Spiders. For many, that word alone induces the chills. Already, some of you can feel eight hairy legs crawling along your skin. Did you just brush at something that wasn’t there?
This collection of twisted tales have been spun for the sole intent of making you shiver and see things moving out of the corner of your eye. Can you make it to the end?
Authors include Wesley Dylan Gray, Christine Morgan, Wednesday Lee Friday, Grady G. Pulley, Jaime Johnesee, Shenoa Carroll-Bradd, T Fox Dunham, James Greer, David James Keaton, Heather Roulo, Heidi Mannan, Anthony Cowin, Chris Bauer, and Chad P. Brown
Tucked away in the Pacific Northwest with my wife Denise, a Border Collie named Aoife, a guitar collection, and an increasing number of aquariums sporting a variety of fish (cichlids are my new favorites), I live for football season when I can cheer on the Oregon Ducks and be disappointed by my Seattle Seahawks once again. I am a fan of Cookie Monster, KISS, and Dr. Who (along with most things British).
As a person who always dreamed of writing as well as one completely enthralled by all things zombie, it is hard to believe that I never once considered writing in the genre. It is true. I wanted to be more “mainstream”. The first novel I actually wrote is titled Dakota (as Todd Brown). It is about a pair of DEA types tossed back in time to just prior to the start of the Civil War. They are in Charleston, South Carolina, and one of them is an African-American.
The zombie thing really started when I wrote a short for a college Creative Writing class. The teacher, Ms. Bose, pulled me up and told me I had an obvious love for the subject and a real talent for the style. I decided to give it a shot.
The first thing I cobbled together was Zomblog. I wrote it as a warm up for the project I had brewing in the back of my mind. It is a journal account of the apocalypse. The funny thing is that it was never intended to be published. A few things happened and it ended up being presented to me as a gift in book format by my wife for a Christmas present. There was something I will never forget about holding the copy of that book in my hand the first time. Because it gained a readership, and those readers asked for more, I made it a trilogy (Zomblog, Zomblog II, and Zomblog: The Final Entry). It is also because of those fans that I have returned to the Zomblog universe and just released the sixth (and FINAL) book in the series on Halloween of 2013: Zomblog: Snoe's Journey. I freely admit that I will sellout my plans to write what the fans ask for.
I really want my DEAD series to be what I am known for, and in the last year, it has really taken off. However, I will say that with the release of the fourth book in the DEAD series (DEAD: Winter), the numbers started to pick up beyond my wildest dreams.
The DEAD series (DEAD: The Ugly Beginning, DEAD: Revelations, and DEAD: Fortunes & Failures, DEAD: Winter, DEAD: Siege & Survival, DEAD: Confrontation, DEAD: Reborn) is scheduled to be a 12 part epic series.
It is told in three rotating chapters. One is from the first person perspective of Steve Hobart, a man thrust into the role of leader for a group of survivors struggling to keep alive. One chapter follows a group of four self-professed zombie “geeks” who initially believe that the zombie apocalypse would be fun and soon discover that it is nothing like the movies. The third of the rotating chapters is called “Vignettes” and is a series of snapshots from all around the world. Some of the vignettes are single chapter episodes, others are continuing threads that carry on for several chapters. A few are merged into the Steve story or the Geek story line.
Last year,I began my horror/comedy series, "That Ghoul Ava" and have found it to be my new guilty pleasure.
I suppose I should make a disclaimer that I'm a contributor to this anthology. So as it would be just odd and bad form to review my own work, I'll focus on the excellent contributions by other writers in this truly spine-tingling, skin-crawling collection from May December Publications and edited by TW Brown. My wife didn't even make it past the Introduction.
A Clockwork Web: Incredibly inventive premise with rich descriptions. A new twist on an old tale.
The Fate Spinners: Vikings, ancient Norse mythology and big, hairy spiders? What more could one want?
Mister's House of Spiders: Intriguing Southern Gothic elements with particularly evocative dialogue.
The Spiders: A really unique narrative plot device (a diary) provides insights into the crumbling sanity of a man on the verge of madness.
Offspring: A frightening tale of the lengths a man will go to keep his word and seek redemption. Not for the faint of heart. One of the scariest of the batch, for sure.
The Hole: Midnight Express meets Arachnophobia. Nuff said!
The Ball Pit: Very original premise for this end of the world narrative.
The Golden Rule: Unique POV in the work. Dialogue is fast-paced and authentic. I suspect the author did some hefty research into spiders before starting this work. Fun to read.
The Rules of Magic: Very innovative vision of a magic system, the part familiars play in it and a surprise twist ending.
Exit Bags: Tension-filled scenes, interesting back story and exceptionally creepy descriptions.
The Writing in the Web: Faint echoes of "Charlotte's Web"...if it had been written by HP Lovecraft. Featured a truly WTH! moment at the climax. Quick pace and good narrative flow.
While I value the place of spiders in the world and the work they do in the garden, they scare the bejesus out of me. There is something about the speed with which they can run or sail, the ease with which they bite, and the squishiness of some of their bodies that just puts me over the edge. So of course I read an anthology of horror stories with a spider theme.
The entire book gave me the willies, but some were worse- better?- more effective than others. Christine Morgan’s ‘The Fate Spinners’ is one of the scariest things I’ve read, because I’ve had spiders come down from the ceiling onto me when I’m sleeping and to the arachnophobe, it’s only a small step to giant spiders coming down from the ceiling. There are multiple stories where people are held captive in spider filled basements, but they each have a different take on it. The spiders aren’t always evil; sometimes they are the persecuted, wanting revenge and sometimes wanting only to live. ‘The Golden Rule’ is one of those stories where you can see where it’s going, but go along for the ride anyway just to see how horribly it turns out for the people. ‘The Rules of Magic’ has a sense of irony in it, like what would result if O. Henry had written horror fiction. Sometimes, as in the last two stories, the spiders come in disguise and lure their victims in by seeming harmless. Those may be the worst, because you trust the faces they wear right up until the end.
If you like horror and are scared of spiders- or at least admit to their possibilities as monsters- this book will be right up your alley.
Review of Spiders (Anthology) 5 Stars As preface, let me say that until age 42, I was severely arachnophobic. I had horrible nightmares, I could not watch TV or a film containing even one (“Dr. No” nearly did me in), and if I even saw a granddaddy long legs on the street I’d panic. Somehow, after a move out of state, that just stopped. Thankfully-because even so, some of the tales in this anthology made my skin crawl, [speaking of crawling]. You know, even if you aren’t arachnophobic, you are not going to get these stories to vanish from your memory; you still are going to be glancing back over your shoulder, checking corners of the ceilings, looking around before you enter a room: you get the picture. Usually when I review an anthology or a single-author collection, I’d like to list my personal favourites, but when I started out to do so, I realized I was including all 13 stories! So just trust me: arachnophobe, arachnophile, or somewhere in between where you’re not bothered, not scared, and not fancying these creatures: you are still going to be frightened!! [states your intrepid reviewer while perusing the ceiling for stealthy movement]
SPIDERS is 13 short stories with a creep factor of eight. These are not all horror tsles either ehich is a pleasant surprise. These anthology is packed with steampunk, horror westerns and even fairy tale type stories.
This is a great read not only to get your skin crawling but also to sample genre tyoes you may not be used to. I was surprised at how well a horror concept works so well in other story types. So read MDP's SPIDERS anthology and keep an eye out in the dark corners, you don't want to become the next story...
Review of Spiders (Anthology) 5 Stars As preface, let me say that until age 42, I was severely arachnophobic. I had horrible nightmares, I could not watch TV or a film containing even one (“Dr. No” nearly did me in), and if I even saw a granddaddy long legs on the street I’d panic. Somehow, after a move out of state, that just stopped. Thankfully-because even so, some of the tales in this anthology made my skin crawl, [speaking of crawling]. You know, even if you aren’t arachnophobic, you are not going to get these stories to vanish from your memory; you still are going to be glancing back over your shoulder, checking corners of the ceilings, looking around before you enter a room: you get the picture. Usually when I review an anthology or a single-author collection, I’d like to list my personal favourites, but when I started out to do so, I realized I was including all 13 stories! So just trust me: arachnophobe, arachnophile, or somewhere in between where you’re not bothered, not scared, and not fancying these creatures: you are still going to be frightened!! [states your intrepid reviewer while perusing the ceiling for stealthy movement]
I almost gave up on this collection about a third of the way through. I'm glad I pressed on as I enjoyed most of the rest of the stories. Nothing really great, in my opinion, by okay.