Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett - Seeds of Fear

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Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett - Seeds of Fear: Hot Blood #5 (Pocket, May 1995)

Gerber Studios

Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett - Preface
Brinke Stevens - Introduction

Ronald Kelly - Scream Queen
Billie Sue Mosiman - Hideyhole
J.N. Williamson - High Concept
John F.D. Taff - Just A Phone Call Away
James Crawford - Black And White and Bed All Over
Jeff Gelb - Handyman
Michael Newton - Airhead
J.L. Comean - Five Seconds
Michael Garrett - Sympathy Call
Stephen R. George - Overeaters Ominous
Edward Lee - Grub-Girl
Kathryn Ptacek - Hunger
Rex Miller & Jeff Gelb - The Watcher
Wayne Allen Sallee - Lullaby & Goodnight
Scott H. Urban - I Am Joe's Penis
Paul Dale Anderson - What You See
Larry Tritten - The Beast
Bentley Little - See Marilyn Monroe's Panties!
P.D. Cacek - Devil With A Blue Dress

The Contributors

Blurb:

Foreword by “Scream Queen" Brinke Stevens

Rex Miller ... Bentley Little ... J.N. Williamson ... Billie Sue Mosiman ... Edward Lee ... Ronald Kelly ... Kathryn Ptacek ... P.D. Cacek ... and Stephen R. George are just a few of the top-name horror writers eager to bring you the freshest, most stunning sampling of the human imagination run delectably amok, guaranteed to raise goosebumps and scald the blood. Travel well south of the Twilight Zone to your deepest erogenous zones, riding the most primal emotions: sex — and fear. Hit the pedal with a trucker who gets more than carnal companionship from a midnight pickup ... spy on a young woman who literally loves sex to death ... cruise with a porn producer when he makes a wrong turn recruiting his newest star ... frolic with a stud who reaps an infinity of horror when he arranges a bedroom threesome ... and leave all your inhibitions behind.

Off we go again.

Ronald Kelly - Scream Queen: Ted Culman, pleasantly plump, speccy Californian grad. student drives two thousand miles to Cumberland Springs, Tennessee. His mission; to trace Fawn Hale, the Bettie Page of 'fifties zero budget horror movies. Fawn, the shrillest Scream Queen of all, abruptly retired from the business after completing Night of the Jungle Zombies in 1968. She's has not been heard from since.

Ted's gets to meet Lori, Fawn's daughter, to learn he's too late. Mom passed away last year. Why did she quit movies? Oh, that was down to her rape on-set by stunt man Trevor Hall, who, twenty years later, would be convicted of multiple torture-murders of young women over two decades. Hall filmed them all for a personal snuff library. Lori's his daughter ....

Jeff Gelb - Handyman: Rob Parvis overhears a blonde in a bar complaining to gal pal that she's not been laid in ages. Rob gallantly hands her his business card: "The Handyman - Your Sexual Stand-in. No money, no diseases, no questions. One hundred percent satisfaction." Christine eyes him up. What the Hell. She's had worse. Vickie tries talking her out of it, but lure of good seeing-to with no strings is irresistible. Rob can't believe his luck. How to Seduce Women: A Fail-safe Guide for Bachelors spoke true. The card works!

Problem is, there's a valid reason why a looker like Chris ain't had any for eight long years ...

Edward Lee - Grub Girl: Confessions of a zombie hooker who specialises in fellatio. Short and gross.

John F.D. Taff - Just A Phone Call Away: Men have long complimented Cynthia Johnson, 40, on her husky, snake-charmin' voice, so, on losing her job, setting up a phone-sex line from home is a logical next move. Business is booming - until Cynthia has the misfortune of attracting an extreme self-cutter as a client.

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Bentley Little - See Marilyn Monroe's Panties!: You'll wish you hadn't. Tatty, filthy and stiff with mould, they're among the exhibits at a museum off the highway in the middle of nowhere. Despite their disgusting condition, the protagonist can't help but cream on sight of them. Whereupon - they give birth to a slimy, fully grown male Marilyn lookalike. This is a regular occurrence - the pit out back is testament to that. The good old boy proprietor charges a small fee to dispose of these children of the sex symbol's undies. Truly this is a very odd story.

Kathryn Ptacek - Hunger: Exhausted physically, mentally and financially, Eleanor is prepared to take the most drastic measures to be rid of an insatiable sex addiction.

Scott H. Urban - I Am Joe's Penis: Joe is no looker, and the few women he gets to bed - once - are invariably drunk and unattractive as he is, which makes his dick pretty damn resentful. Time for the unfulfilled member to take control of the operation.

James Crawford - Black And White and Bed All Over: "I can change how I look, what I'm wearing, and the room around me, just be thinking." Game but dim young Josh Merriweather is errand boy to the boss and Jack-of-all-trades at Fletcher studios, specialists in screen animations. The undisputed Queen of these living pen-and-ink creations is Tiffany, a sexy, b/w diva who, bored of screwing her cartoon co-stars, wants to get it on with a 'Real.' The hapless Josh is volunteered for a tough gig. Fail to satisfy, and Tiffany has been known to turn multi-tendril nasty.

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Rex Miller & Jeff Gelb - The Watcher: Nineteen years into their marriage, George Winters, first time author of surprise best-seller How to Fuck Somebody Over (and equally successful sequel, How to Fuck Somebody Up), finally persuades Karen to indulge his fantasy - that she go to work on another woman while he films from the touchline. The lucky lady is Gayle, a gorgeous 22-year-old hooker George bought himself as a treat to celebrate literary success. The women hit it off famously - too famously. George gets his wish, but it costs him his wife, who sets up home with her lesbian love goddess. Be careful what you wish for? George is crushed. That, and crazy for revenge on the heartless bitches (!). A neat murder-revenge story, not sure if it's exactly "horror" (whatever that is).

Wayne Allen Sallee - Lullaby & Goodnight: Celandine Tomei and the vestigial twin growing from her abdomen are pimped by her mother, the Madam of a Chicago brothel. Guys pay top whack to screw Celandine and throttle the indestructible monster while doing so. A cop sent to investigate the alleged goings-on loses his sanity on the spot.

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Ten stories down, have been getting along fine with Seeds of Fear without being especially blown away by any one particular entry. And then ...

Michael Garrett - Sympathy Call: After Beth's funeral, Mark Morrison returns to their home town to call on her parents, tell them how much he always loved her. Beth and Mark had been high school sweethearts, and "she's never been far from my thoughts," this despite her twice marrying other guys and pleading with him to please leave her alone. The Arvin's pass him their family albums, charting Beth's development from little girl to mature mum of two. The snapshots move him to confessional mood. "She's lost her looks. I need to remember her how she was." This is more like it. Murder, grave-robbing, and a whiff of necrophilia.

Stephen R. George - Overeaters Ominous: Six years and a miscarriage into their failing marriage, Agatha's comfort-eating has hit crisis level. Husband Nick, an abusive, cheating, all round despicable piece of work, never tires of reminding her how gross she is and what a martyr he must be to privilege her with the occasional mouthful of his magnificent member.

Witnessing Nick's abominable behavior toward his wife in a restaurant, Helen, a stunningly attractive fellow diner, consoles Agatha by handing her a photograph of a blimp woman. "That was me, six months ago." Helen, it transpires, leads a six strong coven of Olympic-standard slimmers. The secret of their success? A voodoo-enhanced diet plan. Agatha is recruited on the spot. Sure enough, for every pound she loses, laughing boy gains two, until, a fortnight on, his hideously bloated body is carted away in an ambulance.


Larry Tritten - The Beast: There's a terrifying monster in mummy and daddy's bed. The little boy knows from his nightmares that it will dine on his flesh unless he can kill it first. The beast with two backs must die!

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Billie Sue Mosiman - Hideyhole: Bastine Rendeaux, unhinged haulage driver, is driven to violence and self destruction by a truck stop hooker who exists only in his tortured imagination. Horrible case history of child abuse and its toll on the victim.

J.N. Williamson - High Concept: " .... And I have the makings of a really different snuff film if our own collaboration doesn't fly." Adam Chalminski, veteran director of hard core porno movies, is bent on coercing Donna Callaghan into the business. Unknown to Chalminski, shy, virginal Donna - a seven foot Amazon - has been coached for this moment by her secret lover, Eddie Burgess, the hugely hung star of many an AC production. Eddie has a score to settle with the old sleaze.

Michael Newton - Airhead: Serial rapist Larry Gaskins invests in an inflatable doll to rehearse his imminent assault on Karen. Had it not been for a sharp lawyer, her testimony might have put him away for decades - time he taught the stuck up bitch a lesson. Karen, per-empting the attack, utilizes black magic to turn his evil against him. Look away now if you don't want to know the result.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}
"Sucky Suzee" sodomises the bastard with a bathroom plunger.

J.L. Comean - Five Seconds: Dowdy, mousey 'Plain Jane' Hodges, spinster, is the laughing stock of her trendy colleagues at the Dearborne Elementary School. If only they knew what she gets up to at lunchtime.

Enjoyed Airhead and High Concept. Sympathy Call remains first in this reader's affections.

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Paul Dale Anderson - What You See: On a night out cruising bars with horny pals, Alex, a psychology student, gets lucky with a mature looker in a sexy mini skirt. Cindy, as she introduces herself, is a stinking rich business exec with obligatory mansion. She also possesses the sexual stamina of three woman - with split personalities to match. Can tonight get any better? No, but once she has his wrists cuffed to the bedposts it will get a whole lot worse.

P.D. Cacek - Devil With A Blue Dress: "I be your numbah one girlfriend Vietnam." 182nd Point 5 club reunion dinner in San Francisco. Gil Thornton is haunted by the ghost of the abnormally thin hooker he murdered in the Centertown "business district" during an attack of paranoia.

That's it for Seeds of Fear. And the next one, please!