Heroin in the Magic Now

by Terry M. West

HEROIN IN THE MAGIC NOW explores pain and hell. The story is set in a dark make-believe New York. The Night Things have climbed onto our shores from the shadows and they are now part of the system.

Gary Hack, a down on his luck exploitation film director with an appetite for heroin, finds himself working in the dangerous world of monster fetish videos.

Gary is made an offer he can't refuse by Johnny Stücke, an immortal crime boss. The video Johnny envisions could be the greatest zombie fetish film ever created. But it could also ignite an apocalypse that could destroy the city.

HEROIN IN THE MAGIC NOW is original, startling and brutal. BONUS: Included with the first tale is a lengthy preview of HEROIN IN THE MAGIC NOW 2.

Genres: Horror

138 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 27, 2014

About the author

Terry M. West is an American horror author. His best known works: What Price Gory, Car Nex, Dreg and his Night Things series. He was a finalist for 2 International Horror Guild Awards and he was featured on the TV Guide Sci-Fi hot list for his YA graphic novel series, Confessions of a Teenage Vampire. Terry was born in Texas, lived in New York for two decades and he currently hangs his hat in California.
www.terrymwest.com

Reviews

[E.R. Dover · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Misery and Darkness than Frank Miller’s Sin City

In Heroin in the Magic Now, Terry M. West has turned the writing of the novelette/novella into Reality Composition. Every character is holding an unseen camera, recording the privacy of a life that goes on everywhere behind the scenes. Although Terry comes through strong with his unique voice that is unmistakably Terry M. West, once again, he proves to deliver something distinctive. When I started reading Heroin in the Magic Now, I took a deep breath and sighed – it provided the Fix I was looking for. Terry M. West’s writing is addictive. I highly recommend it over alcohol or heroin. And – utilizing Hardcore Crust as an intro into Heroin in the Magic Now creates a seamless ooze into the seedy world that sets your teeth on edge. I enjoyed this more than Frank Miller’s Sin City, which is one of my favorite movies exploring darkness and misery. I want to see this on celluloid – digital is also acceptable with the right attention given. Although sick, edgy, and filled with heartache and broken dreams, Heroin in the Magic Now also taps into heart and hope. It’s filled with real-world perspective from the shadows, masterfully crafted with just the right touch of fiction and fantasy. I loved it when I wasn’t able to discern reality from fantasy. Oh, wait – I found a lot of that – which kept me on the edge of my seat, turning page after page. Terry M. West has to know these vampires, zombies, ghouls, werewolves and human monsters… I mean… they have to exist… at least in his mind. And everyone knows our world is full of them. I can’t speak for Mr. West, but I can remember back when I was a child – the greatest thing I could ever imagine becoming – was a monster. As I grew older, that only changed slightly. I learned how to manifest the monsters into the heroes I always believed they were when I was a child. That’s what I get from Heroin in the Magic Now. I just love the gris-gris bag the lead character Gary Hack carries. I had something similar when I was twelve years old. It was a small doll from Haiti stuffed with gris-gris seeds. I can still smell it. Gary Hack was constantly learning. As I read Heroin in the Magic Now, I sensed a deep metamorphosis taking place within me and then an awakening. I had to stop a moment because I was having flashbacks of aspects of my own life that were painful, heartrending and hopeless. It’s tough when you don’t want to surrender and decide there isn’t another choice. You’re locked into that moment of helplessness and start to play the game: Things will get better – it will all somehow change – the tide will turn. And you wait for years. And sometimes, you just throw yourself out of an airplane or put a needle in your arm or drink yourself into the blackness and wonder how you made it to this point in your miserable life and you finally just give up. And in that moment of surrender everything changes – although you have no idea until that moment of déjà vu – and you awaken to the realization that you have just learned something very important. I’ll be reading this again. God – this is going to be a great movie.

[Steven Rage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heroin in the Magic Now
Review for Terry M. West's "Heroin in the Magic Now":

~GHOULS ON FILM. BLING OUT YOUR DEAD.~

"Undead to Rites. Dog Gone Gore Gag n Reel Time. Purple Johnny Rotten Walker Love Gun Gobble. Double Bubble Bottom Bukaki La La By-n-Buy. Ronnie James Dios Mio Money Maker Shaker. She's a Dead Ringer Neck. Self-Loathing Lothario Selfie. OrgyGami Gummi Worm Rot. Hell's Belles. Jenkum Binge. Drinker Dry. Lysergic Lex Luther In Deed (if Not in Thought). Jezus is the Reason for the Seizin'. Zesty Zombie Seasoning. Ouji Board's Abyss Mall Stare. Fluff The Magic Dragon. Save the Neck for me, Clark. Dig it. Up. Ghouls On Parade. Bling Out Your Dead."

- The Grim Reverend Steven Rage, Publisher, MorbidbookS. Author of 'You Morbid Westphal', et al.

[Steve Stred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huge thanks to Terry M. West for reaching out and sending me a digital copy to review.

I have to admit, the title of this one perplexed me. No matter what way I read it, it just didn’t click in my brain. The synopsis is intriguing on it’s own. A washed-up, heroin-addicted director of seedy porn, Gary Hack struggles to find meaning in life and bounces from gig to gig to fund his habit.

I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into, but I went in with as open of a mind as I could. Terry had mentioned that it gets dark, so I was excited to see what level of brutality we’d be getting.

What I liked: West introduces us to Hack early on, finding out that his addiction, occupation and absentee nature has forced his family away from him. The world is a different place now. Night Things walk among us and are fighting to have equal rights as humans. This includes Zombies, Ghoul’s, Werewolves, Vampires and many more oddities. From this, a new adult film niche has sprouted involving humans and this creatures, as well as creature on creature.

Hack finds himself at a crossroads. West does a fantastic job of showcasing this aging, out-of-shape addict struggling with his own morality, his ethical boundaries and just what he’ll ultimately do to fund his habit. Where is his line and when he finds it, how far is he willing to push it further to keep the cash flow coming.

The story does have some graphic moments, but I found them far tamer than I was expecting. It might be because I was so focused and on board with Hack’s character arc that I simply wasn’t as engaged with the filming and explicit parts as much as if I was purely reading to read extreme moments.

The ending definitely sets up for further entries in this story, but also closes a lot of the storylines introduced throughout.

What I didn’t like: For me, personally, I’m simply not a huge fan of humanized creatures like what is within. I did like the story line with Kat and her humanity vs monster aspect and I wish it had continued on as it was very compelling, but the parts about filming and pushing the boundaries and ‘who cares about these monsters’ moments wasn’t as big of a draw for me as a reader. It kind of felt a bit like when Tru Blood went off the rails and started to introduce a bunch of the other creatures in further seasons.

Why you should buy this: At it’s heart, ‘Heroin in the Magic Now’ is a dark, introspective look at a man struggling with his place in the world, when everything he loves has left him and the only thing he has left to fill that void is his habit. This one flows nicely and the pacing is pitch perfect. Definitely one to keep an eye on, especially if you love stories with a variety of creatures.

[Zakk Madness · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Gary Hack looked through the window of the Greek diner. Two homeless zombies sat on the hot concrete. They shook cups in the air. People rode the sidewalk quickly around the undead pests. Some fed them a few coins, but most stepped over the dead men and away from them like they were avoiding dog shit."

And so begins "Hardcore Crust", the interconnected short story and prologue to "Heroin". Here we meet Gary Hack, a dried out husk of a man with withered ambitions and a giant monkey on his back as he clings to the last threads of a sacrificed life. This is an alternate New York, on an alternate earth where creatures of the night of all ilk have made their presence known. These monsters are carving a place in this new world for themselves while fighting for the same rights granted to the living.

Through these two pieces, Gary is taking the downward spiral from soft-core skin flick director to something more explicit in nature with these new citizens at the forefront. And as the material he is working with takes the plunge into obsidian depths, so does Gary's cravings and addictions. And some actions will have consequences.

"It was easier before the magic came, I think. Do you remember where you were when you realized the magic was real?"

As a long time fan of the horror fiction genre, books just don't hit me the way they once did. The tingles and the creepers, the visceral agitation that sets in when something your read is really turning screws on a pressure point in your psyche, those feelings just don't come along as often as I'd like them to.

Thankfully I am not jaded, I am still able to enjoy the haunts and the shadows of a finely crafted yarn, but I will always yearn for a piece that takes me back to the nervous tension of a youthful reader. This is one of those pieces.

"Heroin" is dark. It is bleak. It is great. It is unflinching and it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Gary Hack isn't looking for any sort of redemption in this mired landscape lacking any sort of sunshine. He is just wading through the murk because it affords him the opportunity to take himself into a soul stunting darkness.

Even without the authors note explaining things, even the least astute reader would be able to understand that this tree was sprouted from a deeply personal seed. Mr. West opens a long-closed window, pulls back the heavy curtains and allows us a glimpse into a previous life. And it's a bleak snapshot of life on the horse and how stepping stones can turn into black holes. There is life within these pages and it will stick with you, a tiny black sliver, planted into your cortex.

This thing is Icky, it's Icky and gross and you're gonna love it. Mr. West, you have raised the bar a little bit, and I can hardly wait for "Heroin in the Magic Now 2"

You need to check this out.
The Mouths of Madness Podcast.

[David Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the introduction to Heroin In The Magic Now Terry M. West says how the main character’s pain is based on reality and he tells the story of how he got into the horror genre. In order to get into the business he helped make soft core porn to raise money to make horror films. This lead him into a world of sex, drugs and emotional pain which is what this book is based on.

Heroin in the Magic Now follows a pornographer named Gary Hack, who has found himself making disturbing monster porn videos for his depraved clients. People ask him to do things he can’t live with and the only escape that Gary has is through heroin. The problem is his escape is taking over his life and leading to a darker reality.

Gary is a complicated man, he is self medicated and numb to the fact that vampires, zombies and werewolves are now part of our every day lives. In the beginning he is working on a porn movie called Dracula’s Exotic Guest. He hates what he does and himself for doing it, but he is good at it and still dreams for a better life.

Gary is a brilliant artist but his career didn’t go where he wanted and now he is stuck making monster porn and working with difficult people. Gary handles his problems well enough, such as a leading actress telling him he is the worst director ever and wanting more money. Gary looses a little more of his soul every day, his wife has already divorced him, his daughter wants nothing to do with him and he just got another directing job hes not proud of as head of production for a zombie gang bang movie.

I loved the character of Gary in this book, he is a lost soul and you cant help but root for him despite the bad things he has done. Gary is a man who never meant to hurt anyone, he just did some things that he wasn’t proud of to fulfill his dreams. Heroin In The Magic Now has a good mix of horror and comedy. I loved the concept behind this book and it was a fresh look at a world where monsters do exist, but some of the worst monsters are the ones within. My favorite scene in the book was towards the end where the street vendor who sold Gary a gris-gris bag for protection against the supernatural sells Gary another, saying that each time he has to buy a new one he was going to charge Gary more. If you read the story you will understand but I think Terry was making a point that each time Gary screwed up it was going to be harder for him to get his soul back. Terry M. West knows what makes a good horror story and he knows how to make monsters scary and funny.

[Wesley Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terry most certainly hasn’t lost his twisted touch! The title for this book is appropriate, as you will feel high whilst reading it, and crave to read the tale again once it has ended.

West somehow manages, in a world of remakes and imitations, to create a truly unique, addictive story. HITM is no exception. He takes us on an unforgettable ride.

Gary is a dodgy, drug abusing director working any job he can to feed his addiction. So when an enthusiastic band member invites him to shoot a video, he jumps at the paying job. But this job leads him to a very wealthy man who offers Gary some serious money, on a regular basis. However, Gary still has his reservations due to the nature of the shoots this rich man is intending on employing him for. This all happens in a world where the dead are very much alive and kicking.

Terry creates a realistic society in a world where creatures of the night are as real as air. To add to the realism he evens drops racism and prejudice into the mix. But to contrast with this point, there was an element of surrealism by Terry’s depictions of the city and people.

You have an entertaining selection of oddball characters that keep the pace moving. But I became very attached to the character of Gary. His history, both professional and personal, and his ongoing substance abuse issue. The reader really gets an idea of how someone becomes dependent on a drug, the motivations behind that reliance, and what the individual experiences when they are intoxicated.

The graphic content of this short was both sick, but sublime, and let’s face it, that’s one reason we read horror. If you need bloody and brutal, you can get a guaranteed fix here. A true horror writer will make you question their mental health due to the nature of the fiction, and Terry definitely had me doubting his sanity for a large chunk of the story.

He doesn’t allow you to rest at all. There is shock after shock after shock in a universe comparable to hell. A tale that brings a whole new meaning to the word ‘weird’. Even though I have read West’s work before, it is safe to say I’ve read nothing like this!

An aspect that has to be mentioned is how iconic monsters have been given a new lease of life. Classic creatures have been taken and polished up for our modern era. Terry has made his own set of rules, which I personally think are fantastic.

So, all in all, a gory, well written, intriguing, addictive and horror-injected read.

[Lucy Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heroin-In-the-Magic-NowEven with­out the vam­pires, zom­bie whores, and a Frankenstein-​esque crime king, the life of film­maker and drug addict Gary Hack would be the stuff of nightmares.

Once an ambi­tious, aspir­ing writer, Gary dwells in a squalid limbo of heroin addic­tion, self-​pity, and self-​destruction. When he’s not feed­ing his habit, his life cen­ters around mak­ing porn films, occa­sion­ally bick­er­ing with a bit­ter ex-​wife, and won­der­ing why even on a diet of heroin, he still man­ages to be fat.

Bad luck and worse choices seem to dog him, begin­ning as a school boy who earned the label of ‘deviant’ when he drew a pic­ture of the devil with ‘tits and a penis’ and earned a beat­ing from his mom.

That lit­tle episode, fre­quently recalled when the adult Gary is deep in a drug-​induced haze, has set the tra­jec­tory for a life mired in drugs, porn, and the myr­iad degra­da­tions of life shared with the mon­sters that inhabit West’s bleak and seedy ver­sion of New York City.

No ques­tion but Heroin in the Magic Now is a grip­pingly twisted saga, in which a world full of mon­sters is the new real­ity – home­less zom­bies scrounge in alley­ways, vam­pires prowl the boule­vards, and shapeshifters aspire to be porn stars. A bleaker, more soul-​crushing world would be hard to imag­ine: “Some days, Gary felt like the crea­tures were merely haunt­ing his head in a meta­phys­i­cal way and he could bury them if he quit his addic­tions, but every­one around him seemed to be in a quandary about the mon­sters and their rights and the dark impact they were having…the mon­sters were everywhere.”

An accom­plished author, film­maker, artist, and actor, West depicts this macabre world with style and dark humor. The impact is height­ened by the intro­duc­tion, in which West makes clear that Gary Hack’s demons have been his own,too, and that the most ter­ri­ble mon­sters are not the ones stalk­ing the night, but those lodged in the human heart.

Heroin in the Magic Now is a wild ride through some wickedly dark places. I can't wait for the sequel!

[Michael Donner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to start by saying that I have been reading for over 30 years now and in all that time there has only been one book that I had to put down and walk away from. That was Stephen King’s “Misery”. Yes I went back to it but the point is that there was a scene so well described, so detailed that I knew what was coming and pictured it so clearly in my head that I had to take a few minutes to get over it. Now there is a second book to add to that list. Terry M West’s Heroin in the Magic Now. And for the same reasons. It was so real to me that I had to take a breather. It’s one of the most powerful and disturbing… yet incredibly entertaining things… I have read in decades.
Now as any reader of horror sci-fi or fantasy knows you have to be able to suspend disbelief if you are going to have any chance of enjoying what your reading. But here’s the thing. Not once did I feel that while I was reading this. Right from the get go I was like OK.. I buy it. Didn’t question it at all. Even the talking, thinking zombies didn’t get questioned… talking thinking hooker zombies… let that one sink in for a few minutes.
Now I have read a lot of stuff over the years. A LOT. There’s been some good and some bad and some that were just meh. In recent years unfortunately a lot of horror I have read has fallen into the last category. I read it and get to the end and am like… been there done that read it already and got the t-shirt. The only way I can describe it is that this is the most real thing I have read in a long time. It takes something special to get my attention and whatever it is West has it in spades. Please do yourselves a favor and go this fantastic read.

[Kevin Lintner · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Heroin in the Magic Now" is a brutal, unflinching trip down the rabbit hole of addiction and lands the reader in and alternate universe version of New York City where Gary Hack, a once respected filmmaker, is churning out adult films to make fast money and feed his debilitating heroin addiction. In this version of NYC, the monsters of horror novels and movies shakily co-exist with humans. The undead are used for prostitution while werewolves and vampires hustle the streets making money in any way that they can. Gary eventually takes up work doing a specific kind of fetish film, monster porn. He doesn't want to, but the amount of money offered will set him up with enough heroin to numb the disgust he feels with himself and the industry that feeds the monkey on his back.

This a dark and deeply personal tale as Terry uses his own experiences in the softcore porn industry and with heroin addiction to craft an antihero that is so tragic the reader can't help to feel empathy for a character that seems irredeemable. Very rarely does a novel reach me so deeply in so many ways. It left me shaking not only out of fear, but revulsion and bitter sorrow for Gary Hack.

Only Terry M. West could spin a tale so dark and brutal and still make it transcend horror and become a work of literary craftsmanship.

[Chloe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was dissapointed by this book considering I was expecting some messed up horror story. A lot of the sentences in this book were so spaced out to make the book seem a lot longer then it is. I would say it wasn't much more then a short story because of this. My problem with this book was that I could tell the sentences were so spaced out because there was hardly any detail in this book, which was what I was expecting a lot more of.
I think I would of enjoyed this book more if it was a lot more detailed then this.

One thing I did find interesting is that this is a book is a horror version of his life but that's about it.

[Zefyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel-sized novella, due to some odd formatting choices and the inclusion of a fair chunk of book 2 in the series, anticipated to publish in full 6 years ago so perhaps on hold forever. Mostly pretty alright for bizarro fiction, but it kinda wanders into nowhere and then ends, not as in getting some closure but as in "screw it, just publish what's here and then figure out how it ends in the next book." West seems like a fun writer and I'll probably give one of his other books a shot, but this seems like a bit of a miss.

[Bambi Goggio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heroin in the Magic Now is grim and gritty, raw and raunchy. It's an acid trip of a book. Terry M. West brings this story on a visceral level while still leaving you to wonder how far one would go for art and whose rights are right. My only complaint with the book is the copy editing. Words with ff, fl, and fi are missing letters and there are a few sentences with no spacing in them.

[Shadow Girl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gary Hack was a well known, and respected director – at one time.
But, after diving head-first into the world that surrounds the adult film industry, he found that he wasn’t strong enough to break the surface and swim back home.
These days Gary just wades through his existence with opiate-dulled senses, and he lurks among the Night Things with hopeless abandon. His film career now consists of directing underground fetish / exploitation videos. A dark piece of monster porn that he directed has gained the attention of Mr. Johnny Stücke – an entirely new kind of monster. One that inspires fear in the hearts of men, and Night Things.
Johnny Stücke knows that The Night Things are going to start climbing out of the shadows, and they’ll soon be making their way up the financial food chain. When there is money being made, there’s money to be spent… Johnny sees what the future holds for monster porn, so he’s hiring infamous director Gary Hack to create the greatest fringe-fetish video of all time.

Full review/discussion posted @ BBB".

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

West shows us a modern world inhabited by “The Night Things” where ghouls and zombies alike are following the masses to the unemployment line. And main man, Gary Hack is there to provide; however, they may not like the retirement plan. Sleaze ball Hack is an indie film maker who found his way into the adult entertainment scene yet takes it to a whole different level. This new age society West has created just so happens to be hungry for Hack’s productions. The story touches on things that may seem objectionable to some, and though I’m one who stays clear of such debauchery, I certainly appreciated the world created by West and would like to see more of it. Minus the….well, I don’t want to spoil anything for you.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on things that bump in the night (pun intended)

Just finished the first two pieces of Night Things. I'm not sure if this series will be good or not, but the plot is something I haven't seen before. Porno's with creatures isn't terribly interesting, but I'll give the next book a try.

[Barbara L. Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't give less than 1 star.

This is just disgusting pornography. Snuff films. Don't waste time or money looking for the "art" in this mess. Couldn't find one good thing to say.

[Kerry]

Monsters are real, you see, and want equal rights. Terry M. West sets up a literary mythology for his tale, complete with monster mob-bosses and idealistic social workers-turned undead.