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.

So, I was recently able to watch the new CANDYMAN movie and I have to say... I did not like it. The nuance of the original was not there in this movie. It did rely a lot on the older story of the original movie a little bit, but I did not understand what the point was of this movie.

A lot of people state in their observations and reviews that this movie tried too hard to be politically correct or "woke," and I agree. There was a lot throughout about how race relates to living with or without money, and hoe the police treat both those well off and not, and people based on their skin color. I feel this movie lost itself and the idea of who and what the Candyman was. Also, it lost what Tony Todd created in the character. The ending left a lot to be desired in regards to the character of the Candyman, and what he stood for - vengeance and power (both related to race and not).

As a horror film the deaths could be creative, but they were hidden for suspense, which did not always work. There was a good scene with teenage girls in a school bathroom, but the rest was just okay. This was a movie that fell flat, and in the end, what was the point. Maybe I missed something but this didn't really seem to relate to the story of the original Candyman. And Tony Todd was so misused in this movie.

And now life stuff -

I am headed to Phoenix for Phoenix Fan Fusion. You can find me at booth B720. I will have copies of my first three zombie books, my humorous cat book, and some bookmarks that I've created. Even if you do not have the funds to buy anything - come say hi! I always like to meet future and current fans!

Then next month things start to get busy again in my work life. If you do not know, I work as an adjunct English Professor, and graphic designer for a theater. I am going through all of my classes and editing and redoing the courses, so that will take a lot of time. I also have a couple of posters and art to create for the theater before October. This summer I teach two five week classes and in the fall I teach four classes. I am trying to figure out life and have four books that I am working on completing. So, I am busy, but I haven't forgotten that I have a fourth and final book promised to you, the readers. I plan on having that book completely written by the end of November. I have a book in the submission process that I should hear a yes or no on by the end of September. I am working on a book about stupid things people say when someone dies, and hope to have that finished by the end of October. The last book I am working on is a dark comedy about Lucifer.

If you have a story about something stupid someone said when a loved one, friend, or pet died, and do not mind sharing that with me, please feel free. Just let me know if you want your name published or if you want to remain anonymous.

I will try to keep everyone updated. I will also try to publish more news and reviews on this blog. Life gets in the way sometimes.

Link for Phoenix Fan Fusion -
www.phoenixfanfusion.com/

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho is the story of two women who have been friends since they were young and who grow up together to continue interweaving themselves in each others lives.

I did not like this book. This novel is the story of Fiona and the story of Jane, and is told from the alternating viewpoints of each woman. The stories go back and forth in time and they do not really seem to connect to each other in any way except they are told from the points of view of Fiona and Jane. Neither character seems to have anything to connect the reader to them, and this is not because of their culture but because they do not ever seem to be fully developed. The reader gets glimpses into their individual lives, but they do not really get a finished version of any story.

Jane seems angry throughout the book and she does not seem to have any goals in life. We read about her teenage years, dating history as a possible bisexual, and a little glimpse into her friendship with Won, and her relationship with her mother. However, Jane is shallow and we never know what her life goals are. In her forties she uses words like "bounce" when leaving, which turned me off totally to her character. I understand that people in their forties do use the slang of their youth, but still, I did not understand what the point of her character was. Then there was the character of Fiona.

Fiona wanted to be and eventually becomes a lawyer, but her life too seems to be flat and boring. The most interesting part of her life is when she is young and learns of her father and how her mother became pregnant with her at the age of sixteen. Her name was originally Ona and she had a great relationship with her grandparents until she learned the truth about how her mother met her father. Fiona goes through several relationships and there is not really any development to her character. I have no idea what either of the main characters desires are, nor do I know what the purpose of this book is.

I say this last part because this book is supposedly about the ongoing and in and out lives of Fiona and Jane as they grow older and develop, but each story seemed less about their friendship and more about the author having a desire to write this book. This book did not showcase their relationship, nor did it show the struggles of the two characters as their lives changed and developed. It really has nothing to do with their friendship changing or growing or ending. This book has almost nothing to do with a friendship and almost everything to do with two women living separate lives and nothing intertwines.

I understand that this is a debut novel for this author, and I hate being this cynical when reading a debut, but this novel did not really have much to do with the synopsis. I did read this quickly, but I cannot recommend this novel and I hope the author has a better book in her future.

I know that everyone has their favorite Batman and villains, for me I will always enjoy Michael Keaton as Batman and the villains in both of these movies. For those who enjoyed The Batman, you will likely not agree with much of what I say in this review, and that is fine.

I had many issues with this version of the film, so I think I am going to start with the characters.

Robert Pattenson as Bruce Wayne/Batman was not great. I have never sat through a movie where the main character had so few lines and most of the plot was driven by their brooding personality. Most of his lines didn't even add to the story, and I really didn't get a sense of either Batman or Bruce Wayne. I didn't know who was the defining character and it wasn't clear to me if Wayne was even a popular figure in this version of Gotham. For Zoe Kravitz I did not hate her cat woman, but it didn't seem to me that she had the depth of cat persona that is necessary to showcase her personality. However, she was better than Anne Hathaway's version as she was only "cat" because she was a cat burglar. I wanted more from Zoe's character and less homicidal maniac - which seemed unrealistic to her. Basically every character needed more, and the Riddler was a joke. As an incel who hates everyone because he received an unfair life due to being an orphan, he could have been so much more developed, but no - this version of the Riddler was underdeveloped and I just didn't care. The only character that stood out was Penguin - but only because I was astonished that this was Colin Farrell! He was one hundred percent unrecognizable.

Another issue I had was with the story. Why on earth would Bruce Wayne's father go to a mobster to get help with a problem? This was not only unrealistic to me in regards to everything I know about the Batman story lines that I had a hard time with the entire plot due to this. Also, the backstory of their murder was not done well. To be murdered by the joker or a rogue criminal was interesting, to be killed because of a gangster not getting what he wanted, that was too simple. In regards to his parents, I also wanted more detail on the murder/suicide of his grandparents, and the mental health issues faced by his mother. How did his mother's issues affect his childhood, or did it? Was she gone for any of his childhood or was she healthy and okay by this point? Were her issues reflected in Batman's need to become a vigilante? All of this should have been explored to further develop everything in the story.

Lastly, this version of Gotham was not interesting to me. I don't understand why the city was so incredibly dirty and dark. I understand that the movie was supposed to have more of a noir feel, but for me it was just unfortunate and I didn't care about the why or the who because I didn't care about the city itself. I needed to feel more of a connection to the people to care about who was dying and why. A revenge story on top of a revenge story does not make an interesting story and there has to be something for the person watching to want to root for. I didn't care if Batman solved the case. I didn't care about the villain (and they are one of the most interesting parts of the Batman story). I didn't care about anything.

So, while I know some people really enjoyed this version of Batman, I thought it all fell flat, and I was uninterested. I doubt that if there is another one I will go watch it. Yes, I know Jim Carrey's Riddler was not for everyone, but at least he was entertaining. This version of the Riddler was just sad and dull. I can't say I recommend this version of Batman

Constantine von Hoffman is the author of the recently published John Henry the Revelator. The premise of John Henry the Revelator is  - what if the first superhero was Black. More specifically what if he was a Black teenager in 1930s America, when Jim Crow is flying high. So, what would it take to balance the scales of justice? A miracle. Meet Mo Crawford of Tuskegee, Alabama. Fifteen years old, nearly seven-feet tall, totally bulletproof, and more interested in being a farmer than anyone's savior.

Questions about John Henry the Revelator:

Why did you decide to write this specific book?
I had the idea to write a book about the battles to pass a Federal anti-lynching law (we still don’t have one). I was researching the idea when the question of what if the first superhero was Black jumped up in my brain. Then all these scenes and characters started showing up. I feel like the book told me to write it.

What makes this book important to you?
I hope it can in some way add to someone’s understanding of race in America. The Constitution originally counted enslaved Black people as only 3/5th of a person and, even though slavery ended, we still treat them as only 3/5th of a person. Their lives are at significantly higher risk in any interaction with the police. They receive worse care from our medical system. They are hired less often and paid less money. A 2017 Boston Globe story found that white households in Boston had an average net worth of $250,000. For Black households that number was $8. Every time the Globe prints that they include the phrase “this is not a typo.”  After World War II the GI Benefits law excluded Black soldiers. Racism is destroying this nation. I’m a writer and this novel is my very small effort to fight racism.

What do you want your readers to take away after reading this book?
I would love it if some white readers learned something more about the history and horror of racism in America. I would also love it if a Black reader felt they had read an honest depiction of racism in America.

Fun Questions about writing, reading, and being an author:

What is the first book that made you cry?
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. The death of Deets still gets me every time.
 
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
A little of both. I can feel really exhausted after a lot of writing, but I also feel really good.
 
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Depression, the Quicker Letter Downer ©! It will eat me alive.
 
Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
I seriously thought about changing my name to Cornelius Byrne at one point because I was sick of being connected to my father all the time. If I ever do need a pseudonym, that’s the one I’ll use.
 
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Just write, everything is a draft. Don’t obsess about getting it right the first time.
 
How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
I know I can do it now. A book no longer feels like Mount Everest. Also, I learned to write whatever scene was interesting to me at the moment. It doesn’t have to be written in order (As a writer, the author of this blog never writes in order).
 
What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
About $15 for a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen. The way I work is by first writing in long hand on yellow legal pads (the writer of this blog always writer her first draft longhand in notebooks!!!). This prevents me from going back to re-write. I write until I get to some point that feels substantial and then transfer it onto the computer. I didn’t try a fountain pen until I was in my late 40s but when I did…wow. For the first time writing by hand felt right.
 
What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
I’m going to flip this – I really liked Isaac Asimov when I was 12-14. Now, I feel like it’s a real accomplishment if his characters make it all the way to two-dimensional.
 
What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was by Angélica Gorodischer, who I just found out died February 5th (she was 94). She’s Argentinian and Kalpa was her first book to be translated into English (by Ursula K. Leguin, no less). It’s an incredible impressionistic novel that tells the story of an empire in small scenes that may or not be connected to each other. It is epic in scope and narrow in focus (and short, it may be 200 pages). It’s magical realism with an emphasis on magical.
           
How do you select the names of your characters?
Some I just go into my email spam and look at the names there. Some I look at my bookshelf and take a first name from one writer and the last name from another. I also keep a list of names that I think of or come across and inspire me: Neon Mary’s bones lit up whenever she felt a wind blowing across the wizards’ graveyard.
 
What was your hardest scene to write?
Killing a character I’d really come to love (Oh, I've been there, done that). I didn’t know they’d have to die when they first walked into my book, but it became clear later on. And it’s a gruesome death. That said, I started writing a horror story and I love, love, love killing off the characters in it.
 
What is your favorite childhood book?
Harold and The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. It’s an amazing book about creativity and imagination. I still read it regularly.
 
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Focusing on one thing. I have a huge list of stories, many of which I’ve started, and I have a real hard time knowing which one I should be working on. As a result, a short story can take way longer to write than it needs to.
 
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
Judging by my first novel – about 30 years. I wrote a third of it in the mid-1990s and then got scared of going any farther. What scared me is that it’s a first-person narrative of a Black man and all I could see were the mistakes I could make. But the damn thing wouldn’t leave me alone. So, I went back to it in 2015 and finished the first draft in 2016 and the final in 2018. However, I wrote a novella in six months, so I hope the next one won’t take as long.

I, personally, look forward to what your next journey (book or story) will result in.
 
About Constantine von Hoffman:
After 25 years as a journalist, I spent a decade creating artisanal marketing content for large corporations. I am currently working as manservant to three elderly dogs and writing strange stories when they allow me the time.
 
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/constantine-von-hoffman/john-henry-the-revelator/
 
From the review: “The characters, particularly Moses, are well drawn, and aspects of Moses’ journey, such as the way it’s covered in the media and his efforts to translate his grassroots movement into a political one … may remind readers of events in our own time. Overall, it’s a complex work that engages with an era that feels simultaneously remote and frightfully contemporary.”

The 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is not a bad movie, however it is much different than the book of the same name by Jack Finney. The book was written in 1955, and has some of the same characters and ideas, but it is set in a small town, and doesn’t end the same. The movie takes place in New York, which seems odd, as I was wondering how pod people could take over the entire city of New York without anyone noticing.
 
The movie and book both have the same plot, an alien species comes down from where ever and they take over the lives of others. They not only insert themselves, but they become the other person, forcing the other person to no longer exist. The one thing that sets humanity apart from the aliens is that they have emotions, they have these things that make them freak out or gather to help each other.
 
There are four movie versions of this book, and none of them are the same. They all involve an invasion, and they all involve people becoming something else, but that is where the similarities stop. If you have not seen the 1978 version before, you are in for a treat. A young Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy (after his role as televisions Spock).

The movie follows Sutherland and a few of his friends, as they struggle to figure out what is happening. Their friends and loved ones are changing, and they don’t recognize who they are anymore. As people keep turning into these pod people life changes and those who have not yet changed must figure out how they can survive. This is where things diverge, and this is where I will put some SPOILERS.
 
The book ends with the Aliens being defeated, and the ones who have traded their lives for the lives of humans, must live the rest of their short existences here on earth. The lifespan of one of these pod people is about five years, so once they start dying off, they are gone.
 
The movie ends with a twist, and those who you expect to be pod people are not. It is an interesting movie, and the theme of humanity is strong, as it is what holds the world together. We don’t know, if there are aliens, if they will be like the ones in one of the variety of movies out there. Of course, we do have to wonder if aliens will have any emotions, or if they will understand what our emotions or lifestyles are like.

Watch this one if you can, skip the later two, but if you can find the earlier one, watch that one as well. Plus, if you have time read the book, because it is interesting for the time it was made.

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach is about a young man who is trying to gather what happened to him when he was younger, and who learns that life was not as it seemed.

During a class project in Kindergarten, the narrator learns that their penpal experiment is more than it seems. The entire class sends a balloon with a letter attached off to the ether, hoping that someone will write them back with a picture of where they live. After a long while the narrator receives a letter, and a picture, but the picture doesn't make any sense. This continues and the narrators mother becomes frightened. The reader learns throughout the story that his neighbor might have been murdered, and several other horrifying things that probably happened throughout the years as he grew up. Finally, his mother tells him the whole truth, ending with the disappearance of his best friend.

There are quite a few people who don't like this book due to the writing style or the storytelling, but I enjoyed this novel. Well, enjoyed may be a strong word for it as I did become annoyed at times, but the length the story went through to keep things from me was fantastic. It had a creepy factor that I haven't really received from many books in the past few years. Most novels didn't have me checking the locks on my doors, or making sure all of my windows were shut properly. Most novels don't have me looking around at my surroundings as I wonder who might be watching me.

There was something about this novel that made me want to keep reading to learn what really happened, who was the bad guy, how was it all going to end? There were times that I felt the story was too much, and the main character was too annoying - both in negative ways. I wanted more from the book, I wanted more details. It was a fast read, but the ending didn't satisfy me as much as I would have liked.

I wanted to know the who and the why, but maybe there wasn't an answer to that because maybe there aren't always answers. Either way, it was a good book, and I do recommend it. You might not want to read it at night, alone in your house, with most of the lights off.

I wanted to apologize to anyone who reads this blog. I have not been posting, and honestly I haven't missed a month since I started this blog. I have a million excuses - I work two full time jobs, I am tired all of the time, one job has been unbearable, the other is fine, I ma making life choices, and I have to plan a book release so I am ready for Phoenix Fan Fusion in May. I don't have time to write, relax, or even think.

I promise to get back to my normal posts, but not until next month. I am tired, but I think a lot of us are.

I know I am tired because of this pandemic. I am vaccinated, and wear my masks constantly, but I am exhausted. I am emotionally exhausted. I am physically exhausted. I am in the same place as so many of you out there in internet land.

So, I am going to get back to it next month. After the holidays I hope to be better.

Life choices are being made. Life choices.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides is about Mariana Andros, a therapist who has become fixated on a professor, Edward Fosca, who she believes is a murderer. He is the group head of The Maidens, a young group of women who attend his Greek mythology classes. Zoe, her niece, calls when one member is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana is not untroubled herself. Working her way through grief at the sudden death of her husband, Sebastian, she is concerned about her grief and one of her patients, Henry, who has an unsettling obsession with her. Then another body is found and Mariana must deal with he niece, her concerns about Edward, a you man named Fred who has taken an interest in her, and the murders that unsettle.

I read about halfway through this book and almost did not finish it. It was pretentious and most of the characters were not interesting, especially Mariana. The grief was overwhelming, not in an I feel bad for her way but more in a can she stop being so stupid way. It was not written well. I felt like the author wanted me to feel bad for her but I couldn't when she was ignoring the world she kept trying to live in. She was often preoccupied and boring, which made me preoccupied and bored. I would have liked more about their relationship for the end of the book to be more poignant.

The most interesting character in the book was Henry, one of Mariana's patients, and he was not developed in a way he could have been. He was the type of character that someone could feel something for, and he was the type of character that some would want to root for to get healthy. Instead, he was made into a character that had no point in the story. He was there to threaten the main character, but there was no reason for it. It felt obviously like a misdirection. Again, this was one of the things that made me feel like the author thought he was "getting something over" on me.

While the ending was a surprise and quite interesting, I needed would have liked more from that as well. I would have liked to know more of how and why things started between the murderer and their companion. I would have liked to know why things happened the way they did. I would have liked to know more about Sebastian's death and his life with Mariana. I would have liked so much more. The problem was that there were so many "red herrings" in this book that it felt overloaded when it didn't need to.

All of that being said, I did like it. And honestly, I liked it much more than I liked The Silent Patient. That was another book by this author that took me forever to read and that I almost gave up on. Now that I have given the author multiple reads, I don't think I will read any more books from them. I don't think I have the stamina, and I while the endings of both books were good, I would have appreciated less pretentiousness and less filler.