Doll Crimes by Karen Runge and Power by C. S. Alleyne

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

Today, I’m reviewing two recent releases from Crystal Lake Publishing. I originally wasn’t planning on purchasing either of them, but immediately before Doll Crimes was published, its author, Karen Runge, was brutally attacked by poachers in a nature reserve. I felt the least I could do to help support her was pre-ordering a copy of her book.

Power is a short story that cost only 99 cents, and since I had an Amazon digital credit for that amount which was about to expire, I thought why not give it a try? Continue reading →

This House of Wounds by Georgina Bruce

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Several reoccurring themes emerge in this collection. Many stories reference Alice in Wonderland, as well as blood, doors, smashed mirrors, the beach, sisters, unreliable memories, madness, dreams, movies, men and women in conflict, doppelgangers, metamorphosis, people with dog masks, and out-of-body experiences. Also, several of the stories make references to the cover image. While the repeating images would normally feel repetitious to me, they don’t here, taking on thematic tones. It’s actually repetitious in a good way. The stories also make references to each other on several occasions, so many of them take place in the same world. Continue reading →

Deep Space Nine Season 3

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Continuing my Star Trek rewatch, I’ve reached the end of Deep Space Nine season 3. It’s still a bit rocky, which I think is largely due to the awkward transition a lot of TV shows were going through at the time between trying to have each episode stand on its own and also trying to make each episode a piece of a larger overarching plot. Early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fall into this same category. Continue reading →

Mildly Interesting

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Noted H. P. Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi has written a review of Machinations and Mesmerism: Tales Inspired by E. T. A. Hoffman in issue number 26 of Dead Reckonings, a horror review magazine.

He only spends one sentence on my story, “Spinollio”, but as there are over a dozen stories in this anthology, it makes sense that he wouldn’t be able to go into depth on all of them. I’m actually flattered that he mentioned me at all.

He describes my story as “mildly interesting”, which I think counts as praise coming from him. What do you think? Should I put this quote on the cover of my next book? “S.T. Joshi raves that D.J. Moore is mildly interesting!” Hehe. Just kidding. Maybe.

Machinations and Mesmerism: Tales Inspired by E. T. A. Hoffman is available on Amazon and Lulu.

Batman: White Knight by Sean Murphy

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I originally didn’t intend to write a review of Batman: White Knight. The premise is Joker becomes the hero of Gotham, which drives Batman crazy, thus reversing their roles. I felt like it was a nice palette cleanser after reading The Dark Knight Returns (which is inexplicably considered the best comic ever written by many people), but I didn’t have much to say about it other than that. Continue reading →

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

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The Dark Knight Returns was originally published in 1986 and is largely considered one of the best comics ever written. I somehow never got around to reading it until now.

The premise is that Batman decides to retire from crime fighting after the death of the second Robin. However, without Batman, crime in Gotham skyrockets, so he decides to dawn the bat costume once again, despite now being in his 50s. Continue reading →

Forward Part 2

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Forward is a collection of short science fiction stories available for free download if you’re an Amazon Prime member, much like Amazon’s earlier horror collection Disorder.

“Ark” by Veronica Roth is a retelling of the Noah’s Ark story. Earth is being evacuated due to an asteroid named Finis and a team of people are putting DNA samples of plants and animals aboard a spaceship headed for another planet. Continue reading →

Forward Part 1

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Forward is a collection of short science fiction stories available for free download if you’re an Amazon Prime member, much like Amazon’s earlier horror collection Disorder.

Andy Weir, who became successful after self-publishing his novel The Martian, provides a short story titled “Randomize”. Present-day computers can’t actually generate random numbers, just pseudo-random numbers. In this story, quantum computers disrupt the casino industry because they’re able to figure out what the pseudo-random numbers are. Continue reading →

Asimov’s September/October 2019

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“In the Stillness Between the Stars” by Mercurio D. Rivera takes place aboard a city-sized generation ship. Our viewpoint character is a psychotherapist who is brought out of stasis early to help a fellow passenger who experienced nightmares while in stasis and continues to hallucinate a shadowy monster that lurks on the edge of her vision. The ship is kept minimally lit to save energy, adding to the spooky atmosphere. Add in a creepy nursery rhyme and a malfunctioning ship and you’ve got a great scary story just in time for Halloween. I also liked that the ship’s computer had a personality. I’ve got to say I’ve always loved a good haunted space ship story. This is my favorite story this issue.

Continue reading →