The Girl in the Woods

Remember that zombie book I blogged about? Well, I finished the author's second book: my friend David Jack Bell's creepy, possibly supernatural thriller (is that a bad word?) The Girl in the Woods. Great, keep me up too late at night so I'm tired teaching the next day, stuff. Not convinced? Here's the book trailer:



Also, I just found out that Dave and I will (tentatively) have stories in the same issue of Cemetery Dance out this summer.

The Condemned

Home from the Emerald Isle and convalescing from the jet lag. On the plane, I finished David Jack Bell's thrilling novel The Condemned. It's a tight page-turner playing with the tropes of a zombie tale while brilliantly and subtly commenting on the war, the treatment of veterans, Katrina, and more. Take the dark ride yourself.

Printers Hate Menstrual Blood and There Will Be Literary Thrillers

I am sad. Which I will probably blog about when I'm not quite so sad.

In the mean time, Ben Tanzer's blog has made me angry. He reproduces a letter from Eric Spitznagel about the Monkeybicycle Dirty Comedy issue. Turns out its release has been delayed because all the printers they tried were offended by the content. Specifically offended by a cartoon that contained menstrual blood (because no one is offended by reading anymore because no one reads). Is this those wacky free-speech-hating foreigners upset at cartoon representations of Muhammad? No, it's god-fearing printers of America, practicing censorship. To quote Spitznagel: "I think we've learned something today, my friends. We've learned that the printing industry is afraid of menstruation." God bless America.

What has made me happy is reading Derek Nikitas's discussion of literary thrillers on Murderati, which tackles the literary vs. genre debate. What has also made me happy is David Jack Bell's hypothetical writers draft.