GOODNIGHT, FUCKERS #709: KOLCHAK NOSFERATU

 

I've been a fan of Kolchak for many, many years. I spent a lot of my time searching for The Kolchak Papers by Jeff Rice, and when I finally found it at a comics convention, I can't tell you how happy I was. I was even happier when I read it and discovered how fucking great it was. Rice wrote like white hot lightning.

Moonstone's Kolchak stuff is sometimes great, sometimes just merely good, and often times not so great. When I picked up the book above it was with mixed expectations. John Everson has a story in this, and I like his work. I knew I'd at least like his story (big surprise, I did), but I'm kind of surprised that I liked them all.

The one I liked most was written by Christopher Sequeira, whom I'm not too familiar with. He's also the editor, which is sometimes a hit or miss proposition. Even great editors, when they put their own stories in their anthologies, sometimes falter. But this was pretty fucking good. A group of Nosferatu groupies, er, scholars, puts together the uncut original version of the movie with plans to screen it . . . except a real life Nosferatu starts stalking victims in the vicinity. The explanation behind why this is, and why Nosferatu can walk in the sunlight, is really good. It's a very unusual story, and I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for more of Sequeira's work.

My only problem is the same problem I have with all Moonstone books. The comic books seem immune to this, but the prose books? They all have a shit-ton of typos, and this one is no exception. I wish they'd hire me as a line editor.

Hey, if someone at Moonstone is reading this, I'm also an editor! And I'm really fucking good at it! I'll give you affordable rates! Plus, I'm local! Lockport is 45 minutes from me! You can contact me at tabardinnedgewoodent (at) yahoo (dot) com!

Sorry. I had to get this off my chest. I usually review books on Goodreads, but this one isn't up there.

ONE QUESTION INTERVIEWS: JOHN EVERSON

John Everson is a Stoker-winning horror novelist located in Naperville, IL. He was one of the Dorchester writers before the company collapsed. Under their banner, he wrote books like COVENANT, SACRIFICE, THE 13^TH and SIREN. He is now working with Samhain. I first met him at Flashback Weekend, where I bought the limited edition hardcover of THE 13^TH, which has amazing artwork on the dust jacket, and I ran into him again at DanCon. This is my question for him:

ME: I noticed in the acknowledgements of THE 13^TH that a lot of the book had been written in bars, notoriously loud places with plenty of distractions. How do you manage to write in such a strange, loud environment?

JOHN EVERSON: That one’s easy, actually. The wall of noise creates a Cone of Silence, really. If I’m in a bar when they’re not playing music and there are only a few people in there, my ear will immediately pick up the conversation at the table next to me, and I won’t be able to do anything. When it’s really busy and the music’s loud, it’s just a buzz, and I can go into my own space. The thing I like about writing in that environment is, unlike in my house, where there are a million things that need to be done—I can feed the birds or clean the bird cages or clean up my office or make dinner or whatever, or talk to my son. In a bar, I can’t do anything. I’m not going to just walk around. I stay seated at the booth, people bring me beer, which is always a good thing until the bill comes, so I get a lot done there. I’ll spend three or four hours there, and it’s private me time.

His new book is VIOLET EYES and can be purchased here. Usually, I just leave plugs nice and simple like that, but he said a bit more when I asked him about the new book, and I thought you might enjoy this, so here you go.

JE: The new book is called VIOLET EYES, and it was also written in many bars. It’s sort of my big KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS book. It was a lot of fun to write. And in the acknowledgements, I say I’ve always done a lot of writing in pubs. In this one, I put where it was written. Bars in Ft. Worth, TX, Florida, Toronto, Vancouver and Munich, Germany, my first trip abroad. I went there for business a few days and got some writing done.

John Everson’s website is here, and you can follow him on Twitter at @JohnEverson