If you laughed at the question you obviously haven’t heard that Warner Bros. banned a Harry Potter theme dinner in London because it the studio considered it an infringement of copyright.

Telegraph.co.uk’s Amy Willis writes that “The not-for-profit event, which has been renamed ‘Generic Wizard Night’, was to have a menu of dandelion wine, pumpkin soup and Dumbledore’s favourite – mint humbugs. Guests would have been led down ‘Diagon Alley’ by the side of the house and been met by a portrait of the ‘Fat Lady’ who would have demanded a password before they could be let in.”

It can be argued that J. K. Rowling’s lawsuit against the person who produced The Harry Potter Lexicon had some merit. But Warner’s action is hard to understand and almost impossible for reasonable people to condone. Does Rowling even know about the studio’s grinchy* pettiness?

Whether she does or not, parents had better start rethinking their children’s Halloween costume and trading those Dumbledore outfits for pirate and fairy princess garb.

Trick or Treat, Tiffany and Johnny! You have thirty days to answer this subpoena.

Read about it here.

*And be careful about saying “Grinch” publicly – you may be infringing MGM’s copyright.

RC

Dean R. Koontz described Dan Simmons’s Song of Kali as, “The best novel in the genre I can remember. Dan Simmons is brilliant!”

In Calcutta, arguably the world’s most crime-ridden city, nightmares become real and evil is defined by frightening occurrences. When an American family finds themselves encircled by the terrors of this land, lurid events befall them and life takes on a new meaning – death.

Winner of the World Fantasy Award, Song of Kali will chill the blood and frighten even the most jaded of horror fans.

– RC

David Wellington has produced a trio of dystopian horror thrillers, Monster Island, Monster Nation, and Monster Planet.

It all starts with Monster Island:

Welcome to New York City, Population Zero? The power grid has collapsed. There is no running water, no light, no heat. The massive neon signs of Times Square are dark now, and the subway trains crouch silent in their tunnels, waiting for commuters who will never return. An epidemic of staggering lethality has passed over the city and left nothing living in its wake. And yet the city is not deserted. The dead have returned to life, and they’re hungry. The millions of people who once worked and lived in New York have been turned into cannibalistic monsters whose only function is to consume. No living person would dare enter the city – it would be suicide.

Dekalb doesn’t have a choice. He must protect his daughter’s future, and that means retrieving vital medical supplies from the UN building in Midtown. A cadre of teenage girl soldiers have been recruited to help him find what he needs, and get back alive. They’re well armed. They’re devoted to their mission and willing to sacrifice anything to pull it off. But the odds against them are staggering. Especially when it turns out that not all zombies are created equal. Deep inside the city a medical student named Gary comes back from the dead different – his mind is intact. He can still think and feel. He’s hungry, just like the rest, but unlike them he can plan, plot, and scheme. He can even lead the others, bending them to his will. Soon he has a small army at his command, a growing mob of rotting corpses all devoted to one cause: to find meat for their master. When Dekalb and Gary cross paths sparks will fly, destinies will clash–and the future of humanity will be decided, one head shot at a time.

If Monster Island makes you sick with fear, you’re ready for the sequels.
– RC

Melanie Tem is a leading teller of beautifully dark, Jamesian tales, and Desmodus is one of my favorites.

In the shadows of the moon a bloodthirsty caravan is heading south. After a plentiful season of savoring the sweet taste of warm blood, the matriarchs sleep while the men carry them to their winter sanctuary. One boy begins the journey, a willing servant of the tribe. But, before the trip ends, he watches his faith in his vampire family begin to disappear. As a member of the weaker sex, Joel has always accepted his role as caretaker, but as the days grow colder his disillusionment builds. When Joel’s loyalty is tested by his desire to save an innocent from his gruesome family’s truth, he threatens to destroy the very thing he has always protected. Haunted by a relentless dream, Joel must decide where his real loyalties lie. Now as the tribe travels to their haven, their very survival depends on their weakest member.

“Melanie Tem may well be the literary successor to Shirley Jackson and be destined to become the new queen of high-quality, psychologically disturbing horror fiction.” —Dan Simmons

E-Reads carries three other Tem horror novels and a wonderful horror story collection, The Ice Downstream.

– RC

Karen Lockhart has been blind all her life. Now she can see with eyes given to her from a dead man’s but with her new blessing come an even greater curse: terror.
Karen’s world had been dark until a vicious punk named Eden Crowell was killed one night in a barroom brawl and doctors salvaged what they can from his ruined body. His heart went to an old drunk, his kidney to a young girl, and his silver-blue eyes to twenty-eight year old Karen.

For Karen, the darkness dissipates, but then the dreams begin. At first they are just slivers of terror, then they became visions of mutilation and murder, all seeming terrifyingly real. Now Karen realizes the frightening truth…Eden’s soul is somehow alive and it is coming back for what belongs to him.

That’s the profoundly disturbing plot of Eden’s Eyes by Sean Costello. E-Reads carries three of Costello’s novels, each just a little more disturbing than the last. Get them all!

- RC

In Butcher, Rex Miller brings back the heart-eating villain of Slob, Daniel “Chaingang” Bunkowski, the anti-hero you hate to love. After a seemingly endless term in prison, he is hungrier then ever to get his teeth into some bloody violence. The opportunities for mayhem were pretty limited in the maximum-security prison where he was being held for so long. Now that he’s out, his keeper, Dr. Norman, is anxious to put him to work. He has given Chaingang an important task: hunt down and destroy the one man who is more savage than himself. Doc Royal has been living quietly in rural Missouri, successfully hiding his secret youth as a death-loving Nazi. However, his past is about to come and haunt his present, just when Chaingang arrives to distract him from his troubles…

If Butcher keeps you up tonight, you might want to read other Chaingang horror thrillers by Rex Miller.

RC

I happen to have more than a passing acquaintance with Halloween because I was commissioned by Bantam Books to write the paperback tie-in of John Carpenter’s blockbuster movie Halloween under the pen-name of “Curtis Richards.” It was a pretty good novel if I do say so myself. Out of curiosity I checked it out on amazon.com and was gratified to read that one reviewer described it as, “A near classic of its kind.” (Near? Why just near?) If you’re interested in learning how I dealt with the challenge, and the fascinating process of movie, television and game novelizations, feel free to read a free expanded chapter from my book Mastering the Business of Writing.

Excerpt from the text: “One of the great things about movies is that they move so fast, you don’t have time to think about logic. Novels are a more reflective medium, however; at any time you can put a book down and think about what you’ve read. And it worried me, for instance, that my readers would put my book down and wonder how the hell someone who’d been institutionalized since he was five would know how to drive a car. So I had to concoct a whole chapter describing the fellow’s stay in the asylum (which was okay, since I needed the five thousand words anyway) and showing that because he’d been a model inmate and trusty, he’d been taught to drive a truck and use it to run errands on the asylum grounds.” (Read more here…)

Incidentally, I hold an orange belt in pumpkin carving, and above is an example. In the dark you can’t see the bloodstain where my filleting knife penetrated the palm of my left hand.

While I’m on the topic of Halloween, I want to mention something my client Mindy Klasky wrote that you might also enjoy. It’s a pumpkin-stuffer for trick-or-treaters who prefer a yummy read to a handful of Mars Bars. Mindy Klasky’s Sorcery and the Single Girl is the delightful sequel to her paranormal Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft. Klasky established herself as a serious fantasist with a wonderful series (The Glasswrights’ Apprentice and four sequels) published by Berkley Books, but when she said she’d like to try something in a lighter and more romantic voice, I told her to go for it. She immersed herself in chick lit, uttered some incantations, and when she came up for air she’d transformed herself into a Harlequin novelist. Check out the promo, and do pay a visit to Mindy’s website. It’s more fun than a coven of witches!

- Richard Curtis

To put you into an appropriately squeamish mood for Halloween, E-Reads offers a selection of horror fiction designed to traumatize you for life or at least make your night’s sleep a living torment. Among our featured authors for the season are:

Sean Costello: In Eden’s Eyes, The Cartoonist and Captain Quad, Costello demonstrates the full range of terror, rage, anger and madness that the horror genre can encompass. In the process, he also creates memorable characters while blending the real and the supernatural in ways uniquely his own.

Rex Miller: Miller’s bestial antagonist, Chaingang, is four hundred pounds of brute rage who feasts on fresh hearts and is not too delicate about how he extracts them from his victims. Miller’s genius is that he makes Chaingang sympathetic, a villain you hate to love, unless you happen to be with him in a pitch-dark room.

Ray Garton: Recently made a Grand Master by the Horror Writers of America, Garton’s characters populate a Grand Guignol of depravity. Live Girls, his masterpiece, portrays ravishing pleasure girls who seduce a lovesick man into a world of irresistible fantasy and ecstasy. (The book is being developed as a movie as I write this.)

Melanie Tem: We have four strikingly original and suspenseful horror novels by one of the most masterful storytellers working in the genre, plus The Ice Downstream, a marvelous collection of stories.

Poppy Z. Brite: Are You Loathsome Tonight? Join horror master Brite as she explores the outermost regions of murder, passion, death and religion in twelve extraordinary short stories.

- Richard Curtis