“It happens from time to time…a book grabs you from the opening line and refuses to let you go.  Benjamin Kane Ethridge’s Bottled Abyss was one of those reads for me.  Bottled Abyss is a stunningly sophisticated tale, both in its mythic scope and in its adroit handling of complex, emotional characters.  Ethridge is a writer of rare emotional intelligence, developed far beyond his years, but with Bottled Abyss he has outdone even his own considerable promise.  There are several writers out there, such as Laird Barron, John Langan and Lee Thomas, that have me chomping at the bit for their next release.  Add to that shortlist Benjamin Kane Ethridge, for he has made me a fan for life!”  

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Today we have an interview with author Scott A. Johnson. I'm so very pleased he was able to stop by Cloth's Chapel and discuss his latest work.

BKE: For the folks who haven't had the chance to read any of the Stanley Cooper chronicles, can you describe what they're missing out on?

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Around page 45 or so, I set the book down and the black cover stared up at me. I WILL RISE by Michael Louis Calvillo. I wasn’t certain about the novel, even though I happen to love stream of conscious writing. Hell, James Joyce is one of my idols and I would hardly call him a page-turner, but I WILL RISE hadn’t sunk its messy claws into me yet, not even with a subtle literary-styled attack. So I argued it over in my mind for the rest of that day. This Michael Louis Calvillo, a talented, risk-taker of a writer, no question… but where was he going with his story? What was it about?

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First Novel panel at Bram Stoker Convention in Long Island, June 23, 2011

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The Cuckoo Bird

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 Hal Bodner has been an entertainment lawyer, a scheduler for a 976 sex telephone line, a theater reviewer and the personal assistant to a television star.  For awhile, he owned Heavy Petting, a pet boutique where all the movie stars shopped for their Pomeranians. Currently, he owns an exotic bird shop.

           He has never been a waiter.

            He lives with assorted dogs, and birds, the most notable of which is an eighty year old irritable, flesh-eating military macaw named after his icon – Tallulah.  He often quips he is a slave to fur and feathers and regrets only that he isn’t referring to mink and marabou.  He does not have cats because he tends to sneeze on them.

            Rapidly approaching middle-age, he remembers Nixon.

            He got “married” very late in life to an incredible man.  Sadly, after five amazing, if turbulent, years he was widowed and can sometimes be found sunbathing at his husband’s grave while trying to avoid cemetery caretakers screaming at him to put his shirt back on.

            Hal recently took a crack at writing erotic paranormal romance -- which he refers to as “supernatural smut” -- with In Flesh and Stone and For Love of the Dead.  While he enjoyed writing them immensely, he has resolved to return to his comedic roots with additional “Chris and Troy” novels.

            He blushes to admit he is currently romantically involved with a man roughly half his age.  As a result, he has recently discovered that the use of hair dye is evidently not an adequate replacement for Viagra.

              You can read more about Hal at www.wehovampire.com though since Hal is a cyber-moron and a complete technophobe, the website is almost never up to date so you should probably just try to reach him on Facebook!

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​More readers had the chance to read DESCENT when Shane released it in digital format in 2009.

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Sandy DeLuca-Artist & Author    Personal website

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The God Marduk

Columbus arrives in the New World

Adventure stories come in many forms. Action, mystery, suspense, horror – but there's one you probably rarely think of when you're in the mood for an adventure book.

Science.

That's right. Science. No, I'm not talking about your chemistry text or the latest issue of The Journal of Bacteriology. I'm talking about the memoirs and journals of field biologists.

Okay, now that you've stopped laughing, give me a chance.

Years ago – many years, back when I was a geeky boy of about 10 – I was in the library on a muggy summer day, looking for my usual fix for the week. This normally meant a book on the different types of dinosaurs, or maybe something in a Hardy Boy mystery or rock-em-sock-em sci-fi novel. (See a trend? Science and adventure!). Lo and behold, what do my grubby fingers find?

Snakes and Snake Hunting, by Carl Kauffeld.


Now, I loved snakes at the time. Already had my Field Guide to North American Reptiles memorized. But this book, with its front cover of a rattlesnake poised to strike, followed by this teaser:

"A noted snake hunter tells of the many snakes of the United States, including over forty venomous forms, and his own adventures in capturing them alive."

Captivated me like no other. Add to that the picture of a gruff looking fellow dressed in bush gear on the back cover, and the statement that he was the Curator of Reptiles at the Staten Island Zoo – a local! – and I had to have the book.

So I checked it out, and spent the next couple of days devouring it.

This would have been about 1971, and the book had been written in 1957. I soon learned that the adventures within all took place in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. And what adventures they were! Tales of climbing through treacherous mountains in Arizona, slogging through swamps in Florida, and cruising empty desert roads at night, all to capture elusive snakes. As Curator of Reptiles, it was Kauffeld's desire to have as complete a collection of live snakes at the zoo as possible, at a time when most zoos only had a few 'attractions:' an anaconda, a large alligator, and perhaps a cobra. Each chapter read like a mini Indiana Jones tale, long before Indy even existed. Camping out with nothing but tents and tins of franks and beans cooked on an open fire. Narrow escapes from the attacks of hidden rattlesnakes. The joy of finding something rare on the road followed by the heartbreak of discovering it had been run over just minutes before.

Interspersed in and between these tales were loads of scientific information – habits, care, territory, ecology, etc. – but I passed over these. I just had to find out what crazy adventure came next. And it was all done in the style of a novel, with loving care paid to all the senses. Kauffeld perfectly captured the sounds of nightbirds, the smell of the campfire, the warm desert winds, and the stars shining in the clear, wide-open skies. This was more than an adventure novel, it was a Western and a mystery and a campfire scary story all rolled into one. It had cliffhangers. It had suspense.

It was the Hardy Boys if they were snake hunters, and perfect for a 10-year-old boy!

I read that book twice during the summer. And then the following year I did something terrible. I stole it! Snatched it from the very same library. Of course, I felt bad about it later and I went back and left ten hard-earned dollars on the front desk when no one was looking. And if you don't think that was hard, remember what it took me to earn ten bucks in 1972. That was a lot of lawns mowed!

By the time I was twelve, I had probably read that book – and the two others Kauffeld wrote – easily nine or ten times each. And then I did what all kids do and moved on. More scary books – Poe, Frankenstein, Dracula. More Hardy Boys. A lot more sci-fi, everything from Stark Trek novelizations to Piers Anthony, Roger Zelazny, and David Gerrold. Time goes by. I never lost my interest in snakes, but I also discovered other things. Eventually, I went to college. St. Bonaventure University, in large part because I was acquainted with one of the professors there, Richard Bothner. He was Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians for the college, and had a large (by small private university standards) collection that I'd been lucky enough to visit a few times because my uncle knew Prof. Bothner.

Naturally, I signed up for his Intro to Herpetology class. And discovered that he'd actually known Carl Kauffeld! In fact, Bothner came from New York City, and as a kid had visited the Staten Island Zoo all the time just see the reptiles. As a young scientist, he'd met Kauffeld near the latter's almost-retired stage.

It was Bothner who burst my bubble and let the air out of my childhood hero. Yes, Kauffeld had been the adventurous type. In fact, he had a lot of trouble working at the zoo because he felt confined. He needed to be in the field, collecting. To the point where he'd earned a reputation in the industry for over-collecting, bringing back specimens they didn't even need. His books, while great reading, also had resulted in snake hunters – professional and amateur alike – being practically given a map to where some of the best locations were for finding rare snakes.

Of course, this was disheartening to me, and I went back and read those books again – Snakes and Snake Hunting; Snakes: The Keeper and the Kept. This time, I saw with my almost-adult eyes the truth in Bothner's statements. The too-precise details of various locations. The way he'd taken home six of a certain species instead of just one or two. At the same time, though, I also grasped the scientific data interspersed within each story. I saw the book in a new light, as a tool that helped me care for my own snakes (and eventually the entire collection of the university).

During my college and grad school years, Bothner and I became good friends. And it turned out he was a lot more like Kauffeld than I'd first known. Not that he over-collected; just the opposite, in fact. We never brought anything back from our field trips. All the animals in the school collection were donations from various zoos and larger universities. But he was the adventurous type. And we did travel all over – Canada, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida – camping and hiking and catching snakes and lizards and 'gators and all sorts of slimy amphibians. We ate by the campfire, slept in tents, endured floods and freezing nights and mosquitos so large they could carry a person away. Sometimes it was just a few of us students and a couple of professors for a weekend, sometimes it was a whole class earning credits while slogging through the Everglades. I still have my own field notebooks from those trips. And by having my own adventures, I found I didn't need to read Kauffeld's anymore.

Of course, everything changes but everything stays the same and things go 'round and come back again. And by that confusing mixed metaphor I mean eventually, if enough time goes by and a book is still in your house, you'll read it again. So it was last year. We were packing to move into a new house, a monumental task for someone with a huge book collection. So I started packing my books months before the move. During that time I came across all sorts of hidden gems and re-read them. My Hardy Boys collection (50-odd books read in less than a week, and did it help me write a YA novel? Yes!). Some very old sci-fi by Alan Dean Foster. The old Conan the Barbarian collection.

And Snakes and Snake Hunting – the very same book I stole from the library as a boy!

It's been more than twenty-five years since Doc Bothner and I went on our last class trip to the Everglades. He got old, then I graduated, and a few years ago he passed away. I read that book by Kauffeld hoping to re-capture some of the old magic, and I did. This time, it was like I was a kid all over again, reliving the excitement of the adventures. Only now it was overlaid with the nostalgia of my own memories, as in my head I compared my trips to the Pine Barrens with Kauffeld's. My trips to Georgia with his. My pain at having a water snake chomp on my hand with his at having something clamp down on him. And the science was there still as well, a science now outdated. What back then had been radical in terms of making a viable home for a captured snake was now common knowledge that any kid probably had. And I wondered if kids today could even read the book and feel any excitement. After all, the current generation has grown up with psychos like The Crocodile Hunter, Jeff Corwin, and all the idiots on the Animal Planet channel who pick up cobras and 'gators and other dangerous animals with their hands, instead of using the special tools – snake hooks, clamp sticks, buddies! – we old-style herpetologists used 'back in the day.'

Most importantly, I realized that books have layers. There more than just the stories you read. They have power, the power to ignite memories, teach different lessons depending on your age and openness when you read them, and trigger reactions from your emotional core. Sadness. Joy. Nostalgia. Depression. Fear. They can stoke the imagination more than any movie, but they don't do it in that same immediate gratification kind of way movies or TV do. It's slower, it acts beneath the surface. A book leaves behind bits of itself inside you, pre-internet cookies if you will, that can activated decades later when you read the book again.

Don't believe me? Go find ten books you read before you were fifteen, books that had an impact on you back then but you haven't read since, and read them again.

See what happens to you.

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JG Faherty is the Stoker-nominated author of Ghosts of Coronado Bay, Cemetery Club, Carnival of Fear, and more than 30 short stories and novellas. His background includes working as everything from a zookeeper and laboratory technologist to an editor and resume writer. You can follow him at www.jgfaherty.com, www.twitter.com/jgfaherty, and www.facebook.com/jgfaherty

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INTERVIEW HERE      

The two head boards for the queen beds in my room had some interesting choices in artwork. It's like a puzzle: What's a musical + soup + the depression? To make it more complicated, there's a rainbow above the soup can, so it might be making a statement about sexuality too. I awoke confused every morning, second guessing my attraction to heart-felt musical numbers featuring one can of soup and one can of water longing to merge despite economic hardship.

At night, Brad Carpenter and I got some drinks called Scottish Sidecars, which seemed to be a blend of Sprite, scotch, and some genteel liqueur that ultimately went unnoticed. The first was good, the second tasted too much like pure Sprite for our advanced palates. After the bar I went to the Cutting Block Press Party and saw mis compadres Boyd Harris and RJ Cavender. Since no beer kegs are allowed in Utah by mere mortals, the beer supply ran out swiftly.

The other head board was just cruel. I mean, I didn't get away from my wife for the weekend to suffer this kind of abuse! I was listening at the time, thank you very much. I just didn't comprehend anything said. Take the next train, drama queen!

The photo doesn't do the vista justice. The mountains are beautiful around these parts.

DAY TWO: FRIDAY

I had breakfast with the always funny, supremely talented Richard Payne. If you know Richard, then you know its always great to hang out with him and talk writing and life. 

I attended a masterful reading in the morning by up and comer Folly Blaine from the anthology Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations.

Later in the day I had my own reading. I read two flash pieces. DOORS TOO SILVER and THE PIECE CAST DOWN. Like I said, I didn't take photos, but I have seen a couple floating around the internet, so here's a couple taken by Dark Eva of Dark Eva's Dark Delights. She did a nice, lengthy, well written account of the convention, which is more deserving of your eyes than this one.

"Bear with me, it seems someone has taken all the illustrations off these pages and replaced them with words!"

Chocolate jellybeans and M&Ms.

Check out Dark Eva's three day coverage of the WHC 2012. DAY ONE. DAY TWO. DAY THREE.

There was a mass signing that I weaseled my way into at the last moment. The WHC staff were very accommodating and printed out my own "Etheridge" name card and everything! Snarkiness aside, they were extremely kind and helpful, when they should have just tossed me out :)

That night there were several parties to attend, one of which was the release of Lincoln Crisler's CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY anthology. There was a reading at the party, and if you've read my blog before, you know how I feel about readings at parties. But hey, just my opinion. What the hell do I know? Yeah... so anyhow, many beer-fisted people flooded into the hallway while the reading was in progress and that's when security got an itch in their get'along.

The rest of the evening was devoted to finding small parties that would volatilize as soon as I found them. I went to bed early (1am), but the next morning I was thankful for it.

Nice. That white building's giving me the bird, but I snap the photo anyhow, undaunted.

Mark Scioneaux with his anthology HORROR FOR GOOD.

The dealer's room was excellent. Plenty of reasons to drain the bank account and bow all the shelves of your home library!

Lincoln Crisler's reading. He's promoting his new anthology CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY, that has a great collection of writers.

A gesticulating Rio Youers reading three chapters from his book WESTLAKE SOUL, which was so wonderful I had to literally run to the dealers' room to buy a copy. One of the most engaging narrative voices I've heard in a very long time.

DAY THREE SPROUTS HAIR AND BECOMES DAY FOUR: SUNDAY

So, staying up all night is not for the faint of heart, or for people named Benjamin, as it were. I went to my room and messed around on the internet and packed up my things. Before I knew it, yup, it was around 3:30am and time to gather up my things and check out.

My shuttle arrived right on time.

My flight did not.

I actually got to hang at the airport with writer and makeup FX artist Mike McCarty, which had a later flight and had opted to sleep a few hours. Smart man.

So, at this point, I'm not even at the convention anymore (yet my mind and ethereal form most definitely are), but I take my flight to San Francisco, wait three hours, then take another flight back down to Southern California, where my exhausted wife welcomes me with arms full of needy children.

After it was all said and I did eventually go to sleep, ghosties, thanks for asking. Another great con, come and gone, but never forgotten.

Some of the books I brought home. Westlake Soul by Rio Youers and Sex, Death and Honey by Brian Knight are not pictured.

  
My Tweets during the trip:

WHC 2012 Lesson #1: if you have a small forgotten pocket knife in your carry on, the TSA will find it

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) March 29, 2012

WHC 2012 Lesson #2: Disabled people get to board airplanes "at their leisure." So they can show up whenever??? Aye-ya ;)

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) March 29, 2012

WHC 2012 Lesson #3: Scottish Sidecars can put a hurtin' on you right quick, and the next morning:o

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) March 30, 2012

WHC 2012 Lesson#4: 1am is too early to go to bed, but without a nap during the day, it has sealed my fate

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) March 31, 2012

#whc2012 Lesson #5: Always had to wonder about writers who need to go off and write during a convention. I'm now one of those crazies.

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) March 31, 2012

#whc2012 Lesson #6: Showing up in the nick of time is always more fun than showing up early

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) April 1, 2012

Must... stay... awake... for my 4am shuttle to the airport! Ah!

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) April 1, 2012

#whc2012 Lesson #7: While awaiting your ride at 340am, playful jazz pumped through lobby speakers only facilitates rage

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) April 1, 2012

Now in Frisco. I'm still UP! I should write..... Neh.

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) April 1, 2012

#whc2012 Final Lesson: Sleep is overrated

— benjamin ethridge (@bkethridge) April 1, 2012

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

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A Matrix Of Angels by Christopher Conlon (Creative Guy Publishing)

Cosmic Forces by Greg Lamberson (Medallion Press)

Floating Staircase by Ronald Malfi (Medallion Press / Thunderstorm Books)

Flesh Eaters by Joe McKinney (Pinnacle Books)

Not Fade Away by Gene O’Neill (Bad Moon Books)

The German by Lee Thomas (Lethe Press)

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A FIRST NOVEL

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Isis Unbound by Allyson Bird (Dark Regions Press)

Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs (Night Shade Books)

The Lamplighters by Frazer Lee (Samhain Horror)

The Panama Laugh by Thomas Roche (Night Shade Books)

That Which Should Not Be by Brett J. Talley (JournalStone)

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

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Ghosts of Coronado Bay, A Maya Blair Mystery by J. G. Faherty (JournalStone)

The Screaming Season by Nancy Holder (Razorbill)

Rotters by Daniel Kraus (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)

Dust and Decay by Jonathan Maberry (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Candlewick / Walker)

This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel (Simon & Schuster / David Fickling Books)

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A GRAPHIC NOVEL

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Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol (First Second)

Locke & Key Volume 4 by Joe Hill (IDW Publishing)

Green River Killer by Jeff Jensen (Dark Horse)

Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine by Jonathan Maberry (Marvel)

Baltimore Volume I: The Plague Ships by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden (Dark Horse)

Neonomicon by Alan Moore (Avatar Press)

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN LONG FICTION

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7 Brains by Michael Louis Calvillo (Burning Effigy Press)

“Roots and All” by Brian Hodge (A Book of Horrors)

“The Colliers’ Venus (1893)” by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Naked City: New Tales of Urban Fantasy)

Ursa Major by John R. Little (Bad Moon Books)

Rusting Chickens by Gene O’Neill (Dark Regions Press)

“The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine” by Peter Straub (Conjunctions: 56)

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN SHORT FICTION

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“Her Husband’s Hands” by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine, October 2011)

“Herman Wouk Is Still Alive” by Stephen King (The Atlantic Magazine, May 2011)

“Graffiti Sonata” by Gene O’Neill (Dark Discoveries #18)

“Hypergraphia” by Ken Lillie-Paetz (The Uninvited, Issue 1)

“Home” by George Saunders (The New Yorker Magazine, June 13, 2011)

“All You Can Do Is Breathe” by Kaaron Warren (Blood and Other Cravings)

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A SCREENPLAY

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True Blood, episode #44: “Spellbound” by Alan Ball (HBO)

The Walking Dead, episode #13: “Pretty Much Dead Already” by Scott M. Gimple (AMC)

The Walking Dead, episode #9: “Save the Last One” by Scott M. Gimple (AMC)

Priest by Cory Goodman (Screen Gems)

The Adjustment Bureau by George Nolfi (Universal Pictures)

American Horror Story, episode #12: “Afterbirth” by Jessica Sharzer (20th Century Fox Television)

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A FICTION COLLECTION

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Voices: Tales of Horror by Lawrence C. Connolly (Fantasist Enterprises)

Red Gloves by Christopher Fowler (PS Publishing)

Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan (Volume One) by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Subterranean)

Monsters of L.A. by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)

The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)

Multiplex Fandango by Weston Ochse (Dark Regions Press)

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN AN ANTHOLOGY (EDITING)

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NEHW Presents: Epitaphs edited by Tracy L. Carbone (NEHW)

Ghosts By Gaslight edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (Harper Voyager)

Blood And Other Cravings edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor Books)

Supernatural Noir edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse)

Tattered Souls 2 edited by Frank J. Hutton (Cutting Block Press)

Demons: Encounters with the Devil and his Minions, Fallen Angels and the Possessed edited by John Skipp (Black Dog and Leventhal)

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SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN NON-FICTION

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Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America’s Fright Night by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne (Pelican Publishing)

Reflections in a Glass Darkly: Essays on J. Sheridan Le Fanu edited by Gary William Crawford, Jim Rockhill and Brian J. Showers (Hippocampus Press)

Starve Better by Nick Mamatas (Apex Publications)

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies by Matt Mogk (Gallery Books)

The Gothic Imagination by John C. Tibbetts (Palgrave Macmillan)

Stephen King: A Literary Companion by Rocky Wood (McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers)

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   SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A POETRY COLLECTION   

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How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend by Linda Addison (Necon Ebooks)

At Louche Ends: Poetry for the Decadent, the Damned & the Absinthe-Minded by Maria Alexander (Burning Effigy Press)

Surrealities by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions Press)

Shroud of Night by G. O. Clark (Dark Regions Press)

The Mad Hattery by Marge Simon (Elektrik Milk Bath Press)

Unearthly Delights by Marge Simon (Sam's Dot)