The Menu was released on November 18, 2022. The movie stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes. There are of course other actors but these two make up the brunt of the movie. The film focuses on a couple who are visiting an exclusive restaurant on an island. A restaurant where the price of one dinner costs over $1200. There they meat a world renowned chef who has some odd and unexpected ingredients on his planned menu. The entire movie follows five parties who have chosen to pay for dinner at this restaurant. Each party has been chosen for one reason, but I am not going to give that away as that is part of the mystery of the story.

Ralph Fiennes is great as a chef who is so unhinged he isn't sure why he is cooking anymore - is it for people to eat, is it for the love of it, is it because he doesn't know what else to do - well, the audience is about to find out. I know some people will also enjoy the acting of Anya Taylor-Joy, but for me she seemed to be one note with one or two facial expressions. I wanted more from her in this movie - especially since she was so fabulous in movies like The Witch and Split.

Ms. Taylor-Joy plays Margot Mills, a young woman who was invited last minute to the dinner by a young man who considers himself a foodie, Tyler. Tyler is a real jerk and you see this early in the film in the way he talks to Margot. There is a lot I can't or don't want to say about this movie because it is so easy to give away the tiniest detail, but going into it you know from early on that something is not quite right with the people who are living and working on the island.

I enjoyed this movie, but I did want to know a little more about some of the characters. There was at least one couple who could have been better developed as I learned only a little bit about them and the wife seemed to be something of a lackluster character. She seemed to be int he movie only to drink and ask her husband if someone reminded him of their daughter. Yes, this does lead to a disturbing development later in the story, but not through the couple. I wanted there to be more emotion and development to the wife, played by the amazing Judith Light. Throughout the movie this was something I had an issue with, the character development, and I consistently wanted more.

The theme of the movie seems to revolve a lot around secrets and consumerism. We do things when think we should enjoy but we don't really know anything about because it is expected of us. For example - one of the characters is enamored of food, but does not know how to cook. One person goes because they "think" they are important and they can - they don't even really know if they will or do enjoy it. One person is there because they want another chance to review the chef, after helping make him who he is. It is all very interesting and makes me wonder about the ability to spend money on things we desire. How do we know we are the one desiring something, and how do we know if it is society telling us what we desire because of how it will make us feel or appear?

Anyway, I know this is not like most of my reviews, but I don't want to say too much and give it all away. Go see it, then we can discuss it.

Also, there is a new up and coming website that is making an attempt to become a better goodreads. I wrote a short article for them titled "The Best Zombie Books that Stick with You and Give You Nightmares. Check it out at shepherd.com/best-books/zombies-that-stick-with-you-and-give-you-nightmare

The Fireman by Joe Hill is a very long book, 749 pages long. At first, I wasn't sure I wanted to take a chance with a book that was so long, but after reading I am glad I did.
 
The fireman follows a group of people who are infected by a spore that has been called "Dragonscale." It marks the infected with black lines that have beautiful golden specks in it. Often, the downside is that it also causes people to spontaneously combust. Harper, a young nurse, finds herself pregnant and infected and wonders what she can do to save her baby from being infected. Jakob, her prissy husband, find himself infected, but not with Dragonscale, instead he is infected with prejudice and hate. He blames Harper for everything that has gone wrong in his life, and continually attempts to kill her. While on the run, Harper comes across a man called the Fireman, who repeatedly saves her. But, he has a secret of his own and his secret could destroy everything, and everyone.
 
The book is broken up into several sections, which does, at least for me, make it easier to read. I only had to read a section at a time to get through it. There were moments that seemed unnecessary, and parts of those could have been cut. When all of the characters are at a camp there were several scenes that didn't tie to anything and could have been edited out without changing the outcome of the book.
 
Another issue that I did have was the use of cliffhangers at the end of each section. This became especially annoying when they didn't seem to lead anywhere. When one of the characters is his over the head and left in a coma, the end of the second states that they would not wake up for two months. However, when this character does wake up it seems to not really do anything to move the story along, as it could have been moved along through other means.
 
I know from reading other reviews, that several people didn't particularly care for the ending, but I didn't hate it. It did make the book seem as if it didn't have a conclusion, and I wondered if there would be a book two, but I don't know if that would be worth the read.
 
The characters could have grown a little more, or they could have been a little more perceptive to the world around them, but I thought the ending held up. There isn't ever a promise of a happy ending, nor in a sort of apocalypse, is there the promise of life after or life in safety. I feel that the ending was the only ending this book could have. If it had gone the way most would have assumed it was going to go, it would have been a disappointment.
 
Still not as good as NOS4A2, but I enjoyed it more than 20th Century Ghosts. If you have time, give it a read, but remember that is might take time, and that it is 749 pages long.

I can’t say enough about why I disliked The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney.
 
I don't know what this book was trying to be - an erotic book or a thriller - but it wasn't really successful as either. The two main characters, Emma and Jane, are from two different time periods. Emma lived in the house on One Folgate before Jane, and Emma died on One Folgate. The house is owned by an architect named Edward. He is a very compulsive man, who has over 40 rules one must follow if they are going to live in the house. He seems to have over 40 rules for dating him. He seems to have over 40 rules for everything in life. Emma's Ex, Simon, comes by the house while Jane is living there, trying to tell Jane how dangerous Edward is, but is Edward really the one she has to be worried about?
 
There were several issues with this novel. The first issue is that, for me, anyone would be willing to live in a house with as many rules as Folgate has. I have owned rentals, and a lot of the questions asked, or the demands made, wouldn't fly with a normal renter, even if it was a good deal. I mean, not being allowed to have anything of your own in the house, it wouldn't make sense, nor would it be comfortable. My second issue was Edward. Sure, he might have been cute or whatever, but he was a complete asshole to both Emma and Jane, and in the end he proves how much of an asshole he is. So, if this novel was trying for erotica, I was obviously not the target audience as I do not enjoy assholes.... or at least not asshole men. My last issue was that this wasn't really a thriller either. I didn't care if Emma was killed, committed suicide, or if she had an accident. I should have cared, because it was trying to build suspense, but I didn't, because I didn't care about Emma, which says a lot since she is almost half of the book. Nothing was suspenseful in the novel. There were so many moments when the novel tried to be suspenseful, with several "mysteries" but in the end they all fell short.
 
I can't recommend this novel. I can say the "daddy" issues were an issue for me, as it was weird and it all seemed out of the blue.
 
I'm sorry, but this book was a not for me, and I felt that the blurb on the back of the book was misleading.

Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano was not great and not bad. I bought this book at a steep discount, so I don't feel that the money was a waste, but I wish it had been a little more intriguing. The book follows Paige, a teenage girl who moves to a small town after her Hollywood parent’s divorce. Her mother and little brother, Logan, move with her into a large house. It then turns out that the house is haunted, by what, we never really find out. In the end, one of the characters turns out to be a dangerous killer, and everyone has their live changed.
 
This could have been an interesting book, and parts of it weren't bad, but overall, it could have been cut in half and it would have been more interesting. There were a lot of details that didn't need to be added to the story, and if they had been left out the story itself would have been more cohesive.
 
An example of this is the mention of flies and spiders throughout the book. They are mentioned several times, over and over, and yet there seems to be no reason for them to be in the story. There are times when the spiders add a creep factor to the novel, especially when the little brother becomes involved, but at the end the reader is left to wonder what is true and what has been made up by an unreliable narrator (because let's be honest, most teenagers are unreliable narrators).
 
The mother in the novel seems to be uninvolved in the lives of her children, and she doesn't seem to be observant of the needs of her children, instead trying to be "nice" to the ghosts which may or may not be living in their home.
 
In the basement lives a young man named, Raph, who is set up in the story as a mysterious, and possibly psychotic, loner. Paige strikes up a friendship with Raph, and her one friend in town Chloe makes her continually talk with Raph, even though she is often uncomfortable. These relationships aren't really developed, and in the end, while it was a surprise ending, it wasn't well-developed.
 
The reader has no reason to care that one of the characters has issues. The reader has no reason to care if any of the characters cause harm to one another. The reader has no relationship with the characters, so there is no reason for the readers to be invested in what happens in the end. And in the end everything seems not to be connected, and this is where the breakdown of the book happens. There isn't anything holding it together. The characters don't hold the book together, the "fear" elements are not at all frightening, and as I was able to read this in a day, I didn't find much about the novel memorable, even forgetting who one of the characters were.
 
I can't recommend this, and after peeking at book two (apparently this is an unconnected series) I wouldn't recommend book two either. I really do hate leaving bad reviews, but even in my own work, sometimes a book deserves a low review.

I am not new to Clive Barker's novels or his writing style, so I knew what I was getting into when I started The Damnation Game. It is a novel about a man, Joseph Whitehead, who hires a boxer out of prison, Marty, to protect him and provide bodyguard services. Marty does not know what he is getting into, and after a few weeks he learns that there are things he should leave alone, and horrors he never needed to be party to.
 
Marty was an interesting character. A man, just out of prison, who knows he probably still belongs in prison, and who isn't that bad of a man. He is in prison, because like a lot of people, he made a bad decision that ruined his life. He was a gambler, and he needed money, which just so happens to be the same thing that got Joseph Whitehead into trouble. There are games of chance that shouldn't be played, and there are men who shouldn't be played against. Into the picture arrives the Last European. A man full of mysteries, and a man who holds Joseph's life in his hands.
 
Marty finds that things are not what they seem in the Whitehead household, and he struggles to get answers. He also struggles to find out what his job is, partly because he isn't being told the truth, nor is he being given answers when he asks how he is supposed to protect a man who doesn't seem to want to be protected.
 
There were parts of this novel that seemed to be all over the place. There were several characters and several timelines, and they, at one point, became confusing. The main character, Marty, is a man who has scruples, and yet he doesn't seem to have a reason to continue what he is doing. While many of Barker's characters are full of different ideas and ideologies, the characters in this novel weren't as well-developed as they could have been. Marty was a little flat, and throughout he questioned things over and over, often asking the same questions. Whitehead was a man looking for life, but no one really knows why. Is he afraid of the afterlife, or is he afraid of what his corpse might be used to do? The Last European is almost immortal, and yet he wants to both live and die because everything around him has died. The reader never really finds out what his goal is. Whitehead's daughter, Carys, is a heroin addict, and she is only addicted because her father wanted a way to control her. Yet, now she finds heroin to be a crutch she can't live without. Then there is Breer, a dead man who has disturbing conquests and goals that he can't seem to reach.
 
While not the best book I've read by Barker, I did enjoy it. I will forever be in love with the Cenobites and Books of Blood, but I wanted to branch out and read more by Barker. I can't wait to read more by him, in fact I have two more of his books on my to be read bookshelves. I was reminded a little of author Edward Lee while reading The Damnation Game, and wonder if Lee took some ideas from Barker, as they both involve characters with issue revolving around sex (disgust by, or addictive need).
 
I could go either way recommending this. Read it because Clive Barker is pretty awesome, or don't because it is not his best work.

_Tara Caldwell's debut novel is now out on Amazon (link at bottom of page). She is a mother of two teenagers and a call center employee with a "worthless" STEM degree and a pile of student loans. She enjoys theater, reading, and of course writing. She writes because she has ideas that won’t leave her alone until she puts them on a page. Her debut novel is titled Surviving Utopia.

What is the first book that made you cry?
Rilla of Ingleside. When Walter dies I remember choking up in the car on my way to my grandmother's house. It hit me harder than any fictional death had ever hit me before. I was maybe 11 years old. 
 
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
I read before I was two, and I understood that language had power even then.
 
What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
His Majesty’s Dragon and the rest of the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. I love the writing style, it’s reminiscent of Jane Austen, and who doesn’t love a talking dragon who’s better at calculus than you are?
 
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
It energizes me, definitely. Writing is powerful, but I am not to be disturbed while writing.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Go on and write and publish that book, what are you waiting for? It took me several years and several tries to write Surviving Utopia, mostly because I lacked confidence, and then took four years to publish it just because I was afraid of the reception.

What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters in the LGBTQ+ genre?
Well, I never was a gay teenage boy in the 1990s, so writing from that point of view was extremely difficult. I was a closeted bisexual, though, so I got my ideas from that experience and I hope it mirrors Puck’s journey.

Do you feel that LGBTQ+ fiction is for everyone to read, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation? Why or why not?
Yes, it is for everyone. The more experiences we read about outside of our own self, the more we understand the world around us.

Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
My first foray into scifi/fantasy, Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey, made me discover a whole new world of fiction. Her works also normalized queerness for me.

What was your hardest scene to write?
Definitely the scene where Star is knocked around and gets concussed. This may surprise people, because this book is filled with heavier material, but something about that scene just got to me.
 
Does your family support your career as a writer?
Absolutely. My kids think it’s cool and my parents are over the moon that I actually published. My stepmother downloaded and read it all the first night it was on Amazon and my mom bought copies for the whole family.
 
What question do you wish I had asked and what is the answer to that question?
It would be “What was your inspiration for the story?” It was a dream I had about a pair of twins, and it evolved over the years into what Surviving Utopia is now.

Tell us a little bit about your book.
 
It’s about twins, Puck and Ciara, who both fall in love with the new football player. While they’re wrapped up in Dane, they fail to notice that something is very badly wrong with their best friend, Star, whom they’ve been best friends with since kindergarten. All four of the kids are troubled in various ways, and bad things happen to almost everyone. The book should have been titled Trigger Warning.

Bio:
Tara Caldwell lives in Madison, WI, but grew up in small town Florence, AL. She has two teenagers, Dean and Sebastian Ferguson, and two cats. She enjoys theatre and has acted in, stage managed, assistant directed, and even directed numerous plays, including her favorite, A Christmas Story, which she both stage managed and directed in different years. She has been writing creatively since grade school and finished her first novel in seventh grade, although it never saw the light of day. She plans to write the sequel to Surviving Utopia this winter.
 
Twitter Handle bunnydeville
Facebook Page Tara Caldwell, Author
 Buy Surviving Utopia at www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BCZWZYVR/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
 

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Stephanie M. Wytovich. Stephanie M. Wytovich is an author and poet who teaches her craft to new and intermediate authors wanting to develop their skills. Her upcoming book Writing Poetry in the Dark, which is a craft book for speculative poetry, so definitely more on the information, academic, and leaning toward the professional development side of things, will be available in October and you can preorder or wait and buy this book at rawdogscreaming.com.

Does writing energize or exhaust you?
This is a tricky one to answer. In the past, it used to energize me, and to some degree it still does, but since I’ve made writing my career, some days it’s just like any other job and that initial magic is sometimes hard to find (not always, but sometimes). I will say, however, that I do always feel energized after I finish something (or even if I’ve just made progress on something), and my love for the craft has never waned. Even when it’s exhausting or frustrating at times, I could never see myself doing anything else.

What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Writing to trends. I say this because by the time you finish something and are ready to submit it, not to mention the amount of time it will take to be read, put on the market, and then eventually published, the trend is often over. I think it’s always better to write the stories you want to and are interested in rather than trying to jump on a bandwagon. 

Have you ever gotten reader’s block?
Totally! I’m usually reading upward of 5-7 books at a time, and I’ve found that when I’m really having a hard time sticking to something, I always turn to poetry or to graphic novels. For me, they’re easier to digest, and because I can read them faster, it helps me get out of reading slumps a bit easier.

Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Especially as this relates to poetry.
I think poetry can be a lot of things, so I don’t necessarily think it has to exist through an emotional lens, although I think that it so often leans into that. For instance, I fell in love with poetry as a child who read Shel Silverstein (Falling Up, A Light in the Attic) and Alvin Schwartz (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) voraciously, and their poems are macabre, funny, and sometimes an (intentionally) unpleasant yet satisfying mixture of both. That’s one of the things I love most about the form: its flexible.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Don’t get caught up in what everyone else is doing. The energy that’s spent worrying about others, or being jealous, or fighting imposter syndrome is better directed towards self-care, making art that you care about, and focusing on your own path to personal betterment.

What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
My annual membership to the HWA (Horror Writers Association). I attended my first World Horror Convention in 2012 and it wasn’t long after that I sought out active membership with the organization. What they’ve given me in terms of support, promotion, kindness, and opportunity has been invaluable, and that’s not even including all the wonderful people I’ve met through them.

Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?
Writing in general? No. But poetry? Yes, absolutely. I approach poetry differently than I do my fiction or nonfiction writing, and I do feel there is something ethereal and otherworldly that surfaces with poetry (and with art and music) that I don’t necessarily feel with prose. It’s like I’m tapping into something both inside and outside myself that I can’t see or understand, and, in some ways, it very much feels like channeling at times. When I’m writing prose, that experience is more planned and structured, but poetry feels wild and filled with possibility. It’s probably why I always end up gravitating to it more.

What period of your life do you find you write about most often? (child, teenager, young adult)
It depends on the project, honestly. For instance, I recently finished a collection that is all about motherhood and I both started and finished it a few months postpartum. My last collection, The Apocalyptic Mannequin was a book about the state of the world, climate change, and a dystopian future, and it came out a few months before COVID became a serious threat in late 2019/early 2020. I don’t write to trends, but I do listen to my fears and what my body tells me, and I usually ride my instinct from there.

What did you edit out of this book?
Nothing since the book is a collection of essays written by contemporary poets currently working in the field. I hand-selected each poet for their knowledge about the topics they specifically wrote about, so there wasn’t really anything that was edited out on a large scale.

For more on Writing Poetry in the Dark, click here.

What is your favorite book?
My favorite book is We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I love it for its magic, violence, and depiction of sisterhood, womanhood, and domestic horror.

Are mentorships useful for authors? How?
Absolutely. I feel fortunate to have worked with so many different mentors (official and unofficial) through my time studying at Seton Hill University, and since then, I’ve worked as a mentor for others in the field to give back and support my community. Getting that type of one-on-one attention, both on you and your work, is wonderful because you’re free to ask questions, seek answers, try new things, and experiment in a way that you might feel unsure of in a larger group. The whole experience is tailored to improving your weakness, exploring your strengths, and helping you elevate yourself and the work on the page.

Define what Speculative Poetry is to you?
Speculative Poetry is poetry that explores and works within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Typically, there is something otherworldly, supernatural, uncanny, or atypical in the piece and it’s focusing in on the weird, the odd, and/or the horrifying.

Is poetry hard to write?
I think that all writing requires hard work, dedication, and practice; it’s certainly not something that’s ever come easily to me. I also think that everyone is capable of writing poetry if they’re willing to put in the time studying it, reading it, and working at the form.
Do you have a favorite poem?
I’m quite fond of “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton

Why do you think it is important to read poetry?
If anyone is looking to be a writer, the first thing they need to do is become a reader. With poetry, especially, you’re looking at a bunch of different forms, approaches, styles, and voices, and the flexibility and experimental nature of the form is vastly different from prose. It’s important to read, and to read diversely among genres to see what’s out there, find your voice, and see what types of poems resonate with you. You’ll be able to build a better foundation if you have some ground to stand on.

Tell us a little bit about your books.
Sure! I have a lot of unusual interests I enjoy exploring in my writing. I write fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and I’ve tackled topics surrounding folklore, madness, mourning, religion, the occult, and the erotic. My work usually has a feminist bent to it that focuses on gender, the body, identity, and violence, and I love exploring and analyzing domestic spaces (re: the haunted house), antique medical and funerary practices, and the history and practice of witchcraft.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you write.
I’ve always been a reader, and growing up, it only felt natural to want to eventually try my hand at creating stories of my own, especially because I’ve always kind of lived in my head. Writing grounded me in a way that nothing else seemed able to, and it became both my safe place and my creative outlet as a kid. As I got older, I knew I wanted to pursue it seriously, so I went and got my BA in English Literature and Art History, and then went on to obtain my MFA in Writing Popular Fiction (with a focus on horror).

These days, I write because it quiets my mind, because it makes me happy, because I feel fulfilled and purposeful when I do it, but most importantly, it’s just want I’ve always felt driven to do. Even when I don’t feel like writing, I know writing will make me feel better, so in a lot of ways it’s became a form of self-care in addition to being a career and a job that pays the bills. More importantly though, writing is the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when I go to sleep. Stories are just in my blood and I can’t ever imagine doing anything else with my life. 

Author Bio:
Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her work has been showcased in numerous magazines and anthologies such as Weird Tales, Nightmare Magazine, Southwest Review, Year's Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others.

Wytovich is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, and an adjunct at Western Connecticut State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Point Park University. She is a recipient of the Elizabeth Matchett Stover Memorial Award, the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant, and has received the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for non-fiction writing.

Wytovich is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, an active member of the Horror Writers Association, and a graduate of Seton Hill University’s MFA program for Writing Popular Fiction. Her Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection, Brothel, earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press alongside Hysteria: A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare, and most recently, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. Her debut novel, The Eighth, is published with Dark Regions Press.

Follow Wytovich at http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter and Instagram @SWytovich​ and @thehauntedbookshelf. You can also find her essays, nonfiction, and class offerings on LitReactor.

Social Media:
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/swytovich
Twitter: @SWytovich
Instagram: @Swytovich and @thehauntedbookshelf

http://stephaniemwytovich.com (Website)

The Lobster is an odd little movie, with a running time of an hour and fifty minutes. It is about a society that pressures everyone to have love and marry, or to be turned into an animal. They animal is their choice, but most of them choose to be a dog, because that is the first thing that comes to their minds. The lone people go to a hotel, that seems more like a prison, and they only get forty-five days to find love, or be turned into an animal. This movie starts off with a man, who has just lost his wife, heading to the hotel. This is not a choice he gets to make, it is either be married or coupled, or go to the hotel, or become an animal.
 
After a time at the hotel our young man realizes he has only a few days to find a match, or he will be turned into an animal. He chooses a woman who no one else wants to be with, but their life is harsh, and she is absolutely not a good match. She is a horrible human, and we don’t know, but we can hope she gets what she deserves.
 
So, he ends up going on the run. While out, he is found by another group, who is the total opposite, they seem to abhor love and don’t want people getting close to each other. In fact they have serious punishments for people who do.
 
This was an odd film, but it does make one question what it means to be in love. Also, what does it mean to fall in love, and how do those who don’t find a single other to spend their lives with live. Things throughout the movie continue to get stranger and stranger, as our main character falls in love with a woman who is punished for loving him.
 
Eventually this movie comes to an unexpected and unfulfilled ending. It feels like there should be more, and one wonders about the backstory of some of the characters, what makes them who they are. Why are some so against love, while others seem to embrace it.
 
The most interesting thing about this whole film was the lack of emotions throughout. There is one woman in the movie who is overwhelmed by her emotions, and she loves biscuits, but everyone else has an almost flat affect, which makes me wonder if it is a societal thing, or if it is the way these people have been raised. How long has this been going on? Why did it start? And of course, if you had to become an animal because you couldn’t find love, what kind of animal would you choose?
 
A weird movie overall, but not a bad one. One might have to watch it multiple times to get all of the weird little nuances throughout, but I mostly enjoyed it.

I recently reached out to interview author BT Shapiro. He is a husband, father, and author who recently released a new book. In this interview he discusses books, writing, and why he decided to write and release this book.

BT Shapiro is an award-winning writer and filmmaker based in Huntsville, AL. The
inspiration for his works run the gamut from Shakespeare to Clive Barker. He is a lifelong fan of
horror and a loving father to two beautiful kids and husband to one foxy wife.

Check out his interview below.

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Sitting down and doing it. I am busy being a stay-at-home dad and house hubby and all the stuff that goes with it. I find that if I ever decide to not do something, it’s writing that will fall by the wayside first.

Does writing energize or exhaust you?
It’s a little of both. I find it is a great release for some of the darker feeling within me, allowing me to lighten my load of negative emotions on a day to day basis. So, in that way it’s energizing. While I’m sitting down and turning all of that darkness into what I hope is a finely crafted tale, though? It’s completely exhausting.

How do you select the names of your characters?
A good amount of my characters are unnamed. That’s because I’m rubbish with names. When I do have names, they’re usually little Easter eggs. For instance, in the story "Prima," all of the characters are named after famous ballet dancers.

What was your hardest scene to write?
"Journal of a War Artist" was probably the hardest individual story, because it involved a bit of research about World War I and a war artist’s role in the war, as well as learning about what a black soldier would experience during the early 1900s.

What is your writing Kryptonite?
I feel like I’ll never have the attention span to write a novel. I’ve tried over and over again, but I find I’m most comfortable in short form works.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?
Anywhere from six months to a year.

Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
BT Shapiro is a semi-pseudonym. I used to write under the name Ben Shapiro, but sharing a name with an already established person that you are diametrically opposed to is kind of the pits, hence the switch to BT. I do plan on releasing some work under a pseudonym in the future.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Don’t listen to that teacher that made fun of your story in elementary school and keep writing. (I agree with this. I had a teacher tell me I would never write a successful book and that I should give up - and this was in college)

How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
I think I’m pickier with what I release these days. My first two books were all poetry and I just haphazardly picked poems on certain themes regardless of quality. Now, I tend to only put my strongest stuff out.

What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
I can tell you right now, it certainly wasn’t on Amazon ads or any other spam ads. Spent a lot of money for no sales.

What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
Thomas Hardy. I found his work really hard to get into until I found an annotated copy The Mayor of Casterbridge. Once I started in on the footnotes and learned historical context of his work I was hooked.

What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
Does House of Falling Leaves count as under-appreciated? I think a lot of people disliked it for what it was attempting to do with the novel format, but it is a brilliant book and a story well told and worth the work to read.

What is the first book that made you cry?
I think it was Cujo. I was probably in eighth grade at the time and the ending of that book destroyed me. (I agree with him here, Cujo broke me)

What is your favorite childhood book?
It was this little book of what would be called Dad Jokes today. No idea what the title was, but I loved it.

What is your book about?
It’s about 150 pages. Ha cha cha. No, really, it’s a collection of short stories from the past fourteen months, which covers the period from when I had my mental breakdown at the end of 2020 until right before my 41st birthday in April. It has horror of all kinds, from body horror to existential horror. It really is a wild ride.

Why did you decide to write this specific book?
Honestly? It was a form of healing.

What makes this book important to you?
It really does show my journey from my lowest of lows to a point where I feel like I’m on my feet again. It’s probably my rawest and most honest book.

What do you want your readers to take away after reading this book?
That even in the darkest, grimmest corners of the world; the places where even demons fear to tread; there is hope and beauty to be found.

Up From The Depths Synopsis: Imagine a world where pulling a simple skin tag can cause one to unravel, where origami can save your life, where the secrets of the universe are revealed at its very end. This is the world of terror and wonder you are about to enter with Up From The Depths, the first short story collection from BT Shapiro, award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker. Open the cover if you dare.

You can visit BT Shapiro's page at btshapiro.com/

You can buy his latest book at the link below:
www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2VKCRS1?fbclid=IwAR18JK3QRqxIv2OsYR_jt6DBjRymAFoOGsRIEp1ifo960fhjHvLJyP5jMfg&ref_=d6k_applink_bb_dls

Survive the Night by Riley Sager follows a young college student, Charlie, as she gets a ride to go home to Ohio. She posts on a bulletin board and meets Josh, a young man who is a complete stranger to her. She isn't sure she should trust him, especially since her best friend, Maddie, was murdered by a man two months earlier, but she knows she has to get away. Charlie leaves her boyfriend, Robbie, behind as she gets into the car with Josh and heads towards the night of her life - in a bad way.

********SPOILERS FROM HERE DOWN**********

Charlie must be the dumbest characters I have ever read in a story. She not only gets in the car with a stranger for a ride at nine at night, but she does this knowing he could be the man who murdered her best friend, Maddie. She was with Maddie just before she disappeared and saw the killer, but she can't recognize him. Charlie does everything she can to be a murder victim herself - including not seeking help when she is in the same room with a cop and hanging up when she gets in touch with the police by phone. She also continually seems to have zero sense of survival as the only time survival bursts in is the end of the book. She does all of the stupid things she can to be a murder victim. Then the reader learns that the entire book may not have happened.

The ending of the book is the "real" Charlie sitting in a theater watching a movie that was created about this one night of her life. The reader then learns that not everything that they just read had happened. What the hell man? This is just like a reader reading a book to find that the entire thing was a dream, or that the entire thing was the fantasy created by a young man with a snow globe. It was so incredibly frustrating and I wish I had given up on this book BEFORE I eve started it. I should have looked through other reviews to see what people said.

There was nothing in this book that could have made it a good story. While the writing was not terrible, this is the third or fourth book of Sager's that I have read and the only one that I liked at all was Final Girls. All of the other books of his that I have read have terribly written female leads.

I do not recommend this book, it was possibly one of the most annoying books I have read in at least three weeks.