I just read the neatest little book, and I mean little. It’s about 3 inches by 5 inches and its called Darker Discoveries and there were only 75 of the little buggers printed up. It’s only has 7 short stories in it and much to my delight there was one by our own Steve Vernon.

Since there is only about 100 pages in this “booklette” you can imagine that the stories are somewhat short also. I enjoyed all of them but the last one, it was written by a guy named Bill Gauthier. Gauthier’s story seemed a bit tame and familiar but the rest of the stories showed great imagination and humor. Steve’s contribution “Olivia Newton-John Latex Love Doll” might just have the best writing I have ever seen from Steve and is now my second favorite short story of his. My favorite story in this tiny book is called The Oasis by John R. Little concerning crazy lady sex.

This little book was a freebie from Dark Discoveries and if I am reading the editor correctly these stories will be available someday in a larger anthology. If the rest of the stories are as entertaining as these I’ll be picking that baby up.

Tt

Glad you dug the story, Ttzuma. I'm still awaiting the delivery of my contributor copy. I've been told it's on its way.

John Little's stuff is definitely worth watching for.

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FLASH VIRUS: EPISODE ONE (always free)

FLASH VIRUS:EPISODE TWO ($1.99)

I got the same book and finished it today. It was part of a special promotion when you subscribed to Dark Discoveries magazine. It contains stories by Steve Vernon, JF Gonzalez, Kealan Patrick Burke, John R. Little, John Everson, Stephen Mark Rainey and Bill Gauthier.

I've read stuff by Gonzalez and Steve (hell, sometimes I feel like Steve's publicist), and I'm a little familiar with Burke (as I'm two-thirds of the way through Currency of Souls). I'd heard of Little, Everson and Rainey, and was anxious to finally read something by them. Gauthier was the only one unknown to me.

Steve's story was excellent, and Little's and Burke's were really good. Unfortunately, Everson's and Rainey's were a little too short for me to get a really good feel for them as writers, but the desire to read more of them is still there. Gonzalez' story was good, but there was something about it that didn't sit quite right with me and I don't know what it was. Gauthier's left me a little cold, like I wanted more out of it.

Still, not a bad little book. If it did nothing else, it gave me the opportunity to read four authors I hadn't read before.

Thad

Thanks for the kind words, folks! Glad you enjoyed my little Christmas story. I haven't yet had a chance to read the book, but the production values are superb. When I think chapbook, I expect card stock covers and flimsy pages, but this is a beauty. Kudos to James and his designer Cesar.

Kealan

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http://www.kealanpatrickburke.com

I got my copy Saturday -- haven't had a chance to read it yet (this was an "all yard work, all weekend" Memorial Day holiday for me) but I'm looking forward to it! I love the size!

And Thad - I do hope you'll go on to check out some of my other work. For the record, I'm not sure that my contribution here is really that indicative of most of my writing -- that short was written specifically for the "Gross-Out Contest" at the 2007 World Horror Convention (where you have to read the whole story in 3 minutes). I think it's a fun piece, and am glad to see it appear in a cool little book like this -- but "gross-out" is not usually my main milieu!

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Yours in Dark Arts,

John Everson
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NIGHTWHERE: It's just a dream - or nightmare - away.
www.johneverson.com

THE PUMPKN MAN is coming... for you!
http://www.thepumpkinman-horror.com

This reminds me of going to a comic convention and talking comics and whatever else with the writers and artists.

My three favorite conversations at them were: 1. In the mid-1990s, John Romita Jr. (who was doing a little Punisher stuff at the time) and I discussed what we liked about the Dolph Lundgren Punisher movie; 2. In the late 90s, Paul Pope and I spent twenty minutes talking about 1 page in a graphic novel he'd done; and 3. Before he started writing every Marvel title under the sun, Brian Michael Bendis and I spent a while discussing hard-boiled and noir books and movies.

I know those names don't mean anything to you, but I hopefully illustrated that those three conversations are like our conversations here--stuff about their work, a specific genre, or just shooting the breeze.

It truly is a beautiful thing.

Thad

Actually, I remember Johnny Romita, Thad.

I'm drawing a blank on those other two names.

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FLASH VIRUS: EPISODE ONE (always free)

FLASH VIRUS:EPISODE TWO ($1.99)

Hey thanks for the unexpected review guys! I'm glad you liked it and thanks for picking up the deals.

It's always a mixed bag and tastes vary, so i'm not surprised you liked some of the tales and not others. I like variety myself so you certainly can see there's that. Mainly, I wanted to do something cool that is a bit of a sampler of the magazine and also where you can't get the fiction anywhere else.

- James
www.darkdiscoveries.com

James-- Always expect the unexpected from this bunch. One of us will usually come up with something to surprise someone. And thank you for putting out such a nifty little book. Like I said, you've at least let me sample a couple of authors I hadn't read before. And I will give Gauthier's book Catalysts a shot.

John-- While I can't speak for Tt, I will say that "The Oasis" was good enough that I'll start looking at your other work in the future.

Victor-- The Tom Jane version was good when he was doing the Punisher thing, crappy in the first Hulk movie kind of way when he was sitting in his apartment and grieving. The thing that I liked most about the Lundgren version (and Romita echoed this) was he didn't wear the skull shirt, but they shadowed his face to make it look sunken like a skull.

Thad

I got more of a "Don't Fuck with me" kinda vibe from Lundgren's version of the Punisher. Here was a guy you know would kick all that ass. Tom Jane, his version of the Punisher was too whiny for me.