Guide Dog Books / September 2008
Reviewed by: Martel Sardina

Books on writing are a dime a dozen, so why should anyone feel compelled to buy this one? The answer is simple. Each author brings their unique insights and experiences to the table, and Matthew Warner is no exception.

Horror Isn’t a 4-Letter Word is a collection of Mr. Warner’s editorial essays originally written for the Horror World website and a few articles from the Hellnotes Newsletter.

From his humorous look at why an aspiring writer might not want to hone his craft on company time to more serious matters, like his internship at Edit Ink, Warner covers a variety of topics that will interest not only genre writers but also fans and those who may be curious about the inner workings of the publishing industry.

This reviewer (who also writes fiction) found Warner’s essays on the craft of writing useful. In his essay on dialogue, Warner gives examples from other author’s published works, explains the error(s) made, and then proposes edits that improve the quality and/or pacing of the selected excerpt.

As a writer, have you ever wondered how to solve plotting problems? Warner suggests, “character is the best plot.” Using the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series as an example to prove his point, Warner states “The Buffy characters necessarily became as complex as the plots because the long-term conflicts were about the characters.” Problems with plot can be resolved by linking character-based sub-plots under temporary dilemmas. Another technique that writers may find helpful is having the conflict unfold over multiple episodes or chapters, making sure to end on a cliffhanger to keep the reader wondering “What will happen next?” and ensure that they will come back for more.

“With the Eyes of a Writer” is the craft-related essay that this reviewer found most insightful. The preceding essay entitled “With the Eyes of God” is a short story that Warner was commissioned to write for the fiction section of the Horror World website. The story ends in a manner that Warner did not originally anticipate. Knowing his editor’s preferences in terms of violence, Warner doubted the piece would be accepted.

In “With the Eyes of a Writer,” Warner dissects the story, explaining how he came to write the piece. Warner includes visual aids, showing the entry of the original “seed” of an idea in his journal. He discusses his outlining, writing and revision process. This essay is chocked full of good advice and backed up with the details of how Warner applied that advice to his own work. It also has a happy ending. The story was accepted despite its violent content because Warner handled the content with the respect it deserved.

Warner shares some personal, non-writing related experience over the course of the collection. While some may not be interested in the details of his personal life, Warner finds a way to tie those experiences back to writing in some way. While this reviewer knew the story of Warner’s first run-in with his future mother-in-law would no doubt be entertaining, discovering what that meeting taught Warner about being a storyteller made the tale even more enjoyable.

Warner’s eclectic tastes represent his journey as a student, a writer, a businessman and a husband. While this collection of essays is geared more toward horror writers, Warner’s conversational writing style will keep non-writers interested and that the lessons learned here can be applied to other walks of life.

Pre-Order/Purchase Horror Isn’t a Four-Letter Word by Matthew Warner.

Gauntlet Press / April 2008
Reviewed by: JG Faherty

Let’s start off with the most important thing you need to know about this book: it contains a never-before-seen novel (actually, more of a novella) by Richard Matheson. If you’re a fan of Matheson, that’s all I have to say, and you’ll be ordering the book before you reach the next paragraph.

That being said, and assuming you’re back to finish this review, let’s get to the rest of the book.

The Richard Matheson Companion is a book for fans, as we’ve said, but also for those of us who like to know more about a writer than just the names of his stories and novels. You know the type; they’re the ones who buy the various Stephen King companions, or The Science of the X-Files, or all those books that discuss the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They purchase old scripts. They’re the historians of the genre. Sometimes we can’t understand how people can get so immersed in something, and then we take a look around and realize a scary fact:

They are us.

All of us have a subject or a person we want to know more about - everything about. That being said, Richard Matheson was not on my list. I’ve always enjoyed his stories and novels. Like many of the writers who contributed recollections and tributes to this book, I’m of that age where I first heard about him from his movies - for me they were The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Omega Man. When my father told me they were based on books, I had to go to the library and read them.

Then, when I found out he’d written Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, one of my all-time favorite Twilight Zone episodes, I went back to the library and tried to find everything by Matheson that they had. That included Hell House, another great one.

But for me, the name Matheson will always be associated with TV and movies, because he wrote screenplays that I drooled over in my formative years: the two Night Stalker TV movies; Die! Die! My Darling!, Stir of Echoes, Duel, and “Prey” (from Trilogy of Terror).

All in all, I thought I was pretty ‘up’ on Richard Matheson, until I read The Richard Matheson Companion. Forget how cool it is to hear people like F. Paul Wilson, Jack Ketchum, David Morrell, Brian Lumley, and Harlan Ellison talk about Matheson’s writing, or how they found it.

I learned (as so often happens with any factual text), how much I didn’t know about this man. And while I went into this book assuming the tributes would be the veggies and appetizers around the main meal of a new piece of Matheson fiction, it turned out to be the complete opposite.

I’m not going to share the details of each writer’s musings; not only do I hate to be a spoiler, but they were intended to be personal, from writer to reader, and I think each reader should experience them that way. I’ll just say that they ranged from lighthearted and comical to serious and academic; from people having no first-hand relations with Matheson to people who worked closely with him over the years and called him their friend.

Perhaps most interesting of all are the pieces by his children and family - tiny peepholes through which we can see into Matheson’s private life. Little glimpses of a man who we forget was more than just a writer. He was a father, a husband, a businessman. He had flaws and quirks just like the rest of us.

All of this leads up to The Years Stood Still, the ‘new’ Matheson novella written when he was only fourteen. It’s been reproduced faithfully, with typos and grammatical errors intact. It’s the work of a fledgling writer. But what a writer! Check out the first two paragraphs:

The hour of four had barely passed but already it was dark. The skies, sullen all day, hung like a shroud over expectant London. Three times in two days they had been bombed, only the beginning of a huge German campaign to soften up the people of England for the impending invasion.

On Ellen Street all was dark and quiet. The rows of identical tray stone houses that once held the cream of society look up appraisingly at the sky. All were deserted save one which stood in the approximate center of the block. It alone was inhabited and it alone had been struck by bombs.

Fourteen? Fourteen? I’ve read books written today, by adults, who can’t do what Matheson did at an age where my idea of literary accomplishment was doing Star Trek-spoof comics for my friends, comics that relied on fart jokes and Spock’s mating habits for most of their humor.

At fourteen, when most boys spend their time playing baseball and avoiding English homework, Matheson was putting together a piece of work that, with some judicious editing, could knock more than a few of today’s writers off their shelves.

And The Richard Matheson Companion doesn’t end there. You get a complete listing of every screenplay, every story, every book ever written by him, so you can see what you’re missing.

The editors of this book have done a superb job of gathering information. The book won’t be for everyone - some people only want to read fiction; others might not care about what a slew of well-known writers think about a man they consider a friend and/or influence.

But I’d recommend this book to anyone with an interest not only in Richard Matheson, but in the horror, dark fiction, and science fiction genres as well. This man had his literary fingers in a lot of pies.

Pies you just might have taken a bite out of and not realized who the baker was.

Purchase The Richard Matheson Companion edited by Stanley Wiater, Matthew R. Bradley, and Paul Stuve

Limited, numbered editions also available from the publisher.

Titan Books  / September 2007
Reviewed by: Blu Gilliand

In 1934, Hammer Productions Limited, a new filmmaking venture headed by entrepreneur/vaudeville veteran William “Will Hammer” Hinds, began production on its first film, The Public Life of Henry the Ninth. Beginning with this modest 61-minute comedy, the studio embarked on an eclectic slate of short films, thrillers and whodunits before hitting its stride with The Quatermass Xperiment, a science fiction/horror hybrid that firmly established the quality and atmosphere Hammer would provide film fans for years to come.

In The Hammer Story, a handsomely-produced oversize hardcover from Titan Books, Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes faithfully document the humble origins of the famous studio in a couple of short, detailed chapters before diving headlong into the films themselves. The book leans heavily on Hammer’s bread-and-butter horror pictures, including the Quatermass movies and the various incarnations of Frankenstein and Dracula, but doesn’t skimp a bit on Hammer’s forays into genres as diverse as comedy, prehistoric adventure, and science fiction.

Dozens of films produced under the Hammer banner get comprehensive two-page spreads packed with production photos, publicity stills, posters and playbills, as well as in-depth, behind-the-scenes examinations of how the studio got the movies made. Wherever possible, the authors include anecdotes from key members of the cast and crew that range from the mundane to the fascinating. Many crucial figures in Hammer history, such as director Terence Fisher and actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, have sections devoted exclusively to their contributions.

Where The Hammer Story truly succeeds (aside from the spectacular collection of photos and artwork) is in tone. This is no dry critical examination. The authors skillfully walk a fine line, treating the subject matter with reverence and respect without devolving into hero worship. The result is an information-packed book that is a true joy to read.

Purchase The Hammer Story by Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes.