Remembering to forget
is harder than it sounds...

 

I have a new book. It's called Exit. It's out now. Please buy it...

 

That's what I want to say. The story disapproves of my directness. It wants me to delete the above sentence. I don't. I won't.

 

Many authors will tell you that writing is not easy. I'll happily tell you the same. Once I finish writing, editing, writing some more, deleting, and finally, reading the story, I don't want to look at it anymore. The story feels the same. We glance at each other across the room in an uncomfortable silence. We know too much... of each other and ourselves.

 

It doesn't get any easier.

 

In all honesty, I find writing blog pieces and introductions, like this, the hardest part. I think it's because it comes at the end. By now, my story and I just want to go our separate ways. However, we have to do this. Since I have the fingers, it's my job to do it. The story just peeks over my shoulder every now and then in order correct me or point out a spelling mistake. If ever stories gained fingers... I shudder to think.

 

So, I want you to give a good home to a story. It's well-trained in as much as it can be, however, it probably won't love you. You will probably catch it staring at you from time to time. Those moments when you're alone in the house or flat and you hear a noise... yep, that will probably be the story.

 

So... interested?

 

I don't think I'm alone when I say it would be nice to forget 2018. I shall not mourn its passing in a few weeks.

 

Forgetting the bad years isn't as easy as turning the page on a calendar. The effects and consequences linger on in your life. In some cases, that may be forever. Does it extend beyond forever? We don't know. Perhaps we do it all over again, only forgetting everything in the process. Perhaps it never really gets any better.

 

Can we change ourselves? Our lives? Our past? Can we forge a different outcome?

 

Tommy and Mary would like to think so...

 

What if the soundtrack to your life was forever stuck, unchanging, on repeat.
How far would you go to change the person you are?

 

Tommy and Mary wanted to get out of the city and away from the loop that their life had become. Where better than the backwoods to really forget about everything and find yourself?

 

It is often the quietest places that are the loudest. Silence rings with the echoes of the past bringing with it unwanted memories. Finding himself may prove to be the last thing Tommy wants to do.

 

Remembering to forget is harder than it sounds.

If you haven't guessed it already, the story... Exit... is a little... weird.

 

I started writing the story back in the autumn of 2017. At the time, I was based in Osaka, Japan, and had recently finished writing 01134 and Wednesday Girl.

 

I had initially decided to write a brief flash fiction about a relatively nice American couple that pay a visit to the backwoods and end up being cooked for breakfast. This is not that story.

 

Exit will not appeal to everyone. It is isn't scary. It's not warm and fuzzy. It might be unsettling, but probably not. It is just... weird.

 

As author CW Hawes described it after having the manuscript thrust before him to read: "It's... dreampunk."

 

I think that sums Exit up quite nicely. If you have never heard of dreampunk before, think of Lewis Carroll's Alice in the excellent Through the Looking-Glass or Neil Gaiman's brilliant Sandman (amongst several of his other stories). In both examples, there is something... unsettling... behind the author's words, daring you to look beyond. To perhaps take a second glance at the world you think you know and your place within it. I'm certainly not saying Exit will do that for you (or that it is on par with either work of those great aforementioned writers), but stranger things have happened.

 

True enough, the original idea started out as a simple horror flash fiction. The underlying idea for Exit, however, came to me as a passenger in a car back in 1995. It was just me and a friend. We were driving back from a spur of the moment jaunt to the New Forest in Hampshire, England. I was supposed to be writing an essay for university but decided to procrastinate for as long as possible. When I got a call asking if I was busy, well...

 

Anyway, we were driving back in her banged-up Mini Cooper when I popped a cassette into the tape deck. It was a second-hand deck, nothing special. I think there may have been a CD as well, but the details of the memory are a little vague now. It was the cassette that we were listening to anyway.

 

It was autumn. I remember the sun slowly sinking as we drove, casting a golden glow over the fields and trees. It was one of those occasions where you could just drive forever, stuck in that moment.

 

I was tree jumping in my mind. You know, when you imagine yourself running alongside the car leaping over obstacles along the way We were on the outskirts of Winchester when it all went wrong.

 

We got stuck in traffic on the outskirts near the industrial park. I've no idea why, but I remember it being busy. That was when the tape we were listening to started to warble. We tried to rescue it, but as the deck regurgitated the cassette, it continued chewing on its entrails, leaving great loops of tape stuck inside. I think we may have used a pencil to patch it up, but it was in pretty bad shape and seemed reluctant to be played again after its near-death experience.

 

It was when I would get home that evening that, instead of getting on with writing my essay, I would sit and muse and write. The fragment which stuck in my mind was about that drive back and the unfortunate cassette.

 

You see, perhaps life is that cassette you used to listen to in the car. You have that favourite track, some others that are pretty good, and a few that you could care less about. We glance out the window and see the world passing by. Sometimes we stop. Sometimes we never get going. Other times, we just keep driving, desperate to reach that final destination...

 

Exit is set in America although it isn't really defined as to where exactly. The same is true of the year - it could be now or it could be ten or twenty years ago. Of those I asked, it seemed the answer varied. I like that.

 

In addition, I worked a couple of Easter eggs into the story. They could be rather obscure, but those keen of eye that share something of the same taste will undoubtedly uncover them. Have at it!

 

As with 01134, there will be no separate cover reveal. You can find it at the end of this post. It's a plain and simple one. The image is just stock that I retouched. Yet it conveys everything that I wanted in a cover. The print edition will, of course, have a back cover. Perhaps I'll do a reveal for that. It's sort of fitting, in some ways. Back cover... Exit... you get the picture.

 

I'll post a book trailer and the usual playlist of tracks I listened to whilst writing along with some visual pins at a later date.

 

Exit is available in digital format from yesterday and can be found at all major online stores. The print edition will likely not be available until a few weeks into the new year.

 

Anyway, for those of you sitting on the fence, a sample of Chapter 1... in which Tommy and Mary are definitely not eaten for breakfast... can be read over at the website

 

"LEAVES FROM THE WYLDWOOD"

 

 

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AVAILABLE NOW AT ALL MAJOR ONLINE STORES

 

APPLE   KOBO   BARNES & NOBLE

GOOGLE    AMAZON

 

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An excellent take on the rednecks in the woods story theme. A non-supernatural horror story that will give fans of Stephen King a thrill.

Backwoods

by Jill Sorenson

Book 4 of Aftershock

 

 

I've been enjoying Jill Sorenson's Aftershock series for the past three books, and while they aren't necessarily my favorite reads, they are exciting and attention-hooking, to the point that the books become un-put-down-able.  Sorenson always jumps right into the action, with an earthquake burying San Diego in the first book, a plane crash and a loose killer in the second, and a kidnapping of the main characters into the harsh California badlands in the third.

Backwoods felt kind of tame and mellow in comparison.  Though to be fair, we DO get a glimpse of what's to come when Abby keeps dropping news article mentions about missing young girls and a dead body or two in the area she and her daughter and company will be hiking around.

And to be totally honest, I get that you shouldn't wrap yourself in a bubble just because some bad things happen in life, but shouldn't we also be a bit more cautious if young girls keep going missing in the same area within a certain time frame.  I'm no advocate of coincidences, honestly, and so that just screams SERIAL KILLER RAPIST to me.  But then again, I've maybe read one two many crime thrillers, and grew up with a very paranoid mother who makes sure to lock the doors all the time and calls you regularly when you're out with friends just to make sure you're not lying in a ditch somewhere.

Anyway, logic aside, that was only one of the reasons I didn't find Backwoods as enjoyable as the other three Aftershock books.  To be totally honest, our entire crew of characters is just a walking TSTL team waiting to happen, and that's only because they are letting a socially and sexually unaware eighteen year old girl lead them.  I'm not saying that eighteen year old girls aren't capable of leading a group into the wilderness for a nice few days of hiking--obviously Brooke knows what she's doing and can organize a mean hiking expedition with the best of them.

But when she stopped to talk to two strangers, completely ignorant of the leering looks one of them was giving her, and then proceeded to tell said strangers where she and crew were heading... Well, girl you might as well just throw yourself into their arms and ask to be kidnapped if you're going to outline your entire trip, including bathroom breaks to people you don't know.

Once again...  A lot of young women have gone missing in this area.  If Abby weren't so paranoid, and if Nathan hadn't cut Brooke's conversation off, I'm not sure Brooke would have made it very far in her hiking endeavors.

Anyway...

The book actually starts off pretty slow with a lot of family drama that seriously feels like a dysfunctional family soap.  Nathan's wife Lydia cheated on him with Abby's husband; Abby walked in on her husband Ray going at it with Lydia.  Now their two respective kids seem to be fighting an intense case of teenage hormones for each other... and then Abby and Nathan end up getting it on.  Later on, we even find out that Ray cheated on Lydia and another divorce is in the works.

Meanwhile, our group spends their time trying to keep the peace while hiking around in the wilderness--a trip that is supposed to take at least three days with no contact with the outside world.  Meanwhile, a lot of young women have gone missing from this location... Have I already mentioned that?

And Brooke is all, "Stop being so paranoid, Mom.  Nothing is going to happen."

Famous last words.

Backwoods had a promising premise.  I just wish I could scrounge up enough care for the characters to like this book more.  The rest of the book really was pretty exciting and intense.  And as per Jill Sorenson standards, the story was fast-paced; I rolled through it pretty quickly.

The characters, mainly, were the most frustrating and I had trouble relating with them.  In fact, I don't even think I was able to like any of the characters, which, while isn't a first for me, is not exactly a very common thing.  Sometimes, there's at least one or two characters I can find some like for.  Unfortunately, Backwoods is not one of those books.

So... probably if not for the fact that the book was written well and the story was not bad, I probably would have given this book a much lower rating.  Call me biased--I DO like Jill Sorenson and her books, and the Aftershock series is an overall enjoyable one.


***

 

Booklikes-opoly

Roll #7:
This book takes place in California.

Page Count:  378
Cash Award:  $3.00

Updated Bank Balance:  $39.00

See Also:  Freebie Roll Activities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 Stars.....absolutely filthy...loved it.






Well,I wanted a really dirty M/M book and this one definitely delivered.
A prequel novella that can be read in a few hours.

Shane is 35 and runs a bar.He's straight and has never been attracted to a man before.....that is until he sets his eyes on Musician,Gabriel.He becomes completely obsessed with the beautiful man playing in his bar.He's fascinated by him and can't stop thinking about him.
He's disgusted,ashamed,conflicted in his desire for Gabriel but at the same time has never been so turned on.

Gabriel is a bit of an enigma.You don't really get to know his background,where he lives,what he's up to in his time away from Shane.I would have loved his POV,but I think can see why the Author didn't go there.

The sex is desperate,raw and extremely filthy.Throw in some delicious dirty talk and I was more than happy.........

One of the more nuanced and tension filled novels of the modern era, Kealan Patrick Burke's Kin is only the more remarkable for the fact that it is not written by an author from the backwoods areas of the United States, but rather an Irishman who visited the U.S. to research this writing.

Burke starts the story where 95% of previous horror novels and films would have left off: with a lone survivor running bloodied down a deserted back road. From there Kin expandw to become a tale of dealing with past trauma - be it the trauma of the lone survivor, the Iraq War veteran who cannot come to terms with the death of his brother, or the simple farm boy who has lost his father and way of life when he chooses to help the aforementioned lone survivor.

As you might already imagine from reading that last sentence, characters are key to Burke's story. The middle section of the novel is the slowest, yet it is also the most compelling as the characters become identifiable people (with the exception of the insane antagonists, most of whom are also dealing with their own traumas). So as the reader reaches the third and final part of the story, they are very likely holding their breath, hoping that most of these people that they've come to know will find a way to survive.

And though the fates of some of the characters are a surprise, others are dealt with in fairly perfunctory fashion. In fact, it's this section of the book that almost disappointed me. After such a wonderful opening two-thirds, the final part of Kin sells one character horribly short and almost seems to pull a happy ending out of the fire for another two that - at least in one case - did not feel earned to me.

Regardless, Kin is a wonderfully written, slow-burn of a horror novel that requires nothing more supernatural that religious fervour and unprocessed trauma to scare and unsettle its readers. If, as a horror fan, you have yet to take chance on this one, ask yourself what have you been waiting for?

4 Lanced Impurities for Kin.