“Full Dark, No Stars” is a good, solid collection of horror tales — four strong novellas by Stephen King that had me engrossed. Interestingly, three of the four tales — “1922,” “Big Driver,” and “A Good Marriage” — contain no supernatural elements whatsoever, and deal only with murders. The one tale of the supernatural — “Fair Extension” — is a shorter, faster, superior take on the basic plot device examined by the less-than-stellar “Needful Things.” It was typical King; parts were slow, but the pace didn’t change the fact that this was a great page-turner that was hard to put down. There were a few references to other King novels to please long-term fans, including a reference to “The Dark Tower” series. Even the Afterword was entertaining, as King delivered his down-to-earth recounting of how he got the ideas for each story. There’s some great trivia there, too — King says “The Long Walk” was the first novel he wrote, at the tender age of 18. My copy of “Full Dark, No Stars” had a bonus feature — a damn fantastic short story called “Under the Weather.” Don’t miss it. 
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“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door…Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
New Year’s Eve, 2014
I wish all of you who share your voices and friendship here the very best of New Years — I hope your 2015 is filled with love, light, laughter, prosperity and peace.
And thank you — friends, colleagues, alums, and fellow lovers of words — for being there in 2014 and for brightening my days, and for being who you are — the best, funniest and kindest group of chums that a man could ask for.
Much love,
Eric
2014 in review (goddam Paul Bunyan poem)
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,300 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
“Brave New World”
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!
— Miranda, “The Tempest,” by William Shakespeare
My beard has a name, and it is Grendel.
Seriously, it’s huge. I think it might soon require it’s own social security number.
I’m starting to think it might rival the face-manes of pals John Kerr and Pete Harrison. I’ll post pics when I can.
In other news, I am trying to pen a poem about a raven. Someone gave me a funny look and told me that it’d been done … apparently there’s ANOTHER poem about a raven by a well known poet?
I’ve got submissions in to a few online publishers, for flash fiction and poetry — I’ll let you know if anything is accepted.
I wrote a zombie long story that actually DOES have a main character based on me, which is a first. His name is Steve, and he’s inquisitive and physically quick. Also penned my first (and predictably dark) time-travel tale, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.
And I’m hard at work behind the scenes on a major project as well. I hope everyone is having a terrific holiday season!!!
Looking for a magazine to which to submit a mythology poem.
It’s an allegory to Homer’s “Odyssey.”
Wish me luck. I don’t know what my chances are … these things are so hit or myth.
Merry Christmas to all my friends!!
Stephen King’s “Mr. Mercedes”
Stephen King’s “Mr. Mercedes” is a terrific thriller that will be sure to please his fans. It’s the story of very unlikely heroes and friends pursuing an at-large, highly intelligent and remorseless spree killer/serial killer.
It is occasioanlly slow. We spend way too much time getting to know Hodges, for example, before his character becomes either likable or even plot-relevant. But this is forgivable for such a great book. I loved the characters and found certain scenes touching. And the character development for the eponymous Mr. Mercedes is consistently disturbing.
And for horror fans … Jeez, does this book deliver. It’s a frightening story, to say the least. One part, involving a certain mixup (I can’t say more without spoilers), is positively horrifying, even by Stephen King standards.
My pal Steve Miller told me that this is the start of a trilogy — I can’t wait for the next installment.

Meet me under Debbie’s Blue Umbrella.

