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“Abhorrent”, by Michelle Merz – Review

Abhorrent is a collection of horror stories by Michelle Merz. Each story requires only a few minutes to read, making them perfect for short breaks or anytime when longer periods aren’t available. The stories run from tales of the supernatural to those of purely human monsters. One story, Emergency, spans five shorter tales before wrapping things up. Stories include nightmares within dreams, schoolgirl invocations, itches which demand scratching, fancy dinner parties, unlikely snuff video fans, aspects of working 911, rubber ducky games, crowds of creepy children, and one more thing to worry about when handing your keys to a parking valet. As far as could be readily determined, no pets were killed off in any of the stories.

I found Michelle Merz to have an excellent touch when building her Abhorrent stories; tension is built appropriately, characters are remarkably well-rounded and vivid for short or flash fiction pieces. In addition most of the stories have endings you definitely will not see coming. My favorite story is Dinner which, in my opinion, is the exemplar of those aspects. If you’ve ever had a hard-to-reach itch, your skin might start to crawl reading Itch/Scratch, I know mine did. All of the sub-stories in Emergency are strong alone and again the global ending came as a delightfully macabre surprise. I don’t know how many more of these stories Michelle Merz has in her catalog but, based on the strength of Abhorrent, I would eagerly read them as well.


Reviewed for Readers’ Favorite

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“The Wishnik”, by Kurt Newton – Review

The Wishnik relates a story of a man, Kenny, who inadvertently activates an evil entity by wishing his abusive comatose father dead, and offering up to the universe whatever it takes to get the job done. The response is the Wishnik, who after Kenny’s dad dies now wants to be fed more and more by Kenny. The music from “Little Shop of Horrors” played in the background of my mind as I read it, “Feed Me! Seymour!” All-in-all this kind of story has a somewhat predictable arc, deals struck with forces they don’t understand and the prices necessarily paid to extricate their sorry backside. Personally I have trouble identifying with people who make such bad decisions, but it is a pleasant enough read and told well. Definitely worth a purchase!

The only small beef I had with the book is the characterization of a Marine brother, which wasn’t up to the standards of the rest of the book. There are some popular tropes used there which are dead wrong, if one knew something about the topic. But suspending disbelief and accepting alternate universes where tropes are reality, alrighty then.

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“The Truth of Fiction”, by E.E. King – Review

The Truth of Fiction by E.E. King is a story of stories, a top level story where short stories are presented in a context which ties them all together. Some of the short stories were previously published in various places, some are previously unpublished. Elizabeth Eve has so many short stories in her back catalog she could probably do four or five of these. An unimaginative author might just slap a set together and call it an anthology. But Ms. King is definitely imaginative, so we have this delightful offering. She certainly has a talent for taking old myths or tales and making them more interesting.

I would have appreciated the stories even in a more mundane setting, but tying them together takes one to the next level. This is how it should be done, folks!

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“Misquoting Jesus”, by Bart D. Ehrman – Review

Author Ehrman has taken the relatively dry topic of academic literary criticism, applied it to the Christian New Testament, and provided the results in an accessible format for the interested reader. He starts by explaining how a scholar engaged in literary criticism uses abductive reasoning to get at what the original text actually said (in Greek) versus what was changed over the years. He talks about the various ways scribes would modify the texts while being copied, whether intentional or not. He distinguishes between changes which were made to render the text more harmonious to the then-current practice and those which were simply mistakes made during the transcription process. In addition he explores, at a high level, examples where some of the known textual changes significantly impacted how Christian doctrine is currently perceived and understood.

I very much enjoyed Misquoting Jesus and Bart Ehrman’s scholarly approach to a very controversial topic, especially among Christians who believe the King James Bible is the inerrant Word of God. I was raised in the same tradition myself and am all too aware of the many problems with that point of view. He doesn’t bother with all of the contradictions in the current text, focusing instead on passages where key words or phrases were clearly changed from more definitive Greek manuscripts. Yes, the changes are significant. The book won’t change those minds who accept the KJV as inerrant on faith, but if you are evidence-driven I sincerely recommend this short book.

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Random Quote

“Big fish in little ponds should occasionally take a humbling swim in the ocean.”
Dan M. Kalin

For the metaphor-challenged, the following covers most of it;

“..There’s always a bigger fish.”
Qui-Gon Jinn – Star Wars Ep. 1

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“No Tears for My Father”, by Viga Boland – Review

The author, Viga Boland, does something akin to carving herself open for the reader. In a matter-of-fact way, she reveals the gripping account of her father’s controlling criminal mental and sexual abuse which persisted into her early adult life. She makes sure the reader doesn’t get too far by accident, there are numerous warnings before the story begins in earnest. She graphically spares herself very little in the account. I hope the telling provided some modicum of catharsis for her and her loved ones. By the time you’ve read to the titular passage, you applaud a recovery which took more than four decades.

As a father of a grown daughter, who becomes more beloved as time passes, I cannot imagine the thought process of the author’s father. We start with ‘narcissist’, but quickly run out of diagnostic labels for a true monster who never really paid society’s price for such crimes. The book doesn’t really get us to “why”, but it does depict the “what”. Monsters like this are out there, we need to watch for those signs, as I suspect most victims of such abuse don’t make it through to the sunlight without help.

This is an important book. Not all books are meant for entertainment, sometimes they must be read regardless.

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January 2019 Production

January wasn’t the worst month on record for writing, but did fall short. However, Martyrs al-Sabra was published in most formats and the response of people reading it has been very gratifying. There will be reviews published shortly.

Plenty of new projects in the works!
Month started big but I lost the bubble at the end. I could blame it on a mini-Kalin reunion at my home over a long weekend, but it wouldn’t be accurate. I was simply enjoying other things.
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Martyrs Print Copies

The first Martyrs al-Sabra print copies were received today and I am very pleased with the results! They have been available for purchase for a week or so, but it took time to generate first articles.

You’re never quite sure whether the finished version is right until you hold it in your hand. Holding more than one in your hands is even better. They have that new book smell!

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“Red”, by Sammy Hagar – Review

This book fills in detail surrounding Sammy Hagar’s life and times up until about 2011. Don’t read the book expecting a rock star to write well; it isn’t what the book is about. If you read at an tenth grade level, it is about right. There is also a fair amount of inconsistency in terms of contradictory opinions, and either he’s changeable or he feels it necessary to compliment before criticising. I landed on it probably being the latter. 

I’m not especially a big fan of Sammy’s musical work, but I did find the detail interesting to read. He grew up a few miles from me and when he described the place I knew exactly what he was talking about; small one-industry California town doomed to slide even further into the abyss of poverty. I got out and never returned. Sammy got out and went back to become a local landlord after making it. Kudos!

Another note: I enjoyed reading his account of events surrounding the changes in Van Halen. Regardless of whether you’re “Team-Ed”, “Team-Dave”, or “Team-Sammy” his account is probably the most credible in my opinion. Over the years, he has consistently been the hardest working, most fun-loving, and quite likely the happiest of the group. If you are a fan, you’ll enjoy the book.