and restore vitality by kidnapping young people, then killing and eating them. This loony pair have come to believe in the restorative power of devouring the vital organs, and can set a table that Hannibal Lector would pull up a chair to and feel right at home. This is not a big spoiler, as King reveals the Harris’s true nature and what they are up to very early on, and the tension comes from reading how Holly is slowly getting closer to the truth, while Rod and Emily go about their business of being geriatric cannibals as both sides move toward an inevitable collision. King does what many authors do when they really want to make a character reprehensible, and that is make them racist and homophobic, having Rodney and Emily spout slurs on more than one occasion. Even without that added touch, these two are instantly among King’s most memorable embodiments of pure evil.

This is a book beset with illness and infirmity, as would be natural with a story set during the Covid pandemic, but there are characters dealing with cancer, sciatica, dementia, mental illness, and substance abuse. And it wouldn’t be a Stephen King book without somebody passing gas, a piece of scatological humor that got old back in the 20th Century. As stated, I am not as big a fan of Holly Gibney as King evidently is, but she is a good example of the type of protagonist he writes just about better than anyone. Like so many of those who have come before her, Holly Gibney has had to overcome something in her life to become the person she is, in her case it was a controlling mother and crippling low self-esteem. How many other of King’s characters have dealt with trauma, loss, failure, and crushing disappointment, and then had to find a way to move on while living with the scars of life, hoping for either redemption or peace. And when I see Holly through that lens, she rises in my estimation. Having said that, I still really miss Bill Hodges.

As for those who have a problem with the “political” issue of the story, all I can say is where have you been, as Stephen King has made no secret on what side of the political spectrum he falls. He is unabashedly pro vaccine and pro mask when it comes to Covid. The book also lights on the BLM protests, and other unrest from that time. But most of this is in the background, and is dealt with in passing, there are no pages filled with diatribes against Trump and MAGA as some reviewers seem to imply. I think the problem is our polarizing and very partisan times, along with the fact that just about every American would just rather forget everything about the Covid years. The “political” problem, if there is one, is not with the book, but with readers who cannot abide having their world view challenged with a contrary viewpoint in any way.

So in the end, HOLLY is like much of King’s output in the 21st Century, entertaining, though not on the level, or even close to it, of his early classics like THE SHINING, THE STAND, or SALEM’S LOT. It’s not even on the level of 11-22-63 or FAIRY TALE, my favorite books of his from recent decades. But even lesser Stephen King is still better than almost 90% of what other authors are putting out at any given time. If you are a Constant Reader, give it a try.

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In my horror novel, CADEN IS COMING: A Southern Vampire Epic, a desperate group of individuals find themselves besieged in rural gentlemen’s club by a clan of vengeful vampires, led by their maker, Lafayette Caden. He is seeking a book that was stolen from his plantation home in Georgia, this being the Archive of the Clans, a history of the Undead. This book has fallen into the hands of Henry Marko, a mob enforcer acting as a middleman for a prospective buyer for Caden’s book. Marko, who takes great pride in always getting a job done right, is not about to be stopped by a clan of blood drinkers and their leader. In the excerpt below, the night is getting short, and Caden’s patience with Marko and the others inside the club is getting thin. The vampire knocks on the door one last time in attempt to end the situation in his favor in a way that will leave at least one mortal still alive.

An excerpt from CADEN IS COMING: A Southern Vampire Epic:

There was a gust of fresh air when Henry opened the door, reminding him just how stifling the inside of the Sundown Club had become with the air conditioning out of commission. The sultry heat of the day had finally loosened its grip somewhat in the wee hours before the sun returned with the first light in the eastern sky. Henry knew that moment of salvation was still more than two hours away as he regarded the boss vampire, his face a fine shade of tombstone marble, standing before him on the front porch in the same spot where he’d stood for their first conversation hours earlier. Elisa, Frank Reilly, Thompson, and Ellison, stood behind him, just as they had done hours before. The only adult missing was Spivey, he’d been told to stay put behind the bar. This time his place was taken by Bobby Holland.

“It’s getting kind of late to come calling, isn’t it?” Henry said by way of a greeting. “Haven’t you and your traveling band of blood drinkers better be thinking about a nice safe place to get out of the sun. It’s about to get awful bright around here in a little while. With that pale skin, you’re going to get a terminal sunburn.”

“There is still plenty of time, Mr. Marko.” Caden sounded quite unconcerned by the lateness of the hour. “And I know exactly where my clan and I will spend the hours of sunlight, you need not worry yourself about such things. Your main concern should be how fast you can return me my property. Unlike the last time we talked, it is now in your possession, so let’s bring this wretched business to an end as quickly as possible.” The vampire was not carrying his sword, not that he really needed it. Henry knew all too well what Caden was capable of and made sure the tips of his shoes were firmly planted more than a few inches back from the threshold.

“Quickly as possible you say. I don’t believe I can accommodate you there. As you well know, there’s another party with an interest in said Archive and I’m here representing them. The least you’d have to do is match their offer and then some before I could consider what you’ve said. In the meantime, the Archive of the Clans stays high and dry and out of anyone’s hand but mine.” Henry had returned Caden’s Archive to the duffle bag, and it was now hanging from one of the idle ceiling fan blades above the table where Elisa had bandaged his hand. He’d reminded the rest of them to keep their distance as he picked up the shotgun and headed for the front door.

Henry thought his words might provoke the vampire, but to his surprise, Caden looked almost amused. “You misunderstand me,” Caden replied. “This is no transaction of commerce here. I intend to have what is mine restored to me and settle the score with those who have put me and my clan to so much trouble. My original word stands—the one—and only the one who puts the Archive of the Clans in my hand gets to leave here unmolested. This is the last warning I will give, and I am being more than generous.”


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My horror novel, CADEN IS COMING: A SOUTHERN VAMPIRE EPIC, concerns a vengeful clan of the Undead who descent on a gentleman's club in the rural south in search of a history of the vampire clans in America that was stolen from their Maker. Knowing that the book they seek is on the inside, they lay siege to the club, giving the mortals holed up in there until before sunrise to return the valuable archive. But in the process, the vampires take some casualties, including Crockett, the beloved of Lianna, a favorite of the maker of the clan, Lafayette Caden, who is 147 years old. In the excerpt below, Caden tells the others how Lianna and Crockett came to join him among the ranks of the Undead.


An excerpt from CADEN IS COMING: A SOUTHERN VAMPIRE EPIC:


“Caden, I know she was special to you, but if she don’t want to go on, there’s nothing you can do to make her get up.” Mackie had joined them along with other members of the clan, some of whom crawled in the Chevy’s bed in order to get a better look.

“Special? You have no idea. You cannot imagine her beauty, her innocence when I first laid sight on her walking in the moonlight on a Florida beach. It was like passing a store window and catching sight of a perfect China figurine inside. Something so flawless in its beauty you must have it. Lianna was a bride on her honeymoon. She and the fool she married had their first fight, and the bastard struck her with the back of his hand and got drunk in their hotel room, so she sneaked out while he slept. I could feel her sadness as she strolled along the water’s edge, it drew me to her and before the moon went down that night, I took her away from the world of ungrateful husbands forever.”

“Sometimes figurines get broken,” said Agnes, Huey noticed she was not getting too close in case she said anything to draw Caden’s ire a second time. “No matter how delicate we treat them.”

Caden seemed to be in a mood to reminisce. “I denied her nothing, which was how Crockett became part of us some years later. He was a college student in a bar; a place in Atlanta where she went to pick up a quick feed. She had to have him the same way I had to have her. Afterward she came back to the farm and begged for permission to let her turn him, but I refused. I was jealous and afraid he would be loyal only to her if she were the one to bring him to the Dark Road.”

“Can’t have divided loyalties in a clan, it just don’t work,” Mackie observed.

“But Lianna wouldn’t give up,” Caden continued. “Like a persistent child, she begged and pleaded. So finally, I struck a bargain with her. If she could go back to the big city of Atlanta the next night and find this instant love of hers and get him to accompany her back out to my humble country home, then I would turn him for her. Lianna happily agreed, but I never expected her to pull it off, to go into the big city filled with millions of foul mortals and find this young man, much less get him to come back with her. She proved me the fool, she and her new love were at the door before midnight. With my bluff called, I had to be as good as my word. And so, he joined our clan before the sun came up. Crockett later told me he was as taken with her as she was with him on their first meeting in the bar, the only reason he was in that establishment was because of some car trouble and needed the service of a phone. He only came back on the second night in hopes of meeting her again.”

“Crockett was special too.” Agnes said, obviously trying to make sure she was back in Caden’s good graces.

“I had planned to stake Crockett out in the sun as soon as she tired of him, but he quickly proved himself to be loyal and ever grateful to his Maker. Unlike me, he was far from growing weary of the world of mere mortals. And Lianna never tired of him. She—”

“Caden! Caden!” Dan was racing across the parking lot; his job had been to stay at the front door and listen to what transpired inside among those whom the Clan would soon feed upon. “You’ve got to come. It sounds like a war’s broken out in there.”

Read CADEN IS COMING: A SOUTHERN VAMPIRE EPIC: https://w.tt/3ESmQXK

Caden is Coming: A Southern Vampire Epic is the tale of a vampire clan out for vengeance after the home of their leader is robbed, and a valuable history of the undead in America—written in blood—is stolen. The back roads of the south are soon filled with traveling bloodsuckers on the trail of the thief and determined to get their Maker’s book back from him and woe to any mortal who gets in the way. In the excerpt below, the novel’s protagonist, Henry Marko, an enforcer for the Baltimore Mob representing a party interested in buying the book, and its main antagonist, Lafayette Caden, the 147 year old chief of a vampire clan, meet for the first time. Caden and his clan have besieged a rural gentleman’s club where Marko was to meet with certain parities claiming to have possession of the Archive of the Clans. Caden is determined to get his stolen property back, and Marko just as determined not let that happen. The two are standing on opposite sides of an open doorway, a threshold Caden cannot cross, but who nevertheless finds a way to get at those beyond his reach.

A excerpt from CADEN IS COMING: A Southern Vampire Epic:

The vampire’s eyes glowed with liquid fire. “My given name is Lafayette Caden and you know what I am. Through misplaced trust, I have been the victim of a thief, a low piece of mortal vermin, whom I have dealt with, but I have yet to have my property returned. It is a leather-bound book, known to all of my kind as the Archive of the Clans. It was taken from my home in Georgia to be sold to peddlers and merchants. I know what I seek is to be found here in this mansion, so don’t lie and make things worse for yourselves.”

“I can say with all truth I haven’t once laid eyes on your Archive of the Clans since I got to this miserable little shit hole,” Henry replied. The malice coming off Caden was tangible, almost a physical force, but Henry refused to retreat, making sure the toes of his shoes remained up against the door jam.

“Then you have quite a problem, Mr. Henry Marko of Baltimore, Maryland, because I will have my Archive returned to me long before the sun rises. You, on the other hand, may not have nearly so long.”

“Like I said, I’ve not seen your damn Archive, if I had, then I’d be half way back to Baltimore and you’d be shit out of luck.” Henry could feel the cold sweat bead under his arms, but street rules still applied, never let them know they got to you, no way, no how.

“You would do well to listen better, Mr. Henry Marko. I will have more than just my rightful property returned to me. I have been put to a great deal of trouble, have been forced to take leave of my comfortable home and take to the road. More than that, a most esteemed member of my clan has perished at the hands of a mortal this very night. I will have vengeance for my fallen servant. I will have vengeance for my humiliation.” Caden raised his voice to make sure it was heard by those inside. “All those whose hands have defiled my Archive will not live to see the sun rise, the rest of you can walk out that door of your own free will, get down on your knees before me and beg me not to open you up and fill my mouth with your life’s blood. Those who do not catch my favor or cling to your vanity and refuse to grovel will be fed upon by my clan. Like me, they have traveled far and are quite hungry. But the one who puts the Archive into my hands, I will not touch, this much I will swear, nor will any member of my clan put so much as a single finger on him also. They will be free to leave, but only after they return to me my rightful property. This I swear and I always honor my word and remember those who honor me. I hope you heard that in there, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Ellison, Mr. Reilly, and Mr. Holland. As you can see, I happen to know all of you while you know nothing of me.”


Start reading CADEN IS COMING: A SOUTHERN VAMPIRE EPIC free on Wattpad at: https://w.tt/3ESmQXK

Caden is Coming: A Southern Vampire Epic is the tale of a vampire clan out for vengeance after the home of their leader is robbed, and a valuable history of the undead in America—written in blood—is stolen. The back roads of the south are soon filled with traveling bloodsuckers on the trail of the thief and determined to get their Maker’s book back from him and woe to any mortal who gets in the way. In the excerpt below, Lianna and Crockett, two vampires devoted to the leader of their clan, Lafayette Caden, arrive at a small community in rural Virginia where the thief and his ill-gotten book, are hiding out. Things are about to take a turn.

An excerpt from Caden is Coming: A Southern Vampire Epic:

After days of traveling, a destination was reached at last.

They came up from the south, just after sundown, two lone figures, a man and a woman, young and paler than starlight. Aunt Molly’s Buick Skylark had carried them far, and when the sun had grown high in the sky, the trunk proved to be the perfect place to get some much-needed rest. But the ancient Buick had died a natural death an hour before sunrise on Sunday, and for the rest of the day, the two had moved as shadows, sleeping briefly and then hurrying on, staying out of the light but with the rising of the orange moon had come freedom. Now they strode across the open land, unafraid.

The dog saw them first and was the first to die, his blood tasting hot and sweet. There were plenty of mortals nearby, but they were safe for this night. Caden had commanded it, but it would be for this night only. The sun would rise again in a few hours, but sure as the coming of day, so was the fall of night and when darkness covered the land again, Caden would come to claim what was his, and woe unto any mortals who got in his way.

“Bend down here,” Lianna said to Crockett. The two were standing in a clearing only a stone’s throw from the highway.

“What?” he replied as he leaned in.

“Just this,” she giggled and licked a stray drop of the dog’s blood from his cheek. They hastened on; there was much to learn before the sun rose again.

Follow the link below to find out what happens to Lianna and Crockett. Not only them, but everyone unfortunate enough to cross their path, or that of that of the rest of their blood drinking clan of the undead.

Start reading CADEN IS COMING: A SOUTHERN VAMPIRE EPIC free on Wattpad at: https://w.tt/3ESmQXK