Category Archives: Writing

I watched Exorcist: Believer so you don’t have to, A Review

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I went into this knowing the reviews; maybe that skews this, but I don’t think so.

It takes a bit to get into, just as the original film did.

There will be Spoilers in this review.

Two girls, one of whose mom died when she was born, after a blessing in Haiti moments before the earthquake hit.

Fast forward 13 years. The girl wants to communicate with her dead mother. Her friend, from a religious family, takes her into the forest beyond their school to help her communicate. Why a little Christian girl knows how to communicate with the dead is beyond me. They disappear for three days (Jesus’s three days reference).

They return, and neither remembers what they did or where they went for those three days. It’s left to the viewer to figure it out, which we don’t have to because weird things start to happen. One girl wets the bed. Hello, Regan, at the party.

The connection to the original movie is based on a book Chris McNeil wrote. The mom from the first movie. She has no contact with Regan.<–save for later.

Here’s a bright spot in this review. The two young actors who play the young girls are amazing. They dive into the parts. They are Olivia O’Neill and Lidya Jewett. Give these two more roles. They were brilliant.

She throws herself on the floor, which is a habit that both of the girls do. Convulses and ends up in the hospital. Let’s move to other parts that stick out for me.

The tropes are everywhere. This is the 2020s. Necks snapping, girls cursing at their mothers, throwing themselves on the floor, that’s old hat. It’s an overused trope that was done better in other movies.

Let’s move to a part that made me laugh. The various religions unite, like The Super Friends. Catholicism and its rite of exorcism come to save the day, but it doesn’t happen that way.

So, smoke comes out of the girl’s mouths. I was waiting for Sam and Dean to show up.

I will leave it to you, but the overt religiosity of it, the trope-filled script, and so many things make me give it a bad review. The end shot is excellent. I love the original and the book. I don’t think Green should be allowed near horror again. Halloween was good, Kills was awful, and Ends along with this were terrible.

Now, I’m going to watch the original to cleanse my palette.

Review for Let Me Tell You A Story, by Tim Waggoner

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I’ll start this with a few comments. I’ve read the other two books in this series. They’re two of the best “How To Write” books. The other books on that list are Stephen King’s On Writing, On Writing Horror By the HWA, and John Gardner’s On Becoming A Novelist. Some of these are not true “How To” books. King’s is more of a memoir, plainly stated on the cover. The others are How To Write books. Yes, King’s book has a section on “How To,” but the majority of the book is a memoir and a damn good one.

Tim’s books stick with horror, and while the first two, especially the first book, are great for beginners, the third book feels like it’s for those further along in their writing.

I loved this one as someone who has moved in a different direction with their writing. The first two helped me get started. This one is helping me move along in a number of ways.

I stopped writing for the last couple of months. But this is bringing me back.

This book is about Tim analyzing his own stories. Some of which were written a number of years ago. This feels like Tim talking to his younger self. Telling stories about the writer he was. Going through the stories is an analysis of the stories, but also a trip and memoir about the writer he was and is.

I’ve read my older stuff and see the progression from that writer to the one I am now. I see the elements repeating themselves, as they have for Tim.

Now, the part I can’t talk about. I did not do the exercises in this book. Doing them and reading the book for a review would take a bit longer. I will do them when the book comes out and share them here. I spent a few weeks doing the exercises in the other two books. I intend to do that with this book as well.

I’ll say that Tim gets better with each one of these. I’m sure he’ll be up for another Stoker for this one and probably win.

This series of books has helped me find my voice, fix writing issues, and improve my grasp of the craft. His idea in the first book of creating bags and pulling things from them gave me the idea for the novella I have coming out next month. It was woods, mental health, and cults. I ran with it from there. I got my copy through NetGalley, but as with the others in this series, I’ll purchase the physical copy. I need to get through each of the exercises. You all will be the first to know when I do.

Here is a link to Amazon for the Paperback, the Kindle, and Barnes & Noble for this book.

Getting back to normal

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I found myself straying away from the point of this blog. It was meant to help me deal with the world around me. I know why it went sideways. I was chasing my writing. I should have let it develop on its own.

I used to talk about depression, dealing with it, and trying to escape it.

I have a book coming out in October. It was challenging to write. Here’s where I get a bit personal. With the healthcare system in the United States, I should have seen someone about a specific situation. I had a severe mental break ten years ago. During and after that break, I dealt with delusions. I would hear things, see things, and for most of those years, believe untrue things. I used what I dealt with to write the book coming out in October.

I didn’t seek professional help because I worried it would impact my wife’s and my health insurance. We had great health insurance in Las Vegas, but sadly, we’re using my wife’s now. It’s not as good as what he had in Las Vegas. But no health insurance is decent when it comes to mental health.

Gerald’s journey in ‘The End Is All I Can See’ is similar to mine. He has dealt with other issues, but writing the book was cathartic. I found myself diving into my head, seeing the world through those lenses. I haven’t been diagnosed with what Gerald deals with, but the signs point to it. My delusion was something like the Truman Show. I completely believed the delusion. It wasn’t until I said something to my wife that we sat down and discussed it. It continues to raise its head. It’s usually when I’m stressed or worried about how I’m perceived. This perception led me to believe in the delusion. There are times I’ve wished for it to be real. This plays into the delusion. With my writing, it’s an ever-present thought. If the delusion were absolute, someone would care about what I do. Someone would care about my writing. It’s all any of us want. For someone to care about us. This makes my depression worse. I constantly worry I’ll head down the road on this delusion and have a psychotic break. This is my greatest fear with the delusion.

I would like the delusion to stop. I have weeks where it’s not there. Then it pops up again.

I think it started a few weeks before my mental break. I’d taken a pill for something. A few hours later, I heard a woman screaming for help. I ran around our house and outside, looking for her. My wife was worried as hell. A woman, completely naked, her skin all bloody as if she were pulled from a Clive Barker story, stood outside our closet. I didn’t say anything to my wife about the woman. I knew how mad it sounded. I knew how absolutely ridiculous the idea of the woman being there was, but I saw her.

I haven’t seen her since, but it’s something that has stayed in my head.

I had to get that out. I hope you’ll read the book when it comes out.

Taking the Time

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This post popped up on Instagram and several other sites over the last few days. It’s the “Take The Next Six Months” post. I saw it six times in the last couple of days. I’m taking that and other things as a hint to disappear for a while.

I’ve thought about doing this and posted here about it a few times. I no longer need to post, write, take pictures, or do anything else on the social media trash fire.

I will continue to write, and I have a book coming out in October and another in December. They’ll come out, and I’ll promote them, but I won’t kill myself over this anymore. I’m done trying to play the game.

I have too much to do and don’t want to worry about clicks or how well my books are doing. I’ll write in whatever genre I feel like at that moment. Get it as good as I can and publish it.

I hope you’ll read my books. They’re wherever you can find your books.

Down to the last thing

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Last week I wrote a couple of reviews here. I’m going to be only on here.

I tried the Substack thing. It’s just like being on here, but there are fewer readers. I had almost zero engagement on there. Twitter is the same way. I’ll probably leave there soon.

I’m considering leaving every social media I have except for this one. Substack is a blog. You can dress it up and add fancy things, but it’s still a blog. It’s why I deleted my account yesterday.

I can devote time to writing or social media, not both. I know SM is supposed to help me gain readers. I understand that, but I’m at the point where I’d rather write and publish what I want. It could be the next Jax Reed novel, a horror collection/novella/novel, or something else.

Jax’s book came out almost a year ago, and I haven’t written his next book. I know what it’s about. I have an outline. I’ve been worrying so much about finding connections on SM that I didn’t write it. I’ve written a lot of horror stories. Those will be coming out later this year and early 2024. I’ve created the covers for them. This is for the novella coming in October/November.

It’s been through a bunch of rewrites and revisions. I’ll be inputting those this week. I should have it up for preorder in early August. I’ll post here when that happens. I’ll have the other covers up soon, but the edits aren’t done for those yet.

You’ll be seeing more of me in the future. This is the only place I’ll write.

Brian