Author name: SGJ

Movies, 2012

Man, sat down to make this list on the last day of 2012, but stumbled into the opening line of a novel instead, and have been there ever since. 160, 170 pages in right now, and staring down that last chapter. Which, as always, is terrifying. So, to stall, here’s my list, taking into account […]

Chainsaw Massacre 3D

This deep into a franchise—really, I’ve lost count of the Texas Chainsaw Massacres—most horror series are  limping along, putting a movie out just to keep the brand in-house, that kind of stuff. Not here. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D is every single thing I want from a horror movie. And the story actually surprises me. Worse,

Halloween 2012

ten in the morning, just after comic book class: and. the close-up: and, will be something different tonight, I suspect. Jason Voorhees, Ghostface, a horse-head dude, I don’t know. I do know this night’s never long enough.

Ten Scariest Scenes from Horror Movies

This was the easiest list to make. These are the images and jump-scares I think of first thing each night at two or three in the morning when I wake up. Take last night for example: I’m gonesville when I hear something crash downstairs. Or, I hear the end of it. So of course I

The New Neighbors SUCK: Paranormal Activity 4

When Katie from Paranormal Activity moves in across the street, it’s a pretty sure bet things are going to get demon-y, and fast. And, we’ve seen the other three, so we know all the rules: demons love to move furniture adults never notice anything there’s always some reason to have a camera rolling 24/7 something

Sinister

We all live in Stephen King’s house. I mean, all of us who hope to write the scary stuff. Case in point: Sinister. Is there any way to move a writer into a new house and not conjure Jack Torrance? And, going back a touch farther—as King, I assume (going by Danse Macabre) would do

Hit & Run

Some movies give me hope. Just, generally. I mean, that you can still mix a movie up from just fast, bad cars and a bunch of happy-go-lucky characters who can’t really ever die. But maybe I should preface this by saying I’m  much more of a Cannonball Run/Smokey and the Bandit/Deathproof kind of fan than

Teacher Needs to See Me After School: Detention

I’ve usually got my tongue di-rectly on the pulse of anything slasher, but somehow — two months of book tour? — Detention slipped past. In April, yes, when Growing Up Dead in Texas was just advance copies. And just a couple of days ago I was having a big talk with a good friend about

Shine Shine Shine

I knew from the first time I saw the title of this book that I was going to have to consume it, and then I lucked onto an ARC, meaning all I had to do was steal some time from myself. Which, I can be particularly unwatchful when the reading’s good enough. And, here, it

Dead Man’s Curve

Man, I know: last week I hit Prometheus, and just did a status update somewhere saying it was decent, it was cool, and now here I am with a non-review of a movie fourteen years old already. Still. This one I want to talk about it for a short bit: 1998. Dan Rosen’s Dead Man’s Curve

Cage Match II: Fiction & Non-fiction

Just went to the most excellent lecture-discussion led by David Ulin, with Matthew Zapruder and Rob Roberge and Elizabeth Crane Brandt and Mark Haskell Smith and Tod Godberg chiming in—more people as well, but, you know, you lose track. Not of the talk, though. It was about John D’Agata’s About a Mountain, and the kind-of

Growing Up Dead in Texas updates

Hey, Growing Up Dead in Texas is an LA Times Beach Read. And also all around. And Goodreads reviews are coming in — thank you, readers, talkers, passers-on. Bob Pastorella‘s writing about it from Texas. Amazon reviews are coming in. And, for the first time the other day, I saw it live in the wild

The Croning

I’ve hit both Laird Barron’s collections, of course — if you’re going to play in the horror fields, his bloody square of grass goes for an acre or two — and, in the way of disclosure, he was kind enough to pen the intro for my first horror collection, and I know and respect him

Couple cool things

New story up at DIN, “Secret Maps” (they’re the best kind). More stories soon, too, in excellentcool places. June will be all linky. “The Ones Who Got Away” made it on/to EWN’s Short Story Month. My weird flowhcart at Weird Fiction Review is all BoingBoing‘d up, thanks to Cory Doctorow. And I made Ann and

The Promise of Werewolves

Man, where to start. How about with John Mellencamp: When I was five I walked the fence while grandpa held my hand “Rain on the Scarecrow” came out in 1985, the year Growing Up Dead in Texas happens. Or, that’s when the events happen. Right around that time I remember walking the fence with my

Growing Up Dead in Texas playlist

I tried so hard to make a YouTube playlist for Growing Up Dead in Texas. Songs that are in the book and songs that kind of encompass the book. But it wasn’t meant to be; the songs I needed can’t be included in playlists. So, in lieu, I’ll put them all here, in the order that

Few things posting

New interview’s live up at Curiouser and Curiouser. New story, “Dedication,” up at Smokelong. It’s the first story for Short Story Month, too. So cool. “Why I Write” is live at Stymie. I lucked onto Adam Cesares’ Daily Grindhouse list. Couple more places got ahold of Zombie Bake-Off in the most wonderful way: Booked Podcast and

First three Growing Up Dead in Texas reviews are live

by Matt Falvey, Jesse Wichterman, and Kathryn Soverane. and it’s got its own facebook page now. Novel’s out in paper June 12th, in digital all around May 12. Eagerly awaiting. Nervously awaiting. Excitedly waiting. Waiting with far too many adverbs.

Cabin the Woods

My review of Cabin in the Woods is up at LitReactor: “How to Tell a True Horror Story.” Was lucky enough to catch an early screening last week, with Drew Goddard and Amy Acker there to talk, after. T-shirt, poster, all pretty cool. But the movie’s the real. Haven’t been this excited for a horror

Solarcide

My interview there’s live. “Demons and Donuts.” Also, should the sun turn up dead one of these mornings, I think they’re going to very quietly change the name of  their magazine. There’ll be mass hysteria, a big funeral, all that, so I think they’ll be able to get away with it.

Long Live Hellbunny

Just calling this post that because of the season. And because of course I love Hellbunny. Anyway, I never did a write-up for how cool World Horror in Salt Lake City was. Got to meet Robert McCammon and have him sign my Boy’s Life (to my son), got see Ellen Datlow some more, got to

Couple three links

New interview up, from Lance Olsen and Trevor Dodge’s Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Fiction. Here. New story up at Juked, my first one to feature Mr. Rod Serling: “Submitted for Your Approval.” Piece of flash horror up at This Is Horror, “Evolution, 2:00am,” and it’s got the coolest illustration ever. But you got to

The Edge of Dark Water

Way the Baptists saw it, that dunk in the river made it sure you was going to heaven, even if before or later you knew a cow in the biblical sense and set fire to a crib with the baby in it — Lansdale, this book When I’m pushing Joe R. Lansdale’s The Bottoms on somebody, I’ll

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