@@DESCRIPT+ The Death Certificate +
/ / / SoulZ at Zer0 / /
/- / 04-95 SaZ Pak /- /
-----THE-DEATH-CERTIFICATE------VOLUME-1-ISSUE-6---------APRIL--1995------
Staff: The Stranger, Jack Flack - Editors, Writers.
Black Sunshine - Writer.
* If you are interested in contributing to The Death Certificate
please let one of the editors know.
* Editors Editorials are now located seperately within the pack.
Mouths agape, screams curdling in their throats, their faces
bleached white in stark terror, their eyes impossibly wide...the darkness
had swallowed his daughter and most of his wife in a single lunge from
its murky home, their screams to forever remain unscreamed...
Face of Darkness Douglas Doelling
+ Table of Contents +
SAZ News
Letters to the Editors
Horror News
Voices From The Grave New Column
Reviews
The Writers Block
Eulogies
Final Words
Soulz At Zero News
New writers are here! This month we almost double in size with
all the new writers. We welcome Maelstrom, Aragorn, Terminal Velocity
from New Jersey!, and we also welcome a guest writer, DeadGuy.
Thanks for offering your talents to us guys, we appreciate it and look
forward to your work in the future.
And I would just like to mention some of the SAZ sites we have out
there that I wasnt able to mention last month. We welcome Disembodied
Voices as our NorthEast HQ in New York and El Motel de Tres Horas in Texas
as our South HQ. Also, The Death Star and Full Metal Jacket both from
Conneticut sp?. And we are really excited about our new Canadian HQ,
The Black River. Thanks to all the sysops for letting us take up room
on their harddrives and for supporting us.
We have decided to no longer put editorials in the Death Certificate
because sometimes we have important stuff to talk about and we realize
that not every one takes the time to read the Death Certificate so we are
doing more of the old readme type file thing. But for those of you who
enjoy reading the Death Certificate, I am trying to add new things to it
and hopefully we will have new words of non-fiction every month. We are
also working on interviews and other strange things. So in this months
Death Certificate Im starting a new column called Voices From the Grave
which is just me talking about horror in general, sortof like my old
editorial but hopefully more about a certain subject.
And one thing. Black Sunshine would like me to mention that she has
promised not to write any more Biblical apocolypse poems anymore. But
I the stranger am thinking of only writing biblical apocolpyse poems
from now on to make up for her leaving that wonderful theme. Nah, Ill
probably stay with my killing children theme. We shall see.
If you have any suggestions or comments for SAZ just call my board,
log on as SAZ and the password is SAZ and let us know. We really do
appreciate any comments.
Thats all the news for this month. Have a great April and we will
see you again in May.
The Stranger...
Harry, eyes closed, felt sick and dizzy. He has to be stopped,
he murmured. I have to stop him. But I cant do it alone.
You wont be alone, Harry, said the shade of Keenan Gormley.
All of the worlds dead will be with you.
Necroscope by Brian Lumley
Letters to the Editors
We had a lot of comments over the past couple of months so wed
like to share some of them and answer any questions that might have been
asked.
First, I think the most comments I received were about our new
viewer. I expected that. Mr. Spock did a great job with it and Yaun-Ti
made some amazing graphics for it. Just about all the comments said the
same thing, everyone loved it, and though they loved the music, they found
it annoying when they tried to read the poems and theyd hear that voice
saying necrophiliac. Well the problem is solved. Just type
SAZVIEW /SILENT and that will allow you to run it without sound. Though
personally I love listening to the music.
From Shadowolfe: I realize that the packs are doing really
well, especially lately, getting downloaded all over the country
and everything. I only have one question: why, then, dont you
have more writers? All the writers are really talented, but
seeing so much from the same ones every time gets old because
each writer has their little subconscious things they do in every
work that makes them all kind of run together.
Well thats pretty much the same thing weve been wondering. We
are now in like 9 different states and even Canada and so we expect to
see some more new writers coming in quickly. But hey, we just added like
3 this month and we are looking at atleast 2 more people for next month
already. So just keep watching us, we are growing all the time.
From Prince Kheldar: I liked the Cinderella reviews you guys
did. You were right about what you said about that era of music.
I laughed while I was reading that.
Glad you liked them. We really enjoyed writing them and if we
see anymore concerts together we might right another review just for you. :
So thanks for the comment, we appreciate it.
Thats all for this month. Thanks for your comments and questions.
If you have anything to say to us just find a member of SAZ and scream at
us. Wed really love to hear from you. Thanks.
Horror News by The Stranger:
New in Bookstores:
One of my personal favorite authors, T.M. Wright, who just
re-released one of his books called Goodlows Ghost now brings us his
newest hardback release entitled The Ascending. The book is about
murders and psychics. A police officer and a psychic work together to
try and solve the murders that have been haunting Toronto for months.
Any book by T.M. Wright is amazing, so if you get the chance check this
book out.
Voices in the Night is a new 65 anthology with many good short
story writers including R.C. Matheson, Elizabeth Massie, William F. Nolan,
and Janet Fox.
The Earth Strikes Back is another new anthology that was edited
by Richard Chizmar who is the editor of Cemetary Dance Magazine. This
anthology is priced at 12.95 and its calling itself stories of
ecological horror, so stories that involve the enviroment. Most of the
big short story writers are here, Dan Simmons, Poppy Z. Brite, Richard
Laymon, Ed Gorman, Rick Hautala, and Nancy Collins to name a few. This
is probably a good one so see if you can find it.
David Drake, who is really Ron Dee, releases HorrorShow. If you
know the writing of Ron Dee then you know what this book is about without
me telling you. Its amout sex and gore and lots of it.
Kim Elizabeth, who is nicknamed The Princess of Horror releases
something pretty strange this month. Its called Netherworld and
what it is is a horror poetry comic from what I understand. So its a
collection of her poety and short stories, written around pictures and
put in a comic book form. From reading some of Kims poems, this should
be a very interesting project and one worth looking for. And she is
incredible looking, by the way.
By far the most exciting thing coming out this month is also the
most expensive thing coming out. Strange Highways is Dean Koontz first
ever short story collection and atleast for right now it will only be
out in a limited signed edition at 150 a piece. This is an amazing book
produced by CD or Cemetary Dance publications and includes a brand new
short novel entitled Strange Highways, and also one of Koontz first
novels entitled Chase which is really hard to find. Plus the collection
contains 12 short stories, most of which have been revised for this
edition. 10 pages of author notes and 14 illustrations inside are also
included. If you have the money get this, if you dont, then hope that
a cheaper version comes out around summer.
Mark A. Clements new novel is called Lorelei and right now its
only avaiable as an expensive hardback. Wait for the paperback.
Ron Faust releases When She Was Bad this month in paperback.
Charles Grant releases Black Carousel, and he is one of my three
favorites. Check out any book by Grant.
Graythings is a new paperback from Pat Graversen.
Joyride is the new novel from Jack Ketchum which is getting good
reviews and has a good blurb by Stephen King on the cover. Its a 5
paperback thats worth checking out.
If you love Brian Lumley youll be happy to know that all of his
Necroscope books are being re-released in beautiful hardbacks that have
actually been slightly revised by the author. The 7th and final book of
the series, Bloodwars has also just been released.
The legend himself, Richard Matheson releases a new hardback called
Now You See It which is about magic and murder. Hes the best.
Michael ORourke is getting good reviews about his new paperback,
The Bad Thing. Pretty much a book about a serial killer.
Brian Stableford who got rave reviews about his last novel now brings
us Carnival of Destruction.
New at the movies:
Out in your theatres now is Stephen Kings Dolores Claiborne
starring Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The book was horrible but
the clips for the movie look really good.
Column: Voices From the Grave By The Stranger
I wanted to have a place where I could talk to you horror fans out
there about whats going on in the horror world. Where I could focus more
on the world of horror and still be able to ramble. So here it is.
If you read a lot of horror fiction and especially anthologies then
the name Dennis Etchison should sound familiar. For the longest time he
has been thought of as the best underground writer in horror. And by
underground I just mean he wasnt well known and didnt have many best-
selling novels. He is most known for his short stories which have
appeared in every quality horror magazine and in some of his own
collections such as The Bloodkiss, Red Dreams, and The Dark Country.
He also wrote a book called Darkside a while back and he also wrote
the novelization for a movie called The Fog.
Well a couple of years back he got his big chance when the Del Abyss
line published his novel Shadowman which went on to be one of the best-
sellers for that company. And ever since, I have been dying for a new
novel by him. Well for about 6 months or so, the word was out that Abyss
had bought the rights to his next novel and that it would be out sometime
in 1995. Titled California Gothic, the book was getting plenty of talk
in the horror magazines but no one knew what it was about.
Well my friends, I was able to get a small press release of the book.
The book is scheduled for June of this year and will be priced at 4.99
here in America. In my press release I have the full cover of the book
plus the prologue and the entire first chapter. Well the cover looks
somewhat cheesy and the idea of the book as it turns out is about a dead
woman coming back from the grave.
For those of you who know Etchisons writing, hes changed a little.
Whereas before he was quick to the punch, now he sets things up first and
then slams it down your throat. His writing, which was already the best,
seems to have improved. This book, from what Ive read, has a very
strange, mysterious feel to it. So now Im even more excited about the
book but we will have to wait till June.
And speaking of June, Stephen Kings new novel Rose Madder is
also scheduled to be released in June. I am working on and should be able
to get a copy of the book before it comes out and though I may not be able
to read it, I will let you know what its about. People who have read it
say its his best book since The Stand but then again these are people
who are close to the King camp. The Langoliers comes to ABC television
in May of 1995 and my sources tell me its really good though the cast is
really awful Bronson Balki Pinchot for example!
Well thats all I wanted to tell you about this month. Hopefully
Ill see you here again next month and we can talk about the world of
horror.
The Stranger...
The Reviews:
Books:
Methods of Madness By Ray Garton, pub. 1990, Dark Harvest.
Ray Garton has suddenly become one of my favorite writers.. I
reviewed a book by him last month called Live Girls and I loved it so much
I went out and bought another book by him. This one is a collection of 5
short stories and 1 short novel. It cost 20 but it is one of the best
books Ive read in a long time.
Ray Garton writes about two subjects, sex and religion. Usually he
uses them together but in this collection we see very little religious
overtones but we do see tons of sex. The first story in the collection is
entitled Fat and its about a young high school kid who has always been
fat. He cant get the girls because girls dont go for fat guys. So because
he wants the girls to notice him he decides to lose weight. And he does.
He loses lots of weight. The bad thing is, the weight wants him back.
The second story is entitled Active Members and this one is a
sortof funny one with a good surprise at the end. The problem for our main
character is he has a big penis. What? Thats not a problem? Well the
thing is it keeps growing, and growing, until soon it has a life of its
own.
The third story is called Something Kinky and its about a man who
just is bored sexually with his wife. She just wont try anything new. So
he goes to a single bar where he shares his problem with another man who
just happens to have the remedy for the problem. He knows a woman who is
looking for sex, his wife. So an erotic story of threesomes and blackmail
begins. Bad ending to this one but a good story.
Sinema is the story of a Seventh Day Advitist boy who wants to go
to the movies more than anything else in the world. But its against his
religion and his strict grandmother will not let him go. But there is a
minister in the church who just happens to have some movies that he likes
to show to young boys. The bad thing is that most of these movies deal with
men having sex with other men. And most of the people the minister shows
them to, only get to see them once.
Shock Radio is a good story with an obvious, yet gross ending that
is sure to make you laugh. This one is about a Rush Limbaugh type radio DJ
who is just evil. Until he gets a taste of his own medicine.
And finally Dr. Krusadians Method is a short novel about parents
who abuse their children and what can happen if the parents are made to
share the childs emotions with him. This story is way too long but it has
a good point and some scary moments.
This is one your not going to see in paperback anytime soon and your
not going to see it for sale at your local B. Daltons or anything like that.
But if you dont mind spending 20 for a book, just get to your local horror
book store and pick this one up. You will enjoy the ride.
The Stranger...
Movie Reviews:
Movie Review: HIDEAWAY
by Black Sunshine
This is not a typical horror movie in the least. It
combines elements of satanism, afterlife, ghosts, psychic
abilities and serial killing to get this unique story based on
the novel by Dean R. Koontz.
The movie begins with a stereotypical Hollywood satanic
ritual with a handsome teenage boy entering a tiny room with
pentagrams and some kind of demonic chants written on the walls
and an altar of dripping black candles at one end. Loud heavy
metal music blaring in the background pretty good, I might add,
the guy takes off his shirt and impales himself on a knife he has
propped just for this purpose. He writhes for a few seconds
before he dies, and then we get a firsthand view of his descent
through time and space and into hell. Truly horrific! Decent
graphics computer animation at its finest.
For those of you that dont know the story, this movie is
about a man, Hatch played convincingly by Jeff Goldblum who
gets in a car accident and actually remains dead for almost
twenty minutes, but a doctor is able to revive him with this
special process that he has been working on that has not actually
been refined or approved. From then on, Hatch becomes
psychically connected to a serial killer, Jeremy, and can even
see through his eyes as he kills his victims. The problem?
Jeremy can also see through Hatchs eyes and goes after Hatchs
fifteen-year old daughter Alicia Silverstone. The battle comes
down to a struggle between good and evil. No, I didnt tell you
everything. So dont worry.
The camera devices used to capture the scenes where Hatch
and Jeremy are seeing through each others eyes was great. I was
impressed with how they pulled this off and how it furthered the
movie along. I figured, after reading the novel, that it would
looked harried and confused on the screen, but I was wrong.
I was also impressed with the acting by both Goldblum and
the young man who played Jeremy who is a no-name actor Im sorry
I cant remember the name of and hope to see more of in other
movies. The Jeremy in this movie combines a mixture of charm,
brilliance, coldness and cruelness to create a great villain.
I was slightly disappointed however, that the movie did not
allude to the religious undertones in as much detail as the
novel. A lot of the demon/angel explanation was left out of the
screenplay. However, the movie was still worth the money and
worth watching once, if not more times. I have already seen it
twice. I would definitely recommend it its a fairly good
quality movie experience.
What happened to you? he said. Are you sick? Do you need to see
a doctor?
Im all right, she said. But when he smoothed her hair back
from her face, more dead skin rolled up under his nails...
Darkside by Dennis Etchison
The Writers Block by Jack Flack ...
Well, I thought I would write this months Writers Block for
two reasons ... First, because I had a great idea for a subject, and two,
due to never ending pressure from The Stranger to actually add something
besides my editorial to the Death Certificate grin.
This month, I am going to talk about subject matter, and basically,
for that matter, we are going to talk about horror in general, although Ill
touch upon some other subjects as well.
The question for this months Writers Block is Why Horror? The
reason why I write horror ... well, it would be tough to narrow it down to
one reason. One reason is because I like the type of poetry and short
stories that the genre seems to produce just by itself. Horror poetry does
several things for both its readers and writers. Horror for readers is
great. Its like a mystery that doesnt have to have a happy ending. Horror
stories are notorious for twists and turns.
Horror for writers, is another thing. Many people think that you can
just write a poem that has to do with death or dying, and that makes it
horror. Not necessarily. Horror writing is a completely different style of
writing that takes time to develop. Its very common for the basic horror
writer and some of us who have been doing it for a while to fall into ruts.
Ruts develop when writers are either new or lazy, and make a writers stories
all run together. Ruts are basically when a writer gets certain words or
phrases, and uses them over and over in his writing.
The Stranger and I like to call that using a Horror Thesaurus.
And yes, we are guilty of it from time to time as well. For example, if a
person calls a knife a blade thats fine, but doing it every time in each
poem gets a little old. Or, instead of saying a person dies, if you say
the soul passes on, thats fine. But if you use that phrase in every poem
every time, thats called being in a rut, and more importantly, redundant.
But when you do horror right, theres no better feeling. Im sure
if you are reading this then you have read poetry before, and you know that
theres poetry that is just words on a page, and then every now and then,
theres the stuff that really moves you, the stuff that makes you laugh, cry,
or just think. Horror is the same way. Theres stuff that people read that
is just a story with a twist ending or something, but every now and then
theres that one that really sends chills up someones back or makes someone
start looking over their back after or during reading. Thats the response
that most of us are shooting for.
The best way to achieve this feel or groove is to establish a mood.
This is done a couple of ways. One is with the actual story you are telling.
The second is the choice of words that you use and poetic styles that you
can add, and the third is the right combination of the first two.
For example, if you are writing a story about someone who got killed
in a car wreck, and the mood is very sad, you might say and as I held her
hand, I felt the life slipping from her and into the night sky, or something
like that, thats more of a peaceful way to put it because the leaving of
life is passive, not like it was taken away forcefully. If you were writing
a horrific version of the same poem everything depends on the point of view
you want to present to the reader you might make the seperation of the two
a little more graphic, like her grasp was not tight enough to keep hold of
the life inside of her, thrusting for escape.
Its also important to keep the mood, once you establish it. You
wouldnt want something like the lines above, followed by the nurse in the
ambulance said her vital signs were 120 over 400 or something. That ruins
everything! Make sure whatever mood you have first established, remains. If
its a dream like poem, make the words vague and misty like a dream. If
its real, make the words short and crisp. Choose your words wisely. Theres
more to writing horror than just thinking of scary ideas.
One thing that I have to add here is that its a terrible way to set
the mood for horror poetry by using rhyming words. Bad rhymes are the
fastest way I know to discredit yourself in a hurry. Of course, this is only
my opinion, and some people VERY few are able to churn out a good horror
poem that works. The majority of them however, are simple ABAB poem
structures, which just kinda make people laugh at you. In theory, it should
be avoided. Of course, in theory, communism works.
There are several types of horror to choose from, several styles and
fields. I wont claim to be an expert on all styles, as Im not sure what
they all even are. I know theres splatterpunk horror, which is like the
type of stories that just hundreds of people get killed, and theres lots of
senseless killing and blood and sex. Of course, this is our favorite. :
Theres gothic horror, which kinda explains itself, and then what I call
classic horror, which I think of as just a good scary poem or story. Theres
also what I call real horror, which is what I write a lot of, which is
stuff thats scary in real life, like describing a dentist office visit in a
scary way or something. normally not that cheezy. What ever kind you write
is great, just remember that there is a place for them ALL. There are whole
magazines dedicated to the Splatterpunk variety, who would reject anything
I have written, but Im sure there are other magazines who would reject all
the things that the other one already published! What Im saying is, dont
write for the audience. Write the kind you like and feel, and let the
audience find you.
One last thing I wanted to touch upon is subject matter. When people
write a happy poem about how much they like spring and how great it smells or
some shit, Its because thats what they feel. Of course, the way I feel,
I always throw in some innocent child who had her head bashed in with a rock
and was thrown in the stream, but hey, thats me. Horror lets you express
anything you want, from the hate inside you to things that you think need
to be changed in the world. You can address almost any type of issue, almost
nothing is too taboo for a good horror poem.
When you first start out, you will inevidably write generic horror.
That is, youll have half a dozen poems about how someone you loved dies in
your arms. You have the vampire poems. Youll have the watching someone
die poems. Thats fine, and its a great way to practice writing, but its
not nearly as interesting to anyone else to read than something thats 100
original. Keep at it, and eventually, ideas will come to you. When they
start, thats a great way to tell that you need to be committed. No ... its
a great way to tell that youre well on your way to becomming a better horror
writer.
That should be enough to get you started. Once you get started
writing horror, two things will happen. One is ideas will start coming more
easy to find ... you wont have to wrack your head so hard. And two, you
will start to lose your friends and family because they think you are wierd.
No, thats not what will happen. Youre stuff will start to get better,
after you get the generic horror writing out of your blood. Good luck,
and start writing!
- Jack Flack/SaZ -
Eulogies
On September 23rd, 1994, Robert Bloch died of cancer at the age of
77. He was a writer since the age of 17 who will forever be known as one
of the true legends of horror. He wrote a ton of books and short stories
but is best known work was Psycho which went on to become a classic movie.
Although he wrote novels in pretty much every genre, it is his psychological
thrillers that brought him the most fame and it is books like The Scarf
and Spiderweb that would be his favorites. In his later years he still
spent time writing, he even edited a few anthologies based on one of his
favorite subjects, psychopaths. He was well respected and an inspiration to
every writer of the horror genere and he will be missed.
On October 14th, 1994, Karl Edward Wagner died of heart failure at
the age of 48. In 1970 he published the first story of his Kane series
which he had began writing at the age of 15. In 1974 he got his M.D. from
the University of North Carolina and in 1975 he published his first novel
entitled Bloodstone. In 1980 he took over the job as editor of an
anthology series entitled The Years Best Horrer Stories which he ran for
15 years which helped break open a giant marker for short story writers as
well as making short stories a place where beginners could start off and
soon become famous writers. During this time he also published many short
stories of his own and many of them were collected in two books entitled
In a Lonely Place and Why Not You and I? Wagner helped short story
writers out more then most people know. He helped establish many authors
who know sell more books then Wagner could ever have dreamed of. Every
horror writer owes him big time. And unfortunatly the book company that
published his Years Best Horror Stories has decided not to continue the
series. Karl Edward Wagner will forever be missed.
The Stranger...
The landscape stiffens. This might be death.
But further is a new, whiter heart
Which no one sees, a dear unkilled portion overlooked
Harps on. She will not die. Not ever.
We knew her once.
And, kissing her, have scraped the wall that hides us,
each from the rest. . .
Phillip K. Dick
Final Words:
Well thats it for this month. This is just a huge pack, we are
growing well I think. Thanks to all the new writers and to all the old
writers for meeting their deadlines this time. : Thanks to all the people
out there who are keeping lit alive and especially to those of you who are
actually reading this. Please pass it around to friends and family. Take
care and we will hopefully see you at the beginning of May. And what you
just heard was only your house creaking, I promise it didnt come from
your closet.
Soulz At Zero
95
Your fingers black from ink as your shaking hands glide
down the page, trying to see if your name is on the death
certificate. The wind screaming against the window, begging to
get in, to get to you. And at last you find the dotted line,
written in blood the letters that form your name. A sudden gasp
caught in your throat, a flicker of the lights until they fade
off completely. The cold touch of fingers as a hand reaches
across the bare skin of your neck. Goosebumps rise from your
neck just as the lights shine on once more. And once again you
are alone. Before you lies the death certificate, your name is
no longer written. You have escaped death, for now.
The Stranger...
C Copyright SAZ 1995.
/ / / SoulZ at Zer0 / /
/- / 04-95 SaZ Pak /- /
-----THE-DEATH-CERTIFICATE------VOLUME-1-ISSUE-6---------APRIL--1995------
Staff: The Stranger, Jack Flack - Editors, Writers.
Black Sunshine - Writer.
* If you are interested in contributing to The Death Certificate
please let one of the editors know.
* Editors Editorials are now located seperately within the pack.
Mouths agape, screams curdling in their throats, their faces
bleached white in stark terror, their eyes impossibly wide...the darkness
had swallowed his daughter and most of his wife in a single lunge from
its murky home, their screams to forever remain unscreamed...
Face of Darkness Douglas Doelling
+ Table of Contents +
SAZ News
Letters to the Editors
Horror News
Voices From The Grave New Column
Reviews
The Writers Block
Eulogies
Final Words
Soulz At Zero News
New writers are here! This month we almost double in size with
all the new writers. We welcome Maelstrom, Aragorn, Terminal Velocity
from New Jersey!, and we also welcome a guest writer, DeadGuy.
Thanks for offering your talents to us guys, we appreciate it and look
forward to your work in the future.
And I would just like to mention some of the SAZ sites we have out
there that I wasnt able to mention last month. We welcome Disembodied
Voices as our NorthEast HQ in New York and El Motel de Tres Horas in Texas
as our South HQ. Also, The Death Star and Full Metal Jacket both from
Conneticut sp?. And we are really excited about our new Canadian HQ,
The Black River. Thanks to all the sysops for letting us take up room
on their harddrives and for supporting us.
We have decided to no longer put editorials in the Death Certificate
because sometimes we have important stuff to talk about and we realize
that not every one takes the time to read the Death Certificate so we are
doing more of the old readme type file thing. But for those of you who
enjoy reading the Death Certificate, I am trying to add new things to it
and hopefully we will have new words of non-fiction every month. We are
also working on interviews and other strange things. So in this months
Death Certificate Im starting a new column called Voices From the Grave
which is just me talking about horror in general, sortof like my old
editorial but hopefully more about a certain subject.
And one thing. Black Sunshine would like me to mention that she has
promised not to write any more Biblical apocolypse poems anymore. But
I the stranger am thinking of only writing biblical apocolpyse poems
from now on to make up for her leaving that wonderful theme. Nah, Ill
probably stay with my killing children theme. We shall see.
If you have any suggestions or comments for SAZ just call my board,
log on as SAZ and the password is SAZ and let us know. We really do
appreciate any comments.
Thats all the news for this month. Have a great April and we will
see you again in May.
The Stranger...
Harry, eyes closed, felt sick and dizzy. He has to be stopped,
he murmured. I have to stop him. But I cant do it alone.
You wont be alone, Harry, said the shade of Keenan Gormley.
All of the worlds dead will be with you.
Necroscope by Brian Lumley
Letters to the Editors
We had a lot of comments over the past couple of months so wed
like to share some of them and answer any questions that might have been
asked.
First, I think the most comments I received were about our new
viewer. I expected that. Mr. Spock did a great job with it and Yaun-Ti
made some amazing graphics for it. Just about all the comments said the
same thing, everyone loved it, and though they loved the music, they found
it annoying when they tried to read the poems and theyd hear that voice
saying necrophiliac. Well the problem is solved. Just type
SAZVIEW /SILENT and that will allow you to run it without sound. Though
personally I love listening to the music.
From Shadowolfe: I realize that the packs are doing really
well, especially lately, getting downloaded all over the country
and everything. I only have one question: why, then, dont you
have more writers? All the writers are really talented, but
seeing so much from the same ones every time gets old because
each writer has their little subconscious things they do in every
work that makes them all kind of run together.
Well thats pretty much the same thing weve been wondering. We
are now in like 9 different states and even Canada and so we expect to
see some more new writers coming in quickly. But hey, we just added like
3 this month and we are looking at atleast 2 more people for next month
already. So just keep watching us, we are growing all the time.
From Prince Kheldar: I liked the Cinderella reviews you guys
did. You were right about what you said about that era of music.
I laughed while I was reading that.
Glad you liked them. We really enjoyed writing them and if we
see anymore concerts together we might right another review just for you. :
So thanks for the comment, we appreciate it.
Thats all for this month. Thanks for your comments and questions.
If you have anything to say to us just find a member of SAZ and scream at
us. Wed really love to hear from you. Thanks.
Horror News by The Stranger:
New in Bookstores:
One of my personal favorite authors, T.M. Wright, who just
re-released one of his books called Goodlows Ghost now brings us his
newest hardback release entitled The Ascending. The book is about
murders and psychics. A police officer and a psychic work together to
try and solve the murders that have been haunting Toronto for months.
Any book by T.M. Wright is amazing, so if you get the chance check this
book out.
Voices in the Night is a new 65 anthology with many good short
story writers including R.C. Matheson, Elizabeth Massie, William F. Nolan,
and Janet Fox.
The Earth Strikes Back is another new anthology that was edited
by Richard Chizmar who is the editor of Cemetary Dance Magazine. This
anthology is priced at 12.95 and its calling itself stories of
ecological horror, so stories that involve the enviroment. Most of the
big short story writers are here, Dan Simmons, Poppy Z. Brite, Richard
Laymon, Ed Gorman, Rick Hautala, and Nancy Collins to name a few. This
is probably a good one so see if you can find it.
David Drake, who is really Ron Dee, releases HorrorShow. If you
know the writing of Ron Dee then you know what this book is about without
me telling you. Its amout sex and gore and lots of it.
Kim Elizabeth, who is nicknamed The Princess of Horror releases
something pretty strange this month. Its called Netherworld and
what it is is a horror poetry comic from what I understand. So its a
collection of her poety and short stories, written around pictures and
put in a comic book form. From reading some of Kims poems, this should
be a very interesting project and one worth looking for. And she is
incredible looking, by the way.
By far the most exciting thing coming out this month is also the
most expensive thing coming out. Strange Highways is Dean Koontz first
ever short story collection and atleast for right now it will only be
out in a limited signed edition at 150 a piece. This is an amazing book
produced by CD or Cemetary Dance publications and includes a brand new
short novel entitled Strange Highways, and also one of Koontz first
novels entitled Chase which is really hard to find. Plus the collection
contains 12 short stories, most of which have been revised for this
edition. 10 pages of author notes and 14 illustrations inside are also
included. If you have the money get this, if you dont, then hope that
a cheaper version comes out around summer.
Mark A. Clements new novel is called Lorelei and right now its
only avaiable as an expensive hardback. Wait for the paperback.
Ron Faust releases When She Was Bad this month in paperback.
Charles Grant releases Black Carousel, and he is one of my three
favorites. Check out any book by Grant.
Graythings is a new paperback from Pat Graversen.
Joyride is the new novel from Jack Ketchum which is getting good
reviews and has a good blurb by Stephen King on the cover. Its a 5
paperback thats worth checking out.
If you love Brian Lumley youll be happy to know that all of his
Necroscope books are being re-released in beautiful hardbacks that have
actually been slightly revised by the author. The 7th and final book of
the series, Bloodwars has also just been released.
The legend himself, Richard Matheson releases a new hardback called
Now You See It which is about magic and murder. Hes the best.
Michael ORourke is getting good reviews about his new paperback,
The Bad Thing. Pretty much a book about a serial killer.
Brian Stableford who got rave reviews about his last novel now brings
us Carnival of Destruction.
New at the movies:
Out in your theatres now is Stephen Kings Dolores Claiborne
starring Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The book was horrible but
the clips for the movie look really good.
Column: Voices From the Grave By The Stranger
I wanted to have a place where I could talk to you horror fans out
there about whats going on in the horror world. Where I could focus more
on the world of horror and still be able to ramble. So here it is.
If you read a lot of horror fiction and especially anthologies then
the name Dennis Etchison should sound familiar. For the longest time he
has been thought of as the best underground writer in horror. And by
underground I just mean he wasnt well known and didnt have many best-
selling novels. He is most known for his short stories which have
appeared in every quality horror magazine and in some of his own
collections such as The Bloodkiss, Red Dreams, and The Dark Country.
He also wrote a book called Darkside a while back and he also wrote
the novelization for a movie called The Fog.
Well a couple of years back he got his big chance when the Del Abyss
line published his novel Shadowman which went on to be one of the best-
sellers for that company. And ever since, I have been dying for a new
novel by him. Well for about 6 months or so, the word was out that Abyss
had bought the rights to his next novel and that it would be out sometime
in 1995. Titled California Gothic, the book was getting plenty of talk
in the horror magazines but no one knew what it was about.
Well my friends, I was able to get a small press release of the book.
The book is scheduled for June of this year and will be priced at 4.99
here in America. In my press release I have the full cover of the book
plus the prologue and the entire first chapter. Well the cover looks
somewhat cheesy and the idea of the book as it turns out is about a dead
woman coming back from the grave.
For those of you who know Etchisons writing, hes changed a little.
Whereas before he was quick to the punch, now he sets things up first and
then slams it down your throat. His writing, which was already the best,
seems to have improved. This book, from what Ive read, has a very
strange, mysterious feel to it. So now Im even more excited about the
book but we will have to wait till June.
And speaking of June, Stephen Kings new novel Rose Madder is
also scheduled to be released in June. I am working on and should be able
to get a copy of the book before it comes out and though I may not be able
to read it, I will let you know what its about. People who have read it
say its his best book since The Stand but then again these are people
who are close to the King camp. The Langoliers comes to ABC television
in May of 1995 and my sources tell me its really good though the cast is
really awful Bronson Balki Pinchot for example!
Well thats all I wanted to tell you about this month. Hopefully
Ill see you here again next month and we can talk about the world of
horror.
The Stranger...
The Reviews:
Books:
Methods of Madness By Ray Garton, pub. 1990, Dark Harvest.
Ray Garton has suddenly become one of my favorite writers.. I
reviewed a book by him last month called Live Girls and I loved it so much
I went out and bought another book by him. This one is a collection of 5
short stories and 1 short novel. It cost 20 but it is one of the best
books Ive read in a long time.
Ray Garton writes about two subjects, sex and religion. Usually he
uses them together but in this collection we see very little religious
overtones but we do see tons of sex. The first story in the collection is
entitled Fat and its about a young high school kid who has always been
fat. He cant get the girls because girls dont go for fat guys. So because
he wants the girls to notice him he decides to lose weight. And he does.
He loses lots of weight. The bad thing is, the weight wants him back.
The second story is entitled Active Members and this one is a
sortof funny one with a good surprise at the end. The problem for our main
character is he has a big penis. What? Thats not a problem? Well the
thing is it keeps growing, and growing, until soon it has a life of its
own.
The third story is called Something Kinky and its about a man who
just is bored sexually with his wife. She just wont try anything new. So
he goes to a single bar where he shares his problem with another man who
just happens to have the remedy for the problem. He knows a woman who is
looking for sex, his wife. So an erotic story of threesomes and blackmail
begins. Bad ending to this one but a good story.
Sinema is the story of a Seventh Day Advitist boy who wants to go
to the movies more than anything else in the world. But its against his
religion and his strict grandmother will not let him go. But there is a
minister in the church who just happens to have some movies that he likes
to show to young boys. The bad thing is that most of these movies deal with
men having sex with other men. And most of the people the minister shows
them to, only get to see them once.
Shock Radio is a good story with an obvious, yet gross ending that
is sure to make you laugh. This one is about a Rush Limbaugh type radio DJ
who is just evil. Until he gets a taste of his own medicine.
And finally Dr. Krusadians Method is a short novel about parents
who abuse their children and what can happen if the parents are made to
share the childs emotions with him. This story is way too long but it has
a good point and some scary moments.
This is one your not going to see in paperback anytime soon and your
not going to see it for sale at your local B. Daltons or anything like that.
But if you dont mind spending 20 for a book, just get to your local horror
book store and pick this one up. You will enjoy the ride.
The Stranger...
Movie Reviews:
Movie Review: HIDEAWAY
by Black Sunshine
This is not a typical horror movie in the least. It
combines elements of satanism, afterlife, ghosts, psychic
abilities and serial killing to get this unique story based on
the novel by Dean R. Koontz.
The movie begins with a stereotypical Hollywood satanic
ritual with a handsome teenage boy entering a tiny room with
pentagrams and some kind of demonic chants written on the walls
and an altar of dripping black candles at one end. Loud heavy
metal music blaring in the background pretty good, I might add,
the guy takes off his shirt and impales himself on a knife he has
propped just for this purpose. He writhes for a few seconds
before he dies, and then we get a firsthand view of his descent
through time and space and into hell. Truly horrific! Decent
graphics computer animation at its finest.
For those of you that dont know the story, this movie is
about a man, Hatch played convincingly by Jeff Goldblum who
gets in a car accident and actually remains dead for almost
twenty minutes, but a doctor is able to revive him with this
special process that he has been working on that has not actually
been refined or approved. From then on, Hatch becomes
psychically connected to a serial killer, Jeremy, and can even
see through his eyes as he kills his victims. The problem?
Jeremy can also see through Hatchs eyes and goes after Hatchs
fifteen-year old daughter Alicia Silverstone. The battle comes
down to a struggle between good and evil. No, I didnt tell you
everything. So dont worry.
The camera devices used to capture the scenes where Hatch
and Jeremy are seeing through each others eyes was great. I was
impressed with how they pulled this off and how it furthered the
movie along. I figured, after reading the novel, that it would
looked harried and confused on the screen, but I was wrong.
I was also impressed with the acting by both Goldblum and
the young man who played Jeremy who is a no-name actor Im sorry
I cant remember the name of and hope to see more of in other
movies. The Jeremy in this movie combines a mixture of charm,
brilliance, coldness and cruelness to create a great villain.
I was slightly disappointed however, that the movie did not
allude to the religious undertones in as much detail as the
novel. A lot of the demon/angel explanation was left out of the
screenplay. However, the movie was still worth the money and
worth watching once, if not more times. I have already seen it
twice. I would definitely recommend it its a fairly good
quality movie experience.
What happened to you? he said. Are you sick? Do you need to see
a doctor?
Im all right, she said. But when he smoothed her hair back
from her face, more dead skin rolled up under his nails...
Darkside by Dennis Etchison
The Writers Block by Jack Flack ...
Well, I thought I would write this months Writers Block for
two reasons ... First, because I had a great idea for a subject, and two,
due to never ending pressure from The Stranger to actually add something
besides my editorial to the Death Certificate grin.
This month, I am going to talk about subject matter, and basically,
for that matter, we are going to talk about horror in general, although Ill
touch upon some other subjects as well.
The question for this months Writers Block is Why Horror? The
reason why I write horror ... well, it would be tough to narrow it down to
one reason. One reason is because I like the type of poetry and short
stories that the genre seems to produce just by itself. Horror poetry does
several things for both its readers and writers. Horror for readers is
great. Its like a mystery that doesnt have to have a happy ending. Horror
stories are notorious for twists and turns.
Horror for writers, is another thing. Many people think that you can
just write a poem that has to do with death or dying, and that makes it
horror. Not necessarily. Horror writing is a completely different style of
writing that takes time to develop. Its very common for the basic horror
writer and some of us who have been doing it for a while to fall into ruts.
Ruts develop when writers are either new or lazy, and make a writers stories
all run together. Ruts are basically when a writer gets certain words or
phrases, and uses them over and over in his writing.
The Stranger and I like to call that using a Horror Thesaurus.
And yes, we are guilty of it from time to time as well. For example, if a
person calls a knife a blade thats fine, but doing it every time in each
poem gets a little old. Or, instead of saying a person dies, if you say
the soul passes on, thats fine. But if you use that phrase in every poem
every time, thats called being in a rut, and more importantly, redundant.
But when you do horror right, theres no better feeling. Im sure
if you are reading this then you have read poetry before, and you know that
theres poetry that is just words on a page, and then every now and then,
theres the stuff that really moves you, the stuff that makes you laugh, cry,
or just think. Horror is the same way. Theres stuff that people read that
is just a story with a twist ending or something, but every now and then
theres that one that really sends chills up someones back or makes someone
start looking over their back after or during reading. Thats the response
that most of us are shooting for.
The best way to achieve this feel or groove is to establish a mood.
This is done a couple of ways. One is with the actual story you are telling.
The second is the choice of words that you use and poetic styles that you
can add, and the third is the right combination of the first two.
For example, if you are writing a story about someone who got killed
in a car wreck, and the mood is very sad, you might say and as I held her
hand, I felt the life slipping from her and into the night sky, or something
like that, thats more of a peaceful way to put it because the leaving of
life is passive, not like it was taken away forcefully. If you were writing
a horrific version of the same poem everything depends on the point of view
you want to present to the reader you might make the seperation of the two
a little more graphic, like her grasp was not tight enough to keep hold of
the life inside of her, thrusting for escape.
Its also important to keep the mood, once you establish it. You
wouldnt want something like the lines above, followed by the nurse in the
ambulance said her vital signs were 120 over 400 or something. That ruins
everything! Make sure whatever mood you have first established, remains. If
its a dream like poem, make the words vague and misty like a dream. If
its real, make the words short and crisp. Choose your words wisely. Theres
more to writing horror than just thinking of scary ideas.
One thing that I have to add here is that its a terrible way to set
the mood for horror poetry by using rhyming words. Bad rhymes are the
fastest way I know to discredit yourself in a hurry. Of course, this is only
my opinion, and some people VERY few are able to churn out a good horror
poem that works. The majority of them however, are simple ABAB poem
structures, which just kinda make people laugh at you. In theory, it should
be avoided. Of course, in theory, communism works.
There are several types of horror to choose from, several styles and
fields. I wont claim to be an expert on all styles, as Im not sure what
they all even are. I know theres splatterpunk horror, which is like the
type of stories that just hundreds of people get killed, and theres lots of
senseless killing and blood and sex. Of course, this is our favorite. :
Theres gothic horror, which kinda explains itself, and then what I call
classic horror, which I think of as just a good scary poem or story. Theres
also what I call real horror, which is what I write a lot of, which is
stuff thats scary in real life, like describing a dentist office visit in a
scary way or something. normally not that cheezy. What ever kind you write
is great, just remember that there is a place for them ALL. There are whole
magazines dedicated to the Splatterpunk variety, who would reject anything
I have written, but Im sure there are other magazines who would reject all
the things that the other one already published! What Im saying is, dont
write for the audience. Write the kind you like and feel, and let the
audience find you.
One last thing I wanted to touch upon is subject matter. When people
write a happy poem about how much they like spring and how great it smells or
some shit, Its because thats what they feel. Of course, the way I feel,
I always throw in some innocent child who had her head bashed in with a rock
and was thrown in the stream, but hey, thats me. Horror lets you express
anything you want, from the hate inside you to things that you think need
to be changed in the world. You can address almost any type of issue, almost
nothing is too taboo for a good horror poem.
When you first start out, you will inevidably write generic horror.
That is, youll have half a dozen poems about how someone you loved dies in
your arms. You have the vampire poems. Youll have the watching someone
die poems. Thats fine, and its a great way to practice writing, but its
not nearly as interesting to anyone else to read than something thats 100
original. Keep at it, and eventually, ideas will come to you. When they
start, thats a great way to tell that you need to be committed. No ... its
a great way to tell that youre well on your way to becomming a better horror
writer.
That should be enough to get you started. Once you get started
writing horror, two things will happen. One is ideas will start coming more
easy to find ... you wont have to wrack your head so hard. And two, you
will start to lose your friends and family because they think you are wierd.
No, thats not what will happen. Youre stuff will start to get better,
after you get the generic horror writing out of your blood. Good luck,
and start writing!
- Jack Flack/SaZ -
Eulogies
On September 23rd, 1994, Robert Bloch died of cancer at the age of
77. He was a writer since the age of 17 who will forever be known as one
of the true legends of horror. He wrote a ton of books and short stories
but is best known work was Psycho which went on to become a classic movie.
Although he wrote novels in pretty much every genre, it is his psychological
thrillers that brought him the most fame and it is books like The Scarf
and Spiderweb that would be his favorites. In his later years he still
spent time writing, he even edited a few anthologies based on one of his
favorite subjects, psychopaths. He was well respected and an inspiration to
every writer of the horror genere and he will be missed.
On October 14th, 1994, Karl Edward Wagner died of heart failure at
the age of 48. In 1970 he published the first story of his Kane series
which he had began writing at the age of 15. In 1974 he got his M.D. from
the University of North Carolina and in 1975 he published his first novel
entitled Bloodstone. In 1980 he took over the job as editor of an
anthology series entitled The Years Best Horrer Stories which he ran for
15 years which helped break open a giant marker for short story writers as
well as making short stories a place where beginners could start off and
soon become famous writers. During this time he also published many short
stories of his own and many of them were collected in two books entitled
In a Lonely Place and Why Not You and I? Wagner helped short story
writers out more then most people know. He helped establish many authors
who know sell more books then Wagner could ever have dreamed of. Every
horror writer owes him big time. And unfortunatly the book company that
published his Years Best Horror Stories has decided not to continue the
series. Karl Edward Wagner will forever be missed.
The Stranger...
The landscape stiffens. This might be death.
But further is a new, whiter heart
Which no one sees, a dear unkilled portion overlooked
Harps on. She will not die. Not ever.
We knew her once.
And, kissing her, have scraped the wall that hides us,
each from the rest. . .
Phillip K. Dick
Final Words:
Well thats it for this month. This is just a huge pack, we are
growing well I think. Thanks to all the new writers and to all the old
writers for meeting their deadlines this time. : Thanks to all the people
out there who are keeping lit alive and especially to those of you who are
actually reading this. Please pass it around to friends and family. Take
care and we will hopefully see you at the beginning of May. And what you
just heard was only your house creaking, I promise it didnt come from
your closet.
Soulz At Zero
95
Your fingers black from ink as your shaking hands glide
down the page, trying to see if your name is on the death
certificate. The wind screaming against the window, begging to
get in, to get to you. And at last you find the dotted line,
written in blood the letters that form your name. A sudden gasp
caught in your throat, a flicker of the lights until they fade
off completely. The cold touch of fingers as a hand reaches
across the bare skin of your neck. Goosebumps rise from your
neck just as the lights shine on once more. And once again you
are alone. Before you lies the death certificate, your name is
no longer written. You have escaped death, for now.
The Stranger...
C Copyright SAZ 1995.
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