Pulp Nocturne is STILL Coming!

It's just taking a little longer than planned.

To tide you over, here's a preview from the phenomenally talented Billy Tackett.

My Other Favorite Movie Magazine

I love Rue Morgue -- as I've previously mentioned in this space -- and I also look forward to Video Watchdog, published out of Cincinnati by Tim Lucas.

There's a possibility the Cincy connection increases my affection of VW. It's close by, and the thought of all this genre-loving goodness being produced in the proximity of Skyline Chili and my beloved Bengals warms the ol' cockles.

But the real reason this is a must-read is the obsessive love Lucas and his writers show for the tiniest detail of the films they review. Even the crappiest wastes of celluoid are examined under the critical microscope of VW. Print quality, running time, soundtrack, the pedigree of background actors in a crowded scene...they're all granted the respectful attention an art critic would give to a newly discovered Picasso. And it's amusing to find a couple of thousand words devoted to stinkers like the craptacular Jack Palance flick Craze.

I plowed through the latest issue last night and ended up with the same urge I always have when I finish VW: to check the cable channels and online stores for these cinematic treats that were never on my radar until now.

Lucas is also a fine novelist. I reviewed his The Book of Renfield months ago for Hellnotes. He's a blogger, too.

May Video Watchdog live forever. Without it, how would I have ever known about the genre of Turkish superhero movies?

The Final Page Horrific

Is it really the last issue of Page Horrific? Nah, I don’t buy that for a minute. I think it’ll be back in about 15 months (that’s my bet, anyway).

Meantime, if you’d like to read my interview with Bryan Smith, go here.

And if you’d like to see what the best writer in the horror (or any other) field has to say about the novella Wilbanks and I wrote, go to the end of this article.

By the way, we think the novella's been sold to a publisher. But don’t let that stop any other publishing house from asking to see something else from either of us. We're happy to oblige.

Phatt Chat

David T. Wilbanks and I will be the guests May 7th in the chat room at The Red Light District. Stop by and watch this chat novice try to type legibly. It may be too soon to talk about the book, but we can have a wing ding doodle of a time with Pod of Horror and Pulp Nocturne.

***

A listener of POH just sent this to podofhorror @ aol dot com:

By the way, has Mark Justice been paid by Gothic.net. Haven't heard recently.

That would be nope. Nuh-uh. Negatory, good buddy.

Promises were made and broken. I suspect that if payment is ever made it will be a day or so after the sun goes nova. When W admits he screwed up in Iraq. When Barry Bonds says, “Yes, I was juiced.” When Fox News changes their slogan to the more honest “Unfair and Unbalanced.” When gas is under two bucks again. When I look good in a Speedo.

In other words, I don’t think it’s happening.

Live and learn, friends. Profit from my mistake.

Smeller's The Feller

The Cthulhu Circus

Found here. Hee-larious!

The Family Cthulhu

Pod of Horror #14

Pod of Horror #14 is our biggest show yet. This time around:

* James A. Moore talks writing, comics, gaming and what’s next.

* Matthew Warner gives us the inside scoop on EYES EVERYWHERE.

* Sean Connery, Dracula and Tennessee Tuxedo phone in.

* Grim Rictus cooks up some advice

* Actual recommendations!

* A very short clue leads to big prizes on The Tomb of Trivia.

All that and much misbehavin’ on POH #14, hosted by Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks. Download it now at I-Tunes or direct to your desktop here.

And be sure to drop by the new Justice & Wilbanks message board here.

Needless To Say

All writers hate rejection. We hate lengthy response times, too. But they’re both part of the game.

In my capacity as editor of Story Station, I have to reject a lot of stories. And we get a lot of submissions. I’m pretty behind on getting to them, what with the 75 other things going on. That’s a problem I’m trying to correct.

This weekend, I read 27 stories. I rejected 24 of them for various reasons: too short, too long, wrong format, adult subject matter, bad writing, bad grammar, story in ALL CAPS, entire 3000-word story in one sentence, writer doesn’t speak English, etc, etc. The guidelines were broken in every way.

It makes me realize what a pain in the ass I was to editors when I started out.

Doesn’t fit the guidelines? Hell, once they read my magnificent story they won’t care!

It turned out they did care. Hopefully I’ve matured a bit in regard to following the guidelines.

I’ve had a lot of rejections. I’ll have many more. One thing I never did was bitch out the editor about the length of time it took to get a response. If I thought the wait was too long or I found another market for the story, I wrote the editor and withdrew the piece, after querying first about the story’s status.

Here’s a response I got today after I sent the author a rejection:

Dear Mr. Justice,
The response time was far too long. Needless to say I won't be submitting to you again.

After my tears at the thought of never again having the privilege of reading the author’s work, I wondered something.

If it was needless to say, why did he say it?

Wouldn’t just “I won't be submitting to you again” covey the information more effectively?

Meantime, If you want to write a YA story, and you can follow guidelines, go here, then give me a shot.

I’ll try to get back to you in a reasonable time.

Needless to say.

Paulie Walnuts Says...

...Listen to Pod of Horror -- and kick up 4 Gs a month to me -- or I'll break your f@@@ing legs.

The Week That Was

From a writing standpoint, the week started out well. I finished and submitted a short story on Monday. On Tuesday I wrote and submitted a humor column to a local magazine (and it looks like I sold it) . On Wednesday we got the good news about the novella (which I hope we can announce soon). I finished my latest part of the collaborative novel on Thursday morning. Nothing since, though. Hopefully tonight and tomorrow will see me diving back into The Firecracker Man. But then I have to work on Pulp Nocturne. And then it's my turn again on the collaborative novel....

***

We finished a new Pod of Horror about an hour ago. This one is our longest yet and features interviews with James A. Moore and Matthew Warner. Plus many disturbing voice mails. It goes live on Monday. Thanks to Jonathon Williams at Horrorreader.com for all the work he puts into making this happen every two weeks.

***

We watched The Constant Gardener last night. It was one of the best movies I've seen all year, right alongside Capote and Good Night and Good Luck. It’s been a good month for movies at Casa De Justice.

October's Must Buy

There's A New Message Board In Town

Horror World has set up a new message board for Dave Wilbanks and me to talk about our book, Pod of Horror, Pulp Nocturne and other stuff. Check it out here. Drop by, say hi, talk dirty to us, make it look like we're interesting.

The Kind of News I Like

It appears the novella Dave Wilbanks and I wrote last year has found a publisher. More when the contracts are signed and we finish peeing our pants.

Mo' Audio

It looks like I'll soon have another audio story up over at The Late Late Show. I'll let you know when it goes live.

Happy Easter Weekend

Wha' Happened?

Not much blogging lately, due to work and some other boring factors.

But blogging will resume very soon, thanks to a little thing I like to call A THREE DAY WEEKEND!!!

Ahem.

When the Blogotrometer 3000 gets up to speed again, expect posts that will examine the weighty geopolitical issues of the day, such as:

* Toe Cleavage

* Pulp Nocturne

* The Destroyer

* How I almost got arrested at Wal-Mart at 2:50 a.m.

Department of Justice...It's Appointment Blogging.

Pod of Horror 13

Episode the Thirteenth of Pod of Horror has arrived, so throw some salt over your shoulder, get out from under that ladder and download this lineup:

* Director Stuart Gordon discusses RE-ANIMATOR and MASTERS OF HORROR.

* David T. Wilbanks reads his story “Footfalls”.

* Nanci Kalanta, The Mistress Supreme of Horror World, gives us an update for April.

* We get fan mail and creepy voice mail.

* Advice Demon Grim Rictus goes after Katie Couric’s job.

* The Tomb of Trivia prize package gets even bigger, with TWO TWISTED NUTS by Jeff Strand and Nick Cato, Two MASTERS OF HORROR DVDs: John Carpenter’s CIGARETTE BURNS and Stuart Gordon’s DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE, THE SHELL COLLECTOR and WILDWOOD ROAD, both by Christopher Golden, from Cemetery Dance and THRUST by Tom Piccirilli, from Bloodletting Press.

Download POH 13 now at I-Tunes or direct to your desktop here.

Another Reading

A few weeks back Brian Knight asked me to read excerpts from two of his works for an CD to serve as a "trailer"for prospective readers. It's a good idea (the CD, not having me read them) and Brian is now offering the recordings as downloads.

Just click on his name above to go to his site where you can download my readings of excerpts from Brian's fine books Hacks and King of Souls.

And take a moment to appreciate the beautiful art for the CD by the phenomenally talented Deena Warner.

New Review of Damned Nation

Over at Horror World, James Beach critiques Damned Nation and -- against all notions of good taste, decency and common sense -- he likes my story. Read the review here and order Damned Nation here.