A “Shimmer”-ing review

My review of David (First Blood) Morrell’s latest, The Shimmer, is now available at Dark Scribe Magazine.

My “Haunted” Story

Excuse a moment of gratuitous back-patting, if you will – I just read a review of Horror Library Vol. 3 which singled out my story “Toll” as one of the reviewer’s favorites. Also, it seems my humble little tale may have stirred up some supernatural activity around the reviewer. Here’s the excerpt:

“Toll” by Blu Gilliand is probably one of my favorite stories for the book, as much for the writing as for the somewhat spooky and hilarious personal experience had while reading it aloud. The storytelling is precise and creates scenes of despair, anger, confusion, and revenge as each piece of the puzzle unfolds through the short appearances of ghostly characters. It all leads the protagonist on her own short journey to uncover the truth of her child’s suffering. An emotional and gratifying story of both compassion and revenge. On a personal note, the story itself may be haunted. Strange things happened while reading this story. Needless to say, it should not be read out loud or while around any electronic devices. (I’m only half kidding about the previous three sentences.)

The entire review can be read here. Thanks Nancy!

“Sitting Up With Grandpa”

My new story is now live at Fifty-Two Stitches. It appears almost two years to the day after my first published story, “Books,” appeared on the (now defunct) Delirium Insider website on August 31, 2007. Enjoy!

I’m going to celebrate my two-year anniversary as a published author (now, doesn’t that sound all high-falutin’ and important) with a screening of Halloween 2 this afternoon. I’ll be back soon with thoughts on that, and on Inglourious Basterds.

In “Stitches”

A nice little review of the anthology Fifty-Two Stitches is available here. My flash fiction story “Sitting Up With Grandpa” is contained therein. You’ll be able to read that story online (and for free) on August 30th simply by going to the Fifty-Two Stitches website. If you’re one of them old fogies who’d rather have their reading matter on paper, by gum, then click here to preorder the paperback.   

Here’s a line from “Grandpa” to whet your appetite: “Jimmy tried not to look at Grandpa, but part of his job was to shoo away flies that gathered around the body.”

Farewell Summer

Summer is almost at an end. Of course, here in the Deep (Fried) South, summer weather will continue well into September, sometimes spilling over into my beloved October as well. But summer as we recognize it – those three heat-hazy months of swimming, grilling, cutting grass, no school, sweating, and summer blockbusters – is almost at an end.

This has been an unusually busy summer at the cinema for me. I caught pretty much every summer movie I wanted to see: Star Trek, Terminator: Salvation, Drag Me To Hell, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (I know that’s not a lot, but truthfully, there wasn’t a ton I was dying to see in theaters this year.) Of those, only Star Trek really blew me away, and that’s probably because I’m no Trekkie, and I went in with my expectations low.

But now, as we near the end of the dog days, I’ve got back-to-back weekends where the two movies I’ve been looking forward to the most this summer – and, truthfully, this year – are coming out.

August 21 brings us Quentin Tarantino’s war flick Inglourious Basterds:

“And cousin, business is a-boomin’.” I can’t wait.

August 28 sees Rob Zombie’s “family film,” Halloween II:

I know people had problems with Zombie’s first take on John Carpenter’s classic slasher. I had problems with it. Zombie had problems with it, too. But the more I revisit it, the more I find to like. And this one looks like Zombie is going right for the jugular. Gritty, raw, and unrelenting. Again…I can’t wait.

Will these two films bring a somewhat lackluster summer cinema season to a blazing finish? Or will the disappointment continue? I’ll let you know.