David & Linden Riley [eds.] - Kitchen Sink Gothic 2

[dem bones]

Out now ...

David & David & Linden Riley [eds.] - Kitchen Sink Gothic 2 (Parallel Universe Publications, Oct. 2020)

Allen Koszowski

Introduction

James Harper - The Ring on the Roof
Eric Nash - The Christmas Tree
Shaun Avery - Vlog's Legs
David A. Sutton - The Capsule
Adrian Cole - Wake up Screaming
Paul Lewis - The Boy on the Train
Jonathan Mitchell - Double Exposure
Eric Ian Steele - Night Flight
Trevor Kennedy - The Lonely Passion of Jimmy Tate
Andrew Darlington - The Doomed Empire
Franklin Marsh - Real Life
Russell Hemmell - Stones are Breathing Tonight
Stephanie Ellis - Winter Discontent
Alyson Faye - The Adelphi
Mark Reece - Pain
Teika Marija Smits - This Little Piggy

Blurb

This book is dedicated to the homeless in Britain today, who have to struggle for their existence in an increasingly hostile social climate.

All proceeds from the sale of this book will be given to homeless charities. It may never amount to a great deal but at least we hope it will do some good. And encourage others to help too.

Order from:

Parallel Universe Publications
Amazon UK
Am*zon

It's all happening just now. Commentary to follow ...

[fritzmaitland]

October 16th - THIS LITTLE PIGGY - Teika Marija Smits. Blast. The entry I quoted above missed out the title and author of the book's last story. I chose this one to keep up the theme of woman authors. From what I can gather Teika isn't a 'horror' author, and in some ways, this isn't a 'horror' story. However, I found it very affecting, not necessarily in a horrible way. The last page turns the story around completely, and is rather life-affirming.I don't want to say too much about it, because the real pleasure is in the reading. There is an overnight stay in a local derelict house with a sinister reputation, but that's not what it's about. Daft of me to read the last story first, but it was great. Looking forward to the rest even more now!

[dem bones]

The going occasionally got very far out in Kitchen Sink Gothic Mk. I and early signs suggest we are in for another strange experience.

James Harper - The Ring on the Roof: Doom of a pushy roof salesman, Jake Buckley, determined to capitalise on recent hailstorm damage. Buckley is perplexed by the glass rings embedded beneath the shingles up top of several of the properties, each bearing the image of a squid-like creature. Had no idea where this was heading until the amorous mini-skirt girl dropped the strongest hint. Maybe author had a bad experience of storm chasers, as he sure destroys this one pretty thoroughly.

Eric Nash - The Christmas Tree: A family gathering in the Churchyard at St. Bartholomew, Midwinter Hill on Boxing day to remember their dead. Ghosts grieving their predecessors? Will have to come back to this one as any meaning bypassed my brain.

Shaun Avery - Vlog's Legs: "Conservative Britain, 2017." To fend off the misery and despair of jobseeker Hell, two youths launch 'Cannibal cookery,' a jokey how-to site, with Cody on film duties, James as 'Chef.' The broadcasts attract a loyal fan base, including 'Cannibal Ken' and his confederate, 'Alice', who recognise raw talent when they see it. All of which spells the worst for a rival Vlogger the guys have taken a dislike to. Predictably, the first all-out horror is early personal favourite.

Adrian Cole - Wake up Screaming: Another hit. Drama at the restaurant. Odious creep Dez threatens to expose Joanie's double life to their employer, Chef (a different one), unless she calls around his place tonight for a ... "date." The meek and mild waitress is a closet Goth, and Chef ain't known for a high tolerance level of anyone "weird." Reluctant in the extreme, she agrees to a one-off sleepover at chez Dez. Which, given her recent nightmares, is bad news for 'super-dick.'

I had an ace time with Mr. Cole's Tough Guys collection, and this is another blast.

[dem bones]

David A. Sutton - The Capsule: Flashback to the Jug O' Punch Folk Club, Digbeth, Birmingham, on a Halloween night during the late 'sixties. Narrator, a seventeen-year-old aspiring hippie, is gifted a black capsule by a deathly pale young man at the bar. Nigel claims to have found two pills in his pocket the morning after he and his father where abducted by aliens. He took one - it doesn't seem to have done much for his equanimity - this may be the only other one on earth. Narrator eventually drops the capsule, and, now an old man, can no longer account for his intervening years. Everything between October 31st's is a blur.

A Melancholy story of everyday dislocation. Am I a ghost? Where did my life go?

Paul Lewis - The Boy on the Train: Express rail journey from Paddington to Swansea. Against his better judgement, Wayne, buoyant drunk after a Wales victory over England at Twickenham, agrees to look after a silent young boy while his mum visits the Ladies. That's the last he sees of her. Not knowing what to do, Wayne takes the boy home, which doesn't sit well with wife Carole, a new mother worrying how they can manage financially. Turns out, she'll not have to suffer their unwanted guest for long. Very horrible!

[dem bones]

Jonathan Mitchell - Double Exposure: "Isn't every old house haunted?" Tom Warren takes a room at Mrs. Neely's place on Crawford Street, grateful for shared attic space to store his paintings. Exploring the cubby hole, he finds a crate of canvases by a Mr. Reed Kessler, depressingly mediocre work save for an almost accomplished portrait of a young woman. Tom learns that Kessler hung himself shortly after completion of his almost-masterpiece, whose subject grows more beautiful as Warren's own spirits fade ...

Eric Ian Steele - Night Flight: Young couple jump a bus to nowhere, having taken grim revenge on her sexually abusive parent. The Nightscape man in sombre mood.

Trevor Kennedy - The Lonely Passion of Jimmy Tate: Death visions of an alcoholic as the demons of nightmare spill into his waking hours. Mr. Phantasmagoria with a timely reminder that drinking yourself to death isn't much fun. Maybe it's just me, but, while alcohol abuse has been with us for centuries, this slice of death drama has a Covid Gothic vibe about it. See also several stories in Anna Taborska's Bloody Britain.

[dem bones]

Andrew Darlington - The Doomed Empire: Another I'll have to come back to. In the great scheme of things, the destruction of our insignificant planet is but the tiniest kitchen sink drama? I'm sure there was some mention on here quite recently of a legend concerning the phantom bells of a sunken city tolling beneath the sea?

Franklin Marsh - Real Life: "He was becoming a hermit. Holed up in that dingy flat, watching and reading horror. Imagining slicing up people who had offended him in the most trivial way."

Simon Perkins flat-shares with Sean, a perma-stoned waster who mocks his obsession with torture porn (DVD of the moment: The Milton Keynes Ripper. We told you there was something STRANGELY QUEER about that place). Perky's life is going nowhere - until the afternoon he bravely leaps into the canal to rescue an attempted suicide. Kaz, an old school-friend trapped in a appallingly abusive relationship, has chosen the "easy" way out. She had the bad sense to marry Carl Smith, the official school bully and leader of the Milltown Gang, under the misapprehension he was a reformed character. Smith and his current sixteen-year-old slapper have since subjected her to the vilest of tortures. Perky tells all he knows to the police, then tools up for the inevitable visit from Smith and slut ...

Alyson Faye - The Adelphi: To prove herself to the others, Becca, youngest member of the gang, must descend to the cellar of the derelict Adelphi hotel and, once there, email Jake a photo to prove she's not chickened out. The place has a bad reputation ...

Think we can safely chance that fans of Kitchen Sink Gothic Mk I will not be disappointed. A similar mix of relatively conventional ghost, fantasy and horror stories interspersed with occasional cosmic what-was-that-about strangeness?

[fritzmaitland]

Oct 22, 2020 17:29:32 GMT dem bones said:

(DVD of the moment: The Milton Keynes Ripper. We told you there was something STRANGELY QUEER about that place).

The other thread did amuse me. The "MKR" as the kids call it.

[dem bones]

Russell Hemmell - Stones are Breathing Tonight: Another apocalyptic vision. By a freak of metabolism, Eileen, Shaun, Raven and a mute little girl they name Fidra - after the island where they found her - survive what became known as the Iron Plague (lethal to most metals, certain vegetables, much of the animal kingdom and the human race). It could be they're the only living folk in Scotland, maybe even the world. What else to do but begin repopulating the species?

Stephanie Ellis - Winter Discontent: An undertakers strike throughout Liverpool provides a get-rich-quick opening for Terry Jefferson and nephew, Gary. It's a good time to have readily available storage space for hire, and Terry's factory was stood empty since it was shut down due to health and safety infringements. Gary is imposed upon to take nightwatchman duties. Something walks among the neatly stacked corpses ...

Mark Reece - Pain: "Something similar happened to my friend. There's a department that arranges that kind of thing. It took him ages to sort it out." What can Paul England have done to incur the malice of his employees, and how can he put things right? The switchboard operators at People Development (formerly Human Resources) are indifferent, but eventually he is referred to the ominously named Everidge Memorial Centre where - perhaps - he will be apprised of any offense? Corporate age Voodoo.

Oct 16, 2020 19:41:17 GMT fritzmaitland said:

October 16th - THIS LITTLE PIGGY - Teika Marija Smits. Blast. The entry I quoted above missed out the title and author of the book's last story. I chose this one to keep up the theme of woman authors. From what I can gather Teika isn't a 'horror' author, and in some ways, this isn't a 'horror' story. However, I found it very affecting, not necessarily in a horrible way. The last page turns the story around completely, and is rather life-affirming.I don't want to say too much about it, because the real pleasure is in the reading. There is an overnight stay in a local derelict house with a sinister reputation, but that's not what it's about. Daft of me to read the last story first, but it was great. Looking forward to the rest even more now!

Teika Marija Smits - This Little Piggy: Some women will go to any length to have a baby, no matter the consequences. On learning she was infertile, the narrators mother intuitively realised that she would conceive only if she dared brave a week in a derelict Victorian house of ill repute on the River Skerne. A suitably disconcerting one to end on.

Can't say I understood every story, but that's nothing unusual. My favourites, in no particular order, were Vlog's Legs (video ghastly fun), Wake up Screaming, Pain (Dino Buzzati/ Seven Floors flashbacks), Real life ( ... has a habit of screwing you over), Boy on the Train (weird tales), Winter Discontent (creepy premise like that, how could it fail?) and the trad vampire-ghost outing, Double Exposure.

[fritzmaitland]

Oct 21, 2020 15:23:38 GMT dem bones said:

Jonathan Mitchell - Double Exposure: "Isn't every old house haunted?" Tom Warren takes a room at Mrs. Neely's place on Crawford Street, grateful for shared attic space to store his paintings. Exploring the cubby hole, he finds a crate of canvases by a Mr. Reed Kessler, depressingly mediocre work save for an almost accomplished portrait of a young woman. Tom learns that Kessler hung himself shortly after completion of his almost-masterpiece, whose subject grows more beautiful as Warren's own spirits fade ...

Enjoyed this one. Another haunted painting story (my third for October) but the story itself was very mysterious and ...er...haunting, like the portrait of the girl.