Robert Dunbar's Blog - Posts Tagged "monsters"

Promoting a book from the tiniest of micropublishers has not been the easiest thing I've ever attempted, but quite a number of reviewers and editors have already been very generous and encouraging.

I can't resist sharing some of my favorite quotes:

Martyrs & Monsters
by Robert Dunbar

"A masterpiece … disturbingly satisfying."
DARK SCRIBE MAGAZINE

"Substantial amounts of panache and poetic insight."
CEMETERY DANCE

"A milestone of modern horror."
THE BLACK GLOVE

"Sure to satisfy lovers of both horror and literary fiction."
SHROUD MAGAZINE

"Unnervingly erotic. This is what horror does best."
HELLNOTES

"Modern horror of the first order."
HIGHLANDER BOOK REVIEWS

"This collection will challenge you, move you, and make you hold your breath."
OUTLAW REVIEWS

"Exquisite … dark fiction with a soul."
BOOKLOVE

"Provocative … vivid and visceral. We are supremely and alternately shocked and entertained, and strangely touched."
GUD MAGAZINE

"Stunning … a Nietzchean nightmare … gripping and innovative … deliciously wicked and beautifully wrought … wildly original and satisfying."
TOMB OF DARK DELIGHTS

"Searingly erotic … brilliantly chilling."
THE EDGE

"Not a book to read lightly. You won't forget it."
RAINBOW REVIEWS

"Sinister and macabre ... a scary, compelling ride through madness."
NIGHTS & WEEKENDS

"A refreshing exploration into several levels of myth … and a contemporary take on the traditional monsters of literature in a decidedly more human context."
THE EXAMINER

“Blessed is the beast that knows its purpose.”



Initial response to my Wood – notwithstanding the expected witticisms regarding the title – has been tremendously positive … if a bit puzzling.

* * *

“Mesmerizing … poetic … unnerving.”
~ Literary Mayhem

“Honest-to-God terrifying and emotionally wrenching.”
~ Horror World

“Leaves an indelible impression on the reader’s heart and mind.”
~ Southern Rose Productions

“If you have not yet read anything by Robert Dunbar, you are doing yourself a disservice. WOOD is his latest dark literary masterpiece.”
~ Famous Monsters of Filmland

“Another excellent work from an extremely powerful writer.”
~ The Black Abyss

“A tale of the unexpected written in wonderful prose … flows with an eerie pace.”
~ More-2-Read

“Beautifully crafted. Reads like a bad dream experienced during a feverish night.”
~ The Tomb of Dark Delights

“Deeply disturbing. Horror as it should be.”
~ To-the-Bone Reviews


* * *

See? Nothing to complain about here. Still … I’m perplexed.

Few of the critics have mentioned the humor in the piece, though the Horror World reviewer did find the climax to be “wickedly funny.” (Personally, I thought the ending was dead serious and that the satirical elements mostly occurred at the beginning, but that’s probably just me. Also, though it's true I very nearly called this novella MOURNING WOOD -- don't ask -- it was never intended as a sequel to Willy.) I was not at all surprised that virtually no one seemed to recognize the theme as an extended metaphor for HIV. After all, that’s pretty subtle. However, I was surprised that no one commented upon the ubiquitous references to familiar fairy tales. For instance, the two young girls in the group home are named Bianca and Rosaria. I mean, come on. Rose White and Rose Red, right? Not exactly a coded message. Various passages begin with “once upon a time,” and the facility director is consistently referred to as “the Troll.” How obscure is this? In an effort to get to her grandmother’s house, Rosaria encounters “the witch" on the bus and is advised to “leave a trail of breadcrumbs.” Then she’s pursued by a carnivorous beast and aided by a woodsman. For goodness sake, she even wears a red hoodie! Work with me here, people! Later, there’s a mention of the creature “huffing and puffing” at a barricaded door, and at one point she actually utters the words “mirror, mirror, on the wall.” Did no one notice any of this?

Again, it must be me.

Just kidding. I’m very glad people are enjoying it. If you’re curious, check out the excerpt below. Thanks.


An excerpt from WOOD by Robert Dunbar:


Boundaries shift.

Towns and cities grow in spurts, sometimes encroaching upon places better left alone, areas that through a sort of negative geography remain neither forest nor park, neither rural nor urban. No proper designations exist. Unnamed and unclaimed, such regions appear on no map. They never have. Perhaps always they seemed too insignificant: half a lot, a strip of woodland, an acre of bog. Dead space. Easily overlooked or deliberately ignored. As though, all along, people knew … or at least suspected.

Yet such places exist everywhere. In every village. Every suburb. Ask any child. They form the terrain of all the darkest fairytales, the landscape of nightmares.

Alleyways through the worst sections of town inevitably empty into overgrown fields, scruffy and menacing and strewn with rubbish. Bad places. Dwellings on these outskirts slouch toward bitter soil. Boards splinter. Bricks crumble into gravel. So many futile walls loom, intermittent with tilting fences of all variety, a plethora of barricades (as though residents sincerely believed it could be kept at bay). Behind cinderblock barriers, chains rattle as dogs howl out their rage and fear. It is not wilderness that creeps up against these blighted neighborhoods.

Perhaps someday mankind will invent a term for that which seeps in, someday when the cities have decayed and the suburbs have withered and the bad places have inherited the earth. Perhaps, at last, the survivors will know Hell when they see it.


Check out the book trailer if you get a chance. Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y36Br...

People can be very generous. It’s wonderful that so many sites have been giving my new book publicity, but I do wish they’d all stop using the headline “Enter Robert Dunbar’s Vortex.” I mean, come on – on the first date? (Admittedly, this does kind of complement titles like WILLY and WOOD.) For my own promotional efforts, I’ve been using this copy:

Dark currents flow beneath the surface, powerful, deadly… ancient. Nightmares churn the deep waters of the soul. Vampires and werewolves, sea hags and witches – the monsters teeming in our subconscious minds are with us always. VORTEX explores the origins of some of mankind’s oldest folklore and the influence of that lore on literature, film and popular culture.




http://www.amazon.com/Vortex-Robert-D...


The contents include the following material:
THE PRIMITIVE NEVER DIES: An Introduction
LORELI VORTEX: That Enduring Lure
THE NAME OF THE BEAST: A Consideration of the Historical Werwulf
KITH & KIN: Demonic Correlatives in Popular Culture
CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT: The Legacy of Lycanthropy in Literature & Film
FOR THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE: Representations of the Vampire Myth
HORRIFYING AMERICA: Native Nightmares
LOCAL LEGEND: The Jersey Devil & I
HORRIBLE WOMEN: An Appreciation of the Scream Queen
LITERARY SOURCES OF CLASSIC HORROR FILMS: Ruminations
STIGMA: Hollywood & Hate

The book trailer is here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpiIDX...
In it, I read from the introduction and do think I sound slightly less than usual like a ferret on crack.

Your thoughts? The first reviews have been very gratifying, though every time I see “sophisticated and brilliant,” or words to that effect, part of me wants to hiss, “Quiet! I’d like to sell a few copies.” But don’t get me started on that again. (You know those words are like Kryptonite to the average genre fan.) Of course, it’s often the bloggers who make the most interesting comments.

“Witty and frequently self-mocking… certainly no dry-as-dust academic piece… a very gleeful book. A thoroughly engaging and enjoyable ride through some of the most horrific myths and real-life events imaginable.” ~ James Everington/Scattershot Writing
http://jameseverington.blogspot.co.uk...

That one actually came as sort of a shock to me, because I thought I had written a dry-as-dust academic piece. Hmm... always the last to know. Must be me though, since another blogger likened the reading experience to “having tea with a very fun and knowledgeable friend!” Tea? Seriously? Not even bourbon? It’s really that cozy? Well, I guess the parts about Gilles de Rais and Countess Bathori and the Jersey Devil are a little cozy.

From Robert Dunbar’s introduction to VORTEX: Essays from a Sea of Nightmares
They say a basis in fact inspired most legends. They say it all the time, all those Wise Elders in all those old horror films, the high priests, the scientists, the gypsy fortune tellers. On this single issue they agree unanimously. Deep currents of tradition and superstition swirl through most classic works of horror fiction. They spring from deep within us, these nightmares, these folktales. They speak of our deepest needs, the ones we have all been taught since childhood never to put into words, because dreams reveal our other face, the one we keep hidden, the Hyde to mankind’s collective Jekyll. Our most primitive ancestors never died, the ones who killed with clubs and rocks and clawing hands. No, they remain within us still. And when we sleep, they speak.


THE PRESS ABOUT VORTEX:

“One of the most enjoyable and entertaining nonfiction books I have ever read.”
~ FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND

“Illuminates the depth and complexity of horror throughout the ages. A real treat … opens the most dangerous door of all – curiosity.”
~ HORROR NOVEL REVIEWS

“Recommended for those who are looking for deeper insight into the genre.”
~ LAYERS OF THOUGHT

“A thoroughly engaging and enjoyable ride through some of the most horrific myths and real-life events imaginable.”
~ SCATTERSHOT WRITING

“Eloquently and intellectually written, seasoned with wry humor … a must- read for writers and fans of the genre.”
~ SOUTHERN ROSE REVIEWS

“Stunning … meticulously researched … keen sense of style … razor sharp wit and entertaining prose.”
~ LITERARY MAYHEM


Oh, and remember:

Enter the VORTEX.
http://www.amazon.com/VORTEX-ebook/dp...

Forget your favorite movie star or sports figure. What monster did you identify with as a child? Maybe we need a stronger word than “identify.” What monster suggested your secret other self? Go on. You can tell us. No one will judge.



Growing up, we all invested countless hours in watching old horror movies on television, despite how much our parents complained. It’s only natural that we felt more affinity with some creatures than others, only natural that they flapped and crawled and howled through our dreams. Half the little boys I knew wanted to be Dracula when they grew up, mostly so they could bite girls, but quite a few seemed instead to go through a Frankenstein stage in their teens, lumbering about and appalling everyone. A Wolfman phase could be even more problematical. (“I can’t remember a thing about last night.” Oh please.)


Read the rest of MONSTER LOVE at Layers of Thought.

http://www.layersofthought.net/2014/1...

“There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky…”
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley


I’m a little overworked this season (poisoning candy and putting razorblades in apples, it never ends), so I thought a medley of excerpts from previous Halloween blogs might be fun. Enjoy.


First up, it’s …

MONSTER LOVE, which appeared for the first time at the wonderful Layers of Thought site.

“Never forget that personal demons may have as much to do with secret desires as with secret fears. All those things we’re not supposed to want…”

What monster suggested your secret self? Choices like this can prove so revealing. As kids, we all invested countless hours in watching old horror movies. It’s only natural we felt more affinity with some creatures than others, only natural that they flapped and crawled and howled through our dreams. Half the little boys I knew wanted to be Dracula when they grew up, mostly so they could bite girls, but quite a few seemed instead to go through a Frankenstein stage in their teens, lumbering about and appalling everyone. A Wolfman phase could be even more problematical. (“I don’t remember a thing about last night.” Oh please.) I can’t imagine what little girls fixated on. Surely no one truly yearned to be The Astounding She-Creature or Bride of the Gorilla. And it wasn’t just movies. I could never warm to any of those irksomely wholesome novels grownups were forever trying to foist on me. Remember those books? The ones they approved of? They always seemed to involve a courageous pony or some plucky drummer boy who saves the platoon. Even back then, I could barely conceal my contempt.

I knew what I wanted. Where were my monsters? Where was the gloomth? I missed the considerations of mortality and suffering, loneliness and decay. So I might not have been the most cheerful of children – I doubt I was the only one around who preferred moonlight to sunshine. Maybe we’re a different breed of people, the monster lovers. Perhaps we’re somehow innately perverse. Maybe we’re just braver.

Read the rest of the blog here:
http://www.layersofthought.net/2014/1...


“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it…”
~ George Eliot


Then let’s head over to The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror:

“True art seldom celebrates conformity. Literature should transgress, not reassure…”

For me, the monster is always the lonely one, unloved and unwanted, the outcast. And even as a child I knew where my sympathies lay.

Always.

Dracula wasn’t a monster so much as a villain out of Victorian melodrama – foreign and sinister – a stale template even then. Of course, the hero would rescue the damsel. Was there ever any doubt? Ah, but with the Frankenstein monster … nothing could be certain. Adam was soulful. He was abject. He remains the classic outsider, the suffering archetype at the heart of so many truly great novels. What could be more terrifying than all that pain? Even now the monster is among the most supremely tragic – and most intensely human – of literary characters. All he wants is to belong. And he never can. No one will ever acknowledge his humanity. He suffers because he’s different.

Find the full blog here:
http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/20...


“Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.”
~ Francisco de Goya


Next up: ESSENTIAL OCTOBER READS at The October Country site:

“Halloween is the climax of an eldritch season…”

More than any other book I can think of “Something Wicked This Way Comes” captures that atmosphere, the sheer essence of autumn. Recently, I had the opportunity to revisit Ray Bradbury’s masterwork with the Literary Darkness group I moderate on Goodreads … and found the experience strangely moving. So many years had passed since I’d read it. I was so young. Imagine finding an old photo of the first boy you fell in love with. There he is – forever wild and beautiful, despite the passage of years. You might not remember the passion or the tenderness. You may have long since forgotten all the negative aspects – the jealousy, the fights, his mother – but this sudden glimpse becomes a knife in your heart.

Pain can be a good thing. It means you haven’t turned to stone.

Over the years, so many writers I admire have told me that Bradbury’s classic was the book that taught them to love the darkness. Yes. Exactly. It meant a lot to me to encounter his intoxicating language again and to remember how it set my imagination on fire as a kid. Still, there was a not-so-wonderful facet this time around. Admittedly, the Literary Darkness group has close to 3000 members. Nevertheless, I was shocked by the number of people who complained about Bradbury’s prose style being “difficult.” (This? Difficult? I have to wonder what such folks would make of Joyce’s Ulysses or Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, you know, something actually challenging.) But I mustn’t dwell on that. So many members of the group reveled in the text. Many of these readers were quite young, discovering Bradbury for the first time, and I felt privileged to be the one guiding them through it.

There are only so many first times in life.

Every so often, things get to you. The "talents" who glut the genre (and the naked politicking that has so come to define it) can leave you wondering why you ever got involved in the first place. Then something like this reminds you.

Way back, there was love.

See the complete blog:
https://theoctobercountry.wordpress.c...


“Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.”
~ Robert Browning




Check out SEASON OF THE WITCH at Where the Dead Fear to Tread:

Wise up. It’s not about the candy corn. Halloween is as political as a brick through the windshield of a cop car.

We have always been at war. First the Romans marched, then authoritarian religious armies – pious and intolerant – slaughtered and burned in their footsteps. What else could you call it but war? Adherents may have been tortured and maimed. Priestesses may have been put to the sword and temples sacked, but the old beliefs won’t stay buried. Even now, they lurk just beneath the sanitized surface, ready to claw their way up. Once a year, the prevailing culture acknowledges this fact … without ever admitting what it is that’s being acknowledged.

Neat trick. Never mind. The wild grace does not fade. Jack-o-lanterns still burn as brightly as any heretic. Hags cackle, and skeletons cavort. But don’t be afraid. It’s all in fun.

Isn’t it? Listen for the cries of “Satanism!” According to so many sectors of the culture, this day represents a challenge, even an outrage. In many circles, Halloween is still referred to as “the gay holiday,” and this alone offers effrontery to the status quo. Dissidents have perished on the rack for less. Much less.

This is not just war. It’s history. And which side writes the history books?

The name Halloween is a corruption of All Hallows Eve, one of many calendar events grafted onto pagan celebrations, in this case Samhain. (Doesn’t it always come down to power? Appropriating the old gods and turning them into saints and angels, even erecting shrines to them, has proved to be an excellent means of exerting control.) Wiccans still consider Samhain – the day when the spirit world and the mortal world make contact – the highest of holy days. As celebrated in queer society, Halloween becomes a transgressive festival: flagrantly unorthodox, a night of revels for the most marginally accepted (and often brutally oppressed) citizens. All Hallows Eve leads into All Saints Day – a cattle call of mythological personae, traditionally including figures like Saint Demetra and Saint Mercurius, supposed martyrs adapted from the Roman gods Demeter and Mercury, themselves based on the Greek gods Ceres and Hermes. This list includes Saint George (and his dragon), Saint Christopher (a giant), and Saint Valentine (Cupid/Eros) as well as celestial hosts of fabled others, so many in fact that early Protestant reformers could attack All Hallows Eve for being both Pagan and Papist. Another neat trick.

Then as now, propaganda and superstition remain potent weapons. Witches rarely burned alone, and never because they possessed magical powers. (The very word “faggot” refers to kindling.) However meager their possessions, every heretic rendered to ash owned something to be commandeered by church and state. If one sought true cause for outrage, one need look no further.

And the war never ends. Bats flap. Phantoms moan. No, it’s not about the candy corn. Everything is politics. It’s all about power. This Halloween take a stand; do something revolutionary. Here, have a brick. Just be sure to wear a mask.

Visit the site here:
http://wherethedeadfeartotread.blogsp...


“Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome.”
~ Margaret Atwood


Lastly, it’s an excerpt from an interview at Dark Media:

“To this day, readers are passionate about THE PINES … and more than a few are still incredibly provoked by it.”

You have been very critical of the current trends in the horror genre. Can you elaborate on your perspective of the market right now?

Critical? Oh dear. Have I? People are always advising me to be more positive in interviews, but that’s not always easy. Or possible. Do you know the Edgar Allan Poe story where the lunatics turn out to be running the asylum? No, I’m not critical of the genre. I love the genre. What I decry is the veneration of mediocrity that’s been like a stake through its heart.

It was a huge struggle to get MARTYRS & MONSTERS out, yet it was critically acclaimed. Why is there this barrier between the industry and the readers that keeps great books from reaching the shelves?

It really was a struggle. How do you even know about this? The original publisher scheduled and canceled its release five separate times that I’m aware of, finally preferring to forfeit the advance rather than to bring the book out. (Personally, I believe they bought the manuscript based on the impact my other books had made, without realizing the extent of the queer content. When they finally read it, they freaked.) Not good. And talk about bad press. Continuing concerns about who owned what rights very nearly suppressed MARTYRS & MONSTERS entirely, and few of the other genre houses would even look at it, despite my track record. What a nightmare! I ended up working with the tiniest of micro-presses. The book should have sunk out of sight without a ripple: I was prepared for it. But then the strangest thing happened. The reviews, all those incredible raves, they saved it. Critic after critic called it “a masterpiece” or a work of “genius.” What writer doesn’t want to hear this?

WILLY is a haunting evolution from childhood to adulthood and both the child-voice and the adult-voice are equally powerful. Elaborate on this process. How did you capture the authenticity from child to man?

This book is all about the voices, and I’m not sure how to describe the process of channeling them except to say that it was hard work. Real writing always demands so much. You have to be willing to confront things deep within yourself, things any normal person would have sense enough to avoid. I mean, we all put up barriers. We need to. But a writer has to strip away anything manipulative or evasive, anything false. Have you ever encountered a person who doesn’t understand what a novel is … or who can’t grasp the concept of fiction? You’ll get comments along the lines of “so you just make stuff up?” (If you slap these people, you’ll get into trouble. Trust me on this.) They’ll never comprehend that, no, making stuff up would be lying, not writing, whereas literature must be true on a higher level. Always. Each detail. Regardless of the plot. Every word. Every emotion. Absolutely honest. I swear this book almost killed me.

You do not shy away from erotic elements and gay themes in your work. How do you use these elements to shape your stories?

We’re back to honesty here. Any artist needs passion as well as discipline. This is too hard a life otherwise. What else would carry you through? I’m speaking of the characters’ passions now, not just my own, because I tend to write about people in extreme situations. They have desperate needs, desperate longings. The erotic, the emotional – that’s all part of it. A vital part. In my work anyway.

How has your work evolved over the years? How have the changes in the horror genre shaped your writing? Do you even classify yourself a horror writer?

Good question. No, I don’t consider myself a horror writer any more than I consider myself a gay writer. I’m a writer. Period. You’d be amazed by the kind of outrage this remark has been known to incite. (At my lectures, audiences have been known to turn into lynch mobs, though that might just be a natural response to my personality.) Do you understand what I mean? My beliefs, my desires, my artistic and personal goals, these all shape the kind of writer I am, naturally, just as they shape the kind of man I am, the kind of human being. If my work has evolved over the years – and I like to think it has – it’s because I’ve become more fiercely myself, less invested in pleasing others. I’ve worked hard at this. Curiously enough, as my writing has become more personal, my readership has grown. Go figure.

The interview can be found in its entirety here:
http://www.darkmediaonline.com/into-t...


“Where there is a monster, there is a miracle.”
~ Ogden Nash


Thanks for checking these out. Trick or treat, everyone. Have a great holiday.




“What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.”
~ Werner Herzog