Would you like a gun with that ice cream?
In researching gun shops in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1870 I came across this ice cream shop. (It didn’t help in my research but it did make me smile).
Top Google review – “Ice cream and gun shop, what more could you ask for.”
Isn’t America a weird place?
I remember meeting my parents in America once and as we travelled from Boulder City to Las Vegas we drove past a burger restaurant with a sign outside that read, “Enjoy a burger and fire a machine gun.”
I think it was called Burgers and Bullets.
And people think the western is a dead genre. In a place where you can ask for extra pickles and ammo, a scoop of vanilla and a Glock G19, the Wild West is still alive and kicking in the unbridled hearts of a number of its inhabitants.
Cover reveal tease and newsletter news!
Cover reveal for Jack’s Game!
Next weekend I’ll be revealing the cover. This is my vain attempt to build buzz.
It finally has a release date! My debut horror novel, the one I’ve been working on for two years, will finally be published this Halloween!
If you want to see the cover before everyone else, and get a FREE horror story right NOW, all you have to do is sign up to my newsletter. The link is in my bio.
http://www.subscribepage.com/gnome
When you subscribe you will get my horror retelling of the Brother’s Grimm story, Gnome for free. It is a homage to the creature features of my childhood. This is my Gremlins, my Critters, my Ghoulies!
Melody and Faith just wanted to pick fruit, but a cursed nursery rhyme could kill them both…
When you’re playing by the tree
Eat the fruit and then you’ll see
Eyes like marbles, black and small
Teeth like razors, sharp and cruel
If they find you feed them bread
Or you’ll end up dead, dead, dead!
Eat my flesh and break my bones
All should fear the twisted gnomes
– Playground rhyme*
*WARNING: DO NOT SING THIS RHYME IN THE WOODS AT NIGHT
The Madness of the Criterion Collection
I’ve never owned a Blu-Ray player. I had amassed a towering DVD collection from the late 90s to about 5 years ago which got so large and cumbersome I moved it into storage. In the end streaming services took over and large swathes of it were sold off. I like streaming but I’ve always missed my physical movie library.
My film nerd friends out there will know the words, Criterion Collection. They are a company that, in their words, dedicate themselves to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film.
They don’t release the films that made the most money, or got the best reviews, they release the films that they think deserve to be presented in the best possible quality.
The Criterion Collection breeds madness. There are videos on YouTube of people standing in their Criterion Closets (walk-in wardrobes racked floor to ceiling with expensive Blu-Rays) swooning over their own obscure knowledge of movies you’ve never heard of. “The visual poetry of Jean Cocteau’s, Orpheus is… etc etc etc”. And in the next breath they’ll be equally excited about their Criterion release of Robocop. And rightly so.
It is a cult.
I am now a member of that cult.
For it is my birthday today and Rachel has given me my very first Blu-Ray player! And… My very first Criterion Blu-Ray!
Destry Rides Again is James Stewart’s first foray into the Western genre… etc etc etc
I’m back, and it’s time to share.
It’s been a while since I last uploaded a video to my YouTube channel. I have returned.
David’s Inferno
I’ve redesigned Dante’s Inferno just for David Chapman.
Some backstory first. I experience a severe type of misophonia when I hear the sound of a fork scratching on a plate. It’s normal for people to hate that sound. My reaction to it is a physical one. (I think it stems from watching Nightmare On Elm Street when I was six and the months of nightmares that followed).
It makes eating in restaurants a battle of survival. Not for me, but for the other diners. A battle they don’t know they are a part of. I hear a SCHREEE and it’s all I can do to not stab them in the forehead with my fork.
All of my family are aware of this. Any time we get together for a meal, and somebody accidentally makes that helll-spawned sound, the whole table stops what they’re doing and look at me. I’ll be gripping my cutlery tightly, my eye twitching. Sometimes threats of death will lurch from my mouth in a way that is beyond my control.
Somebody usually asks, tentatively, “Are you okay?”
A question I can’t reply to because I’m grinding my teeth so hard I can feel them break in my mouth.
This is more than a dislike of the sound. It is an adrenaline fueled panic that triggers the fight or flight response. It’s primal. If I ever go to prison for murder that will be my reason.
My brother knows this well.
Before I had even sipped my coffee this morning I noticed a message from him. It was a video. I clicked on it. A fork was pushed along a plate and my phone was on full volume. SCHREEEEEEEE!!
I dropped my phone and started shaking.
He is a total and utter c**t.
When Virgil guides him through hell, just as he did with Dante so many centuries ago, he will get to the bottom and find that it doesn’t go deep enough.
As such I have redesigned the Inferno to include a new layer just for him.
Andrew Chapman / Author and Screenwriter 