horror | CW Hawes

The Lovecraft Investigations: A Review

Since the 1920s, the BBC has been producing radio dramas. Today, BBC 4, aka BBC Sounds, is still producing radio dramas. They have also ventured into fiction podcasting. And boy, oh boy, do they put on a class act.

I recently listened to all four seasons of The Lovecraft Investigations and was very impressed, for the most part. The production was top drawer. The writing, by Julian Simpson, was superb for the first three seasons, and then hiccuped in season 4.

Mr. Simpson, in the fourth season, lost the story in his fanatical quest to bash fascists in the British government. The propaganda overwhelmed the narrative and, for me, became distracting.

That written, the overall quality of The Lovecraft Investigations is truly superb and I will listen to the next season, should a fifth one be produced. Unless, Mr. Simpson decides, once again, that politics is more important than good storytelling.

The format is a podcast within a podcast and works extremely well. The stories are exceedingly loose adaptations of the work of HP Lovecraft. I would call them Lovecraftesque, with barely any Lovecraft being present.

It works, though, and that is what is ultimately of importance.

Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher are true crime podcasters who stumble onto the strange disappearance of Charles Dexter Ward — and thereby get sucked into a nightmarish secret world of monsters and occult magic.

The writing is excellent, the voice acting superb, the sound effects are magnificent. There is really nothing here not to like. And if you relish fascist bashing, season four will be your cup of tea.

While each season is more or less complete in itself, Simpson has tied the four together to form an overarching story. So you do want to start at the beginning. That way everything will make sense.

You can listen to the episodes for free on the BBC’s website. They are also available on various podcast services, such as Apple and Spotify.

All in all, I can highly recommend The Lovecraft Investigations. In my opinion, they’re far more satisfying entertainment than most of the tripe on the TV.

Start season 1, episode 1 on the BBC here.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with two bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

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I’ll Buy Anything They Write

Last week I shared with you 10 of my favorite fictional characters.

Today, I thought I’d share with you 13 of my favorite fictioneers. Contemporary writers who I find so very satisfying I’ll buy anything they write.

So here’s a shoutout to my Dazzling (Baker’s) Dozen.

Crispian Thurlborn

This guy can write. Weird. Fantasy. He can do so with dark wry humor. He can slowburn his way to your fear button. He can lead you down a strange and dreamy road to terror. He’s just plain good. One of my top 5 favs.

Find him on Amazon.

Richard Schwindt

Schwindt writes hilarious satire; occult detective stories laced with dark humor; poignant, introspective whodunits; humorous paranormal adventures; and fabulous literary quality short stories.

He will make you think, laugh, and cry. And that’s a pretty doggone good combo.

Find him on Amazon.

Caleb Pirtle III

Pirtle writes non-fiction by the bucket load. I’m not a non-fic guy, but I can tell you, from what I’ve read, he can spin a good yarn even writing non-fic. Doesn’t matter if he’s writing a biography of a person or a town, it will be an interesting story.

But it’s in his fiction where I think he shines. Pirtle makes the past (his favorite place to be) or the present come alive. And the people you meet in the pages of his books are just as real as your next door neighbor.

Pirtle will make you feel the heat and humidity. He’ll make you feel the hope and the despair. He will make you stop and ponder a bit of wisdom one of his people just said. He’ll make you laugh. And he’ll make you cry. He’s a magician with the written word.

I’d probably buy his grocery list. They don’t come any better than Caleb Pirtle.

Catch him on Amazon.

Joe Congel

I like well-drawn, realistic characters, who move through a realistic story. I appreciate a story that is told well. And Joe Congel does this with panache.

He writes contemporary PI novels with a hardboiled feel. And he peoples his realistic tales with well-drawn, realistic characters.

Introduce yourself to Joe Congel. You’re in for a treat.

Check him out on Amazon.

Matthew Cormack

Cormack creates some of the best characters to ever step out of the pages of a book. They are totally lifelike.

He is the epitome of Bradbury’s dictum: create your characters, let them do their thing, and there’s your story. And what stories they are.

His books are, quite simply, a cut above.

And you can find them on Amazon.

James Vincett

Magnificent worldbuilding. Brilliant imagination. Fabulous characters. Incredible stories. These are the hallmarks of the science fiction of James Vincett.

His work is fabulous and I’m first in line to get his next book. I hope it drops soon.

Get his books on Amazon.

Andy Graham

Graham writes some of the best slowburn horror that you can buy. The suspense is oppressive. There are times I have to put the book down in order to catch my breath and get my pulse down.

Graham’s writing is simply top drawer, and you can get his books on Amazon.

Brian Fatah Steele

Steele writes incredibly imaginative modern cosmic horror. A worthy successor to old HPL himself.

I find his imagination unparalleled. He will show you dimensions you can’t even dream of.

His story “Bleak Mathematics”, IMO, is a modern classic.

Find him on Amazon.

John F Leonard

I love Leonard’s imagination. He can range from the cosmic to what’s in your pocket. Stuff you just can’t imagine comes out on the page to terrify you, or just plain scare the crap out of you.

He just might be one of the best writers you’ve never heard of. So make your acquaintance. Pronto. On Amazon.

Ray Zacek

Zacek is good. Plain and simple. Whether it’s biting satire, or terrifying horror, or spooky macabre — Zacek delivers.

His imagination will take you to places you may not in the end want to go. But you know you have to. This guy is one of the best.

Get his books on Amazon.

Garrett Dennis

Dennis’s Storm Ketchum is a truly enjoyable character. Sad to say, though, it looks like the Storm Ketchum series is complete. I hope not. Because Storm is the amateur sleuth par excellence and the supporting cast of characters is amazing.

The stories are as laid back as is Outer Banks island life, which is where the stories take place. Yet, don’t be fooled. Because when excitement is called for, Dennis delivers and you’ll find yourself on the edge of your chair.

I truly hope Mr. Dennis writes more stories of Storm and the Outer Banks. I’m standing in line waiting. On Amazon.

Terry Newman

I love Terry Newman’s Nicely Strongoak — dwarf PI. The mysteries are fun, intriguing, and suspense-filled whodunits. All set in a fantasy world that is not a whole lot different from our own. Great reading you don’t want to miss.

On Amazon.

Jack Tyler

I think Tyler can write anything. He’s that versatile. Steampunk. Epic fantasy. Occult detective. Humor. Police procedurals. Horror. It’s all there and it’s all good.

Whatever’s next on his list to publish, I’m there to buy it.

Tyler is one of the best writers you probably never heard of. And now you have. Go forth and support this guy.

On Amazon.

On Kindle Vella.

There’s my baker’s dozen of writers whose work I will buy sight unseen and will even wait in line to get.

Check them out. You won’t be sorry.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

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Meet the Author Podcast Show

Wednesday, January 18th I spent a wonderful hour and a half with Rob and Joan Carter on their Meet the Author podcast.

We talked about books and life and the writing life. The experience was fabulous. They are wonderful hosts.

If you missed the live show, you can listen to the audio on their website: https://indiebooksource.com/podcast/

Just scroll down until you find my episode, which is number 92.

You’ll also find all the links for the show and you can also explore their website. They have shows for other authors; books for sale; merch you can buy to promote reading, writing, and authors.

You can find links to my books as well — and merch featuring some of my book covers.

You can also download the podcast at this link if you want your own copy: https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/52480191/download.mp3

And finally, if you want to watch the program, you can do so on the Meet the Author YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/RBXLAGwCxAc

As a Meet the Author bonus, I’ve discounted the book I read from, Death Makes a House Call, to 99¢. The discount is good through Sunday, January 29th. Pick up your copy on Amazon!

One of the things I appreciate most about being an author is that I’ve met some of the most amazingly wonderful people over the years.

Rob and Joan are certainly on that list. I appreciate them having me on the show. I had a blast.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

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Giving Kindle Vella a Try

After talking with a friend who is having some well-deserved success on Vella, I’ve decided to give the platform a try.

After all, who doesn’t like success when it comes not only in the form of folks saying they love what you’re doing, but also in the form of checks to the bank account?

What is Kindle Vella?

Vella is a way for writers to share stories with readers — one episode at a time. It’s like TV for fiction.

Or if we go way back, serializing a novel was basically how most long popular fiction was first published up until the 1960s.

Back in the 1800s, newspapers and magazines published poetry, short stories, and novels (in the form of serials, one episode at a time).

During the heyday of the pulp magazines, many magazines serialized novels. Most of which were never published in paperback or hardback.

Vella is today’s recreation of a time-honored method of publishing fiction.

Vella exists as an app for your phone and tablet, and also as a website (which is how I use Vella).

How Does Vella Work?

Vella is a platform for you to read serialized fiction. The first 3 episodes are free to read.

Think of this as Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature. The free episodes help you decide if you like the story enough to spend money reading the rest of it.

If you like what you see, you can unlock the further episodes by buying tokens and then using the required amount of tokens to unlock the additional episodes.

Episode length determines how many tokens you need to spend to read that portion of the story.

Why Vella?

More and more people are consuming content, both entertainment and informational, on their phones.

Many people find it difficult to engage with and commit to a full-length novel. The size alone of some of these books is daunting.

After all, we’re busy. And when you’re time deprived, looking at a 500 page novel just might be a commitment you don’t want to take on.

I think this is one reason why audiobooks have taken off. One can listen to an audiobook while doing something else.

In fact, my step-daughter has said this very thing: she doesn’t have time to sit down and read a novel. But she loves stories. So instead of reading, she listens to audiobooks while cooking, or driving to work, or riding her bike.

But audiobooks aren’t for everyone. I don’t particularly care for them myself. Often the narrator is not at all good, and that results in a less than optimal experience.

Vella takes a different approach. An old approach and makes it new.

Vella allows readers to read short bites of text. Instead of staring at the whole pan of lasagna, you are only looking at one short, exciting scene or chapter. One little mouthful.

This makes Vella perfect for reading on coffee break or on the commute, or even when you’re in the bathroom.

Join Me On Vella

I’m giving Vella a try. When I was a working stiff, reading was sometimes a chore. The book never seemed to end.

But with episodes no longer than 5,000 words, it’s easy to get in your reading fix at least once a day. And maybe more.

Tales Macabre and Arabesque is my first foray into the world of Vella.

The first 3 (free) episodes will go up the 28th, 29th, and 30th of October. That’s this weekend. On Monday (Halloween), the first locked episode will be available for you to unlock. And a new episode will appear each Monday thereafter for 13 weeks.

Tales Macabre and Arabesque is a collection of 15 short stories. Some of the stories are bizarre. Some, uncanny. Others, unsettling. A few are weird. And a number qualify as dark humor.

Fifteen tales, divided into 17 episodes, that will take you to worlds you never knew existed and inside the minds of some you perhaps don’t want to see.

Join me. Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BK7N75BJ

See you there!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

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The Horror Meisters

Take a look at the books
The free books
The Horror Meisters have for you

The Horror Meisters, which used to known as Meet the Munsters, Ink!, are celebrating their return with a fabulous promotional giveaway.

Nineteen (19) authors are giving away free books and excerpts for your reading pleasure, and hopefully to entice you to support them.

Yes, please, I’d like some free reads!

Writing can be a lonely business. But it doesn’t have to be. Authors banding together for mutual support, by means of the amazing internet, has been a boon for our mental health, productivity, and building a reader base.

When authors and readers network, everyone benefits. Authors gain new followers and readers, and readers learn of new authors and exciting new books. A win-win for everybody.

I have benefited immensely from my involvement with The WolfPack Authors and The Underground Authors. And I expect more good things to happen with The Horror Meisters. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, visit

The Horror Meisters Giveaway

You won’t be sorry.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy scary reading!

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For the Weekend 8

This weekend I am offering a bit of a smorgasbord for your reading pleasure. A little something for everybody.

MACABRE

If the weird is your thing, or the paranormal, or horror, if you will, then look no further. One of my favorite authors, Crispian Thurlborn, has what you’re looking for!

Exit by Crispian Thurlborn is a fine tale of the bizarre, the uncanny, the weird, and, yes, horror. The slow burn and subtle kind of horror that doesn’t fully hit you until sometime after you’re done reading the book.

You can get Exit on Amazon.

I’ve become a big fan of occult detectives over the past year or so. And guess what? There is a magazine devoted to the occult detective. Its former name is The Occult Detective Quarterly, and the new name is Occult Detective Magazine.

If you’re into the occult, the paranormal, the weird — and you like mysteries as well — then Occult Detective Magazine is for you.

It’s available at Amazon.

CHRISTIAN FICTION

Do you like YA? Strong female characters? A faith that produces tough, resilient people? Then give CJ Peterson’s Strength From Within a try. Once again, you can find it at Amazon.

ROMANCE

Perhaps you’re looking for romance with a dash of mystery and angsty stuff dealing with PTSD, then NE Brown’s Carson Chance, PI series just might be your cup of tea. Check it out on Amazon.

POST-APOCALYPTIC

I’m a big fan of the cozy catastrophe — that version of the post-apocalyptic novel where the survivors try to create a better world than the one that was destroyed.

One of the finest writers of the cozy catastrophe today is Matthew Cormack.

Ganbaru is set in his Piranha Pandemic world. It’s a classic tale of good vs evil. The characters are dynamic and the situation he paints is totally realistic.

Get Ganbaru on Amazon.

SCIENCE FANTASY

Erik Ga Bean writes books that border on the surreal, with a delightful touch of whimsy.

You really shouldn’t ignore his Trifle Airship. It’s a delight and you can get it on Smashwords.

That ought to keep you going until next time.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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For the Weekend 3

One of my all time favorite authors is Robert E Howard. I think the general quality of Howard’s writing is superior to that of HP Lovecraft’s. At the very best I think they are about equal. It all depends on which style you prefer. At their worst, I think I would take Howard story over Lovecraft.

And of all the characters Howard created, my favorite is Solomon Kane. IMO, he is more intelligent than Conan, and the atmosphere of the stories is far more dark and spooky.

Why there hasn’t been a movie series or a television series based on Kane is beyond me. The original stories themselves would make for rousing dark fantasy action/adventure with a splash of horror video viewing, and would be a great base for other writers to build on.

There was a movie some years ago entitled Solomon Kane, but it was at best mediocre. I can understand why whoever produced the movie was reluctant to continue the saga. However a better writer would’ve done the movie justice. Hopefully some producer will get the idea to reboot the series and actually base it on Howard, at least to begin with, and then they might see some bang for their buck.

A marvelous one volume edition of all of the Solomon Kane stories was published by Del Rey some years ago, and is still in print.

You can get The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane in e-book from Amazon or Apple, or in paperback, or as an audiobook. The cost of the e-book is $13.99. I refused to pay that money to the German conglomerate that owns Del Rey, and bought a used paperback instead. But you might not have my hangups.

If you like action/adventure stories, or dark fantasy, or horror, then you will like Solomon Kane — and I encourage you to pick up a copy of The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. A great way to spend your weekend!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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The Paranormal

Van Dyne’s Zuvembies is live! The seventh book in the Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations series. And it is off to a good start.

Each Pierce Mostyn investigation is a stand alone story. So you can read Van Dyne’s Zuvembies today — and read the rest of the series later.

Interest in the paranormal is high, and paranormal fiction is hot.

But what is paranormal fiction? When I was kid, back in the 50s and 60s, there was no paranormal fiction: it was called occult or supernatural fiction. Sometime between then and now, those terms fell out of use in favor of paranormal.

To understand these 3 terms, let’s see what the Merriam-Webster dictionary says.

Occult (noun) — matters regarded as involving the action or influence of supernatural or supernormal powers or some secret knowledge of them; used with the

Supernatural

1) of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe

2a) departing from what is usual for normal, especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature

2b) attributed to an invisible agent (such as a ghost or spirit)

Paranormal — not scientifically explainable: supernatural

So we can see all of these terms basically mean something that is not within normal or natural experience.

Therefore it doesn’t really matter what we call the genre, because paranormal, supernatural, and occult fiction cover the same subjects: myth, fairy tales, legends, cryptids, ghosts, monsters, the fae, and the like.

Popular subgenres include: cosmic horror, the ghost story, the Gothic novel, werewolf and other shapeshifter fiction, vampire and zombie fiction, and the like.

The paranormal story has been with us for a very long time and down through the ages has been called many different things. But in the end, they all refer to the same class of story.

At base, the Pierce Mostyn books are cosmic horror set in HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos universe. However, I’m not averse to stepping outside the cosmic horror subgenre to give readers a taste of a different class of monster.

Horror stories generally operate either viscerally or intellectually.

Visceral horror is horror that focuses on an emotive reaction, often resorting to the gross out. This is the in-your-face blood and guts horror.

Intellectual horror appeals to the mind. It is usually subtle, and often challenges our understanding of how things ought to be by showing us how things actually are.

Intellectual horror flips aside the curtain; it is taking the red pill.

While there’s plenty of action in the Pierce Mostyn stories, I definitely strive for an intellectual horror approach. Because at the end of the day I think that type of story is truly terrifying.

Comments are always welcome! Until next time, happy reading!

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Why the Novella?

Novels are long works of fiction. How long depends on who you ask. Today, novels tend to be quite long on average. After all, publishers need to make a buck. As a reader, though, I find them bloated, ungainly, and filled with lots of boring stuff I usually skip over. Elmore Leonard’s rule about not putting in your novel the stuff readers skip over is routinely ignored in today’s publishing world.

However, that was not always the case. There was a time when novels topped out at 60,000-70,000 words. And most where in the 40,000 word range. For me, as a reader, that’s the length I like. Anything longer has to be super doggone good or I stop reading. Life is too short for boring.

I love short stories. They’re concise and provide bite size entertainment. Some of the most powerful pieces of fiction I’ve read are short stories. Such gems as “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” by Conrad Aiken; “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki; “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway; “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe; and “The Spotted Dog” by Anthony Trollope, to name a few.

Nothing can beat the impact of a well-written short story.

On the other hand, within the last couple years I’ve come to very much appreciate those middle length forms: the novelette, and the novella.

Longer than a short story, the novelette and novella allow for more expensive treatment of the story, deeper treatment of the characters. And I find novelettes and novellas give me a more satisfying read than novels because there is no padding, no boring parts, no filler material to satisfy a publisher’s or editor’s length requirements.

As a writer, I find the novelette, running roughly between 7,000 and 20,000 words, and the novella, at 20,000 to 50,000 words, give me enough space to tell the story, flesh out the characters, and omit the parts I as a reader would probably skip over.

Certain genres, such as horror and perhaps mystery, are at their best in the novella and novelette length.

When reading a horror novel, too often I find the author incapable of maintaining the atmosphere and the suspense. The result is a roller coaster of increasing and decreasing tension, rather than slowly building suspense, tension, and terror which culminate in the climax of the story.

Mystery novels often have unnecessary filler to pad out the length. The sleuth runs here, runs there, often getting nowhere. He or she spends time navel gazing, or baking, or knitting, or we might be treated to an extended tourist guide view of the locale.

In my own writing, I’ve been gradually moving from the novel to the novella and novelette. The Justinia Wright novels are the last hold outs. Although they are relatively short novels for mysteries. They average between 49,000 and 51,000 words, with the longest being 54,000.

Nevertheless, in the future I see more novelette and novella length Justinia Wright mysteries, such as Vampire House, Genome, the novelettes comprising Trio in Death-Sharp Minor, and the forthcoming The Nine Deadly Dolls.

From the beginning, the Pierce Mostyn series has been in novella length and I have no plans to change. The novella gives me plenty of space to tell the story with satisfying pacing, tension, and atmosphere; and to give the reader good character development.

Given how busy our lives are these days, it seems to me fiction that can provide a satisfying virtual experience in one sitting, say, on the bus or train commuting to work, or listening in the car during the daily commute, or in the evening after work, or on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, such a read would be ideal. A visit to another world taking just about an hour, perhaps two. Sounds perfect to me.

The novella and the novelette: not too big and not too small. They are just right.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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A Possible New Series

The Medusa Ritual (Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations, Book 5) is available on Amazon. You can buy the book here.

Books 6, 7, and 8 in the series are written. I’m currently proofreading and line editing Book 6 and typing Book 7, doing an initial line edit while typing the handwritten manuscript.

The Pierce Mostyn series is loads of fun to write, and doing so has introduced me to the fascinating sub-genre of the occult detective.

The occult detective sub-genre has been around since the mid-1800s. Being largely a fusion of the detective story and the Gothic horror tale. It came into being as the form we recognize today through the Flaxman Low stories by E. & E. Heron. They were first published in Pearson’s Magazine in 1898 and 1899.

The most famous occult detectives are probably Thomas Carnacki, created by William Hope Hodgson, and Jules de Grandin, created by Seabury Quinn.

I very much like detective mysteries, and I very much like supernatural horror — which makes the occult detective pretty close to perfection.

For some time now, simmering on the back burner, has been a contemporary occult detective series of my own. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but I’m getting there.

The series would be something of a companion piece for Pierce Mostyn — readers of one series crossing over and reading the other. At least I hope they will!

There will be more on this in the coming months, as I get additional details of this new fictional world established.

If you haven’t tried Pierce Mostyn, take a peek. The series is on Amazon. Mostyn won’t bite, but the monsters might!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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