The Night My Father Shot the Werewolf, by Josh Griffing

The boys in Mrs. Carroll's third-grade class learned a lot last year, about things like cursive, and multiplying, and werewolves.

Welcome to the Luna anthology.

Things are gonna be strange.

Josh Griffing, on writing The Night My Father Shot the Werewolf

When a boy is nine, his Dad is the most important person in his life, and he should be able to look to Dad to defeat the monsters that hunt in the dark.  Sean Grady always knew his Dad would do whatever it took to keep the family safe:  this is Sean’s story.

I didn’t really write this one with the Luna Anthology in mind: in fact it was declined by Intergalactic Medicine Show before I’d even heard of the project.  I wrote it as an examination of a man’s duty to watch over his family and the measures that duty may require of him.

In some ways it’s a very personal story:  I used my own initials for the Dad and like him, I have something of a temper at times. One reader who saw the self-caricature even asked “Is there something you need to tell me?” But the events and—aside from a few broad lines of memoir—the characters are entirely the product of my overactive imagination. 

 A nod to Stephen King’s “Cycle of the Werewolf” is in order, if only subliminally, and a nod to the architects of leaky old schools in Southern cities where I daydreamed in my formative years.

The question of lycanthropy has long fascinated me, in terms of the division between human and animal identity, and the issue of the “moral monster” that Larry Correia handles so well in his MHI books, especially Alpha and Nemesis.  In fact, without a moral axis to the universe, one cannot well call a monster “evil” or call evil “monstrous”.  Even in H. P. Lovecraft, the horrors and demons that lurk behind the wrongness of the shadows seem to be merely Other and their terror is as much in the physical threats they pose or the psychic chaos of their divergence from the natural world.  Because Lovecraft’s amoralist world offers no Good, the evils he depicts cannot be defeated or even quite acknowledged before “The Rats in the Walls” devour all.

But in a moral universe, Good may conquer Evil, and even when it’s buried, it rises again to destroy the corruption.  This principle is a common trope in the old Lon Cheney Jr. wolfman films and much of the werewolf genre, and in the Hammer flick “The Gorgon” (1965) as well, when the monsters’ deaths revert them to their proper human forms, in honor (acknowleged or not) of the imagio dei within.  

In the fourth chapter of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar tells of God’s punishing his hubris with boanthropy—though no physical mutation happens—for seven years, and in Kipling’s famous Jungle Books, Mowgli grows up as a human boy among the wolves and beasts of the Indian jungle. Again and again, the theme of man’s distinction from the beasts he resembles is a source of wonder and inquiry, and many cultures share some form of a shape-shifter myth of creatures that are neither quite man or beast.  

Is it demonic, or a virus, or magic, or a long-muddied record of some other event long since forgotten, like dragons and giants and  world-washing floods?  Wherever the Man-among-Beasts comes from, it is the moral agency and duty of Man, integral to who he is as Man (or what C. S. Lewis called hnau in his Space Trilogy), that differentiates werewolves from almost every other monster genre, and without humanity as hnau, the monster might be called “werewolf” or “loup-garou”, but the result is merely one more generically shape-shifting monster story.

But I have said almost too much already.  Go get the anthology and read it for yourself!

Josh Griffing is an Army Reservist in Georgia who writes when he can, and reads when he can get away with it. 

He has two young children, four insolent cats, and a pair of small and yappy dogs. Amazingly, his wife is still very nearly sane, and for this he is eternally grateful.  

He blogs sometimes at https://subcreated-worlds.com/.

WorldCon Melts Down

[EDIT: Brian Niemeier has all the details. It's so, so stupid.]

It's funny. Because Monday was going to be a post where I discussed social media whining and how Facebook and Twitter have lowered the level of discourse to the sewer that used to be dismissed as "the comments section."

Then James Gunn gets taken down by social media, so I figured I needed at least a little editing on that post before it went live.

Before I could get to editing THAT, World Con melts down.

Now, I'm not entirely up on all of the details, but I've got enough to make my head

So far, the gist is this: a typo in a World Con bio led to one of their guests being "Misgendered." According to the rules of conduct of WorldCon, the con ITSELF violated their own rules by misgendering this person.....

In short: the SJWs at World Con can't SJW ENOUGH for the SJW "masses" at the convention. This means the SJWs melt down online, while sane people sit back and laugh at them, because we saw all of this coming years ago. By "we" I mean Larry Correia, Brad Torgersen, and everyone else kicking around in 2015 who were shaking their heads at the slow motion train wreck that has apparently kicked into fast forward.

Meanwhile, middle aged white guys like John Scalzi noted that he was only allotted one panel at WorldCon, and the morning coffee meeting. His only comment at first was "Huh." He, of course, seemed to realize that he did not show sufficient enthusiasm for the Party, and stated later on Monday that he was happy to give up all of his panel time...  I wonder if that's code for "I'm taking my ball and going home."

Meanwhile, as Jon del Arroz has pointed out, Scalzi seems to have been spurned in favor of .... well, any local writer of whatever random minority status they could get, and throwing them on every panel, whether or not they have any relevant experience. Because apparently, experience is racist because it's "a white thing."

.... That last part is supposed to be a joke. Time will tell if it becomes the latest drivel about racism.

It has been a glorious train wreck in the making. Time will tell if this really does become the end of World Con.

Heck. I don't even know how Jon del Arroz's lawsuit is going. If that kicks into high gear soon, things will become even MORE entertaining.  Heh heh heh.

Meanwhile, enjoy some books that are relatively politics free, and all about action, high explosives, and true love .... with some violence and bloodshed thrown in for fun.

Honor at Stake & Demons are Forever

Live and Let Bite

Ringo and ConCarolina, Finale

Okay, and everything is done.

Remember how John Ringo was uninvited from ConCarolinas because of online Lefty bullies screaming for Ringo's blood? That Ringo agree with CC to not show up because they were worried about being unable to protect him? And then, somehow, the message released by ConCarolinas looked that Ringo was the problem?

Well, they admitted that they done screwed it up. 

But more importantly, that this wouldn't happen again. That if someone whines that "I feel unsafe with this guest," ConCarolinas will tell these people to suck it up.

Congrats, guys. You admitted the mistake. You fixed the mistake. You won't do it again.

Okay, I'm happy.

This comes hot on the heels of DragonCon also doing the right thing with regards to insane lefty BS. The woman running their fantasy track strongly cheered on one of the psychos who went after Larry and got him banned from Origins.

"Charlotte" in this case, said....

Yeah. She went went to her personal DragonCon page, ranted and raved about how dare DragonCon allow everyone a seat at the table, "making victims sit next to their abusers" .... and we're still talking about Larry and Ringo, by the way.... and that she would lobby to never have them on her track at DragonCon.

.... And now she's gone.  I would give you links and screen grabs, but the entire page has been shoved down the memory hole. I'm not entirely clear if she quit or was fired.

Nor do I care.

DragonCon stood up for fun over politics.

Before this woman disappeared her page down the memory whole, I left a comment on Charlotte's page. And someone else was wise enough to

After all, DragonCon really didn't like Charlotte's fascism.

But yeah, I'm still proud of DragonCon for being wonderfully sane.

And I'm happy for ConCarolinas proving me wrong, and coming to the right conclusion at the end of the day.

As I said in my last post about this:

On the one hand, Ringo isn't the only Baen author they have as guests. Dave Webber, Tedd Roberts, etc. These are only a handful of the guests from previous years that I'm aware of. Are the Social Justice douchebags going to stop? No, they're not. They never do, they never will, and they never shall ... unless they meet actual, genuine push back for their stupidity.

So, the question is not "Who boycotts the convention over Ringo?" The real question becomes "Who's next?" The SJWs have tasted blood, and they're never satisfied, and thus they will become hungry for more. The NEXT question after that is "how far does the lefty horde go before the ConCom tells the horde to go screw off?"

Apparently, the lefty horde had already crossed the line, they just didn't know it.

And, between sane people like David Weber leading the charge of calm discussion, and the flack ConCarolinas took, sanity prevailed.

Now all Jon del Arroz needs to do and take over WorldCon after his lawsuit, and we can see just how crazy the lefties will really get.

While I think of DragonCon, the Dragons are coming.

If you don't have your ballot filled out already (either IRL or in your head,) here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

Has everyone gone insane?

The past few weeks have been strange, and it's not just me. I know it isn't.

Hell, start with 2018. Cons have gone straight downhill.

WorldCon: "We must ban Jon del Arroz! He might record us doing something untoward to him! He's wearing a body camera to prevent us from taking him outside and beating him with baseball bats! We must pre-ban him! Something we did once to child molester Walter Breen, and never to his accomplice Marion Zimmer Bradley!"

We go from that to

ConCarolinas: "Oh, people just didn't feel safe about John Ringo. We had to get rid of him for safety's sake."

And now .... WTF?

Origins: "Larry Correia believes in the wrong things. We won't talk about what he believes that is BadThink, we'll just disinvite him as the Guest of Honor the same day he's announced."

Now, people were annoyed about WorldCon screwing around with Jon. WorldCon deliberately worked around their own rules to do it, but they at least tried to cover it up within the letter of the law.

People were really freaking irritated when they did it to Ringo. Ringo tried to blow it off at first, claiming that they made his life easier. Then ConCarolina worded it in such a way that it looked like Ringo was the problem.

Then, within the month, another lynch mob forms on Larry Correia and boy are his fans pissed. Origins can't even be bothered to answer Larry's questions about rescinding his invitation. Hell, they didn't even bother talking to him first -- a consideration ConCarolinas at least gave Ringo. Though Origins organizer Jack Ward seems to have more than enough time to send out consoling emails to the vendors, explaining that no one who complains was ever going to attend....

Excuse me, jackass-- er, Mr. Ward -- but did you consider that a bestselling author might -- just might, grant you -- be a bigger draw than .... whoever else you have on your list? (No, seriously, I looked at the image they had for their big names this year. I can't pull them out of a lineup.) And how exactly would you know that "they were never coming"? Because I know people who are asking for refunds over this. Better question: how do you know that any of the people slandering and libeling Larry are coming to the convention?

But, Hell, Origins didn't even try to cover up what they did to Larry. "Oh, he indulges in WrongThink, we're kicking him out."

Are ... you ... fucking ... kidding me? What is the point of this? "Hi, I'm going to slit my own wrists by uninviting a big name bestselling author from my flailing convention, and double down by trying to besmirch his good name behind the scenes, opening myself up to all sorts of lawsuits, BUT I'VE FLOWN THE FLAG FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO LIKE ME."

There's stupid and then there's suicidal. Hence "Go woke, go broke."  Can't you just wait to see what Origins attendance is going to be next year?

You know, way back when, I tried to keep my politics low key. I generally don't like opining in public. The closest I ever wanted to come with Sad Puppies Bite Back, and that was so detached from politics, I'm happy it even made contact with reality from time to time.

Last year was insane. Last year incurred threats, rumors, lies, and BS from people who would have been on "my side" the year before.

This year, we have this BS.

 I think I'm just about done with playing nice.

Here, have the book that pissed off everyone because it was nominated in the first annual Dragon Awards.

And let's see if we can get one of its sequels a follow up nomination in horror, for Good to the Last Drop.

The Dragons are coming.

Here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

A quick postscript to the Ringoing of Correia

The other day, I discussed how Larry, like John Ringo, had been disinvited from a convention because of the hate mobs of the internet.

I then talked about being a guest at DragonCon, and idly wondered if anyone was going to try the lynch mob BS on me, and see if they could get me kicked off of the DragonCon guest list.

After some due consideration, I realize that, of the people at DragonCon this year who might have pissed them off the most (which, granted, is a sliding scale that), I might actually be in the top five. There's Michael Z Williamson, Ringo, and Richard Paolinelli and I were fairly big Sad Puppies supporters, back in the day (Being 3, maybe 4). But hey, you back it once, you're on the enemies list.

I guess I should tell DragonCon about this before the deluge starts. It's not that I really think that it's likely. Hell, who am I compared to bestselling authors?

....Though on the other hand, if the SJW lynch mob were smart, they'd start small, and see if they could come after a smaller name author.

But for those suckers who would want to try tackling a DragonCon guest (and you know they're out there)...

[dusts off meme]

While we're on the topic, please recall to vote in the Dragon Awards.

If you don't have your ballot filled out already (either IRL or in your head,) here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

Correia was Ringoed

Way back when, the Democrats destroyed the career of Robert Bork, a man who was Harvard Law, and was a nominee for the Supreme Court. The latter was worth destroying him over. They dug up every ounce of dirt they could find, and when they couldn't find, they created.

"To Bork" someone became a political verb.

Once again, SF fandom is trying to make another name into a verb: To Ringo someone -- to get a conservative uninvited from conventions they were already invited guests at.

Thanks to ConCarolinas caving into the SJW lynch mob of Facebook (or maybe they just gave them something to hang their hat on, who knows?) when they uninvited John Ringo, the SJWs think they can do the same thing to Larry Correia.

This time, the convention is Origins Game Fair.

Apparently, this was posted before Larry was contacted -- not to ask him about what's real and what's not, but just to tell him of their decision.

Their announcement?

Heh heh heh. No, "we don't want controversy."  In which case, Ward is in for a really crappy couple of weeks. Maybe months.

Yes, they don't want discourse. God forbid anyone there think!

And by the way, you meant "ReSCIND" Mr, Ward....

So, how do you want to read this?

Is this "OMG, we have a raving pack of fringe leftist psychopaths telling us that Larry Correia is a homophobic / racist / Nazi / wife abuser" BS that we've seen since Sad Puppies first began?  Or is this "Our true believers have informed us that he is a thought criminal / conservative and we should ban him?"

And, let's break this down a little....

• What are these "personal views," Ward? [I'm sorry, did I just presume your gender?]
• Is this the Straw Larry so hated by the "TruFen"? 
• Did you actually ask Larry about ... anything? No, you didn't.
• Hope you enjoy a weekend of processing refund requests.

To quote Ringo: Get woke, go broke.

Though to be honest, I was sort of surprised this even worked once, on Ringo. He's a bestselling author. He doesn't need the PR by going to cons. He goes to have fun and hang out. Larry too is also at the level where con appearances can only help the con, not himself.

But hey, it makes the SJWs feel good. It makes them think that they're getting something done. I suppose that pointing out to people that this will only force Larry to have more free time is a waste of time.

Now, I'm not going to suggest sending an email to GoDaddy about how the originsgamefair.com site is being used by John Ward to defame Larry Correia. 

....Though you can email at abuse@godaddy.com, and send something like, oh, I don't know....

Dear GoDaddy Abuse,

I wanted to write to let you all know that the individual known as "John Ward" who is listed as the sole contact for the domain "originsgamefair.com" is using his domain to target and harass a "person of color" named of Larry Correia (who's Portuguese). He is using the email associated with the site to post on Facebook and are attempting to damage his livelihood and reputation with baseless attacks he does not source, and refuses to elaborate on the removal of Larry as a guest at an event. As "John Ward" is the sole contact for the account, the use of "originsgamefair.com" is clearly an arm of the attacks on Mr. Correia. Larry. I do not know what you can do to stop this abuse but I am hoping there is something.

Thank you for your help!

Sincerely,

XXXX

I mean, that would be strange, right?

And after all, would it do any good to contact Mr. John Ward at the Game Manufacturers Association, 240 North Fifth Street, Columbus, OH 43215, Company Phone: 614-255-4500, extension 102?

Maybe it would.

I mean, it's not like they violated their own code of conduct of anything ... okay, they did, but these are SJWs here! It's not like they have to play by their own rules. Their rules are for little people. Like you. 

I'm sure that's not something you'd want to tell them, is it?

Hell, you know how deranged this is? This punched a hole in reality, and we apparently either had Twitter interference from an alternate dimension, or Cat Rambo had something warp her brain enough so that she made a sane statement on social media.

So that's bizarre. 

And, yes, Cat has it right. Larry was announced as the GUEST OF HONOR.

Even better, he was announced as the GOH the exact same day they yanked him. It happened within hours.

I'd love to see what this is going to do to their attendance in the next two years.

The question I have? Who's next?

Huh... You know, I'm going to be an attending professional at DragonCon this year. (Yes, really.) I look forward to seeing what bullshit awaits us there, too.

Speaking of which....

The Dragons are coming.

If you don't have your ballot filled out already (either IRL or in your head,) here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

Review: Monster Hunter Files

If you don't know Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International series, this would be a place to start.

Monster Hunter Files is an anthology written (mostly) by the best fantasy authors in the business


“Thistle” by Larry Correia
Owen and his team take on a new kind of monster in Arizona -- It starts as your straightforward monster killing story. Then Larry does a twist at the end of this one that makes Rod Serling proud. I didn't see it coming, but I should have.  5/5

“Small Problems” by Jim Butcher
MHI’s new janitor has to deal with some small problems -- It's Jim Butcher. Do I have to say this one was awesome?  It's like he hasn't recovered from all of his Roman legion research from Codex Alera ... while watching The Secret of NIMH.  6/5

“Darkness Under The Mountain” by Mike Kupari
Cooper takes a freelance job in Afghanistan-- The Chinese have dug too greedily and too deep... and that's a line in the story. It's almost a Monster Hunter procedural novel, with a soupcon of MCB BS. 4/5

“A Knight Of The Enchanted Forest” by Jessica Day George
(Trailer park elves versus gnomes TURF WAR!)-- A straight up comedy from the first page, with the redneck elves, meets hippies.  4/5

“The Manticore Sanction” by John C. Wright
(Cold War era British espionage with monsters) -- This one was dark. Very British. Also very Universal monster movie... the black and white version, not the new crap with Tom Cruise. This one was ... surprisingly powerful. It left a mark.  6/5.

“The Dead Yard” by Maurice Broaddus
Trip goes to Jamaica on some family business-- It was okay. It needed more meat to it. It was awkwardly paced, and over suddenly. I think it needed more room to work. 3/5

“The Bride” by Brad R. Torgersen
Franks wasn’t the only thing Benjamin Franklin cut deals with-- BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH.  This one was awesome.  Brad writes Ben Franklin perfectly. I can hear the actor from 1776 when I read the story. Also, Franklin's a badass. Though this one pissed me off ... I wanted it to run another ten pages. Dear Larry: Can Brad write the novel on the Revolutionary War history of monster hunting? Please? 5/5

“She Bitch, Killer of Kits” (a Skinwalker Crossover Tale) by Faith Hunter
Jane Yellowrock teams up with MHI -- This was okay. I honestly think that the author is more interesting than the story she wrote. Which is odd, because the inverse is usually the case. 3/5.

“Mr. Natural” by Jody Lynn Nye
an STFU mission in the 70s has to deal with plant monsters and hippies! -- Hilarious. Fun as heck.  I deduct half a point for the bunny ex machina ending. 4.5/5

“Sons Of The Father” by Quincy J. Allen
Two young brothers discover monsters are real, and kill a mess of them -- Quincy is apparently a newb author, but I couldn't tell from the story. It was very Supernatural, if they focused more on being badass than anything else.  4/5

“The Troll Factory” by Alex Shvartsman
Heather gets some help from MHI for an STFU mission into Russia -- Yeah, this was fun. A post-Siege story. It has a nice setup of a newbie hunter, and it has an awesome, awesome punchline. 5/5

“Keep Kaiju Weird” by Kim May 
A Kitsune may have already earned her PUFF exemption, but she’s not going to let some monster squish Portland -- I really enjoyed this one. I was having flashbacks to the better episodes of Grimm, though. Heh. 5/5

“The Gift” by Steve Diamond
Two of the Vatican’s Hunters from the Blessed Order of Saint Hubert the Protector on a mission in Mexico -- I wanted to like this one more. It felt like someone condensed a novel with a lot of backgroundinformation left out. Perhaps this would work betters as the first five chapters of a full novel.  4/5 stars... maybe 3.

“The Case of the Ghastly Specter” by John Ringo
while studying at Oxford, Chad takes a case -- Was Ringo watching old Sherlock Holmes movies? There were moments when Chad sounds like Basil Rathbone. I might like this one better in the full novel of Sinners, as downtime in an action packed novel. But here, in this anthology, it just feels like the slow bit. The difference is jarring. It's still good, so I mark it a 4/5

“Huffman Strikes Back” by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Julie Frost
Owen’s vacation gets interrupted for some monster revenge-- This was part comedy, park action scene. Either way, it was awesome. 5/5

“Hitler’s Dog” by Jonathan Maberry
(It is WW2 and Agent Franks really hates Nazis)-- Do I even have to make comments? It's Franks versus Nazis. But I think it needed a little more fleshing out. 4/5

16 great stories, at a little over a dollar a story. You can't beat this deal.

The Catholic Geek: DragonCon Report

The Catholic Geek: DragonCon Report 09/17 by We Built That Network | Books Podcasts:






Declan Finn (Love at First Bite) reports on the Dragon Awards, and the latest news about Monster Hunter International, Harry Dresden spin-offs, Jim Butcher tales, and some words from the late, great Jerry Pournelle.

DragonCon 2017: Magnificent Men of Sci-Fi/Fantasy

The top men of our genres discuss their careers & offer advice to new writers. Panelists: Kevin J. Anderson, Jim Butcher, Larry Correia, Peter David, and Larry Niven.

Yes, this has audio ... it's audio only.

Sorry, again, this isn't mine, so no, I can't fix any problems that arise. I just find the stuff, and hope you enjoy it.

Enjoy, all.

Speaking of fantasy

Try mine.

DragonCon 2017: Monster Hunter Files

Focused on the upcoming anthology of stories set in the world of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International! Panelists: Jim Butcher, Larry Correia, Faith Hunter, Jonathan Maberry, Jody Lynn Nye.

This is one I actually got to see, unlike many of the videos I'll be posting. However, as I noted before, the video is not mine. How can you tell? It's got film quality.

One of the authors was a last minute addition, since Kelly Lockhart had not written for this anthology, so Larry acted as moderator, and they slipped in ... Quincy? I think that's his name.

Anyway, if you're waiting for the next Monster Hunter Book, and can't wait for the Anthology, may I suggest...

Love at First Bite

Fisking the Six Foot Blivet

So, Brian Niemeier found a new pinata and beat it around with a baseball bat.

Then Al grabbed the bat and beat it around some more.

[Cracks fingers]

My turn.

The blog is "Attack of the Six-Foot Tranny."

Yeah. This is going to be one of those days...

The title is

Horror Puppies Redux: Is Souldancer Really Horror Fandom’s New Favourite Novel?

Yes, as you can tell from the spelling, yes, this is a British Tranny who goes by the name "Doris."

Well, DragonCon has over 60,000 attendees. Voting was open to everybody. So unless you have a better sampling or method of statistical analysis, "Dori," I'm going to have to say yes.

A while back I made a post about how the Sad and Rabid Puppies campaigns have treated horror fiction.

Sigh. Of course you did.

I follow the bouncing link, and I get this.

Honor at Stake is very much what Stephen Jones would call “horror-lite”. It starts out as a vampire romance in the vein of Stephanie Meyer and Charlaine Harris, evolves into a humorous action-driven narrative in the tradition of Joss Whedon and Larry Correia, and ends up with hordes of vampires being dispatched with a consecrated fire hydrant. For all its jokes at the expense of sparkly vampires, the book remains far closer to Twilight than to, say, Salem’s Lot.

So if you follow the bouncing ball for a moment, Honor at Stake evolves into being like Joss and Larry, but is closer to Twilight than to Stephen King....

Just for the record, did anyone else notice that it just demeaned Larry Correia and Joss Whedon as being on par with Twilight?

I'm going to suggest that there are a few million Buffy fans out there who now want your head on a stick, "Doris." In fact, I hope you've transitioned already, otherwise there will be Whedon fans -- not fans of Larry, Whedon -- who will happily help you transition without anesthetic. And no, I'm not one of them. I'm just laughing at the image of the hordes of Joss fans carrying torches and pitchfolks.

The next comment about me is to cite a tweet.

Declan Finn replies that Brian Niemeier is his only competition in the category.

All of this strikes me as rather rude conduct. They hail the Dragon Awards as the true voice of fandom, and then dismiss four of the six horror nominees as undeserving of consideration. What could I infer from this behaviour, except that these people feel contempt for horror fans?

Hey, "Doris," you stupid git, maybe you should have read the blog post I made TWO WEEKS BEFORE THAT (and nearly THREE weeks before the hir statements) where I said that I DIDN'T KNOW ANY OF THE OTHER AUTHORS.  I didn't even know that they existed. 

Kinda hard for me to respect people who I don't even know exist, git. Perhaps you should do something strange, "Doris," and instead of stopping when you get your evidence for the narrative, you stop when there's nothing else to research. The way actual researchers do.

I'd thank "Doris" for reading my book, but I suspect I know which review s/he wrote.

Anyway, back to the original stupidity that started this mess.

I pointed out that when the pro-Puppy authors write something within the horror spectrum, they generally end up with the kind of work that editor and horror expert Stephen Jones associates with the term “horror-lite”

S/he goes on to diss urban fantasy....

Today we are living in a world that is ‘horror-lite’. This appalling appellation was coined by publishers to describe the type of fiction that is currently enjoying massive success under such genre categories as ‘paranormal romance’, ‘urban fantasy’, ‘literary mash-up’ or even ‘steampunk’. 

Okay, congrats, "Doris," you now have dissed urban fantasy.

You now have Jim Butcher's fans on your ass, and in a way that you will not enjoy, unless you like the idea of being beaten with hockey sticks and carved wizard's staffs. I suspect that's a fetish not even the internet likes that much.

For the record, you buggered swine, I was shooting for fantasy or paranormal. I hadn't really thought of my work as horror. In fact, again, HAD YOU DONE YOUR RESEARCH, you would have noted that I suggested Honor at Stake for military, YA, and best fantasy, with a question mark around horror.

But, no, "Doris," your transition must be transitioning from a male to the IQ of mayo.

...Am I being insulting? Well, hey, s/he said I'm insulting. S/he wants me to be insulting. I can do insulting.

S/he then goes on to cite, once again, a twitter conversation as PROOF that I'm insulting and dismissive of the horror genre.

Again, I was shooting for urban fantasy. My readers disagreed. Get over it, Boris.

Since then, Souldancer succeeded in winning the Dragon Award for horror, and the Puppysphere seems to be making a concerted effort to present Brian Niemeier as being the contemporary horror author

That's .... news to me. Boring here doesn't put any links in to cite as evidence, but right now, s/he can link to a list of websites, and I wouldn't trust it until I went through each link to see if they were even Puppy related.

(with honourable mention sometimes being given to Declan Finn).

How nice. Also news to me. Also without links or any other supporting evidence to back it up.

Around Halloween, the Castalia House blog ran a post called “SUPERVERSIVE and Horror Stories” in which Josh Young argues for the superiority of horror films with clear-cut heroes (such as Alien and The Evil Dead) over those which focus on college students being chopped up (such as Friday the 13th).

And somehow, Boris doesn't have anything to bitch about in that concept ... yet, anyway, I'm fisking as I go along.

Towards the end, he makes an abrupt change of subject from heroic horror films to heroic horror literature:

Abrupt? You realize that it's a Publisher blog, right? That they publish books? How did you NOT expect it to go to books?

but does he mention Robert E. Howard, whose sword-and-sorcery protagonists regularly faced Lovecraftian abominations? Does he acknowledge the writers who have shaped the occult detective genre, from H. and E. Heron through to Jim Butcher?

I find it interesting that Boring forgot in the previous blog that he's dismissed and disparaged urban fantasy, and he wants to kowtow to Butcher? Too late.

Does he namecheck anyone from the legion of authors, from Bram Stoker onwards, who have thrilled readers with tales of cross-wielding vampire hunters?

Nope, nope, and nope. It is Brian Niemeier who has the distinction of being the only writer mentioned in Young’s survey of horror.

No, of course he doesn't. You know why? Because if Boris here had read THE TITLE OF THE PIECE (which s/he did, it's cited three excerpts ago) it was "SUPERVERSIVE and Horror Stories." The term Superversive is not exactly in widespread use. Come to think of it, Brian is the only horror novelist I know who uses the term -- as evidenced by hanging out in the Superversive roundtable radio show.  Not even Butcher uses it.

I use it, but that's only if you count me as a horror novelist. Which I don't, but I'll take nominations in whatever genre I can get.

Now, the Dragon Awards claim to honour “the works that are genuinely most beloved by the core audience”, and this is a description that the Puppies have taken as gospel truth. 

And I'm sure that you believe that the Hugos really are the most prestigious SFF award, right, Boring?

But the obscure, self-published Souldancer is not beloved amongst horror fans. Evidence of this can be gleaned simply by registering at the horror forum of your choice and asking the members if they have ever heard of Brian Niemeier. Indeed, a search through Google (or Amazon, or Goodreads, or Twitter, or Reddit) will indicate that Souldancer has made almost no impact outside of Puppy circles.

That's it? That's the best shot at Souldancer? That he can't find it on Google. You know, even Ann Coulter uses Lexus/Nexus, and says what search terms she uses.

And internet Forums? Funny, I always heard that internet forums were a wretched hive of scum and villainy. That this creature relies on them only makes me feel more certain.

When I google Souldancer, the first thing I get is Brian's Amazon page. Then a bunch of companies that used the phrase. Next time I see Brian, I get the Goodreads page for Souldancer, with a 4.1 rating.

What happens when I Google "Doris V Sutherland" ... okay, fine. The Twitter page. File 770 (I'm shocked), the blog I'm fisking....the about page of the blog....

"A Troubled Dark Soul. A Tale of Doris V. Sutherland."

Oh... Oh Dear.

"Doris," I don't think you want to go to "What people can find on the Internet" for your argument. I really don't think you want to do that.

This is a point I made when I reported on the Dragon Awards at WWAC:

Yes, we have a link ... to something that Boris has written. Because citing evidence just boils down to footnoting your own opinion.

And WWAC is "Women Writing About Comics." Uh huh.

The link only boiled down to Dormamu here bitching that Souldancer only had 8 reviews at the time it won the Dragon.

Brian actually replied.

Boris characterized Brian's reply as

Niemeier then went on to claim that Souldancer outsold N. K. Jemisin’s  The Fifth Season, which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel earlier this year:

Um ..... read it again. He MOVED MORE COPIES. This is in case this twit has trouble reading.

In fact, this twit has trouble reading A PHOTO S/HE HIGHLIGHTED

"Doris" thrashes around on the false premise for a while...false premise ... .. blah blah ... false premise ... false premise .... dares Brian to get more reviews ... Brian gets more reviews.... "Doris" dismisses reviews....

Okay, moving out of "reviews uber alles."

Nevertheless, the Puppies – or, more specifically, Niemeier and his immediate circle of friends – kept up the charade that the little-known Souldancer was the most popular horror novel published within the Dragons’ twelve-month eligibility period.

It got more votes at a Convention that boasts 60,000 members a year....

With voting open to everyone....

Free of charge ....

So, I gotta ask, how many friends do you think Brian has?

Niemeier’s blog post received replies comparing me variously to a spoilt child, a high school mean girl and a wiggling worm for venturing to suggest otherwise.

 If the size-15 shoe fits...

My personal favourite comment came from Niemeier himself; apparently channelling his inner Benjanun Sriduangkaew,

Benja-whatnow?

he felt it appropriate to threaten me with physical violence

And you somehow feel threatened, Lurch?

It’s not the easily excitable guys whose anger you should worry about. It’s the patient, reserved guys quietly sipping their drinks and reading Heinlein novels until they decide they’ve had enough of the loudmouths making a scene, take you out in the parking lot, and bust out your teeth.

Pardon me while I head desk for a bit.

Ahem...

"Doris." Bubbie. My extra-large jellyfish, my special snow flake, and other invertebrates .... it's a metaphor.

You know what a metaphor is, right?

Hell, this was an observation made by Isaac Asimov in the very first Black Widowers short story. Perhaps you heard it as "beware the wraith of a patient man"? No? Learn to read. 

One of Niemeier’s friends, a blogger named Alfred Genesson, made a post of his own attacking me. Here is his reply to my comment about Souldancer‘s lack of reviews online:

Oh, come on, now you're going after Al? Really? Dora the Tora cites an Injustice Gamer post.

Maybe some of us realize how active your type is at disemployment. Maybe we were busy reading books. At any rate, it’s not your crappy pastiche of urban fantasy, faerie tales, and WoD fanfic that you love.

And that's an attack?

Genesson starts his three-pronged rebuttal by suggesting, bizarrely, that people who give positive reviews to Souldancer are in danger of losing their jobs. He seems to expect us to believe that the legions of Souldancer fans have gathered into some kind of Fight Club-like underground subculture that dare not speak its name.

Bizarre?

The Wrights were uninvited from Cons they've gone to for years. 

Lou Antonelli had one of his short stories un-approved after he was told it was going to be published.

Alfred has other examples in his own dissection.

I await the part where this becomes "bizarre."

He then suggests that fans are too busy reading books to leave reviews, 

Alfred makes an effort to get reviews in, and sometimes the best he can do is a mini-review. I read more than 50 books a year, and I've only reviewed 57 books on Amazon in 6 years (2011-2016). And many of those are to books I either really, really loved, or books I desperately hated.

an argument which ignores the basic fact that fandom is built upon discussing media as well as consuming it:

Yes. Because we all know that all readers are obsessive fanboys who must do nothing but jabber about what they're reading online. There are no readers who are introverts, or people who would rather read than chat ....

Oh wait, what sounds like the very definition of a bookworm.

Seriously, what dungeon does this troll reside in?

a work that is not being discussed clearly has no fandom.

I haven't seen one discussion online about Honor at Stake, which has 53 reviews as of this moment. Is that a discussion because I have reviews, or do I not have a fan base because I have never been discussed on an internet forum, to my knowledge?

If you want to go by reviews, than Honor at Stake is better than Souldancer, five of Vox Day's books, six of John C Wright's books, and over 7 Timothy Zahn novels.

If you wish to make that assertion, please do so in front of their fans. I would love to see that reply. I'll view it from a safe distance.

But most interesting of all is his third assertion: that I prefer “crappy pastiche of urban fantasy, faerie tales, and World of Darkness fanfic”.

I don't even know what World of Darkness is, so, next.

This irrelevant ad hominem 

An ad hominem is a personal attack. It means "against the man."

.... And that joke is so easy in this case, "Doris," that I'm going to just let someone else fill in that particular blank.

(I was talking about whether a book is popular, rather than whether I personally like it)

Again, go argue with the 60,000 DragonCon attendees, and tell them how what they vote on isn't popular. Go ahead. Me and every statistician ever will sit back and laugh at you.

seems to be a response to my earlier comment that the Sad Puppies have shown little interest in horror fiction.

Alfred is a Rabid Puppy. Learn the difference between Puppies before you decide to kick them.

I would be a Rabid Puppy, but that would require that I care about the Hugos. At best, I'm just a troublemaking Puppy who will sit back and laugh as you make unforced errors throughout the process.

Genesson is trying to give the impression that he and the other Puppy supporters are actually hardened fans of the horror genre; 

I'm not.

Alfred isn't.

I'm trying to figure out if "Doris" is genuinely confused, or just a lying blivet.

but as he has no evidence to back up this claim,

He doesn't make this claim. In fact, he says exactly the opposite. I know you're British, but American English isn't that incomprehensible, is it?

he settles for simply impugning my own tastes.

 Puppies have been impugning the tastes of Puppy Kickers for years. This is new?

He has no idea where my tastes lie, of course, and so makes a wild stab-in-the-dark involving urban fantasy pastiche and World of Darkness fanfics

Stab-in-the-dark .... Is it really that hard? Might they include, I don't know ... something dark and depressing, where everyone dies?

You know, like George Martin?

(a description that, amusingly enough, is not too far from Declan Finn’s Puppy-approved Honor at Stake).

World of Darkness?  I say again ... what's that?

Alfred gives me a hint.

I don't recall a hate for Christianity being anywhere in his novels, nor an annoying and stupid clan warfare bit with drug and sex addled lower classes.  His vampires follow theological rules and are individuals, subject to a singular council, not part of WoD clan structures. Again, try harder.  

Wow.  WoD is anti-Christian, vampire clan warfare, drug abuse, sex addled, and class warfare?

"Doris"? If Alfred is even slightly accurate, you are apparently illiterate. In fact, I'd have to guess that you've dictated the entire blog post to someone who can tolerate listening to you.

Behind all of the bluster, Genesson’s post marks an attempt to frame the Puppies as the true custodians of horror fiction

Yes, yes, we know you want that job, "Doris."

I know that Doofus here likes to consider horror hir genre, hence the harping, but not only has Alfred said he's not the expert on all things horror, s/he/it has apparently not noticed that Puppies don't want to be custodians. We don't want to tell people what to read. All Puppies want people to read what they enjoy, and that's it, thank you.

The Puppy Kickers want to be the custodians. They are, after all, the "TruFans," the "Real Fans." They're pure fans. A master fandom, if you will.

with Brian Niemeier and (presumably) Declan Finn being the toasts of horror fandom. 

BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

Yeah. Sure.

As for those horror fans who do not read Niemeier or Finn, well, they are merely consumers of urban fantasy and other forms of horror-lite. As I have already shown, this is a complete reversal of the truth.

Actually, "Doris," you lying blivet, you're the only person who have used the phrase "horror-lite."

Niemeier himself has stated that his book won its Dragon Award due to voters who wanted to show their contempt for the Hugos.

Rabid Puppies voted as well. Vox Day voted for Brian Niemeier, and said "Sorry Declan." I presume a lot of Vox's fans followed.

If so, this is further evidence of a lack of votes from horror fans, who in my experience do not generally keep up with the Hugo Awards.

Because there is no overlap with scifi readers and horror writers? Horror writers are monomaniacs who cannot read anything else?

Again, "Doris," links. Stats. Proof. Evidence. Not whatever gets whispered in the echoes of your mind.

A number of my friends are indie horror writers,

And I'm sure that some of your best friends are conservatives, right?

and they pay little attention to the Hugos:

Well, Stephen King paid enough attention to the Hugos to declare that he didn't want to play with them. Are your indie writers less attentive and aware than King? Really?

they seem to view the award as being purely for science fiction,

Then why would King ever look at it in the first place?

Because, you know, his fans asked him.

I guess "Doris" isn't a real fan of horror, wouldn't s/he be aware of that? Come on, even I know that, and I'm not that big a fan of horror. Maybe "Doris" should get hir horror credentials renewed. Heh.

and consequently not their territory as writers or readers (by the same token, I’d imagine that the SF community generally does not look at the Bram Stoker Awards too closely).

I don't see why not. I mean, the Stoker awards have nominated or gone to mysteries like A Boy's Life, thrillers like Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, a fantasy like American Gods (which, oh, by the way, WON A HUGO).

... So maybe you should at least do a quick Wiki search? Like I just did?

Though, come to think of it, "attack of the 6 foot Tranny" does describe Buffalo Bill....

And if you are not paying attention to the Hugos, then you are unlikely to be aware of the Sad Puppies. I have sometimes mentioned the campaign to my friends in horror fandom, and none of them had heard of it.

You know, when Richard Nixon swept the election, nearly getting all 50 states, a New York Times reporter was confused, because, after all, no one she knew voted for him.

And no one "Doris" knows is aware of Puppies.

I guess no one "Doris" the Doofus knows has ever read Entertainment Weekly. Or Wired. Or File 770. Or NPR. Or the Atlantic. The Boston Globe. National Review. And this is just the first two pages of results upon googling Sad Puppies.

The notion that legions of horror fans (who care little about the Hugos) have suddenly become card-carrying supporters of the Puppy campaigns (which care little about horror) is simply not something that I can swallow.

..... Words cannot begin to describe how much I don't want to know what you will swallow, "Doris."

If you want to argue that Souldancer is a good novel, then go ahead. 

Funny, I thought that was part of winning the Dragon Award. The novel was so good, Brian's fans actually showed up and voted for it. You didn't vote. Therefore, you don't count in the Dragon Award.

If you want to argue that it deserves to be popular, and may someday be popular, then go ahead.

It already is. It was fans who got him a Dragon Award. At a convention with 60,000 con goers, minimum.

But you cannot argue, with any kind of intellectual honesty, that it is currently a popular novel amongst fans of the genre.

Actually, I can. It's popular enough to win a Dragon Award. I'll see my 60,000 con goers against your poor attempts at Googling any day of the week.

And you haven't proved otherwise, Doofus.

This claim will never escape Niemeier’s echo chamber: go around saying that Souldancer is horror fandom’s new favourite novel, and the first people to call you out will be horror fans.

Actually, the only one who seems to be calling him out is this bugger.

Incidentally, when I first reported on the Dragon Awards at WWAC, I received a reply from one of the non-Puppy nominees where she mentioned her “obscure indie published military sci fi book”. She has the right idea. She sees that there is no shame in being a little-league writer who does what they enjoy, who picks up a few fans along the way, and who may someday go on to bigger things.

There isn't...

...What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?

Brian Niemeier does not seem to realise this. For him, it is clearly not enough to have a small but loyal readership that has pushed him to the top of an online poll. He has to present himself as being fandom’s favourite horror writer – the “Dragon of Horror”, as he styles himself – even though he knows full well that this is simply not the truth.

It's called marketing. Only instead of "attack of the 6 ft tranny," he's marketing as the first guy to win the Dragon.

It's called a brand. It's how the free market works.

Perhaps you should look into that sometime.

"Doris" ends with a quote.

But if you’re an asshat, you will not be tolerated. Don’t be a dick. Because if you are, you’re going to get called out real quick.

Yeah. Sure. Except obviously, no one has called you out, douchy stalker boy. Now go take your size 20 stilleto heels, and go walk on a grate....

Watch as "Doris" takes that as a threat, too.

If the “Dragon of Horror” keeps things up, then this is a lesson he will soon learn the hard way.

Oh, look, stalkerish threats. Thankfully, s/he/it is far across the see, and is too cheap to pay for air fare. Though if this creature would like to stalk me ... well, I live near a police station, my neighborhood has clear lines of sight, and I'm relatively certain I can see this one coming.

And now, if you haven't already, you might want to try one of the nominated Best Horror novels for the Dragon last year, Honor at Stake, it's sequel Murphy's Law of Vampires, or perhaps one of the other books.

And if you've read them, a review would be nice.

 

Review: Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners

John Ringo's second book in the Monster Hunter Momoirs: Sinners, is both better and worse than Grunge.

Our hero from the last book, Chad, is continuing his mission to be a Monster Hunting killing machine. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he has to leave Seattle, his home base in Grunge. After complaining -- a lot -- about never wanting to be in the heat ever again, MHI headquarters has the perfect gig for him: New Orleans. The Big Easy has got a lot of problems, and it needs all the help it can get.


Sinners does a great job of capturing the flavor of New Orleans, especially when you consider that standard policy can boil down to "Don't scare the tourists." Every local either believes in the dark arts, or practices the dark arts. Of course, we have at least one team member who really wants to turn every other beastie into jambalaya, shootouts in cities of the dead, and one massive shootout at marti gras.

Oh, yes, and for the record, Mr. Ringo, I saw what you did there with those chapter titles.

Another thing Ringo did better here than in Grunge is build an emotional connection to his teammates. At the end of Grunge, one of Chad's teammates dies.  Listening to John Ringo at DragonCon, we were supposed to feel the emotional impact of the character death. I didn't then. Here? Oh yes. Characters were much better established, and for the most part, when characters died, I felt it.

Critics of Grunge will be happy to know that Chad spends less time getting lucky and more time being pummeled. There is even less sex in this book than in Grunge, and seriously, people, he spent more time on politics than sex. And for some reason, people claimed he was a Mary Sue .... to which I will soon reply with a blog post explaining what a Mary Sue looks like, because obviously, people have little to no experience with the phenomenon. Yes, he's a super genius who's good at shooting people, but he's also hospitalized every few chapters.

The only thing that's really off-putting about this novel is the marked shift from "looking backwards."  In Grunge, there is a lot of time spend on his family, and Ringo outright states that the larger evil behind everything Chad is fighting is Chad's brother. This book? Nope. Barely a whisper of Chad's family, and not a whisper about what's the ultimate evil of the trilogy. I'm wondering how much of that is editorial, or how much was in the process of the novel. These books are thinner than Ringo's usual fair, so if you told me he wrote them as one continuous novel, broken up into a trilogy, that would explain certain things.

Also, in Grunge, time was spent on the moral of the story: "Chad" wrote each chapter to illustrate a point. Here, there's no such clear lesson plan; "Chad" does have "pro-tips" scattered throughout, but the concept seems strangely abandoned. Perhaps this is due to the chaotic nature of New Orleans, where every night is insane, and the full moon is like Arkham asylum let everyone out on a day pass, so Chad is merely fitting in tips where he can.

Heh, it's a coin toss.

Final verdict is still the same: Sinners is even better than Grunge. Go out, buy it, enjoy it, consider it for a Dragon Award next year. (No, not a Hugo. Ringo will freaking skin you alive if he found out)

Anyway, if you like this review, you might want to consider one of the following books for your reading pleasure

 

Month in Review: November, 2016

This has been the most successful month in the entire history of the blog, with over 18,000 hits.

Granted, I'm relatively certain that a large part of the spike came from the fact that my election day coverage consisted of 12 separate posts -- that garnered my blog a thousand hits alone. And, to no one's surprise, the one where I mentioned who would Deadpool vote for actually garnered enough hits to be in the top ten for the month.

The posts that made it, however, were....

1. #BlackFriday, 2016

Okay. Maybe Dawn had a point

Not too big of a surprise. I posted this around the universe endlessly during the week of Black Friday, as well as Cyber Monday. I even bothered to use Hashtags. They work.

2. Building Catholic Vampire Lore (Honor At Stake)
I still have no idea why this one keeps popping up so high on the blog count. I don't do anything special for it, I don't post it anywhere that often. It just ... shows up.

3. The End of the Pius Trilogy
I took out a Facebook ad for this one, which is probably why it did so well, overall.

4. The Cast of Set To Kill
Wherein I discuss what the cast of Set to Kill looks like, and how they have NO SIMILARITIES WHATSOEVER to any real people. Honest. Also, a photo of Larry Correia.

5. Set To Kill is coming sooner than expected
The announcement that the book was coming to the internet way sooner than anyone thought.

6. Set to Kill is out, and ready to be Best Related at the Hugos...
I confess, the title was clickbait. Mea culpa, mea culpa

7. Election Day: Who would Deadpool vote for?
Discussed above. The answer ... he didn't even get the year right.

8, Attack of the Silver Empire
The announcement that the Pius Trilogy was dead, and why.

9. Casting Codename UnSub
I ... don't quite understand why this went anywhere. Perhaps because I had pictures of good looking people all over the post.


10. Review: Doctor Strange
I saw the film in theater, and posted the review the weekend it came out. I'm not all that surprised that this made it into the top ten. Then again, it's also a Marvel film, and the most popular one yet.

Obviously, other factors when into the popularity. Some of these posts had Castalia House retweet them, which is good for hits -- I think #5 and #6 were retweeted by a few people, if not the publisher itself.

I'm almost certain that Silver Empire retweeted my announcement of #8 a few dozen times ... or if they didn't, someone certainly did.

All in all, it's been an amazing month.

Granted, it's not as many hits as Vox Day gets per DAY, but I'll take it.

Be well, all.

Also, if you haven't already, check out some of the books below.