The long awaited third book in my Dark Tyrant Series is finally live! It took me way longer than I anticipated to finish this book. I had to battle through busy life getting in the way, burnout, writers block, and just about everything under the sun. However, it's done. It's ready. It's here! Get your copy today.

Thulisile Mahlangu is the captain of an elite team of paramilitary soldiers trained to deal with large-scale supernatural crises. But when an Alpha Protocol is radioed in from an agent who was reportedly dead, Thuli and her team are put to the test. Their mission: verify the radio call, exterminate the problem, and bring the agent back to the Bureau of Investigation, Observation, and Defense of Extraordinary, Extraterrestrial, Demonic and Paranormal Activity. As time runs out, Thuli begins to question everything and wrestle with her own inner demons. If she doesn’t succeed, the Bureau will release an Omega team, and the Omegas have no problem scorching the earth to fix problems. Alpha Protocol is a fast-paced tale that is one part action thriller, one part supernatural horror, and a dash of dark comedy. ​

I recently went and saw the movie, Underwater and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It spoke to me on a Lovecraftian level. First off, here’s the synopsis:

Disaster strikes more than six miles below the ocean surface when water crashes through the walls of a drilling station. Led by their captain, the survivors realize that their only hope is to walk across the seafloor to reach the main part of the facility. But they soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when they come under attack from mysterious and deadly creatures that no one has ever seen.

First off, without getting into any spoilers, let’s go over the good parts of this movie. I am not a huge fan of Kristen Stewart, but in this film she did great. They cast her perfectly for the character she was supposed to play and she did a fine job. Second, I always find T.J. Miller funny, and he didn’t disappoint this time around. He added much needed comic relief to an otherwise tension-packed film. Third, the director, film crew, and writers did a wonderful job utilizing isolation in this film. I’ve always found that horror works best when the characters are isolated from the outside world, and since this movie is set six miles underwater, you really can’t get much more isolated than that. Fourth, they didn’t reveal the monster too fast. Movie monsters do well to stay hidden, showing up only in glimpses or deep shadows. The magic is broken once we get the full reveal. It wasn’t until very late in the film that they showed the monsters in their entirety.
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Now, let’s get into the bad, and there was some bad. For one, this is an underwater research facility. Knowing what I know of government facilities in extreme locations, is space equity. In other words, there won’t be lots of open space. 

This movie opens showing wide hallways and an otherwise empty locker room that is frickin’ huge! No way are they going to go through the time and effort to build such a facility with that much empty space. Second, I had to roll my eyes when we see the peeps getting into their underwater pressure suits and they tell the newbie research assistant (a woman), ‘oh, you got to take off your pants because they won’t fit in the suit.’ At first, I was like, sure, okay whatever. But at one point we see a few of the characters get out of their suit and of course, the women are wearing nothing but sports bras and panties. The dudes…t-shirts and boxers that are baggy as all get-out. If you’re going to make a rule, then stick with it. I can go along with your bullshit rules as long as everyone plays by the same ones. The pants can’t fit…why is that? Too baggy? Then a t-shirt shouldn’t work either. They could have solved this by making them wear some special wetsuit or something like that other than making it about gratuitous skin shots.

There were a couple of other things I liked and disliked, but we’ll get into that in the spoilery section below. Overall though, the pacing was great, the tension was somewhat, and the story was fun. It’s not a deep movie (other than being six miles deep), but it was highly entertaining.

​I give it 4/5 underwater research facilities. 

Still here? Cool beans. We’ll flip the script here and I’ll start with somewhat I didn’t like spoilers. First off, it is way too easy to blow that facility to hell and back. Kristen Stewart only had to pull up a page on a touch a screen and then move some sliders, then we were into a 1 min countdown to self-destruct. No special codes or key cards. Nothing. Just flip to page two and slid the levels and kaboom. What the hell? Second, there were odd things playing in the background, like touristy music or welcome to Roebuck Station audio. This is an underwater mining/drilling facility, not a tourist destination. I can’t imagine that they’d be playing that crap over the speakers. But what do I know? Then, during the end credits we see newspaper clippings stating the company was going to go back and rebuild the facility and start drilling again. START. DRILLING. AGAIN. As if they didn’t’ learn their GD lesson the first time around.

As for the good, and this is where the movie sold it for me, was with the big baddy monster. It was a huge leviathan/kraken looking thing! It was amazing. They showed you the whole creature, but it was well done and near the end and so very worth it. I was instantly thinking Dagon or Cthulhu when I saw that sucker. I love that it was “woken” up by the drilling and came to wreck some souls.
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Super fun show. I totally recommend this movie if you’re into shows like Alien and the like. 

Continuing my journey to make a dent in my to-be-read pile, I conquered John Hornor Jacobs' novella, The Sea Dreams it is the Sky. Man oh man, what a ride it was. The back cover blurb for the story reads as follows:

A brilliant mix of the psychological and supernatural, blending the acute insight of Roberto Bolaño and the eerie imagination of H. P. Lovecraft, The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky examines life in a South American dictatorship. Centered on the journal of a poet-in-exile and his failed attempts at translating a maddening text, it is told by a young woman trying to come to grips with a country that nearly devoured itself.

Here was my take:
What a wonderful read! This novella is a slow burn in the best way possible. By the time I reached the end I found I was devouring each sentence like a rabid dog placed in front of a gourmet feast. Jacobs gives you enough to make your skin crawl but hints that there's so much more in the miasma that if you knew what was there, your skin wouldn't just crawl, it would tear itself off and run as fast as it could. If you like slow horror that takes its time, then read this novella.

This story was well crafted. It was slow in the sense that Jacobs took his time ramping up the strange, weird, and supernatural in the book. However, I'm not saying this as a negative at all. It was somewhat refreshing and when the strange and weird do begin to occur, it has more impact because of his choices. Makes me double-think how I write my own tales as generally most of my stories start off with a bang and take off. 

I won't spoil this one at all, I simply recommend if you like horror in the same vein as Lovecraft, or the movie, The Ninth Gate, then check this one out. 

It's alive! My second collection of short stories is live! I'm super stoked about this one, because not only does it have stories that have appeared in recent anthologies, it also has some stories that have never been released as well. That's right! You, dear reader, can experience these tales for the first time. This one also has some flash fiction and a rare poem (rare because I rarely write poetry). 

Inside this tome of horrors you can find the following tales:
"The Devouring Maw" which initially appeared in Hunger: A Collection of Utah Horror. It's about some folks down in southern Utah on the hunt for a lost arch. Well, they find it, but they also find something else. Something sinister.

"The Dark Place" which appeared in the anthology, Peaks of Madness: A Collection of Utah Horror. It's about a young girl who's on the run and takes refuge in a cabin in the woods. The cabin has a small door upstairs with a note that reads, do not open. Simple enough, but then something starts knocking from the other side of the door.

"The Temptation of the Moon to Shadow" is a poem I wrote that appeared in the HWA's Poetry Showcase Vol. 5. 

"The Demons We Bring" appeared in Old Scratch and Owl Hoots: A Collection of Utah Horror and if you're familiar with my short story, "Horishi Tom" then you'll recognize the main character. The events of this story take place before the events in "Horishi Tom". 

"The Cedar Box" is my fantasy western, think gunslinging elves trying to survive in a hellwaste. An old elf carries a precious cedar box with him as he searches for someone. 

"Mr. Abernathy’s Music Box" appeared on this very website as a bonus and is about a peculiar passenger on a sea voyage and his mysterious music box. 

"The Horror of Sunshine Meadows" was a piece of flash fiction I wrote that appeared online. It's about someone who finds a young girl standing outside of a forest. Things are not always what they seem. 

"Final Moment" has never appeared in any anthology, so you're getting it now for the first time. It's about a woman who buys a horrifying painting at auction only to find she's bringing much more home with her.

"Kathy Loves Kittens" appeared on the Tales to Terrify podcast. It's about a man who survives a horrifying car wreck only to find that his daughter isn't only missing, but seeming has disappeared from existence. However, someone knows where she is.

This collection is full of suspenseful stories. If you like horror or dark fantasy, check it out!
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One of my 2020 goals was to read more books. I have a to-be-read pile of both physical and ebooks that is ginormous! I'm definitely in the category of people who like to buy books which may or may not ever get read. However, I'm trying to make a steadfast effort this year to make a dent into that pile. The first book I finished, was Let Sleeping Gods Lie by David J. West. 

The back cover blurb reads as follows:

Louis L’Amour Meets Lovecraft
​Porter Rockwell, wanted for a murder he did not commit, is hiding out in Old California selling whiskey to thirsty forty-niners. When his friends dig up some monstrous bones and a peculiar book and offer to sell it for a helluva price, Porter can’t resist the mystery.
But when both his night bartender and the sellers are murdered at his saloon Porter has to find out what the mysterious artifacts are all about. With some Native American legends, Sasquatch, Lovecraftian horror, and murderous bandits thrown in, not even bullets and blades can stop Rockwell from leaving a swath of righteous carnage in his wake.
Let Sleeping Gods Lie is a weird western fantasy in the vein of classic pulp fiction and Louis L’Amour books. If you like frontier justice, larger-than-life characters, and witty humor, then you will LOVE the first installment of the Cowboys and Cthulhu series.
Buy Let Sleeping Gods Lie to get lost in a horrific weird western adventure today!

I've read several of West's other books, to include his other Porter Rockwell stories. I enjoy West's style of writing as it is very reminiscent of the old pulp adventure stories from back in the day. Now, unless you're new to my blog, you'll know that I'm a sucker for Lovecraftian tales, so when I saw that West was finally merging his Old West stories with Lovecraftian mythos, I was all in. His other Porter Rockwell stories merely touched at the weird and dark, while this one plunges right in with both feet. Here's the review I left on Amazon and Goodreads:

West delivers a story that reads like it's a masterful blend of Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft! I'm a sucker for weird westerns and West never fails to deliver. This story is action packed and hits all the right notes. I loved all the nods to Lovecraft.

West can also paint a scene. All throughout the book there was some wonderful imagery, but this one bit stuck with me:

They rounded a bend and came head on against a like-minded group of riders. Stoney’s men, the Mountain Hounds. When a hard rain falls, who was hit with the first drop? Impossible to say, but the thunder certainly sounded. Pistols and rifles were drawn and fired. Horses and men screamed as they careened together, an avalanche of flesh and lead.

Bottom line, if you like westerns and if you like Lovecraft, then this is the book for you. Do yourself a favor and read it. 

​I recently watched the Netflix Original, In the Tall Grass which was based on a short story written by Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill. After I finished viewing the film, I decided to catch up on the story since I had never read it. In this blog post, I will give a review of both the film and the story, as well as offer some comparisons. We will get into spoilers, but I’ll let you know when those are coming so you can veer away if spoilers aren’t your thang.
 
Let’s dive into the film since I watched it first. The basic premise is that Becky and Cal DeMuth (siblings) are traveling across country on their way to San Diego. Becky is pregnant and she is giving her child up for adoption to a family there. On the way, they stop along the side of the road because Becky gets nauseous and has to throw up. While parked, they hear the voice of a child in the nearby field of tall grass crying for help. They decide to go after the boy and find that getting out of the tall grass is much more than it seems. 

While they are in the field, they eventually meet up with Tobin, a small boy who called them in, his mother, Natalie, and the boy’s father, Ross. The field seems to move things around, making navigation quite difficult. In the center of the field (and quite frankly, the center of everything) is a large standing rock with strange carvings on it.
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I can’t get into much more without spoilers, so I’ll just give you my spoiler-free review on the film. I give it 3.5/5 stars overall. It was a fun premise, it was shot well, and there were some fairly horrifying scenes. Patrick Wilson plays the father of Tobin and does a bang-up job. I like him in almost everything he plays in and he didn’t disappoint in this film. However, it was confusing (more on that below) and I was distracted trying to figure some things out. 

I read the short story hoping it would explain some things, but it didn’t. As I first started reading the short story, I felt as if it were rushing through things too fast and not spending much time with the characters and after reading the first third, I thought the movie was better than the story.
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However, once I finished reading the story, I definitely enjoyed reading it more than I did watching it. It was shorter than the movie (of course) and only took about 20 minutes to read. I can’t tell you how many pages it was, as I read it on my Kindle. However, King and Hill didn’t mess around with the convoluted plot that the film introduced, and instead get right to the root of it all and offer up an extremely horrifying tale. For the short story, I give it a 4/5. There were some very disturbing scenes in the story. I would have given it a full five stars, but I subtracted one mainly because I wanted a little more and I think it could have been made into a novella easily. 

To compare the two, the premise of the story is the same as the movie, and the movie did a good job following the story in the beginning. However, after about 30 minutes, the movie goes off the rails into its own territory and even introduces characters that didn’t appear in the short story. If you like King or Hill’s stories, give the film a watch. I found it enjoyable despite some of the confusion. It’s kind of creepy and has some Lovecraftian/Cosmic vibes.
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Now, let’s get into some nitty-gritty details. WARNING! Spoilers ahead.

Okay, so in the movie, we have Becky and Cal going into the tall grass to look for Tobin. They get separated fairly quickly and the grass doesn’t let them come back together for a while. Meanwhile, Cal finds Tobin, or I should say, Tobin finds Cal. The boy is burying a dead bird and mentions something that the grass doesn’t move dead things and it’s easier to find dead things and all that creepy lore. The statement adds flavor to both the short story and the movie. Although in the short story, Tobin states that the birds stay away and must talk to each other, except the crows, as he finds more crows than any other bird.

Tobin says that to find Becky, Cal will have to follow him to the rock. Once he touches the rock he can see and find her easily because basically the rock knows everything. The same thing happens in the short story.

While Becky is trying to link up with Cal, she runs into Ross, Tobin’s father. He’s acting kind of strange but seems somewhat helpful. Long story short, Ross is linked with the rock and wants to bring Becky and everyone there so they can touch it too. Obviously, Becky doesn’t want to, which I don’t blame her.

Here’s where some confusion sets in. In the movie, we see Tobin touching the rock, which means he should be crazy like Ross. However, later on, Ross acts like Tobin never touched the thing and we gloss over the earlier scene like it was a figment. Also, later on, Becky’s ex-boyfriend, Travis shows up and ends up touching the rock to save her, because apparently once you touch the rock you know all the things, including how to get out of the grass. But instead of going full dark side, he helps her and gets her out. Are we to believe that he fought the influence long enough to save his love? Who knows?
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Small details I suppose, but I kept wondering what the hell was going on? They play with time loops, so perhaps there was a loop where Tobin touched the rock and another one where he doesn’t? I dunno. Anyway, it’s worth a watch, and for sure worth a read. 

I finally finished drafting Alpha Protocol, and I have to say, thank the gods! It's with the editor and a couple beta readers at the moment, but we're on track for a February release. However, once I finished and could release my brain from scramble and write mode, I started daydreaming. What if I had the ability to pick the cast for the hypothetical movie version of Alpha Protocol? Any else ever do that with their books? Anyway, here's who I chose for the main characters:

Captain Thulisile. Lupita Nyong'o. Thuli is the leader of the Alpha Team and has supernatural powers, but she's fighting a shadowy spirit that wants her to give in to her dark urges.

I've seen Lupita Nyong'o in various films and she's awesome in everything she does. I think she could portray Thuli very well and bring a lot to the movie.

Following Thuli, we have everyone's favorite, Special Agent Doyle Johnson. He's appeared in the other two Dark Tyrant books. I needed someone who was older and could play both action and comedy well. I wracked my brain thinking about this for awhile, but then my wife said, Woody Harrelson. It was perfect!

Think of Special Agent Johnson as a Deadpool-esque character that is equal parts badass and insane. 

Next, we have the rest of the Alpha Team. Here we have Sergeant Fergus. A large man with ginger hair. He's quick to anger but takes care of his friends. I picked Kristofer Hivju, or as many of you know him, Tormund from Game of Thrones. 

For the team's sniper, we have Kenshin. He's quiet, funny, and is very into origami. I chose Hiroyuki Sanda. He always shines in everything he's ever been in.

For the team's medic, let me introduce Hanna. As a former Navy corpsman, she brings a lot to the table. I needed a strong actress to play her, so I chose Jessica Chastain. She's amazingly talented. 

Finishing up the team, we have Cheryl, a Crow woman who is also a demolitions expert. She's not one to trifle with so I needed an actress that could bring that kind of seriousness. I chose Native actress, Devery Jacobs.

Next, we have Frank and Holly Phister. They are siblings and lead the Phister & Phister Paranormal Research Squad, or PPRS. I needed another strong actress and someone who could play a funny sidekick. So I chose Brie Larson and Josh Gad.

There are more characters in the book, but these are the ones that get most of the spotlight. For those of you who have read my books, who would you cast for the role of Special Agent Johnson? 

​Today we get to talk with Stephanie Wytovich and learn about her writing and her upcoming poetry collection, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. 

• Who or what inspired you to become an author and poet?

I’ve always loved storytelling, and I’ve been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember, but I became a poet out of necessity for my mental health because I needed a way to process my trauma and the act of writing was extremely therapeutic to me. When I got to high school, I started getting into horror and monsters, and that’s when that part of myself started to grow and howl and get its teeth. Aesthetically, I knew that I loved the genre because it was dark and honest and all about surviving to the end, and so I started writing longer pieces because I wanted to participate in a genre that made me feel so alive. By the time I got to college, I knew that was going to be my focus point, and honestly, I haven’t turned back since.
 

• Tell us about The Apocalyptic Mannequin and what inspired you to write it?

The apocalypse is something that I think—to some degree or another—is on everyone’s mind lately (climate change, policy changes, nuclear threats, etc.) and whether we’re watching it happen in real life, or seeing it spoon-fed to us in entertainment with fantastic movies/TV shows like The Silence, Annihilation, A Quiet Place, Chernobyl, etc., the notion of who/what we became when it’s all been taken away has kept me up thinking most nights.
 
For this collection, I wanted to explore the definition of self when one is pushed to extreme trauma and revelation. I tried to define bodies when the idea of “body” has been lost among the rubble, and through a series of possibilities—whether environmental, religious, monstrous, or human—I performed lobotomies to erase the trauma, and then shocked my characters back to life as they were reborn in a world unfamiliar to them. In a lot of ways, this collection was one of the scarier ones that I’ve written because I put a lot of personal fears, anxieties, and nightmares into it, and while I’ve written about death and grief as a subject matter before, this one felt darker to me in a realer sense because the threat of destruction in a moral or physical sense is something that I feel like I confront every day when I walk outside, when I read a newspaper, when I pick up my prescription at the pharmacy…
 
Lately, the horror just feels more present than it has in the past.
 

• Is your process for writing poetry different than your process for writing short fiction or novels?

 
Very much so! When I write fiction these days, I tend to heavily outline the entire project—with extra attention spent on character and setting description, whereas my poetry tends to be a little more freeform with some light meditation beforehand. For instance, when I have a subject for a poem I want to write, sometimes I storyboard the idea with visuals/art that helps foster that emotion, and other times, I write done words that I associate it. I’m not necessarily outlining the poem itself, but rather my response to the emotion and imagery that I want to convey. In the end, fiction has always been harder for me, so I need a more regimented approach to it opposed to poetry, which has always felt more organic.
 

• I’ve seen online that you practice witchcraft, has that impacted how or what you write?

Since I’ve started practicing, a lot of routines in my life have changed and evolved, and writing has certainly been one of them. But writing is a fickle beast for me these days, because I’ve had to/chose to take on a lot over the past few years (commissions, teaching gigs, editing projects, mentorships, etc.), so for the better part of my life recently, writing has been a do-it-when-you-can, where-you-can occurrence. I write a lot on my breaks at work, in the evenings, sometimes I even talk out loud and record my ideas on my commute in and out of work. So lately, the magic is just in making time and honoring a practice that brings me joy. However, when I do have time, I do like to make a bigger ritual out of it, and a lot of this helps with stress-management, allowing myself to be vulnerable, and most importantly, it gives me permission to relax. In that regard, I like to make my favorite tea, spend some time journaling/working in my visualization notebook, and even light some palo santo.
 

• What’s one of the most surprising things you’ve learned in creating your books and poetry collections?

Oh, this is a hard one! Well, some things I learned over the years and then specifically in my most recent collection, The Apocalyptic Mannequin, are: 1) sometimes you have cut poems that are good but don’t necessarily belong in the collection, 2) don’t write toward a magic number of poems—when the collection is done, it’s done, 3) the order you place your poems in matters and it’s something to spend time thinking about after you’ve finished writing the book, and 4) poetry often comes from a place of intense emotion or feeling and sometimes it’s going to hurt pulling that out, but it will always be worth it in the end.
 

• What’s your next project?

I’m finishing up a project that I’d honestly hoped to have out last year but life kind of snuck up on me and got in the way there for a bit. It will be a novelette titled The Dangers of Surviving a Slit Throat, and it will be a bizarre horror story about a girl and a radio that she picks up at a yard sale. After that, I have a few short stories and essays that I’d like to finish up, so that will keep me busy for a while.
 

• Where can people follow you online to keep up with all your amazing accomplishments (like the fact that you have a selection of poetry out in the recently resurrected Weird Tales)?

I’m active on Facebook, Twitter (@swytovich), Instagram (@swytovich), LinkedIn, and my blog (http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/ ) and my author website (https://www.stephaniemwytovich.com/). 

About The Apocalyptic Mannequin
Doomsday is here and the earth is suffering with each breath she takes. Whether it’s from the nuclear meltdown, the wrath of the Four Horsemen, a war with technology, or a consequence of our relationship with the planet, humanity is left buried and hiding, our bones exposed, our hearts beating somewhere in our freshly slit throats.
This is a collection that strips away civilization and throws readers into the lives of its survivors. The poems inside are undelivered letters, tear-soaked whispers, and unanswered prayers. They are every worry you’ve had when your electricity went out, and every pit that grew in your stomach watching the news at night. They are tragedy and trauma, but they are also grief and fear, fear of who—or what—lives inside us once everything is taken away.
These pages hold the teeth of monsters against the faded photographs of family and friends, and here, Wytovich is both plague doctor and midwife, both judge and jury, forever searching through severed limbs and exposed wires as she straddles the line evaluating what’s moral versus what’s necessary to survive.
What’s clear though, is that the world is burning and we don’t remember who we are.
So tell me: who will you become when it’s over?
What They’re Saying -
“Like a doomsday clock fast-forwarding to its final self-destruction, Wytovich’s poetry will give you whiplash as you flip through page after page. The writing here is ugly yet beautiful. It reads like a disease greedily eating up vital organs. The apocalypse has arrived and it couldn’t be more intoxicating!”
—Max Booth III, author of Carnivorous Lunar Activities
“In this hauntingly sensuous new collection of poetry, you’ll long to savor every apocalyptic nightmare you have ever feared. Blooming in the beauty of destruction and the terror of delight, Stephanie M Wytovich’s poems remind us that we feel the world better, love the world better, when we recognize the ephemeral nature of everything achingly alive beyond our mannequin minds. Here, we are captive to our deepest velvet snarls, zombie songs, and radioactive wishes, at the mercy of a neon reaping. Reading this collection is like dancing through Doomsday, intoxicated by the destructive, decadent truth of desire in our very mortality. In these poems, you will find revelry in the ruins of everything you once held dear — and you will love it to the last as you watch the world unravel around you.”
—Saba Syed Razvi, author of Heliophobia and In the Crocodile Gardens
“Beautifully bleak, Stephanie M. Wytovich’s latest collection posits scenarios of the apocalypse and the horrors to come thereafter with language like fragrant hooks in your skin. Vivid, each word a weight on your tongue, these poems taste of metal and ash with a hint of spice, smoke. She reminds us the lucky ones die first, and those who remain must face the horrors of a world painted in blisters and fear. Leave it to Wytovich to show us there’s beauty in the end, just beneath all that peeling, irradiated skin.”
—Todd Keisling, author of Ugly Little Things and Devil’s Creek
“Set in a post-apocalyptic world that at times seems all too near, Wytovich’s poems conjure up frighteningly beautiful and uncomfortably prescient imagery. Populated by a cast of unsettling, compelling characters, this collection is one that stuck with me.”
—Claire C. Holland, author of I Am Not Your Final Girl
“A surreal journey through an apocalyptic wasteland, a world that is terrifyingly reminiscent of our own even as the blare of evacuation alarms drowns out the sizzle of acid rain, smiling mannequins bear witness to a hundred thousand deaths, and “the forest floor grows femurs in the light of a skeletal moon.” Stephanie M. Wytovich’s The Apocalyptic Mannequin is as unsettling as it is lovely, as grotesque as it is exquisite.”
—Christa Carmen, author of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked
Pre-Order Available (First 30 receive FREE personalized copy) -
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Stephanie Wytovich, Biography –
Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her work has been showcased in numerous venues such as Weird Tales, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Fantastic Tales of Terror, Year's Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others. 

Wytovich is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western Connecticut State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Point Park University, and a mentor with Crystal Lake Publishing. She is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, an active member of the Horror Writers Association, and a graduate of Seton Hill University’s MFA program for Writing Popular Fiction. Her Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection, Brothel, earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press alongside Hysteria: A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare, and most recently, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. Her debut novel, The Eighth, is published with Dark Regions Press. 
​

I recently saw the movie, Ready or Not and I have to say, it was well done. It lived up to all my expectations from the trailer. The synopsis reads: A bride’s wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to take part in a terrifying game. Actress, Samara Weaving plays the main character, Grace. She’s marrying Alex Le Domas who is a member of the Le Domas family which is a rich family who made their living making games dating all the way back to the Civil War. However, it’s much more than just simply making it big with games. The legend says, that one of the Domas ancestors struck a deal with the devil to make it rich. However, to keep their end of the bargain, every new member of the Domas family has to pull a card from this mysterious magic box and play the game the card says. Apparently, most of the time the games are benign like Chess or Old Maid (WTF is Old Maid [inside joke from the movie]). But, if the new family member pulls the Hide & Seek card, then that means they’ll be hiding from the family and if found, will be sacrificed for the devil. The catch is that if the family can’t make the sacrifice by dawn, then the family will all die.

It’s a loose storyline; however, a movie like this doesn’t need a lot of depth. The characters carry this story along anyway. First of all, we have Grace. You find out that she came from the foster system and didn’t have a lot growing up. She’s totally in love with Alex and wants to make a good impression with his family even though she’s convinced that they hate her and think she’s a money-grabbing whore (her words). Grace is pretty funny and very resilient. After the initial shock of what’s going on wears off, she pulls on some serious inner strength and becomes that kick-ass protagonist we all want.

Second, we have her newly acquired husband, Alex. Alex we find out has somewhat left the Domas clan and his mother wants desperately for him to come back into the fold. At the beginning of the movie, Grace and the mother have a chat that could have been heartwarming if you didn’t know what was about to go down. She basically begs Grace to help bring Alex back into the family.

Next, we have Alex’s brother, Daniel. He’s alcoholic and quite disillusioned with the whole family. However, he remains loyal (somewhat) to what they are doing. Daniel is a funny character and portrays a wounded, broken shell-of-a-man well.
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There are a lot of other characters in this tale, most of them are somewhat throw-away, but a few stick out. There is drugged out sister that is hilarious, an in-law brother that is equally funny, but I think the best is the Aunt. She plays this dour, old woman who is hell-bent (see what I did there) on maintaining the status quo with the devil. The crazy thing is, they give her this massive ax that looks comical with her. I mean, how the hell is she supposed to swing that thing, it probably weighs 1/3rd of her body weight!

Throughout the entire movie, you are left questioning whether or not the devil is real, or if the family has all just accepted the legend as fact. We get to see what lengths people will go to in order to survive (both by Grace and the rest of the Domas family as the clock continues to tick).

Overall, this movie was awesome. There are gruesome death scenes; comedic relief (full disclosure, it’s very dark comedy…but come on, you should expect that seeing how this is a story about a family ritualistically hunting down another human), and lots of blood.

Also, the filmmaker did a great job with tension and anticipation. There is a scene (I’ll detail it later in the spoiler section) that had me squirming. You fully know what is going to happen, but it’s in that knowledge that the scene works so well.

I give this movie 4.5/5 dead bodies. If you like campy, funny, horror movies, then go check this one out. You won’t be disappointed.
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Now, on to the spoiler section.

Okay, still here? Cool. Throughout the whole movie, Alex is trying to save Grace. He didn’t want to bring her back and do the wedding there, but he was afraid of the potential curse. At one point in the movie, Alex is talking with his mother on why he left, stating that he realized slitting a goat’s throat in the name of Satan wasn’t a normal thing to do, but that he was starting to feel normal about it. His mother makes a comment at that point that if given the choice between family and a woman he met 18 months ago, he’ll choose family. At that point I kind of figured he would turn Darkside and I was right, even though it was the last moment he decided to turn against Grace.

We ultimately find out that the deal with the devil was real all along. Because they fail to sacrifice Grace by dawn. However, it’s super funny what happens. Because the sun comes up and the Domas family tries to hide from the sun’s light like they are vampires, but nothing happens. Then they all look at one another with an expression of, “Oh shit, we are just psychopaths and this wasn’t real, but we need to do something about her (Grace).” Then, as the Aunt lifts her ax to try and kill Grace, she explodes. Then, one by one all the Domas family explodes in a bloody mess. Kind of funny actually.

As for that tense moment…holy shit! So at one point in the movie, Grace gets shot in the hand and it puts a big honking hole in her palm. She then proceeds to fall down into this pit of dead goats and bodies. Because…yeah, we need a dead body pit. She tries to climb out, but obviously her hand is all fucked up. We then cut to a shot of the edge of the pit, where we see nail sticking out of the wood. You can put two and two together on that one…
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Not much for spoilers here. Go see this movie! 

I just finished this collection of short stories by Betty Rocksteady and I have to say I’m impressed. Most of the stories contained within have been previously published in other anthologies with a few brand new ones for her fans. Many of the stories are very short and quick reads, however, a lot of them stuck with me for long after I was finished reading them. Rocksteady has an uncanny ability to weave a tale that is equal parts ambiguous (in a good way), visceral, and disturbing. A lot of her tales hint at things ancient and deadly and part of a bigger mythos all her own.

Rocksteady is described as an author of cat mythos, cosmic sex, and bizarro fiction and after reading this collection, it’s not hard to see how she came by those descriptors. I got a big kick out of her tales involving cat mythos. My favorite was near the beginning titled, “Tiny Bones Beneath Their Feet” about an enormous colony of cats and a mysterious path of bones leading away from the house.

Some of the stories were downright disturbing. I found “Postpartum” particularly chilling about a single mother dealing with postpartum depression. She soon finds some purpose in taxidermy and that purpose begins to overtake her very being. Rocksteady’s voice blends real-world horrors such as depression, anxiety, loneliness, and the awkward with frightening horrors. The horror she pulls from is mainly cosmic, speaking to creatures and beings that are unknowable and make you feel very insignificant. Her horrors creep (and sometimes wriggle or crawl) in and take over your sense of self until there is nothing left. Some of my favorite reads in this collection that really tapped into the cosmic horror were: “Elephants That Aren’t” about an artist who starts drawing strange creatures but doesn’t have any recollection of doing so; “The Language of Mud” about a spot in the grass that makes people disappear; “The Taste of Sand on Your Lips” which is a small collection of 55, 55-word stories that are bizarrely interconnected and tell a tale that could possibly make you go mad.

If you like strange, well-written horror, then you need to check out, In Dreams We Rot as you won’t be disappointed. Rocksteady’s voice is unique and she is elevating horror fiction with her words. Her collection has made me reevaluate my own writing and challenged me to make my future stories even better.

Well done.
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You can pre-order In Dreams We Rot here:

​Also, if you want to see my earlier interview with Rocksteady, you can check it out here: