Crypticon 2013

The David Hudnut booth at Crypticon 2013

Crypticon Seattle 2013 has come and gone. I had a booth at the show in the vendor's room, and had a great time meeting people who had come out to get their horror on.

There was all manner of craziness throughout the weekend. Tons of great costumes, art, music, movies, a haunted house on site, hearses in the parking lot, the works. I was ensconced at my booth the entire time, so I didn't have a chance to sample the show as much as I'd like.

I did get to hop over and snap a few pics of Cassandra Peterson, a.k.a. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. The fans were happy to see her and say hello.

Cassandra Peterson, a.k.a. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

Since I was sitting at my booth all weekend, I had plenty of time to make some art. I did some character design sketches that I felt were appropriate for the horror audience: a Zombie Hooker, an Evil Scarecrow, and an Evil Clown. You can see all three finished illustrations at the bottom of this article. Once again, I used mechanical pencil, Copic Multiliner SP for the black lines, and Tombow Dual Brush pens for color. 

Evil Scarecrow

There were tons of amazing cosplayers with great costumes walking the show. I wish I'd taken more photos, but I did manage to get the amazing dog demon guy who showed up Sunday. 

On the drive home, I was fortunate enough to see the most amazing rainbow I've ever seen in my life, and snap pictures of it. It was large, vibrant, and did a great job of posing for the camera. You can imagine the pot of gold that was waiting for me when I got to the end of it. As you can see in the photo, it was just over the hill. Sure, I had to split the gold with the other people driving through it, but there was so much gold under that rainbow, it was more than enough to go around. Needless to say, I'll be retiring early because of my newfound rainbow gold.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to Crypticon Seattle 2013 and made it a great show!

Dog Demon

Evil Scarecrow

Evil Clown

Zombie Hooker

Rainbow on the road

Crypticon Seattle THIS WEEKEND!!!

Crypticon Seattle 2013

I will be at Crypticon Seattle all this weekend selling my book Night Walk as well as other goodies. Come out and say hello!

Zombie Kong reviewed: James Roy Daley does it again

Zombie Kong by James Roy Daley

I have to admit, I was a little worried when I started reading the novella  Zombie Kong by James Roy Daley. I knew it would be well written, because it was James Roy Daley, but I was worried the premise would play itself out too quickly. I'm sure you're thinking what I was: a zombie version of King Kong smashing cars, tanks, buildings, then climbing a skyscraper with a damsel, etc. Big Deal.

Nope.

The story opens with a page-long scientific rumination on how large a giant gorilla's intestines would be. Then the next chapter is a guy being swallowed by Zombie Kong. The thing is, because it's a zombified gorilla, the stomach acid doesn't kill him. The guy SURVIVES. Now he has to get out of Zombie Kong.

GENIUS!!

To make it even better, so it's not just some guy trapped in the belly of the beast, he calls his wife on his cell phone. The wife and their son now get involved. This gives the story some much needed variety to what would have been a one-note escape yarn.

Can I say that I absolutely LOVED how Daley handled the tale? Why yes I can. I'm really impressed with James Roy Daley's consistently inventive horror stories. If you like horror that is well written, start with Zombie Kong. Then move onto Daley's other works: The Dead Parade and Terror Town, both of which I've also enjoyed and reviewed. If you like mayhem and murder, go with  The Dead Parade. If you like monsters, go with Terror Town.

But whatever you do, buy Zombie Kong NOW! You will love it.

Surprise, Surprise: Pit Bulls kill things

Hands Off by David Hudnut

Did anybody see the news story last night about the two pit bulls that traipsed into Sandra Anderson's house in Longview Washington, through her patio door, and killed her cat napping on the window sill? The article is here.

It drives me nuts when I read news stories like this. They are common. Where I live, I periodically see pit bulls roaming the streets without an owner anywhere in the vicinity. Why? Because the fences in people's yards are low enough for any medium-sized dog to climb over. It's no surprise that the dogs get free.

I've even had two pit bulls run into my backyard chasing a cat. I had to chase the pit bulls off by yelling at them because I didn't have anything handy like a bat. I would've preferred a spear. There I was, in my sweats at 7:30 in the morning, shouting at the top of my lungs in my front yard:

"GET OUT OF HERE!! GO HOME!! GET OUT OF HERE!!"

When the neighbors came outside, the dogs had already run off. I must have looked like a lunatic to them.

Because this infuriates me to no end, I wrote a story about this exact topic. It was a way for me to work out my irritation in a constructive fashion. If free-roaming pit bulls chap your hide, and you like horror stories, you will enjoy my story Hands Off.

You can buy Hands Off on Amazon.com here.

TERROR TOWN by James Roy Daley REVIEWED

Terror Town by James Roy Daley

Terror Town is the second novel by horror novelist James Roy Daley that I've read. My review for his novel The Dead Parade is here.

James Roy Daley knows how to write horror. He's really good at what he does. Terror Town delivered the goods in a blood-soaked wrapper. Daley went to film school, and he's a huge lover of Stephen King. (I don't mean to imply that Daley and King are having some sort of illicit affair, but rather Daley knows the works of King well, and incorporates many of King's tactics in his own stories). You can see the influence of both great horror movie film-making and the writings of Stephen King in Daley's Terror Town.

After an initial setup that establishes the small town of Cloven Rock, and many of it's denizens, the book accelerates at a cinematic pacing. We meet Nicholas Nehalem, who is one of the most diabolical characters I've ever met between the covers of a book. I won't give any spoilers. But I will warn Hannibal Lecter that he's a pansy boy.

Then we meet Daniel McGee. Dan finds a tunnel in the floor of his basement that leads deep down into darkness. This scene alone was like reading an exquisitely crafted tale by Edgar Allen Poe. It had me shivering in fear, and nothing bad even happened. It was the expectation of terror that got me.

But have no fear. Daley delivers terror with both fists and a shotgun blast. This book explodes into action. It's equal parts monster-movie madness and serial killer death flick. But more than that, there's an amazing twist that happens about half way through the book. Syd Field's classic Reversal, anyone? I will only say that I was NOT expecting it, and that not only was it freakin' awesome and super original, it gives me hope that the tired old roads trod by many writers still hold buried treasures further down the trail. Or should I say, off the trail, where the bodies are buried. Because that's where James Roy Daley takes you in Terror Town.

If you like hard-hitting, intense horror, the scary kind that makes you triple-check you locked and dead-bolted the front door before going to bed, buy Terror Town. It will scare the crap and vomit out of you.

Buy Terror Town by James Roy Daley on Amazon here.

Free eBooks Daily is hosting my novel Night Walk

I was contacted yesterday out of the blue by Free eBooks Daily.

They were kind enough to feature my novel Night Walk which is currently available for FREE on Amazon Kindle. You can find the article HERE.

There's also some author questions I answered and a fun character interview that I filled out for my character Amelia Wistfell, who is one of the main characters in Night Walk.

You can download Night Walk for free from now until Sunday at midnight HERE

The Dead Parade gets a facelift, without anesthesia

New cover for The Dead Parade

James Roy Daley is a fellow horror author deeply involved in the self-publishing boom. He runs a horror blog called Books of the Dead Press. If you love horror books it's a great blog and you should check it out.

You may recall that I posted a review of his horror thriller The Dead Parade last year. You can find my review here. The Dead Parade is a great read. Non-stop thriller action and horror. James recently did a re-cover for The Dead Parade, which I really like. It screams Thriller. As in the genre, not the Michael Jackson song. Wink.

As my blog readers may know, I followed suit, and did a re-cover of my novel Night Walk, which James was kind enough to feature on the Books of the Dead Press blog here.

But this post is about James Roy Daley's awesome novel The Dead Parade. If you're a fan of the classic George A. Romero style set-up of throwing characters into a disastrous situation while madness unfolds around them in the form of bone-breaking action, you will love his book. I did. If you are a fan of horror, The Dead Parade will treat you right.

You can buy it on Amazon Kindle right now for only 99 cents here.