Sinister Reads - July 2011

Sinister Reads

The Last Motel
by Brett McBean
Legumeman Books
ISBN – 978-0-9871592-0-5
RRP: Lettered (26 copies only) – AU$50/Standard – AU$20
Lettered Edition now available HERE
Standard Edition now available HERE

Website: HERE

The Lodgepole Pine Motel, is the setting for nerve-wracking terror when a group of unsuspecting travellers find themselves trapped in a nightmare of violence and mayhem. Madge Fraiser is the kindly old owner of the rustic mountain hideaway, which, during one long night, will become awash with blood, as the guests are stalked one by one by a sadistic killer. Who will live to see the dawn, and who will learn that this is one motel where checking in can be murder? They only wanted to stay one night. But one night can last a lifetime at…The Last Motel.

Author’s Note:

When I wrote The Last Motel in 2002, I updated certain aspects of the story. The main reason was to help keep the ruse of it being an original novel, that I had conceived the story and characters at the same time it was written. But I also made the changes to please Butch, a small gesture on my part to maintain some distance from the movie that had caused such heartache in Butch’s life.

Now that Butch is gone, I have decided to go back into the novel and change those elements that modernised the story. The changes may be minor, but the book now resembles a true novelisation, and better reflects the period when the The Last Motel was made, over thirty years ago.

- Brett McBean

Feedback for the motion picture:

“(The Last Motel) makes Maniac look like a Disney movie.”
-Jennifer Landis, Variety

“After viewing this purile trash, I can only assume cinema is dead.”
-Frank Davies, Newsweek

“The Australian film landscape now has a Texas Chainsaw Massacre to call its own.”
-Walter Benson, The Age

“…bleak and depressing…”
Lucy Childs, Smash Hits

Praise for the novelisation:

“A thrilling read about fate, coincidence and murder. McBean pumps up the tension to unbearable levels, and then lets rip.”
—Tim Lebbon author of Fears Unnamed and Desolation

“Brett McBean is as brash and brutal as a young Jack Ketchum. He visits the dark rooms inside us all. The Last Motel is the first stop on his way to the top.”
—Scott Nicholson author of The Manor and The Farm

“The Last Motel is fun; a thrilling, white-knuckled suspense read. McBean’s voice is one that should be heard – a hint of Laymon and Koontz, yet distinctly his own. Genuinely creepy stuff!”
—Brian Keene, Author of The Rising and Terminal

“Brett McBean’s The Last Motel is dark and gritty, relentlessly fierce but tempered with keen wit and characters so real you can hear them breathing. The book is a loving, bloody homage to an underappreciated genre and McBean’s writing compels you to keep turning pages even as you cringe. A book as hard to put down as Misery — I couldn’t look away even when I wanted to. The Last Motel makes the Bates Motel seem like a trip to Disneyland.”
—Tamara Thorne author of Thunder Road

“Brett McBean’s The Last Motel moved me to that level of horror rarely visited. He writes without a safety net and crosses all lines as he illuminates the true essence of fear. Mesmerizing and frightening.”
—John Paul Allen author of Gifted Trust
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Letterbox (e-Book)
by Cameron Trost
Naked Snake Press
Amazon – ASIN: B0058JZ7QK
RRP: US$2.99

Available from: Naked Snake Press

Ian Carew left London to become a teacher in Mirebury, a town lost in the moors of Cornwall where everybody knows each other and life is quiet and pleasant. His elderly neighbour, Mrs Mary Hopkins, treats him like a son, and the local butcher, Jack Cochon, is his closest friend. All that is missing from Ian’s life is a good woman to share his bed with and a little adventure.Little does he know, he is about to get a taste of both.One day, when Mrs Mary Hopkins opens her letterbox, she makes a gruesome discovery and suddenly Mirebury is thrown into a state of shock and outrage.At first, they assume it was a random act, but the horrible deliveries continue and, before long, the townsfolk of Mirebury are forced to acknowledge that they have become the target of a campaign of terror – and nobody’s letterbox is safe.Is the dreaded “Postman” one of them, or is he an outsider?Tensions grow and the solid communal values of Mirebury crumble as suspicion and accusations tear the town apart. Neighbour is pitted against neighbour and tempers flare.The enemy only strikes at night and moves through the fog like a phantom as he makes his deliveries – it seems impossible to catch him. The fate of Mirebury will come down to one man.Letterbox is a dark thriller about how fragile the fabric of small town society really is and how one man, by pulling the right strings, can expose dirty secrets and trigger underlying tensions between neighbours.

Virtual book launch: Facebook Event

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TEN MINUTES TO DUMBSDAY!
by Martin Livings
Smashwords
ISBN – 978-1-4660-0734-5
RRP: Free
Available from: Smashwords

From 2007 to 2011, Martin Livings conducted what could only be described as a misguided attempt to overcome his own writer’s block by irregularly asking friends reading his blog to contribute words and ideas, which he would then form into short-short stories in under ten minutes, and usually on a Tuesday.And thus Tuesday’s Ten Minute Tales were born.Working with such evocative – and oft-times purposely oblique – terms as “nyctophobia”, “depressing sheep”, “Pilates”, “dishwasher”, and even “total confusion”, Livings set out to create coherent and, yes, even insightful tales from such humble and random beginnings.He failed, mostly. But some of the stories were amusing, at least. And now the best of these tales have been gathered together in a free e-book, Ten Minutes To Dumbsday!Horror, science fiction, fantasy… all have been seriously abused in the making of these stories and, hence, this book. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll even wonder why you bothered reading some of them. And, in the end, you’ll have a rare and often disturbing insight into the workings of the mind of Martin Livings, when he doesn’t have time to edit or filter himself!And remember, kids, nothing worth doing should take more than ten minutes.

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GHOSTS IN A DESERT WORLD
by Matthew Tait
Cover Artist – Kealan Patrick Burke
Smashwords
ISBN – 978-1-4660-5733-3
RRP: AU$1.99
Available from: Smashwords

Our world is not the only one…
From apartments haunted by ghosts both internal and external, and horror museums masquerading as doorways, to towns where vehicular manslaughter is a way of life, and highways are a preying ground for monsters, GHOSTS IN A DESERT WORLD is a collection of 13 macabre tales designed to chill you the core.
Interweaving dark, and oftentimes socially relevant themes, with the spiritual and philosophical, GHOSTS IN A DESERT WORLD will make you think, even while leaving you afraid to turn the lights out.

“In particular I liked the author’s handling of the blood work. I keep saying it and no one is listening: good horror writers have an inborn ability to limit their own prose without rubbing a reader’s nose in the visceral. Matthew Tait, on the evidence in this collection, is a good horror writer” – Scary Minds.

“Matthew Tait’s collection of short stories kidnaps the reader and abandons him in a disturbing world of lunacy and paranoia. Tait’s horror is at the same time in-your-face and darkly atmospheric. There are some recurring themes that give this collection a sense of haunting continuity. Stand-out tales like “The Devil’s Plaything” and “Dark Crib” introduce the reader to the town of Cyclone Cove, where it’s not always easy to tell just who the maniacs really are while “Car Crash Weather” and “Terrica” illustrate the terror of the automobile. Every horror fan should join Tait on his grim road-trip through a desert world” – Cameron Trost, author of Letterbox.

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Sinister Slices

The Stench

by Trost

Published in: Eclecticism #16

Available from: Eclecticzine

Damn Kids

by Jen White

Published in:  Indigo Rising Magazine

Available from Indigo Rising

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Bloodthirsty Blogs – Australian Horror/Writer Resources

OzWriting Plus
An online resource for writers of all genres and fields, covering markets, agents, contracts, publishing, royalty payments, promotion, copyright, professional responsibilities and links to other resources.

http://ozwritingplus.blogspot.com/

Scary Minds

ScaryMinds has a strong committment to the discussion and promotion of local horror literature. We will regularly review novels, short story collections, etc, and interview the writers working in horror in this region.

http://www.scaryminds.com/

From the Pit

From the Pit brings you the latest Australian horror news in books, comics and film.

http://fromthepitnews.blogspot.com/

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