horror – Page 2 – Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher

The Saturday Night Special: La Noria

“From seasoned animator Carlos Baena (ILM, Pixar) and a crowd-sourced community of over 100 people, “La Noria” tells the tale of a grieving young boy who one day encounters dark creatures that turn his life upside down.” from Short of the Week

This film is from the YouTube channel Short of the Week. I will probably be watching them a long more often. Short of the week says about what you are about to see:

“LA NORIA Directed by Carlos Baena A NightWheel Pictures Film https://www.lanoriafilm.com/ “The minute you press play and the initial images of La Noria wash over your eyeballs, one’s immediate reaction is a simple “wow”. Maybe you’re more jaded than me, and the sheer insanity of modern CG animation fails to move you, but speaking for myself, despite 10,000 hours of short film watching under my belt, a life-long love of animation, and the existence of recent photo-real short films like Garden Party, the level of design polish in great, commercially-minded 3D animations can still take my breath away. Fortunately La Noria has a couple of minutes of setup in the beginning, because shortly thereafter my breath taken away again for altogether different reasons.

“The annals of CG horror shorts in this sort of mainstream style is rather limited—”9”, by Shane Acker, certainly played in this space, and “Alma” is a creepy holiday classic. Both films are over a decade old though, and neither can really match “La Noria” for sheer terror. From the monster design which feels ripped out of some the most twisted corners of the Resident Evil game franchise, to the tense horror-chase mechanics, this film is, in spite of its seemingly kid-friendly design, truly adrenaline-producing.

“The story itself is a touch less impressive, but ultimately satisfying. It has elements of heart-string pulling, as it focuses on a ferris wheel-loving child who is torn up over the loss of his father. Gathering photos and other mementos together into a sort of shrine, the child’s heart-ache seems to birth the darkness that soon threatens him. Details from the photos hint at a back-story—the military uniform his father wears for example—and naturally create associations in one’s mind to the work of Guillermo Del Toro and his masterpiece “Pan’s Labyrinth”. While this setup is nicely pulled together into a cathartic and feel-good ending, it is mainly table-setting for the action, which is intense, and in comprising the bulk of the 11min runtime, quite long by short animation standards.

“One can’t question the exquisiteness of this action—a spooky old mansion, replete with string lights and stained glass windows, provides a splendid backdrop for scrambling chases and doors frantically being shut in the face of grasping monsters. More so than even the design quality, it is in these sequences that the experience and skill of director Carlos Baena seems to show.

“Baena has over 20 years of experience in animation with tenures at Industrial Light & Magic, and Pixar on his resume, with credits that include work on massive franchises such Star Wars, Toy Story, and Jurassic Park. Produced under the banner of his own production company, NightWheel Pictures, Baena took advantage of his status as co-founder of Artella, an animation platform that allows for virtual collaboration, in the creation of the film. Baena used the platform to source a diverse crew of independent artists to work on La Noria, with over 100 contributors ultimately joining the project, hailing from all over the world.

“The result paid off—not only is “La Noria” a stunning showpiece for Baena and Artella, it has received widespread acclaim, winning dozens of awards, including Best Short at Tokyo’s prestigious Short Shorts Asia. Dropping online this week with an exclusive post on Variety, the celebration from worldwide audiences is sure to spread. As for Baena’s next steps, he is currently set up at Paramount Pictures. Details on his projects there are under wraps for now, but with luck, we’ll be seeing a feature film from Baena on the big screen in the near future.” – S/W Curator, Jason Sondhi

CREDITS

Written & Directed by Carlos Baena Produced by Sasha Korellis & Carlos Baena

VFX Supervisor: Yasin Hasanian

Music by Johan Söderqvist

Sound Design by Oriol Tarragó

For more information:

lanoriafilm.com/

facebook.com/LaNoriaFilm/

twitter.com/LaNoriaFilm

instagram.com/lanoriafilm/

Let me know your thoughts on this film.

Update November 6, 2020: The Man Who Escaped from Hell and Remnants

While I am still working on editing Shadows and Stars, sometimes I want to take a break and work on something else, particularly if I feel I need to get something published while working on Shadows and Stars. Sometimes I write a short story when in these moods. Lately, I have gone back to writing a poem now and then.

Having completed Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night…which contains my early poetry, I am thinking I should write a sequel, which I am calling for now Remnants (of a Life). It will basically be my reflections on life and getting older and a few poems that weren’t suitable for Nocturne. I may throw in some short prose. I hope to have around a 100 poems to include in it. Currently, I have about 7-10. I may publish a few in small magazines before publishing them in a collection.

Some years back, I started on a horror novel called The Man Who Escaped from Hell. I alternated working on it and what is now Shadows and Stars and other works for several years. In the winter of 2018, when I was living in Chaco Canyon (an isolated and remote spot in the New Mexican desert), I endeavored to spend my time writing on The Man Who Escaped from Hell, but was becoming overwhelmed with it while coming up with a lot of ideas for Shadows and Stars. I decided to focus on Shadows and Stars, which I have been doing since then.

One of my concepts of cover art for The Man Who Escaped from Hell using an alternate title.

My wife loved the ideas behind The Man Who… and kept urging me to finish it. She said that if I didn’t publish it while still alive, she would publish it after I was gone. That started some wheels turning in my head.

The protagonist’s name is Jake Brody. I went through several arguments with myself over whether to write The Man Who… in first or third person, sometimes going through the current draft and changing it from one person to the other. I finally settled on the first person, as it would make things more personal and dramatic. I kept writing down ideas and notes but was having a difficult time making a cohesive narrative out of them. Somewhere along the line, probably stimulated by my wife’s statement, I came up with the idea of publishing the novel in a very rough pre-first-draft form. So long as I kept a perceptible storyline, I could keep the entire work in finished pieces, rough pieces, and notes. Then, if I did die before finishing it completely, my wife could go ahead and publish it as a finished work. I adapted the plot to account for this. In the novel, Jake has been working on an autobiography/confession of sorts, but dies before completing it. The reader learns this in the foreword, so I am not spoiling the novel by saying that. In fact, the foreword is by a fictional friend of Jake’s named Malcolm Flynn, who explains that this is Jake’s draft autobiography he was writing when he died and that was found among his papers. Now that I am thinking of it, Jake may will this draft and a few other things to Malcolm.

So, yesterday I was thinking that maybe I should just go ahead and publish The Man Who… as it stands now. However, there would be a few plot holes. Now, I am thinking that if I come up with something to fill those holes, I may go ahead and publish it. It also needs a little more editing for grammar, spelling, and conciseness.

We will see which I publish first. It’s sort of a race at this point. You will be reading more about The Man Who…in the coming weeks as I have learned that I need to start publicizing a book from the get-go. I will probably be posting a few cover ideas and other illustrations as they occur to me.

Let me know what you think.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.

Hasta luego.

The Saturday Night Special: Christopher Lee Reads Edgar Allan Poe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p0v6Yk-fFg

I ran across this on YouTube some time back, but only today decided that it would make an excellent Saturday Night Special for Halloween night.

Christopher Lee is one of the most recognized horror icons of the 20th century. His reading of the works of Poe is spine-chilling. I hope you enjoy them.

Diabolical: Three Tales of Vengeance and the Sorcerer Jack Thurston is Free Today

Today, Diabolical: Three Tales of Vengeance and the Sorcerer Jack Thurston is free. Follow this link to get your Kindle ebook edition.

Jack Thurston is a retired professor of medieval literature and history. He is also a widower and father and a retired sorcerer who has returned to the black arts to exact revenge for the death of his wife, daughter, and brother. He has an intriguing position in the universe at a focal point of life, the afterlife, logic and reason, anger and hatred, the ancient and the modern worlds, grief and his attempts to escape grief through self-destruction. Though he wants to have the peace he once found with his wife, Agatha, he is pulled in many directions by circumstance and by his powerful negative emotions.

I am a fan of the old school horror practiced by such authors as H.P. Lovecraft, Poe, Edward Lucas White, and Arthur Machen. I endeavor to make a story as terrifying and suspenseful for the reader as possible without resorting to gratuitous blood and gore for a simple shock or quick feeling of disgust.

Reader Edward Z says about these three tales:

“Three of the stories feature a sorcerer named Jack Thurston, who is a really well done evil sort of character and the best of the bunch in my opinion. The author methodically goes through his rather complicated and gross preparations for the spells and it adds a bit more weight to them then usually found in these kinds of stories.”

Reader Tabs says about this collection of three tales:

“I very much enjoyed this short read. It was interesting and allowed for me to develop great imagery. Will recommend to friends.”

This collection of three short tales is perfect for those who have only a few short breaks to escape into the hidden world of horror, black magic, sorcery, and anger-fueled revenge. They are included in the collection A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror.

You can find this and other works at my Amazon author’s page: www.amazon.com/author/philslattery.

If you enjoy horror, check out my collection of horror short stories A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror: Stories of wizards, werewolves, serial killers, alien worlds, and the damned, which includes these stories.

Show your appreciation for these stories by leaving a review on amazon.com/author/philslattery or Goodreads or any other social media.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and follow.

Diabolical: Three Tales of Vengeance and the Sorcerer Jack Thurston is Free Today

Today, Diabolical: Three Tales of Vengeance and the Sorcerer Jack Thurston is free. Follow this link to get your Kindle ebook edition.

Reader Edward Z says about these three tales:

Reader Tabs says about this collection of three tales:

“I very much enjoyed this short read. It was interesting and allowed for me to develop great imagery. Will recommend to friends.”

You can find this and other works at my Amazon author’s page: www.amazon.com/author/philslattery.

Show your appreciation for these stories by leaving a review on amazon.com/author/philslattery or Goodreads or any other social media.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and follow.

New Edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror to be Out Soon

As I may have mentioned, sometime back I decided to publish a print edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror on Ingram Spark as well as with Amazon. I have been working diligently toward that goal over the last few weeks. As I get ready to go to publication, there are a few things I would like to point out:

As I may have mentioned, sometime back I decided to publish a print edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror on Ingram Spark as well as with Amazon. I have been working diligently toward that goal over the last few weeks. As I get ready to go to publication, there are a few things I would like to point out:

This new edition will be a glossy paperback 5″x8″ in size and 238 pages. The cover design is below. I am still working out the price (somewhere around $15-$20 maybe), but I am keeping it as low as I reasonably can and still make a reasonable amount off each book sold.

I am finding out that shipping costs make the biggest part of a book’s price.

I am enjoying working with Ingram Spark much more than I did with Amazon. Amazon’s process is faster, much simpler, and easier, but I don’t think the product is as good as Ingram Spark’s will be. Ingram Spark gives you much more control over the final product. They also give you much better advice on how to maximize sales.

Although Amazon supposedly uses the same distribution network as Ingram Spark, I suspect/hope that I will have much better print sales. Amazon requires an author to price his/her print book at least 20% more than the Kindle version. Apparently, they are pushing their ebooks over print because they are cheaper to produce and probably much easier to distribute. I suspect they may be doing the same in distribution.

After A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror comes out on Ingram Spark, I plan to publish Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night, a callous and disinterested lover with them as well. That may be in about a month more or less.

I am going to experiment with advertising on Pinterest by promoting the cover design for A Tale of Hell… on there. I am also considering just developing a spectacular but subtle ad and seeing how that does.

Let me know what you think.

Hasta luego.

The Saturday Night Special: “The Smile” by Fyodor Sologub (from Horrorbabble)

Titles Available Now in my Amazon Store

The following works are now available at my Amazon page: amazon.com/author/philslattery.

The new cover for A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror as of November 15, 2019. — Available on Kindle. A revamped print edition is coming soon.

The Blonde cover fo The Scent and Other Stories — Available on Kindle and in Print

The new cover for Click as of November 15, 2019. — Available on Kindle and in Print

Available on Kindle and in Print. Note this story is included in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror.

Available on Kindle and in Print. Note: These stories are included in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror.

Shadows and Stars is my first, full-fledged novel. It is a science-fiction tale about a scientist who invents a portal and transports to an alien world where he becomes caught up in a revolution. I am finishing the first draft. The final draft will probably not require many changes. At approximately 135,000 words, it will be about 300 pages in 6 x9 format. This is how I visualize the cover currently.

Shadows and Stars cover 2 — Coming hopefully soon.

Photo of man wearing a coronavirus mask — Prevent the spread of Coronavirus/COVID-19 for the sake of yourself, your friends, and your family.

Update of September 15, 2020: Follow up on “A Semblance of Normalcy”

Just a quick note. I finished “A Semblance of Normalcy” tonight and submitted it to Nightmare Magazine. I should hear back from them in anywhere from a few days to two weeks.

After I submitted it, of course I thought of a way I could improve it. I should have added more descriptors to make the senses come alive when reading it, things that would reflect what the characters are experiencing. what they are hearing, touching, seeing, smelling, and tasting (if i can work that in somehow) while being concise. If it’s rejected, I may add those to it before submitting it to the next publisher. One principle I try to live by with my writing is that when one story is rejected I send it out to another publisher the day I receive the rejection.

I am going to try a new tactic and find a photo that captures the spirit of “A Semblance of Normalcy”, format it for Twitter, and post it below. Then, when this article appears on Twitter, it will have a simple banner to help promote it. Let me know what you think.

Titles Available Now in my Amazon Store

The following works are now available at my Amazon page: amazon.com/author/philslattery.

Titles Available Now in my Amazon Store

The following works are now available at my Amazon page: amazon.com/author/philslattery.

Update of September 12, 2020: My Short Story “A Semblance of Normalcy”

Eating at an Italian Restaurant in Midland, TX — Eating at Ray’s Italian Bistro in Midland, TX, 2019. Photo by Francene Kilgore-Slattery

I managed to come up with an idea as to how to fill a gap in the story and wrote a synopsis in the spot where it should go, but I have to flesh it out today. Hopefully, the finished story will be about 2,500-3,000 words long. This is horror.

The original title, as I conceived of the story a few years back when I started the first draft, was “Apocalypse”. When I took it up again recently, I changed the title to “The Final State of the Union”. “A Semblance of Normalcy” is the latest title an I will probably stick with that one, because of the irony between it and the plot of the story on completion.

The story is about a US president who delivers what will be his final State of the Union address after a nuclear war and a pandemic have devastated the world. The catch is that everyone in the audience and in the White House are dead, just decaying cadavers, which he talks to as if they were alive. He continues to deliver the State of the Union (which was held in the White House during the war vs. before a joint session of Congress), because he wants to present a “semblance of normalcy” to the world. However, not all is at it seems and there is a wicked twist at the end.

I will let you know when and where I will have it published.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and follow.

Hasta luego.

President McMillan in “A Semblance of Normalcy” (based on a photo of JFK)