April 21, 2008
BOOK REVIEW: 'Legends of the Mountain State': 13 Scary Stories from the Scary State of West Virginia
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
West Virginia often can be a scary state, and the 13 stories included in the anthology "Legends of the Mountain State: Ghostly Tales from the State of West Virginia" (Woodland Press, Logan, WV, 160 pages, $18.95) graphically demonstrate just how scary.
Edited by Michael Knost, a Logan, WV-based fiction writer, the collection of Mountain State urban legends, naturally includes Mothman -- perhaps the state's most famous apparition -- but with a pulp fiction twist as a hit man is hired by a Las Vegas crime boss to travel to Point Pleasant and kill the ghostly demon. Written by Joseph Nassise, "Money Well-Earned" has the kind of twist to it that would make it a perfect candidate for inclusion in another "Grindhouse" movie by Richard Rodriguez.
Writers in the collection include professional horror, science fiction and fantasy writers, as well as those that Knost calls "up and coming writers in and around the state of West Virginia." Quite a few actually live in the Mountain State, but even those who live on the West Coast or Baltimore have managed to capture the ghostly spirit that sends a chill up and down the spine of residents at night.
The stories are based -- in addition to Mothman and the related Silver Bridge collapse -- on such legends as the Ethel coal mine specter, the Chapmanville school haunting, the Ghost of #22 Mountain and many others. There's an excellent introduction by Rick Hautala that puts the reader in the picture about the ghostly state of West Virginia.
There's a lot of ghostly humor in "Silver Run" by Scott Nicholson, as two ghosts in the railroad tunnel near Cairo, WV prepare for the nightly visitation of live ghost hunters. One is a chopped in half railroad fireman and the other is a beautiful young woman, killed by her lover.
"Screaming Jenny" by Bev Vincent tells the story of a modern day train robbery in a manner that would certainly fit the "Pulp Fiction" mode.
Cabell County is the setting for an urban legend with a common theme: A beautiful young female hitchhiker. "Country Roads" by Tim Waggoner will make Tri-State residents a little more cautious as they drive near Huntington or Barboursville or Milton at night.
Writing in a manner that reminded me of the great horror meister H.P. Lovecraft, Michael M. Hughes in "The Blackwater Lights" gives us an unadulterated example of pure horror. It's one of the best stories in a collection that has no bad ones.
Here, courtesy of the publisher's web site (www.woodlandpress.com) is a list of the authors and their credentials:
Thomas F. Monteleone is a 4-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, the highest honor for writers in the horror genre. He has written television scripts for American Playhouse, George Romero’s Tales from the Darkside, and a series on Fox TV entitled Night Visions. He is also the author of the bestseller, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Novel.
Tim Waggoner’s novels include Forge of the Mind Slayers, Darkness Wakes, Pandora Drive, The Thieves of Blood, the Godfire duology, Like Death, and A Nightmare on Elm Street: Protégé. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College and is a faculty mentor in Seton Hill University’s Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program.
Kealan Patrick Burke is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Currency of Souls, The Turtle Boy, The Hides, Vessels, Midlisters, Ravenous Ghosts, and The Number 121 to Pennsylvania, and the editor of the anthologies: Taverns of the Dead, Night Visions 12, Brimstone Turnpike, Quietly Now, and Tales from the Gorezone. He lives in Ohio with his wife, and son.
Scott Nicholson is the author of six Appalachian Gothic thrillers, including They Hunger and The Farm. He was a 1999 winner of the Writers of the Future award and a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. As a journalist in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, he has won several state press association awards and has written a number of writing articles. He is also the current vice-president of the Horror Writers Association.
Joe Nassise is the author of the internationally best-selling series, The Templar Chronicles. He's a Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominee, as well a former president of the Horror Writers Association. He lives in Arizona with his wife and family.
Bev Vincent is a contributing editor with Cemetery Dance magazine, the horror industry’s standard. His first book, The Road to the Dark Tower, an authorized companion to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, was published by New American Library in 2004 and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. He co-edited The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book with Brian Freeman for Cemetery Dance Publications.
Mark Justice is the author of Bone Songs, a collection of stories from Delirium Books, Deadneck Hootenanny (Novello Publishers) and, with David T. Wilbanks, Dead Earth: The Green Dawn ( PS Publishing). He also hosts the nationally-recognized radio program Pod of Horror. He lives with his wife and cats in Ashland, Kentucky.
G. Cameron Fuller is an author, editor, and writing teacher who lives in Charleston, West Virginia. His fiction, nonfiction, and personal essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and books, and has won numeroous writing contests and Fellowship competitions. For several years, Fuller was on the editorial board for Writer's Digest.
Michael M. Hughes is an up-and-coming writer in the horror genre with his first novel in the works for this year. He went to college in Elkins, WV and spends many weekends in Great Cacapon and Berkeley Springs. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and daughter, where he writes fiction, lectures on paranormal topics, and performs as a mentalist.
Jude-Marie Green is an author of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. She is also an assistant editor (and review columnist) for Noctem Aeternus Magazine. She lives in Southern California with her cats and books.
Brian J. Hatcher is a writer, poet, oral storyteller, actor, magician, fire eater, and indy wrestling manager from Charleston, West Virginia.
Trent Walters is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer. His work has appeared in The Golden Age SF anthology, Electric Velocipede, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Pindledyboz, and BSFA's Vector. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Marta Murvosh is a journalist in Northwestern Washington. She is an up-and-coming writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
* * *
What an assemblage of writers! And, in closing, a few words from the editor ( I wonder if Knost rhymes with Ghost; it really should!):
“It is especially exhilarating to see writers of this magnitude focusing on our great state," said Michael Knost. "This is the first work of its kind in the Mountain State.”
* * *
I checked to find if the book is available on Amazon and found that it wasn't. Try Empire Books in Pullman Square, Hearthside Books in Bluefield or any other large bookstore -- or contact the publisher...here's that web site again: www.woodlandpress.com
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BOOK REVIEW: 'Legends of the Mountain State': 13 Scary Stories from the Scary State of West Virginia
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
West Virginia often can be a scary state, and the 13 stories included in the anthology "Legends of the Mountain State: Ghostly Tales from the State of West Virginia" (Woodland Press, Logan, WV, 160 pages, $18.95) graphically demonstrate just how scary.
Edited by Michael Knost, a Logan, WV-based fiction writer, the collection of Mountain State urban legends, naturally includes Mothman -- perhaps the state's most famous apparition -- but with a pulp fiction twist as a hit man is hired by a Las Vegas crime boss to travel to Point Pleasant and kill the ghostly demon. Written by Joseph Nassise, "Money Well-Earned" has the kind of twist to it that would make it a perfect candidate for inclusion in another "Grindhouse" movie by Richard Rodriguez.
Writers in the collection include professional horror, science fiction and fantasy writers, as well as those that Knost calls "up and coming writers in and around the state of West Virginia." Quite a few actually live in the Mountain State, but even those who live on the West Coast or Baltimore have managed to capture the ghostly spirit that sends a chill up and down the spine of residents at night.
The stories are based -- in addition to Mothman and the related Silver Bridge collapse -- on such legends as the Ethel coal mine specter, the Chapmanville school haunting, the Ghost of #22 Mountain and many others. There's an excellent introduction by Rick Hautala that puts the reader in the picture about the ghostly state of West Virginia.
There's a lot of ghostly humor in "Silver Run" by Scott Nicholson, as two ghosts in the railroad tunnel near Cairo, WV prepare for the nightly visitation of live ghost hunters. One is a chopped in half railroad fireman and the other is a beautiful young woman, killed by her lover.
"Screaming Jenny" by Bev Vincent tells the story of a modern day train robbery in a manner that would certainly fit the "Pulp Fiction" mode.
Cabell County is the setting for an urban legend with a common theme: A beautiful young female hitchhiker. "Country Roads" by Tim Waggoner will make Tri-State residents a little more cautious as they drive near Huntington or Barboursville or Milton at night.
Writing in a manner that reminded me of the great horror meister H.P. Lovecraft, Michael M. Hughes in "The Blackwater Lights" gives us an unadulterated example of pure horror. It's one of the best stories in a collection that has no bad ones.
Here, courtesy of the publisher's web site (www.woodlandpress.com) is a list of the authors and their credentials:
Thomas F. Monteleone is a 4-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, the highest honor for writers in the horror genre. He has written television scripts for American Playhouse, George Romero’s Tales from the Darkside, and a series on Fox TV entitled Night Visions. He is also the author of the bestseller, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Novel.
Tim Waggoner’s novels include Forge of the Mind Slayers, Darkness Wakes, Pandora Drive, The Thieves of Blood, the Godfire duology, Like Death, and A Nightmare on Elm Street: Protégé. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College and is a faculty mentor in Seton Hill University’s Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program.
Kealan Patrick Burke is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Currency of Souls, The Turtle Boy, The Hides, Vessels, Midlisters, Ravenous Ghosts, and The Number 121 to Pennsylvania, and the editor of the anthologies: Taverns of the Dead, Night Visions 12, Brimstone Turnpike, Quietly Now, and Tales from the Gorezone. He lives in Ohio with his wife, and son.
Scott Nicholson is the author of six Appalachian Gothic thrillers, including They Hunger and The Farm. He was a 1999 winner of the Writers of the Future award and a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. As a journalist in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, he has won several state press association awards and has written a number of writing articles. He is also the current vice-president of the Horror Writers Association.
Joe Nassise is the author of the internationally best-selling series, The Templar Chronicles. He's a Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominee, as well a former president of the Horror Writers Association. He lives in Arizona with his wife and family.
Bev Vincent is a contributing editor with Cemetery Dance magazine, the horror industry’s standard. His first book, The Road to the Dark Tower, an authorized companion to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, was published by New American Library in 2004 and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. He co-edited The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book with Brian Freeman for Cemetery Dance Publications.
Mark Justice is the author of Bone Songs, a collection of stories from Delirium Books, Deadneck Hootenanny (Novello Publishers) and, with David T. Wilbanks, Dead Earth: The Green Dawn ( PS Publishing). He also hosts the nationally-recognized radio program Pod of Horror. He lives with his wife and cats in Ashland, Kentucky.
G. Cameron Fuller is an author, editor, and writing teacher who lives in Charleston, West Virginia. His fiction, nonfiction, and personal essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and books, and has won numeroous writing contests and Fellowship competitions. For several years, Fuller was on the editorial board for Writer's Digest.
Michael M. Hughes is an up-and-coming writer in the horror genre with his first novel in the works for this year. He went to college in Elkins, WV and spends many weekends in Great Cacapon and Berkeley Springs. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and daughter, where he writes fiction, lectures on paranormal topics, and performs as a mentalist.
Jude-Marie Green is an author of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. She is also an assistant editor (and review columnist) for Noctem Aeternus Magazine. She lives in Southern California with her cats and books.
Brian J. Hatcher is a writer, poet, oral storyteller, actor, magician, fire eater, and indy wrestling manager from Charleston, West Virginia.
Trent Walters is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer. His work has appeared in The Golden Age SF anthology, Electric Velocipede, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Pindledyboz, and BSFA's Vector. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Marta Murvosh is a journalist in Northwestern Washington. She is an up-and-coming writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
* * *
What an assemblage of writers! And, in closing, a few words from the editor ( I wonder if Knost rhymes with Ghost; it really should!):
“It is especially exhilarating to see writers of this magnitude focusing on our great state," said Michael Knost. "This is the first work of its kind in the Mountain State.”
* * *
I checked to find if the book is available on Amazon and found that it wasn't. Try Empire Books in Pullman Square, Hearthside Books in Bluefield or any other large bookstore -- or contact the publisher...here's that web site again: www.woodlandpress.com
E-mail HNN Yahoo Google
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
