Trials and Tribulations of the Publishing Game
As I put the finishing touches and edits on my latest novel, I am charged with the task of also creating the cover art. I consider myself to be a good photographer but for some […]
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Crowdfunding Fiction River: An Interview with Kristine Kathryn Rusch
My post on crowdfunding a few weeks back generated some really great discussion and seemed to tap into something of interest to a great many people. This topic, like the rest of publishing these days, […]
Crossroads: The Importance of Parody to the Speculative Fiction Genre
Last week, we talked about how every piece of humorous speculative fiction inevitably gets compared to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But as I outlined, Adams’ comedy of the absurd operates very […]
Synthetic Voices #16 – March 2013 Top Picks
This was one of those wonderful, terrible months where there were simply too many good stories to choose from. Buckle up! [powerpress] Discuss on: Jimmy RogersRead My Profile www.scienceismagic.com
Writers Writing About Writers Writing About …
There’s something unseemly about writers who write about writers. Many of my beliefs about writing have changed since I was a pink-cheeked little colleen getting up early to write before school, but this is one […]
Review: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by HP Lovecraft
A supernatural murder mystery is probably the best way to describe “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward“, the short novel by H.P. Lovecraft. Published after Lovecraft’s death in 1941, this tale combines tropes from horror, […]
Zombies, Nazis, and the Spear of Destiny
The Spear of Destiny Jason E. Thummel paperback $12.95 ebook $2.99 Kindle Nook Smashwords Jason E. Thummel is the author of a number of well received heroic fantasy short stories (many collected in the book […]
April is National Women’s History Month
Which is kind of short-shrift for women – one month only – considering that homo sap history is women’s history and, like, there’s this whole birth thing which kind of suggests that without women there’d […]
Buying a Book for its Cover
So you know you’ve done it. I’m sure we all have at one point or another. You know what I’m talking about, right? You walk into a bookstore and there it is… the cover that […]
Self Publishing for Beginners
This week I became an author. After reading about Hugh Howey, I was inspired to collect the three installments of The Carrion Files into an e-book which I then put on Amazon (as part of […]
Review: At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft
While delving into the realm of science horror, I had the goal to read all of HP Lovecraft’s work. Having already read or listened to a significant portion of his fiction, I thought it would […]
Review: The Games by Ted Kosmatka
I’m glad I started with The Games by Ted Kosmatka as my first foray into science horror. I don’t think I could pick a better book that seamlessly melded horror and SF tropes. The year is 2044 and […]
Synthetic Voices #15 – February 2013 Top Picks
Woweewow, I love February’s crop of Top Picks! There is so much goodness I can hardly contain myself! I think all tastes will be sated this month. [powerpress] Discuss on: Jimmy RogersRead My Profile www.scienceismagic.com
We Can Hear You Scream: An Overview of SF/Horror Literature
The fear of the dark, the unknown, the monster standing right behind you ready to tear you limb from limb…is part of the human condition. Since the dawn of civilization we have been terrified by […]
Ora Pro Nobis. The Zombies Are Coming
Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world on February 11th by announcing his abdication. In related news on your Amazing Stories channel, the zombie apocalypse is coming. Even Snooki agrees! “One day, I know that the world is going to end with zombies.”
American Gothic: Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates
As I mentioned in my post Stephen King: A Beginner’s Guide I became interested in the work of Joyce Carol Oates because of her association with King. As early as Danse Macabre (1981) King was […]
Mini-Review of Felicity Savage’s “Black Wedding”
It’s been so long since I’ve heard a “new voice” in horror writing that I’d forgotten what it feels like. Felicity Savage’s “Black Wedding” in her collection Black Wedding and Five More Funerals gave the […]
Writing Reviews – in My Opinion
Readers tend to gain most from reviews while writers tend to live more by opinion. That ugly thin line between the two is where fan compassion blurs with confusion.
Welcome to my world….
I had thought for my first post that I would review a story that I’ve just finished reading, but then I thought to myself “I really should let everyone know a bit more about me […]
Genres Get Unstuck, or My New Favorite Literary Magazine
Prior to the 1991 introduction of SoundScan, record stores self-reported what was moving off their shelves. That system, open to bias and shaky math, created rigid separation in sales charts that ensured you didn’t find […]
Stephen King – A Beginner’s Guide
For a long time I paid no attention to the writing of Joyce Carol Oates. But I kept seeing her mentioned in the context of modern American Gothic, being recommended by writers whose work I […]
Supernatural Horror In Literature
The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from every-day life. Relatively few are free enough from the […]
Synthetic Voices #14 – January 2013 Top Picks
This month’s Top Picks are some of the most clever stories I’ve heard in a while. I guess January is just a clever kind of month! [powerpress] Discuss on: Jimmy RogersRead My Profile www.scienceismagic.com
Objects in Dreams (Imaginings Volume 4) by Lisa Tuttle
Lisa Tuttle has long been one of the masters of the deeply unsettling tale. Last year her short story Objects in Dreams may be Closer than they Appear opened Jonathan Oliver’s excellent anthology, House of Fear, […]
Synthetic Voices’ Top Podcasted Stories of 2012
Over at the Synthetic Voices podcast, I see a LOT of fiction over the course of a calendar year. Now, the 2012th year of the Common Era is coming to a close, so I thought I’d […]
Dead Cosmonauts and Other Eldritch Horrors
Space Eldritch Nathan Shumate, ed. Cold Fusion Media Tpb $13.99, ebook $5.99 Kindle Nook Smashwords Two of the most popular subgenres of the fantastic are space travel (with its myriad sub-subgenres) and cosmic entities with […]
Synthetic Voices #13 – December 2012 Top Picks
This month has been a tumultuous one – travel, holidays, and illness. Podcasted fiction seems to have also had a hard time, December representing the weakest month for fiction that I have yet seen. Even […]
How SFX Can Ruin a Horror Film
It recently struck me how most of the films that, IMHO, were truly scary were the ones that had little or no digital special effects. The reason is simple: what makes something scary is mostly […]
Crossroads: Where Genres Meet in the Night
Speculative fiction’s ability to stay fresh is a direct result of its ability to blend with other genres: the mash-up, the hybrid, the literary crossroad are where science fiction has always found innovation. We’re a magpie genre, and I think that should be celebrated and explored.
About Author
Chris Gerwel is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer. Raised in New Jersey, he spent ten years in Central & Eastern Europe in the market research industry, and today when he isn’t reading or writing speculative fiction, he works in the software industry. He lives in northern NJ, with a beautiful wife and a rambunctious puppy, and also writes the weekly blog The King of Elfland’s 2nd Cousin.
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