/ / / SoulZ at Zer0 / /
/- / 02-95 SaZ Pak /- /
-----THE-DEATH-CERTIFICATE------VOLUME-1-ISSUE-4---------FEBUARY--1995-----
Staff: The Stranger, Jack Flack - Editors, Writers.
Black Sunshine - Writer.
Deranged - Writer.
* If you are interested in contributing to The Death Certificate
please let one of the editors know.
She reached out for the blanket covering the boy, keeping him
warm during the cold and windy night in this drafty house. She grabbed
at the satiny fringe and pulled it back, slowly, so slowly....
She felt something tugging on the thin blue blanket...as if it was
stuck. Mari saw her hand shaking. But she kept pulling the blanket back,
tugging a bit now, until she saw the boys head, Bobbys head. Little Bobby.
There was a hole in his forehead.
A hole that I could stick my finger into, she thought.
Dried streams of blood flowed away from it..
Bobbys eyes were open, staring into the distance, looking at a
wall, looking into forever. Looking for Mommy.
See How She Runs by Matthew Costello
+ Table of Contents +
Words from the Editors
Letters to the Editors
SAZ News
Horror News
Reviews
The Writers Block
Final Words
1. Words from the Editors:
Jack Flack:
Yawn ... Slow time in modem land, as usual. No warez, no new good
messages, so you would think there would be lots of time to write grin.
I have been busy, and with the stepping up of the release date, we were all
a little stressed for this issue ... enjoy it, enjoy the new lits, welcome
Deranged as our newest member, and enjoy the viewer, which still sucks but
is better than nothing. We are excepting any offers for viewers, so let
us know ... bribes arent out of the question.
-Jack Flack/SAZ
The Stranger:
Wow, we must be nuts. We have moved up our release date from the
13th to the first.. And our January pack was real late and we apologize
to everyone for that. We now have access to the Internet so you might
noticed Jack Flack offering the pack on there. Its a slow time right now
in the BBS world here in Oklahoma and not much is happening. I hope that
where ever you are things are going better. We didnt receive much
feedback on the January pack but I hope many of you got the chance to look
through it. Please send your comments to us.. Dont make us beg anymore!
Ive seen something happening out in the computer world that Im
really excited about... More LIT groups. Ive been looking for LIT groups
for a while now and Im finally seeing a few really good ones pop up here
and there. And something else Ive noticed is many groups who have LIT
departments are starting to write in a SAZ style, if you will. Im seeing
a lot of groups who have been filled with poems that end by saying For
My Girlfriend Jill suddenly writing poems with vampires and dead people.
And thats great, I think. Though I would hope that other LIT groups
remember what there group is about and not move too close to what our group
is about. We dont need the competition. :
I hope everyone has a great month and that you enjoy the pack.
Talk to you next time.
The Stranger...
But first, on earth as vampire sent,
Thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race.
Lord Byron
Letters to the Editors
We got two comments recently which we would like to share. Here we go.
From Shadowolfe: Hey, me and a friend were looking through the packs
and we have a question. Isnt someone suppose to be proofreading these
or are the mistakes intentional?
Um. Yes the spelling mistakes are intentional. They are part of poetry.
Actually each member of SAZ is suppose to proofread their own stuff but
we do miss a few things here and there. Sorry, we will work on itt. :
From Deranged: I just got through reading the Death Certificate and it
was good, but it was mostly Black Sunshine.
Yes, good point. The reason for that is because she is trying to take
over SAZ so she can have her way with it. Im kidding. Im in charge of
The Death Certificate so that was really my fault. I was just too lazy
to write much last month and really this month too. But I really thought
last months DC was really good, mainly because of Black Sunshine. I dont
know where we would be without her. But D, now that your a member of SAZ
feel free to write something for the Death Certificate.
Thanks for the comments. If you have a comment for us just leave us mail
on any board that we call or any distro site that we are on. Or call my
board, Where Shadows Wait, and you can write to me or any member of SAZ
personally.
The Stranger...
Soulz At Zero News
Not much news this month because we just released our january pack a few
days ago. We are moving our release date to the first of every month.
Before we tried to release the packs between the 13th and 16th but now we
will shoot for the first week of the month.
We welcome a new member to the group, Deranged, who was a guest writer in
our last pack and is now a full time writer. Welcome aboard D.
And just as a reminder I want to mention a few things we mentioned last
month. We are doing a new thing where if you dont have the time to be a
member of SAZ you can be a guest writer by sending us some poems or a
story. Also, if you would like your board to be a distro site let us know.
We are also looking for a Western HQ so if your in the west and would like
SAZ brought to your board every month leave us mail. If you would like to
be a member of SAZ, just zip up some of your poems and send them to
Where Shadows Wait.
Thats all for now.. Hope you enjoy this months pack. Till next time.
The Stranger...
No one commands me. No man. No God. No elder. No
Prince. What is a claim of age for ones who are immortal? What
is a claim of power for ones who defy death? Call your damnable
hunt. We shall see whom I drag screaming to Hell with me.
Gunter Dorn
Horror News by The Stranger:
New in Bookstores:
I went to a few bookstores recently and there are just tons of new
books out. None of which I can remember. Lesser known authors like S.P.
Sotow, and Fred Saberhagen have new ones out. Thomas Liggoti has had a
few of his older books re-released. The writer who inspired the Guns And
Roses video November Rain has had his work re-released in order to make
his surviving family members some money.. I think his name is Del James,
but I cant remember. Its the newest Abyss book out. Part three of the
Borderlands series is out. A few new Charles Grant titles should be out
soon. Well there are a lot of new books out there, many in paperback,
I cant think of any others. So go check out your local bookstore and
pick something up. Then write me a note on what you thought of the book.
Id love to hear from you. Sorry but this moving up to the first of the
month is making me rush through this. Ill be back next month with a much
bigger list. Promise.
The Reviews:
Books:
House of Doors by Brian Lumley, published 1990.
Brian Lumley is one of those writers you love or hate. He has a
huge following and is probably one of the top 5 British writers writing
today. And very much like other big authors, he has a ton of books to
choose from. His most famous books are part of a series called the
Necroscpoke books which I take it are about Vampires. Like most writers
from England he is orginal. His books take pieces of many generes and mix
them together. And his books are thick, yet not too wordy. He will
probably never be on the bestseller lists but he has found success after
over 20 years of writing.
I have to first start off by saying Im somewhat bias against Mr.
Lumley. I just dont like his writing. But that comes from only reading
his short stories, so I dove into one of his novels. And I come out
feeling a little better about him, but certainly not a fanatic.
The House of Doors is about a castle in England that just one day
appeared on a hill side. The house has no windows looking in, only doors.
The problem occurs when a group of strangers get too close to the house
and are pulled inside to an alien world. Or is it? We dont really know
what is going on and neither do the characters. Inside the castle the
characters dont find rooms, they find other dimensions, other worlds, in
which they find creatures weve never imagined before. And at the end
of every world is another House of Doors and the key is each door leads
to a different place. Are characters not only have to survive the
surroundings and try to find a way back home, but they also have to deal
with each other, one of whom may not be as nice as he seems.
All right, so what did I think of the book? This book was an epic
very much in the way Kings The Stand or McCammons Swan Song are but
Lumley cant write as well as either of them. For the first half of the
book the writing is fine but its the story that makes you want to read
every page. The reason for this is because the story is so orginal and so
out there that you just want to see what happens next.. But then that
completly changes. Because half way through the book it just becomes a
cliche horror book where instead of the doors leading to some strange
unknow world, they begin to lead to the characters worse nightmares. Well
maybe if we cared about the characters this would be scary but for the most
part the only characters Lumley builds up are the bad ones and so we care
very little about the good characters. And these people have just strange
fears, like a man who is afraid of a mechanical world or a women who is
afraid of her perverted husband who gets chased around by naked clones
of her husband.. So I was with the book at first but lost interest half
way through. The fact that he stayed away from writing a british book
make me feel better about him as a writer but still I was bored.
And I know a ton of people who LOVE Lumley and theyll hate that
I didnt like the book. Sorry. No matter what I think about Lumley, his
books do sell, some people out there understand and want this type of
writing. Im just not one of them.
The Stranger...
The Listeners by Christopher Pike, TOR 1995
Excuse me while I stop bowing down to Pikes master
storytelling long enough to write this article. Okay, Im
exaggerating.. but just a bit. *grin*. Perhaps Im not the best
person to write this article. Ive been with Pike from the very
beginning over a decade ago and I have everything hes ever
written. I always try to be objective when I start a new novel
of his, especially if I have to review it, but he has not failed
yet to totally astound me with the cleverness and tangibility of
his writing.
Every time I read one of Pikes novels, I always feel as if
Im getting a science or a history lesson. This book is no
exception. He manages to combine dinosaur extinction theories,
the workings of the human brain, the possibilities of extra
sensory perception and past lives, the genetic mysteries
concerning identical twins, and the astronomical significance of
the star Sirius and the mystery surrounding how the Egyptians
knew things about this star and others without our technology or
anything even like it. He ties all of this together into a
brilliant and workable plot that would take me years to dredge
up.
Lets see. How to explain this plot. David Conner is an
FBI agent whos preparing to quit his profession, due a recent
failure at rescuing a beautiful, kidnapped teenager from a
madman. On his last assignment, hes sent undercover as a
reporter to a retreat in Idaho to study a group of psychics,
because they are aware of top secret government information and
projects that they should have no access to. The leader of the
group, Dr. Spear, claims the group came about the knowledge due
to psychic sessions they hold in which they hypnotize themselves
and are able to get in touch with the thinking part of the
universe that is in everything.
Spear had spent several months studying the Dogon tribe in
Africa and how they came about their astronomy knowledge. He
returned to the United States after his wife died and her sister
was driven insane. And no one is quite sure what happened, or
wants to talk about it. Spear begins work with a new theory:
genetic regression-- the idea that all of the memories of our
ancestors are contained within our own genes, we just have to
figure out how to tap into them. Im wondering if indeed this
theory really exists and is being studied, or if its another
product of Pikes mind. The group that David is sent to watch
is practicing this genetic theory technique. Two of the people
involved are a set of identical twins, one of whom David finds
himself reluctantly attracted to.
Whew. Even with all this description, I still have not
touched upon what the novel is REALLY about. As is the case with
his other books, he leads you in one direction, then abruptly
turns a corner that you never even saw. To go into much more
detail here would be giving away too much and I dont want to do
that. The book is brilliant. It deserves to be the first to let
you in on the secrets. Us normal people would never figure it
out, much less come up with the idea in the first place. I dont
know where Pike gets his ideas. I think hes an alien. No, that
wasnt a subtle hint into what the books about *grin*.
I had only two problems with the novel. First, Davids
character is developed beautifully, with an exceptionally
detailed chronology of his FBI career. We learn he is not always
the good guy when we are told of the underground mafia lord in
Las Vegas whom David tortured by burning off his penis after he
pushes Davids girlfriend out a window on the top floor of a
hotel. David is extremely closed off and doesnt know how to
deal with his attraction to Lucy, one of the twins. Heres where
the problem lies. While David is a choice example of a well-
developed main character, the characters of the twins are skimped
on. They are not, by any means, one-dimensional, however, not
as much time and description was invested into them. I would
have liked to have seen more background and details, especially
on Lucy, not only because she is the woman David desires, but
because she plays an integral role in the unfolding plot and its
conclusion. The novel wasnt exceptionally long, and I cant
figure out why Pike didnt delve into her character more. He had
time and room to do so.
The second problem lies once more with the genre-typing of
the book. TOR calls it horror. It is. In some aspects. As
with all of his other novels, its also mystery, science fiction
and fantasy. I love how he blends genres, however, I dont like
that the publishing company is trying to shove his work into one
stereotypical genre. I guess this is just me being picky.
Dont get me wrong. The novel had its scary places.
Though most of the novel is devoted to setting up the mystery and
letting it unfold, there were scenes when my adrenaline was
flowing, most notably when FBI agent Ned Calendar goes to an
insane asylum to visit the deranged sister-in-law Dr. Spear
brought back from Africa. Shes not really crazy, but she has to
be contained.. and I think I should stop now before I give away
too much. *grin* Believe me when I say this book has its
monsters.
In conclusion, I would suggest this novel to anyone who
wants a satisfying and brilliant book, as well as one that reads
fast and realistically. Pike has always maintained the talent of
doing both of these simultaneously. His books are only getting
better and better. Enough babbling on my part. Im stopping now
so I can go read The Cold One, one of his other January
releases.
@1995 by Black Sunshine
Movies
Review: Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight
I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a series
of short stories like the ones on HBO, maybe a trilogy or
something, and I was wondering what was going to be different
about it, besides the fact that I was paying for a box office
ticket. But that was me, once again, being uninformed. This
fact threw me off because for the longest time while watching, I
kept expecting the story to end and another to begin. I wont
mention the other reason for my giddiness when I went to see this
believe me it has nothing to do with the movie *grin*.
Of course, the movie started out with the typical campy
cryptkeeper humor, a little scene in which we get to see a naked
woman, a lot of blood and the cryptkeeper himself. I was anxious
for the actual plot to get underway or plots as I still
thought at that time.
The actual Demon Knight script starts out right in the
middle of the action with a chase scene that ends in the total
demolition of both cars involved, and all the right questions are
set up. Why is one man chasing another? Which one is the bad
guy and which is the good guy? Something is amiss... but of
course, it is several scenes later before it is revealed to us
exactly what it is. Both men escape the car wrecks unharmed and
the chase-ee as it would be makes it to a creepy looking
lodging out in the middle of nowhere, where he finds a veritable
plethora of odd and differing characters waiting for him. We
still dont know who this guy is or whats so damn important
about him for quite some time. Most of the rest of the movie
takes place inside this motel.
The movie has its Biblical undertones it seems thats a
popular market gimmick now-a-days. On a very basic level, the
main character has something that the devil wants. One of seven
keys, if you will, to controlling the universe. Once the devil
tracks down this man to the motel, he unleashes several demons
both to destroy and to cajole the occupants inside to giving the
devil what he want, which is their bodies, their souls and,
especially, above all else, the key. All we have to do is
make it through the night, was the determinant phrase in the
movie, although I was never actually sure WHY meaning, why just
that one night. As the movie progresses we learn more and more
about this ancient quest for the keys, and how this man came
about having one of them, and why they are so important.
The characters themselves except for the main ones are
somewhat typecast. We have the asshole, a blonde, arrogant,
womanizing surfer-type named Roach we have the slut, an
attractive, little-girl-lost type named Cordelia whos searching
for love through sex we have the maid, Jade, who happens to be
black and gets trampled on by nearly everyone and we have Deputy
Martel who has an IQ about as high as the gun he keeps whipping
out. All of these stereotypical characters make for some
humorous, if somewhat predictable scenes.
Yes, I said humorous. Although its a horror movie, there
are several scenes which play out extremely funny and are meant
to be so. Some are corny, yet still managed to coax laughter out
of the tense audience. The brand of humor reminded me of those
in Sam Raimis Evil Dead series. In fact, the movie was a lot
like Army of Darkness, except with a much larger budget.
The script was extremely original, and could have stood
alone, without the Tales from the Crypt banner. However,
without it, it might not have gotten as much publicity or drawn
such a large audience. The acting was excellent. Billy Zane
plays a terrific satan. William Sadler plays an excellent
good guy, starting out at the beginning looking scruffy and
unappealing and becoming more and more handsome and confident as
we learn of his plight. Again, to draw a comparison between
Raimis trilogy, he is much like the Ash character played by
Bruce Campbell.
It took several years for this movie to be made, mainly
because of the somewhat non-existant horror market a couple of
years back. The title was even changed to Judgment Night at
one time, as the writers of the script were told that nothing
with the word demon in the title would get made in Hollywood.
So much for that piece of advice. With the recent resurgence of
horror, we get this film, a wonderful addition to the growing
number of horror releases over the past few months. Its nice to
see something this original, this scary, and this publicized come
out at the theaters.
Im glad this movie wasnt a collection of short tales, for
we never would have had this one if that were the case. There
would not have been time to develop characters and background.
All in all, this was a terrific first effort at Tales From the
Crypts big-time debut. Its well worth seeing at least once,
not only because of its terrific effort and quality alone, but
as a sort of mockery to those who said horror was dead. Im
now anxiously awaiting the next theatrical Tales From the Cyypt
release.
@ 1995 by Black Sunshine
Why do your locks and rumpled clothes show
Tis more than usual sleep has made them so?
Why are the kisses which he gave betrayed
By the impression which his teeth have made?
Ovid
The Writers Block by The Stranger...
I was trying to decide if I was going to write anything this
month and I decided that yes I would write something. Last month Black
Sunshine was nice enough to write us an article about how to sell a
novel and I took off the month before that too so I thought Id better
write something.. So this month we will talk about... poetry!! Poetry
has become popular recently with MTVs Spoken Word shows and suddenly
poetry is cool once again. Here in Oklahoma we have about 3 to 4 places
that have poetry nights where people come in and read their own work. If
you havent gone yet, go, because it is an expeirence. But this is The
Writers Block so lets talk about writing poetry.
In the computer world today we have a lot of LIT groups and a lot
of ANSI groups that are including some lit. And I think that is great.
Hell Im in one, and your reading our newsletter right now! So because
many LIT groups deal only with gasp rhyming poetry we will talk about
that first. Rhyming poetry can be great if done right but if done wrong
it can be really horrible. There is really two keys that I can come up
with that are important in rhyming poetry. The first are your words
that rhyme and the second thing is your rythem or meter to your poem.
The biggest problem with rhyming poems is when a writer thinks of
a great line and then has to think of another line that will rhyme with
the first line. A bad rhyming poem has forced rhymes, meaning a line that
doesnt sound right but it fits. If your forcing your rhymes, it doesnt
matter how moving your first line was people will only think and laugh at
about your bad line. So a key is to try and find another line that will
fit that sounds better. And something I would recommend is to stay away
from simple rhymes. If I can read your first line and know what rhyming
word your going to use, then thats a problem. Simple rhymes are words
like right, light, night, sight, do, to, you, would, could, should. Stuff
like that. Good rhyming poems not only give a message but they sound
orginal.
And speaking of sound, lets talk about the second thing in rhyming
poems, the meter. This is not how to write good meter : I saw my dog as
he went to the woods in a run, he had a gun. Thats bad. Read your poems
out loud and they should have a rythem to them. If you are having to
stutter through lines or read one line faster than another then your poems
are off. To put your lines together, try using the same amount of sylables
or atleast as close as you can get. And remember that rhyming poems usually
need to stay consistent in their rhythem throughout the poem.
Rhyming poems that use unforced rhymes and have rythems to them can
be great. These are the types of poems that are memorized such as
Shakespeare. Ryhming poems with forced rhymes and no rythem are the types
that are laughed at and never remembered. Ive read a lot of poetry, and
Ive read alot of LIT packs and for the most part the rhyming poetry is
done really badly. But in some cases thats on purpose because the poems
are suppose to be funny. Ive read many where there were great lines
but other poorly written lines made me feel a discomfort with the poem.
But I have read some really well written rhyming poetry. Its just harder
to find because its hard to write.
Thats it for this month.. We will talk about non-rhyming poetry
next month. Remember these are my opinions and are not to be taken as
anything more than just that, opinions. Keep writing and Ill see ya next
month.
The Stranger...
Final Words:
Well I apologize to anyone who looks forward to reading the
Death Certificate every month. This wasnt such a great issue but we
will get better in the future, I promise. Black Sunshine has a lot of
great things planned for us in the future and hopefully Ill get down
to writing. Please keep your comments coming, whether there nice or not
we dont care. Just keepem coming. If you would like to be a member
of SAZ, call Where Shadows Wait and let us know. You can either apply
as your own name or if you just want to send your stuff you can log on as
SAZ with the password SAZ and then upload your stuff. But be sure to
let us know where what board we can find you on. Have a great month
a we will be back next time with something really scary..
Soulz At Zero
Your fingers black from ink as your shaking hands glide
down the page, trying to see if your name is on the death
certificate. The wind screaming against the window, begging to
get in, to get to you. And at last you find the dotted line,
written in blood the letters that form your name. A sudden gasp
caught in your throat, a flicker of the lights until they fade
off completely. The cold touch of fingers as a hand reaches
across the bare skin of your neck. Goosebumps rise from your
neck just as the lights shine on once more. And once again you
are alone. Before you lies the death certificate, your name is
no longer written. You have escaped death, for now.
The Stranger...
C Copyright SAZ 1994.
/- / 02-95 SaZ Pak /- /
-----THE-DEATH-CERTIFICATE------VOLUME-1-ISSUE-4---------FEBUARY--1995-----
Staff: The Stranger, Jack Flack - Editors, Writers.
Black Sunshine - Writer.
Deranged - Writer.
* If you are interested in contributing to The Death Certificate
please let one of the editors know.
She reached out for the blanket covering the boy, keeping him
warm during the cold and windy night in this drafty house. She grabbed
at the satiny fringe and pulled it back, slowly, so slowly....
She felt something tugging on the thin blue blanket...as if it was
stuck. Mari saw her hand shaking. But she kept pulling the blanket back,
tugging a bit now, until she saw the boys head, Bobbys head. Little Bobby.
There was a hole in his forehead.
A hole that I could stick my finger into, she thought.
Dried streams of blood flowed away from it..
Bobbys eyes were open, staring into the distance, looking at a
wall, looking into forever. Looking for Mommy.
See How She Runs by Matthew Costello
+ Table of Contents +
Words from the Editors
Letters to the Editors
SAZ News
Horror News
Reviews
The Writers Block
Final Words
1. Words from the Editors:
Jack Flack:
Yawn ... Slow time in modem land, as usual. No warez, no new good
messages, so you would think there would be lots of time to write grin.
I have been busy, and with the stepping up of the release date, we were all
a little stressed for this issue ... enjoy it, enjoy the new lits, welcome
Deranged as our newest member, and enjoy the viewer, which still sucks but
is better than nothing. We are excepting any offers for viewers, so let
us know ... bribes arent out of the question.
-Jack Flack/SAZ
The Stranger:
Wow, we must be nuts. We have moved up our release date from the
13th to the first.. And our January pack was real late and we apologize
to everyone for that. We now have access to the Internet so you might
noticed Jack Flack offering the pack on there. Its a slow time right now
in the BBS world here in Oklahoma and not much is happening. I hope that
where ever you are things are going better. We didnt receive much
feedback on the January pack but I hope many of you got the chance to look
through it. Please send your comments to us.. Dont make us beg anymore!
Ive seen something happening out in the computer world that Im
really excited about... More LIT groups. Ive been looking for LIT groups
for a while now and Im finally seeing a few really good ones pop up here
and there. And something else Ive noticed is many groups who have LIT
departments are starting to write in a SAZ style, if you will. Im seeing
a lot of groups who have been filled with poems that end by saying For
My Girlfriend Jill suddenly writing poems with vampires and dead people.
And thats great, I think. Though I would hope that other LIT groups
remember what there group is about and not move too close to what our group
is about. We dont need the competition. :
I hope everyone has a great month and that you enjoy the pack.
Talk to you next time.
The Stranger...
But first, on earth as vampire sent,
Thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race.
Lord Byron
Letters to the Editors
We got two comments recently which we would like to share. Here we go.
From Shadowolfe: Hey, me and a friend were looking through the packs
and we have a question. Isnt someone suppose to be proofreading these
or are the mistakes intentional?
Um. Yes the spelling mistakes are intentional. They are part of poetry.
Actually each member of SAZ is suppose to proofread their own stuff but
we do miss a few things here and there. Sorry, we will work on itt. :
From Deranged: I just got through reading the Death Certificate and it
was good, but it was mostly Black Sunshine.
Yes, good point. The reason for that is because she is trying to take
over SAZ so she can have her way with it. Im kidding. Im in charge of
The Death Certificate so that was really my fault. I was just too lazy
to write much last month and really this month too. But I really thought
last months DC was really good, mainly because of Black Sunshine. I dont
know where we would be without her. But D, now that your a member of SAZ
feel free to write something for the Death Certificate.
Thanks for the comments. If you have a comment for us just leave us mail
on any board that we call or any distro site that we are on. Or call my
board, Where Shadows Wait, and you can write to me or any member of SAZ
personally.
The Stranger...
Soulz At Zero News
Not much news this month because we just released our january pack a few
days ago. We are moving our release date to the first of every month.
Before we tried to release the packs between the 13th and 16th but now we
will shoot for the first week of the month.
We welcome a new member to the group, Deranged, who was a guest writer in
our last pack and is now a full time writer. Welcome aboard D.
And just as a reminder I want to mention a few things we mentioned last
month. We are doing a new thing where if you dont have the time to be a
member of SAZ you can be a guest writer by sending us some poems or a
story. Also, if you would like your board to be a distro site let us know.
We are also looking for a Western HQ so if your in the west and would like
SAZ brought to your board every month leave us mail. If you would like to
be a member of SAZ, just zip up some of your poems and send them to
Where Shadows Wait.
Thats all for now.. Hope you enjoy this months pack. Till next time.
The Stranger...
No one commands me. No man. No God. No elder. No
Prince. What is a claim of age for ones who are immortal? What
is a claim of power for ones who defy death? Call your damnable
hunt. We shall see whom I drag screaming to Hell with me.
Gunter Dorn
Horror News by The Stranger:
New in Bookstores:
I went to a few bookstores recently and there are just tons of new
books out. None of which I can remember. Lesser known authors like S.P.
Sotow, and Fred Saberhagen have new ones out. Thomas Liggoti has had a
few of his older books re-released. The writer who inspired the Guns And
Roses video November Rain has had his work re-released in order to make
his surviving family members some money.. I think his name is Del James,
but I cant remember. Its the newest Abyss book out. Part three of the
Borderlands series is out. A few new Charles Grant titles should be out
soon. Well there are a lot of new books out there, many in paperback,
I cant think of any others. So go check out your local bookstore and
pick something up. Then write me a note on what you thought of the book.
Id love to hear from you. Sorry but this moving up to the first of the
month is making me rush through this. Ill be back next month with a much
bigger list. Promise.
The Reviews:
Books:
House of Doors by Brian Lumley, published 1990.
Brian Lumley is one of those writers you love or hate. He has a
huge following and is probably one of the top 5 British writers writing
today. And very much like other big authors, he has a ton of books to
choose from. His most famous books are part of a series called the
Necroscpoke books which I take it are about Vampires. Like most writers
from England he is orginal. His books take pieces of many generes and mix
them together. And his books are thick, yet not too wordy. He will
probably never be on the bestseller lists but he has found success after
over 20 years of writing.
I have to first start off by saying Im somewhat bias against Mr.
Lumley. I just dont like his writing. But that comes from only reading
his short stories, so I dove into one of his novels. And I come out
feeling a little better about him, but certainly not a fanatic.
The House of Doors is about a castle in England that just one day
appeared on a hill side. The house has no windows looking in, only doors.
The problem occurs when a group of strangers get too close to the house
and are pulled inside to an alien world. Or is it? We dont really know
what is going on and neither do the characters. Inside the castle the
characters dont find rooms, they find other dimensions, other worlds, in
which they find creatures weve never imagined before. And at the end
of every world is another House of Doors and the key is each door leads
to a different place. Are characters not only have to survive the
surroundings and try to find a way back home, but they also have to deal
with each other, one of whom may not be as nice as he seems.
All right, so what did I think of the book? This book was an epic
very much in the way Kings The Stand or McCammons Swan Song are but
Lumley cant write as well as either of them. For the first half of the
book the writing is fine but its the story that makes you want to read
every page. The reason for this is because the story is so orginal and so
out there that you just want to see what happens next.. But then that
completly changes. Because half way through the book it just becomes a
cliche horror book where instead of the doors leading to some strange
unknow world, they begin to lead to the characters worse nightmares. Well
maybe if we cared about the characters this would be scary but for the most
part the only characters Lumley builds up are the bad ones and so we care
very little about the good characters. And these people have just strange
fears, like a man who is afraid of a mechanical world or a women who is
afraid of her perverted husband who gets chased around by naked clones
of her husband.. So I was with the book at first but lost interest half
way through. The fact that he stayed away from writing a british book
make me feel better about him as a writer but still I was bored.
And I know a ton of people who LOVE Lumley and theyll hate that
I didnt like the book. Sorry. No matter what I think about Lumley, his
books do sell, some people out there understand and want this type of
writing. Im just not one of them.
The Stranger...
The Listeners by Christopher Pike, TOR 1995
Excuse me while I stop bowing down to Pikes master
storytelling long enough to write this article. Okay, Im
exaggerating.. but just a bit. *grin*. Perhaps Im not the best
person to write this article. Ive been with Pike from the very
beginning over a decade ago and I have everything hes ever
written. I always try to be objective when I start a new novel
of his, especially if I have to review it, but he has not failed
yet to totally astound me with the cleverness and tangibility of
his writing.
Every time I read one of Pikes novels, I always feel as if
Im getting a science or a history lesson. This book is no
exception. He manages to combine dinosaur extinction theories,
the workings of the human brain, the possibilities of extra
sensory perception and past lives, the genetic mysteries
concerning identical twins, and the astronomical significance of
the star Sirius and the mystery surrounding how the Egyptians
knew things about this star and others without our technology or
anything even like it. He ties all of this together into a
brilliant and workable plot that would take me years to dredge
up.
Lets see. How to explain this plot. David Conner is an
FBI agent whos preparing to quit his profession, due a recent
failure at rescuing a beautiful, kidnapped teenager from a
madman. On his last assignment, hes sent undercover as a
reporter to a retreat in Idaho to study a group of psychics,
because they are aware of top secret government information and
projects that they should have no access to. The leader of the
group, Dr. Spear, claims the group came about the knowledge due
to psychic sessions they hold in which they hypnotize themselves
and are able to get in touch with the thinking part of the
universe that is in everything.
Spear had spent several months studying the Dogon tribe in
Africa and how they came about their astronomy knowledge. He
returned to the United States after his wife died and her sister
was driven insane. And no one is quite sure what happened, or
wants to talk about it. Spear begins work with a new theory:
genetic regression-- the idea that all of the memories of our
ancestors are contained within our own genes, we just have to
figure out how to tap into them. Im wondering if indeed this
theory really exists and is being studied, or if its another
product of Pikes mind. The group that David is sent to watch
is practicing this genetic theory technique. Two of the people
involved are a set of identical twins, one of whom David finds
himself reluctantly attracted to.
Whew. Even with all this description, I still have not
touched upon what the novel is REALLY about. As is the case with
his other books, he leads you in one direction, then abruptly
turns a corner that you never even saw. To go into much more
detail here would be giving away too much and I dont want to do
that. The book is brilliant. It deserves to be the first to let
you in on the secrets. Us normal people would never figure it
out, much less come up with the idea in the first place. I dont
know where Pike gets his ideas. I think hes an alien. No, that
wasnt a subtle hint into what the books about *grin*.
I had only two problems with the novel. First, Davids
character is developed beautifully, with an exceptionally
detailed chronology of his FBI career. We learn he is not always
the good guy when we are told of the underground mafia lord in
Las Vegas whom David tortured by burning off his penis after he
pushes Davids girlfriend out a window on the top floor of a
hotel. David is extremely closed off and doesnt know how to
deal with his attraction to Lucy, one of the twins. Heres where
the problem lies. While David is a choice example of a well-
developed main character, the characters of the twins are skimped
on. They are not, by any means, one-dimensional, however, not
as much time and description was invested into them. I would
have liked to have seen more background and details, especially
on Lucy, not only because she is the woman David desires, but
because she plays an integral role in the unfolding plot and its
conclusion. The novel wasnt exceptionally long, and I cant
figure out why Pike didnt delve into her character more. He had
time and room to do so.
The second problem lies once more with the genre-typing of
the book. TOR calls it horror. It is. In some aspects. As
with all of his other novels, its also mystery, science fiction
and fantasy. I love how he blends genres, however, I dont like
that the publishing company is trying to shove his work into one
stereotypical genre. I guess this is just me being picky.
Dont get me wrong. The novel had its scary places.
Though most of the novel is devoted to setting up the mystery and
letting it unfold, there were scenes when my adrenaline was
flowing, most notably when FBI agent Ned Calendar goes to an
insane asylum to visit the deranged sister-in-law Dr. Spear
brought back from Africa. Shes not really crazy, but she has to
be contained.. and I think I should stop now before I give away
too much. *grin* Believe me when I say this book has its
monsters.
In conclusion, I would suggest this novel to anyone who
wants a satisfying and brilliant book, as well as one that reads
fast and realistically. Pike has always maintained the talent of
doing both of these simultaneously. His books are only getting
better and better. Enough babbling on my part. Im stopping now
so I can go read The Cold One, one of his other January
releases.
@1995 by Black Sunshine
Movies
Review: Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight
I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a series
of short stories like the ones on HBO, maybe a trilogy or
something, and I was wondering what was going to be different
about it, besides the fact that I was paying for a box office
ticket. But that was me, once again, being uninformed. This
fact threw me off because for the longest time while watching, I
kept expecting the story to end and another to begin. I wont
mention the other reason for my giddiness when I went to see this
believe me it has nothing to do with the movie *grin*.
Of course, the movie started out with the typical campy
cryptkeeper humor, a little scene in which we get to see a naked
woman, a lot of blood and the cryptkeeper himself. I was anxious
for the actual plot to get underway or plots as I still
thought at that time.
The actual Demon Knight script starts out right in the
middle of the action with a chase scene that ends in the total
demolition of both cars involved, and all the right questions are
set up. Why is one man chasing another? Which one is the bad
guy and which is the good guy? Something is amiss... but of
course, it is several scenes later before it is revealed to us
exactly what it is. Both men escape the car wrecks unharmed and
the chase-ee as it would be makes it to a creepy looking
lodging out in the middle of nowhere, where he finds a veritable
plethora of odd and differing characters waiting for him. We
still dont know who this guy is or whats so damn important
about him for quite some time. Most of the rest of the movie
takes place inside this motel.
The movie has its Biblical undertones it seems thats a
popular market gimmick now-a-days. On a very basic level, the
main character has something that the devil wants. One of seven
keys, if you will, to controlling the universe. Once the devil
tracks down this man to the motel, he unleashes several demons
both to destroy and to cajole the occupants inside to giving the
devil what he want, which is their bodies, their souls and,
especially, above all else, the key. All we have to do is
make it through the night, was the determinant phrase in the
movie, although I was never actually sure WHY meaning, why just
that one night. As the movie progresses we learn more and more
about this ancient quest for the keys, and how this man came
about having one of them, and why they are so important.
The characters themselves except for the main ones are
somewhat typecast. We have the asshole, a blonde, arrogant,
womanizing surfer-type named Roach we have the slut, an
attractive, little-girl-lost type named Cordelia whos searching
for love through sex we have the maid, Jade, who happens to be
black and gets trampled on by nearly everyone and we have Deputy
Martel who has an IQ about as high as the gun he keeps whipping
out. All of these stereotypical characters make for some
humorous, if somewhat predictable scenes.
Yes, I said humorous. Although its a horror movie, there
are several scenes which play out extremely funny and are meant
to be so. Some are corny, yet still managed to coax laughter out
of the tense audience. The brand of humor reminded me of those
in Sam Raimis Evil Dead series. In fact, the movie was a lot
like Army of Darkness, except with a much larger budget.
The script was extremely original, and could have stood
alone, without the Tales from the Crypt banner. However,
without it, it might not have gotten as much publicity or drawn
such a large audience. The acting was excellent. Billy Zane
plays a terrific satan. William Sadler plays an excellent
good guy, starting out at the beginning looking scruffy and
unappealing and becoming more and more handsome and confident as
we learn of his plight. Again, to draw a comparison between
Raimis trilogy, he is much like the Ash character played by
Bruce Campbell.
It took several years for this movie to be made, mainly
because of the somewhat non-existant horror market a couple of
years back. The title was even changed to Judgment Night at
one time, as the writers of the script were told that nothing
with the word demon in the title would get made in Hollywood.
So much for that piece of advice. With the recent resurgence of
horror, we get this film, a wonderful addition to the growing
number of horror releases over the past few months. Its nice to
see something this original, this scary, and this publicized come
out at the theaters.
Im glad this movie wasnt a collection of short tales, for
we never would have had this one if that were the case. There
would not have been time to develop characters and background.
All in all, this was a terrific first effort at Tales From the
Crypts big-time debut. Its well worth seeing at least once,
not only because of its terrific effort and quality alone, but
as a sort of mockery to those who said horror was dead. Im
now anxiously awaiting the next theatrical Tales From the Cyypt
release.
@ 1995 by Black Sunshine
Why do your locks and rumpled clothes show
Tis more than usual sleep has made them so?
Why are the kisses which he gave betrayed
By the impression which his teeth have made?
Ovid
The Writers Block by The Stranger...
I was trying to decide if I was going to write anything this
month and I decided that yes I would write something. Last month Black
Sunshine was nice enough to write us an article about how to sell a
novel and I took off the month before that too so I thought Id better
write something.. So this month we will talk about... poetry!! Poetry
has become popular recently with MTVs Spoken Word shows and suddenly
poetry is cool once again. Here in Oklahoma we have about 3 to 4 places
that have poetry nights where people come in and read their own work. If
you havent gone yet, go, because it is an expeirence. But this is The
Writers Block so lets talk about writing poetry.
In the computer world today we have a lot of LIT groups and a lot
of ANSI groups that are including some lit. And I think that is great.
Hell Im in one, and your reading our newsletter right now! So because
many LIT groups deal only with gasp rhyming poetry we will talk about
that first. Rhyming poetry can be great if done right but if done wrong
it can be really horrible. There is really two keys that I can come up
with that are important in rhyming poetry. The first are your words
that rhyme and the second thing is your rythem or meter to your poem.
The biggest problem with rhyming poems is when a writer thinks of
a great line and then has to think of another line that will rhyme with
the first line. A bad rhyming poem has forced rhymes, meaning a line that
doesnt sound right but it fits. If your forcing your rhymes, it doesnt
matter how moving your first line was people will only think and laugh at
about your bad line. So a key is to try and find another line that will
fit that sounds better. And something I would recommend is to stay away
from simple rhymes. If I can read your first line and know what rhyming
word your going to use, then thats a problem. Simple rhymes are words
like right, light, night, sight, do, to, you, would, could, should. Stuff
like that. Good rhyming poems not only give a message but they sound
orginal.
And speaking of sound, lets talk about the second thing in rhyming
poems, the meter. This is not how to write good meter : I saw my dog as
he went to the woods in a run, he had a gun. Thats bad. Read your poems
out loud and they should have a rythem to them. If you are having to
stutter through lines or read one line faster than another then your poems
are off. To put your lines together, try using the same amount of sylables
or atleast as close as you can get. And remember that rhyming poems usually
need to stay consistent in their rhythem throughout the poem.
Rhyming poems that use unforced rhymes and have rythems to them can
be great. These are the types of poems that are memorized such as
Shakespeare. Ryhming poems with forced rhymes and no rythem are the types
that are laughed at and never remembered. Ive read a lot of poetry, and
Ive read alot of LIT packs and for the most part the rhyming poetry is
done really badly. But in some cases thats on purpose because the poems
are suppose to be funny. Ive read many where there were great lines
but other poorly written lines made me feel a discomfort with the poem.
But I have read some really well written rhyming poetry. Its just harder
to find because its hard to write.
Thats it for this month.. We will talk about non-rhyming poetry
next month. Remember these are my opinions and are not to be taken as
anything more than just that, opinions. Keep writing and Ill see ya next
month.
The Stranger...
Final Words:
Well I apologize to anyone who looks forward to reading the
Death Certificate every month. This wasnt such a great issue but we
will get better in the future, I promise. Black Sunshine has a lot of
great things planned for us in the future and hopefully Ill get down
to writing. Please keep your comments coming, whether there nice or not
we dont care. Just keepem coming. If you would like to be a member
of SAZ, call Where Shadows Wait and let us know. You can either apply
as your own name or if you just want to send your stuff you can log on as
SAZ with the password SAZ and then upload your stuff. But be sure to
let us know where what board we can find you on. Have a great month
a we will be back next time with something really scary..
Soulz At Zero
Your fingers black from ink as your shaking hands glide
down the page, trying to see if your name is on the death
certificate. The wind screaming against the window, begging to
get in, to get to you. And at last you find the dotted line,
written in blood the letters that form your name. A sudden gasp
caught in your throat, a flicker of the lights until they fade
off completely. The cold touch of fingers as a hand reaches
across the bare skin of your neck. Goosebumps rise from your
neck just as the lights shine on once more. And once again you
are alone. Before you lies the death certificate, your name is
no longer written. You have escaped death, for now.
The Stranger...
C Copyright SAZ 1994.
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